31 March 2016 - why are you troubled?

[ Today's Readings ]

Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”

Jesus, you are risen indeed. You were dead but now you live. Help us, LORD, for we are troubled. We question. It is just hard to believe and accept even after hearing it is true and seeing the evidence of it in our own lives. Our memories become like memories of movies we watch rather than things we actually experience. Each and every time you do something new we are "startled and terrified" as if we "were seeing a ghost" because we quite get it. The resurrection is an idea. It surprises us whenever it impacts reality. But there is nothing more real than this. It includes even the mundane.

While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish; 
he took it and ate it in front of them.

But the reality of a normal meal and the reality of a resurrection-powered meal are actually quite different. Normal food leaves us still hungry or too full. Even when it satisfies we hunger again. Even if we get some energy from the meal we again grow weary. But in the power of the resurrection we find the food which makes us never hunger again. This is the food of your word, Jesus.

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

When this food nourishes us even eating regular food affects us differently. Something deeper is nourishes us at the same time. Even if our bodies go hungry our spirits remain satisfied. Our spirits foretell a deeper truth. They live now in the truth of the resurrection where death has no power and decay is cast out. They transform the world even now, from the inside out, to be more like the world to come. We don't have to struggle and fight to maintain ourselves and our place here below. This is because the life of the one "who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life" (see Hebrews 7:16) is now within us as well.

And this is the greatest gift we can give to anyone else.

The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
And by faith in his name,
this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong,
and the faith that comes through it
has given him this perfect health,
in the presence of all of you.

It is absolutely essential that we share the gift of the resurrection.

A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people. 

So help us to be bold, Jesus. Reveal yourself to us as the risen LORD! Only boldness acknowledges the truth and importance of the resurrection. If we shy away from this truth is it any wonder it loses power over our lives? We need to live like it is true, Jesus, because nothing is more true. 

O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

30 March 2016 - different this time

[ Today's Readings ]

The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel

After all, why should this time be different? The prophets of the past do mighty deeds. People are healed and the dead are raised. But it doesn't ultimately change things for Israel. They continued to be dominated by other nations. Is Jesus just one more "prophet mighty in deed and word" who makes a difference in the short term but none in the grand scheme?

Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?

Our hope in you is crushed by the sufferings of the world, Jesus. But you predict this suffering in advance. All of scripture points to the suffering servant who will not only suffer and die but in doing so transform suffering and death.

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning 
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.

Why, then, are we distraught as if the world is not different today than it was the day before the first easter? Why do we still continue to live as if you are just one more of the prophets, ultimately unable to make a world-changing impact?

Jesus, we need to realize who you are. You are not just Elijah or one of the prophets, but the Christ of God (see Mark 8:28-8:29). And we need to realize that you are with us. No matter who you are, if leave us alone and abandon us then we must continue to contend with the world as it is and has always been. But you do not abandon or forsake us (see Deuteronomy 31:6). You are with us always, even unto the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20).

You are with us in your word.

Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?

You are with us in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you: 
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”

And you are especially and perfectly with us in the breaking of the bread.

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

When we know this in our core our own feet and ankles grow strong to live for you and serve you.

He leaped up, stood, and walked around,
and went into the temple with them,
walking and jumping and praising God.

How can we not leap? The world is changed. Death is defeated. You have the victory, LORD Jesus.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?” (see First Corinthians 15:54-55).

Reveal yourself to us in all the places we can find you, LORD Jesus. Help our hearts to rejoice in you.

Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.

