Today, we have a real treat as we learn more about Philip, about whom we read earlier: “Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” Although at first, he was skeptical, he responded to the vigor and enthusiasm of Philip and came to meet Jesus. Most people would agree with our assessment that a person who is duplicitous is also said to be “two-faced.” The Apostles were clearly free from this type of deception and went on to give great honor and glory to God and the early Church, which Jesus founded with his death. But what exactly is a two-faced person? It is basically a person who suffers from a lack of self-identity, self-esteem, and integrity. This person is also usually one who fakes compliments to please whomever they meet. In an effort to be accepted by the entire world, a “two-faced” person will socially accommodate anyone in an attempt to be popular and liked by everyone, but then later hurls usually vicious and negative barbs in the safety of the darkness of deceit. But this is totally evil because it lacks truth and sincerity, everything that Jesus is, and invites us to imitate as His followers.
What are some ways we can be imitators of the Apostles who have given their entire lives to follow Jesus and avoid two-faced people and behavior? First, let us practice honesty in every situation and on every level possible. Little lies become medium-sized and on and on. Although in some circles, being honest means being vulnerable, nothing could be further from the truth. Take the opportunity as often as possible during your day to avoid creating white lies or painting another person’s character as much inferior to yours. You would be surprised how honesty and a strong grasp of the truth actually begin to create a climate of trust and shed light on elements that are not truthful and good. If we truly want to live in peace and have peacefully good nights of sleep, it is best to trust Jesus with all judgments and be as real throughout the day as we are in the silence of our hearts. We simply cannot afford to live in the shadows, the darkness, or always in the background, offering petty commentary about people, because it makes us feel secure. Only mold grows in damp, dark crevices.
Leave a comment“Don’t worry about those who talk behind your back; they’re behind you for a reason.” Anonymous
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the Holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.” For those of us who sincerely try to follow Jesus and live by the Gospel, we must be convinced that our behavior shapes our personality and, therefore, all of our moral and otherwise important decisions in life. The Scriptures clearly show the track record of those who have abandoned their own set of values and goals toward Heaven, and those who never gave up, even though it was tough at times to stay focused and faithful. It is all about balance and humility. Jesus wants us all in Heaven, and every day we are either moving closer or further away from this awesome destiny of ours.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from Heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.” As we prepare to begin another day, let us carry Jesus deep within our souls so that we do or say nothing that would displease him. A stiff neck is not pleasant, neither on the body nor on the soul. To be stubborn when it comes to growing closer to God and surrendering our pride is not a virtue. This is the challenge and fruit of being loving people who love God and our neighbor. Be determined, not stubborn. Determination is positive, feels light, and will take us far with the grace of God. It is a willingness to change as needed and always keeping an open mind. Stubbornness is a heavy feeling and a refusal to budge. A negative, closed mind can never reflect the face and attitude of Christ. It is truly an exciting adventure.
Realize who you truly are in the presence of God. Do not be inflated or arrogant today. Accept your life as it is today and ask God first for the wisdom to know what to change and then the courage to start on this exciting project of transformation.
Leave a comment“A Christian is not a person who believes in his head the teachings of the Bible. Satan believes in his head the teachings of the Bible! A Christian is a person who has died with Christ, whose stiff neck has been broken, whose brazen forehead has been shattered, whose stony heart has been crushed, whose pride has been slain, and whose life is now mastered by Jesus Christ.” John Piper
A very wise man once attempted to comfort a younger apprentice who seemed to have been the target of several slimy and vicious remarks from a coworker by stating the following: “Whatever is ever said to you is never more important than the one who said it.” Now just think about that bit of advice for just a minute, and then consider the passages with which we have been gifted today in the Scriptures: “Though princes meet and talk against me, your servant meditates on your statutes. Yes, your decrees are my delight; they are my counselors.” Do we ever truly realize how many words and phrases are spoken to us in the course of any given day? Some are surely good and others not so. We received a glimpse of this in the First Reading in the ugliness hurled at Stephen: “We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” What we can safely conclude from these two Biblical selections is that all of us throughout the entire span of human experience have to decide quickly and wisely what we will allow to settle, grow, and/or fester into our ears and hearts and minds.
With that in mind, the Gospel screams for attention to the only voice that we can truly trust 100% of the time and in every situation before us: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.'” Let us call out to one another and challenge each other to pay even more attention to the words of Jesus uttered in the Scriptures for us, especially in the coming week, believing that it is not only important to see who is talking but also what He is saying.
Leave a comment“Somewhere we know that without silence, words lose their meaning, that without listening, speaking no longer heals, that without distance, closeness cannot cure.” Henri Nouwen
“But they urged him, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.'” It is very likely that more than a handful of us have had those glowing, wonderful memories, either nestled in our childhood or perhaps when we first fell in love or achieved that first remarkable landmark in our lives that the experience caused us to say and think and even shout, “I don’t want this to end!” This paints and points to the marvelous richness of life that makes every problem, headache, and heartache seem so very tiny that it may even cause us to forget the tears and only recognize the joy that surrounds us. These, my friends, are “Easter-moments” and they must be guarded and safely kept all throughout our lives, no matter how long we have on this planet. It is these that help us remember the sun when it’s raining, the laughter when we are weeping, and our heart beating of love when we think it has stopped because it has been broken and shattered.
“Therefore, my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence; because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.” You see, all of Lent showed us the path of self-denial and reflection, while Holy Week showed us all how far the Lord Jesus would take His message and reveal the depths of His love. This is what causes wounded hearts to sing, crushed dreams to reanimate and lost hope renewed into something not ever before imagined.
“Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us; make our hearts burn while you speak to us.” What we ask diligently in this new installment of the newly gifted Easter Season is nothing short or long of a changed way of looking at life. If we accept the way things “just are,” we will have fallen for the temptation to cuddle up with mediocrity and meaningless moments, a destiny no one could possibly actually want! Jesus has done everything in His power to bring about newness and have our hearts burn with the desire to thrive and not just survive. Open the Scriptures today. Let the Lord speak to you openly and lovingly. We cannot let this end!
Leave a comment“Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” Helen Keller
“When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.” In today’s Gospel, we have all been gifted with one of the more famous and breathtaking moments in all of the Scriptures, at least in the top ten! Try to imagine the scene where hurricane-force gale winds are blowing mercilessly against a tiny boat while the crashing sounds of the thunder in the distance are only rivaled by the crashing of the waves. The drama unfolds in three distinct phases: first, there’s a horrible storm that scares everyone on board; second, they see Jesus walking over the storm, literally, thinking He is a ghost; third, Jesus utters the most iconic words of comfort born from faith, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” and then calms everyone’s storm. This process is the quintessential outline and summary of our spiritual lives! We face our storms of doubt, we call upon Jesus, He makes His loving presence known and empowers us to believe, then we doubt again, and the cycle starts all over again, but each time it does, we are actually closer and closer to Jesus, who never leaves our ship of life.
This episode raises the age-long question that has faced every Christian since Jesus first walked the earth: why do we doubt, and how do we deal with this very human and expected experience? First, doubt is a natural process of every intellectual and moral process. It is almost necessary because it is a way of strengthening our ideals and beliefs, but it must never overtake the very treasure we are trying to discover. We must realize that doubt is part of the natural growing pains of faith and having said that, it is also a mystery. No one human being could ever totally grasp the fullness of who God is, so understandably, there will be gaps due to our limitations. But when our doubts are overcome by our faith, great things happen: “The word of God continued to spread, and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly; even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” ” Gaps do not make for abandoning Jesus, or why we are here on this planet. Perhaps the greatest spiritual gift we need when confronted with doubt is humility. Humility reminds us that faith is a powerful gift that must be opened slowly and without pretense. This is precisely how we run to Jesus through every storm we encounter on the water and everywhere else.
Leave a comment“Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” Brene Brown
“One thing I seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord.” When we realize all that we have been through these past few months, how can we not see the great blessings in each and every day? What kind of power or force are we blindly following to make a day, an hour, or even a single minute blessed or cursed? “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear? The LORD is my life’s refuge; of whom should I be afraid?” Doubt and pessimism in all its forms are useless and truly squander time and energy. The Pharisee Gamaliel made a very poignant observation that could help our understanding of this: “For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them.” What makes today blessed, fortunate, and awesome has nothing to do with some outside uncontrollable force over which we have no power, but on one simple fact: Jesus died for us sinners, and now we have a shot at eternal life.
“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.” We have all been blessed by the complete and selfless act of self-sacrifice that Jesus accomplished on the cross. By His blood, we have been washed and made clean, and we can and should avail ourselves of all the promised blessings every single day we are alive. Shallow people believe in luck; strong people believe in cause and effect; blessed, healthy, and happy people believe in Jesus.
Leave a comment“Gratitude is the healthiest of all human emotions. The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more likely you will have even more to express gratitude for.” Zig Ziglar
On this beautiful Thursday, we are presented in the First Reading with a dramatic and very telling dialogue that makes perfect sense for all of us who are attempting to follow the light of Christ all throughout the days we have been given on this planet. First, the Sanhedrin, clearly angry and disgusted with the Apostles, began this exchange: “We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name.” What is curious about this inflammatory statement is that it seems the high court is more upset about the name of Jesus than over the fact the Apostles are still alive and being received with great respect for themselves. It is all about the name! Invoking someone’s name like this announces not only a closeness and reverence for the person who bears the name but also the willingness to follow, emphasize, and share this relationship with everyone in one’s own circle of influence, with, in fact, the whole world. The Apostles made this crystal clear in their quick and concise response to the Sanhedrin: “We must obey God rather than men.”
Many years ago, I saw a short film which basically told an imaginary story that at the heart of it, asked this question: “If it were a crime to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” With today’s Readings still echoing in our hearts, we could ask the same question of ourselves. The answer would have to rest on the amount of time, energy, and vigor that we place in following Christ and believing everything He taught and said He would do for us, especially on our last day on earth. Everything depends on this powerful relationship, which Jesus would prefer to call a “friendship” because it is truly based on love and forgiveness. So, what’s in a name? Everything.
Leave a comment“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare
“There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.” Billy Sunday
“But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” So much of our planet needs light in order to grow and survive. Conversely, things like mold and mildew flourish in the darkness and cause a whole slew of problems ranging all across the board. Amazingly, today we are instructed that the same values and standards apply to our spiritual life, our relationship with God, our present-day happiness, and our future fulfillment. When we expose our lives to the light of Jesus in our prayer and our honest assessment of our conscience, we can expect great things to happen and to experience great peace of mind and heart. Guilt does an incredible amount of damage to the human soul, and we are the only ones who can make a difference by choosing to be transparent, honest, and truthful, especially in our dealings with one another.
“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.” This kind of living is not difficult or complicated. It will involve a deeply open, honest, and loving relationship with Jesus Christ, which is nourished by prayer and sacrifice and a strong desire to spend more and more time with Him in this busy and frenetic life of ours. Perhaps the great gift of our imagination can be a service to us with all this in mind. Let us imagine Jesus sitting right next to us when we are perplexed by anything. Can you see yourself slightly turning toward Him, asking for advice? Can you hear Him gently whispering to you? So what are you waiting for?
Leave a comment“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
“You must be born from above.” There are not many more phrases in Sacred Scripture than this one that has been interpreted and re-interpreted, applied and reapplied, both accurately and otherwise, than this one that we find at the beginning of the Gospel of today. How does one understand being reborn or born again? Perhaps there are some clues in the other sections of the Scriptures we have today. We could point first to the generous spirit that has experienced the joy of the Resurrection: “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” Then there is the powerful witness that we can give to the Lord as did the Apostles: “With great power, the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.” And finally, we can be born again by the sheer and deep confidence we place in God: “Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed: holiness befits your house, O LORD, for length of days.”
However, the most profound path to rebirth in the power of the Resurrection is simply to gaze upon the Crucified Christ, unite our sufferings with His and hope for all our days in His power to save and the promise that is ours to be saved: “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” We must slow down in order to catch up, pause in order to soar, and reflect in order to learn. This we can do with the Lord Jesus right at our side, guiding, if we allow Him, every step of the way with the Scriptures as our friend. This is the Easter joy we so desperately seek.
Leave a comment“God proved His love on the Cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, “I love you.” Billy Graham
“Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man once grown old be born again?” Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin assembly who is particularly known for visiting Jesus at night. He couldn’t risk being seen with the Lord during the day because, well, he couldn’t be caught dead speaking with the “rabble-rouser.” Part of him really wanted to know and learn and actually spend time with someone he deeply admired, but the pressure of public and private opinions came at too high a price, so it was better to be covered safely by the dead of night than to be associated with such a man in bright sunlight. Time was to eventually change all this and bring both men into each other’s company in a most dramatic and memorable way. This is precisely what it means to have a life-changing encounter with the Lord that changes things forever. This is that new conversion and being born again that is so wanting and needed in our world and Church today.
“As they prayed, the place where they were gathered shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Our deep and lasting call during the Easter Season and in fact, throughout the rest of our lives, is to live our faith in such a way that is indeed bold, makes a huge difference, and causes us to interpret and face all the crosses of life with deep courage and resilience. All because Jesus lives within me, and greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world.
Leave a comment“Receive every day as a resurrection from death, as a new enjoyment of life; meet every rising sun with such sentiments of God’s goodness, as if you had seen it, and all things, new-created upon your account and under the sense of so great a blessing. Let your joyful heart praise and magnify so a good and glorious a Creator.” William Law
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” On this Second Sunday of the glorious Easter Season, we are presented as we are every year, with this insight into human behavior as it relates to doubt and confidence, and how the normal process of knowing and believing either feeds or starves our doubts. Our main character in this lesson is the Apostle Thomas, who, by most accounts, has been unfortunately dubbed with the nickname “doubting Thomas” although it hardly describes adequately his whole life, which in the end he gave completely to Christ in martyrdom. However, his painful doubts teach us something very real about our faith. You see, perhaps St. Thomas was so used to seeing Jesus right in front of him, talking and teaching on a daily basis, so that when all of a sudden He was taken away, he refused to believe and get his hopes up and over what he considered a “reasonable” doubt. “You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord; blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe!”
“Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.” Doubt has the potential of strengthening our faith and hope, but not if we entertain too much of it and then surround ourselves with people who neither have faith nor hope, which, according to the last survey, are growing in number and kind. In the Gospel, the very opposite was true. Faith spread like wildfire, and the miracles in life began to increase exponentially. This is where a healthy prayer life, a daily dose of Scripture, and adherence to the Eucharist make all the difference in this world and the next. Starve your doubts and feed your faith.
Leave a comment“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene IV
“Observing the boldness of Peter and John and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men, the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed, and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.” Among the nuances in the dictionary world, there seems to be consistent agreement when it comes to the definition of boldness: a willingness to take risks and act with innovation, confidence, or courage. This would certainly more than adequately describe Peter and John and all those who experienced the first Easter. There are those who believe that the real challenge in life is to overcome the fear that tends to overwhelm and inhibit real, healthy living. For this level of life, we all truly need the virtues that come from the side of the Resurrected Christ. He is the source of all we need to make our way through the hills and valleys of the swinging moods and seasons of our journey: “My strength and my courage is the LORD, and he has been my savior.”
The Gospel for this beautiful Easter Saturday reveals the real purpose and mission of this boldness that is bestowed on all believers at Easter: “He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.'” Now, the bulk of us reading this today are not being placed on the next flight into a war-torn area on the planet, nor are we walking into any real danger as so many who have died for the faith. However, we are being sent. Where? We are placed on this earth for a very specific and awesome purpose. That purpose is all about what happened on that first Easter morning, about life and death and all the elements that form the fabric of existence. Think about all the things you said to others today. Were you bold?
Leave a comment“People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you’ve figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness, and confidence. Don’t be shy or feel intimidated by the experience. You may face some unexpected criticism, but be prepared for it with confidence.” Jack Canfield
Sometimes a great and significant event in life, while answering some very perplexing worries and anxieties, also produces another level of questions that have the potential of taking us to a new and deeper level of living. There is a hint of that aspect of life nudged within the confines of the Psalm today: “The LORD is God, and he has given us light.” The touching scene in the Gospel also supports this approach when Jesus, already risen from the dead, invites his Apostles and closest friends He had on earth to go deeper: “So he said to them, ‘Cast the net over the right side of the boat , and you will find something.'” Indeed, they did find something. It was the living, breathing, loving Church that Jesus had died to start and give to the world.
“There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” Like so much of the accumulated wisdom that has been gathered over the centuries over such an amazing span of time, what is real and holy and immersed in truth is usually quite simple. It is the name of Jesus that has the power to save, producing a true and abiding adherence to Him personally and to all, He has taught and given to us, even today. This is what we search for here on earth. This is what brings us peace. This is yet another wonderful fruit of Easter. Tonight, before retiring from the day, go fishing: call out His name, then listen.
