gospel

Speak Up! — What Rosary Prayer Teaches Us About Stating Intentions

Do you remember one of the early scenes in Million Dollar Baby where Client Eastwood’s character kneels in prayer next to his bed? He says something to the extent, “Lord, you know what I want, there’s no use in me repeating myself.” Boy, how often can I relate to that sentiment! I sometimes think to myself that God knows everything and definitely knows my intentions and my needs better than myself so why go through the exercise of formulating them in prayer? The Gospel reading from 10/6/16 addresses this dilemma.

Last Thursday’s Gospel reading included this popular verse from Luke:

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

The Regnum Christi website’s meditation on this Gospel reading talks about how we fall into the sin of pride when we don’t explicitly ask God for help through prayer. From their website:

When I Don’t Ask for What I Need, I Treat God as My Servant: When we expect God to give us all we need without asking, are we not placing the whole burden of our salvation on him and nothing on ourselves? Are we not in a sense being lazy? “You know what I need, Lord. Just give it to me, take care of it, while I focus on my own interests.” Not only is this laziness, it is pride, treating God like a servant whose role is to provide whatever I need. We forget he is God. Certainly God is generous and loving, willing to give us everything that is good for us; but he is still God, and he deserves our respect, adoration, and especially our gratitude.

The rosary connection to this Gospel reading is the Fifth Glorious Mystery — Mary’s Coronation as Queen of Heaven. Traditionally, the mother of a king held tremendous prestige because while a king may have multiple wives, he only has one mother. The king’s mother was referred to as the gebira. It makes sense then that Christ, being King of Heaven, would coronate his mother Mary as Queen of Heaven.

The chief responsibility of the gebira was to act as a mediator and speak on behalf of the king. When we pray the rosary, we acknowledge Mary as our mediator of our needs and intentions to her son, Jesus Christ. But she can better mediate on our behalf when we consciously and humbly come to her and ask for her help in prayer.

Crowned Madonna, Rokitno, Poland, 1671 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Think of Mary like a doctor and you are the patient. Mary is here to help you and she will do whatever she can to cure the illness of sin and bring you into God’s grace. However, she will be better able to help you if you are forthright and honest with her by humbly stating your needs in prayer. The better the patient you are, the more effective Mary can be in her role as your Queen of Heaven. When you can formulate your intentions in prayer then you will be able to understand how God responds to your request.

If you know what ails you spiritually, speak up! Because if can’t form the request in your head, how will you recognize the heavenly response?

How Rosary Prayer Teaches Us About Discernment

Here is the Gospel for this Sunday, 9/4/16 from LK 14:25-33

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus’ teachings in this Gospel confuse me. Why is he telling us to turn against our parents? After all, Jesus loved Mary, his mother. He was obedient to his parents as a young boy. And what does hating your parents have to do with the analogy of laying down the foundation of a tower, preparing for battle, or renouncing all your possessions? I can just picture the confusion and even doubt the people listening to Jesus speak these words must have had.

I think that when you look at this teaching in the context of all of Jesus’ other teachings it is obvious that he is not telling us to literally hate our parents. Rather, he instructs us to let go of all worldly attachment especially if they lead us away from God‘s grace. And in some extreme cases, that may mean letting go of our relationships with certain people, possessions, and habits if they are toxic to our relationship with God.

Each one of us needs to make a conscious decision on what kingdom we are going to live for. Will it be this worldly kingdom or God’s heavenly one? Remember, shortly after this teaching in Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells us, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13).

Attachment to a worldly possession didn't work out too well for Smeagol — Attachment to a worldly possession didn’t work out too well for Smeagol (see Lord of the Rings)

The Gospel reading moves in a unique direction with the parable of building the tower and preparing for war. As my Sunday readings workbook points out, Jesus is telling us that living our faith is something we need to consciously think about and commit ourselves to. Many of us cradle Catholics (myself included) often take the Church‘s teachings for granted and do not put a lot of serious thought into them. We may call ourselves Catholics but Jesus challenges us to reflect on what exactly we are committing ourselves to. Have we taken the time to learn the Church’s teachings? Are we ready to live and defend them? Do we pray regularly to build a strong spiritual foundation if/when our faith is challenged?

The Gospel reflects the central theme of the Third Luminous Mystery — The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven and Jesus’ Call to Conversion. Conversion implies that one is making a very conscious and deliberate choice. It is not something one does passively. When you reflect on this rosary mystery, ask yourself if you are seriously looking for ways you are not living up to the standard Jesus puts before you. Where are you out of step with the Church’s teachings on topics such as abortion, chastity, immigration, social welfare, etc? What are you going to do to convert from your focus on our worldly kingdom to God’s heavenly one?

It is easy to procrastinate and delay taking a hard look at your life and taking steps to convert. But just like the builder who didn’t plan or the general that didn’t strategize, Jesus warns us about how foolish such action is because delaying actively living a truly Catholic faith puts you at risk for great catastrophe. And there is no greater catastrophe than losing God’s kingdom of Heaven especially when he asks relatively so little of us to accept it.

How Rosary Prayer Teaches the Glory of Humility

I’m a lector at my parish. One of the perks of serving as a lector is that my parish provides me with a workbook for the readings that contain explanations and commentary. Reading this book during the week helps me obtain a deeper understanding of the readings at Sunday Mass. I want to start providing you insight into the Sunday Gospels and how they relate to the rosary. This way, when you pray the rosary, you can integrate the Sunday readings into your meditation as well. Think of this as doing your Sunday Mass homework.

