Good News Reflection Today’s Readings: Unwilling to change? Let God do it! Have you noticed that when you've made great progress on your spiritual journey, Jesus smiles at you and says, "Ahhh, this is good, very good! The Father and I are very pleased with you." But then he adds: "There's something else I want you to do." He knocks you off your chair of cozy self-contentment and invites you to more purification. I get so tired of that! That's what happened to the poor lad (or should I say, the rich young man) who gleefully ran up to Jesus in today's Gospel passage. He'd been dutifully obeying all of God's commandments. With such commendable holiness credentials, he thought he had earned an open door to heaven. But Jesus knew that in the man's heart he was self-satisfied while doing only the minimum and living a mediocre faith. So Jesus invited him to see the commandments differently. Notice that he did not condemn the man. Neither does Jesus condemn us when we need purification. He knows that we truly desire to be holy. With tremendous love, he brings to our attention the shortcomings of our obedience and teaches us the greatest commandment: the Law of Love. But we frown like that young man. Our flesh nature does not enjoy giving up its self-satisfied limitations that we impose on God's commandments. This is why Jesus emphasizes: "For you, it IS impossible, but not for God!" Trusting God to do in me what I cannot do for myself has proven to be an excellent strategy. For example, several years ago I found myself staring silently at a priest during confession. I was angry toward someone who "deserved" my anger. I could say I forgave him, but I did not want to stop being angry, because if I became nicey-nice, this guy would not get the point that I'd been trying to make and which he so obviously needed to learn. The priest asked me if I was willing to let God change my attitude, even though I wasn't willing to change it myself. I could not get my mouth to say yes, but I did manage to force my head to nod. That was all Jesus needed! Through the priest, Jesus absolved me of my sins and empowered me with a supernatural grace from his Holy Spirit. When I walked out of the room, a new peace flooded me. Not of my own accord, but thanks be to God, I was truly a new creation! What sin are you unwilling to quit? What change have you been avoiding? What disobedience makes logical sense? (By the way, reading these Good News Reflections is very dangerous, because when the Holy Spirit reveals a sin through them, you're accountable for it – no excuses, you have to either repent or walk away sad.) Tell Jesus that you don't want to stop justifying your sin, but give him permission to re-create you according to his loving kindness. With God, change is very possible – and joyful! © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Monday, February 28, 2011
Unwilling to change? Let God do it!
Friday, February 25, 2011
The true meaning of friendship
Good News Reflection Today's Saint: Walburga Today’s Readings: The true meaning of friendship At the heart of the message against divorce in today's Gospel passage is the understanding of what true friendship means. Husbands and wives are, first and foremost, called to be true friends for each other. The first reading describes what a true friend is and is not. This applies to marriages and to all other relationships. True friendship is a holy relationship. In a holy friendship, no one stops caring about the other, no matter what happens. A holy friend imitates Christ, making sacrifices for the sake of the other, willing to do whatever will help heal wounds and overcome problems. When the efforts are only one-sided, it's not a holy friendship. You might handle it righteously, but you cannot force the other person to be holy. If a husband refuses to be a true friend to his wife, he has forsaken the marriage. If a wife never intended to be faithful, there is nothing the husband can do to make the marriage valid. When spouses quit being loving, by abusing or abandoning, they break their vows of unity; they are the adulterers if they marry another, not the faithful partner. The point is, our friendships and marriages are supposed to be reflections of God's friendship, evangelizing the world. He has made a Covenant of Love with us, sealed by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Human friends will fail us, but God never does. When we accept God's Covenant of Love, we're agreeing to true friendship, which includes loving those whom he loves – which is everyone! Whenever we fail to love anyone, we're breaking our unity with God. The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Penance Rite of Mass restore that unity. To remain in unity with God, we have to give his love to the people around us. To live in his friendship, we have to be friendly toward others. It's like water in the pipes: We can't feel the presence of the water in the pipes unless it's flowing from the faucet. To feel the presence of God, we have to keep his love flowing out to others. If we ever think that God has failed to be a True Friend, it's only because we have quit being a true friend to him. When things don't go our way, we blame it on him or assume that he's ignoring us. In reality, we're quitting the friendship by refusing to let him comfort us and heal our wounds and solve our problems in an unexpected way. In our covenant friendship with God, even if the people we love reject us or warp the love that we offer, we are not failures. With God in our marriages and friendships, the love we give always succeeds, because if it's rejected or the relationship ends, the love flows back to us from God directly, and we are mightily blessed in a special intimacy of mutual suffering. © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Thursday, February 24, 2011
