Blog # 213 Advent - c Gifts
Each Christmas, and sometimes in between, I take down a shoe box from the top shelf in my clothes closet. In the box is a toy clown on a bicycle that can peddle his way back and forth on a length of string held in the air by another person and myself. The clown is a gift that was given to me over forty years ago. I keep it and take it out again to remind myself of the lesson I learned from that simple toy.
The clown was given to me as a Christmas gift jointly from my nieces Cathy and Jeannie. They are the two oldest daughters of my brother Tom. At the time they gave me the gift they were about ten and eight years old. I was already forty. What could I do with a toy except let myself be amused with it for a day or so and then give it away to a child? But I have it yet. What happened in between?
The clown became for me a holy thing, a 'sacramental' as we say of such objects as blessed or holy water, statues of holy people, books of prayer, relics of Saints, etc. , things that tend to inspire us, remind us of our relationship with God, or motivate us to seek and serve God and one another better.
Forty-four years ago Cathy and Jeannie were living in Ventura, California. I was teaching at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. For several consecutive celebrations of Christmas I spent the Christmas vacation from the seminary visiting them. Eventually there were five girls and one boy in my brother's family. We sort of grew up together as we corresponded through the mail and celebrated Christmas together. We were good friends and loved one another deeply. On the Christmas I received the clown, Cathy and Jeannie were old enough to have a little money of their own and could choose a gift for different people in the family themselves. Mine was the clown. A toy.
What made me so happy about it and helped me turn it into a holy thing for me was the fact they saw me as still a child, as one of them, sort of equal to them even though I was already over forty. We used to play together around the house, crayoned coloring books together, went on walks, and jumped rope out on the back patio. I always enjoyed wrestling with their big brown dog, admired the beauty of their tropical fish, and was fascinated by whatever frogs lizards or salamanders they might have in a special enclosure in the back yard. They knew me pretty well and decided the clown would be a good gift for me that Christmas.
And it was, not only for that Christmas, but for all of them ever since. That is because of the lesson the clown still teaches me. The lesson is this: The identity we see in a person we love determines the gift we wish to give that person. My nieces saw me as one of them, as a child. They gave me a toy. If all I did while I was with them was pray they probably would have tried to find a prayer book for me as a gift. If the only game I tried to play with them was tennis they might have given me a few tennis balls.
The basic lesson here applies to all love and to all people. It applies to our love for God and God's love for us. So we ask the very important questions: 1)What can God give to me? and 2) What can I give to God? The answer to these questions depends upon the identity God gives to me and the identity I give to God. Just as the identity my nieces gave to me as one who would enjoy the clown came to them through a process of our relating to one another over a period of time, the games, the songs we sang, the tropical fish and the food we enjoyed at family meals, so the identity we give to God determining the gifts we wish to make to Him is a process that ideally keeps going on as we experience more of life and identify God again and again in new and more perfect ways as our love for God develops and our gifts to God become different through the years.
Could I give God the gift of trust if God were to give me the gift of cancer? Could I give to God the gift of forgiving someone who has betrayed or injured me? Could I give to God the gift of prayer for wisdom when difficult decisions are placed before me? Could I give to God some time in prayer each morning and each evening when God gives me the gift of the beginning and the end of every day? The answer to these and similar questions depends upon the identity I give to God.
If God is predominantly fearsome for me I may give God the gift of obedience, but not that of love. If God and my relationship with God is identified by me as one value among others rather than a value above and beyond all values, I can hardly pledge to God my total love. I may obey the Commandments out of fear or of some other selfish motive, but if we identify God as lovable and because we identify God as lovable, we obey the Commandments out of love. That is a greater difference than the difference between night and day.
We are on our way through Advent to Christmas , the season of love, the season of gifts. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son...(Jn 3:16). Jesus is God's gift to all the world. How sad it is that only a minority of the world's population realize and experience this and have in faith received Jesus as a perfect gift of the Father's perfect love. Years ago when after Christmas my nieces went back to school and I went back to St. Meinrad we exchanged letters through the mail. They told me on paper of their fish and frogs and jumping rope, their cuts and bruises, their joy and their love. How much better it was when I came to them and shared my love and concern in the three dimensions of their living room and kitchen, their back yard and their church.
And so it is with Jesus. He comes to us in a real way on the pages of the Bible, but in a better way and even more closely than the mere three dimensions of our living room, office, kitchen or church. In the gift of Sanctifying Grace the Resurrected Jesus comes to us and dwells within us, in our minds by faith and in our hearts by love. I can't imagine Him coming any closer than that. What a gift! Lord, help us prepare well for Christmas 2012!
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Blog # 212 Advent - b
Blog # 212 Advent - b
In our Catholic experience of faith we claim for God our Creator the power that wills the earth to be constantly spinning at a rate of more than a thousand miles an hour at the equator and to move in its orbit at a rate of 1,500,000 miles each day as it travels around the sun . In Advent we prepare to celebrate and respond to another power of God even more wonderful and mysterious than the physical power that moves the earth and stars.
