Were there no glory and no resurrection/
a faithful priest I would resolve to be/
for with head bowed down and on bended knee/
I must pray, You are God, and I am not .
7.13.2014
I Must Pray
Were there no glory and no resurrection/
a faithful priest I would resolve to be/
for with head bowed down and on bended knee/
I must pray, You are God, and I am not .
7.11.2014
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
He will say, Here I am >>>
IS NOT this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
THEN SHALL your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
IF YOU take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. [Isa 58:6-10]
Corporal Works of Mercy
1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give cold water to the thirsty.
3. Shelter the homeless.
4. Clothe the naked.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit the imprisoned.
7. Bury the dead reverently.
THEN THE King will say to those at his right hand, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."
THEN THE righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." [Mt 25:34-40]
Spiritual Works of Mercy
1. Admonish the sinner.
2. Instruct the ignorant.
3. Counsel the doubtful.
4. Comfort the sorrowful.
5. Bear wrongs patiently.
6. Forgive all injuries.
7. Pray for the living and the dead.
LET HIM know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. [Jam 5:20]
GIVE INSTRUCTION to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:9-10]
AND CONVINCE some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. [Jude 1:20-23]
BE NOT wanting in comforting them that weep: and walk with them that mourn. [Sir 7:38; Douay-Rheims 1941]
PUT ON then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. [Col 3:12-13]
"BUT I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. [Lk 6:27-28]
TO THIS end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power. [2Thess 1:11]
IT IS therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. [2Mach 12:46; Douay-Rheims, 1941]
THEN SHALL your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
IF YOU take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. [Isa 58:6-10]
Corporal Works of Mercy
1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give cold water to the thirsty.
3. Shelter the homeless.
4. Clothe the naked.
5. Visit the sick.
6. Visit the imprisoned.
7. Bury the dead reverently.
THEN THE King will say to those at his right hand, "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."
THEN THE righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." [Mt 25:34-40]
Spiritual Works of Mercy
1. Admonish the sinner.
2. Instruct the ignorant.
3. Counsel the doubtful.
4. Comfort the sorrowful.
5. Bear wrongs patiently.
6. Forgive all injuries.
7. Pray for the living and the dead.
LET HIM know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. [Jam 5:20]
GIVE INSTRUCTION to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:9-10]
AND CONVINCE some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. [Jude 1:20-23]
BE NOT wanting in comforting them that weep: and walk with them that mourn. [Sir 7:38; Douay-Rheims 1941]
PUT ON then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. [Col 3:12-13]
"BUT I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. [Lk 6:27-28]
TO THIS end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power. [2Thess 1:11]
IT IS therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins. [2Mach 12:46; Douay-Rheims, 1941]
7.10.2014
Sun, Mast and Horizon
"These three agree" >>>
In the golden age of sailing vessels, a mariner fixed his position on the high seas by triangulating the noonday sun, mast and horizon. With the aid of a sextant and a reliable timepiece, he could accurately determine both latitude and longitude. Hence, the sailor knew the location of his vessel and the distance remaining to port. In his first epistle, the apostle John triangulates the believer, his neighbor and God to instruct the universal Church regarding the mystical Body of Christ:
EVERY ONE who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments." [1Jn 5:1-2]
Opting to forget or ignore your brother's sins over forgiving him is like throwing a lifeline to a drowning man with no intention of drawing him in. Silence in the face of sin is hardly the better part of wisdom; to the contrary, it is complicity in folly.
Absent reconciliation with God and neighbor, it is humanly impossible to forget or ignore the consequences of sin. All sins are injuries, very many of which are life-threatening for one's eternal soul; all sins require divine healing. The man who does not know God stumbles in the dark. [cf. 1Jn 2:11] Rudderless, he does not know where he is, nor can he see where he is going.
