July 5th, 2009
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honor, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching.
In my last reflection I talked about how belief, no matter how great it is, cannot dictate to God what he should specifically be doing in any situation. He will do what is good. But, can we block God’s power and action in our lives through a lack of belief? Absolutely.
You may recall that I ended the last reflection with “Bonum est difusivum sui”, of which one translation is, “The good capable of spreading, spreads to those capable of receiving it.” If there is no openness to God moving and working in a person’s life and no willingness to believe, God will not force that person to receive his gift of goodness, the gift of himself. Lots of people have seen the power of the Lord at work and remain completely unmoved.
Think of a rock in water. Even though it is completely immersed in the water, the water does not soak into it and never softens it. When it comes out of the water, the water runs off of it and the rock is as hard and impenetrable as it was before. Now think of a sponge in water. The sponge may have been quite hard and brittle before it was plunged into the water but as the water soaks into it and permeates it, making it soft and pliable. It becomes like a vessel of that water, holding it and dripping it everywhere. Belief, then, is a quality that transforms us from hardness, brittleness and emptiness into a soft, saturated bearer of God’s goodness. We all know many people whom we would label as rocks, people who have hardened their hearts and refuse to allow God’s goodness to penetrate and soften them.
But, what about us? Can we not be dense rocks sometimes?
The moment we decide we know what God should be doing in any situation is the moment we begin to form a crusty rock like shell around us. The moment our limited perceptions dictate our expectations, we restrict our ability to soak up goodness or even recognize it.
The people in Jesus’ hometown thought they knew all about Jesus. They thought they knew who he was and what his real job was and how he should be leading his life. They could not see beyond that. Even though they recognized that he was expressing great wisdom and that he was capable of performing deeds of power, they just couldn’t get over their deeply ingrained ideas about what the Messiah should really look like, and Jesus, their next door neighbor, just wasn’t fitting into the expected pattern. To them two plus two should equal four and Jesus was a five. Jesus couldn’t saturate them with his goodness because they were solid and immoveable within their preconceived ideas.
Last week I had two grandsons visiting me. One is 14 months and the other 18 months. They are both at that stage where when their little minds decide they want something and it doesn’t immediately happen in the way they expect it to happen, they blow a fuse. They plop down on their little bottoms, refuse to move and they wail. I especially remember when the Moms said to both of them, “Do you want to go outside?” meaning that they were going to be taken in the car to go to the park. Both of these little guys assumed that their moms meant they could go outside on the deck, a favorite daily activity for them both. When their moms grabbed them away from the deck door and began to put shoes on them, you should have heard the screaming!
Going out, getting in the car and heading off to a park where there are swings and a slide and all sorts of other amazing things to discover and experience is infinitely more exciting and pleasurable than going out on the deck. However, these little guys had a certain idea in their heads and this idea, this perception, made them like little rocks. They weren’t remotely interested in finding out what was really going to happen. What a struggle it was to get them into socks and shoes and out the particular door they weren’t expecting to open up to them.
Do we ever get certain ideas about what should be happening and then flip out when it’s all turned upside down? Usually we assume that things are going wrong, get all rock hard and start to wail instead of saying, “Wait a minute. This isn’t what I was expecting but the Lord must have something infinitely more beautiful in store.” The moment we turn ourselves away from set preconceptions and open ourselves to God’s plan, we become sponges. Even better than that, we become adventurers into the kingdom of God’s goodness. We learn how to take risks, explore, discover and anticipate new and different horizons with him.
Like my grandsons, we need to learn to see that there are now, and will always be, many new doors through which we are called to venture. We need to take the risk of believing that God’s power and goodness is vaster and deeper than what we see in front of us.
Soak it in.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Goodness in Our Midst
Mark 5: 21-43
21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24So he went with him.
Some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Sometimes the Gospels can be confusing to our hearts when they tell of Jesus performing miracles such as healing the sick and raising the dead. Too many of us have been in the position where we have prayed desperately for Jesus to touch and heal us, or someone we love, and healing doesn’t come. If a child or a partner dies, we cannot understand, in our agony, why death is allowed to take the ones we love. Is it Jesus’ will that a child should die? Is it his will that a spouse should die? Is it his will that people endure long-term sickness and physical pain?
If we say, “No, it was not his will.” then what happened? Is he in control of life and death or not? Was it our faith that was at fault? Was it too weak? Did we not believe hard enough, even though we know we desperately wanted to believe strongly enough to move God’s hand?
If we say, “Yes, it was his will that a person should suffer or die,” it makes him seem to be a capricious, harsh, cruel and arbitrary God, one who willfully sends suffering to his people, a God we could come to fear and hate and perhaps reject.
I think the problem lies in our daring to say anything at all.
C.S. Lewis, one of the most respected theologians of modern times, expressed a very startling idea about God in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. The children, Lucy, Susan and Peter, are being taken to see Aslan, who typifies Jesus in the Narnia series. Before setting out on the journey to find Aslan, they are trying to find out who he is:
“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not! I tell you he is the King of the Wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king I tell you.”
“I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.”
I read the Narnia series first as a child and then many times since and I still get the shivers at how C.S. Lewis expressed deep theological and contemplative truths in these simple stories. Since my childhood I have had the words of the beaver impressed upon my mind, “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” Real faith is a deep belief that God is good, not because he always does what we want but because he always does what is…good.
