Loving God and Letting God Love Us

As I was reflecting on the creche, I thought of God, the Creator of the universe, being "confined" to the body of an infant.  Such thoughts came out of being confined for several days because of a minor contagious illness. However, I also thought of those confined to a prison cell for years, even for life, for a crime they committed.  Regarding God "being confined to a body of an infant", the Lord responded to me in prayer, as follows:  I hid myself in an infant's  body to communicate God's approach-ability, God's tenderness, God's love.  Come to me, Dorothy Ann (insert your name);  do not be afraid.  I love you.  I want you to hold Me, your God.  Hold Me as I hold you in love, in compassion, in mercy.  Let us cuddle. I know!  Cuddling with God seems ludicrous to you but not to me.  As Your Good Shepherd, I seek you always when you go astray; I find you and bring you back to the fold, holding you, cuddling you, and triumphantly happy in holding you against my chest. Recall John, who laid his head on my chest. I cherished that touch and I cherish yours, especially when you touch Me by touching others in genuine love!

May you and I grow in our love of God, in knowing God's approach-ability and His desire to show us His love, to feel His love, to cherish His love and return it to Him personally and through our love for ourselves and others.

Striving to Live a Mature Life in Christ Jesus

In today's first reading, Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-13, St. Paul calls you [and me] to "live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace: one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." 

We live in one Body, the Body of Christ. The bond of Christ's peace unites us. May we strive "to preserve" that peace, living a life of "humility and gentleness, ...patience, bearing with one another through love," and thus preserving "the unity of the Spirit."  How patient am I/are you? How humble and gentle am I/are you? In what ways today did I/did you create unity by "bearing with ...another through love"?

We have been baptized into the Body of Christ, and, in baptism, Paul tells us, "[g]race was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift."  The gifts we have been given are for "building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood/[womanhood], to the extent of the full stature of Christ."  Am I/are you growing in maturity or are we, as adults, still having temper tantrums when things do not go our way or when we encounter obstacles to our ego's desire to be in control or to assert its "authority over others"? A person who reflects the "full stature of Christ,"  in no way acts in these ways but lives a humble, patient, gentle life, bearing other people's burdens so as to lighten the load another may be carrying!

Giving One's Life for Christ: A Bloodless "Martrydom"

Today, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Paul Miki and Companions who, in 1597, were martyred by crucifixion in Nagasaki, Japan.  The Entrance Antiphon for the liturgy reads as follows:  “Holy men shed their glorious blood for the Lord; they loved Christ in their life, they imitated him in their death, and therefore were crowned in triumph.”  Today is also the feast of the martyrdom of St. Dorothy, a resident of Caesarea, Cappadocia, who was martyred in 303 when she refused to sacrifice to the gods during Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians.  Not just men, but many women “have shed their glorious blood for the Lord; they [too] loved Christ in their life, they [too] imitated him in their death, and therefore… [are] crowned in triumph.”

Martyrdom continues to this very day—men and women tortured and put to death for their faith in Christ Jesus. There are other forms of martyrdom, besides shedding of one’s blood. There is the martyrdom of love.  Selfishness is put to death for the sake of another.  Harsh words are sacrificed so others live “richer” lives through the patience, kindness, and mercy of another.  A betrayal of the innocence of a child is aborted, when a child is not sold to sex traffickers, drug traffickers, slave owners because someone courageously refuses to cooperate with evil.  There is the martyrdom—the dying to fear—when a spouse seeks help for her/himself instead of continuing to enable abusive behavior. These are not martyrs who put to death their hopelessness, their powerlessness and lovingly choose to do what Jesus would do for the good of another and/or of themselves. There is the daily giving of oneself for the sake of one’s family—not a martyrdom of shedding one’s blood but of giving the best of oneself for the sake of one’s children.

Persons who do these things are loving Christ in their life, imitating Christ in His death whereby He poured out His love for us. And, yes, these persons will be “crowned in triumph.”

Fulfillment of the Law of Love: Jesus' Example and our Challenge

Today’’s Gospel, Mt. 5: 17-19,  opens with Jesus  saying to us:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law…I have come not to abolish but to fulfill….”  In Luke 10:27, a rich young man wants to know what he needs to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus  asks  him:     "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" The rich young man replies:  YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.,"    Jesus replies,   "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE."

Jesus fulfills the law, loving God the Father with his whole heart, with all his soul and with all his strength and with all his mind and his neighbor as Himself. He fulfills the law and teaches us to do the same.

Am I following Jesus’ footsteps? Do I realize that the reason I am here is to fulfill the law of love, beginning with love of self. If I do not love myself, I am not capable of loving others. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” the commandment says!  If I hate myself, if I disdain myself, if I am agitated with myself, if I put myself down, am not pleased with myself, my self-hatred, self-anger, self-disgust, self-dissatisfaction will be projected on to others. I will relate to others negatively, jealously, enviously. I will not be able to rejoice in others if I am not capable of rejoicing in self.  “Do unto others as you do unto yourself.”  “Love others as you love yourself.”