"Learn to depend on God alone and serve Him with a wholly pure and detached heart. Then you will be able to say 'I do not regret that I have given myself up to Love.'"
This was said by Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, otherwise known as Saint Edith Stein.
She also said, "It is this faith that unites us to him as the members are joined to the head and opens for us the stream of his life. And so faith in the Crucified--a living faith joined to loving surrender--is for us entrance into life and the beginning of future glory." This comes from page 123 of The Science of the Cross, The Collected Works of Edith Stein.
God wants us to be dependent upon Him. He wants us to lovingly cling to Him. This faithful clinging unites us to Him and fills us with life. Abundant life is the fruit of a faithful, loving, complete clinging to God."
One of my main points is that the four rivers coming from one source in Genesis 2:10 is the tree of life mentioned in Genesis 2:9, and both of them represent the heart. Since what we treasure is where our heart is, if we treasure God, our heart is with God. Our heart is the center of our being and is capable of holding all that we value. Treasuring God and what pleases Him opens our deepest self to Him, and since He is existence itself and life itself, our heart is what is capable of holding Life itself. As the receptacle of Life, the heart is the tree of life. As Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross said above, "It is this faith that unites us to him...and opens for us the streams of his life.
God desires such unbounded trust from us. In today's Gospel, Matthew 14: 22-33, Jesus tells Peter after he had the faith to step out of the boat in the storm and walk on the water toward Jesus, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" He chides Peter because Peter got frightened by the strong winds as he was walking across the water, and so he started to sink. Jesus desires us not only to step out of the boat and walk across the water, He also wants us to constantly keep our eyes fixed on Him and not be disturbed by anything, even a very strong wind and storm while we are walking on the sea! How much Jesus wants us to trust Him, and how little we do.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Showing posts with label Tree of Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tree of Life. Show all posts
7.25.2008
"The Paradise of God is the heart of man"
In the adoration chapel today I picked up a book by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori entitled, How to Converse Continually and Familiarly with God. I was actually looking for another book I had picked up last week, but then this one grabbed my attention. I read a few chapters (they were very short), and then I read the chapter “The Paradise of God.” I found a shortened version of the chapter on the Vatican website.
One of the main points of my theory is that our hearts are made for God, that God created them to be His home, that, in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life is the heart. In paradise, man’s heart is the tree of life. If Adam had trusted God in his heart and obeyed, he would have found life.
God’s paradise, that is, His Eden, is man’s heart. Eden means delight. God’s delight is our hearts. He made us so that we could be His. He does not force Himself on us. He does not show us His infinite glory, which would essentially force us to worship Him.
He humbly hides Himself and does a million different things to show us He loves us. We are His delight. If we choose, we can give ourselves to Him completely; only in doing so will we have abundant life. When we give Him our heart, it becomes the tree of life. It is through the love we have for God that we have life, that He fills us with His life.
Here is the summary passage from the Vatican site:
The Paradise of God is the heart of man
"Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum(‘My delights were to be with the children of men.’ Proverbs 8:31). The paradise of God, so to say, is the heart of man.
Does God love you? Then love you Him. (…)
Become accustomed to talking to Him face to face, familiarly, with confidence and love, as to a friend, the dearest friend you have, who loves you so much.
It is a great mistake, as we have seen, to treat God with diffidence (…) An even greater mistake is to suppose that conversing with God is nothing but tedium and bitterness.
No, it is not true. Non… habet amaritudinem conversatio illius, nec taedium convictus illius (‘Her [Wisdom’s] conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness.’ Wisdom 8:16). Ask those souls that love Him with a true love, and they will tell you that amidst the sorrows of their life they find no greater and truer relief than in conversing lovingly with God.
You are not yet required so to apply your minds as to make you forget all your business and all your pleasure.
It is only required of you that without neglecting your occupations you should act towards God as you act towards those whom you love and who love you.
Your God is always with you, indeed inside you: In ipso… vivimus, et movemur, et sumus (‘In him we live and move and be.’ Acts 17:28).
There is no doorkeeper, for whoever wishes to speak to God; indeed, it is God’s pleasure that you should talk familiarly with Him.
Speak to Him of your business, of your plans, of your sorrows, of your fears, and of all that concerns you.
Above all do it, as I have said, with confidence and with an open heart, because God is not accustomed to speak to the soul that does not speak to Him. Such a soul, being unused to dealing with Him, will not well understand His voice when He speaks.
When you desire His love, without waiting for you to approach Him, He will anticipate your desire and will make Himself present to you, bringing all those graces and remedies of which you stand in need. He is only waiting for you to speak, to show you that He is near and is ready to listen to you and to console you (…).
Our God dwells in the highest heavens, but does not disdain to pass days and nights with His faithful children, allowing them a share in His Divine consolations, any one of which surpasses all the delights and pleasures of the world. Only they who have not tried such consolations have no desire for them: Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus (‘O taste and see that the Lord is sweet.’ Psalm 33:9)."
From the “Ascetical Works” of St Alphonsus of Liguori (1696-1787).
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
One of the main points of my theory is that our hearts are made for God, that God created them to be His home, that, in the Garden of Eden, the tree of life is the heart. In paradise, man’s heart is the tree of life. If Adam had trusted God in his heart and obeyed, he would have found life.
God’s paradise, that is, His Eden, is man’s heart. Eden means delight. God’s delight is our hearts. He made us so that we could be His. He does not force Himself on us. He does not show us His infinite glory, which would essentially force us to worship Him.
He humbly hides Himself and does a million different things to show us He loves us. We are His delight. If we choose, we can give ourselves to Him completely; only in doing so will we have abundant life. When we give Him our heart, it becomes the tree of life. It is through the love we have for God that we have life, that He fills us with His life.
Here is the summary passage from the Vatican site:
The Paradise of God is the heart of man
"Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum(‘My delights were to be with the children of men.’ Proverbs 8:31). The paradise of God, so to say, is the heart of man.
Does God love you? Then love you Him. (…)
Become accustomed to talking to Him face to face, familiarly, with confidence and love, as to a friend, the dearest friend you have, who loves you so much.
It is a great mistake, as we have seen, to treat God with diffidence (…) An even greater mistake is to suppose that conversing with God is nothing but tedium and bitterness.
No, it is not true. Non… habet amaritudinem conversatio illius, nec taedium convictus illius (‘Her [Wisdom’s] conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness.’ Wisdom 8:16). Ask those souls that love Him with a true love, and they will tell you that amidst the sorrows of their life they find no greater and truer relief than in conversing lovingly with God.
You are not yet required so to apply your minds as to make you forget all your business and all your pleasure.
It is only required of you that without neglecting your occupations you should act towards God as you act towards those whom you love and who love you.
Your God is always with you, indeed inside you: In ipso… vivimus, et movemur, et sumus (‘In him we live and move and be.’ Acts 17:28).
There is no doorkeeper, for whoever wishes to speak to God; indeed, it is God’s pleasure that you should talk familiarly with Him.
Speak to Him of your business, of your plans, of your sorrows, of your fears, and of all that concerns you.
Above all do it, as I have said, with confidence and with an open heart, because God is not accustomed to speak to the soul that does not speak to Him. Such a soul, being unused to dealing with Him, will not well understand His voice when He speaks.
When you desire His love, without waiting for you to approach Him, He will anticipate your desire and will make Himself present to you, bringing all those graces and remedies of which you stand in need. He is only waiting for you to speak, to show you that He is near and is ready to listen to you and to console you (…).
Our God dwells in the highest heavens, but does not disdain to pass days and nights with His faithful children, allowing them a share in His Divine consolations, any one of which surpasses all the delights and pleasures of the world. Only they who have not tried such consolations have no desire for them: Gustate et videte quoniam suavis est Dominus (‘O taste and see that the Lord is sweet.’ Psalm 33:9)."
From the “Ascetical Works” of St Alphonsus of Liguori (1696-1787).
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.19.2008
The Three Passovers and the Meaning of Life
Tomorrow is Holy Thursday and the celebration of the Lord's Supper when He perfects and completes and fulfills the Passover by Himself becoming the Lamb of God to give us His Flesh and Blood to drink to save us from the angel of death and nourish us with His heavenly food on our journey to the Promised Land, heaven. Almost three months ago I wrote about the Last Supper in two entries. Here is the first one published on December 24, 2007 and entitled "The Three Passovers":
Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea (symbolic of Baptism)
C' Manna in the Wilderness (symbolic of the Eucharist)
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
This is where the first post ends.
The second post on the Passovers was published in the early morning of Christmas Eve, 2007, and it is entitled, "The Meaning of Life." Here it is:
I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitate what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
That is the end of the second entry.
May you and yours be fully blessed by your losing yourself in the celebration of this most Holy Triduum of our Dear Savior's awesome saving deeds. Remember His words: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you" and ask Him that you, too, may earnestly desire to eat this Passover which is Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Most everyone is familiar with the Passover which is explained in Exodus 12; it was the last and most powerful plague that was the impetus for the Egyptians freeing their Israelite slaves. The plague attacked all the Egyptian firstborn; for the Israelite firstborn to be passed over, they had to slaughter an unblemished year-old male lamb, put its blood on their doorpost using a hyssop branch, and eat the lamb.
The Last Supper is a re-presentation of the Passover; Jesus is re-making and fulfilling this ancient and liberating sacrifice and meal. A very important difference in the Last Supper is that Jesus did not finish the Passover as usual; there were four cups of wine in the Passover, but Jesus stopped after the third. He finished the Passover as He was crucified on the cross and drank the vinegar (cheap wine) from the sponge on the hyssop branch: “After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst.’ A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, ‘It is finished’; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:28-30). What Jesus finished is the re-making of the Passover.
The Last Supper and the Crucifixion are of one piece “For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor.5:7). Jesus takes on the role that the lamb plays in the Passover. He is sacrificed, and we are passed over. As the Israelites had to sprinkle the lamb’s blood on the doorpost and eat the lamb to be passed over, so we need to be baptized and receive Holy Communion. Baptism is the lamb’s blood on the doorpost because the “doorway” into our “house” is our eyes and face; therefore, the doorpost is our forehead. The water of baptism is the blood of Christ since we are baptized into Jesus’ death. Through these two essential sacraments, we are given the grace to be passed over by the angel of death.
The one Passover that is usually forgotten is Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac back in Genesis 22. I talked about this momentous event a few days ago on 12/19/07, and it is this event and the faithfulness of both Abraham and Isaac that brings about God’s saving actions with his ancestors, the Israelites. The foundation for the Passover is Isaac’s self offering for it is the only time God explicitly swears an oath. The Crucifixion is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of Isaac’s sacrifice, and the Last Supper is mostly a re-presentation and fulfillment of the Passover. Thus, there is a parallel structure of events that forms one piece, one reality:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One of the common themes here in these three Passovers is the first-born son. In the Passover, not only were the first born Egyptians killed and the first-born Israelites passed over, all of Israel was passed over for they are God’s first-born son: “And you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my first-born son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’; if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your first-born son’” (Exodus 4:22-23).
The other common theme in all of these is the symbolism of baptism and the Eucharist. Even after the Passover, the Israelites had not completed their escape from their enemies. The Egyptians pursued Israel and had them trapped up against the Red Sea with no where to escape. God opened up a way of escape through the water which gave new life to Israel and destroyed their enemies in the process. Once they were out in the wilderness, they grew hungry, and God provided food from heaven. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites again were saved through the water and fed by the heavenly bread. A further structure could look like this:
A Isaac’s Sacrifice
B Passover
C Through the Red Sea (symbolic of Baptism)
C' Manna in the Wilderness (symbolic of the Eucharist)
B’ Last Supper
A’ Jesus’ Sacrifice
One thing we can learn from all this is the immense importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. If we receive baptism and Holy Communion, we are given the grace to pick up our cross and follow Jesus; we are given the new heart, the new tree of life, so that we can lay down our life in our everyday activity, so that we can be a person for others, so that we can love God with all our heart, mind and soul; we are given the grace to lay down our life for our friends and to be crucified alongside our Savior Jesus.
We, the baptized, are making our journey through the desert of this life on our way to the Promised Land, heaven. To make our way well, we need our daily bread which is daily prayer and Holy Communion. Many of the Israelites who ate the manna died along the way and did not make it to the Promised Land because of their faithless hearts. Likewise, just receiving the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist does not guarantee anything. We still have to step out in faith and follow our Lord wherever He leads and do whatever He asks. We still need to give ourselves entirely to Him. Thankfully, He provides even the grace to do that.
