October 23rd, Ordinary Time

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”  -Luke 18:9-14

Dear Ones,

Sorry for the by-week, but your dad was out of town, and you two are at not yet at what one would call a "manageable age."  It was all I could do to keep everyone fed and out of abject squalor, and there was no brainspace for stringing coherent sentences leftover at the end of the day.  So here we are.

Faith, humility...ok, I'm ready for something easy to tackle.  Humility is something I've always struggled with myself, and I don't think my struggle is an uncommon one. But this passage here is helpful, I think, in getting at at least a part of what humility really means.  Here, it seems that humility is in part rooted in a misunderstanding of self in relationship to other people .  We are not being truly humble when we see other people as competitors (for what- some zero-sum game of approval from some mysterious, unidentified source?) instead of partners.

And that, darlings, is part of what Jesus is calling out here.  He doesn't get down on the Pharisee because he fasts or tithes (both of which are great), but because he does it in order to get ahead in this invisible, non-existent race we're all running.  He doesn't fast because it makes him feel closer to God, or tithe because he wants his money to help build God's Kingdom, but because he thinks it helps him pull ahead of the guy running next to him.  

The tax collector, at least at this moment, isn't busy looking at the guy next to him so that he can feel better about how he's doing.  He's only looking at God.  His prayer has nothing to do with anyone else.  He's not saying, "I may be a pretty shady character, but at least I'm better than that guy."  In fact, he's not even saying "Woe is me, for everyone else is better than me and I'm just a piece of dirt by comparison."

Loves, it's easier to go forward (without tripping over your own feet) when you're looking at what's ahead of you, not who is next to you or behind you.  It's easier to fix whatever needs fixing between you and God if you're not busy comparing yourself to everyone else.  And in fact, I'd say that this is applicable to non-God parts of your life, too.  It's part of human nature to want assurance that we're doing ok, and the way that we tend to do that is by using other people as a yard stick.  But if you're turning other people into yard sticks, you not only make yourself miserable (because someone will always be more/better at something than you), but you're seeing other people as standards of measurement instead of human beings.  And objectifying others- to whatever end- is the source of a whole lot the world's misery.

Let others run as they will.  Look forward, and go at whatever pace you need to.  It's not- it's never been- a competition.

Love,
Mom

Sunday, October 9th- Ordinary Time

"Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice.  He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.” -Luke 17:11-19

My Dear Little Ones,

I'm not sure where we'll land, but if for some reason we end up calling America home again, please don't forget that, at least for a time, you, too, were foreigners.  Your mother and father struggled to understand and to be understood, and were largely reliant on the kindness of strangers who could have just as easily turned their backs on the strange, squawking Americans who mixed up "two" and "twelve" when ordering (we had some very strange encounters at the bakery back in the day).

I remind you of this because there are so many stories in the Bible that include foreigners and outsiders, and I don't want you to think for a second that that only means other people.  We, too, have been among strangers in a strange land.  

And Josephine, my darling, while we were still sojourners, you were very sick.

When you needed healing, we called out, and help came.  Dr. Bourgeois answered.  Jesus said to the lepers, "Show yourselves to the priest."  Dr. B said "Show yourselves to Dr. Saint-Rose," the neurosurgeon who performed your hemispherectomy.  Then she said "Show yourself to Dr. Rambeau," your doctor at the Centre.  Dr. Rambeau said "Show yourself to Benedicte, and Violette, and Juliet, and Anne-Cecile, and Marie-Helene," your wonderful therapists who have loved you and worked to heal you since you were a little baby.  

And we show you and your brother at the church.  We show you to the community that has grown to love you and pray for you and care for your well-being.

And darlings, we will always come back, after every intervention, every bit of grace comes our way, praising God and giving thanks.  Because healing isn't always a straight line forward.  Sometimes, it's a circle, and faith, that string that ties us to God, can be what pulls us back around again to where we started.  We have to remember to always make time for gratitude, even if it means doubling back.  It's always worth the deviation to stop and give thanks to those who stand by you in your hours of need.

Love,
Mama

Sunday, October 2nd- Ordinary Time

"The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!'  He replied, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, Come along now and sit down to eat? Won’t he rather say, Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty." -Luke 17:5-10

Dear Josie and Ben,

 I was very much hoping that we could start with something a little more straightforward for you, like "Remember kids, God made you special, and he loves you very much!" And while that is definitely true (and not just because VeggieTales tells you so), this verse is a bit trickier.  It's trickier, because Jesus is talking about faith, and faith can be a very tricky thing.  After all, faith means believing in things that you can't see or prove.  And not just little things, but big, important, things that can change your whole life and the way that you live it.

Now you would think that, if anyone had the whole faith thing down, that it would be the apostles.  After all, they were Jesus' best friends!  They had seen up close all the amazing things that Jesus did while he was on earth.  But here they are, begging Jesus to "increase our faith!"  I guess even they didn't feel like they had enough of the stuff.

But Jesus tells them that they don't need much, just "faith as small as a mustard seed," which, if you haven't seen a mustard seed lately, is preeeety tiny.  So good news!  You can stop worrying about whether you have "enough" faith.  If you have any- if you believe in God just a tiny, seed-sized bit- you're good to go.

Now here's where it gets tricky, and this is what I'm a bit worried you might trip up on, my darlings.  Jesus tells the apostles that it's not just ok that they have a tiny bit of faith, but that that bit of faith will make them powerful enough to be able to command trees to go all Ent-like and replant themselves in the water.  Awesome! What a cool (but oddly specific) superpower!  So understandably, some people have read this verse and taken it to mean that God will give you whatever you want if you ask.  You want a new bike?  Pray for it!  Want that part in the school play? Pray for it!  Want grandma to get better? Pray for it!  And surely God will give you exactly what you asked for; after all, you just need the tiniest bit of faith to make those things happen, right?

By all means, my dears, pray all you can because God loves it when you talk to her.  Listen closely for her to talk back.  But please understand, she might not always give you exactly what you ask for.  God is not a vending machine, and faith is not a coin that you stick in so that you can get a prize.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with you if what you prayed for didn't come to pass: it doesn't mean that God doesn't love you, and it doesn't mean that your faith is somehow wrong or incomplete.  And I wish that I could tell you why God doesn't answer all of our prayers in the ways that we hope for  (especially the "please make grandma better" kind of prayers), but that's a bit beyond, me, sweeties.  I look forward to asking you two about that someday in the hopes that you can enlighten me.

This is not to say, though, that Jesus was wrong and that faith doesn't make things happen.  Faith makes amazing things happen all the time, every day!  You know why?  Because faith is the invisible string that keeps you tied to God.  It's more than thinking in your brain that there is a God; it's knowing in the deep parts of who you are that there is a God, and that he loves you so, so much.  And knowing that can give you the strength that you need to share God's love with other people in the special ways that only each of you can.  And I am so looking forward to seeing what those ways are.

In other words..."God made you special, and he loves you very much."  Guess I got managed to get back around to Bob and Larry after all.

Love,
Mom