We are human. We are limited. We live in an incomprehensible universe and we cannot see one day ahead; we cannot even see one minute ahead. It is so natural to want God to be a safe God, a God who follows our plans and who is predictable. We want to know there are ways to pray and believe which will always procure our desired results and keep us from hurt and sorrow. We want to know these things because we are small and we are traveling in an alien land. We are often scared to death even when actual death is not staring us in the face.
Are we honestly open to the goodness of God? Can we believe that his goodness is not what brought death and suffering into the world? Are we able to believe so strongly in God’s power and goodness that we are willing to risk abandoning our limited ideas of what we think should be happening and trust that what is happening is soaked in his goodness?*(see note at end) His gracious goodness. Yes, he has the power to heal, to raise the dead, to calm storms, part seas and move mountains and at times he inserts himself very obviously into our lives and shows us these wonders. And other times he does not. Why? Because he is Good. He cannot do anything else than what he does because he knows eternities and universes and eons of consequences, effects, repercussions and results. Whatever he chooses to do, he does because he is Good, because he can do nothing but good and because he loves us in a way we will never comprehend. We will never fully understand unconditional love that is not a love that always gives in to what we want but a love that never fails to lead us to himself.
For God, “good” is not a label or an adjective. It is who he is. And if what happens in our lives causes us pain and suffering, he does not abandon us or hide in the shadows. In his goodness he becomes one with our pain. The word Compassion means ‘to suffer with’ and he is always one with our suffering; we cannot separate him from it. There is absolutely no space between our pain and his.
No one can say to us, “Just believe and whatever you desire most, God will do it.” But what Goodness does say to us is, “Just believe and whatever God does is what you will desire the most.”
* “Bonum est difusivum sui.” – a latin tag meaning “It is the nature of goodness to diffuse itself (spread over a large area)” or “The good capable of spreading, spreads to those capable of receiving it.”
21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24So he went with him.
Some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’ 40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Sometimes the Gospels can be confusing to our hearts when they tell of Jesus performing miracles such as healing the sick and raising the dead. Too many of us have been in the position where we have prayed desperately for Jesus to touch and heal us, or someone we love, and healing doesn’t come. If a child or a partner dies, we cannot understand, in our agony, why death is allowed to take the ones we love. Is it Jesus’ will that a child should die? Is it his will that a spouse should die? Is it his will that people endure long-term sickness and physical pain?
If we say, “No, it was not his will.” then what happened? Is he in control of life and death or not? Was it our faith that was at fault? Was it too weak? Did we not believe hard enough, even though we know we desperately wanted to believe strongly enough to move God’s hand?
If we say, “Yes, it was his will that a person should suffer or die,” it makes him seem to be a capricious, harsh, cruel and arbitrary God, one who willfully sends suffering to his people, a God we could come to fear and hate and perhaps reject.
I think the problem lies in our daring to say anything at all.
C.S. Lewis, one of the most respected theologians of modern times, expressed a very startling idea about God in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. The children, Lucy, Susan and Peter, are being taken to see Aslan, who typifies Jesus in the Narnia series. Before setting out on the journey to find Aslan, they are trying to find out who he is:
“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not! I tell you he is the King of the Wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king I tell you.”
“I’m longing to see him,” said Peter, “even if I do feel frightened when it comes to the point.”
I read the Narnia series first as a child and then many times since and I still get the shivers at how C.S. Lewis expressed deep theological and contemplative truths in these simple stories. Since my childhood I have had the words of the beaver impressed upon my mind, “Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” Real faith is a deep belief that God is good, not because he always does what we want but because he always does what is…good.
We are human. We are limited. We live in an incomprehensible universe and we cannot see one day ahead; we cannot even see one minute ahead. It is so natural to want God to be a safe God, a God who follows our plans and who is predictable. We want to know there are ways to pray and believe which will always procure our desired results and keep us from hurt and sorrow. We want to know these things because we are small and we are traveling in an alien land. We are often scared to death even when actual death is not staring us in the face.
Are we honestly open to the goodness of God? Can we believe that his goodness is not what brought death and suffering into the world? Are we able to believe so strongly in God’s power and goodness that we are willing to risk abandoning our limited ideas of what we think should be happening and trust that what is happening is soaked in his goodness?*(see note at end) His gracious goodness. Yes, he has the power to heal, to raise the dead, to calm storms, part seas and move mountains and at times he inserts himself very obviously into our lives and shows us these wonders. And other times he does not. Why? Because he is Good. He cannot do anything else than what he does because he knows eternities and universes and eons of consequences, effects, repercussions and results. Whatever he chooses to do, he does because he is Good, because he can do nothing but good and because he loves us in a way we will never comprehend. We will never fully understand unconditional love that is not a love that always gives in to what we want but a love that never fails to lead us to himself.
For God, “good” is not a label or an adjective. It is who he is. And if what happens in our lives causes us pain and suffering, he does not abandon us or hide in the shadows. In his goodness he becomes one with our pain. The word Compassion means ‘to suffer with’ and he is always one with our suffering; we cannot separate him from it. There is absolutely no space between our pain and his.
No one can say to us, “Just believe and whatever you desire most, God will do it.” But what Goodness does say to us is, “Just believe and whatever God does is what you will desire the most.”