It is the power, shared with us by faith, that enables us to discover and to love God as our Creator, the power to pray, to receive forgiveness for our sins, to love and be kind even to our enemies, to believe in life eternal, to hope to be worthy of everlasting peace and joy beyond the grave, and the power to rejoice in the transforming new life that comes to us in Baptism.
In part I can imagine, because it is so dependable, we can take the power that rules the movements of the earth and stars for granted. Yet we can do nothing but marvel at it when we stop to reflect upon it. So it is we can take for granted the marvelous multifaceted power that comes to us through faith in Jesus.
Advent presents an invitation for us to step back and reflect again upon our life and the powers God invites us to receive in our identity with Jesus through faith and Baptism. It is a time to grow in our knowledge and love for God through growing in our knowledge and appreciation of ourselves as Christian believers.
We grow intellectually as we increase our treasury of information. It works like this. First we want to be able to recognize letters of the alphabet. Then we want to be able to make words by combining the letters we have learned. Then we want to be able to read the comic strip in the daily paper, then the editorial, then the text book in our science class. Then we want to be able to combine our words in such a way they become a message from our inmost heart, telling someone we love how much this is so. Then perhaps prose is not enough and we want to write a poem. All of it is connected as we grow as a person. All of it begins and is based upon the very first knowledge we attained about the letters of the alphabet .
This is just an illustration and reminder of something that is true of growth in other fields as well as grammar and language. It is true of math medicine and theology. The more questions we have the more information will be ours, and the more opportunity we will have to grow.
Here is one way it applies. We are driving north on I-95. We stop and eat at Shoney's. We have spaghetti and meat balls and a salad. It costs $ 4,25, the price for seniors. It is one PM. We finish our meal and are on our way. That is the physical part of it. It could be the same for someone other than ourselves. Now for the question of the value of what is going on. We are very tired. We had a short night's rest and a long drive to arrive at Shoney's. We are still a long way fromNew Jersey
Some of the people in Shoney's will not even notice us. We will be visible but not seen by all. They will not ask us if we are tired or happy. They will never know. We will not make any difference to them. Our relationship to one another will not grow beyond the physical one of being in the same restaurant at a particular time of a particular day.
Now look at it another way. Suppose I never ask questions of myself ? As a result I might not ever know who I really am. We, the inner person present in each of us, would never make much difference to the body that is mine. My relationship to my daily human experiences will not grow beyond the physical awareness of being hungry tired hot cold comfortable existing in some particular place at some particular time, changing by way of growing in age, but not in meaning purpose wisdom and goodness. How sad that would be!
Unfortunately, most of the influence upon our daily lives at the present moment in history here in theUS
The infant of Christmas will grow up and proclaim for himself the title Good
Shepherd. He will tell us he came that his sheep may have life and have it to the full. ( Jn 10: 10). He will tell us that as the Father loved him he loved us so that his joy may be ours and our joy may be complete. ( Jn 15: 9, 11). In these two texts taken together I hear Jesus telling us,as one of us, that he knows and acknowledges the goodness and value of our human natural joy but knows too and proclaims this joy is designed to be completed with the supernatural joy Jesus knew as the Father's beloved Son so that through the gifts of faith and Baptism the Father could indeed love us and all people throughout the world as He loves Jesus. That is the love that is rooted in Christmas and blossoms in the Resurrection of Jesus. It is our story through faith in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Is a greater awareness understanding and appreciation of God Our Father's unique love
for you in Jesus His Beloved Son among the gifts you desire to receive receive this Christmas? Be on the lookout for it. It will be wrapped in faith, trust, and freedom.
In our Catholic experience of faith we claim for God our Creator the power that wills the earth to be constantly spinning at a rate of more than a thousand miles an hour at the equator and to move in its orbit at a rate of 1,500,000 miles each day as it travels around the sun . In Advent we prepare to celebrate and respond to another power of God even more wonderful and mysterious than the physical power that moves the earth and stars.
It is the power, shared with us by faith, that enables us to discover and to love God as our Creator, the power to pray, to receive forgiveness for our sins, to love and be kind even to our enemies, to believe in life eternal, to hope to be worthy of everlasting peace and joy beyond the grave, and the power to rejoice in the transforming new life that comes to us in Baptism.
In part I can imagine, because it is so dependable, we can take the power that rules the movements of the earth and stars for granted. Yet we can do nothing but marvel at it when we stop to reflect upon it. So it is we can take for granted the marvelous multifaceted power that comes to us through faith in Jesus.
Advent presents an invitation for us to step back and reflect again upon our life and the powers God invites us to receive in our identity with Jesus through faith and Baptism. It is a time to grow in our knowledge and love for God through growing in our knowledge and appreciation of ourselves as Christian believers.
We grow intellectually as we increase our treasury of information. It works like this. First we want to be able to recognize letters of the alphabet. Then we want to be able to make words by combining the letters we have learned. Then we want to be able to read the comic strip in the daily paper, then the editorial, then the text book in our science class. Then we want to be able to combine our words in such a way they become a message from our inmost heart, telling someone we love how much this is so. Then perhaps prose is not enough and we want to write a poem. All of it is connected as we grow as a person. All of it begins and is based upon the very first knowledge we attained about the letters of the alphabet .
