To Whom Shall You Go, updated

I have been completely absorbed in the the space trilogy by C.S. Lewis of late.  Actually, I read the first of the three, Out of the Silent Planet last summer, but I recently purchase the last two, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.   They are books that I will be re-reading again in the future because there is so much there.

It was as I was reading That Hideous Strength that I came upon a passage that really impressed me.  It is a quote by a character named Dr. Dimble who is speaking to his wife as the final battle of the book is beginning.  He is on the side of good, but there are mysteries that he is grappling with that are hard for him to fully understand and his leader, the Director, has commanded him to accept.  As he is discussing these things over with his wife he says:

Have you ever noticed,.....that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?....I mean this,....If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family- anything you like- at a given point in its history you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and codices are even more momentous.  Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse:  the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing."  pg.280-281 

That captured my attention. We are, for a time, gathered in and then - as with the Biblical image of a winnowing fan - we are separated out.  And there are examples of situations that, for a time, are accepted as morally neutral or tolerated as a necessity of an era in the Bible, but that eventually are revealed as unacceptable, such as Old Testament polygamy.  Polygamy is certainly presented in the Bible as something that is accepted, but it is definitely a falling from the original Biblical example of marriage.  And if you read your Bible carefully you see that though it is not wrong for Jacob or David to have multiple wives and concubines, it costs them something.  Look at the jealousies and rivalries that come of it.  The eventual splitting of the Davidic Kingdom has it's beginnings in the corrosive effect of polygamy.  And the cost is sent on down through the generations, until it is time to see and understand; until it is time to make a choice.  As we progress through salvation history, or even our own lives it will eventually come down to a choice, a terrible choice that requires clarity of vision and tenacious clinging to the Word of God.  Our eternal destiny will rest on it.

"They rejected his statutes, the covenant which he had made with their fathers.  The vanity they pursued, they themselves became; they followed the surrounding nations whom the Lord commanded them not to imitate."  2 Kings:17

These thoughts have been turning over in my head for a while now, the passage in That Hideous Strength just brought new clarity for me, especially in the wake of some acrimonious discussions, with fellow Catholics, over the issue of so called "gay-marriage".  But it is not that issue that primarily bothers me, that is one of many moral issues that are confronting us in our time.  It is the confluence of these moral issues, the "culture wars", and the increasing ferocity of the battles over them between fellow Catholics, that signal to me that we are coming to a point in our society.  Choices will have to be made, and I wonder how clear we, as Catholics, see what is at stake.


The  reading of the day I was writing this post  (Saturday, April 28) makes this even more urgent in my mind:

 "Many disciples of Jesus who were listening said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?'  Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you?  What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?  It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.   The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life,  But there are some of you who do not believe.'  Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.  And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."  As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.  Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"  Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."   John 6 60-69

This is at the end of the Bread of Life discourse.  Jesus is telling his followers to believe that they must "feed on me" or they will have no life in them.  These disciples are shocked; they are confronted with something hard to believe, something that seems foolish and not rational (verse 42:  and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?").    Many of the Lord's disciples no longer walked with Jesus from that point on. They left Him, they made a choice based on vain worldly wisdom and they departed from Wisdom in person. But Peter, shows us that he has clung to and believed in the words of the Lord, and when confronted with the choice - though he is not yet perfected in his belief, nor does he fully understand what the Lord is saying- his love for the Lord clears the way for his courageous words:  "Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life." Peter sees what is at stake!  And it is this choice that prepares Peter to humbly trust in Jesus, even after Peter betrays Him.  Peter does not despair in his failure but receives with trust and faith the abundant mercy of the Lord.