29 March 2016 - new garden, new gardener

“Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”

She isn't entirely wrong. Jesus, you are the new Adam. Adam is charged with guarding the garden of Eden but he fails. He does not speak up when the serpent tempts Eve. He wickedly stretches out his hand toward the tree of the forbidden fruit. From that time on, the daughters of Eve cannot rely on the Sons of Adam to be there for them when they need them. Mary Magdalene is afraid that you are gone Jesus. She is afraid that she is now alone again to fend for herself amidst the temptations of the world. Her hopes that you are somehow different, that you can be with her always, and that you will speak up for her-- all these are crushed. They are so crushed that she can't even see you through her own sadness. She is so lost in grief that she can't recognize you. But it isn't up to her anymore, as it was for every daughter of Eve until now. She is lost within herself. But you do not insist that she find her way by her own strength. You speak to her. You call out. Where Adam is silent, driving Eve to sin, you speak, drawing Mary to comfort.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

Jesus you call us by name. You know us. We are not lost in the crowd. We are not lost in a sea of faces. You give us better fruit than the forbidden fruit of Eden. You give us your very self. You give us your own body and blood from the cross, the true tree of life. When we receive this fruit we ourselves bear fruit. Our fruit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (see Galatians 5:22-23).

Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We are so sure that we can become so distraught and distracted that you can no longer speak to us. We even use the assumption that we won't hear as an excuse not to listen. But we are no so far gone that you can't call us back. Even when we betray you and act as your enemies you want us to know you.

Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.

It is possible to choose not to listen even though we can hear you. But you do call us. And the choice to listen is always available to us as long as we live.

The earth is full of your goodness Jesus. Help us to hope for your kindness. Help us to listen as you call our name. 

Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.

28 March 2016 - ain't no grave

[ Today's Readings ]

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the news to his disciples.

Help us to announce the news of your resurrection, Jesus. We go forth from Easter fearful and yet overjoyed. But there is no more need to fear. Death is defeated. If we don't even need to fear death what else is there to fear?

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (see Hebrews 2:14-15).

Jesus, you know that we're still afraid. Even though we see you freed from death's power. Even though we see the promise of eternal peace and lasting joy before our eyes we still fear temporary and transitory things. Meet us on our way, LORD, and make us fearless.

And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, 
and there they will see me.”

There may be opposition. The chief priests and elders may even be openly hostile to the truth of your resurrection. But we need not fear. You are our portion and cup. You keep our souls safe from those who can even kill our bodies. You do not abandon our souls to the nether world. Even our bodies abide in confidence because we know that any power which this fallen world has over them is temporary. Any corruption will ultimately be reversed. Even death will yield to the life, to "the fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever."

Jesus, it is impossible for you to be held by death. In you, it is impossible for death to hold us down. It can't stop us from living for you in radical love. Reveal your resurrection more deeply to us today.

God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit 
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear.

Or the Newsboys version..

27 March 2016 - risen indeed

[ Today's Readings ]

For they did not yet understand the Scripture 
that he had to rise from the dead.

But you first tell them Jesus. You tell them, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised" (see Luke 9:22)

But they don't get it. They may know all the relevant Scripture that predicts it. But they don't understand it. They don't even understand when you clearly describe it. Or maybe they do, intellectually. But maybe the reality of the resurrection cannot be understood in this way.

Maybe we already know the tomb is empty. But perhaps we don't really know what that means.

They have taken the Lord from the tomb, 
and we don’t know where they put him.

Maybe we are still full of old paradigms. Maybe our minds are still too set on what is on earth. Maybe our dough is leavened with yeast of malice and wickedness. We see these things constantly. Death is real. Sickness is real. Suffering and sorrow are real. How can we live with anything but the most consuming self-interest?

We see the empty tomb. But does it transform us? Do we experience it? Only if we do can our minds be freed to seek what is above. But we can't talk or think or study our way into this experience. It is given. It is a gift received in prayer. But we can ask with great confidence knowing that you want to reveal yourself to us, Jesus. You choose us to be your witnesses, witnesses to your resurrection, so that everyone can receive forgiveness of sins through your name.

Your right hand has struck with power. You have made a new day for the world. When it really hits us at our core it is far too wonderful in our eyes to keep to ourselves.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

26 March 2016 - rise, let us leave this place

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday.

I will wait in silence for you...

25 March 2016 - don't look away

[ Today's Readings ]

Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

The eyes of the world look to you today, LORD, and see one more failure. They seem a common criminal, perhaps. Or maybe someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. They perceive  the ugliness of suffering and death.