Leave a comment“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” Henry David Thoreau
“Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.” Take special note of what just happened in the Gospel. The Apostles are talking about life, suffering, God, and the Messiah, then Jesus appears to bless peace to everyone, and yet, their first interpretation of the event is that they are witnessing an episode from the SyFy Channel. The problem here is simple to see, while the remedy is close by. Jesus first asks why there are troubled hearts. Right after that remark, He tenderly instructs the only way to combat fear and doubt: “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” What we must see today is that unreasonable and irrational fear can only successfully be combated by reverting back to the entire mystery of Easter, which is the awesome Truth that Jesus has not only defeated death but also all the forces of evil and darkness. He is on our side. We start to shake and quiver when we forget this wonderful Truth.
The First Reading also recognizes that, as human beings still affected by the vestiges of Original Sin, we make mistakes for many different reasons and faulty mindsets. St. Peter was certainly magnanimous in his own personal assessment of this predicament of ours: “Now I know, brothers and sisters, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did,” and then later in that same reading: “For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.” Easter brings light and clarity to our minds because it reveals that the massive, archetypal, and age-old battle between good and evil has already been won. We are now offered the chance to share in that victory, should we choose to do so, with the freedom and wisdom that has been purchased for us by the blood of the Lamb. Remember during this glorious Easter Season that earth’s worst day and best day were just one day apart.
Leave a comment“In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.” Laurie Halse Anderson
“I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” How many times have any of us heard something like, “I would give a million dollars to see my father again!”? What that emotional phrase (and many like it) screams to connect is simple. What is precious to the world is not necessarily precious to my soul. After forty grueling days of Lent, we can begin to see what truly has value and supreme importance, as was described in our First Reading today. The totally transformed disciples of Jesus now have in their circle of life the most wonderful and awesome of all gifts: the name of Jesus and the faith that supports a life that can have deep meaning, healing, and eternal consequences.
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” The answer to this surprising revelation of the two travelers who were actually walking with the Lord and even breaking bread with Him is simple: Yes, they were! And the best news for you and me today is that they can still continue to burn if we allow them to. This will come from thanking God for the rich blessings and lessons of Lent, asking Him to guide and direct us today, especially in the ongoing effort to change, transform, and become forgiving people, no matter what is happening around us. Remember, Jesus does not want us to be like other people. He wants us to be like Him. This is so much better than silver or gold.
Leave a comment“To holy people, the very name of Jesus is a name to feed upon, a name to transport. His name can raise the dead and transfigure and beautify the living.” John Henry Cardinal Newman
“Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.” The blood of the martyrdom/witness of St. Stephen brings a considerable amount of sobriety to the joy of the Easter Season, but it is remarkably necessary. The gift of Easter has everything to do with where we hope to end our earthly pilgrimage because of the great gift of the Resurrection. We want to go to Heaven after a good and solid life to witness the real joy and meaning of this great time. We want to have enough happiness and peace in our hearts to say at the end of it all, “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.'” The Resurrection of Christ also brings forth the spiritual nourishment we need to make it to Heaven and find our way in this life by imitating the hope that is ours and for a much better life. He is the Bread of Life that feeds and cares for our needs. Thus, we could say that in our Spiritual Easter basket this year, we will find forgiveness, hope, strength, and courage to face whatever awaits us.
Leave a comment“The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies. It is the only time of year when it is safe to put all your eggs in one basket.” Kate McGahan
“And they said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?'” With all the wonderful talk and mention of the glorious Resurrection of Jesus at this great time of Easter, there will no doubt be the recollection of the state from which our resurrected bodies will join the Heavenly faithful and crowds of immense joy, which, by definition, is death. In some parts of the world, many flock to the cemetery to place Easter flowers, mostly lilies, which mimic the blare of trumpets of the season at the tombs of those who did not live to see this particular Easter and perhaps those who have long been absent from the table. And because of the humanity we share and the tender hearts that beat within many brave souls, there will be tears today. This is why we need the witness of Mary Magdalene today to bring everything into sharp and hopeful focus: “She said to them, ‘They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.'”
Like Mary Magdalene, many of our crosses and sufferings that produce crisis phases momentarily in our souls stem from the not-so-obvious fact that we may be looking for God’s comfort and consolation in the places that could never provide them. Once again, Mary pointed us in the right direction: “Mary went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord,’ and then reported what he had told her.” Excited or mournful, the only true way to celebrate the Easter Season, officially fifty days of commemoration, after the forty days of fasting and penance, is to look for Christ and find him in everyday life, and then tell others that you have seen Him. Life can not possibly ever be the same.
Leave a comment“Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.” Emily Dickinson
Every so often, we or someone we know has the experience of waking up from a terrible dream, nearly paralyzed with fear, and even at times unable to speak or move. Likewise, we may have most likely heard well-intentioned people attempt to explain these terrifying moments as attributed to stress or worry over circumstances in our lives. Be that as it may, we must face the glaring fact that life can and often does hurl directly at us episodes of challenge, difficulty and internal and external struggles that can be frightening and cause us to respond like we do in those terrible dreams. For some others, even more unfortunately, there seems to be no rest from these terrors. Life itself seems to be a nightmare with no end. For such as these, the gift of Easter is so precious. Imagine holding Jesus tight and close to us so as to never have to be afraid again. The Scriptures today assure us that we can. “God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.”
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.'” Another rich and exciting element of the newly begun Easter Season is the call to engage the spirit of the time with all we meet. We must tell others why we are Easter people and why we must keep singing and remembering that there is always hope in every single situation, no matter how dark it may seem. Let us begin on this first Monday of Easter. Continue to tell all you meet of the hope we celebrate by keep saying “Happy Easter” with a great big ol’ smile on your face. Tell them all, “Jesus sent me.”
Leave a comment“The great gift of Easter is hope – Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake.” Basil Hume
“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.” At this wonderful culmination of these days of Lenting and detachment, we have come to the morning of our dreams. God has accomplished the victory He promised for us, and we are glad indeed. Death has been destroyed forever, and now the gates of Heaven, once closed because of selfishness and sins, are open for all humanity to enter with integrity and hope. It was on the “first day of the week” that this glory was discovered because it is the beginning of all our expectations every time we awaken in the morning. Thus, every beginning we have before us is the glimmer of the bright promise of tomorrow. Mary of Magdala was alone in approaching the burial place of the dead. This detail reminds us that each of us must face this truth on the path that we choose and envision, enlightened by the Church and the Word of God. Then, we join the millions who experience the same longing fulfilled and relieved even in the face of death. Although she did not actually see the moment of Resurrection, (she) “saw the stone removed from the tomb,” Mary knew what the scene meant: death had been conquered, and Jesus is alive. This is assuredly our call for today and every day on this planet. We must look for, find, and cling mercifully to the wonders of our lives, which all point to the miraculous endings of all our stories nestled wonderfully in the heart of Jesus the Messiah, who has risen from the dead.
Perhaps the most telling and soothing detail of John’s Easter Gospel today is this tender yet poignant morsel: “while it was still dark.” How often do our lives take swings and turns into chapters that we would never have imagined! How often have we found ourselves “in the dark” as well? And yet, whatever joy and happiness we may feel today must be kept safe and sound deep within the recesses of our hearts so that when we find that it is still dark, we must continue to make our way to the Lord with all the hope and faith that we can muster and share.“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”(St. John Paul II)
On behalf of all those who make CityOfAgape, its mission, and its hope to bring the Word of God to everyone hungering for meaning and purpose in this life, please accept our heartfelt wishes for a happy, holy, and beautiful Easter! “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”
Leave a commentFor those among us who are blessed to attend the Easter Vigil tonight, we will have encountered and entered a most wonderful mystery that the Church has to offer as a way of truly making the Easter experience the great moment it truly is. What we do tonight is nothing more than waiting at the Lord’s tomb, meditating on His passion and death, and awaiting His glorious Resurrection with prayer and fasting. When we think about it, we spend a great part of our lives waiting for everything from simple, mundane things like traffic lights and parking spaces to remarkably awesome milestones in life like the announcement of a new baby, job, or the tragic news we have all been waiting for. A vigil is the liturgical commemoration of a notable feast, held on the evening preceding the feast, much like Christmas Eve. The actual term means “wakefulness” because we stay awake to pray and prepare for the dawn of Easter and, by extension, for the individual experiences we will have of our own death and resurrection and of those we love and cherish in this world. For our purposes here, let us take a look at the diagram of Liturgical Readings for tonight and follow them in our journey toward the empty tomb:
Reading 1: Genesis-God creates with His Word and Holy Spirit over the waters
Reading 2: Genesis-God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son.
Reading 3: Exodus-Moses parts the Red Sea and leads his people out of slavery through the waters
Reading 4: Isaiah-The prophet reminds us of the safe passage of Noah through the waters
Reading 5: Isaiah-The prophet invites all to come to the waters
Reading 6: Baruch-The prophet issues a pledge of wisdom and a return to God
Reading 7: Ezekiel-The people of God will be cleansed by water and live in God’s land
Epistle: Baptism through water and the Holy Spirit is our way to union with God and the promise of Heaven
Gospel: The tomb is empty; God did not spare His own Son, and thus Jesus has defeated death forever
You see, Easter is about the continuing cycle of life, death, life in an amazingly complicated and mysterious pattern that underscores and straps all reality together. This means so much to our human race, and yet different takes and aspects based on the conditions and lived experiences of everyone alive. But one thing is certain. Everyone dies; not everyone lives. Let us live in the light of Christ this night and always.
Leave a comment†Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, Love leaves a memory no one can steal. —from a headstone in Ireland
Today is Good Friday. Why do we call it “good?” This is the FIRST day of what the Church has long in her Sacred history called the Triduum. These are the three glorious days that end Lent, enter the tomb of Jesus, and rise with Him at Easter. It could be said that we call this “good” because although everyone wears a mask of sorts as we present to the world the person we want others to see, today we remember the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus so that you and I can reach true spiritual maturity which is that point where a person no longer hides behind any pretense, removes the mask of deceit and fear, exchanges the fashion statement for integrity and truly begins to live a holy life. Every year on Good Friday, when this day arrives, it is certainly different for each one of us. It’s always different because either someone has died in the last year, a friend has become ill or incapacitated, another year has passed from the time we lost a dear loved one, and we ourselves have lived another year, presumably, one year closer to our own death.
This is why the Scripture passages and the yearly reading of the Passion we have for Good Friday are simply priceless. We came from God, and slowly but surely, we are moving back to him, face to face, to give whatever account we have of how we used these precious pearls of time while we were alive. I guess that’s why there are some who can’t (or won’t) deal with death. The message and experience must be too much, too overwhelming. I have also known people who have downright rejected God with a kind of indignation and misplaced anger for “having taken my loved one away.” That’s actually more tragic than death itself because there is absolutely no way you can arrive at a spiritual and mental place of peace and comfort— or even effectively through the grieving process —without the One who defeated death on the cross. Grief is the price we pay for loving, and the less we think that getting through this life without love is some kind of viable option, when you really think about it, it is indeed a fair price.
The readings from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Psalm 31, the Letter to the Hebrews, and the Passion according to St. John all clearly and effectively underscore that truth. God is in control. He sent His Son Jesus to take away the eternal price of our sins, and Jesus gave us the Church so that through the centuries of time and space, we would remain together in hope and prayer until the day comes for us.
May the Divine Assistance remain always with us, and may the souls of all the faithful departed, through your mercy, O God, Rest in Peace. Amen
Leave a comment“Because I could not stop for death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.” Emily Dickinson
Although it is not plausible to debate that eating is essential to our survival, that it is deeply symbolic, and that it is enjoyed across the board by every known culture on the planet, we can and should open the debate lines concerning how we have lost the meaning of meals and richness of gathering to feast, especially in our modern times. For example, it appears that breakfast is often a shake of everything from protein, fruits, or a soda with ice, lunch a sandwich gobbled in front of the computer, and dinner, when hurriedly arranged or just accidentally falling into place, is quickly consumed, usually in front of the television blaring or everyone with their phones checking Facebook posts and or texts. Even though we see commercials to the contrary and movies and listen to heartfelt pitches to act otherwise, we still continue with this rapid feeding frenzy. Perhaps it is because eating like this satisfies some basic needs, as it fuels our bodies. But being fed is not the same as being nourished. This is how and why we must understand the great significance of Holy Thursday when Jesus the Christ uttered those immortal words that have since been repeated over the centuries and the great span of time: “This is my body…this is my blood…do this in memory of me.” Our First Reading begins to set the stage for this deeper awareness of the simplicity of eating: “This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution.” Our lives have been bought and purchased, and at an amazing cost! None of us are here “by accident.” We each have a deep and enriching purpose which we must find, and for that journey must be fed: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”
While thought-out mealtime practices and rituals can draw us into a state of increased awareness, our appreciation for the Eucharist can give sight to the vision we need to focus on the things that really matter in this life and to get home safe to Heaven when it is all said and done. Jesus does so much more this night as well. He teaches us that not only do we take meaningful time when we sit and share food, but also take every opportunity and chance to serve, even to the point of washing each other’s feet. “I have given you a model to follow so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” Today, especially on this day, we need to remember what the initial impression of this passage made on the first-century audience: even art and literary works have somewhat romanticized this event, but it was not really beautiful to them. It was not even humbling; it was actually humiliating. You see, to wash another’s feet was a dirty job reserved for slaves. Today, this action would be tantamount to going to someone’s house to clean their bathroom, including the toilet. Maybe caregivers who have to clean and wash and witness the worst in a person’s life are closest to the real meaning of this marvelous gesture. As Jesus feeds us with His very Body and Blood, He is assuring us that He is showing us and expecting us to be the least among us. It is easy to do great things for those we love. What about doing the hard things for those we don’t even know, or even better, know that will never be able or willing to say thank you. This is selfless, and it is what this night is all about: empty yourself as Jesus did, so where He has gone, we can follow.
Leave a comment“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Imagine the pain of a person when they realize they have wounded and perhaps forever severed the most wonderful and awesome relationship that they will ever encounter. Now compound this upon the world stage of history, and we may have something close to the experience of Judas, the man who betrayed the Son of God. “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” His name has become synonymous with any notorious traitor, even to this very day. In addition to this remarkable infamy, there has developed a popular hatred of Judas in various parts of Christendom. On the Greek island of Corfu, for example, the people at a given signal on Holy Saturday night throw vast quantities of crockery from their windows and roofs into the streets and thus execute an imaginary stoning of Judas.
However interesting, the painful truth for us to face in this midway of Holy Week is the potential for each of us to betray love itself in our own lives. This comes when we allow selfishness and hate to brood within us so that we do not even realize the pain and misery we are inflicting upon others and, by extension, to our very souls. What happens is that we become so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that in the end, we become disguised to ourselves. Perhaps the pains and disappointments of life create hurt and deep wounds beyond our imagination. The paradox of this week, deeply entwined with the whole teaching of Jesus the Christ, is simple in many ways. If we love until it hurts, then there can be no more hurt, just more love to give. (St. Teresa of Calcutta) It is then, and only then, can we shout and sing with the most joyous voice we have, joining the refrain of today’s Psalm: “I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving: ‘See, you lowly ones, and be glad; you who seek God, may your hearts revive! For the LORD hears the poor, and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”
Leave a comment“The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever.” Carroll Bryant
George Bernard Shaw is credited with saying that the “single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” While there are many different explanations and approaches to explain and or further expand on this thought, for today, let us consider what Jesus has done for us and how we respond based on what we have, the dramatic unfolding of events in the Gospel as we move through Holy Week this year. First, we begin with the explosive observation that Jesus makes to His closest friends that one of them is about to betray Him and send Him to death: “Reclining at the table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Each Apostle in the upper room took the phrase in a different light. One or two began to blame themselves. Perhaps a few couldn’t or wouldn’t believe what they just heard. Peter impulsively sprang to action and pledged undying loyalty and protection, while Judas knew exactly who the Lord was talking about.
“Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly spent my strength, Yet my reward is with the LORD, my recompense is with my God.” On this Tuesday in Holy Week, we are called to pay even closer attention to what is being said to each of us as it may relate to our individual circumstances, especially in our spiritual lives. When you hear, “one of you is about to betray me,” what comes to mind? Is there any evidence whatsoever that would or could suggest betrayal in our lives? The next pertinent question would then be, to whom or what? To God? Our spouse? Our family and friends? The reality is simple during this very holy time: everything that is uttered and celebrated has deep meaning and significance and must be addressed with courage and fidelity. We must make this week different by what we do with it. Now, lift that up in prayer and wait patiently for the inspiration that will come, guaranteed!