I wonder if we have been given just enough of Jesus in our religious instruction to make us think that we know what His love means, but in reality we have inoculated ourselves from being truly transformed by His radical love. His radical love is not tepid "acceptance" or "tolerance", it is a purifying fire which will make you fit for eternal life. Unless you have ordered your life on His Commandments, putting His will in the forefront of all that you think, do, and say, and humbly repenting when you fail, it will be difficult to understand what a shallow sham our culture has made of Jesus, love and religion. It will be difficult to discern the True God and his will from the culture's gods, which will send you off in vain pursuits of worldly acclaim and worldly wisdom. From this stand point a degenerative blindness seems to set in, and in the end, even when the choice is presented point blank, it becomes too difficult to perceive what is at stake. You will become the vanity you pursue and defend!

 So how can we discern the will and love of God in a time when love is perverted, materialistic, and when our lack of knowledge of our Savior Himself is used to blind and divert ourselves from Him? Do you see a hardening and narrowing happening as I do?  Does it seem that we are on the edge of momentous choices, where everything we need to make the right choice is given to us, but many cannot or will not seek it?  I fear that the longer we try to straddle between the two paths:  the one of Jesus and eternal life and the path of worldly vanity, the less we will be able to make the courageous decisions that will be required of us when confronted with a final opportunity to choose eternal life. "the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing."

To whom shall you go?  To whom shall you cling to?  A terrible choice is beginning to emerge for all of us, can you see what is at stake?-choose life, not death.

Peace and Grace,
Heidi

Unrestrained Love or Coffee Spoons? A Meditation on the Feast of the Visitation

 Today is the Feast of the Visitation, when Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  This feast is a wonderful opportunity to ponder how we encounter and respond to the movements of the Lord.  Mary hears the words of the Angel Gabriel, and she believes.  She believes and she responds, not only with her great fiat -"be it done to me according to thy word" - but also with an immediate act of charity and generosity, anticipating the needs of her cousin.  In haste Mary goes to Elizabeth, who is expecting to give birth "in her old age" to the prophet John the Baptist.  Mary holds nothing back, she responds to God immediately, and He in turn holds nothing back from her. God responds to Mary's unrestrained giving of herself with a joyous affirmation, by Elizabeth, of the unbelievable events that are occurring. Elizabeth's prophetic response to the Holy Spirit was:

"Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.  And how does it happen to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy,  Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." 

Both she and Elizabeth believed and responded with the whole of their hearts!  What would happen if you and I responded to God with such generosity?  What would happen if all the passion and desire that we so easily allow to misdirect us, or, even worse, through fear we suppress, were given over to the Lord with a daily fiat? What could happen if we accepted our lowliness, our nothingness without fear and allowed the Mighty One to sweep us away in His divine love?  What could happen if we did not avoid the deep emptiness that reveals our spiritually starved souls, but feared comfort that dulls and obscures our longings until it was too late and we are too lost?  Time is running out for you and for me.  Can we respond with Mary's beautiful canticle, rejoicing in our nothingness, because it is that humility which allows the unfathomable love of God to direct our paths through this valley of tears?

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones; but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant remembering his mercy according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Maybe this seem like an odd diversion, but I have just re-read T.S. Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.  There are various analyses of the poem, but just today I watched a YouTube video on the Holy Spirit by Father Robert Barron in which he used a quote from the poem, " I have measured out my life in coffee spoons" as an example of a life lived withholding generous love.  A life lived afraid and unresponsive to passion and desire, and Prufrock is aware that time is running out. It struck me that the frustrated sense of decay, unfulfilled longings and desires that  permeates the poem speaks of a lack of the overflowing love of the Spirit of God.  A withholding of love indicates a lack of love. The stanza before has Prufrock wondering "Do I dare disturb the universe?"  Well, with the Spirit of God directing those longings, desires and passions they will not only not be suppressed, they will fearlessly pour out with love unending and disturb the universe, but in a way according to the word of God. 

