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The Simple Mission of the Church…Help Heal the Broken…
Devotional Thought of the Day
17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Mk 2:17 New Living Translation ).
10 Nothing is so effectual against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts as to occupy oneself with the Word of God, talk about it, and meditate on it. Psalm 1 calls those blessed who “meditate on God’s law day and night.” (1)
820 Don’t judge by the smallness of the beginnings. My attention was once drawn to the fact that there is no difference in size between seeds that produce annual plants and those that will grow into ageless trees.(2)
If I am writing about as a simple Christian, a simple pastor who seeks to guide people to Christ, the mission as well is a simple one. Not my mission rather it is His. Because it is His, it is ours.
Jesus didn’t come for the good people, the holy people who sit in church, righteous and perfect. He came for the people struggling with health, spiritual health, physical health, financial health, mental health. He came for those who relationships aren’t healthy, those with broken marriages, broken families, whose work relationships suffer.
The people in church hopefully realize this! They are there because they recognize the brokenness, and the hope that comes from knowing Jesus, the One who can do something about the cause of the brokenness. We call it sin, or disobeying God, failing to love Him, and failing to love those around us. That is the source of brokenness, this inability to love, that becomes a vicious circle, breaking us down more and more.
Bringing people to Him, is like bringing a friend who has been badly hurt to the emergency room. We aren’t always sure of what to do, but if there is to be hope, it is found as God ministers to them. We don’t do such because we have to, but because there is no other hope for their brokenness. It is what Love causes to happen in our lives, as we respond to those who suffer the brokenness we are healing of ourselves.
Simple – bring broken people help, bring them Jesus to them so that they can know His love for them. So He can enable them to love again, as deeply and fully as He does.
Luther, as He introduces the faith, notes the need to contemplate the word of God, because there we hear of His love, we learn to know it, to count on that love as the people of God have, calling out to Him. The more we hear the promises, the more realize that HIs love is beyond and scope we could ever measure, the more we hunger for it, St. Josemaria notes that this work, this mission of bringing people to know the healing power of Christ’s love starts out small, with the simple things. The cup of water, the sharing of a meal, the kind word, or the offer of a prayer. The kind of things that people who are healing of their own brokenness can do.
This is what the church does…working alongside the God, who came to us, as He calls all sinners to be healed.
May this work bring us great joy, even as we see our own healing assured as we see others heal.
(1) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 359–360). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press. Luther’s Preface to the Large Catechism
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1883-1884). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Is “Love Thy Neighbor” simply Law, A Commandment, Or it is something more?
Discussion Thought of the Day
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27b (NLT)
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. John 15:9 (NLT)
16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:16-17 (NLT)
21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. 1 Corinthians 9:21 (NLT)
In a recent blog, I made mention that loving our neighbor is not just law, it is always gospel. The contention was over evangelism, when I said doing such was an act of love, that love compels us to work for reconciliation. But what compels us is not the law, but the love that is the effect of the gospel. And to not love our neighbor, by sharing the greatest treasure we have, the love and mercy of God, is sin.
SO I was asked to clarify how “love thy neighbor” isn’t just law, but the purest of Gospel. Because of that, we have a blog about it.
The simple truth is we aren’t capable of loving each other as God commands, in the midst of our sin. Therefore, a directive to love our neighbor is the law, and we can be judged by it. For most Lutherans (who the discussion seems to be between) this is normal use of the law, it guides our actions in community, and it reveals our need for God. It also shows how we should live, (what it called the third use of the Law)
But it is more than just a command, it is a commission, a way of life God prepared those of us in Christ to walk in, (see Eph. 2 10. ) It is who we are in Christ, formed by Him, transformed by the Holy Spirit. It is the effect of our reconciliation, our redemption and sanctification, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
It isn’t about living within the confines of the law, the don’t touch, don’t do, type of law. It is more than the third use of the law – because it isn’t about obeying, it is about being in Christ, about the Holy Spirit’s work. If it is the only law, it is about us. But loving God and loving our neighbor is more than that.
It is the freedom of living and abiding in God’s love. That is where the commission to love comes from. It is the encouragement to live within the reality of your salvation, As we look to Christ, as the Spirit transforms us, it is indicative of who we become, of who we are in Christ.
If loving our neighbor is only law, it is not an indicative state, it is not that which the Father commissions and makes happen as we are raised with Christ. We are no longer Christ’s masterpiece, the work that He is glorified and raised above all others for accomplishing.
But love is not just law. It is life, in communion with God and all of His people, all of His creation. It is indicative of the eternal life promised and given to us, as the Spirit quickens and transforms us.