Getting free of the excuses that trap us
Good News Reflection Today’s Readings: Getting free of the excuses that trap us Today's first reading contains a list of common excuses that people use to justify their sinful behaviors or to put off change. Lest we assume that since we've already experienced conversion we're above all this, let's reflect on the ways that our old thought patterns might still be entrapping us. Wealth and power, prestige and clout, and the ability to make life happen the way we want it to is very dangerous. The deception is that we don't need God when we can take care of everything ourselves. Do you pray for help only when things go wrong? If so, this trap has ensnared you. Following the desires of our hearts can be very misleading. Our feelings, motives, longings and wishes are not always in line with God's desires. Do you ask God to purify your desires, distrusting them until after you've talked to him about it and have handed them over to him for him to do with as he chooses? If not, this trap is ensnaring you. The idea that "anything's okay as long as it doesn't hurt someone" or that "it's okay to disregard an inconvenient or unpleasant law or teaching of the Church because God understands and he'll forgive me" carries with it the arrogant presumption that sins are not always sinful and that they don't always produce bad consequences. Do you rationalize away a Church teaching about faith and morals by saying that it doesn't apply to you? If so, this trap is crushing you so slowly and subtly that you don't even notice. Delaying repentance holds us back from wonderful growth and spiritual healing. Do you procrastinate because change is uncomfortable? Do you put off whatever seems humiliating, impossible, or less beneficial than your old ways? Old behavior patterns feel like cozy blankets, raggedy and full of holes, but familiar and valuable. Even when we're aware of being smothered by them or of hurting others with them, we don't know what the new blanket would feel like, so we hang onto the old. Or we don't know how to get the new blanket, so we don't really try. The old one has ensnared us; it's smothering our souls and covering our ears so that we fail to hear the loving, beckoning call of Christ. Today's responsorial Psalm reminds us of the benefits of escaping from the snares of sin: We prosper from doing the Lord's will. And the Gospel reading gives us the key that opens every trap: Get rid of whatever causes you to sin. It's a free-will decision. First we choose to do things God's way, no matter how uncomfortable or impossible or unbeneficial it seems. God will enable us to do what he asks of us. The freedom to be holy is a partnership with the Almighty. © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The unity of love
Good News Reflection Today's Saint: Polycarp Today’s Readings: The unity of love In the 1980s, when contemporary Christian recording artists were just beginning to transform the music scene with Christ-centered rock and pop, a friend asked me to listen to one of their albums. She wanted me to tell her it was demonic, because she believed that all rock music came from the devil. But the songs on the album glorified God! I reminded my friend of the words that Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel passage: "Anyone who is not against us is with us." Sadly, she wanted nothing more to do with me, because she now believed that I was demonized, too. Isn't it interesting that Jesus did not say, "Anyone who is not against ME is with ME." He made it an "us". To him, we all matter. Since we belong to him, anyone who does good for the Lord does good to us. This can be hard to grasp, because it’s easier to be aware of what divides us than it is to unite on our common ground. We assume that if people don't tell us what we want to hear, they're against us. Or we think that if someone doesn't worship Jesus the way we do, they're against our faith. We don't have to be in agreement to be in community with others. True Christian unity means acknowledging what we have in common and refusing to allow our differences to interfere with our love. Everyone who LOVES us is with us, because "love comes from God" and therefore "everyone who loves has been born of God" (see 1 John 4:7). As John Paul II wrote in "Ut Unum Sint" (That They May Be One) in 1995: "Love gives rise to the desire for unity, even in those who have never been aware of the need for it. Love builds communion between individuals and between Communities [i.e., denominations]." The opposite of unity is self-imposed excommunication (a word that means "divided from community"). Like the friend who cut herself off from me in her judgmentalism, people excommunicate themselves when they cause division by choosing against love. At the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 2003, Pope John Paul II said: "May each of us be enabled more and more to look upon our brothers and sisters in faith, within the unity of the Mystical Body.... May we come to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God." I suspect that John Paul II will eventually become the Patron Saint of Christian Unity. He did a lot during his pontificate to open doors for cooperation and communication between the Catholic Church and those who have been divided from us in the faith. Now Pope Benedict XVI is building on this foundation. Let us help him in his mission by loving everyone and doing good to all, despite our differences. Note: To learn more from John Paul II, take the courses I teach online at Catholic Digital Resources: http://catholicdr.com/e-Classroom/index-courses.html © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Whom are you shepherding?
