1.31.2008

"The Deepest Passion of the Soul is Meant for God"

I subscribe to Magnificat, a monthly magazine which provides the daily Mass readings, prayers for the morning, evening and night, meditations, essays, poems, blessings, the order of the Mass, short saint biographies, etc. I enjoy it, and a donor at my school provides so that all the sixth through eighth graders get a copy each month.

The meditation after Mass yesterday, January 30th, was a selection from Peter Kreeft, a professor of philosophy at Boston College and an author of many books. It comes from his book, Back to Virtue, copyright 1992 and 2002 by Ignatius Press. On page 409 it says:

“First, remember a principle of God’s grace: God often withholds from us the grace to avoid a lesser sin because we are in danger of a greater sin. To avoid pride, he sometimes lets us fall into lust, since lust is usually obvious, undisguised, and temporary, while pride is not. So to conquer lust, we should focus less on lust and more on pride. Only when we are truly humble does God give us the grace to conquer lust.”

We live in a culture today that is ever increasingly lustful, saturated by sex, where more and more good men fall into this trap. What is the solution? How does one overcome this temptation and this sin? Peter Kreeft says that it is not by focusing on the lust; one needs to look more at the pride in one’s life. He continues:

“Second, remember Saint Thomas’ diagnosis of lust, which I think he must have learned from Saint Augustine: ‘Man cannot life without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.’ God is not a substitute for sex, as Freud thought; sex is often a substitute for God. The deepest passion of the soul is meant for God. When the true God comes, the false gods go. To conquer lust, forget about lust and love God.”

When the deepest passions of our souls are not directed toward God, when we have no spiritual joys, it is then that we seek satisfaction elsewhere. We seek joy in bodily pleasures, but of course those never really satisfy either. Since we don’t have God in our life, we put sex or other pleasures in His place. As I said in an earlier entry, sex is not bad; sex is good. Carnal pleasures are a good, but they need to be rightly ordered and directed by our mind and will toward the good. It is easy to be consumed with the constant pursuit of carnal pleasures and only grow in our selfishness as a result.

What Peter Kreeft says here resonates with my basic theory. My theory is that God made us, right from the beginning, to be His spouse, His bride, His temple, and His home. The man and the woman were to be God’s spouse by eating of the tree of life, which is having a heart which loves, trusts, and obeys God. He tested the man and the woman by saying be fruitful and multiply but don’t have sex. Wanting to be like God, wanting to create a man as God had just done, they disobey God and have relations. God wanted them to trust Him to provide as Mary did and have children virginally. Instead, they trusted in their own powers and had Cain.

Pride, as Peter Kreeft says, is worse than lust, but lust is much more common. Lust is a symptom that our love for God has grown cold. The solution to lust is to increase our love for God. The antidote for many of our problems today living in this culture of death is to realize the great dignity we have as children of God, as temples of the Holy Spirit, as creatures called into the closest intimacy with God Almighty, as the very brides of Christ, and love Him more, give ourselves to Him completely and renew that total self-gift each day, place all our hopes and desires in His hands trusting in His provision, look to Him as the source of life and our solace in life, cling to Him as a rock of safety in the raging storm, ask Him for what we truly need, seek from Him a greater outpouring of His Holy Spirit, knock at the door of His heart with the hands of our heart so that our hearts speak to each other, heart to heart.

If we fully devote ourselves to the love of God and do everything within our power to grow and develop in that love, all else falls into its proper place. Saint Augustine said, “Love God and do what you will.” If we spend ourselves in the love of God, lust and pride and jealousy and hatred and laziness all fall by the wayside to make room for the real thing. God is the real thing and the only thing that truly and fully satisfies. His satisfaction is not of the bodily sort; it is of the spiritual sort, which far outpaces the bodily. Being fully united to the Living God is the greatest joy; it is to begin to live heaven on earth.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.30.2008

Bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Our Temple

Two days ago I mentioned that David was fulfilling a command instituted in Deuteronomy 12 that stipulated that Israel would worship in one central location, Jerusalem. He joyfully brings the holy Ark of the Covenant into his home city to make it the Holy City. The Ark of the Covenant is fulfilled in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary; we are called to bring her into our home, like David did, for her to show us the way to follow Jesus. This is what Jesus wants us to do, and as Jesus honors His mother and fulfills the fourth commandment, we imitate Him.

Some of the very last words that Jesus said right before He died on the cross were spoken concerning His mother. “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19: 26-27). Jesus gives every beloved disciple to His mother, and she takes us as her own. Since she is now our God-given mother, we are required to obey the fourth commandment and honor her. Jesus also gives his mother to every beloved disciple in order for us to take her into our home. Jesus gives us the true Ark of the Covenant, and faithfully bringing her into our home will bring us closer to Christ.

Why was Jerusalem stipulated in Deuteronomy as the sole place of worship? Many new laws were added in Deuteronomy which were never seen prior, and one of those laws was the necessity for a central place of worship. Why are laws given? “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made” (Galatians 3: 19). There had to be a singular, central location of worship because the people were continually going after false gods. They had been led out of Egypt in the Exodus, but they were still Egyptian at heart. I think Scott Hahn said it something like this: “God could take them out of Egypt, but He couldn’t take Egypt out of them.”

Why was Egypt so difficult to get out of the hearts of the Israelites? Didn’t the Israelites hate the Egyptians who were their taskmasters? We tend to forget that the Israelites were down there some 430 years; in comparison, the USA has only been a country for just over 230 years. The Israelites had been there so long, they either thought of themselves as Egyptian, or they simply assimilated much of the culture of the Egyptians, particularly their polytheistic religion. As soon as they think Moses has died on Mount Sinai after forty days, they immediately worship the Golden Calf, an old Egyptian god named Apis. A year later, the people are worshipping goat demons; after forty years of wandering in the desert, as the second generation is about to enter the Promised Land, they sin again with false gods, and that is why the book of Deuteronomy with all its new laws is given.

God is a loving Father who gives His children what they need to come back to Him. The more they sin, the more laws He gives to help keep them from drifting too far from Him. One of their main and constant sins was the worship of false gods; they would worship these false gods all over the place; to help prevent them from doing so, they were only to worship in one place; that place was Jerusalem.

When the ten northern tribes separate themselves from Judah during the reign of David’s grandson, Rehoboam, the main problem with this separation of Israel and Judah is that the Israelites no longer come down to Judah to worship in Jerusalem. They start building shrines all over Israel, and they forsake the true God. Their sins are so great and so many, that eventually, after much warning, God sends the Assyrians to come and destroy Israel in 722B.C.

What does all this mean for you and me today? The temple in Jerusalem, according to Jesus, was a symbol of His body; His body is the true temple, the true place of worship. Since we are baptized into Jesus’ body, we too become God’s holy temples. We must only worship the One, True God and not go after other gods. The other gods that the Israelites went after were primarily fertility cults and prosperity cults; they sought the goods of this world: money, power and pleasure. The question we need to ask ourselves is: do we have any side altars to any of these worldly goods set up in our hearts? Do I have an inordinate attachment to money, power or pleasure? Is my heart filled with God and His life, or is it “filled” with the pursuit of happiness which this world gives?

The other question we can ask ourselves is do we have a true devotion to Mary? Do we love and honor her as our mother as Jesus does? She is the Ark of the Covenant and is the precious container which houses the presence of God; she is our Christ-given mother. Do I bring her into my home and welcome her as my mother? Do I seek her aid as I would seek the aid of my own earthly mother when I was a child in need? No one has ever gotten as close to Jesus as Mary is; she knows the way to Him, and she knows better than anyone how to please Him. Do I rely upon her constant motherly help to overcome the temptations to worship false gods? Do I cherish her as my mother and queen who will lead me ever nearer to her Divine Son? Do I rejoice at her coming into my life and home as David rejoiced when he took the Ark of the Covenant into his home town? Never fear of drawing too close to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for she only seeks to bring us to her Divine Son, the True Temple within which we worship.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.29.2008

Jesus, the New David, is the Sower of His Life In Our Tree of Life, Our Heart

In tomorrow’s first reading at Mass, David seeks to fulfill the prophecy from Deuteronomy 12:8-14 by building a temple for God’s house. God is very pleased with David’s actions and replies through the prophet Nathan saying: “I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you” (2 Samuel 7: 11). Establishing rest from one’s enemies was a prerequisite for establishing Jerusalem as the sole place of Israelite worship; God will complete that task of providing rest round about Jerusalem. David wanted to build God a house, so God is going to make David a house, which is a kingly dynasty. God ends saying, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever” (2 Samuel 7:16).

