<p>Pastoral liturgical teaching and social justice moments brought to you by DignityUSA.</p><p>Breath of the Spirit is our electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.</p><div><div class=titan__email-divider><!--break--></div></div><p><em>It is tempting to see God as distant from the world. As if the Divine is to be encountered only when we have completed our stint in creation and get to heaven. But this weeks reflection reminds us the Scriptures see our world as infused with the Divine. Only in the union of Divine Love and creation does our true vocation as disciples emerge.</em></p><p><em><!--break--></em></p><p><strong>July 16 2023: Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A</strong></p><p>Isaiah 55:10-11</p><p>Psalm 65:10 11 12-13 14</p><p>Romans 8:18-23</p><p>Matthew 13:1-23</p><h3><strong>Receiving and Sharing Gods Promise in Creation</strong></h3><p><strong><em>A reflection by John Falcone</em></strong></p><p>The readings for this Sunday speak to me on two different levels there is a message (the strong sense of Gods promise) and a theme (a focus on nature). The more I think about it the more these two levels seem connected.</p><p>Heres a short passage from Jeremiah (not part of our Sunday readings) that captures the message that our readings embody: I know the plans&nbsp;I have for you says God plans to prosper&nbsp;you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future (Jer 29:11).</p><p>This weeks first reading is from Isaiah who uses weather imagery to underline the reliability of Gods promise: just as rain and snow bring forth life and the harvest Gods word will achieve what God has intended. Gods promise to us <em>will</em> be fulfilled.</p><p>In the gospel Jesus uses agricultural imagery to work out a similar message: just like grain thats spread over the furrows Gods word will bear fruit in abundance. Gods word will change us and the worldif we are only fertile ground for its flowering!</p><p>These nature images are solid vital metaphors meant to illustrate Gods trustworthiness and power. But in our second reading the Letter to the Romans Paul portrays nature in a different way. All of creation has been groaning giving birth waiting to be set free (Rom 8:22-23). Paul reaches for a cosmic metaphor to describe what Martin Luther King Jr. once called the arc of the moral universe. According to Paul all of nature has been hurting and struggling; but God is bending it towards justice freedom and life.</p><p>Today the very solidity and vitality of nature is under threat. Headlines proclaim Global Temperatures Break Heat Records. The weather is shifting sometimes gyrating wildly. Watersheds are overexploited. Harvests are falling into jeopardy. We burn more and more oil to transport food from place to place. As prices spike the cost of living makes middle class people anxious while people and families who live on the margins are falling (deeper) into poverty. The systems that sustain us are in trouble. They are groaning waiting for some new way of living (hopefully before we humans make the world too hot for any of us to survive).</p><p>This Climate Emergency touches LGBTQ+ Catholics and our allies very closely. Not only for the obvious reasons (no planet no liberation!); but also because our hope and future prosperity are deeply linked to the struggles of those all around us.</p><p>When I taught Peace and Social Justice to undergrads I loved asking the following question:</p><p>John: Raise your hand if you think this statement is true No one is free until we are all free. (The quote comes from the great civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.)</p><p>Response: 90-100% of the class raised their hand.</p><p>John: OK. Those of you who raised your hand in agreement. WHY is this statement true? WHY are you not free until I am free too?</p><p>Response: [Crickets]</p><p>Fannie Lou Hamer is right of course. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere (MLK Jr.) not just because injustice is morally offensive but because injustice has tentacles that reach across all kinds of lines; that is injustice is never satisfied but always seeks to keep growing. Think of it from a big picture perspective: if theres a persistent problem in one part of the system then the whole system must be out of kilter otherwise that problem could not continue. Injustice is either addressed or it expands. Or consider this from a more personal perspective: if were willing to live with one form of injustice what other injustices are we letting slide? As things go wrong and our neighbors become frightened and ultimately desperate unscrupulous leaders will play on our differences. LGBTQ+ people will become easy targets and our hard-fought victories will start to slip away.</p><p>And yet the readings for this Sunday promise hope even in the face of systemic failure even in the face of this Climate Emergency. Gods word does not return empty-handed. A new way of life can come to birth. The seed that falls on receptive soil will bear copious fruit.</p><p>Hope can rise the promise can come true if we are receptive. Thats what this Sundays gospel reminds us:</p><p>Many have longed to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. But blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear (Mt 13:16-17).</p><p>Gods Word and presence sustains us if we open our eyes and our ears to hear what God is making possible and to see how Love is already acting in the world. And God acts in the most unforeseen ways: the teenaged Greta Thunberg the Black Lives Matter movement young peoples climate activism the witness of the trans community the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and countless other movements and manifestations of a new world that is groaning to be born. The very world through which Gods promises will be fulfilled!</p><p>Lets pray together that we can be more receptive to Jesus our Teacher. Source of all that is good open our eyes ears and hearts. Make us attentive to those who suffer injustice so that we can share the fruits of creation more equitably; make us attentive to the transformative people and choices that you place in our path so that we might live our vocations more fully; make us attentive and compliant to your Word; so that we may more readily recognize your presence in our midst.</p><p><!--break--><!--break--></p><p></p><p><img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/falcone_0.png'>&nbsp;</p><div class=mobile-full><em><strong>John P. Falcone</strong> is a practical theologian religious educator and a practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed (PhD Boston College). He has been a Dignity member for more than 20 years with close links to Dignity NY where he met his husband Matias Wibowo in 2005. He is currently Theologian-in-Residence at St. Matthews Bethnal Green (Church of England) in Londons East End.</em></div><div class=mobile-full></div><div class=mobile-full><!--break--><!--break--></div><div class=mobile-full><em><!--break--></em></div><div><div style=text-align: center; class=titan__email-divider><strong>If you enjoy our Breath of the Spirit reflections please consider making a donation to help support our mission. Thank you!</strong></div></div><p style=text-align: center; class=titan__email-button-container><strong><a class=titan__email-button href=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/track//servlet/DisplayLink?orgId=dignityusa&amp;&amp;&amp;linkId=1563&amp;targetUrl=https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donate target=_blank title=Donate Now>Donate Now</a></strong></p>