Filled with dread, he is helpless to resolve his anxiety. He does not know peace. Should he broach to, his most personal relationships will founder as well. Alternatively, perhaps he and those who depend on him will zigzag endlessly throughout life until exhaustion or famine overtakes them just outside safe harbor. Reconciliation is never exclusive. Love and forgiveness are never secret matters.
Love, if it is to bear fruit, must be deep-rooted and far-reaching. That the peace of Christ (1) may genuinely take root in your heart, pray that you "be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man." [Eph 3:16] Pray in the Spirit for the power "to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." [Eph 3:18-19]
In the golden age of sailing vessels, a mariner fixed his position on the high seas by triangulating the noonday sun, mast and horizon. With the aid of a sextant and a reliable timepiece, he could accurately determine both latitude and longitude. Hence, the sailor knew the location of his vessel and the distance remaining to port. In his first epistle, the apostle John triangulates the believer, his neighbor and God to instruct the universal Church regarding the mystical Body of Christ:
EVERY ONE who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments." [1Jn 5:1-2]
Opting to forget or ignore your brother's sins over forgiving him is like throwing a lifeline to a drowning man with no intention of drawing him in. Silence in the face of sin is hardly the better part of wisdom; to the contrary, it is complicity in folly.
Absent reconciliation with God and neighbor, it is humanly impossible to forget or ignore the consequences of sin. All sins are injuries, very many of which are life-threatening for one's eternal soul; all sins require divine healing. The man who does not know God stumbles in the dark. [cf. 1Jn 2:11] Rudderless, he does not know where he is, nor can he see where he is going.
Filled with dread, he is helpless to resolve his anxiety. He does not know peace. Should he broach to, his most personal relationships will founder as well. Alternatively, perhaps he and those who depend on him will zigzag endlessly throughout life until exhaustion or famine overtakes them just outside safe harbor. Reconciliation is never exclusive. Love and forgiveness are never secret matters.
Love, if it is to bear fruit, must be deep-rooted and far-reaching. That the peace of Christ (1) may genuinely take root in your heart, pray that you "be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man." [Eph 3:16] Pray in the Spirit for the power "to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." [Eph 3:18-19]
7.09.2014
Three Thin Trees - December 14 2009
>>>Stings of love
Three thin trees, bereft,
bleak thorns against the sky,
damn the collectivist intent
to deny charity its wreath/
Swiftly to be routed down
lest the olive yield a fruitful peace
across the soulless humanscape--
Shinar’s perch of bitumen and gold,
and the garroting of slaves
to tend their masters’ hands
in the dark festivities beyond/
By Levantine caressed, warm and wet,
bursts a cloud of bearded blooms--
white heat of verity and anvil
that empties tombs, seals bloody quarries/
Pray shake the crosier ever green
to solemnize stings of love,
yes clang of steel, perhaps anoint
a mother’s ground of mourning/
7.06.2014
As Things Really Are (Part 2 of 2)
Very personal, far reaching >>>
Or was it? Was it just possible that Eve’s return to the starting point was not a willed birth into a new cosmic existence, still less self-divinization, but a grotesque circular fantasy leading her straight back to her creaturely nothingness? But not without a great price, however. In her mind’s eye, she danced naked in a cosmic palace of evolutionary consciousness. But in the reality of the tree’s shadow, a sign of things as they really are, she fell existentially into a toxic dump, the one we have come to know as the fall of humankind, a hell vastly larger than her imaginings.
Reacting to the weight of their own grave sin in the pale but sufficient light of shame (the last defense of what is authentically human), they ran away from their Creator). They literally fell into the living God’s hands to their condemnation. [cf. Heb 10:31] The Sacred Scriptures are silent about God’s arched eyebrows when he saw the priceless fig leaf skirts and what they signified, the first of many things that man and woman would hide from each other.
From the aspect of relationship, we may appraise Adam's personal sin as the greater of the two. Adam, the precursor of prophets, kings and priests (and Christ himself) broke his intercessory relationship with God by valuing the creaturely Eve -- the image of himself -- more highly than the creator. The priestly custodian of God’s image and likeness betrayed all human beings by his failure to plead pardon for Eve and for all creation.