Because of David’s goodness and his trust in God, God is establishing David’s kingship forever. God does this by entering into a covenant with David as the responsorial psalm says in this Mass: “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: I will make your dynasty stand forever and establish your throne through all ages” (Psalm 89:3-4). Covenants cannot be broken, so God is absolutely required to make good on His covenantal promise: David’s dynasty must endure forever. God did make good on it by sending His own Son, Jesus, who will reign forever in heaven as the King of David.

We get a hint of how God will fulfill this oath through His own Son when he says: “He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father, my God, the Rock that brings me victory!’ I myself make him firstborn, Most High over the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:26-27). Jesus is the one God sends to fulfill His covenant with David; Jesus calls His Father, “Father,” of course. Jesus is called the firstborn, but of course He was begotten not made; Jesus was born as a man through Mary, but as God He was not born. Yet, He is still called the firstborn.

Jesus is a new David, and as David established peace around about Jerusalem by defeating all his enemies, so Jesus establishes peace round about each one of us by conquering all our sins. As the temple was the center of Jerusalem and what made Jerusalem holy, so our hearts are our center and the place where Jesus dwells. Jesus gives us a new heart that loves, trusts and obeys Him and is able to be set free from the slavery of sin. Jesus gives us a heart that seeks to please Him, a heart of flesh that has God’s laws written upon it, a tree of life that keeps us alive in relationship to Him.

This ties into the gospel reading for today’s Mass; it is the parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. Jesus is the sower who seeks to plant His seed which is His Word in good soil so that His seed bears much fruit. Jesus still sows His seed everywhere, but many of those places do not well receive His seed. There is the path, the rocky ground, and the ground covered with thorns; the path is hard, trampled ground where nothing has a chance to grow; the rocky ground are those who initially rejoice in the God’s word but only receive it shallowly, having no roots, the plant soon dies; the thorn-covered ground are those who receive God’s word, but the thorns of “worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit” (Mark 4:19).

“But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold” (Mark 4:20). Jesus seeks our hearts; He seeks to be loved by you and me; Jesus wants to give us a new heart that is the rich soil that will receive His seed fully and provide a good environment for growth. He seeks to give us abundant life through the good reception of His grace. He desires our heart; He desires our heart to desire what He desires; He wants to be of one mind and heart with us. The heart is our tree of life; when we eat of the tree of life, when we love, trust and obey God in all things, we are fully and truly alive in relation to God. Our relationship daily deepens, and it can be said more correctly as each day passes that we are another Christ. The good fruit we bear is Christ; He is the vine and we the branches, so we bear the fruit of that divine vine. Christ was a self-sacrificing lover, so becoming another Christ means that we are transformed into a self-sacrificing lover like Him. We eat the tree of life so that we may be empowered to lay down our life and be crucified to our death on a tree. Jesus did not suffer and die so that we don’t have to; on the contrary, Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we have the power to sacrifice ourselves.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.28.2008

Jesus as New David, New Isaac, New Melchizedek and Mary as True Ark of the Covenant

Tomorrow’s first reading contains a number of interesting elements. David is bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and he acts in some rather strange and unusual ways. Here is a portion of tomorrow’s reading:

“Then David, girt with a linen apron, came dancing before the LORD with abandon, as he and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and to the sound of the horn. The ark of the LORD was brought in and set in its place within the tent David had pitched for it. Then David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD. When he finished making these offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts. He then distributed among all the people, to each man and each woman in the entire multitude of Israel, a loaf of bread, a cut of roast meat, and a raisin cake” (2 Samuel 6:14-15, 17-19).

What are the atypical actions: he is wearing a linen apron, he is dancing with abandon before the Lord, he is offering sacrifices, he blesses the people, and he gives food to the people. The linen apron seems to have a connection to what a priest would wear; his joy before the Lord shows a love of God; and he offers sacrifices and blesses as a priest would. The translation of the Hebrew of the food David gave is challenging. The bread is clear, but the rest is not so clear. Instead of a cut of roast and a raisin cake, it could be understood to be wine. If that is true, David gave the people bread and wine.

At first, there seems to be no precedent for David’s behavior here in this story. He, the king of Jerusalem, acts like a priest and gives the people bread and wine. But, alas, there is a precedent: Melchizedek. Melchizedek was priest of God Most High and the king of Salem/Jerusalem who offered bread and wine. He was not a Levitical priest, for Levi had not even been born yet; rather, he was a priest/king of Jerusalem who blessed Abraham after Abraham had gained peace from all his enemies round about Jerusalem (Genesis 14).

David has just or is completing the process of gaining peace from all his enemies round about: “Now when the king dwelt in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent’ ” (2 Samuel 7:1-2). After the second generation of the Israelites who were set free from Egypt sinned again at the end of the forty years of wandering, God gave them a new set of laws, a second law called Deuteronomy. Only in this other law is it mandated that there be one place of worship in the Promised Land. Following is the passage:

“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes; for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. But when you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you live in safety, then to the place which the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, thither you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the offering that you present, and all your votive offerings which you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed that you do not offer your burnt offerings at every place that you see; but at the place which the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you” (Deuteronomy 12:8-14).

God’s plan as set forth in Deuteronomy is that there will be one place to worship Him. David understands that that one place is in Jerusalem, and it will take place when the Israelites have peace from their enemies living round about them. David has just fully taken over the Promised Land and established his base in Jerusalem, so his next step is to fulfill Deuteronomy and establish Jerusalem as the center of Israelite worship. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to town, and rejoices greatly before the Lord.

Not only is David fulfilling Deuteronomy, but he is also fulfilling Genesis 14-22. David is a new Melchizedek: he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who offers bread and wine and gives a blessing after peace has been obtained from the enemies round about. In some respect, David could be said to be a new Isaac: he offers up his whole self as he dances before the Lord with abandon, and he offered sacrifices as Isaac offered himself at first and instead sacrificed a ram in his place. In response to Isaac’s self-offering, God blessed Abraham and Isaac and all the nations of the earth; likewise, David blesses the people. Jesus, then, comes to fulfill the Old Testament, and He is a new Melchizedek, a new Isaac, and a new David; he is the priest/king of Jerusalem who makes a sacrifice by offering up Himself, and He blesses the people with His offering of bread and wine.

The gospel passage fits in with the first reading; it ends with, “For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Obedience to God makes us God’s children and family; Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, and David were all obedient to God and thus were His chosen people. Mary is the one who is obedient more than anyone else in the entire human race; that is why she is Mother of God, because of her obedience to Him.

The Ark of the Covenant, the item which makes the temple holy, the sacred home that David is rejoicing before as he brings it into Jerusalem, is a type or symbol of Mary. It held the Ten Commandments, the Manna, and Aaron’s rod; the first is the word of God, the second is the bread of heaven, and the third is the priest’s sign of authority and leadership. Mary was home to the Word of God, the Bread of Heaven, and the High Priest and God Himself. Mary is the True Ark of the Covenant. Another parallel is that before David brings the ark into Jerusalem and leaps before it, it spends three months in the hill country; Mary spends three months in the hill country with her cousin Elizabeth, and John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother's womb upon hearing the voice of Mary.

The holy items of God are what made the Ark holy, and the Ark is what made the temple holy; likewise, Jesus is who makes Mary holy, and Mary is who makes God’s home, earth, holy because of who she carries within her. In a similar manner, each of us is to be a mother to Christ, bringing Him within ourselves and making the world holy. Also, each of us is to be spouse and bride of Christ, becoming one mind and heart with Him, becoming one flesh with Him, becoming another Christ. Christ within us makes us holy and we become partakers of the divine nature, which is to say that we become self-sacrificing lovers as He is. As self-sacrificing lovers, we bring His presence to the world, which brings peace from our enemies round about. World peace is only found here.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.27.2008

Jesus Binds The Strong Man and Makes Us His Bride

In tomorrow’s gospel passage for Mass, the scribes say of Jesus that, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons” (Mark 3:22). Jesus indicates that, by saying this, they have committed the sin against the Holy Spirit. The classic understanding of the unforgivable sin is final impenitence, dying without repenting of a serious sin. Repentance requires truth to know one’s sins. The Holy Spirit enlightens our minds and hearts to know our sin. The Holy Spirit is integral in both knowing the truth and repenting of sin. One sins against the Holy Spirit when, at one’s death, one either refuses to acknowledge the truth of one’s sins or fails to turn away from those sins or both.