He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

If there is nothing in you to attract us it is no wonder that the world is repulsed. If there is no stately bearing to make us look the world look is it any wonder that they turn away?

Yet you do draw us, LORD. In spite of all the ugliness of the cross you do draw us. But it is not stately bearing nor appearance that draws us. It is deeper.

For this I was born and for this I came into the world, 
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

You speak, LORD. You invite us to recognize the truth. In your words we hear something more real than suffering and death. We hear a truth which we cannot own or contain. We can choose to recognize it for what it is and submit to it and belong to it. But we cannot simply take it as our own and use it as we will.

Pilate chooses to look the other way. Instead of letting the truth take possession of him he allows your lack of stately bearing and your marred appearance to repulse his gaze. Don't let us look away LORD. It would be easier, at first, not to look. It would be easier to not own up to the fact that you are bearing the suffering which is rightfully ours.

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our offenses,
crushed for our sins;
upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,
by his stripes we were healed.

But we need to see. We need to keep looking. We need to let the truth possess us until we see the one made perfect as the eternal salvation for all who obey him. We need to recognize you as the great "I AM" even as you suffering and bleed and die for us. Not just even as you do, but especially.

We are lousy at continuing to look. We're all too ready to look away. But you give us help of the one whose gaze does not waver. Mary keeps her station by the cross. You give her to us as our mother. Help us to hide ourselves in her mantle so that we can endure with her the whole trauma of your cross. With Mary's help we can stay with you to the very end.

 Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

Death is ugly. It is painful. But we hear in your voice something deeper. We hope in you, take courage, and become stouthearted. We hear love incarnate speaking. We hear the great "I AM" and we know that this is not the end but a new beginning. We know that the blood and water the pour forth here are the source of salvation for all who believe.

So let us confidently approach the throne of grace 
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.

Behold the wood ...

Her station keeping ...

Sacred Head Surrounded ...

24 March 2016 - all who are thirsty

[ Today's Readings ]

LORD, you invite us to come to you and be washed clean.

You humble yourself, taking the likeness of men and the form of a servant (see Philippians 2). You strip off the outer garments of your divinity in order to wash our feet clean from the sins that cling to us.

This gift goes even deeper than we realize. You give your very self into our hands.

the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over, 
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

This blood is what truly washes us clean. It is this precious blood which sets us free.

But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; 
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, 
no destructive blow will come upon you.

So come, LORD Jesus. We are reluctant at first, just as Peter is, when we see your great humility on display. But this is a gift which you want to give. It is a gift you want us to receive. We have literally nothing to offer in exchange for it. To receive the gift is all you ask of us. It is all we have to offer you.

How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.

As you give yourself to us you show us how to give ourselves to one another. With you within us your love enables us to actually do so.

If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, 
you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, 
so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

Let us be washed, LORD Jesus, so that we may wash others. Let us receive all that you have for us so that we might give all that we become through your gift away to others.

O LORD, you have loosed the bonds of sin and death and we shall praise you forever! 

O wash me in your precious blood till I am just a lamb of God..

Dip your heart in the stream of life..

Let them come to the water...

23 March 2016 - love never fails

[ Today's Readings ]

See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.

Let our hearts revive LORD Jesus. The world is so filled with injustice. It seems certain that love and justice and truth cannot stand before the strength of the wicked. How would they oppose them without turning into the very evils they oppose? But you reveal a deeper truth. As much as it looks like these strategies succeed their success is at best temporary.

We see works of love and charity and often think, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity". But you reveal that even when such things don't seem to succeed that there is recompense for them with God (see Isaiah 49:4). Even when the rich and the powerful seem to triumph the lowly are changing the world in a hidden and humble way.

