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I am not ready for “Holy Week”, yet… I need it!
Devotional Thought of the day:
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:27-28 (TEV)
16 Meditate on this frequently: I am a Catholic, a child of Christ’s Church. He brought me to birth in a home that is his, without my doing anything to deserve it. My God, how much I owe you.
The quote is not from Holy Week, but a week after.
It seemed appropriate to me for this day, as we enter a week my heart is not yet ready for. I’ve dealt with too much grief and brokenness. I’ve dealt with too much death, or more precisely, I’ve watched too many others deal with it.
I’ve got to get my head in the game; there are services to plan, sermons to write, people to visit and share the hope that seems distant. It is there, faint in the background, sustaining me, yet it is nearly intangible. As waves of grief and other stresses of life flood over us.
I so understand Thomas today, so devastated that what is true is unbelievable.
I need to see His hands, His side, I need to eat with Him, to hear His voice, to know His love is not ended, nor is His mercy, nor his hand which corrects and guides. I need to focus, and trust, and believe.
Although I would replace the capital c in Catholic, with the smaller c indicating the church is the entire church, I so am ministered to by the words of Fr. Escriva this morning. For it is Christ that brings me into His church, even as I am battered and bleeding by sin. The sin of a broken world, the sin of others which crushes me… and yes, most especially by my own sin. A sin which heightens the anxiety over death, A sin which crushes with grief and shame, a sin which can bind resentment to me in ways I cannot overcome.
And the Savior, the benevolent Lord lifts us up, pours our His mercy and grace on us, and heals our souls.
Faith is nothing more, and nothing less, than depending on Him to come to us in our brokenness…. and bring us into His home, into His kingdom, into His death on the cross so that we will live eternally with Him.
This is the message of “holy week”, the week was broken are drawn to the cross in awe and wonder, and see the love and glory of God.
I may not be ready for it, but oh, do I need it.
You do as well… so let’s walk together, crying out with other pilgrims, “Lord, have Mercy!” AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 294-296). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Repentant Heart is Not Supposed to Be Sad?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
“Today is holy to the LORD your God. Do not lament, do not weep!”—for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. 10 He continued: “Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks, and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; for today is holy to our LORD. Do not be saddened this day, for rejoicing in the LORD is your strength!” 11 And the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Silence! Today is holy, do not be saddened.” 12 Then all the people began to eat and drink, to distribute portions, and to celebrate with great joy, for they understood the words that had been explained to them. Nehemiah 8:9–12 New American Bible. .
10 Think about what the Holy Spirit says, and let yourself be filled with awe and gratitude: Elegit nos ante mundi constitutionem—he chose us before the foundation of the world, ut essemus sancti in conspectu eius!—that we might be holy in his presence. To be holy isn’t easy, but it isn’t difficult either. To be holy is to be a good Christian, to resemble Christ. The more closely a person resembles Christ, the more Christian he is, the more he belongs to Christ, the holier he is. And what means do we have? The same means the early faithful had, when they saw Jesus directly or caught a glimpse of him in the accounts the Apostles and Evangelists gave of him.
As my church has spent Lent considering what repentance is, one thing becomes clearer and clearer. Lent, while a solemn season, while a penitential season, is one filled with joy because it is filled with hope.
As Ezra read the Torah to the people of God, as the Spirit called to mind their sin, there was a grieving that took place, as people considered generation after generation of sin, as well as their own. And yes, a repentant sin does need an examination of conscience, as we approach our confession. But even that confession is done with expectation, clinging to the promise of God’s faithfulness.
We have to remember that a repentant life is a transformed life, a life where God is working on us, recreating us, cleansing us. This work of God, this masterpiece He is creating, is what repentance granted us is really about.
It is getting used to living in the light, as opposed to floundering in the darkness! It is walking around, free in Christ, free to be with Christ, rather than being chained to sin, anxiety, fear, and resentment.
It is the simplicity that St. Josemaria talks of, of simply living life, confident and aware of the presence of God, revealed in His word, communicated in the sacraments. It is when we catch that glimpse and hold onto it, letting everything else fall aside. It is isn’t easy, as our old nature will fight to stay alive, yet it is as easy as realizing we are Jesus’ friends, the Father’s children, His people. And that realization, especially when we know it isn’t right because we don’t we deserve it, but rather is right because God granted us this repentant life.