The scribes in this passage call the All-Good God the evil one; they ascribe as completely evil what is the epitome of good. By exercising such extremely bad judgment in such important matters, the scribes have become “blind guides.” They can no longer tell what is good and what is bad, even if it is purely good or purely bad. They are utterly blind in what matters most. Having thus depraved themselves to such an extent, calling what is good evil and what is evil good, as long as they continue on this path, they have no hope for salvation. To be forgiven, one needs to repent; to repent, one needs to see the truth of one’s sins; to see the truth about one’s sins, one needs the Holy Spirit; refusing to see the most obvious and easily recognizable good, evicts the Holy Spirit from one’s soul. The scribes are on the path to hell, and only by their humble crying out for light from the Holy Spirit to see their sins and then their humble admission of their faults, will they have hope for salvation.

Jesus goes on to make a very interesting explanation to the scribes’ accusation; he says that, “No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Satan is the prince of this world, and he has a certain domination over mankind enslaved to sin. He desires to lead as many people to hell as possible; he desires our destruction and the utter diminution of our lofty dignity. Satan’s work is spreading despair and death and stealing the spouse of God away from Him.

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). The devil is the strong man whom Jesus comes and binds so that He can plunder his house. In the state of original sin into which everyone is born, Satan has an ownership of us; we are part of the belongings of his house. Jesus came to bind this strong tyrannical ruler and to set us free; the Old Testament image and prefigurement is God freeing the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt to pharaoh.

In Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, He has bound the strong man and plundered his house. In baptism, we are set free from sin and Satan so that we can belong to Jesus; every Eucharist is a celebration of our baptism for we were baptized into Jesus’ death, and the Eucharist is Jesus’ crucified and risen flesh, particularly His heart flesh. “Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). Jesus has bound the strong man, the tyrant who was our cruel slave master, and set us free to be united to Him. Jesus has plundered Satan’s house so that He can be our Spouse and unite us to Himself, making us fruitful for God.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.26.2008

Repentance "Imprisons" Jesus In Our Heart

There is a connection in two passages from today’s and tomorrow’s Mass readings. In today’s entrance antiphon, it says: “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest; he will do what is in my heart and in my mind, says the Lord” (1 Samuel 2:35). This passage has a connection to the Gospel for Sunday’s Mass when Jesus begins His ministry and starts to preach: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:18).

The connection between these two passages is that they both have to do with the heart. The heart has a connection to my theory because the tree of life in the Garden of Eden is the heart. We have life when we are united with He Who Lives; we eat from the tree of life when we love, trust and obey God; when our heart turns back to God, when we repent, then we do what is in God’s heart to do. With a heart connected to God, our mind and heart conforms to God’s heart and mind.

The passage from 1 Samuel 2 proclaims the condemnation of the priest Eli and his family for not being faithful to God and for only being concerned with what was to their personal benefit: they did not care for God or others. God rejects them, and He says He will raise up for Himself a new, faithful priest who will do what God would have him do. Immediately following this prophecy, God calls Samuel and reveals Himself to the boy. Samuel is the new, faithful priest who will please the heart and mind of God.

Jesus begins His public preaching with the call to repent. Repentance means a turning back, and it signifies our hearts turning back to God. We have forsaken God and sought after ourselves like Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and we need to turn our hearts back to God like Samuel. Our hearts are meant to be a holy home for Almighty God, and so our hearts first have to turn back in love to our Maker to receive His life and love.

Jesus says two closely related items: the first is “repent,” and the second is, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Insofar as we turn our hearts to God again, insofar as we open ourselves to Him once more, He comes to dwell in our hearts. Where He dwells, there is heaven. Thus, repentance is the doorway to the kingdom of heaven. Heaven will forever remain unattainable as long as repentance is missing. Repentance is the all-powerful act whereby even the gates of heaven cannot resist its abilities. The repentant heart is the home for Jesus, whom it makes its permanent prisoner, and Jesus said of this heart which turns in love to Him, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). Living waters flow out of the tree of life.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.25.2008

Book Meme

I've been tagged by Clayton to take part in the following meme:

Book Meme Rules

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

The book on my computer desk is Jesus of Nazareth by some fellow named Joseph Ratzinger, also known as Pope Benedict XVI.

Page 123 falls at the end of the fourth chapter called "The Sermon on the Mount." It is in the section called The Torah of the Messiah, and it is the subsection called Compromise and Prophetic Radicalism.

I am going to cheat a bit because sentences six through eight make little sense without some context. Here is the context: "Not only are we not to kill, but we must offer reconciliation to our unreconciled brother. No more divorce. Not only are we to be even-handed in justice (eye for eye, tooth for tooth), but we must let ourselves be struck without striking back. We are to love not simply our neighbor, but also our enemy. The lofty ethics that is expressed here will continue to astonish people of all backgrounds and to impress them as the height of moral greatness. We need only recall Mahatma Gandhi's interest in Jesus, which was based on these very texts."

Alright, that was the previous context, and here are sentences six through eight to qualify for the meme: "But is what Jesus says here actually realistic? Is it incumbent upon us--is it even legitimate--to act like this? Doesn't some of it, as Neusner objects, destroy all concrete social order?"

I'll leave it up to you to find out the answer; unless, of course, someone wants me to provide it. Then I will.

I will tag Dan, Margaret, Susan, Leon, and Dominic, if they care and are free to partake in this fun.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.24.2008

Obedience is Facing Death: the Faith of Ananias

Both of the options for the first reading for tomorrow’s Mass for the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul come from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. A portion of one I would like to examine tonight:

Acts 9:10-19
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, that he may regain his sight.” But Ananias replied, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.

Six days ago on January 18th, I talked about the readings of the day which dealt with Samuel as a boy responding to God’s call saying: “Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.” This same refrain is taken up later in Psalm 40. Here, too, in Acts, we have the same response this time spoken by the faithful man, Ananias: “Here I am, Lord.” All followers of the Lord should present themselves each day to Him with these words. These words are simple and rather easy to say. Where these words lead is another matter.

These words say: “I will obey you, Lord, wherever you lead.” Sometimes He leads us into dangerous or terrifying or illogical places. He led Ananias into the mouth of the lion, Saul. Not long before, Saul oversaw and approved the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Saul had come to Damascus to imprison Christians. Ananias knew this and protested to God that it was not a good idea to have anything to do with this Saul. God tells Ananias that Saul is His chosen instrument so Ananias must go to Saul. Prudence would tell one that this was not a good idea. Faithfulness, which is comfortable in the dark, would say that it is by obedience that we love God.

Stepping out in trust of God’s word and risking his very life, Ananias went to Saul and told him about Jesus. What trust in God Ananias had! And it was this act that played an important role in the conversion of the Great Apostle Paul. In Ananias’ obedience, very good fruit was borne.

Obedience is a very difficult matter to digest. If I tell you that you have to take the million dollars I am going to give you, you would not have too much trouble doing as I say and taking the money. If I told you that I wanted you to do whatever you wanted to do, that would not be too hard either. That has little to do with obedience. Obedience comes in to play when one is told to do something very difficult or what one would rather not do or what seems to go against all reason. True obedience brings about fullness life and joy; disobedience brings about death and destruction. Ananias faced the lion of obedience with the awesome power of a humble and trusting faith; he slayed the dragon with his faith, and he reaped a harvest of abundant fruit in the man, Saint Paul. It is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God that bears much fruit and gives God’s life to the world.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.22.2008

Abortion: The Glory of Satan

Thirty-five years ago began the reign of terror of abortion on demand in this country resulting in the murder of tens of millions of innocent babies; on top of that, it has left a moral and spiritual wasteland for all of us, particularly those who have sold their soul to promote, encourage, defend, and commit the great sin of the slaughter of the in-utero innocents.

The glory of God is man fully alive. We glorify God when we bear good fruit; ultimately, we glorify God when we lay down our life for another and when we witness to His truth at the cost of our own blood in martyrdom. We glorify Him in becoming a self-sacrificing lover; parents glorify Him as they make the daily multitude of sacrifices required to raise a family well; we glorify Him at Mass as we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist with pure and loving hearts so that we can have the grace to do what He did.

On this day of infamy, it is worth asking this question to better understand the battle we are in: What is the glory of Satan? He hates mankind with a passion beyond understanding, and he loves to see our destruction. God loves us, and Satan hates us. At a most basic level, Satan loves to mock the things God holds most dear. Satan’s glory is in the mockery of God.

