Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid,

and all generations shall call me blessed.

 

For He Who is Mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His Name.
He has shown mercy from generation to generation
toward those who fear Him.

He has shown the might of His arm
and scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent empty away.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel,
just as He promised to our father Abraham
and to his seed forever.

 

Mary's song is a song of deliverance, echoing the song of Moses and Miriam after they and all the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea and were safely delivered out of the hands of Pharoah's army and everlasting captivity (Ex. 15).  This is the song of those who have been rescued from powers too strong for them, the song of those who have been rescued by a Hand and a Power not their own.

 

Anyone who has ever been trapped by a power stronger than themselves and who has been delivered from the captivity of depression, alcohol, anger, confusion -- the domination of slavery of any kind -- can finally understand the Book of Ephesians, where Paul prays that "the eyes of your understanding may be opened, that you may know....the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him....far above all principality and power and might and dominion...and he put all things under His feet...."(1:18-22).

 

Mary knew that deliverance for Israel would have to come from above. Israel had no power of its own under Roman rule.  When she says, "He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid," she is indeed speaking on a personal level, but she is also the voice of all Israel, at that time under the dominion of the world "principality and power and might and dominion."  She knows that mankind itself-- even the mighty Romans -- need a Savior to free them from their sins.

After slogging through years and years of self-help handbooks, "I'm okay; you're okay" philosophies, transcendental meditation techniques, primal scream therapies, people just get tired.  As one husband of a workshop leader told me many years ago, "I'm just tired of living from workshop to workshop."  Until we realize that we cannot help ourselves, that our deliverance must come from above, we are stuck in the human condition.  Some of us may seem more "put together" than others, but believe me, there is not one of us who can save ourselves from sin and its residual effects. 

The good news is that we don't have to save ourselves.  When we finally "get it," that deliverance and salvation has been already given to us in Christ Jesus, who has already disarmed all the powers of sin and death, we will be like Mary, like Moses and Miriam, singing the song of praise and thanksgiving:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  for He has done great things for me, and I am glad indeed.

 

May the Spirit of the Lord teach us to sing in the New Year, as our deliverance from evil continues.  For what God has done in the past, he continues to do in the present:

 

As this year draws to a close, receive My peace.  This is still your deepest need, and I, your Prince of Peace, long to pour myself into your neediness.  My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match.  I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own...I want you to be filled with My very Being, permeated through and through with Peace.....My Peace, which lives continually in your spirit, will gradually work its way through your entire being (Jesus Calling: Dec. 31).



 



On Retirement and Staying Busy

One of the great joys of retirement is that of "staying busy" as directed by the 'inner man" rather than by the world of outside pressure to perform at a certain time and in a certain way.  During our working years, routine and personal discipline are absolutely necessary if we want to get ourselves and our children to work and school on time.  Although I absolutely loved my job and could not wait to get to work each day, there were days when I just wanted to stay in bed all day and read -- particularly if the weather was cold and rainy.  Now, on occasion, I choose to do just that, and I say to myself, "This is the day you yearned for so many times while you were working."

Even in retirement, routine and personal discipline still play a major role.  The difference, however, is that we choose our routines and disciplines, rather than having them imposed from without.  Of course, if we have family obligations, such as baby-sitting for the grandkids or caring for a sick relative, we are not entirely free to lie in bed all day.  But also, it is our choice to impose the routine and discipline upon ourselves -- out of love and concern.  If we are volunteering, we may be staying quite busy, but in fact, it is not a burden for us to do so, but rather a joy--even if we are exhausted in the process because of our declining energy level.  In retirement, we are free to receive the gifts of others, and to freely give the gift of ourselves.  It must be the closest thing to experiencing heaven on earth.

I recall the famous answer given by the young boy who was carrying his little brother through the snow:  "He's not heavy, father; he's my brother."

Retirement is far from stagnation, but rather allows us finally the freedom to explore the avenues of growth and curiosity; it is still a time of learning and the excitement of discovery.   If we fail to use that time, we will stagnate into the old routines and find boredom on our doorstep.  But even when our health fails, there is often a way to keep the mind and spirit alive.  I would maintain that this time in our life is when our relationship with God becomes the most important of all---it is the fruition of all that has gone before in this regard, just as the relationship of a husband and wife in old age and no longer working depends entirely on what has gone before, during the working years.

I awoke this morning to a cold and dreary day, but since I had no pressing obligations, I decided to listen to 2 audio lectures from The Great Courses before I got out of bed.  Each lecture was 30 minutes; by the time I got out of bed an hour later, I was excited and energized by what I had learned and the day was no longer cold and dreary.  And then, when I arrived at my computer and read the entry from Jesus Calling for today, I read this:

I am preparing you for what is on the road ahead, just around the bend.  Take time to be still in My Presence so that I can strengthen you.  The busier you become, the more you need this time apart with Me.  So many people think that time spent with Me is a luxury they cannot afford.  As a result, they live and work in their own-strength -- until that becomes depleted.  Then they either cry out to Me for help or turn away in bitterness.

 

How much better it is to walk close to Me, depending on My strength and trusting Me in every situation.  If you live in this way, you will do less but accomplish far more.  Your unhurried

pace of living will stand out in this rush-crazed age.  Some people may deem you lazy, but many more will be blessed by your peacefulness.  Walk in the Light with me, and you will reflect Me to the watching world.

Knowing God

To know Christ is to know God.

--Rita Ferrone: "Beyond All Words"

 

No one has ever seen God, but the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known (John 1:18).

 

The reason Jesus came was to make known the Father.  For us, as men, it is impossible to really "know" God in the Biblical sense of knowing -- that is, not head knowledge, but love knowledge -- the kind of intimacy between husband and wife.  People will proclaim that no one has all truth, as if to mean that no one really knows what God is really like.  But they are thinking of "truth" as a body of facts, as the compendium of science, for example.  And of course, no one knows all the facts there are to know about God -- even Jesus could not reveal all He knew to the disciples:  I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But the limitations of human knowledge do not have to describe our knowledge of God.

 

We are all at different stages of intimacy with God, because our intimacy is not related to our head-knowledge, but to our heart-knowledge.  And that knowledge continues to grow, increase, and reveal itself as love increases.  To know Christ Jesus in this way is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, as He gradually pulls back the veil and allows us to 'see' the real Jesus.  For years, scholars have been trying to discover the 'historical' Jesus, as if archeology and documents could reveal to us the Son of God.  But the Holy Spirit does increasingly reveal more and more to us of who Jesus really is.  And to know Jesus is to know God, for "He is the exact image of the invisible God," and "... in Him is the fullness of the Divinity."

 

The world itself and all our earthly loves enchant us because they are reflections of the immense beauty, love, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator.  St. John tells us that the "world was made through Him [The Word/ Jesus], and for Him, and nothing that has been made was made without Him."  C.S.Lewis puts it this way:

 

When we see the face of God, we shall know that we have always known it.  He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love.  All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His....by loving Him more than them, we shall love them more than we do now.

 

The earth itself is full of the glory of God, of His love outpoured and manifest.  How much more, then, the face of Jesus Christ, Who has "made known" (and Who continues to make known) the Father!  At the last supper, Jesus made it plain that he would continue to reveal truth to the disciples, as He and the Father would continue to dwell in us, and the Spirit would continue to "take from what belongs to Me and make it known to you."  Revelation is ongoing, and does not grow stale, just as love does not grow stale, but deeper and more meaningful with each of life's experiences.

 

Heaven -- and the Face of God -- should not be a surprise to us at the end of life.  Our knowledge of both should be constantly coming into clearer and clearer focus for us as we age and mature in love.  Just as we "know" Jesus from the Scriptures as breathed upon us by the Holy Spirit, so then we will know the Father even as He is revealed to us by the Son.

