Departure

October 17, 2018

I flew home last night from my weeklong visit/retreat with dear friends in Connecticut. When you’ve been pampered and loved on and have had plenty of rest, laughter, and pure goodness, you are able to look at things from a place of peace. Today’s gospel is one that tends to have a negative sound, but with rested and grounded eyes I found a completely different theme. The Delta Airlines introduction video begins with the line, “The first step toward connection is departure.” At its heart, love is a mindful departure from self for the very nature of love is the gentle launching of spirit, life, and goodness to the beloved one. Only when we depart from the place within us where we have already thoroughly soaked in His love, can we begin to connect with others in that same love. I used to think that love was a give and take thing, but it really is a receive and give thing. We become what we receive in personal prayer and relationship with The Beloved. Once received, we become, and when we become love, we must give it away, and since we are constantly giving it away, we must also constantly be receiving it, for we cannot give what we don’t have. 

The Pharisees and the Scholars in today’s gospel don’t get this crucial reality and they want to replace relationship with business transaction. But let’s face it, a lot of times it is so much easier to reduce our faith, our worship, and our religious practices to neat and tidy exchanges of goods or following of rules or checklists of accomplishments. Being loved by a perfect Father even in the midst of our sin and shame is much harder, but isn’t so much better, friends? Don’t we long to be held in the arms of someone that knows us through and through and still calls us His favorite? Today, I invite each of us to sit still for a good 10 minutes and simply let God love us. Soak in it. Receive it. Then give it away. “The first step toward connection is departure.” Depart from the things of this world and arrive into God’s arms where you are loved unconditionally. He delights in you and it is well with my soul. 

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
Lectionary: 469

Reading 1 GAL 5:18-25

Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh
with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. 

Responsorial Psalm PS 1:1-2, 3, 4 AND 6

R. (see Jn 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

Alleluia JN 10:27

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel LK 11:42-46

The Lord said:
"Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
These you should have done, without overlooking the others.
Woe to you Pharisees!
You love the seat of honor in synagogues
and greetings in marketplaces. 
Woe to you!
You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk."

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply,
"Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too."
And he said, "Woe also to you scholars of the law!
You impose on people burdens hard to carry,

but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them."