You give us the ultimate example of this with your cross. Jesus, your hope in the Father is how you endure the cross in spite of the shame. The cross seems like the ultimate failure of love as the world looks on. But it is the ultimate triumph.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Help us to trust you as you trust the Father. Help us to love as you love even when insult breaks our hearts and there are none around to give us sympathy. Even when we are outcasts because of our zeal for you let it consume us. Even when it means we go hungry because our enemies only give us food filled with gall and vinegar to drink let us be faithful to you. If we trust in you we can experience your saving power even amidst our trials. We can experience a hope so real we can taste it.

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

Love is constantly betrayed by a world more interested in other things. And we ourselves often betray it. But love is not thwarted thereby. As Saint Paul tells us, love never fails.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away (see First Corinthians 13:8).

Teach us to play the long game, LORD.

though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;
but you, O LORD, are on high forever (see Psalm 92:7-8)

Help us to look beyond the way things seem to be. Help us to see things the way which we know they are because you tell us so. Help us to stake everything on love, just as you do.

22 March 2016 - unstoppable love, unquenchable mercy

[ Today's Readings ]

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

Teach us to honestly look at ourselves. Yes, LORD, we know you. Yes, we love you. And yet we still betray you at times. We still choose lesser things when we should choose you. We prefer thirty pieces of silver to your friendship. It happens, LORD, if we're honest.

So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.

Do we receive your body and blood and then run off after our own pursuits? These are pursuits which may be opposed to the kingdom of love, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit which you want to build in this world. At times we are all guilty of this.

Even so, you somehow use our failings for your glory.

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.

You somehow reveal yourself even when we betray you. Your weakness is stronger than the strength we show in our obstinate disobedience.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (First Corinthians 1:25).

We see that following you means carrying our own cross and going to die with you. We aren't willing to go all the way with you. We are not yet all in.

Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.

Even Peter betrays you LORD. Yet with that betrayal too you reveal your glory. You reveal an unstoppable love and an unquenchable mercy. So too for us. We betray you. But you reveal yourself even more deeply to us and invite us back. You keep calling us back until we turn to you as sincerely in our own hearts as Peter does when he says, "LORD, you know that I love you" (see John 21:17). You make Peter strong enough even to die for you. And you will do so for us.

Help us to recognize and learn from the times when we betray you so that we may eventually receive strength to follow you with our whole hearts. Help us to see that your own strength is not uselessly spent because of the world's betrayals. Your reward is with God. Because of this, you are a light for us and for all nations.

I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

Teach us to sing with the psalmist of your salvation. When the cross would make us turn to run by our rock of refuge. 

21 March 2016 - light up the darkness

[ Today's Readings ]

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Jesus, you are light. We need to keep you close to us and look to you. Without your light we are as good as blind. With your light we have nothing to fear. Without it is another story. Without it we might as well be prisoners in confinement. We might as well live in a dark dungeon. When we try to move without your light we stumble and fall. Effectively, we're stuck where we are.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (See Psalm 119:105).

By keeping your word before our eyes we keep you yourself before our eyes, Jesus. And with you before us we stand firm.

I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (see Psalm 16:8).

This is the only way we can "see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living." Even now your word is the only light in a dark world. The day is coming when it will cast it out entirely.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (see Second Peter 1:19).

How can we tell if we're paying enough attention to it now? Your word casts out the worldly fear that darkness imposes. It gives freedom. Do we feel fearful or imprisoned? Help us to keep you before us LORD Jesus. Help us to be attentive to your word.

In today's gospel reading Mary shows us how to treasure your word. Where Judas sees a mere resource to be used for a goal Mary sees an opportunity to show affection to one whom she loves.

Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. 

We can treat your word with this same love, LORD Jesus. We can treasure it with this same affection. If we do, assuredly, our houses will be filled with the fragrance of the oil. And here is the best part. We don't even have to buy the oil. We don't have to strike it rich or win the lotto. You yourself give us the oil of the Holy Spirit which we then lavish on you in praise and prayer. There is probably always something more practical to do than to love you Jesus. But at a deeper level, there is nothing more important.

Here and nowhere else is the "victory of justice". Only by waiting on your teaching and by being stouthearted waiting for you does this victory come.

