Tuesday of the 6th Week in Ordinary Time

Frequently, I express my gratitude for being able to write these reflections – the graces that I gain in the reading, reflecting, and writing.  The opportunity I have to examine my own faith and my faith journey is such a gift.  Today’s is no different – many graces with the readings on this particular day.  One bonus for me is that today would have been my mother's 102nd birthday!

My mother’s faith was not that of a learned scholar, as a Catholic of her generation, she did not read the Bible rather she had beautiful Missals for mass and, of course, her ever present daily prayer book.  I think the greatest lesson from her for my faith was the idea of truly putting things into the hands of God.  She faced many struggles growing up and in early adulthood – I guess to be expected for the generation who lived through two World Wars, the Depression, Korean Conflict, Cold War and nuclear threats, and Viet Nam.  . She started her daily prayers for the dead in 1961. I lost track of how many she ordered over the years as she wore it out and would order replacements but NEVER failed to pray daily. 

Our gospel has the disciples once again not understanding Jesus.  Rather, as soon as He mentions bread, they immediately think He is talking about the fact that they forgot the bread.  I had to do a little research on leaven and unleavened bread to truly understand what Jesus meant (so I guess I shouldn’t be too critical of the disciples).  If any of you have ever shared Friendship Bread where you pass on to others a bit of the sour dough batter so they have a starter, then you probably understand this concept.  The small amount of “leaven” from a particular batch of bread was saved for the next batch.  Quite simplified and probably not with all the nuances required, I understand that at Passover everything was new and thus unleavened bread – no more “influence” from the past.  Thus Jesus was telling them to not be influenced by Herod or the Pharisees in how to live their lives.  How often do we need to be reminded to not let such influences enter our lives and be absorbed into our being and our behavior?  Sometimes, we need to act as unleavened bread and be renewed as fresh.  We need to connect with the sacredness of all around us – to take off our shoes and walk on the Sacred Ground that Jesus has laid before us.  To let our Faith be greater than any of our fears!!