Repentance is not an act, any more than conversion is, and more than faith is a declaration of our trust. It is a state of being, it is being “the Repentant”, a joyous walk with a God that loves us, and is willing to forgive, showing mercy, and faithful, unending love!
Cry out, “Lord have mercy!” but do it in faith, and in expectation, for you dwell in His presence! AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 270-276). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Do We Have to Talk about…SIN?
the devotional thought of the day:
12 I am surrounded by many troubles— too many to count! My sins have caught up with me, and I can no longer see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and I have lost my courage. 13 Save me, LORD! Help me now!
Psalm 40:12-13 (TEV)
993 In our meditation, the Passion of Christ comes out of its cold historical frame and stops being a pious consideration, presenting itself before our eyes, as terrible, brutal, savage, bloody… yet full of Love. And we feel that sin cannot be regarded as just a trivial error: to sin is to crucify the Son of God, to tear his hands and feet with hammer blows, and to make his heart break.
29 We eliminate from contrition those useless and endless discussions as to when we are sorry because we love God and when because we fear punishment. We say that contrition is the genuine terror of a conscience that feels God’s wrath against sin and is sorry that it has sinned. This contrition takes place when the Word of God denounces sin. For the sum of the proclamation of the Gospel is to denounce sin, to offer the forgiveness of sins and righteousness for Christ’s sake, to grant the Holy Spirit and eternal life, and to lead us as regenerated men to do good. (2)
There is in Christianity two “normal” responses to sin.
The first is to diminish it, to justify it or simply ignore it. We see this all the time in society, especially with sins of desire, that is lust, greed, unrighteous anger. Oh, it’s normal we say. Or, we’re just all sinners, you can’t judge those who sin differently than you. Or, God made me this way, and I can’t help being unfaithful. There is even a theological argument, that if we preach against our sin, we have to be mindful that we are capable of nothing else.
That’s all bullshit. Dangerous because it denies the need for repentance, for transformation by indicating it is not necessary. It even denies the need for guilt or shame and covers it up as it celebrates the evil we have done.
The second is to deny repentance because it is impossible. Because their sin is so wicked, that we can only crush sinners, so their sin doesn’t affect us, or our children or our community. We stand there, with stones in our hands, trying to ignore Jesus’ calling out to us, asking us to be repentant of our sin, as well as comforting those we are trying to crush.
Though it seems to be the opposite side of the crap, this response is just as full of cow dung as the other.
Sin damages, it crushes, it breaks and shatters life. That is the reason God calls us out of a life of sin, out of a life of brokenness. And to deny that is to condemn ourselves to a life that is empty, alone, and dead. We may try to dull the pain with more sin, more “pleasure”, more logic, more condescending judgment of others, but the sin remains, something more dangerous than cancer or heart disease or diabetes. For those things destroy the body, but sin destroys the soul.
To deny the need or the possibility of repentance is perhaps the worst sin of all. For then we have placed ourselves in the position of God. We have become our own idol, and our brokenness is complete.
I love St Josemaria’s bluntness, echoing David’s. We have to realize that sin requires a sacrifice, and that Christ died because of it. Yes, that little white lie, or that juicy piece of gossip about that politician that we eagerly forward, that thought about someone else’s spouse or that jealousy. You and I sent Jesus to the cross because we chose to sin.
That thought should terrify us as much as any….
A child psychologist once told me that the most effective punishment was not just punishing my son when he was bad, but punishing things and people he loves. Putting his favorite stuffed animal on time out (or his computer) or both. I didn’t believe him at first, but he was right. Think about the Hymn “O sacred head now wounded,” that sin would have no power over us, except that it makes us realize the pain Christ endures for our sin.
And while it terrifies us to know what Christ endured because of our lack of love, because of our lack of self-control, in the very same act we find a love that heals, forgives, ends the brokenness and the anxiety of being found alone and without God.
That is why the quote in blue from the Lutheran confessions completes our thoughts. For preaching the gospel is simple – we need Christ because we are sinners, He is there because He loves us and desires to help. And the gospel isn’t complete without the Holy Spirit at work, transforming us (A synonym for repentance) and guiding us to do good works. These things, the call to repentance, the transformation that is repentance and the life of the repentant are indivisible. It is God at work in us, with us, through us.
And it is what we need.
Which is why we have to, it is an absolute must, to talk about sin and the grace which overwhelms and heals the effect of that sin.
Cry out, Lord have mercy! And know He does…
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 4014-4017). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
(2) Tappert, T. G. (Ed.). (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (pp. 185–186). Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press.