* “Bonum est difusivum sui.” – a latin tag meaning “It is the nature of goodness to diffuse itself (spread over a large area)” or “The good capable of spreading, spreads to those capable of receiving it.”
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Lord of the Storm.
12th Sunday, Ordinary Time.
Excerpt from the First reading, Job 38
“Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? – when I made the clouds its garment, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”
Excerpts from Psalm 107
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
…He made the storm be still
And the waves of the sea were hushed.
Excerpt from the Gospel, Mark 4
He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was dead calm.
Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”
It’s easy to read or hear this Gospel, reflect on the storms in our own lives and then get very frustrated because even though we try to exercise all the faith we have, it never seems to be enough to get Jesus to speak to the chaos inside and outside of us. If we were very honest we would also realize we are angry with God for not responding to our cries for help and safety or for not filling us with the faith necessary to calm the storm. A baby who won’t sleep night after night, a financial situation that seems to have no solution, a child going through the terrible twos, a move to a new city, away from friends and familiarity, an illness that won’t heal, a conflict in a relationship …storms often fill our lives and when they come it is natural for us to feel things are all wrong and that if we had enough faith we wouldn’t have storms with all the ensuing chaos within.
The trouble with the Gospel this week is, in one single short paragraph a storm comes up that terrifies the disciples and, in spite of their terror, Jesus continues to sleep peacefully until they wake him up. In this limited retelling of the event we get no sense of the passage of time or the depth of the struggle involved. The disciples were not dippy tourists in a boat, unfamiliar with boating in rough seas; they were seasoned, hardened and experienced fishermen. Storms rose up suddenly all the time on this body of water. I’m guessing that they didn’t start panicking as soon as the waters started to get choppy or even when the storm got rougher and rougher. Before hitting terror mode they would have done all they could for as long as possible with all the skills they possessed.
I have very limited knowledge of boats, especially the kind of boat they were in so I can’t draw an accurate picture of what they might have gone through before they finally woke Jesus up. Did they have to wrestle hard with the boat to keep it pointed in the right direction? Did they have to try to row because the mast had snapped in half? Did they lose an oar or both oars? Did mountains of water cascade over them as they worked frantically for hours bailing the water out until they were all absolutely exhausted and still the water gushed in?
Did they resent Jesus for sleeping when they needed all the help they could get just to maintain and not get blown way off course? How could he sleep when they were making so much noise yelling at each other over the thunder, rain and wind? How could he sleep when they were bumping against him and tripping over his body as they tried to keep the boat from filling up with water? Did they become more and more frustrated because they were doing all the work and doing all the worrying and all the praying to God while their experience told them they were in real danger? Couldn’t Jesus sense they were in a bad way? What was wrong with him anyway?
But they worked and wrestled and prayed and tried to deal with their anxiety and did everything they knew how to do. Being that they were fishermen who made their living in boats there was probably a good deal of pride going on there too. They didn’t want to admit to a carpenter that they couldn’t handle a boat in a storm. This was supposed to be the one thing they could do well. This was their area of expertise and they wanted to be in control. What if Jesus woke up and saw them so out of control? Would he not despise them for being weak and for not doing the job they were trained to do?
These guys were frightened and they were angry with God.
But Jesus still slept. He slept until they got to the point where they knew they could do nothing more. They were not in control, they could not overcome the storm and they were exhausted. Pride no longer mattered. They had gone beyond their own skills and beyond what they were “supposed to be able to do or handle”. When they finally woke Jesus up, their words to him were filled with frustration, fear and resentment.
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
That sounds very angry to me. But note that Jesus did not get all huffy and say, “How dare you talk to me like that? I am God and you can’t accuse me of not knowing what’s going on!” No. He rebuked the storm and calmed the waters and then asked them quietly in the utter stillness, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Perhaps Jesus intentionally stayed asleep until they had finally run through all their own skills, all their own abilities, all their set perceptions of how things should be and what they should be able to handle – and what Jesus should be doing.
When Jesus asked them “Why are you afraid of the storm?” perhaps what he was really asking them was, “Are you afraid of not being able to fix the situation yourselves? Are you afraid of not being in control?”
When he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” he was pointing out to them that faith understands that God isn’t just a God of fixing it all up in our timing, according to our wishes and desires after we have done everything possible to control the situation. He doesn’t come when we think he should to make things go the way that makes us comfortable or in a way that fits into our perceptions of how things should be. Our mouths and minds often proclaim faith in God and submission to his will while our hearts are filled with impatience and we scramble madly with all our own ideas, skills and abilities to stay in control and make things happen the way we think they should happen. It is often too difficult for us to see that we still haven’t gotten to the end of the rope of our own control, and so sometimes Jesus calls up a storm and then seems to fall asleep. It’s the only way he can bring us to a place where we’re not proclaiming our faith in him while holding on like crazy to our own ropes, oars and sails.
I love the fact that first of all Jesus spoke to the winds and calmed the sea and it was dead still before he finally spoke to the ones he loved. He taught them in peace.
Imagine yourself being on a boat in the middle of the sea with Jesus and he is asleep, lying in the stern with his head on a pillow. It is dawn. The sea is as smooth as glass. There is absolutely no noise from waves slapping the side of the boat, nor are there any other boats in the vicinity. The air is cool and still. The silence is so beautiful you don’t want to shatter it even with a soft word. In that incredible stillness, watch Jesus sleeping. Let the stillness soak into you and tell you it’s all right; everything is all right. You are with the Prince of Peace and the Lord of the Storm.