Brothers and sisters:  Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; anticipate one another in showing honor.  Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality.  Bless those who persecute you, do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Have the same regard for one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not be wise in your own estimation.  Romans 12: 9-16

 Respond to God as Mary did; disturb the universe! Not by grasping at power or by fantasizing about mighty deeds, but by the transformation of your heart and soul through the humble reception of the Word! Let the Spirit flow through you with courage and joy, anticipating the needs of others and pouring out with unrestrained love.  Do you dare disturb the universe?  Do I?  Let us pray with Mary and Elizabeth today for an unrestrained and passionate response to the Spirit!

Peace and Grace!

Heidi

Relections on John 17: High Priestly Prayer

A Morning Mom’s Reflection on Words of the Risen Christ bible study by Rich Cleveland—16 May 2012   Chapter 1:  John 17:1-26:

Jesus High Priestly prayer

(in other words) Jesus’ pep talk to Disciples at the Last Supper

In the beginning verses (vs 1-5), Jesus summarizes his mission as follows:  to give God glory through obedience and doing the work God gave Jesus to do, to give eternal life to all God has chosen, to show God’s life and love, to make God known.  Jesus gives us an amazingly simple definition of eternal life:  to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, his son.  Yet to know is more than just a simple head knowledge, but involves accepting, understanding and following a way of love, shown to us by Jesus.   As Christians we are called to listen and ponder God’s word, to keep God’s word by living a life of love and self-sacrifice, walking the same path as Jesus, our “personal Lord and Savior.” 

For all of us moms, teaching our children about the faith and that “personal” relationship can be challenging.  For the most part, we set examples within the home and daily life on living life with respect and love for our God, family members and neighbors.   We bring them to our non-entertaining Mass each week, knowing they really don’t comprehend the significance, can barely sit still and poke at each other.  Yet with the passage of many years the ritual and routine of it all sinks in deep, so we might begin to contemplate God during mass and let Him in.  In fact, we have all seen or heard stories of our elderly family members recite those “repetitious” prayers (Hail Mary, Our Father) at the moment of extreme illness and death, with great serenity.  As for us who witness these struggles with illness or the passage to the next life, the ill person brings us great peace and joy as we see their deep faith as they whisper the name of the Lord.  We know the Lord is truly present and our loved one is in the hands of God. 

In contrast, some of us have seen great struggles and anxiety individuals go through when they lack a personal knowledge and faith in God, and they are now confronted with a personal or family tragedy.  Even we, who believe, have struggled to fully surrender all our lives and problems to God.  In our usual human fashion we try to be in control at all times, and sometimes feel a heavy burden to keep peace going in our hectic motherly lives.  Besides the methods of time out, play in room by self, and go outside and play, a few in the Morning Moms group have tried reciting a daily recommitment to God (Morning Offering prayer).  Some of us find surrendering minute by minute, situation to situation, is also helpful.  One American Idol star had her wrist tattooed with a feather, symbolizing the lightness of all her problems when given to and managed by God.  I think our group is thinking about renaming our group the “Feather Moms,” but we didn’t decide on what kind of feathers we were getting (tattoo, hair accessory, bracelet…)

Continuing on…We discussed our thoughts on the “personal relationship” with Jesus, a very protestant sounding term which we’ve heard more about during homilies at mass.   As Catholics, we live a life of unity with the Body of Christ, his Church, so that personal relationship concept can seem a bit foreign.   From the verses 6-19, we see Jesus praying for his disciples and find out what the personal connection to the Savior entails:   Keep them in your Name, Unity with the Father and Son, a complete share in Christ’s joy, protection from the evil one, consecration in truth.

Keep them in your Name:  The revelation of God’s name has several meanings for us.  It lets Him be known and be called upon for protection and guidance.  It creates intimacy between us and God.  It engenders respect, for as we respect His name, we respect the God of all creation.  Teaching respect of God’s name is particularly difficult with the children as they are exposed to careless uses of God and Jesus Christ in the school environment.  Actually my own children helped me stop with their gentle and never-failing reminders.  Another mom found the sacrament of reconciliation brought powerful grace to help her stop misuses of God’s name.  A short booklet by Tan Publishing, The Wonders of the Holy Name, by Fr Paul O’Sullivan, goes into more details about this topic.  Finally, Pope Benedict wrote in Jesus of Nazareth, II, “The revelation of God’s name is a new mode of God’s presence among men, a radically new way in which God makes his home with them.” Pg 91  How awesome to have God-with-Us always present, never far away!

