The Book of Revelation speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. What will the new earth be? The new earth will be the Reign of God. There will be something “un-earthy” about it, something quite heavenly. Such a transformation flows from the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. Turning the world into the Reign of God is another way to say “Jesus Christ saved the world.”  What can we do to make earth more heavenly? How can we fine tune ourselves to hear the frequency of heavenly song amid the noise of our world? Our prayer might be: “Earth to Heaven, come in, please!”

As a liturgist/musician I participate in nearly every act of worship in the parish. This should make me holy, don’t you think? But it doesn’t seem to be working that way. The liturgy can easily wash over me without my participating in the reality.

Ron Rolheiser writes:  “We participate in Jesus’ sacrifice when we, like him, let ourselves be broken down, when we, like him, become selfless. The Eucharist, as sacrifice, invites us to become like the kernels of wheat that make up the bread. . . broken down and crushed, so that we can become part of communal loaf. . . .”

Am I willing to become crushed wheat? Or is that just a heroic thought that flies away like the chaff at the slightest irritation or affront to my ego? But I can return the next day with the chaff and once again ask to become transformed, to become what I eat—the Body of Christ.

The wind of God, the Holy Spirit, continues to sweep over the face of the earth. After billions of years God’s creativity is as vibrant as ever. God just can’t stop! Day by day our world is becoming more and more “charged with the grandeur of God” (Gerard Manley Hopkins). The grandeur of a mountain range, a supermoon, a monarch butterfly leaves us breathless. Yet such beauty only hints at the unspeakable awe we would feel if we saw the world replete with God. If our eyes could penetrate rock and fur and skin and bark and mud, we could perhaps see the spiritual potential, the receptivity, of created matter to let God reside within—not in any animistic way like primitive religions’ wood gods—but the expectant potency for the fullness of the Incarnation when all plants and animals and humans and galaxies will reach their goal in Christ. That “day” will come “Because the Holy Ghost over the bent/World broods with warm breast and with ah!/ bright wings” (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

How is God in process of giving the Godself to you? How can you give yourself to God?

As a human being, Jesus Christ was as subject to daily tasks as any of us. In the carpenter shop in Nazareth did Jesus wonder about the punishment of Adam and Eve to work, especially the work that is tedious, thankless, mindless and so repetitive that we wonder why we even bother?  (“I’ll need to do it again tomorrow!”)

Day after day we cook meals, wash dishes, make the bed. Season after season we wash windows and weed gardens. How do we respond? With boredom? With creativity? Actually, I appreciate the mindless tasks like cleaning sinks and folding wash and weeding. Though sweating, I feel holy leisure, an hour without care or planning. Meditative minutes when God seems a little closer. I invite God into these moments. “Dear God, I have time for tea. Won’t you sit down?”

“Let us be infected by the holiness of God.”  Pope Francis said this in a general audience in October 2013. With the Ebola epidemic spiraling out of control, the word “infected” takes on more import.  For our spiritual lives, too, the prayerful hope of Pope Francis should also take on more import. Are we infected by the holiness of God, or are we inoculated against God’s holiness by our culture marked by consumerism and individualism? Like so many saints before us, when God’s holiness gets into our bloodstream, we take on symptoms of charity and compassion. Our temperature rises to a new awareness of the rights of others and their need for justice. Unlike disease germs, God’s infection makes us strong, developing our resistance to temptation.

If schools, stores, churches, and other buildings had a banner stating “Always Looking for Great People,” I’d want to go in! I’d be curious about who was inside, the mission statement, procedures for day-to-day operations, visioning, and goals. What if next Sunday every Christian church displayed such a banner?  Would false humility keep you outside? Or would you step inside with compelling humility, confident that you called to greatness, because God “called you by name” saying “You are mine”?

Daily newspapers are telling us that Christians are being persecuted. Threats and acts of terror are now more rampant than in the early days of the Church. For so many, even children, we see the greatness in their saying “yes” when asked at gun-point, “Are you a Christian?”

Today we will not be faced with such a horrific reality, but we can begin to practice being that “great person” to which our Baptism calls us.

A few days ago when I was driving in early morning hours, I noticed something unusual about the moon. The traffic, however, kept my attention on the road, headlights preventing me from seeing much beyond. Later in the day I heard about the lunar eclipse. Had I realized it was an eclipse, I would have stopped the car and watched. I felt bad that I had missed my chance. How many other events and sights in my day should have merited my attention?

During the ceremony when St. Brigid (500 A.D.) was to become an abbess, the bishop accidentally used the prayers for an ordination of a bishop. Back in June a presider at Mass intended to give a Father’s Day blessing, but accidentally turned to a page with a blessing for catechists. Oops!  Psychologists tell us that sometimes what we say accidentally is what we really mean unconsciously. When praying the Office aloud in community, instead of saying, “When I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,” a Sister said, “When I fall down, I lie peacefully asleep.” Now that’s an accident I wouldn’t mind!

            Most people probably don’t put together these two words: nuns and passion.  Is being a passionate nun an oxymoron? I don’t think so. Actually I get frustrated with people who aren’t passionate.  So did Jesus. Remember his line about the lukewarm?

Perhaps you’ve read Good to Great by Jim Collins. Although he’s writing about the best corporations and how they made their leap to greatness, his principles apply to other areas of life. How do we become the best school, the best parish, the best family, the best community, the best Christian, the best anything?

The main way ingredient in the “best” ____ is passionate people.

.Are you passionate about being a Christian? Passionate people can’t wait to give their time and talent to do the things they love best and make them become the best. Passionate Christians deepen their spiritual lives through prayer and Scripture reading, they work to improve themselves, they serve and look for opportunities to share, they spread the Good News, and they’re usually among the kindest and funniest and warmest people you know.

Where do you stand?

The word alone looks like the words all one, and perhaps that’s significant. When I lose who I think I am (my ego, my way of doing things, my way of thinking), then I can more easily become one with all, that is, the universe and all it contains. Ironically this can occur most easily when I am alone.

Use your alone times today to be all one.