AMEN.
Why We (pastors and priests) Do What We Do… and Your Role as well
Devotional Thought of the Day:
27 God’s plan is to make known his secret to his people, this rich and glorious secret which he has for all peoples. And the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God. 28 So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. 29 To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me. Colossians 1:27-29 (TEV)
Ultimately that is what the priesthood is all about: to have seen Jesus oneself, to have received with love him whom we have seen, to live in that seeing, and then to show him to others. (1)
3 After all, the chief purpose of all ceremonies is to teach the people what they need to know about Christ. (2)
One of the greatest challenges for a pastor or a priest in this day is to minister to those who think they are already “saved.”.This includes ourselves and our peers. The challenge is complicated by the fact that we often forget what our calling is, losing it in the various functions of our ministry.
We are expected to be jacks of all trades, able to do plumbing, accounting, music, leading a non-profit, knowledge about employment law, property law, tax law, teach, and keeping the balance between being a solid administrator and a competent theologian. It is this latter role, that of a theologian, which can consume us even more than the rest. In letting it consume us, it can lead us away from the ministry, the ministering to which we have been called, and set apart.
It’s odd for a Lutheran pastor to quote a pope or a Catholic, I probably do it more than most. The above quote in blue is from a pope, but not as some might expect Francis. It is from Benedict, whose writings are as pastoral as Francis’s words. He sees his role, and that of priests (and I would hope pastors ) as simply and clearly as St. Paul did to the church in Colossae. It is also, according to Lutheran confessions, the reason we are gathered together with the people of God. This is seen in the quote in green, our purpose, our reason for existence as the church, is to give people what they need to know about Jesus.
It is that simple, everything we do as pastors, priests, ministers of all kinds in all places, boils down to that. Introduce people to the love of Christ. Help them as Paul says, explore (and be in awe of) the immense dimensions of God’s love for you, for me, for us, that is revealed in Jesus. From the planning of our salvation before the world began, to its creation, to His incarnation, life, teaching, miracle working, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and even His on-going advocacy for us at the Father’s side; He does this that we would know Him!
Our people need to know this, their friends and neighbors need to hear it. Even our enemies and adversaries (and people who are simply a pain in the… neck) need to know Jesus.
Pope Benedict, a pastor at heart, in the same message, wrote why:
But when a person has once met Christ, when a person has once seen Jesus and really learned to know him, then everything is changed. Then everything else is comprehensible and life is renewed. And you priests have really only one task: to present Jesus to all people in such a way that they see him and learn to love him. Then everything that faith teaches will be self-evident. (1)
There it , it is why we do what we do… why we struggle to do it, trying to keep our eyes on Christ, working hard to see people know His love.
By the way, you are welcome to help as well, and as you get to know His love, you will find a innate desire to do so, for that is how much His love will mean to you.
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 191). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. (devotions for June 13th)
(2) Augsburg Confession, Art XXIV
The Image of God and His People You Will Never Forget (though you might want to!)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth as the LORD directed me, and I put it on. 3 Then the LORD gave me another message: 4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me. 6 A long time afterward the LORD said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing. 8 Then I received this message from the LORD: 9 “This is what the LORD says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth—good for nothing! 11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory—an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me. Jeremiah 13:1-11 (NLT)
538 There he is: King of Kings and Lord of Lords, hidden in the bread. To this extreme has he humbled himself for love of you. (1)
There are many images in scripture used to describe the close, intimate relationship between God and His people. He is the Good Shepherd who carries his lost sheep home, the Father who runs to meet His prodigal son, The Bridegroom awaiting His perfect spotless Bride. We are His temple, His dwelling place, His home…
And then there is this one
God and His people, who are pictured as… His underwear? (that’s what a loincloth is…)
I mean, that is how close God wants His people to be to Him? Not only that, He wants us to be like clingy underwear?
TMI!!!
(which could stand for too much information or too much intimacy!)
It is an odd picture to be sure, this picture that the prophet Jeremiah puts on paper, inspired by the Holy Spirit. But it drives the point home in a way we cannot deny.
God wants His people close to Him, Closer than anything else.
Yet too often, we don’t want to be that close to Him, we don’t even want to be in his bureau. We want to keep God at just the proper distance. Close enough to rescue us when we sin, but not so close that His presence causes us to move with Him, We want to have our sins forgiven, but not have to spend time clinging to Him, having our lives wrapped around His life, going where He wants to go.