We are made to be God’s children, God’s temple, and God’s spouse. Satan wants to reduce us down to mere animals, even less than animals. He seeks to depersonalize us, making us objects for use. He mocks our exalted dignity trying whatever he can to drag us into the mud. The main tool at his disposal is to desecrate sex, making it all about self-gratification and turning it into nothing other than another one of our bodily needs just like eating, drinking and sleeping. He wants us to think it is a basic need that we should meet with whomever or whatever, whenever and however we want; there is no morality associated with sex. That is the lie he has been promoting, especially the past two generations.

Of course, that kind of “thinking” about sex leads to many other problems. Normally, sex has very serious consequences, consequences which should not accompany the simple satisfaction of a bodily necessity. Those consequences have to be eliminated. The first line of defense against these unsightly results is usually the grave evil of contraception. When that doesn’t work, the logical step to deal with the problem is abortion.

Abortion is the great mockery of fatherhood and motherhood. Children learn about who God is and how He acts by knowing who their parents are and how they act, especially who and how the father acts. In certain respects, parents are God to their children. In abortion, parents willingly murder their own children; this is not an image of who God is but of who Satan is. Satan, from the beginning, is a murderous father; those who commit abortion of their own children imitate the evil one. Abortion is one of the highest forms of satanic worship; herein we find his glory.

The evil one is glorified when parents take the life of their children, and this is an act of worship of him and of uniting oneself to him. I assume most people do not realize that, but that is what is happening. He is mocking fathers and mothers, and ultimately, he is mocking God the Father. God the Father gives life, and the evil one destroys it; he even entices the very ones who should be the ones to cherish and protect life, the life which springs from their very own flesh, he entices these very ones to mercilessly destroy that life. It is hard to think of a higher victory for Satan than when parents murder their unborn children.

The other primary way that Satan mocks God is the black mass. My understanding of the black mass is that the words of the Mass are said backward and it ends with the desecration of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is the Divine Spouse who gives us His Body in the Mass; Satan is mocking God’s Fatherhood and God as mankind’s Spouse. He is mocking the self-sacrificing and life-giving act of Jesus offering Himself up as our Passover Lamb. It is the formal rejection of God and His gift of Himself to us.

There are a number of parallels between the black mass and abortion, as there are a number of parallels between the Mass and having children. My goal tonight is to shed some light on the dark deed of abortion. There is much more that could be said. As with any sin, the important thing is to see and understand the true nature of the act so as to be better equipped to enlighten others and guide them away from sin. It is God’s work to judge the hearts of those who commit the sin; God has given us the intellect and the grace to judge the actions to empower us to prevent their happening.

The battle to end abortion is, from beginning to end, a spiritual battle, a battle attempting to put an end to a “high” form of satanic worship. It will only be won on our knees and at the cost of great sacrifice by those who love God. I believe it could be more easily won with a small army of victim souls who will offer themselves up for its cessation. If you are not willing to be a victim soul in totality, are you willing to offer up all the many trials and difficulties of your days as sacrifices to God for the end of this scourge? Each of us plays a part in either its continuation or its end; none of us are innocent bystanders.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.21.2008

"To Do Your Will, O My God, Is My Delight"

I want to say a few more words about Psalm 40, which was also last Sunday’s responsorial Psalm. The heart of Psalm 40 is the quote: “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.” It is a remarkable statement; would that all of us cherished that mentality within our heart.

There are two basic attitudes to God’s will: either disobedience or obedience. The former belongs to demons and Satan who said when tested: “I will not serve.” The latter belongs to the angels united to Saint Michael who said: “Who is like God? I will obey.” Michael literally means “who is like God.” Depending on whether we obey or disobey, decides to which side we align ourselves. Are we on the side of our own will, together with the demons, seeking our life and receiving only death and destruction? Or are we on the side of God’s will, together with the great hosts of angels and saints and all people of good will, seeking what pleases Him, denying ourselves and being enriched with His life?

On the side of those obeying, there are three basic levels or degrees of obedience. The first, the level of a slave, is not always faithful to God and often seeks to do his own will. A slave is worried about getting into trouble and is mostly concerned about not going to hell. If it weren’t for all God’s rules, the slave would have much more fun; whenever he can, the slave tries to get away with whatever he can. The slave asks, “How far can I go before I sin mortally?” The slave is reluctantly obedient; if it weren’t for hell, the slave would rather sin with abandon. Of course, it is better to be an obedient slave than to be disobedient.

The next level of obedience is the level of child of God, son or daughter of the Great King. Here, the son seeks to please his Heavenly Father and has left behind the poverty of the slave mentality. The son truly loves God and desires heaven. The son has peace and a unity with God in a similar manner to a father who has a close relationship with his son. It is in this environment that obedience begins to grow and flower and bear good fruit.

The culmination of obedience is when God becomes our spouse. When we have become one mind and heart with God, we desire what He desires and we say, “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.” God loves us with passion of a husband; this love led Him to His Passion. In His pursuit of us, we give ourselves entirely to Him and are ready to do whatever He seeks from us. Of course, obedience only really shows itself when something difficult, something we do not want to do, is asked of us. If it is something we want to do, there is not much obedience in that. Obedience comes alive when we are tested and we rise to the occasion. The spousal obedience does not mean that we have an easy path; on the contrary, Jesus was asked by His Father to endure the Passion; Jesus replied: “If possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but Thine be done.” Spousal obedience with God is beautiful, but it always leads us where it led Our Savior: to the cross.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.18.2008

Reflections on Psalm 40: Delight in God's Will

There were some especially beautiful readings at Wednesday’s Mass which were taken from the first Book of Samuel and from Psalm 40. The first reading from Samuel comes from chapter three, and it is the story of the boy Samuel who is asleep while called three times by the Lord; each time Samuel thinks the elderly priest Eli is calling him. After the third time this happens, Eli realizes that God must be calling the boy, so Eli tells Samuel that the next time he is called he should say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” God calls a fourth time, and Samuel replies as instructed.

The selections from Psalm 40 revolve around this theme of obedience, and the response to the Psalm is the similar sentence: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

The first stanza is this: “I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry. Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust; who turns not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood.” He who trusts in the Lord and is obedient toward Him will be patient as he waits and will remain forever faithful to Him. The obedient one will not go after false gods nor seek falsehood; he will cling to God and to the truth.

The second stanza is even more powerful: “Sacrifice or oblation you wished not, but ears open to obedience you gave me. Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not; then said I, ‘Behold I come’.” The slaughter of animals as sacrifices to God is not what He wants; those sacrifices were only necessary because the people were worshipping false gods symbolized by those animals; animal sacrifice was added because of idolatry. Attempting to keep the hearts of His people from straying after these false gods, God had them kill their gods so that they would be less encumbered by them and free to worship Him. The sacrifices were the means, and mostly a negative one, but the end is a heart that loves and obeys God. God seeks our obedience and our willingness to do whatever He asks us to do. Ultimately, God delights when we offer up our entire selves as a sacrifice to Him.

The third stanza is the power punch: “In the written scroll it is prescribed for me. To do your will, O my God, is my delight, and your law is within my heart!” This is what God wants of us; this is why He came and died for us. He has made this very thing possible. He desires us to delight in His will, to have His law within our heart. It is one thing to say, yes, I will obey. It is a whole higher level to say, Lord, I delight to please You. This is only possible with a heart transplant; God gives us a new heart, a new tree of life, so that we can love and obey Him.

We are not even talking about the slave mentality which says, I will obey because I do not want to get into trouble. This is better than disobedience, but it still comes from a heart of stone with the laws written on the outside. The worst is disobedience which is not doing God’s will. Next is the slave mentality which merely doesn’t want to get into trouble; although, when the opportunity arises, a slave is just as likely to disobey when he doesn’t think he will get caught.

A loving child will want to please his parents, and so he will obey because he knows the parents will be pleased. This is good, and it is a world away from the slave mentality. Coming to the knowledge that one is a beloved child of God is an awesome realization, and much good fruit will be borne if one continues down this path.

The highest level is delighting in pleasing God, delighting in His law, and delighting in God’s will. When we are pleased in the extreme simply in pleasing God, we have reached a mature faith. This is the stage, the final one, where we become espoused to Him and eventually married. Once God’s will becomes our will, and there is no longer two wills but one only, God’s, then we are fully alive as His beloved spouse. This is our goal, our hope, our summit, the reason for which we were created.