Eve, model and progenitor of the human race as mother of the living, sinned by stealing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge for the purpose of self-empowerment. The consequences of her actions would gravely harm all generations of human beings. The fruit itself is quite irrelevant, what it stands for is not. Irrespective of which commandment or law is transgressed by human beings, there is no sin that does not offend both God’s sovereignty and original human innocence. At bottom, the least sin violates the sacred order, spiritual and temporal, that God’s law protects.
And the sacred order of things is first and foremost understood by human beings as that which is relational. The word relationship, absurdly cheapened in popular usage as “connection”, properly encompasses such goods as personhood, filiation, community, humaneness, charity, unity, vowed commitments, benevolence and the like.
The term “right order” means to be in right relationship with God and with all human persons. Contextually, it refers to being rightly oriented to the whole of reality. It is no exaggeration to say that grave sin is profoundly disorienting to the human person, making it difficult if not impossible for the sinner to see things as they really are. Sin offends the good, it offends the law that protects the good, and it offends the sacred order in which the good is situated.
Sin impairs the sinner’s eyes of faith. To the degree that a person sins, he is blinded to the pleasing and life-affirming order of the whole of reality. Moreover, the sinner loses spiritual depth-perception. He no longer can readily distinguish the difference between creation as a good and the particular good that God wills or does not will for him personally.
Interestingly, Adam and Eve's transgression against the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the remote factor in their expulsion. The proximate factor was the threat that they would partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life and become a new breed of immortal transgressors: “‘Lest man put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever’ -- therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden”. [Gen 3:22-23]
Or was it? Was it just possible that Eve’s return to the starting point was not a willed birth into a new cosmic existence, still less self-divinization, but a grotesque circular fantasy leading her straight back to her creaturely nothingness? But not without a great price, however. In her mind’s eye, she danced naked in a cosmic palace of evolutionary consciousness. But in the reality of the tree’s shadow, a sign of things as they really are, she fell existentially into a toxic dump, the one we have come to know as the fall of humankind, a hell vastly larger than her imaginings.
Reacting to the weight of their own grave sin in the pale but sufficient light of shame (the last defense of what is authentically human), they ran away from their Creator). They literally fell into the living God’s hands to their condemnation. [cf. Heb 10:31] The Sacred Scriptures are silent about God’s arched eyebrows when he saw the priceless fig leaf skirts and what they signified, the first of many things that man and woman would hide from each other.
From the aspect of relationship, we may appraise Adam's personal sin as the greater of the two. Adam, the precursor of prophets, kings and priests (and Christ himself) broke his intercessory relationship with God by valuing the creaturely Eve -- the image of himself -- more highly than the creator. The priestly custodian of God’s image and likeness betrayed all human beings by his failure to plead pardon for Eve and for all creation.Eve, model and progenitor of the human race as mother of the living, sinned by stealing the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge for the purpose of self-empowerment. The consequences of her actions would gravely harm all generations of human beings. The fruit itself is quite irrelevant, what it stands for is not. Irrespective of which commandment or law is transgressed by human beings, there is no sin that does not offend both God’s sovereignty and original human innocence. At bottom, the least sin violates the sacred order, spiritual and temporal, that God’s law protects.
And the sacred order of things is first and foremost understood by human beings as that which is relational. The word relationship, absurdly cheapened in popular usage as “connection”, properly encompasses such goods as personhood, filiation, community, humaneness, charity, unity, vowed commitments, benevolence and the like.
The term “right order” means to be in right relationship with God and with all human persons. Contextually, it refers to being rightly oriented to the whole of reality. It is no exaggeration to say that grave sin is profoundly disorienting to the human person, making it difficult if not impossible for the sinner to see things as they really are. Sin offends the good, it offends the law that protects the good, and it offends the sacred order in which the good is situated.