He wants us that close. He wants to be that involved in our lives, and we to be that involved in His. For even as the prophet Jeremiah pictures us as God’s clothes, Paul will picture God wrapping Himself around us
26 It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. 27 You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. Galatians 3:26-27 (TEV)
This intimacy is not just pictured, but occurs at a deeper level, as we take Christ’s Body and Blood into us, in the Lord’s Supper, where Christ hides Himself, as St. Josemaria tells us, that we can know His love.
This intimate relationship is why the Father sent Jesus to live among us, to die for us, to restore us to the very ideal that God created us to be…. HIs people, His pride, His glory, and that we can bring Honor to His name.
Remember, the Lord is with you!
And if you need help remember how close… remember this picture from Jeremiah!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 1299-1301). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The “S” Word, Relationships, and Accepting Love
Discussion Thought of The day:
21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21 (NLT)
Among experts the question is raised: “Yes, but who actually needs to be converted? Must the fathers yield to the young? Or the young to the fathers?” … It is not a case of one group’s yielding to the other, but of both groups’ yielding to the other by renewing their courage to believe in God. It is only thus that they will learn to accept and understand one another. It is only when hearts have been turned to God that there can arise the courage of togetherness, the confidence in other persons, and so the ability to love them and to endure their otherness.
There are two “s” words that may have come to mind, as you read the title of this blog.
This is about the one that would have been thought far less often, but actually is more controversial.
Yes, this isn’t about sex, it is about submission.
But now that you are here and are disappointed, you might as well stick around and read it. Because it isn’t just about one relationship you are in, it is about every relationship you are in, and in every one of them, what Paul directs us to do in Ephesians 5:21 is needed. It’s why the Holy Spirit led him to write those words.
Following verse 21, there are three relationships compared. The first is husbands and wives, and how they must set aside their best interest given the other. This is not submission to any barbaric thing, but to seek out what is best for each other. Then there are relationships between husbands and children, and employees and their employers (or back in the day, slaves and masters)
Every relationship, with those who follow God, who are in awe of His love, reaching out with that same love to the person with who they relate. Every relationship has some form of submission, of setting aside our desires, much as Jesus set aside His divinity, to come down and be with us.
Pope Benedict nails it, when he identifies the key to this being, not in focusing on yielding to the other (a synonym for submission) but instead having and renewing their courage to believe in God. For it is there, in seeing how Christ gave of Himself to save us, to enter into a deep relationship with us, so that He could present us to the Father, that we find the peace and strength to love others. To love them by having mercy on them, by forgiving them, by seeking their forgiveness. By reconciling to those for whom reconciliation doesn’t even enter their thoughts.
Allowing them to love you, to care for you, that is at the heart of submission…. whether it be to God or to someone else.
This does require you to see them as God sees them. Part of this submission is lowering our defenses, letting them in, loving them enough to trust God and let them see us, as we really are, and letting them love us. For then these relationships transform from being duty-driven and duty bound, to being focused on the love of God that brings us together and causes the relationship to flourish.
Which allows the relationship to endure…. because God is there.
So everyone, out of the reverence, considering the love and mercy of God, seek out and love your neighbor, helping them, caring for them, putting their best interests first. Have the mind of Christ, for He will never leave nor forsake you.
(1) Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year. (M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans., I. Grassl, Ed.) (p. 169). San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
The Key to Effectiveness and Meaning in Work and Life.
Devotional Thought of the Day:
1 If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1 (Phillips NT)
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)
280 If you lose the supernatural meaning of your life, your charity will be philanthropy; your purity, decency; your mortification, stupidity; your discipline, a lash; and all your works, fruitless. (1)
Every so often I find my e-mail and Twitter filled with advertisements or advice for being effective, for improving your impact, Ways to ensure you have meaning in what you do. Go through this program, master these five trips, follow your passion, it seems like everyone has somewhere between three and twelve things to become successful in life.
Josemaria Escriva encourages us to one thing – a simple thing. To enjoy God, to be set apart to Him, to adore Him as you realize that He cares for you, that He loves you. Without it, all of our other actions, our sacrifices, our suffering, our prayers and worship and dedication to orthodoxy, is worthless.
To be blunt, if we live apart from the love of God, if we ignore his presence, we could be Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, Martin Luther, John Calvin and St Augustine rolled into one, and we would have wasted our lives.
Yeah – living supernaturally, living dependent on God, having an intimate relationship with God is that important.
Ultimately, without it, nothing else matters, nothing else is worth it. With it, everything becomes an incredible blessing.
