Making All Things New

In today's second reading, Revelation 21: 1-51, John tells us that he sees "a new heaven and a new earth...I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as  a  bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God Himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed way.' The One who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'"

The veil was lifted from John's eyes. It is not lifted from ours.  We know  by faith what John saw in this vision.  The day will come when the veil will also be lifted from our eyes, but not now! You and I will eventually be privy to this "new heaven and new earth."  You and I also know in faith that God dwells here on earth, is always here, and dwells in your very being and in mine! God is my God and yours!  You and I belong to God, as did John!  You and I also know, in faith, that God is making "all things new," including you and me.

As we enjoy spring, we can, in fact, see God making all things new!  What a glorious God!

Belonging to God

St. Paul, in today's first reading, Romans 1: 1-7, reminds you and me that we "belong to Jesus Christ", not to anyone else. No, not even to our parents or grandparents, husbands or wives.  We belong to Jesus, the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe, the Savior of humankind.  What does that literally mean? How do we get our arms around that belief? Or do we? Is it a mystery of God's incredible love in that God, through His Son's death and resurrection, has adopted us as His sons/daughters?  As  adopted sons or daughters of God, that also means that we are heirs of God.  The inheritance awaiting us is heaven itself, that is, eternal life with God: the all Good, the only Good, the ultimate Good, the absolutely Good, infinite Goodness, Compassionate Goodness, Merciful Goodness.   Who does not want to be with that kind of Goodness?

God does not enforce this Goodness upon us, however. God does not coerce us to accept His Infinite goodness or our eternal inheritance.  We can  turn our backs on God. We can follow our will and not God's. We can say "No thank you" to God, even though, as the psalmist says in today's responsorial psalm: "His right hand has won victory for [us], his holy arm."  That victory means eternal life with God forever for those who reverence God, acknowledge God, accept God as Lord of the Universe and Master of all humankind!

I accept God's gift of infinite love, mercy and forgiveness. I want to become one with God in all I do and say! How about you?

The Stewardship of God's Grace

Paul begins today’s first reading, Eph. 3: 2-12,  with the statement: “Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit…”  Each of us, also, has been given “the stewardship of God’s grace” for others’ benefit, not for our own.  Earlier in this same letter,  Chapter 1, verses 1-11, Paul says to us: “In Christ…[you] were…chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.” We “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,…the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession,to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1: 1-11).

Do I realize that I am not my own, that I belong to God? Do I realize that today God has a purpose for me or am I so intent on the goals I have set for myself that this underlying, foundational goal set by God is lost to me?  Does “this is what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter,” shut me out of waiting upon the Lord, allowing the Lord to show me His glory in “what I am going to do today, in this meeting, in this encounter”? Am I do noisy that I do not hear God at work?  If God’s grace is given to me for other people’s benefit, in what way do I allow “God’s grace” to reveal itself without my interference in  how that will happen in the events, the relationships, the opportunities given to me today to experience the “inheritance toward redemption”  (Ephesians 1: 11-14)that God wants to show me?

In Utmost for His Highest, the spiritual writer for today’s meditation, Oct. 22, challenges me with the words: “…abandon yourself to Him in total surrender….abandon your own reasoning and arguing” and then God will witness “to what He has done.” “The Spirit of God,” this spiritual author states, “witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else….We are inclined,” he says, “to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason[ing].”

All I can say is “Lord, have mercy!”

God's Presence in Elijah's Life and Ours

Elijah is running for his life and God is running with him all of the way! Elijah’s life belongs to God, as does ours. He came from God and will be returning to God, as is true for us as well.  Not one moment of his life is his, but God’s.  Everything about him is God’s, as with us.  Elijah has dedicated himself to God, giving God the right to himself. God worked miracles through him because of that dedication and the giving of his right to himself to God.  When we allow ourselves to be God’s in the way Elijah did, giving God the right to ourselves, “He will make a holy experiment out of you—and His experiments always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life.  The Spirit of God is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus….” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, June 13^th).

