Tornadoes and Matthew 24

3-3-12   Journal entry:
Tornadoes are touching down all around us today.  Sixty people have died in the past 24 hours from multiple tornadoes across six states.  It seems to me, as I view media images of homes that are destroyed next to homes taht were untouched, that we are witnessing a precursor to Matthew 24... Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. ...

Hidden Greatness

From Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey There is much emphasis on notoriety and fame in our society. Our newspapers and television keep giving us the message: What counts is to be known, praised, and admired, whether you are a writer, an actor, a musician, or a politician. Still, real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility. Some of the greatest works of art and the most important works of peace were created by people who had no need for the limelight. They knew that what they were doing was their call, and they did it with great patience, perseverance, and love.

Tax Forms and the Gloria

Journal entry Feb.1, 2012

I cannot find my Lectio journal so this will have to do.  Even my pen runs out as I write this.  Evil will not have its way… I will not be held back from sharing the Word of God.  The more Evil fights against me, the stronger becomes my resolve.

He tried hard this past weekend.  I received a complete rewrite of my speech just minutes before an audio check rehearsal in Baltimore at Spring Launch.  With the help of a friend, I edited the original speech after rejecting the proposed version from corporate headquarters.  The speech improved over my original.  God is always to be trusted.

I’m reading through YOUCAT (Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church).  In John 14:10, Jesus says: “The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

I am often aware of the Trinity within me as the driving force of my actions, thoughts, and words.

I awoke today and thought of the tax form 1099 I must complete and mail – unsure of how to do so – and beneath those thoughts, I became aware of singing.  I think it was the Gloria and Who was singing isn’t exactly clear to me (my soul? angels? Jesus?) nor do I need to know.  With God dwelling within me, my spirit and all of heaven should (and possibly can’t help) praise Him, three in One. 

               

Imagine!  Tax forms and the Gloria sharing the same space within me!

Foolish Thinking

You're a fool if you think God has no interest in you.  He's crazy about you.

Just as too much rain can drown a budding seedling, God holds back from giving too much of Himself at first, treating us softly, tenderly at our first awakening. He is so close to us, closer than our breath, that we often don't even notice Him.  He only prunes us when we shoot our leaves into another flower's sunlight or try to grow in the wrong direction.  Most of the time, we don't even recognize Him pruning because He often uses those closest to us to do so.  Again, the gentle lover, He doesn't want to come across too strong.

"God has placed in our hearts a longing to seek and find Him.  St. Augustine says, 'You have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in You.' A person is not completely himself until he has found God." [YOUCAT 3 (Youth Catechesm of the Catholic Church)]

Lay priest

Among my collection envelopes for my parish, there is a Burse Club envelope that I have ignored, mostly because I was unfamiliar with the term.  When I googled Burse Club, I found the following prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, eternal high priest, manifest in our local Church the Spirit whom you also abundantly bestowed on your apostles. Call many young men from our parishes for service as priests. May zeal for your glory and for the salvation of souls inflame those you have chosen. May they be holy men who will be strengthened by your Spirit. May they be priests according to your heart. Amen

As I read this, I felt the last three sentences (sans "men") applied to all of us.  I pray it for all.  May you and I act as lay priests to one another, being Christ for one another, encouraging and comforting one another, giving one another peace. 

Peace I leave you. 

May we all bring more peace into the new year 2012.

Exploring the Consequences of the Original N-Word

There is an N-word that’s more diabolical than nigga.  I’ve understood the disrespectful, hateful, racial tone of the use of nigger since I was a child   I was raised to respect all people, therefore I’ve never used it other than to discuss its disregard for human life, the Declaration of independence (all men are created equal), and the Bible (“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them,”  Genesis 1:26-27; “Love your neighbor as yourself,”  Jesus commanded in Matt. 22:39). 

When the N-word is used in a hateful manner, it is sin, for hate is sin, as is anything that breaks our connection to the Source of all love, God.

There is an N-word I use both in thought, word, and deed that has terrible consequences.  It is a powerful word that always involves choice.  It is the original N-word, a word that turns our will against another’s.   It can be ignored but not mistaken.  It can be misunderstood and rejected.  It is often difficult to accept upon hearing.  It is spoken to God regularly Who views it as mercifully as the other N-word, knowing it comes from minds with limited capacity to understand or embrace that which it fears. 

By my actions, I have used this word in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.  It tourniquets the flow of God’s grace.   With it, I’ve slammed mental doors and hardened my heart like a stone.  I am often in fear of it should others choose to use it, and find it irritating or comical, depending on my mood, when toddlers spew it. 

While a necessary use of it keeps evil away, when spoken to God, it puts us in whiteout conditions: cold and unable to find our way.  I know what I know when I say no.  When I say it to God, however, I know not enough.  I love not enough.

Abiding

“Abide in me as I abide in you.” Jesus speaks these words in John 15 in the well known “I am the vine, you are the branches” parable of which songs and poems have been written over the centuries. I like metaphors and I therefore always loved the rich imagery of God as the vinegrower and pruner. I never paid much attention to His command to abide.

Theologian and storyteller Dr. Meg McKenna references this abiding in her introduction to Harm Not the Earth. The verb “abide” is used eleven times in the first eleven verses of John 15. “It is a very religious and biblical word, and one that is not often used in familiar conversation. It means: to tolerate, endure, act in accordance with, remain faithful to (as in a promise). One always abides ‘in’ – it isn’t something one does alone.”

That puts a whole new spin on Jesus’ “wherever two or more are gathered in my name.” He promises His presence with certainty when two or more people pray together. He’s also present when I am alone in prayer without another person, for He is one and I am one and we are one together.

Ever since I read her words several days ago, I've been struck with Jesus' side of abiding in our relationship; what he is tolerating and enduring me the way spouses and friends tolerate and endure each other's idiosyncracies and stubbornnesses; and how He is "acting in accordance with" who I am being and how far I am allowing Him into my heart and life. If I can expand my time with Him, He can expand His work through me. If I can open more of my heart to Him, He can increase my compassionate response to all who my words, my glance, my touch, my voice can reach. In truth, they are His words, glance, touch, and voice to begin with for I am His. He will act in accordance with what I give Him.

When my children were growing up, we'd call them into the front room away from the rest of the house when we wished to speak to them privately. They were always a bit nervous when we did so, for their immediate fear was they'd done something wrong and were about to be chastised. Our response to Jesus when He says, "Come to me (all you who are weary)" is often the same. Our desired conversation with our children was certainly sometimes to correct an approach they were choosing, but more times, it was an encouragement, a suggestion of help with something that was challenging them, or a secret surprise we were planning for another family member.

"Abide in me" requires our choice to do so. He can abide in us only "in accordance with" how much we allow Him to do so. Our gift of free will is unretreivable; God will never take it away. It is eternally ours and honored by God. Our biggest challenge seems to be going to the front room without fear, in complete trust in the enormous gentleness and exquisiteness tenderness of love filled with mercy and faithfulness of the very One Who created us in the first place.