"My Ways Are Not Your Ways; My Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts"

Imagine yourself being frustrated with yourself for not doing something that you believe is important or not having the motivation you used to have,  not having the energy you would like to have because of advanced age or a chronic illness, and so on. And then imagine a conversation with the Lord that goes something like this:

You:  Lord, I am so frustrated with myself?

The Lord:  Why?

You: Because I am not spending enough time in prayer with you.

The Lord: Why is that important to you?

You: I want to grow in my relationship with You.

The Lord: Is that the only way?

You: No!

The Lord: Other ways are?

You: Doing Your Will.

Lord: "You want to be a super person. You are that but not in the ways you think! I do not measure success as you do. You want to accumulate points for what you perceive as great achievements, such as:

          I did my hour of prayer.
          I volunteered at the Senior Center.
          I got involved in the several events at the parish.
          I took my children/grandchildren to the park.
          I bought flowers for my wife/husband.
          I prepared meals for my family this weekend.
          I attended the parish retreat for Lenten preparation.
          I got "employee of the month award."

I don't count the hours you spend in prayer or any other "holy" activity. What I ask of you is to surrender your life to me moment by moment--the good and the bad, the successes and the failures, doing the best you can each day.  Give me all!

I don't need you to win awards. I will showcase you in my Heart. I love you more than you can imagine and I delight in you when:

           --you feel frustrated with yourself
           --you have no energy
          --you feel weighed down by illness or advanced age

I cherish you when:

          --your arms are heavy with fatigue and simply fall limp at your side
          --you feel discombobulated, confused, weak

Your weakness is My strength.  When you can hardly lift your arms, I let them rest on my lap. Today and every day, I only ask that you give me your time, your energy, your desires and efforts.  Give me the little you have, the energy you do not have, your fatigue, your efforts. I am at work in and through you at all times, especially when you think I am not there!  Giving yourself to me when you are at a low point praises me more than you will ever know.  Also, I want you to learn that I am God and you are not.  You are a human being--my work of art. I am putting fine lines into your personality to enhance the beauty of My Art piece that is you as my beloved.  It is not about your prowess. I am teaching you to glorify Me through Jesus, my Son. I am hiding you in Me. Cherish the hidden way of My love."
         

     

Jesus' Desire to "set the earth on fire" with God's Love

In today’s Gospel, Luke 12: 49-53, Jesus says to us: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!  There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished.”  Jesus is talking about His baptism on the cross, on which He secures our salvation, by which you and I are saved.  It is through God’s love poured out by Jesus’ giving of His life as a ransom for our sins that you and I are graced with the graces spoken about by Paul in his letter to the Ephesians 3: 14-21, the first reading of today’s liturgy:  “[M]ay God grant you,” Paul prays, “in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that…rooted and grounded in love, [you] may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

As you gaze upon the cross today, may these words burn in your heart!  May your heart be set ablaze with the fire of God’s love for you!

Power, Divinity, Wisdom and Strength

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and divinity, and wisdom and strength and honor” (Rev. 5:12).  Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain, is  God’s wisdom, divinity, power, strength and honor.  Jesus is God, one with the Father and the Spirit. “Out of His fullness  we have all received grace upon grace “( Jn 1:16).   His giving and loving is without end and was planned from the beginning of the world. In His creation of humankind love was shown. In our rebellion and disobedience, love was shown, as God covenanted with us to save us from sin and death by sending a Savior: Jesus, the Christ.  “No  one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” we read in today’s Gospel, John 15: 12-17.  In verses 34-35  of Chapter 15, Jesus says to us:  “A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus does not only command us to love one another as He loves us, He  also gives us , in the sacraments, in the Scriptures, in the indwelling of the Trinity within us, the ability, the power, the support, the love, the wisdom we need to love as He loved. Truly, as we pray in the responsorial psalm of today’s liturgy: “…[Y]our mercy towers to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the skies. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; above all the earth be your glory” (Psalm57)!

Lord, today, may each one of us, by the way we love as you loved, reveal your faithfulness and your glory working within us. May we allow your power, divinity, wisdom, strength and honor bestowed on us through the Word and sacraments,  become stronger by the choices we make today to love when we are most inclined to walk away from the challenge. I ask this in Jesus’ name.

