In today's first reading, 1 John 3: 22-4:6, St. John reminds us that the first commandment is as follows: "[W]e should believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us." Jesus is the Son of God, who assumed human nature, remaining fully God and becoming fully human. Jesus was sent to show us God's unconditional love for us, a love revealed to us by Jesus' life, death and resurrection. We are called to believe in the truth that the Blessed Trinity---three divine persons but one God--agreed to send the second person to become a human being like us in all things but sin.
All who came to Him, Jesus healed. He took the side of sinners, ate with them, forgave them and invited them to repent and sin no more! Even on the cross when the good thief turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered in paradise, Jesus said to him: "Indeed, I promise you...today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). It was from his cross that the good thief rebuked the other thief who had joined those mocking Jesus: "Have you no fear of God at all? ...You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case e deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong." (Luke 23: 40-42).
To believe in Jesus is to love as Jesus loved, rising above our suffering and pain. Loving as Jesus taught us to love means to reach out to others in need: forgiving, embracing and showing others the love of God within us, a love that holds nothing back!
Showing posts with label Holding Nothing Back. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holding Nothing Back. Show all posts
Monday, January 7, 2019
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Christ Comes to Set Us Free
The Entrance Antiphon of today's liturgy reminds us that "Christ our King is coming, he is the Lamb foretold by John." In the Collect of today's liturgy, we lift our voices, saying: "Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who are weighed down from of old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin, may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of your Only Begotten Son."
Each one of us, every day, experiences the "slavery beneath the yoke of sin" that weighs down upon us. We may do things or say things that we regret having said or done, or regret not having said or done things that we knew needed to be done or said. Also, our thoughts may be anything but kind. We, as well, may find ourselves grumbling or complaining about something, resentful of what is being asked of us as a committed responsible member of a religious community or as a father/a mother, a child, a student, an employee. We may even tell God that what is expected of us is too much to ask of us.
Let us turn to the Lord and ask to "be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of [God's] Only Begotten Son." Let us acknowledge our weaknesses and/or our complaining about the challenges we face in our lives, knowing, in faith, that because of our humanity we need God's help. In graciously, humbly and courageously meeting our responsibilities in life, we need God to infuse us with the graces of the Holy Spirit to be faithful and committed, to hold nothing back, as Jesus held nothing back for us as He gave His life in self-sacrificing love on the cross. On the crosses of our lives, may we do the same for others as Jesus did for us--pour ourselves out for the other's sake, "bread" shared and broken as at every Eucharistic sacrifice of the Holy Mass!
Each one of us, every day, experiences the "slavery beneath the yoke of sin" that weighs down upon us. We may do things or say things that we regret having said or done, or regret not having said or done things that we knew needed to be done or said. Also, our thoughts may be anything but kind. We, as well, may find ourselves grumbling or complaining about something, resentful of what is being asked of us as a committed responsible member of a religious community or as a father/a mother, a child, a student, an employee. We may even tell God that what is expected of us is too much to ask of us.
Let us turn to the Lord and ask to "be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity of [God's] Only Begotten Son." Let us acknowledge our weaknesses and/or our complaining about the challenges we face in our lives, knowing, in faith, that because of our humanity we need God's help. In graciously, humbly and courageously meeting our responsibilities in life, we need God to infuse us with the graces of the Holy Spirit to be faithful and committed, to hold nothing back, as Jesus held nothing back for us as He gave His life in self-sacrificing love on the cross. On the crosses of our lives, may we do the same for others as Jesus did for us--pour ourselves out for the other's sake, "bread" shared and broken as at every Eucharistic sacrifice of the Holy Mass!
Friday, March 30, 2018
The Death of Jesus
Today we commemorate Jesus' death upon the cross. The first reading of today's services is from Isaiah 52: 13-53:12, in which Isaiah reminds us that: "it was our infirmities that he bore..."--yes, mine and yours, my sins and yours. It was "our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted." It was my sufferings and yours--sufferings we deserved for our sins, for our rebellion, for our disobedience to the Lord. Jesus "was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray, like sheep" Isaiah reminds us, "each following his [or her] own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all."
That guilt, the offenses of all humankind, including mine and yours--past, present and future offenses--crushed Jesus beyond words. The pressure was so great that Jesus' sweat in the Garden of Olives was actually blood oozing from his pores, leaving the slightest touch to cause Him great pain. The scourging was horrible, gouging chunks of skin from his back. Mocking Him and pushing a crown of thorns on his head and driving those thorns through His head--blood everywhere--was also torturous and inhumane treatment!
Being incredibly weak from the scourging and crowning with thorns, Jesus must have fallen many times on the way up to the hill where He would be crucified. Fearful that Jesus would not make it up the hill to Calvary, Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross up to the place of crucifixion. Then Jesus was stripped of his clothes, thrown upon the cross beam and nails driven through His wrists. He was then hoisted upon the wood anchored in the ground waiting for the crossbeam. Once the crossbeam was in place, nails were also driven through Jesus' feet, one on top of the other.
To breathe, the crucified ones had to lift themselves up by their painful legs/feet. When the crucified could no longer lift themselves up, they died of asphyxiation. That is why the legs were broken. The executioners did not break Jesus' legs because he had already died.
"When [Jesus] was cut off from the living," Isaiah prophesies, "and smitten for the sin of his people, a grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood....If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.....[H]e shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses"--yours and mine. That is how much God loves you and me! He held nothing back! Will you? Will I?
That guilt, the offenses of all humankind, including mine and yours--past, present and future offenses--crushed Jesus beyond words. The pressure was so great that Jesus' sweat in the Garden of Olives was actually blood oozing from his pores, leaving the slightest touch to cause Him great pain. The scourging was horrible, gouging chunks of skin from his back. Mocking Him and pushing a crown of thorns on his head and driving those thorns through His head--blood everywhere--was also torturous and inhumane treatment!
Being incredibly weak from the scourging and crowning with thorns, Jesus must have fallen many times on the way up to the hill where He would be crucified. Fearful that Jesus would not make it up the hill to Calvary, Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross up to the place of crucifixion. Then Jesus was stripped of his clothes, thrown upon the cross beam and nails driven through His wrists. He was then hoisted upon the wood anchored in the ground waiting for the crossbeam. Once the crossbeam was in place, nails were also driven through Jesus' feet, one on top of the other.
To breathe, the crucified ones had to lift themselves up by their painful legs/feet. When the crucified could no longer lift themselves up, they died of asphyxiation. That is why the legs were broken. The executioners did not break Jesus' legs because he had already died.
"When [Jesus] was cut off from the living," Isaiah prophesies, "and smitten for the sin of his people, a grave was assigned him among the wicked and a burial place with evildoers, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood....If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.....[H]e shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses"--yours and mine. That is how much God loves you and me! He held nothing back! Will you? Will I?
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