 



 



Worried Sick

An illustration in Give Us This Day, a small prayer guide, shows Joseph on his bed at night, staring into space, eyes wide open in fear and anxiety.  Behind him, through the window, an angel of the Lord stretches out his wings and hands over the worried-sick Joseph:  Do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.  She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

"When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home."

The Book of Isaiah tells us that God's ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts.  Even Joseph, the just man, the good man, a man of God, needed divine revelation to comprehend the ways of God.  Holy as he was, his mind could not wrap itself around what he knew:  Mary was a virgin, certainly --- or had something happened to her on the way to Elizabeth's house three months previously, something so terrible that she could not speak of it?  He knew Mary, had known her perhaps from childhood.  Their families were close, perhaps even related.  He knew her gentleness, her kindness.  There was no better wife to be found in all of Nazareth. 

But he also knew she was "with child," as she had said.  Glancing at her form confirmed her words; she was just beginning to show.  People would begin to talk -- and soon.  They would surely think Joseph had taken Mary at their engagement, even before he took her into his house.  He would share in her humiliation, in her shame.  She would not be stoned, physically, for engagement was as valid in their culture as marriage itself---but she would not be honored either. 

Nothing made sense, nothing.  There was no good solution to this problem.  Joseph could not even begin to guess the outcome of Mary's pregnancy -- for her, for him, for the child.  He could not know that the child would be born outside of Nazareth, in Bethlehem, far from the wagging tongues of Nazareth.  He could not know that they would have to leave Bethlehem and continue traveling away from Nazareth down into Egypt for several years, as the child grew into a toddler and perhaps a young child. 

He could not know that, even then, God was preparing three astronomer-kings from different parts of
the surrounding countries to embark on a journey, with gifts that would support the young family on their flight into Egypt.  Joseph was worried sick -- but, because he walked with God and sought God, he was given an answer: Do not be afraid.  He was given hope and freedom from "worried-sick."

Surely, on the way to Bethlehem some months later, he had concerns--would they find a place to stay among his relatives in the crowded city?  Would Mary's time of childbirth be safe, among friends, among women who had assisted many times?  Would the child wait for its arrival until they were settled comfortably in Bethlehem?  He could not know then that he would continue to receive guidance as he needed it along the way.  He was to receive yet another dream after the child was born.

Joseph and Mary both had to grow in trust on the way -- the One Who sent His Son into the world had to be preparing the way ahead of them, surely. 

Joseph's worried-sick dilemma as given to us in the Scriptures pose a real problem for those who believe that Jesus was the son of Mary and Joseph, a "good man" sent by God as a prophet and teacher, and prepared for by generations of holy people -- so that He has good DNA, presumably. 

Either Matthew's Gospel is a fabrication from beginning to end -- as is Luke's also -- or Joseph was not "worried sick."  If Joseph and Mary had relations before she met Elizabeth, why would Elizabeth cry out with a loud voice, "How is it that the mother of my Lord has come to me?"  As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's voice, the child in her womb lept for joy -- the same Holy Spirit that had overshadowed Mary also overshadowed Elizabeth, and John in the womb.   And did Joseph forget three months later, when he again saw Mary, what had happened between them earlier? 

If Matthew and Luke both fabricated the story, they had to have been very well-versed in the Old Testament Scriptures and prophecies -- but Luke was a Gentile, not brought up in the Hebrew synagogue, and Matthew had been a tax collector, not likely welcome in the synagogue at all, and certainly not someone who had studied the Scriptures, though he could have been brought up in them as a child.  The point is, though, that if they were writing fairy tales, we should not take any part of the Gospels as truth.  We cannot say, "this part is good; but that one, not so much." 

If we cannot accept that God can break into human history with plans of His own, if we cannot accept the message of the angels at Christmas, that our God has come to save us, then our own hope is entirely gone, and we ourselves will live "worried-sick" all the days of our lives.

That wasThen; This is Now

What if today I decide to go for a long walk along the beach?  And what if today a Stranger walked up beside me and asked if He could walk along with me?  What if he asked me, "What's on your mind and heart today? What 'angel of the Lord' are you wrestling with today?"

And what if we lived in a world that did not fear either the Stranger Himself or the conversation that would follow His question to us?  What if we could begin to open our hearts and minds to this Stranger and freely to confess what we are thinking -- or freely to ask Him our true questions?

What if we actually, in our spirit, did recognize the Divine Stranger as Jesus?  Would we welcome Him to walk with us, to speak with us frankly?  Could we bear His gaze into our souls, sifting through all that does not actually matter, but which we have been using as an excuse to avoid a direct conversation and relationship with Him?

What if we have spent our entire life crucifying Him, trying to silence His Voice in us?  And yet, here He stands before us without blame or accusation, waiting for us to drop our protective guard and come to Him in an exchange of love?

The meaning of the Resurrection is that He is here now, beside us, waiting for us to respond to His invitation to begin the conversation once again.  "Now where were we when we were so rudely interrupted?" He asks with a gentle smile.  And suddenly, all the years in between vanish as we begin to answer Him.

Immanuel -- God With Us

And a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they will call him "Emmanuel," meaning "God with us" (Is. 7:14).

 

Her role was to receive the whole Word of God for the whole world.  Any sin in her would have blocked her ability to receive the Whole Word.  All of us are able to receive part of what God wants to give us, part of His instruction and direction -- "I have more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.  But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will lead you into all truth" (Jn. 16:23-23).  But a portion of the Word will not save us; only in Christ Jesus do we have the entire word and will of the Father.

 

Jesus said to the Pharisees, "The reason you do not hear my words is that you are not from God.  Those who belong to God hear My words."  To the extent that we are distanced from God, to the extent that we are wrapped in self-will and disobedience, we are unable to receive the Gift that God wants to give us -- the Gift of Himself, of His very Spirit and Truth.  That is why Jesus must be the Center of our lives; He is the only human being who can receive all that God wants to give us -- because He has no will apart from the will of the Father.  In His 40 days in the desert, He laid down His own will, the desires of the flesh (meaning not only the body, but the mind and heart), to embrace the will of the Father on His behalf.  And it is His own Spirit that He bestows on us as a result of His earthly death and resurrection of the "new man, the second Adam."

 

Jesus did not spend only a day in the wilderness; coming to the end of His own (human) will demanded 40 days -- the length of time the human body can continue without food before it begins to consume itself.  And in one day, we too, cannot learn obedience and openness to the will of God.  For us, it takes a lifetime of transformation through the continuous renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2) and opening our lives to the word and plan of God for us:  But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.  As we behold the face of Jesus working in us through the Holy Spirit, He makes us over to reflect what we see in Him.  We cannot do it of ourselves.

 

Mary conceived in her flesh the Whole Living and Active Word of God, Who is Jesus Christ.  And His life in our flesh is not static, but ... living and active, more powerful than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12).  God's plan for us is to make us over again into His Image and Likeness -- Jesus Christ.  And to the extent that we can allow Jesus to live in us and act in us, He will do what His Father has sent Him to do -- make us a "new creation," one that is able to receive the Gift of God and to dwell with Him in a new heaven and a new earth. 

 

Today, I need to receive what I can of the Whole, Living, and Active Word of God and submit to His action in my life.  And I need to trust that what I am able to give Him of my will, He will transform into the will of God on my behalf. 



A Consuming Fire

...for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29)

 

People find it difficult to read the Bible, for the most part.  And why would it not be difficult to read 4000 years of the history of a people, with all of its shifts in understanding of how God dealt with a difficult nation and with all the nations around them?  It takes an understanding of the history of ideas, some geographical understanding, and most of us, the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to begin to put all the pieces together into a comprehensive whole.  And even then, the Word of the Lord escapes our best efforts to understand....as Paul shows us, even under the tutelage of the greatest Hebrew scholar, He missed God's meaning, until he received the revelation of Jesus Christ and the truth imparted by the Spirit of God dwelling in him.  Prayer -- communion with God --- is the essential element to approaching the Scriptures.  The Word must come to us; we cannot go to it, except in prayer and humility, asking for divine revelation.  Even the Apostles had to go to Jesus after He taught the crowds:  "Explain to us the meaning of the parable," they begged Him. 