This is just an illustration and reminder of something that is true of growth in other fields as well as grammar and language. It is true of math medicine and theology. The more questions we have the more information will be ours, and the more opportunity we will have to grow.
Here is one way it applies. We are driving north on I-95. We stop and eat at Shoney's. We have spaghetti and meat balls and a salad. It costs $ 4,25, the price for seniors. It is one PM. We finish our meal and are on our way. That is the physical part of it. It could be the same for someone other than ourselves. Now for the question of the value of what is going on. We are very tired. We had a short night's rest and a long drive to arrive at Shoney's. We are still a long way from
Some of the people in Shoney's will not even notice us. We will be visible but not seen by all. They will not ask us if we are tired or happy. They will never know. We will not make any difference to them. Our relationship to one another will not grow beyond the physical one of being in the same restaurant at a particular time of a particular day.
Now look at it another way. Suppose I never ask questions of myself ? As a result I might not ever know who I really am. We, the inner person present in each of us, would never make much difference to the body that is mine. My relationship to my daily human experiences will not grow beyond the physical awareness of being hungry tired hot cold comfortable existing in some particular place at some particular time, changing by way of growing in age, but not in meaning purpose wisdom and goodness. How sad that would be!
Unfortunately, most of the influence upon our daily lives at the present moment in history here in the
The infant of Christmas will grow up and proclaim for himself the title Good
Shepherd. He will tell us he came that his sheep may have life and have it to the full. ( Jn 10: 10). He will tell us that as the Father loved him he loved us so that his joy may be ours and our joy may be complete. ( Jn 15: 9, 11). In these two texts taken together I hear Jesus telling us,as one of us, that he knows and acknowledges the goodness and value of our human natural joy but knows too and proclaims this joy is designed to be completed with the supernatural joy Jesus knew as the Father's beloved Son so that through the gifts of faith and Baptism the Father could indeed love us and all people throughout the world as He loves Jesus. That is the love that is rooted in Christmas and blossoms in the Resurrection of Jesus. It is our story through faith in Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Is a greater awareness understanding and appreciation of God Our Father's unique love
for you in Jesus His Beloved Son among the gifts you desire to receive receive this Christmas? Be on the lookout for it. It will be wrapped in faith, trust, and freedom.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Blog # 214 Advent - d
Blog # 214 Advent - d
Could you ever imagine that God would be sitting on the ground calling a puppy over to Himself to play with Him?
Yes, that is hard or impossible to imagine. Yet that is exactly what we believe of Jesus, a divine Person, who came among us as one of us, capable and willing to share our life on earth, yet keeping His identity as God. Jesus grew hungry and tired. He ate our fish and fell asleep on a cushion on Peter's boat. He had to walk from Jerusalem to Jericho. He enjoyed the puppies of His day. Yet Jesus is God! In Jesus was all that we know of the human within ourselves other than our sins. Yet the PERSON called Jesus is Divine! As one of us, Jesus does invite us to follow His example of human goodness, generosity, mercy, humility, and prayer. But as divine He invites us to share by faith God's very Life/Love through with and in Him in a very real way. We are invited to experience in Him not just a better human life but a new life in addition to our natural human life. Born "from above" by faith, we are a new creation, God's holy temple, the body of Christ, branches on a vine. ( Jn 3:11; Jn 1:11ff. 1Cor 6: 19; Gal 2:20; 2Cor 5:17; Rom 12: 3ff; 1Cor 10: 17; Jn 15; 5. and other texts).
As we begin to reflect upon and understand this new identity of ours it begins to appear almost as unimaginable and marvelous as the notion of God sitting on the ground and calling a puppy over to play with Him. Yet it is a simple and clear task to relate these ideas about God among us in Jesus ( Emmanuel), and our union with God through Jesus in the new life that is ours, referred to as the gift of Sanctifying Grace. Moses, a 'fore-runner' of Jesus in his role as leader of God's liberation of His chosen people from the slavery of Egypt , tells the people their obedience to the commands of God will bring them life and entrance into a new land which God wishes to give them. The process leads to a wisdom on the part of God's people that is a source of inspiration and wonder to their neighbors. Our life in Jesus is designed to do the same for us. A new patience is to be ours, parents with children, pastors with people, neighbor with neighbor. A new faithfulness, and new generosity, a new mercy, a new prayer, a new 'land'. (cf Deut 4:1,2,6-8)
The entire letter of James is very clear on the practical effects of our new birth in Jesus. "...welcome the word that has taken root in you with its power ...Act on it. If all you do is listen to it you are deceiving yourselves." (James 1:17 - 18, 21,22,27). And in the Gospel, for example in Mark 7: 1 - 8,14,15,21 - 23, Jesus clearly faults anyone who is taken up merely with the externals of obedience and not its faithful love. Good works done for show can be an obstacle to holiness. Playing with a puppy done out of joy can be a religious experience. The first Christmas gave God as Jesus the beginning of His opportunity of going before us in our experience of this truth. In the light of this I have formed the habit not of wishing for people a mere merry Christmas but a happy one! Such a greeting can be honest and applied to those for whom life at the present moment is going along very well but also for someone who for the time being is poor sick or suffering in any way.
