Life In The Spirit

1/27/11 - Do I Really Have to Forgive?

2012-01-27T09:43:00.002-06:00

I was having an email discussion recently and the question of forgiveness came up. One person in the discussion said that it's interesting that God asks us to forgive others unconditionally, yet he will only forgive us if we ask him. Then he said that in a way, God is asking us to do more than He is willing to do for us. This was my answer.

Happy Friday! I'm off to Northern Iowa for a weekend of ice fishing and snowmobiling!

---------------

I disagree with the premise that God is asking us to do something more difficult than He is willing to do for us.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ teaches that if we do not forgive others, the Father will not forgive our transgressions. He closes the sermon by saying that we are to put his teaching into practice. The man who hears and does builds his house upon rock. The man who hears and does not is the man who builds his house on sand.

That's enough for me to answer the question of whether it is necessary for us to forgive other men.

Forgiving someone is hard enough when they ask for forgiveness. The deeper the wound from the transgression, the harder it is to forgive. If the person doesn't ask for forgiveness, it gets far worse. We convince ourself that the person doesn't deserve our forgiveness, because they didn't seek it from us.

That is the voice of the Father of Lies. That's Pride. Satan's sin, the sin that caused the Fall, and the sin that tempts us to this day. The battle of "can I forgive" is ALWAYS rooted in our own personal pride.

Christ of course humbled himself fully, taking human form, and submitting to death, even death on a cross. He completely and totally won the battle against Pride. So ... it isn't true that God is asking us to do something that's more difficult than He's been willing to do for us.

The hard part comes in the doing. We may not be able to forgive on our own, but with Him, we absolutely can -- with God, all is possible. Our job is to recognize that weakness, and ask for God's grace to help us put it into practice.

1/23/12 - Making The Path Straight

2012-01-23T14:48:00.000-06:00

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
“Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’”
John [the] Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
“One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.”
-----

Every day I read and meditate (Lectio Divina) over a small passage from the gospels. Last week I finished Matthew's gospel, and started Mark. I've read it many times, but after I read it this time, I was struck by how intimate and immediate John the Baptist's message really is.

Repentance and forgiveness of sins isn't something you do just once, or need just once, in your Christian life. It isn't something you need once a year, or twice a year, or once a month. We need it constantly to retain our connection to Christ.

Jesus desires a true and contrite heart. HIS heart never fails. But our hearts fail repeatedly. We are fallen. We wander off the path, over and over and over again -- almost on a daily basis. We need repentance and forgiveness to reconnect with him. Not just in general, and not just once. We need it repeatedly.

Continuously.

1/20/12 - Relying On God's Grace

2012-01-20T08:41:00.001-06:00

I've been praying a lot lately over learning to truly rely on God's grace on a daily basis. Here's something from "the dust" on that subject.
From the Imitation of Christ

"Imitation" was written by Thomas A Kempis in the 15th Centry, and after the bible, it is the most read Christian book in the world. It was used by many saints (including St. Therese of Lisieux) to help in their spiritual development. Book 3 of the Imitation consists of an "interior conversation" between Christ and a disciple. This quote is from Book 3, Chapter 30. Christ is teaching the disciple.

Chapter 30. THE QUEST OF DIVINE HELP AND CONFIDENCE IN REGAINING GRACE
THE VOICE OF CHRIST

MY CHILD, I am the Lord Who gives strength in the day of trouble. Come to Me when all is not well with you. Your tardiness in turning to prayer is the greatest obstacle to heavenly consolation, for before you pray earnestly to Me you first seek many comforts and take pleasure in outward things. Thus, all things are of little profit to you until you realize that I am the one Who saves those who trust in Me, and that outside of Me there is no worth-while help, or any useful counsel or lasting remedy.

But now, after the tempest, take courage, grow strong once more in the light of My mercies; for I am near, says the Lord, to restore all things not only to the full but with abundance and above measure. Is anything difficult for Me? Or shall I be as one who promises and does not act? Where is your faith? Stand firm and persevere. Be a man of endurance and courage, and consolation will come to you in due time. Wait for Me; wait -- and I will come to heal you.

It is only a temptation that troubles you, a vain fear that terrifies you.

Of what use is anxiety about the future? Does it bring you anything but trouble upon trouble? Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. It is foolish and useless to be either grieved or happy about future things which perhaps may never happen. But it is human to be deluded by such imaginations, and the sign of a weak soul to be led on by suggestions of the enemy. For he does not care whether he overcomes you by love of the present or fear of the future.

Let not your heart be troubled, therefore, nor let it be afraid. Believe in Me and trust in My mercy. When you think you are far from Me, then often I am very near you. When you judge that almost all is lost, then very often you are in the way of gaining great merit.

This is about half of the chapter. For the rest, go to: http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imb3c21-30.html#RTFToC209

1/19/12 - The Messianic Secret

2012-01-19T10:31:00.000-06:00

Mark 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, "You are the Son of God."
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

----

Christ has just finished the first confrontation with the Pharisees that we see in Mark, concluding with the healing of the crippled man. He withdraws from the Pharisees and continues his mission of healing.

People came from all over. I’m not diligent enough in my study to pull out a map and determine where all these cities are, but others do. Jerusalem is more than a hundred miles from Galilee, Idumea is on the southern border between Palestine and Arabia, and Tyre and Sidon are on the Mediterranean coast. Considering the times, and how long it must have taken to travel these distances, this is amazing.

In the gospels, we see several accounts of confrontation with the Pharisees, followed by Christ leaving the scene. Clearly Jesus didn’t need to run away, but he didn’t go to the final confrontation because he had more work to do. We also see Jesus on several occasions to warn those who confess he is the Christ to not make him known. In this reading, he rebukes the unclean spirits that recognize him.

This is known as the "Messianic Secret." Rather than try and explain why, I'll defer to someone smarter.

-----
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2009 (http://www.zenit.org/article-24971?l=english).- Christ knew that to fulfill his mission he had to suffer and die on the cross. For this reason, he took great strides to keep his identity hidden, says Benedict XVI.

Reflecting on today's Gospel (Mark 1:21-28) before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke about the "so-called 'Messianic secret.'"

"For the moment, Jesus does not want anyone outside the restricted group of his disciples to know that he is the Christ, the Son of God," the Pontiff explained. "This is why he often admonishes the apostles and the sick people whom he heals to not reveal his identity to anyone."

"Not only does Jesus chase demons out of people, freeing them from the worst slavery, but he prohibits the demons themselves from revealing his identity," he added.

The Holy Father said Christ insisted on this secret "because the fulfillment of his mission is at stake, on which our salvation depends."

"He knows in fact that to liberate humanity from the dominion of sin he must be sacrificed on the cross as the true paschal lamb," Benedict XVI explained. "The devil, for his part, tries to divert his attention and direct it instead toward a human logic of a powerful and successful messiah."

The Pope continued: "The cross of Christ will be the demon’s ruin, and this is why Jesus does not cease to teach his disciples that in order to enter into his glory he must suffer much, be rejected, condemned and crucified. Suffering is an integral part of his mission."

"Jesus suffers and dies on the cross for love," he added. "When we consider this, we see that it is in this way that he gave meaning to our suffering, a meaning that many men and women of every age understood and made their own, experiencing profound serenity even in the bitterness of difficult physical and moral trials."
-----

PS - if anyone is reading, this is a repeat message from last year on this passage.

1/18/12 - Sling Shot!

2012-01-18T09:24:00.002-06:00

1 Samuel 17:32-33, 37, 40-51

David spoke to Saul:
"Let your majesty not lose courage.
I am at your service to go and fight this Philistine."
But Saul answered David,
"You cannot go up against this Philistine and fight with him,
for you are only a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth."

David continued:
"The LORD, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear,
will also keep me safe from the clutches of this Philistine."
Saul answered David, "Go! the LORD will be with you."

Then, staff in hand, David selected five smooth stones from the wadi
and put them in the pocket of his shepherd's bag.
With his sling also ready to hand, he approached the Philistine.

With his shield bearer marching before him,
the Philistine also advanced closer and closer to David.
When he had sized David up,
and seen that he was youthful, and ruddy, and handsome in appearance,
the Philistine held David in contempt.
The Philistine said to David,
"Am I a dog that you come against me with a staff?"
Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods
and said to him, "Come here to me,
and I will leave your flesh for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field."
David answered him:
"You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel that you have insulted.
Today the LORD shall deliver you into my hand;
I will strike you down and cut off your head.
This very day I will leave your corpse
and the corpses of the Philistine army for the birds of the air
and the beasts of the field;
thus the whole land shall learn that Israel has a God.
All this multitude, too,
shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves.
For the battle is the LORD's and he shall deliver you into our hands."

The Philistine then moved to meet David at close quarters,
while David ran quickly toward the battle line
in the direction of the Philistine.
David put his hand into the bag and took out a stone,
hurled it with the sling,
and struck the Philistine on the forehead.
The stone embedded itself in his brow,
and he fell prostrate on the ground.
Thus David overcame the Philistine with sling and stone;
he struck the Philistine mortally, and did it without a sword.
Then David ran and stood over him;
with the Philistine's own sword which he drew from its sheath
he dispatched him and cut off his head.
--------------

We all know about David and Goliath, today's 1st reading gives the Scriptural account of the story. In 1 Samuel 16, God calls David "a man after my own heart". In this passage, we begin to see why. The whole episode is defined by David's faith. He walks up against Goliath with confidence. He knows from experience that the Lord has delivered Him in the past. That experience gives him the faith to go forward against the giant.

I think this is an important point. Faith builds over time. If I am conscious of God's involvement in things in my past, and I know how those things work out, my faith grows. I know from experience what happens when I turn a situation over to God, and when I rely on Him completely. As I face a new situation or trial, I need to remember how God has delivered me in the past. It may not have been from the claw or a bear or lion, but it is delivery nonetheless. That knowledge should be able to give me full confidence going forward.

That .... is FAITH. Faith is far deeper than believing something to be true. It is having full confidence that God's is involved in my situation, that the situation is happening according to God's will, and that I can completely rely on Him and leave it under His control. It's more than that too, but I can't come up with the words to describe it.

In my experience, there is always some type of fear to overcome as we take a step of faith. My personal belief, though I can't prove it, is that these moments are the battlegrounds of the spiritual war. We are constantly tempted to NOT have faith, in little and big ways. This drama plays out over and over and over, throughout our whole lives.

1/17/12 - The Sabbath Was Not Made For Man

2012-01-17T09:49:00.001-06:00

Mark 2: 23-28

As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath,
his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain.
At this the Pharisees said to him,
"Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?"
He said to them,
"Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?
How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest
and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat,
and shared it with his companions?"
Then he said to them,
"The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

------

Yesterday we saw the Pharisees question Jesus regarding fasting. Today we see them questioning him on how He treated the Sabbath. His response is pretty interesting and shows the disconnect that the Pharisees had worked themselves into.

I've often struggled a bit with this passage, trying to understand what it actually means. Apparently I'm not the only one. If you enter "Sabbath was made for man" into Google you'll find a lot of discussion of all sorts of issues, many of them conflicting with each other. Actually it's an interesting snapshot of how well-meaning people can attach differing meanings to the same message.

When that happens, I go to the Church. Here's what the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) has to say:

------

2173 The Gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the sabbath law. But Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day. He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." With compassion, Christ declares the sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing. The sabbath is the day of the Lord of mercies and a day to honor God. "The Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."

------

As the CCC says ... the sabbath was made for honoring God, and for doing good rather than harm. It was made for man's benefit, to set aside time to worship God away from the daily labors that exist. It was not meant to enslave man or to be hurdle between man and God. Man wasn't made for the purpose of observing the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given to man to help him remain with God.

PS - I got to this CCC reference by going to this website and typing in "Mark 2:23-28". This is an excellent resource.

http://www.catholiccrossreference.com/bible/catechism.cgi

1/16/12 - Fasting, Wine, and Wineskins

2012-01-16T13:15:00.004-06:00

Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
"Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?"
Jesus answered them,
"Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."
---------

There are two teachings going on here. In the first, Christ is saying that there is no need for fasting while HE is there. The purpose of fasting is ultimately self-denial, so that people can learn to turn away from the desires and wants of the world and turn toward God, who is the source of all good. The disciples didn't need to fast, because they were experiencing God in the flesh minute by minute, in a way that no fasting could produce. The time for fasting will come after he -- "the bridegroom" -- is physically gone.

Jesus isn't saying that people shouldn't fast. In fact he's saying that we should. He's saying that they shouldn't leave the greater (his presence) for the lesser (fasting, which is meant to ultimately bring about ... HIS PRESENCE). This is very similar to how he treated Mary and Martha. Martha worked and prepared, and Mary sat at His feet. Mary chose the better part.

On to wine and wineskins ....

The more times I read this, the more I take this very personally. I'm the wineskin. Bit by bit, God is transforming me from the old wineskin to the new. The old wineskin isn't strong enough to contain the wine that God has to offer. It needs to be replaced by something new. Something stronger. Something suitable to contain the wine of the Divine.

1/12/12 - I Do Will It -- Be Made Clean!

2012-01-12T16:34:00.002-06:00

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
-----

Last year when I wrote about this passage, I focused on the fact that Christ touched the leper, and how significant that was for a Jew in that day and age. Prior to that, I'd written about Christ's instruction to keep his miracles secret, and why that was important.

What strikes me today, though, is very simple:

"I do will it. Be made clean."

Christ DOES will to heal us. And we all need healing, every single day. As the passages this week, this healing is the purpose for which he came. He is the Divine Physician, and he has the ability to heal us. Any time. Anywhere.

It's our responsibility to come to Him. Come to Him in prayer. Come to Him in the Eucharist. And frequently come to him in Reconciliation, where our sins are forgiven.

Come to Him, on little things and big. Ask Him for healing. Give yourself over to Him, so He can heal our brokenness. And have faith that he will do it!

1/11/12 - People Gathered at the Door

2012-01-11T14:59:00.002-06:00

Mark 1:29-39

On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn,
he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons
throughout the whole of Galilee.
---------

Mark's gospel just jumps right into things. This picks up immediately after yesterday's passage, and it's full of action. It is the sabbath, and Christ has just cast out an unclean spirit. The same day he heals Simon's mother in law, and that evening he heals many. Word spreads like wildfire, and the whole town is waiting at the door.

We also see the first example in Mark's gospel of another example of Christ withdrawing to solitude to pray. I've been writing this email list for almost four years now, and I've written about this point at least half a dozen times over that period. Still, as of today -- I don't withdraw to pray as frequently as I should. I want to become a man who relies on Christ over and over, throughout the day. Every once and a while I get there, but I still drift in and out.

The example is right here in black and white - rise early, before dawn Pray in a deserted place where you won't be interrupted. Fiill up with the grace you need to get through the day. Then go to work.

Peace!

1/10/12 - He Commands The Unclean Spirits

2012-01-10T11:07:00.002-06:00

Mark 1:20-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are'the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said, "Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

-----

According to the Gospels, at the time of Christ unclean spirits existed, and they had great influence on people's lives. Those witnessing this event were certainly shocked. It's interesting to consider WHY, though. They don't appear to be shocked at all that an unclean spirit influencing a person. They were shocked by Christ's authority over the spirit.

So ... how real is this episode to us today? Was this something that occurred during a specific time and place, or do we have this problem now? Do unclean spirits impact our lives?

In today's world, if I believe in unclean spirits (ie, demons), I'm crazy. Flat out nuts. But the testimony of the Church, both in the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition, is that they are indeed out there, and that they try to prevent us from having a relationship with God. In Christ, we have the ultimate weapon against them, but we need to be able to recognize the enemy at work in our daily lives to fully use that weapon.

1/8/12 - The Word Does Not Return Void

2012-01-09T10:20:00.002-06:00

Isaiah 55:1-11

Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread,
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.
As I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of nations,
so shall you summon a nation you knew not,
and nations that knew you not shall run to you,
because of the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked man his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
--------

There are several options listed for readings today, and this is one of them. There's a lot of meat here, but I'm going to focus on the last paragraph shown above. The Word of God does not return void. God sent us his Word in the person of Jesus Christ -- who did not return void, but achieved the Lord's will.

Guess what? We have that living inside us! The living Lord Himself, who's ways are far above ours, and thoughts are far above ours. He who does not return void, and He who achieves the Lord's will. He is EVERYTHING that we need to rise above the life in the flesh. He is the water. He is the wine and milk. He is the rich fare that we can eat, and have life.

