Scripture Reflection for Feast of the Sacred Heart and for Saturday, May 31....

Scripture: Feast of the Sacred Heart...A Cycle, May 30, 2008: Deuteronomy
7:6-11. Psalm 103:1-2,3-4,6-7,8,10. I John 4:7-16. Matthew 11:25-30.
Lectonary # 171.

Usually in late spring we celebrate this great feast of the humanity
of Jesus and his love for all peoples. The symbol of the Sacred Heart is
chosen as manifesting this gift of God's love through Jesus, Son of God,
become Son of Mary for our salvation. In the A Cycle of Readings for this
feast we see all of them stressing the love of God in a most attractive
manner. First, through the Book of Deuteronomy which is one of the most
comforting and encouraging books in the Bible. We learn of God's eternal
covenantal love for us and for the chosen people Israel. Recently, we saw
in I Peter how the New Testament writers depend greatly on the texts of the
TANACH or the Hebrew Bible. The text from Deuteronomy stresses that we are
a holy people, a chosen and consecrated people, a nation of priests. The
covenant love is expressed clearly time after time in Deuteronomy and the
call of God's people to respond to the merciful kindness of a loving God.
What John's Gospel and Epistles are for the New Testament, the book of
Deuteronomy is for Israel and for that matter for all who believe in the
One God. God and covenantal love are inseparable from the people of God
who believe, hope, and love in the word of God expressed in our human
languages.
The Psalm fits the covenantal love and reminds us of the eternal
quality of God's love: "The Lord's kindness is everlasting to those who
fear him." The heart of God tells us that God pardons all of our
iniquities, and heals all of our ills. He redeems our life from destruction
and crowns us with kindness and compassion (covenant language of love).
In I John we learn from the one who leaned on the heart of Jesus at
the last supper that God is love. John goes beyond Paul who tells us we
are "adopted" children of God (Galations 4:4-6). We are in reality
children of God and our relationship will go beyond that in its ultimate
fulfillment in the kingdom. We learn from I John that we experience God
through our proper love of our brothers and sisters, that is all of
humankind. "If we love one another God dwells in us, and his love is
brought to perfection in us."
Finally, in Matthew's Gospel we have a pericope that sounds like the
Johannine tradition. We by becoming children of God and listening as a
child does experience the revelation of God and rejoice in it like children
who have such a great sense of wonder. Then we learn about Jesus' love who
asks us all to come to him. We love these words of Jesus, " Come to me,
all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you.
Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and
humble of heart. Your souls will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my
burden light." Yes, God is love! Amen.

Saturday in Ordinary Time, May 31: Jude 1:17.20-25. Psalm 63:2-6. Mark
11:27-33. Lectionary # 352:

We all have known about St. Jude in our Catholic Tradition as a
Patron of Hopeless Cases! Today we have an excerpt in the New Testament
attributed to Jude the Apostle. It is wisdom like in its message and
relies heavily on the Hebrew Scriptures. It has a Jewish flavor about it.
Why not! All of the apostles were Israelites who knew their Scriptures and
cited them in their own preaching and writings. It consists of only 25
lines and probably is written after the year 90 A.D. The message is to God
loving people who should avoid those who are teaching false behavior such
as total freedom from morality. "The false teachers are not explicitly
called heretics; they seem to be immoral rather than heretical, and their
denial of Christ is more practical than theoretical." (McKenzie, Dictionary
of the Bible, p.463). The writer or amanuensis cites some of the Jewish
apocryphal works. For this reason there was some hesitancy of accepting
Jude as divinely inspired until after the fourth century. We do well to
read it in entirety since it used so rarely in the liturgy. Perhaps, the
best verse is "Praying in the Holy Spirit, persevere in God's love, and
welcome the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which leads to life eternal."
Psalm 63 is one of the most beautiful in the Psalter and is a form of
pure prayer in which a soul is thirsting for God. The psalmist is praying
in the sanctuary of the Temple thus urging us to pray in a sacred place
when reciting this. A visit to a church would be one way of doing this.
Jesus' authority is questioned by the chief priests and scribes and
elders for his recent actions and words in the Temple area. We know that
the authority of Jesus is stressed by Mark by the Greek word EXOUSIA which
means that his authority according to Mark comes directly from the whole
person, body, mind and soul of Jesus. As a Teacher he is totally dedicated
to the truth both within himself and in the wisdom of his own Jewish
Tradition. Jesus offsets the questioners with a question of his own based
on the common opinion about the baptism that John the Baptist was
performing in the Jordan. The wisdom of Jesus is being brought out by the
Evangelist Mark. We are encouraged to speak the truth that is within us
and to affirm the truth that we see in others and in the world of
knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. That requires of us what Jude said
above in the verse cited. Amen.

