Christmas 2 No one has ever seen God.
St. Anselm had the insight that God is greater than that which we can conceive. It is a wonderful description of the ineffable mystery of the Divine. Unfortunately, St. Anselm then attempted to use the limited categories of human reason to set forth a logical proof for the existence of God.
God does not prove his own existence. God transcends all human created categories of existence and essence. God is "I AM". God is the infinite and eternal Presence from which humanity flees and against which humanity rebels.
God doesn’t prove his own existence but he does reach out to the human race. He chose one family, the family of Abraham, to work with over a period of time spanning two thousand years. He sent that family Moses, to reveal the Law. He sent the prophets to call them to repent and prepare. In the fulness of time, God sent His only Begotten co-eternal Son to be born into that family and to manifest the personal life giving love of the Divine Presence.
In Jesus Christ the plan, and pattern and purpose of our lives took human form. God determined it was not enough to send a Lawgiver and Prophets. God knew the visitation of angels was at best inadequate to accomplish his goal. God sent his Son, His only Son into the world to take human form and to be born into the family of Abraham to reveal God’s Presence.
The Divine Presence is unconditional love. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ. People condemned him. People attempted to use him to satisfy the demands of self will. People eventually killed Jesus because he would not allow them to use him and he would not tell them what they wanted to hear.
Jesus exercised divine power from the place of infinite love and compassion. This was not what people expected of the Messiah. This was not what people expected of God. The beloved apostle John tells us that Jesus came to his own people and his own people rejected him. They, we as a species, reject Jesus because he does not fit into the rigid and inflexible categories of reason, will and emotion that we seek to impose on ourselves, each other, the world, and God.
As God refuses to prove His existence so He refuses to allow human beings to define His existence. The fulness of divine revelation is not in a prophet, priest or king. It is not in a book, a program or a religion. The fulness of divine revelation is in a person, a particular man who lived in a particular place at a particular time. That man is Jesus Christ.
In Jesus God manifests himself and makes himself known. If you want to know what God is like then study the life of Jesus Christ. There are four eyewitness accounts in the four gospels. There are multiple apostolic commentaries on the gospels in the New Testament writings.
The great revelation that Jesus brings to us from God is that God is for us. God is not against us. God is with us in Jesus Christ. God is not a vague concept or a philosophical construct. God is real. God is personal. God is love. God is Jesus Christ.
All of the stories about Jesus are recorded for a single purpose: that all people every where may have the opportunity to hear the Good News that God is with us, all of us, each of us, in Jesus Christ.
Jesus offers all people everywhere the gift of reunification with God. Jesus continues to be the divine Presence in four ways.
These four ways are the Bible, the Sacraments, the Church, and the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is the record of God reaching out to Abraham and his descendants to prepare them to receive the Messiah, the anointed Son of God. The Bible records with brutal honesty how so often so many people heard the message and rejected the message God proclaimed through Moses and the prophets.
As a book, the Bible offers multiple insights into the human condition. All of those insights are collected and presented by the action of the Holy Spirit to convict us of the reality of our condition. They are there to reveal to us the solution God offers.
The solution is Jesus Christ. After the resurrection and ascension, Jesus gave the world three means by which we can experience his real presence in the world. The Church, the One Holy and Apostolic Church is the body of Christ at work in the world.
Jesus calls every member of the church to be his personal representative in the world. Jesus calls us to focus our time and attention on three loves: love of God, love of others, love of our own soul.
Jesus empowers us to live from the place of love by the invitation to the total immersion of our souls in that love in two ways: the sacraments and the Holy Spirit.
In the blessed sacrament of the altar, Jesus infuses his own divine life into our souls. As we receive the bread and wine by grace through faith Jesus offers us a new way of living, a new way of being human.
The transforming power of that new way of living and that new way of being human is the indwelling personal presence of the third person of the Holy Trinity. We are each temples of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us, encourages us and comforts us as we learn that self will is not free will.
It is the Holy Spirit who helps us make the real choice to surrender self will to divine will and to discover the grace of free will. To be free is Christ is to be free from the pressures of the secular world to conform to its demands and deceits. It is the true freedom that brings joy and peace in whatever circumstances we may experience life.
The Holy Spirit sets us free from the tyranny of time. It is that tyranny that brings fear, anxiety, pride and despair to our souls. The Holy Spirit sets us free in the eternal now of the Divine Presence, the great "I am" made flesh, made personal in Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God in all of his fulness and glory except the co-eternal Beloved of God, Jesus Christ. As we unite ourselves to Christ in the waters of baptism and in the blessed sacrament of the altar, we begin to live in the Divine Presence. It is we, each of us, who become the proof of God’s reality as we grow in grace and form our lives to become a blessing to others.
Jesus has made God known in himself when he lived on this planet. Jesus continues to make God known in each of us as we hear the invitation to immerse our souls in the real presence of divine love and compassion.
No one has ever seen God. God can make himself known to people through you as you make a real choice to live the new life of grace through faith in the co-eternal Beloved of God, Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Christmas I
Christmas I
In the beginning was the Word
Jesus Christ is the incarnate co eternal Word of God.
When the beloved apostle John writes about the Word of God he writes about the logos. The Greeks defined the logos as the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. The logos is that which transcends the realm of men and gods, heaven and earth, matter and energy, space and time, reason ,will and emotion. The logos is timeless, unbounded, all encompassing and transcendent. The logos is that which no one can know, perceive or understand. The logos is the pattern for the universe from the very large to the very small.