O Lord Jesus, help me to forsake my way and my thoughts, and turn to you for mercy!

1/6/12 - Making a Gift to God

2012-01-06T08:13:00.001-06:00

Matthew 26:6-12

Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of costly perfumed oil, and poured it on his head while he was reclining at table.
When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and said, "Why this waste?
It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor."
Since Jesus knew this, he said to them, "Why do you make trouble for the woman? She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me.
In pouring this perfumed oil upon my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
Amen, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of, in memory of her."

-------

One thing that touches me about this passage is how receptive Christ is to the gift that the woman gives to him. She brought something to him that she treasured, and she offered it to Him. He accepted it gratefully, even though others thought that the gift might be wasteful, and that the gift could have been used for better purposes.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to offer my day to God. I can say the words, but I struggle with truly putting it into practice. I'd like to get to the point where I can approach my day as a gift that I can make to the Lord. The gift won't be perfect. There will be lots of junk in it, both good and bad. But if I can begin to approach the day's events as a process of building something I can give to the divine creator, and have that in my mind as I go about my day, I'm sure the day will be more fruitful, and that I might make a gift suitable for Christ.

Need a heaping spoonful of grace to do that, though!

1/5/12 - Follow Me

2012-01-05T10:55:00.001-06:00

John 1:43-51

Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip.
And Jesus said to him, "Follow me."
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter.
Philip found Nathanael and told him,
"We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth."
But Nathanael said to him,
"Can anything good come from Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
"Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no duplicity in him."
Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree."
Nathanael answered him,
"Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Do you believe
because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?
You will see greater things than this."
And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will see the sky opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

-------

Today we see the calling of Phillip and Nathanial. Just like with Peter and Andrew, the call is very simple. "Follow me." The call is so gentle, yet is so meaningful. We have no idea what will come from it. No clue at all. You just get that tugging at your heart that you need to go along.

I've had moments where that thought has frightened me. It's usually fear of the unknown, or (worse yet), fear of what I'll have to give up to follow Him. But it's turned out that every time I've turned myself over to Jesus -- without exception -- the return has been great. I just need to come to him, despite whatever burden I might be carrying, and he will give me rest.

1/4/12 - Come, and See

2012-01-04T08:24:00.004-06:00

John 1: 35-42

John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher),
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah," which is translated Christ.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas," which is translated Peter.

------

"Come and see" .... what an invitation Christ gives to John and Peter. There's no way that they could have even begun to fathom what they actually WOULD see, and how their lives would change. No clue at all of what they were getting into. But they came.

It's the same way with us. Christ is continually calling us to Him. Come, and see. We have no clue how great it can be.

Happy New Year!

10/7/11 - Pearl of Great Price

2011-10-07T10:08:00.000-05:00

Matthew 13:44-46

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.
46 When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
-------

How much do you value the kingdom of heaven?

According to Christ, we should value it more than anything. It is so valuable that we should "sell all that we have" to obtain it. We should hold onto it with everything we have, because it is FAR FAR FAR more valuable than anything that we value here on earth -- even the things we value the most.

I came back to this verse recently and was struck by it. In my head, I want to value the kingdom of God as Christ says. I'm pretty sure that's what my heart wants too. That all sounds good ... but the proof is in the pudding. The easiest way to understand the things that I truly value is to look at how I spend my time, my money, and my talents. When I look at myself hard from that perspective, I can identify a number of things that I hold more value than the Kingdom.

That's just plain wrong,

Of course, faith comes from God. We are human. We are fallen. We are on a journey. But it IS incumbent upon us to realize that ARE on a journey, and that we need God's grace to get us to the Kingdom. We need to ask Him to take us there. Not just once, but over and over and over, throughout the course of our lives. As St. Paul says, we must "press on toward the goal."

If you're reading this and am with me, just take a moment to stop and pray, and ask God for His help today. And pray for me as well!

8/9/11 - Faith Like A Child

2011-08-09T13:17:00.002-05:00

Matthew 18:1-5

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever becomes humble like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.
And whoever receives one child such as this in my name receives me.
---

About six months ago we had Mark's version of this episode.

When we were children, we have full faith in our parents. We depended on our parents for everything, down to the most basic of needs. When something went wrong, we ran to them for help. When we didn't understand something, we went to them for guidance. We had complete trust in them.

According to Jesus himself, the Word incarnate, that is what our relationship with God should be like. Is that what yours is like? Do you depend on Him? Do you go to Him for guidance? Do you run to Him for help? Do you have trust in Him?

This is where the rubber meets the road. This is what "faith" is all about. The idea of faith is so watered down in today's culture. It's not merely recognizing something as fact, or believing something to be true. Faith much more than that. It is about trusting completely in God -- which ultimately means seeking Him out, listening to Him, and doing what He tells you to do. That is the way it has always been, from Adam to Noah to Abraham to David ... to Christ. And to us.

8/8/11 - Are You Ready To Walk On Water?

2011-08-08T13:49:00.002-05:00

Matthew: 14:22-53

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Peter said to him in reply,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
He said, “Come.”
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
“Truly, you are the Son of God.”

-------

This was Sunday's gospel, and here at St. Patrick's in Gretna, NE, we had the pleasure of hosting Archbishop George Lucas for the dedication of our new parish center.

I've gotten to where I really enjoy a trip by the bishop. It gives me an opportunity to remember, and to teach my children, that this is the continuation of an ancient tradition. The bishops are today's successor's to the apostles, and just like those first bishops, these men are the shepherds of the church. It is their job to shepherd the flock in their dioceses, and to teach them the faith. That has been the case since the Pentecost.

Archbishop Lucas gave a great homily on Sunday. He talked about how this event is so legendary and so far removed in time that it seems distant -- a gift that was meant for other people, for their purposes. And yet, if anything, Christ is MORE present to us here in the 21st Century than He was for the Apostles. He has sent the Holy Spirit. They are inside of us and with us all the time. He is there with us through all sorts of trials, and His help is there for the asking. And he comes to us so intimately and humbly in the Eucharist -- taking all of the hurt and pain and sin we give Him, and exchanging it for His own divinity.

We all have storms that we struggle through, little ones and big. How often do you go to Christ in those times? Are you willing to completely to rely on Him? Are you willing to step out of the boat and give Him control? Are you willing to commit to that?

"O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

7/6/11 - What I Say To You In Darkness, Speak In The Light

2011-07-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

Matthew 10:

27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
------

In Matthew 10 Jesus is speaking specifically to the Twelve, so these words are meant for them. However, there is a crucial truth in this one verse for anyone who wants to grow spiritually.

Jesus teaches in the darkness. He teaches in silence. He teaches without words.

The more I've grown spiritually, the more I've realized this. Great emotional moments are nice. Obvious signs from God are very nice. But ... they aren't ultimately what the Christian should be after. The Christian should be seeking God, and not need any of those things. The God that teaches in silence.

One thing is for sure -- one after another, the Saints are unanimous on this teaching. Some articulate it better than others. Some, like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Liseaux, Alphonsus Liguori, and Francis de Sales -- have been able to articulate this in texts that stand as masterpieces for us to learn from. Others have just lived it. Of all people, St. Paul couldn't even describe it in his letters, he could only hint at it with terms like "the peace of God which transcends all understanding." But one saint after another agreed with this remarkable thought.

God is within us. He teaches us in silence. You can search the world over for Him, and eventually you will find Him within yourself.

If you want to dive into this subject in detail, go out and buy THIS book. You won't be disappointed.

The Fire Within by Father Thomas Dubay

7/5/11 - Take My Yoke Upon You

2011-07-05T07:01:00.000-05:00

Matthew 11:27-30

27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.

28 "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

---------

Jesus says, no one knows the father, except Him, and anyone to whom He wishes to reveal God. Knowledge of God is divinely revealed, by Jesus, at his own discretion.

Have you ever wondered exatly what makes Jesus wish to reveal the Father to a person? Verse 29 says "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." If we are to take Jesus at his word, that means we learn from Jesus by taking on his yoke.

What does that mean?

According to Wikipedia, A yoke is a wooden beam, normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs. Taking Chirst's yoke means tying yourself to Him - sticking to Him, going where He goes, and acting the way He wants us to act. According to Jesus, if we are willing to do this, we will learn from Him. He will reveal the Father to us.

6/27/11 - Corpus Christi

2011-06-27T21:58:00.001-05:00

I was very moved at mass this Sunday on the Feast of Corpus Christi. My pastor here in Gretna, NE gave an very poignant homily that moved me to tears. He brought the reality of the Eucharist into focus and challenged us all to keep it there. He left me wondering how it is that I can lose sight of the enormity of the sacrament.

So I wanted to write about that.

Turns out that Thomas a Kempis had the same thoughts in the fifteenth century. He did it a little better than I can. This is an excerpt from Book Four, Chapter 1 of The Imitation of Christ. If you want to read the whole chapter, here's the link.

Imitation of Christ, Book 4, Chapter 1

--------

Why, then, do I not long more ardently for Your adorable presence? Why do I not prepare myself with greater care to receive Your sacred gifts, since those holy patriarchs and prophets of old, as well as kings and princes with all their people, have shown such affectionate devotion for the worship of God?
The most devout King David danced before the ark of God with all his strength as he recalled the benefits once bestowed upon his fathers. He made musical instruments of many kinds. He composed psalms and ordered them sung with joy. He himself often played upon the harp when moved by the grace of the Holy Ghost. He taught the people of Israel to praise God with all their hearts and to raise their voices every day to bless and glorify Him. If such great devotion flourished in those days and such ceremony in praise of God before the Ark of the Covenant, what great devotion ought not I and all Christian people now show in the presence of this Sacrament; what reverence in receiving the most excellent Body of Christ!

Many people travel far to honor the relics of the saints, marveling at their wonderful deeds and at the building of magnificent shrines. They gaze upon and kiss the sacred relics encased in silk and gold; and behold, You are here present before me on the altar, my God, Saint of saints, Creator of men, and Lord of angels!

Often in looking at such things, men are moved by curiosity, by the novelty of the unseen, and they bear away little fruit for the amendment of their lives, especially when they go from place to place lightly and without true contrition. But here in the Sacrament of the altar You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus, whence is obtained the full realization of eternal salvation, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received. To this, indeed, we are not drawn by levity, or curiosity, or sensuality, but by firm faith, devout hope, and sincere love.

O God, hidden Creator of the world, how wonderfully You deal with us! How sweetly and graciously You dispose of things with Your elect to whom You offer Yourself to be received in this Sacrament! This, indeed, surpasses all understanding. This in a special manner attracts the hearts of the devout and inflames their love. Your truly faithful servants, who give their whole life to amendment, often receive in Holy Communion the great grace of devotion and love of virtue.

Oh, the wonderful and hidden grace of this Sacrament which only the faithful of Christ understand, which unbelievers and slaves of sin cannot experience! In it spiritual grace is conferred, lost virtue restored, and the beauty, marred by sin, repaired. At times, indeed, its grace is so great that, from the fullness of the devotion, not only the mind but also the frail body feels filled with greater strength.

6/23/11 - I Did Not Come To Save The Righteous

2011-06-23T10:57:00.003-05:00

Matthew 9:9-13

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.

10 While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.

11 The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

12 He heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

13 Go and learn the meaning of the words, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

--------
This is such a great reminder of the Savior that we have. Even though we are sinners, and even though we don't deserve Him at all, He comes to us. He moves into our lives. He eats and drinks with us. He becomes part of us.

This isn't something that just happened once in the past. It happens with us, every day. He sits with us every day, and he gently teaches us. He gives himself to us. He lives within us. And ... he transforms us. He makes us righteous. He doesn't just "call" us righteous or "count" us as righteous. He MAKES us righteous.

If we let Him!

6/22/11 - Courage, child, your sins are forgiven

2011-06-22T12:33:00.000-05:00

Matthew 9:1-8

1 He entered a boat, made the crossing, and came into his own town.

2 And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."

3 At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming."

4 Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts?

5 Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?

6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" --he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

7 He rose and went home.

8 When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings.

-----------

I've read this episode many times. What struck me today is Christ's initial response to the paralytic: "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." The first thing Jesus does is address the paralytic's spiritual ailments, not his physical ones. He doesn't do anything about the physical ailments until he is challenged by the scribes, and His specific purpose for the physical healing is to demonstrate that He has the authority to forgive sins.

We spend so much of our lives addressing our physical situations. Homes. Jobs. Security. Physical Health. But here Jesus is showing us that our spiritual situation -- our standing before God -- is more important than any of those things. In fact, He tells the paralytic to have courage. Your sins are forgiven. There is nothing to worry about.

Be not afraid.

6/16/11 - Demons and Townspeople

2011-06-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

Matthew 8:28-34

28 When he came to the other side, to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.

29 They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?"

30 Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding.

31 The demons pleaded with him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine."

32 And he said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned.

33 The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs.

34 Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

---------

There is a tremendous contrast between the behavior of the demons that Christ encounters, and the townspeople who witness that encounter.

The demons, which can see the spiritual world, immediately recognize the Son of God, submit to His authority, and beg him for mercy. That's what the demons do, and they are slaves to the sin of pride.

The townspeople ... BEG HIM TO LEAVE! Even after they've seen him drive out the demons, they want him to go.

Think about that for a minute. Those who were created in God's image want God incarnate to leave them. They don't want to face him. They'd rather go back to their lives in the flesh and deal with day to day worries, than walk toward the ultimate spiritual light.

What does that say about man? How willing are we to see the Christ that exists around us? How willing are we to submit to His authority? Are we willing to do what he says, or are we going to continue man's age-old story of neglecting God's will?

6/8/11 - The Centurion

2011-06-08T09:52:00.002-05:00

Well I've taken quite a break. Here we go!

Matthew 8:5-10

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him,

6 saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully."

7 He said to him, "I will come and cure him."

8 The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.

9 For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it."

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith.

-----

"Jesus Christ is my personal Lord and Savior".

Lots of people say this. For the most part, people are "all in" on the idea of Jesus as Savior - how could you not be? He is the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, and we all absolutely need that.

But what about Jesus as Lord? When someone is Lord, they are a ruler. They have absolute, unqeustionable authority. That isn't a popular idea these days, and for us in America, it's a repulsive idea. Our country is based on the premise that we don't deal with those guys.

That wasn't the case for the centurion. He was a military man. He had people bound to his orders, and he was bound to the orders of his superiors. Completely bound, without question.

As a man who served under authority, he recognized authority when he saw it. He didn't need proof. He didn't need a demonstration. He didn't need Christ to come with him. He was absolutely, 100% sure that if Christ said the servant was healed, that he would be healed. No questions asked.

I think it's worthwhile for all Christians to take a long, hard look and determine whether or not Christ is Lord in their life. Do you believe Christ is authoritative in what He says? If so, do you submit to His authority, really and truly?

5/6/11 - The Eye Is The Lamp Of The Body

2011-05-06T10:49:00.000-05:00

Matthew 6:22-23

"The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be. "

-----

Have you ever spent any time thinking about this verse, and what Jesus is actually saying? I spent some time meditating on this last night, and here's my opinion.

A sound eye is an eye that seeks God. It has spiritual perspective. It certainly sees the worldly and deals with it as necessary for daily life, but a sound eye has a keen sense of the eternal -- the things that truly last. It is discerning, and it considers God's will as it takes in the view.

A sound eye doesn't focus on the created. A person with a sound eye looks at the created, and sees the reflection of the creator. And he treats what he sees accordingly. .

A sound eye isn't lustful. A man with a sound eye doesn't look at a woman as an object of desire. That type of eye lets the darkness in. A man with a sound eye understands that people are created in God's image, and treats them with that respect.

A sound eye isn't prideful. A person with a sound eye doesn't perceive the world and form opinions based on how the world affects him -- what he doesn't like, what makes him mad, how he is inconvenienced, how he can conquer, how he can gain, how he can get what he wants, or how he can win. A man with an eye that sees the world from pride, selfishness, and greed lets the darkness in.

A sound eye is humble. A person with a sound eye truly (NOT FALSELY) sees himself as meek. He understands that he is fully dependant on God. He does not try to do things without God's help or outside of God's will. He accepts troubles as part of life on earth, and doesn't pass judgements on others because of them. He is confident in his heavenly Father.

It's really worth thinking about. Jesus wouldn't have said it if it weren't true.