What is “Freedom?” Specifically, what is “religious freedom?”
Devotional Thought of the Day:
36 If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free.
John 8:36 (TEV)
423 Under the pressure and impact of a materialistic, pleasure-loving, faithless world, how can we demand and justify the freedom of not thinking as they do, and of not acting as they do? A son of God has no need to ask for that freedom, because Christ won it for us once and for all. But he does need to defend it and practise it whatever the circumstance he finds himself in. Only thus will they understand that our freedom is not bound up in our surroundings. (1)
This morning on the way to work, I heard a man complaining about the necessity to pay that his children could pray in school. He prattled on about how unfair it was that this wasn’t truly a free country, that it cost to have his kids raised by those who would teach them to pray. ( By the way, I know “Prattled” isn’t used much, but it fits the sounds he was making)
I think in this country we have made freedom an idol. Certainly we consider free speech a right, as well as the vague term “freedom of religion” or as some would have it, “freedom from religion.” We get upset when those “rights: are taken away, or limited. We get even more upset when others use those “rights” in a way that threatens, disagrees or demeans us. I’ve even heard the verse in red above used in discussions about the freedom of religion as if the Americanism – that Jesus gave us freedom, and anyone who would take it away should be damned. (Or at least, mocked and embarrassed behind their back on Facebook) The idol of freedom or even the freedom of religion does nothing long range for mankind. It is an illusion, and it is not Christian freedom.
Our freedom is part of the peace that God gives us. It is, as St. Josemaria says, freedom of not thinking as they do, or acting as they do. It is not a freedom the world can give. It is not a freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights or the Magna Carta. It is the freedom Peter and Paul knew, as they were prisoners in Rome. It is the freedom and peace that Stephen knew, as men laid their coats down at Saul’s feet, and picked up stones to crush him. It is freedom martyrs longed to share with their tormenters.
It is a freedom that, like the peace we are given, is divine.
Hear the rest of Jesus statement, the context of the discussion on Freedom:
34 Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. 36 If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free. 37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are trying to kill me, because you will not accept my teaching. 38 I talk about what my Father has shown me, but you do what your father has told you.”
John 8:34-38 (TEV)
Here is our freedom. The freedom from guilt and shame that breaks us down as we realize the consequences of our sin. The freedom to see the relationships shattered by sin. The freedom from resentment, the anger and hurt we store in our memories, as if we can protect ourselves from further injury, further hurt.
It is a freedom that is part of our faith, part of the trust and dependence we have in God. Dependence on His fulfilling promises like that in Romans 8 that everything will work out for our good, that nothing can separate us from Him. Promises like Genesis 50, that what others plan for evil, God will use those things for good. The promise that is revealed as we look to Jesus, the author of our faith, and the one who makes it perfect.
This is freedom, true freedom.
Let us treasure the Lord, who frees us, more than the illusion of freedoms that would leave us oppressed and bound to sin and unrighteousness.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1893-1897). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
If you don’t have anything good to say…. when you should say it!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
5 A false witness will not go unpunished, nor will a liar escape. Proverbs 19:5 (NLT)
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:8-10 (NLT)
330 I agree, you are saying nearly all the truth… Therefore you are not truthful.
We’ve heard the words all our lives, “if you have nothing good to say, then say nothing at all.” And so from our childhood we have been taught to quibble. Or with more precision, we have been taught to lie.
Most of us are good at it, though we come up with various ways to spin the art of lying. We might even twist Luther’s words about coming up with the best construction on the actions, words or thoughts that we know are not right before God.
We are professional “quibblerers”. Especially when it comes to justifying our friends, or more importantly ourselves. We have fragile egos after all, hidden behind .well constructed illusions of self-esteem. Those egos may not survive well, if we handle the truth.
This training is why we are so uncomfortable with the idea of confession, the ministry of reconciliation. The time where we sit before a priest or pastor and admit things that are either nice or fun.
In private confession, you don’t have to hide anything. You cannot because God already knows. You should not, because you need the assurance that sin is forgiven. Tell the truth, no matter how horrid, no matter how you fear it will reflect on you. Don’t quibble, don’t try to justify yourself, whether in your mind or to the one you are confessing to, or for that matter to God. Who is listening for one purpose, to comfort you with His mercy and love.
It’s time to be free of all of that unnecessary work, that unnecessary burden of second-guessing ourselves.