One of our Sisters died this week. One of the night nurses who stayed with her most nights for a significant amount of time states that Sister never complained. Is it possible that she had given the right to herself to the Lord?  What about you and me? Are we willing to give up this right? Do we trust God that deeply, that lovingly?  When I think of us coming to that point in our spiritual journey, I think of the following persons right off the top of my head:  Mother Frances, the Foundress of my religious community who is a candidate for sainthood, Mother Teresa, Kateri Tekawitha, Dorothy Day, my own mother and, in general, parents serving their spouses and children. That giving of the right to themselves to their families, I believe, is also a giving of their right to themselves to God. No wonder that we see saints-in-the-making all around us!

God's Marriage with Humankind

Today’s first reading, Tobit 6: 12-11; 7: 1bcde, 9-17; 8: 4-9a,  continues the story of Tobit and his son Tobiah, who travel to Media, where Tobiah is given his kinswoman Sarah as his wife.  Raguel, Sarah’s father, is delighted but needs to tell Tobiah that the seven previous men to whom he  gave Sarah each died on the first night of their being together.  Raguel says to Tobiah:  “Your marriage to her has been decided in heaven! Take your kinswoman; from now on you are her love, and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after….Take her and bring her back safely to your father. And may the God of heaven grant both of you peace and prosperity.”

In my morning’s meditation, the thought occurred to me that this is also about God’s relationship with you and me—a relationship decided in heaven. God, the Father, says to Jesus, His Son:  “Jesus, my Son, “from now on you are…[Dorothy Ann’s—insert your name] love and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after….Take her and bring her back safely to…[Me].”  The reverse is true, as well, which reads:  “And, Dorothy Ann (insert your name), from now on you are my Son’s love and He is your beloved. Jesus is yours today and ever after.” 

I was then awakened to the reality as how this story is about Jesus giving His life for us. Jesus, by becoming our spouse, our beloved, our Savior, was tortured by a scourging, a crowning with thorns, a crucifixion, and rose to save us from the Evil One.  Jesus died for us so that you and I, in turn, would die to sin and rise to holiness, die to selfishness and rise to selflessness, die to being unjust and rise to being just in all our dealings with others, die to being deceitful and rise to being truthful, die to being proud and arrogant and rise to being humble in the Lord Jesus, our Savior.

My response: Thank you, Lord, for taking on being my shepherd and all the inherent dangers of that position.  Thank you for choosing me to be your beloved.

Your response?

Belonging to God

Today, I would like to continue to share with you a quote from Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues, OP, concerning the call we received in our baptism into Christ. Our baptism was not just into Christ. It was also for Christ. As Mary presented Jesus to the Lord at the Presentation, our parents, knowingly or unknowingly, presented us to the Lord at our baptism.  We belong first and foremost to the Lord and not to anyone else.  Whether we like it or not, Archbishop Brugues says, we are his. In the Archbishop’s own words of what the Lord says to us about our baptism:  “You belong to me, completely to me. You belong to me forever, and never will I turn my face away from you.  I have marked you with an indelible sign; I have forged an eternal alliance with you. You can pretend that you have heard nothing, you can turn away from me, you can behave as if this baptism never existed, for I love those who are free.  But you can also risk this adventure with me, you can respond to my love by a love for me. However, know that I have given you a name and that this name marks you for eternity” (Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues, OP, "Vocation as a Lifelong, Personal Adventure for Every Christian, Horizon, Winter 2012, p. 6-7). 

Wow! Think of the fact that we, you and I, belong to God. Don’t we, you and I, then, believe that God will take good care of us!  The person caring for us is God Himself. The Almighty, the Perfect One, the all-loving, all-caring, the totally compassionate and understanding, the infinitely merciful and forgiving One is our caregiver and protector.  Fear no evil. God is our bodyguard and the guardian of our salvation.