Sin impairs the sinner’s eyes of faith. To the degree that a person sins, he is blinded to the pleasing and life-affirming order of the whole of reality. Moreover, the sinner loses spiritual depth-perception. He no longer can readily distinguish the difference between creation as a good and the particular good that God wills or does not will for him personally.
Interestingly, Adam and Eve's transgression against the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the remote factor in their expulsion. The proximate factor was the threat that they would partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life and become a new breed of immortal transgressors: “‘Lest man put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever’ -- therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden”. [Gen 3:22-23]
7.05.2014
As Things Really Are (Part 1 of 2)
Jaw-dropping sophistry >>>
The lives of Adam and Eve were sustained in virtuous conduct by God who granted them a share of his divine life. This share was sanctifying grace, the procession of a two-fold gift from God, an “original holiness” and a participation in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. [CCC 375]
The Genesis account relates that Adam and Eve possessed the fullness of intellect and reason. Both enjoyed free will and the liberty to act rightly or wrongly. They accepted God’s friendship and trusted his divine commands from the start—Do this, don’t do that. As a consequence, they had no experience of suffering or disappointment.
Throughout the age of innocence, the length of which is unknown, the intellect and will of the first human beings mirrored the divine goodness in whose image and likeness they were created. [cf. Gen 1:26]
Adam, searching for a help-mate, rightly rejected all birds, beasts and fishes as unsuitable. By saying yes to intimacy with Eve, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” [Gen 2:23], he cooperated with God’s plan for human well-being. By saying no to the primary companionship of non-human creatures, he pleased God and magnified him in whose image and likeness he was created.
Eve who enjoyed good things to eat knew well what God commanded her and Adam: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” [Gen 3:3] Tempted by the serpent (devil), she touched and ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Obsessed by self-interest, Eve convinced Adam to make her strikingly outrageous act of apostasy against God complete. As a consequence, the age of innocence vanished, and their idolatrous hearts convulsed with anguish and dread.
Eve rejected the God of creation and gravely wounded her relationship with Adam. The wretched Adam validated his companion’s sin and failed in his priestly duty as well. He neither corrected Eve nor interceded prayerfully on her behalf in God’s presence. One may speculate as to the narrative’s outcome if Adam had refused to conspire with Eve, seeking instead divine pardon for her and healing for the wounded creation. Would that he had. They would not recover from their joint self-mutilation.
Or one simply may dismiss the Genesis story as an primitive artifact of human neurosis. The gimlet eye of this prideful generation, to be sure, feasts on controversy as amaranth on a battle-field. Though certainly not the last word in human anthropology, the Genesis story rings with a dreadful truth, and rational men and women of good will should deal with it.
To understand the immense significance of Adam’s priestly failure to plead pardon before God on behalf of Eve and all creation, one must comprehend the magnitude of Eve’s sin, taking care to stipulate that if Eve were a simpleton, the story would never have been written.
Aggravated by the serpent’s temptations, Eve contemplated the idea of grasping equality with God. Again, stipulating Eve’s competence, she knew full well what she intended to do irrespective of the devil’s sinister persuasions. God’s commandment was clear: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” [Gen 3:3]
The lives of Adam and Eve were sustained in virtuous conduct by God who granted them a share of his divine life. This share was sanctifying grace, the procession of a two-fold gift from God, an “original holiness” and a participation in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. [CCC 375]
The Genesis account relates that Adam and Eve possessed the fullness of intellect and reason. Both enjoyed free will and the liberty to act rightly or wrongly. They accepted God’s friendship and trusted his divine commands from the start—Do this, don’t do that. As a consequence, they had no experience of suffering or disappointment.
Adam, searching for a help-mate, rightly rejected all birds, beasts and fishes as unsuitable. By saying yes to intimacy with Eve, “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” [Gen 2:23], he cooperated with God’s plan for human well-being. By saying no to the primary companionship of non-human creatures, he pleased God and magnified him in whose image and likeness he was created.