Could you ever imagine that God would be sitting on the ground calling a puppy over to Himself to play with Him?
Yes, that is hard or impossible to imagine. Yet that is exactly what we believe of Jesus, a divine Person, who came among us as one of us, capable and willing to share our life on earth, yet keeping His identity as God. Jesus grew hungry and tired. He ate our fish and fell asleep on a cushion on Peter's boat. He had to walk from Jerusalem to Jericho. He enjoyed the puppies of His day. Yet Jesus is God! In Jesus was all that we know of the human within ourselves other than our sins. Yet the PERSON called Jesus is Divine! As one of us, Jesus does invite us to follow His example of human goodness, generosity, mercy, humility, and prayer. But as divine He invites us to share by faith God's very Life/Love through with and in Him in a very real way. We are invited to experience in Him not just a better human life but a new life in addition to our natural human life. Born "from above" by faith, we are a new creation, God's holy temple, the body of Christ, branches on a vine. ( Jn 3:11; Jn 1:11ff. 1Cor 6: 19; Gal 2:20; 2Cor 5:17; Rom 12: 3ff; 1Cor 10: 17; Jn 15; 5. and other texts).
As we begin to reflect upon and understand this new identity of ours it begins to appear almost as unimaginable and marvelous as the notion of God sitting on the ground and calling a puppy over to play with Him. Yet it is a simple and clear task to relate these ideas about God among us in Jesus ( Emmanuel), and our union with God through Jesus in the new life that is ours, referred to as the gift of Sanctifying Grace. Moses, a 'fore-runner' of Jesus in his role as leader of God's liberation of His chosen people from the slavery of Egypt , tells the people their obedience to the commands of God will bring them life and entrance into a new land which God wishes to give them. The process leads to a wisdom on the part of God's people that is a source of inspiration and wonder to their neighbors. Our life in Jesus is designed to do the same for us. A new patience is to be ours, parents with children, pastors with people, neighbor with neighbor. A new faithfulness, and new generosity, a new mercy, a new prayer, a new 'land'. (cf Deut 4:1,2,6-8)
The entire letter of James is very clear on the practical effects of our new birth in Jesus. "...welcome the word that has taken root in you with its power ...Act on it. If all you do is listen to it you are deceiving yourselves." (James 1:17 - 18, 21,22,27). And in the Gospel, for example in Mark 7: 1 - 8,14,15,21 - 23, Jesus clearly faults anyone who is taken up merely with the externals of obedience and not its faithful love. Good works done for show can be an obstacle to holiness. Playing with a puppy done out of joy can be a religious experience. The first Christmas gave God as Jesus the beginning of His opportunity of going before us in our experience of this truth. In the light of this I have formed the habit not of wishing for people a mere merry Christmas but a happy one! Such a greeting can be honest and applied to those for whom life at the present moment is going along very well but also for someone who for the time being is poor sick or suffering in any way.
Blog # 211 Advent -a
Blog # 211 Advent -a
We find many promises made by God in the Bible . By faith we know the absolute trustworthiness of God and that every promise made by God will be fulfilled. God's promise to send a redeemer, a savior of all the world, has been fulfilled in Jesus.
Yet, since Jesus was is and will be the savior of all, the promise of God to send Jesus was made to all and will be fulfilled for all, personally and individually. In other words salvation is not something already done, in the past alone, but is now, and will be as long as history continues. It is something already fulfilled and not yet fulfilled completely.
In each of us who have believed and are Baptized the promise of salvation in Jesus has been fulfilled. Yet this afternoon and tomorrow if we are still on earth the promise will continue to be fulfilled anew. We are constantly being invited and called by God to be more aware of, to understand more fully, and to appreciate and experience more deeply the promise of salvation and its fulfillment in the world in general and in us personally.
To help us do this we have the Season of Advent as an annual current gift of God's redeeming love. We make an effort to taste the hunger of the Prophets of old as they lived and died trusting the promise of God to send a savior. We spend four weeks reflecting upon how the world and we would be without Jesus, and how it and we could be with and in Him. One of the problems is we are not in the habit of reflecting this way. There are many distractions in and around us. The religious questions are not a large part of our everyday agenda. The experience of faith might primarily have something to do with prayers of petition in time of need. Or the primary work of faith for some is the work of building the earth rather than building our personal relationship with God and through this relationship building God's work of justice and peace on earth.
Also there are so many distractions within and around us and so much pressure in the processs of trying to make a decent living it is hard to find time or form the habit of thinking of God beyond the token of one hour a week on Sunday. If we are serious about receiving and fulfilling God's promise of salvation in Jesus personally, we should be looking for and discovering reminders of that promise and insights into its meaning for us. I will share here a few of the opportunities I have found as I await the birth of the Lord to grow in my eagerness for His coming. Through them I see more frequently and clearly the connection between His birth and that portion of creation I know as my everyday experience of life. Perhaps they will be useful to you as an invitation to find similar reminders in your life.