He only seems to be asleep.
Excerpt from the First reading, Job 38
“Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? – when I made the clouds its garment, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”
Excerpts from Psalm 107
For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
…He made the storm be still
And the waves of the sea were hushed.
Excerpt from the Gospel, Mark 4
He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was dead calm.
Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?”
It’s easy to read or hear this Gospel, reflect on the storms in our own lives and then get very frustrated because even though we try to exercise all the faith we have, it never seems to be enough to get Jesus to speak to the chaos inside and outside of us. If we were very honest we would also realize we are angry with God for not responding to our cries for help and safety or for not filling us with the faith necessary to calm the storm. A baby who won’t sleep night after night, a financial situation that seems to have no solution, a child going through the terrible twos, a move to a new city, away from friends and familiarity, an illness that won’t heal, a conflict in a relationship …storms often fill our lives and when they come it is natural for us to feel things are all wrong and that if we had enough faith we wouldn’t have storms with all the ensuing chaos within.
The trouble with the Gospel this week is, in one single short paragraph a storm comes up that terrifies the disciples and, in spite of their terror, Jesus continues to sleep peacefully until they wake him up. In this limited retelling of the event we get no sense of the passage of time or the depth of the struggle involved. The disciples were not dippy tourists in a boat, unfamiliar with boating in rough seas; they were seasoned, hardened and experienced fishermen. Storms rose up suddenly all the time on this body of water. I’m guessing that they didn’t start panicking as soon as the waters started to get choppy or even when the storm got rougher and rougher. Before hitting terror mode they would have done all they could for as long as possible with all the skills they possessed.
I have very limited knowledge of boats, especially the kind of boat they were in so I can’t draw an accurate picture of what they might have gone through before they finally woke Jesus up. Did they have to wrestle hard with the boat to keep it pointed in the right direction? Did they have to try to row because the mast had snapped in half? Did they lose an oar or both oars? Did mountains of water cascade over them as they worked frantically for hours bailing the water out until they were all absolutely exhausted and still the water gushed in?
Did they resent Jesus for sleeping when they needed all the help they could get just to maintain and not get blown way off course? How could he sleep when they were making so much noise yelling at each other over the thunder, rain and wind? How could he sleep when they were bumping against him and tripping over his body as they tried to keep the boat from filling up with water? Did they become more and more frustrated because they were doing all the work and doing all the worrying and all the praying to God while their experience told them they were in real danger? Couldn’t Jesus sense they were in a bad way? What was wrong with him anyway?
But they worked and wrestled and prayed and tried to deal with their anxiety and did everything they knew how to do. Being that they were fishermen who made their living in boats there was probably a good deal of pride going on there too. They didn’t want to admit to a carpenter that they couldn’t handle a boat in a storm. This was supposed to be the one thing they could do well. This was their area of expertise and they wanted to be in control. What if Jesus woke up and saw them so out of control? Would he not despise them for being weak and for not doing the job they were trained to do?
These guys were frightened and they were angry with God.
But Jesus still slept. He slept until they got to the point where they knew they could do nothing more. They were not in control, they could not overcome the storm and they were exhausted. Pride no longer mattered. They had gone beyond their own skills and beyond what they were “supposed to be able to do or handle”. When they finally woke Jesus up, their words to him were filled with frustration, fear and resentment.
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
That sounds very angry to me. But note that Jesus did not get all huffy and say, “How dare you talk to me like that? I am God and you can’t accuse me of not knowing what’s going on!” No. He rebuked the storm and calmed the waters and then asked them quietly in the utter stillness, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
Perhaps Jesus intentionally stayed asleep until they had finally run through all their own skills, all their own abilities, all their set perceptions of how things should be and what they should be able to handle – and what Jesus should be doing.
When Jesus asked them “Why are you afraid of the storm?” perhaps what he was really asking them was, “Are you afraid of not being able to fix the situation yourselves? Are you afraid of not being in control?”
When he asked them, “Have you still no faith?” he was pointing out to them that faith understands that God isn’t just a God of fixing it all up in our timing, according to our wishes and desires after we have done everything possible to control the situation. He doesn’t come when we think he should to make things go the way that makes us comfortable or in a way that fits into our perceptions of how things should be. Our mouths and minds often proclaim faith in God and submission to his will while our hearts are filled with impatience and we scramble madly with all our own ideas, skills and abilities to stay in control and make things happen the way we think they should happen. It is often too difficult for us to see that we still haven’t gotten to the end of the rope of our own control, and so sometimes Jesus calls up a storm and then seems to fall asleep. It’s the only way he can bring us to a place where we’re not proclaiming our faith in him while holding on like crazy to our own ropes, oars and sails.
I love the fact that first of all Jesus spoke to the winds and calmed the sea and it was dead still before he finally spoke to the ones he loved. He taught them in peace.