Leave a comment“Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them – we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed, and rare.” Brené Brown
“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” This particular and perhaps familiar Gospel passage has been quoted and misquoted, applied, and misapplied by so many over the centuries, literally ever since it was first transcribed. This, among many other factors, is exactly why it is simply not enough to know what the Bible says, but what it means. You see, at first glance, the phrase about always having the poor seems almost fatalistic, as if to suggest that there is really no use to address the issue of poverty because we will never rid our society from it, but that is so far from the meaning. Jesus was actually quoting another well-known Biblical passage from Deuteronomy which sets the context of the poor and our response in a very different context: “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be … For the poor, you will always have with you in the land. Therefore, I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) . Thus, realistically and with the greatest of authentic interpretation, the Lord Jesus is enthusiastically begging us to be “open-handed” toward the poor among us. Holy Week begins for most of us with this deep and emotional call to be aware of those who suffer in our own circles, perhaps right in front of us, and to respond quickly, deeply, and readily.
In this most awesome week, we must see our own roles to feed the hungry and lift up the poor among us. In the New Testament humble beginnings of the Church, there were no needy persons among them. Everyone shared and cared for each other. Poverty, even as we can describe it today, was eradicated in their midst. That was the natural outcome of taking Jesus’ teachings seriously and to heart. Just imagine that for a moment: a world where all are free to love and serve! This is not some nimble-headed utopia but the goal of being a follower of Christ right here, right now. The fulfillment of Lent, Holy Week, and all that Jesus taught and lived and died for is now about to be realized and celebrated. Spend today reflecting on those in your own homes and friendships who really need you. Pray for all those who are unhappy in this life and beg Jesus to live deeply within them and in you. He has the ultimate endorsement from Heaven: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, Upon whom I have put my Spirit.”
Leave a comment“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” Saint Augustine
Among several cultures on our planet, there exists a delightful little story about a young donkey and his mother, who was trying desperately to prepare her young son for the ravages and cruelty of the world, which typically never treated these animals with much respect. Coming home, however, one day, the young animal was full of excitement and unbelievable joy. He had a small job earlier that morning, and everyone was shouting with respect and joy and even throwing palm branches in front of him so that the walk on the hard surface would be less strenuous. “They love us, Mama!” he shouted with almost unbelief. “They now respect us! We are free!” His kind mother looked with love upon her somewhat idealistic son and simply said, “We are free as long as we carry greatness upon our backs.” “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.” (Opening Gospel Before Procession with Palms)
Today, we celebrate Palm Sunday while ushering in the great mystery of Holy Week when we commemorate Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey with gleeful and exuberant shouts of “Hosanna.” It was, however. a short-lived moment of public popularity for Jesus. In just a few days, the feckless crowds would become violent and hostile, crying out for His execution. The donkey would be traded for a cross. By the end of the week on Good Friday, the burden-bearer would be Jesus Himself, and a donkey would not be carrying Christ – Christ would be carrying the cross. He would not be astride the back of a donkey’s back, but rather a cruel, albeit, redemptive cross would be crushing upon His back! So let us begin and let us pray:
All-powerful, eternal God, You have chosen to give us all a model of humility; our Savior took on our flesh and subjected Himself to the Cross. Grant us the grace to preserve faithfully the lessons He has given us in His Passion and to have a share in His Resurrection. Amen.
Leave a comment“My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people .” There are certainly days in the life of every Christian when life feels particularly hard and burdensome. Unfortunately for some more than others, these last a little longer. We wonder where God is or why He seems to have abandoned us. This kind of test is very difficult because it is dark. That is why we must remember the promise that was made to us sealed by the blood of the lamb in the Old Testament and the blood of Jesus (Lamb of God) in the New. This is what we know as Passover.
“Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.” In many ways, some of the toughest tests we will ever have to endure in this life are practically impossible to pass —on our own. This is precisely why God the Father rescued the Chosen People, preparing the way for the magnificent redemptive act of the suffering, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. When we fully grasp and incorporate what Jesus did for me on a universal level and spend my life working to make that real in every instance and circumstance in my personal life, we will find such peace and clarity that we would or could never be the same again.
Leave a comment“Freedom is within our grasp, and Passover reminds us that we need to reach.” Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
“In my distress, I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.” In some dictionary excerpts, distress is defined as extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain. Human life encounters distress all throughout the experience that we engage while on earth, and the Lord knows that we must be ready and fully equipped to face whatever we must to grow and become a new creation in Christ. In fact, in a very poignant and real way, it is truly the only way we will become transformed into that new existence.
“Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” There are, however, not a small number of people who do not accept the call of grace to see things in life with the eyes of faith and then, in turn, blame God for every ill and problem under the sun. Because of spiritual blindness and a faithless approach to reality, they seem to actually attack God as Jesus was in the Gospel today. Our stance, especially throughout these days of Lenten Journey, must be entirely different: “Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!” Imagine singing to God when life is hard and burdensome. Yet, that is exactly the remedy!
Leave a comment“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” Paulo Coelho
“On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.” If there is such a thing as a science of belonging, it would most certainly have to include behavior as an essential element of what it means to be part of something much larger than life itself. Today in the Scriptures, this belonging has to do with the Family of God in faith and acting in certain modes of belief that cause an entire group of people to stand apart from the rest. This is what is actually meant by “holy.” This is precisely where our modern-day understanding and practice of fasting and other Lenten practices have originated, especially the actual marking of ashes on the forehead. This clearly sets us apart as a group of people with the same or similar mindset and definitely the same goal: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
“No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations.” Such an acceptance of so universal an invitation makes a definite and indelible change within the individual and the whole people. Such was the case with Abram, who became Abraham. The same happened to Saul, who became Paul, and Simon, who became Peter. All had their name changed because their entire destiny and future had undergone a magnificent and overwhelming overhaul. Lent is the same for us. Hopefully, by now, we can sense these deep-rooted changes in our hope and our direction toward Heaven. We are so close to our goal this year!
Leave a comment“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.” Soren Kierkegaard
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us!” Today we receive good news for this trying struggle of our wills throughout our lives. The goal of finding Jesus and embracing His spirit into our souls forever is coming near. This is the basis of the announcement or annunciation that we celebrate today. The Feast of the Annunciation remembers and celebrates that moment when the angel Gabriel informs Mary that she has been chosen to be the Mother of Our Savior and while her freedom was completely intact throughout the encounter. This underscores why we wait and fast and abstain during these days so that our hearts and souls will be ever ready for the Lord to enter our hearts and our entire lives to make sense of this life now and later. It also reminds us of the sacred moment when Jesus was conceived in the womb of His mother. It also means that Christmas is now just nine months away!
“Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.” Our response is to be patterned after the same as the Virgin Mary responded to the Angel Gabriel. This is what is meant by total openness to God to accomplish on earth what is according to the mind and the heart of God. Once we trust that Jesus loves us and wants only the best for us, then all we can do is open our souls in total confidence to His most holy will as pray in the Our Father, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Today, as is the custom in some cultures, is the day where we ask the Lord for the most profound, awesome, and seemingly unattainable miracle that we could ever need. This is the day that the Holy Spirit descended onto earth to bring us the tiniest beginnings of our salvation. Ask, and you shall receive, “…for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Leave a comment“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” C. S. Lewis
“Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” Our First Reading makes an inspiring case for the deep relationship between our sins, our pain, our incessant desire for healing, and the free offer of forgiveness of the sins that cause us so much pain and guilt. Moses dealt with the criticism and pessimistic reaction on the part of the Israelites for all that the Lord had done for them, and in response, they were bitten by horribly attacking snakes, which must have been quite a sight! Their unending complaints were answered by sheer harshness and fear. What is beautifully clear today is that the Lord truly wants us to be safe, happy, and holy. Our own sins and failings often stand in the way and present an enormous stumbling block to achieving all that God has intended for us, including acknowledging and receiving His healing forgiveness to a greater, healthier spiritual life. Moses was commanded to construct a bronze serpent so that anyone who looked up would be cured and saved. That must have taken an immense act of faith, and well, well worth it.
“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.” It is, however, in the Gospel where the real truth is to unlock the mystery of true inner freedom that is characteristic of a true believer and those who desperately want to get to Heaven. It is to take seriously the innocence, total trust and openness to look up at the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, lifted up on the cross so that all may be cured and saved. Jesus made this more than crystal clear in the Gospel: “Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.” When you are suffering or worried or anxious, look up at the cross to see your Jesus there wanting everything that is good for you. Accept this in faith and never look back. It would also help not to complain so much, either.
Leave a comment“When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation, or accept it. All else is madness.” Eckhart Tolle
“As soon as the maids had left, the two old men got up and hurried to her. ‘Look,’ they said, ‘the garden doors are shut, and no one can see us; give in to our desire, and lie with us.'” Today, we have an interesting pair of Scriptures to help prepare our formative days of spiritual growth. The first concerns the famous attempted fatal lie against Susanna on the part of two ruthless and morally bankrupt individuals who tried to frame her in the garden where she innocently passed her time. Thank God for the confident, wholesome, and honest voice of Daniel, who exposed their treachery by asking just a couple of simple, innocent questions. Susanna’s trust in the Lord was confirmed: “Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil; for you are at my side.” Her resolve to stand with the truth and to trust in the Lord is more than just a model of behavior for us during Lent and during the duration of our time on earth, but the very pattern of existence because of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us on the cross and out of the grave.
“Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.” In the Gospel, we hear annoyingly again from the Pharisees, who seem never to lose a chance to try either to trap Jesus in some monstrosity or attack His authority and wisdom. This is how it will be for all of us who want desperately to follow Jesus all the way to eternity. We will be maliciously attacked and accused just like Susanna and the woman in the Gospel, but we know to whom we must run to seek comfort and resolution. Jesus’ truth was also found in the garden, the garden tomb from whence He rose and defeated death forever. We must remember these garden experiences so that when we are attacked, confused, or even overly tired and anxious, we may never forget that God is love and oftentimes, truth is found in the garden.
Leave a comment“Truth makes all things beautiful.” Edward Counsel
“Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people!” The promise of New LIfe where there was death brings remarkable blessings upon all those who dip their finger into the water of generosity towards others, especially strangers. The benefits of this leap of faith are then made crystal clear and even more desirable in the Gospel today. The scene there is similar to the many experiences that we have had when we become anxious and worried about too many things. There is sometimes sorrow, then doubt, and sometimes there is darkness.
The impact of the death of someone close to us can quickly turn our world into a very cold and unfamiliar place. What used to be routine for us on a daily basis soon becomes exhausting. The simplest task may seem almost impossible. The emotions that accompany grief affect both emotionally and physically. However, when we approach this time openly and with the confidence that we have from Christ and His defeat of death, we are able to begin to understand how grief affects us and thus are better equipped to deal with its grip. Sometimes, the only way to fully heal is to completely face all the pain and heartache honestly, which may offer us comfort in our own times of sorrow.
It is clear to us in the Gospel today that Mary Magdalene was struggling with grief after the death of Lazarus. What does this mean for you and me who are following the Lord today? First, there is, of course, a natural response of crying when we encounter sadness. This is only human. But there does come a point when grieving can be selfish when it becomes self-centered, revolving around MY loss and MY feelings and MY life. This can certainly prevent us from recognizing what Jesus accomplished for all of us by dying. The second aspect is actually the preoccupation with death itself. Fearing death and constantly dwelling on all the people who have died in our lives does also tend to block the life we have to live today, right here and now.
Jesus calls us to live in the light of His Resurrection from death and the defeat of all the negative forces that keep us from loving and believing in the wonders of God in our lives. Today, think about the victory that was won on the cross while still acknowledging the pain it takes to live and feel in this life. Both are necessary for an effective balance. But never let the clouds and storms and grief and sorrow ever block the hope and mercy that is ours in Jesus and the spirit of Easter, which longs to take root in our souls.
Leave a comment“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people, and Alleluia is our song.” St. John Paul II
“Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, ‘This is truly the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.” When we look at and study all the moments of the life of Jesus, we realize that The Lord does not introduce anything new in terms of human experiences but rather elevates and imbues tremendous meaning and purpose into them. When evil and the demons of our lives approach, we realize first-hand that we truly need faith in the One who can handle and defeat them. These present themselves as conflicts that call us to make choices:
Conflicts: Every last one of us must face conflicts practically every day of our lives, even if they surface from within us. Therefore, it is not an indication or measurement of how much we are loved when we have issues or problems, but rather what we are going to do with them.
Choices: When Jesus calls a person to follow Him, it necessarily involves the fundamental option whether to accept him or to reject him; and the world is always divided into those who have accepted Christ and those who have not. Everyone makes choices every day. This choice, however, affects eternity and forever is a very, very long time.
A Cross. The original audience of Jesus experienced tremendous suffering and loss. They knew very well what a cross was. The Jewish historian Josephus mentions the swift & cruel action of Publius Quinctilius Varus, a Roman General under Emperor Augustus who crushed a revolt in Judea in 4 BC. After occupying Jerusalem, he crucified 2000 Jewish rebels and placed the crosses by the wayside along the roads to Galilee. This is why Jesus had and has tremendous compassion for His people, then and now.
The Words of the Day are Conflict, Choice, and Cross. Our daily dose of the Word leads us to understand and fully engage the conflicts, choices, and crosses in our lives. When we are worried, it is because we are trying to do things ourselves. When we are at peace, it is because we remember that God is in control.
Leave a comment“Any organization which works for peace, I will join. If you want to resolve a dispute or come out of conflict, the very first thing is to speak the truth. If you have a headache and tell the doctor you have a stomachache, how can the doctor help? You must speak the truth. The truth will abolish fear.” Christina Lamb
An hour can be the 24th part of a day, culminating in 60 minutes, or it can be a moment in time that can change everything. “This could be your hour” is a phrase that can have a deep and meaningful meaning for many people. We could say that our moment can be upon us, but we must be able to recognize it without distraction or fear. This is what we can glean from the Gospel today: “So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.”
So how is it that so many miss their moment? We have a clue in our First Reading: “These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.” If you and I are distracted by the things of the world, we will not possibly be present to the moment when God opens His heart and reveals His wonderful plan for our lives. They say that opportunity only knocks once, but God’s love and mercy are everlasting: “Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the LORD delivers him.”
This is your hour. Take it!
Leave a commentToday, we joyfully celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph, the Father of Jesus, and another excellent installment of our Lenten journey as we continually get closer and closer to Holy Week and the glorious Feast of Easter. St. Joseph is the Patron of the Church, of all fathers, and of a happy death. How can all these three essential elements of life be brought together for our spiritual benefit to undergo the great mysteries of Easter waiting for us at the end of these forty days? As always, we return to the precious Word of God, beginning with our First Reading: “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me,” and from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans: “I have made you father of many nations.” It is clear that the Lord God wished not only to shepherd us through this valley of tears but also to show us a father’s love and guidance just as He bestowed upon His only begotten Son with the awesome figure of Joseph, husband of Mary. Imagine the interaction and parenting that was occurring in the first years of the human formation of the Savior of the world. The Gospel also deepens this desire for loving obedience for us all through Jesus: “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”
What is also remarkably profound about today’s Feast and the Patron Saint of the Church, the Body of Christ, is the lesson of true and unrelenting obedience to the will of God the Father and the acceptance of what lies ahead in our spiritual lives. St. Joseph accepted everything, no matter how difficult or mysterious, in his vocation and helped raise and protect Jesus the Messiah, true God, and true Man. While it is true that there is no objective magic formula for success, there is an unconditional acceptance of God’s gift of life to us and all that it brings. This he lived even unto his death, premature by some estimates. This is why St. Joseph is the Patron of a happy death because the last face he saw on earth was the first he saw in Heaven. May it be the same for us!
Leave a commentGo, then, to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you;
Go to Joseph, and obey him as Jesus and Mary obeyed him;
Go to Joseph, and speak to him as they spoke to him;
Go to Joseph, and consult him as they consulted him;
Go to Joseph, and honor him as they honored him;
Go to Joseph, and be grateful to him as they were grateful to him;
Go to Joseph, and love him, as they love him still.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
As we move with ever greater speed and anticipation to the great mysteries of Holy Week, the words of the Scriptures that are lavished upon us are simple and breathtaking. The Psalm assures us that our beautiful God is always there waiting for us and wanting for us to live in happiness and joy: “The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” Jesus can and will accomplish the greatest miracle in our lives because of the intense, powerful, and loving relationship that exists in the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed.”
But perhaps the most tender of all morsels that have been distributed in due season to us today is the awesome image of a mother and her own child that is provided in our First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” How precious! The relationship between a mother and her child is so powerful that it affects everything from health and self-esteem to all other relationships. This is what makes today a delight because what the Lord is asking from each of us is to form the most powerful bond in the world. This is why The Lord will never forget us and why we cannot afford to forget Him.
Leave a comment“You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.” Paulo Coelho
“Every month they shall bear fresh fruit, for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.” Beyond a doubt, we would all die without water. By extension, our souls are in grave danger without the flowing waters of Baptism that make an end of sin and death and shine the bright promise of eternity with God upon our earthly lives. Healing and strength are gifts along the way which we need to keep going.