Just be honest, the feeling of freedom will overwhelm you…. even to where the joy will pour out in tears.
Lord Have Mercy on us who are sinners, and help us to hear your forgiveness.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1548-1549). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Are You Experiencing a Spiritual “Monday”? Do You Feel God isn’t There?
Devotional Thought of the Day:
25 But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense. 26 Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God. 27 I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. Job 19:25-27 (TEV)
235 Don’t complain if you suffer. It is the prized and valued stone that is polished. Does it hurt?—Allow yourself to be cut, gratefully, because God has taken you in his hands as if you were a diamond. An ordinary pebble is not worked on like that.
Ignatius describes the pattern of life as one where we move from being aware of God’s consoling presence into times of desolation, times where we feel abandoned by God. The latter times are when we cannot easily recognize His presence in our lives. It is a devastating feeling. It’s the Spiritual equivalent of a month of Mondays.
It can wipe you out, this feeling of darkness swallowing you. Satan may try to convince you God doesn’t exist, that’s he a fable. Or failing that, you might struggle with your past/present, sure that some sin weakened you so much that God can’t even heal you, that His mercy isn’t enough to save you.
You may feel like St Josemaria’s diamond, being polished and cut, yet unaware of the precision that God is using to create in you a righteous spirit, a holy priest, a blessed child and co-heir of Christ. But even knowing that doesn’t stop the pain and feeling of abandomnet and loss.
So how do you survive these times?
Job’s focus was eternal. He knew the promise of God, that God would save Him. That even in death, in HIs body He would see God.
Knowing God, knowing God’s ultimate desire does that. This intimate knowledge of God doesn’t ease the pain or the grief by eliminating it. Instead, knowing that promise helps us to realize the emptiness is temporal, and isn’t our reality. St. Paul saw this as well,
2 Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory! Colossians 3:2-4 (TEV)
So are you stuck in a spiritual cycle of Mondays? You are defeated, for you are Christ’s, and nothing can separate you from His love. Patiently hold onto the hope that Job and so many others testify to, that when we see God, He will be not be a stranger.
AMEN.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1179-1182). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Inconvenience of Mercy…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” 12 When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” 13 Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Matthew 9:11-13 (NLT)
36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:36-38 (ESV)
277 Rather than commit a fault against charity, give in, offer no resistance, whenever you have the chance. Show the humility of the grass, which yields without needing to know whose foot is stepping on it. (1)
Mercy is elusive, and it is inconvenient, and perhaps most challenging, it is necessary for those who claim to be believers, those who have faith in, trust in and depend upon Jesus Christ.
It’s really elusive when you are trying to encourage others to be merciful, but the irony is, it isn’t the merciful that need your mercy. It is the merciless that desperately need it. It is those that are spiteful, that place conditions on their love and acceptance of you in their midst.
I know this all too well, I’ve been challenged the last few days with showing mercy to those who are condemning others, living life contrary to the life they are called to, the life they look to me to encourage.
And I struggle to be merciful to them, part of me just wants to write them off as they write others off. But that would feed the monster that would deny mercy.
Complicated isn’t it! 🙂
Mercy doesn’t facilitate mercilessness. Nor will it facilitate sin. It does facilitate reconciliation, forgiveness, love. In fact, in the Old Testament, love and mercy are both used to translate one word, “cHesed”. I am not sure the are synonyms, but I do think you can’t have one without the other. Mercilessness is not loving, and to love requires you to show mercy.
Even to those who don’t deserve it.
Even to those who aren’t merciful to you or others,
Even to those who you fear.
For those who are merciful themselves are, because they know God’s mercy.
Such is what it means to be Christlike, to imitate the Lord God who loves and is merciful to you. For it is only in Christ that we would even begin to desire to show that kind of mercy, or as St Josemaria talks of, to be able to yield no matter who it is who presses us.
Something to ask God to help you struggle with…. today.
I know I have….and probably will a number of times.