4/20/11 - All In

2011-04-20T08:46:00.000-05:00

Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,
6 Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
7 Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
8 he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
9 Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.-----------
This week we celebrate the victory of Christ. In this passage, Paul challenges us to have the same attitude that Christ has. Christ, even though he was God, humbled himself completely, submitting entirely to the will of the Father.

We are called to do exactly the same thing. We are called to throw away our pride and our own worldly desires, and humble ourselves completely. We are called to give ourselves over to God, and submit to His will. We are called to give our lives to Him, to use us as He chooses.

I have changed quite a bit spiritually over the last year. I now understand that as Christians, our ultimate goal and purpose in life is nothing short of DIVINITY. Our journey is a march toward union with God. Little by little, step by step, we shed our old selves and take on the attributes of Christ. Through our faith, he takes our hand, and walks with us along the path. He gives us what we need to take each step toward glory. He teaches us how to live the way that He lived. Just like a parent raises a child, Christ "raises" us to the spiritual life. First we crawl, then toddle, then walk, then run.

And then something spectacular happens. We FLY.

From our part, all Christ requires us is faith. But "faith" is an elusive term that has been watered down in modern times. Faith doesn't mean "merely" believing something to be true. It means committing. It means doing. It means betting everything on Christ.

It means going "all in."

4/11/11 - True Comfort Is To Be Sought In God Alone

2011-04-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 16

WHATEVER I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter. For if I alone should have all the world's comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven. If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, Who created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists -- not indeed such happiness as is seen and praised by lovers of the world, but such as that for which the good and faithful servants of Christ wait, and of which the spiritual and pure of heart, whose conversation is in heaven, sometime have a foretaste.

Vain and brief is all human consolation. But that which is received inwardly from the Truth is blessed and true. The devout man carries his Consoler, Jesus, everywhere with him, and he says to Him: "Be with me, Lord Jesus, in every place and at all times. Let this be my consolation, to be willing to forego all human comforting. And if Your consolation be wanting to me, let Your will and just trial of me be my greatest comfort. For You will not always be angry, nor will You threaten forever."

Sunday Snippets

2011-04-10T11:04:00.000-05:00

Here's this week's contribution to a feature called "Sunday Snippets" at This, That, and The Other Thing . Each Sunday, a group of Catholic bloggers post their favorite posts they've authored for the week. Here are mine:

I Do Not Come on My Own
Rise, Pick Up Your Mat, and Walk
Jesus The Judge
What Will Separate Us From The Love Of Christ - short but heartfelt. I read this at a funeral this week.

4/8/11 - I Do Not Come On My Own

2011-04-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.

But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
"You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
-------

The feast of Tablernacles was one of the three times where Jews within a certain distance were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jesus was bound to go there, but as we saw in the Tuesday's gospel, the conflict with the scribes, Pharisees, and high priests (John collectively refers to these leaders as "the Jews") is on the rise, and the plots to kill Christ are building.

Why? From their perspective, he has violated the sabbath, he has claimed the power to forgive sins, and he refers to himself as the Son of Man. In the eyes of most (not all) of the Jewish leaders at the time, this is nothing short of blasphemy, and the penalty for blasphemy under the Law is execution by stoning.

Because of this environment, Jesus chooses makes his pilgrimage to the temple secretly. Eventually teaches in the temple, and is recognized. Those who see him debate whether he is the Christ (ie, Messiah). In response to that debate, Jesus again tells the Jews that He has been sent by God Himself.

Which, of course, just makes them want to arrest Him more.

PS: I want to know how Jesus made these escapes from the guys trying to arrest Him. Does he juke them like Barry Sanders, or disappear like the guys in "Field of Dreams," walking into the corn?

PPS - the mass reading skips from John 7:10 to John 7:25. Here are the missing verses. It has more smackdown for the Pharisees -- it helps you understand why they got so angry with Jesus.

11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, "Where is he?"
12 And there was considerable murmuring about him in the crowds. Some said, "He is a good man," (while) others said, "No; on the contrary, he misleads the crowd."
13 Still, no one spoke openly about him because they were afraid of the Jews.
14 When the feast was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple area and began to teach.
15 The Jews were amazed and said, "How does he know scripture without having studied?"
16 Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not my own but is from the one who sent me.
17 Whoever chooses to do his will shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own.
18 Whoever speaks on his own seeks his own glory, but whoever seeks the glory of the one who sent him is truthful, and there is no wrong in him.
19 Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
20 The crowd answered, "You are possessed! Who is trying to kill you?"
21 Jesus answered and said to them, "I performed one work 9 and all of you are amazed
22 because of it. Moses gave you circumcision--not that it came from Moses but rather from the patriarchs--and you circumcise a man on the sabbath.
23 If a man can receive circumcision on a sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a whole person well on a sabbath?
24 Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."

4/7/11 - What Will Separate Us From The Love of Christ?

2011-04-07T08:43:00.002-05:00

Romans 8:35-39

What will separate us from the love of Christ?

Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

As it is written: "For your sake we are being slain all the day; we are looked upon as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things,

nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

-------

Christ's love is infinite. There isn't a single thing that can take it away from you. It's all there, right in front of you. Reach out and accept it. Let it flow over you. Let it wash you clean. Let it quench your thirst. Let it sustain you.

4/6/11 - Jesus The Judge

2011-04-06T09:55:00.000-05:00

John 5:17-30

Jesus answered the Jews:
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”
--------
There is an awful lot to swallow in this passage. For today, I'd like to just focus on the authority that God gives Christ as Judge, and how that impacts us.

Jesus came to earth the first time not to condemn, but to save. He accomplished this work through his ministry on earth, culminating in his passion, death, and resurrection. However, he will come again in glory, and this time, he will in fact come to judge the living and the dead. Christ describes this judgement in the passage above.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) fleshes out this teaching:

V. THE LAST JUDGMENT

1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust,"⁶²³ will precede the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."⁶²⁴ Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."⁶²⁵

1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare.⁶²⁶ The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life:

All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know. When "our God comes, he does not keep silence.". . . he will turn towards those at his left hand: . . . "I placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as their head was seated in heaven at the right hand of my Father - but on earth my members were suffering, my members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence."⁶²⁷

1040 The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death.⁶²⁸

1041 The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them "the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation."⁶²⁹ It inspires a holy fear of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he will come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed."⁶³⁰

CCC Footnotes:

623 Acts 24:15.
624 Jn 5:28-29.
625 Mt 25:31,32,46.
626 Cf. Jn 12:49.
627 St. Augustine, Sermo 18, 4:PL 38,130-131; cf. Ps 50:3.
628 Cf. Song 8:6.
629 2 Cor 6:2.
630 Titus 2:13; 2 Thess 1:10.
PS - you can find an online searchable catechism at: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c2a7.htm#679 . I use it all the time.

4/5/11 - Rise, Pick Up Your Mat, and Walk

2011-04-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

John 5:1-16

There was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate
a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes.
In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled.
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there
and knew that he had been ill for a long time, he said to him,
“Do you want to be well?”
The sick man answered him,
“Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is stirred up;
while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”
Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.”
Immediately the man became well, took up his mat, and walked.
Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who was cured,
“It is the sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
He answered them, “The man who made me well told me,
‘Take up your mat and walk.’“
They asked him,
“Who is the man who told you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
The man who was healed did not know who it was,
for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd there.
After this Jesus found him in the temple area and said to him,
“Look, you are well; do not sin any more,
so that nothing worse may happen to you.”
The man went and told the Jews
that Jesus was the one who had made him well.
Therefore, the Jews began to persecute Jesus
because he did this on a sabbath.

--------

This passage shows us how the interface between Christ and man works.

- First, Jesus asks the man if he wants to be well. That's exactly how he treats us: he offers to transform us, but only if we want him to. If we are satisfied with who we are without his help, that's how we stay. But if we want to be changed and go to Him for help, the help comes.

- Second, Jesus tells the man to pick up his mat and walk. The man has been crippled for 38 years. These words must have been absolutely crazy, but the man believed him and tried. Once again, that's exactly how Christ works with each of us. He doesn't just do things for us out of nowhere. However, if we ask him for help and have faith in Him, He can help us to do great things, even things we might have considered impossible.

Look at the response of the Pharisees. They don't seem at all concerned with the miracle that occurred, but they certainly care about a making a legalistic ruling on the case. Jesus slips away, so the issue simmers for a while, but John 7 will have much more to say about the conflict with the Pharisees over Christ's works on the Sabbath.

4/3/11 - Sunday Snippets

2011-04-02T22:53:00.000-05:00

4/1/11 - The First of the Commandments

2011-04-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
“You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
-----

I like this passage for a couple of reasons.

First - it boils down Christ's teaching extremely well. If we focus our efforts on loving God and loving others, everything else will fall into place. Note the depth of Christ's command, though. Love God with everything -- mind, heart, soul, and body. Then, love others as we love ourselves. We typically put ourselves first in this world, Christ is saying put others in front of us.

Note a couple of things about this.

a. It is a call to action. Christ is commanding us to do these things, not just hear and "believe".

b. Don't know about you, but I can't do either of these things on my own. Really, I can't even start doing these things on my own. We need to turn ourselves over to God to be transformed. We need the Holy Spirit. We need the transforming power of the Eucharist.

Second, this passage reinforces to us that there were Jews from the ruling class (in this case a scribe) who "got it." This scribe could understand exactly what Christ was saying, how important it was, and how it summarized the Ten Commandments perfectly. He opened his eyes, ears, and heart to the Lord, and received his teaching.

3/31/11 - Strong Men, Demons, And Christ

2011-03-31T11:33:00.000-05:00

Luke 11:14-23

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute,
and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons,
he drives out demons.”
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste
and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand?
For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your own people drive them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons,
then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace,
his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him,
he takes away the armor on which he relied
and distributes the spoils.
Whoever is not with me is against me,
and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
----

Hadn't thought about this much before, but this passage is a great reminder of the spiritual war that rages around us, how the battle goes between demons and people, and how Christ changes that.

When you have a demon and a man, the demon is the attacker who comes in and overcomes. The demon can take away defenses and distribute the spoils. But when Christ comes into the picture, he is the conqueror, and the demon will be slaughtered.

It's happening, all around us, every day. We're engaged in the battle, whether we realize it or not.

3/30/11 - Fulfilling the Law

2011-03-30T14:47:00.000-05:00

Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
----

The subject of Christ fulfilling the law can be tough to get your mind around. I know, I've tried. In very basic terms though, here is my 25-cent version: Christ is the only person who could perfectly live the Mosaic Law, and he did it for all of us. This immediately raises a huge stumbling block though. If Christ fulfilled the Law, how does it apply to us today? Are we bound to try to fulfill it?

Immediately after this passage, through the end of Matthew 5, Christ gives divine interpretation of some elements of the Mosaic Law. Clearly the moral teachings still stand, and he explained them in further detail throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7).

Here's more from the CCC:

I. JESUS AND THE LAW

577 At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a solemn warning in which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during the first covenant, in light of the grace of the New Covenant:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.³²⁹

578 Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its all embracing detail - according to his own words, down to "the least of these commandments".³³⁰ He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly.³³¹ On their own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its entirety without violating the least of its precepts.³³² This is why every year on the Day of Atonement the children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for their transgressions of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, and St. James recalls, "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it."³³³

579 This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to an extreme religious zeal.³³⁴ This zeal, were it not to lapse into "hypocritical" casuistry,³³⁵ could only prepare the People for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the Law by the only Righteous One in place of all sinners.³³⁶

580 The perfect fulfillment of the Law could be the work of none but the divine legislator, born subject to the Law in the person of the Son.³³⁷ In Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but "upon the heart" of the Servant who becomes "a covenant to the people", because he will "faithfully bring forth justice".³³⁸ Jesus fulfills the Law to the point of taking upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred by those who do not "abide by the things written in the book of the Law, and do them", for his death took place to redeem them "from the transgressions under the first covenant".³³⁹

581 The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi.³⁴⁰ He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the Law.³⁴¹ Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the Law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs but taught the people "as one who had authority, and not as their scribes".³⁴² In Jesus, the same Word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes.³⁴³ Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old. . . But I say to you. . ."³⁴⁴ With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void the word of God".³⁴⁵

582 Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation: "Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him. . . (Thus he declared all foods clean.). . . What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts. . ."³⁴⁶ In presenting with divine authority the definitive interpretation of the Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the Law who did not accept his interpretation of the Law, guaranteed though it was by the divine signs that accompanied it.³⁴⁷ This was the case especially with the sabbath laws, for he recalls, often with rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbor,³⁴⁸ which his own healings did.

CCC Footnotes:

329 Mt 5:17-19.
330 Mt 5:19.
331 Cf. Jn 8:46.
332 Cf. Jn 7:19; Acts 13:38-41; 15:10.
333 Jas 2:10; cf. Gal 3:10; 5:3.
334 Cf. Rom 10:2.
335 Cf. Mt 15:31; Lk 11:39-54.
336 Cf Isa 53:11; Heb 9:15.
337 Cf. Gal 4:4.
338 Jer 31:33; Isa 42:3, 6.
339 Gal 3:13; 3:10; Heb 9:15.
340 Cf Jn 11:28; 3:2; Mt 22:23-24, 34-36.
341 Cf. Mt 12:5; 9:12; Mk 2:23-27; Lk 6:6-9; Jn 7:22-23.
342 Mt 7:28-29.
343 Cf. Mt 5:1.
344 Mt 5:33-34.
345 Mk 7:13; cf. 3:8.
346 Mk 7:18-21; cf. Gal 3:24.
347 Cf. Jn 5:36; 10:25, 37-38; 12:37.
348 Cf. Num 28 9; Mt 12:5; Mk 2:25-27; Lk 13:15-16; 14:3-4; Jn 7:22-24.

3/27/11 - Sunday Snippets

2011-03-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

3/25/11 - May It Be Done To Me According To Your Word

2011-03-25T08:52:00.000-05:00

Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.
------

Mary calls herself the handmaid of the Lord. A handmaid is a servant who literally stood waiting at the hand of the master, to do his bidding. When called upon, her job was to do whatever the master said. When she was finished, she'd return to the master's side and wait for the next order. Mary's decision to accept this role has been celebrated throughout the ages as her "Fiat," which means "let it be done" in Latin. Mary's fiat, then, is this response:

"May it be done to me according to your word."

Those are the words that changed the world forever. Mary, the Immaculate Conception (ie, full of grace), responded fully and completely to God's call. Those words make me consider how well I respond to God's call.

First -- how "full of grace" am I? How well have I been "feeding" on what Christ has offered -- the Scriptures, prayer, reconciliation, and the Eucharist? Those are the means through which I receive grace. Those are the things which allow me to be "in tune" with God, so that I can even hear His call. Am I remaining in Christ so that I can even hear what I'm asked to do? If so, how do I respond? I'd like to say my answer is always "yes," and I know it has been "yes" several times. But how many times has God called me to do something, and I either missed the call completely, or I said "No"? More than I care to admit.

God’s probably not going to ask any of us to carry His child, but he does ask us to do His work. We too can choose to be His handservants – submit to His authority, do what he says, and be still and wait for the next call. I find that when I'm prepared to do that, and give God my own little "fiat", I am blessed in ways I never would have imagined.

3/24/11 - Lazarus and the Rich Man

2011-03-24T09:08:00.001-05:00

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen
and dined sumptuously each day.
And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps
that fell from the rich man’s table.
Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.
When the poor man died,
he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham.
The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Abraham replied, ‘My child,
remember that you received what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing
who might wish to go from our side to yours
or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said,
‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded
if someone should rise from the dead.’”
--------

There is a lot of imagery in this passage, and it prompts a lot of questions. Is this a parable or an account? Where exactly is the rich man - hell, or maybe purgatory (e.g., Scott Hahn thinks it purgatory, I think he's wrong). What is the torment like? Will we actually be able to see from one side of the chasm to another? Will I be on one side, and someone I know and love be on the other? Am I going to meet Abraham?

In my opinion, getting caught up in such details detracts from the clear message of the passage. We are called to obey Christ. We are called to help those in need. Christ is very clear on that in this passage, and in others. And in this passage, he gives us a glimpse of what the consequences of disobedience might be.

I don't know about you, but the imagery in this passage scares me.

When I read this I think about the times I've walked away from someone asking for money, because I just didn't want to be bothered, or I figured it was a scam, or I convinced myself that I shouldn't help because he'd just spend it on alcohol or cigarettes. Or times when I've been too busy with the things of my life to help with something else. Nope, I can't do that, I've got to get to soccer, baseball, cub scouts, dance, whatever. Or maybe I've had a busy day or week or month, and I'm just tired.