What I would like to examine next is the significance of the first-born in these key events and how it might possibly relate to the Fall of Adam and Eve.
This is where the first post ends.
The second post on the Passovers was published in the early morning of Christmas Eve, 2007, and it is entitled, "The Meaning of Life." Here it is:
I left off on Tuesday in my post on The Three Passovers introducing the idea of the importance of the first-born. The three Passovers, Isaac’s sacrifice, the Passover, and Jesus’ sacrifice all deal with the first-born. Isaac is the first-born, and he offers himself up as a sacrifice; he was passed over with a ram taking his place. Israel is God’s first-born, and they were passed over by the blood of the lamb on their doorposts and by eating the lamb. Jesus is the Father’s only-begotten Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus, as pre-eminent first-born, sacrifices Himself in order for you and me to be passed over. We are united to Him in baptism and Holy Communion wherein we put His blood on our doorpost and eat the Lamb, respectively.
In the first two Passovers, the first-born was passed over; in the final one, the first-born is the sacrifice. Is there another first-born that was passed over in Jesus’ saving actions? -Perhaps it is you and me: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16). Paul speaks of the Church as the Israel of God; therefore, since Israel is God’s first-born, and we are now the New Israel, we and all members of the Church are God’s first-born. So we are first-born who are passed over by the angel of death, and our Passover Lamb is Jesus at the Last Supper and on the Cross.
The question that arises in my mind is why is the first-born so important, and why does it hold such a pivotal place in these highly important events in Salvation History? As usual, I think the answer lies in the events at the beginning. The course the man and the woman set the human race upon is the answer to much of human history and to the questions we have today. According to my theory, the direct result of the Fall was the conception of Cain. They wanted him and were trying to get him; hence, his name means gotten. He was the first-born of the human race. He was a murderer and a son of the evil one. The first-born son of man belonged, in a certain respect, to satan, and Cain gave himself over to his ways and so slaughtered his righteous brother.
Cain imitated his fathers in killing his brother: humanity is like a brother to the angels, and satan wants to destroy us and has destroyed many of us; Adam’s fall resulted in the spiritual death of the human race. Both satan and Adam murdered their brothers so to speak, and Cain only imitated what they did. In one sense it is amazing just how bad the very first person born of man was, yet in another sense, Cain was merely a chip off the old block. Either way you look at it, humanity’s fruitfulness started off with a horrible beginning. And his name was Cain for he was gotten. He was gotten.
So why did the first-born need to be sacrificed or passed over? A clue resides in the three main sacrifices of the Old Testament: bulls, sheep and goats. Bulls needed to be sacrificed because people were worshipping bulls and the bull-god, Apis. The Golden Calf was part of this worship where people were seeking fertility and prosperity and so the men and women would imitate what bulls would do to female cattle. Seeking life, they had an orgy. The result, they hoped, would be a conception: thus, the golden calf. Here, too, they were seeking a child, and they sought this child in a way contrary to their dignity, to God’s plan, and to trusting in God. After the golden calf, bulls needed to be sacrificed as a financial penance and so that the people would no longer worship them.
After the Golden Calf, the people went after another false god symbolized by goats. It was another fertility cult, and the people were again seeking life and a child in their own way and by their own terms. “So they shall no more slay their sacrifices for satyrs, after whom they play the harlot” (Leviticus 17:7). The satyrs are the goat gods who are obsessed with continually having sex, and those who worship these false gods would imitate them. Since the people were involved with this evil practice, God had them sacrifice goats. Again, it was a financial difficulty to sacrifice one’s livestock, and one’s gods did not look kindly on being killed. It was a God-given help to avoid this near occasion of sin.
Sacrificing bulls and goats was mandated because they were worshipped. Sheep were never worshipped, so why would God have us sacrifice them? A sheep is the sacrifice of the Passover, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are the most important animal sacrifice, but why does God mandate this sacrifice? Was their any sin associated with sheep or lambs? I think there was. Sheep symbolize humanity. We are like sheep; we are incredibly stupid. So sheep need to be sacrificed because they symbolize us; we worshipped ourselves. When did we do this? We do it every time we sin, but we do it especially when we seek humans over God.
The man and the woman sought a child over and against God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted them to have a child, but He wanted to give it to them virginally as He did with Mary. They sought a child, and they got him, and they named him gotten (Cain). So here the theme of the first-born and sheep come together. The Passovers all have to do with sheep and with first-borns because our first parents worshiped, as it were, their first-born son and even disobeyed God to get him. Their souls were sold to satan in order to get Gotten; that is why he and all of the human family needs to be bought back or redeemed from the prince of this world.
We all deserve death and are in bondage to sin and satan, and we are like lambs, so the solution is for a lamb to take our place that we may be passed over and live. That is why sheep were sacrificed in the Old Testament, but those “sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper” (Hebrews 9:9). These Old Testament laws were good, but they were the symbol, not the reality. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1). Those sacrifices do not make perfect; however, Jesus’ sacrifice is capable of such a feat.
“For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’’ as it is written of me in the roll of the book” (Hebrews 10:4-7). We are given a body in order to have something to sacrifice, and with our bodily sacrifices we are praying with the body. We are given a will in order that we can sacrifice that, too, and by saying “Thy will be done,” we are praying the most important prayer. Prayer and sacrifice, the prayer of the heart and of prayer of the body, when they are combined are the most powerful. When we completely trust God and seek to do whatever He asks of us, especially what He asks us to do with our bodies, then we are far along the path to unity with Him. It is in this full faithfulness that we have abundant life and belong to Him, and that is the meaning of life.
That is the end of the second entry.
May you and yours be fully blessed by your losing yourself in the celebration of this most Holy Triduum of our Dear Savior's awesome saving deeds. Remember His words: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you" and ask Him that you, too, may earnestly desire to eat this Passover which is Him.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.12.2008
"When You Lift Up the Son of Man"
In the first reading today from Numbers 21:4-9 there is the story of the Israelites complaining in the desert about their lack of food and water and accusing God that He brought them into the desert to kill them. God was taking care of them but not in the way that they wanted; their patience was worn out, and they called God a murderer, essentially. They accused God of being Satan. God responds by sending them seraph serpents to bite and kill them.
Since they called God Satan, He showed them what Satan would do to them. In the Garden of Eden, Satan came as a serpent and as the murderer of the human race; God sends images of the evil one to do what he does, and so they are bit and many die. The antidote to these venomous snakes is to look on a bronze serpent mounted on a pole. When they look at an image of what they called God and so repent of what they had done, they are healed.
In the gospel from John 8:21-30, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and says to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always to what is pleasing to him” (8:28-29). The communion antiphon comes from John 12:32: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself, says the Lord.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of the bronze serpent mounted on a pole that brought healing. Jesus’ skin was most likely bronze in color, and He was mounted on a tree for the healing of the nations. How does the bronze serpent help us to understand what Jesus did? The Israelites were hungry, thirsty, tired, bored and fed-up with all the ceaseless wandering in the desert. They accused God of seeking their destruction, and in so doing, they were essentially calling Him Satan.
In John 8:25 when the Pharisees asked Jesus who He was, He responded saying, “What I told you from the beginning.” The words “serpent” and “beginning” bring us back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 1-3. According to my theory, the man and the woman were hungry and thirsty for a child, the child God implicitly promised when He said to be fruitful and multiply. Since He commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. not have sexual relations, they were in a metaphorical lifeless desert. They got fed up waiting for the promised child, much like Abraham and Sarah did with Isaac, and they listened and obeyed the voice of the serpent who promised them life. He promised them that they would be like God; they primarily knew God to be the Creator and giver of life, and so they, too, wanted to be like Him and give life by making a man.
By looking at the bronze serpent the Israelites could see what they had called God. What can you and I see when we look upon our crucified Lord? On the one hand, we can see that the man and the woman and you and I rely upon our own strength for our life instead of trusting in God. The man and the woman were tested to trust in God for their life and fruitfulness, but they chose to utilize the strength of their bodies, contrary to God’s singular command, in order to give life and have a baby. They were saying that it was by their bodies that they would have and give life. Looking at Jesus on the crucifix, we know that they who loose their life are given life, and they who let their bodies die who will rise again.
The man and the woman did not trust God’s command and did not believe that He would take care of them in their desert. They did not believe that He had their best interest at heart. It made no sense to them that they should be fruitful and multiply and yet not have sexual relations, so God must be playing a cruel trick on them and He was not to be trusted. The serpent was trustworthy, they thought, and by clinging to life and utilizing the generative powers of their bodies they would have life.
Jesus’ crucified body on the tree signals that it is in trusting God to the point of death that one has life. He gave birth to the Church when His heart was pierced and blood and water flowed out just like at a birth, and so He shows that life and birth come primarily through a circumcised and trusting heart. The heart, i.e. the tree of life, is that through which we trust in God and so have life.
In the passage quoted above Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man.” He does not say the Son of God but the Son of Man. Jesus is the Son of Man, i.e. the Son of Adam. Because of the man’s faithless, uncircumcised heart of stone, all humanity fell, and the actual result of the act which was the Fall was Cain. We are all sons of man, but we are made to be sons of God; that is why the Son of God became a Son of Man. On the crucifix we also see the Son of Man; we see the humanity that was the result of Adam’s sin (not that Jesus had original sin).
Gazing on the crucifix and meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, we learn to what extent God goes to redeem us. We see His boundless love. We learn that it is not by our strength that we have life but by obedience to every word which comes from God. We learn that it is the loving, trusting and obedient heart that is the tree of life. We learn that we need to get rid of our old faithless heart given to us by Adam, and that we need the new heart of Jesus which we receive when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and every time we receive Him in Holy Communion. We learn that God provides to the one who puts his trust in Him as we wander throughout this desert. The crucifix and the Passion are the antidote to everything, to every sin which ails us; the crucified and risen heart of Jesus which we receive in the Eucharist is the tree of life, our new trusting heart, and the healing for the nations from the bite of the serpent. With Jesus' heart within us, we can say with Him: "I always do what is pleasing to Him."
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Since they called God Satan, He showed them what Satan would do to them. In the Garden of Eden, Satan came as a serpent and as the murderer of the human race; God sends images of the evil one to do what he does, and so they are bit and many die. The antidote to these venomous snakes is to look on a bronze serpent mounted on a pole. When they look at an image of what they called God and so repent of what they had done, they are healed.
In the gospel from John 8:21-30, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and says to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always to what is pleasing to him” (8:28-29). The communion antiphon comes from John 12:32: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself, says the Lord.”
Jesus is the fulfillment of the bronze serpent mounted on a pole that brought healing. Jesus’ skin was most likely bronze in color, and He was mounted on a tree for the healing of the nations. How does the bronze serpent help us to understand what Jesus did? The Israelites were hungry, thirsty, tired, bored and fed-up with all the ceaseless wandering in the desert. They accused God of seeking their destruction, and in so doing, they were essentially calling Him Satan.
In John 8:25 when the Pharisees asked Jesus who He was, He responded saying, “What I told you from the beginning.” The words “serpent” and “beginning” bring us back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 1-3. According to my theory, the man and the woman were hungry and thirsty for a child, the child God implicitly promised when He said to be fruitful and multiply. Since He commanded them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. not have sexual relations, they were in a metaphorical lifeless desert. They got fed up waiting for the promised child, much like Abraham and Sarah did with Isaac, and they listened and obeyed the voice of the serpent who promised them life. He promised them that they would be like God; they primarily knew God to be the Creator and giver of life, and so they, too, wanted to be like Him and give life by making a man.
By looking at the bronze serpent the Israelites could see what they had called God. What can you and I see when we look upon our crucified Lord? On the one hand, we can see that the man and the woman and you and I rely upon our own strength for our life instead of trusting in God. The man and the woman were tested to trust in God for their life and fruitfulness, but they chose to utilize the strength of their bodies, contrary to God’s singular command, in order to give life and have a baby. They were saying that it was by their bodies that they would have and give life. Looking at Jesus on the crucifix, we know that they who loose their life are given life, and they who let their bodies die who will rise again.