Imagine yourself being on a boat in the middle of the sea with Jesus and he is asleep, lying in the stern with his head on a pillow. It is dawn. The sea is as smooth as glass. There is absolutely no noise from waves slapping the side of the boat, nor are there any other boats in the vicinity. The air is cool and still. The silence is so beautiful you don’t want to shatter it even with a soft word. In that incredible stillness, watch Jesus sleeping. Let the stillness soak into you and tell you it’s all right; everything is all right. You are with the Prince of Peace and the Lord of the Storm.
He only seems to be asleep.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The Body and Blood of Christ
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the* covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
This Sunday we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine is a beautiful and wondrous tenet of our faith and one which most of you have learned about since you were very young. The Real Presence is a powerful and all-life sustaining truth that is worthy of many books, reflections and homilies.
But this time around I am going to focus on an aspect of the Real Presence that only since Vatican II has been really emphasized, and then not always emphasized well or consistently. The Church teaches that not only is Christ truly present in the consecrated bread and wine, he is also truly present in his Word and in his people. While his Word is treated with respect and honor, I don’t think we, as a Catholic people, have come to a place of full respect and honor for the other aspect of the Body of Christ, for the Real Presence of Christ in those who come and worship along side of us or for people we come in daily contact with whether they are Christian or not.
It is truly easier to believe that Christ is present in the consecrated bread and wine than it is to believe he is present in that person across the aisle who wounded us so badly or disagrees openly with our own opinions. It takes real faith to believe in Christ’s presence in a consecrated wafer but Wow! It takes immense faith to believe in his presence in someone we can’t stand or even in someone who hasn’t particularly offended us but doesn’t strike us as a very spiritual person or makes us uncomfortable.
When we are unaware of the Lord’s Real Presence in his people or when we avoid that somewhat uncomfortable aspect of our faith, preferring instead to focus on the consecrated elements, our faith life suffers. The reason it suffers is because unless we are serving one another and honoring and respecting each other as a true part of the Body of Christ, the flow of the Spirit through us gets plugged up. There may be a trickle of Life coming through because most of us do try to give what we can where we can but we miss about 98% of our opportunities to have the river of Christ’s blood, the blood of everlasting life, flow through us in a torrent of love.
Last week we looked at the Trinity and the spiritual principle of unconditional love evident in that circle. The Trinity flows in continuous fullness because it does not shut itself off in condemnation or avoidance of those outside of its flow. Jesus gave of himself without measure and we experience Trinitarian power when we enter into his unconditional love for us and move out to share that love with Christ’s body. If we keep it to ourselves, the flow dries up.
It is against the nature of Christ to withhold his love. He shares with us his very life in his Body and Blood and if we come away from Mass sometimes and wonder why we don’t feel more stimulated and spiritually empowered by our reception of his Body and Blood, it’s most likely because we’re receiving the gift but we’re not allowing it to flow out. It’s stagnating inside. The whole point of the Christian life is to keep the River of Life, the Blood of our Salvation, flowing in fullness and that fullness is not possible within the body of Christ if we have put conditions on our love and ministry, if we do not view the people around us as worthy of our love, service, honor and respect, especially those who, in our judgment, seem to deserve it the least.
Service. Ministry. These words can be quite uncomfortable for a busy mother or a working woman or a stressed out student. As soon as we hear those words we think of having to get involved in a committee or a group or giving up huge chunks of our time to go out and get involved in worthwhile causes or ministries. And to those of you whose hearts are seizing up with dread, I say “Fear not.” There are people whose personalities, energy levels and lifestyles make it possible for them to be involved in time consuming ministry but not everyone has the luxury of disposable time and energy to give in those ways.
Consider this story. This was shared by Michelle from our Mother’s group, a stay-at-home Mom who has a toddler and teenagers and a home business. She’s a woman who loves the Lord and seeks him with her whole heart – and she’s busy!
One day she was in town shopping and she came across a young mom with some very cranky small children. The mom was obviously overwhelmed and at the end of her rope. Michelle had brought some digestive biscuits with her for her toddler and she went to the young mom and asked, “Would it be all right with you if I gave your children a digestive?” The mom was utterly grateful. Michelle gave the kids some biscuits and they settled down and were happy.
Such a small incident but, you know, Michelle could have just had some critical thoughts about Mothers who can’t control their children and walked on by. Instead, she had the compassion of Jesus and in offering some children some inexpensive biscuits she offered a young mother the gift of empathy and a moment of peace. That’s so much like the Jesus I know. Michelle didn’t do this because she knew the mother was a fellow Christian. She had no idea if this mom had a faith life or not. Michelle also didn’t do this because she wanted the mom to know she was a Christian. This was just an act of pure love and mercy. Michelle shared this story because she wanted us to know that when she did this small act of mercy, she experienced deep joy. She allowed the Life of Christ, which she receives from the Eucharist, to flow out of her to a member of Christ’s Body. The joy she felt was God’s joy – joy in her open response to one of his needy ones and joy in having her participating with him in the circle of life. It doesn’t matter if the ones who are ministered to know him by name or not. They are his body, as Mother Theresa’s life would attest to.
I call this act of responding to a need in the present moment, ‘Ministry of the Moment’, the acronym for which is, strangely enough, “M.O.M.” If you can’t get involved in committees or causes or groups etc. you can be in involved in Ministry of the Moment. All it requires is an understanding of the full extent of the Body of Christ and an awareness that every moment may present an opportunity for you to let the power and life of Christ’s Body and Blood and the self giving love of the Trinity to flow through you. Every time you enter into this ministry with the intention of sharing the nature of Jesus with someone in front of you, you will unplug the spiritual dam inside a little more.