According to Jesus, every time I've done that, I've walked away from HIM.

One great thing about Lent in the Catholic Church is that the Church brings that message together for us, from all across the bible. There is no hiding from it, or wiggling out of it by finding some passage somewhere that helps us justify that the way we act doesn't matter.

PS -- if you've made it this far -- tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Annunciation. When we have a Solemnity on Friday during Lent, the Solemnity takes precedence. Meditate on the annunciation, when Mary gave her "Fiat" for all of eternity. And then ... have a steak!

3/22/11 - Widening Phylacteries and Lengthening Tassels

2011-03-22T16:58:00.001-05:00

Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’
As for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi.’
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called ‘Master’;
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
-------

Christ tells his disciples to respect the office of the chair of Moses, regardless of the actions of those occupying the chair. He then gives his opinion on those who have that office. We get a taste of this in the verses above. Immediately after this come the "Seven Woes," in which Christ severely rebukes them. The basic issue here is that the religious elite of the time were more concerned with religious practice, image of piety, and condemnation of others than they were with obeying God. Here are two of the Seven Woes:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You lock the kingdom of heaven before human beings. You do not enter yourselves, nor do you allow entrance to those trying to enter.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.
The Pharisees exalted themselves, and passed judgment on others. We need to look out for the same trap.

PS - Note the verse on "calling no man Father." This is a stumbling block for many people with respect to the Catholic Church. We call our own priests "Father." Yet Christ says we should call no one father, or master, or rabbi. What's the deal?

Here are a couple of good answers to that question, written by priests. They are useful to have in mind if this topic ever comes up in conversation.

http://fatherrays.blogspot.com/2005/10/why-priest-is-called-father.html

http://www.stpaulsirvine.org/html/father.htm

3/21/11 - The Measure With Which You Measure

2011-03-21T15:56:00.000-05:00

Luke 6:36-38

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
----------

This is the type of passage that if a person truly decides to live by it for the rest of his life, he could become a saint:  be merciful, don't judge, don't condemn, forgive, and give.

Where most of us mess up is the execution. I'm convinced that there are two major reasons for this:

1. We don't fully believe and accept that this is necessary, and therefore we don't commit to living like He lived.

2. We don't TRULY believe that it's actually possible that we can follow His teaching.

Over the last two years I've finally bought in to #1. For years and years, I tried to take other passages of Scripture and use them to convince myself that I didn't have to actually live like Christ said. All I needed to do was "believe." But then I woke up and realized that there's no way to legitimately say that I "believe in Christ" without actually BELIEVING WHAT HE SAID.    So if I believe the passage above, there are things I need to DO.

That leads us to #2.  I used to give myself an excuse by saying that nobody can actually live Christ's way. Maybe a little bit, or in some ways, but not all the way.  Then I started reading about Saints -- the people that the Church has concluded are in heaven, without a doubt. I've read both biographies, autobiographies, and their own writings. Once I started doing this, I realized that there are indeed people out there who have walked this path.

The remaining hurdle is not believing that I personally can live like Christ asked. The key here, I think, is understanding that I can't do it alone. However, if I put my trust completely in Him, I really can surprise myself. On the occasions where I have completely trusted in Christ, I can testify (ie, state from my own experience), that I have a higher capacity to forgive, and a higher desire to give.  I am less judgemental and condemning. And the best part ... I don't worry.

The path ahead, then, is to keep that thought fully in my consciousness. I've had moments like this, but they are disconnected. I need to become fully aware that He is the key with everything. With Him, all is possible.

So don't leave His side.

3/20/11 - Sunday Snippets

2011-03-20T12:32:00.000-05:00

3/16/11 - Jonah, the Queen of the South, and Us

2011-03-16T09:28:00.000-05:00

Luke 11:29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”
--------

The Ninevites believed Jonah. The Queen of the South came to see the wisdom of Solomon. The Jews had the best sign they could possibly have, right in front of them, and didn't believe.

Here's a good meditation to make during lent.

How many times is that me? How many times do I not fully believe Christ, even though He is right in front of me? How many times do I disobey Him, even though He is right here, inside of me? How many times do I refuse to follow Him, even though He is right in front of me, offering to lead me?

3/15/11 - Forgiveness: A Matter of Life and Death

2011-03-15T12:52:00.001-05:00

Matthew 6:7-15

Jesus said to his disciples:
“In praying, do not babble like the pagans,
who think that they will be heard because of their many words.
Do not be like them.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This is how you are to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

“If you forgive men their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.”
--------

Matthew 6 is the middle portion of the Sermon on The Mount. Christ gives us the Lord's Prayer, and then He immediately repeats the petition on forgiveness.

As the Catechism says, this is significant: "This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible." (CCC 2841)

Truly forgiving others can be very, very difficult. It is difficult enough when it's a minor issue. Let alone when somebody does something truly terrible that impacts you.

Just think about that for a while. Many, many, many people are such a slave to their own pride that they are willing to sacrifice a relationship because of it. Many are willing to stop loving a person, stop caring for a person, or stop associating with a person because they feel they've been wronged.

Just think about how many times in your life have you seen a relationship broken because one person demanded that another apologize? How many times have you demanded an apology from someone else? How did that work out for you?

Why is forgiveness so important that Jesus establishes it as a CONDITION for us to be forgiven? Here is the Church's answer: "Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace." (CCC 2840)

---
PS - If this sounds familiar, it is. Here's a link to a message I sent out about six months ago. It includes the full Catechism discussion of this point:

Link: http://matt-lifeinthespirit.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html

3/14/11 - Sheep or Goat?

2011-03-14T08:51:00.001-05:00

Matthew 25:31-46

Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’

Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
‘Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.”
--------

This reading isn't a parable, it's prophecy. Jesus is telling us exactly exactly how He will operate on judgement day. He will separate the people based on charity -- how much we love one another and care for one another.

He is speaking both about the theological virtue of Charity (with a capital C), which is love, and what people typically mean today when they say "charity" (with a small c), which is giving aid to those in need. These are related, but aren't the same thing. The second flows from the first, and without the first, it is meaningless.

The basic works Jesus lists above are called works of mercy. I'll refer to the CCC (Catechism of the Catholic Church) for more detail. You can find this online at: http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm .

2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you"; "you received without pay, give without pay."²³² It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones.²³³ When "the poor have the good news preached to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.²³⁴

2444 "The Church's love for the poor . . . is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor.²³⁵ Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give to those in need."²³⁶ It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty.²³⁷

2445 Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their selfish use:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.²³⁸

2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs."²³⁹ "The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":²⁴⁰

When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.²⁴¹

2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities.²⁴² Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead.²⁴³ Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God:²⁴⁴

He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none and he who has food must do likewise.²⁴⁵ But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you.²⁴⁶ If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?²⁴⁷

--------
CCC footnotes

232 Mt 5:42; 10:8.
233 Cf. Mt 25:31-36.
234 Mt 11:5; cf. Lk 4:18.
235 CA 57; cf. Lk 6:20-22, Mt 8:20; Mk 12:41-44.
236 Eph 4:28.
237 Cf. CA 57.
238 Jas 5:1-6.
239 St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Lazaro 2,5:PG 48,992.
240 AA 8 § 5.
241 St. Gregory the Great, Regula Pastoralis. 3,21:PL 77,87.
242 Cf. Isa 58:6-7; Heb 13:3.
243 Cf. Mt 25:31-46.
244 Cf. Tob 4:5-11; Sir 17:22; Mt 6:2-4.
245 Lk 3:11.
246 Lk 11:41.
247 Jas 2:15-16; cf. 1 Jn 3:17.

3/12/11 - Sunday Snippets

2011-03-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

3/11/11 - Do You Listen to His Voice?

2011-03-11T09:03:00.000-06:00

John 18:37

So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
--------

Over the years I have struggled with Lent. From questioning the value of the whole thing, to worrying about what would be most productive, to trying to be profound, to dealing with "falling off the horse."

This year, though, I am more on point. I've entered into this Lent committing to use this time to put my flesh to death. The Bible says that we need to do this if we are to enter into a truly abundant life. For me, that has been a difficult concept to get my mind around. I think the verse above helps explain it.

In our daily lives there are so many worries of the day. Schedules. Illness. Pain. Family issues. Work difficulties. Finances. Planning for the future. Figuring out how we're going to be six places at once to meet all of our worldy responsibilities.

The net result is that we fill our lives with so much noise that we lose the ability to hear Christ's voice. If we lose sight of that, we don't really belong to the truth, do we?

So ... Lenten disciplines help us to re-set our priorities. Hopefully as a result, hearing Christ's voice moves up the priority list a bit. And maybe, just maybe, it moves all the way up to #1.

Imagine what that life would look like.

3/10/11 - Obey Him, Love Him, Walk In His Ways

2011-03-10T08:40:00.000-06:00

Deuteronomy 30:10-16

Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
-------

I love the way the Church begins our walk through Lent. It all starts with understanding how far we have removed ourselves from God, and the way God gives us to come back to Him.

This is an old testement reading, and some of the statutes and decrees no longer apply. However, the basic path to salvation remains what it has always has been, throughout time: obey the commandments of the Lord, love him, and walk in His ways. When we accept Christ as our savior, we put our hand in His, and He guides us down the path.

If you say you "believe in" Jesus, and you don't believe this, then you're not believing in the real thing. Because Jesus was clear -- we need to remain in Him to have eternal life, and we remain in Him by obeying His commandments.

3/9/11 - Return to Me With Your Whole Heart

2011-03-09T08:06:00.001-06:00

Joel 2:12-14

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.
-------

This is a piece of the first reading out of the gate for Lent, and it's a beautiful reminder of what Lent is really about.

Through the prophet Joel, God is telling us to rend (tear open) our hearts, and bring them to Him. He wants us to give ourselves completely to Him. Not partially. Not a little bit after the football game, or soccer game, or basketball game. Not a little bit after work, or after the chores are done, or even after works of charity.

He wants us to come to Him first.

That's where Lenten sacrifice comes from for me this year. Identify things that I choose to do instead of following God, and put them aside, so I can keep my eyes on Him.

3/8/11 - Into the Desert We Go

2011-03-08T16:50:00.000-06:00

John 12:24-25

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

-------

I'm using these verses as my guide as I walk into Lent 2011.

Jesus isn't just talking about his own death here. All of us, if we are going to grow into what God desires of us, need to fall to the ground and die.

A significant step in this process is truly understanding our place with respect to God, and the true level of our own sinfulness. That leads to a realization that we are the product of our own desires. When we are left to our own devices -- ie, acting on our own desires -- we go astray. Way astray.

We need to learn to set our desires aside, and take on God's desires for us. That isn't something that is accomplished by believing, or stating, or even praying. It can only be accomplished by doing.

St. Paul referred to this as "putting the flesh to death." Others have used the term "mortification of desire." No matter what you call it, the process is to break our attachment to the physical world.

That is how I'm approaching lent this year. I'm giving up a couple of things that upon deep reflection, I can see are barriers that I've placed between myself and God. Things that I've come to desire more on a minute by minute basis than I desire HIM.

I don't want those desires. But they don't go away just by wishing. I have to willfully put them to death.

Into the desert I go! I need a horse with no name.

3/7/11 - Parable of the Vineyard

2011-03-07T12:18:00.000-06:00

Mark 12:1-12

Jesus began to speak to the chief priests, the scribes,
and the elders in parables.
“A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it,
dug a wine press, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey.
At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants
to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard.
But they seized him, beat him,
and sent him away empty-handed.
Again he sent them another servant.
And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully.
He sent yet another whom they killed.
So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed.
He had one other to send, a beloved son.
He sent him to them last of all, thinking, ‘They will respect my son.’
But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’
So they seized him and killed him,
and threw him out of the vineyard.
What then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come, put the tenants to death,
and give the vineyard to others.
Have you not read this Scripture passage:

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?”

They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd,
for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them.
So they left him and went away.

----

In the parable, God is the owner, the tenant farmers are the Jewish leaders, the servants are the prophets, and the heir is Jesus. It's interesting because we can see immediate fulfillment of the story - the chief priests, scribes, and elders realize that they are the tenants, and they immediately desire to arrest the heir.

I look at this passage and am thankful that I wasn't one of those guys.

But ... there is a lesson in here for all of us. As individuals, we make conscious choices to follow Christ or not throughout each and every day, in big ways and small ways. In fact, in nearly all situations, we are faced with a basic choice: am I going to do things my way, or Christ's way?

I'm not saying these are all life and death choices. However, at times we might approach them in a manner that is closer to how the Jewish leaders thought than we might want to admit. Choosing Christ means giving up some comfort and making some sacrifices. It means letting go of things that we can see and and that we hold dear, for other things that we can't see. The Jewish leaders, in the end, couldn't do that. They were too attached to their own positions of power and authority that Jesus ultimately became too much of a threat to them. They had to act.

I can think of times where I have avoided making a choice for Christ because I was too attached to my life the way it was. Hopefully, as they come up in the future, I'll choose to follow the heir, rather than to covet the Father's ground.

3/5/11 - Sunday Snippets

2011-03-06T23:06:00.001-06:00

I just found a feature called "Sunday Snippets" at This, That, and The Other Thing . Each Sunday, a group of Catholic bloggers post their favorite posts they've authored for the week. I'll throw my hat into the ring.

Here are mine:

Call On The Community of Saints - A program on Catholic Radio reminded me of the tremendous resource that is "out there" for us.

Do Not Worry - Words of advice from a guy who used to have a PhD in worrying.

I Want To See - New thoughts on a familiar passage of Scripture.

3/4/11 - Call On The Community of Saints

2011-03-04T05:54:00.000-06:00

You should always have some good devout book at hand, such as the writings of S. Bonaventura, Gerson, Denis the Carthusian, Blosius, Grenada, Stella, Arias, Pinella, Da Ponte, Avila, the Spiritual Combat, the Confessions of S. Augustine, S. Jerome’s Epistles, or the like; and daily read some small portion attentively, as though you were reading letters sent by the Saints from Paradise to teach you the way thither, and encourage you to follow them. Read the Lives of the Saints too, which are as a mirror to you of Christian life, and try to imitate their actions according to your circumstances; for although many things which the Saints did may not be practicable for those who live in the world, they may be followed more or less.

St. Francis De Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life. Book 24, Chapter 17.

---------

I've neglected the Saints for much of my life. Yesterday, while listening to Catholic Radio, I was reminded of how great a gift they are to us. So I prayed to St. Francis de Sales, and this is where he pointed me. Go figure.

This quote is very interesting. it was written written for the purpose of advising people on how to live devoutly, by a man who eventually became a Saint and Doctor of the Church, It would seem like he knew what he was talking about.

If you want to learn how to live for Christ, a great way is to learn from those who have actually done it. Not those who have just talked about it, or maybe held the appearance of it, but of whom, upon a detailed examination of their lives, the Church has said -- "this is how you do it." On top of that, he gives us a list of people and writings that were very useful to him, in his own spiritual development. That's top-flight advice, better than any I'll ever be able to give.

They are here to help us, to serve us. They have given us great writings to help light our way. We can see the light of God in their lives as we read about them. And the best part is ... that they stand ready to aid us as we walk to the Lord.

3/3/11 - I Want To See

2011-03-03T10:52:00.000-06:00

Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
“Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”
Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
“Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.”
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”
Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.”
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.--------

I can relate to Bartimaeus. I may not be blind, but there are a lot of things that I don't see. I want to see the world the way Jesus wants me to see it.

I want to see Christ more in my daily life. I want to see Him in people I meet. In my friends, and "not so much" friends. In my wife. In my kids.

I want to see Him in my work. I want to view my work as a way to serve Him, to use what He has given me for His glory.

I want to see the spiritual world around me. Maybe I can't visually see it, but I want to be aware of it. What we physically can see is only part of what is really going on. There is a whole invisible world with saints, angels, and demons. I don't want to be obsessed with things like demons, but I definitely don't want to be blind to them. I want to see them for what they are, and react as God wants me to react.

I want to see Jesus in creation, because through Him all things were made. I want to see Him in sunrises and sunsets. In the green of spring. In the trees, birds, and flowers. I want to recognize that when I see something beautiful, that it all exists because of Him.

I want to see!

3/2/11 - Am I A Servant?