The man and the woman did not trust God’s command and did not believe that He would take care of them in their desert. They did not believe that He had their best interest at heart. It made no sense to them that they should be fruitful and multiply and yet not have sexual relations, so God must be playing a cruel trick on them and He was not to be trusted. The serpent was trustworthy, they thought, and by clinging to life and utilizing the generative powers of their bodies they would have life.
Jesus’ crucified body on the tree signals that it is in trusting God to the point of death that one has life. He gave birth to the Church when His heart was pierced and blood and water flowed out just like at a birth, and so He shows that life and birth come primarily through a circumcised and trusting heart. The heart, i.e. the tree of life, is that through which we trust in God and so have life.
In the passage quoted above Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man.” He does not say the Son of God but the Son of Man. Jesus is the Son of Man, i.e. the Son of Adam. Because of the man’s faithless, uncircumcised heart of stone, all humanity fell, and the actual result of the act which was the Fall was Cain. We are all sons of man, but we are made to be sons of God; that is why the Son of God became a Son of Man. On the crucifix we also see the Son of Man; we see the humanity that was the result of Adam’s sin (not that Jesus had original sin).
Gazing on the crucifix and meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, we learn to what extent God goes to redeem us. We see His boundless love. We learn that it is not by our strength that we have life but by obedience to every word which comes from God. We learn that it is the loving, trusting and obedient heart that is the tree of life. We learn that we need to get rid of our old faithless heart given to us by Adam, and that we need the new heart of Jesus which we receive when we are baptized into Jesus’ death and every time we receive Him in Holy Communion. We learn that God provides to the one who puts his trust in Him as we wander throughout this desert. The crucifix and the Passion are the antidote to everything, to every sin which ails us; the crucified and risen heart of Jesus which we receive in the Eucharist is the tree of life, our new trusting heart, and the healing for the nations from the bite of the serpent. With Jesus' heart within us, we can say with Him: "I always do what is pleasing to Him."
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.05.2008
Moses Wrote About Jesus & The Life-Receiving Heart
The Gospel for tomorrow’s Mass comes from John 5:31-47, and I would like to examine a sentence or two in the middle and at the end of this passage. Here are the two passages from 5:39-40 & 45-47: “You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life….Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Jesus’ point here is that He is the source of eternal life, and that to obtain eternal life it is necessary to believe in Him. People search the Bible for life, but what the Bible points to and reveals is Jesus. The Scriptures in general testify on behalf of Jesus, and Moses in particular wrote about Jesus. If one rejects Moses’ writings, he will be deaf to Jesus’ words.
One of my assumptions is that the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses or the Torah, go a long way in preparing the way and revealing who Jesus is and what He came to do. My theory revolves around the first three chapters of Genesis, in fact, and there are many more clues and much more evidence in support of my theory in the remainder of the Pentateuch. The better one understands the Pentateuch and its beginning in the first three chapters of Genesis, the better one is able to understand the person and mission of Jesus and His Church. It is also true that the better one understands the Old Testament as a whole, the more one is able to fully and truthfully understand the New Testament.
My theory makes much progress in understanding the Old Testament, and, as such, it helps to better and more fully understand what Jesus did, why He did it, and how we need to respond to His saving actions and death on the cross. I spend a good bit of my time writing, you may have noticed, commenting on the readings of the day for Mass since the basic outline of my theory can be applied to just about anywhere in the Bible to much good effect. That is part of the reason I have been skipping around and commenting on the readings of the day; one of the other reasons I do this is because I don’t think my theory could be proved in an absolute, syllogistically logical manner; if it is going to be proved, it will be largely through thousands of other passages which connect to the beginning of Genesis and which both illuminate Genesis and are illuminated by it.
Another point from today’s Gospel comes when Jesus says, “you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent” (John 5:38). God’s word abides in us when we believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus results in God’s word abiding within us. Believing in Jesus is how we are saved and have eternal life. Believing in Jesus means coming to Him for our life. Believing in Moses opens us to believe in Jesus. Belief is a matter of the heart, and, as such, the heart is the conduit for being saved, having eternal life, being a home for God’s Word, and coming to Jesus for life. In other words, the believing heart is the life-receiving heart; the heart is the tree of life.
What I was just saying reminded me of part of today’s Gospel which comes from the passage right before tomorrow’s passage in John. The segment I want to highlight is:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5: 25-29).
Hearing and believing in the Father through Jesus is what gives eternal life; the Father and Jesus have life in themselves, and those who do good deeds, that is, obey, will be connected to their life and so have the resurrection of life. As I have said many times, our salvation and eternal life, that is the tree of life, is the loving, trusting, and obedient heart. The heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the vehicle through which God imparts to us life here on earth and life everlasting in heaven.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Jesus’ point here is that He is the source of eternal life, and that to obtain eternal life it is necessary to believe in Him. People search the Bible for life, but what the Bible points to and reveals is Jesus. The Scriptures in general testify on behalf of Jesus, and Moses in particular wrote about Jesus. If one rejects Moses’ writings, he will be deaf to Jesus’ words.
One of my assumptions is that the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses or the Torah, go a long way in preparing the way and revealing who Jesus is and what He came to do. My theory revolves around the first three chapters of Genesis, in fact, and there are many more clues and much more evidence in support of my theory in the remainder of the Pentateuch. The better one understands the Pentateuch and its beginning in the first three chapters of Genesis, the better one is able to understand the person and mission of Jesus and His Church. It is also true that the better one understands the Old Testament as a whole, the more one is able to fully and truthfully understand the New Testament.
My theory makes much progress in understanding the Old Testament, and, as such, it helps to better and more fully understand what Jesus did, why He did it, and how we need to respond to His saving actions and death on the cross. I spend a good bit of my time writing, you may have noticed, commenting on the readings of the day for Mass since the basic outline of my theory can be applied to just about anywhere in the Bible to much good effect. That is part of the reason I have been skipping around and commenting on the readings of the day; one of the other reasons I do this is because I don’t think my theory could be proved in an absolute, syllogistically logical manner; if it is going to be proved, it will be largely through thousands of other passages which connect to the beginning of Genesis and which both illuminate Genesis and are illuminated by it.
Another point from today’s Gospel comes when Jesus says, “you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent” (John 5:38). God’s word abides in us when we believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus results in God’s word abiding within us. Believing in Jesus is how we are saved and have eternal life. Believing in Jesus means coming to Him for our life. Believing in Moses opens us to believe in Jesus. Belief is a matter of the heart, and, as such, the heart is the conduit for being saved, having eternal life, being a home for God’s Word, and coming to Jesus for life. In other words, the believing heart is the life-receiving heart; the heart is the tree of life.
What I was just saying reminded me of part of today’s Gospel which comes from the passage right before tomorrow’s passage in John. The segment I want to highlight is:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5: 25-29).
Hearing and believing in the Father through Jesus is what gives eternal life; the Father and Jesus have life in themselves, and those who do good deeds, that is, obey, will be connected to their life and so have the resurrection of life. As I have said many times, our salvation and eternal life, that is the tree of life, is the loving, trusting, and obedient heart. The heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the vehicle through which God imparts to us life here on earth and life everlasting in heaven.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
3.03.2008
Why The Trees Aren't Reversed
I received a comment containing a question from 2.29.08. Here is the question: "I am not familiar with your theory (although I'd like to be) but I'm curious to know why the trees' representations aren't reversed -- The tree of life being our power and ability to conceive children and the tree of knowledge being the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God."
God put us on this earth, but He made us for heaven. We spend a very short time here on earth; it is but a brief stop on the journey to our true and everlasting homeland. We have eternal life only through our love, trust and obedience of God; we begin our eternal life here on earth by our union with Him; if we don't, then there is no eternal life in heaven for us when we die. Life, in the fullest sense of the word, is only given to us insofar as we are united to God, and our unity with God only happens via a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. The heart is the channel through which we receive God's life. God's life is the life of our soul, and we have nothing, we are nothing, we have no life if we don't have God dwelling within us.
Having children is a wonderful reality and a marvelous gift from God. Raising children is one of the best God-given ways that He shows us and provides the arena for us to learn how to love, to learn how to be a self-sacrificing lover. One of the best adult educations is raising children; I remember Scott Hahn having a plaque in his office saying: "The best adult education--children." As much a blessing as having children is, it is not what gives us supernatural or everlasting life. The children we do have need to be born again in baptism for they are born spiritually dead without sanctifying grace. What really matters in the end is God's life in our soul, and that life only comes from the tree of life: the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. Marriage and children are a God-given calling to lead us and help us on our way to heaven, but there is no help in them if our heart is separated from God.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have children because this is what served as the test of faith that God established for our first parents. Why it is given this name I haven't fully digested yet. I think there are a number of viable possibilities for why it has this name. For now, I am not going to get into this question.
Mary fulfilled the test of faith that the woman (after the Fall named Eve, mother) failed. Mary ate fully of her tree of life and trusted in God when it did not make sense. I have discussed Mary's test in a few other places. Because she ate of her tree of life, God provided her with a Son. He is no ordinary son, and God also gives all humanity to Mary as her children. Mary trusted God to provide her with children virginally, and God made her the greatest mother of all time. So Mary did have children through her tree of life, but only after she passed her crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. Mary does not rely on her own abilities to provide life; rather, she trusts wholly in God, and He satisfies her greatest desires and infinitely more so. God is such a good God who wants us to be fully alive and our deepest desires abundantly fulfilled to overflowing. If we place ourselves entirely in His hands, we will be blessed beyond measure.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
God put us on this earth, but He made us for heaven. We spend a very short time here on earth; it is but a brief stop on the journey to our true and everlasting homeland. We have eternal life only through our love, trust and obedience of God; we begin our eternal life here on earth by our union with Him; if we don't, then there is no eternal life in heaven for us when we die. Life, in the fullest sense of the word, is only given to us insofar as we are united to God, and our unity with God only happens via a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. The heart is the channel through which we receive God's life. God's life is the life of our soul, and we have nothing, we are nothing, we have no life if we don't have God dwelling within us.
Having children is a wonderful reality and a marvelous gift from God. Raising children is one of the best God-given ways that He shows us and provides the arena for us to learn how to love, to learn how to be a self-sacrificing lover. One of the best adult educations is raising children; I remember Scott Hahn having a plaque in his office saying: "The best adult education--children." As much a blessing as having children is, it is not what gives us supernatural or everlasting life. The children we do have need to be born again in baptism for they are born spiritually dead without sanctifying grace. What really matters in the end is God's life in our soul, and that life only comes from the tree of life: the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. Marriage and children are a God-given calling to lead us and help us on our way to heaven, but there is no help in them if our heart is separated from God.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have children because this is what served as the test of faith that God established for our first parents. Why it is given this name I haven't fully digested yet. I think there are a number of viable possibilities for why it has this name. For now, I am not going to get into this question.
Mary fulfilled the test of faith that the woman (after the Fall named Eve, mother) failed. Mary ate fully of her tree of life and trusted in God when it did not make sense. I have discussed Mary's test in a few other places. Because she ate of her tree of life, God provided her with a Son. He is no ordinary son, and God also gives all humanity to Mary as her children. Mary trusted God to provide her with children virginally, and God made her the greatest mother of all time. So Mary did have children through her tree of life, but only after she passed her crucifixion of her greatest earthly desire. Mary does not rely on her own abilities to provide life; rather, she trusts wholly in God, and He satisfies her greatest desires and infinitely more so. God is such a good God who wants us to be fully alive and our deepest desires abundantly fulfilled to overflowing. If we place ourselves entirely in His hands, we will be blessed beyond measure.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.29.2008
Hosea 14: "From Me Comes Your Fruit"
The last chapter of the Book of the Prophet Hosea, the first reading for Mass today, is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Hosea, under God’s direction, marries a harlot named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. God had said to Hosea, “Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1). Hosea is to do what God does: love an unfaithful wife. Each of us sins, and so we are an unfaithful wife to God, but that does not extinguish God’s love for us. God hates our sin and calls us back to Himself; when we turn back to Him through God’s unrelenting tenacity, “in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’ ” (Hosea 2:16).
The final chapter of this amazing book of the Bible goes like this:
Thus says the LORD: return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; we shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; he shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; they shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree”– because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them (Hosea 14:2-10).