The prayer for unity occurs four times in this middle section of chapter 17, so it must be important.  The goal of unity is so that the world may know Jesus has been sent by God.  Pope Benedict writes in Jesus of Nazareth II, (paraphrased) through the unity of the disciples, the truth of his mission is made visible for men and makes visible the workings of a higher power (pg96).  We didn’t discuss this too much in our group but this makes an interesting topic for discussion.

On joy:  verse 13, “…I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.”  I’m still a little fuzzy just what Jesus meant about this joy stuff.  Sometimes life just brings you down and you feel the weight of the world.   For the sake of sanity and happiness within your family, we moms sometimes keep it all in so as not to ruin everyone’s day, keep peace and not have the whole home situation blow up.  Yet in some respects, showing love and giving peace in difficult circumstances can be a gift of God, a fruit of our communion with him.  Jesus, faced with an apparently failed mission, nearing arrest and certain death, continued to trust in God.  Jesus is rooted in the… “divine “we” of Father and Son through the Holy Ghost controls all things.  Here are Jesus roots; here is his peace, source of his invulnerable strength and union.  (pg 18, Romano Guardini writings in the book, Words of the Risen Christ).  One insightful mom stated, “Joy follows peace.”  AHHHH (light bulb going off!).  So Jesus in his desperate hours reveals the truth of his mission, but that the world will not accept it and hate it (disciples becoming downhearted), and the world will continue to hate the disciples, as they believe in Jesus word and mission (disciples more bummed).  Yet Jesus reveals union with God, leads to all kinds of good:  protection from evil, oneness that is brought to perfection, knowledge of and sharing in God’s love, everlasting life and seeing God’s glory:   the true joy that God offers after unity with Him (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

Keep them from the evil one, vs15:  Much discussion on current topics affecting our nation and church.  Secular society views life differently than a Catholic Christian which can lead to bad feelings between family members, friends, classmates, people.   Jesus says to expect that the world will hate God’s view on life, so this is something to expect, not be surprised about.  Despite the world’s hatred, Jesus calls us to teach, love, listen and ponder God’s word, and spread the message of God’s love.  Make sure we teach our children the faith.  Be in the world but don’t be a part of the culture of hate and hostility to God.  Our church teaches prayer and fasting to overcome difficulties.  Be a good citizen and vote for change.  Definitely take up Jesus’ advice not to worry or fear!  Luke 12:22-34 can be a useful meditation on useless worry.

Finally, consecrate them in the truth, vs 17: Jesus asks that his disciples be completely dedicated to God’s service, which is a mission of love to the world. (Collegeville Bible Commentary, The Gospel According to John, pg72).   Ending of the chapter (vs 26) summarizes all that Jesus came to do for us:   “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. “   What an incredible promise!  To fully know God and his love, to really take hold of it, within ourselves! Just what are the possibilities for us, knowing that we are joined to the Creator of the universe!  Filled with all that He is, how can we not go out to spread that good news?

In the final analysis, Jesus is awesome!  He offers us so much if we only open our hearts to believe and trust in Him. 

Peace!  Janet

A Garden Canticle

Spring is here, and in this Marian month of May, with yard work and spring cleaning in progress (okay, I have not started spring cleaning) my two youngest and I spent a morning playing under the watchful and peaceful gaze of Mary. I tried to say a Rosary while the kids were running and climbing, but alas!  Motherhood means praying on the run, so instead I let my spirit lead me:  How can you resist praying her beautiful canticle from Luke 1: 46-55?

My soul does magnify the Lord.  And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.  Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid:  for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.  Because He that is mighty has done great things for me:  and holy is His name.