There are so many ways to honor and respect Christ’s Body. At Mass there are a multitude of opportunities. Offering a welcoming hello to someone who usually goes in and out without speaking to anyone. Touching or hugging someone who just lost a loved one or is battling illness or just looks lonely. Listening to people instead of talking about yourself – asking questions about them and really hearing the answers. Asking a stranger to sit with your group at coffee time. Complimenting someone. It’s simply a matter of being aware of the preciousness of the people around you and to being ready to see a need or a way of sharing Jesus’ love.
And here’s one more thing you can do to grow your awareness of the beauty of the whole Body of Christ. When you are kneeling or standing (depending on your parish) after communion and after you have given a word of deep thanks to the Lord for the gift of himself in the Eucharist, look at the individual people who are still proceeding up to receive. In your heart give thanks for these people who are also the Body of Christ. And if I could make a very bold suggestion, give the most thanks for the ones who, in your eyes, might seem to deserve it the least. Respect them and honor them. If you do this at every Mass and if you refuse to enter into judgment or condemnation or criticism while watching these people, your perception of Christ’s Body will eventually be radically changed. Believe me, there is transforming power in this act, for you and for the whole Body.
It’s a very M.O.M. thing to do.
Mark 14: 12-16, 22-26
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.
While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’ 23Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. 24He said to them, ‘This is my blood of the* covenant, which is poured out for many. 25Truly I tell you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.’
When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
This Sunday we celebrate the Body and Blood of Jesus. The Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine is a beautiful and wondrous tenet of our faith and one which most of you have learned about since you were very young. The Real Presence is a powerful and all-life sustaining truth that is worthy of many books, reflections and homilies.
But this time around I am going to focus on an aspect of the Real Presence that only since Vatican II has been really emphasized, and then not always emphasized well or consistently. The Church teaches that not only is Christ truly present in the consecrated bread and wine, he is also truly present in his Word and in his people. While his Word is treated with respect and honor, I don’t think we, as a Catholic people, have come to a place of full respect and honor for the other aspect of the Body of Christ, for the Real Presence of Christ in those who come and worship along side of us or for people we come in daily contact with whether they are Christian or not.
It is truly easier to believe that Christ is present in the consecrated bread and wine than it is to believe he is present in that person across the aisle who wounded us so badly or disagrees openly with our own opinions. It takes real faith to believe in Christ’s presence in a consecrated wafer but Wow! It takes immense faith to believe in his presence in someone we can’t stand or even in someone who hasn’t particularly offended us but doesn’t strike us as a very spiritual person or makes us uncomfortable.
When we are unaware of the Lord’s Real Presence in his people or when we avoid that somewhat uncomfortable aspect of our faith, preferring instead to focus on the consecrated elements, our faith life suffers. The reason it suffers is because unless we are serving one another and honoring and respecting each other as a true part of the Body of Christ, the flow of the Spirit through us gets plugged up. There may be a trickle of Life coming through because most of us do try to give what we can where we can but we miss about 98% of our opportunities to have the river of Christ’s blood, the blood of everlasting life, flow through us in a torrent of love.
Last week we looked at the Trinity and the spiritual principle of unconditional love evident in that circle. The Trinity flows in continuous fullness because it does not shut itself off in condemnation or avoidance of those outside of its flow. Jesus gave of himself without measure and we experience Trinitarian power when we enter into his unconditional love for us and move out to share that love with Christ’s body. If we keep it to ourselves, the flow dries up.
It is against the nature of Christ to withhold his love. He shares with us his very life in his Body and Blood and if we come away from Mass sometimes and wonder why we don’t feel more stimulated and spiritually empowered by our reception of his Body and Blood, it’s most likely because we’re receiving the gift but we’re not allowing it to flow out. It’s stagnating inside. The whole point of the Christian life is to keep the River of Life, the Blood of our Salvation, flowing in fullness and that fullness is not possible within the body of Christ if we have put conditions on our love and ministry, if we do not view the people around us as worthy of our love, service, honor and respect, especially those who, in our judgment, seem to deserve it the least.
Service. Ministry. These words can be quite uncomfortable for a busy mother or a working woman or a stressed out student. As soon as we hear those words we think of having to get involved in a committee or a group or giving up huge chunks of our time to go out and get involved in worthwhile causes or ministries. And to those of you whose hearts are seizing up with dread, I say “Fear not.” There are people whose personalities, energy levels and lifestyles make it possible for them to be involved in time consuming ministry but not everyone has the luxury of disposable time and energy to give in those ways.
Consider this story. This was shared by Michelle from our Mother’s group, a stay-at-home Mom who has a toddler and teenagers and a home business. She’s a woman who loves the Lord and seeks him with her whole heart – and she’s busy!
One day she was in town shopping and she came across a young mom with some very cranky small children. The mom was obviously overwhelmed and at the end of her rope. Michelle had brought some digestive biscuits with her for her toddler and she went to the young mom and asked, “Would it be all right with you if I gave your children a digestive?” The mom was utterly grateful. Michelle gave the kids some biscuits and they settled down and were happy.
