Intercessions ~ Feast of Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi Procession ~ Grodno, Belarus

As the new month of June begins,/ we pray for those who celebrate birthdays,/ anniversaries and other days of remembrance,/ asking for good health,/ safety and peace./ We pray to the Lord.

In the Eucharist,/ God continues to walk with us in our human vulnerability./ We pray for the weakest among us/ or who in their frailty/ are alone or without supports./ We pray to the Lord.

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus./ We pray for those who have no love or friendship in their lives./ For those we do not love rightly or at all./ We pray to the Lord.

For those of good-heart who come to the rescue wherever there is fire,/ flood,/ terrorist attack,/ or disaster of any kind./ For those who staff hospitals/ or who rush to help others in emergencies./ We pray to the Lord.

For the safety of summer travelers./ For the well-being of our families and friends,/ especially those who are stressed,/ in any kind of trouble or difficulty,/ who live with addictions,/ pain or sickness./ We pray to the Lord.

Preserve us as a decent and good people,/ freed of racism and the phobias and hatreds that weaken the nation./ Grant that those who lead us/ would pattern honesty,/ service,/ solidarity/ progress for all/ and the healing of divisions./ We pray to the Lord.

A fool! Hey, who's a fool?

Verse 1: The first words of the psalm: The fool has said in his heart. We usually think of a fool as someone who acts ridiculously: "You drank too much last night and made a fool of yourself." But that's not what the word means biblically. In the Old Testament a fool is someone whose priorities and values are out of whack. And out of whack means those values which make no room for God and God's thoughts and ways. 

Notice too in this verse that the psalmist hones in on the true and first place of religion: it is the heart. We often forget that, so busy with the outer do-ings of religion we neglect the work of the soul, our inner person, which is worlds more than the two-second pause at the start of Mass or sleepy check-list examination of conscience.

Verses 1-3: The psalmist takes a dim view of human kind in this regard. He sees those who live without sharing God's values as corrupt and depraved. He says depraved twice. He thinks things are so bad, he imagines God scanning the earth unable to find even one good person remaining. Wisdom gone. God sees into hearts

Verse 4: You see, the issue is understanding. Being a fool doesn't mean NOT believing in God - in the ancient world everyone believed in one god or another. The psalmist is more concerned with those who "don't pray" which means make no inclusion of God or who have no regard for God's suffering people. A kleptocrat is a ruler or person with political power who steals or exploits - politicians who only take and accrue for themselves or their think-alikes and who don't serve the ones who are most vulnerable. "They eat up my people as though they were eating bread."

Verses 5 and 6: These people have reason to fear - God is on the side of the poor. In the very midst of their voting sessions, speeches, deliberations and rallies, while they leave others oppressed - if they looked up to see where God stands, they would be terrified. "Religion belongs in the sanctuary" not a few believe. These verses seem to grow out of an ancient society sorely divided: haves and have nots, powerful and powerless, evil-doers and righteous. Still?

Verse 7: Some scholars say this last verse with the happy ending was added after Israel got free from the oppression of other nations. God restores. The verse might be better expressed as a question: "Who will save us from Zion?"  Of course, the answer is GOD. Despite what the fools do and say - God is the helper. But this calls to mind the words of St. Teresa of Avila: God has no hands but my hands, no back to bear his burden to feet to walk his errands. 

Finally, we must never think that the word fool applies to everyone else but me. In some sense we're all fools. I'm thinking of the Sunday when I was a young boy and three Christian neighbor-men came to our door to ask my father to join them in buying a house on the block from under a black family who had looked into it for themselves. We can all be fools - acting as if God doesn't know, see or care. 

The Prayer of a Sigh

A gardener friend who lives with Parkinson's emailed recently musing a bit on the challenges he faces in his spring garden: the struggle not to fall over, the struggle to keep moving despite the paralysis of his legs, the struggle of telling his brain to move his foot into a step. He wrote that despite all this he would continue his focus and intensify his prayer. 

I wrote back that I didn't think praying in the garden should entail still more struggle and that he might consider and value the prayer of sighing. St. Therese of Lisieux wrote: "My slightest sighs, my greatest sufferings, my sorrows and my joys, my little sacrifices, my flowers, Jesus for you." And in another place: "I assure you that God is much better than you believe. He is content with a glance, a sigh of love." 

The psalmist refers frequently to sighs, but always as a negative, surrounded as he is by enemies who seek his un-doing. Even the well-loved prayer, Hail Holy Queen, sees sighing negatively. "To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears." 

In truth, some people are sighing experts who burden others with their unspoken groans of dissatisfaction and complaint. But I have in mind those spontaneous sighs which are genuine expressions of wordless and deeply felt surprise, joy, delight, awe, gratitude. There are also the sighs which accompany compassion or the powerlessness of pain, loss or frustration. We can trust the prayer of sighing.

• I see a Blackburnian Warbler high in a tree - a bird I've never known before - and I sigh.
• The sun breaks through the clouds; I feel its warmth on my skin - and I sigh.
• A light breeze comes through the garden carrying the scent of flowering fruit trees - and I sigh.
• My arthritic thumbs, my cranky back are slowing me up - and I sigh.
• I carry the morning news with me, of sixty Palestinians dead, including children and thousands wounded along the Gaza-Israel border - and I sigh.
• This glass of water - and I sigh.
• My mind travels back in time to a youthful mistake - forgiven - and I sigh.
• A thought: I survived intact that terrible time from long ago - and I sigh.
• Am I the first person ever to touch this patch of ground - this soil, these rocks - and I sigh.
• I consider with awe the seed packet gently shaken into my open hand - and I sigh.