Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Jan 06 2025

Praying for Mercy

There is a funny song in the highly irreverent musical The Book of Mormon. One of the two young Mormons being sent as a missionary to Uganda is a real “golden boy” with genuine expectations of doing great things. When he is paired up with a less prepossessing fellow named Callahan, he sings a song predicting the great things they will do. The song’s title is “It’s You and Me—But Mostly Me.”

The prayer of the Pharisee falls into this category. It is not a bad prayer, we are told. The Pharisee stands before God in gratitude for many blessings. But the focus quickly shifts to “I . . . I . . . I . . . I . . . ” It is the simple prayer of the tax collector that wins God’s heart. Note how Jesus expresses it: “the latter went home justified.” To be justified is to be in right relationship with God; it is a gift of God. Asking that God be merciful puts us in right relationship with God.

We can make our own several prayers found in Luke’s first two chapters. Consider the prayer of Mary upon hearing Elizabeth’s words of greeting (1:46–55), the prayer of Zechariah at the birth of John the Baptist (1:68–79), and the prayer of Simeon in the temple when he takes in his arms the Christ Child (2:29–32). Each keeps our focus on God as a God of justice and mercy. Each calls us to bow our heads humbly in recognition of who we are and who God is.

Consider/Discuss

Does God really want us bowing our heads and beating our breasts?
Where is the line between self-acceptance, self-esteem, and self-absorption?

Responding to the Word

When I am tempted to be boastful in my prayer, O God, help me to recall that I always stand before you as a sinner.

Jan 06 2025

Praying for Justice

Possibly this parable about the widow and the unjust judge was based on a real incident. Since Luke presents Jesus as having loyal women friends who traveled with him, this story might have come from one of them. It has a nice touch of humor when the judge admits he finally gave her justice out of fear she would bop him on the head.

Earlier in this Gospel, Jesus told another parable about being persistent in prayer (11:5–8), but here persistence is connected with a particular end: to persist in praying for justice. If a powerless widow’s persistence moves even an unjust judge to justice, how much more will the Father of Justice listen to the prayers of his children? Jesus’ words were held up to Luke’s community who lived in a hostile environment, encouraging them not to lose faith that God keeps all promises. Their fulfillment had already begun in Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Presumably, our first reading was chosen to present a weary Moses as one persisting in prayer with the help of Aaron and Hur. That this prayer results in Joshua’s successfully “mowing down” the Amalekites may not particularly inspire. More helpful is Paul’s advice to turn to scripture “for training in righteousness (justice),” especially keeping the psalms in mind. Today’s responsorial psalm reminds us that “our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” So persist in praying for justice; let not your hearts grow weary.

Consider/Discuss

What areas of injustice do you see in our world?
Do you pray that God’s justice—understood as the grace to be in right relationship with God, others, oneself, and our world—come more fully into our lives and our world?

Responding to the Word

O God of justice, we ask that you send the Spirit to give us a greater dedication to bringing your justice into the world. Let our hearts not grow weary asking for this gift of the Holy Spirit. Strengthen our faith in the power of your grace to transform our lives.

Jan 06 2025

Surprising Messengers

First, go to your Bible and read the entire fifth chapter in Second Kings for this most enjoyable story of the prophet and the Gentile general with leprosy, highlighting the power of God’s word to heal. With today’s familiar Gospel story of Jesus and the ten lepers, the focus is on God’s salvation coming to “outsiders” like Naaman and the Samaritan as both healing and conversion. We see God’s compassionate outreach for those whose leprosy placed them outside the community, for leprosy was a social stigma as well as a physical condition. What I love in the story of Naaman is the role of the servants, the “little ones.” A servant girl captured in a raid first tells Naaman’s wife about “the prophet in Samaria.” After Naaman arrives at Elisha’s door, a servant brings the prophet’s message to wash seven times in the Jordan. And finally, it is the general’s own servants who convince him to follow this command when he gets all huffy about washing in the Jordan instead of the beautiful rivers back home. But down he goes and cured he is.

Leprosy is a stand-in for the condition of sin that alienates us from God and each other. God’s greatest desire is that we know divine, saving grace, a desire often brought home to us by the surprising messengers God sends us—including the prophet from Nazareth who continues to surprise us after two thousand years. So be on the lookout for how God is working to draw you closer and deepen your faith.

Consider/Discuss

How has God’s word brought healing into your life? How has it deepened your ongoing conversion?
Can you think of any surprising messengers God has used to “get through” to you?

Responding to the Word

Open our ears, Lord, to hear your word. Open our eyes to see the many ways you reach out to us through those you bring into our lives who help us to know you. Help us to see that all people are your beloved children, and that all earth is holy and bears your presence.

Jan 06 2025

Ask, Then Act

The prophet Habakkuk asks God how long he (the prophet) will have to see violence, ruin, and misery. God answers with a vision to be written down and a call to wait patiently in faith. “The just one, because of his faith, shall live.”

Paul sounds a call to interior action, urging Timothy to stir into flame the gift of God: a spirit of courage, energy, and action. Though separated by over six centuries, the prophet Habakkuk and the apostles Paul and Timothy faced suffering and destruction; all three responded by witnessing to their faith in the God of Israel. For Paul, this faith finds expression in fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel answers two questions: how do we get this faith and what do we do with it in the face of trials? We get it by asking. Jesus tells the apostles it is not a matter of quantity but quality. A little faith can go a long way in producing results. While Luke’s version of this saying of Jesus is less dramatic than Matthew’s—with Luke faith can uproot a mulberry tree, while Matthew has it moving a mountain—the basic point is the same.

After his response, Jesus calls them to action. Faith flowers into service. Serving Christ, especially in the least and the needy, flows from faith. The vision faith provides carries us into making this world a better place, embodying the faith, hope, and love that can transform the world.

Consider/Discuss

How have you experienced the power of faith?
Has it helped you to get through difficult times, giving you strength to uproot any obstacle and toss it in the sea of God’s mercy?

Responding to the Word

Give us faith, generous God, to carry us through whatever trials and suffering might come in the future. We believe you are with us in all life’s circumstances and events, but darkness can sometimes cloud our vision. At those times, help our unbelief. Send your Spirit to strengthen us.

Jan 06 2025

Open the Gate

Being complacent means being pleased with yourself. The prophet Amos paints a vivid picture of a pampered people, lying on couches, snacking and sipping to soothing music, massaged into a state of lethargy. Then he lowers the boom: “Party’s over. Get ready for exile.”

Jesus also paints a portrait of ongoing indolence. Rich Man lies on his couch, dressed in luxuriant purple and soft linen, eating rich foods and drinking choice wines “each day.” The problem is that he has become so anesthetized that he can’t move, not even to go out to the gate where poor Lazarus lies, smelly, starving, and sickly. Then, suddenly, death pulls down the curtain. Next scene: a reversal. The gate has become a gap, an abyss. Rich Man is on one side, Lazarus on the other. What is the point? If you enjoy this life, you will pay for it in the next? More that gates have an expiration date and we need to go through the gates life gives us now. The Latin word for gate is porta. The word opportunity comes from it. Every opportunity is a gate for entering into a world where we can make a difference. Who is on the other side can vary: a sick person, a sore person, a helpless person, a poor person.

And someone has come back from the dead to tell us this is our calling—Jesus, Resurrection Man. There is always some gate nearby. Open it and look at what’s in front of you.

Consider/Discuss

Who is “outside the gate” in your life?
When have you heard the voice of the Risen One call you to care for the poor?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, the age to come should start now. Now is the time to hear your word calling us to make this world a place of hospitality and gracious care for all. If we are complacent in any way, break through our indifference and move us to act.