From the Greek perspective, to the extent that the gods and goddesses had any objective reality, their existence derived from the logos. John makes the very bold and astonishing statement that the logos, the eternal Word, became a particular man, Jesus Christ.
Suddenly, that which is unknown is made known. That which by nature is unknowable is knowable. That which is inherently transcendent is incarnate. That which is impersonal is personal.
How did John come to this understanding?
First: he lived with Jesus for three critical years. John was a young teen when Jesus called him to be one of his students. John spent his formative years observing Jesus Christ, listening to him, walking along the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee with him. John memorized Jesus’ teachings. This was not unusual for a student in that part of the world. The act of memorization is common. The subject matter was unique. Jesus re presented the teachings of Moses and the Prophets in a way that had never been heard. John absorbed this teaching at first with little understanding.
When Jesus died on the cross, John was still a teen. Jesus made provision to complete John’s education by entrusting him to the care of Holy Mother Mary. She whom the archangel Gabriel described as full of grace had the experience, the knowledge, the understanding and the wisdom to direct John’s spiritual development.
After Jesus rose from the dead, He sent the Holy Spirit to anoint the apostles. Before his execution, Jesus had promised to send a Counselor, an Advisor. That Counselor is the Holy Spirit.
John waited to write his account of the Good News until much later in his life. He had the wisdom of Holy Mother Mary, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and a lifetime of prayerful reflection on his personal experience of Jesus to draw on.
John’s conclusion about Jesus forms the prologue to his gospel account. He starts his book in the same way the author of Genesis started the first book of the Torah. In the beginning.
Where Genesis declares simply: in the beginning God, John expands that declaration and says: in the beginning was the Word, the logos. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. John concludes his introduction by declaring that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God is Jesus Christ.
John states: all things were made through him. As the incarnate logos, Jesus is the pattern by which, through which and for which the entire universe and each and every one of us was created. We are in fact God the Father’s gift to God the Son.
This is the context and the meaning of Jesus’ statement: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the logos, the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. To reject Jesus is to reject the pattern by which everything was created and has its form and function.
The negative reaction that so many people have to John’s revelation of who Jesus is serves to highlight the problem confronting the human race. As a species we have in fact rejected the logos. We have chosen to separate from the logos. As a species we embraced the concept that life, the universe and everything created itself. In that choice we declare our independence from any transcendent reality, meaning, and purpose to life. We reject universal meaning and embrace individual separation.
John offers us a different choice. He tells us later in his gospel: I have seen him, heard him, touched him, observed his miracles, pondered his teachings. I was there when the Romans tortured him to death. I saw his lifeless body placed in the arms of his grieving mother. I was there at the empty tomb. I saw the angels. I knew with every fiber of my being that he lived. I bear witness to you that in Jesus Christ, God united his divinity with our humanity. In Jesus Christ God demonstrated that the divine nature is pure, holy, unconditional love.
Jesus is the meaning and purpose to life, the universe and everything. He has come to find the lost. He has come to restore to wholeness what was broken. He has come to make known the unknowable.
Jesus offers to all people everywhere the gift of eternal life. Eternal life is not a quantity of time but a quality of relationship. Eternal life is not a future reward. Eternal life is a present reality. Eternal life is a new way of living that John himself discovered and experienced as he learned the wisdom of Mary and the divine Presence of the Holy Spirit.
The great gift of God to all people is the incarnation of the logos, the very plan and pattern and purpose for our existence. The great gift of God to humanity is Jesus Christ who is the eternal life of divine love and compassion shining in the darkness of human fear, self will and pride.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us in the Person of Jesus Christ.
In the beginning was the Word
Jesus Christ is the incarnate co eternal Word of God.
When the beloved apostle John writes about the Word of God he writes about the logos. The Greeks defined the logos as the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. The logos is that which transcends the realm of men and gods, heaven and earth, matter and energy, space and time, reason ,will and emotion. The logos is timeless, unbounded, all encompassing and transcendent. The logos is that which no one can know, perceive or understand. The logos is the pattern for the universe from the very large to the very small.
From the Greek perspective, to the extent that the gods and goddesses had any objective reality, their existence derived from the logos. John makes the very bold and astonishing statement that the logos, the eternal Word, became a particular man, Jesus Christ.
Suddenly, that which is unknown is made known. That which by nature is unknowable is knowable. That which is inherently transcendent is incarnate. That which is impersonal is personal.
How did John come to this understanding?
First: he lived with Jesus for three critical years. John was a young teen when Jesus called him to be one of his students. John spent his formative years observing Jesus Christ, listening to him, walking along the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee with him. John memorized Jesus’ teachings. This was not unusual for a student in that part of the world. The act of memorization is common. The subject matter was unique. Jesus re presented the teachings of Moses and the Prophets in a way that had never been heard. John absorbed this teaching at first with little understanding.
When Jesus died on the cross, John was still a teen. Jesus made provision to complete John’s education by entrusting him to the care of Holy Mother Mary. She whom the archangel Gabriel described as full of grace had the experience, the knowledge, the understanding and the wisdom to direct John’s spiritual development.
