4 November 2015 - tough love

Jesus asks us to be willing to lay down our own lives for others.

He himself takes up his own cross for us. He asks us to follow him, carrying our crosses for others.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.

He insists that we put this before even our natural attachments. We are disciples even before we are sons or daughters or brothers or sisters in our earthly families. We have to be because it is not merely natural relationships that fulfill the law. Love alone fulfills the law.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Think about it. Having a mother, father, and siblings doesn't necessarily help us fulfill the law. Sometimes they push us in the opposite direction. In spite being in an environment that functions best when we are selfless we still often choose to put ourselves first. These natural bonds must be secondary to selfless love. This love does not need to choose what is easy, what is sentimental, or what looks the nicest on a Hallmark card. It is capable of genuine tough self-sacrificial love.

Relying on our natural love in situations like this is like trying to build a tower without the materials we need. It is as if we are trying to bridge heaven and earth with our own resources. If we think it is something less than this we don't really understand just what sort of love is being asked of us. Our natural love is an army of ten thousand facing an enemy with nearly limitless resources. 

Jesus wants us to lay all of that down for the love that only comes from him. He wants us to surrender our own possessions if they get in the way. He wants a love that is supernatural more than natural. If our natural love gets in the way we are called to lay it down. We are called, ultimately, to lay down all pretense at being able to do this on our own. We are called to rely entirely on his strength and not our own. This is the corrective Jesus gives to a woman in the crowd who understands correctly that Mary was blessed but does not understand why.

"Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (cf. Luk. 11:27-28).

When we surrender to Jesus and rely entirely on him he makes it possible for us to love with the love that fulfills the law, love which does no evil to our neighbor. When we lay down our own meager strength at his feet we experience the blessedness that comes from living on his strength, and not only we, but those around us.

He dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.
Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice.

3 November 2015 - kingdom of individuals, not individual kingdoms

‘Come, everything is now ready.’
But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves.

The feast is ready. The banquet is set. The LORD sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Why do we excuse ourselves? What excuses are keeping us away?

I have purchased a field and must go to examine it;
I ask you, consider me excused.
And another said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen
and am on my way to evaluate them;

Are the things of this world such a distraction that we can't stop staring at them? Are we unable to spare our attention for the banquet because we have to "examine" and "evaluate" these things we own? Do they in fact own us? This doesn't even sound particularly fun. It sounds a lot more like work which our material pursuits force upon us.

And another said, ‘I have just married a woman,
and therefore I cannot come.’

Even something as great as marriage shouldn't keep us away. It isn't meant to keep us locked within our own world. Marriage in particular needs to grace and strength which comes from the banquet of the Kingdom of God.

Instead of letting our individuality draw us to separate paths we should put them to use for the Kingdom. Our individuality can end in isolated material and worldly pursuits. But it is not meant to.

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
let us exercise them

Our individuality is meant to be in service to the Kingdom. The banquet invitations don't just go out to one sort of person who fits in one specific mold. They go out to a variety of people. The celebration is much more rich when we realize that our individuality and gifts are meant to enrich it.

if prophecy, in proportion to the faith;
if ministry, in ministering;
if one is a teacher, in teaching;
if one exhorts, in exhortation;
if one contributes, in generosity;
if one is over others, with diligence;
if one does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

When our individuality brings us together for the kingdom instead of isolating us in the world we become able to love one another from sincere hearts. The things that matter most in reality finally matter most to us.

Let love be sincere;
hate what is evil,
hold on to what is good;
love one another with mutual affection;
anticipate one another in showing honor.

Once we get a taste of this we must pursue it. 

Do not grow slack in zeal,
be fervent in spirit,
serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope,
endure in affliction,
persevere in prayer.

Growing slack in zeal is possible even for the great prophets, ministers, and teachers of the Church. But it is by no means inevitable. We can remain zealous. We can continue to rejoice in the hope we have in Jesus and to persevere in prayer. This is the strength we need to endure even the worst afflictions. It is the strength we need to come to the feast even when some of the guests seem like our enemies, when they are at such different places from us both emotionally and spiritually.