And His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear Him.  He has shown the might of His arm:  He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.  He has put down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble.  

He has filled the hungry with good things:  and the rich He has sent empty away.  He has received Israel His servant, being mindful of His mercy.  And He spoke to our fathers:  to Abraham and to his seed forever.

We had only one mishap, Max pulled a wheel barrow full of soil on top of himself!  Nothing that a hug and a bath did not fix! And it gave me pause to reflect that even when we have muddied ourselves in our sin, we know that Our Lady will gently guide us into reconciliation and repentance so that we can be cleansed in His loving mercy!  

May the prayers of the Mother of God be with all who read this blog. May her praise of our Lord ring joyfully in our hearts!  And may we respond to her request to "do whatever He asks of you."

Peace and Grace,

Heidi

To Whom Shall You Go?

I have been completely absorbed in the the space trilogy by C.S. Lewis of late.  Actually, I read the first of the three, Out of the Silent Planet last summer, but I recently purchase the last two, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.   They are books that I will be re-reading again in the future because there is so much there.

It was as I was reading That Hideous Strength that I came upon a passage that really impressed me.  It is a quote by a character named Dr. Dimble who is speaking to his wife as the final battle of the book is beginning.  He is on the side of good, but there are mysteries that he is grappling with that are hard for him to fully understand and his leader, the Director, has commanded him to accept.  As he is discussing these things over with his wife he says:

Have you ever noticed,.....that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?....I mean this,....If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family- anything you like- at a given point in its history you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and codices are even more momentous.  Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse:  the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing."  pg.280-281 

That captured my attention. We are, for a time, gathered in and then - as with the Biblical image of a winnowing fan - we are separated out.  And there are examples of situations that, for a time, are accepted as morally neutral or tolerated as a necessity of an era in the Bible, but that eventually are revealed as unacceptable, such as Old Testament polygamy.  Polygamy is certainly presented in the Bible as something that is accepted, but it is definitely a falling from the original Biblical example of marriage.  And if you read your Bible carefully you see that though it is not wrong for Jacob or David to have multiple wives and concubines, it costs them something.  Look at the jealousies and rivalries that come of it.  The eventual splitting of the Davidic Kingdom has it's beginnings in the corrosive effect of polygamy.  And the cost is sent on down through the generations, until it is time to see and understand; until it is time to make a choice.  As we progress through salvation history, or even our own lives it will eventually come down to a choice, a terrible choice that requires clarity of vision and tenacious clinging to the Word of God.  Our eternal destiny will rest on it.

"They rejected his statutes, the covenant which he had made with their fathers.  The vanity they pursued, they themselves became; they followed the surrounding nations whom the Lord commanded them not to imitate."  2 Kings:17

These thoughts have been turning over in my head for a while now, the passage in That Hideous Strength just brought new clarity for me, especially in the wake of some acrimonious discussions, with fellow Catholics, over the issue of so called "gay-marriage".  But it is not that issue that primarily bothers me, that is one of many moral issues that are confronting us in our time.  It is the confluence of these moral issues, the "culture wars", and the increasing ferocity of the battles over them between fellow Catholics, that signal to me that we are coming to a point in our society.  Choices will have to be made, and I wonder how clear we, as Catholics, see what is at stake.


The  reading of the day I was writing this post  (Saturday, April 28) makes this even more urgent in my mind:

 "Many disciples of Jesus who were listening said, 'This saying is hard; who can accept it?'  Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, 'Does this shock you?  What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?  It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.   The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life,  But there are some of you who do not believe.'  Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.  And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father."  As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him.  Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"  Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."   John 6 60-69

This is at the end of the Bread of Life discourse.  Jesus is telling his followers to believe that they must "feed on me" or they will have no life in them.  These disciples are shocked; they are confronted with something hard to believe, something that seems foolish and not rational (verse 42:  and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and mother?  Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?").    Many of the Lord's disciples no longer walked with Jesus from that point on. They left Him, they made a choice based on vain worldly wisdom and they departed from Wisdom in person. But Peter, shows us that he has clung to and believed in the words of the Lord, and when confronted with the choice - though he is not yet perfected in his belief, nor does he fully understand what the Lord is saying- his love for the Lord clears the way for his courageous words:  "Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life." Peter sees what is at stake!  And it is this choice that prepares Peter to humbly trust in Jesus, even after Peter betrays Him.  Peter does not despair in his failure but receives with trust and faith the abundant mercy of the Lord.