And so the words of the prophet come to an end. If we understand what he is saying here, according to him, we will have wisdom. What is that wisdom? It is primarily this: “I am like a verdant cypress tree—because of me you bear fruit!” The RSVCE states it as such: “I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit.” God is merciful and forgiving, and He will forgive and heal us if we are humble and turn to Him. We will be destroyed if we persist in our disobedience and separation from Him. Turning to Him and giving ourselves entirely into His hands, we will become like a lily, an olive tree, a Lebanon cedar, a blossoming vine, and the wine of Lebanon, God is like a tree who is always green, and from Him comes our fruit.
God makes us fruitful. We bear fruit through God’s power and grace. This is true on at least two levels. On the one hand, God is the one who provides children, and on the other hand, He is also the one who gives us the grace to do anything good that we do. Bearing babies is one way we bear fruit, and the other way we bear fruit is through all the good that we do. Both are fruit, and they were symbolized by the two trees in the Garden of Eden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life symbolizes the heart which loves, trusts and obeys God; therefore, it is the tree which always does the good, and so it is united to God, the source of all life. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, according to my theory, is our power and ability to conceive children.
What we need to learn is, and where wisdom is found is in this passage here: God provides. He makes us fruitful. He is the source of life and children, and He is the source of goodness and every good action. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, these two forms of providing fruit are fulfilled. God makes Mary filled with His life and a plenitude of virtue and trust in Him; that trust in God within her heart is rewarded with the most exalted reality: God gave Mary His own Son to conceive, bear, and raise as her own Son. God provides life and virtue, and He provides His very own Son to be Mary’s Son.
What that means for you and me is that, on the one hand, we need to realize that anything good that we have ever, are doing, or will ever do is because God has given us the grace to do so. On the other hand, we need to realize that children are a gift from Him, and they are not to be shunned as a burden or sought after regardless of the means (i.e. in vitro fertilization) as if we had a right to them. We are to welcome and thank God for our gifts, both our virtues and our children.
God is Father. One of the primary roles of a father is to provide for his children. Unless we become like children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God because children are totally dependant upon their parents. God wants us to be totally dependant upon Him and upon His provision for us. This does not mean that He wants us to be childish or big babies. Parents don’t want their children to be helpless, hopeless, childish brats. We need to be strong and mature, all the while knowing that our strength and life and love come from Him. He wants us to trust Him, to cling to Him, to rely on Him for everything, to call Him “Father,” or “Abba” or “Dad.”
The danger of being “rich” in any way whether it is regarding money or fame, intelligence or abilities, beauty or health, family or friends, the danger of riches is that we tend to forget that we need God and that every good that we have is His gift. We are like the fickle, self-absorbed friend who only calls when he needs something; we tend to only remember Him when we are in trouble and we need something from God. No one likes to be treated like a sugar daddy or a slot machine or a fast food restaurant or a spa or an amusement park or an ATM machine or a witch doctor. God doesn’t let Himself be used like that for He isn’t an object for our use. He is a person (three to be exact), and He wants to be in the most intimate relationship with us; He is meant to be our husband, and so He is jealous for our love. He is the very best of husbands, and only in giving ourselves totally to Him are we truly happy and satisfied. Nothing else quenches the infinite longings of our soul because that is how He fashioned us. As Saint Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The final chapter of this amazing book of the Bible goes like this:
Thus says the LORD: return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; we shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; he shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; they shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree”– because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them (Hosea 14:2-10).
And so the words of the prophet come to an end. If we understand what he is saying here, according to him, we will have wisdom. What is that wisdom? It is primarily this: “I am like a verdant cypress tree—because of me you bear fruit!” The RSVCE states it as such: “I am like an evergreen cypress, from me comes your fruit.” God is merciful and forgiving, and He will forgive and heal us if we are humble and turn to Him. We will be destroyed if we persist in our disobedience and separation from Him. Turning to Him and giving ourselves entirely into His hands, we will become like a lily, an olive tree, a Lebanon cedar, a blossoming vine, and the wine of Lebanon, God is like a tree who is always green, and from Him comes our fruit.
God makes us fruitful. We bear fruit through God’s power and grace. This is true on at least two levels. On the one hand, God is the one who provides children, and on the other hand, He is also the one who gives us the grace to do anything good that we do. Bearing babies is one way we bear fruit, and the other way we bear fruit is through all the good that we do. Both are fruit, and they were symbolized by the two trees in the Garden of Eden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life symbolizes the heart which loves, trusts and obeys God; therefore, it is the tree which always does the good, and so it is united to God, the source of all life. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, according to my theory, is our power and ability to conceive children.
What we need to learn is, and where wisdom is found is in this passage here: God provides. He makes us fruitful. He is the source of life and children, and He is the source of goodness and every good action. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, these two forms of providing fruit are fulfilled. God makes Mary filled with His life and a plenitude of virtue and trust in Him; that trust in God within her heart is rewarded with the most exalted reality: God gave Mary His own Son to conceive, bear, and raise as her own Son. God provides life and virtue, and He provides His very own Son to be Mary’s Son.
What that means for you and me is that, on the one hand, we need to realize that anything good that we have ever, are doing, or will ever do is because God has given us the grace to do so. On the other hand, we need to realize that children are a gift from Him, and they are not to be shunned as a burden or sought after regardless of the means (i.e. in vitro fertilization) as if we had a right to them. We are to welcome and thank God for our gifts, both our virtues and our children.
God is Father. One of the primary roles of a father is to provide for his children. Unless we become like children, we cannot enter the kingdom of God because children are totally dependant upon their parents. God wants us to be totally dependant upon Him and upon His provision for us. This does not mean that He wants us to be childish or big babies. Parents don’t want their children to be helpless, hopeless, childish brats. We need to be strong and mature, all the while knowing that our strength and life and love come from Him. He wants us to trust Him, to cling to Him, to rely on Him for everything, to call Him “Father,” or “Abba” or “Dad.”
The danger of being “rich” in any way whether it is regarding money or fame, intelligence or abilities, beauty or health, family or friends, the danger of riches is that we tend to forget that we need God and that every good that we have is His gift. We are like the fickle, self-absorbed friend who only calls when he needs something; we tend to only remember Him when we are in trouble and we need something from God. No one likes to be treated like a sugar daddy or a slot machine or a fast food restaurant or a spa or an amusement park or an ATM machine or a witch doctor. God doesn’t let Himself be used like that for He isn’t an object for our use. He is a person (three to be exact), and He wants to be in the most intimate relationship with us; He is meant to be our husband, and so He is jealous for our love. He is the very best of husbands, and only in giving ourselves totally to Him are we truly happy and satisfied. Nothing else quenches the infinite longings of our soul because that is how He fashioned us. As Saint Augustine said, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.25.2008
"Those Who Trust in You Cannot Be Put to Shame"
Tuesday’s first reading comes from the book of Daniel 3: 25, 34-43. Azariah (named Abednego by the Babylonian in charge of him) and two others from the tribe of Judah would not fall down and worship the false god King Nebuchadnezzar set up. For their punishment, they were thrown into the fiery furnace. While in the fiery furnace, Azariah stood up and prayed aloud:
“For your name’s sake, O Lord, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, to whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea. For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins. We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no burnt offering, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you. But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; as though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.”
Surely this is an extremely heartfelt and urgent prayer showing forth the beauty of the heart that trusts in God. Let’s examine this prayer a bit. The beginning asks for God’s mercy as He remembers His covenants with the patriarchs, and then it moves to acknowledging his sins and the sins of God’s people. In their present state, both he and God’s people have nothing of sacrifices to offer God, nor have they a leader to draw them closer to Him.
The heart of the prayer is in the center: even though we have sinned and have nothing for leadership or in the way of sacrifices, we do have humble, contrite hearts which, entirely trusting in God, follow Him without reserve. Azariah prays to God that He might accept his sacrifice of following God with his whole heart in place of burnt offerings and sacrifices which were usually offered. He ends his prayer seeking God’s kindness and great mercy to deliver them from their ever-present and all-consuming ordeal.
The story ends with God delivering the three young men from the fiery furnace. Once again, the centrality and immense importance of the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God above all things is shown forth clearly. We have God’s life in our souls when our heart completely trusts God and follows Him in all things; it is the tree of life, and there is no other. God desires us to have such a heart beating within the walls of our rib cage, and His plan is to give us that heart, Jesus’ heart pierced on the cross and resurrected to new life, in the Holy Eucharist. That is what the Eucharist is, and, as such, it is our tree of life which enables us to love, trust and obey God in all things and at all times, so that we too may offer ourselves as living sacrifices upon the Calvary of our life.
On another, related note, the gospel today, Matthew 18: 21-35, is powerful. It is hitting home with me in new and more powerful ways; on my retreat, it was one of the main themes that was running through my mind. God has been and is so merciful to me on countless occasions, and how little am I merciful to those indebted to me. May I have God’s mercy in my heart to those in my debt.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“For your name’s sake, O Lord, do not deliver us up forever, or make void your covenant. Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved, Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one, to whom you promised to multiply their offspring like the stars of heaven, or the sand on the shore of the sea. For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation, brought low everywhere in the world this day because of our sins. We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no burnt offering, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you. But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received; as though it were burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame. And now we follow you with our whole heart, we fear you and we pray to you. Do not let us be put to shame, but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy. Deliver us by your wonders, and bring glory to your name, O Lord.”
Surely this is an extremely heartfelt and urgent prayer showing forth the beauty of the heart that trusts in God. Let’s examine this prayer a bit. The beginning asks for God’s mercy as He remembers His covenants with the patriarchs, and then it moves to acknowledging his sins and the sins of God’s people. In their present state, both he and God’s people have nothing of sacrifices to offer God, nor have they a leader to draw them closer to Him.
The heart of the prayer is in the center: even though we have sinned and have nothing for leadership or in the way of sacrifices, we do have humble, contrite hearts which, entirely trusting in God, follow Him without reserve. Azariah prays to God that He might accept his sacrifice of following God with his whole heart in place of burnt offerings and sacrifices which were usually offered. He ends his prayer seeking God’s kindness and great mercy to deliver them from their ever-present and all-consuming ordeal.
The story ends with God delivering the three young men from the fiery furnace. Once again, the centrality and immense importance of the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God above all things is shown forth clearly. We have God’s life in our souls when our heart completely trusts God and follows Him in all things; it is the tree of life, and there is no other. God desires us to have such a heart beating within the walls of our rib cage, and His plan is to give us that heart, Jesus’ heart pierced on the cross and resurrected to new life, in the Holy Eucharist. That is what the Eucharist is, and, as such, it is our tree of life which enables us to love, trust and obey God in all things and at all times, so that we too may offer ourselves as living sacrifices upon the Calvary of our life.
On another, related note, the gospel today, Matthew 18: 21-35, is powerful. It is hitting home with me in new and more powerful ways; on my retreat, it was one of the main themes that was running through my mind. God has been and is so merciful to me on countless occasions, and how little am I merciful to those indebted to me. May I have God’s mercy in my heart to those in my debt.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
The Four Rivers are the Tree of Life and the Heart
The woman at the well was the gospel yesterday. One further point that I have not developed much in this blog but which is very important in what I am saying is that there is a very strong connection between the living waters and the heart and that connection goes way back to the very beginning of the creation of man. Let’s look back at this original connection that occurs in the creation account:
“And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2: 9-15).
The very first mention of the tree of life in the Bible is immediately followed by this passage about the singular river which breaks into four different rivers. Rivers work in the exact opposite manner: many rivers become one great or mighty river. Here in Genesis, however, one river becomes many rivers. This description of an unnatural river is the symbolic representation and clue about what the tree of life is. The tree of life is mentioned, and it is followed by its symbolic description so that we may better know what the tree of life is.
As I have said in previous posts, the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as the man and the woman; Eden means delight, and we are God’s garden of delight. He created us for Himself and to bear much fruit. He made us to be His children, His temple, and His bride. From Him comes our life and our fruit. This life was lost through sin, but Jesus comes to restore our relationship with God and so that we may have life and have it abundantly.