20 March 2016 - unwavering

[ Today's Readings ]

LORD, how quick we are to turn on you. At one moment we cry out, "Blessed in the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest", and the next we cry out "Crucify him!" But unlike us, you are steadfast. When hardships come along you do not waver.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Even when we are unfaithful to you you remain faithful, LORD. You cannot deny yourself (see Second Timothy 2:13). You continue "to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them."

Then Jesus said,
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

You reveal that even from the cross your love is not wearied. Even up to the end you offer love and mercy to us.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
He replied to him,
“Amen, I say to you, 
today you will be with me in Paradise.

Even when you feel abandoned you still trust the Father. Even when all seems lost you are able to remain obedient to him.

But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
“You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!”

Let us look to your passion Jesus. Let us see in it the love you have for us. Although you do "not regard equality with God something to be grasped", and empty yourself, even though you refuse to save yourself to prove to the people that you are the chosen one, the Christ of God, even so we see your divinity revealed in this love you show us on the cross.

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" (see Matthew 27:54)

There is no better time to be transformed by your love than at the foot of the cross today. Help us to say even now, even as your blood pours out for us, "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

19 March 2016 - faith of our fathers

[ Today's Readings ]

fos·ter

verb

1. 1.

   encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good).

Jesus, you say of God the Father, "You are my father". He is your Father and you are his eternal and only-begotten Son with whom he is well pleased. You are united with him in the unshakable bond of love so real and try that it is itself the person of the Holy Spirit.

This love is the basis of the covenant that endures forever. This is the solidity of all of your promises. It is what underlies the faith which makes Abraham the Father of many nations. His fatherhood according to the flesh makes him the father of one nation. But by faith he is granted a share in the fatherhood that is ultimately from God the Father. This faith and fatherhood is able to transcend the boundaries of nations. This bond of love is even stronger than natural fatherhood because it is stronger than death by virtue of the faith in which it is based.

He is our father in the sight of God,
in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead
and calls into being what does not exist.

Abraham's faith makes way for the you, Jesus, the true Son of the Father, to be born in the days of time. As great as the share which the Father gives Abraham in his own Fatherhood even greater is the share given to Joseph. He is a righteous man. He has a faith that is willing to accept what you tell him rather than the way things seem to be. He shows the obedience that comes from faith.

For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”
When Joseph awoke,
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him
and took his wife into his home.

O Saint Joseph, you are not the father of Jesus in the natural sense. But because God gives you such great gifts of faith and righteousness you are fit to be his foster father. He allows the world to regard you as his father and you honor him as such. Even though you have work to do in the house of your heavenly Father you nevertheless go down to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph "and was obedient to them."

Jesus, if you are willing to entrust yourself and the beginnings of your kingdom to the care and protection of Saint Joseph help us be willing to trust him and to pray to him as well. You want us to be able share in the same Holy Spirit that empowers the faith of Abraham and the faith of Saint Joseph. It is only through that faith that they are able to be fitting for the fatherhood that is their task. And only that same Spirit, your Spirit, LORD Jesus,, can make us fitting sons.

The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness,
For you have said, “My kindness is established forever”;
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.

18 March 2016 - sons in the son

[ Today's Readings ]

can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

We know that we can't say this in the same way you can, Jesus. God the Father is your Father like he is no one else's. He himself speaks this truth.

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” (see Matthew 17:5).

You do his works. You reveal his love and his mercy. It is precisely in the power of your goodness and love that you reveal that you are the child of the Father. But it is in this same revelation that we realize how far we have to go.

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

We say we are not trying to stone you for your goodness. But really, we are. Because then we won't have to admit that the Father is your Father and that we need so much mercy and change in our lives.

Jesus, your works are love. They are meant so that we "may realize and understand that the Father is in" you and you in him. Help us to lay down our stones. Help us to receive the Spirit that makes us sons of the Father. Help us to receive your own Spirit of Sonship and become children of our heavenly Father.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (see Galatians 4:6)

You then transform us to do the same sorts of good works from your Father that you yourself perform.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil (see Luke 6:35).