When we have reached this stage, it is completely normal to say as the Responsorial Psalm ends: “I announced your justice in the vast assembly; I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.” When God becomes the love of our life, we tell all the world.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.15.2008

Hannah and Samuel, Mary and Jesus

Today’s first reading at Mass came from the first Book of Samuel and continued the story of Samuel’s mother, Hannah. She was barren and wanted to have a child more than anything else in the world. Having known a few couples unable to have children, I think I can safely say that they have felt much like Hannah felt. So she did what any person of faith would do; she kicked the table. Just kidding. She trusted in God, knowing that He seeks to give us the desires of our heart, and she asked Him for a son.

“In her bitterness she prayed to the LORD, weeping copiously, and she made a vow, promising: ‘O LORD of hosts, if you look with pity on the misery of your handmaid, if you remember me and do not forget me, if you give your handmaid a male child, I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives; neither wine nor liquor shall he drink, and no razor shall ever touch his head’ ” (1 Samuel 1:10-11). She asks God for a son and says that she will give that son back to God if God gives her one. She even goes so far as to say that he will be a Nazirite who does not cut his hair or eat or drink any product of grapes, especially wine (Sampson was another Nazirite). He will be specially consecrated to God.

The Responsorial Psalm comes from chapter two of First Samuel, and it was what Hannah prayed in the temple when she dedicated her son to God after she had weaned him. There are many parallels with what Mary prayed when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth; the prayer is known as the Magnificat. The response today from Hannah’s prayer was: “My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.”

There are many parallels between Hannah and Mary, the handmaids of the Lord. They were both deeply desirous of a son. Mary had come to terms with it when she had consecrated herself as a perpetual virgin and arranged to have a virginal marriage with Saint Joseph. Yet it was the crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. As a virgin, Mary was “barren.” Hannah prayed, “The barren wife bears seven sons, while the mother of many languishes,” and Mary prayed, “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.” They were both barren and empty, and they both were filled with “good things” because of their trust in God. They both gave their sons back to God, whenever and however He wanted them.

Right after the Passover in Exodus 13, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine’ ” (13:1-2). Later, I want to write in a more in-depth manner about the first born, but for now it is interesting to note that the first-born belong to God. The passages continues saying, “Every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem” (Exodus 13:13). The first-born have to be paid for or bought back, for they belong to God. Samuel and Jesus are first-born, and they are offered back to God from Whom they came.

My theory is that Eve also wanted a son (just as Sarai did), and that this wanting was part of the test God devised to see if she loved and trusted Him: be fruitful and multiply but do not have relations. She sought her life and so lost it. Mary gave up her life and so gained it and was given the very Son of God for her faithfulness of giving up children altogether. Hannah desired a child, but she did not sin to try to get one. She prayed. She also realized that children are a gift from God, and so she was willing to give that gift back to God to use as He sees fit. God wanted to give her a child, and He wanted her to seek His help to have it. God tested Hannah and strengthened and purified her love and trust in Him through that test. She passed the test, as did Mary, and she gave birth to the great priest and prophet, Samuel.

Life and fruitfulness come from God, and they come via our faith and trust in Him. The other part of the theory is that the tree of life is the heart. It is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God; any heart that does that has spiritual life. Any heart that does that bears good fruit and leads those in its vicinity closer to Christ. May you and I seek, ask and knock in faith, hope and love of God and so bear good fruit for Him.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.14.2008

I Got a Comment!

Since this comment is buried in an old post, and since I am so long-winded in my answer, I thought it best to use it as my post tonight so others could read it and in case others had a similar question. Let me know what you think.

Mary Anne asked: "Who creates one's soul, then? Is is a mere natural entity? or one that springs from Satan?"

I responded:

Hello Mary Anne,

God is the Creator, and He still is the one to create us, both body and soul. Satan has no part in creation, nor is he capable of creating anything, other than a mess. He is a powerful and potent creature, but he is still only a creature and a twisted and, in the true sense, impotent one, too.

What I am saying is that God creates the soul, and the soul is meant to be a home for Him. The original plan was virginal conception wherein God would provide the fruit; thus, the children would be born His true children and endowed with sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is not made to be passed on through physical generation, so once Adam and Eve chose the route of having children through physical generation, children were born without grace. Because they trusted in the wisdom of the serpent to achieve this new life of a son in direct disobedience to the one command, they somehow covenanted themselves to satan. Satan, thus, steals God's spouse and takes us to himself, in some sense. Humanity, then, is stuck in a deed-end relationship with an evil master bent on destroying us without any human hope for escape; this is symbolized when the Israelites were trapped up against the Red Sea with the Egyptian army bearing down upon them to slaughter them...and God saved them through the water of the Red Sea. The passage to a new life, the destruction of the enemy, is what happens in baptism wherein we are born again, born from above, and made God's actual children.

Baptism frees us from our bondage from sin and satan so that we can belong to our new spouse, Jesus. Then we spend the rest of our time in the desert on our way to the Promised Land being fed by the bread from heaven, the Eucharist.

I am not sure I have answered your question.

What I am saying is that the soul is created by God, but it is empty. It is made to house God's life, but we are born without that sanctifying grace. Satan doesn't do any creating; all he does is steal God's spouse, and as such, he has some claim against us so we are not free to go to heaven. Since in baptism we are born again, our old self dies thus breaking the bond we had with the serpent. Baptism frees us to be united to our One True Spouse.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.13.2008

Barrenness is Death

The first reading of the first weekday of Ordinary Time comes from the first verses of the first Book of Samuel. The book starts with the mother of the great priest and prophet, Samuel, in great distress. She is unable to have children, and there is precious little that matters to Hannah if she cannot give birth to a child. Hannah is one of two wives to her husband, and “Her rival, to upset her, turned it into a constant reproach to her that the LORD had left her barren. This went on year after year; each time they made their pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the LORD, Peninnah would approach her, and Hannah would weep and refuse to eat” (1 Samuel 1:6). The other wife, Peninnah, rubbed it in that Hannah could not have a baby.

One point here is that children are considered a blessing in the Bible. In today’s world and culture, which is a culture of death, children are often considered a curse. This is the exact opposite of the mindset of the Bible. Children are always a blessing and gift from God, even if the manner by which they came about was evil or the timing of their arrival does not fit into our schedule.

The other side of children being a blessing is that, in the Old Testament, being barren is considered a curse. Barrenness is tantamount to death. Not passing on life, not having children, is to die and leave none of your life (children) behind. It is death. Virginity was not esteemed, and the inability to have children was a curse and reproach. There was little worse for a woman than to not have children.

Why do I make this point? I think it ties in with my main theory. The first man and woman feared death, and that is why thy sinned. The death they feared was not so much their own physical death, but it was their fear of not having a child. Not trusting in God and seeking to gain their life, to get a child, they disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, they had relations and conceived Cain, meaning “gotten.” They got the life they were seeking, and he turned out to be death.

It is the fear of death which leads to a life of bondage; Jesus took on our human nature so “that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Life comes via the tree of life; the tree of life is our heart, and insofar as we trust, love and obey God, we have life. Barrenness is, in many respects, death, and God does want us to be fruitful and full of life. However, the point is that, ultimately, life comes as a gift from God, not from ourselves or our abilities. We have to love and trust Him for that life; the fear of death keeps us separated from Him. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.12.2008

The Bridegroom Has the Bride

Today I want to take a look at the readings of the Mass. I’ll start with the responsorial psalm, Psalm 149, which is the one that was the inspiration for the poem I posted on January 4. The response is, “The Lord takes delight in his people.” God loves His people, and his people sing, praise, rejoice, and dance for Him. The love is mutual and deep. Remember that Eden means delight and often has a spousal connotation. Here, again, God delights in his people and seeks us as His spouse.

The first reading is the conclusion of Saint John’s first letter. A few sentences before the end, he says, “We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the Evil One cannot touch him. We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:18-19). The Evil One has power over the entire world and can touch anyone within his power. The children of God are under the authority of God and are not subject to the Evil One. One is either a child of God and belongs to Him or a child of the Devil who belongs to him.

The children of God belong to God and so do not sin (at least not with mortal sin which he just finished explaining). He is not saying that God’s children never commit a mortal sin; the point is that belonging to God and sinning mortally are mutually exclusive. When a child of God sins mortally, he gets himself quickly to confession and makes everything right once again, or else he ceases to be a child of God (at least as long as he stays away from confession).

