Jesus Breathed on Us

A Reflection on John 20:19-22 N.A.B.

By: Larry T

We are being assaulted! The attack on us is shocking, alarming, and ominous. We are the Catholic Church and attacks on our Church are personal attacks on us and our faith. Examples of the onslaught aren’t hard to find. 

Illinois Catholic Charities close over adoption rule. Catholic Charities in Illinois has served for more than 40 years as a major link in the state’s social service network for poor and neglected children. But now most of the Catholic Charities affiliates in Illinois are closing down rather than comply with a new requirement that says they can no longer receive state money if they turn away same-sex couples as potential foster care and adoptive parents.

By Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, December 29, 2011

Fight against HHS mandate draws thanks from bishops. - Apr 8, 2013 - The U.S. bishops have thanked organizations and entities for their courage in fighting a federal contraception mandate that forces employers to pay for services that violate their religious beliefs.

Internal issues are even more disheartening.

L.A. Archdiocese reaches agreement with more than 500 abuse claimants. The Los Angeles Archdiocese July 15 announced the largest church settlement of sexual abuse lawsuits to date, agreeing to pay more than 500 alleged victims a total of $660 million.

2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

US priest pleads guilty to drug dealing charges. A Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to selling methamphetamine from his flat in the US state of Connecticut.

2 April 2013, B.B.C

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Saint Peter forewarned us about persecution.

⁸ Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour
⁹ Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.
¹⁰ The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ (Jesus) will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
¹¹ To him be dominion forever. Amen.

1 Pt 5:8-11 N.A.B.

Before we are jolted into questioning our faith we need to remember that on Pentecost the Apostles received the Holy Spirit from our Lord Jesus.

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
²¹ (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20:19-22 N.A.B.

They received the same Holy Spirit that anointed Jesus for His ministry; the same Spirit that empowered Him to spurn all of Satan’s temptations.

¹⁰ On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.
¹¹ And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
¹² At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert,
¹³ and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

Mark 1:10-13 N.A.B.

In turn Saul (St. Paul) received the Holy Spirit through the hands of Ananias (Acts 9:17 N.A.B.). So empowered, much to the dismay of the Sadducees and Pharisees, and deep suspicion of Jesus’ followers he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues of Damascus.

Emboldened by the Holy Spirit the apostles defied the Jerusalem Sanhedrin while their fate was being debated. Certain furious members of the court wanted to put them to death, but Gamaliel, the respected Pharisee doctor of Jewish law, spoke up:

³⁸ So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.
³⁹ But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” They were persuaded by him.
⁴⁰ After recalling the apostles, they had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them.

Acts 5:38-40 N.A.B.

Where did the apostles get the courage to face down the Sanhedrin? What inspired the 3rd century martyrs Saints Perpetua and Felicity to stand firm in the face of their executioners and a horrible death? What guiding force steered the Church through the eighty heresies that had arisen by 375 A.D.? What sustained the Church through the Reformation? The Holy Spirit has guided us since Pentecost, and will continue to guide us because our Lord will never abandon His church. How prophetic were the words of Gamaliel!

The Holy Spirit is a force of power that causes Satan to cower in a corner, and we receive it at baptism and confirmation. Still, the Spirit can only motivate us to action; it’s our responsibility to defend ourselves, our Church, and our faith. The greatest danger threatening our Church is in the neutrality of large numbers of us. Satan is not a novice so we must go about our defense with a sense of urgency.

How can lay Catholics protect the faith? “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” – Saint Francis of Assisi. The wisdom of Saint Francis is that if we live the Gospel and follow the precepts of our Church, we will set an example for our families and strengthen our Church.

We can live Proverbs 13:20: ²⁰ Walk with wise men and you will become wise, but the companion of fools will fare badly. Tools for faith building and associating with like-minded Catholics are plentiful. EWTN, the Global Catholic Network, has some excellent programming. Parish sponsored programs such as That Man is You, Lectio Divina groups, Marian Cenacles, and small faith community groups are in constant search of new members. We can sign up for a Bible study class.

