Thought for the day...

A thought stolen from the homily of Father Sean Raftis today:

"Forgiveness is an act not a feeling."


This means that often times we are asked to forgive while we still hurt. This requires courage and faith that in the act of forgiveness, true healing can begin. Foregiveness purifies pain and turns it into an offering to God.

Peace and Light

St. Gregory of Nyssa in a treatise on Christian Perfection wrote about two topics that have been much in my mind recently, peace and light. He remarks that if we are to think of Christ as being our peace, our lives must express Christ by our own peace. Similarly, he states that if Christ is our true light, our lives must also shine with the rays of the true light. Our call is not to just speak of being at peace and being of God’s disciple, but to demonstrate it. Profession is just the first step. The words of St. Francis comes mind: “Go forth and speak the gospel and, if necessary, use words.”

The spoken word can convince or convict, inspire or frighten, illuminate or disseminate the truths that define a divine relationship between God and his people. The essence of ourselves that is revealed to our brothers and sisters through our displayed countenance is what will change hearts and bring others to conversion. We should not just speak of peace but to be at peace with ourselves, each other and God. That peace will be seen by the world as a reflection of the true light that falls on us from the face of God looking down upon us as he grants us peace.

Seeking humility

From St. Cyril’s homily on Mary: “Of course no one could be prevented from living in the house he built himself , yet who would invite mockery by asking his own servant to become his mother?”

The answer, to our great benefit, is, of course, God. How can we struggle with humility when the master of the universe, motivated only be us love for us, gave himself up to mortal form born of a virgin destined to die the most humiliating of deaths? The reality is that we still struggle with our egos or at least I struggle mightily with mine. Look also to the example of Mary herself. She also willing accepted the role of mother when doing so subjected her to public shame. All of this is a strict reminder to me that my ego is not my friend. We all need to remind each other with the greatest of love but with equal urgency to put our egos aside and seek to be humble before the face of God and all of his people so that His will, not ours, be done.

Peace be with you.

"A need in the world meets a deep joy in me.”

"A need in the world meets a deep joy in me.” St. John Vianney
It has been ages since such a simple nine word sentence has had such a profound impact on my thought process.

As Christians we are constantly made aware of the need for good works. We understand the divine nature of charity and social justice. We are called to argue for the right of the unborn to live as fully formed human lives. We are asked to feed the poor and to educate the illiterate. Our calling is to make a postive difference in the world around us. God created us in his image so that we could love him to fullfil his commandment to love one another. And so we all do those things to some degree or another. We are adept at recognizing needs in the world that need to be addressed.

For most of us, however, doing good works is thought of as a sacrifice, to give of ourselves to others means that we have to give up something whether it ir our time, our talent or our wealth.

St. John Vianney, however, turns the whole concept of meeting needs as being an active sacrifice on its head. Serving the needs of the world is not obligation but an opportunity. We are not asked to give with regret and sorrow but to accept the opportunity to serve as a gift.

To love and serve the Lord is not a burden but a treasure. The Lord will accept all that we have to offer in His service but it is not his will that we do with grudging reluctance. It is His will that we greet the world with same joy that He greet us.

The reflection that accompanied the quote that leads this posting called it a discription of a call to vocation. In broader terms it not just a call for ordained vocations but also a call to the priesthood of the laity.

I see this call expressed all around me. Stopped at a stopped light this morning, I listened as a mother in the car next to me sang joyfully to her her children in the backseat. Her voice was not angelic or sweet but it was filled with harmony of love. I saw it again when a junior high aged boy stopped in the store parking lot to help an elderly lady pick up a sack of groceries she had dropped. My friend has long hungered to be able to go back to Indonesia to do mission work under the cloak of other work and she was able to accomplish the goal this summer. She found great joy in being blessed with the opportunity to meet a need in the world. The children in the car had a need to be loved and the older lady needed assistance in gathering her groceries before a passing car flattened them. The needs of both young and the old were met by others who were clearly happy to be of service.

I have to asky myself why is it difficult to be joyful when I consider the needs of the world that are made known to me? In my case it is because I worry that I will be asked give up something I need or want. Being self centered makes it difficult to meet the needs of the world with joy. I have learned, however, that happiness is a choice we make. Each day I have the ability to chose whether or not I am happy. If I make the choice to be happy then ability to serve with joy follows with ease.

Lord, we pray that we can focus on chosing joy so that needs in world we encounter become gifts not obligations.

Peace be with you.

The Love of Families

The love of a family is a gift from God. He made us in his image that we might love and be loved and then he organized us in families that we might have way to learn to love and be loved. It is love that is shared with us by God that brings family together. That same love binds together families who keep a covenant with God because God’s love sustains and nurtures our love for each other. When we die, we go forth with the love of our families as the wings that carry us from this world into God’s presence and, finally, it is that same love made perfect by our transcendence that brings families together again in His Heavenly Kingdom.

I recently read a sermon by St. Augustine on St. Martha. After I read through it the first time, nothing in particular jumped out at me but I felt a very slight sense of unease about some aspect of the reading but I could not discern the sourece of my discomfort. Experience has recently taught me that if something makes me uncomforable, I best not ignore it. In my world, spiritual growth from being challenged. So I read the sermon again and then again for the third time. Finally the source of my unease jumped out at me.

Here is what St. Augustine wrote that caused my discomfort: “Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says: Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me.”

And there it was. The challenge to step out myself and look an aspect of my life that I have not much thought about: hospitality. Martha was a gracious and grateful hostess but her guest was the most important invididual in history. While Jesus has never knocked at my door, many other people have done so in the past. What kind of host was I? Would Benedict feel that we have lived up the spirit of the rule by welcoming visitors? The answer, I fear, would be no. So now it is up to me to rise to the challenge to be a welcoming, gracious and generous host and not just when it is convenient for me. Can I learn to see the face of God in all who call at my door?

Pray that we can all learn to welcome the least of our brothers as if they were Son of God.

Peace be with you.

Mary Magdalene - The Perserverance of Love

Think for a moment of the image of Mary Magdalene lingering behind at the empty tomb of the risen Christ after the disciples had left in bewilderment and dismay. Her faith obligated her to stay and her perseverance was rewarded by Lord who came into her presence and reassured her that the promise of the resurrection was true. She was the first witness of the proof of God’s fulfillment of this covenant man: If we believe in what we cannot see, we shall never die but will live forever.

Are there other women living today who can call to mind the faith of Mary? What would that faith look like? I think of my own wife who continued to have faith that God would empower my younger son to overcome huge physical obstacles that defined his early years. Long after I had despaired of every being able to understand his speech or to be able to see him to be comfortable doing anything physical, she continued to fight for him, pray for him, encourage him, support him and to demand that the the rest of us to join her efforts to encourage him. Now he speaks with delightful eloquence, humor, and startling insight and always with a precise articulateness that is a true gift from God.

When the day came he wanted to become a fireman, this young man who struggled so hard to just be able to crawl and walk without pain as a child became a fireman. While I have been so proud of him it was not until today as I reflected on the reading that I gained a new understanding of my wife’s role in my son’s life. She, like many others, reminds us that the gospel proclaims a living word that is as vital today as it was 2 thousand years ago. At this very moment she is continuing to live that example as Brian struggles with a new set of challenges to overcome. Tonight I will offer an extra prayer of thanks to Mary Magdalene for blessing us with her example and for my wife’s willingness to bring the gospel to life for her family. Pray for her and for Brian with me.

Peace be with you.