Once one is made a child of God in baptism, God protects us. He protects our heart so that we can know, love and serve Him, so that we can be faithful and obedient to His will. The woman in the garden was made from the rib, and as such, was made to protect the man’s heart and lead him to heaven. She did the exact opposite and betrayed her love with a kiss in the garden. Then God sent the angel to guard the way to the tree of life. This guarding by the angel is not to keep man from eating the tree of life; the guarding is the giving of our guardian angel who protects our heart, our tree of life, so that it stays faithful and true. His mission is to help us get to heaven, and there is no way there except via a trusting and obedient heart.

To protect us, we also have the New Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the New Rib, Our Rib, who only leads us to her Divine Son and shows us how to love, trust and obey Jesus. There is no greater human protector of our heart than Mary; she is the true port in the storms of life. Her heart was sorely tested on numerous occasions, and it was spiritually crucified during at least two trials of faith. She knows what it takes to have a healthy and fruit-bearing tree of life, and she longs to protect our trees of life so that they can be a true and holy home for God and give birth to Christ in our life.

John’s gospel today has a very powerful sentence: “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” (John 3:29). John the Baptist is saying that he is the best man and Jesus is the groom. The groom is the one who ends up with the bride, and together they start a family and have children. Jesus’ bride is the Church; He will always remain faithful to her, even when she is not faithful to Him. He will never, nor has He ever, divorced her; He gave up His life for her, and He will remain with her to the end.

As each of us is one of her members, in that manner Jesus takes us on as a bride, too. All followers of Christ, all members of the Church, are thereby also His brides; we are brides in the one bride, the Church. This is the way it was from the very beginning. As God says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image.” Being made in God’s image means that God made us to be His spouse. Jesus comes to fulfill, above all else, this reality that was from the very beginning, from the very first words of the very first sentence that has anything to do with man in the Bible. We are made to be God’s spouse, and so now the Divine Bridegroom has come to take us to Himself. All we have to do is give ourselves to Him in return, as a bride gives herself to her bridegroom. If we do and only if we do, will we bear good fruit.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.11.2008

The Heart Holds a Foretaste of Heaven

Not quite a week ago, I started writing a bit about Saint Augustine’s “Of Holy Virginity.” I have now read some more of it and will continue my reflections of it. As stated earlier, Saint Augustine spends the first section of his document on explaining that virginity is a higher calling and gift than marriage. In the middle, he spends a great deal of time talking about the need for virgins not to become, therefore, proud. He talks about Mary Magdalene and how she loves much because she was forgiven much; virgins need to thank God who kept them from falling into many sins, for apart from His divine help, they would, also, have taken that unhappy path.

In the course of this discussion on the need for humility, Saint Augustine mentions Saint Paul and says: “The Apostle says, ‘But I would that all men were as I myself; but each one hath his own proper gift from God; one in this way, and another in that way.’ Who therefore bestoweth these gifts? Who distributeth his own proper gifts unto each as He will? Forsooth God, with Whom there is not unrighteousness, and by this means with what equity He makes some in this way, and others in that way, for man to know is either impossible or altogether hard: but that with equity He maketh, it is not lawful to doubt. ‘What,’ therefore, ‘hast thou, which thou hast not received?’ And by what perversity dost thou less love Him, of Whom thou hast received more?” (#41). God makes different people for different purposes, and every good thing we have and are have been given to us by God. Those who have received much, those given the grace of virginity, should therefore love the more.

So if a virgin is not to be proud, “What therefore should a virgin do, what should she think, that she vaunt not herself above those, men or women, who have not this so great gift? For she ought not to feign humility, but to set it forth: for the feigning of humility is greater pride” (#44). Although virginity is a higher gift, how one lives virginity is an entirely different matter. To begin with, all God-given vocations are a gift from Him. Also, only God is able to judge how well and truly one lives his vocation, whether it be a high, medium or low calling by God. Whatever the greatness or lowness of the calling by God, each vocation is the very path God has called that one to reach heaven. Each path lived well and faithfully leads to deep union with God.

Several paragraphs later Saint Augustine continues the answer of what a virgin should think: “She hath, I say, a subject for thought, that she be not puffed up, that she rival not; forsooth that she so make profession that the virginal good is much greater and better than the married good, as that yet she know not whether this or that married woman be not already able to suffer for Christ, but herself as yet unable, and she herein spared, that her weakness is not put to the question by trial” (#47). Yes, virginity is objectively better than marriage, but they are both good and are pathways to holiness.

We cannot judge or compare ourselves with anyone for we do not know the heart; only God sees that. People with lower vocations may love God and be ready to witness to Him to the point of shedding their blood more than those with higher vocations. The hierarchal placement of the vocation tells us nothing about the holiness of the person. Residing in the heart is the love of God that is a foretaste of heaven, and we simply don’t have access to that knowledge. The best we can do on that front is to try to examine the fruit of that heart, but even that is often done poorly and partially. Thankfully, we have not been given the impossible task of judging another’s heart. God takes care of that for us. Our job is simply to love Him and our neighbor as our self.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.10.2008

We Keep His Commandments

The end of today’s reading from the first Letter of Saint John struck me: “For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith” (5:3-4). If we replace “keep his commandments” with “obedience,” it would say, “The love of God is shown in our obedience to Him.” Jesus said the same thing: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). We show our love through our obedience.

Love gurgles up from a faithful heart that obeys; therefore, God’s laws are not difficult because we have conquered the world through our faith and become His children. When we love God above all things, then we want to please Him above all else, even over all the allurements of the world. In seeking His will only, we conquer the world and faithfully obey our Heavenly Father’s every command.

The united and interwoven themes today are love, obedience, faith, and God’s children. It is the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5 & 16:26) that reveals and proves our love, the love of a child for His father. Jesus came to make us children of God and a new creation and to give us a new heart, a new tree of life that loves and trusts in Him and so obeys Him. Now we can draw close to God and give ourselves entirely to Him; He gives us the grace to become one with Him. That union is a foretaste of heaven. That union, when it comes to complete fruition, is the mystical marriage when our heart and will and life are totally taken up into God. Therein is pure peace and joy. That is the goal of life.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.07.2008

We Do What Pleases Him

There was a beautiful quote from today’s first reading from the first Letter of Saint John that I want to highlight tonight: “Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 John 3:22).

“Please.” Please is a magical word. My mom always told me it was the magic word. We want to please God; therefore, we keep His commandments, and that is why He answers our prayers. On the relational path of pleasing another, we start off wanting to please Our Heavenly Father, and we end up wanting to please our divine Spouse and Bridegroom, Jesus.

My wife is leaning over my shoulder as we eat salsa, hommus, and chips, and she said that God doesn’t always answer our prayers. That is true, for God does not answer every one of our prayers as we want. Let me come back to explain this after I explain something else first.

Yesterday I was talking about Saint Augustine’s book on virginity, and he was quoting and discussing what Saint Paul was saying about marriage and virginity. Paul said: “The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:32-34). The married seek to please their spouse; the virgins seek to please their divine Spouse. This does not mean that married people do not try to please the Lord, but it means that virgins have the ability to have more of an “undivided attention” for God.

The word “please” is a word often used in reference to a spouse. We seek to please the one to whom we are married, and it is right and good to do so. Virgins dedicated to God live the life of heaven here on earth and take God as their sole and primary Spouse. They sacrifice the very great good of an earthly spouse to gain the even greater good of the divine Spouse.

All of us are called to please the Lord and to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Insofar as we love Him and give ourselves to Him, we grow closer to Him and draw closer to becoming His spouse. After drawing close to Him, we do keep His commandments and we do seek to please Him; our wills more and more become as one. Our will and mind ever more closely conform to His will and mind. Our heart loves Him, and we seek to please Him. It is in this state of conformity of our mind and will to God that in our prayer we ask for what pleases God, and He always gives it because it is what He wanted to give all along.

Jesus, in His humanity, struggled with this conformity of His will to the divine will in the Garden of Gethsemane as He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). He did not want to undergo all the suffering that He knew was right around the corner, at least not in His humanity He didn’t. But above all else, Jesus was of one will with the Father, and so that conformity and obedience to the Father is what He wanted in His heart of hearts. He concludes His prayer to be spared the suffering with the prayer to be in union with the Father’s will. In the end, His prayer is only to do the Father’s will.

How do I pray with the very prayer of God? If we give ourselves trustingly into God’s hands, He will teach us and help us to pray: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27). Eventually, if we do not give up and rely increasingly more and more on Him, His heart will become our heart, and His will will become our will.