Satan’s tactic is to chip away at our faith a bit at a time, so we must be aware of subtle attacks on our beliefs. If we’re not sure what our Church teaches concerning marriage, divorce, contraception, homosexuality, marriage of priests, abortion, and euthanasia we cannot defend our faith. Our first resource is the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or better yet, we might consult a priest or deacon for direction.

On this Pentecost Sunday we might pause to consider the power of the Holy Spirit that resides within us. In our daily prayers we can petition our Lord for an increase in grace - God’s free-will gift to us which nurtures faith. We can also pray to Mary daily, this way: “Mary, please ask your most beloved spouse, the Holy Spirit, to transform me into the image of your Son, Jesus.” Such prayers will always be answered, since they are in harmony with the will of God!

MOTHER of MERCY

MOTHER OF MERCY

(Mother’s Day; 7^th Sunday after Easter “C”; May 12)

I love this “Journey to Wisdom” site because of the wonderful reflections and meditations that are posted by all of you.  Today, I would first like to preface my own reflection with a flashback to St. Francis de Sales.  He had a great way to describe an approach to our meditations, which I would like to share with you.  He asks us to consider our meditation on God’s word as a walk through a flower garden.  There are lots of choices, lots of beauty, and lots of great smells.  So just select one or two or three flowers that appeal to us right now, and pick those.  Just so, select one or two or three points in God’s word that appeal to you as you meditate on His word.  Then “think frequently about them, and smell them spiritually during the rest of the day” (Introduction to the Devout Life).  Isn’t that a beautiful way to remember what to do with our meditations?

So today I want to share the “flowers” that appealed to me.  [In the Omaha Archdiocese we do not advance the “Ascension” solemnity to Sunday; instead we retain the liturgy of the word for the 7^th Sunday after Easter.]

Today is a special day for Deacons like me all around the world, because in our First Reading from the Acts of Apostles (7:55-60) we celebrate the life of the very first Christian martyr, St. Stephen the Deacon.  The day after Christmas is really Stephen’s feast day.  But the Church also places this same episode right here, one week before Pentecost Sunday, because it shows the struggles that confronted the disciples in the early Church.  Unfortunately, Stephen gets stoned to death; but he gave us two lessons.  First, he shows what can happen when you cling to your faith in Jesus Christ during times of persecution: it may even cost you your earthly life.  But a second lesson is more important: Deacon Stephen provides a witness to how we must try to be like Jesus in his attitude of MERCY, no matter what the personal cost.

   

Stephen imitates Jesus even in death, as he forgives his persecutors. Jesus had said from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Now we hear Stephen saying, just before he dies, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”  A merciful gift is given to his persecutors.

We discover in our Gospel reading today (John 17:20-26) that Jesus is praying for unity, a unity that can only come when people actually experience unconditional love – a merciful love that extends even to enemies, even to those who would kill us. Pope John Paul II taught us in a 1980 Encyclical (“On the Mercy of God”; #138) that only love that is demonstrated can bring about unity.

There are many roads that lead to unity.  But the most famous and most effective road is the “love road” commonly called “works of mercy.”  These are ways we demonstrate our love. These are ways that witness to Jesus Christ, and attract non-believers.  There are 14 works of mercy; but perhaps the hardest one of all to live out is the obligation we all have to forgive offenses willingly.  Jesus set the bar high; and St. Stephen lived up to it.

Do you remember that nasty Superstorm Hurricane, called Sandy, that hit the Northeast so savagely last October?  At the heart of the recovery efforts from the flood and fires, in the Rockaway area of New York, was St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church.  There have been many articles in the secular press, even six months later, praising the many practical works of mercy that the parishioners at St. Francis de Sales provided for the storm victims—long before the official government support groups went into action.  As the news article said, and I quote, these “works of mercy bring us together and also show the world what the power of faith can achieve.”  And that is from the secular press, mind you!