A mail box has as its purpose to receive the mail. It is waiting until the mail comes to be its complete self. It is in an Advent mode. Some of the water coming from the local reservoir will cook my carrots. It is waiting for me to open the faucet and let it out, to let it serve me as it should. A door is waiting to be opened or closed. A taxi, a birthday cake, an expectant mother, a parking meter, a pencil, a saw hanging in the garage, all are waiting to be what they were made to be.
When I lie down to sleep at night the whole world is waiting for me to awake and appear in the morning. No one but God, Father Word and Holy Spirit and I may realize this, but it would be true if I rose with a prayer for all people in my heart each day and a will to serve the Lord as best I can in my small corner of creation. Dishes plates cups utensils and food wait each day for their fulfillment in us. The work to which each of us is uniquely called waits for us to come. More than waiting for Christmas, we see Christmas waiting for us, to welcome the Lord Jesus and join Him in His current joy. The hour of His birth has come, the simple chosen place is ready, in the manger of our hearts. Bethlehem belongs to us. We are saved! Come, Lord Jesus!
We find many promises made by God in the Bible . By faith we know the absolute trustworthiness of God and that every promise made by God will be fulfilled. God's promise to send a redeemer, a savior of all the world, has been fulfilled in Jesus.
Yet, since Jesus was is and will be the savior of all, the promise of God to send Jesus was made to all and will be fulfilled for all, personally and individually. In other words salvation is not something already done, in the past alone, but is now, and will be as long as history continues. It is something already fulfilled and not yet fulfilled completely.
In each of us who have believed and are Baptized the promise of salvation in Jesus has been fulfilled. Yet this afternoon and tomorrow if we are still on earth the promise will continue to be fulfilled anew. We are constantly being invited and called by God to be more aware of, to understand more fully, and to appreciate and experience more deeply the promise of salvation and its fulfillment in the world in general and in us personally.
To help us do this we have the Season of Advent as an annual current gift of God's redeeming love. We make an effort to taste the hunger of the Prophets of old as they lived and died trusting the promise of God to send a savior. We spend four weeks reflecting upon how the world and we would be without Jesus, and how it and we could be with and in Him. One of the problems is we are not in the habit of reflecting this way. There are many distractions in and around us. The religious questions are not a large part of our everyday agenda. The experience of faith might primarily have something to do with prayers of petition in time of need. Or the primary work of faith for some is the work of building the earth rather than building our personal relationship with God and through this relationship building God's work of justice and peace on earth.
Also there are so many distractions within and around us and so much pressure in the processs of trying to make a decent living it is hard to find time or form the habit of thinking of God beyond the token of one hour a week on Sunday. If we are serious about receiving and fulfilling God's promise of salvation in Jesus personally, we should be looking for and discovering reminders of that promise and insights into its meaning for us. I will share here a few of the opportunities I have found as I await the birth of the Lord to grow in my eagerness for His coming. Through them I see more frequently and clearly the connection between His birth and that portion of creation I know as my everyday experience of life. Perhaps they will be useful to you as an invitation to find similar reminders in your life.
A mail box has as its purpose to receive the mail. It is waiting until the mail comes to be its complete self. It is in an Advent mode. Some of the water coming from the local reservoir will cook my carrots. It is waiting for me to open the faucet and let it out, to let it serve me as it should. A door is waiting to be opened or closed. A taxi, a birthday cake, an expectant mother, a parking meter, a pencil, a saw hanging in the garage, all are waiting to be what they were made to be.
When I lie down to sleep at night the whole world is waiting for me to awake and appear in the morning. No one but God, Father Word and Holy Spirit and I may realize this, but it would be true if I rose with a prayer for all people in my heart each day and a will to serve the Lord as best I can in my small corner of creation. Dishes plates cups utensils and food wait each day for their fulfillment in us. The work to which each of us is uniquely called waits for us to come. More than waiting for Christmas, we see Christmas waiting for us, to welcome the Lord Jesus and join Him in His current joy. The hour of His birth has come, the simple chosen place is ready, in the manger of our hearts. Bethlehem belongs to us. We are saved! Come, Lord Jesus!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Blog # 286 A Psalm shared
Blog # 286 A Psalm shared
Yesterday morning as I was about to begin the daily experience of praying the breviary, some thoughts came to me that I wanted to share with you in a blog. I clearly remembered more than one Spiritual Director back in the days of my seminary training reminding us the prayers and readings that made up our daily use of the breviary were not the private prayer of an individual Christian believer but rather were part of the Church's official publc worship. I had assumed the responsibility and privilege of praying in the name of the entire Church at the time I was ordained for this as a subdeacon back in 1953.
Clear evidence and an invitation to be aware of this responsibility and privilege can be found in the prayer that is daily given to introduce the breviary: " Lord, open my lips. - And my mouth shall declare your praise." Even when a large community of monks or a group of priests would be praying the breviary together the official opening words do not change from my lips and my mouth to our
mouths and our lips.
The entire Church throughout the world, individuals made one in the Sacrament of Baptism in a relationshp with one another that is closer than the natural relationships that make a Frenchman close to a Frenchman, a Chinese to a Chinese, male and female to one another, husbands to wives, parents to children , children to parents and to peers in a natural human family, rich and poor, old and young, saints and sinners, sick and well, suffering and celebrating, some to continue living on earth fifty, sixty, or more years, some to 'die' tomorrow, all sharing God's everlasting infinite love made one by the Holy Spirit in the Body of Jesus the Church.
