Category Archives: Matthew

Inseparable

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes Basilica di Sant' Apollinare Nuovo Ravenna ITALY 6th century

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes
Basilica di Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo
Ravenna ITALY
6th century

When it was evening, the disciples approached [Jesus] and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.” Matthew 14:15

Nothing can separate me from the love of God except my own refusal to love my neighbor as myself. Immigrants, refugees, the homeless, the ill, the elderly, those who don’t look like me or act like me or speak like me—we are all God’s precious children, worthy of love and respect and the best life has to offer.

Dismissing others is not the way of Jesus.

Searching

Pearl of Great Price

An etching by Jan Luyken illustrating Matthew 13:45-46 in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England
By Phillip Medhurst (Photo by Harry Kossuth) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

[Jesus said to his disciples,] “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” Matthew 13:45-46

That which we long to find is what prompts us to search: God’s love deep in our hearts, the pearl that has no price because it is beyond our ability to value.

The finding is in the searching and the searching is in the finding. And so we give up selfishness and self-pity, greed and resentment, fear and prejudice—and we find Love.

 

Love yeast

 

Parable of the Mustard Seed An etching by Jan Luyken in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England By Phillip Medhurst (Photo by Harry Kossuth) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

Parable of the Mustard Seed
An etching by Jan Luyken in the Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England
By Phillip Medhurst (Photo by Harry Kossuth) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

[Jesus] spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” Matthew 13:33

We take just a tiny bit of love and mix it with our families, friends, neighbors, strangers, our workplaces, our communities, our homes – and we watch it grow.

That is the kingdom of heaven: our tiny bit of love moving freely to grow encouragement, kindness, respect, courtesy, and compassion in our tiny bit of the world.

One Word

Millet, Jean François, 1814-1875 ca. 1865-1866 black conté crayon and pastel on paper Clark Art Institute Williamstown, MA

Millet, Jean François, 1814-1875
The Sower, ca. 1865-1866
black conté crayon and pastel on paper
Clark Art Institute Williamstown, MA

[And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:] “But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” Matthew 13:23

Today is a bad pain day. It is taking most of my energy to breathe. The soil I have to offer the Lord feels stony, weed-infested, and prickly with thorns. How can I hope to bear any fruit at all?

By letting go of self-pity, self-judgment, self-loathing and opening my mouth to say the one Word that heals: Jesus.

Time to rest

I will give you rest

James Tissot (1836-1902)
Jésus engage les apôtres à se reposer (Jesus Commands the Apostles to Rest)
between 1886 and 1894
opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
Brooklyn Musuem

[Jesus said,] “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

I know some days I am heavy with pain, fatigue, and discouragement. I know others carry heavy responsibilities, grief, and stress. I know the world is heavy with violence, racism, and injustice.

I don’t know how to heal the heaviness. But Jesus does. I will practice turning my attention to Jesus. I will trust him with my burdens, the burdens of others, and the world’s burdens. I will rest from my tendency to do-it-myself and let Jesus help me through the day.

Without labels

Apostles Peter and Paul

El Greco (1541-1614)
Apostles Peter and Paul, ca.1592
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

[Jesus] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16:15

I can’t control God with labels. All I can do is rest in the presence of the Divine and be filled with the gifts chosen for me.

All I can do is model myself—to the best of my ability—on Jesus, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Compassion of God, Father of Mercies, God of All Comfort.

All I can do is let God be God and turn my will and my life over to God’s tender care and loving direction.

With compassion

The Three Crosses

Rembrandt (1606-1669)
The Three Crosses, 1653
drypoint and burin on paper (III/IV)
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
via Wikimedia Commons

After they had crucified him, they divided his garments by casting lots; then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and the other on his left. Matthew 27:35-38

If I ever doubt that Jesus understands the suffering I experience, let me contemplate the cross with its reverberations of torturous pain, shaming ridicule, forlorn abandonment, and crushing despair.

In Proportion

Proportion_and_Design_of_Part_of_Raphael's_Tranfiguration

Lecture Diagram 10: Proportion and Design of Part of Raphael’s ‘Transfiguration’. Part of the Turner Bequest to the Tate (1856).
By Joseph Mallord William Turner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light. Matthew 17:1-2

The spiritual mountain treks Jesus leads me on are always in proportion to my trust in God’s movement, my faith in the Spirit’s guidance, and my willingness to be transformed into a more exact icon of God’s love and goodness.

The mountain is usually high; I am almost always breathless, sometimes whiney, often overwhelmed. And God’s silent voice revealing the glory of Jesus is my reward.

A Desert of Pain

tentaciones26

Tentaciones

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert
to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1

Chronic pain is probably the most distracting, tiring, energy-draining, hope-depleting experience I’ve ever had. Last night’s wakefulness kept me struggling to put my focus on God. “Help!” was as complicated as my prayers got.

Whether or not I believe God is with me in the desert of pain, God is there. Whether or not I can feel God in the bleakness of pain, God is there. Whether or not I continue to experience physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain, God is there. In the moment, in the pain, in the prayer.

I told the devil last night, “You ain’t gonna get me yet.”

Have Faith in Goodness

Striped_daylilies

Hemerocallis ‘Frans Hals’
By Anne Norman (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

[Jesus said to his disciples:] “Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:28b-30

Have faith in God’s care and comfort. Have faith in God’s tender compassion. Have faith in God’s unchanging, unconditional love. Have faith in our own reflection of God’s love and goodness.