When you and I love God with a full heart and mind, when our tree of life is strong and bearing good fruit every month, then our prayer will be the very prayer of God Himself, and we will receive whatever we ask of our Father and of our Husband: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to love one another” (John 15:16-17).

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.06.2008

Marriage=Good;Marriage to God=Best

I have continued my reading of “Of Holy Virginity” by Saint Augustine. In paragraph eighteen he is talking to those who have made commitments to perpetual virginity that they see their path, as Saint Paul did, as higher than marriage, which is itself good. Marriage is good, and virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God is better. In my words I say: Marriage to a human person is good, and marriage to God is the best.

“Wherefore I admonish both men and women who follow after perpetual continence and holy virginity, that they so set their own good before marriage, as that they judge not marriage an evil: and that they understand that it was in no way of deceit, but of plain truth that it was said by the Apostle, ‘Whoso gives in marriage does well; and whoso gives not in marriage, does better; and, if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not;’ and a little after, ‘But she wilt be more blessed, if she shall have continued so, according to my judgment.’ And, that the judgment should not be thought human, he adds, ‘But I think I also have the Spirit of God’.” (18)

In the next paragraph Saint Augustine combats the two extremes: one, to say marriage is bad, and two, that marriage and virginity for God are equal. “For whereas both are errors, either to equal marriage to holy virginity, or to condemn it: by fleeing from one another to excess, these two errors come into open collision, in that they have been unwilling to hold the mean of truth: whereby, both by sure reason and authority of holy Scriptures, we both discover that marriage is not a sin, and yet equal it not to the good either of virginal or even of widowed chastity. Some forsooth by aiming at virginity, have thought marriage hateful even as adultery: but others, by defending marriage, would have the excellence of perpetual continence to deserve nothing more than married chastity….” (19)

A bit further on, the saint again addresses virgins encouraging them to love God in their particular manner, to love God more: “Therefore go on, Saints of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men, and women; go on and persevere unto the end. Praise more sweetly the Lord, Whom ye think on more richly: hope more happily in Him, Whom ye serve more instantly: love more ardently Him, whom ye please more attentively. With loins girded, and lamps burning, wait for the Lord, when He cometh from the marriage. Ye shall bring unto the marriage of the Lamb a new song, which ye shall sing on your harps. Not surely such as the whole earth singeth, unto which it is said, ‘Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, the whole earth’: but such as no one shall be able to utter but you.” (27) The virgin should have a special love for God, a special love for the heavenly Bridegroom.

Where does that leave me, a married man who seeks to follow Christ? How can I perfectly follow one who was a virgin? “Therefore let the rest of the faithful, who have lost virginity, follow the Lamb, not whithersoever He shall have gone, but so far as ever they shall have been able. But they are able every where, save when He walks in the grace of virginity.” (28) I can follow Christ in all things save virginity; I have a beautiful song of praise I can sing for my Lord. The virgin has a different and better song of praise that only a virgin can sing, and I am happy that they have that special song of praise to offer God. We each offer our own songs as we each follow our own callings from God. We have an equality with each other as different parts of the body are all a part of one body; yet some parts are more exalted than others, and we need all the parts to make a body.

Paul says it well in 1 Corinthians 12:14-26: For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single organ, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior part, that there may be no discord in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Everyone, married or virgin, is called to marriage with God. The virgin for the sake of the Kingdom lives that marriage to God in a particularly immediate way, but we are all called to that divine intimacy through deep prayer.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Virginity = Fruitfulness = Marriage (to God)

I plan to spend more time in future entries looking at Early Church Fathers and Church documents. Tonight I spent some time reading Saint Augustine’s work called, “Of Holy Virginity” or “De Virginitate.” I read the first twelve paragraphs, and I found four selections worth sharing.

The first comes from paragraph two: “Mary bare the Head of This Body after the flesh, the Church bears the members of that Body after the Spirit. In both virginity hinders not fruitfulness: in both fruitfulness takes not away virginity.” Normally, we think of virginity as being synonymous with barrenness. But in Mary and in the Church, virginity is synonymous with fruitfulness. This ties together well with my main theory; it is also interesting to note that no one is a member of the Church through natural birth. Natural birth does not work and is not enough. We need to be born again. In baptism, we are born again and become a new creation as a child of the virgin mother the Church.

In paragraph four, Saint Augustine talks about how Mary had already made a vow of perpetual virginity before the Angel Gabriel appeared to her: “This is shown by the words which Mary spake in answer to the Angel announcing to her her conception; ‘How,’ saith she, ‘shall this be, seeing I know not a man?’ Which assuredly she would not say, unless she had before vowed herself unto God as a virgin. But, because the habits of the Israelites as yet refused this, she was espoused to a just man, who would not take from her by violence, but rather guard against violent persons, what she had already vowed.” This ties in with my thoughts on Mary’s test.

Saint Augustine moves on in paragraph six to distinguish and compare marriage to virginity: “Forsooth both faithful women who are married, and virgins dedicated to God, by holy manners, and charity out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are after a spiritual sense mothers of Christ. But they who in married life give birth to (children) after the flesh, give birth not to Christ, but to Adam, and therefore run, that their offspring having been dyed in His Sacraments, may become members of Christ, forasmuch as they know what they have given birth to.” In other words, anyone, a married woman or a virgin, who does the will of God is a mother to Christ. Married women, through natural generation, give birth only to a child who is not Christ but a son of man, so mothers run their child over to the Church to have their child be reborn as a child of God, as another Christ.

In paragraph twelve, Saint Augustine has a good paragraph on the distinction between marriage and the life of virginity. “Let marriages possess their own good, not that they beget sons, but that honestly, that lawfully, that modestly, that in a spirit of fellowship they beget them, and educate them, after they have been begotten, with cooperation, with wholesome teaching, and earnest purpose: in that they keep the faith of the couch one with another; in that they violate not the sacrament of wedlock. All these, however, are offices of human duty: but virginal chastity and freedom through pious continence from all sexual intercourse is the portion of Angels, and a practice, in corruptible flesh, of perpetual incorruption. To this let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield, all chastity of married life; the one is not in (man’s) power, the other is not in eternity; free choice hath not fruitfulness of the flesh, heaven hath not chastity of married life. Assuredly they will have something great beyond others in that common immortality, who have something already not of the flesh in the flesh.”

Marriage is very good, but virginity is the best, Saint Augustine is saying. Marriage is very good when children are well begotten and well raised and when the couple is faithful to the sacred marriage vows. However, marriage is of this world; there is no marriage in heaven. Virginity is possible through supernatural grace, is the portion of Angels, is the life of eternity, and will be greatly rewarded both on earth and in heaven.

The Church teaches that virginity is an objectively higher calling than marriage. Marriage is holy and good, yet virginity is better. Both are a vocation or calling. What matters to an individual is the question, “What is God calling me to?” God has different callings for different people; whatever He calls one to is the path He wants that one to take to get to heaven. Everyone is called to holiness and sanctity and to deep prayer. Marriage is a great and holy calling of God, and it is my personal path to holiness.

One last thought: marriage and virginity are essentially the same thing: they are both marriage. The first is marriage to another human person, and the second is marriage to God here on earth. There are of course many practical differences between the two, but at their essential core, they are of the same stuff. In the end, everyone in heaven will have no human person as a spouse, but we will all be married to God. God is asking you, “Will you marry me?” That is an invitation, no matter what your vocation, to deep communion with Him.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.04.2008

Eucharistic/Marital Poem

I want to share another poem I wrote as an undergraduate in college; this one is one of the poems I published in the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s literary magazine. I gave no title to this poem:

Bonded by Your Flesh and Blood
My sisters and brothers and I gather together
We—the ring around Your finger
The bride of Your bedchamber
Beam with joy
The beating drums
Within the walls of our temples
Within the enclosure of our ribs
Pound out Your praises
Dancing—we twirl together
Together forever
Forever as one
The ring around Your finger
The bride of Your bedchamber
You are our blood
Your blood is light
Lightning is our blood
Twirling we dance around
Adorned we dance for You
We are the bride of Your bedchamber
The Most High God takes delight
Yes! You delight


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.03.2008

Nupital Union

Lately, the daily readings at Mass cover some key points that I want to make, and tomorrow’s reading is no exception. The passage I will examine is the first reading which comes from 1 John 3:7-10:
“Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the Devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the Devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.”

