2427AFC070524 – What are YOU looking at!? ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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Ezekiel 2:4 c -5 – “Thus says the Lord God.” 5 Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”
Psalm 123:2 – Listen to it ⇒HERE (↔ Music Link)
2 As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
2 Corinthians 12:9 b– 9 but he said to me,] “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Mark 6:3-6 – 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son* of Mary and ♪brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took ♫offense at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.
*Son – huios ♪ Brother – adelphos ♫ ἐσκανδαλίζοντο eskandalizonto – to scandalize, to impede by tripping or stumbling, to be offended, made indignant, caused to distrust, disbelieve, disapprove.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. I want to begin today at the end. The end of the Mass, that is. I want to specifically address those persons who are frightened by the words, “LET US PRAY.” This usually is the first thing we hear after Communion. It is referred to in your missals as “Prayer after Communion.” We must assume that this is an alarming invitation. So many people are so upset by its approach that they leave the building immediately after they have received their portion of The Body of Christ.
If this is a habitual practice of someone you know, please assuage their fears, and encourage them to stay until they have the opportunity to receive the benediction and dismissal at the end of Mass. This study might be something you could share with them. You see, the benediction (“Bow your heads and pray for God’s blessing.”), and the dismissal (“Go forth and proclaim the Word by your lives.”) are very important parts of the Mass that bring it to conclusion. Leaving early is a great way to tell God, “I don’t have time for you. I’ve got to get out of the parking lot before the rest of these laggers. I have a brunch reservation at the club, and Father’s homily went a full 16 minutes!” ʻŌmea, is that really what you want to tell Jesus immediately after sharing fellowship (koinonia) with his adelphos? One could argue that those last few elements of the Mass are the best parts because they are so personally enriching. If we don’t want to share in the BEST parts, is there really much point in being there for anything that precedes them?
We gather together in a special place, a building we call “the church,” to receive the blessings of Word and Sacrament. Now, most people will get up from their seats in the theater when the final frame of the movie is shown, and most people will gladly skip sitting through the Credits. If you were one of those who learned to stick around for the credits after watching Shrek, you know that there’s some really good stuff there, and it’s well worth our time to stay and watch. NEWS FLASH! The prayers after communion, the benediction, and the dismissal are not the credits! Those three things are the closing moments of what should be the most important hour of our 167-hour week.
DON’T SKIP THEM!
Now, what is a Prophet, and what does God mean when he says, “they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”? The Old Testament word for prophet is nabi 
(nabiy’) {nah-bee’}. There are some disagreements among scholars about the origin of that word, but one that is well-accepted is that this noun comes from the verb noba’ meaning to “bubble up,” “boil over”,” as in “to pour forth an abundance of words,” such as those who speak with divine inspiration. It is by and through the power and inspiration of God that a prophet speaks, and a prophet can’t help but speak when and what God commands any more than a pot of boiling water can stop bubbling. And that is the key. Those who have Divine Inspiration are True Prophets. The converse is that those whose “inspiration” is self-generated are the False Prophets. How then can we tell the difference? If we look at the verses following Jesus description of wolves in sheep’s clothing, the answer is clear. (See Matthew 7:15)
The answer is, “by their fruits you will know them.” And here’s where we run into trouble because these days there’s a lot of fake fruit on the table. The fake fruit comes to us through the tireless work of the Prince of Lies, the Devil, and he uses a few seeds of Truth and a ton of manure to raise a crop of bad advice. We are admonished to be wary of false Prophets, hucksters, and con artists. BUT, we are also admonished to be aware of things that are right, and true and spiritual. Are we looking at the host, the Body of Christ and the Precious Blood of Christ, or are we just looking at a cookie and a drink? What do we see?
I can answer that. We see what we believe. We hear what we believe. We believe what-we-do-not-know if we believe that seeing the Living Christ raised above the altar is NOT the True Jesus, alive and whole. When we read from the Prophets during the Liturgy of the Word, we hear the Voice of God telling us how to Live and Love as he commands – and he commands us to Live and Love in the same way as he Lives and Loves for each of us. What do we see when we see that Life, that Love waiting there for our spiritual nourishment?
Belovéd, have you ever bought a carton of grapes or a sack of plums and discovered when you opened them at home that there were rotten fruits in your purchase? The store might tell you “buyer beware,” and they could be right. Don’t we usually check the products before we put them in the basket? Do we take home all the dented cans? What are we not looking at? Come to think of it, in Mass, what are we not looking at? God uses many, many signs and wonders to attract our attention. If we claim we want to please him by obeying his Will, then we need to be watching for those signs and wonders. Sometimes they may seem too subtle for us to detect; but that only happens when we are not watching closely enough. That’s why we ring some bells at the epiclesis (↔ Video Link!) 
so that we’ll LOOK at the miracle before us.
In that passage from Psalm 123 (I hope you listened to the music link. It was a tough one to get right.), it mentions servants who carefully watched the hands of their “bosses” when serving guests to the household. The boss and the servant would devise and carefully rehearse nearly imperceptible gestures that would signal what the boss wanted the servant to do so that it appeared they readily anticipated and completed every command. This was of great benefit to the boss as it showed s/he had a supreme ability to choose and control the best of servants. It also was of great benefit to the servants because it demonstrated the superior ability of the boss to train the servant, and therefore elevated their service to the level of exceptional. They watched. They learned. They responded as expected. What are we watching? What do WE see? Do we see the Lord God stretching forth his hand of Blessing to bestow his Mercy on us? Are we attentive enough to be able to welcome his Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation?