Imagine for a second the sick man in today’s Gospel who had been fighting his disease (we are not sure what it was) for 38 years! And still there he was by the pool of Bethesda, hoping with all his might for a cure and a new life. That sounds a lot like you and me. Then there came that day when Jesus approached him and changed his life forever: “Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your mat, and walk.’ Immediately, the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.” Sometimes we learn the hard way that we must get up first from our old ways of life and self-loathing and reach out for the loving hand of Christ. He is certainly there waiting. The great news for today is that Jesus wants us to walk with Him and live the life He wants for us. He wishes for us to thrive, not just survive. Let us pray:
Lord, I want to be free in my worship and praise to You. Help me to get rid of all self-consciousness and just have my eyes on You as I praise and worship You. Set my feet to dancing, Lord.
Leave a commentAs we move closer and closer to the great mysteries of Holy Week, the Lord is slowly but surely drawing back the curtain of the Lenten Season to reveal great things ahead: “Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; The things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind.” Clearly, something new is promised and on the horizon for all of us. These days of detachment and longing have not, nor never have been, in vain. There is great love behind the intention of Lent, and there is a great reward for us who wish to experience a newness of life and love on this earth while we prepare for the Easter newness within our hearts. We realize today that the Lord has always been right with us during these 40 days: “O LORD, you brought me up from the nether world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.”
And there is so much more: the promise of these days of self-denial and prayer has healing and miraculous effects if we allow them to work through us and if we believe that miracles are still possible for those who believe and trust Jesus. This is made crystal clear in our Gospel today with the royal official whose son was deathly ill and on the verge of a certain demise. What do we know of the outcome of trusting the Lord with everything? “The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.” Such was the confidence of the official in the words of Jesus that this was all he needed. He immediately got back to the daily drudge of life, expecting a miracle and believing from where it came. This is the lesson for us today and for every day we have left. Ask, Listen, and Trust. “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” We have seen, and we do believe.
Leave a comment“Draw aside, into the secret place no one, but you and God, can explore. This is a place from which all questions can be revered. Doubts and struggles are safe to open up and wrestle with in this place. Tears are welcome.“Jenneth Graser
“Never judge a book by its cover” is a phrase that many of us have heard since we were little. Have you ever really thought about what that truly means? Let’s take it apart for just a minute to help us understand and fully grasp the meaning of the Scriptures today. “Never judge” is a great piece of advice, especially with our limited outlooks and prejudicial postures. We know this much is true because the Lord has made clear how unclear our own perspectives can be: “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance.” “Never judge a book” seems to intimate that we really shouldn’t assess anyone or anything without reading it or living through it first. This involves and assumes a deep faith in the One who has loved us into existence: “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” “By its cover” also suggests that many people choose to live in darkness because they think they can hide. This is NOT the way we are to live, especially after having been enlightened by Christ as is pronounced in our Second Reading today: “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”
The Gospel today reveals an even deeper lesson of life for all of us surrounding a tremendous and multi-layered healing that takes place by a source of water, refreshment and healing for one very blessed blind man who could not have judged anything, much less a book, by its cover: (Jesus tells him) “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.” This life-changing encounter with the Lord removed not only blindness but also the fear, mistrust, and self-loathing and self-pity that had now allowed the blind man to see. But there were other seeing blind people around at that time as well: the Pharisees: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” This recalls yet another great saying from our youth: “There are none so blind as those who will not see,” traced back to the 16th century and also resembling Jeremiah 5:21. It appears that the most deluded people in our world are those who choose to ignore what they already know.
Let us continue this amazing Lenten journey that by now is more than half completed, while remembering that we may be the only Bible someone will read today. Make it a great read!
Leave a comment“Never judge a book by its cover” is a phrase that many of us have heard since we were little. Have you ever really thought about what that truly means? Let’s take it apart for just a minute to help us understand and fully grasp the meaning of the Scriptures today. “Never judge” is a great piece of advice, especially with our limited outlooks and prejudicial postures. We know this much is true because the Lord has made clear how unclear our own perspectives can be: “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance.” “Never judge a book” seems to intimate that we really shouldn’t assess anyone or anything without reading it or living through it first. This involves and assumes a deep faith in the One who has loved us into existence: “The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.” “By its cover” also suggests that many people choose to live in darkness because they think they can hide. This is NOT the way we are to live, especially after having been enlightened by Christ, as is pronounced in our Second Reading today: “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”
The Gospel today reveals an even deeper lesson of life for all of us surrounding a tremendous and multi-layered healing that takes place by a source of water, refreshment and healing for one very blessed blind man who could not have judged anything, much less a book, by its cover: (Jesus tells him) “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.” This life-changing encounter with the Lord removed not only blindness but also the fear, mistrust, and self-loathing, pity that now allowed the blind man to see. But there were other seeing blind people around at that time as well: the Pharisees: “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” This recalls yet another great saying from our youth: “There are none so blind as those who will not see,” traced back to the 16th century and also resembling Jeremiah 5:21. It appears that the most deluded people in our world are those who choose to ignore what they already know.
Let us continue this amazing Lenten journey that by now is more than half completed while remembering, we may be the only Bible someone will read today. Make it a great read!
Leave a comment“For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Last year at a Christmas dinner, a very proud and loving father sat next to his future daughter-in-law, who was sitting across from her future husband, the man’s amazing son. After dessert and before presenting her with his Christmas gift, he turned to her and gently said, “All I want for you to remember today is that I have been praying for you even before I met you. That means I have been loving you without knowing you all this time.” What he did for her and his son, and by extension, all of us, is to give a poignant example of pure love that extends all the way into Heaven. It means that trust and love and responsibility go hand in hand with developing a powerful and lasting relationship with God and with all who believe that love is the answer to the question of how we arrive in Heaven forever:
In the Gospel passage, however, we saw the supreme ugliness of hypocrisy even being practiced in a holy place: “The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector.”
The result was disastrous. No faith, no miracles, no healing, and no justification for the proud Pharisee. The lesson seems clear enough: when we overstep our own relationship with the Lord, either by trying to “play God” or reduce faith by arrogant grabs for wisdom and insight, nobody wins. Thank God we have a God who loves us and is always ready to forgive. As we continue our Sabbath experience and begin a new week, let us pray for faith that is built on trust in the One who never stopped loving us, even while we were in the womb.
You’d never know. There are people who pray for you without your presence and without your knowledge. Perhaps those prayers save you many times in your life. You’d never know. Stay humble.
Leave a comment“Thus says the LORD: Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt.” When we stop and think about it for a while, Lent is consumed with remembering the most important things in life and realizing how, at times, our guilt and fear can be so paralyzing. That is why we sacrifice (give up) mundane things which we really do not need so that we can focus on the things in this world that we truly need. This is supported by the underlying meaning from our First Reading today: “Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.”
“But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Remembering the most important things in life is one of the most important things to do in life. All that we have experienced and lived must form the fabric of the wisdom and the philosophy of life that we exist and use as we move into the future, which is all in the mind of God, who cares and loves us with an everlasting love. During the awesome Season of Lent, we are called and pulled toward memory and freedom. Guilt hurts at first, but if it motivates us to change and reform our lives according to Christ, then we will, in fact, remember how it is that we can find our way to Heaven by following the Lord God with every fiber of our being. In turn, we are compelled to pass that on to those we love, especially our children. May we remember the Name of the One who has saved us! “I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them.”
A man once wrote to his teenage son: “God is the reason why even in pain, I smile, in confusion I understand, in betrayal I trust and in fear I continue to fight.” These are not just words if they are put into practice and lived as best as possible. You and I must remember even long after this particular Lenten Season is over, that our children, students, and friends will not follow our advice—they will indeed follow and remember our example. “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
Leave a comment“Thus says the LORD: This is what I commanded my people: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God, and you shall be my people.” Those who are into music and the recognition some musicians receive for their craft are certainly familiar with The Grammy Awards. They are named such because of the miniature gramophone affixed to the coveted prize. This, moreover, has its roots from the trademark image originated from a painting by Francis Barraud, which is famously known and entitled, “His Master’s Voice.” The painting famously shows a cute dog apparently listening intensely to the original record player, which was later adopted as the trademark by the Victor Talking Machine Company. According to available publicity material, the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had originally belonged to Barraud’s brother, Mark. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper along with a cylinder phonograph and recordings of Mark’s voice. Francis noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master emanating from the horn, and conceived the idea of committing the scene to canvas.
“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” What a powerful image we have been given today as we continue our days of the Lenten journey. To be so attuned to the voice of Christ and to be so drawn and driven in listening to it, no matter what the cost, is the goal of all who want to find their way to Heaven with the great and powerfully loving assistance of the Good Shepherd. However, this search must not become one of superstition and doubt: “Some of them said, ‘By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Clearly, these people had no idea who was standing right in front of them. Ignorance is certainly not bliss! You see, there is no website, Twitter account, or Facebook page that accomplishes the value and depth of speaking and listening directly with the Lord in daily prayer strengthened by our daily dose of the Scriptures and Eucharistic nourishment. Let us decide this week to make the time and listen intensely to our Master’s voice. He is always ready to start a conversation.
Leave a comment“Listen in silence because if your heart is full of other things, you cannot hear the voice of God.” St. Teresa of Calcutta
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus makes an astounding statement: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” So nothing is going to be altered from the basic understanding and meaning of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. And He continues: “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law until all things have taken place.” Thus, there is this healthy and inspiring balance we are called to achieve between what is radically, completely and fundamentally true about our faith, and the expression and practice of this gift all the way till we breathe our last breath. We need to be ready to move forward creatively to new ways of understanding our faith and living it out. The traditions of the past are still valid, but we must never get bogged down in them to the extent that we do not respond to the clear signs of the times. Tradition can be understood in two ways: either as a fundamental belief that has existed from the very beginning or simply a way of doing or understanding things that have been around for a long time.
Every year, leaves fall from the orange and apple trees all across our land. In the spring, newness explodes, but every year, even after the changes of time and winter, those are still providing oranges and apples, as opposed to lemons and grapefruit. Yes, lots of change, but the fundamental essence remains. The day we close ourselves to change, as well as the fundamental truths of our walk with Jesus, is the day we die, as Moses begs the Israelites to remember: “However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen.”
Leave a comment“To live is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often.” John Henry Cardinal Newman
“Azariah stood up in the fire and prayed aloud: ‘For your name’s sake, O Lord, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant.'” There have been a number of insights shared over the years about the measure of what it means to be a Christian and stay like that until death calls. One year, during a very random series of polls to decipher American opinions and attitudes concerning what a Christian actually looks like in life, it was discovered that the majority of responses about this question surrounded the notion that a Christian is someone who is nice, lets you go in before you, and says “thank you.” But all that just describes common courtesy, which by some standards, is not that common after all. But there was probably no more insightful and pithy approach to this line of thinking than was uttered by G. K. Chesterton when he wrote that “just going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.” Well said. Thank God we have a sense of humor and a deeper sense of gratitude: “Remember your mercies, O Lord.”
It is a fair question to ask this time around the Lenten track to wonder what we would do differently if this was our last forty days of fasting and prayer before our final curtain call to Heaven. It would certainly be worth considering: MAYBE WE WOULD: —spend more time with the Lord, praise Him for all the good times and the bad—say the things to the people who mean so much how grateful to God we are for them—forgive and ask forgiveness.
Leave a comment“The future starts today, not tomorrow.” St. John Paul II
There is a remarkable juxtaposition, a type of literary set of bookends in our Readings of today. In the First Reading, the assured faith and belief that the prophet could actually heal leads to wonderful consequences:“Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of Elisha, the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean of his leprosy.” However, and quite sadly, the same is NOT true later in the life of Jesus: “When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury.” Jesus’ own people would not, or could not, accept Him as the Messiah He is because they allowed doubt and tragic unbelief to stifle and cloud any hope of a miracle in their midst. And this is the really important meaning of the imagery: leprosy.
If we were to look upon this frightful and dehumanizing disease that attacks the skin and bones, it becomes an excellent metaphor for the lack of faith and vain trust in self and its effects on the soul. One horrible aftermath of leprosy was the exclusion of the sufferer from the rest of the community. They became outcasts and wholly rejected. So, too with the seeds of sin and death that undermine a true and loving attachment to the Lord: we become outsiders to life and seemingly never able to be part of the community again. This is where the touch of Christ means everything. He wants us close to Him; He desires our reunion with the Church and the community of believers. He truly wants us closer to Him than we are to ourselves. We must die to pride so we can live again. St. Paul says it best: “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we persevere, we shall also reign with him.”
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.” Perhaps there is no other depiction from anywhere in the Bible that illustrates and highlights the depth of a mean-spirited lack of faith that produces ingratitude. What a painful experience to be on the receiving end of such selfish, egotistical behavior. Have you ever wondered what causes that? The current level of detachment in our society could be a clue. We seem to be facing reality through a screen of some sort: I phones, laptops, I pads, computers, television, etc., all train us to take an almost inhuman step away from reality so as not to become too immersed with any real internal and integrated approach to life, you know, the way Jesus approached everyone in the Scriptures and how he deals with you and me right here, right now.
Let us consider some ways to learn how to be faithful and grateful:
*Take your focus off of yourself and consider the people God has placed around you (we need each other)
*Count your blessings from God (you will be amazed)
*Accept your emotional state: Feel-Deal-Heal
*Welcome time alone as precious for growth with Jesus, who did the same
*Avoid comparing your life to others: you never really know what goes on behind the smiles
*Shake the Green Monsters: envy and jealousy (open wounds of insecurity)
*Fight the desire to isolate and seclude yourself from others (wounds just fester)
*Avoid negative voices and situations (misery loves company)
The truth about water is both obvious and critical because it is absolutely fundamental to lasting health, peace of mind, and survival. Our bodies are about 60% water, and without it, a person will die within just a few days. Perhaps water is also an important aspect of our spiritual lives, while we examine the beautiful readings that are given to us on this Sunday: “Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” However, this Scriptural lesson cannot be concerned with just the nutritional aspects of water. The clear connection is with Baptism and the new life that is promised in the Old Testament and then fulfilled by Jesus, with whom we travel these days of Lent.
“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink.” Just as the human body actually pangs and thirsts for water, the soul also desires fulfillment and complete nourishment that can only be satisfied and found in the Lord Jesus. The remarkable aspect of the scene at the well is that Jesus asks for a drink. What could that possibly signify? Jesus thirsts for the faith of the woman at the well, and He is thirsting for you and me to make a commitment to Him and be completely nourished with His presence and His love. The truth is simple: without Jesus, we will die; with Him, we will constantly be refreshed in His great love. This is the truth about water.
Spend this beautiful Sabbath asking God for the divine gift of Wisdom and then see if you can spot instances and opportunities where it made its awesome appearance.
Leave a comment“Like water in the desert is wisdom to the soul.” Edward Counsel
“Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance?” It would be more than just a simple sadness if we found ourselves finishing another great Season of Lent and were not in possession of just a little more desire and ease when confronted with the need and call to forgive. And yet, if we were to speak realistically, the lack of ability may equal the lack of desire to even approach any semblance of forgiving someone and letting everything go, especially when there is a deep and lasting wound or infraction that is at stake. Why do you think some people will not forgive, at least not yet? Here are just a couple: Some will not forgive another because they want more proof of repentance; others because they are still carrying another hurt from their not-too-distant past, and we may have just opened a scab, the proverbial “old wound.” However, there is a deeper and inherent reason why some refuse to forgive, and it is simple: they have lost the true and essential truth of what Jesus has accomplished for them and for all of us. Redemption!
In an obviously sincere and hopeful attempt to avoid any unnecessary sadness for us today, the Scriptures provide us with an even better reason to continue to work toward a forgiving heart and a life dedicated to the mercy of our loving Father. And this is wonderfully found in such a delightful and poignant detail that is found wedged gently within the phrases of the parable that Christ presents to us in the Gospel: “So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion.” Could you picture this? The prodigal son has left everything that was important to him and all the people who loved him. The pain caused to his father must have been horrible, but even with this hurt, this holy parent still waited outside for his son to return home and then ran to accept him back into his arms. This is God who always is poised to forgive and love. This wondrous love is enough to bring us to forgive everyone who has ever caused us pain. The Psalm gives us the words for the prayer that will lead us to lasting joy: “He pardons all your iniquities, he heals all your ills. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with kindness and compassion.”
Leave a comment“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable in others because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” C.S. Lewis
We have noted many times in our Reflections that more than a few Old Testament accounts of people and events tell of a foreshadowing of that which is yet to come. For example, Moses told the Jewish people of another Law-Giver, like him, who would come later and who would require the people’s total allegiance and obedience; the Psalms describe the experiences of David, yet they also speak of David’s Greater Son, the Messiah. In our First Reading of today, we heard of Joseph, son of Israel, who was deeply loved and cherished by his father but who would also face awful rejection: “When his brothers saw that their father loved him best of all his sons, they hated him so much that they would not even greet him.” The Scriptural lesson for us today is that for centuries humanity had been waiting for the Messiah, the Landowner of Heaven and Earth, and still many rejected Him. That, unfortunately, goes on today in our time as was described dramatically in the timely threat that if we cannot produce good fruit with what we have been given, someone else will: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit.”