I think it is a wonderful coincidence that this weekend is Mothers’ Day weekend.  If there is any one single person in our life that has shown us how to extend mercy and forgiveness, it is our biological mother.  But our Spiritual Mother is really the “Mother of Mercy” par excellence.  Every day we appeal to her, in a prayer at the end of our rosary: “Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy...”   We remember the many times she appeared to St. Brigid of Sweden, and to St. Faustina of Poland, and to St. Juan Diego in Mexico: she identified herself to them as our “Mother of Mercy.” 

We also remember the eloquent way Blessed Pope John Paul II called her the “Mediatrix of Mercy” (Redemptoris Mater, 1987).  He teaches that Mary has a specifically “motherly” role as mediatrix of mercy, when Jesus returns at his final coming.  We call the Blessed Virgin Mary our “Mother of Mercy” because she literally brought Divine Mercy Himself to birth in our world.

And now she shows us how to live as true Disciples, by living out the many virtues we need to practice daily.  One of the most important virtues, of course, is Mercy (or Charity, which is really the same thing).   The gospels show is that she lived out this virtue when she went to serve her cousin Elizabeth in her time of need, and also when she interceded for the needs of the married couple at the wedding feast in Cana.  And now our Queen Mother is in heaven, to intercede for everyone who calls for her help.

So we have a “cloud of witnesses” who have shown us, by their example, how to be merciful.  First, the example set by Jesus our Redeemer, forgiving his enemies from the cross.  Then St. Stephen the Deacon, forgiving those who stoned him to death.  And then the visionaries, such as St. Brigid, St. Faustina, and St. Juan Diego, who tell us that the Blessed Virgin Mary wants all of us to know that She is the Mother of Mercy.

There really is nothing more we need to hear.  The gospels and all the saints challenge us to be merciful, just like Jesus.  If there is anyone in your life who needs your forgiveness, then please imitate the holy witnesses, and be merciful.    Remember the command Jesus gave us in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful”; or, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.” (Luke 6:36; Matthew 5:7)

As we pray for and honor our own earthly mothers this weekend, please also remember to pay special tribute to our heavenly “Mother of Mercy.”  Please join with me right now in the “Hail, Holy Queen” prayer, as one way to acknowledge and respond to our Mother’s desire that we imitate the Mercy of her son, Jesus:

Together – “Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful [clement], O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! +

Blessings to all of you!

I pray especially that the Lord will send each of you mothers many blessings through the mediation of His mother, Mary.

- Deacon Paul Rooney

Wandering Desire

A reflection on John 14

Jesus said to his disciples:  “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.  Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.  “I have told you this while I am with you.  The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubles or afraid.  You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’  If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.  And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.  JN 14:23-29

Ascension of Jesus

When I was a little girl my family moved to Minnesota and we joined the local Presbyterian Church.  It was in this church that the love of Jesus was cultivated in my heart.  And though the church of my childhood lacked most of the sacraments, they did direct us toward a relationship with Christ. I especially remember Miss Peggy reading us stories about Jesus, helping us to memorize the books of the Bible and to understand the parables through delightful songs.   It was made clear to me that I could be bold like Zacchaeus or Bartimaeus and call out to Jesus.  I could expect Jesus to come to me in prayer, to heal me and to save me.  I prayed to Him frequently and I did hear His voice. 

 As I journeyed on in life, I wandered off the narrow path, I crowded out the voice of the Lord with what seemed like more fulfilling and realistic pursuits.  I remember a particular moment I had wandered so far away from Him that I stood on the brink of renouncing a belief in the historicity of the life, death and resurrection of Christ as I had learned from the Bible.  I was ready to dismiss it as all spiritual concepts and nothing more. In those moments I found I had only the strength to proclaim an abstract spirituality and vague ethical guidelines.  Yet that love that had once been nurtured but was now lying dormant in my soul stirred up painfully in the moment of my temptation.  It was a nostalgic-like yearning for something that I could not quite put my finger on, at the same time I felt contempt for this feeling, I tried to dismiss it as foolish and un-intellectual but the feeling was persistent.