After Jesus rose from the dead, He sent the Holy Spirit to anoint the apostles. Before his execution, Jesus had promised to send a Counselor, an Advisor. That Counselor is the Holy Spirit.
John waited to write his account of the Good News until much later in his life. He had the wisdom of Holy Mother Mary, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and a lifetime of prayerful reflection on his personal experience of Jesus to draw on.
John’s conclusion about Jesus forms the prologue to his gospel account. He starts his book in the same way the author of Genesis started the first book of the Torah. In the beginning.
Where Genesis declares simply: in the beginning God, John expands that declaration and says: in the beginning was the Word, the logos. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. John concludes his introduction by declaring that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That incarnation of the co-eternal Word of God is Jesus Christ.
John states: all things were made through him. As the incarnate logos, Jesus is the pattern by which, through which and for which the entire universe and each and every one of us was created. We are in fact God the Father’s gift to God the Son.
This is the context and the meaning of Jesus’ statement: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus is the logos, the transcendent rational creative pattern of the universe. To reject Jesus is to reject the pattern by which everything was created and has its form and function.
The negative reaction that so many people have to John’s revelation of who Jesus is serves to highlight the problem confronting the human race. As a species we have in fact rejected the logos. We have chosen to separate from the logos. As a species we embraced the concept that life, the universe and everything created itself. In that choice we declare our independence from any transcendent reality, meaning, and purpose to life. We reject universal meaning and embrace individual separation.
John offers us a different choice. He tells us later in his gospel: I have seen him, heard him, touched him, observed his miracles, pondered his teachings. I was there when the Romans tortured him to death. I saw his lifeless body placed in the arms of his grieving mother. I was there at the empty tomb. I saw the angels. I knew with every fiber of my being that he lived. I bear witness to you that in Jesus Christ, God united his divinity with our humanity. In Jesus Christ God demonstrated that the divine nature is pure, holy, unconditional love.
Jesus is the meaning and purpose to life, the universe and everything. He has come to find the lost. He has come to restore to wholeness what was broken. He has come to make known the unknowable.
Jesus offers to all people everywhere the gift of eternal life. Eternal life is not a quantity of time but a quality of relationship. Eternal life is not a future reward. Eternal life is a present reality. Eternal life is a new way of living that John himself discovered and experienced as he learned the wisdom of Mary and the divine Presence of the Holy Spirit.
The great gift of God to all people is the incarnation of the logos, the very plan and pattern and purpose for our existence. The great gift of God to humanity is Jesus Christ who is the eternal life of divine love and compassion shining in the darkness of human fear, self will and pride.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Christmas 2009
Christmas 2009
Do not be afraid for I bring you Good News of great joy
The angel of Christmas spoke those words to a group of frightened, lonely and impoverished shepherds some two thousand years ago. He also speaks these same words to all people every where this night. He speaks these words to each of us.
Do not be afraid. Despite the circumstances of life, do not be afraid. In the midst of so much frustration and confusion and bad news there is good news. It is not only good, it is the most amazingly best news the world has ever heard. This news is so magnificent that is brings forth joy to all who choose to hear it and to receive it.
That is why the Holy Spirit made sure the Blessed Virgin Mary remembered the circumstances of that night. Holy Mother Mary kept all of these reports and experiences in her living memory and told them to Luke, a young Greek physician who would eventually write down all Mary remembered of that night.
The stories we have of that first Christmas night come from the careful attention to detail that the Holy Spirit gave to Mary. The stories are real, grounded in history, substantiated by history and yet transcend history. For the stories of Jesus’ birth speak across time to all people everywhere.
The great good news of Christmas is the news that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. At a very specific moment in history in a very specific place in a very specific person God became a human being.
In the birth of Jesus Christ God permanently and irrevocably united His divinity with our humanity. What was lost is now found in Jesus Christ. What was broken is now made whole in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God speaks to all people everywhere with the words: I will never leave you or forsake you.
In the babe of Bethlehem there is no judgment. There is no condemnation. There is the fulness of acceptance. There is the abundance of eternal love.
At Christmas we remember that the co-eternal Son of God the Father emptied himself of his power and prerogatives to become a helpless infant. Jesus entered the world as we enter the world. Jesus entered the world as a struggling helpless infant so he could experience life as we experience life. He also entered the world to give us the gift of eternal love.
Eternal love has no beginning and it has no ending. Jesus offers himself to us fully and completely and says; Come. Receive the gift. Receive the blessing. I became as you are so that you might become as I am. Eternally beloved of the Father. Eternally filled with life in the Holy Spirit.
Once a year we remember that God the Father sent His Son into the world. There is no condemnation in that visit. There is no judgment. There is no demand. There is only the love of the Triune God reaching out to all people everywhere with the message of unconditional love and acceptance.
The choice is ours. God imposes himself on no one. He offers himself in Jesus Christ to everyone. The Good News that brings great joy to all people is the love of God in Jesus Christ. That love is eternal. That love is a gift to all who choose to receive it.
Rejoice with Holy Mother Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi and the angels. The Good News of Christmas is God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ.
Do not be afraid for I bring you Good News of great joy
The angel of Christmas spoke those words to a group of frightened, lonely and impoverished shepherds some two thousand years ago. He also speaks these same words to all people every where this night. He speaks these words to each of us.