We clearly have been given a vineyard and a charge: You have a life now; use it wisely and carefully. This means, among many other things, that our very demeanor and actions, especially around our families and friends, and co-workers alike, must, in fact, radiate the fact that we do believe that Jesus is the Long-Awaited Messiah and that “I have in fact accepted Him here and now.”
Every day, especially in these wondrous days of Lenten journey, you and I have wondrous and numerous opportunities to accomplish this. One of the best ways is through forgiveness whenever possible and necessary. Even for our friends. Especially for our friends. The sad turn of events in the parable that Jesus uses to continue to get through to the chief priests, scribes, and elders is one of rejection. The truth is, we make hundreds of choices literally every day we walk on this planet, from what we will eat and not eat to whom we will call or not. The wisdom here is found in what to reject and what not to reject. “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes?”
Leave a comment“When we are faithful to simply show up with hands willing to work, we can watch in wonder as God brings forth fruit from our humble efforts.” Eryn Lynum
The pages of all the Scriptures literally shout out with warnings and desperate pleas concerning neglect for the poor and hungry in our world. This seems also to be a theme that has never been applied to just one culture or time period, but for all of humanity in every age. The words of the Prophet Jeremiah are as fierce as they are clear about the pride and selfishness that produce this kind of woeful abandonment of the most vulnerable around us: “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.”
The Gospel today makes even a stronger case for realizing our responsibilities for the poor and neglected in this world and the serious consequences that await those who live very selfishly and even hatefully while they walk the earth with the many blessings abounding. “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime, while Lazarus likewise received what was bad.” The rich man in our passage literally had to walk over Lazarus, who was literally covered with sores and longed to eat scraps that fell from the opulent table of the palace in front of which he was begging. This is a powerful Lenten lesson for each and every one of us. Let us all carefully look around our lives to make sure we are not “walking over” people who need us. Negligence is a terrible thing that brings much worse than sores and scraps for those who remain blind.
Leave a comment“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” St. Augustine
“Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak on their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.” Sociologist Robert Wuthnow of Princeton University has explored how it is that people make everyday ethical decisions. Many people, he found, perform deeds of compassion, service, and mercy because at some point in their past someone acted with compassion toward them. He wrote, “The caring we receive may touch us so deeply that we feel especially gratified when we are able to pass it on to someone else.” He tells the story of Jack Casey, who was employed as an emergency worker on an ambulance rescue squad. When Jack was a child, he had oral surgery. Five teeth were to be pulled under general anesthesia, and Jack was fearful. What he remembers most, though, was the operating room nurse who, sensing the boy’s terror, said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be right here beside you no matter what happens.” When Jack woke up after the surgery, she was true to her word, standing right there with him. Nearly 20 years later, Jack’s ambulance team is called to the scene of a highway accident. A truck has overturned, the driver is pinned in the cab and power tools are necessary to get him out. However, gasoline is dripping onto the driver’s clothes, and one spark from the tools could have spelled disaster. The driver is terrified, crying out that he is scared of dying. So, Jack crawls into the cab next to him and says, “Look, don’t worry, I’m right here with you; I’m not going anywhere.” And Jack was true to his word; he stayed with the man until he was safely removed from the wreckage. Later the truck driver told Jack, “You were an idiot; you know that the whole thing could have exploded, and we’d have both been burned up!” Jack told him that he felt that he just couldn’t leave him.
Many years before, Jack had been treated compassionately by the nurse, and because of that experience, he could now show that same compassion to another. His experience of an act of loving service enabled him to do the same for another. In the Verse before the Gospel for today, Jesus made it clear: “I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.”
Following Jesus and living a Christian life which is authentic and inspiring is much more than having a hobby or belonging to a particular political party. It is even more than having a job or a career. Our faith not only points us to what is eternal but also follows us into that existence. If we live with Jesus here and now, we will enjoy His wonderful presence forever. That is why the Eucharist is essential to the one who understands that this life is passing and Heaven is the only real goal worth living and dying for.“For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Leave a comment“Everyone has a purpose in life and a unique talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.” Kallam Anji Reddy
“Come now, let us set things right, says the LORD: Though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow.” From time to time, we come across words that are very similar-sounding but quite different in meaning. Such may be the case with the difference between being humiliated and being humbled. Humiliation is the act of being embarrassed or even an act of self-hatred self-loathing. Humility is the understanding or will to accept oneself in love and truth. Although these two are easily and often confused, they are vastly different. They are almost polar opposites in the light of the Readings for us today. God will never humiliate us out of a sense of evil hatred, but there are moments that certainly humble us. The great news today is that He always wishes to raise us up and strengthen us in His great love for each and every one of us.
In the Gospel today, Jesus makes this point very clear and even with greater promises ahead: “…for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” This means that no matter what happens to us, if we stay close to the Lord, especially in these days of the Lenten journey, we may, for a time, feel low and deprived of attachments that have been detrimental to our spiritual progress, but the great promise of Easter is ours for eternity. A person who seeks to humiliate serves the darkness; a humble person walks in light because they serve the truth. This is our Lenten goal: to be a person of light and truth!
Leave a comment“The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.” Charles Caleb Colton
It may take the death of someone very dear to us, or some horrendous tragedy, or a life-altering disappointment, to finally take us to the brink of existence to realize that we truly belong to God. Some of us have been blessed from the beginning with a child-like and total trust in God, but for many of us, it seems as if we have to grow gradually into that space where we know without a doubt that 1. God exists, 2. He made me, and 3. I can trust my entire life to Him. Daniel, of our First Reading, was one of those totally trusting God-fearing individuals. Yet, he was also ready to beg forgiveness for straying from the fold: “But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness! Yet we rebelled against you and paid no heed to your command, O LORD, our God, to live by the law you gave us through your servants the prophets.” The two apparently opposing attitudes are actually quite linked in the depths of love and mercy; a person who loves God completely understands. Love and mercy are essential elements of a holy, happy, and healthy life in Christ.
No one can claim seriously that they are “self-made.” That simply is not possible. We did not create ourselves as much as some might insist. Precisely because God created and designed and loved us all into existence means that we belong to Him. We can trust that. “Stop judging, and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned, …For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” When one trusts the Lord with everything they have, acknowledges their sinfulness and failings before the Lord, they are much less ready to judge and short-change the people around them. Thus, the same standards we apply to others will indeed be applied to us, one way or another, sooner or later. Since we deeply and fundamentally belong to God, we have an even stronger and more compelling reason to get along with each other and practice what we preach. Since ALL have been created by God, then ALL have equal dignity, and the more we can recognize that quality in everyone, even if they themselves do not see it, the closer we come to fulfilling the destiny God has invited us to follow.
Let us remember how remarkably patient God is with you. How can you show your gratitude by being patient with others today?
Leave a comment“The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.” Erik Erikson
“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Do you realize that you and I have been placed on this earth for a specific reason and purpose? Every day becomes an opportunity to strive and realize that reality, especially when things look dark and bleak. If I have a purpose in life, and I do, then everything that is happening around me today is either a part of that reality, and I should stay focused on its messages and lessons, or it is keeping me from my purpose and direction, and therefore I should move on as quickly as possible. This is certainly one very important way we can understand transformation and transfiguration from the hands of Christ, who leads through this Lenten Season. “Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” Jesus becomes transfigured to prepare the disciples and all of us for His Resurrection, which in turn prepares us for our Resurrection, our ultimate transfiguration. This complete transformative moment when we see Jesus as He exists in total glory in Heaven is both an inspiration and a goal while we walk and continue our spiritual journeys. We must find in this vision of glory the real hope of true happiness in this world to make a suitable place in our souls and hearts for the message of the Gospel of Jesus.
The most unhappy people in the world have made it their life’s mission to make as many people around them as miserable as they are with every ounce of strength they can muster. Surely, this can’t be news to us. Remember, only wounded people wound people. Our best stories will come from our struggles. The seeds of our successes are in our failures. Keep standing. Seasons change. There is no such thing as a storm that lasts forever. On this Second Sunday of Lent, let us all ask God to help each and every one of us continue to uncover and discover our purpose in this great adventure we call life. He proclaimed as much today in the Gospel: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Remember the promise of this time is a better life, a more sane and healthy way of living. Keep this in mind.
Leave a comment“I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.” Anne Frank
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Once again, Jesus, the New Moses and Lawgiver, transforms our way of life by exacting upon us what some believe is virtually impossible. However, it is not impossible. In the First Reading, Moses reminds us of the ultimate source of all power in this universe, who is the ultimate judge and dispenser of all justice. “This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.” The act of forgiveness and exuding mercy does so much for the heart that displays such intentions that it becomes clear that when the Lord asks us to forgive our enemies, He really and truly wants the best for our souls so that they be freed of any hatred and the scourge of evil.
“For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Don’t the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?” Our world is definitely filled with people who have been hurt, mocked, and humiliated. This would explain why it’s easy to see how hurting people hurt people. As Christians, we are charged to remember that all people carry wounds, whether they were self-inflicted or not. We all suffer in one way or another, and what we truly need is patience and love rather than judgment.
Leave a comment“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Abraham Lincoln
Let us begin by reviewing the Scriptures of today: “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” Have I truly repented of all evil and malice and selfishness in my life in light of the great call to fasting and penance? “I trust in the LORD; my soul trusts in his word. My soul waits for the LORD more than sentinels wait for the dawn.” Have I truly trusted the Lord Jesus with all my heart and soul and thus experienced peace and calm even through heavy decisions and life demands? “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Have I been obedient without grumbling or complaining, especially when it was hard to do so?
“Cast away from you all the crimes you have committed, says the LORD, and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” Perhaps we could make a commitment to recall on a daily basis the great sacrifice Jesus made for each one of us and how that one single event has to make a difference in the way I act, especially with my family and those around me. This deep and meaningful shift within us toward the Messiah can determine the kindness, faithful, and hopeful living that needs to be seen in all of us who are Easter people purified, as it were, in these absolutely necessary days of cleansing and renewal.
Leave a comment“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Julius Caesar, (I, ii, 140-141)
“Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, had recourse to the LORD… Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you, O LORD, my God.” Our Scriptures open today with a dramatic scene in the life of Queen Esther, a most remarkable Biblical figure in the Old Testament, who, at a serious moment in her life, had only the recourse to serious and complete self-emptying prayer that would move anyone to tears. This becomes a great image for us to factor in the way we lift our prayers to God. Do we just rattle off words? Do we think about what we are saying? Does the level of faith reach deep within our souls? Queen Esther would certainly answer easily.
“For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Prayer is the life of the new heart (CCC 2697). Christians throughout the centuries have maintained three main expressions of prayer: Vocal, Meditation, and Contemplation. Together, they make a phenomenal path to peace and holiness, not to mention sanity: Vocal: We are body and spirit so it is important to express our spiritually feelings outwardly [we speak] Meditation: The mind searches to understand what God is saying [we think, imagine, desire and feel] Contemplation: “We are alone with the One who loves us.” [God speaks, we listen and experience] The one who asks through vocal prayer, receives; the one who seeks through meditation, finds; and the one who knocks at the door of contemplation, can change the world one soul at a time.
Leave a comment“In the confrontation between water and the rock, the water always wins. Not through strength but through persistence.” H. Jacks
One thing is very clear and actually demanded from the one who hears the call of discipleship to follow Jesus and wishes to answer it: it will always involve a leap of faith, an extra helping of courage, and a sometimes small, sometimes monumental act of courage. Such was the case of Jonah, of which we heard in our First Reading, after he was first charged to warn and issue an apocalyptic message to the Ninevites: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” This was no easy task, and neither was the awesome, even unexpected outcome: “When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” What a relief that must have been! In front of this all-encompassing mercy of God that marvels as well as redeems, we can understand and agree with the Psalmist who is so insistent with the only recourse we have when we have made that tumultuous leap of complete trust: “A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.”
The benefits of this leap of faith are then made crystal clear and even more desirable in the Gospel today, which readdresses the nature of Jonah’s mission and our own hopes for a successful Lenten Season. Jesus is the last installment of any hope to return to the most excellent existence that could only possibly be had in Heaven. Our life here on earth, much like these forty days of Lent preparing us for Easter, is like an “extended Lent” bringing us to new heights and clarity so that we may continue onward.
Perhaps we could agree with a statement that was posted in a church lobby some years ago: “When God pushes you to the edge of difficulty, trust Him fully because two things will happen. Either He will catch you when you fall, or He will teach you how to fly.”
Leave a commentAs we continue our journey through Lent and prepare for yet another wonderful installment of grace and direction, we are served with the timeless and excellent anthem for our spiritual journey in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, known to most of the world as the “Our Father” prayer. The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it brilliantly as it teaches that The Lord’s Prayer is truly the summary of the whole gospel. Since the Lord . . . after handing over the practice of prayer, said elsewhere, ‘Ask and you will receive,’ and since everyone has petitions which are peculiar to his circumstances, the regular and appropriate prayer [the Lord’s Prayer] is said first, as the foundation of further desires. (2761)
“Our Father who art in heaven” We acknowledge we are His children.
“hallowed be thy name” We acknowledge the power in His name.
“thy Kingdom come” We acknowledge and desire His Kingdom.
“thy will be done” We desire to follow God.
“on earth as it is in heaven.” We realize there is this life and the next.
“Give us this day our daily bread,” We ask for all of our needs.
“and forgive us our trespasses,” We beg forgiveness.
“as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We pledge forgiveness.
“and lead us not into temptation,” We ask for courage and strength.
“but deliver us from evil.” We ask for protection from the devil.
Sometime today, even late this evening when all is said and done, reflect slowly on the words of this incredible gift of a prayer and allow the Lord Jesus to hold you safe within his most Sacred Heart.
Leave a comment“Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.” Perhaps every Lent we forget that one of the more profound reasons for this time is to become holy. Sometimes, because of unfounded negative voices in our lives, the idea that I might be a holy man or woman seems absurd, and yet, we must strive for this state if we ever hope to enter Heaven after our earthly pilgrimage is over. So my friends, one day it will indeed be our last reflection, our final use of our intellect on this planet, and the final moment to use the time we have been given to discover our purpose in this life and to uncover the courage necessary to meet the challenges we daily face.
What will they write upon your tombstone or grave marker? How will people remember you? How do you remember the people you have loved and missed and cared for? The Gospel today gives us the most impeccable clue. “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'” We will be remembered based on all the times we sought and found the face of Jesus in the lives in which we were situated, especially the people with whom we did not always see eye to eye or get along. When did we ever turn and actually see Christ in our midst? It happened every day we got up from sleep and began our day!
Leave a comment“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
“The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.” On this First Sunday of Lent, we are alerted to the core reason for our journey these days. Jesus was in the desert for a very specific and wonderful reason: He was showing us how to live and how to face the temptations of this life. He was strengthened by his fasting and supported by His very love for you and me. The famous temptations of Christ could be saddled in the categories that should be more than familiar to us: passion, power, and position. These passing commodities in this life can actually aid our demise if we are not careful and lose our focus on the things that really matter in this life, which always outlive and outlast our existence here and pass into the next life.
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made.” In our First Reading, Adam and Eve, the beginnings of the Chosen People, a precursor of the entire Church of God, were under attack and fell beneath the weight of the first temptation and the first consequences of allowing trust in God to fail and grow weak, a tremendous burden. The Lord heard their cry and was given yet another chance to find salvation and hope in this life. This “second chance” involves our entrance into the mystical Body of Christ, which has also prepared us not only for the forty days of Lent but all the days we have left on this planet. The Church protects all within Her through the waters of Baptism that put an end to the reign of sin and death around us and assures our arrival in the Promised Land of heaven. “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” As we continue this great and marvelous time of renewal, we call upon the Spirit of God who led Jesus into the desert, who helps us maintain our Lenten focus, and who inspires us with love and forgiveness now and forever.
Leave a comment“Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, and what path we must take in life.” Pope Benedict XVI
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” We have now arrived at the First Friday of Lent, where we are reminded of that particular Friday when Jesus gave us His entire being on the cross for our salvation and eternal happiness. We are also reminded of the call to fast and go without to strengthen our resolve and our wish to be holy and ever so close to the Lord. Here we can visualize and follow the radical connection between the paths of Lent by which we are made wondrously ready for Easter.
“Why do we fast, and you do not see it? afflict ourselves, and you take no note of it?” Fasting assists our prayer life by helping us focus on the things in life that really matter, starting with our relationship with God and spreading into our dealings with one another. This supports our prayer life, which in turn feeds our desire to do good and avoid the near temptation of sin that we may grow in holiness and deep and lasting friendships in this life. What we know by now is certain: we cannot do this alone, and we need Jesus and each other to make or break this Lent.