The Gospel for Sunday, August 28, 2016, is:

On a sabbath Jesus went to dine
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table.
“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited,
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table.
For every one who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Then he said to the host who invited him,
“When you hold a lunch or a dinner,
do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors,
in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

When I initially read this Gospel passage, I felt like I was reading the biblical equivalent of an Amy Vanderbilt etiquette book on how to politely find your place at a banquet table. The reading confused me because it seemed like Jesus was giving his disciples a social hack for getting to a place of honor in a disingenuous way. Is it not false humility to sit at a lowly spot of the table expecting the host to come and fetch you and put you where you think you deserve to be? I can almost picture that fake humble person sitting next to the stereotypical “chatty lady,” not even listening to her but scanning the room making sure the host sees him so he can “rescue” him from the dregs.

The confusion lifted when I realized that Jesus asks us to behave as the guest and the host! Jesus talks about the host not looking for reciprocity or acknowledgment for his efforts. But that is also the same requirement for the guest who takes the lowest spot at the table. He should not be looking for the host to save him from his situation but rather, accept and enjoy his situation regardless of the outcome. After all, the guest should be thankful and grateful that he was invited to the feast at all. We too should be grateful for all the blessings God bestows on us even when it seems like others have it better.

The people who are truly humble and accepting of their situation are ultimately the happiest. They are not always looking for something better but find contentment with what they have. That is because they do not come with any preconceived notions of their importance but they just do what needs to be done. They do not worry about who notices them or if they will receive a certain level of reward. In a sense, the humble person is free from the burden of self-imposed expectations or entitlement. When you do not feel entitled to that place of honor, being elevated to it makes it that much more glorious.

Just about every mystery of the rosary teaches some aspect of humility and the glory that comes out of it. The rosary itself is bookended by these two traits by the First Joyful Mystery and the Fifth Glorious Mystery. In the Annunciation, Mary humbly accepts God‘s plan for her. She does not turn God down or try to reshape His request into something she would prefer. God is essentially upending Mary’s life but her humble reply is, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

When we walk and talk with Jesus through the rosary, we finish with Mary being crowned Queen of Heaven. Like the person sitting at the lowest spot of the banquet table only to be seated at the place of honor so was Mary glorified after her lifetime of humbly accepting God’s plan for her and the pain and sorrow that it entailed. She is our model for our ultimate elevation to a place of honor in Heaven when we live in earnest, humble service of God’s plan for us.

When you pray the First Joyful and Fifth Glorious mysteries of the rosary, pray and ask yourself:

Am I living a sincerely humble life or showing a fake sense of humility as a means to more selfish ends?
Am I content and satisfied with all God has given me or am I expecting something better?
Am I looking to Mary as an example of humility?
Am I showing humility by putting my trust in God’s plan or am I trying to avoid or amend it?

Waiting for the Treasure: How the Rosary Teaches Patience

I really wish I had the time to write a rosary reflection every day based on that day’s Gospel passage. But given that I’m only one person with a family and full-time job, I guess that will just need to wait another 30 years for my retirement. But I’ll consider myself successful if I can tie at least one Gospel to the rosary each week.

Let’s look at the Gospel from 7/27/16:

Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
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.”

The theology 101 analysis of this reading is straight forward. Think of the treasure as God’s grace or Heaven. Those who understand its value will be willing to give away all their earthly possessions to possess it. Taking their chances that they will have enough money to buy the field or that the field is still available is comparable to our faith in the joys that await us in Heaven. We do not have any observable proof of the greatness of Heaven, but our faith tells us that it is something worth forsaking all our worldly comforts to obtain.

The phrase that popped out at me was the person selling all that he has to buy the field containing the treasure. Why didn’t this person just pocket the treasure and go on his merry way? That way, he would not have to go through the trouble of selling his possessions and buying the field which would cut into his overall profit from the treasure. Even when he does go through the effort of buying the field, does it seem dishonest to withhold from the owner that there is something of extreme value on his land?

Going through the exercise of selling what you have and buying the land demonstrates that effort is needed on your part to obtain what is valuable. Just taking the treasure without working for it implies a sense of entitlement; that God owes us his love. Or, it leads us to believe we are entitled to the glory of Heaven now, in this life. But Jesus tells us no, you have to be patient and work on your relationship with God and your reward will be found in Heaven. That treasure must remain buried in this life because we do not yet have the right or the ability to fully possess it.

Saint Matthew’s gospel reading reminds me of the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the rosary — The Presentation in the Temple. I think about Saint Simeon who met the infant Jesus after what I assume was years of waiting. Although God promised Saint Simeon a great gift of seeing the Savior before dying, it was still something he could not possess immediately and had to show patience. He knew God was going to fulfill that promise and he could have done anything with his life. But the fact that Saint Simeon was in the temple on the day of Jesus’ presentation implies that he was probably a regular worshiper and spend a lot of time in prayer.

The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now connect the dots between Saint Simeon in the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the rosary and Matthew’s gospel. While we have the promise of God’s grace, we have to put ourselves in the right frame of mind and spirit to fully receive it. I imagine that Saint Simeon wanted to accept God’s gift in the fullest manner possible and worked hard living righteously. Otherwise, I could envision him having regrets if he was to receive Jesus in an unworthy state. The same goes for us receiving the treasure that God freely offers us — the ability to spend eternity with him in Heaven.

Are we putting in the effort to fully receive that gift by living a spiritual and righteous life and avoiding sin? Or do we pass up that treasure in the field because we are still uncertain it’s worth the effort to obtain it? Or do we feel bitter and resentful because we cannot have it now? The next time you pray the rosary and meditate on the Gospel, ask God for the patience and perseverance to live for his Kingdom and the understanding that it is not something we can fully grasp in this life.

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