Do not be afraid. Despite the circumstances of life, do not be afraid. In the midst of so much frustration and confusion and bad news there is good news. It is not only good, it is the most amazingly best news the world has ever heard. This news is so magnificent that is brings forth joy to all who choose to hear it and to receive it.
That is why the Holy Spirit made sure the Blessed Virgin Mary remembered the circumstances of that night. Holy Mother Mary kept all of these reports and experiences in her living memory and told them to Luke, a young Greek physician who would eventually write down all Mary remembered of that night.
The stories we have of that first Christmas night come from the careful attention to detail that the Holy Spirit gave to Mary. The stories are real, grounded in history, substantiated by history and yet transcend history. For the stories of Jesus’ birth speak across time to all people everywhere.
The great good news of Christmas is the news that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. At a very specific moment in history in a very specific place in a very specific person God became a human being.
In the birth of Jesus Christ God permanently and irrevocably united His divinity with our humanity. What was lost is now found in Jesus Christ. What was broken is now made whole in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God speaks to all people everywhere with the words: I will never leave you or forsake you.
In the babe of Bethlehem there is no judgment. There is no condemnation. There is the fulness of acceptance. There is the abundance of eternal love.
At Christmas we remember that the co-eternal Son of God the Father emptied himself of his power and prerogatives to become a helpless infant. Jesus entered the world as we enter the world. Jesus entered the world as a struggling helpless infant so he could experience life as we experience life. He also entered the world to give us the gift of eternal love.
Eternal love has no beginning and it has no ending. Jesus offers himself to us fully and completely and says; Come. Receive the gift. Receive the blessing. I became as you are so that you might become as I am. Eternally beloved of the Father. Eternally filled with life in the Holy Spirit.
Once a year we remember that God the Father sent His Son into the world. There is no condemnation in that visit. There is no judgment. There is no demand. There is only the love of the Triune God reaching out to all people everywhere with the message of unconditional love and acceptance.
The choice is ours. God imposes himself on no one. He offers himself in Jesus Christ to everyone. The Good News that brings great joy to all people is the love of God in Jesus Christ. That love is eternal. That love is a gift to all who choose to receive it.
Rejoice with Holy Mother Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi and the angels. The Good News of Christmas is God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Advent IV
Advent IV My soul magnifies the Lord
.Mary was a young woman full of grace.
From this passage of scripture we can deduce several things about Mary.
First: she had memorized scripture. Her magnificat quotes extensively from Hannah’s song of praise in the book of I Samuel. She is well acquainted with the mighty acts of God in the history of Israel from Abraham to the prophets.
Second, her family were likely Pharisees. The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible as authoritative. Mary quoted the books the Pharisees accepted as part of the divine revelation.
Third, she manifested great humility. When her cousin Elizabeth praised Mary’s faith Mary immediately offered the praise and the blessing to God.
Fourth, Mary sought to help others. She visited her elderly cousin Elizabeth to help Elizabeth during the time of her pregnancy.
Fifth, Mary was a woman of faith. She heard the word of God, she believed the word of God, she formed her soul in accord with the word of God.
Sixth, Mary lived a life of joy in the Lord. The Bible says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Mary lived a life of courage and conviction through her joy in God. Her life was not always easy or pain free. But, she lived her life with the awareness of the Divine Presence and in that Presence knew joy.
Seventh, Mary revealed that her soul was a soul immersed in the love of God through worship. The scripture reveals very little about Mary but what it does reveal is a young woman who was dedicated to Bible study, prayer, service to others and worship.
So it was that when the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he said: Hail Mary, full of grace.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards us.
Grace is a gift. We cannot earn it. We cannot lose it. We can choose to accept it or to reject it. Where so many people throughout history have said no to God, Mary said yes.
Grace is the Divine Presence making Himself available to us.
Where so many people throughout history have debated and discussed and attempted to debunk the existence of God, Mary chose to live in the Divine Presence.
The Divine Presence transcends human categories of existence or essence. The Divine Presence makes himself known to us in every moment and every aspect and every experience of our lives. Most of us most of the time choose to shut out that Presence. Most of us most of the time blame God for not being more obvious in proving his existence to us.
God never proves his existence. God is the "I AM" who transcends existence and makes existence possible. Mary knew this. How she knew this is revealed in part through her character. Mary’s character partakes of the divine image and likeness.
Drawing on divine grace, Mary chose to form her soul in union with God’s eternal love and infinite holiness.
She met the challenges and sorrows of her life from the place of grace. That place is the conscious awareness of divine love and holiness.
Those choices Mary made in her life are the same choices we can make. The very first and basic choice is to pay attention. People in our secular world reject God and say God is not speaking. Mary testifies that the problem is not with God. It is with people.
People aren’t listening. We aren’t listening because we are not paying attention to life at the most basic level. In Western society there is an abundance of distraction and noise and deceit that keeps us from perceiving the reality of the Divine Presence.
What is the solution?
There are many. Mary shows us a few. Memorizing scripture is one. Praying. Helping others. Listening to others. Practice being present to others. Practice being present to ourselves. Silent prayer, meditation, contemplation. Worship.
There are thousands of reasons why we reject this approach to life. The main complaint in our culture is: I’m too busy. The spiritual foundation for the tendency to resist the Divine Presence is fear.