Leave a comment“Only in eternity shall we see the beauty of the soul, and only then shall we realize what great things were accomplished by interior suffering.” Mother Angelica
“Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.” There are many among us who swear by the deep, internal cleansing and detoxifying process whereby the poisons and noxious substances are purged from the bloodstream. And while this is neither the time nor place to have an intelligent conversation about these purported benefits, it is safe to say that there is a deep and beneficial connection to faith and what we do with it, understood in many circles as the difference and connection between faith and works. Using another medical analogy, sin and selfishness can creep into our lives like plaque upon our gum lines. This is what can happen when a person separates what they say they believe and how they put that belief into practice. This is clearly a red flag and a five-alarm warning for all of us: “Not so the wicked, not so; They are like chaff which the wind drives away.”
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Another crucial part of a successful spiritual journey is humility and honesty. Many have to come to understand that we are only as sick as our secrets, which basically means that a secret kept in the dark usually grows and festers and ultimately destroys a person. The good news is that once it is exposed to light and released, all its ugly power is gone. This is precisely what is intimately meant by picking up our crosses and following the Lord Jesus with all our might and with as much integrity as we can muster. People who are so proud and who refuse to admit that there are issues and areas that are in need of cleansing open this lack of self-knowledge to growing negativity and self-loathing, while keeping them sick and trapped in sinful behavior. There is hope. Always.
Lord Jesus, hear my prayer and walk into my soul and cleanse me with Your Love. I am yours. I can hide nothing from you. Help me be honest with myself so I may find your Truth. Amen.
Leave a comment“Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.” Today, we begin a most wonderful and challenging season of self-denial and hungering for the earthly pleasures that we may or may not have become overly attached to. The reason for the Season of Lent, which begins today, is to deeply understand mercy and to practice compassion and forgiveness every chance and opportunity we have. “Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.” Even though this special time appears on our calendars every single year, it is not pertinent or helpful to recall how many Lents we have lived through, but rather, and most importantly, how many Lents we have successfully lived through our own lives and existence. Remember, we live in the present moment, and this is the time always to act if we are going to make a difference between a life well lived and just days and weeks to fill. “Behold now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
“And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” Let us keep in mind as well as a precautionary and important caveat as we move forward. Lent does not end at the end of the day on Ash Wednesday. It is not even for just a week. It is a journey of forty days and forty nights, which is remarkably Biblical and critical. If we truly want to glean all the spiritual and emotional benefits of such a powerful trek, we need to be ready to fall in place with all our hearts and minds and not with anything that resembles a half-hearted effort. This is also not just a thinly layered attempt to lose weight and look better. The role of hypocrisy is just waiting to take center stage during this time, and the Gospel was not unclear about the attitudes that must be present if we are to encounter a true moment of lasting integrity. Finally, this Lenten Season is about our relationship with Our Heavenly Father, just as it was for the First Lent between Jesus and His Father. Just as the Body of Christ is the Church, so this global initiative to reform and change is all about our love for God and experiencing his reciprocating love for each and every one of us. onward and upward!
Let us ask God for hope that we can change, be transformed, be more loving and forgiving, and find our true place in this world.
Leave a comment“No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by an advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.” St. John Chrysostom
“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” What can we safely assume when we think of leftovers? Let us begin with our own collective experiences growing up in a family. Leftovers meant that while there was still food from another previous meal, good money-saving etiquette dictated that we eat what we have first before buying something more. It meant that we were not a wasteful family. It meant that there was more than the distinct possibility that some dishes actually tasted better after a day or two of marinating and bathing in sauces and gravies, which made for the repeat even better than the premiere. It also powerfully suggested that somehow, someway, we were all going to eat because the Lord Jesus was truly the head and constant guest of the family.
“Rather, each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire. Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.” Even with the perennial presence of such an overabundance of love and joy, our response to such memories was and is clear. We are to treat each other as members of the much larger family we know as Church and practice the same over-generous spirit with which the Lord God shows us. That means first and foremost to obey God and all that He has given us to live, not just the food on the table, but also the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Such negligent behavior has always had disastrous effects. This mega-generous reveal can not be lost on any of us today. On that day in the Gospel, the leftovers barely filled vast bread baskets and overflowing storage because there would literally be billions coming after that miracle to be fed, and then finally to a place where there will be no more hunger or pain, just Jesus, who re-opened the gates of Paradise with His own life so that we could have life to the fullest.
Leave a comment“…true love is an irrevocable act – you can only give your heart away once – after that, you give as much as you have left …” John Geddes
Someone once wrote that true friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. The advice is quite simple: Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island, and thereby to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune and to maintain that friend, a blessing. If this is true, then we can learn much about the two different kinds of relationships we have placed before us in the Readings today. First, take a look at the people who are approaching Samuel demanding a king. On the surface, it seems like a reasonable request, but below the veneer, there is something almost criminal. God let us know exactly what was going on: “Grant the people’s every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king.” This breach of friendship would not end well for the elders. They may have learned too late that an honest enemy is always better than a friend who lies.
Then, paradoxically, in the Gospel of today, we see another form of acting in a different kind of trusting, life-giving friendship: “They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.” This has to rank in the top 10 most dramatic scenes of the New Testament. Visualize the moment, if you can. Four friends are convinced that if Jesus can just touch their friend, he would be saved. And he was. Note well that Jesus was also moved by this act of friendship because he clearly noticed the faith of ALL the group of friends: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, ‘Child, your sins are forgiven.”
This has ramifications for all of us. We are here to help each other, but more critically, in the milieu that is created when we call someone a friend. With that comes true responsibility and care, yielding magnificent consequences. Pray for your friends today. Ask God to shine His face upon all of them. With friends like these, we may just in fact see God.
Leave a comment“To love another person is to see the face of God.” Victor Hugo
“Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” The preceding experience, which clearly caused Our Lord to sigh in what seems to be exasperation, continues into our modern world. After all we have seen as a human race during our relatively short stint on this planet, many seriously doubt the role and awesome power of the Creator. If I asked those skeptics what it would take to believe in Christ, their response could sound something like this: “I would have to see Jesus do a miracle with my own eyes.” This sentiment is not uncommon. More than one person has held that he would believe in Jesus if he could see Him with his own eyes. Today’s passage, however, indicates that this is wishful thinking. If one’s heart is fully hardened against God, seeing Jesus Himself do a miracle will not be enough to cause belief. The response of Jesus to those who had seen His miracles is instructive. God will not do tricks for those who will believe, let alone those who have hardened their hearts against Him. Thus, Jesus told the Pharisees that they would get no sign from Him. If what they had seen did not convince them, nothing would.
“But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.” Just as we may doubt from time to time in our faith life, we can never allow this unrelenting worry to absorb our souls to extinguish the flame of faith and love in the hearts of so many who would otherwise be strong believers. God sees everything and counts every tear that falls from our faces. He is the Great Equalizer! This teaches us that we must trust in the awesome power of the love of Jesus and starve our doubts every chance we get. Our feet and our resolve must be strong going forth into this wounded world knowing always that the Lord Jesus is always there for us.
Leave a comment“God wants us to have soft hearts and hard feet. The trouble with so many of us is that we have hard hearts and soft feet.” Jackie Pullinger
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna (Hell).” These words of Jesus we just heard are hard words to hear. They are hard to think about. They are hard to process. They are hard because Jesus is addressing lust and adultery that cause more emotional pain and hurt families perhaps more than just about anything else. Nobody wins when a family breaks apart under the horrible weight of painful pretense and broken dreams. Love is such a supreme and, yes, even Divine gift, that any alteration or selfishness that enters such a relationship can have the most destructive consequences.
“Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” We all have endured some of these painful experiences, either directly or indirectly. Yet, it is precise because Jesus is speaking about these that we simply cannot ignore what he has to say. We live in a world that is broken, and we pick up knocks and bruises as we go through, and if Jesus has something to say about all that, we need to tune in. If Jesus had nothing to say about the things that cause us the most heartache, he’s not asking us to live in the real world when He calls us to follow him. Love, not lust, is at the basis of our hearts. Truth, not lies, is the very air our hearts and souls need to approach God and one another. When we give our hearts to Jesus, we are asking Him to allow us to love the way He does. Completely. Unselfishly. Purely. This is why daily prayer and the Eucharist are absolutely necessary for this spiritual approach to our human existence. What Jesus wants for us is not natural; it is supernatural and only when we live in His Light will we be happy in this life waiting for the one which is to come. “For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.”
Leave a comment“Live life to the fullest. You have to color outside the lines once in a while if you want to make your life a masterpiece. Laugh some every day. Keep growing, keep dreaming, keep following your heart. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein
How on earth could Jeroboam think for even a “split second” that anything but the Lord God of Heaven and Earth would be able to totally, completely satisfy? But He apparently did. Again. “This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.” Before we become “high and mighty” and somehow judge those ancient Biblical dwellers because of their incredible short-sightedness, take a breather: we do the same thing here in the Twenty-First century. We, too, must combat the constant temptation of spiritual obesity right here, today, in our very lives. We run to self-help books and “happy-meal” approaches to spirituality instead of thoughtfully feeding on the words of the Scriptures. We prefer entertainment rather than challenge. We want to play at our worship instead of truly thanking God for everything we have and take seriously the call to live a life of integrity.
As long as there have been kitchens, restaurants, and diners, we have all been inspired to eat healthier. Maybe less French fries and more salads; more water and less soda; less junk and more natural fare. And as long as we encounter the Lord among us, we have also been inspired to live a more authentic and loving life. We are destined to live a life that trusts Jesus with everything and seeks less and less to be mentally tickled, stimulus-stuffed, and hypnotized by the slow beating drum of the world’s heartless and selfish messages. We are called upon this day from the Scriptures to eat more spiritually healthy food as often as humanly possible. “They ate and were satisfied.” Let us pray.
For food in a world where many walk in hunger; for faith in a world where many walk in fear. For friends in a world where many walk alone, Please Jesus, feed us with Your Eternal Food. Amen.
Leave a commentWhen you get right down to it, the Bible is the story of the immense love God has for the ones (like you and me) He has brought into existence, even from the very beginning of time. The plot is simple. He loves, we promise to love, we break that promise, we run but cannot hide, we beg forgiveness, He forgives and loves, and then the process starts all over again. But why the helpless cycle? There must be an incredible and endemic lure or temptation lurking throughout our being. One possible explanation is that deep down there is a desire to be like God, know everything, and not allow anyone to tell us what to do or how to live our lives. That is simply called pride, and we have examples of that today in the First Reading with the idolatry of Jeroboam and the wretched consequences that ensued: “Israel went into rebellion against David’s house to this day.” Today’s Psalm helps to explain this unfortunate lapse of judgment and deficit of wisdom in those who should know better: “My people heard not my voice, and Israel obeyed me not; So I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts; they walked according to their own counsels.”
“What is the best cure for a closed mind? “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”) And immediately the man’s ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly.” During our spiritual journey, we will undoubtedly come up against doubt and worry. But these can be beneficial if we allow them to assist our enlightenment and trust in Jesus. A closed mind just helps arrogance grow into monstrous proportions. No matter what is happening in your life today, no matter what struggles or pains or grief or worry that you encounter, beg Jesus to open the closed and dark areas of life. Then you will be able to agree with those in the Gospel after witnessing what the Lord can do: “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear, and the mute speak.”
Leave a comment“Greed kills your heart, arrogance kills your relationships, and tyranny kills humanity.” Saidi Mdala
There are too many who believe that having more access to more and more information actually produces much more knowledge and wisdom, but in all actuality, the opposite is true. Without proper focus, context, and especially fidelity to truth, all this just makes for a rather muddied and opaque view of the world and takes us farther and farther away from wisdom. Such is the very unfortunate turn of events that is revealed in our First Reading today: “When Solomon was old, his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.” Solomon lost his focus and drifted away to the real source of what made him so wise and admired. Many things can cause that. In our First Reading, it seems to have been unhealthy influences from those closest to him. It may also have been the opulent and lavish lifestyle that surrounds monarchs of every age.
The Gospel today reminds us that sometimes when we are in the most desperate throes of need and want, especially during difficult and or painful circumstances, our focus becomes quite improved as we saw with the woman who knew Jesus could help her and trusted that He would, in fact, do so if she just asked: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” This is great news for us all! We may often find ourselves “derailed’ from the path we truly wish to follow through all kinds of circumstances and we are likewise strengthened by the fact that the Lord loves us so much that He is always ready and willing to touch and heal us. Knowing this and living by these words truly makes us wise.
If someone asked me today if I thought I was on the right path of life, how would I respond? Are there any elements of my life that I need to redirect or change? Ask the Lord to give you the necessary courage to address these issues and make appropriate changes.
Leave a comment“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Michelangelo
A very long time ago, a history teacher wrote something on the chalkboard in his classroom that has remained with at least one aging student to this day: “Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining.” We could say today that the real test of what is wise and what is silly comes from what is in the heart of the one speaking. Certainly, we have this tested in the First Reading from the First Book of Kings, describing the famous encounter of the Wise King Solomon with the Queen of Sheba, who had as much inquiry as she did curiosity: “The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon’s fame, came to test him with subtle questions.” It was clear to the queen that everything she had ever heard about the great wisdom of Solomon was absolutely true. It was already within him, so the bevy of questions on obviously every topic imaginable were answered with ease and without arrogance or pretense. The Psalm underscores that observation: “The mouth of the just murmurs wisdom.”
People are not wise because they possess a particular accent or vocal training. Inflections in voice and dramatic readings do not ensure the presence of wisdom in any human being. No, that must come from the very recesses and depths of the heart and soul of a person, as was demonstrated and taught by Jesus in our Gospel today: “All these evils come from within, and they defile.” Our fellow humans sometimes say ridiculous things because they do not stop first to think about the consequences of words. They whine and complain because that is seemingly all they know how to describe life. We who follow Jesus must listen to His wise counsel today and make the obvious conclusion: if what is within us makes us wise or defiled, then by all means let us invite Jesus to live there first. Then whatever we say should sound a lot like Him.
Leave a comment“See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.” Eckhart Tolle
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites…” The discussion about Tradition and traditions is tricky. By definition, these are elements that are literally “handed down” from one group, one culture, one generation to another. The only difference is where they truly emanate, and the only way to distinguish between what is merely human and what Divine Tradition (from God) is found in the nature of revelation itself. How do we really know what is just a human custom from a true article of belief that is from the Lord and true everywhere at all times?
The Gospel tackles this question head-on with the quoted words of Jesus from the prophet Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” Here is the danger: if we hold human traditions as if they come straight from God, we are guilty of idolatry; If we take Divine Revelation and treat Tradition as if it were a simple custom, then we straddle into the land of apathetic disbelief. Divine Revelation has two sources, Scripture and Tradition; God’s Word, which is written, and His teaching, which is oral. The Church as Sacrament of Salvation must make these distinctions clear and navigate us through the centuries. This is why Jesus established the Church, and that is why it must have all three elements intact: Scripture, Tradition, and the Teaching Authority of the Church. This is how we stay focused until we are with God forever and say for all eternity, “Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees; And favor me with your law.” Thus, there is this healthy and inspiring balance we are called to achieve between what is radically, completely, and fundamentally true about our faith, and the expression and practice of this gift, all the way till we breathe our last breath. We need to be ready to move forward creatively to new ways of understanding our faith and living it out.
Make a mental list of all the traditions you have inherited since you were young. How do they make you see yourself? Now picture Jesus with you and all those you love at all those wonderful life moments.
Leave a comment“Prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who prays.” Soren Kierkegaard
“The LORD intends to dwell in the dark cloud; I have truly built you a princely house,
a dwelling where you may abide forever.” In our First Reading today, the place for God to dwell is within the great Ark of the Covenant.is described and celebrated. In a phrase, God moves very close to his people by making sure that He remains within their very midst. If the Lord is near, all will be well, not just for individuals but for all those who live in His universe and are looking for comfort, guidance, and respite from the hardships of life and love: “Lord, go up to the place of your rest!”
The Gospel continues these thoughts with Seat of all Wisdom, Jesus the Christ.
“Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.” The same principle is true for all of us today, right now. Great things will always happen, both externally and internally, when we remain close to the Lord and run to Him always. This is true confidence in the One who loves us so much that He would rather die than live without us. Start every morning by first speaking with Him. He loves hearing from you, and you’ll be very glad (blessed) that you did. He is right there.
Leave a comment“Prayer – Christian prayer – by its very nature is born out of an acknowledgment of need, out of an honest recognition of spiritual poverty.” Paul Murray
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You are the salt of the earth.'” Let’s take a look at some of the uses/characteristics of salt. It is a preservative, gives flavor, is bright white, used as a fertilizer, and produces thirst. As a preserving agent in this world, every Christian is to be in the world but not of the world, and do whatever is in their power to keep those around from spoiling or degenerating. Christians can add flavor or joy to the world while living a life of purity and understanding, while increasing the fruitfulness of those struggling alongside each of us. Just as salty food makes us thirsty, Christians as salt of earth can make others thirsty for Jesus. “I want to be like you because you love God, and it is obvious.”
