God's Power as Powerlessness

GOD’S POWER AS POWERLESSNESS

When we examine the biblical account of Adam and Eve and original sin, we see that the primary motivation for eating the apple was their desire to somehow grasp at divinity, to become like God. They wanted Godlike power. But they, like us, badly misunderstood what makes for genuine power.

St. Paul writes in Philippians that Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather that he emptied himself of that power to become helpless, trusting that this emptying and helplessness would ultimately be the most transformative power of all. Jesus submitted to helplessness to become truly powerful.

That insight can shed light on how we understand God’s apparent absence in our world. How might we comprehend what is often called “the silence of God”? Where was God during the Holocaust? Where is God during natural disasters that kill thousands of people? Where is God when senseless accidents and illnesses take the lives of countless persons? Why doesn’t God forcefully intervene?

God is present and intervening in all these situations, but not in the way we ordinarily understand presence, power, and intervention. God is present the way beauty is present, in the way a helpless, innocent newborn is present, and in the way truth as a moral agent is always present.

God is never silent because beauty, innocence, helplessness, and truth are never silent. They’re always present and intervening, but unlike ordinary human power, they’re present in a way that is completely non-manipulative and fully respectful of your freedom. God’s power, like that of a new born, like the power of beauty itself, fully respects you.

When we look at the struggles within our world and within our private lives, it often seems like divine power is forever being trumped by human power.

But like David standing with a just a boy’s slingshot before Goliath, a giant who looks overpowering in terms of muscle and iron and like the apostles being asked to set five little loaves of bread and two tiny fish before a crowd of 5000, God always looks underwhelming in our world.

But we know how these stories end.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/gods-power-as-powerlessness/#.W7NyIBNKhmA
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

31st Sunday (B)

31st Sunday (B)

Short Reflection for the 31^st Sunday of the Ordinary Time (B)

Readings: Deuteronomy 6:2-6 Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 12:28-34

Gospel Passage: “The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.' And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." (Mk. 12: 32-33)

Meditation:  Take heed, loving God and neighbor NOT simply in words but in DEEDS is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.  The real measure of our love is in our deeds… our walking the extra mile… the giving of our ‘substance’ to those in need.

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Short Reflection for the 30^th Sunday in ordinary Time (B)

The Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

Selected Gospel Passage:  “Jesus said to him in reply, ‘what do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man replied to him, ‘Master, I want to see’.” (Mark 10: 51)

Meditation: Blindness is not something physical only… There are many ‘non-seeing’ in our lives – NOT seeing the need of the poor, BLIND to gender inequity, INDIFFERENT to environmental degradation, etc.  Unless we recognize and name our blindness we are far from being able to see again! Do pray to the Lord:  “That we may see again…”

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

Struggling with Possessiveness

STRUGGLING WITH POSSESSIVENESS

Something inside our very DNA makes us want to possess whatever is beautiful and to have exclusively for ourselves whatever we love. It’s no accident that there are two commandments against jealousy. From a toddler’s tantrum over his mother’s inattention to the sexual jealousy so universal in adulthood, we see that it’s hard to look at what attracts us and respond only with gratitude and admiration.

For this reason, when we should be feeling wonderful, we often feel unsettled, restless, obsessed, and jealous in the face of beauty and love.

What do we do with our possessiveness? Good spirituality and good psychology agree that the answer lies in a healthy maturity that can admire without seeking to own and love without seeking to manipulate. But that’s easier said than done. We don’t change our deepest instincts (John of the Cross calls them “our metaphysics”) simply by willing away possessiveness.

What’s the answer? A life-long walk towards a very difficult maturity. Overcoming our incurable instinct to possess is one of the final hurdles in life. When we’re no longer prone to jealousy, we’re saints.

In the meantime, it can be helpful to name this. A symptom suffers less when it knows where it belongs.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/struggling-with-possessiveness/#.W5--IpNKhmA

www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Short Reflection for the 29^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (B)

Readings:  Isaiah 53: 10 – 11; Hebrew 4: 14 – 16; Mark 10: 35 - 45

Text: “Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” (Mark 10: 42-44)

Meditation:  Take heed, God’s ways are NOT the same as ours; and the measure in the community of disciples is NOT the same as the measure of the world. Jesus reverses the measure among the community of disciples - the greatest among you is he who serves and the first is the least among you.  

The authority of politicians is usually exercised to preserve their power and to gain more wealth and prestige, at the expense of the poor. It should not be the case in the community of disciples.

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

Satan Revisited...

Satan Revisited….

In a traditional language that speaks of God and Satan or of Good and Evil, Satan is an embodiment of evil, and an agent in his own right.

I tend to think of all language as necessarily inexact when it is used to describe things beyond the experiential world – or, better, as free from the narrowness of meaning this-worldly understanding implies for it.

I think of evil as an aspect of human choices and actions, a failure to honor the sanctity of other human beings, as well as the abuse of creation with its inevitable human consequences.

In some contexts it may be useful to speak of these undeniable tendencies in us by personifying them and, in effect, externalizing them, but historically this has been dangerous and it has empowered Satan, so to speak.

Satan appears in the Book of Job to prepare the occasion for God’s overwhelming statement of his power when he speaks from the whirlwind.

The Paschal Mystery of our Lord put the whole struggle between God and Satan and between good and evil in a clearer perspective. Both the Passion and Death of the Lord and his resurrection show clearly the choices between the love for good and hatred for evil; and the choice for life even unto death that others thus become partakers of the resurrection with the Risen Lord.

BEWARE OF OUR CHOICES…!

Jun Mercado, OMI

Badaliyya – Philippines

October 14, 2018

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

28th Sunday (B)

Short Reflection for the 28^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (B)

(In the Philippines, the second Sunday of October is dedicated to the Indigenous Peoples)

Readings: Wisdom 7: 7 – 11; Hebrew 4: 12 – 13; Mark 10: 17-30

Selected Passage: “As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10: 17)

Meditation:  We often ask what we must do to inherit eternal life?  Like the young man in the gospel narrative, we, too, are NOT ready to embrace the radical imperative of the Gospel. After this initial ‘fire’ or conversion to the Lord, we go back to the usual way of calculating the cost and we simply turn our back and live as before.

In a more particular way, we focus on the Indigenous Peoples as our neighbors in need.  To enter the Kingdom of God, we need to ask ourselves if we have given our neighbors in need – food, drink, clothing; visited them when they are sick or in prison; and attend to their needs.  These good deeds for the IPs  and the needy would determine our love for God and neighbors.

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…