Let’s consider that movie-watching we mentioned above. Perhaps more than a few of us can remember the ending of the first Star Wars movie, Episode IV: A New Hope. Toward the end of the film, Han Solo and Chewbacca suddenly rejoin the battle just in time to 
knock Darth Vader’s ship off course before he can destroy Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter. Obi-Wan Kenobi – who sacrificed his life to allow his compatriots to escape – speaks to Luke from “The Force” to tell Luke to trust his instincts. Luke turns off his ship’s computer and somehow sends two torpedoes into an exhaust port on the Death Star. The Death Star explodes, thereby saving the Rebel Base. Obi-Wan’s voice reminds Luke that The Force will always be with him. The movie ends with Princess Leia giving Luke and Han medals (and promotions!) for their heroism. We know now that the Empire has suffered a setback, but there is still much to do. Now, does any of that ring a bell? If so, let’s imagine that about 10% of the people in the movie theater get up and leave right after the destruction of the Death Star so they can get out of the parking lot and over to Pizza Hut before the crowd. Years later, these same people bought the Blu-Ray disc and watch this movie multiple times, but always stop watching and eject the disc right after the Death Star explodes. Does that make any sense?
What makes even less sense is that many of us can follow and discuss that entire story line, but cannot relate to the Liturgies of the Word and Eucharist. I find it incredible that there are still so many people who believe in The Force, or hope for the coming of United Federation of Planets. My Hope is built (↔ Music Link) on nothing less than Jesus’ Love and Righteousness. Belovéd, you know why! That hope is REAL because at any moment of any day I can tell Jesus Your Grace is Sufficient for Me. (↔ Music Link) The Apostle Paul understood that well. No matter what happened to him – some of it quite painful – he accepted the fact that he could endure every pain – including what he called a “thorn in his side” – for the surpassing Love and Peace in which he was held by Christ Jesus. He even asked Jesus to take that thorn away, but Jesus denied his request and showed him an even greater Mercy than deliverance. He showed him Fellowship (koinonia) in and through the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Paul accepted this extra-ordinary Gift – not with resignation, but with the 
Wisdom of Gratitude. That sort of Gratitude comes only in uniting our lives with Jesus’ Life. That, in turn, is accomplished only but remaining in constant Fellowship with Jesus. Like the servants in ages past, we must [1] find and cultivate the Joy of knowing Jesus as Lord and Master, [2] then we carefully learn to watch for, and respond to, all the signals and miracles he shows us during that fellowship, and [3] we must eagerly lean forward in to the future and continue to prepare for and respond to any and every opportunity to intensify that Fellowship.
“But it’s so hard, and Mass is so BORING, just the same thing over, and over, and over.” Of course it’s hard! Jesus himself told us we would regain every gift freely given to him, and would be blessed 30-, 60-, and 100-fold – with persecutions (See Mark 10:30) – AND Eternal Life! ʻŌmea, that is definitely not boring – unless, that is, you think it will be boring to spend eternity hearing the Angels and Saints say, “Let us Pray,” or seeing the indescribable and unimaginable Glory of God attended by myriads and myriads of Angels ministering to him. Adelphos! I want a seat right at the threshold of that Throne Room, so I can watch and listen, and then, afterwards, listen and watch! Recently we discussed the approach to religion based on “Well-maybe-it’s ….” That’s what the people of Nazareth were experiencing when Jesus visited there. “Who is this guy? And where does he get off talking like this? He spent years living here with us (yes, that was right after they all got back from Egypt, uncle Jonathan), and now suddenly he thinks he’s a Prophet! There hasn’t been a Prophet in Judea since Ezekiel – not even that nut-case Yôḥānān ben Zkaryah.”
You see, Belovéd, in those people we recognize the adage “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Jesus himself was astounded by their lack of faith. They found him offensive. They had more important things to do with their lives than wait around from some local-boy to show off with some sort of magic trick. One wonders if they actually ever learned that they completely missed out on an Ocean of Grace (← Please follow this link for more information.) That immeasurably immense expanse of Grace is completely available to anyone and everyone, and it is more-than-sufficient to restore every soul ever conceived since Adam and Eve. How is that possible? What’s good for The Apostle Paul is good for us as well, so we look to our Eucharistic Lord at the Altar and declare with The Apostle Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” because that is who we see. For The Apostle Paul, that reality dawned with Jesus’ answer to his prayer. The thorn would stay. The Power of Mercy would increase. The Hope of Eternity in the presence of God would always thenceforth be a reality. All of that would come from seeing Jesus as he is.
Let us lift our eyes to our God waiting joyfully, lovingly, expectantly for his Mercy! The better we watch, the more we shall see. The more we see, the deeper we are moving “further up and further in.” We stand outside the Walls of the Eternal City now, but our pilgrimage is always “further up and further in.” As soon as we can see and understand that such is the case for all earthlings, the greater our perceptions of the value and importance of koinonia will become. What do we see? We see ourselves Standing in the Need Of Prayer, (↔ Music Link) traveling Home, and we are looking at the Lord God Most High (El Elyon) standing next to the Lion of Judah, both smiling with great Love, Peace, and Joy that we have at last seen our Hope made real. We are looking at heaven, Belovéd, and that’s exactly what EVERYone is created to see.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