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You are the light of the world.” What does light do, and why do we need it so much? It exposes the hidden pockets of evil, enlightens greatness in this world, and definitely shows us the way out of a dark space. This is precisely why we followers of Jesus need each other so much. We simply cannot do this alone. We need help more than just a few times to point out what is evil in this world to avoid it, and to help us realize the many blessings we have been given so we may be grateful lovers of God. We need help at every step and stage of our lives from others who love Jesus to find our way either out of crisis, grief seasons, or just painful moments.
“Let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” Is there some hidden, secret recipe for being salt and light in this life? We have just discovered it. It has everything to do with living a holy, healthy, and happy life full of purpose. This is why we need to beg to be filled with the Holy Spirit while there is breath in our body. We have the Commandments and Beatitudes, we have the Sacraments and the Mass, and we are constantly being challenged to continue to pray without ceasing or losing heart. This will be nourished by our reading and reflecting over the powerful Word of God as we do here. This is our life, our call, our invitation to greatness.
Leave a comment“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world, and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truth in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves.” David Kinnaman
“My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me.” It is widely believed and circulated that once a proud young man came to Socrates asking for Wisdom. The Greek Philosopher took the young man down to the sea when he quickly pushed him under for a seemingly cruel amount of time until the young man gushed forth from the water, gasping for life itself. At this point, Socrates is attributed to have said, “When you want wisdom as much as you have just wanted air, then you will be wise.” The Letter to the Hebrews underscores this train of thought: “May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the Blood of the eternal covenant, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.”
The Scriptures, as the totality of the Word of God, completely and totally prepare, reveal, and glorify the person of Jesus Christ. From that sweeping statement, we can safely deduce that Wisdom is as important to life as air is to a drowning person. To obtain it successfully, we must search for it with the same desperation for oxygen. The ability to see clearly and choose correctly the best course of action on a daily basis is the veritable building block of life, of Wisdom. Jesus then adds another awesome exercise that is probably less dramatic than a near-drowning experience: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile.” If that sounds too simplistic, remember with whom we are called to spend quality, enriching time. It is Wisdom incarnate, Jesus the Lord!
Leave a comment“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” Isaac Asimov
We have been gifted with an amazing Gospel today. It describes the death and martyrdom of John the Baptist, who occupies a number of wonderful categories, including cousin to Jesus, the Last Prophet, and an outstanding voice that calls us all to listen and be ready for the greatest news we could ever receive. The Readings make this an even more thought-provoking moment as we recall how great it is to love the Lord and follow Him with every fiber of our being. John would later express this very same desire when he stated that he himself should decrease while Jesus must increase. Once we come to realize and accept our purpose here on earth, our lives are much simpler and have the potential of even greater holiness.
“Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.” The place of John the Baptist could never be overplayed or misunderstood. He forms one of the most significant members of the cloud of witnesses that helps us all look intently at Jesus and never let that focus stray. For the many of us who are giving all we have to be the best we can be and please the Lord, we are heartened by the fact that God always prepares the way for us to find Jesus and stay ever-so-close to Him in this life and the next. Our call is to let Jesus increase in our lives, and our selfishness decrease. With the help of the Holy Spirit and the wonderful Eucharist, success in this field is within our reach. The death of John the Baptist reminds us that following the Lord also has a deep price that sometimes people are unwilling to consider or offer. But in the final analysis, we want to be counted among those who are faithful and loving, and true to our calling. Nothing else will do: “Blessed be God my salvation!”
Leave a comment“Love does not magically change things in your life. It does not do the work for you. Love is an altering agent that must be received and applied. Love has to be in charge. Once this love is in you, then it can do work within you. Once it is working within you, it must come out of you. You are not loved just so you can walk around being loved. You are loved so you can be love. The places where love does not reach go unchanged.” Micah Berteau
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” Have you ever walked into a room and automatically felt that something was terribly wrong? And by “terribly wrong,” what is meant is an atmosphere or attitude that is so negative and critical that you just cannot get away from there fast enough. The departure is so quick and determined that you leave a trail of dust behind. The Lord Jesus knows exactly the kind of world we occupy. It is full of negative and sinful postures that seek to choke and stifle the beautiful Gospel message. He also knows that we can trust Him with every good gift and wise choice. This is why we are forewarned and thus forearmed: any belligerent or hyper-critical encounter over the Gospel must end with an encounter with the closest door and move to the next page that God has already written and waiting for us.
“I am going the way of all flesh. Take courage and be a man.” The great news today, among the many other blessings we see and cannot see, is the fact that the Lord has once again reaffirmed His great love for us and His constant protection over every single step we take, no matter what kind of encounter is waiting for us. All we have to do is remain faithful to His Word, be fed constantly with the Eucharist, and never lose hope even in the face of seemingly hostile and hateful rejection.
Leave a comment“Every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better.” Dr. Steve Maraboli
“I have sinned grievously in what I have done. But now, LORD, forgive the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish.” At a dinner, a very proud and loving father sat next to his future daughter-in-law, who was sitting across from her future husband, the man’s amazing son. After dessert and before presenting her with his Christmas gift, he turned to her and gently said, “All I want for you to remember today is that I have been praying for you even before I met you. That means I have been loving you all this time.” What he did for her and his son, and by extension, all of us, is to give a poignant example of pure love that extends all the way into Heaven. It means that trust, love, and responsibility go hand in hand in developing a powerful and lasting relationship with God and with all who believe that love is the answer, which always means asking for forgiveness, forgiving, and always practicing mercy.
In the Gospel passage, however, it looks like the Lord couldn’t count on His own people to put trust in the power of God: “And they took offense at him. Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.’ So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.”
The result was disastrous. No faith, no miracles, no healing. The lesson seems clear enough: when we overstep our own relationship with the Lord, either by trying to “play God” or reduce faith by arrogant grabs for wisdom and insight, nobody wins. Thank God we have a God who loves us and is always ready to forgive. Let us pray for faith that is built on trust in the One who never stopped loving us, even while we were in the womb.
You’d never know. There are people who pray for you without your presence and without your knowledge. Perhaps those prayers save you many times in your life. You’d never know. Stay humble.
Leave a comment“Joab was told that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom; and that day’s victory was turned into mourning for the whole army when they heard that the king (David) was grieving for his son.” Without a doubt, the Christian Life can be very difficult sometimes and seemingly just too hard to walk. This is precisely why we need to help each other and depend on the great example of the Saints of God who have gone before us, marked with the sign of faith and exuberantly displaying a remarkable amount of courage in living the Faith in Christ in the face of the most formidable odds.
“One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.” “There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.” In the Gospel today, we have two very prime examples of people who are in great need of a powerful miracle in their lives and who are surrounded by people who also believe, because the text tells us there were crowds following the unfolding drama. The witness and the advice given to those searching for the Lord and finding the most courageous of all faith before them help us to remember that we need each other in the walk of faith. We also need to respond appropriately and faithfully when called upon to give witness, strengthen the resolve of others who are struggling, and always pray for those who need our prayers the most. “Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
Leave a comment“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” St. Augustine
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” Have you ever heard the expression, “Now I’ve seen everything!”? It is a phrase that seems to suggest that something has just occurred that took the beholder by surprise and by storm, something that could not have been imagined or predicted. Something similar has happened for us today in the Gospel that chronicles the experience of Simeon in the Temple when he beholds the Baby Jesus and realizes that life can never be the same again. You see, according to the same Gospel account, he had been promised by a special revelation from the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he actually clapped eyes on the Messiah. When he saw Jesus, he knew it was time.
Our First Reading today gives us more than just a subtle hint of how we can live like this, and therefore, by extension, die a very happy death: “He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.” It is really quite simple: if we have spent our days trying to love each other, forgive at every juncture, pray for those who hate us, and treat everyone, especially the poor, as if they were Jesus Himself, then don’t you think we would recognize the Messiah, too? You see, the refining silver image is all about our own refinement and ongoing spiritual testing in the crucible of suffering and self-sacrifice. The Letter to the Hebrews agrees with the assessment: “Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”
On this Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we have come to the truly last reference to the mysteries of the Christmas Season. (In fact, in the older liturgical calendar, this was actually the official end of Christmas.) In the 50 days since Christmas, what have we learned this year going forth? We must find Jesus, honor him, keep Him warm and safe in our hearts, and then bring the finest gifts of our lives, always seeking to see his face: “Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord!”
Almighty ever-living God, we humbly implore your majesty that, just as your Only Begotten Son was presented on this day in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, so, by your grace, we may be presented to you with minds made pure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Leave a commentAuthority is one of the things that, when used wisely, is one of the greatest assets to human development and peace, but when misused by the corrupt, it is simply and hopelessly bent on self-promotion and destroys anyone who is in the way. When God imparts authority onto His Chosen, we know that it is for a great and powerful reason: “They shall do no wrong and speak no lies; nor shall there be found in their mouths a deceitful tongue; they shall pasture and couch their flocks with none to disturb them.” Moses, for example, was clearly a stellar figure in the Old Testament, and as “Lawgiver” from his post on Mount Sinai, he prefigured Jesus wonderfully and majestically to complete the full cycle when Jesus came down the mountain to give us the powerfully loving Beatitudes. His authority given to him by God led him to faithfully and effectively use that power without coercion, force or manipulation. This is why the Alleluia Verse today is brilliant when we are reasonably instructed that “Rejoice and be glad; your reward will be great in heaven.”
As we move into the New Testament lessons of the day, we realize all too well that we live in a world where authority is used without justice and power is wielded mercilessly upon the powerless. It reminds us of what Thomas Paine maintained when he wrote, “to argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.” In stark contrast, Jesus taught with love; His authority was one of commanding care and complete providence for everything we need to get back home to Heaven. This is the depth of love, which is why St. Paul was so insistent that when we would follow the Lord and respect His authority of love for us, that we should be free from unnecessary fret and worry: “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Today, as reported in the Gospel, we also may find ourselves astonished and overwhelmed with the bright hope of what our lives can be if we submit to the authority that Jesus embodies with us even now. He loves every one of us as if there is only one of us! How could we go wrong by acknowledging the awesome authority of love?
Leave a comment“God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.” This classic phrase creates a pivotal, critical point in our understanding of who Jesus is and why He came. As the mediator of the New Covenant by which all are saved by the shedding of His blood, we have access to the most wonderful of all gifts and walk in the light of faith toward our Heavenly home. This is why our most important goal and search on earth is to encounter Jesus and invite Him to live and move and have our being and existence. With this in mind, everything that happens to us, good, bad, or indifferent, will be seen through the lens of redemption as the real person of Christ lives within each one of us. Without this precious gift, human life and all of our encounters will be thrown into a dark chasm of resentment and pessimism, as we witnessed in our final reading from St. Mark.
Jesus, of the House of David, took the threatening condition of storm and rain and displayed His authority over all of creation, human and nature. “He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” Once the inner storms and weaknesses within the human soul are faced and blessed in the name of Jesus, peace is returned, life is strengthened, and fear takes a back seat; the further the better. This is true freedom.
Leave a comment“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.” St. Thomas Aquinas
Passion is a very complicated element of the human experience. By definition, the term “passions” refers to the affections or the feelings by which we are able to understand and navigate through a world that is filled with both good and evil. This also means that God must have an equal counterpart within what it means to be divine, as He imparts to us a similar creative and energetic force as His created loved ones. Everyone needs passion to accomplish anything worthwhile in life, but it is a power that has led so many to both victory and failure. But we are not without hope of victory. But when it is misused or horribly implemented, terrible things happen: “So while Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie against Joab, some officers of David’s army fell, and among them Uriah the Hittite died.”
The Church defines the principal passions as love and hatred, desire and fear, joy, sadness, and anger, which in turn can be mastered and formed by virtue or perverted by vice. (CCC 1771-1775) It is analogous to the created element of fire, which can be of great assistance or great destruction. How are we to deal with this magnificent force in our lives? The only way is to search for and live in the Kingdom of God with all our strength: “It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.” Living like this is as simple as it is profound. Acknowledge the power of your soul and then seek to do only good with it.
Leave a comment“The saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.” Nicholas Spark
“They all ate and were satisfied.” People are hungry on so many different levels. There is, of course, the physical hunger, but also emotional, social, intimacy, and even intellectual desires that, if not adequately or appropriately met, can do long-term damage to the person. “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him.” It is precisely to all of these hunger-moments that the Lord wishes to satisfy and meet. We do not always think like that, but perhaps as we meditate on why God tries and tests us, it is a good time.
“And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish.” Hunger, especially emotional or spiritual, actually inspires us to ask for help from those we trust or whom we believe are in touch with the Holy Spirit. It can motivate us to change direction, find a new way of looking at the world, and make us much more resourceful about the many blessings and gifts that come from the hand of God.
Leave a comment“If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.” John Piper
“Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?” With age, most of us hope to see the world much more clearly. There are a good number of people today that we love and cherish dearly, and while there are a good many others that have seemingly dropped out of our lives, there is a definite pattern that has emerged that deepens respect and admiration for all the people who have populated life. We have loved them because they have shown us Jesus. Their ways of handling death, disappointment, fun, friends, and family have all slowly formed a clear picture of the character that is unmistakably the mark of one who truly loves God. Imagine how the crowd in today’s Gospel must have felt when they heard that they must live their lives in the light of truth before the world! What goes through your mind?
“Do, then, bless the house of your servant that it may be before you forever; for you, Lord GOD, have promised, and by your blessing the house of your servant shall be blessed forever.” All of us who live in the Kingdom want family, and we seek security in one way or another. We need intimacy to discover our place in the world and make a healthy connection with others, especially with God. What is the foundation of such levels of relationship? Fidelity and obedience. We feel and exist closer to the Lord the more we follow Him and live in the light of His love, starting with our desire and success to forgive even the deepest of pains in this life, especially betrayal. Imagine your own homecoming to Jesus in Heaven and all the stories you’ll share as you spend a lifetime looking for Him, too.
Leave a comment“Of course, God does not consider you hopeless. If He did He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is). What is going on in you at present is simply the beginning of the treatment. Continue seeking with cheerful seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.” C. S. Lewis
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.” What we have today is truly a loving image of the one who sows seeds in the field and harvests the fruits of that planting. This does bring special nuance to the image that Jesus imparts to us to exemplify his love and care for the world. When you think about it, plants and crops are kind of like people, each having its own unique “personality” and preferences for water, sunlight, soil type, and best-growing conditions. The Lord knows this about us, so He attends to the varying needs of each of us in terms of what is best for us to grow and bear fruit in this life. Like plants, we too can harvest energy from the sun, that is, the Son of God; water is absolutely necessary for life and so are the waters of Baptism; Just like plants, human beings need nutrients both for the body and soul and for this we are fed on the Word of God in the Scriptures and Eucharist, the Body of Christ. And just like the plant world needs something, the soil that holds all the water and nutrients needed for growth, Jesus has given us the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. We also must recognize the rocks and thorns in our lives that can distract and choke the grace we need to grow in love for and with God, and that is why we remain open to his beautiful Word today and always.
“It is he who shall build a house for my name. And I will make his royal throne firm forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” All of us who live in the Kingdom want family, and we seek security in one way or another. We need intimacy to discover our place in the world and make a healthy connection with others, especially with God. What is the foundation of such levels of relationship? Fidelity and obedience. We feel and exist closer to the Lord the more we follow Him and live in the light of His love, starting with our desire and success to forgive even the deepest of pains in this life, especially betrayal. Imagine your own homecoming to Jesus in Heaven and all the stories you’ll share as you spend a lifetime looking for Him, too.
Leave a comment“Of course, God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is). What is going on with you at present is simply the beginning of the treatment. Continue seeking with cheerful seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.” C. S. Lewis
From the very beginning of the Revelation, we have received, beginning in the Old Testament, we encounter the notion and the nature of the kind of deep and lasting relationship the Lord has always wanted for us. Like a good earthly father who wants to give his own family all he has for love and survival, we look to our Heavenly Father, who does the same. When we realize and accept this truth, we can easily join the Psalmist in the moment of pure joy: “Who is this king of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.”
Today’s Gospel brings us closer to the moment where Jesus makes this intimate relationship so much clearer and meaningful: “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus was not minimizing His relationship with His mother through these words. He was expanding it. He hungers, through Divine Love, to include all of us in the “family circle” of God. In doing so, He invites us on the journey home. In this exchange, Jesus really opens up the interior importance and meaning of the motherhood of Mary – and through that relationship – the interior meaning of all family relationships. The Church is a family. Understanding this insight and living it is a key to a deep and wonderful spiritual life. Our vocation is fundamentally about relationships and communion. All who are incorporated into the Body of Jesus Christ through Baptism begin even now to experience the intimacy (expressed in family relationships) that is the essence of the very life of the Most Holy Trinity. Through His life, death, and Resurrection, Jesus opens a way for every man, woman, and child who chooses to do the will of His Father to enter into the very family circle of God through truly living our lives in Him.