 

And after the Resurrection, "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" as "their hearts were burning within them."  It was only after Pentecost, when the tongues of fire divided and descended on each one, that the Scriptures came alive and made themselves manifest to their understanding.  And yet we, with arrogance, assume we can grasp the Scriptures without the help of the Holy Spirit, without the fire of divine revelation. 

 

We want the Scriptures without the experience of Pentecost, because we are afraid of the fire.  After all, did not Paul say to the Hebrews, "our God is a consuming fire"?  But then, also Moses, 1500 years before Paul had said the same thing in Deuteronomy 4:24:  "For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."  For some people, that statement is enough to keep them away -- because they will not read the rest of the Scriptures.

 

One of the most interesting studies we can make is to follow the concordance entries on the word "fire."  Instead of opening the Bible at Genesis 1 and attempting to plow our way through to Exodus, it is probably better for a beginner to take one word and to reflect on all of its meanings and contexts throughout Scripture.  And "fire" is a great way to begin.  By the time we get to the fire of Pentecost, our 'hearts will be burning within us!"

 

What is it that the fire "consumes"?  Understanding that one question should make us re-think our fear at the isolated truth:  "Our God is a consuming fire."  If we knew what it was the fire consumed, we would run into the fire with great abandon, with joy!  For example, in Deuteronomy 9:3, Moses tells the people that they will go into the Promised Land, and "dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heart it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?'  Therefore, understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes before you as a consuming fire...."

 

And Isaiah 66:14-15 says "the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, and His indignation to His enemies.  For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.  For by fire and by His sword, the Lord will judge all flesh." 

 

Like a parent armed with vengeance against the destroyer of his/her child, the Lord advances against the enemies of His children -- the destroyer that corrodes the spirit of His little ones.  His 'consuming' fire consumes the destroyer, the evil one.  What have we to fear from the 'consuming' fire?  For the fire He places in our hearts itself is destroying His enemies -- the laziness that keeps us from loving Him, the lust that destroys our souls, the addictions that keep us chained to slavery and will not release us into freedom of love and goodness.....

 

Jesus said that He had come to 'cast fire' upon the earth.  Would that we catch the fire He died to give us!

Be Thou a Blessing

Every one of us, willing or not, will eventually -- before our death -- become on this earth either a blessing or a curse.  C.S. Lewis points out that each time we choose, the central part of us, the part that chooses, is turned toward the good or toward the evil.  Finally, we become what we constantly choose -- and some lose themselves entirely in the process.  The woman who grumbles continuously finally loses herself, her own soul, and becomes in the end only a grumble, for example.  We look around and see those who have become greed, or lust, or gambling addiction -- and we can no longer find the child they once were; the soul has been lost.

When God called Abraham out of the land of Ur, the land of idols, He said: I will bless you, and you be a blessing.  Everyone who has been touched by God is called to be a blessing to others.  But all we have to give is what we have received from the hands of God.  If we try to give out of our own resources, the well quickly runs dry -- but the spring of living water (the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Christ) is inexhaustible.  Mother Teresa hit the streets of Calcutta only with a call from God.  She had no resources at all, other than God -- and He was more than enough.

Francis of Assisi extolled the blessings of "Lady Poverty," knowing that all the wealth offered by his earthly father was less than dirt compared to the wealth offered by God.  And Francis' love of poverty absolutely re-built the church of his day, which had been seduced by the wealth and power of the world.

Every one of us desires to be a blessing to others, I would imagine.  Not that we want to be praised and recognized, but rather that we want to have something with which to fill the hunger and thirst and desperate need of those around us.  I see those coming each week to the St. Vincent DePaul Society, those who have lost jobs, those who are sick and who cannot afford medicine, those even who come without a coat in freezing weather.  And I want to be Santa Clause or Donald Trump, handing out to each one what they most need.  I hear people crying out for love and fellowship, for direction and wisdom; I hear young girls who are pregnant and don't know what to do -- and I want to give them warmth, safety, and assurance that their needs will be met.  I think of those imprisoned and being tortured, starved, beaten, exposed to the cold -- and I want to set free the prisoners, feed the hungry, and tend to the wounds. 

What gives me hope in the sight of my own helplessness is knowing that God Himself hears the cry of the poor, that He has given to the church prophets, teachers, administrators, healers, givers -- those who bind up the wounds of the sick, those who shelter the poor, care for orphans and widows, and go to those in prison.  I read a Franciscan magazine which brings me the news of those who minister daily to those I myself cannot reach -- and I know the church, those who live the spirit of Jesus Christ, is still alive and well, is still a blessing on the earth.

Two days ago, I had the privilege of speaking at length with a young family who are Catholic missionaries, ministering in the poorest areas of Mexico.  Their 5 children, the oldest of which is 9, are beautiful, happy, well-cared for and loved.  And they too are learning to give, young as they are.  I looked into the eyes of the 9-year old and found God.  "You have beautiful eyes," I told him.  "They are the same as yours," he said back to me.  I was startled by such a reply from one so young.  The love these children have for their parents and for one another is so obvious that it spills over to all who come in contact with them.  The parents have chosen to work with a group of young families who support one another, and who have formed a community, along with a priest who has chosen to go to the poorest section he could find.  One of my confirmation students recently visited the mission in Mexico, and it changed her life.  I could tell when she returned that, even though she went there supposedly to evangelize the "poor," she herself had been evangelized by them.  She came back no longer cynical, but glowing.  (She is the very one who asked me several months ago if this was "real," because she did not want to waste time praying if what I was teaching her was not real.)  Now she knows for herself that it is. 

That which we have received from God is what we have to give to others.  If we will not receive, we will be condemned to have nothing to give, and our dream of being a blessing to others will die within us.  We will be condemned to say to the world, "Make me happy," instead of pouring out upon the world around us the blessings we have received.  We call God "Father" because "every good and perfect gift comes down from above," as the Scripture tells us.  Many years ago, I had to learn to look up instead of to others or to myself for what I needed.  And that opening to God changed my life forever!

The Father wants to make us in His own image and likeness -- that is, He wants us to be a blessing to the earth.  And to that end, He gives us His own Image and Likeness, His only-begotten Son, who dwells within us to transform our earthly likeness into His own.  We too, like Jesus, can finally say, "Go and tell John what you see:  the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the poor have the gospel preached to them."  The kingdom of God is among you!

An Enemy Has Done This

Julian of Norwich (b. 1342) is considered the first woman to write in English.  She was a mystic who received 12 hours of divine revelation at the point of what she thought was death.  For the next 40 years, she reflected on and wrote about the revelations she had received.  One of the most poignant revelations was that of Divine Mercy.  In Hebrew, the word "mercy" is related to the word for "womb."  And Julian's revelations came at a time of what is known as "Jansenism" in the Church -- a movement that was later condemned by the church.  Jansenism taught that we are all unworthy of the grace of God; the philosophy can be compared to Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon: "Sinners in the hands of an angry God," an often-repeated publication from the literature of Colonia America. 

It often takes a direct revelation from God to someone weak, irrelevant, or ignorant -- such as a young child -- to counteract an evil and prevalent philosophy that has gained a foothold in the church.  Jesus warned us of such an event in the 13th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, with the parable of the wheat and the tares:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;

but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?"

He said to them, "An enemy has done this...."

 

How did Jansenism sneak into the message of Jesus Christ, which assumed from its outset that we were all "unworthy sinners?"  In fact, the whole reason for Christ's coming was to pull us out of the pit we had dug for ourselves.  His message of loving compassion and help for those who could not help themselves was in direct contrast to the message of the Pharisees: "We are holier than thou!"