The Fullness of God shared with Us

“From his fullness, you have received grace in place of grace” (Jn 1:16).  This reality of receiving from God’s fullness is repeated in other parts of today’s liturgy. In 1 Jn 2: 19,  we are told that we “ have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and have all received the knowledge.”   John in this first letter is talking about the end times, a time when antichrists surface in many parts of the world.  “Children,” John says, “it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour.”     We know what is and is not of God—that knowledge is given us by the Holy Spirit, the “Holy Anointing” we received when we were born again through the sacrament of baptism and when we also received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation.  In today’s Gospel,  John 1: 1-18, the blessings announced in 1 Jn 2: 19 and Jn 1:16 are spoken of in the following ways:   “…[T]o those who did accept him [Jesus] he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.”  

How conscious am I of having received  of God’s fullness or that the people I live and pray  with at every liturgy, those I  encounter throughout the day, have also received “grace in place of grace”?  Would I treat people differently if I were aware that they, like myself,  have been given “power to become children of God”?

Reflecting on John 1:16, 1 John 2:19, and John 1: 1-18, I am not surprised that the angels present at the birth of Jesus, and joining us at every Catholic Mass, shout God’s praises both in the Gloria and in the Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.  What a privilege during Mass to join the angels and saints praising God for sharing His fullness with us.

Authored to do God's Will

Today’s Scripture readings, Proverbs 30: 5-9 and Luke 9:1-6, both speak of trusting the Lord. The author of Proverbs asks the Lord to “give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need; lest, being full, I deny you, saying, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God.” In the Gospel Jesus sends His apostles out to preach the Good News, giving “them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, …to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He then says to them: “Take nothing”  [with you]…neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.”

Wow! Trust, trust, trust that God will provide.  I have a tendency to over prepare for everything, leaving nothing to chance, nothing to God’s power, really. I want no surprises, yet God is full of surprises and full of power. His grace is abundant and He always goes ahead of us to prepare the way. Where is my faith when I over prepare, when I hold back because “I’m not ready,” “I have not done enough research,” “I do not have this degree or that degree; I’m too limited.”

Jesus sent the 12 apostles forth to proclaim the Kingdom, to heal diseases, to cast out demons. Jesus gave them power and authority. Jesus also gives you and me power and authority whenever we are invited to go forth out of our comfort zones. Do I believe this? Do I act on faith when the Spirit beckons? Or, when the pastor of my parish or a parishioner asks me to get involved, do I say, “No, I’m not ready for that.”  When someone out the blue calls me up and says: Will you do such and such, do I say, “No, I don’t think I can do that,” when the disbelief is a hidden fear that God will not provide me with “the food I need”  to do that task?

Does Jesus walk away saddened by my refusal to trust, to believe?

Anchored in Christ Jesus

In today's first reading, Acts 16: 22-34, Paul and Silas are attacked, beaten with rods and thrown into prison.  It would seem as though all is lost, that there is no escape, as their feet are chained to the floor in one of the most secure cells of the prison.  In the middle of the night,  a sudden earthquake opens all of the prison doors. They are free to escape but do not.  The prison guard  panics and is about to kill himself when Paul and Silas  intervene. What follows is the conversion of  the guard and his entire family.

The guard panics. Paul and Silas remain calm; their relationship to the Lord is unshakable.  You and I have at times remained calm in the midst of a crisis while others have panicked and vice versa. Panic blocks our awareness of God's presence and His power. It is important to realize that if I seek God on a daily basis, I am more likely to seek God in crisis situations.  When I am having a difficult time, my first thought is to call upon my best friend. So, too, if I have chosen Jesus as my closest friend and developed an intimate relationship with Him. I will automatically think of Jesus and call upon Him in both the good and bad times of life.

When, in a crisis, the Rock to which  I cling is Christ Jesus, I will be as strong as that Rock. I will not be shaken even if every one around me has entered the crisis mode. To whom do you cling?