    

C. S. Lewis in his essay The Weight of Glory talks of what he calls a wandering desire for the transtemporal.  This desire is present in each of us and there is no natural satisfaction for it in this world because we do not belong to this world – we are exiles!   Deep in our hearts God has placed a yearning to dwell with the Lord, where we truly belong, and where our identities are truly fulfilled.  And not just “spiritually”, but the whole of our being.  Our bodies as well as our souls.  We belong in the gleaming city on the mountain, we are destined to bathe in the waters of the Spirit that flow from the Temple, to eat from the Tree of Life and bask in the light of the Lord, to be known by Him, to have Him delight in us.   We catch glimpses of eternal joy in this world, but they are fleeting and utterly beyond our grasp, though we try in so many misdirected ways to capture them.  I felt these stirrings in my youthful prayers to Jesus, and occasionally as I pass through my life, I am visited by moments where peace and joy seemed to pour out upon me.  But these moments always slip quickly by, and even as I am enjoying them I am aware of a sorrow that always co-mingles with this joy.  Because it is lost almost as soon as it is received.  If we have lost our relationship with Christ, it is so easy to lose any sense of peace that we are being drawn on toward something greater, we feel only loss and have no real hope of renewal.  Because what we seek we cannot find here.  The world’s peace always comes at a terrible cost.

Unfortunately for us, we live in a time of diminished imagination and dreary earthbound dreams of distant Utopian hopes.  “Almost our whole education has been directed to silencing this shy, persistent, inner voice; almost all out modern philosophies have been devised to convince us that the good of man is to be found on this earth.” (Lewis; Weight of Glory)  And how close I was to accepting that as the truth.  But what happened to awaken my awareness of how I had misunderstood and suppressed this wandering desire in me?  Fundamentally it was the love of Christ that was nurtured in my soul as a child.  Because I had heard His voice, and I longed to hear it again.   In that moment that I stood on the brink of disbelief I heard His voice quietly echoing a line of Scripture that I was not very conscious of at the time “Will you also leave me?” (John 6:67)  I literally dropped to my knees, because as the words were being spoken, I recognized His voice, and the other philosophies that I was flirting with were revealed to be barren, ugly and powerless in comparison to the voice I heard, which was so much like the vision of John in Revelations, containing with it all beauty and all love. My response was very much like Peter’s response to Jesus in the next verse, “There is nowhere else to go!”  I was always being beheld by Him and being drawn up by the bands of love.

After all these years, I still am astounded and grateful for how the very simple but earnest instructions of my parents and Sunday school teachers paved the way for that deeper conversion.   Now after having been a Catholic for a few years (okay for over 20 years, but who's counting?) I know how richly and concretely present He is in His Church, and how blessed anyone is who is born into our faith.  My love for Him has only deepened, and with this my attention to His words and how I am following them has sharpened.  So that, hopefully, when I walk into the world, and encounter the barren philosophies, His peace stays with me - even when I am opposed and confronted.  Because I am not just bringing my ideas of who Jesus is with me, but I am bring Him with me, I am letting His Spirit flow through me.  So that that wandering desire can be stirred up a bit in those that I interact with.  But first, I must love Him, and in loving Him I can follow His words.  

Heidi

For more reflections on the readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter:

Didja Know for the 6th Sunday of Easter, by Deacon Paul!

Scott Hahn reflects on the readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter

My Sheep Hear My Voice.

A reflection on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2013

Thereadings this Sunday call us to martyrdom; to witness in strength and love to the Lamb who shepherds us and fills us with His joy.  How do we gain the confidence of Paul and Barnabas to be a witness to the truth of the Gospel?

 

John: 10:27-30

Jesus said:  “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.  The Father and I are one.”