Lord have mercy!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1356-1358). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
A Prayer for the Right Attitude on a Monday!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 iI will set my tabernacle in your midst, and will not loathe you. 12 Ever present in your midst, I will be your God, and you will be my people. Lev 26:10–12 NABRE
40 *They will confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors in their treachery against me and in their continued hostility toward me, 41 so that I, too, had to be hostile to them and bring them into their enemies’ land. Then, when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember. Lev 26:40–42
273 Dear Jesus: if I have to be an apostle, you will need to make me very humble. Everything the sun touches is bathed in light. Lord, fill me with your clarity, make me share in your divinity so that I may identify my will with your adorable Will and become the instrument you wish me to be. Give me the madness of the humiliation you underwent, which led you to be born poor, to work in obscurity, to the shame of dying sewn with nails to a piece of wood, to your self-effacement in the Blessed Sacrament. May I know myself: may I know myself and know you. I will then never lose sight of my nothingness. (1)
It’s Monday, and that means lots of posts and tweets about how Monday is a pain in the buttocks. We grieve over Mondays, we hate them, we struggle with them.
Part of the struggle is that we think we have to deal with Monday’s alone, we somehow decide to be hostile to God. You may say, I am a believer, I went to church for 90 minutes yesterday and didn’t even complain when the pastor kept boring me to death!
But being hostile to God isn’t just about going to church, or saying you are a believer. Being hostile to God includes going off on a Monday without Him. Trying to struggle through the return to work, without considering He is as with you today, as He was when you were receiving His body and His Blood at the altar. We are hostile to God when we deny Him the opportunity to comfort us, the opportunity to walk with us, the opportunity to be in a relationship with us that is more than 90 minutes of visitation a week.
What if your Monday stress is simply a call to humility? To remember that you are His children, that He is your God? To remember His role in your life, and welcome it with you?
That is what St. Josemaria’s prayer is all about; as we find the humility to share in His divinity, in His glory. In setting aside our will, our pleasure, instead revelling in His presence, content in His peace.
That is the key to dealing with the frustration of a Monday. That is how dealing with the stress, or the weight of the workload, or the bad attitudes of those around us. To realize we are nothing, like Christ, who emptied Himself. Because from that place, nothing is impossible, and in every situation we can find joy.
For we are with Him, and He reveals to us His love.
AMEN.
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1341-1347). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The K.I.S.S principle: Keep it Simple Sermon-crafter!
Devotional Thought of the Day:
11 This is a sure thing: If we die with him, we’ll live with him; 12 If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us; 13 If we give up on him, he does not give up— for there’s no way he can be false to himself. 14 Repeat these basic essentials over and over to God’s people. Warn them before God against pious nitpicking, which chips away at the faith. It just wears everyone out. 15 Concentrate on doing your best for God, work you won’t be ashamed of, laying out the truth plain and simple. 16 Stay clear of pious talk that is only talk. Words are not mere words, you know. If they’re not backed by a godly life, 2 Timothy 2:11-16 (MSG)
242 Sometimes they didn’t want to understand: it is as if they were blind… But sometimes it has been you who did not manage to make yourself understood properly. You must change that!
I will be honest; it is a challenge for me. It always has been, and as long as I preach, I think it will be.
To explain the glorious, majestic, beyond belief work of God in a simple way, that people will listen too. Yes, I know the Holy Spirit does the work of imprinting that which God has called into existence on their hearts, but that doesn’t mean we can be lax, or, on the other extreme, so eloquent that even a seminary professor would be in awe of our wisdom and message.
Every time we sit at a keyboard, or for some, take a pen in hand, we risk our words becoming talk that is only… talk. We may be proclaiming wonderful ideas, incredible theology, mind-blowing insights into theological truths, but if they don’t get the relationship, if we don’t bring people to realize their hope is not in knowledge, but in the intimate relationship with Jesus that Paul describes. It bears repeating
2 If we stick it out with him, we’ll rule with him; If we turn our backs on him, he’ll turn his back on us; 13 If we give up on him, he does not give up— for there’s no way he can be false to himself. 1
There is the truth that makes a difference. There is the truth that opens eyes, causes ears to hear, brings healing and expectant hope to those damaged and broken by sin.
Yes, there will be people who always seem blind and deaf spiritually. But Paul is equally insistent to Timothy to preach clearly, having studied well. That is the good stewardship of that which is entrusted to us in our ordination, or delegated to those co-misisoned to bear witness to Jesus.
Preaching with simplicity is a craft. It still may be profound, for the simple truth usually is more profound that the most complex of theories.
God loves you… he proved this as…
God came…for you
God died … for you.
God rose again – for you.
Oh yeah – He’s coming back for us.
That’s pretty profound, yet very simple.
May people hear us tomorrow as we point to Jesus. May we rejoice as they see the light that shatters their darkness. AMEN!
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1203-1204). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