The soul that is lost in separation from God fears that God will impose his will on us and punish us if we fail to be obedient. The soul lost in separation also fears that life will be proven meaningless if God does not exist. The logical choice the soul creates is unbearable. It says: if God is real he must give me whatever I want. If I don’t get what I want then either God is punishing me or God is not real.
God sent Jesus into the world to break this vicious circle of human logic. Jesus not only tells us that God is love. Jesus shows us that God is love. Perfect love.
Perfect love transforms fear into faith. It begins with a real choice to say yes to God. It may happen in a dramatic conversion experience as we see in the life of St. Paul. It may happen more gradually over a number of years as we see in the life of the beloved apostle John. It may even happen from early childhood as we see in Mary.
To live life in the Divine Presence is to live life to its fullest potential. We may still be doing the same things we’ve always done: working, paying bills, raising children, socializing with friends. We may find that some things we once did out of habit reveal themselves to be unsatisfying and meaningless.
It is the soul that makes a conscious self responsible choice to receive the grace God offers that experiences life from the place of faith, hope and love. It is that soul that attunes to the Divine Presence in all circumstances of life and sings: My soul magnifies the Lord.
.Mary was a young woman full of grace.
From this passage of scripture we can deduce several things about Mary.
First: she had memorized scripture. Her magnificat quotes extensively from Hannah’s song of praise in the book of I Samuel. She is well acquainted with the mighty acts of God in the history of Israel from Abraham to the prophets.
Second, her family were likely Pharisees. The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Bible as authoritative. Mary quoted the books the Pharisees accepted as part of the divine revelation.
Third, she manifested great humility. When her cousin Elizabeth praised Mary’s faith Mary immediately offered the praise and the blessing to God.
Fourth, Mary sought to help others. She visited her elderly cousin Elizabeth to help Elizabeth during the time of her pregnancy.
Fifth, Mary was a woman of faith. She heard the word of God, she believed the word of God, she formed her soul in accord with the word of God.
Sixth, Mary lived a life of joy in the Lord. The Bible says, the joy of the Lord is our strength. Mary lived a life of courage and conviction through her joy in God. Her life was not always easy or pain free. But, she lived her life with the awareness of the Divine Presence and in that Presence knew joy.
Seventh, Mary revealed that her soul was a soul immersed in the love of God through worship. The scripture reveals very little about Mary but what it does reveal is a young woman who was dedicated to Bible study, prayer, service to others and worship.
So it was that when the archangel Gabriel greeted Mary he said: Hail Mary, full of grace.
Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards us.
Grace is a gift. We cannot earn it. We cannot lose it. We can choose to accept it or to reject it. Where so many people throughout history have said no to God, Mary said yes.
Grace is the Divine Presence making Himself available to us.
Where so many people throughout history have debated and discussed and attempted to debunk the existence of God, Mary chose to live in the Divine Presence.
The Divine Presence transcends human categories of existence or essence. The Divine Presence makes himself known to us in every moment and every aspect and every experience of our lives. Most of us most of the time choose to shut out that Presence. Most of us most of the time blame God for not being more obvious in proving his existence to us.
God never proves his existence. God is the "I AM" who transcends existence and makes existence possible. Mary knew this. How she knew this is revealed in part through her character. Mary’s character partakes of the divine image and likeness.
Drawing on divine grace, Mary chose to form her soul in union with God’s eternal love and infinite holiness.
She met the challenges and sorrows of her life from the place of grace. That place is the conscious awareness of divine love and holiness.
Those choices Mary made in her life are the same choices we can make. The very first and basic choice is to pay attention. People in our secular world reject God and say God is not speaking. Mary testifies that the problem is not with God. It is with people.
People aren’t listening. We aren’t listening because we are not paying attention to life at the most basic level. In Western society there is an abundance of distraction and noise and deceit that keeps us from perceiving the reality of the Divine Presence.
What is the solution?
There are many. Mary shows us a few. Memorizing scripture is one. Praying. Helping others. Listening to others. Practice being present to others. Practice being present to ourselves. Silent prayer, meditation, contemplation. Worship.
There are thousands of reasons why we reject this approach to life. The main complaint in our culture is: I’m too busy. The spiritual foundation for the tendency to resist the Divine Presence is fear.
The soul that is lost in separation from God fears that God will impose his will on us and punish us if we fail to be obedient. The soul lost in separation also fears that life will be proven meaningless if God does not exist. The logical choice the soul creates is unbearable. It says: if God is real he must give me whatever I want. If I don’t get what I want then either God is punishing me or God is not real.
God sent Jesus into the world to break this vicious circle of human logic. Jesus not only tells us that God is love. Jesus shows us that God is love. Perfect love.
Perfect love transforms fear into faith. It begins with a real choice to say yes to God. It may happen in a dramatic conversion experience as we see in the life of St. Paul. It may happen more gradually over a number of years as we see in the life of the beloved apostle John. It may even happen from early childhood as we see in Mary.
To live life in the Divine Presence is to live life to its fullest potential. We may still be doing the same things we’ve always done: working, paying bills, raising children, socializing with friends. We may find that some things we once did out of habit reveal themselves to be unsatisfying and meaningless.
It is the soul that makes a conscious self responsible choice to receive the grace God offers that experiences life from the place of faith, hope and love. It is that soul that attunes to the Divine Presence in all circumstances of life and sings: My soul magnifies the Lord.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Advent III
Advent III One is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John the Baptist was not subtle.
