Invasion!

 Bishop Robert Barron has said that God is like a helicopter pilot, hovering over our lives, looking for a place to land.  

Father John Riccardo has described God's action in our lives as an "Invasion," comparable to the landing on the Normandy beaches during WWII.  

We often think of man searching for God, but the truth is that God has been searching for us from the beginning.  As in the Book of Exodus, He has seen our captivity; He has heard our cries, and He has sent Someone to rescue us.

When Brittany Griner was taken into captivity by Russia last year -- by her own fault, she admits -- the USA did not rest until our country had re-claimed its own citizen.  Unfortunately, the Pharoah of Russia has been resistant and too strong against USA pressure to release other American prisoners.  When Brittany Griner, who at one time used her fame to protest against America, thinks of "home" now, she thinks of freedom, peace, joy, and rest --- and she speaks of the USA with tears of gratitude.

All of us have been held captive to and by Satan and the "kingdom of this world."  We have all served a god other than the Creator of heaven and earth, with the result that we have lost a sense of the "home" for which we were made -- a place of peace, a place of joy, freedom, and rest.  

The night before He died, Jesus said, "My peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives it; do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid" (Jn. 14).   "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart; I have overcome the world" (Jn 16).

The invasion at Normandy meant that hundreds of soldiers would lay down their lives to free France, England, and other European countries from the dominion of an evil oppressor.  God's invasion of our lives means that Jesus would also lay down His life --- and then take up an entirely new life, free from the oppression of Satan.  And that is the life He offers to us -- freedom, "Home," peace, joy, friendship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

When I think of all those still held captive by the systems of this world, those held in slavery to traffickers, oppressors, greed, war, slavery, alcohol, drugs, oppression, depression......I cannot help but cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus! deliver us from evil and give us the life of grace, peace, and joy that only You can give!"

Peter's Denial

 "And he went out and wept bitterly" (Matt. 26).  

I am haunted by my latest sin. It calls to mind all my other betrayals.  And now I know what Peter's denial has to do with me and with the rest of mankind!

All over Europe, wherever I go, there are the destitute.  As I stroll through cities as a casual tourist, I almost stumble over their bodies, and I hear their cries.  One man with Parkinson's disease lay on the street trembling violently, and I passed him by -- as I did with so many others.  

I carry very little cash with me when I travel, as I have learned to use my card for almost everything.  As I travel with my family, whenever any of us have a few coins, we leave them for tips after eating.  So as much as I would want to drop coins into cups, I rarely have any on me when I meet a beggar. At one point in my latest trip, I thought to myself that, were I traveling alone, I would deliberately carry a bag full of coins and distribute them freely.

Once or twice, it happened that I did have a few coins and dropped them into a beggar's cup.  And one time, while the whole family was gathered for lunch at an outdoor table, I sent my brother-in-law after a beggar with some cash.  But the general family agreement was not to respond to those who ask, simply because there are so many of them. 

But there is one denial I cannot forget.  It was a rainy morning and a little chilly.  The whole family was standing outside our hotel waiting for a taxi.  It happened that for a change, I did have a few coins in my pocket when a beggar approached, asking for help.  He gestured to the coffee shop across the street, meaning that he would love a cup of coffee and breakfast. As every member of my family refused him, I thought to myself that, were I alone, I would give him all the coins I had.  But since everyone else said no, I did the same.

And I have been haunted ever since.  I know now Peter's shame in denying Christ.  All the other times I refused to give, I honestly had nothing to give.  This time, it would have been so easy to give.  I had three coins in my pocket amounting to about three Euros, plus change.  I refused him out of human respect.  I did not want my family to think I was a soft touch.  I followed the crowd.  What a stupid reason to refuse a hungry beggar!  I am haunted by Jesus' words in Matthew 25: Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did to me.

And he went out and wept bitterly!

More on Faith

 I said yesterday that God wants us to try Him and see ---- Scripture tells us that anyone who comes to God must (1) believe that He exists and (2) that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).