 Luke's drawing of him listening to Jesus

Do you know His voice?  How do you learn to hear his voice?  These were questions that came up in our recent Kyrion meeting.  Kyrion is a prayer group for children that we have at our parish.   We are a small group under the umbrella of One Heart~One Fire.  The format for our small but faithful group starts with praise of God in song, an opening prayer, then we read, discuss, act out, meditate and journal on the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday.  We end with prayer.  We are trying to ignite a love for the Father in the hearts of the children, and to lead their hearts to know His voice.  And we are faithful and obedient to the teachings of our Church.  She is our guide into the heart of Christ.  Yet, it is a tall order.  There is an initial discomfort among all the children.  Jesus sometimes says strange things, challenging things.  It may be easier to keep a safe distance.   Even the children perceive this and our culture encourages it.

And this stirs up a bit of nervousness.  Truly, If you were to walk into our room in the middle of one of our meetings you would see what may look like chaos, in fact, it often feels like chaos to me (especially if I happened to have my toddler, Max, along).  To our eyes the rambunctious children do not seem to be ready or able listen and hear the Word of the Lord.  But our eyes miss a lot.   It is hard to perceive the very small movements of God in the ordinary messiness of our daily lives.

After my first few, very, very, VERY noisy and rowdy Kyrion meetings this year, I was tempted to give in to the feeling that it really was not worth the effort on a Friday afternoon, when I would much rather go home and relax with my family after a long week.  After all, we went to Mass that day, we will pray our nightly decade of the Rosary with the children before they go to bed…what more do we need to do?  Yes, Mass and devotion to our Blessed Mother are foundational to this ministry, but God has shown me, through many different means, how dangerous the attitude of "I have done enough" can be.  It can seduce you to compartmentalize faith.  It can induce a complacency in our soul and - I think we can see this in our culture - this complacency reduces our ability to love others with the passionate and fiery love of Christ; with a love that witnesses His love.  We will become lukewarm.  We will not be able to perceive evil, we will be easily deceived and truth will be inverted.  Thus I persevere with our other families. I have learned, over the course of the years how much He can do with a little perseverance on my part.  I am learning to notice the still,  small movements of His Spirit which reveal that the sheep are listening.

Sophia's drawing of Jesus

In fact, on many Sundays, when the Gospel is read at Mass (or during the children’s liturgy he sometimes attends) my son Luke will comment on how we read that in Kyrion, or how he got to play the part of Jesus in that Gospel during Kyrion, or how he drew a picture of Jesus when we journaled on the Gospel.  He is engaged in the readings at Mass in a way that he would not otherwise be.  He is given permission to understand that the Word of God is written for him.  This is not selfish, it is learning to recognize the voice of the Lamb, the shepherd of His people.  In fact, it is giving him the courage to respond to His word in a way that will witness to others.   And he will need the courage; our children will need to know the voice of Jesus.  For some form of martyrdom awaits all of us who listen to and obey the shepherd’s voice, but we are assured that even if we suffer for His sake in this world the Father will not allow you to be lost.

I, John, had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race people, and tongue.  They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.  Then one of the elders said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.  “For this reason they stand before God’s temple.  The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.  They will not hunger or thirst anymore, nor will the sun or any heat strike them.  For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  Rev 7:9, 14 B-17

So it is imperative that we learn to hear His voice!  We need to teach our children that He is always speaking to us.  In our meeting, we ran a simple game with our children.  They were each blindfolded, and we (their mothers) scattered around the room and all called to them.  They had to listen and discern where their parent was.  They all succeeded.  Why?  Because they live with us, because they communicate with us.  They have learned to know our voices for their own safety, and for their individual needs for nurturing and love.  We learn to hear His voice by living with Him every day, in His Word, in prayer, by frequently coming to Him in adoration, in the Sacraments, in repentance.   Do you know His voice?  You must or you will be lead astray. You must know His voice and be prepared;  because sometimes He asks His followers to do hard things.  To love impossible people.  To forgive unspeakable crimes.  To proclaim Him in terrifying situations.  But in Him you can endure times of great distress, and confidently rejoice that your will be worthy of everlasting life where God Himself will wipe away every tear.