 

Julian wrote with great eloquence about the tender "homeliness" of God's love, which in her medieval English meant "hospitality" toward the weakness of His children.  Just as a mother bends with tender mercy and love toward the child who is weak or sick, so God bends with infinite and tender "womb love" over those who have lost their moorings, those who are addicted, those who are injured with incurable wounds.  He carries us, grieving and moaning and struggling with all of His Holy-Spirit energy to redeem us from the curse of the enemy, the one who "lays heavy burdens on men's backs and lifts not a finger to help them." 

 

How have we come to condemn the sinner when Jesus directly said, "I have come not to condemn, but to seek and save that which is lost?"  Many Catholics tell me they grew up in fear of God's condemnation -- although that was never my experience.  In fact, I had to ask the Lord some years ago to teach me what the expression "Fear of the Lord" actually meant, because I had never experienced anything other than love and compassion from God.  All I can say is that "an enemy has done this," has sown the seeds of tares, which has taken such strong roots in the church of the 50's.

 

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  On this day in 1531, a young Indian maiden appeared to Juan Diego  -- and changed forever the status of the Mexican people, a fusion of the Spanish and Indian races and cultures.  "With her dark skin and Indian features, the Lady offered an image of divine compassion for a demoralized people.  At the same time, she called the Church to heed the voice of the poor, to serve as a vehicle for their cultural and spiritual survival.  Her image, enshrined in Mexico city, attracts millions of pilgrims each year."  (Reading from Give Us This Day, Dec. 9)

 

From the time of Abraham (1950 BC), from the time of the enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt (1250 BC), from the time of the Babylonian captivity (897 BC), until our very day, God's compassion on the outcast, the neglected, the lonely, the lost, the sinner had aroused His action on their behalf.  He has never stopped reminding the sleek, the rich, and the strong of His Divine Mercy and Care.  If we condemn the weak, the lost, and the suffering, we can know for sure that "an enemy has done this," has sown the weed-seeds in our hearts.

The Secret

Yesterday I wrote that union with God is the end and purpose of all religion -- all the disciplines and practices of any religion are designed to bring us closer to that end.  Jesus met the woman at the well, who, despite having had five husbands, had just one question:  "Which is the 'right' religion?"  Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

Jesus' answer is very interesting:  "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

I think His answer to the Samaritan woman is just as relevant to our world today.  Some worship what they do not know, even though it is possible to know the Truth through the Gift of the Holy Spirit (see John 16).  But regardless of 'where' we worship -- on this mountain or that, or on neither -- those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.

That is the secret, the key, to true religion -- worshipping God in spirit and in truth.  But how is that supposed to happen?  How do we get from where we are now (perhaps having had 5 marriages ourselves) to worshipping in spirit and in truth?  The answer is John 4:10 and 4:14:  If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ''Give Me a drink," you would have asked Him, and he would have given you living water......whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

Probably all of Scripture points to this passage -- this is the 'secret' of eternal life and the aim of all religion -- the fountain of water (which is the Holy Spirit) welling up inside of us, cleansing, healing, teaching, leading, guiding, soothing, changing us into the spirit and image of Jesus Christ, the perfect and only true union of God and man. 

We are not meant to do it on our own -- by "imitating" Jesus, for example, although if we mean by "imitating Him" actually drawing closer to Him in spirit and in truth, that may be one way to express the truth.  Rather, the secret to eternal joy is asking for it -- if you knew the gift of God and who is was who asked you....you would have asked Him....

People do not want to believe it is that "easy," so to speak.  They have been taught that we have to "earn" eternal life --and that does seem rational, after all.  But Jesus revealed His Secret to a woman who had no chance to earn anything related to the spiritual life -- at least in the eyes of the world.  God sees things differently, however.  She asked, and she received that which she asked for -- in fact, she became so filled with the Spirit that she became the first evangelist.  Jesus told the apostles that the harvest was ripe as they gazed on all the villagers flocking out to see and hear Him because of the woman's testimony. 

The "little ones" are those who are willing to ask, those who know they are 'poor in spirit,' and can earn nothing of 'reward.'  It is not about "reward;" it is about relationship, just as an infant cannot earn a reward from his parents -- but the relationship is eternal, nevertheless.  We never stop being mothers and fathers to our children, whether they speak to us or not.  And the same is true of God; He continually desires communion with us in spirit and in truth -- but He will take whatever it is we are able to give Him.  He wants us to know Him intimately, but if we choose to remain at a distance (on this mountain), He will still pursue us, just as Jesus pursued the woman at the well, offering her the fountain of eternal life.

God on the Bus

Remember Joan of Arcadia --the tv series that began with the song "What if God were one of us, just making His way home on the bus..."?  I loved that show, and I loved that song.  Unfortunately, it seems that what I love on tv does not have much appeal for the general public.  The show was canceled after one season, if I remember rightly. 

What I loved about Joan, though, was its portrayal of an ordinary, good, family with trials and difficulties and joys, struggling to hold themselves together in an ordinary life.  And God was in their midst, speaking to and through an ordinary teen-aged girl who could hardly believe that God was with her every day.  "Church" was part of their lives, but God was closer than church. 

It seems to me that the whole purpose of any religion is union with God.  To the extent that religion brings us into union with God, it is successful.  To the extent that it remains a social practice, bringing a community together under God, it is somewhat successful also.  After all, there are few social organizations that will allow God to be a recognized part of their club.  The sad thing about religion is that people tend to spend a great deal of time and energy criticizing or applauding the "club," the organization, the structure, and in the process of doing so, pushing God Himself further and further into the background.  Of course, reform is always an on-going process in any organization, and we always need fresh perspectives on where we have gone stale in our religious practice.  The entire history of the Old Testament is one of religious practice growing stale and static, and of God once again trying to enter into the religious practice through prophetic awakenings.

In our day, Pope Francis seems to be a new prophet, awakening the church to the areas where we have grown stale and static.  But my point is not to point out those areas -- but rather, to say, that regardless of where the organization has failed, God is still just as present to us in our daily lives as He was to Joan of Arcadia.  He is still riding the bus with us, still walking through our difficulties with us, still in union with us ---whether the church itself is alive and growing or dead and dying.  The church hopefully always reminds us of that union and strengthens us in that union, but everyone who is paying attention knows the organizational church has gone through 500 year cycles of decay and renewal.  And always, always, 'the gates of hell" have not prevailed, for Jesus Christ is greater than the powers of darkness, and He has promised that He would not leave or abandon us.  And, just as the history of the Old Testament reveals to us, He has never left us to our own devices. 

The human institution of marriage is supposed to be a sacrament -- something we can taste, hear, see, and touch -- of the intimate and indissoluble union of God and man, planned from all eternity, desired from the beginning of creation -- and finally realized in the Person of Jesus Christ.  We know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; we know that our union with the Divine Presence must come about in and through the Spirit of God.  And we know that its perfect expression is the Person of Jesus Christ.  In Him, we are united to the Divine Presence, despite our failings and wanderings from the Truth.

Christ's death was not "punishment" for our sins; it was our progressive and on-going death to the things of the flesh that separate us from the Divine Presence--power, pride, arrogance, depending on our own resources, lust, greed, abuse, etc.  We were not supposed to "wait for pie in the sky;" we were always designed to walk with God, sit with God, talk with God, commune with God.  With Him, we were made to rule the earth and to have dominion over it.  Without Him, however, we have no knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to govern wisely -- so our dominion is one of power and ruin instead of harmony and peace.

The purpose of religion is union with God, and peace/blessing on earth "as it is in heaven."  At the birth of Jesus, the angels sang, "Peace on the earth to men of good will."  They did not sing of this religion or that, but instead announced a final day of union /marriage of God and mankind.

 Unfortunately, people will spend their entire lives dealing with the surface aspects of religion, and fail to achieve its ultimate goal -- union with, friendship with, God, who described Himself as a Shepherd, holding the ewes in His arms and gently leading the lambs.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem, perhaps the most religious of all cities, because they did not recognize the hour of their visitation.  And I also weep because of those whose "religion" is religion and who fail to recognize God in our midst, making His way home (with us) on the bus.  Some, like Pope Francis, are called to be prophets among us and to reform the church.  The rest of us, however, need to know the Presence and Power of God-with-us  -- Emmanuel--- even while the church reforms itself.