Bless those who persecute you,
bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep.

These sorts of situations tempt us to go off and stare at the things we own. But let's be zealous! Let's serve the LORD with joy, relying on prayer for strength to sustain us. Then, instead of the sort of attention disorder that normally makes us turn aside to our own pursuits we can say with the psalmist:

Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother’s lap,
so is my soul within me.

2 November 2015 - anchor of souls

For if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet is their hope full of immortality;

Today on the Commemoration of All Souls we celebrate hope. 

Brothers and sisters:
Hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

We celebrate the hope of living with Jesus forever. We celebrate the hope of being free from the power of death. We were destined for punishment. We were destined for death. But no longer.

For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.

He died for us. But there is more to our hope than that. He doesn't leave us as we are. He lets the power and merit of his own death transform us. His death transforms even death itself.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, 
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.

Jesus walks in the newness of life over which death has no power. Our hope is that he will make that life present in both the faithful departed and ourselves. There is no other source of life. Death won't stop our brother's and sisters, still imperfectly purified (CCC 1030), from receiving that life to the full as long as they "have grown into union with him". For most of us it is not yet a perfect union. How wonderful, then, that our hope tells us that our own imperfections won't stop God from bringing us home. Somehow even the core of our being and the depths of our hearts will be changed. We will possess the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (cf. Heb. 12:14). We have this promise from Jesus.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.

This isn't the wishy-washy worldly sort of hope. The world doesn't understand hope. For the world, hope is something which, while nice if it were true, probably isn't. For us, hope is guaranteed by the promise of God. Because of this it is a firm foundation for our lives. It can be an anchor for our souls no matter what is happening in the world around us (cf. Heb. 6:19).

Let's stake everything on this promise. It is the only thing that can make us unafraid in the dark valley.

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.

1 November 2015 - for all the saints

Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.

Today we celebrate those who have gone before with pure hearts. These are hearts which are ready for heaven. 

These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb

For most of us, our hearts aren't ready for heaven. If we were to be transplanted from this moment to heaven we would be disappointed to find that heaven is not a couch with a remote control, it is not a really good massage, or an amazing piece of chocolate. It is worship. We see that the saints are pure. That is, they are not distracted. They will one thing. They worship with all that they are.

“Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving,
honor, power, and might
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”

They have this focus because they are  not distracted by attachments. On earth, neither riches nor earthly joys, nor worldly honors distract them. They have hearts that hunger and thirst for righteousness. At it's most basic level this thirst can only be for God himself. It directs all that they do. Because they are unattached to the world but in zealous pursuit of God he is able to make their hearts like his heart. Their own hearts are marked by mercy.  The world sees something in the way that they make peace that is clearly supernatural. The world is compelled to admit about them what is true about us all, they are "called children of God." But this is true of us as well so why doesn't the world see it in us?

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.

It just isn't as obvious to the world because we don't make ourselves pure as he is pure to the degree that the saints do.

Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,
as he is pure.

We are distracted by too many things. It isn't at all clear from our lives that we our children of God. Goodness that we show forth seems accidental. We aren't like the saints, where the goodness and light they show the world make it obvious that they have supernatural help.

So if we're distracted, let's focus, let's get some traction. We can't create this within ourselves but we don't have to. We're already sons and daughters. To purify ourselves means to let this reality mark our lives more and more. It means to purify ourselves is everything which is not true to this reality.

If we do this, nothing can stop us. Even persecution only adds to our blessedness.

Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.

Let's seek the one thing that matters. Let's say with the psalmist, "Lord, this is the people that longs to see your face."

31 October 2015 - save a seat

For the LORD will not cast off his people,
nor abandon his inheritance;

We need reassurance about this because sometimes it seems like he does. It seems like God rejects his people. It seems like Israel stumbles so as to fall. After all, the transgressions seem so great as to be unforgivable. But it isn't about us or our ability to earn forgiveness. It isn't about what we deserve.

