Forever and Ever Moment by Moment

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Genesis 17:3-9 / Psalm 105:4-5, 6-7, 8-9 / John 8:51-59

Forever and Ever Moment by Moment

The next time you watch a television program count the seconds for each camera shot. You’ll probably find that the maximum amount of time any one shot is used is about seven seconds. Most of the time what you see changes every three seconds or less – commercials have even briefer time frames. A half hour program is typically divided into seven minute segments between commercial breaks. Whether these programming tendencies are based on studies of the human attention span, or our attention span has become less durable because of these tendencies I do not know.

It seems to me that in a culture of such short blips of information and entertainment, the concept of forever can be hard to comprehend. Yet forever is how long God will be faithful to us (quite astounding) and forever is how long we must respond to God’s faithful covenanting with us (quite challenging). With our short attention span – innate or conditioned – how can we hope to be faithful to a forever commitment?

First, our commitment is a response to God’s commitment. God’s commitment empowers our response. And with God all things are possible – including a faithful response to God’s forever love. Second, the psalmist today tells us “Look to the Lord in his strength, seek to serve him constantly.” Constantly could be looked at as moment by moment. Thus even our ever-shifting focus of attention can be a way to be faithful to God. Each time our focus of attention changes, we can look for God and a new way of serving him, or a new place to find him.

·        Place your attention on an object near you. Think of everything it means to you, or the varied or dedicated ways you use this object. Does this object connect you to God? How?  Next, for a few seconds, focus on another object. Then after a few seconds, focus on the first object again, but let all its meaning and uses fall away, and see the object again as if for the first time. After a suitable amount of time offer that object to God from your heart.

Like Father, Like Son

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Isaiah 49:8-15 / Psalm 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18 / John 5:17-30

Like Father, Like Son

Can you picture a little boy clunking around the house in work boots several sizes too big for him with a toy tool belt falling around his knees? He grabs a block and drives an imaginary nail into it with his plastic hammer. He’s seen his dad do something like this before. He wants to be just like him when he grows up — for now at least.

Jesus never grew out of this love for his Father’s work. In today’s gospel reading from John we conclude with a verse that could make one feel helpless, but when properly understood, actually explains what it truly means to be powerful. It turns what seems like subservience into true empowerment. It is the power of imitation that is beyond flattery; a power that saves.

“I cannot do anything on my own…” (John 5:30) seems like what a mere child would say, rather than the words of a thirty year old. It can seem like the self-pitying thought of a patient confined to a hospital bed waiting for the nurse to arrive and help with simple daily needs that others accomplish under their own power and take for granted. It does not seem like the words of a Savior or the Son of God. But this capable Son remains totally dependent and in strictest conformity with his Father’s will — so great is his love for his Father.

Perhaps the words “I cannot do anything on my own…” really mean, “I can’t imagine doing anything on my own. I don’t want to do anything apart from my Father.” Jesus always has the will of his Father in mind. Perhaps we choose to sin because we do not delight in the will of the Father as much as Jesus did.

·         Some people practice their religious faith because they want to have good things in their life, and be protected by God, not because the will of their Heavenly Father is their all-consuming passion. Reflect on your own reasons for practicing your faith: Why do you want to develop your relationship with your Heavenly Father? In developing this relationship, are you trying to take his will as your own?

Lourdes and Bethesda

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 / Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9 / John 5:1-16

Lourdes and Bethesda

In the 150-plus years since Our Lady appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes there are less than 70 miracles at that site which have been authenticated by the Church. One might wonder what the record of the pool at Bethesda would be, with or without rigorous modern criteria. For Lourdes that’s one authenticated miracle every two years or so. Who can wait that long? Who could guarantee it would be me if I did wait? I might be left thinking, “It’s always someone else who gets there at the right time.”

The passage from John’s gospel makes it clear that the man at the pool of Bethesda had been sick a long time — thirty-eight years. Who knows how many of those years he had spent waiting and hoping by the pool of Bethesda? He had been sick since before Jesus was born of Mary. Fortunately for the man at Bethesda he did not have to time his arrival at the pool just right for healing. Healing came to him unexpected, probably just when he’d gotten used to disappointment.

·        In what situation in your life have you given up hope? Imagine Jesus questioning you about it. What might he say? How do you respond? What might be the miracle to change you in regard to this situation?