Making a Joyful Noise through Lent 03/15/2014

Making a Joyful Noise through Lent – 03/15/2014

“[St.] Thomas [Aquinas] thus explains that, as far as external works are concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues: “In itself mercy is the greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve around it and, more than this, it makes up for their deficiencies. This is particular to the superior virtue, and as such it is proper to God to have mercy, through which his omnipotence is manifested to the greatest degree”.” (Pope Francis – Evangelii Gaudium – The Joy of the Gospel)

The words that I have chosen from Pope Francis today are taken from the foundational stones of our Gospel (Matthew 5: 43-48) for this Saturday in the First Week of Lent. When we hear words from Jesus, “love your enemies…” the question always arises, “How?” Well I think that Pope Francis through the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas gives us a direction to look in. The underlying joy of the Gospel is that we are to be people of mercy. If mercy is at the center of our life then finding the good in others is possible.

"Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you..." Probably some of the hardest words of the Gospel to put into practice. Perhaps on an intellectual level some of us might understand them. Maybe when we heard them proclaimed at mass we might give them some thought. However when it comes to living, the vast majority of the time, these words do not find their way into how we look at life.

Enemies are not people to invest love in. People who persecute us do not find their way into our prayers. Most of the time these days we trash them on Facebook or Twitter, we gossip about them and find any way we can to discredit them, to demonize them. The 24 hour news stations like FOX, MSNBC and the like will give you all the ammunition that you need! Living Jesus' words is leaving one's self open to all kinds of bad things. It reflects weakness in a world built on strength, power and being number one. We can point to many examples were others tried to be nice, try to follow Jesus' advice and were persecuted, hurt, overrun, sent into slavery, exiled, lost all they had and end up worse than they started off. We can point to wars and conflicts that escalated into world problems because people didn't act with strength, force and might.

Living by Jesus' words seems to make us vulnerable and weak in the eyes of the people around us and the eyes of the world and to be honest with you I cannot dispute it. However, if we read a little further in the Gospel we might say in some ways Jesus is not talking about world problems and issues between nations or complex situations. Jesus is talking about our daily lives, greeting people, caring about people around us, treating people with honor and respect as we encounter them in the living of life. In other words bring the joy of the Gospel to all our daily encounters.

Perhaps the point that Jesus is getting at is if we bring joy to the little things, if we respect, honor and care about people in our one on one encounters. If we see a person who has hurt us or who does not value our point of view, our beliefs with love and respect and hold them in prayer, then perhaps our world problems would not be such a challenge. In other words if we live the words of Jesus in our everyday lives then our world might have the chance of being a better place. If we do the little things with faith the big things might be easier to overcome!

Have a blessed Saturday everyone and don’t forget to make a joyful noise with your life today!

Daily Lenten Prayer: Loving God, help us to live by your words. Guide us in the way of compassion, respect, caring, forgiving, mercy, joy and love. Keep us focused on Jesus' way of disarming the evil in our life. Do not let us give in to a world view of power, might and right. Grace us so we can forgive when forgiveness is needed. Grace us with the humility to seek forgiveness when we have hurt others. Renew in us the Spirit of your joy so that we might see today as the acceptable time to live by your words! Amen!

Runner's Thoughts: Let us today run in the present moment, not from something and not to something. Let's strive for a grace-filled and well and as a graceful run. Do not run for time but run for form, run for grace, run for God!

Daily Blessing: Blessings to all on this Saturday morning! I hope you had a restful night, one that has allowed you to rise refreshed and ready to begin a new day.

I made my way home yesterday and spent the evening getting caught up on my paperwork from the past week. This evening I begin a new mission at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Pelham Manor, NY. It is only about a mile away from the our residence so even though I will be celebrating a time of mission I will get to sleep in my own bed each night. It will be a nice little break from the grind of being on the road. For in the Pelham, Bronx, West Chester area the mission will be Monday thru Wednesday at 9:00 am and 7:00 pm. The morning mission talk will be with mass and the evening talk will be a prayer service except for Wednesday which will be mass. If you are in the area come and join us! As always I ask your prayers this coming week for the faith community at OLPH and for their preacher!

My prayer of blessing on this Saturday is that your love may more and more abound both in understanding and wealth of experience and that through the blessings of God love you will always value the things that really matter. May God blessing us all with the joy of the Gospel this day and always! Remember to make a joyful noise with your life today. Peace in Christ’s Passion…Fr. Paul