To be saved, we have to be righteous, and to be righteous, we have to act in righteousness. Salvation is not some external imputation, for if it is merely an external imputation, then we would still be attached to serious sin, and whoever sins belongs to the Devil. The works of the Devil are to lead us into and keep us bound to sin. The work of God destroys these evil works and gives us the grace to act in righteousness, for there is no salvation apart from interior holiness. With God’s grace, we are truly God’s children with His seed within us which helps us to do and love the good, which helps us to actually love our brother. God transforms us into Himself and perfects and elevates our nature. He seeks the greatest intimacy with you and me, and the symbol of that intimacy is that of marriage.

I end tonight with some words of our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, from his general audience of Wednesday, May 2, 2007, where he quotes the early Church Father, Origen, as well as John Paul the Great:
“The prayer of the Alexandrian [Origen] thus attained the loftiest levels of mysticism, as is attested to by his Homilies on the Song of Songs. A passage is presented in which Origen confessed: ‘I have often felt - God is my witness - that the Bridegroom came to me in the most exalted way. Then he suddenly left, and I was unable to find what I was seeking. Once again, I am taken by the desire for his coming and sometimes he returns, and when he has appeared to me, when I hold him with my hands, once again he flees from me, and when he has vanished I start again to seek him...’ ”(Hom. in Cant. 1, 7).
“I remember what my Venerable Predecessor wrote as an authentic witness in Novo Millennio Ineunte, where he showed the faithful ‘how prayer can progress, as a genuine dialogue of love, to the point of rendering the person wholly possessed by the divine Beloved, vibrating at the Spirit's touch, resting filially within the Father's heart’.”
“ ‘It is’, John Paul II continues, ‘a journey totally sustained by grace, which nonetheless demands an intense spiritual commitment and is no stranger to painful purifications.... But it leads, in various possible ways, to the ineffable joy experienced by mystics as ‘nuptial union' ” ”(n. 33).

God proposes to you saying, “Will you marry me?”

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.02.2008

We are God's True Children

Tomorrow’s first reading is a mighty one, and again it is from the first Letter of Saint John. I will provide it here in its entirety:
“If you consider that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness is begotten by him. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him” (2:29-3:6).

God actually makes us His children; we are not just called His children. God is pure, and there is no sin in Him. We become like Him when we grow in purity and righteousness; those who remain in sin are not really his children. His children make themselves pure and are not attached to serious sin. A good tree bears good fruit. The gospel is that with God’s grace, we become His children, are made a new creation, and actually become inwardly and outwardly good. Salvation is not just getting into heaven. Salvation is being transformed into another Christ and becoming partakers of the divine nature as Saint Peter said:

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

God’s power makes us His children and frees us from the slavery of sin and death and transforms us into Himself. We share in His divine nature and become pure as He is pure. His heart and mind we take on, and it changes everything we do. Now we live for Him and love and think as He loves and thinks. The law is written upon our new heart of flesh, and we actually desire to do what pleases Him. We don’t just worry about getting into trouble or going to hell like a slave would do; we actually love Him and are careful not to hurt the one we love more than life. We are God’s children now, and if we give ourselves more and more to Him and grow in our prayer life and ability to truly love, God will perfect us and make us into His bride. Then we will fully become one flesh with Him.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

1.01.2008

We Shall All Know the Lord

The first reading for tomorrow’s mass is from the first Letter of Saint John, and I would like to take a portion of this reading as my jumping off point tonight:
“As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. And now, children, remain in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming” (2:27-28).

John is addressing the “children” or those who are babes in their understanding of the faith. They were anointed certainly at their baptism and perhaps also at their confirmation. The anointing of baptism remains inside us to teach us about the truth, and we, in turn, need to remain in Him. Baptism gives us the heart and mind of Christ; having been made a new creation with Our Savior’s way of seeing reality, we will come to know the truth as long as we remain in Him. The anointing teaches us because it endowed us with Jesus’ dwelling within us and giving us His heart; we will learn from Him if we continue to remain in Him.

This anointing and new heart reminds me of one of the most important passages of the prophet Jeremiah which is also quoted in Hebrews 8:8ff:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

The key ideas here are new covenant, God as our husband, the law within us on our hearts, our sins forgiven, and we shall all know God. When we enter into the new covenant at our baptism, our sins are wiped away, and we receive a new heart of flesh that desires to please God, our divine spouse. The two shall become one flesh, says Genesis 2:24, and so you and I become one flesh with God, our Husband. The biblical sense of to “know” refers to sexual knowledge, and marriage is the symbol God created to reveal what He desires His relationship would be with us. He asks us: “Will you marry me?”

There is nothing sexual in our relationship with God, but it is most intimate. In baptism, God becomes our God, and we become His people. He becomes our Husband, and we become His bride. He becomes one flesh with us and gives us His very heart to replace our old stony one. With His heart beating within us, with Him dwelling within us, with His mind and will becoming our mind and will, we intimately come to know the Lord.

He asks us at our creation, “Will you marry me?” We take a huge step in our relationship with Him at our baptism. Baptism is our saying yes to God’s question and is our marriage to Him. At our baptism, we are married to God. We renew that commitment with every Holy Communion. Every Communion is like every renewal of the marriage covenant when the husband gives his body to his bride. At Communion we receive the body of our Husband so that we can bear good fruit. If we give ourselves fully to Jesus, and that means pleasing Him in all we think, say and do, He will be able to give Himself fully to us so that we may have life to the full and be full with His fruit.


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

The Circumcision of Christ

It is New Year’s Eve and the vigil of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. In less than 40 minutes, the year 2008 will begin. Following is the gospel for tomorrow’s solemnity mass that I would like to consider tonight:
“The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:16-21).

Do you and I have the humility and simplicity as the shepherds did to run with urgency to find the Holy Family, especially to find the Son of God? Do I seek Him out? Am I amazed by the gospel or do we take it for granted, quickly turning my attention and heart to other concerns? I need to follow Mary’s example who took all these amazing events in and kept them in her heart to consider and unpack them. The shepherds left the Holy Family glorifying and praising God; do I do the same with the good news of salvation, bringing it back to my ordinary, everyday life? Does it affect how I life my life?

These miraculous events changed forever the lives of Joseph and Mary and I would assume the shepherds, too. All of these people who first encountered the living God made man had their hearts focused fully upon Him. They had an undivided heart that rejoiced in His birth, and their hearts were full for the joy of His arrival and for the love that enraptured their hearts. In proportion to how completely they opened their hearts in the direction of He Who Is Love their hearts were full and at peace.

The focus is the heart. When Jesus was eight days old, as was the age-old practice, he was circumcised and given His name. Circumcision in the Old Covenant is the pre-figurement of baptism in the New. They have a number of similarities: they are the passage way to entering the people of God, one is named as a part of the ritual, it is usually performed on infants, and it leaves a lasting mark. God added circumcision because of Abraham’s sin with Hagar as a penance and reminder that life does not come from our resources but is given as a gift by God. When Abraham fell, it was because his heart was hard and did not trust the promise of God to give him a son.

Circumcision is also a symbol of the need to cut away the stony outside of our heart so that we can have a new heart of flesh. It says in Deuteronomy 10:16: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” Circumcision at its deepest meaning is a matter of the heart as Paul said: “real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal” (Romans 2:29).

The majority of Paul’s argument in Galatians is that we no longer need to be circumcised because circumcision was a symbol added because of sin, but now the reality has come. The reality is that Jesus’ heart was circumcised when He gave Himself up fully as a sacrifice on the cross and His heart was pierced. Circumcision is no longer needed because now we have been given the circumcision of Christ: baptism. We are baptized into Jesus’ death, and Jesus died because He trusted and obeyed fully with His heart. In baptism we are given Jesus’ faithful, crucified, pierced and resurrected heart so that we can be faithful, crucified, pierced and one day rise again, too.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he says much the same thing: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11-12). Baptism is our circumcision and the real circumcision. In baptism we receive our new hearts, our new tree of life that we needed ever since the Fall when our first parents turned their hearts away from God and His singular prohibition.

As we celebrate today the circumcision of Jesus as an infant, we can look ahead to when He fulfills that Old Covenant sacrament when His body is nailed to the tree and His Sacred Heart is pierced. Today we can remember and celebrate our own baptism when we received the circumcision of Christ and re-dedicate our hearts to Him that they may be His alone, for that is why we were baptized in the first place. We can fulfill this holy day of obligation by going to mass and receiving Holy Communion which is the fulfillment and celebration of our baptism. In The Sacrament, we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, and the Body we receive is actually Jesus’ heart. It is all about the heart. It is all about eating the tree of life.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Copyright 2007

Thanks for reading.