Such a small incident but, you know, Michelle could have just had some critical thoughts about Mothers who can’t control their children and walked on by. Instead, she had the compassion of Jesus and in offering some children some inexpensive biscuits she offered a young mother the gift of empathy and a moment of peace. That’s so much like the Jesus I know. Michelle didn’t do this because she knew the mother was a fellow Christian. She had no idea if this mom had a faith life or not. Michelle also didn’t do this because she wanted the mom to know she was a Christian. This was just an act of pure love and mercy. Michelle shared this story because she wanted us to know that when she did this small act of mercy, she experienced deep joy. She allowed the Life of Christ, which she receives from the Eucharist, to flow out of her to a member of Christ’s Body. The joy she felt was God’s joy – joy in her open response to one of his needy ones and joy in having her participating with him in the circle of life. It doesn’t matter if the ones who are ministered to know him by name or not. They are his body, as Mother Theresa’s life would attest to.
I call this act of responding to a need in the present moment, ‘Ministry of the Moment’, the acronym for which is, strangely enough, “M.O.M.” If you can’t get involved in committees or causes or groups etc. you can be in involved in Ministry of the Moment. All it requires is an understanding of the full extent of the Body of Christ and an awareness that every moment may present an opportunity for you to let the power and life of Christ’s Body and Blood and the self giving love of the Trinity to flow through you. Every time you enter into this ministry with the intention of sharing the nature of Jesus with someone in front of you, you will unplug the spiritual dam inside a little more.
There are so many ways to honor and respect Christ’s Body. At Mass there are a multitude of opportunities. Offering a welcoming hello to someone who usually goes in and out without speaking to anyone. Touching or hugging someone who just lost a loved one or is battling illness or just looks lonely. Listening to people instead of talking about yourself – asking questions about them and really hearing the answers. Asking a stranger to sit with your group at coffee time. Complimenting someone. It’s simply a matter of being aware of the preciousness of the people around you and to being ready to see a need or a way of sharing Jesus’ love.
And here’s one more thing you can do to grow your awareness of the beauty of the whole Body of Christ. When you are kneeling or standing (depending on your parish) after communion and after you have given a word of deep thanks to the Lord for the gift of himself in the Eucharist, look at the individual people who are still proceeding up to receive. In your heart give thanks for these people who are also the Body of Christ. And if I could make a very bold suggestion, give the most thanks for the ones who, in your eyes, might seem to deserve it the least. Respect them and honor them. If you do this at every Mass and if you refuse to enter into judgment or condemnation or criticism while watching these people, your perception of Christ’s Body will eventually be radically changed. Believe me, there is transforming power in this act, for you and for the whole Body.
It’s a very M.O.M. thing to do.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The 4th Person
Trinity Sunday, 2009.
Matthew 28: 16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Most small children go through a stage where they prefer their mother to their father. Mom hands the child to Dad to hold while she completes a task and the child starts screaming and reaching for Mom. It’s disconcerting for Dad and for Mom it’s flattering but annoying. She also feels a bit embarrassed for her husband who is feeling a little put out. Yesterday his child adored him; today she will have nothing to do with him. It’s just a stage but an uncomfortable one.
As we get older we discover we prefer to share our thoughts and feelings with one parent over the other. Quite often it is with our mothers but not necessarily. I know many women who feel their dads are much more sympathetic to them than their moms are and, of course, many women don’t relate well to either of their parents! It mostly has to do with the meshing of personalities, but these preferences can still create within us mild to strong feelings of guilt that we feel so much more comfortable with one parent over another or don’t feel comfortable with either of them.
Parent/child relationships are complex things with so many issues influencing the outcomes of those relationships. It’s no wonder that when we go to relate to God all the familial wounds we carry from our own childhoods and past and present relationships with our parents are projected onto our relationship with him.
So, it’s a very common and natural to feel guilty about the fact that we have a strong preference as to which member of the Trinity we address when we pray. If one’s natural father was distant and cold or harsh and demanding when one was growing up, there is a tendency to shy away from God the Father, feeling that he might be the same kind of father. That is a common projection in the spiritual life but definitely not the only one. There are as many projections about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and as many comfort levels with each member of the Trinity as there are Christians. We each bring our own parental relationship baggage to our relationship with the Lord.
It is difficult to get away from projecting onto God all the minor and major complexities of human relationships and there is often a lingering sense of guilt for paying attention to one and ignoring the other two members of the trinity as if the other two could be hurt by our preference for the one we feel most comfortable with.
The truth is there is no hurt or resentment within God when we pray and relate more to one person of the Trinity over another. Human relationships are made complex and difficult by one thing: broken egos. Ego (Latin for “I”) is the inner sense of self-esteem and self-identity and our human egos are constantly searching for evidence that we are worthwhile and valuable in the eyes of others. When we witness that others prefer someone else over ourselves, it is extremely hard on our egos. There is very little that we do in this life that is not somehow influenced by the needs of our wounded and fragile egos. Much of what we do is saying, “Please love me. Please appreciate me. Please realize my value.”
It is terribly difficult for us to understand that the Trinity does not possess a broken ego. God is completely at home with himself. He does not need our love, worship, adoration and obedience to complete or add to his self-image and sense of self worth. We are so wrapped up in the needs of our own egos that we can hardly comprehend a God who does not operate out of ego.