Realizing the Gift of Salvation

Imagine the emotions of those Jewish people who had come to realize that the man that was put to death “by the inhabitants of Jerusalem and their leaders was, in fact, the fulfillment  promised to them  in all of their Scriptures, as we read in today's first reading, Acts 13: 26-33. “God,” they testify to fellow Jews, “ raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem….We ourselves are [now]proclaiming the good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.”  They realized that for decades they had been blinded and deaf to the Truth. 

Think of a time when you suddenly realized that you were believing the wrong thing, were listening to the wrong people, and all of a sudden came to the Truth that set you free from years of enslavement, misery, hopelessness, and faithlessness.

Yes, you and I, the redeemed, have been set free and  given life by God shedding the blood of His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Him and through Him and with Him, all honor and all glory and all power belong. You and I participate in all that is divine because of this incredible act of love on God’s part.  The power of God, the honor of God, the glory of God, the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the holiness of God, the Wisdom of God—God’s very essence dwells and grows --within us through the redemptive act of love that we celebrate in Jesus’ life and death and resurrection. Alleluia!

Anointed with the Holy Spirit and Power

In the second reading for Sunday, January 12, from Acts 10: 34-38, Luke reminds us that "...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all...oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."  At our baptism and confirmation, we, too, were anointed with the Holy Spirit and power.  At every Mass and Holy Communion, God rekindles, deepens, reactivates that power to engage in "doing good and healing all...oppressed by the devil, for God [is] with..[us]".  Anointed with the Holy Spirit and divine power we are capable of recognizing "bruised reeds" and "smoldering wicks" (compare Sunday's first reading from Is 42: 1-4, 6-7) and empowered to treat such with tender love, to act justly toward them and to be a source of goodness to them (compare Mi 6:8).  What is blocking me from being this extension of the heart and mind and hands of Christ? How to I prepare myself each day to activate the power that God has given me? At the end of the day, do I take time to reflect back on the day to ascertain how I cooperated/failed to cooperate with the graces of my baptism and confirmation and reception of the Eucharist? 

To become the best version of myself in line with the graces of baptism and confirmation, to be the best Christian I am capable of becoming, I might heed the advice Matthew Kelly gives in Rediscovering Catholicism.  He speaks about how professional athletes like Michael Jordan practiced making 500 free throws (his weakness) every day for ten years--500 free throws that hit the mark--until he succeeded.  Tiger Woods took a year off golf to practice his swing as it was not up to par. If I fall short of doing good on any given day, of following the guidance of the Good Spirit, do I resolve, as any athlete does, to practice the behavior that revealed a weakness until the good becomes a habit. If not, I might want to make this a practice in praise of God's holy name and in gratitude for the graces of baptism and confirmation and Eucharist. Let's not allow those graces to lie dormant.

Spiritual Warfare

Today's first reading, 2 Cor 6: 1-10,  opens with: "Now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation," Paul says to the Corinthians.  He commends himself and his companions  "as ministers of God, through much endurance, in afflictions, hardships, constraints, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, vigils, fasts; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, in truthful speech, in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness at the right and at the left; through glory and dishonor, insult and praise." There is a saying that goes "No pain, no gain." To reach high honors in school or on the athletic field, one needs to put in long hours, endure the pain of endless practice and challenging hours of tedious study.  The same is true of our growth spiritually.  Purity of heart is not a gift achieved by weak hearted, undisciplined persons but by persons of strong character, willing to endure the ridicule of "friends," and risk being bullied by others.  Knowledge of one's faith, of God, of the Scriptures is acquired by those willing to apply themselves to the work of learning, doing the research and hours of reflective study.  Patience and kindness are developed in a difficult circumstances borne gracefully.  "Weapons of righteousness" are drawn in situations that are unjust, unkind, uncaring, abusive: standing up in those kinds of conflicts takes a woman/man of incredible faith in the power of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we are engaged in a holy warfare day in and day out.    Now is the time to volunteer to be warriors for Christ sake.

Protection from Satan's Traps

In today's first reading, Acts 20: 28-38, St. Paul tells his fellow Christians that, after he leaves them, he knows that "savage wolves" will attack "the flock."  That message had got to have been terrifying for those whose faith may not have been all that strong.  Jesus, at the Last Supper, less that 24 hours before leaving us in death, prays for us, asking His Father, and ours, to keep us in His name. He reminds the Father that while here he "guarded" us. "But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely" (Jn 17: 11b-19).  He reminds the Father that He has given us the Father's word and that the world hates us, as the world hated Jesus, because neither Jesus nor we belong to the world.  He then says to the Father: "I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One."