My friends, we are His Family, and He is Ours! Think about it for just a minute, especially when the day gets a little tough and lonely. Be loved.
Leave a comment“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.” Brene Brown
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” With age, most of us hope to see the world much more clearly. There are a good number of people today that we love and cherish dearly, and while there are a good many others that have seemingly dropped out of our lives, there is a definite pattern that has emerged that deepens respect and admiration for all the people who have populated life. We have loved them because they have shown us Jesus. Their ways of handling death, disappointment, fun, friends, and family have all slowly formed a clear picture of the character that is unmistakably the mark of one who truly loves God. Imagine how the crowd in today’s Gospel must have felt when they heard that they must live their lives in the light of truth before the world! What goes through your mind?
“For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” All of us who live in the Kingdom want family, and we seek security in one way or another. We need intimacy to discover our place in the world and make a healthy connection with others, especially with God. What is the foundation of such levels of relationship? Fidelity and obedience. We feel and exist closer to the Lord the more we follow Him and live in the light of His love, starting with our desire and success to forgive even the deepest of pains in this life, especially betrayal. Imagine your own homecoming to Jesus in Heaven and all the stories you’ll share as you spent a lifetime looking for Him, too.
Leave a comment“Of course, God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is). What is going on with you at present is simply the beginning of the treatment. Continue seeking with cheerful seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.” C. S. Lewis
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. ” When we say that someone saw the light,” we are usually describing a very poignant and perfect moment in a person’s life, which more than suggests that things are about to become a lot better. Selfish-induced darkness creates too many problems to mention here and becomes the proverbial red flag and serious threat to a happy and fulfilled life. So when the Light comes forward, it is time to celebrate!
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” One of the great equalizers in life is the realization that we are all in the same boat, rowing with the same intention, with one goal in mind: SANITY. Once that very important fact shines its Light into the thinking processes and attitudes of all of us, we will never advance. That is why Jesus asks that we all put Him first all the time and not have any divisions or quarrels about who gets credit, who gets their first, or who is the best.
“From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Once the darkness and arrogance is removed, there dawns the bright promise freed from all the forces that bring us down. Jesus has already won this battle. We are called to live in this inaugurated eschatology, or easier said, living in the tension between the now and the not yet. Much like the experience of time between D-Day and V-Day, the day the enemy is defeated and the day we celebrate and put it all together, the present moment is the best one we have because it is the only one we have. Shine on!
Leave a comment“I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” Og Mandino
“When his relatives heard of this, they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.” What a familiar expression we have in the Gospel today!“Out of his mind.” What does that mean? Most people would agree that the phrase describes a situation where someone has lost control of their mental faculties and gone insane. Others would add that the phrase is used to express a belief in someone’s inability to make rash decisions because of mental turmoil. However, from our perspective, the person who loses sight of eternal life and the final destination in Heaven will act as if they are insane, making all kinds of strange and selfish decisions that put their earthly lives in jeopardy and their heavenly reward in question.
“They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the soldiers of the LORD of the clans of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.” The simple truth is this: when anyone decides to follow the Lord and keep the commandments to the best of their abilities, even when life seems to come undone and people are unhinged, the world may deem that insane. How often have we been told that immoral and anti-Christian behavior is perfectly acceptable because, well, “everybody is doing it.” Therefore, trying to be different and faithful must make you “out of your mind.” So who is crazy and who isn’t? There is only one answer: “Let us see your face, Lord, and we shall be saved.” (Psalm)
Leave a comment“The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.” Thich Nhat Hanh
This indeed is a great day to reflect upon the intrinsic and deep relationship between what it means to have good, close, and encouraging friends, the freedom it takes to maintain those friendships, and the faith in Jesus that makes us friends with Him. “For if a man meets his enemy, does he send him away unharmed? May the LORD reward you generously for what you have done this day. And now, I know that you shall surely be king and that sovereignty over Israel shall come into your possession.” Review once again what David accomplished in our First reading today. The depth of love in his heart for friendship gushed over into the way he dealt with his enemies: with total and complete mercy. In many ways, you can tell how great a friend will be to the extent that he or she can forgive and show compassion. This is certainly true with David and Saul.
This element is underscored in the Gospel of today: Jesus knew that one of the friends/apostles He would choose would eventually betray Him, and still, in perfect freedom, he asked Him to follow Him, that is, be His friend any way: “He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him…and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.” The application for us today is simply stunning. For love to grow within any relationship, there must be faith in the One who is love and the only One who will sustain that love until eternity, and especially for the grace both to forgive and show mercy. What is also remarkable is that love, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion never leave us empty-handed or return with nothing. It is a classic “win-win” situation: “I call to God the Most High, to God, my benefactor. May he send from heaven and save me; may he make those a reproach who trample upon me; may God send his mercy and his faithfulness.”
Leave a comment“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession; friendship is never anything but sharing.” Elie Wiesel
In 1811, a remarkably beautiful hymn was written that entitled a question that we could address to ourselves today: “What Wondrous Love is This?” When you think about it, it truly is an amazing question to ask in the first week of the New Year and on the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. What kind of magnificent love is it that inspired and propelled God to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born in a filthy manger, live a poor life, then be crucified for our sins? Perhaps a line from our First Reading helps us answer this profound question: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are.”
The third verse of the hymn then explodes with the enthusiastic joy of the awareness that is brought to the one who understands this gift and cannot help but be changed forever: “To God and to the Lamb, who is the great I AM, while millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing, while millions join the theme, I will sing!” This, too, is underscored by the opening lines of the Responsorial Psalm of today: “Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done wondrous deeds; His right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm.”
This wondrous, wonderful love that still echoes for us in this beautiful Christmas Season reveals the height and depth of such a love that carries us beyond our life here on earth to an eternal Christmas in Heaven: “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Let us move forward in this New Year with new resolve and new hope. Darkness cannot and will not extinguish what we have been given. We will sing: “And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be, and through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on, and through eternity I’ll sing on!”
Tonight, as you place the final touches on this day and continue to drink in all the hope for a brand new year, slowly and ever-so-gently say the name of Jesus. Say it again and know that He is right there with you. It will be glorious.
Leave a comment“As many have learned and later taught, you don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” Tim Keller
“Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.” Throughout our daily journey to the Father, we will no doubt encounter all kinds of dark and sinister forces that appear at the most inopportune times and situations. One of those is the debilitating and paralyzing force of fear. We find ourselves facing all kinds of fears in practically all kinds of situations. Some moments are not as intense as others, but as long as we allow this very negative force even a small foothold in our attitudes and prayer life, it only has the capacity of growing dangerously large into a formidable enemy of happiness. We can take great comfort in how the origins of all these pathetic and evil shrank before the face of Jesus to give us the necessary depth of faith to trust Him with everything we have and move forward with that same confidence, facing every opportunity with grace and peace.
“Let not your majesty sin against his servant David, for he has committed no offense against you, but has helped you very much by his deeds.” Today we are called to approach our Dear Lord and Savior with petitions for other people in our lives who might be suffering and carrying heavy crosses. We are also called to bring our own souls and lives to Jesus and ask for the peace and comfort that only He can bring to the world. If we all act as one agent for peace and forgiveness, the world will witness a profound difference.
Be at Peace Prayer by St. Francis de Sales
Do not look forward in fear to the changes in life; rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very own you are, will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will carry you in His arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the same understanding Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and every day. He will either shield you from suffering or will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
Leave a comment“On a certain sabbath, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him.” In the Gospel today, we witness yet another pathetic example of hypocrisy taken to its unusual conclusion. Clearly, these people were as closed as a dead oyster. The scribes and Pharisees would rather a man suffer with a horribly deformed hand than be cured on the Sabbath. This is because they prefer to maintain a deformed view of reality, and others suffer who do not fit into their constructs and mindsets. You see, the Sabbath is much more than law, but truly a gift of God’s care for all of us. He rested on the seventh day not out of fatigue, but to show how a fruitful life should be lived, with enough time for re-creation and renewal. Our redemption from sin and death is truly the work of God and not us. He has literally “done all the work.” Now, for this glorious break, He wants us to enjoy it!
On Sundays, try to remember this Reflection. Consider taking a different approach to the Sabbath and let God be at peace with you and for you. Cut out any unnecessary activity and focus on your hope of Heaven. Then perhaps we may truly appreciate the beauty of the creative courage of young David, who realized that this battle belonged to God, that he named his giant, and that he moved toward the challenge with no regrets precisely because he had rested and honored the Lord’s Sabbath. “Let your majesty not lose courage. I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine.”
Leave a comment“A life built upon Sabbath is contented because in rhythms of rest, we discover our time is full of the holiness of God.” Shelly Miller
In our First Reading, we are presented with an awesome scene of encouragement as we continue to move forward in this New Year: “Not as man sees does God see, because he sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.” This Scripture clearly understood the right order of things in the Spiritual Universe, as Jesus recalled and reminded the Pharisees later in St. Mark’s Gospel: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” You see, the Sabbath is much more than a law, but truly a gift of God’s care for all of us. He rested on the seventh day not out of fatigue, but to show how a fruitful life should be lived, with enough time for re-creation and renewal. Our redemption from sin and death is truly the work of God and not us. He has literally “done all the work.” Now, for this glorious break, He wants us to enjoy!
You and I, unfortunately, tend to rush through our busy week, maybe offering God a fleeting wave or a passing prayer. Sunday, the Sabbath, however, calls us to a true and thought-out decision with real intention. We are simply to stop all the other things we had to do or must do or have to do, and spend quality time with Him and focus attention on Him. When we decide to obey, that is, listen to the Fourth Commandment, we become aware of the astounding and comforting truth that we really belong to God. It is not the Sabbath that we worship but the One who has initiated the Sabbath as we swim in a sort of memorial in time, a useful tool to help us focus our attention on our awesome destiny. This coming Sunday, try to remember this Reflection. Take a different approach to the Sabbath and let God be at peace with you and for you. Cut out any unnecessary activity and focus on your hope of Heaven. Then perhaps we may truly appreciate the blessing of St. Paul for us, as cited from the Letter to the Ephesians in the Alleluia Verse of today: “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what the hope that belongs to our call.”
Leave a comment“A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the most joyous day of the week.” Henry Ward Beecher
“Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission than the fat of rams.” Perhaps among the top ten most understood terms used in common speech, we find the lonely word “obey.” In some circles, and this, of course, is wide open for debate, obedience means to blindly follow the order of another, usually one in authority or with power over us, given or taken, usually with dire consequences if the orders are not completed or compliant. This is certainly understandable, given that if a person in the military or other chains of command formats does not follow orders, that is, to obey a command, then there are serious and disastrous repercussions. However, to play this right, the word at its very heart means to be subject, serve, pay attention to, give ear, and thus literally, “to listen to.”
The Gospel, then, completes these thought developments with a very insightful and clever image: “Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined.” We live in a sinful and wounded world. This much is true. But we also live in a milieu of darkness with the brightest of Lights deep within us. This much is certain because of Jesus. Then, at last, before going out into this bold universe, we must first listen, that is, obey the Lord and attempt to conduct ourselves with the Truth of the Gospel and navigate through a veritable labyrinth or maze of choices enlightened by the Word: “The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” So today, take some time and just be with God, even if it is in your vehicle or in between some necessary chore that was due two hours ago.
Shhhhhhhh! Just listen.
Leave a comment“This will be the sign for you that the LORD has anointed you commander over his heritage.” Several dictionary entries describe the condition of a two or double edge sword as something that has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences. Since the Scriptures are filled with references such as these, such as the account of King Saul’s humble beginnings, there is the not-so-remote possibility that something good, as well as something tragic, could happen. The first concern perhaps held by many of our Readers would be surrounding the strategy or ways we can know how to keep the best consequences flowing over and above the negative ones. This would certainly become the proverbial case with Saul , who could not find a healthy way to deal with his insane jealousy over his own son, the iconic King David.
The Gospel of this same day provides us all with such a methodology and comforting resolution to handling the two-edged sword of the most powerful words we should ever want to hear on the planet: “Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me.'” The only surefire way to approach the daily call to holiness and avoid the dangerous but likewise appealing calls to be selfish, leading us all the way to our final destination in Heaven, is simple and beautiful. We follow Jesus. We listen to Him, immerse ourselves in fruitful and comforting prayer, and then repeat this life-giving cycle every single morning of our lives.
Leave a comment“The sharp two-edged sword of the Word of God is without a dull book, a blunt chapter, or a flat verse.” Steven Lawson
“I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” What we have today is truly a loving image of the one who brings light to every situation they enter. This does bring special nuance to the image that Jesus imparts to us to exemplify his love and care for the world. When you think about it, plants and crops are kind of like people, each having their own unique “personality” and preferences for water, sunlight, soil type, and best-growing conditions. The Lord knows this about us, so He attends to the varying needs of each of us in terms of what is best for us to grow and bear fruit in this life. Like plants, we too can harvest energy from the sun, that is, the Son of God; water, for example, is absolutely necessary for life and so are the waters of Baptism; Just like plants, human beings need nutrients both for the body and soul and for this we are fed on the Word of God in the Scriptures and Eucharist, the Body of Christ. And just like the plant world needs something, the soil that holds all the water and nutrients needed for growth, Jesus has given us the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. We also must recognize the rocks and thorns in our lives that can distract and choke the grace we need to grow in love for and with God and that is why we remain open to his beautiful Word today and always.
“The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. To those who accepted him, he gave power to become children of God.” All of us who live in the Kingdom want family, and we seek security in one way or another. We need intimacy to discover our place in the world and make a healthy connection with others, especially with God. What is the foundation of such levels of relationship? Fidelity and obedience. We feel and exist closer to the Lord the more we follow Him and live in the light of His love, starting with our desire and success to forgive even the deepest of pains in this life, especially betrayal. Imagine your own homecoming to Jesus in Heaven and all the stories you’ll share as you spent a lifetime looking for Him, too. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'”
Hold your head up high and be Jesus today!
Leave a comment“Of course, God does not consider you hopeless. If He did, He would not be moving you to seek Him (and He obviously is). What is going on with you at present is simply the beginning of the treatment. Continue seeking with cheerful seriousness. Unless He wanted you, you would not be wanting Him.” C. S. Lewis
Board Member
Everyone needs to have a Ray “Redfish” for a friend or at least to meet one like him before you leave the planet. He has never been known to interrupt a single person, say an unkind thing, although he did come close during the last Dallas Cowboy game, or leave any food on his plate. Ray wants to live in a world where Jesus is Lord, life is sacred, and blessings never end.
Board Member
Grateful for an amazing group of friends and a life that has been blessed and enriched by so many, Andrea brings a deep joy and dedication to the mission of CityOfAgape. She is detail-oriented and uses her experience and foresight to proactively address the needs of those around her. When you speak with Andrea, you feel like you’re the only one in the room.
Board Member
Father David comes from the land of Iowa where you can get sunburn and frostbite all in the same week. He has the mind of an architect and the soul of a musician. Father David has given his heart to Jesus and truly lives in the Kingdom. An accomplished guitarist, drummer, phenomenal preacher, he has the voice of a baritone angel. His prayers are powerful and his humor, well… it’s Iowan.
Secretary/Treasurer
Every day, for nine months, an intermittent light rain falls in Seattle, Washington. Those days are brightened by the warm smile and hopeful outlook on life that Angelyn brings to every encounter. Her financial expertise and engaging conversation has ensured great things ahead for CityOfAgape. Her life is filled with a constant welcome that is focused and friendly.
President
Jacqueline’s life epitomizes hard work, creative service and complete dedication, not only to CityOfAgape, but also to her husband, Joshua, and her beautiful children. Her smile, even when things are difficult, is refreshing and comforting. In most currently used English dictionaries, under the word “energy,” you will find Jacqueline’s picture.
Secretary/Treasurer
Janice is not only meticulous in reviewing records and requests for Scriptures, but her eyes well-up with joyful tears when you ask her about all the letters she has received from the thousands of Bible recipients over the years. She loves gardening and listening to the earth; her life is like a long stroll through an intriguing and engaging nature center.
Board Member
Father James’ priestly service has taken him to four different countries, many parish settings, and in contact with more friends that rivals most politicians. One of his favorite quotes is by G.K. Chesterton, “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” If there are sounds of a lively discussion, mixed with hearty laughter and the aroma of a good cigar, Father James can’t be too far way.
Founder and President Emeritus
The minute John walks through the door, your IQ goes up. He embodies the remarkable talent of grasping the bigger picture while juggling multiple points of view, in a world where many are very one-sided. Always happy, even when he is sad, John is ready to challenge and comfort all in the same breath. Where some only see problems, John sees the bright promise of tomorrow. His inspiration and memory will outlast his years on earth. John always says, “there are always miracles where there is great love.”