February 17, 2022

James  2: 1-9

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved. 

Open to healing

It is so easy to be thrown off track, isn’t it?  We are busy, get interrupted, look up, and in seconds our primitive brain stem developed to protect us from dinosaurs tells us…This person is OK…Ugh, no time for this one.  Often how they look or how they speak cinches the deal. 

In the second week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, we spend time reflecting on the hill of the Beatitudes and then walk next to Jesus as he and we are drawn to every form of pain and suffering. People are healed. They are comforted. Our reactions touch our own wounds and poverty. Jesus wants to heal and comfort us. There is no hiding from that compassion. 

Today, I want to notice where my heart and my eyes are avoiding. My healing will begin there.  Give it a try. 

—Mary Ann Gessner first encountered Ignatian spirituality through Jesuit Prayer. She completed the 19th Annotation in May 2021 and is now a Chaplaincy Intern at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.

Prayer 

Jesus, I am grateful to be walking next to you.  I don’t see very well when I depend on myself alone. Please help me see through your eyes.  Help me know how to respond to the people on our path.  Please, give me your grace to reach out to them as you would. Amen. 

—Mary Ann Gessner