When I was in grade school, I had a very patient nun as a teacher, but I was a daydreamer. While she was teaching, I was quite likely to be lost in a book or staring out a window, not really hearing anything she said. At those moments, she would clap her hands in exasperation and say, “Wake up, Maureen!” Even then, I knew that what she really wanted to do was simply shake me awake from my lack of attention and my lack of awareness.
It’s the same image I get from today’s gospel. A very human and practical Jesus points out the obvious to us: black clouds in the sky mean rain. Southern winds mean the weather will turn hot. But I get the feeling he wants to shake us awake saying, “Wake up! Can’t you see who is standing right in front of you speaking to you? It’s me! I have a message of love and freedom and no one is listening!”
Sometimes we are simply oblivious to the miracle of Jesus being in our lives, standing right in front of us. We are too busy and distracted to see it. He wants to grab our attention away from so many things that distract us and he wants to tell us he loves us.
“You see me in the obvious places, like in Church,” he might be saying to us. But during the rest of the week? He wants to strip away the fears that distract us, heal our anger and our grudges. Too often we use our energy and focus to remind ourselves of the people we resent and those who have hurt us or the pain we carry from our earlier lives. What Jesus offers us is a healing, if only we can believe how much we are loved by him.
He wants us to be healed because he wants to send us out into this world to be his representative right now to those who need healing and love. But we can’t be free enough to be sent until we are no longer burdened with the distractions of wishing we had something different in our lives or of wanting what someone else has. He wants to set our hearts on fire with his love and to carry that to each other. But we aren’t able to listen to what he is asking us if we refuse to be healed.
Today’s gospel is clear - we are directed to forgive each other and move on with our lives. If we are caught in the middle of a disagreement, Jesus says to stop and settle it right there. It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong - just settle it. Get that dissension out of the way so we will be able to be sent by him to serve.
Why are we so reluctant? What will it cost us to forgive? What are we willing to do to put down the grudges we hold, the angers and fears and resentments, and ask Jesus for forgiveness for our stubbornness? Only in that place of healing can we see what we have been missing all along - Jesus standing in front of us, holding our face in his hands, telling us how much he loves and needs us.
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