Eve who enjoyed good things to eat knew well what God commanded her and Adam: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” [Gen 3:3] Tempted by the serpent (devil), she touched and ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Obsessed by self-interest, Eve convinced Adam to make her strikingly outrageous act of apostasy against God complete. As a consequence, the age of innocence vanished, and their idolatrous hearts convulsed with anguish and dread.
Eve rejected the God of creation and gravely wounded her relationship with Adam. The wretched Adam validated his companion’s sin and failed in his priestly duty as well. He neither corrected Eve nor interceded prayerfully on her behalf in God’s presence. One may speculate as to the narrative’s outcome if Adam had refused to conspire with Eve, seeking instead divine pardon for her and healing for the wounded creation. Would that he had. They would not recover from their joint self-mutilation.
Or one simply may dismiss the Genesis story as an primitive artifact of human neurosis. The gimlet eye of this prideful generation, to be sure, feasts on controversy as amaranth on a battle-field. Though certainly not the last word in human anthropology, the Genesis story rings with a dreadful truth, and rational men and women of good will should deal with it.
To understand the immense significance of Adam’s priestly failure to plead pardon before God on behalf of Eve and all creation, one must comprehend the magnitude of Eve’s sin, taking care to stipulate that if Eve were a simpleton, the story would never have been written.
Aggravated by the serpent’s temptations, Eve contemplated the idea of grasping equality with God. Again, stipulating Eve’s competence, she knew full well what she intended to do irrespective of the devil’s sinister persuasions. God’s commandment was clear: “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” [Gen 3:3]
7.02.2014
Small World of Castles
A very long time >>>
Yes, yes, you see in certain persons a castle with a moat and draw bridge and arrows raining down from its ramparts. One may enter the castle occasionally when the ruler lowers the drawbridge, but the ruler will not come out. Those who build castles plan to stay in them for a very long time. Castles enclose a cramped world in which life revolves around the ruler. Everything is centered on defense. I don't see this as healthy for nations or families or individuals.
Yes, yes, you see in certain persons a castle with a moat and draw bridge and arrows raining down from its ramparts. One may enter the castle occasionally when the ruler lowers the drawbridge, but the ruler will not come out. Those who build castles plan to stay in them for a very long time. Castles enclose a cramped world in which life revolves around the ruler. Everything is centered on defense. I don't see this as healthy for nations or families or individuals.
7.01.2014
Loving God and Neighbor
"Liberty Bell of our faith" >>>
Like his love, God’s mercy free for the asking. Yet it's so precious that the sum of the world’s wealth cannot purchase it. To be forgiven is to be restored in a spirit of gentleness. [Gal 6:1] Restored to whom? To your God and your neighbor. For what purpose? For life-giving friendship. When your sins are forgiven, you can walk freely and confidently. When you are forgiven, death has no more power over your destiny.
Jesus firmly declares that if you want to know greatness, you must love God ardently and your neighbor as yourself. The first of your "neighbors" is your parish Church and your very own family. But, in truth, your "neighbor" includes everyone you meet. God places “neighbors” in your path for divine reasons. God gives you neighbors to test you. He wants to know if you actually are living a holy way of life.
And if you genuinely love God, you will love your neighbor. To truly understand and experience God’s transforming love, you humbly serve the persons that God has chosen to give to you, especially the poor. If you serve God and neighbor with great love, you will live and prosper. Should you serve merely yourself and treat others as utilities, you will surely rot and perish from the inside out.
The Great Commandment is the "Liberty Bell" of our faith, bestowing upon us a genuine freedom which no individual, group or government can take away. The sound of the bell is urgent calling us now even as we worship together. It rings across our land commanding the followers of Jesus Christ to make a profound commitment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [Mt 22:37-39]
Like his love, God’s mercy free for the asking. Yet it's so precious that the sum of the world’s wealth cannot purchase it. To be forgiven is to be restored in a spirit of gentleness. [Gal 6:1] Restored to whom? To your God and your neighbor. For what purpose? For life-giving friendship. When your sins are forgiven, you can walk freely and confidently. When you are forgiven, death has no more power over your destiny.