We all know that God is Pure Love. We all know that Pure Love’s nature is self-giving, not self-serving. It is no wonder, then, that out of Pure Love’s total nature of giving and sharing and creating came the three persons of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, a circle of creative service and mutual joy, each one unified with the other in completely selfless openness to one another and to us. When one of them receives love from one of us, the whole Trinity shares that love in a flow of undiluted selfless giving and receiving. To be in relationship with any one of them is to be integrated into their unbroken circle of joy.
If God ever did say, “Please love me. Please appreciate me. Please realize my value.” It would not be because he needs our recognition; it would be because he yearns for us to become part of this circle of joy. His whole nature is to share with us the outrageous beauty of being in relationship with a Trinity of pure love. The Trinity is not a closed circle. The Circle of Three is eternally open to a Fourth: you.
Don’t attribute to the Lord of Life, Light and Love the heavy, dark and coarse nature of human ego. The Trinity calls out to you, “Come and swim in our Circle of Life! Come and be part of the joy. Take off your ego clothes and jump into the waters of Love. Bring others with you. Bring them all to the waters of Baptism and immerse them in the awesome joy in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And remember...we are with you ‘til the end."
Once in the Circle, always in the Circle! Sure, you can walk away, but the Trinity never will.
P.S. Here is an amazingly beautiful Scriptural description of the nature of the Trinity from 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient; Love is kind; Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Matthew 28: 16-20
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Most small children go through a stage where they prefer their mother to their father. Mom hands the child to Dad to hold while she completes a task and the child starts screaming and reaching for Mom. It’s disconcerting for Dad and for Mom it’s flattering but annoying. She also feels a bit embarrassed for her husband who is feeling a little put out. Yesterday his child adored him; today she will have nothing to do with him. It’s just a stage but an uncomfortable one.
As we get older we discover we prefer to share our thoughts and feelings with one parent over the other. Quite often it is with our mothers but not necessarily. I know many women who feel their dads are much more sympathetic to them than their moms are and, of course, many women don’t relate well to either of their parents! It mostly has to do with the meshing of personalities, but these preferences can still create within us mild to strong feelings of guilt that we feel so much more comfortable with one parent over another or don’t feel comfortable with either of them.
Parent/child relationships are complex things with so many issues influencing the outcomes of those relationships. It’s no wonder that when we go to relate to God all the familial wounds we carry from our own childhoods and past and present relationships with our parents are projected onto our relationship with him.
So, it’s a very common and natural to feel guilty about the fact that we have a strong preference as to which member of the Trinity we address when we pray. If one’s natural father was distant and cold or harsh and demanding when one was growing up, there is a tendency to shy away from God the Father, feeling that he might be the same kind of father. That is a common projection in the spiritual life but definitely not the only one. There are as many projections about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and as many comfort levels with each member of the Trinity as there are Christians. We each bring our own parental relationship baggage to our relationship with the Lord.
It is difficult to get away from projecting onto God all the minor and major complexities of human relationships and there is often a lingering sense of guilt for paying attention to one and ignoring the other two members of the trinity as if the other two could be hurt by our preference for the one we feel most comfortable with.
The truth is there is no hurt or resentment within God when we pray and relate more to one person of the Trinity over another. Human relationships are made complex and difficult by one thing: broken egos. Ego (Latin for “I”) is the inner sense of self-esteem and self-identity and our human egos are constantly searching for evidence that we are worthwhile and valuable in the eyes of others. When we witness that others prefer someone else over ourselves, it is extremely hard on our egos. There is very little that we do in this life that is not somehow influenced by the needs of our wounded and fragile egos. Much of what we do is saying, “Please love me. Please appreciate me. Please realize my value.”
It is terribly difficult for us to understand that the Trinity does not possess a broken ego. God is completely at home with himself. He does not need our love, worship, adoration and obedience to complete or add to his self-image and sense of self worth. We are so wrapped up in the needs of our own egos that we can hardly comprehend a God who does not operate out of ego.
We all know that God is Pure Love. We all know that Pure Love’s nature is self-giving, not self-serving. It is no wonder, then, that out of Pure Love’s total nature of giving and sharing and creating came the three persons of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, a circle of creative service and mutual joy, each one unified with the other in completely selfless openness to one another and to us. When one of them receives love from one of us, the whole Trinity shares that love in a flow of undiluted selfless giving and receiving. To be in relationship with any one of them is to be integrated into their unbroken circle of joy.
If God ever did say, “Please love me. Please appreciate me. Please realize my value.” It would not be because he needs our recognition; it would be because he yearns for us to become part of this circle of joy. His whole nature is to share with us the outrageous beauty of being in relationship with a Trinity of pure love. The Trinity is not a closed circle. The Circle of Three is eternally open to a Fourth: you.
Don’t attribute to the Lord of Life, Light and Love the heavy, dark and coarse nature of human ego. The Trinity calls out to you, “Come and swim in our Circle of Life! Come and be part of the joy. Take off your ego clothes and jump into the waters of Love. Bring others with you. Bring them all to the waters of Baptism and immerse them in the awesome joy in the name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And remember...we are with you ‘til the end."
Once in the Circle, always in the Circle! Sure, you can walk away, but the Trinity never will.
P.S. Here is an amazingly beautiful Scriptural description of the nature of the Trinity from 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient; Love is kind; Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)