The two trees of the garden singled out are two abilities God has given us; the tree of life is the heart and its ability to love, trust and obey God. God then symbolizes the heart with the one river which flows into four rivers because our one heart is divided into four chambers which are connected to the four sections of “rivers” bringing differently equipped blood all around our bodies. Oxygenated blood is pumped out of our heart to our entire body and is taken back to our heart to be pumped to the lungs which oxygenate it and send it back to the heart afresh to be pumped out all over again. Four chambers are needed to accomplish this life-giving and life-sustaining task.
Earlier this winter my children and I were playing in our front yard and digging a tunnel in our six-foot high mountain of snow from the driveway. Toward the end when I was getting worn out, I lay back on the snow looking up at the two large, leafless Elm trees which dominate the front, and I noticed that, from the ground up, there is a resemblance between trees and the circulatory system. Physically, they look somewhat similar, in my opinion, and how fluid moves in both the circulatory system and a tree is also very similar. In the circulatory system, the life-giving oxygenated blood is transported throughout the body through its “rivers,” but it only provides that life and oxygen at the very end of the line in the capillary system; likewise, the “blood” within a tree is circulated with in by its “rivers,” but the exchange of life and oxygen only takes place at the very end of the line in the leaves. Leaves and the capillary system themselves look very much alike, and in them both take place the exchange of life.
So why is the heart called the tree of life? Well, looking at the human body and focusing on the circulatory system, we look much like trees, and the circulatory system and trees operate in a number of similar ways. We are like trees. Throughout the Old Testament, in fact, we are compared to trees many times, and even in the New Testament there are connections and symbolisms between humans and trees.
The tree of life is the four rivers of water, and those four rivers of water symbolize the heart. Here we have the connection between the heart and living/flowing waters. The most important reason why the heart is the tree of life is that the only way we have spiritual life is by loving, trusting and obeying God, and these good actions are matters of the heart. With a good heart doing what it was made to do, we will have abundant life. Just as the heart is the center of the circulatory system, so our heart is the center of our spiritual life and our relationship with God and others. In the end, we will be judged on how much we loved.
The exchange of life happens in the smallest parts of an organism: the exchange of life in a tree is in the leaves, the exchange of life in our bodies is in the capillary system, the exchange of life in our spiritual lives is in living our ordinary life well. Being faithful and trusting in the small and little ways of our ordinary life is where God meets us and forges us into saints. Relationships consist and are built up with a myriad of little events and ordinary occurrences that further cement and strengthen the connection and union of people; our relationship with God is no different. When we fulfill our deepest desires with the only One capable of doing so, our whole life changes and becomes His. To this person Jesus says, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7: 37-38). Our thirst for happiness and meaning is fulfilled and quenched only in Jesus, and being thus quenched with the life of God, our heart itself becomes a life-giving font of water and joy. We become other Christs who spread the truth and life who is Jesus.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2: 9-15).
The very first mention of the tree of life in the Bible is immediately followed by this passage about the singular river which breaks into four different rivers. Rivers work in the exact opposite manner: many rivers become one great or mighty river. Here in Genesis, however, one river becomes many rivers. This description of an unnatural river is the symbolic representation and clue about what the tree of life is. The tree of life is mentioned, and it is followed by its symbolic description so that we may better know what the tree of life is.
As I have said in previous posts, the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as the man and the woman; Eden means delight, and we are God’s garden of delight. He created us for Himself and to bear much fruit. He made us to be His children, His temple, and His bride. From Him comes our life and our fruit. This life was lost through sin, but Jesus comes to restore our relationship with God and so that we may have life and have it abundantly.
The two trees of the garden singled out are two abilities God has given us; the tree of life is the heart and its ability to love, trust and obey God. God then symbolizes the heart with the one river which flows into four rivers because our one heart is divided into four chambers which are connected to the four sections of “rivers” bringing differently equipped blood all around our bodies. Oxygenated blood is pumped out of our heart to our entire body and is taken back to our heart to be pumped to the lungs which oxygenate it and send it back to the heart afresh to be pumped out all over again. Four chambers are needed to accomplish this life-giving and life-sustaining task.
Earlier this winter my children and I were playing in our front yard and digging a tunnel in our six-foot high mountain of snow from the driveway. Toward the end when I was getting worn out, I lay back on the snow looking up at the two large, leafless Elm trees which dominate the front, and I noticed that, from the ground up, there is a resemblance between trees and the circulatory system. Physically, they look somewhat similar, in my opinion, and how fluid moves in both the circulatory system and a tree is also very similar. In the circulatory system, the life-giving oxygenated blood is transported throughout the body through its “rivers,” but it only provides that life and oxygen at the very end of the line in the capillary system; likewise, the “blood” within a tree is circulated with in by its “rivers,” but the exchange of life and oxygen only takes place at the very end of the line in the leaves. Leaves and the capillary system themselves look very much alike, and in them both take place the exchange of life.
So why is the heart called the tree of life? Well, looking at the human body and focusing on the circulatory system, we look much like trees, and the circulatory system and trees operate in a number of similar ways. We are like trees. Throughout the Old Testament, in fact, we are compared to trees many times, and even in the New Testament there are connections and symbolisms between humans and trees.
The tree of life is the four rivers of water, and those four rivers of water symbolize the heart. Here we have the connection between the heart and living/flowing waters. The most important reason why the heart is the tree of life is that the only way we have spiritual life is by loving, trusting and obeying God, and these good actions are matters of the heart. With a good heart doing what it was made to do, we will have abundant life. Just as the heart is the center of the circulatory system, so our heart is the center of our spiritual life and our relationship with God and others. In the end, we will be judged on how much we loved.
The exchange of life happens in the smallest parts of an organism: the exchange of life in a tree is in the leaves, the exchange of life in our bodies is in the capillary system, the exchange of life in our spiritual lives is in living our ordinary life well. Being faithful and trusting in the small and little ways of our ordinary life is where God meets us and forges us into saints. Relationships consist and are built up with a myriad of little events and ordinary occurrences that further cement and strengthen the connection and union of people; our relationship with God is no different. When we fulfill our deepest desires with the only One capable of doing so, our whole life changes and becomes His. To this person Jesus says, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7: 37-38). Our thirst for happiness and meaning is fulfilled and quenched only in Jesus, and being thus quenched with the life of God, our heart itself becomes a life-giving font of water and joy. We become other Christs who spread the truth and life who is Jesus.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.20.2008
Each of Us is the Woman at the Well
I have been meditating on John 4 the past several days. At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus is passing through Samaria on His way to Galilee when He stops to rest at the city’s well about noon. A woman comes there to get some water, and Jesus, being thirsty, asks her for a drink. She is stupefied by the fact that a Jewish man is talking with her, and He replies, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).
Wells in the Old Testament were the places that the patriarchs often met the woman they would marry, so there is a marital undertone throughout this passage by the well of Jacob. The Samaritans were some of the most hated people to the Jews since they were the unfaithful remnant of the ten northern tribes of Israel after they had been mostly wiped out by Assyria in 722 B.C. and partially repopulated with foreigners. Samaria, for the most part, was what was left of Israel while the Jews remained strong down south in Judea. The Jews and Samaritans simply didn’t talk to one another if they could help it.
So here was Jesus, a Jew, talking to a Samaritan and a woman at that. She could not believe it. Jesus tells her that if she knew that she was speaking to God, and if she knew the good gifts God wants to give, she would ask Him to give her living water. She asks Him how He is going to get the water, and He responds, “…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus doesn’t answer her question, but He further clarifies the water He is talking about: the living water that He gives becomes in the one who receives it a spring of water which leads to eternal life.
The conversation moves toward the woman’s husband; she currently has no husband. She has had five, and the one she is with now, she has not married. This has a double meaning since the Samaritans had had five rulers, or husbands, too. Both the woman and the Samaritans were looking for ultimate, lasting happiness in their husbands, but they had not found it. Now Jesus, True Husband of Souls, meets her at the place of meeting a spouse, and offers to give her His life which we call grace and which is symbolized by living water.
His disciples come back from going to buy food and are amazed that Jesus is talking to this woman. The woman left her water jar to go and tell other Samaritans that she had found the Christ. “Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has any one brought him food?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work’ ” (John 4:31-34).
This is the passage I want to look at most closely. When Jesus says to His disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know,” He is making a linguistic reference back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Jesus has food to eat of which they do not know, and in a similar manner, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not to be eaten: in both instances, there is food and not knowing or not eating. Jesus refers to the tree of life when He says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” The tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God; in other words, it is to do the will of God and accomplish the task given by Him.
The Samaritan woman at the well, unfaithful and sinful, symbolizes every one of us. Even though we are unworthy, Jesus is thirsty and seeks us out. He thirsts for our love, and asks us for a drink; He asks us: “Will you marry me?” On our own, we have nothing to give Him, but we can ask Him, and He will pour out His life into our hearts, making them springs of living water. In the middle of each day as we go about our mundane tasks, Jesus asks us if we will satisfy His thirst. We do so when we give our entire self to Him in love and trust and do what He commands, even and especially in the little ways.
Jesus seeks to be our husband and to give us the gift of God, which is God’s very life. To receive this most awesome gift, we have to ask for it just as the Samaritan woman did. Jesus is eager to give His life to us if we ask Him for it; He does not force His life upon us. When we receive His life in our souls, it becomes a spring of living water and leads us to eternal life.
A while later, Jesus went back to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles and said the same thing that He had said to the woman at the well. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ ’ ” (John 7: 37-38). When we love, trust, and obey God, our heart becomes a tree of life which flows with living water and bears fruit ever month of the year.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
Wells in the Old Testament were the places that the patriarchs often met the woman they would marry, so there is a marital undertone throughout this passage by the well of Jacob. The Samaritans were some of the most hated people to the Jews since they were the unfaithful remnant of the ten northern tribes of Israel after they had been mostly wiped out by Assyria in 722 B.C. and partially repopulated with foreigners. Samaria, for the most part, was what was left of Israel while the Jews remained strong down south in Judea. The Jews and Samaritans simply didn’t talk to one another if they could help it.
So here was Jesus, a Jew, talking to a Samaritan and a woman at that. She could not believe it. Jesus tells her that if she knew that she was speaking to God, and if she knew the good gifts God wants to give, she would ask Him to give her living water. She asks Him how He is going to get the water, and He responds, “…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Jesus doesn’t answer her question, but He further clarifies the water He is talking about: the living water that He gives becomes in the one who receives it a spring of water which leads to eternal life.
The conversation moves toward the woman’s husband; she currently has no husband. She has had five, and the one she is with now, she has not married. This has a double meaning since the Samaritans had had five rulers, or husbands, too. Both the woman and the Samaritans were looking for ultimate, lasting happiness in their husbands, but they had not found it. Now Jesus, True Husband of Souls, meets her at the place of meeting a spouse, and offers to give her His life which we call grace and which is symbolized by living water.
His disciples come back from going to buy food and are amazed that Jesus is talking to this woman. The woman left her water jar to go and tell other Samaritans that she had found the Christ. “Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Has any one brought him food?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work’ ” (John 4:31-34).
This is the passage I want to look at most closely. When Jesus says to His disciples, “I have food to eat of which you do not know,” He is making a linguistic reference back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Jesus has food to eat of which they do not know, and in a similar manner, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not to be eaten: in both instances, there is food and not knowing or not eating. Jesus refers to the tree of life when He says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.” The tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God; in other words, it is to do the will of God and accomplish the task given by Him.
The Samaritan woman at the well, unfaithful and sinful, symbolizes every one of us. Even though we are unworthy, Jesus is thirsty and seeks us out. He thirsts for our love, and asks us for a drink; He asks us: “Will you marry me?” On our own, we have nothing to give Him, but we can ask Him, and He will pour out His life into our hearts, making them springs of living water. In the middle of each day as we go about our mundane tasks, Jesus asks us if we will satisfy His thirst. We do so when we give our entire self to Him in love and trust and do what He commands, even and especially in the little ways.
Jesus seeks to be our husband and to give us the gift of God, which is God’s very life. To receive this most awesome gift, we have to ask for it just as the Samaritan woman did. Jesus is eager to give His life to us if we ask Him for it; He does not force His life upon us. When we receive His life in our souls, it becomes a spring of living water and leads us to eternal life.