The King's Choice

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.

The Spirit of wisdom and understanding.

The Spirit of counsel and might,

The Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord.

 

His delight is in the fear of the Lord,

And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,

Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,

And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

 

He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,

and faithfulness the belt of His waist (Is. 11: 1-5)

 

The first reading for the Second Sunday of Advent in the Catholic Church was the passage from Isaiah quoted above.  Though the whole nation of Israel was condemned by Isaiah for injustice, for its "preference for the rich" and for its cruelty and neglect of the poor, the prophet predicted a messianic reign where the 'lion' would lie down with the 'lamb,' and where justice and peace would prevail.  This era of peace would be bought about by the Messiah, the One in Whom the Spirit of the Lord would dwell.

 

Throughout the Old Testament, we see men and women chosen by God to rule the nation and to bring about the reign of God -- a reign of peace and safety where people would not be afraid to leave their homes, a reign where fields would bear harvest and vineyards would produce grape -- all without fear of destruction and terror.  And God's choice for judges and rulers was never man's choice--He did not 'judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears,' in the words of Isaiah.  God's choice was always on those whose "delight was in the fear of the Lord."  David was considered the least of his brothers -- and yet he was anointed by God to rule Israel and to defeat the enemies of the peace of Israel.  In every case, it was the least likely person who was chosen by God to reign -- but in every case, it was the person who was most likely to consult the Lord for his or her decisions.

 



In our "day," so to speak, Abraham Lincoln was probably the most unlikely candidate to guide the nation through the crisis of the Civil War.  Lincoln was by all of man's judgments ugly, ungainly, with a high-pitched voice -- not very impressive by man's measures.  Yet, Lincoln was a man who sought the judgment of God in his private deliberations.  He sought wisdom from God's perspective, not man's.  And after years of agony and struggle to avoid the crisis of war, he slowly came to the realization that 'every drop of blood drawn by the lash would be avenged by blood drawn from the sword."  In his prayer, he came to realize that war was inevitable, given the hardness of men's hearts and their penchant for greed.

 

Having just finished reading The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi, I was once again struck by God's choice of a ruler, in this case, for England.  George VI was a shy, withdrawn man whose stutter made speaking an agony for him.  In the eyes of the world, his older brother, King Edward VIII was a much better choice for king:  No British sovereign ascended the throne with more accumulated goodwill than Edward, the eldest son of George V.  Whether because of his courage, his radiant good looks, or his avowed concern for the ordinary man (and woman), the new King seemed to embody all that was best about the twentieth century....he was called "the Golden Prince," and Diana Vreeland, a well-connected fashion columnist, declared that all women of her generation were in love with him (p.107).  Edward's reign, however, lasted less than a year, and his younger brother George, though terribly ill-prepared to be king, ended up guiding the nation through its most terrible years of resisting the evil of Hitler's world-aggression.

 

George's outstanding characteristic was probably that of humility.  All of his life, he had suffered from an inability to speak clearly and to communicate his ideas -- a quality despised by his father, George V.  He had to combat fear of speaking in public all the days of his life -- and especially when it came to speaking about the inevitable war with Germany.  But the King was able to encourage his people to seek the help of God and to hope for victory in their darkest days.  Lionel Logue, his therapist, was summoned to help the king prepare a speech prior to D-day, a speech he was told would be "a call to prayer."  On the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, George concluded his speech with the words of Psalm 29: The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.  Later, after the nation responded to the king's speech with pride and gratitude, George replied, "I am glad you liked my broadcast; it was a great opportunity to call everybody to prayer.  I have wanted to do it for a long time" (p. 196).

 

With a nation at prayer, the tide began to turn for the Allies.  I have to wonder what the end result might have been had Edward -- the flighty playboy -- remained on the throne of England.  All through Scripture, there is a theme: How blessed is the nation for whom God/Yahweh is the Lord.  Along with that theme is the theme of rulers and kings -- that a nation has the leadership it deserves, for example, and that under a just ruler, the people thrive, but under an unjust ruler, the people perish.  I look at our country today and wonder where is the "just" man, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, who has the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of knowledge and of counsel, and whose delight is the fear of the Lord.  I just don't know.

 





Is This Real?

"I don't want to waste time praying if this isn't real," one of my students said to me in all honesty.  I think her implied question -- Is this real? -- may be at the heart of all religious beliefs and practices.  Especially in a culture that promotes the belief that reality / truth is different for every person and can be made up from moment to moment, the question will always be that of Caesar:  What is Truth?

In a culture of philosophers, such as the Greek culture, it may be presumed that people are truly searching for the real and the true.  In our culture, it almost does not matter if something is true or not, as long as it is popular and politically correct.  Truth is not as "real" as appearance.

The question put to Jesus by those who had no need of Him was, "How can we know if you speak the Truth?"  And His answer was always, "If you will not believe My words, believe the signs that I do; they will testify of Me."  To those who desperately needed the Lord, no 'proof" was needed  -- these are the ones whose children were healed when they were close to death or even had gone through death; these were the ones whose leprosy was healed, allowing them to once again become members of society, who once again could hug their families.  The woman caught in adultery and almost stoned needed no "proof" that Jesus had come from God.  Even Matthew, the hated tax collector, knew the Face of Love and Acceptance when It gazed on him. 

A woman recently told me that her 5-year old son was diagnosed with cancer.  She had 3 other children, and was frantic with worry about what would happen and how they would all cope.  She grabbed her children from school one afternoon, and the whole family drove to the rectory, where they asked Father Dennis to pray for them.  He took them into the empty church, and they all prayed together.  Father anointed the child for healing and prayed with the whole family.  The mother told me that a peace descended on her during that time that never left her during the whole next year of chemo and radiation.  She still had to face her son's cancer, but there was a strength there that did not leave her. 

Is this real?  Maybe the only way we can know for certain is to face situations we cannot handle on our own:  During times of severe testing, even the best theology can fail you if it isn't accompanied by experiential knowledge of Me.  The ultimate protection against sinking during life's storms is devoting time to develop your friendship with Me -- (Jesus Calling, Dec. 1).

People will search for Truth, thinking that when they find it, they will believe it.  But I think reality lies in the opposite approach --- first, we experience the Truth, and then we search for the words or the formula of belief which describes our experience.  Those who met Jesus in Person first knew His warmth, His love and acceptance, His magnetism -- and then they began to follow Him to hear what He had to say.  Or, in a crowd of hundreds, His words pierced their hearts and minds and brought an acknowledgment:  Truly, this man is the Son of God!  The soldier who watched Him die knew the Truth, though perhaps he had never before heard or seen Jesus.  Nicodemus knew the Truth because of the signs Jesus performed -- the deaf hear, the lame walk, the blind see.  The wonder is that so many others still could not see the Truth of the Son of God.

Next posting on Dec. 9.

Worry -- or Pray!

I just have to post today's entry from Jesus Calling -- it's too good not to share:

Problems are a part of life.  They are inescapable: woven into the very fabric of this fallen world.  You tend to go into problem-solving mode all too readily, acting as if you have the capacity to fix everything.  This is a habitual response so automatic that it bypasses your conscious thinking.  Not only does this habit frustrate you, it also distances you from Me.

 

Do not let fixing things be your top priority.  You are ever so limited in your capacity to correct all that is wrong in the world around you.  Don't weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own.  Instead, make your relationship with Me your primary concern.  Talk with Me about whatever is on your mind, seeking My perspective on the situation.  Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask Me to show you what is truly important.  Remember that you are en route to heaven, and let your problems fade in the light of eternity.