We are His people the sheep of His flock!  Amen!  Alleluia!

Heidi 

Do You Love Me?

  A reflection on John 21:  15-19

Do you pray with the Scriptures?  When you read them, do you allow a word or a scene from the passage to speak to you in your heart and draw out from you a prayer?  It is essential for each of us enter into prayer in this way.  Yet, it is a direction that many "voices" - from the world, and from your own ego - will dissuade you from; because it will reveal your idols, your weaknesses.  The Lord seeks to lead us out of those "Egypts" in each one of our souls.  To do so demands much; it demands a love that endures all things, hopes all things and to be completely truthful, I do not have that love yet.  That is important for me to understand, not for me to despair but so that I can live in His truth, endure in His light and be drawn up into a more perfect love by following His voice.  

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.  Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.  And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”  John 21: 1-19

Simon, son of John, do you love me?

I need to live in His truth, I need to know who I am and  who I am called to be in His truth.  I need it desperately, and our whole culture is dying for lack of this truth.  In this Gospel, through the questions of Jesus, Peter is taken back into the bitter, memory of his betrayal of the Lord, in order to receive the profound, unfathomable mercy of Jesus so that he can be drawn up into His perfect love. What courage this takes!  We, who are so easily offended, we, who so often confess our failings in a self-justifying context, are also taken through the drama of the Lord's threefold questioning of Peter.  Three times he questions Peter’s love for Him, mirroring the three times that Peter denied Him. The anguish of Peter by the third round is palpable. I can understand this, it can be agonizing to allow Christ to plumb the depths of our individual depravity.  Especially in this hyper-sentimentalized culture, where there is no incentive to grow in a deeper more perfect love,  to have cowardice and unwillingness to suffer in order to grow in love revealed in the unflinching light of His gaze is terrifying.  Who really wants to face their own spiritual impotency?  Yet, to grow in His perfect love is to drive out fear (1 Jn, 4:18), because above all we are afraid of our own ultimate futility - our own spiritual impotency.  Christ is the only possible answer to that fear.  Moreover, when Peter submitted to Our Lord’s probing and tending to the wounds of his darkest failure, we are shown that his little love was enough for Jesus, who would transform that little love into perfect love.  And then we see how much potency in the Spirit is released!  

We must obey God rather than men!

Perfect love does drive out fear!  Look at how Peter and the apostles rejoice at the sufferings and worldly dishonor they receive on account of the Lord! (Acts 5:41) How can I be released from the bonds of my spiritual impotency?  How can I be freed the dark hidden wounds in my soul?  These wounds may not always be obvious, but they have a subtle control over my love. Again, I am not speaking of the sentimental love of our time, but the passionate, agape love of God.  The love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:7)  This is the love that our fears would block us from entering into.  This is the love that Christ will so gently draw from you, if you, like Peter, allow His Spirit to enter into your darkest wounds and heal them.  And not just heal them, but as we see in Peter, transform them!  His cowardice, in the power of this love, is lifted up to courage.  The Fisherman from Galilee will endure humiliation and martyrdom for Christ and His Church.  “I will praise you Lord…You changed my mourning into dancing!” Psalm 30 2;12

Worthy is the Lamb!

