Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Ponder
After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon.
Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever,
and they interceded with him about her.
He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her.
She got up immediately and waited on them.
At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him.
He laid his hands on each of them and cured them.
This is the stuff that dreams are made of. I want to be there; indeed, just hearing the stories from afar can change a life. What else is there to do with my wild and precious life? I remember my feelings about Rev. Moon tending that way when I was caught up in the idea that nothing could be better than to follow him.
Here is the Messiah! Jesus let no grass grow under his feet. He moved on from Capernaum to Nazareth and now back to Capernaum, site of many miracles. And everywhere he spoke, preaching to the people and rebuking spirits who sometimes attacked his listeners. Now he heals Simon’s mother and she serves Jesus and his whole crew a meal. Food for the body, food for the soul. Both matter every day.
At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place.
The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him,
they tried to prevent him from leaving them.
But he said to them, “To the other towns also
I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God,
because for this purpose I have been sent.
This powerful healer and preacher does not act alone. He acts because he “must.” He preaches because he has been “sent.” Over and over he tries to help his listeners and those he heals by turning their eyes upward. Don’t look at me, and especially don’t look just at yourselves, feeling sorry for yourselves, indulging what Eckhart Tolle calls your “pain body.” I am sent here to show you how to get out of that pain body and receive the Holy Spirit.
Most of us (and I think including Jesus) feel inadequate to the call, the purpose for which we’ve been sent. Things fall apart regularly. No one listens. I am distracted by my ego, my preoccupation with figuring out my purpose rather than just being here, just being.
Be still, and know that I am God.
Ron Rolheiser considers the verb Luke uses when Jesus’ mother felt overwhelmed. She “pondered these things in her heart.” When we don’t understand and especially can’t change other people, when we don’t even seem to be able to change ourselves, when we feel helpless because we are helpless, we can ponder.
This is consoling to know. We are too hard on ourselves because of our inadequacies. In many of the most intimate and painful situations of our lives we are precisely not able to fix things, be adequate, or redeem the situation. Sometimes there’s nothing to be done.
Instead we can live with the powerlessness, carry the tension, try to transmute it into something else, and wait for a new day. Can this be fruitful? Yes. When the unbearable is borne, space is created for things to be resolved later, by a new circumstance and a new power.
Is this a way to describe why we’re sent, what our purpose is? By “pondering” are we moving toward heaven or just settling down into passivity? I suppose sometimes it’s one and sometimes the other.
Can this be fruitful? Yes. When the unbearable is born, space is created for things to be resolved later, by a new circumstance and a new power. In the meantime, we agree to carry tension, not for its own sake, nor even because the fire of tension can forge a noble soul (though it can), but in order to transmute that tension into something else. Whatever pain we don’t transmute we will transmit. Mary didn’t make that mistake. Neither did Jesus. They pondered. Pondering, bearing the unbearable, is waiting inside of tension in order that our own souls can grow so that we don’t give back hurt for hurt, bitterness for bitterness, hatred for hatred.
Jesus had opportunities to summarize his call, the message he was sent to share. What is the greatest commandment, he is asked. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. But the second is as great as the first. Love your neighbor as yourself.”
On every occasion, refuse revenge. “Do not give back hurt for hurt, bitterness for bitterness, hatred for hatred.” Sit still. Ponder your feelings and the situation. Wait for it. Love your enemy.
This patience is hardly passive; it’s got God’s energy behind it, power far beyond our own. This is the path through emotional or physical pain toward peace, toward heaven. This is the path where I just sit there and keep my mouth shut until God opens my eyes.
Sometimes all we can do is to stand silently, in strength, bearing an unbearable tension, waiting for our hearts to do something our actions can’t, namely, transmute misunderstanding into understanding, confusion into insight, anger into blessing, and hatred into love.
 (Colossians 1, Psalm 52, Luke 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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