All of this is true for the monks who are identified in their dedication to praying the breviary as public worship in community. They are supported in their dedication by the faith and the beautiful sounds of their singing companions.
Diocesan, or 'secular' priests as we are sometimes labeled,
do not have the daily audible support of a monastic
community, but we do have the authenticity, opportunity, and obligation of praying the breviary daily in union with and as a blessing for the entire Church throughout the world.
I am not sure every priest sees it this way, but that is the way I learned it back sixty years ago, and it continues to be a blessing for which I am thankful every day.
The thought that got me going on this blog and I wanted to share with you came when I was praying Psalm 1. It was a special blessing for me and a genuine source of encouragement. I thought this belongs to the people as well as to me. Don't keep it to yourself. Give it to anyone who might read your blog and it might be the sort of blessing for them as it was for you.
Pray it rather than just reading it, a bit more slowly and thoughtfully than you might do if you were just reading it and see what happens. When I prayed it the other day I was praying it for you. Neither one of us knew it was precisely for you. But God knew. May it be a blessing for you!
Psalm One - true happiness.
Happy the person who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. [Whatever he does prospers.] Not so the wicked, not so; They are like chaff which the wind drives way. Therefore in judgment the wicked shall not stand, nor shall sinners, in the assembly of the just. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
Yesterday morning as I was about to begin the daily experience of praying the breviary, some thoughts came to me that I wanted to share with you in a blog. I clearly remembered more than one Spiritual Director back in the days of my seminary training reminding us the prayers and readings that made up our daily use of the breviary were not the private prayer of an individual Christian believer but rather were part of the Church's official publc worship. I had assumed the responsibility and privilege of praying in the name of the entire Church at the time I was ordained for this as a subdeacon back in 1953.
Clear evidence and an invitation to be aware of this responsibility and privilege can be found in the prayer that is daily given to introduce the breviary: " Lord, open my lips. - And my mouth shall declare your praise." Even when a large community of monks or a group of priests would be praying the breviary together the official opening words do not change from my lips and my mouth to our
mouths and our lips.
The entire Church throughout the world, individuals made one in the Sacrament of Baptism in a relationshp with one another that is closer than the natural relationships that make a Frenchman close to a Frenchman, a Chinese to a Chinese, male and female to one another, husbands to wives, parents to children , children to parents and to peers in a natural human family, rich and poor, old and young, saints and sinners, sick and well, suffering and celebrating, some to continue living on earth fifty, sixty, or more years, some to 'die' tomorrow, all sharing God's everlasting infinite love made one by the Holy Spirit in the Body of Jesus the Church.
All of this is true for the monks who are identified in their dedication to praying the breviary as public worship in community. They are supported in their dedication by the faith and the beautiful sounds of their singing companions.
Diocesan, or 'secular' priests as we are sometimes labeled,
do not have the daily audible support of a monastic
community, but we do have the authenticity, opportunity, and obligation of praying the breviary daily in union with and as a blessing for the entire Church throughout the world.
I am not sure every priest sees it this way, but that is the way I learned it back sixty years ago, and it continues to be a blessing for which I am thankful every day.
The thought that got me going on this blog and I wanted to share with you came when I was praying Psalm 1. It was a special blessing for me and a genuine source of encouragement. I thought this belongs to the people as well as to me. Don't keep it to yourself. Give it to anyone who might read your blog and it might be the sort of blessing for them as it was for you.
Pray it rather than just reading it, a bit more slowly and thoughtfully than you might do if you were just reading it and see what happens. When I prayed it the other day I was praying it for you. Neither one of us knew it was precisely for you. But God knew. May it be a blessing for you!
Psalm One - true happiness.
Happy the person who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. [Whatever he does prospers.] Not so the wicked, not so; They are like chaff which the wind drives way. Therefore in judgment the wicked shall not stand, nor shall sinners, in the assembly of the just. For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Blog # 285 Ten Lepers
Blog # 285 Ten Lepers
The Gospel reading at Mass on Wednesday of this week was from Luke 17: 11 - 19. Jesus and some of his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem where he, the Eternal Word , Emmanuel, God-Among-Us, will experience the greatest human love of his entire life on earth in his unconditional total obedient love for the Father on Calvary. As he entered a village ten lepers shouted out a spirited appeal. "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!." Jesus directed them to go to show themselves to the priests. On their way all ten of them were healed. One of them returned to praise and thank Jesus for what he had done. " Were not all made whole? Where are the other nine?"
The Gospel narrative does not even hint that any of the lepers were evil men. None of them are identified as thieves or robbers, adulterers or any other specific type of sinner. Yet Jesus is disappointed in the failure of nine of the lepers to come back to him because in this they missed out on the greater and most important part of the gift that was offered them. We can easily imagine how happy they must have been in their new life and reunion with their families in perfect health.