It seems a little unbelievable.  In this age of stunted, materialistic love, we may be a bit jaded in our hope that we could encounter Christ as intimately as Peter did merely from reading the words of Scripture.  We may be afraid to enter into the contemplative prayer that will bring us to Christ in this profound and personal way.  Do it anyway.  Put aside your fears, suspend you disbelief.   When you read the Gospel, when you hear it proclaimed at Mass, place yourself in the readings in your imagination.  Yes, there may be detracting voices -inner voices, worldly voices- that will hurl all sorts of accusations and distractions at you.  Yes, it may take time to build up an ability to endure in this type of prayer.  Yes, you may have to let go of the insipid, sentimentalized one-dimensional Jesus that is too often presented to us;  this Jesus inoculates us against the One who is the worthy Lamb of God, in whose presence all creation trembles and cries out to in adoration. (Rev 5: 11-14)  Persist!  And be ready, because He will surprise you.  Like He did for Peter, Jesus will ever so gently direct you to true repentance and deep healing. He will take your breath away and you will begin to let the Spirit breath through you. 

You brought my soul up from Sheol

My own experience in this type of prayer is an example of how important it is to persist through those false voices.  For many years in prayer I have entered into the scene of the sinful woman we read of in Luke.  In this prayer I am the women attempting to approach the Lord, but the Pharisees are standing in my way.  They present every objection imaginable to discourage me from persisting to see the Lord.  They accuse me of my own unworthiness and some of their accusations are devastatingly accurate.  The worst one is:  “Just who do you think you are!”  They go on:  “You do not belong here, you never will!"  "You do not need Him as much as others, how presumptuous of you!"  You ought to be content to just look at Him from afar, He will just send you away!”   It has really taken me years to get through that gauntlet in any meaningful way.  Even when I did persist and I fell at His feet, I could not look at Him - I was too afraid.  And in my day to day life as well, I can tell you that this fear, fundamentally a fear of rejection, has stopped me from doing many, many things that I ought to have done.   But, one day I did look up at Him.  And He looked at me with eyes that were strong and serious, and unfathomably loving and said:  “ Well, who do you think you are?”  Wow!  Those words from Him seemed to be my worst fear coming true, but the Lord’s eyes never wavered, and drew from me the answer “I am yours.”   And He responds, “ You did not choose Me, I choose you:   Follow me.”

Alleluia!

 Take a moment to enter into this Gospel in prayer (or whatever Biblical scene you are drawn to). What would He ask you?  In those moments of prayer, much like Saint Peter encounter with the Lord, Jesus will draw you to look at yourself with unflinching honesty, but bathed in His light you begin to receive the courage, the power to be so much more than forgiven:  to be transformed, to be potent and fruitful in His Spirit.  Follow Him!

Christ is Risen!  Alleluia!

Heidi 

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The Eternal Key

The second reading for this Sunday (April 7, 2013) is from the Book of Revelation. In verse 18 we read that the Lord Jesus has conquered death forever and offers us the gift of eternal life. 

⁹ I, John, your brother, who share with you the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus, found myself on the island called Patmos because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus.

¹⁰ I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet,

¹¹ which said, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands

¹³ and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.

¹⁷ When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead. He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

¹⁸ the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.

¹⁹ Write down, therefore, what you have seen, and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards. – Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-9 N.A.B. 

In reflecting on this reading I am reminded of a story about Shelly, a young professional woman, who was having car trouble. 

Briefcase in hand, Shelly aimed a frustrated kick at the front tire of her shiny red BMW. She turned away from her car, glared angrily at rush hour traffic and wondered how long it would take AAA to arrive. She felt her face flush at the thought of being late for another board meeting. 

Within minutes the AAA Roadside Assistance van arrived. The driver said, “Miss, did you call for assistance?” 

“This stupid key fob isn’t working. I can’t get into my car and I’m going to be late for an important meeting!” 

“Can I see your key fob?” 

Wiping beads of perspiration from her forehead, she handed him the key fob and watched him insert the key into the door lock and open the door. She smiled sheepishly and thanked him profusely. Now thoroughly embarrassed Shelly sped away thinking, I’m never going to tell anyone about this incident! 

What was her real obstacle? Shelly lost sight of her goal. She needed to get to the board meeting, but the key fob battery was dead. When the dime sized fob battery failed she became distracted and forgot that the key fob had a built-in key – a key to be used in the event of battery failure. The means to open the car door and get to the board meeting on time was in her hand all along. 