 

*************************************

To me, these words seem a recipe for sanity.  My mother once told me that I could not be a doctor -- my early ambition in life -- because I would drive  myself to drink over everyone else's problems.  I think she knew what she was talking about, because every time I see children, animals, people in general in distress, I wonder what I can do to help.  The most frustrating times in my teaching career were those times when I could not help a student.  One of my more memorable students was June -- not her real name, of course. 

 

June came in everyday at 9:00 am.  The 2-hour class began at 8:00 and lasted until 10:00.  When she arrived, she would come in with a crinkly plastic bag (to protect her books from the rain) and proceed to extract her books amidst lots of crinkly sounds while I was teaching.  Finally, I found a soft canvas bag and offered it to her for her books.  The next day, she arrived with her books inside a plastic bag inside the canvas bag.   I could not learn, it seems, how to solve June's many problems -- she arrived late each day because she did not drive, and that's when her father dropped her off.  (A few years later, I learned what to do about this, but at the time, I was at a loss.) 

 

In addition, June arrived at my office each day for help.  I would spend hours with her, going over her work -- only to find the same problems appearing in the next essay.  She always wanted help, but did not absorb the help.  One day, I had just fixed myself a cup of tea when June showed up.  Unnerved, I spilled the tea all over the papers on my desk, and I realized that I had for some time started to shake whenever June appeared at my door. 

 

A good friend helped me understand what was going on in my psyche:  I really believed deep down that I should be able to help every student who wanted my help -- and June was beyond all my efforts to solve her problems.  But I could not accept the fact that she was beyond my limited resources.  Later, I was to discover that she had been at the college for 8 years, still at the freshman level -- and that no one had been able to help her.  As long as she was in school, her father was supporting her, so she had a good thing going. 

 

Once I accepted the fact that I could not help June, even though she seemed to want my help, everything changed.  When she came into my office, I smiled and went through the motions for a few minutes, and then I let her go.  I stopped caring that she missed an hour of instruction each class period.  I knew she would once again fail English 101, and that it would be fine with her -- so why was I worrying about it?

 

If we refuse to pray about our concerns -- about all of our concerns -- we will continue to worry about the things we cannot change -- and we will never change the things we can, nor have the wisdom to know the difference.  I am sooo grateful to God for His Goodness in teaching me to pray early in my life, so that I do not continue to drive myself crazy over the things over which I have no control.  

Revisionist History

We were told that our Founding Fathers were Deists, and given the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, maybe their understanding of the Divine was more "intellectual" and "rational" than the later Romantics.  But if by "Deists," we imply that they believed God had no hand in the affairs of men -- much as Einstein believed-- it is hard to see how we derived that belief from their written documents -- even those of Benjamin Franklin, the most Deist of all.

Today's paper carried  the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation by George Washington in 1789, given at the request of both houses of Congress:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His Will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and

 

Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be;

that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation;

for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war;

for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;

for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;

for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;

and in general, for all the great and various favors which he has been pleased to confer upon us.

 

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;

 to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually;

 to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed;

to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord;

to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us;

and generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

 

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789--George Washington

 

It always thrills me to read these founding documents slowly and attentively, for they reveal to me the faith of our founders -- a sure and steady trust in the guidance, protection, and providence of Almighty God.  

Peace and Contentment

We are no longer alone if we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit.  Our life unfolds in response to Him.  As we dispossess ourselves, our being is possessed by God: the void is filled.  God who is welcome, light, and warmth, transforms us, bestowing on us something of his radiance.  Those who are possessed by God resemble the burning log, which, St. John of the Cross tells us, little by little becomes white-hot.  Nourished by the fire of the Spirit, our life becomes fire.  Is not this the fire of which Jesus spoke when he said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled"? -- from The Ways of the Spirit: The Spirituality of Cardinal Suenens.

 

Mary, the first Christian -- the first to know the indwelling Presence of Jesus, the Savior of all mankind -- the first to be so overshadowed by the Holy Spirit as to incarnate in her own flesh God Himself.  We are designed by the Creator to be capable of union with God -- in mutual knowledge, in an exchange of love, in obedience to the mission we are given to redeem the earth, to be a blessing to others.  We are created to be "like God" because His Divine Breath animates us.

 

Carl Jung, a non-Catholic, saw in Mary the anima, or soul receptive to the Divine Presence that moves each one of us toward completion.  Without that Presence, we are "like sheep without a Shepherd," "not knowing our right hands from our left" (Yahweh to Jonah, regarding the Ninevites).  When we find our true center, the soul receptive to the Spirit of God, we find both ourselves and God: in knowing Him, we know ourselves.  Without that knowledge, we wander as aimlessly as the Israelites in the desert, not sure of our destination or of our purpose in life -- we simply do not know why we are here.  When we are directed by the Spirit of God, we may not know where we are heading, but we do know the One Who Knows and Who will infallibly guide us to our purpose.

 

Then, even in our uncertainty, we have peace and contentment, for we know ourselves taken care of, guided, and protected on our way.  Last night, after listening to someone tell me again and again (for 3 years now) how her life has fallen apart, how no one will help her, how she hates her job, etc, I finally asked her if she ever thought of thanking God for what He was doing in her life.  "I do thank Him," she began, and then she started listing some of the things she was grateful for.  Instantly, her tone changed from self-pity to gratitude -- for the one friend who invited her to Thanksgiving when her family would have nothing to do with her, for the elderly woman who was so appreciative of her care (she's a caretaker), for the friends who still call and ask her to go line-dancing, etc.  I was amazed at the change I heard in her voice.  Today, I read this in Jesus Calling:

 

A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles.  Instead of trying to be in control, you focus on Me and what I am doing.  This is the power of praise: centering your entire being in Me.  This is how I created you to live, for I made you in My own image.  Enjoy abundant life by overflowing with praise and thankfulness.

 

I think we are never truly joyful and content until we know ourselves to be truly loved -- and this is the first gift of the Holy Spirit to us.  When the Spirit descended on Jesus in preparation for His earthly mission, the Father spoke from heaven:  This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.  And strangely, despite our human weakness and failing, these are the same words we "know" in the depths of our hearts when the Holy Spirit descends upon us -- to know we are loved, to know we are not alone, but that the Paraclete (the One Called beside us) -- this is what it means to have heaven opened to us.  Contentment, not restlessness, is the mark of the Christian in whom the Son of God dwells on earth.

The Carpenter-King: Viva Christo Rey!

Mary Venturella Graffagnini was a good friend of mine.  The first time I saw her work, I did not believe she had made what I was seeing.  At the time I met Mary, she was already well into her 70's, and she was showing me a one-of-a-kind work of art, made of at least a dozen different pieces of cast-off wood.  Anyone else would have thrown these scraps into the garbage, but Mary had taken these good-for-nothing odds and ends and had fashioned them into the most beautiful, polished structures, resembling waves of wood.

"You didn't make that," I said, knowing what kind of machinery it would have taken to produce this object.  With that, this almost-elderly grandmother of eight took me into her workshop, where I saw jigsaws, polishers, and other tools that I could hardly believe she was using to create her artwork.  Later, Mary was to show me hundreds of pieces of art, all unique and beautiful.  She would begin with the central piece of wood, much as Michelangelo would begin with a block of marble,  Studying the grain of the wood and the size of the scrap, she would envision what it might become, and how it could fit into an overall pattern with other scraps she might find.  What I might see as covered with dust and mold, Mary could see in its finished and polished state, carved into new shapes to highlight its natural beauty, and fitting into shapes with other scrapes she had rescued from the dumpster.

When I see Mary's work today, I am reminded of what the Carpenter-King can do with lives that have been scarred by pain and abuse.  What is fit in the eyes of the world only for the scrap-pile, He, the Creator-King, can make into a work of art-- not only something beautiful in itself, but something that fits perfectly into an overall pattern with other pieces, something that now forms a "new creation," waves of wood, for example.