In previous days, God spoke to our forefathers -- and they believed what God had spoken:  Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

They told their descendants what God had spoken to them.  Hearing the stories of their ancestors, people dared to believe in the existence of the God of which they had heard, and they dared to believe that He rewards those who seek Him.

God still speaks to us today -- through men and women of faith and experience, but also through the Scriptures, the story of how God has acted in human history.  Even greater, God sent His very Word in flesh for us through His beloved Son, that we might actually hear God speaking to us as He did in the past.

I once asked my neighbor this question:  I know WHAT you believe, but WHY do you believe it?  I had been thinking about how we come to a living faith in God, a faith that is real and personal.  She said that she had never had a conversion experience, as some people have had, but that she had been taught about God all her life.  When she started reading the Scriptures for herself, the Holy Spirit seemed to bring them to life for her -- to make them real.  It is the office or job of the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the Living, spoken Word of God to us-- to make Jesus Christ real for us.

In the beginning, when God began creating the heavens and the earth, the Spirit of the Lord hovered over the waters of chaos.  And God spoke: Light! Be!  Here we have the Speaker, the Word, and the Breath of  God bringing forth a new creation.  

Scripture is not only about what God has done; it is always and ever about what God is DOING.  All of His acts are living and eternal.  He is still speaking His eternal Word; the Word is still active; and the Spirit is still hovering over our chaos.  

It has been said faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes through Jesus Christ, the Word of the Father.  If we want to believe God, we must first know what He has spoken, either through the Scriptures or through a relationship with the Word of God, Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit makes that happen in our lives.  Even now, He is hovering, just waiting to bring about a new creation for us and in us!

Finding Faith

 Faith is not about assent to doctrine.  Faith is turning your life over to God's direction, trusting that His way is better than yours.  

"Come," said God to Abraham, "I will show you a land you could not reach on your own."

Some bad things happened along the way:  Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of all of them, God delivers him.....and no one that trusts in Him shall be desolate (Psalm 34).  Abraham learned faith as God was with him to deliver him out of situations he could not control on his own.

Faith is like a good marriage -- being yoked to Someone who has your back in all circumstances.  Jesus did not promise that life would be without trouble, but He did promise that He would be with us in all circumstances.

When I was younger, I used to wonder how people "got" faith.  I think I had more faith in myself than I did in God at the time.  Looking back now, I think that faith comes simply by trying it out --- taking the first step on the journey, no matter how small.   And watching what happens next.  I think God wants us to try Him on for size, so to speak.  No relationship can grow unless we are willing to try it out.

I remember once when I wanted to go to a conference in Steubenville, but lacked the money I needed.  As I prayed about it, I seemed to hear a direction from the Holy Spirit:  Put one dollar in the panty, and watch me multiply it.  Okay, now this was something I could not do on my own -- find money for the conference and the trip to Steubenville.  I put a dollar in the pantry and laughed every time I opened the door.  I knew then why I had to put it in the pantry.  Several times a day I was reminded that God was in control and that if that dollar was multiplied, it had to be His action, not mine.  

Within a couple of weeks, we received an unexpected refund from the electric company -- the price of a plane ticket plus the cost of the conference, with 10 dollars left over.  I laughed about the extra 10 --- until I arrived in Ohio and discovered that the cost of a taxi to the campus was 10 dollars!

One reason I had wanted to attend this conference was that my prayer partner was planning to go.  We had the opportunity to request to room together on campus, but after I realized that God was directing my trip, I decided to leave the choice to Him as to my roommate.  As it turned out, the conference planners had expected around 1000 participants, and at the last moment, 3000 people registered.  They had to scramble to find housing for 2000 extra people, so they placed cots in dining halls, recreation rooms, etc. ---- any place they could find.  When I arrived on campus and registered, I received my "room" assignment.  I was to be housed in one of the campus dining halls, where cots were laid out end to end.  Imagine my surprise when I found my cot ---right next to the one assigned to my prayer partner.  We had registered weeks apart for the conference, since I was waiting for God to provide the money well after she had sent in her fee.

That night, as I spend time in the adoration chapel, I felt an inner voice telling me that God had planned for us to be prayer partners from the beginning, and that I could take this arrangement as proof of His direction for my life.

