Rejoicing, huh?
January 26, 2025
…For rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength! Nehemiah 8:10
This past week, I have allowed myself to get sucked into the disfunction, chaos and disturbing proclamations from DT. My email feed, has more DT “Breaking news” this week than almost anything else. The first few words, drag me into the morass that his words and actions so often fling me. Even listening to MPR (Public radio) is treacherous if I’m trying to avoid news generated by his spinners. A useful thing I heard though, was that he intentionally saturated “the bandwidth” with presidential proclamations and other ideas to scatter focus. Those who disagree with any of his actions don’t know where to concentrate first. Well, dang, I think he has been probably effective in that.
I want NOT to have this narcissist and his actions be the fearful content of my day. The past week, feels like it’s been “forever” since he was sworn in. As of 12:31 pm today, it hasn’t even been 7 full days yet. How will I get through the next years in a hopeful, joyful, fruitful way? How do I stay informed without getting riled up every time I listen or read the news?
Today bible readings for Catholic mass included the above quote. “Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength.” The phrase immediately jumped out. If I want strength through this long dimly-lit culture of the next 4 years, I need to Rejoice. Huh? What is there to rejoice in? There is too much gloom generated, spoken, and done that is flooding into my world. When and how do I find the stuff that causes rejoicing?
The setting of the quote from Nehemiah and the gospel today from Luke have shed some LIGHT on this. Our parish deacon pointed out that the Jewish people where listening to the “Torah” standing for most of the day before they laid on the ground crying. They had been 70 years in exile and this was the first time together as a people they heard the Torah proclaimed. They were overwhelmed. Then Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites said….”“Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!” Hmmmm.
In Luke’s gospel. Jesus reads the scroll from Isaiah. “He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”” Or, translated by me he said: “I am in the world and all these GOOD things are in the world. This is the time of my reign.” He didn’t say some time in the future is my reign. He said now, his historic time, even though there were lots of evil, bad, unjust, terrible things going on. He says (my take on his words) “Look at all the things of worth and frankly miraculous that are going on, you can see glad tidings now, you can rejoice now”.
As a follower of Jesus, I believe his reign is NOW too. His presence is here today, not just 2000 years ago. Why am I letting myself be overwhelmed with the current day evil? Why aren’t I looking at and for the “miraculous” now and seeing the “glad tidings” now and “rejoicing” now?
Lord, Light in my life, help me remember your presence now in the world. Help me do this every day. Then, teach me to rejoice and live in your strength.
Ah! Pope Francis asks us to remember
January 27, 2025
From Pope Francis Homily, on the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time. “The Lord has not spoken to us as silent listeners, but as His witnesses, called to evangelize at all times and in every place,” he said. “Let us commit ourselves to bringing the good news to the poor, proclaiming release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free and announcing the year of the Lord’s favour.” from Vatican News
Our spiritual leader, a Light in this world, calling us to be this light for others in this world, in this time.
Remember: my healing
January 29, 2025
A leper came to him begging…, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” —Mark 1:40–41
From the reflection from CAC (Center for Action and Contemplation) on Jan 29:
Brueggemann imagines those healed by Jesus singing Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”
“A lot of lepers are still in the night. But they wait for the morning when comes healing. This faith of … Jesus and the church is not a moral code or an ideology or a quarrel. It is rather a performance of transformation, of old made new, of lost found, of dead made alive. And the whole cosmos is filled with the singing of ex-lepers, the saints of God who attest that gifts from the holy God are given that make for life. ”
Remembering my healing.
I lived in a gray cloud of unhappiness most of my teenage and young adult years; even into adulthood, young married and parenting life. What changed was I saw an image drawn by St Hildegard of Bingen. She was being shot with arrows from three demons. I recognized my own malady. This day, I can’t even definitively say all their names: I know two were named the demons of self-recrimination and self-consciousness. The third was something like self-hatred…but I know at that time I did not call the demon that. I remember praying for Jesus, to remove those demons. From that moment on, my inner self was free from the strangle hold they had on my every thought. I felt a new ability to live my life without those constant devils torturing my thoughts and affecting my happiness. I could see beauty in nature, in my family, in the physical gifts in my life and feel joy; this was a feeling that was new to me.
As I re-read the above, it reads to me as a small event; it wasn’t. Occasionally, I have an echo of those demons saying to me….”you weren’t worthy of that healing…what have you done since?” I recognize the deception of that statement right away and can put it easily aside. Instead, I recognize the truth of the event when “my weeping lingered for the night, but joy came in the morning”.
Whenever, I doubt your presence Lord, I remember that healing in my life. Instead of life in dimness, instead of life in a suffocating gray cloud, I live in the warmth and illumination of your Light. Although, I am not all you call me to be, yet, “your favor lasts in my lifetime”. I pray the words of Psalm 30:
I praise you Lord, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me!
Oh Lord, my God, I cried out to you for help and you healed me.
Lord, you brought my soul up from Shoel; you let me live from going down into the pit.
Sing praise to the Lord, you faithful; give thanks to his holy memory.
For his anger lasts a moment; his favor a lifetime.
At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.
Seeking The Light 