2011-03-02T15:46:00.000-06:00

Mark 10:32-45

The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went ahead of them.
They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them
what was going to happen to him.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man
will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes,
and they will condemn him to death
and hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him,
spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death,
but after three days he will rise.”
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
came to Jesus and said to him,
‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
He replied, ‘What do you wish me to do for you?”
They answered him,
“Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.”
Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the chalice that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”
They said to him, ‘We can.”
Jesus said to them, “The chalice that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them,
“You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

--------

This is at least the fourth time in the last three years that I've written a message on this passage. Every single time, I've identified that I am not a very good servant. That is still true today.

So ... here I am, staring right at a passage that repeatedly has reminded me of a major spiritual weakness. I need to be the one receiving encouragement, not writing it.

Albert Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results. I think that's where I am.

I'm proven to myself that left to my own devices, I'm not a good servant. For a long time, I had no intention of being a servant. These days, I generally have that intention, but when it comes down to me determining specifically what I will do and how I will do it over the course of a day, I don't begin with the thought "be a servant." That has to change.

One lesson that God has driven home to me lately is that I really can't do anything spiritually on my own, at least not anything positive. That means that if I realize I have to change, I have to understand that I need God's help, and ask for it while I do my best. I have to lay down my pride completely, trust in God completely, and allow him to transform me, so that I can become the person he wants me to be. Repeatedly.

Then I need to look at the results. As of this evening, when I do my daily examination of conscience and look back in reflection on my day, I will ask myself both where I'd been a servant, and where I've missed the opportunity to be one. I will ask God to shine his light on me and show me what I need to do different.

Hopefully, next time this passage comes around, I'll have made some advancement.

3/1/11 - For Christ's Sake

2011-03-01T14:15:00.000-06:00

Mark 10:28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus,
‘We have given up everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

----------

The rewards of giving up something of significance for Christ's sake and for the sake of the Gospel are great indeed.

In God's economy, though, there is a difference between giving up something because HE asks us to, versus giving something up because WE want to. The "giving up" needs to be for Christ, because he asks. Not to get the hundredfold gifts mentioned above. Not to prove how much you can suffer. Not for some side benefit, like losing weight. It needs to be out of love and trust and reverence to Christ. If there's any other reason, he'll know.

For OUR sake, Christ was crucified. He didn't do this to get some type of reward from God, or be recognized. He did it because the Father asked Him to.

That's what he did for us. What are we willing to do for Him?

2/28/11 - Do Not Worry

2011-02-28T10:11:00.002-06:00

I couldn't let Sunday's gospel pass. It's been huge in my own personal spiritual development.

Matthew 6:36-54

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’
or ‘What are we to drink?’or ‘What are we to wear?’
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”

----------

I know a lot of people in my life that if I could make one wish come true for them, it would be .... that they would stop worrying.

If you don't remember anything else from this message, remember this. Christ looked the disciples in the eye and asked them who of them, by worrying, could add even a SINGLE MOMENT to their lives. He's telling them (and us) that the whole process of worrying is absolutely useless in this life.  It accomplishes nothing. Nothing. NOTHING. There are no benefits to it.

The anxieties of each and every day are a series of barriers that we place between ourselves and God. Some of are big and have significant worldy impacts. Others are small and don't mean very much, even in wordly terms.  But all of them are barriers, and truly the biggest impact is that we choose to place them between us and God. When we worry, we are focused completely on ourselves. Worries keep us from focusing on God. They keep us from trusting Him, from depending on Him, and from serving Him.

Here's a great objective for Lent -- start training yourself to give your worries over to God.   One way you can do that is have a "worry list" or a "worry bucket". If you note yourself being worried about something, write it down, and say a small prayer handing it over to God. If you want, you can write it on a small piece of paper and put it in a jar.  If you're more of a geek like me, you can make a chart. If you worry about it again, give it to God again. Make another entry on the list, or put another piece of paper in the jar. Do it as many times as you need to.

At the end of lent, go back through the list, and review the data. How many times did you worry about something?  What was the resolution?  Did the worrying do anything to help the situation? Were you able to give worries away to God? If so, did life get easier for you?

Start with something small. Over time you'll build confidence in two things -- that worrying is useless, and that giving worries over to God works. These are the building blocks. Eventually you'll be ready to hand over bigger and bigger issues. And once you can do that, it's time to celebrate your liberation.

2/25/11 - Accept The Kingdom of God Like A Child

2011-02-25T09:14:00.001-06:00

Mark 10:13-16

People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced the children and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.

-------

When we were children, we have full faith in our parents. We depended on our parents for everything, down to the most basic of needs. We trusted them completely. We knew they were always looking out for us, even when they disciplined us.

That's how we're supposed to look at the Kingdom of God. Complete dependence and complete trust. Even when we don't understand.

2/24/11 - Delay Not Your Conversion

2011-02-24T10:24:00.001-06:00

From today's first reading (Sirach 5:1-8)

Of forgiveness be not overconfident,

adding sin upon sin.
Say not: “Great is his mercy;
my many sins he will forgive.”
For mercy and anger alike are with him;
upon the wicked alights his wrath.
Delay not your conversion to the LORD,
put it not off from day to day.
For suddenly his wrath flames forth;
at the time of vengeance you will be destroyed.
Rely not upon deceitful wrath,
for it will be no help on the day of wrath.

From today's gospel (Mark 9:42-48)

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,

it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

-----------

This is a great message to consider as we march toward Lent.

God's mercy is beyond our comprehension. But presuming his mercy is a dangerous game indeed. This passage warns us about two things -- leading other people into sin, and continuing a life of sin ourselves.

Time after time in the gospels, Jesus concludes a meeting with an individual with "Go and sin no more." He didn't say that just for the fun of it. We haven't been redeemed so that we can just continue in our old ways, confident that no matter what we do God will forgive us because we "believe." We have been redeemed so that we can change. So that we can conform to God's will. So that we begin glorifying Him by doing the work He has planned for us. So that we can "go and sin no more."

Presuming that we CAN'T do that ultimately sells Christ short. It is true that we can't avoid sin on our own. But Christ can, and He shares His Divinity with us. Delay not your conversion. With Him, all is possible!

2/23/11 - Whoever Is Not Against Us Is For Us

2011-02-23T10:09:00.000-06:00

Mark 9:38-40

John said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”
Jesus replied, “Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.”

------

I didn't quite know what to do with this passage. It's clear to me that Christ is saying that authentic Christian works can be done by anyone, regardless of what group he is from. But how do I balance that with my belief that the Catholic Church contains the full richness of the faith that other denominations lack? I found a nice reflection on this passage at ParishWorld.net, written by Fr. Jim Kirstein from the Philippines.

"The real challenge of the gospel is whether we accept that the Spirit of God works wherever he wishes and through whomsoever he wishes. It is necessary to remember that the truth is always bigger than anyone’s understanding of it. No one can possibly grasp all truth. We simply must be open to the Spirit’s working in our world.

This call for tolerance is not a lazy acceptance of anything that goes. It does mean respecting the freedom of conscience of another as the documents of the Second Vatican Council tell us. But if groups putting forward doctrines calculated to destroy morality and to remove the foundations from all civilized and Christian society then they are to be combated. "

Link: ParishWorld.net Reflection

2/22/11 - Walk Before God in Humility

2011-02-22T09:43:00.000-06:00

This is from Imitation of Christ. I read it for my devotional this morning. I edited it a bit just to shorten it.

I titled this blog "Life in the Spirit" because that's what I'm searching for. St. Paul mentions it in his writings here and there, but the description is fleeting. The last paragraph of this text, written more than 500 years ago, gives as good a description as I can find anyhere.

------

THE VOICE OF CHRIST

MY CHILD, walk before Me in truth, and seek Me always in the simplicity of your heart. He who walks before Me in truth shall be defended from the attacks of evil, and the truth shall free him from seducers and from the slanders of wicked men. For if the truth has made you free, then you shall be free indeed, and you shall not care for the vain words of men.

I shall teach you those things which are right and pleasing to Me. Consider your sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think yourself to be someone because of your good works. You are truly a sinner. You are subject to many passions and entangled in them. Let nothing seem important or precious or desirable except that which is everlasting. Fear nothing, abhor nothing, and fly nothing as you do your own vices and sins; these should be more unpleasant for you than any material losses.

Some men walk before Me without sincerity. Led on by a certain curiosity and arrogance, they wish to know My secrets and to understand the high things of God, to the neglect of themselves and their own salvation. Through their own pride and curiosity, and because I am against them, such men often fall into great temptations and sins.

Some carry their devotion only in books, some in pictures, some in outward signs and figures. Some have Me on their lips when there is little of Me in their hearts. Others, indeed, with enlightened understanding and purified affections, constantly long for everlasting things; they are unwilling to hear of earthly affairs and only with reluctance do they serve the necessities of nature. These sense what the Spirit of truth speaks within them: for He teaches them to despise earthly things and to love those of heaven, to neglect the world, and each day and night to desire heaven.

--Imitation of Christ. Book 3, Chapter 4 - WE MUST WALK BEFORE GOD IN HUMILITY AND TRUTH. Link: http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imb3c01-10.html#RTFToC108

2/21/11 - I Have Much More To Tell You

2011-02-21T10:11:00.001-06:00

John 16:12-13a

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth."

-------

These few words tell us a basic truth: God is so far above us and so beyond our comprehension that we literally can't handle the full scope of what He wants to teach us.

Because we are fallen, and because we place so many hurdles between us and Him, we aren't able to learn what he wants to teach. We haven't matured spiritually enough to understand it.

I think of it as trying to teach calculus to a first grader.  We don't go from first grade math to calculus in one step. We have to learn very basic principles and build on them for years and years and years until we're ready. We need to learn to count, then to add and subtract, then multiply and divide, then deal with fractions and shapes, and algebra, and so on.

Growing spiritually is similar in that we need to slowly build on basic truths before we are ready for more.   The problem is that many of us (like myself) spend years and years tied up in other things, and not pursuing spiritual truth, even though our souls are starving for it. We may be physically, emotionally, and intellectually mature, but our souls can still be first graders.

For spiritual growth, the basic building blocks are the Sacraments, Scripture, and Prayer. Most important, though, is to recognize our basic desire for God, and committing to satisfying that desire. If we do that and work on the basic building blocks, he will send us the Spirit of truth to guide us.

Eventually we understand that as we choose to move away from our will (ie, deny ourselves) and conform to His will, he transforms us.  Bit by bit, we advance along the path, and become able to understand more of what Christ wants to teach us.

2/18/11 - Deny Yourself, Pick Up The Cross, and Follow Me

2011-02-18T09:23:00.003-06:00

Mark 8:34 - 9:1

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
What could one give in exchange for his life?
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

He also said to them,
“Amen, I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.”

-------

This passage is absolutely critical to spiritual growth. It also can be very difficult to accept and truly understand.

I spent years and years trying to talk myself into believing that self-denial really wasn't necessary. What was important was that I had faith. I believed. I believed in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that Christ came to save what was lost. I believed that the penalty for MY sins was death, and that He came personally to atone for them.  I believed all of this.

All that mattered was this belief.  After all, St. Paul said that we are saved by grace, through faith, and not through works. He said that all sin and fall short of the glory of God. That means that there's nothing I can do to earn my way into heaven. So I should relax, rejoice in God, and be assured that I am saved. I should strive to live as Christ taught, but it was impossible, and he'd understand as long as I tried.

Here's the problem with that line of thinking:  THAT'S NOT WHAT CHRIST SAID. Christ said deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

Why are these things necessary?   It has to do with walking away from our will, and giving ourselves over to God's will. I could try and explain, but I'll defer to Pope John Paul 2:

Jesus does not ask us to give up living, but to accept a newness and a fullness of life that only He can give. The human being has a deep-rooted tendency to "think only of self", to regard one's own person as the centre of interest and to see oneself as the standard against which to gauge everything. One who chooses to follow Christ, on the other hand, avoids being wrapped up in himself and does not evaluate things according to self interest. He looks on life in terms of gift and gratuitousness, not in terms of conquest and possession. Life in its fullness is only lived in self-giving, and that is the fruit of the grace of Christ: an existence that is free and in communion with God and neighbor.

If to live as a follower of the Lord becomes the highest value, then all other values are given their rightful rank and importance. Whoever depends solely on worldly goods will end up by losing, even though there might seem to be an appearance of success. Death will find that person with an abundance of possessions but having lived a wasted life (cf. Lk 12:13-21). Therefore, the choice is between being and having, between a full life and an empty existence, between truth and falsehood.

As the cross can be reduced to being an ornament, "to carry the cross" can become just a manner of speaking. In the teaching of Jesus, however, it does not imply the pre-eminence of mortification and denial. It does not refer primarily to the need to endure patiently the great and small tribulations of life, or, even less, to the exaltation of pain as a means of pleasing God. It is not suffering for its own sake that a Christian seeks, but love. When the cross is embraced it becomes a sign of love and of total self-giving. To carry it behind Christ means to be united with him in offering the greatest proof of love.

Excerpted from Pope John Paul II's MESSAGE TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD,

THE XVI WORLD YOUTH DAY, 14 February 2001.

Link to more:

http://oldarchive.godspy.com/meditations/Deny-yourself-pick-up-your-cross-and-follow-Me-Meditation-by-Pope-John-Paul-II.cfm.html

2/16/11 - A Joyful Jubilee

2011-02-16T09:03:00.000-06:00

John 14:28

You heard me tell you, 'I am going away and I will come back to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

-----

My mother died a year ago today.

As I walked into mass this morning, I thought of this verse. I personally think the Holy Spirit called it to my attention. Christ is referring to his own death, but this verse carries a teaching that we all should cherish. There is certainly sadness in death, and there is definitely a time to mourn. However, we Christians know that it is a gateway to something far, far better.

That is definitely the case with my mother. She was 89 when she died, and had been living with Alzheimer's and a couple of other physical ailments for 5+ years. The Alzheimer's was bad enough to where she would go days without speaking at all, and when she did speak, is was never more than a couple of words. She didn't recognize her children or grandchildren at all, which of course was harder on us than it was on her.

The Holy Spirit reminded me this morning that Christ came and brought her home, and relieved her from that suffering. He reminded me that this is a day for celebration, not for mourning. Her labors on earth are over, and now she beholds the Divine.

Alleluia!

2/15/11 - The Leaven of the Pharisees

2011-02-15T12:01:00.003-06:00

Mark 8:14-21

The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.”
They concluded among themselves that
it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them,
“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend?
Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear?
And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?”
They answered him, “Twelve.”
“When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?”
They answered him, “Seven.”
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
-------

This reading provides a great lesson of how easy it is to take your eyes off the spirit.

Christ uses leavened bread as a metaphor for the dangers presented by the Pharisees, and of Herod. That type of leaven -- the leaven of the world that rejects Him -- will poison the bread that they are trying to make.

The disciples hear this teaching and completely miss it. Sitting here now, it seems amazing that they could miss it. They think Christ is worried about food, even though they have watched him feed 9,000 people with a total of twelve loaves of bread. They've seen him walk on water, and calm the sea. They've seen him heal a leper and a deaf man. It must have left Christ shaking His head.

On the other hand, I completely understand. It is so easy for me to allow the flesh to interfere with what the spirit is trying to teach me. This is why it is so necessary to commit to putting the flesh to death in your life -- the flesh prevents you from understanding what God is truly saying to you. You can't advance very far spiritually without taking that step. Christ told us that we need to do it. Paul told us that we need to do it. Over the last 2,000 years, Saint after Saint after Saint has told us that we need to do it.

The testimony is strong and unanimous!

2/14/11 - Few Love The Cross of Christ

2011-02-14T15:12:00.002-06:00

The first thing I do each day is usually to mediate over the Gospels. Right now I'm in John 15, and am taking a slow stroll through the Upper Room discourse. The next thing I do is read a chapter from "The Imitation of Christ", which I've mentioned in several emails over the years. Here was part of the reading today:
-----

JESUS has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting.

All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion.

Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross.

Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation.

Imitation of Christ. Book 2, Chapter 11.

Link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.TWO.11.html
--------

If I want to have a true relationship with Christ, I need to embrace all of Him, and not just the parts I like. I need to love Him as much when He sends me trials as when He sends me consolation. I need to love his Passion as much as I love his Resurrection. I need to love the suffering as much as I love the joy.

That's the only way through the narrow gate and down the constricted path.

2/8/11 - We Will Make Our Dwelling Within You

2011-02-08T14:01:00.004-06:00

John 14:22-24

Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.

------

This passage from the Upper Room discourse shows the characteristics of a "personal relationship" with Jesus.