One reason I love reading the lives of the saints is that therein I can see the hand of the Divine Artist, the one who came as a Carpenter, to fashion wood into functional and beautiful works of art.  In the Old Testament description of the Tent of Meeting between God and man, the furnishings were all of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.  The wood represented man; the gold, God.  The tabernacle, the mercy-seat, the candlesticks -- everything used in the Temple was fashioned from wood overlaid with gold.  And certain men were endowed with "the Sprit of practical wisdom" to know how to fashion works of beauty for the House wherein the Divine Presence was to dwell, the place where men could go to meet God.  That 'house'/tabernacle/ Tent of Meeting today is the gathered church, those wherein the Spirit of God dwells -- men and women whose lives have been overlaid with the Spirit of God and who have been redeemed from the scrap-pile of life, fashioned by a Divine Carpenter, and anointed with the gold of the indwelling Presence.  And together, we are being built into a place where God lives on earth.  We are being fit together into the Dwelling Place of the Spirit of God on earth:  Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.

Each one of Mary's works was one-of-a-kind, depending on the kinds of wood she found, the size of the pieces, and the way she fitted them together into a final shape.  And each congregation fashioned by the Divine Carpenter is also unique, depending on the personalities, the lives, the inherent talents He finds in His 'scraps of wood.'  But the Carpenter-King knows what to do with lives that are given over to Him, how to fit them perfectly with other lives, and how to fashion them into a worthy dwelling for His Father and His own Spirit.  Viva Christo Rey!

Viva Christo Rey!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King, the last feast of the church year before we begin the cycle all over again with Advent.  Always before, when we came to this Feast, I would think of Christ the King of all Nations, of a world finally at peace because of His Divine Rule.  Today, though, I am humbled with awe as I read through the brief lives of all the "saints," -- canonized or not -- in my daily book of prayer.  I realize that these men and women were those in whom Christ reigned as king.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) prays that the Lord would remove from his soul the stumbling blocks to the reign of Christ therein:  greed, which claims a throne in us; arrogance which dominates us; pride which does not allow us to bend; comfort and pleasure which claim first rights to our souls; ambition, detraction, envy, anger -- all fight for supremacy within us, and which seem to have us in their power.  Most of us think that we have to conquer these kingdoms through our own willpower and self-control.  (I, for one, learned a very long time ago how helpless I was to overcome any negative power or energy within myself.)  Like Therese of Liseux, I have to trust that Jesus, seeing my helplessness to "climb the rough stairway of sanctity" will graciously descend to lift me up Himself and carry me to heaven. 

If we are the conquerers of evil tendency within ourselves, we have no need of Christ.  But He, knowing human weakness, came not only to live a good life, as an example to us, but in order to enter forever into human weakness, crucifying our flesh so that the Spirit of God reign in our lives.  Who of us is "like God?"  The answer should be fairly obvious -- only Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Only He can transform our human weakness into the Image of God on earth.  Christ must reign over the evil in our flesh and in our egos if He would be king.

There is no sense negotiating peace with our enemies, whether personal or political, if bitterness and anger and natural pride are still reigning over, or dominating, either party.  There IS NO PEACE ON EARTH without the reign of Christ in us.  When we meet others in whom Christ is at work conquering the flesh, we immediately know it -- not because they are perfect people, but because He has established peace in their hearts.  These are people who are not afraid, who are not threatened, who need no defenses -- because they know Who is their King, Lord, and Protector.  Only then can we relax and enjoy "the other" in their weakness and imperfection -- because we know the same Lord who is at work in us will also conquer the evil in them.

More tomorrow on this theme.

LIGHT! BE!

He spoke His eternal word--LIGHT---into existence in a dark and lonely speck of matter, and that LIGHT brought into existence everything that is.

I do love the "Big Bang" theory, for it correlates so well with the account of Creation given in Genesis, Chapter 1.  Can we imagine a world without light-energy?  Nothing would grow, and so the earth would be just a cold stone floating in space, no more significant than the meteor chunks we occasionally see falling from the sky.

The light-energy that gives life to all that exists pre-existed the sun, and indeed, was the source of the sun's energy and light itself.  Until science discovered the full spectrum of light and radiation -- and who is to say there is not yet more to be discovered?---scholars puzzled over what this "light" could be that preceded the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars in Genesis 1.  Now, we are using lasers to heal disease.

The first chapter of John says that the Word was with God at the beginning and the Word was God:

Through Him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

 

Later in John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I am the Light of the world" (9:4).  In the Psalms, David exclaims: "In Your Light, we see light!"

 

What we call "religion" is merely our receiving, or soaking up, the Light of the world, opening our hearts to the Divine Energy, which so wants to take up residence in the temples of our souls.  From that center, It desires to radiate outward to a spiritually dark and lonely world.  We have all seen people who have lost the light of life; their eyes are dead.  Often, I see these people's pictures on the front page of the newspaper -- they have murdered, molested, cooked meth, taken crack, etc.  And I look at their empty eyes, wondering if I can find light in those eyes -- the windows of the soul.

 

There are some whose "light" derives from "who they are," "what they own," or "what they know" -- all ways of "shining" in a dark world.  But these lights soon disappear, and they are no longer remembered by the world.  The Jews had a saying, "The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance," meaning that justice (holiness) lasts forever.  When the Light of God is absorbed by a person's soul, his light shines in the darkness, regardless of his/her religion.  Malala is one example of a shining light, as is Mother Teresa and countless others whose lives will never be publicized.  I have met cooks and housekeepers, maintenance men, teachers, and countless others who had within them the "Light of Life."  And their light is radiant to all who come into contact with them.

 

Jesus Calling -- Nov. 20 -- puts it this way:

 

Shift your focus from your performance to My radiant Presence.  The Light of My Love shines on you continually, regardless of your feelings or behavior.  Your responsibility is to be receptive to the unconditional Love.  Thankfulness and trust are your primary receptors.  Thank Me for everything; trust in Me at all times.  These simple disciplines will keep you open to My loving Presence.

 

Many people seem to be afraid of the Light of the World.  John says this is because their "deeds are evil."  I have met some who are not necessarily evil, but just not interested---their "light" is coming from someplace more intriguing to them.  The world of entertainment and celebrities is one source of  "light" to some; the academic world is another source to many.  It may help all of us to consider our own sources of "light" and whether they actually give Energy and Life to us, or whether they drain those qualities from us.  

 



What is Grace?

One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, writers is C. S. Lewis, who died on the same day 50 years ago as J.F.K.  Another famous writer who also died on the same day is Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World.   Someone wrote a book about the three of them meeting in the ante-chamber of heaven and discussing their philosophies of life.  Unfortunately, I can remember neither the name of that book nor the author, but if I had to guess, I'd say it might have been Peter Kreeft, who wrote C. S. Lewis for the 21st Century.

Anyway, the reason I've always loved Lewis is his ability to explain mysterious things in the most clear way.  As a somewhat muddled thinker myself, I appreciate Lewis' clarity when it comes to the deep things of life.  Even as a child, I was somewhat frustrated by not being able to comprehend something that I wanted to understand more clearly.  For example, I think I've mentioned before that I never liked the word "Grace" because I could not understand "what" it was.  We learned about "sanctifying grace," "actual grace," and "sacramental grace," but I did not know what it was I was supposed to be getting.  And it bothered me.  I wanted it, whatever "it" was, but I wanted to know what God was giving me.

Having confessed my childhood puzzlement to my husband last week, the very next day, he showed me a definition of "Grace" in an article he was reading in the paper:  Grace is the release of loveliness into the world.  Now that I could understand -- loveliness.  Of course, since my childhood, I have grown into more and more understanding of Grace as energy, dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit, exchange of love and life, movement, God's own breath in me, and finally, The Power and Presence of God in me. 

