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Tag: Reflection

God’s Word

Posted on by Tim Hinkle

In the first reading for the 15th Sunday, Series A, we hear the familiar image of God’s Word being like the rain that falls on the earth, nourishing it and bringing forth growing things, achieving its purpose (Isaiah 55:10-11). The Word of God is spoken not only once, but over and over again. The Word of God is constantly “watering” our minds and hearts.

The Word of God has been spoken to us all our lives, from the Bible, from sermons in church, from the teaching and example of our parents, other family members, teachers, coaches, and other sources. All these have had some effect on us and have helped to make us who we are. The scripture passage seems to imply that God’s Word will achieve results, no matter what.

However we can help ourselves if we try harder to hear the Word, get the message. In the current civil and social climate, we have been asked “Are you listening?” As a society we have not listened well enough to what some of our brothers and sisters have been trying to tell us.

And so also in our personal and spiritual lives, how well have we been listening to the steady message from God:
love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, justice, healing? It is always there, like a constant falling rain.

Emotions

Posted on by Tim Hinkle

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.

It seems the emotional state of the country is becoming more tense. People are feeling the strain of weeks of quarantine, sheltering in place, loneliness, lack of human contact. We hear of incidents of shouting, pushing, more violent behavior, people standing on their “right” of not being told what to do.

We need more exercise of what some call “emotional intelligence.” Can I recognize the feeling roiling inside me before it pops out in an angry outburst? Am I too willing to point fingers and blame someone else for my troubles? Am I, in the words of the Gospel, unwilling to see the log in my own eye?

I don’t have any answers or solutions to our state of uneasiness. But we are always invited to turn to prayer, but prayer that is not mere saying lots of words or asking for things. We are invited to enter into quiet, look honestly within and see ourselves in the presence of God, admitting that we are “poor in spirit.” As Jesus told us, we are to be like children as we live in the Kingdom of God. We need quiet moments, perhaps combined with a walk in the neighborhood or in nature.

Our egos may want to control everything, to always be “right,” to fix what is wrong. We could take more advice from our friends in Alcoholics Anonymous: admit our weakness and hand our lives over to God, “however we understand God.”

Holy Trinity

Posted on by Tim Hinkle

By Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Capuchin

This Sunday we honor the Holy Trinity. Don’t try to “understand” the Trinity. It’s natural to try to think about the Trinity, to imagine what God “looks like.” We tend to think in pictures, but we are dealing in the realm of spirit and mystery.

We have all seen the old pictures: an old man along with a younger man along with a dove. That is someone’s poor attempt at picturing what can’t be pictured.

What does the Bible say? In the First Letter of John we are told that God is love and that whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in that person. If God equals love, then we seem to be dealing with relationship. God is a constant, dynamic, interactive relationship of love, which then invites us to be a part of that love.

We say God is a mystery. That does not mean we can’t understand God at all. We can understand in part, but then we are invited to go in deeper. If God is love, then what do we already know of love? We look around at good people. We see kindness,  compassion, service, sympathy. These are signs of the loving presence of God in people. So with God we “understand” by getting involved in the mystery. We see and receive love, and we share love with others. We do not so much “think God” as we “act God” in participating in the flow of love in the world. Creator, Savior, Sanctifier, You, Me.

Facing our Truth

Posted on by Tim Hinkle

By Fr. Tom Zelinksi, OFM Capuchin

These days, some sad and disturbing news comes to us. We hear of questionable actions by a police officer, a man dies, angry people respond with violent action. This is a scene all too often repeated. What might we think about all this?

I have never been a police officer. I do not know the burden and the fear in that position. It is often a thankless job. Yet we need police to help keep order in our society. But I also have not walked in the shoes of my African-American brothers and sisters. I have not known their inner experience of being judged or feared simply because of the color of their skin. I have not felt their experience of being stopped by police. A common expression is that some are stopped for “driving while Black.”

All of these troubling events remain the heritage of our history of slavery. White people brought slaves from Africa and then resented them for being who they were: probably the sting of a guilty conscience. We call that whole story the sin of racism.

What is any of us to do? As with so many things, it could start by looking within. What does my conscience tell me about my own thoughts and feelings? How do I respond at the sight of someone who looks different from me? How might I be led to wrongly judge people simply by appearance? How well do I live the message of Matthew 25, where Jesus tells us that what we do for any brother or sister, we do for him?

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