Any one who begins a sermon by calling his congregation a brood of vipers is certainly not subtle. Yet, people flocked to listen to John. They listened, but they did not always believe.
John was a dramatic figure. He lived in the desert. He wore a coarse camel’s hair tunic. He ate insects and honey. He spoke loudly and passionately about the kingdom of God. His style guaranteed him an audience.
Yet, in all that John was and preached and did, he concludes: some one greater is coming. I baptize you with water from the river. But He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
People understood that the one to come would be the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed of God.
In John’s baptism the people waded into a river and immersed themselves under the water. It was a symbol of dying to sin and rising to a new life of righteousness. But, John’s baptism was only a symbol. It represented the will and desire of the moment.
The baptism that the Messiah would bring would be more than a symbol. It would be a sacrament. It would not only represent human will but divine will. This new baptism would infuse divine grace into the human soul. It would bring the personal real presence of God to each human being who received it.
The new baptism would also be a baptism of fire.
In our modern use of this phrase we think of an ordeal that some one undergoes to enter into a new profession or a new way of life. And so, for a soldier the first exposure to combat is called a baptism by fire.
For those who receive the Messianic gift of grace, the baptism of fire is the purification of the mind, heart and will that leads to the transformation of the soul.
The baptism of fire is the fire of the refiner. The refiner takes a metal ore, such as silver. The silver is mixed with base material that obscures its beauty and hides its value. The refining process burns away the base material until only the clear beauty of the valuable silver remains.
This is the image of sanctification. In the process of sanctification God immerses our soul into the process of transformation.
Transformation requires we give up something we currently have so we can achieve some greater and more fulfilling potential that is present but not yet realized.
Transformation is the result of the personal presence of God the Holy Spirit in our souls.
Unlike the image of the silver ore being refined in the fire, the Holy Spirit’s fire destroys nothing. Nothing is lost. Nothing is consumed. The fires of the Holy Spirit recreate the original purity of our souls by releasing the original grace we have chosen to condense and compress and distort through sin.
We don’t just give up our sins. We yield them to God the Holy Spirit to transform the hard compressed core of sin back into the expansive dynamic creative expression of virtue.
Human beings tenaciously hold onto sin in the mistaken belief that the way of sin is the way of freedom, happiness and power.
When we finally yield a particular sin to the process of sanctification we begin to discover the contrast between sin and virtue.
The great obstacle to sanctification is self will, the human will to power. And so, the most powerful level of transformation lies in the will.
The human soul lost in separation from God believes that self will is free will. Nothing could be further from the truth.
John explains this in very practical terms when various people ask him what they should do now that they have been baptized. John tells people to reclaim their sense of who they are according to their calling in life.
The wealthy are rich not to assert their will to power over the poor but to share their abundance with the poor. The choice is to embrace the principle of God’s will to love and reject human will to power.
The tax collectors have the legal authority to collect taxes for the common good of society so the state can build roads, bridges and aqueducts. They abuse that authority when they assert their will to extort money from people to enrich themselves. John simply tells them: do your job. Remember your original purpose. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.
Soldiers exist to serve and protect not to dominate and terrorize.
John advises soldiers: do your duty. Do not abuse your position in society. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.
The human will to power distorts human reason and allows us to rationalize our selfish behavior. The human will to power corrupts the human heart and produces false needs and insatiable desires that can never satisfy. The human will to power lives from the place of demand. That demand can never be satisfied. It can only lead to greater levels of fear, frustration and despair.
The refining process of sanctification starts with examining the principles by which we make decisions. The fundamental principle the prophets condemn is self will. The fundamental principle the prophets commend is God’s will. God’s will is always unconditional love. God’s will is always holiness in thought, word and deed.
People cannot make the choice to live by divine will apart from divine grace. And so, John- the last of the prophets- gives the people hope when he says that one is coming who will immerse the soul in the living waters of the Holy Spirit and transform the soul in the divine fire of the Holy Spirit.
It isn’t magic. It will not violate human choice. It is a sure and certain promise to those who hear the word of God, receive the word of God, believe the Word of God and desire a new relationship with God.
People came to John for many reasons. Some were curious. Some were seeking. Some wanted to be where the action was.
All who came had the same opportunity to hear the prophetic message. All who came had the same opportunity to make a real choice to receive the blessing God brought into the world through John.
That blessing is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the one whom John said was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John recognized that no matter how hard we may try, human beings cannot simply say no to separation from God. Because we are lost in separation we are slaves to the rebellion of self will. It is God who must heal the breach. God must offer reunification as a free gift. God must initiate and sustain the process of transformation by His personal real presence in our souls.
The people who came to John, who believed his message, and who accepted his symbolic baptism wanted to know "what next?" What then should we do now that we have been baptized?
John’s answer was twofold.
First;:rediscover the gift of the divine will to unconditional holy love in your daily life. Surrender to that love. In the Presence of that love stop asserting your individual will to power to dominate others.
Second, prepare to meet and be embraced by the love of God in Jesus Christ here and now in this present moment.
The baptism of Jesus Christ is the total immersion of the soul in eternal love. In that immersion we begin to experience the transformation of our thoughts, our desires, and our will.