Even as a child, I desired to understand Truth -- I wanted to wrap my head and heart around the essence of things, not their surface.  I wanted to know what things meant, not just what was said about them.  So when I discovered C.S. Lewis, I was elated --  he makes things so clear to me that I always exclaim, "Why, of course that how things are!"  "Why did I not see that before?"  One of Lewis's more famous passages from Mere Christianity concerns the identity of Jesus Christ:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God."  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.

 

This passage alone has brought many to re-examine their belief about Jesus Christ.  I wish I could articulate the wonderful mysteries of God as clearly as Lewis did.  But each of us has his own gift, and C.S. Lewis's gift continues to live on and on.  His devotees today number in the thousands; there are Lewis study groups and professors of Lewis's philosophy on practically every college campus.

 

Two nights ago, I met a man in our parish who told me that reading Lewis, along with Thomas Merton, brought him back to the Catholic church.  What is remarkable about his story is that Lewis began his professional life as an atheist, and Merton as an agnostic and a seeker of pleasure.  Surely, the Power and Presence of God in these two lives is Amazing Grace -- and knowing their stories brings me even closer to understanding what "Grace" means -- the Power and Presence of God in our lives, the Power to change even those walking in darkness, the Power to bring us -- any one of us -- into the Amazing Light of Truth.  Not only did Grace/Light/ God's own Energy enter into Lewis and Merton, but it lit them up from within and put both of them on a "lampstand," that they might shed light to all those in the house.

 

Alleluia!  Three cheers for GRACE!



Let My People Go!

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.  God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (Ex.2:23-25).

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...but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them.  After that, he will let you go (Ex. 3:19-20).

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This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son" (Moses to Pharoah--Ex. 44:22-23)

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The slavery in Egypt is not only an historical event; it is also a parable and a pattern for the Christian life.  Jesus told Nicodemus: Unless you are born from above by water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God.  Yesterday, I wrote about a woman from Taiwan who was instantly set free from her slavery to a false god.  Her eyes were opened immediately -- not from years of study, not from an evangelist ---but from the power of God to reveal things no one had ever told her.  She was set free to worship the True God. 

 

The truth is that we are unable to worship God until we have been set free from slavery.  We are slaves to fear; we are slaves to the wounds of the past; we are in slavery to ignorance, to superstition -- to "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers," as Peter puts it in his letter to the church.  Like the Pharisees, we think we are free and that 'we have never been slaves,' but still, we find ourselves unable to worship God.  That in itself is proof that we are slaves to the flesh, for the flesh and the spirit are at war with one another (Gal. 5).  The flesh does not desire to worship God, and in fact, it cannot.  Paul tells us that no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit -- and my observation tells me the truth of this statement.  I myself, though a church-going Catholic for many years, could not have said "Jesus is Lord" until I was set free by the power of the Holy Spirit to truly worship God and to proclaim Jesus as Lord.

 

So where does our freedom from slavery come from?  Jesus died as a slave in order to put into effect the New Covenant of Spirit to spirit.  When He died, we died and are no longer in bondage to the flesh.  Sin and death no longer have any hold on us; we live now not according to the law of "sin and death" (Romans 7) but according to the "law of the Holy Spirit" living in us (Romans 8).

 

If anyone thinks he is not in bondage, but free to worship God, let him put it to the test by attempting to read Scripture -- or to worship God.  Is Scripture is a dead book to us; if it does not penetrate our minds and hearts, we have not been set free yet from the flesh.  "The god this world has blinded us," in the words of St. Paul.  If we are unable to worship the living God, if we do not know who He is, we are not yet 'born again' of the Spirit.

 

If Jesus Christ is dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit, He will teach us all things and lead us to the pure worship of God, in spirit and in truth:  If the Son of Man sets you free, you are free indeed.

 

The Israelites finally escaped from Pharoah by the death of his first-born son -- but even then, he sent his troops after the fleeing people, only to see them drown in the Red Sea.  Satan, too, is not willing to release his hold on us.  He will tighten his grip again and again until we finally flee to freedom through the waters of Baptism into Jesus Christ, where the sons of Adam / sons of the flesh die and are born again into a new way of life -- no longer subject to the flesh, but ruled by the Spirit of God:

 

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so let us bear the likeness of the man from heaven (I Cor. 15:44-49).

A Lady from Taiwan

It was about half-way through the semester.  I was teaching a class in Basic English as a Second Language, when one of my students, a woman in her 40's remained after everyone else had left.  I went over and sat in one of the student desks next to her, sensing that she was troubled and wanted to talk.  She began to tell me that some months previously, she and her two teen-aged children had arrived in this country on student visas.  She wanted to study English; her children were in a local high school.  But they had come first to the port of Houston, where she had contact with a Chinese lawyer who was helping her.  Upon her first visit to him, he took her documentation and paperwork and kept it.  Thereafter, he was blackmailing her.  If she did not pay him a fee each month, he threatened to "turn her in" to the immigration authorities for not having documentation.  Her children just loved America and its school, and she did not know what to do.  Every night, she spoke to her husband in Taiwan and cried on the phone in desperation.

"Have you prayed for help?" I asked her.  "I pray and pray to your Jesus," she answered me, "but He not helping me!"  "Well," I said, "maybe He is, after all.  I have a good friend who is a Christian lawyer, and he may be able to advise you."  I put her in touch with Jack, whom I had known for years, and whom I could trust.  She was so grateful to me that she wanted to come to my church.  I did invite her to Mass, but the Catholic ritual confused her, and she understood almost nothing of the sermon either.  So I told her about a Bible study I was teaching on Thursday night. 

Anh cleaned houses on Thursday nights to pay the blackmail fee, but nevertheless, the next Thursday, she arrived in Kenner all the way from New Orleans East, where she lived.  However, since she had cleaned a house before coming, she arrived at 9:00, just as we were all leaving.  I could not allow her to turn around and return home after that long trip, so I said, "Come on; we'll do something very short." 

I opened my Bible to Genesis, Chapter 1, and we read about Creation.  Then I went to the first chapter of John, where we read about the Light of the World, Who gives to all who receive Him the power to become children of God.  "How can I receive this Jesus?" she wanted to know.  "You just ask Him to come to your heart," I told her.  "No, I cannot," she answered me; "I have too much crime in me."  I was awed at her response, remembering that St. Peter had said to Jesus, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

"The reason He came," I told her, "was to remove the crime from our hearts."  "Oh," she said with a great deal of relief.  Then she knelt on the floor, and we asked Jesus to come into her heart.  Suddenly this lady from Taiwan jumped to her feet:  "I know the REAL GOD!" she said.  "All these years, I have gone to Buddhist temples and lit hundreds of candles.  How could I not know that Buddha was not the REAL God?  Now I know the REAL GOD!"  The excitement, the joy, the shouting coming from this shy, somewhat withdrawn, woman was a moment none of us could ever forget.  The fire of Pentecost had arrived in our midst. 

I thought to myself on the way home that night, that if this is what it felt like to be a missionary, I wanted to be one!   But that was not the end of the story.  She went home and called her husband in Taiwan.  "What happened to you?" he wanted to know.  "Before, you always cry and cry on the phone, and now you are happy!"  "Tonight, I met Jesus Christ!" she told him.  The next day, he went out and bought a Bible and began reading it.  Then she told her children that she now knew the REAL GOD, and the three of them began studying the Bible at home.  Eventually, her teen-aged son began a Bible study at his public school in Metairie.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us the story of Cornelius, the Roman Centurian, who sent for the Apostle Peter at the direction of an angel.  As Peter began telling the Roman household about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit descended upon all in the house, and they began speaking in tongues.  I believe I witnessed the same phenomenon that evening.  This lady from Taiwan instantly knew what no one had ever taught her; she knew the REAL GOD.

Over the years, I have lost touch with my former student, but I often wonder about 'the rest of the story,' as Paul Harvey used to say.  I was so blessed to have seen and heard what God did for this child of His, and I have often wished I could replicate the experience for others -- but, as Jesus said, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is the "Gift of the Father," and we do not know where it comes from or where it will go.