This is why baptism matters because God makes you His own as He baptizes you. That is why the Eucharist, Communion, the Lord’s Supper should be CELEBRATED, for the feast is God and man, together. The same can be said for our times talking to God, hearing His voice, meditating on His word and simply resting, confident and secure in His presence.
That is where the peace comes from that we need to know if we are to survive the grind of life. It is where our healing comes into play, where lives are reconciled, where we find that we are God’s work of art.
It is where we find that reality isn’t based on our emotion or our logic, but on His love and what He reveals to us because of that love.
St Paul is clear to the church in Corinth of this very same point – that without the love of God, even it doesn’t matter what we do, we have no value, no worth. But knowing that love? It transforms us and causes us to do that which is amazing, we can bring God glory.
So don’t set aside your time with Him, enjoy it, savor it, relax and have fun with your Father. Everything else will then fall into place.
Godspeed!
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 745-746). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
What Would Socrates Think of Our Facebook Profiles?
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
15 You haven’t received the spirit of slaves that leads you into fear again. Instead, you have received the spirit of God’s adopted children by which we call out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 If we are his children, we are also God’s heirs. If we share in Christ’s suffering in order to share his glory, we are heirs together with him. Romans 8:15-17 (GW)
Do not forget: anyone who does not realize that he is a child of God is unaware of the deepest truth about himself. When he acts, he lacks the dominion and self-mastery we find in those who love our Lord above all else. (1)
“The unexamined life is not worth living” (attributed to Socrates)
One of my favorite authors back in my collegiate days was Peter Kreeft. He had a couple of books that portrayed the average college student, questing after the best things in life. Socrates would show up on campus, and through some strategically asked questions, the person would find their quest changing, and what they would see is that they needed God.
They needed to see reality from His perspective. By asking themselves the questions that Socrates put forth, they realized how twisted life becomes, and how what we desire, isn’t what we desire.
The questions weren’t easy to face; The same questions we need to face, the questions that aren’t easy, either.
Will we face them? Especially as we put our views out on FB as if we were had the knowledge of Einstein, or the Wisdom of Pope Francis, or the power of a president or a king? FB is the place that empowers us to put whatever we want out for the world to read. We might even think that it happens without consequence. We will use the power of FB and Twitter to announce that we are gods? That we have the authority to determine what is right, no matter what God says. That we have the authority to condemn those who are evil, not according to scripture, but because we think they are. We may be the conservative calling those who sin differently to repentance, we might be the liberal condemning those who don’t see things our way, and throwing away our religion. Will we continue to defend our divinity, and deny it to those unlike us?
Or will we, in humble awe, with incredible adoration, realize that God has desired, made possible, and re-created us to be the children of God?
Examining our life, asking the questions that Socrates would ask, guiding us into what is real, what is important, brings us to a shocking reality.
That we aren’t gods, but that we desperately need a God, who cares, who loves, who heals, who guides and empowers us. A God who instructs us how to love, not just by laying down the guidelines, but is the example of that perfect life.
The deepest truth? Yeah – we were sinners, we still struggle incredibly with sin. If we say, we don’t, we lie, and accuse God of being a liar. But the deepest truth is that He will make sinners saints, and is doing so now.
We have to realize that God neither approves of our sin. That like the women caught in adultery, His words are, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Rather Jesus gives us repentance as He reconciles us to Him, helping us to endure, and healing us of the sin’s damage, and restoring us to life.
That is who we are, the children of God, the friends of Christ.
to base our lives on any other identity, is to fail to examine our life, and is to live life as a lie.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). Friends of God (Kindle Locations 619-621). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Are You Brave Enough, to Receive This Blessing?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. 29 For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 (NLT)
240 Ask for light. Insist on it … until the root is laid bare and you can get at it with your battle-axe: the particular examination.
I know a lot of men who can make a valid claim to bravery. Some are those who faced the enemies of our nation, like my father. Others work the inner city streets and the jails. Some armed as police and sheriff, others who go into those same streets with a Bible, and the sacraments that will help bring healing. I know others who are brave in a different way, as they face challenges of health such as cancer or Alzheimer’s or the death of a loved one.
But even in the midst of courage, there are few people who are willing to take another step that requires great courage, even though what is promised is a blessing, not some danger. Though to do so will result in a change in our lives as great as those who battle external or internal enemies.
The courage to examine one’s conscience, to let God look inside us, diagnose our sin, and go about cleansing us, healing us.