I wonder if we have been given just enough of Jesus in our religious instruction to make us think that we know what His love means, but in reality we have inoculated ourselves from being truly transformed by His radical love. His radical love is not tepid "acceptance" or "tolerance", it is a purifying fire which will make you fit for eternal life. Unless you have ordered your life on His Commandments, putting His will in the forefront of all that you think, do, and say, and humbly repenting when you fail, it will be difficult to understand what a shallow sham our culture has made of Jesus, love and religion. It will be difficult to discern the True God and his will from the culture's god, which will send you off in vain pursuits of worldly acclaim and worldly wisdom. From this stand point a degenerative blindness seems to set in, and in the end, even when the choice is presented point blank, it becomes too difficult to perceive what is at stake. You will become the vanity you pursue and defend!

 So how can we discern the will and love of God in a time when love is perverted, materialistic, and when our lack of knowledge of our Savior Himself is used to blind and divert ourselves from Him? Do you see a hardening and narrowing happening as I do?  Does it seem that we are on the edge of momentous choices, where everything we need to make the right choice is given to us, but many cannot or will not seek it?  I fear that the longer we try to straddle between the two paths:  the one of Jesus and eternal life and the path of worldly vanity, the less we will be able to make the courageous decisions that will be required of us when confronted with a final opportunity to choose eternal life. "the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing."

To whom shall you go?  To whom shall you cling to?  A terrible choice is beginning to emerge for all of us, can you see what is at stake?-choose life, not death.

Peace and Grace,
Heidi

Platitudes or Water, Blood and The Spirit

Beloved:  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him.  In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.  For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.  And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.  Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood.  The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth. 1 John 5:1-6

I have recently participated in a Facebook debate, and this one was particularly unpleasant, one side claiming to be on the side of love and tolerance, the other (the side I was "liking") was asking for justification for abusive and slanderous posts that included an inflammatory picture of the a bishop with the word bigot scrawled across it.  We received no justification, only over-generalized reasons for disdain of the Catholic hierarchy and Catholic moral teachings and, of course, the standard Jesus platitudes were stated and restated. Calling a bishop a bigot was rationalized and defending him called sown an angry tirade of how we were: "casting stones"and how we should "remove the beam from our own eyes!"   It was ugly and it was sad.  Love was diminished to complacent acceptance, if you did not accept what they accepted you were of course, rejected.

What do I mean by a Jesus platitude?  A platitude is a statement , supposedly profound, but in reality it is flat, dull and banal.  How can anything that the Alpha-Omega, Eternal son of the Living God, victor over the universe and all powers of darkness be banal and trite?  The answer:  When you remove it from the deep and profound Truths that the Lord God revealed to the Children of Israel and her prophets.  Then, the summation of the law:  Love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself, becomes so malleable that it essentially means whatever the follower wants it to mean.  So, the biggest problem with Jesus platitudes is they stifle the power of Jesus' love by reducing His power to mere words; then they trivialize and relativize it.  In a way, they inoculate you against the transformitive love of Christ.   Now, His love merely accepts you, it does not transform or reform you.   Since we are truly made for higher pleasures - we have much more heroic ambitions and deeper desires of which platitudes only superficially address - and are often used to excuse the misdirection of these ambitions and desires -  this can only lead to shallow love and ultimately to angry despair. Because despite all of your efforts to live a life that is worth living, without being begotten by God you will not even be able to live up to the platitudes.  There is no way to live an integral moral life with such great desires, so many earthly pleasures and this banal version of the Lord.