A while later, Jesus went back to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles and said the same thing that He had said to the woman at the well. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ ’ ” (John 7: 37-38). When we love, trust, and obey God, our heart becomes a tree of life which flows with living water and bears fruit ever month of the year.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.18.2008
Ratzinger: the Cross and Eucharist=the Tree of Life
This weekend I went on my yearly silent retreat with Opus Dei, and that is why I haven’t written anything these past several days. While on the retreat, I read a short book that consists of four homilies during lent that Pope Benedict XVI gave back before he was pope or even the prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith. He gave the lectures during lent in 1981, right before he was the prefect (at least I don’t think he was just yet). Ratzinger didn’t publish them for five years; the edition I read was from 1995 and is titled: ‘In the Beginning…’ A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall.
One of the overriding themes of these homilies is that the belief that God created the world is extremely important to properly understanding not only ourselves, but reality and the Faith itself. I am not going to summarize the reasons for this, at least not tonight. I assume this point in everything I write, and it was encouraging to know that, hopefully, I can do a small part to lead others to re-examine the creation account. In the beginning of the preface of the book, Ratzinger laments how “…the creation account is noticeably and nearly completely absent from catechesis, preaching, and even theology.” That was true when he preached these homilies in 1981. “Since then, from the perspective of my new work [as prefect], the critical state of the creation theme in the present-day kerygma has become so much more evident that I now feel pressed to bring out the old manuscripts again and prepare them for printing.” That is why he published them five years later and created the book I read this weekend.
I want to quote at length his conclusion to his forth homily:
“Thus Christ is the new Adam, with whom humankind begins anew….The cross, the place of obedience, is the true tree of life. Christ is the antitype of the serpent, as is indicated in John 3:14. From this tree there comes not the word of temptation but that of redeeming love, the word of obedience, which an obedient God himself used, thus offering us his obedience as a context for freedom. The cross is the tree of life, now become approachable….Therefore the Eucharist, as the presence of the cross, is the abiding tree of life, which is ever in our midst and ever invites us to take the fruit of true life….To receive it, to eat of the tree of life, thus means to receive the crucified Lord and consequently to accept the parameters of his life, his obedience, his ‘yes,’ the standard of our creatureliness. It means to accept the love of God, which is our truth—that dependence on God which is no more an imposition from without than is the Son’s sonship. It is precisely this dependence that is freedom, because it is truth and love.”
Of course, I love this quote; I do because it resonates so well with much of what I have been saying. For someone who only desires to write within the context of Catholicism, in the strict sense of the word, having the Pope say some of the very same things is sweet music to my ears. I am glad that I found this quote this weekend; I plan to work my way through the Pope’s most recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, so I can see what else he says that may resonate with what I am saying. Isn’t his next book coming out soon, too?
At the same time, what I am saying is only in part what the Pope is saying. I say that the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the tree of life, and that that is the way it was from the beginning with the man and the woman in the garden. Their hearts trusted in Satan and his wisdom, and so they brought death into the world for themselves and all their descendants. The problem with us then, is that we have hard hearts, hearts that trust in themselves, rely upon their own power, turn away from God, are disobedient and in love with self and the good things of this world. We need hearts of flesh that love, trust and obey God in all things, at all times, and against all difficulties even unto death. We receive that loving and self-sacrificing heart of flesh at Baptism when we are united to Christ in His death and resurrections; being united to Jesus, we receive His very heart which was crucified and pierced; every Eucharist is a celebration of our Baptism wherein we receive that Heart of Christ, crucified and risen. With such a heart, we are able to fully and truly love, trust and obey God. That is the awesome gift we receive at every Eucharist, but it is up to us to open the present and use it. Nothing less than sanctity awaits us when we take the heart of Jesus given to us and make it our own.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
One of the overriding themes of these homilies is that the belief that God created the world is extremely important to properly understanding not only ourselves, but reality and the Faith itself. I am not going to summarize the reasons for this, at least not tonight. I assume this point in everything I write, and it was encouraging to know that, hopefully, I can do a small part to lead others to re-examine the creation account. In the beginning of the preface of the book, Ratzinger laments how “…the creation account is noticeably and nearly completely absent from catechesis, preaching, and even theology.” That was true when he preached these homilies in 1981. “Since then, from the perspective of my new work [as prefect], the critical state of the creation theme in the present-day kerygma has become so much more evident that I now feel pressed to bring out the old manuscripts again and prepare them for printing.” That is why he published them five years later and created the book I read this weekend.
I want to quote at length his conclusion to his forth homily:
“Thus Christ is the new Adam, with whom humankind begins anew….The cross, the place of obedience, is the true tree of life. Christ is the antitype of the serpent, as is indicated in John 3:14. From this tree there comes not the word of temptation but that of redeeming love, the word of obedience, which an obedient God himself used, thus offering us his obedience as a context for freedom. The cross is the tree of life, now become approachable….Therefore the Eucharist, as the presence of the cross, is the abiding tree of life, which is ever in our midst and ever invites us to take the fruit of true life….To receive it, to eat of the tree of life, thus means to receive the crucified Lord and consequently to accept the parameters of his life, his obedience, his ‘yes,’ the standard of our creatureliness. It means to accept the love of God, which is our truth—that dependence on God which is no more an imposition from without than is the Son’s sonship. It is precisely this dependence that is freedom, because it is truth and love.”
Of course, I love this quote; I do because it resonates so well with much of what I have been saying. For someone who only desires to write within the context of Catholicism, in the strict sense of the word, having the Pope say some of the very same things is sweet music to my ears. I am glad that I found this quote this weekend; I plan to work my way through the Pope’s most recent book, Jesus of Nazareth, so I can see what else he says that may resonate with what I am saying. Isn’t his next book coming out soon, too?
At the same time, what I am saying is only in part what the Pope is saying. I say that the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God is the tree of life, and that that is the way it was from the beginning with the man and the woman in the garden. Their hearts trusted in Satan and his wisdom, and so they brought death into the world for themselves and all their descendants. The problem with us then, is that we have hard hearts, hearts that trust in themselves, rely upon their own power, turn away from God, are disobedient and in love with self and the good things of this world. We need hearts of flesh that love, trust and obey God in all things, at all times, and against all difficulties even unto death. We receive that loving and self-sacrificing heart of flesh at Baptism when we are united to Christ in His death and resurrections; being united to Jesus, we receive His very heart which was crucified and pierced; every Eucharist is a celebration of our Baptism wherein we receive that Heart of Christ, crucified and risen. With such a heart, we are able to fully and truly love, trust and obey God. That is the awesome gift we receive at every Eucharist, but it is up to us to open the present and use it. Nothing less than sanctity awaits us when we take the heart of Jesus given to us and make it our own.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.12.2008
God's Word Makes Our Heart Flow with Living Water
The first reading today in the Mass was a short one and came from Isaiah 55: 10-11. Here it is:
“Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
Although this is such a short passage, the context surrounding this little one is packed with awesome passages that resonate very well with my theory. I’ll have to unpack these chapters more on another occasion; for now, I will begin to explore this passage and two short sentences right before this one.
The two other passages I want to highlight are 54:5 where it says, “For your Maker is your husband,” and 55:1 which states, “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters.” I bring up these two because these two themes, the husband and water, are the two themes of today’s reading. Rain and snow come from heaven and water the earth making it fertile; in the same way God’s word comes from heaven and waters the earth, making it fruitful. Water makes the earth fruitful. God’s word makes the earth fruitful.
How is a woman made fruitful? It is her husband who pours out his “water” so that she can bear fruit. In that sense, the husband makes the wife fruitful through water. God is our husband, but He is not so in a sexual sense. God pours out His Word to us in order that it accomplishes what He desires—our fruitfulness. How are we fruitful? We are fruitful when our tree of life is alive. How is our tree of life alive? It is alive when we have a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. When we love, trust and obey God, we bear good fruit for Him, and He is our Husband.
How do we receive God’s Word in an effective manner? We do so by opening wide our hearts to Him to do whatever He asks of us. The responsorial psalm today says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves” (Psalm 34:19). Those who are humble, those whose hearts turn from their sin and turn back to God, those who are grieved that they hurt God who loves them so much, those who want to share in the sufferings of Christ and be a self-sacrificing lover, these are the ones who have a heart open to God to receive His Word and bear much fruit. Yes, these are the ones; he is the one who believes in Jesus, and “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). When we open our hearts to God, He fills our hearts with His water so that out of our very own hearts, rivers of living water flow.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
Although this is such a short passage, the context surrounding this little one is packed with awesome passages that resonate very well with my theory. I’ll have to unpack these chapters more on another occasion; for now, I will begin to explore this passage and two short sentences right before this one.
The two other passages I want to highlight are 54:5 where it says, “For your Maker is your husband,” and 55:1 which states, “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters.” I bring up these two because these two themes, the husband and water, are the two themes of today’s reading. Rain and snow come from heaven and water the earth making it fertile; in the same way God’s word comes from heaven and waters the earth, making it fruitful. Water makes the earth fruitful. God’s word makes the earth fruitful.
How is a woman made fruitful? It is her husband who pours out his “water” so that she can bear fruit. In that sense, the husband makes the wife fruitful through water. God is our husband, but He is not so in a sexual sense. God pours out His Word to us in order that it accomplishes what He desires—our fruitfulness. How are we fruitful? We are fruitful when our tree of life is alive. How is our tree of life alive? It is alive when we have a heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. When we love, trust and obey God, we bear good fruit for Him, and He is our Husband.
How do we receive God’s Word in an effective manner? We do so by opening wide our hearts to Him to do whatever He asks of us. The responsorial psalm today says, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves” (Psalm 34:19). Those who are humble, those whose hearts turn from their sin and turn back to God, those who are grieved that they hurt God who loves them so much, those who want to share in the sufferings of Christ and be a self-sacrificing lover, these are the ones who have a heart open to God to receive His Word and bear much fruit. Yes, these are the ones; he is the one who believes in Jesus, and “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). When we open our hearts to God, He fills our hearts with His water so that out of our very own hearts, rivers of living water flow.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.10.2008
The Temptation of Christ was the Temptation of Adam
Tonight is the three month anniversary of my blog’s launch; technically, I started it late at night on the ninth, but I did not really put anything in my first post other than that I was going to start writing. I started writing on the tenth. This is my 83rd post in these past 90 days or so, and it has been much fun for me. One of the main reasons I had not written before was that I was simply too busy with life; that hasn’t changed. In order to write, I just get less sleep. Most of my writing takes place late at night; I try to finish before midnight, but it is usually sometime after when I can actually hit the hay. Since I love it, even though I wish I were doing a much better job of it, it is not difficult to keep going. Thanks to all the people who keep me and my writing in your prayers.
What better readings could there be today for this first Sunday in Lent for my three month anniversary! The first reading talks about the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Fall itself. I will reprint the whole thing here. I usually use the RSCVE Bible, but of course the Mass readings are using the NAB; it will be interesting to compare the two. It comes from Genesis 2:7-9 & 3:1-7:
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
One thing I like about this translation is that the various trees God plants in the garden are delightful to look at and good for food. The word Eden means delight, and the trees planted there are delightful. That makes sense. Part of my theory is that the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as it is the man and woman themselves; the garden refers to them and to their bodies. The trees refer to all of their abilities and powers as humans. God created us good, and how we are created is beautiful. Our bodies are beautiful, and our abilities are beautiful; in an unfallen state, we were perfectly harmonious and in order; we would not die or get sick; our will and intellect and body worked together toward one good common goal; all was well, and all was beautiful. We are still created good and beautiful, yet we are disordered and tend toward the evil; it is a battle to choose the good. It is a battle not to be selfish and not to forget about God. It is a battle not say, My will be done.
The two most important delightful trees, which are in the middle of the garden, are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. My theory is that the tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have marital relations and conceive children. Since God had put us on earth but made us for heaven, and since He gave the man and the woman to each other as spouses but made us to be married to Him forever in heaven, He told the man and the woman not to have relations.
He asked them to forgo the greatest of this world’s blessings as a sacrificial test and trial of faith in order be given a child by God directly, virginally, and so also be given the greatest supernatural blessing: complete beatitude and union with God Himself forever in Heaven. We are first and foremost created for heaven, which is to be married to God forever; we are not made for earth or earthly marriage, ultimately; earth and earthly marriage are the pathway we take to prepare us for heaven, where there is no earthly marriage. God still requires this same sort of test for all those who live the priestly or religious life; it is the test of celibacy. And it still takes great trust and love of God to pass this test, but the fruit of a well-passed test is bountiful.