This was the physical, temporary part of the total gift that had been offered them. I imagine this must have been all they were aware of , desired, shouted after, or received. The part they missed was a personal unique relationship of praise and thanks with the healer, signified and proclaimed by the one leper who returned to Jesus and fell to his knees before Him. No less humanly happy and blessed than the nine, this man tasted a spiritual joy that told him he was loved as well as healed. He received the total gift.
These thoughts led me to come up with another question: "Where is the one?" If the problem we see for the nine lepers began and perhaps was constituted by unawareness
of a personal relationship with the healer, it follows that we don't need to be a leper to be among the nine. Physical health maintained as well as regained is a gift. All of creation is a gift. God is the sole designer author creator owner and giver of illness as well as of healing. The only thing that should not exist and does not have a right to exist is sin. Faith is our guide in our awareness of this and love is the measure of our response.
To personally verify, experience, and respond to God' presence and love is the core of our Christian life. We should be forming and safeguarding a conscious habit of being aware of what we believe and responding to our faith in a personal relationship of love with our Creator. This is the element that seems to have been missing in the experience of the nine lepers.
As in a factory that manufactures no matter what, there is need for quality control, so in our Christian journey to our 'Jerusalem' and our 'Calvary' there is need for check-ups and check points to guarantee we are aware of the danger of unawareness and the blessing of growth in our faith and love. Examples of this would be in our seeing and experiencing the ever-present sun moon and stars as personal gifts from our Creator, the gift of being able to walk, in itself, but also for the gift of a reason and someplace to go, the gift of colors shapes and sounds expanded in their ability to paint or appreciate beauty, use a ruler, cook a meal, or sing a song and not to stop there but rejoice in the wonder of the gift of being consciousjy aware of standing walking sitting kneeling existing in our personal relationship with God in union with Jesus, God's belovd Son.
The Gospel reading at Mass on Wednesday of this week was from Luke 17: 11 - 19. Jesus and some of his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem where he, the Eternal Word , Emmanuel, God-Among-Us, will experience the greatest human love of his entire life on earth in his unconditional total obedient love for the Father on Calvary. As he entered a village ten lepers shouted out a spirited appeal. "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!." Jesus directed them to go to show themselves to the priests. On their way all ten of them were healed. One of them returned to praise and thank Jesus for what he had done. " Were not all made whole? Where are the other nine?"
The Gospel narrative does not even hint that any of the lepers were evil men. None of them are identified as thieves or robbers, adulterers or any other specific type of sinner. Yet Jesus is disappointed in the failure of nine of the lepers to come back to him because in this they missed out on the greater and most important part of the gift that was offered them. We can easily imagine how happy they must have been in their new life and reunion with their families in perfect health.
This was the physical, temporary part of the total gift that had been offered them. I imagine this must have been all they were aware of , desired, shouted after, or received. The part they missed was a personal unique relationship of praise and thanks with the healer, signified and proclaimed by the one leper who returned to Jesus and fell to his knees before Him. No less humanly happy and blessed than the nine, this man tasted a spiritual joy that told him he was loved as well as healed. He received the total gift.
These thoughts led me to come up with another question: "Where is the one?" If the problem we see for the nine lepers began and perhaps was constituted by unawareness
of a personal relationship with the healer, it follows that we don't need to be a leper to be among the nine. Physical health maintained as well as regained is a gift. All of creation is a gift. God is the sole designer author creator owner and giver of illness as well as of healing. The only thing that should not exist and does not have a right to exist is sin. Faith is our guide in our awareness of this and love is the measure of our response.
To personally verify, experience, and respond to God' presence and love is the core of our Christian life. We should be forming and safeguarding a conscious habit of being aware of what we believe and responding to our faith in a personal relationship of love with our Creator. This is the element that seems to have been missing in the experience of the nine lepers.
As in a factory that manufactures no matter what, there is need for quality control, so in our Christian journey to our 'Jerusalem' and our 'Calvary' there is need for check-ups and check points to guarantee we are aware of the danger of unawareness and the blessing of growth in our faith and love. Examples of this would be in our seeing and experiencing the ever-present sun moon and stars as personal gifts from our Creator, the gift of being able to walk, in itself, but also for the gift of a reason and someplace to go, the gift of colors shapes and sounds expanded in their ability to paint or appreciate beauty, use a ruler, cook a meal, or sing a song and not to stop there but rejoice in the wonder of the gift of being consciousjy aware of standing walking sitting kneeling existing in our personal relationship with God in union with Jesus, God's belovd Son.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Blog # 284 Two Widows
Blog #284 Two Widows
The 1st and 3rd Bible readings at Mass on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, were 1 Kings 17: 10 - 16, and Mark 12: 38 - 44. Each of the readings tells us of a poor widow.
In the first reading the prophet Elijah goes to Zarephath. At the entrance to the city he meets a poor widow gathering sticks. It was a time of a terrible drought. Elijah asks her in the name of God for a cup of water and some bread. All the widow has is a "handful of flour and a little oil". She is gathering the sticks for a fire to make something for herself and her son "before we die"...
The prophet tells her not to be afraid, to do what she had planned but first give him what he requested. With his request he gives the widow a promise. "For the Lord God says, ' The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth." She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year...the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through
Elijah
.
The lesson proposed in this story is that God is worthy of unconditional trust. Every promise God makes will be fulfilled.