Even though I've read this passage probably 20 or more times over the last 10 years, I haven't actually understood what Jesus meant by "make our dwelling within him" until very recently. For a long time I thought this was something that every Christian has, something that comes with the profession of belief in Jesus.

Jesus does NOT say that, however. He says that "whoever loves me will keep my word ... and we will come to him and make our dwelling within him." This is a conditional statement. If I don't keep Christ's word, he and the Father do not come to dwell within.

Jesus is talking about something greater than just knowing who He is, or knowing He is the Savior, or believing that He is MY Savior. He's not just talking about receiving graces throughout your life. He's talking about the type of relationship that He has with those who truly follow him.

He's talking about what the Church describes as "contemplative prayer". Here's how the Catechism puts it: ( CCC Sections 2712-2719 )

2712 Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which he is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more.⁸ But he knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in ever deeper union with his beloved Son.

2713 Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts.⁹ Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."

2714 Contemplative prayer is also the pre-eminently intense time of prayer. In it the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit "that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith" and we may be "grounded in love."¹⁰

2715 Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me": this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy curé used to say while praying before the tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the "interior knowledge of our Lord," the more to love him and follow him.¹¹

2716 Contemplative prayer is hearing the Word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the "Yes" of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God's lowly handmaid.

2717 Contemplative prayer is silence, the "symbol of the world to come"¹² or "silent love."¹³ Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the "outer" man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the Spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus.

2718 Contemplative prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ insofar as it makes us participate in his mystery. The mystery of Christ is celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer so that our charity will manifest it in our acts.

2719 Contemplative prayer is a communion of love bearing Life for the multitude, to the extent that it consents to abide in the night of faith. The Paschal night of the Resurrection passes through the night of the agony and the tomb - the three intense moments of the Hour of Jesus which his Spirit (and not "the flesh [which] is weak") brings to life in prayer. We must be willing to "keep watch with [him] one hour."¹⁴

(Catechism references)

8 Cf. Lk 7:36-50; 19:1-10.
9 Cf. Jer 31:33.
10 Eph 3:16-17.
11 Cf. St. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 104.
12 Cf. St. Isaac of Nineveh, Tract. myst. 66.
13 St. John of the Cross, Maxims and Counsels, 53 in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh, OCD, and O. Rodriguez, OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1979), 678.
14 Cf. Mt 26:40.

2/3/11 - His Power Is Inside Me

2011-02-03T16:50:00.003-06:00

Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick
–no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

-------

I'd love to have witnessed what the Twelve were able to do when Christ sent them out. Can you imagine being given the power to heal the sick? How about power over demons? I can only imagine how it would feel to be just handed a gift with that kind of power.

Oh wait ... I have been. The power is a "He", and He lives inside of me. :)

2/2/11 - No Slave Is Greater Than His Master

2011-02-02T09:49:00.002-06:00

John 13:15-17

I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
----

These two verses pack a lot of punch. This occurs in the upper room, immediately after Jesus washes the disciples' feet.

Christ says that he has given a model for the disciples to follow. How does one follow Christ's model? I'm not called to the priesthood like they were, but what can I take away from this and apply to my life today?

Here's how I see it. Christ humbled himself. He suffered, to the point of death. He didn't complain. He may well have wished that he could "pass the cup," but he drank the cup and he didn't gripe about it.

I am a slave, and I am not greater than Him, so I should strive to follow that model. I should strive to follow it with my boss, my co-workers, my clients, my wife, my children, and they guy who's car is stuck in the snow. Christ has given us a divine call to serve.

It is easy to for me to think that I can't live that way. It's impossible. He's perfect, I'm not. No matter what I do, I will always fall short. I really used to believe that. I now understand that those thoughts come from the Satan -- the Father of Lies.

Remember ... with Christ ALL things are possible. We have Him at our disposal. If we desire to conform to His will, and ask Him for help, he WILL help us. That is His promise to us. This is what he meant when He told us to seek His kingdom and His righteousness.

The world is filled with people who have walked this way. In the Catholic Church, we call them Saints. We know how they lived their lives. They have shown us what is possible when you conform to God's will. They understood and followed, and were blessed. We celebrate their lives and read their histories, because they stand as testimony that "mere men" can, have, and will continue to walk Christ's path.

That path is open to each and every one of us! The gate is narrow and the way is constricted, but it is open, and if we submit to Christ, He will guide us.

2/1/11 - How Do You Treat Jesus?

2011-02-01T15:43:00.005-06:00

John 12:1-3

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

---------

I read these verses over the weekend and was struck by the reverence with which Mary treated Christ. That makes sense, of course. Not long before, Jesus had raised her bother from the dead. Of course she would treat him with reverence. She'd do anything for him. She dried his feet WITH HER HAIR!

Imagine that someone saves your life -- it doesn't matter what the scenario is. Just that you certainly would have died. A person, purely out of LOVE for you (and not obligation, or luck) uses all the skill he can to save you, at great cost to himself. Some great cost that you can see, like disfigurement, or losing a limb.

You see that person frequently for the rest of your life. Maybe even daily.

Would you love that person in return? How would you treat that person when you saw him? Would you ignore him? Would you say hello and go on your way? Would you choose to spend time with that person? Would you include him in your life?

Jesus is that person. How do you treat Him?

1/26/11 - Becoming The Rich Soil

2011-01-26T12:16:00.000-06:00

Mark 4:1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,

“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.

And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that

they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”

Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?

The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.

Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.

But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

-------

This is one of my two favorite parables. It is so accurate and instructive, and it gives me hope.

I've hit a point where I've resolved not to be the path, the rocky ground, or the thorns anymore. I want to be the rich soil. I now know that if that's going to happen, I need to do my part. I need to be resolved, and give effort. The parable backs that up completely:

1. To avoid being the path, I need to protect against Satan stealing the word from you from the start. This only happens if I ALLOW it to happen. I can protect myself by seek God's help to put sin in my life, so my natural impulse is no longer along a sinful desire, but toward God. To do this, I can look at my own sinful behaviors, understand them for what they are, and get God's help to put them to death.

2. To avoid being the rocks, I need to understand and accept that that tribulation or persecution comes with the territory of being a Christian. I need to be fully resolved that "believing in Christ" means that I stick with Him through those trials. More than that -- I need to accept that they are for my own good, and ask for His help to weather them. If I let the difficulties diminish my hope in the Lord, I quickly fall away. The rocks stay.

3. To avoid being the thorns, I need to understand that I am to set my mind and heart on God, and not on worldly things. I live in the world and I need stuff to live where God has put me, but I need to keep it in perspective. They are not the end goal. I need to trust in God, believe Him when He says I don't need to be anxious. When I do get anxious, I need to go straight to Him. I personally know how destructive anxiety can be. I need to that the lure of riches and craving for earthy things are just as destructive, and cause the word to be choked out.

4. To be the rich soil, I need to accept the word. That means more than believing it, or feeling joyful about it. According to this parable I need to live by it.

All of these steps require my own participation. God will help, but he won't do it for me. I need to keep my eye on the target, which is doing God's will, and bearing His fruit.

1/25/11 - "Believing In" Christ

2011-01-25T16:51:00.000-06:00

John 11:25-27

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world."

-----

This is an exchange between Jesus and Martha, just prior to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. In it, Jesus tells Martha that "whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live...."

Over the last couple of years, I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about exactly what does it mean to "believe in" Christ. That might seem like a simple statement, but I think that when you got down to it, a lot of people would differ on what that actually means.

I think "believing in" Christ means more than believing that he was a person, or believing that he said wise things, or even believing that he was the Son of God. The Bible is clear that even the demons believed that.

Think of a great leader -- anyone from Gandhi to Vince Lombardi. How did people respond to that leader?

In my workplace, we spend a lot of time on developing leaders, and what an effective leader "looks like" to his team. A leader is someone who can take a group from Point A to Point B. When someone "believes in" a leader, the relationship is far deeper than just knowing the leader's name, or his appearance, or his resume. He trusts the leader. He is inspired by the leader. He relies on the leader to guide him. He knows that what the leader says is true. He knows that the leader knows what's right for him. He's comfortable going to the leader for advice. When the leader tells him to do something, he does it, because he's confident in the leader's direction.

Just the other day I realized that if I "believe in Christ", I should feel all of this. All of this and more, because Christ is the greatest leader of all!

1/24/11 - Memorial of St. Francis de Sales

2011-01-24T10:59:00.003-06:00

Today is the Memorial of St. Francis de Sales. At the Men's Day of Recollection at St. Joseph's Parish during lent of 2009, we spent a lot of time talking about St. Francis. We learned that his book Introduction to the Devout Life  is widely recognized as a valuable resource for anyone wanting to grow closer to Christ, and that even though the book is around 400 years old, people still rely on it and follow it today.

I researched him a bit and found out that he is a Doctor of the Church. I found some church documents from that time, and they talked about his skill as a spiritual director for laypeople.

I was intrigued enough that I went out and bought the book about a month later. I thought I would just plow through it quickly, and then I realized that it was packed so full that I had to read slowly and think carefully about what it said. Between that and my own personal laziness and forgetfulness, it took me until the end of 2009 to finish.

Reading this book was a "milestone" moment in my personal spiritual development.  I had hunger to grow closer to Christ, but a couple of things were wrong. One was that I didn't really know how to do it -- it's an abstract thought to get closer to someone you can't see or hear. At the time I thought that was a real problem.   The other problem was far more obstructive though. I liked the idea of spiritual growth and sort of understood that I needed to pursue it, but I wasn't actually ready to do the things I DID already know. In reading St. Francis' book, I understood that I wasn't ready to give up behaviors that lead to sin.

I learned many things from that book that have stuck with me. The most important one, though, is that I must be RESOLVED to grow spiritually. I need to keep that resolve on a daily basis.  If I stay resolved, God will help me.  If not, I'm not really going to grow, because He won't force it on me.

Here are a couple of links with more information about St. Francis.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=51

http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com/F.html

1/21/11 - Calling the Twelve

2011-01-21T09:58:00.001-06:00

Mark 3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted
and they came to him.
He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles,
that they might be with him
and he might send them forth to preach
and to have authority to drive out demons:
He appointed the Twelve:
Simon, whom he named Peter;
James, son of Zebedee,
and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges,
that is, sons of thunder;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew,
Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus;
Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean,
and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

---------

Recall the scene from yesterday. People had come to Jesus from all over the place, and the crowds were so large that he needed a boat just to protect himself. Unclean spirits had confessed him to be the Christ, and he reprimanded them and silences them.

He retreats from the crowd and commissions the men that he DOES want to preach his gospel. Two specific parts of their job description are stated here -- to preach, and to drive out demons. For them to perform this work, they will have to spend significant amounts of time learning from him.

Several good points to be made here:

- He appointed the Twelve "so that they might be with Him, and He might send them forth." He chose them. He taught them. He sent them.

- This is the beginning of apostolic succession. These men are known as the "Apostles" - those who were sent forth. They passed on their authority to others, who became the first Bishops of the Catholic Church.

- Ten of these men were martyred. Of the other two, Judas Iscariot killed himself, and St. John was the only one to die a natural death. .

NOTE: For more on apostolic succession, see this Link to a General Audience from Pope John Paul II in 1992:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19920708en.html .

1/20/11 - The Messianic Secret

2011-01-20T13:29:00.000-06:00

Mark 3:7-12

Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.

--------

Christ has just finished the first confrontation with the Pharisees that we see in Mark, concluding with the healing of the crippled man. He withdraws from the Pharisees and continues his mission of healing.

People came from all over. I’m not diligent enough in my study to pull out a map and determine where all these cities are, but others do. Jerusalem is more than a hundred miles from Galilee, Idumea is on the southern border between Palestine and Arabia, and Tyre and Sidon are on the Mediterranean coast. Considering the times, and how long it must have taken to travel these distances, this is amazing.

In the gospels, we see several accounts of confrontation with the Pharisees, followed by Christ leaving the scene. Clearly Jesus didn’t need to run away, but he didn’t go to the final confrontation because he had more work to do. We also see Jesus on several occasions to warn those who confess he is the Christ to not make him known. In this reading, he rebukes the unclean spirits that recognize him.

This is known as the "Messianic Secret." Rather than try and explain why, I'll defer to someone smarter.

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2009 (http://www.zenit.org/article-24971?l=english).- Christ knew that to fulfill his mission he had to suffer and die on the cross. For this reason, he took great strides to keep his identity hidden, says Benedict XVI.

Reflecting on today's Gospel (Mark 1:21-28) before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square, the Pope spoke about the "so-called 'Messianic secret.'"

"For the moment, Jesus does not want anyone outside the restricted group of his disciples to know that he is the Christ, the Son of God," the Pontiff explained. "This is why he often admonishes the apostles and the sick people whom he heals to not reveal his identity to anyone."

"Not only does Jesus chase demons out of people, freeing them from the worst slavery, but he prohibits the demons themselves from revealing his identity," he added.

The Holy Father said Christ insisted on this secret "because the fulfillment of his mission is at stake, on which our salvation depends."

"He knows in fact that to liberate humanity from the dominion of sin he must be sacrificed on the cross as the true paschal lamb," Benedict XVI explained. "The devil, for his part, tries to divert his attention and direct it instead toward a human logic of a powerful and successful messiah."

The Pope continued: "The cross of Christ will be the demon’s ruin, and this is why Jesus does not cease to teach his disciples that in order to enter into his glory he must suffer much, be rejected, condemned and crucified. Suffering is an integral part of his mission."

"Jesus suffers and dies on the cross for love," he added. "When we consider this, we see that it is in this way that he gave meaning to our suffering, a meaning that many men and women of every age understood and made their own, experiencing profound serenity even in the bitterness of difficult physical and moral trials."

1/19/11 - More on "Knowing Christ"

2011-01-19T10:56:00.002-06:00

I want to follow up on yesterday's email, and give some more information on knowing Christ. Go figure -- in the last couple of days on Catholics Online, a great article was published by Fr. James Farfaglia of Corpus Christi, TX. Here's a piece of it:

What do we need to do in order to truly know Christ Jesus? Above all, we must be open. Far too many people attempt to live Christianity based upon their own terms. They do not come to the Lord with open minds and hearts. Far too many remove pages from the Scriptures and reduce Christianity to their own comfort level.

When we are completely open, the Holy Spirit floods our souls with his loving and peaceful presence. He cannot enter locked doors and windows that he cannotopen. God respects our freedom.

Only the open can believe and see. Knowledge automatically brings us to love. We only love that which we know. Our love for the Lord must be authentic and real. Hypocrisy repulsed the Lord. "In the written scroll it is prescribed for me, to do your will, O I my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40: 8).

Love brings about transformation. The goal of discipleship is to die to self so that the Lord may live within us. Whether that disciple is Paul, Sosthenes, John the Baptist, or everyone who has called upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (1Corinthians 1: 2) every true disciple is sanctified and made holy by the Lord who is the light to the nations (Isaiah 49: 6).

Link: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=39927&page=1

Note his statement that "far too many people attempt to live Christianity based on their own terms." I have a huge example of this from my own life. Consider this passage:

John 15:14-17

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing.

I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.

This I command you: love one another.

Being a Christian isn't about saying "I believe", or having strong feelings, or having expert command of the Bible, or doing lots of good things. Those are terms that people develop.

Christ's terms are RIGHT THERE. "You are my friends if you do what I command you." That means love one another as Christ loves us. Christ says this, Paul says this, Peter says this, John says this, the Church says this. The Psalms say this, Proverbs says this, Isaiah says this. The Saints say this.

That's onerous until we understand that with God, all things are possible. We can get a certain distance on our own, but to complete the job, we need Christ. If we realize that and go to him, the transformation comes. That's the journey of faith.

1/18/11 - I Know Mine AND MINE KNOW ME

2011-01-18T14:27:00.000-06:00

John 10:14-15

I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me,

just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;

and I will lay down my life for the sheep.

-----

What do we know about the relationship between the God the Father and Christ? We know that they are the same nature, but separate persons. We know that Christ knew he was put on this earth to do the will of the Father. We know that he relied on the Father through thick and thin. We know that from the Father, Christ was given the strength to deal with every trial that came His way. We know that everything Christ had belonged to the Father, and everything He did belonged to the Father. We know that Christ and the Father are one. The list goes on and on, and I'm nowhere near capable of describing it.

In the passage above, Christ is telling us that those who are truly His have a similar relationship with Him. He knows us as the Father knows Him, and we know Him as He knows the Father.