Jesus firmly declares that if you want to know greatness, you must love God ardently and your neighbor as yourself. The first of your "neighbors" is your parish Church and your very own family. But, in truth, your "neighbor" includes everyone you meet. God places “neighbors” in your path for divine reasons. God gives you neighbors to test you. He wants to know if you actually are living a holy way of life. And if you genuinely love God, you will love your neighbor. To truly understand and experience God’s transforming love, you humbly serve the persons that God has chosen to give to you, especially the poor. If you serve God and neighbor with great love, you will live and prosper. Should you serve merely yourself and treat others as utilities, you will surely rot and perish from the inside out.
The Great Commandment is the "Liberty Bell" of our faith, bestowing upon us a genuine freedom which no individual, group or government can take away. The sound of the bell is urgent calling us now even as we worship together. It rings across our land commanding the followers of Jesus Christ to make a profound commitment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [Mt 22:37-39]
/OT Wk 14 /Cycle A /Jul 06 2014
"Come to Me, All Who Labor" >>>
Sadly, a famine ravages our world, exhausting many individuals, breaking down the human family and threatening the collapse of entire nations. In the midst of our own wealth, people languish for lack of authentic love.
Many are in grave danger because they are unable to receive love or to offer it to others in a meaningful way. For these souls, every tear carries a world of sorrow, every heartache confesses a wordless story of hopes dissolved, of dreams unfulfilled.
At some point in life, each of us suffers a genuine crisis of love. Feeling ill-used at the very least, we may grow to doubt the purpose of our existence. The great sorrow of our age is the disintegration of our youth, many of whom carry a brutal burden upon their shoulders.
Incredibly, many young people think they were created without the capacity to offer or to receive virtuous love, that virtuous love is not essential to one's character or humanity, and if construed as something more than utility, love is simultaneously futile and fatal. Not knowing what love is, or how to recognize it as genuine, they surrender to numbing confusion, ruinous conduct and poisonous self-reproach.
As creatures who long for meaning, our egoistic appetites may become so powerful, that we fabricate reality even where none exists. Man will accept even the grossest substitutes for love, even to the point of doing violence to the natural law written in his heart.
It is a mystery how human beings recoil from truth and commitment in the face of growing interior poverty, but when given the chance they will pounce on any fiction that rationalizes their clearly inferior values and destructive behaviors.
"Come to Me, All Who Labor" >>>
Sadly, a famine ravages our world, exhausting many individuals, breaking down the human family and threatening the collapse of entire nations. In the midst of our own wealth, people languish for lack of authentic love.
Many are in grave danger because they are unable to receive love or to offer it to others in a meaningful way. For these souls, every tear carries a world of sorrow, every heartache confesses a wordless story of hopes dissolved, of dreams unfulfilled. At some point in life, each of us suffers a genuine crisis of love. Feeling ill-used at the very least, we may grow to doubt the purpose of our existence. The great sorrow of our age is the disintegration of our youth, many of whom carry a brutal burden upon their shoulders.
Incredibly, many young people think they were created without the capacity to offer or to receive virtuous love, that virtuous love is not essential to one's character or humanity, and if construed as something more than utility, love is simultaneously futile and fatal. Not knowing what love is, or how to recognize it as genuine, they surrender to numbing confusion, ruinous conduct and poisonous self-reproach.
As creatures who long for meaning, our egoistic appetites may become so powerful, that we fabricate reality even where none exists. Man will accept even the grossest substitutes for love, even to the point of doing violence to the natural law written in his heart.
It is a mystery how human beings recoil from truth and commitment in the face of growing interior poverty, but when given the chance they will pounce on any fiction that rationalizes their clearly inferior values and destructive behaviors.
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