Needless to say, the next time I seemed to receive direction from the Holy Spirit, I did not hesitate to try out the direction and see what happened.  And I have to say, that is how my faith grew little by little.

The Temple

 Destroy this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days....(John 2:19)

And the apostle adds a comment:  By this He meant the temple of his body....

For the Jews, the temple was the center of life -- spiritual, yes, but also political, moral, social, educational.   When Jesus proclaimed, "The kingdom of God is among you," the Jews would have heard four things:  (1)  The 12 tribes would be gathered and re-united; (2) all nations would come to the temple of the Lord and "beat their swords into plowshares" ;  (3) the Temple would be cleansed, and (4) God would at last defeat His enemies.

By this He meant the temple of his body.....  In Jesus Christ, the Temple is restored and remade.  But there is more....St. Paul tells us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6).  The Complete Jewish Bible puts it this way: Don't you know that your body is a temple for the Ruach HaKodesh who lives inside you, whom you received from God?

The Ruach HaKodesh in Hebrew is the expression of God's breath (Ruach- spirit, breath, wind), the Spirit of holiness, of restoration, of renewal.  In the beginning, the Ruach -- the Spirit, the breath, the wind of God hovered over the chaos and spoke: LIGHT: BE!  And order, light, harmony began to re-fashion the abyss.  

With the Resurrection of Jesus, that Ruach  -- the breath of God -- returned to the earth, hovering over the chaos -- and began to restore harmony, order, and light.  The Temple of the Living God was established in the Person of His Son, and now all nations would stream to Him, beating their weapons into plowshares.  And we too, who are His temples because we have in us His Ruach HaKodesh -- His Spirit, His Breath -- are the sources of His Re-fashioning of the earth.  

Genesis tells us that we are made in His Image and Likeness because He breathed His Breath/Spirit/ Ruach into us.  And St. Paul in Galatians 5 tells us what that image and likeness consists of: The fruits of the Spirit are these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  These are the marks of the Spirit/ Breath of God/ Ruach dwelling in His temple.

Our world today is characterized by chaos.  But the Spirit of Jesus is in us to re-make that world, to cleanse it and restore it to the Temple of the Lord.  The Lord once allowed me to see myself (and others, also, of course) as a temple.  The outer courtyard was the courtyard of the Gentiles, who were welcome to enter there to pray to the God/Yahweh of the Jews.  The inner courtyard was for the Jews, the believers in the true God -- the place of acceptable sacrifice and true teaching.  The Holy of Holies was the dwelling place of God.

As we create space for all who enter our lives -- the courtyard of the Gentiles -- we draw them into the Presence of God through the Spirit who dwells in us and through the fruits of His Presence: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long-suffering, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.  When we worship together with those who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, we enter the courtyard of the Jews -- the believers in the One God.  And in the Body of Christ, we enter into the Presence of God -- the Holy of Holies..

From there, the nations will be united and beat their weapons into plowshares, God's enemies will be defeated,  and the earth will once again become a Temple where people will gather in peace and God will dwell among His people.

God's Agenda

 I guess most of us get up each day with some sort of agenda.  Lately, I have been starting a list early in the morning, since I can't seem to remember my priorities as the day unfolds and I grow increasingly tired.  

But slowly I seem to be learning that God also has an agenda for me each day, and the only way I can discern His agenda is to listen as well as to speak in my morning prayer time. And more and more, I am learning to listen peacefully to God's agenda early in the morning.  

One of my favorite prayers is the following;  Holy Spirit, think your thoughts in me until your thoughts become my thoughts.  I am trying to "lean into" the Holy Spirit to direct my daily activities.    Scripture tells us that Jesus rose early in the morning and went off by himself to pray.  In the Gospel of John, He says, "I do nothing on my own, but what I see the Father doing, I also do."  To see what God is doing, it seems that we must really cease for a period from our own agendas and "doing."

Even at the age of 12, Jesus knew He had to be about His Father's work. 

I think God never intended for us to stumble the best we can through life, and then to turn to Him only when our resources are depleted.  God tells Abraham in Genesis 17, "Walk before me and be perfect."  That phrase ("be perfect") puzzled me for years until I read that "perfect" can also mean "complete."  