Good News Reflection Today's Feast: Chair of St. Peter Today’s Readings: Whom are you shepherding? In today's Gospel reading, we see that Saint Peter was gifted with the insight to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and then he was called and commissioned to shepherd others into the same realization. We, too, know that Jesus is our Lord and the Good Shepherd described in today's responsorial psalm. Therefore we, too, are called and commissioned to shepherd the people we encounter. We're to lead them to Christ the way a shepherd herds his flock. In today's first reading, Peter tells us how to do this: Be a good example. Don't lord it over those whom God has placed in your life to minister to, because only Jesus is Lord. When people look at us, they should see Jesus – not bad attitudes, not unlovingness, not apathy, not argumentativeness, not depression or doom and gloom, not despair and hopelessness, not materialism, not selfishness. In other words, we have to work hard at overcoming our sinful tendencies, because our lives are a witness. We either give witness to life without Jesus or we give witness to Jesus' life. Sheep follow their shepherd because he (or she) knows where the greener pastures lie and how to get there. What have you learned on your spiritual journey that would benefit others? Any oases that Jesus has led you to become places of your expertise. Now, you can shepherd others to the same places. Who do you know who is in need of rest from their hardships and healing from their wounds? Shepherd them with what you have learned. Being a shepherd means you also know about the wolves. The sheep might be totally oblivious to the dangers that lurk, but you have been given the responsibility of staying alert for potential attacks of evil. Because Jesus is with you, and because he is the Good Shepherd to whom you're guiding your flock, the wolves can and will be defeated. However, evil spirits and their influences will be conquered only if you stay close to Jesus and swing your Sword of the Spirit when the need arises. We cannot successfully lead others to Christ if we do not take the necessary measures to protect ourselves and those we're guiding. We must have a good prayer life, knowledge of the scriptures, and ever-growing holiness. We must have trust in God. And none of us can be good shepherds for very long if we hang onto sins we know we're committing, because then we're playing with the wolves. We must cover our vulnerabilities with the armor of God by getting right with him and getting rid of any known areas of disobedience. Being a shepherd is risky, but only if we make ourselves vulnerable to the wolves. At the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter by the Sea of Galilee, where this Gospel story took place, there's a sign that says, "The deeds and miracles of Jesus are not actions of the past. Jesus is waiting for those who are still prepared to take risks at His word because they trust His power utterly." Pray with me: “Lord Jesus, I say yes to Your calling, no matter how risky it seems. I choose to trust in Your guidance, Your directions. What do You want me to do?” © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
What flood are you trying to survive?
Good News Reflection Today’s Readings: What flood are you trying to survive? When I read the story of Noah's cruise (in today’s first reading), I like to think that if I had lived in those days, I would have been one of those holy folks who made it onto the ark. However, there have been times when I've caused my own floods by turning away from God's guidance while he was trying to lead me to the safety of an ark. We all have our self-inflicted floods. We drown in pride or fear. We turn away from the ark that God is offering by using problem-solving methods that are not of God. We make choices based on how we feel instead of paying attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying in our spirit. We try to build easy lives in smooth valleys and assume that this home will never be deluged by too much rainfall. God never ceases trying to guide us. He reaches out to us in scriptures, in our prayer time, in the homilies we hear, in the words of his people around us, and so on. But when we choose to do things in contrary ways, we create the clouds that rain on our nice valleys, and if we keep adding to the storm, it overwhelms us with a flood of problems. Then we try to survive the storm by swimming, but we grow weary and start to sink in the stink of the ever-deepening waters of evil. We cry out for help, but if we only want to protect our precious plot of land in the valley, we're not interested in the ark that would float us away from what has been familiar and comfortable and "ours" – and then we get angry at God as if it's his fault that we're drowning! Whether it's by our own fault or by external circumstances such as today's severe economic recession, Jesus says to us through today’s Gospel reading: "Do you still not understand?" He is the ark that the Father has provided. He is the Lord who will bless us with peace, whose voice calls out to us over the vast waters, as it says in the responsorial Psalm. As we gulp for air, scared that the flood is overwhelming us, he asks: "Don't you remember what I have done for you in the past?" How has he rescued you before? He will do it again! What miracles did he use to meet your needs? He will do it again! How did he turn suffering and hardships into blessings? HE WILL DO IT AGAIN! Jesus is the ark that saves us. When we turn to him, regretting that we have not allowed him to lead us away from our comfort zone in the valley, sorry that we did not follow his example nor accept his advice – ZAP! Our remorse immediately plops us safely into the ark. We might still have a storm to ride out, but now we are safe. We are protected by his love and merciful forgiveness. In today's economic hardships, environmental damage, wars and terrorist threats, culture of death and pro-abortion agendas – and in your own personal crises: More than ever, keep your eyes on Jesus! © 2011 by Terry A. Modica
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