On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio in Portland, OR

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

February 11, 2018

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Dear Believers in Miracles,

Today’s gospel invites us to see life from the point of view of the leper. We may squirm at such a thought and wonder about the wisdom of such a reflection. The leper is not whole. His body is diseased, but how other people treat him is the real leprosy in the story. Lepers in those days were cast apart from loved ones. They were treated as if their disease came from evil. They did not socialize with family or interact with any aspect of civil life.

Jesus breaks the boundaries of such lies. This is His true healing in the story. The leper reaches deep into his pain and isolation and comes to the conclusion that Jesus is there to heal him. I pray that each of us could have such a conviction. Our task is first to know and understand our pain. Only then can we truly understand how we make lepers out of other people.

There are many forms of leprosy today. Migrants are considered by many to carry such distinction. Gay and lesbian people carry such branding by many. People with drug addiction or people who have never held a job are often treated with such disdain. People from the opposite political party live under this name. Still in this day, people born with skin color different from our own are labeled and given only certain recognitions.

I suffered from severe acne when I was young. A dermatologist treated me for eight years. He told me that I was the worst case he had ever treated. I took antibiotics for all those years. The doctor even gave me x-ray treatments as a last measure to cure me. The treatment didn’t change much. He told me that if the treatments didn’t work, he would call me a leper. I knew he was kidding, but the name hurt more than the treatments.

Acne was very socially condemning for me. In fact, while in college seminary, I was told that if I didn’t do something about it, I would not be ordained. Hard to imagine now, but somehow I managed to walk around such a threat.

Sometimes, we never know how people feel marginalized. Sometimes, leprosy is invisible and secretive. People react in acts of self-mutilation and suicide. People abuse their children who are different. People shun, persecute and ignore others. Some are dismissed from their jobs or never given a chance. Some are homeless or their bodies are damaged from wars. Some are born with disabilities. Not just a result of physical appearance, even gossip creates lepers.

Leprosy becomes an opportunity to love when we finally realize that people are people. Our negative reactions to people who are different from our selves, stem from our fear— simply fear.

Healing happens only when we when finally realize that Jesus desires wholeness, hope and integrity for all people. The reason Jesus became flesh is to heal those whose bodies are shunned, alone and frightened. Leprosy is an opportunity for love for us all.

Peace,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday February 4, 2018

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Gospel MK 1:29-39

Dear Followers of the Healing Christ,

Today’s gospel is one of my favorites, Mark 1:25-39. Jesus is brought to the house of Simon’s mother-in-law where she lay sick. Jesus reached out, “grasped her hand,” and helped her up. I can’t image how she felt as her hand rested in his. She may have thought that healing would never come to her. She may have dreamed that her life was over because of her illness. Hope came to her on her sickbed.

Imagine feeling the hand of Jesus reaching out toward your weakness. Hold on to the beauty of your imagination in this gospel to find your hand in the grasp of Jesus who wants you to live and thrive. One important thing to consider is the way you need to be lifted up. Perhaps your bitterness is weighing you down. Perhaps the grief you carry for the death of a spouse or child creates only darkness for you. Loneliness, the threat of a job loss, or the silence you hear within your family, are all places where Jesus needs to enter your life.

Even in this first chapter of Mark’s gospel we hear this reference to his own resurrection. This action of being ill or separated from others, then being cured and physically helped up, is in many ways the real rhythm of change, of dying to self and being restored to new life. This is our mission in the Church to be lifted up from our sin, failure and doubt so to live for others.

Jesus very clearly helps us restore relationships in his mission on earth. The disciples bring to him the ill and marginalized of the village. Mark’s clarity of Jesus’ mission is for us to take seriously as well. Jesus desires wholeness for people. This is the reason he was born into our world in the first place. His ministry is about people. The redemption happens among the fragile because the weary and poor so often teach all of us how to need God and how to live with great humility.

Jesus longs to grasp our hands and to help us up. He wants us to be on our feet and to help others as he does with Simon’s mother-in-law in the gospel. He wants us to live with hope and healing in our world. Jesus wants the best for us. This is the result of being in relationship with Christ Jesus. This is the beginning of eternal life. This is love now that will become love later. This is peace now that will be peace for all eternity. Jesus’ love in this healing story is the same love that will grasp our hearts here on earth and even for all eternity.

Here are some things to consider this week:

What is the message you desire to hear from Jesus at this time in your life?

What areas of your life need to be lifted up with his help and brought to freedom and hope?

Where is Jesus calling you to serve with such new life and integrity?

Blessings,

Fr. Ron

“What if I stretch out my arm and my fingertips

could feel the cloth that covers your body

and in my unworthiness

your

healing

found a home

in the fabric of my sinful past

and now willing heart

and hope

could bind me to you

and I could find shelter

in the swaddling garments of your love

and I could discover

my heart

dazzling white with newness

and what if I learn that I am clothed in such mercy

that I realize how to reach out to the naked and vulnerable

to dress them with justice and forgiveness

and house them in hope

because your healing

extends through every thread of my life

as I learn to wear your garment

that was tossed to the side in your empty tomb

that I now wear since I was washed in your waters of dying and rising

and you toweled me clean and wrapped me warm

and your garments will even cover my casket after my last breath

and I shall be at home in you

fully clad in tenderness and peace?”

Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC

“What if all that was unclean in me cried out to you for healing and all the sense of being incomplete or lost was all an illusion and you called me into a deeper relationship with you and I fell under your healing touch and landed on my knees in prayer and a blanket of awe wrapped me up in your presence and other people came to believe in you because I become another person in whose body rests your presence and healing voice and tender heart and then you call me into being what the healing is for not only me but our world torn apart in the illusion that evil wins and that we all must stand alone to find love quite apart from your presence or touch or voice and what if you stood on all of the calamity of the earth and how we have created chasms rather than community and harshness rather than healing and more earthly evil instead of heavenly love and what if you touched me and I touched you and even my spirit was healed and love flowed from us both?”

Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC

Dear Believers in the Hope of Christ Jesus,

In today’s gospel, Mark 1:21-28, Jesus reaches out to rebuke an unclean spirit. The unclean spirit cries out because he knows who Jesus is, “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” This moment in the beginning of Mark’s gospel is important for us to consider for our own lives.

The three-year ministry of Jesus begins with establishing his authority on earth. Jesus reaches out to the sick, the suffering and to heal those possessed by unclean spirits. People are experiencing the healing, comfort and liberation of Jesus’ presence. The Kingdom of Heaven is being manifest on earth in the restoration of relationships; the healing of the body and the hope that God will prevail against all evil.

In these beginning weeks of Ordinary Time, our worship centers on Jesus’ reaching out to us and teaching us about His mission on earth. Not only does He help us heal, but teaches us to reach out to heal others. Not only does He show us the reality of His love, but helps us encounter love in the world. Not only does He help us resist unclean spirits of hopelessness, gossip, backstabbing, and despair, but helps us encounter God’s Kingdom in all of our earthly encounters and relationships.

Through our own baptism, we become a new fire on earth. We spread His ability to heal and forgive within our own commitments. We become what we see in Jesus. We live as He lived and forgive as He forgave and heal as He healed.

We focus on Jesus’ love and His passion, death and resurrection. His life overcomes all evil. Sometimes we forget our faith. We tend to focus on darkness instead. We seem convinced by our world that evil is here to stay. However, if we focus on the love Jesus has for us, His everlasting goodness and forgiveness, we then live in a light that is sheer beauty and we bask in the hope that prevails for all eternity.

I invite you into prayer and reflection on this gospel today. As you face your own relationships and live your own life, what are the obstacles or moments of darkness that you wish Jesus to touch and heal?

Also, how do you experience the true authority of Jesus in your prayer and in your daily life? How can you become hope for others through your actions and accountability to Christ Jesus?

I think one of the most important aspects of this gospel is to stand in awe at the miraculous presence of Jesus Christ as the people around Jesus did in the text. This is an aspect of faith that we all need to ponder and reflect upon. Awe. How can we invite Jesus into our lives and be surprised by His mighty works and deeds?

Awe and wonder become an important aspect of faith for any follower of Jesus. My prayer for you is that you may surrender to the love God has for you and know through the miracles of healing and hope that faith is really real in our world today.

Blessings to you and your loved ones,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday January 27, 2018

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Gospel MK 1:21-28

Dear Followers of Jesus,

I am always amazed how Jesus shows up in our lives. He always wants something. In today’s gospel, Mark 1:14-20, Jesus calls disciples who are casting their nets into the sea. These men are doing what they know best, making a living for their families using their talents and gifts. Jesus invites them to consider something else.

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” I can’t imagine how these ordinary men first heard this. The story is very direct with little nuance. The men hear him and simply follow him. I wish our faith and leadership was so clear and direct. At least in my life and I suspect in yours, it is not so easy to drop everything and follow Jesus.

These gospels from Mark in the first weeks of Ordinary Time invite us to reflect on the initial “authority” of Jesus. From his baptism, Jesus begins his public ministry with great personal authority that others understood as coming from the Father. This profound personal authority in his speech and actions flows down to our generation as well.

In these past weeks, we have cultivated a new desire for God in Advent. We have seen the miracles of the Incarnation in the Christmas season and now we begin a ministry with Jesus that uses our gifts, talents and energy for the good. Jesus is casting a net into our hearts and waiting for us to follow with clarity, longing and hope.

I invite you to sit with Jesus in prayer this week with a view of allowing him to ask you something new. What is Jesus asking of you to change, develop or offer to other people? How can you receive the net Jesus casts out to the world? What will Jesus catch with you? Apathy or good will? Attention to him or neglect and self-sufficiency?

The disciples change within an instant. Would you do such a thing… as change? What would your response be to Jesus’ call to follow?

These gospels form us in our discipleship. We need to turn to the disciples that Jesus first called in order to find our way into the heart of Christ. In our parish community, I witness daily how all of you are willing to lay down your net and start something new. The ways you enter into a nursing home and provide Eucharist and your presence among the sick. The ways you are changed and challenged by your children. You serve people beyond your expertise. You welcome the stranger as your brothers and sisters.

Sometimes Jesus invites the people we least expect. Perhaps that is your heart. We are all open to the God of surprises. You might also reflect upon how you are being called into serving in ways you have least expected. There is always growth, insight and perhaps even laughter connecting to how Jesus invites us, who seem the least among his followers.

During this time, I ask that you pray for the completion of Sacred Heart Church.

Blessings to you,

Fr. Ron