Aha!  We are not finished products in our own right!  God breathed His Spirit/breath into Adam and Adam became a living being.  It is God's breath/Spirit in us that completes us; without that, we are continually gasping for breath in our lives, so to speak.  And God knows we feel it on a daily basis!

I find that when I quietly listen for God's agenda in my daily life, things seem so much easier and smoother.  Even menu-planning, my weekly and daily nemesis, seems to unfold without my usual hassle. It's not just about preaching the Gospel or serving the poor; God has a plan for the simplest activities of our daily lives.  Proverbs 4 says it best:

the path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
shining ever brighter til the full light of day.
But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; 
they do not know what makes them stumble.

[It's pretty clear from the Gospels that the words "righteous" and "wicked" do not refer to saints and sinners but rather to those who walk with Jesus and those who choose to walk away from HIm!]  So even we sinners can Walk before me and be perfect! if we are willing to listen.

A Conversation About the Creed

 We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth, 
of all that is visible and invisible....

Last night, during a meeting of RCIA, a class for those entering into the Catholic church, we had a video on the opening phrase of the Nicene Creed, formulated in 325 AD.  Catholics pray the Nicene Creed at Mass.  During the following discussion, one of the participants said, "We all believe the same thing; why keep shoving it down our throats again and again?"

I came home after the meeting and reflected long into the night:  is it really important to talk about the Nicene Creed, and if so, why is it important?

Immediately, two conversations came to mind.  The first was from a long-time friend, who said to me one day: "  I don't believe Jesus was divine; I think He just came from generations of a good family, and He was put to death because what He said made people mad."  This friend was raised in a Catholic family and attended Catholic grade school and high school.  So much for all of us believing the same thing!

The second conversation occurred in Jerusalem, in the Garden of Olives, looking across the valley at the Golden Gate and the Temple Mount.  The slope on that side of the valley is crowded with graves of both Jews and Christians who believe that when the Messiah comes (or returns), He will enter Jerusalem through the Golden Gate, and the dead will come out of their tombs to greet Him.  I mentioned that I would like to see the day when all those graves open and the dead arise.  The person to whom I was speaking, a lifelong Catholic, casually remarked, "Oh, I don't believe anything is going to happen to our bodies."  I was shocked into silence, as I thought of all the years this person has been attending Mass and saying the Nicene Creed at every Mass she attended:  I believe in the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.

If it is indeed true that "we all believe the same thing" (and I am no longer sure that it is), then it is true only in our Western culture.  I recently returned from a trip to Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.  In that part of the world, in every city, the main attractions are the royal palaces, the Buddhist temples, and the Hindu temples --- all of which are filled with representatives of what they call "demons" and "gods."  In Buddhism, there is no mention of God, and Buddha himself is not considered a god, but only "enlightened," having risen to an extraordinary level of purification from the pollution of the world.

The "demons" in the Royal Palace of Bangkok are "mostly good, but maybe a little bad," according to the guide with a smile.  "Sort of the like the Greek gods?" I asked.  "Yes," she said, "they are protective spirits that guard the palace, and you don't want to anger them."  In one of the Vietnamese Hindu  temples, we climbed many, many steps (getting closer to heaven) to observe first of a kind of ziggurat (to get even closer to heaven) and then multiple mini-temples, or small shrines, each of which was dedicated to and housed a different diety.  According to one of our guides, Hinduism has 333 million dieties, so only the important ones have their own shrines.  In each shrine, Buddhist or Hindu, the visitor is required to remove both hat and shoes before entering.

When visiting a Catholic church in Vietnam, we were also required to remove our shoes and hats --- and then it struck me, "O no!  This is just one shrine among many.  To them, this is another temple, and one must show respect to whichever god inhabits the temple."  I finally realized the challenge of St. Francis Xavier and the other missionaries to tried to Christianize the Far East!

And I finally understood why the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church must have a creed, beginning with "I believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth....."  To say those words in the countries I have visited could be very dangerous indeed!