At every step of the process, the Holy Spirit invites us to make a real choice to reject the will to power and embrace the will to love.
Sometimes those choices seem small and insignificant.. Some times those choices seem difficult and overwhelming. In all of those choices God himself promises to be with us. God supplies us with the courage and grace we need for the moment as we respond to his invitation with the desire to grow in grace.
Jesus is greater than John and all of the prophets because Jesus can reunite the separated soul to God. Jesus baptizes our souls in the total immersion of the Holy Spirit and in the transforming fires of divine love.
John the Baptist was not subtle.
Any one who begins a sermon by calling his congregation a brood of vipers is certainly not subtle. Yet, people flocked to listen to John. They listened, but they did not always believe.
John was a dramatic figure. He lived in the desert. He wore a coarse camel’s hair tunic. He ate insects and honey. He spoke loudly and passionately about the kingdom of God. His style guaranteed him an audience.
Yet, in all that John was and preached and did, he concludes: some one greater is coming. I baptize you with water from the river. But He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
People understood that the one to come would be the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed of God.
In John’s baptism the people waded into a river and immersed themselves under the water. It was a symbol of dying to sin and rising to a new life of righteousness. But, John’s baptism was only a symbol. It represented the will and desire of the moment.
The baptism that the Messiah would bring would be more than a symbol. It would be a sacrament. It would not only represent human will but divine will. This new baptism would infuse divine grace into the human soul. It would bring the personal real presence of God to each human being who received it.
The new baptism would also be a baptism of fire.
In our modern use of this phrase we think of an ordeal that some one undergoes to enter into a new profession or a new way of life. And so, for a soldier the first exposure to combat is called a baptism by fire.
For those who receive the Messianic gift of grace, the baptism of fire is the purification of the mind, heart and will that leads to the transformation of the soul.
The baptism of fire is the fire of the refiner. The refiner takes a metal ore, such as silver. The silver is mixed with base material that obscures its beauty and hides its value. The refining process burns away the base material until only the clear beauty of the valuable silver remains.
This is the image of sanctification. In the process of sanctification God immerses our soul into the process of transformation.
Transformation requires we give up something we currently have so we can achieve some greater and more fulfilling potential that is present but not yet realized.
Transformation is the result of the personal presence of God the Holy Spirit in our souls.
Unlike the image of the silver ore being refined in the fire, the Holy Spirit’s fire destroys nothing. Nothing is lost. Nothing is consumed. The fires of the Holy Spirit recreate the original purity of our souls by releasing the original grace we have chosen to condense and compress and distort through sin.
We don’t just give up our sins. We yield them to God the Holy Spirit to transform the hard compressed core of sin back into the expansive dynamic creative expression of virtue.
Human beings tenaciously hold onto sin in the mistaken belief that the way of sin is the way of freedom, happiness and power.
When we finally yield a particular sin to the process of sanctification we begin to discover the contrast between sin and virtue.
The great obstacle to sanctification is self will, the human will to power. And so, the most powerful level of transformation lies in the will.
The human soul lost in separation from God believes that self will is free will. Nothing could be further from the truth.
John explains this in very practical terms when various people ask him what they should do now that they have been baptized. John tells people to reclaim their sense of who they are according to their calling in life.
The wealthy are rich not to assert their will to power over the poor but to share their abundance with the poor. The choice is to embrace the principle of God’s will to love and reject human will to power.
The tax collectors have the legal authority to collect taxes for the common good of society so the state can build roads, bridges and aqueducts. They abuse that authority when they assert their will to extort money from people to enrich themselves. John simply tells them: do your job. Remember your original purpose. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.
Soldiers exist to serve and protect not to dominate and terrorize.
John advises soldiers: do your duty. Do not abuse your position in society. Choose the divine will to love and reject the human will to power.
The human will to power distorts human reason and allows us to rationalize our selfish behavior. The human will to power corrupts the human heart and produces false needs and insatiable desires that can never satisfy. The human will to power lives from the place of demand. That demand can never be satisfied. It can only lead to greater levels of fear, frustration and despair.
The refining process of sanctification starts with examining the principles by which we make decisions. The fundamental principle the prophets condemn is self will. The fundamental principle the prophets commend is God’s will. God’s will is always unconditional love. God’s will is always holiness in thought, word and deed.
People cannot make the choice to live by divine will apart from divine grace. And so, John- the last of the prophets- gives the people hope when he says that one is coming who will immerse the soul in the living waters of the Holy Spirit and transform the soul in the divine fire of the Holy Spirit.
It isn’t magic. It will not violate human choice. It is a sure and certain promise to those who hear the word of God, receive the word of God, believe the Word of God and desire a new relationship with God.
People came to John for many reasons. Some were curious. Some were seeking. Some wanted to be where the action was.
All who came had the same opportunity to hear the prophetic message. All who came had the same opportunity to make a real choice to receive the blessing God brought into the world through John.
That blessing is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the one whom John said was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
John recognized that no matter how hard we may try, human beings cannot simply say no to separation from God. Because we are lost in separation we are slaves to the rebellion of self will. It is God who must heal the breach. God must offer reunification as a free gift. God must initiate and sustain the process of transformation by His personal real presence in our souls.
The people who came to John, who believed his message, and who accepted his symbolic baptism wanted to know "what next?" What then should we do now that we have been baptized?
