Thoughts on Jesus as Lord

 

Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

Mark 12:35–37

Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus quotes a psalm where David calls him Lord. It calls to mind a question: Do you also recognize Jesus as Lord?  Is Christ commanding your life in every detail? Is he the Lord of your family life? Of your recreational life? Of your professional life? Is he the Lord of every room in your house, including the bedroom? Does your sexuality belong to him? Do your friendships serve his purpose? Are you totally given over to him, under his lordship? When we surrender to the path of love that he has laid out for us, our lives become infinitely lighter, easier, and more joyful, for we are moving with the divine purpose. We will have moved out of what Paul calls the way of “the flesh” and into the way of “the Spirit.” Flesh refers here not to the body as such but to sin. When you are caught up in patterns of self-regard and self-protection, life becomes a burden, and you find yourself taking up the weapons of war all the time. But when you recognize Jesus as Lord, you can let all of that go. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on love

 

Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Mark 12:28–34

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Lord says that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Love is not primarily a feeling or an instinct; rather, it is the act of willing the good of the other as other. It is radical self-gift, living for the sake of the other. To be kind to someone so that he might be kind to you, or to treat a fellow human being justly so that he, in turn, might treat you with justice, is not to love, for such moves are tantamount to indirect self-interest. Truly to love is to move outside of the black hole of one’s egotism, to resist the centripetal force that compels one to assume the attitude of self-protection. But this means that love is rightly described as a “theological virtue,” for it represents a participation in the love that God is. Since God has no needs, only God can utterly exist for the sake of the other. All of the great masters of the Christian spiritual tradition saw that we are able to love only inasmuch as we have received, as a grace, a share in the very life, energy, and nature of God. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on Heaven

 

Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

Mark 12:18–27

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus confronts the Sadducees, who did not believe in resurrection from the dead. They proposed a conundrum that they thought would disprove resurrection: If a woman married seven brothers, all of whom died, whose wife would she be in the resurrection? Notice how Jesus deals with this little conundrum: He brushes it aside. Jesus says to them, “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven.” What’s he saying here as he brushes aside this little bit of casuistry? What is heaven? Is it escaping from the body? No, that’s not it. That’s not a biblical view. Heaven is a place where our bodiliness will be so rich and so intense that we will be able to relate to all those around us in the most intimate and powerful way possible. And there we will be fully alive, for as Jesus explained from the Torah, God is not God of the dead but of the living. Bishop Robert Barron

More thoughts on the Most Holy Trinity

At the conclusion of the Easter season, the Church in her Sacred Liturgy directs the Christian faithful to ponder the inner life of God Himself, the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The One who dwells in inaccessible light—He who simply is, without beginning or end—is the One we adore as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Church’s teaching that God is a Trinity of three Persons in the unity of the divine nature is a mystery not in the sense of a puzzle or riddle, but a reality whose meaning can never be exhausted. St. Catherine of Siena described the Trinity as “a sea so deep that the more I enter, the more I find, and the more I find, the more I seek.”

An ancient creed expresses the faith of the Church with striking clarity and rhythm: “The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; and yet not three uncreated, but one uncreated.” Likewise: “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible; and yet not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible.” As St. Augustine put it, “If you have comprehended it, it is not God.”

So what are we to do? Be consoled that in God there is always more. A well-known story tells of St. Augustine by the seashore meeting a child trying to pour the ocean into a small hole in the sand. When Augustine objected, the child replied, “It is easier for me to pour the ocean into this hole than for you to fit the mystery of the Trinity into your finite mind.” The mystery we celebrate this Sunday is not something to be mastered, but to be adored.

The Trinitarian mystery is at the heart of the Christian faith. Through it we come to know not only that God loves us beyond measure, but that God is Love—the eternal communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the Risen Christ, we are drawn into that communion of divine love.

-Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.

Thoughts on the Most Holy Trinity

 

Today, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.     The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 234) teaches,   The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”   The objects of the Christian Faith, such as the Trinity, are above created natures. As supernatural realities, they cannot be discovered by reason or the senses, but must be revealed by God, who alone fully knows and understands them. This makes the Trinity a mystery.   Even so, we can reason about the mysteries of the Faith by analogy to the things that we do know, showing that they are not incompatible with reason, just beyond its natural comprehension. This possibility is the basis of the various dogmas regarding the mysteries of the Faith which the Church has promulgated over the centuries, as well as of the reasoned conclusions of theologians––all founded upon the act of Faith in the truth of the mystery.

Today, we encourage you to read our special page dedicated to the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, where we answer questions such as: Where did the term “Trinity” originate?  What does it mean for God to be a Trinity?  Are the Divine Persons foreshadowed in the Old Testament? Does Jesus ever claim to be God?  On the page, we also offer a free eBook, Prayers to the Most Holy Trinity, to help deepen your love for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We hope that this page and eBook will increase your understanding and draw you closer to our Triune God.   In Christ,   Your EWTN Family www.ewtn.com

Thoughts on hope

 

Letting Go of My Wishes

From: Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit

I have found it very important in my own life to try to let go of my wishes and instead to live in hope. I am finding that when I choose to let go of my sometimes petty and superficial wishes and trust that my life is precious and meaningful in the eyes of God, something really new, something beyond my own expectations begins to happen for me.

Reflection Question: How might I let go of my wishes and live in hope today?

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” - Psalm 20: 7

Thoughts on Memorial Day

This post was originally published on Memorial Day 2015:


My wife and I went to Mass on Memorial Day and our priest told a story in his homily about a man he knew that grew up without parents.  The man's name was Matt.  Matt led a lonely life and it seemed that everything he did or tried was met with a closed door.  He joined the military and eventually was deployed into active service in Afghanistan.  On return home to the US while on leave, he seemed bitter and distant to the priest and others who knew him.  His demeanor had changed now that he had been exposed to the brutality of war.  Upon his return to Afghanistan for another tour of duty, he fought bravely for his country, but this time he was killed by enemy fire and returned home to the US again, but this time he returned in a flag draped coffin.  He was given a proper funeral Mass and burial service, and this time he went through an open door, a door which led to heaven.  At this point the priest got choked up and everyone could see that he was very moved by this story.  The story of a person he knew personally, who had fought and died for his freedom as an American.  A person who was not loved by many people on this earth, but was loved tremendously by God.  We often don't think of the thousands of people, real people, real human beings, who lost their lives for this country, when we think of Memorial Day.  We tend to think of the patriotism and the flags, but we quickly turn to thoughts of summer time, BBQ's and time off from our jobs to be with our families and enjoy a day off.  When you think about people who were touched by a soldier who gave his life, it gets personal.  We live in a great country because of people like Matt.

Scott