For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

God is able to use the disobedience of individuals and groups for a higher good. But his plan never involves leaving anyone in disobedience. Even if we see large segments of the population have a "hardening" come upon them it does not mean they are destined to be rejected. Even if we know people with particularly hard hearts it does not mean that they are rejected. There is hope for them. And God wants to use us to offer that hope. He wants us to let our light shine. He wants us to let the world see just what it is that we have in Jesus.

But through their transgression
salvation has come to the Gentiles,
so as to make them jealous.

We are supposed to make the world jealous not because we have something which they can't have or about which we feel smug and prideful. We make the world jealous precisely to draw them to receive the same salvation which we ourselves have freely received.

Just because we're here first doesn't mean we are somehow more entitled to the good seats. We celebrate being invited to this banquet. But we do want the world to want to come. We leave the good seats open for them. We do this so that if our joy in the banquet is enough to make them jealous, enough to make them want to come, they have a spot waiting for them. As much as God is able to bring good out of their rejection and sin he is able to do even more with their repentance.

Now if their transgression is enrichment for the world,
and if their diminished number is enrichment for the Gentiles,
how much more their full number.

We all stand in need of the mercy of God. We are all desperate for his help. Let us celebrate the salvation we receive and by so doing offer the world the invitation to receive that same salvation.

Were not the LORD my help,
my soul would soon dwell in the silent grave.
When I say, “My foot is slipping,”
your mercy, O LORD, sustains me.

30 October 2015 - cisterned up

Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?

The sabbath isn't a break from love. Rules about sabbath rest are good. They serve to free us for relationship with friends, family, and God. But we can twist these rules and use them to excuse our responsibilities toward one another. If our son falls into a cistern we shouldn't put off rescuing him until Sunday. But if he falls in on Sunday neither should we wait longer.

We tend to use rules as an excuse for our indifference. Instead we should be more like Paul.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.

No matter into which cistern they seem to have fallen, no matter when in salvation history it happens, Paul is ready to help them to freedom. His own heart for the Jewish people is like God's heart for them.

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.

Our own hearts for our brothers and sisters needs to be like God's heart for them. They are his sons and his daughters. They are those for whom Jesus dies. He does not want to wait to love them. 

But they kept silent; so he took the man and,
after he had healed him, dismissed him.

Our own blessings are not things which we can ultimately give away for the sake of others. Becoming accursed for them doesn't work. Our relationship with Christ is the only real basis we have for helping others. Our sabbath rests are ultimately necessary to sustain that relationship. But if we look for excuses for indifference and inaction we miss the point. Let us instead look for excuses to love, like Jesus "Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever."

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.

29 October 2015 - conquerors++

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Well, not Herod.

“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.

Jesus knows that nothing can separate him from the Father's love.

What will separate us from the love of Christ? 

Jesus acts in spite of the threat of Herod because he is mission motivated. Jesus is able to shrug off that threat precisely because he trusts in the plan and the love which the Father has for him. We can be bold because of the love that Jesus and the Father have for us. Jesus ignores a threat from which he will be delivered (Herod) but marches straight toward a threat from which he knows he won't be.

Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.

This is because of how important his mission is. It isn't arbitrary. It isn't ticking boxes on a to-do list. It isn't about a certain self-image. It is about love. 

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling! 

But for most of us our love is not enough to fuel our mission, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die" (cf. Rom. 5:7). We will pursue the hens that are unwilling to be gathered until our own skin is on the line. When we rely on ourselves our love is too little, too late.

Jesus can do this precisely because he knows that his Father is for him and therefore no one can be against him. He knows that the Father's love is ferociously strong. He trusts the Father even unto death on the cross because he knows that the Father's love is stronger than anything which can be against it. And he is vindicated for his trust. He is raised on the third day. In Jesus we see what happens when we trust in God. In his life we see even more evidence of how great that love is. We see just how worthy of trust it is.

No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor present things, nor future things,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Just as Jesus marches straight for Jerusalem, secure in his Father's love, we can conquer anything this world throws our way by trusting in the love the Triune God has for us. Whatever is against us, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.

I will speak my thanks earnestly to the LORD,
and in the midst of the throng I will praise him,
For he stood at the right hand of the poor man,
to save him from those who would condemn his soul.