I wonder how many times I have kicked the front tire of my life’s vehicle in frustration at my own inadequacies, or because things weren’t going according to my plan? How many times have I become sidetracked and lost sight of the objective – that of spending eternity with our Lord? It’s deceptively easy to get off target in a society that is fixed on worldly possessions; in a technology driven culture; in a country with a warped sense of values; in a world that seems to be in apostasy.

 

On this second Sunday of Easter I am reminded that through the agony in the garden, the scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, his struggle under the weight of the crossbeam, the crucifixion, and resurrection Jesus placed the key to spending eternity with him in my hand; I simply have to use it, and I never have to be concerned about a dead battery.

Larry T

"...Whom are you looking for?"

But Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, " Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord, " and what he told her. (John 20:11-18)

          Mary had been at the tomb earlier, "...while it was still dark." (John 20:1) When she first came, she saw that the stone had been rolled away from the front of the tomb. Frightened, and without looking inside, she ran to tell Peter and John. When they returned, Peter entered first, then John followed. Although the account does not say so, they must have told Mary that Jesus's body was gone. Then the story concludes, "For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned home." (vs.9-10)

                            
                               You do not have to sit outside in the dark,

                               If, however, you want to look at the stars,

                               you will find that darkness is required

                               The stars neither require it nor demand it.


                                                                                               -----Annie Dillard


               Can we imagine the heartache and the pain Mary was feeling? Over the past three days, the one who she loved more than life itself had been betrayed by one of his friends and deserted by the others. Then, falsely accused and convicted, Jesus was humiliated and tortured beyond human endurance, and nailed upon a cross, abandoned and forsaken by the very people who had cheered and placed palms upon his path as he entered Jerusalem, proclaiming,
                                                             "Hosanna!" 

                           "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord" (Mark 11:9)

                 And now, someone had taken away his body. Would there be no end to the indignities Jesus would have to suffer? Even in death, he cannot rest. Still weeping, she moves closer to the tomb...she looks inside. [she] saw two angels in white sitting there..."  (v.12) I find it interesting that the angels appear to Mary, but were not there, or were not seen, by Peter or John. I believe that this is because of the great love and faithfulness Mary had for Jesus. I think Mary knew, more than the other disciples, of her need for Jesus; that her strength was in Jesus and she could not, and would not leave him, neither in his suffering nor in his death. Peter and John came out of the tomb and went home; Mary went into the tomb, still looking for Jesus.

                  Appearing in a form that did not frighten her, the angels asked Mary why she was weeping. Mary answered that someone had taken Jesus, and that she could not find him. Then, "...she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" (v.14-15)  Yes, initially, Mary did not know that she had found Jesus, the one she was looking for. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that Jesus had found Mary.

                   Jesus asked Mary who she was looking for. Isn't Jesus also asking me the same question? Or maybe in my life, it's better said, "What am I looking for?" And if I'm looking for some thing, then I'm a dead man. Because, from what source will I draw my life? From success? Praise from others? Power? Wealth? Self-esteem? Popularity? Can I, in all honesty convince myself that it is for one of these things that God created me? If I am made in his image and likeness, where in Jesus's life and teachings do I read of how important success, popularity, power and wealth is?  So if it's not a what I should be looking for, then it has to be a who! And I know that there is only one, who gives me life.

                   And the great news is that not only do I know that it's God who I must look for, but that God is always looking for me! And He is everywhere to be found; in all of His creation, and in the depths of my soul. But the Mystery of Calvary tells us that we must first die, before we can really live in Christ. We need to die of our earthly attachments and desires, and give ourselves over to His will, knowing that death is never the end, but a new beginning. This is beautifully said in this piece from an ancient homily from Holy Saturday:

                  
                       "Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead.

              Rise up, work of my hands, you were created in my image

                              Rise, let us leave this place

                              for you are in me, and I am in you

                             Together we form only one person 

                              and we cannot be separated."