What a promise, a promise that Jesus continues to keep. Yes, you and I are shielded from the Evil One. He has no more power over us. Jesus crushed his head from the tree of the cross.  For those of us who believe and rely upon God, evil will not overtake us eternally and eternity is NOW!  Jesus is NOW and where Jesus is, so, too, is the Father and the Spirit. And where the Trinity is, so, too, is eternity--a life beyond this world's reality. If I live by faith, then, when I encounter evil, I  will ultimately triumph over it, no matter from whence it comes. The resurrection is NOW. Rocks are rolled away from our tombs NOW as we rise with Christ to the new life of grace, to the power of the Spirit at work in the depth of our souls.

The Power of Faith in Action

"We are now his witnesses before the people" (Acts 13: 26-33). This is a statement from persons who have suffered much for the sake of Jesus' name.  How is it that these persons are able to make good come out of a situation that plunged them into darkness, that was filled with grief and sorrow, hopelessness and fear?  The obvious answer is their faith in Christ Jesus, their "hanging on" to His every word.  The Scriptures were not simply a book that decorated a shelf in their home. No, it was a Living Word.

I am reading the book "Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwanda Genocide" by Immaculee` Ilibagiza.   In moments of impending danger or personal despair, Immaculee` calls upon God. For instance, when evil men duped her into a situation that could have led to rape, she prayed: "Please send Your angels to help me, God! I swear that I'll help other women avoid these situations, but don't let them touch me, Lord, please" (p. 117).  From the window of that hotel room (another man blocked the exit door), she prayed: "What beauty You have created, Lord. You truly can do anything...please make these men look beyond themselves, beyond their own lust and contempt. Make them see the beauty in all You have created.  And if they refuse to see, then give me the strength to fight them in Your name. I am Your daughter. I know You will protect me"  (p. 117).    She tries to distract the man who wants her to get in bed with him.  He says to her:  "I'm not  interested in God or Rwanda, Immaculee` I'm interested in you. I could take you now if I wanted, but I'm trying to be a nice guy.  I can be generous, very generous. I am a good-looking man, and I am very rich.  I will make you rich, too; all you have to do is say yes. Now decide."  The Lord answered Immaculee`'s prayer by giving her the courage to fight them.  She firmly and resolutely said "No."  The man was furious, picked up his jacket and left the hotel room!

Immaculee` reports other examples of her faith in God and the incredible results of believing in God's power to save her from evil as well as to meet her every need as she strove to rise above the ashes of the Rwanda Genocide.  Like the early disciples, she truly witnessed to the power of Christ's resurrection at work in her and around her.

The miracles that the first disciples witnessed and those that Immaculee` experienced can and do occur in the life of believers today!  How strong is my faith? How real is the Scriptures in my life or is the Bible simply a book decorating a shelf in my home?

Jesus' confidence

“My appointed time draws near…,” Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, Mt. 26: 14-25. As the God-Man, Jesus knew that He would soon be given over to the power of Satan so that you and I would not ultimately succumb to his power. He was about to secure eternal salvation for the entire world. The One  who is guiltless, sinless, would soon assume the guilt of us all upon Himself as He hung upon the cross of crucifixion and death on Calvary.

Jesus knew the Hebrew Scriptures. The prophet Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Song, part of which was today’s first reading, Is 50: 4-9a, must have given Jesus a lot of strength.

The Lord God has given me

a well-trained tongue,

that I might know how to speak to the weary

a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning

He opens my ear that I may hear;

and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back….

The Lord God is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced;

I have set my face like flint,

knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

He is near who upholds my right…
See, the Lord
God is my help;

Who will prove me wrong?

 

To whom and to what do I look for strength?

What has God given me “morning after morning” to prepare me for what the day holds?

Am I as confident and secure as Jesus was when it seems as though Satan’s power has been unleashed upon me? Do I realize, in those times, that my help comes from the Lord God and that God will not let me “be put to shame,” that the One “who upholds my right” is near?