SPIRITUAL BUDGET

[1]Just as people budget their finances to make ends meet, we might also consider a different kind of budget. Besides what we amass in this physical world, we have the capital of a certain number of breaths to use in our lifetime. We may know how to budget our finances, but do we ever reflect on how we might budget the principal of our life’s breaths, given to us as a gift from God? In other words, how are we spending our time?

Speaking to a friend the other day we both had the same thought and feeling. The world seems to be in hyper-drive. To the point we feel we are spinning our wheels haphazardly to accomplish tasks, almost wastefully getting into reoccurring debates over principles we really have no control over.[2] We want to invest our time and talents into a meaningful life purpose, but seem unable to balance the checkbook. Once we reflect on how we are using our breaths, we can then determine how to better budget the time we’ve been given to include a spiritual budget.

We have twenty-four hours in the day to budget toward our life’s purpose. Just as we budget our finances for the necessities of life, so to do our breaths go toward activities relevant to our physical survival. We must budget time to care for our body; time for work, school or college. If we have a family, we need to budget time to care of them. Most want to be contributing members of the community, to be in service to others. Beyond this, we are left with time we can spend any way we like. This is the area we can create our spiritual budget.

As we are on the spiritual path, we must set goals of self-knowledge and God-realization. This involves spending time in meditation and prayer with scripture and spiritual reading, whereby we invert our attention to focus on the Divine. Just as we need to spend time toward developing technical skills, meditation and prayer, also, takes practice. Creating a daily habit helps to achieve success. By concentrating our attention on the God within, we can learn to connect daily with the divine source of wisdom.

While attending to our responsibilities of taking care of our body and mind, let’s budget for the care of our soul. When planning our spiritual budget, allocate time daily for meditation and prayer, not as an afterthought, but first, like your mortgage payment or something as important as a regular date night with your spouse. Just as we want a balanced financial budget, we also want a balanced budget of our time, so we can develop the physical, mental, and spiritual facets of our life. By making meditation and prayer a priority in our spiritual budget, we will be making the best use of our life’s breaths, and achieve spiritual gains to enrich all aspects of our life.

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[1] Scripture (NABRE), 1 Timothy 4:12-28; Luke 7:36-50

[2] SPEAKINGTREE.IN, “Making a Spiritual Budget” by Sant Rajinder Sign Ji Maharaj

RAISED UP

[1]The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish a lifelong partnership between themselves, derives its force and strength from creation, but for the Christian faithful it is also raised up to a higher dignity, since it is numbered among the Sacraments of the new covenant.[2] Three critical questions are asked during marriage preparation, in the presence of the community, and the church’s minister that reflects and highlights today’s Feast of the Exultation of the Cross. The questions are:

1.   Are you entering into Marriage without coercion, freely, and wholeheartedly?

2.   Are you prepared, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?

3.   Are you prepared to accept children (being open to life and a partner with God in his creative power)?

Barely on their journey from Egypt, the Israelites murmur against Moses about their thirst their hunger, and this pattern of murmuring recurs throughout the trek. In other words, their commitment to God and his covenant regularly flounders. The episode in Numbers marks yet another occasion. Their murmuring brings divine punishment. A divine characteristic for sinning is punishment, but also extending a path to mercy and reconciliation. So, God instructs Moses, to raise up a bronze serpent on a pole so that all who are bitten can look upon it, will live.

Jesus, who came down from heaven, “emptied himself, humbled himself, became obedient to death, even death [by being raised up] on a cross. Because of this God greatly exalted him” (Phil 2:7-9) Christ’s saving act is grounded in God’s love, it is characterized by his free consent, his choice made without coercion; it is because of his love, he gave himself completely, with a promise to be with us for as long as we live; and it is by his being raised up on the tree, that we who believe in him may gaze upon him to find the path to eternal life.

Raised up on cross, Jesus enters into his exaltation. Having done the Father’s will throughout his life, he has modeled the vows we use in the Sacrament of matrimony. Christ in John’s Gospel sums up his work with, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). On the cross, Jesus has consummated his covenantal promises and bond to his bride the Church.

Today’s feast celebrates the cross’s ironies and it invites all of us to rededicate ourselves to its mission. Jesus’ saving work may be complete, now the mission of the Church begins. We are the Church and when we are bitten by doubt, temptation, and sin, we need to look no farther than the Savior raised up on the cross, and we will live.

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[1] Scripture (NABRE), Numbers 21:4b-9; Phil 2:6-11; John 3:13-17

[2] The Order of Celebrating Matrimony

BLIND SPOTS

[1]Bishop Octavio Cisneros of the Diocese of Brooklyn wrote, “To be an icon of Jesus the Servant, you must begin with your heart.  In other words, if you are to be an icon of anything, you must look at yourself first and examine what you see, what others see, and what you yourself know you should look like in the light of the Gospel and God’s gift of grace.” All too often we fail to see ourselves as others see us, and we simply call this phenomenon our blind spots.

Paul is recalling how he “was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man.” (1Tm 1:13) In his judgement, his understanding of “The Law” was right and those of “The Way” he judged to be a threat. We know how God got his attention, to reveal Paul’s blind spot, and how he was mercifully treated, as he “acted out of ignorance,” by the abundant grace of Our Lord.

Jesus’ parable uses three analogies to explain why a fellow sinner ought not judge.

     A sinner who judges another sinner:

1. is like a blind person trying to guide another blind person; the consequence is they will not be able to avoid falling into a pit.
2. is like someone who is ignorant of a subject, yet tries to teach it to someone else. Unfortunately, neither will become the wise.
3. resembles someone with a wooden beam in their own eye, yet tries to remove a splinter from someone else’s eye. With our own vision greatly impaired, will we not risk damaging the other person, in our blindness and ignorance.

Jesus wants us to recognize what blind spots can do to our spiritual vision. The worst kind of spiritual blindness is a judgmental spirit. Judging others reinforces prejudice, discrimination, and division. Jesus knows that judging others leads us to elevate good concepts, rules, and standards (even religion) above any consideration for human needs and circumstances.[2] All to often we just don’t know what we don’t know about the others life and circumstances.

“Unless we learn to face our own shadows, we will continue to see them in others, because the world outside us is only a reflection of the world inside us.” ~Unknown When we decide who is prejudiced or being unjust, we need to take an honest look at our own behavior and open our hearts in compassion and understanding.

Jesus prayed to his Father, in the Gospel of John, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.” (Jn 17:15, 17) May our prayer, at this Mass, be, that we may be healed of our own blind spots, so we are able to freely help others to see with the eyes of Christ.

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[1] Scripture (NABRE), Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 6:12-19

[2] Weekday HomilyHelps Exegesis by Dr. Terrance Callan and Homily Suggestion by Jeanne Hunt.