The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth, May
31, 2008:
Scripture: Zephanaiah 3:14-18. Romans 12:9-16. Isaiah 12:2-6. Luke 1:39-56.
Lectionary # 572

One of the great liturgical collections in recent years is the
lectionary and sacramentary called the "Collection of Masses of the Blessed
Virgin Mary." This is of great theological and scriptural value as a
source for Vatican II thinking and honoring of the Mother of Jesus. The
Collection assembles texts to fit some of the appopriate themes, titles,
and mysteries of Mary that stem from the New Testament. In the Prefaces of
this collection some of the best marian theology is expressed that is
neither maximalist nor minimalist, tendencies that haunt the study, the
celebrations, and the devotions to Mary. The Collection dedicates one of
the three Masses in Advent to the Feast of today, the Visitation of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Fortunately, the readings are the same in the Roman
Missal with the exception that an alternative reading is given in the
Collection from the Song of Songs 2:8-14.
Mary has been associated with the Daughter of Zion theme by both
Catholic and Protestant scholars. Our citation from Zephaniah is one of
the key texts that offer us such a title for Mary. In the Theological
Encylopedia of Fr. Michael O' Carroll called Theotokos, this title is
described in this manner: "After the debate in the Council on Lumen Gentium
(Light for the Nations), chapter VIII, forty Fathers asked that reference
be made in the text to Our Lady as Daughter of Zion. The suggestion was
accepted, but the commission refused to add a reference to Sacred
Scripture. In the section on the Old Testament, after the reference to Mary
as preeminent among the Poor of Yahweh (the Anawim), the words "the exalted
Daughter of Zion," were added to go with "with her and after a long
expectation of the promise, the times were at length fulfilled and the new
dispensation established. (Lumen Gentium 55)." There are some linguistic
parallels in the Annunciation narrative of Luke that resonate with the
passages from the Hebrew Scriptures where the Daughter of Zion appears
(Joel 2:21-23, Zechariah 9:9, and Zephanaiah 3:14-17). This is especially
true for Luke 1:28,30,31. Perhaps, on the feast of the Visitation we can
see Mary representing the New Testament and her cousin Elizabeth the Old
Testament. They are united in an embrace of love, friendship, and support
as seen in the two saintly women, Mary and Elizabeth.
The reading from Romans is so filled with sincerity and love that it
does mirror the event of the two women embracing one another and
recognizing the workings of grace through the Holy Spirit in each of them.
We can take this passage from Paul and meditate upon it seeing the
emotions, the praise, and the fidelity to God in both Elizabeth and Mary.
As was already said before, one scholar sees in Elizabeth the first marian
theologian of the New Testament who proclaims Mary as blessed among women
and blessed is the fruit of her womb, Jesus. Elizabeth prophetically
declares this of Mary, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken
to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."
The passage from Luke is the only record we have of this meeting. We
celebrate it through the divine word given to us through the Evangelist
Luke who has more lines dedicated to Mary than all of the other writers of
the New Testament put together. Without Luke could we ever have had a
marian theology and a marian church? Mary in her humility responds to God
and to Elizabeth with the greatest hymn in the New Testament said by the
Mother of Jesus, her Magnificat. This is said every evening in the Even
Song or Vespers of the Church. It would be a great prayer with which to
end this day dedicated to Mary the Mother of Jesus. Amen.