The responsorial psalm is the great penitential psalm David wrote after he acknowledged his sin with Bathsheba; there are a number of parallels between his sin and the Fall, as I see it. Perhaps the most important element of this psalm is David’s request to God to create a clean heart in him. David asks God for a clean heart. Repentance is a matter of the heart. Turning back to God is a matter of the heart. Being faithful and loving God is also a matter of the heart. Life comes through union with God, and in that respect, the faithful heart is the source or conduit of life. The heart is the tree of life.
I will include all of the second reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:12-19:
“Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”
I think Paul’s argument here is relatively simple. He is saying that through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. He was disobedient, sinned, and brought death upon his family, the human race. The implication is that all his children and their children, the sons of Adam or the sons of man, are born dead to God, born without sanctifying grace. In Adam, all sinned, all were condemned, and all died. The one man brought disobedience and death upon everyone. Adam is a type, as in typology or image, of Christ, yet Christ undoes what Adam destroyed. The one man, Jesus Christ, was obedient, and so He brings grace, acquittal, justification, righteousness and life to the many. The one man, the Son of Man, enables us, sinners, to have life again and have our relationship with God renewed.
How is original sin passed on? It passes on through human generation; each child born is born in the state of original sin. This is no personal sin on the part of the baby; it is a state of being not born with sanctifying grace in our souls. Without sanctifying grace, which is the very life of God, we are born dead to God. We need to be born again. That is the state of things Adam left us in by his one act of disobedience.
How do we go from being sons of men to being sons of God? How do we become children of God and born alive to Him? We need to be born again, born from above, born of God in the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is being really, spiritually united to Jesus, specifically His passion, death and resurrection so that we can die, be set free from our old master, sin, and be born again to be married to our new spouse, Jesus (see Romans 7:1ff). As Adam gives birth to spiritually dead babies through natural generation, so Jesus gives birth to children alive in God through His death and resurrection, which we truly share in through the sacrament of Baptism.
One of my main points here is that both Adam and Jesus beget children; the first through disobedience because of the fear of death and trying to save his own life, begets dead children, and the other through obedience and going through the worst possible death, makes the dead into a new creation and alive to God. Each of these singular men, through their one act, beget children: the first begets children who are dead, and the second begets those dead children to new life in Him.
Lastly, we have the gospel which today comes from Matthew 4:1-11, and it depicts the temptation of Christ by Satan after Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Jesus was hungry; I think we can assume that He was most hungry; physically, I do not know how much longer one could possibly fast and still live. It would be difficult to be hungrier than Jesus was when Satan approached Jesus and told Him to turn stones into bread. Then Satan told Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple because, as the Bible says, God gives His angels to watch us to keep us from getting hurt. Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus by saying that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply lay flat on the ground and worship him.
As the New Adam, I would assume that Jesus’ temptation would have some similarities to the temptation Adam underwent. My theory is that God commanded Adam not to have relations with his wife. Barrenness was death for the Jews, and wanting to be like God who creates, the man and the woman, fearing the death of not having children, disobeyed God to obey God’s other command to be fruitful and multiply. Abraham and Sarah, after God promised them a son, waited twenty-five years, from the time he was 75 until he was 100, before God actually sent that promised son, Isaac. They were hungry for a son; they were so hungry that Abraham had a son through Sarah’s maid in an attempt to fulfill God’s promise.
How long did the man and the woman wait to have a child? It could have been a very long time. It could have been very short, or it could have been decades or even centuries. We don’t know. I speculate that it was a long time and that they were extremely hungry for a child, to be creative like God and fulfill God’s command to be fruitful. And Satan hit them were they were most weak. Jesus was hungry for bread, so Satan proposes that He make bread from stones. The man and the woman were hungry for a baby, so Satan proposes that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to have one. And they do, and they name him “gotten,” which is Cain.
When you purposely throw yourself down from a great height to test God and make Him protect you against your own stupidity, you of course sin, and obviously you will get critically hurt. You will probably die. This is similar to what Adam did. Adam was created without sin and unaffected by death and sickness; he had a great dignity and was the very first human created. He took all that dignity, all that height, and threw it down by his sin. He disobeyed God’s singular prohibition; that is as smart as jumping off a cliff, and it has the same consequence—death. He, the father of the human family, becomes the father of death by his stupid sin. One other thing, Adam was made as a temple of God, and by his sin he threw himself down from such a dignity as temple of God; he was made from dirt, but he was made to be God's temple; he forsook being God's temple and choose to be dirt.
Lastly, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world if He prostrated Himself before Satan. This, too, has parallels to what Adam did, according to my theory. If the Fall was having relations with his wife, the woman, then they both would have been prostrate on the ground, as it were. They did it through the wisdom of the serpent, and by trusting in him, they were choosing to worship him instead of God. That, then, covers the falling prostrate and worshipping Satan. What about the having the kingdoms of the world? What are kingdoms made up of? People. If there are no people, there certainly are no kingdoms. There wouldn’t even be a state, city, town, village or hamlet. Adam, hungry for a child, could have also been promised as part of his temptation to be the father of all the people of the earth. By his trust of and obedience to the wisdom of the serpent, if my theory is correct, Adam did become the father of all the earth and in that manner possess all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone on the earth is a son of Adam, a son of man. So the Son of Man came to undo what Adam had done, making the sons of men into sons of God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.rom
What better readings could there be today for this first Sunday in Lent for my three month anniversary! The first reading talks about the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Fall itself. I will reprint the whole thing here. I usually use the RSCVE Bible, but of course the Mass readings are using the NAB; it will be interesting to compare the two. It comes from Genesis 2:7-9 & 3:1-7:
The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the LORD God had made. The serpent asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
One thing I like about this translation is that the various trees God plants in the garden are delightful to look at and good for food. The word Eden means delight, and the trees planted there are delightful. That makes sense. Part of my theory is that the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as it is the man and woman themselves; the garden refers to them and to their bodies. The trees refer to all of their abilities and powers as humans. God created us good, and how we are created is beautiful. Our bodies are beautiful, and our abilities are beautiful; in an unfallen state, we were perfectly harmonious and in order; we would not die or get sick; our will and intellect and body worked together toward one good common goal; all was well, and all was beautiful. We are still created good and beautiful, yet we are disordered and tend toward the evil; it is a battle to choose the good. It is a battle not to be selfish and not to forget about God. It is a battle not say, My will be done.
The two most important delightful trees, which are in the middle of the garden, are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. My theory is that the tree of life is the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our ability to have marital relations and conceive children. Since God had put us on earth but made us for heaven, and since He gave the man and the woman to each other as spouses but made us to be married to Him forever in heaven, He told the man and the woman not to have relations.
He asked them to forgo the greatest of this world’s blessings as a sacrificial test and trial of faith in order be given a child by God directly, virginally, and so also be given the greatest supernatural blessing: complete beatitude and union with God Himself forever in Heaven. We are first and foremost created for heaven, which is to be married to God forever; we are not made for earth or earthly marriage, ultimately; earth and earthly marriage are the pathway we take to prepare us for heaven, where there is no earthly marriage. God still requires this same sort of test for all those who live the priestly or religious life; it is the test of celibacy. And it still takes great trust and love of God to pass this test, but the fruit of a well-passed test is bountiful.
The responsorial psalm is the great penitential psalm David wrote after he acknowledged his sin with Bathsheba; there are a number of parallels between his sin and the Fall, as I see it. Perhaps the most important element of this psalm is David’s request to God to create a clean heart in him. David asks God for a clean heart. Repentance is a matter of the heart. Turning back to God is a matter of the heart. Being faithful and loving God is also a matter of the heart. Life comes through union with God, and in that respect, the faithful heart is the source or conduit of life. The heart is the tree of life.
I will include all of the second reading today from Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:12-19:
“Brothers and sisters: Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned—for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. But the gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one, the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many. And the gift is not like the result of the one who sinned. For after one sin there was the judgment that brought condemnation; but the gift, after many transgressions, brought acquittal. For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. In conclusion, just as through one transgression condemnation came upon all, so, through one righteous act, acquittal and life came to all. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”
I think Paul’s argument here is relatively simple. He is saying that through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. He was disobedient, sinned, and brought death upon his family, the human race. The implication is that all his children and their children, the sons of Adam or the sons of man, are born dead to God, born without sanctifying grace. In Adam, all sinned, all were condemned, and all died. The one man brought disobedience and death upon everyone. Adam is a type, as in typology or image, of Christ, yet Christ undoes what Adam destroyed. The one man, Jesus Christ, was obedient, and so He brings grace, acquittal, justification, righteousness and life to the many. The one man, the Son of Man, enables us, sinners, to have life again and have our relationship with God renewed.
How is original sin passed on? It passes on through human generation; each child born is born in the state of original sin. This is no personal sin on the part of the baby; it is a state of being not born with sanctifying grace in our souls. Without sanctifying grace, which is the very life of God, we are born dead to God. We need to be born again. That is the state of things Adam left us in by his one act of disobedience.
How do we go from being sons of men to being sons of God? How do we become children of God and born alive to Him? We need to be born again, born from above, born of God in the sacrament of Baptism. Baptism is being really, spiritually united to Jesus, specifically His passion, death and resurrection so that we can die, be set free from our old master, sin, and be born again to be married to our new spouse, Jesus (see Romans 7:1ff). As Adam gives birth to spiritually dead babies through natural generation, so Jesus gives birth to children alive in God through His death and resurrection, which we truly share in through the sacrament of Baptism.
One of my main points here is that both Adam and Jesus beget children; the first through disobedience because of the fear of death and trying to save his own life, begets dead children, and the other through obedience and going through the worst possible death, makes the dead into a new creation and alive to God. Each of these singular men, through their one act, beget children: the first begets children who are dead, and the second begets those dead children to new life in Him.
Lastly, we have the gospel which today comes from Matthew 4:1-11, and it depicts the temptation of Christ by Satan after Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert. Jesus was hungry; I think we can assume that He was most hungry; physically, I do not know how much longer one could possibly fast and still live. It would be difficult to be hungrier than Jesus was when Satan approached Jesus and told Him to turn stones into bread. Then Satan told Jesus to throw Himself down from the temple because, as the Bible says, God gives His angels to watch us to keep us from getting hurt. Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus by saying that he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would simply lay flat on the ground and worship him.
As the New Adam, I would assume that Jesus’ temptation would have some similarities to the temptation Adam underwent. My theory is that God commanded Adam not to have relations with his wife. Barrenness was death for the Jews, and wanting to be like God who creates, the man and the woman, fearing the death of not having children, disobeyed God to obey God’s other command to be fruitful and multiply. Abraham and Sarah, after God promised them a son, waited twenty-five years, from the time he was 75 until he was 100, before God actually sent that promised son, Isaac. They were hungry for a son; they were so hungry that Abraham had a son through Sarah’s maid in an attempt to fulfill God’s promise.
How long did the man and the woman wait to have a child? It could have been a very long time. It could have been very short, or it could have been decades or even centuries. We don’t know. I speculate that it was a long time and that they were extremely hungry for a child, to be creative like God and fulfill God’s command to be fruitful. And Satan hit them were they were most weak. Jesus was hungry for bread, so Satan proposes that He make bread from stones. The man and the woman were hungry for a baby, so Satan proposes that they eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to have one. And they do, and they name him “gotten,” which is Cain.
When you purposely throw yourself down from a great height to test God and make Him protect you against your own stupidity, you of course sin, and obviously you will get critically hurt. You will probably die. This is similar to what Adam did. Adam was created without sin and unaffected by death and sickness; he had a great dignity and was the very first human created. He took all that dignity, all that height, and threw it down by his sin. He disobeyed God’s singular prohibition; that is as smart as jumping off a cliff, and it has the same consequence—death. He, the father of the human family, becomes the father of death by his stupid sin. One other thing, Adam was made as a temple of God, and by his sin he threw himself down from such a dignity as temple of God; he was made from dirt, but he was made to be God's temple; he forsook being God's temple and choose to be dirt.