It takes courage to bare our souls to God, yet it is something we need to do and do often. We overlook it, perhaps out of fear that quenches our courage. A fear that God might break His promise, and not lead us into everlasting life. Perhaps even a greater fear, that God will take a part of our lives, and remove it, change it, remind us that it isn’t good for us. Parts of our lives that cause great shame, that we think cause pleasure, and may for our instant. Or parts that make us feel superior to others, or give us power and control.
Our fear of confession, of the self-examination that scripture encourages, may also come because of a fear of intimacy. Many of us, not only men, are afraid of that word. We are truly afraid of it when God is the one driving the intimacy, who wants to know every nook and cranny of our lives. He wants to, not to break us, but to heal our brokenness. That means letting Him plunge into the deep dark places in us. We need to let Him see the parts of us that we don’t want to admit exists, the narcissistic, dark places of our hearts and minds.
It takes more than faith, it takes courage. It also takes encouragement, which is why I think the blessing of confession and absolution is so needed. It is why Luther prayed that private confession would never fall into disuse. It is why I rejoice when I hear of churches that have lines, waiting for people to receive the blessing that comes from self-examination and letting God show you where He is working in your life.
For God is working there. He isn’t restricted to the good and joyous parts of your life. He isn’t just helping you know what you should do, or where you should go. He’s not just giving you the gifts you need to serve His people, or guiding theologians in their pondering of things mystical and mysterious. He is not just declaring you righteous and holy, He is at work, crafting a masterpiece, getting rid of that which mars and ruins the depth of the masterpiece.
He is healing you, where you need to be healed.
Just like He is doing in my life.
If you have the courage, go to you pastor, your priest. Ask them for guidance in this, ask them to hear your confession, to tell you God is forgiving you. That is what they are there for; it is something that is a great blessing to them as well.
You weren’t meant to do this alone… God is there…for you. And he’s put men there to be for you as well.
To help you see the height, depth, width and breadth of His love, revealed in Christ Jesus.
So come, take courage, and let God work in you!
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 648-649). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Are You Ready….. for Something Far More than Football?
Devotional Thought for the Day:
15 I assume I’m addressing believers now who are mature. Draw your own conclusions: 16 When we drink the cup of blessing, aren’t we taking into ourselves the blood, the very life, of Christ? And isn’t it the same with the loaf of bread we break and eat? Don’t we take into ourselves the body, the very life, of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, our many-ness becomes one-ness—Christ doesn’t become fragmented in us. Rather, we become unified in him. We don’t reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is. 18 That’s basically what happened even in old Israel—those who ate the sacrifices offered on God’s altar entered into God’s action at the altar. 1 Corinthians 10:15-18 (MSG)
Who, then, receives such a sacrament in a worthy way?
828 Have you ever thought how you would prepare yourself to receive Our Lord if you could go to Communion only once in your life? We must be thankful to God that he makes it so easy for us to come to him: but we should show our gratitude by preparing ourselves very well to receive him. (2)
I’ll be the first to admit to loving watching football.
Especially watching the Patriots, who in the last 21 years, have been in the Superbowl 7 times!
I really love it when people write them off, say they are done, and they make it look like child’s play in the playoffs.
Tomorrow, I hope they beat the Seahawks, and I hope they come back for one more, next year. B
Yet, if the game started at 9:50 here, rather than at 3:15, you wouldn’t find me in front of my television. There is something more precious, more meaningful, more important to life where I am a spectator, and yet, am a full participant.
The Eucharist, The Lord’s Supper, Communion. the Feast that is a foretaste of the feast to come.
St. Josemaria above puts a perspective on it….what if tomorrow was the only day, the only time you could receive it in your life? What would your thoughts be today? What kind of expectation would be building? what would get in the way?
is a Superbowl big enough? is the need for sleep?
If tomorrow was the only day you were able to commune with God, what would stop you?
If the answer is, ‘nothing”, then apply the question without the frequency, is it the same/ should it be/
This is a hard question, because to ask it could promote shame or guilt, or harden you against those things.
It will also make you examine what you think the Lord’s Supper is, and how it benefits you….. strengthening your confidence in the Lord’s love and presence in your life, healing you from the brokenness of sin, relieving stress and anxiety, and mostly giving you the rest and peace that comes from knowing the Lord is with you……
I am glad this is not a once in a life time thing… in fact, I am somewhat envious of those churches that provide it daily, simply because I know people who need this sacrament, this holy time, this holy meal…. more than once a week. Or who cannot get there on Sundays…..
So are you ready? Do you recognize your need for it?
I am!
(1) Luther’s Small Catechism: Developed and Explained. Part 6, The Sacrament of the Altar
(2) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2940-2942). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