At the moment I see two sides to that point. First -- if I'm short of that in my life, the best single thing I can do is to grow my relationship with Christ. It is far more important to KNOW Him than know ABOUT Him. So that means that I have some work to do. Namely -- understanding what He says, asking Him what He wants me to do, listening for the answer ... and doing it. As it says in 1 John:

"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments."

But secondly -- consider the implications. Consider the nature of the prize that we as Catholics are seeking. Complete union with Christ -- nothing short of Divinity! It's audacious. But we have that audacity because Christ has given us the right to have that relationship, and in Him all things are possible.

Given the nature of the reward -- isn't it worth the effort to get to know Christ?

1/17/11 - Of Wine and Wineskins

2011-01-17T10:40:00.005-06:00

Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

--------

There are two teachings going on here. In the first, Christ is saying that there is no need for fasting while HE is there. The purpose of fasting is ultimately self-denial, so that people can learn to turn away from the desires and wants of the world and turn toward God, who is the source of all good. The disciples didn't need to fast, because they were experiencing God in the flesh minute by minute, in a way that no fasting could produce. The time for fasting will come after he -- "the bridegroom" -- is physically gone.

Jesus isn't saying that people shouldn't fast. In fact he's saying that we should. He's saying that they shouldn't leave the greater (his presence) for the lesser (fasting, which is meant to ultimately bring about ... HIS PRESENCE). This is very similar to how he treated Mary and Martha. Martha worked and prepared, and Mary sat at His feet. Mary chose the better part.

The second teaching is a parable describing the old and new covenants. The bottom line is that Christ is mediator of the new covenant. He is the unshrunken cloth in the garment metaphor, and the "new wine" in the wineskin metaphor. The new wine requires a new wineskin -- one that has become new by God's grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. If you patch unshrunken cloth on to an old garment, it will tear away. If you try to contain it in the old wineskin (ie, the old covenant), the wineskin will burst. The new needs to be paired with the new.

Today we don't deal with wineskins, so we really don't know what Christ is talking about. The apostles did though. Here's some background from the web that helps explain things.

Winemaking and Wineskins
Wine was made by treading barefoot on the grapes in a wine press, a square or circular pit hewn out of the rock, or dug out and lined with rocks and sealed with plaster. The juice then flowed through a channel into a lower vessel, a winevat which functioned as a collecting and fermenting container for the grape juice or must.

In the warm climate of Palestine, grape juice began to ferment very quickly and there was no easy way to prevent fermentation. After the first state of fermentation had taken place in the winevat, the wine was separated from the lees (that is, sediment of dead yeast, tartar crystals, small fragments of grape skins, etc.) and strained through a sieve or piece of cloth. After four to six days it was poured into lined clay jars or animal skins for storage and further fermentation.

Fermentation in the wineskin might continue for another two to four months until the process slows down and stops. By that time the skin has been stretched to its limit. The alcohol is probably about 12%, and the collagen protein that gives the leather its stretching ability has been stretched out, and probably denatured by the alcohol, destroying its natural resiliency. The skin's ability to contract and stretch again has been lost.

If you pour new wine into the old skin, the gas pressure from the fermentation is eventually so great that the inflexible old skin ruptures, and the new wine gushes out onto the ground and is wasted.

1/14/11 - Rise, Pick Up Your Mat, And Walk

2011-01-14T09:07:00.000-06:00

Mark 2:1-12

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,
it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.

After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

Jesus immediately knew in his mind what
they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’?
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
–he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
--------

My reflection is disconnected this morning and I don't have time to weave it together. :)

This is the first conflict with the religious leaders, who see Christ's claim to be able to forgive sins as blasphemous. Christ responds to that with a miracle to demonstrate his power and authority.
"Rise, pick up your mat, and walk." There was a time in my life where these words really spoke to me about the need to cooperate with God as we ask for his help. It was a time where I was fighting off depression, and really didn't have the will to do anything. I went to mass and heard this reading. I understood that for the paralytic to be healed, he needed to rise and walk himself. If he'd just lain there, nothing would have happened, He had to believe he was healed, and then get up and put one foot in front of the other. It's the same way with us.
Christ identified himself as the "Son of Man". This is a reference to both his human nature, and his eternal kingship. Here's more from the Catholic Answers Website.

http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0212qq.asp

The phrase son of man is used in more than one way in Scripture. In Hebrew ben-adham would have been taken originally as a roundabout or poetic reference to a human being. The same is true in Aramaic. In fact, the Aramaic equivalent of the term (bar-nasha) still means man or human being in modern Aramaic.

Thus Ezekiel is referred to as son of man without it indicating that he was anything more than human. (Notice that Ezekiel doesn’t call himself Son of Man as if using a title; rather, the angel addresses him as son of man, as if speaking generically as a non-human to a human being.) Over time a secondary usage of the phrase as a messianic term developed under the influence of prophetic literature such as the vision of Daniel 7.

The fact that son of man originally was a way of saying human being suggests that even when the title acquired the use of being a reference to the Messiah that it still retained the connotation of pointing to a man. Thus it is fair to say that the title calls attention to Jesus’ humanity while—in light of Daniel 7—it also suggests his eternal kingship and messianic mission.

1/13/11 - Christ's Power Over The Law

2011-01-13T11:19:00.002-06:00

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
----

This healing itself is miraculous. However, it also has a very significant cultural elements that many of us don't consider today. Christ TOUCHED the leper.

Under the Old Covenant, touching a leper defiled a person, and that person then had to go through a purification process. Being a leper meant that you would be largely separated from the community -- which at the time wasn't just the spiritual community, but the full social community as well.

In physically touching the leper and healing him, Christ showed both his divine power to heal, and that he has authority over the Law. He could not be defiled, and the leper was healed immediately. Eventually Christ will fully teach that what defiles a man comes from within, not from without.

1/12/11 - More on Withdrawing to Pray

2011-01-12T09:04:00.001-06:00

Mark 1:29-39

On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn,
he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons
throughout the whole of Galilee.
----

This picks up immediately after yesterday's passage. It is the sabbath, and Christ has just cast out an unclean spirit. The same day he heals Simon's mother in law, and that evening he heals many. According to the Pharisees and Scribes, this was unlawful because he was working on the sabbath. However, from early on in his ministry, he shows that it is acceptable to God to do God's work on the Sabbath. Doing God's work is a way to praise Him, and that is an acceptable way to keep His day holy.

We also see another example of Christ withdrawing to solitude to pray. We absolutely NEED to withdraw to pray to God. Christ was more powerful and wise than any human to walk the earth, and he always, always, always withdrew to pray. He knew that he fully needed God to accomplish his work.

I've been writing this email list for almost three years now, and I've written about this point at least half a dozen times over that period. Right now, today, I think I'm finally getting this point through my skull. I have finally begun consulting Christ repeatedly throughout the day, and inviting Him in to my daily life. I've been doing that in prayer time for a long time (some days better than others of course).

But God has kind of made a change with me lately. I'm making an effort to be aware of Him and ask for His help in more and more of my day. I've got to say it's made quite a difference. Overall I have less anxiety. I am more patient. I am more aware of what He wants me to do and how He wants me to act. This all comes from going to Him for help. For beginning to truly understand how much I need Him, and how interested He is in everything that happens.

Words completely fail to describe how big a deal this is.

Praised be to Him for drawing me closer.

1/11/11 - Do You Believe In Unclean Spirits?

2011-01-11T08:57:00.002-06:00

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers,
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

---------

According to the Gospels, at the time of Christ unclean spirits existed, and they had great influence on people's lives. One way Christ demonstrated his divinity is to cast them out of people. Those witnessing were shocked, but it's interesting to consider WHY. Apparently they weren't shocked by the idea of an unclean spirit influencing a person. What amazed them was the command that Jesus had over the spirits.

So ... how real is this episode to us today? Was this something that occured during a specific time and place, or do we have this problem now? Do unclean spirits impact our lives?

In today's world, if I believe in unclean spirits (ie, demons), I'm crazy. Flat out nuts. But if we are to take the teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and Magesterium of the Church seriously, we should be aware that the Church's testimony is that they are indeed out there, and that they try to prevent us from having a relationship with God.

1/10/11 - Repent and Believe in the Gospel

2011-01-10T09:59:00.000-06:00

Mark 1:14-20

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.

-------

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord that we celebrated yesterday brings to an end the Christmas Season. From today until the beginning of Lent, our daily Gospel will be taken from St. Mark. And we begin with a very clear statement:

"The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

"Repent" doesn't mean "I'm sorry", it means "I'm on the wrong path, I'm not going to act like this anymore." That's a HUGE difference. Those of us who have kids know exactly what it looks like - because we see our kids say "I'm sorry" but not be repentant darn near every day. We see them hanging their heads because they've been caught, saying what they need to say, then going right back and doing the same thing again.

Repentance is something we need to do over and over in our lives. As we grow in Christ, he shows us when we're walking down the wrong path. He shows us pieces of our life that need to be put to death for us to truly follow Him.

Over the last couple of years, I've had several times where Christ has shown me ingrained behaviors that are not His way. When that happens there is a battle of will. I am tempted to stick with the "worldly" thing that I know and love. It is one thing to recognize a behavior is wrong, and it's another to feel regret about it after the fact. True repentance, though, is resolving that I don't WANT to do it anymore.

This is one of those things that takes a while to grasp mentally, and even longer to grasp in practice. It's very difficult to cease to want something that is sinful. I've found that the only way to truly do it is to seek God's help ... and be willing to accept how slow the "detachment" process can be.

1/7/11 - Receiving God's Love

2011-01-07T09:54:00.004-06:00

Now it seems to me that, when God has brought someone to a clear knowledge of the world, and of its nature, and of the fact that another world (or, let us say, another kingdom) exists, and that there is a great difference between the one and the other, the one being eternal and the other only a dream; and of what it is to love the Creator and what to love the creature (this must be discovered by experience, for it is a very different matter from merely thinking about it and believing it); when one understands by sight and experience what can be gained by the one practice and lost by the other, and what the Creator is and what the creature, and many other things which the Lord teaches to those who are willing to devote themselves to being taught by Him in prayer, or whom His Majesty wishes to teach—then one loves very differently from those of us who have not advanced thus far.

St. Teresa of Avila. Way of Perfection. Chapter 6. Link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/teresa/way.i.xii.html

----------

This is one long sentence that may take a while to read. If you step through it though, you'll see that God begins to infuse a person greatly with His Love when he has brought a person to the point where he/she knows:

Another kingdom definitely exists (ie, the kingdom of heaven), and this kingdom is eternal.
There is a GREAT difference between the eternal kingdom and what one sees in the world
Even though the kingdom of heaven is invisible, it is the one that is real. What we see on earth is "only a dream."
Truly loving the Creator is different than "merely thinking about" loving the Creator, or saying you love the Creator
One only understands what it means to love the creator by one's OWN experience

According to St. Teresa, when this happens, one begins to love very differently than the sensual, creature-based love that we have on earth. This process only occurs through God working with a willing soul. Our job is to turn ourselves over to God and let Him do His thing.

1/6/11 - How Does One Love God?

2011-01-06T15:19:00.003-06:00

1 John 4:19 - 5:4

Beloved, we love God because
he first loved us.
If anyone says, “I love God,”
but hates his brother, he is a liar;
for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen
cannot love God whom he has not seen.

This is the commandment we have from him:
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.

---------

Do you ever wonder what it means to "love God"? The answer is in this passage. "For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments."

It is easy to be attracted to the idea of God, to like what He says, to take comfort in Him, and to understand that I'm supposed to love others. However, to actually return that love to God, I need to obey his commandments.

Is that easy to do, or hard? For me, far to often, it's hard. But according to St. John, it shouldn't be: "his commandments aren't burdensome." Why the discrepancy?

Tuesday's daily actually helped me solidify that answer in my mind. The answer came directly from the Catechism. Love is a THEOLOGICAL virtue -- one that originates with God. That mean it doesn't originate with me. God, according to His will, "dispenses" that virtue to me. This gift from God is called "grace."

So ... I struggle to love the way God intends BECAUSE I DON'T GO TO HIM FOR HELP. God's love is divine in origin. It can't come from me. It has to come from Him.

Man, I wish I'd gotten that through my skull earlier in life.

1/5/11 - Devotion is a Grace -- Seek For It!

2011-01-05T09:49:00.002-06:00

Time is short for me this morning. This was my daily devotion yesterday from the Imitation of Christ. It's very much along the line of my thinking of late.

Link: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.FOUR.15.html

Book 4, Chapter 15 - The Grace of Devotion is Acquired Through Humility and Self-Denial

The Voice of Christ

YOU must seek earnestly the grace of devotion, ask for it fervently, await it patiently and hopefully, receive it gratefully, guard it humbly, cooperate with it carefully and leave to God, when it comes, the length and manner of the heavenly visitation.

When you feel little or no inward devotion, you should especially humiliate yourself, but do not become too dejected or unreasonably sad. In one short moment God often gives what He has long denied. At times He grants at the end what He has denied from the beginning of prayer. If grace were always given at once, or were present at our beck and call, it would not be well taken by weak humankind. Therefore, with good hope and humble patience await the grace of devotion.

When it is not given, or for some unknown reason is taken away, blame yourself and your sins. Sometimes it is a small matter that hinders grace and hides it, if, indeed, that which prevents so great a good may be called little rather than great. But if you remove this hindrance, be it great or small, and if you conquer it perfectly, you shall 250 have what you ask. As soon as you have given yourself to God with all your heart and seek neither this nor that for your own pleasure and purpose, but place yourself completely in His charge, you shall find yourself at peace, united with Him, because nothing will be so sweet, nothing will please you so much as the good pleasure of His will.

Anyone, therefore, who shall with simplicity of heart direct his intention to God and free himself from all inordinate love or dislike for any creature will be most fit to receive grace and will be worthy of the gift of devotion. For where the Lord finds the vessel empty He pours down His blessing.

So also the more perfectly a man renounces things of this world, and the more completely he dies to himself through contempt of self, the more quickly this great grace comes to him, the more plentifully it enters in, and the higher it uplifts the free heart.

Then shall he see and abound, then shall his heart marvel and be enlarged within him, because the Hand of the Lord is with him and in the hollow of that Hand he has placed himself forever. Thus shall the man be blessed who seeks God with all his heart and has not regarded his soul in vain. Such a one, receiving the Holy Eucharist, merits the grace of divine union because he looks not on his own thoughts, nor to his own comfort, but above all devotion and consolation to the glory and honor of God.

1/4/11 - Charity, The Greatest of the Virtues

2011-01-04T09:29:00.002-06:00

1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

--------

As St. John says here, love ultimately comes from God. We can show our love for God, though, by loving one another. By doing that, we are allowing Him to work through us.

The Catholic Church identifies Love (ie, "Charity") as a theological virtue -- which means that the virtue comes directly from God. Somewhere along the line in the english language, the word "charity" has morphed into an act of giving or an organization that you give to. However, when the Church discusses Charity, it means this theological virtue. Here's what the Catechism says:

Charity

1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment.⁹⁶ By loving his own "to the end,"⁹⁷ he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."⁹⁸

1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."⁹⁹

1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies."¹⁰⁰ The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.¹⁰¹

The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."¹⁰²

1826 "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing."¹⁰³ Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."¹⁰⁴

1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony";¹⁰⁵ it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us":¹⁰⁶

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.¹⁰⁷

1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.¹⁰⁸

1/3/11 - His Words Are Spirit and Life

2011-01-03T10:03:00.003-06:00

John 6:63

63 It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
--------

If I want to live a "life in the spirit," I really need to understand that the flesh is of no avail. Time that I spend chasing matters of the flesh means NOTHING in the economy of God. I need to be fully aware of that in my mind, and I need to consider that as I make choices on how to spend my time. I live "in the world", so there is no avoiding worldly matters, but what I can control is how much importance I put on them, and how much more important it is to follow Christ than to do any of those individual things.

If I want to live a "life in the spirit", I need to keep His words in my mind. That means I need to dive more deeply into the four Gospels. His words -- spirit and life -- are right there for us. I need to spend time in the gospels on a daily basis, and meditate and pray over what I read there. I need to immerse myself in spirit and life, and have His teachings at the top of my brain, so that I actually pay attention to them and obey them on a day-to-day and minute-to-minute basis.