When we become children of the Father the world hates us just as it hates you. But just as you find refuge and help in the Father so can we.

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.

We need to trust you so much that we call you when we are in distress before we try anything else. Even if the "breakers of death" are surging about us and "the destroying floods" are overwhelming us, even if the very "cords of the nether world" ensnare us and "the snares of death" overtake us you are ready and waiting to help. We discover a Father who loves his children and does not abandon them.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you (see Isaiah 49:15).

When we lack good works and feel threatened by you, help us to cry out for help. When your good works are manifest in us and the world feels threatened, help us to cry out for help.

In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears. 

17 March 2016 - think bigger

[ Today's Readings ]

Your promises are so good, LORD. They are so good that when we try to understand how you fulfill them in advance we run the risk of missing them entirely. We actually set our expectations too low.

You make an amazing promise to Abraham...

I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

...and you yourself are the fulfillment of that promise.

The Jews in today's readings expect a physical descendents and a geographically distinct nation state.

But you are thinking bigger Jesus.

You intend to bring together not just one nation but all nations including Jews and Gentiles.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (see Ephesians 2:13)

You do more than exult a single group. You bring us together.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (see Galatians 3:28).

You make of both of us more than either of us ever were alone.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (see First Peter 2:9).

But are we so fixated on the what we assume you mean that we fail to see what you actually do? Are our minds so earthbound that we fail to see the power of the resurrection and of heaven which is even now transforming our world through the Church? That is to say, do we look at you Jesus, and see a mere human when there is true divinity at work?

Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.” 
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

LORD free our minds. Help us to see that you do more for us than all we can ask or imagine (see Ephesians 3:20). Help us not to limit your power in our lives by bad expectations. You remember your covenant forever. You answer every prayer asked in faith. Help us to see and be thankful for all the wondrous deeds you have wrought, your portents, and the judgments you have uttered. Only when we see how you continually over-deliver can we be in anyway prepared for what comes next.

He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.

16 March 2016 - freedom in the flames

[ Today's Readings ]

Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

We know this is true, LORD. We think that sin makes us free. We demand the freedom to live as we choose. Yet when we sin we do not find freedom. We find slavery. We find addiction. Now, even when we want to do what is right we find this slavery within us making it hard or even impossible.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing (see Romans 7:19)

We find ourselves captives to sin. And what are we to do? As Saint Paul asks, "Who will deliver me from this body of death?" But he answers immediately, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (see Romans 7:24-25)

We find freedom only by believing in you, Jesus.

Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him,
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Unfortunately this means coming to terms with our own lack of freedom. It means owning up to the fact that the cry to crucify you in our own hearts, LORD. It means owning up to the fact that we are, in a sense, children of fornication, and that God is not our Father in the full sense we'd like to believe. But once we can acknowledge the fact that we are not free you can make us free.

So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.

We would imagine this freedom to be freedom from worldly circumstances. Freedom like that would mean there was never anything pushing us to choose bad things. But this is not the freedom you offer. You offer freedom in the midst of, indeed in spite of worldly oppression. We do not find, necessarily, freedom from the flames of King Nebuchadnezzar.

King Nebuchadnezzar’s face became livid with utter rage
against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual
and had some of the strongest men in his army
bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and cast them into the white-hot furnace.

Instead, we find freedom within the flames.

Nebuchadnezzar rose in haste and asked his nobles,
“Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
“Assuredly, O king,” they answered.
“But,” he replied, “I see four men unfettered and unhurt,
walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.” 

You are the fourth, LORD. It is believing in you that makes us free. Help us to trust in you rather than in the kings of this world for freedom. When we are threatened and oppressed let us trust in you. When temptation to betray you pushes in let us trust in you. When we do we too find one like a son of God with us amidst the flames. We find true freedom.

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

15 March 2016 - love is deeper

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.

