theROCK

Just Be

As I was driving to do some volunteer work last Friday afternoon, I had Relevant Radio on. I occasionally listen to this station to unclutter from the noise of typical news/talk radio. It serves as a mini retreat from time to time. My favorite show to catch is with Drew Mariani. While I was listening, a question was posed for consideration: What would it be like at your house if Jesus came to dinner?

This is always a fun one for me to ponder. I have had varying responses based on my state of life. One thing I know for sure, it would be very interesting. Let’s just pretend that the arrival was unannounced/unplanned, He just showed up. This would cause me to have great anxiety. At my core, I am very much like the character of Martha in the gospels. She is the one who, while Jesus is visiting their home, is scurrying about making sure everything is perfect. A surprise visit doesn’t allow for planning, and I would be fretting that not everything is perfect. Knowing myself, I would be instantly aware of every little thing out of place and try to subtly fix it. I would depend on my husband to entertain Jesus until I could get situated; offer a beverage, a bite to eat, what will we do for dinner? Then, it would hit me – I have Jesus in my house!

I would like to think that I’d shift into Mary mode, dutifully listening and hanging on His every word, once I had the chance to dote on our Lord a bit. In being able to focus on the fact that Jesus was in my house, I would not have the faintest idea what we’d talk about since He already knows everything. I would like to think we would simply be our normal selves. I would like to think that would be why He came to visit us – to meet us where we are. This is what we try to do at St. Dominic Catholic School as we welcome every Knight, every day. We all come with so much in our hearts and on our minds that we hope the time spent in these halls are a time to allow children to just be. No pressure. No worry. Just be. We also strive to provide an environment that intentionally provides opportunity to connect with Jesus. No pressure. No worry. Just be.

Thank you for having faith in us. Thank you for having hope and trust in the work we do. Thank you for being partners with us. Thank you for being here.

One Heart

Happy mid-summer! How did we get to mid-August so quickly? What happened to the summer that we longed for although with limited activities? I know that all of us have been challenged in many ways with physical distancing, adjusting to masks, and making major revisions in our summer vacations. Have you seen the signs on lawns, “We will get through this together.” Are we? 

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary reminds me of this. It is the day we commemorate when Mary “went to sleep” and was raised to heaven, body and soul. More importantly, it was the greatest joy for her to be reunited with her Son, Jesus. Inseparable. Closely united. Alternatively, we can use the Latin term, “Cor Unum.” One Heart. We can imagine the tremendous celebration in heaven when they were reunited. 

Since I was named after the Blessed Mother, I looked up the name Mary with the new interpretation. It means, “Beloved.” Yes, Mary was the beloved of God, and of her son, Jesus. She invites us to that deep relationship with Jesus so that we, too, might experience being His beloved.

It is that unity that Jesus invites us to daily. We are each on a journey of discovering Him in our life. What did you learn about yourself in the past months? What carried you and strengthened you in times of fear and anxiety? Did you feel nudged to come closer to our Lord; to place your trust in Him? Did you feel a need to reach out more to your family members, friends, and relatives? 

I come from a close-knit family. My brother-in-law has a re-occurrence of cancer. When one whom you love suffers, you also suffer. Family pulls together. We rely on the prayers of loved ones, and we want to make every moment together an experience of “one heart.”

Be Enlightened by Jesus

The Gospel for today is a well-known passage: the Parable of the Sower and Seed. And while every reflection I have ever heard on this Gospel focuses on contemplating what seed we are, I want to draw our attention elsewhere. I want to focus on the section that scares us, the section that we tend to ignore because we aren’t quite sure what to do with it.

When asked why He speaks in parables, Jesus says, “Gross is the heart of this people…they have closed their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted.” This is a harsh condemnation for the people in Jesus’ community. But as I read these words, I cannot help but find them applicable even now.

We have become a people so defined by our political affiliation that we can’t have friends with opposing views, or have civil discourse on matters of global significance. Instead of letting the Gospel dictate our politics, we have let our politics dictate our Gospel. We have fashioned Jesus in the image and likeness of party values, forgetting that it is us who were fashioned in His image and likeness. It is us who close our eyes and ears to the parts of the Gospel that don’t fit with our political doctrine. It is us whose hearts have grown gross and refuse to be converted by the entirety of the Gospel message.

But we are called to be disciples. We are called to see what others do not see, to hear what others do not hear, to be enlightened by Jesus first, party affiliation second…or last. We are called to be the unifiers, to stand in the middle ground, to be mediators and bridge builders. This is challenging work in a system that makes it ‘either/or.’ But as Christians, let us be the ‘and.’