The second widow is also very poor. Jesus notices her putting a small donation in one of the collection baskets placed at the entrances to the temple and calls over his disciples to tell them the widow put in more than all the rest who contributed much more money but only from their surplus and for show whereas the widow put in less but all she had, motivated not by hope of being praised or for show but in response to her relationship with God and her conviction God was worth her entire love.
The lesson proposed in this story is that God is worthy of our total love. Everything that exists is a gift from God. All of creation invites us to discover and enter into a personal relationship with God, that of total love resulting in praise thanksgiving peace and joy.
A new and very impressive insight came to me yesterday in the response of Jesus to the love of the second widow. Our eternal triune infinite God, Father, Word, and Holy Spirit, cannot 'be' nor be imagined as 'experiencing' the limitations of our human responses such as appreciation and gratitude for the love of those around us, including the love of God in creation, as wonderful and worthy as these limitations might be for us. However in the experience of the historical Jesus, Emmanuel, God-Among-Us, equal to us in all but sin and equal to the Father and the Spirit as the Person of the Eternal Word, God could and did experience our human emotions. This was born out in His response to the generous love of the poor widow in the temple. I saw Jesus as humanly proud of the widow and humanly happy in seeing her generous love. It brought to mind the words of Isaiah (62: 5) : "as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you".
"Come here and look at this", He called to His disciples. Then He told them the poor widow gave more than all the rest in giving all she had and we have another example of the love He had been telling them about and living among them in His love and generosity to people in need even down to sinners, and would show them (and us !) at its best from His experience of total love for our Father God in His human death on Calvary and which would be available to every human creature ever to be created if only they had it explained to them by the word and example of those who would know by faith the real meaning of death is total love and death is the only opportunity given to fulfill perfectly the first of all the Commandments , to love God by giving over to Him all we have.
Isn't it time in our current moment of almost instantaneous world-wide communication to take the Savior's command to evangelize the entire world more seriously and personally at least by daily prayer and by any other means the Lord may put at our disposal to tell the world that to die means to love at its best? Lord help us be worthy to give You this perfect love as You are the only one worthy to receive it. Amen !
The 1st and 3rd Bible readings at Mass on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, were 1 Kings 17: 10 - 16, and Mark 12: 38 - 44. Each of the readings tells us of a poor widow.
In the first reading the prophet Elijah goes to Zarephath. At the entrance to the city he meets a poor widow gathering sticks. It was a time of a terrible drought. Elijah asks her in the name of God for a cup of water and some bread. All the widow has is a "handful of flour and a little oil". She is gathering the sticks for a fire to make something for herself and her son "before we die"...
The prophet tells her not to be afraid, to do what she had planned but first give him what he requested. With his request he gives the widow a promise. "For the Lord God says, ' The jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry until the day when the Lord sends rain upon the earth." She left and did as Elijah had said. She was able to eat for a year...the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the Lord had foretold through
Elijah
.
The lesson proposed in this story is that God is worthy of unconditional trust. Every promise God makes will be fulfilled.
The second widow is also very poor. Jesus notices her putting a small donation in one of the collection baskets placed at the entrances to the temple and calls over his disciples to tell them the widow put in more than all the rest who contributed much more money but only from their surplus and for show whereas the widow put in less but all she had, motivated not by hope of being praised or for show but in response to her relationship with God and her conviction God was worth her entire love.
The lesson proposed in this story is that God is worthy of our total love. Everything that exists is a gift from God. All of creation invites us to discover and enter into a personal relationship with God, that of total love resulting in praise thanksgiving peace and joy.
A new and very impressive insight came to me yesterday in the response of Jesus to the love of the second widow. Our eternal triune infinite God, Father, Word, and Holy Spirit, cannot 'be' nor be imagined as 'experiencing' the limitations of our human responses such as appreciation and gratitude for the love of those around us, including the love of God in creation, as wonderful and worthy as these limitations might be for us. However in the experience of the historical Jesus, Emmanuel, God-Among-Us, equal to us in all but sin and equal to the Father and the Spirit as the Person of the Eternal Word, God could and did experience our human emotions. This was born out in His response to the generous love of the poor widow in the temple. I saw Jesus as humanly proud of the widow and humanly happy in seeing her generous love. It brought to mind the words of Isaiah (62: 5) : "as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you".
"Come here and look at this", He called to His disciples. Then He told them the poor widow gave more than all the rest in giving all she had and we have another example of the love He had been telling them about and living among them in His love and generosity to people in need even down to sinners, and would show them (and us !) at its best from His experience of total love for our Father God in His human death on Calvary and which would be available to every human creature ever to be created if only they had it explained to them by the word and example of those who would know by faith the real meaning of death is total love and death is the only opportunity given to fulfill perfectly the first of all the Commandments , to love God by giving over to Him all we have.
Isn't it time in our current moment of almost instantaneous world-wide communication to take the Savior's command to evangelize the entire world more seriously and personally at least by daily prayer and by any other means the Lord may put at our disposal to tell the world that to die means to love at its best? Lord help us be worthy to give You this perfect love as You are the only one worthy to receive it. Amen !
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