LORD, help us to see you lifted up. Give us grace to behold your cross. We might think ourselves more likely to realize your identity when you are teaching and healing. And indeed, because you do these things many come to believe. But we are afflicted with the saraph serpents of sin. They bite at us and sometimes kill the life of the Spirit within us. Teaching and miracles are not enough for a people struggling with sin although they are a beginning. We need a deeper cure. 

Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,
and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.

We need something that is not merely external. We need something transformative. The cure you give brings us to terms with the evil we unleash. Looking to the cross we see the full ramifications of our sinful selfish desires. We see them borne by the one least deserving of them. We see them freely embraced by love. And seeing this we live.

We see innocent love choosing to suffer for we who are guilty and we realize that you truly are the great I AM. At first such love can't help but seem futile. The consequences of sin seem stronger than such apparent sentimentalism. Yet looking to the cross we recognize, even before we see the victory of the resurrection, that love is the deeper truth. Sin and death are not.

When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (see Matthew 27:54).

Jesus, we look to you on the cross and we intuit the truth of what you say.

The one who sent me is with me. 
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.

The only way the love of the cross can even exist is if this is true and the Father is always with you Jesus. Even when you cry out to the Father...

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (see Matthew 27:46)

...you remain obedient to him and do only the mission for which he sends you to us. Your love is too great to abandon that mission. You and the Father love us too much to leave us in the desert of sin at the mercy of serpents. 

The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.

Give us grace to behold your cross today.

14 March 2016 - looking up

[ Today's Readings ]

They suppressed their consciences;

they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,

and did not keep in mind just judgments.

LORD, never let us suppress our consciences. Help us to keep our gaze fixed on the things above.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (see Colossians 3:2).

Those who don't look to you and suppress their consciences keep no secrets from you.  Whereas those who keep their eyes on you have nothing to fear.

“O eternal God, you know what is hidden

and are aware of all things before they come to be:

you know that they have testified falsely against me. 

When we refuse to look to you we refuse the salvation you want to offer to us. No good comes of it. Even though we don't want to face up to our sins and the condemnation which we know is just we don't actually hide from it by hiding from you. And whereas the voice of the enemy keeps us from you by condemnation if we just turn to you you offer us mercy.

We may begin more like the two elders in the story of Susanna, slaves to our own passions. But if we allow our gaze to be lifted from the things of this earth we find an offer of mercy which can make us as innocent as Susanna. We find an offer of protection that can keep us safe from future works of the enemy.

We imagine that these two men were innocent once. The temptation to sin pushed itself upon them just as they now push themselves on Susanna. Where they yield she does not. We learn from Susanna that you, LORD, will supply help so that we need not yield. 

The help which you provide is your own light.

I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,

but will have the light of life.

The men walk in darkness, hiding from the light. But the reason you give testimony to yourself, Jesus, testimony which can be verified, is so that we can turn to you and trust your judgments. We may not know the Father but you want to reveal the mercy of the Father to us.

LORD, stir up our spirits to desire your justice. Rather than indulging our selfishness help us to burn with a love like that of Daniel which is willing even to butt in and intrude if need be.

As she was being led to execution,

God stirred up the holy spirit of a young boy named Daniel,

and he cried aloud:

“I will have no part in the death of this woman.”

If we are willing to look to heaven for help we can be brave like Daniel. If we are willing to stand in your light, LORD Jesus, we can be innocent like Susana. And we are grateful that even when we fall if we just look up again, if we just come back into the light, we find mercy rather than condemnation.

The dark valley is all around us. But it doesn't need to define who we are if you are at our side.

Even though I walk in the dark valley

I fear no evil; for you are at my side

With your rod and your staff

that give me courage.

Help us to leave darkness and sin behind us. The evils that beset us cannot follow us if we truly follow you, Jesus. 

Only goodness and kindness follow me

all the days of my life;

And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD

for years to come.

13 March 2016 - onward and upward

“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Let's drop our stones. We are not guiltless ourselves. Much less are we in any position to condemn anyone else.

