Swimming In God

Have you ever been caught off guard? Not like in a surprise party kind of way, but in an unprepared for a difficult conversation, or when someone springs something on you that you were not anticipating kind of way. I don’t do well off guard. Today’s gospel reminds me to make sure that I am constantly swimming in God’s abundance. This abundance is open and available for all, however, we have the generous gift of choosing it or not. We can Teflon ourselves with all kinds of “other gods” that screen us from the abundance of mercy, grace, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control that comes from a life swimming in God. God collects us all and wants ALL of us to be with Him for eternity, but we can tell Him “no.” I can only imagine the heartbreak of God each time one of us blocks His grace. Have you ever been in love with someone who doesn’t love you back? It is an ache that doesn’t go away. God aches when we deny His abundance and yet it must be so, because love is a decision and must be freely given in order for it to be true. His net falls on ALL of us and His ocean of grace does too, but we can be caught or not, and we can receive or not. His mercies are new every day and thank goodness that our generous Father is constantly renewing our daily grace. He is faithful to complete His work in us until the very end and hopefully when we are caught it won’t be off guard, but fully steeped in abundance. Just keep swimming. 

The second part of today’s gospel is a short little ditty, “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” The old is the established covenant of the Old Testament complete with the traditions of faith, and the new is the fullness of that covenant through the blood of Jesus and activated by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. A harmonizing of both makes Kingdom living a reality. Working with the elderly is like a metaphor for this very concept. The old are held up and honored, supported and loved, nurtured and cherished, preserved and taken care of by the new. And caring for the old gives the new its purpose, its fire, its holiness, and its reason to give. The spirited new ones stand on the shoulders of the wise old ones and harmony between the two creates a world “on heaven and earth the same.” 

I pray that today will be a day swimming in abundance, standing on the shoulders of wisdom, and filled with the Holy Spirit, so that the new and complete mercies of God catch you on guard and ready to receive. It is well with my soul.  

Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 404

Reading 1 EX 40:16-21, 34-38

Moses did exactly as the LORD had commanded him.
On the first day of the first month of the second year
the Dwelling was erected.
It was Moses who erected the Dwelling.
He placed its pedestals, set up its boards, put in its bars,
and set up its columns.
He spread the tent over the Dwelling
and put the covering on top of the tent,
as the LORD had commanded him.
He took the commandments and put them in the ark;
he placed poles alongside the ark and set the propitiatory upon it.
He brought the ark into the Dwelling and hung the curtain veil,
thus screening off the ark of the commandments,
as the LORD had commanded him.

Then the cloud covered the meeting tent,
and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling.
Moses could not enter the meeting tent,
because the cloud settled down upon it
and the glory of the LORD filled the Dwelling.
Whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling,
the children of Israel would set out on their journey.
But if the cloud did not lift, they would not go forward;
only when it lifted did they go forward.
In the daytime the cloud of the LORD was seen over the Dwelling;
whereas at night, fire was seen in the cloud
by the whole house of Israel
in all the stages of their journey.

Responsorial Psalm PS 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A, 11

R. (2) How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines 
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young–
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord, mighty God!

Alleluia SEE ACTS 16:14B

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Open our hearts, O Lord,
to listen to the words of your Son.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 13:47-53

Jesus said to the disciples:
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."

"Do you understand all these things?"
They answered, "Yes."
And he replied,
"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old."
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.