Lastly, Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world if He prostrated Himself before Satan. This, too, has parallels to what Adam did, according to my theory. If the Fall was having relations with his wife, the woman, then they both would have been prostrate on the ground, as it were. They did it through the wisdom of the serpent, and by trusting in him, they were choosing to worship him instead of God. That, then, covers the falling prostrate and worshipping Satan. What about the having the kingdoms of the world? What are kingdoms made up of? People. If there are no people, there certainly are no kingdoms. There wouldn’t even be a state, city, town, village or hamlet. Adam, hungry for a child, could have also been promised as part of his temptation to be the father of all the people of the earth. By his trust of and obedience to the wisdom of the serpent, if my theory is correct, Adam did become the father of all the earth and in that manner possess all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone on the earth is a son of Adam, a son of man. So the Son of Man came to undo what Adam had done, making the sons of men into sons of God.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.rom
2.07.2008
Total Surrender
The readings for Mass on this second day of Lent are worth examining. The first reading comes from the end section of the book of Deuteronomy; the reading is 30:15-20:
“Moses said to the people: ‘Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’.”
Moses tells us that we have a choice between life and death; if we obey and turn our hearts toward God, we will have life and blessing; if we disobey and turn our hearts away from God, we will have death and the curse. We will have life if we love God and heed His commands; an obedient, trusting and loving heart will be blessed and have life. Again, my theory that the tree of life is the heart finds resonance in this passage from Deuteronomy. When our heart turns toward God, clings to Him, loves Him, and obeys Him, we have life. God is the source of life, and when our heart is attune to Him, our heart receives His life. The heart is the vehicle through which God gives us His life.
The theme of the heart continues in the responsorial psalm; today’s psalm is Psalm 1:
“Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.”
The one who despises God’s law disobeys God’s law and is a wicked, insolent sinner; he is like chaff which vanishes in the wind. The one who delights in God’s law and constantly thinks about it is blessed, and he is like a tree planted close to a river. His leaves do not fall off, and in season, he bears fruit. Delight comes from the heart, and we meditate and think about reality in our heart; Mary pondered all that happened to her in her heart. Therefore, when our heart loves what God loves, we are a fruitful tree. When we love, trust and obey God, our heart is a tree of life.
The gospel for today takes a slightly different, yet related, route. It comes from Luke 9:22-25, but I will only quote the second half of it:
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Immediately before Jesus said this, He was telling His disciples about His crucifixion. When Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow Him, the place He is leading us is to our own crucifixion. When we are following Him with our cross on our back, we are not out for a joy ride and a relaxing, pampered destination. We are on the way to our very own complete self-offering on our very own Calvary. Jesus died not so that we don’t have to, but rather, He died so that we would have the heart to do what He did. Jesus’ mission is to give us a new heart, His very own heart, so that we too can be a self-sacrificing lover.
When someone tries to save his life, it signifies that he does not trust in God. When one gains the whole world, he is trying to control his life and not need God. This saving of our life and this gaining the world is another way of saying that one has abandoned God. If we seek life and try to save our life, death is our keep. The reason for this is that life comes through trust in God. Life does not come through ourselves or our abilities. The heart that trusts God is willing to face death, embrace his cross, and follow Jesus to Calvary. The heart that trusts God will lose his life, lose the world, lose himself, and become a pleasing sacrifice to God. In no other way is there life. The trusting heart is the tree of life.
There is no difficulty trusting if everything is easy and everything is just as I would have it. There is no trust when all is well and I have whatever my heart desires. There is no trust when I am doing exactly as I would like to do. There is no trust when it is “My will be done.” Trust enters the picture when it is “Thy will be done.” Trust enters the arena when it is “Not my will be done.” Trust enters our hearts when all we have to hold onto is God, when we are racked with pain and suffering, deprivation and discomfort, and shattered plans and empty hands. When life is easy, we are dead for we cling only to ourselves. When life is a whirlwind and a hurricane, we are fully alive for only then do we cling to God, He who is life and existence Himself.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said on page 111 in the book, Jesus, The Word to Be Spoken words that I think resonate, in part, with what I have been saying:
“Total surrender to God must come in small details as it comes in big details. It’s nothing but that single word, ‘Yes, I accept whatever you give, and I give whatever you take.’ And this is just a simple way for us to be holy. We must not create difficulties in our own minds. To be holy doesn’t mean to do extraordinary things, to understand big things, but it is a simple acceptance, because I have given myself to God, because I belong to Him—my total surrender. He could put me here. He could put me there. He can use me. He cannot use me. It doesn’t matter because I belong so totally to him that he can do just what he wants to do with me.”
“Lent is a time when we relive the passion of Christ. Let it not be just a time when our feelings are roused, but let it be a change that comes through cooperation with God’s grace in real sacrifices of self. Sacrifice, to be real, must cost; it must hurt; it must empty us of self. Let us go through the passion of Christ day by day.”
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“Moses said to the people: ‘Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’.”
Moses tells us that we have a choice between life and death; if we obey and turn our hearts toward God, we will have life and blessing; if we disobey and turn our hearts away from God, we will have death and the curse. We will have life if we love God and heed His commands; an obedient, trusting and loving heart will be blessed and have life. Again, my theory that the tree of life is the heart finds resonance in this passage from Deuteronomy. When our heart turns toward God, clings to Him, loves Him, and obeys Him, we have life. God is the source of life, and when our heart is attune to Him, our heart receives His life. The heart is the vehicle through which God gives us His life.
The theme of the heart continues in the responsorial psalm; today’s psalm is Psalm 1:
“Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes.”
The one who despises God’s law disobeys God’s law and is a wicked, insolent sinner; he is like chaff which vanishes in the wind. The one who delights in God’s law and constantly thinks about it is blessed, and he is like a tree planted close to a river. His leaves do not fall off, and in season, he bears fruit. Delight comes from the heart, and we meditate and think about reality in our heart; Mary pondered all that happened to her in her heart. Therefore, when our heart loves what God loves, we are a fruitful tree. When we love, trust and obey God, our heart is a tree of life.
The gospel for today takes a slightly different, yet related, route. It comes from Luke 9:22-25, but I will only quote the second half of it:
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”
Immediately before Jesus said this, He was telling His disciples about His crucifixion. When Jesus says we must take up our cross and follow Him, the place He is leading us is to our own crucifixion. When we are following Him with our cross on our back, we are not out for a joy ride and a relaxing, pampered destination. We are on the way to our very own complete self-offering on our very own Calvary. Jesus died not so that we don’t have to, but rather, He died so that we would have the heart to do what He did. Jesus’ mission is to give us a new heart, His very own heart, so that we too can be a self-sacrificing lover.
When someone tries to save his life, it signifies that he does not trust in God. When one gains the whole world, he is trying to control his life and not need God. This saving of our life and this gaining the world is another way of saying that one has abandoned God. If we seek life and try to save our life, death is our keep. The reason for this is that life comes through trust in God. Life does not come through ourselves or our abilities. The heart that trusts God is willing to face death, embrace his cross, and follow Jesus to Calvary. The heart that trusts God will lose his life, lose the world, lose himself, and become a pleasing sacrifice to God. In no other way is there life. The trusting heart is the tree of life.
There is no difficulty trusting if everything is easy and everything is just as I would have it. There is no trust when all is well and I have whatever my heart desires. There is no trust when I am doing exactly as I would like to do. There is no trust when it is “My will be done.” Trust enters the picture when it is “Thy will be done.” Trust enters the arena when it is “Not my will be done.” Trust enters our hearts when all we have to hold onto is God, when we are racked with pain and suffering, deprivation and discomfort, and shattered plans and empty hands. When life is easy, we are dead for we cling only to ourselves. When life is a whirlwind and a hurricane, we are fully alive for only then do we cling to God, He who is life and existence Himself.
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said on page 111 in the book, Jesus, The Word to Be Spoken words that I think resonate, in part, with what I have been saying:
“Total surrender to God must come in small details as it comes in big details. It’s nothing but that single word, ‘Yes, I accept whatever you give, and I give whatever you take.’ And this is just a simple way for us to be holy. We must not create difficulties in our own minds. To be holy doesn’t mean to do extraordinary things, to understand big things, but it is a simple acceptance, because I have given myself to God, because I belong to Him—my total surrender. He could put me here. He could put me there. He can use me. He cannot use me. It doesn’t matter because I belong so totally to him that he can do just what he wants to do with me.”
“Lent is a time when we relive the passion of Christ. Let it not be just a time when our feelings are roused, but let it be a change that comes through cooperation with God’s grace in real sacrifices of self. Sacrifice, to be real, must cost; it must hurt; it must empty us of self. Let us go through the passion of Christ day by day.”
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
2.06.2008
Lenten Plan Resurrects Our Tree of Life
Lent begins today. The first reading for Ash Wednesday comes from Joel and begins with verse 12. I have included part of the verse prior to 12:
“For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it? ‘Yet even now,’ says the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil” (Joel 2: 11-13).
It was common in the ancient world to rip one’s clothes when confronted with a great sorrow. God is not so much interested in how we look on the outside; He cares what is in our hearts. When our hearts are attached to sin and to the good things of this world, its receptacles are filled up and have no room for God. We need to free our hearts from all its attachments and pray as it says in today’s psalm: “A clean heart create for me, O God” (Psalm 51:10). God tells us that we need to rend our hearts; that is a powerful image; it is a painful route to take, but it brings us new life.
The key to our living the faith is turning our heart back to God. The repentant heart is the key. We express that repentance by our fasting, sorrow for our sin, and our almsgiving, and they are meant to be painful as we rend our hearts. We also rend our hearts by the confession of our sins and by our prayer and charitable deeds. These penitential activities help to turn our dead hearts of stone into hearts of flesh which seek to please God. They resurrect our dead, fruitless trees of life into fruitful, abundant, overflowing trees of life which bear good fruit each month and out of which flow rivers of living water.
There are three main parts to a plan for Lent, a program for our increased daily conversion of heart: 1) we need to cut out the ways we sin; 2) we should give us something good as a sacrifice to God; 3) we should increase something better we already do or start something new.
An example for a Lenten plan could look something like this: first, I am going to be committed to avoid that near occasion of sin which I am too comfortable with right now; second, I am going to give up alcohol; third, I am going to say a decade of the rosary each day and do the stations of the cross on Fridays. Another example: first, I am not going to gossip; second, I will give up coffee and chocolate; third, I will get to daily Mass and read the daily Mass readings for the next day the night before. Of course, the options are endless, but it is important to stop sinning, have a sacrifice of something good and put something better in its place. All these items help our hearts to draw closer to God and attach to the only worthy and life-giving attachment.
Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.
“For the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; who can endure it? ‘Yet even now,’ says the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’ Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil” (Joel 2: 11-13).
It was common in the ancient world to rip one’s clothes when confronted with a great sorrow. God is not so much interested in how we look on the outside; He cares what is in our hearts. When our hearts are attached to sin and to the good things of this world, its receptacles are filled up and have no room for God. We need to free our hearts from all its attachments and pray as it says in today’s psalm: “A clean heart create for me, O God” (Psalm 51:10). God tells us that we need to rend our hearts; that is a powerful image; it is a painful route to take, but it brings us new life.
The key to our living the faith is turning our heart back to God. The repentant heart is the key. We express that repentance by our fasting, sorrow for our sin, and our almsgiving, and they are meant to be painful as we rend our hearts. We also rend our hearts by the confession of our sins and by our prayer and charitable deeds. These penitential activities help to turn our dead hearts of stone into hearts of flesh which seek to please God. They resurrect our dead, fruitless trees of life into fruitful, abundant, overflowing trees of life which bear good fruit each month and out of which flow rivers of living water.
There are three main parts to a plan for Lent, a program for our increased daily conversion of heart: 1) we need to cut out the ways we sin; 2) we should give us something good as a sacrifice to God; 3) we should increase something better we already do or start something new.
An example for a Lenten plan could look something like this: first, I am going to be committed to avoid that near occasion of sin which I am too comfortable with right now; second, I am going to give up alcohol; third, I am going to say a decade of the rosary each day and do the stations of the cross on Fridays. Another example: first, I am not going to gossip; second, I will give up coffee and chocolate; third, I will get to daily Mass and read the daily Mass readings for the next day the night before. Of course, the options are endless, but it is important to stop sinning, have a sacrifice of something good and put something better in its place. All these items help our hearts to draw closer to God and attach to the only worthy and life-giving attachment.
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.
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.
1.26.2008
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.
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.
1.18.2008
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.
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.
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