If I want to have a higher relationship with Christ, I need to actually pursue the relationship. Obvious, right? If I want to get to know a person, I need to spend time with that person. Well, Christ IS a person. If I want to know Him better, I need to choose to spend my time in a way that pursues Him.

I need to develop an awareness for His presence. I need to look for Him in my life daily. I need to develop a habit of "consulting" Him throughout the day. I need to let Him be an intimate part of my life. I need to think about what has happened over the course of a day, and where He was present. I need Him to help me understand when I listen to Him, and when I don't. And then I need to ask for His help to correct the problems He shows me.

I'm not much into New Year's resolutions, but this is pretty much my spiritual plan for 2011.

12/30 - The Father Has Drawn You

2010-12-30T08:58:00.005-06:00

John 6:44-45

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.

--------

The very fact that any of us come to Christ means that the Father has drawn us. We have all been called -- PERSONALLY -- by God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, and all that is seen and unseen. The most important being in the world has called us. He's asked us to come to Him. He's told us how we should live. He has things He wants us to do.

If Albert Pujols called and said that he wanted to meet you, would you go? How about the President of the United States? Warren Buffet? Bill Gates? Pope Benedict XVI? The bishop of your diocese? The president of your company? Your favorite celebrity?

Folks, if you've come to Jesus in any way in your life, you've had a better thing happen. You have been called by God. You have been involved in a supernatural transaction. You've been the recipient of a miracle. Rejoice in it!

12/29/10 - Mary's Sorrows

2010-12-29T10:20:00.001-06:00

Luke 2:22-35

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
“Lord, now let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you prepared in the sight of every people,
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.”
The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
(and you yourself a sword will pierce)
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
-------
This passage is interesting because different aspects of it have been memorialized in two rosaries. Probably everyone reading knows that the Presentation is one of the joyful mysteries of the Dominican Rosary (ie, the rosary most commonly said). It also contains the first of Mary's sorrows -- the prophecy of Simeon that Mary's heart would be pierced by a sword "so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

I hadn't spent much time thinking about Mary's sorrows until earlier this year. However, when my mother passed away, I found a rosary with seven groups of seven beads each, and each group of beads separated by a medal with a picture from Mary's life.  Somehow I recognized this as a Seven Sorrows Rosary, but I didn't know anything about it. I never even knew my mom had it, or how long it had been since she prayed it. But there it was.

I researched its history. I read meditations of saints and one Doctor of the Church (St. Alphonsus Liguori) on it. I learned that in the Church-approved Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Rwanda, the Blessed Mother re-introduced this rosary to the visionary, and asked her to say it.  I learned how to say it, and gave it a try.

It causes me to think about the events in Christ's life from Mary's perspective -- that of a loving parent caring for a child. As I meditate on the mysteries, I imagine my own children in the role of Christ. I imagine knowing from the very start that even though my children would ultimately bring joy to the world, that it would come along with sorrowful and excruciating moments for me.  I imagine the flight to Egypt, going into a completely unknown land to protect my own child from MURDER.  I imagine what it would be like to lose a child for three days.  And so on, through watching my children be nailed to a cross and crucified, receiving and caring for their bodies, and putting them in a tomb.

Since it came into my hands, I've been saying it on a fairly regular basis. I can tell you that for me at least, my rosary is more fruitful and my meditations are more memorable and vivid when I say this Rosary. I find it to be a great "tool" for meditating upon Christ's life, and it also puts the role of the Virgin Mary in a new light for me. And in the end, I believe this is why I received this Rosary. It's pretty clear to me that God/Jesus/Mary gave me this rosary so I could learn this devotion.

And he also wanted me to have a parent, I think. My mother had been sick with Alzheimer's, and had been really "gone" for more than four years years before she died.  My father had died almost twenty years before. Christ offered his own mother to ME, to guide me as I finally grow out of spiritual infancy.

12/28/10 - Let The Peace of Christ Control Your Hearts

2010-12-28T10:36:00.004-06:00

Colossians 3:12-17

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
-----

This was part of the second reading last Sunday. These verses are referred to directly 7 separate times in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I'm thinking that means we need to pay attention to them.

They describe what a person who lives "life in the spirit" is like. He is compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Over all, he is loving, because he understands that love is "the bond of perfection" that ties all other virtues together. He lets the peace of Christ control his heart. The word of Christ dwells in him richly.

This is the target for all of us. It is so easy for us to say it's impossible, to say that we're sinners and always will be, and use that thought to conclude that we don't need to try to live the life that Paul describes. That's dangerous thinking, because God clearly expects us to try and get there.

If we persevere in this effort, and trust in him, he will help us when we fall short. Eventually we will be transformed.

12/27/10 - What are My Loaves and Fishes?

2010-12-27T10:35:00.004-06:00

John 6:5-13

5 When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

6 He said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered him, "Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little (bit)."

8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

9 "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?"

10 Jesus said, "Have the people recline." Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.

11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

12 When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted."

13 So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.

------------

A boy brings forward five loaves and two fishes. He offers it to Christ. Christ takes this humble gift, performs a miracle with it, and feeds more than five thousand people.

Which gets me thinking -- what is it that I offer to Christ for His use?   I clearly have more than five loaves and two fish to give. What miracles can Christ perform with what I have to offer him?

Now that I think about it, exactly what HAVE I offered to Christ, for His use? Sure ... I give away a few things, but always just a small fraction of what I have available -- time, talent, treasure -- but in the end I always hold back MUCH MUCH MUCH more for myself and my family.

What if I actually offered Him EVERYTHING I have? What would He do with it? I can't even imagine, but I'd expect in the end it would be incredible.

I've "tried" to start down this road before, and many times I have offered myself to Him completely.  But I never make good on the offer. I hold back.  My faith isn't strong enough to truly give things of high value away to Christ.

At my current spiritual state, the only thing I can do is to pray for God to change me, so that one day I might be able to be so committed to Him, or at least that eventually I'll TRULY desire to be committed to Him.

That's a humbling thought, but it's the truth.

12/22/10 - The Magnificat

2010-12-22T09:20:00.000-06:00

Luke 1:46-56

Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.”

Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months
and then returned to her home.
------------
Yesterday we saw Elizabeth's greeting to Mary. Mary responds with a humility that is pretty much unknown in today's world. She directs praise and glory to the Father, she calls herself a servant, and she sings a song of praise to the Lord in a style and beauty equal to the greatest of the ancient Psalms.

What is it like to see a person whose soul proclaims (some translations say "magnifies") the greatness of the Lord? A person whose spirit rejoices in God? What is that person like?

I'm still working on that answer.

Up until the summer of 2008, I hadn't pursued any kind of relationship with the Blessed Virgin. I even hit a point in my life where I thought I didn't need her. The bible says that there is one mediator between God and man, so why should I need the Blessed Mother? I can go directly to the Father, just as Christ said.

What a mistake. Of epic proportions. A classic case of picking and choosing from Scripture, rather than considering the entirety of the Word of God.

Fortunately she didn't give up on me. After spending some time with my CRHP brothers, I began to see that she really makes a difference in people's lives. I didn't understand how, but I could definitely see the results in the people around me. I asked for help from them, so I could get some of what they had. One of my brothers gave me a Rosary. I started to say it, and to prayerfully ask the Lord to show me the Blessed Virgin. The relationship began to grow.

As I said yesterday, in Mary we see what an intimate relationship with Christ is like. I took a feeble stab at it yesterday. Pope John Paul II said it a little better in his 2002 Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

"10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7).

Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).

11. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life."

Link: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae_en.html

12/21/10 - The Visitation

2010-12-21T10:10:00.000-06:00

Luke 1:39-45

Mary set out in those days
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”
----

Has there ever been a more "personal relationship with Jesus" than this -- the Blessed Mary, carrying the Christ in her womb? His blood mixed with hers. Every morsel she ate fed Him. She could feel every move he made. She cared for every need of his, both in the womb and through the first several years of life. In my opinion, there is no personal relationship more intimate than between mother and child.

What's awesome is that she can share that intimacy with us. She can show us how to wait on Him. How to be His handmaiden. How to ponder His truths in our hearts. How to submit entirely to His will. How to bear trials with grace and faith. How to stand firm to the end, when everyone else had run away.

If I want intimacy with Christ -- which is the true definition of a "personal relationship" -- then I'd do well to learn from her. That's why Catholics hold her in such high regard.

It's so sad that she has been rejected by so many in this world.

12/20/10 - What is the Condition of My Soul?

2010-12-20T09:52:00.001-06:00

Introduction to the Devout Life - St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) .Book 5, Chapter 1.

Our earthly nature easily falls away from its higher tone by reason of the frailty and evil tendency of the flesh, oppressing and dragging down the soul, unless it is constantly rising up by means of a vigorous resolution, just as a bird would speedily fall to the ground if it did not maintain its flight by repeated strokes of its wings. In order to this, my daughter, you need frequently to reiterate the good resolutions you have made to serve God, for fear that, failing to do so, you fall away, not only to your former condition, but lower still; since it is a characteristic of all spiritual falls that they invariably throw us lower than we were at the beginning.

There is no clock, however good, but must be continually wound up; and moreover, during the course of each year it will need taking to pieces, to cleanse away the rust which clogs it, to straighten bent works, and renew such as are worn. Even so, any one who really cares for his heart’s devotion will wind it up to God night and morning, and examine into its condition, correcting and improving it; and at least once a year he will take the works to pieces and examine them carefully -- mean his affections and passions -- so as to repair whatever may be amiss.

-----------

In Book 5 of Introduction to the Devout Life, St. Francis de Sales gives a great series of meditations to perform on an annual basis. I do them at the end of the calendar year, and for this year I'm starting today.

The meditations are designed to take a look at yourself and gauge the "condition" of your soul. You look at your prayer life, your love for God, love for self, and love for others. You look at how far you've come over the last year - have you changed spiritually? You look honestly and deeply at your own sins -- identifying the ones you keep coming back to, and considering why you've placed that particular hurdle between yourself and God. You emerge making spiritual resolutions for the year to come.

As St. Francis de Sales says, "It is by testing the passions of the soul, one by one, that we ascertain our spiritual condition, just as one who plays the lute tries every string, touching those which are discordant, either raising or lowering them. Thus having tried our soul as to love, hate, desire, fear, hope, sadness and joy, if we find our strings out of tune for the melody we wish to raise, which is God’s Glory, we must tune them afresh with the help of His Grace, and the counsel of our spiritual father."

If you're interested at all, you can find them online at this link:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/desales/devout_life.vii.i.html

Daily - The Imitation of Christ

2010-12-17T08:50:00.000-06:00

The Imitation of Christ. Thomas A Kempis' (1380-1471). Book 4, Chapter 1.

-----------

Oh, the wonderful and hidden grace of this Sacrament which only the faithful of Christ understand, which unbelievers and slaves of sin cannot experience! In it spiritual grace is conferred, lost virtue restored, and the beauty, marred by sin, repaired. At times, indeed, its grace is so great that, from the fullness of the devotion, not only the mind but also the frail body feels filled with greater strength.

Nevertheless, our neglect and coldness is much to be deplored and pitied, when we are not moved to receive with greater fervor Christ in Whom is the hope and merit of all who will be saved. He is our sanctification and redemption. He is our consolation in this life and the eternal joy of the blessed in heaven. This being true, it is lamentable that many pay so little heed to the salutary Mystery which fills the heavens with joy and maintains the whole universe in being.

Oh, the blindness and the hardness of the heart of man that does not show more regard for so wonderful a gift, but rather falls into carelessness from its daily use! If this most holy Sacrament were celebrated in only one place and consecrated by only one priest in the whole world, with what great desire, do you think, would men be attracted to that place, to that priest of God, in order to witness the celebration of the divine Mysteries! But now there are many priests and Mass is offered in many places, that God’s grace and love for men may appear the more clearly as the Sacred Communion is spread more widely through the world.

Thanks be to You, Jesus, everlasting Good Shepherd, Who have seen fit to feed us poor exiled people with Your precious Body and Blood, and to invite us with words from Your own lips to partake of these sacred Mysteries: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”
-----
I read this today during my own daily devotional. This was written 500 years ago, and rings true today.

The Imitation of Christ was first published in the 15th Centruy, and is widely considered one of the best spiritual books ever written. It is widely considered to be the second most published book in history - behind the Bible. It has been referred to and used by Popes, Saints, Doctors of the Church and millions more over the past five centuries.

You can get Imitation of Christ at any Catholic bookstore for less than $10. Trust me, it's worth the money.

12/15/10 - Tell What You've Seen and Heard

2010-12-15T09:13:00.000-06:00

Luke 7:18b-23

At that time,
John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask,
“Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”
When the men came to the Lord, they said,
“John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask,
‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’”
At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits;
he also granted sight to many who were blind.
And Jesus said to them in reply,
“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
-------

At mass this morning the priest asked us to consider what our answer would be if we were in the place of John's disciples. What would our response be, if we were challenged to "Go tell what you have seen and heard"?

I found this though provoking. What would I say? How willing am I to publicly answer that question? Would my answer be convincing to another -- convincing enough to make another person believe? Convincing enough for a court to convict me of having a true relationship with Christ?

God is likely present in all of our lives enough for each of us to give some kind of an answer. But ... are we aware enough of Christ's doings in our lives and in the world around us to give one? If not, why not? Because he's not doing anything, or because we don't see it? I think that's a pretty good question to ask myself on a daily basis.

12/14/10 - St. John of the Cross

2010-12-14T10:02:00.000-06:00

I clicked on today's readings and found that today is the Memorial of St. John of the Cross. I've been studying St. John a fair amount lately, so I'll make today a tribute to his teaching.

According to the Catechism, spiritual union with Christ is the ultimate end of spiritual growth:

2014 Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments - "the holy mysteries" - and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces or extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.

St. John of the Cross -- along with his contemporary / co-worker / friend St. Teresa of Avila -- is one of those to whom these special graces were granted for the sake of teaching the rest of us. Between them, they wrote several masterpieces of Christian literature that describe exactly HOW a person grows from spiritual infancy to spiritual union with Christ, how you can tell "where you are" along this path, and how God moves you from one point to the next. Both have been named Doctors of the Church. Pope John Paul II was fond of St. John of the Cross, and wrote his theological doctoral dissertation on St. John's spirituality.

I'm currently reading St. John's "Ascent of Mount Carmel", which along with "Dark Night of the Soul" and "Spiritual Canticle" put the story together. One basic tenet of St. John is that if one is truly serious about advancing spiritually, the person must become "detached" from things that stand between the person and God. If that doesn't happen, the person spends his life chasing the created, rather than the CREATOR.

Those who know me well know that I can go on for quite a while on St. John. Short of that ... here are a couple of quotes to give you a taste of his teaching, from various works of his. You might recognize these as a common thread through many of my messages from the last year or so.

“If you purify your soul of attachment to and desire for things, you will understand them spiritually. If you deny your appetite for them, you will enjoy their truth, understanding what is certain in them.”
"The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly."
"He who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer is like a man who allows a bird to escape from his hand; he can hardly catch it again."

12/13/10 - Back to Basics

2010-12-13T07:49:00.005-06:00

John 4:31-34

31 Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."

32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."

33 So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to eat?"

34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.

----

Over the past few weeks I've let my prayer life suffer. I'm still praying here and there, and sending these emails out, but I'm just not doing the "baseline" daily devotions that I've laid out for myself. Those things typically take a total of an hour spread out over the course of a day. I also haven't been to adoration for a few weeks, and I've only gone to a couple of daily masses over that time.

Work is pretty busy at the moment, but that's a convenient excuse. The true reason is that I just haven't put God first. It's my level of commitment. I'm stuck at the first commandment.

Christ, when tired and weary, responds that he has "food to eat of which you do not know", and that his food "is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work."

We all can have this food. I know from my own experience how things go as I rely more on this food. But instead, I walk away from it. Time to let God recharge me, rather than assume I can recharge myself. And that means I need to recommit to the daily routine, with a stronger dose of the Eucharist, adoration, and reconciliation.

Back to basics.

12/10/10 - Wisdom Is Vindicated By Her Works

2010-12-10T09:17:00.001-06:00

Matthew 11:16-19

Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”

-----------

This scripture is painful for me because I think I'm far more like the children he mentions than I'd like to be. I can talk a great game. The important thing isn't words, though, it's actions. As Christ says, Wisdom is vincicated by her works. It's OK to marvel over Christ's teaching, but without putting those words into action, it's just empty praise. To know the truth and not act on it is far worse than never knowing it in the first place.