By ourselves way cannot escape from the events of the past and the things of long ago. We can ignore and try to forget them. But that does not make them any less real. We see the signs and symptoms of this when we condemn others for their faults in self-righteousness just as the Pharisees condemn the adulterous woman.

But you, LORD Jesus, can truly separate us from our sinful past.

Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
see, I am doing something new!

We have to come to terms with the fact that we do not have any righteousness of our own based on the law, just as Saint Paul recognizes. When we accept this we allow ourselves to be conformed to your death so that the resurrection, the new thing you are doing, may completely obliterate our sin and selfishness.

[ Today's Readings ]

Being conformed to this death includes coming to you for mercy. It includes admitting the wrongs we do and receiving your forgiveness. As for the adulterous woman this might be very difficult. It means owning up to who we've been.

She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

Your mercy is the river that springs forth in the desert, the torrents in the southern desert. We sow in tears because of our failings and sin. But we reap rejoicing because of your mercy.

Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.

It isn't an all-at-once sort of thing, necessarily. You call us to make a break with the old sinful self more and more day by day. You continue to call us onward and upward.

Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind 
but straining forward to what lies ahead, 
I continue my pursuit toward the goal, 
the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.

12 March 2016 - safe word

[ Today's Readings ]

The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”

Jesus, no one speaks like you. Help us to receive you word.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers (see First Thessalonians 2:13).

Jesus you word is at work in those who believe. Help us to hear you and find out what you are doing. Give usears to hear. Don't let us by like the Pharisees who only feel threatened by you word. It is true that you word is dangerous. But it is only dangerous to our pride.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (see Hebrews 4:12).

In fact, only in your word can we be truly safe from deceit. The Pharisees fear deceit from without. But we just as effectively deceive ourselves and let ourselves be deceived. Your word gives us "unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God" which lets us "no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (see Ephesians 4:13-14).

Only in you is found safety, LORD. In you alone do we take refuge, lest we become like the lion's prey, to torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me. We don't need to fear even when men plot against us. Even if the whole world is against us it doesn't matter as long as you are with us.

But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!

You may well allow your word to cut us to the heart

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (see Acts 2:37).

But you chastise us so that we can be healed.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives (see Hebrews 12:6).

From all real danger, danger to our souls, you are a shield who saves us.

A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;

In order to truly make the you are shield and to fully experience the benefit of your words we must not only hear or read them but speak them.

 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love (see Ephesians 4:15-16)

11 March 2016 - more than meets the eye

[ Today's Readings ]

“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

There's always more to you than we realize Jesus. We get used to our current level of relationship with you. We start saying things like "we know where he is from." And it's true that we're a little closer than the inhabitants of Jerusalem. We know that you come from the Father. But still we find ourselves saying, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us" (see John 14:8).

Draw us deeper LORD. Become more real to us. Teach us to see you and not merely our ideas about who you are. If we are willing you want to guide us more deeply into the truth of who you are.

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (see John 14:9).

Why do we fail to see it, LORD? Is it perhaps that when we have these preconceived ideas about who you are and where you come from we feel safe? Is it because an encounter with the living God feels dangerous?

When we see you and not just our ideas about you we might find that you set yourself against some of the things we do. You might convict us when we violate our training or transgress the law. It might even feel like a censure of our thoughts. None of this happens because you want to condemn us. It happens because we see just how good you are. Seeing that we realize how far we ourselves still have to go. You aren't safe, LORD. But it's better that you aren't.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” 

― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

You are calling us to greater things than mere safety. It is precisely by seeing you more and more clearly that we are purified for this goal.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (see First John 3:3).

How do we make sure that we see you LORD? How do we see past the stagnant and static half-memories that limit how close you come to us? We look with an attitude of humility and not pride. We lower our shields and lay down our defenses. We allow ourselves to approach you with broken hearts knowing that you are close to the brokenhearted. We allow our spirits to be crushed knowing that you save those who are crushed in spirit.

He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.