So when I read the second reading, especially grounded in the rest of this Sunday's readings, I see a much fuller picture of how the love of Jesus transforms, and of how it is nourished and inflamed and regenerated in the sacraments of the Church.  He first speaks of belief in Jesus, and then of obedience to the commandments, obedience that is empowered by His love in us.  The last passage grounds our relationship with Jesus in his flesh and blood, not merely words and platitudes, but as a man who loved us so passionately that He poured out his blood from his pierced heart for each one of us.

Pope Benedict XVI in his book Jesus of Nazareth explains verses 6-8, the verses about water and blood and Spirit this way:

  "Here John very obviously gives the motif (of blood and water) a polemical turn against a form of Christianity that acknowledges Jesus' Baptism as a saving event but does not acknowledge his death on the Cross in the same way.  He is responding to a form of Christianity that, so to speak wants only the word, but not the flesh and blood.  Jesus' body and his death ultimately play no role.  So all that is left of Christianity is mere "water"-without Jesus' bodiliness the word loses its power.  Christianity becomes mere doctrine, mere moralism, and intellectual affair, but lacks any flesh and blood."

My Facebook encounter left me sad because I saw an intellectualized faith, that was really highly moralistic but not at all grounded in authentic love or objective morality, thus all the moralizing was to affirm others in being possessed by their passions instead of seeking the One to whom those passions point to.  Anyone who rejected this was treated to a barrage of words; quotes from Jesus thrown at them like the stones.   Yet, in a true encounter with  Christ your passions, your love and your desires will begin to be reordered to their true purpose.  It is impossible without Christ, but as you fall deeper in love with the Jesus -  the authentic Jesus who is flesh and blood, strength and power - you will find that His Passion is reforming yours.

If that sounds too ethereal, I can assure you that it is not.  But it takes daily prayer, and Scripture.  It takes sacrifice and sacraments.  It takes a willingness to look to Christ not as a one dimensional moral and spiritual teacher, but as the Beloved, the Eternal Flame which burns but never consumes, the pillar of fire, the still small voice, the thunderous theophany carving His law into stone and then on Calvary pouring out his Spirit into out hearts. He is the Divine lover, and in Him all things are fulfilled.  The depth of love that you are willing to enter into with Him will not be burdensome, when you love some one deeply wellsprings of strength and courage build up and you will live a life that has much more to offer than mere platitudes.

Peace and Grace
Heidi

BTW, if you have time Monsignor Pope's latest article is not to be missed!

"Are you still sleeping...?" (Mark14:41)

In the fourteenth chapter of Mark's Gospel, the evangelist writes of Jesus's ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane. (v.32-42) He and his apostles have eaten the Passover meal, the traitor has left them.... His hour is approaching...darkness comes. Jesus wants to pray to the Father, and brings Peter, James and John with him to keep watch. It is, for me, the most poignant moment of Jesus's humanity. We see His Divinity over and over: at His Baptism...in His miracles...in His Transfiguration at Mt. Tabor. Here, in a garden, He truly shows us His human nature, His complete emptying of Himself for our sake.

In anguish, He accedes to the will of the Father over His own wish to have this "cup taken away from me" (v.36). Then, after he prays, he approaches his apostles, and finds them sleeping. He goes off to pray again, returns, and still his friends sleep. A third time he prays, and again....

I dare not assign blame. Who am I? How much of my waking life have I spent sleeping? As Good Friday nears, and once again I come in abject humility, face-to-face with His sacrifice, I pray to Jesus: AWAKEN ME!! Let me sleep no more. How often have I missed your Presence? Kick me awake! Douse me with water, your living water! Open the eyes of my heart so I may see the essence within the vessel, the Divine within the worldly! I have slept too much...too long. Please forgive me, my Lord and my God. Help me to see...