John’s answer was twofold.
First;:rediscover the gift of the divine will to unconditional holy love in your daily life. Surrender to that love. In the Presence of that love stop asserting your individual will to power to dominate others.
Second, prepare to meet and be embraced by the love of God in Jesus Christ here and now in this present moment.
The baptism of Jesus Christ is the total immersion of the soul in eternal love. In that immersion we begin to experience the transformation of our thoughts, our desires, and our will.
At every step of the process, the Holy Spirit invites us to make a real choice to reject the will to power and embrace the will to love.
Sometimes those choices seem small and insignificant.. Some times those choices seem difficult and overwhelming. In all of those choices God himself promises to be with us. God supplies us with the courage and grace we need for the moment as we respond to his invitation with the desire to grow in grace.
Jesus is greater than John and all of the prophets because Jesus can reunite the separated soul to God. Jesus baptizes our souls in the total immersion of the Holy Spirit and in the transforming fires of divine love.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Advent II
Advent II
Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
A true prophet of God is a time traveler.
A true prophet of God reaches out with one hand into the past to hear and echo the voice of God speaking to Moses the ineffable and omnipotent Name of God: I am. I am. It is in the context of that awesome and holy name of God that the prophet hears the Law God spoke to Moses.
The prophet hears the Name and in hearing the Name understands the Law. God is. Because God is, the Law is. People rebel against the law. People reject the Law. But, no one ever breaks the Law. The Law is absolute eternal truth. The Law proceeds from He who is: the eternal presence in the timeless present.
No human being ever breaks the Law. It is the Law that breaks human beings. This is not God’s will for us. God created us to be his children. God loves us.
And so, it is the call of the prophet to bring God’s Name and God’s Law forward into the present. As the prophet brings the Word of God into the present he confronts the power of sin.
The power of sin is the human will to power that insists: my will be done. I want what I want and I want it now and I refuse to acknowledge the consequences.
The human will to power is self will that produces separation from God.
As the prophet holds the Law of Moses to the present he hears the voice of God speaking one word: repent. Turn around. Make a change. Embrace the Name. Accept the truth even as you are broken by the Law. It is the duty of the prophet to proclaim the eternal truth of God to his specific generation.
God spoke to Moses and said: I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods but me.
The prophet brings that past statement to the present reality. As the perfect Law of God meets imperfect, lost and rebellious human beings, the prophet discerns where and how people reject the law and walk away from God. The urgency of the prophetic voice is the call to repentance.
The call to repentance says: Stop. You are going the wrong way. You are making choices that distort your soul and disrupt your happiness. You need to turn around. You need to head into a different direction. Because, if you continue in your present direction you will create pain and suffering, fear and frustration, isolation and separation.
The Law is holy and good. If you continue on this path, you will break your mind, your heart and your will on the Law. Stop.
God then invites the prophet into a very specific time into the future to bring into the present a different message. It is also a complementary message. The prophet perceives the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah is the personal presence of God in the world. The Messiah is the fulfillment of the plan of salvation God initiated with Abraham and Moses.
The prophet holds the reality of the Messiah to the present moment and perceives the truth of the hearts and minds and wills of the people. No room. There is no room in our souls for the Messiah. Self will rejects the Messiah.
And so, the prophet cries out. Prepare. Make a different choice. Make his paths straight.
The invitation to prepare is the invitation to reconcile the absolute holiness of God as revealed in the Law with the eternal love of God made flesh in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Repentance is the cleaning out of accumulated debris in our path. Preparation is the intention to walk the path God has set before us. That path is steadfast holy love.
There is an old saying: short cuts make long delays.
The path that God sets before us in Moses and in Christ is the straight and narrow path of life. There are detours. And, there are signs left by people who took those detours. The signs say: this way is so much easier. This way brings so much more pleasure. This path is just as good as the narrow path and will ultimately take you to the same place.
Every one who left these signs at the off ramps to the detours lied. They either believed a lie and repeated it. Or, they simply ignored the truth and lied.
The voice of the prophet cries out in the wilderness of false teachers, false promises and false gods. God is the great I am.
God doesn’t just offer an opinion about truth. God is truth.
The bad news is, if your life is broken, hollow, meaningless it is because you chose a detour off the straight and narrow path of life. The good news is, if your life is broken, hollow, meaningless, you can make a different choice.
Make room for Jesus Christ. Make his path to your soul straight.
How do we do this?
First, if you have never accepted the gift of reunification with God in Christ do it now. Make the real choice to stop. Turn around. Face Christ. Make a real chouce to make room for Jesus in your life. Say yes to his gift of eternal love. Receive the gift. Then know, you are one with the Father through the Son, now and forever.
Second, once you have received the gift Jesus brings it is time to straighten out the detours in our souls. The inner detours are like knots. Some times with patience we can unravel them. Some times we just need to take a more direct approach and cut them open and remove them.
How can we identify these inner spiritual detours and knots? The only way we can do this is by reading the Bible prayerfully and intentionally. Before we begin to read the Bible it is important to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. It is also important to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the way to implement in our daily lives the lessons we learn.
Third: make worship the single most important priority in your life. Nothing is more important. It is the first and great commandment that summarizes all of the commandments. In worship we immerse ourselves in the eternal love of God. We rediscover our meaning and purpose. We claim the joy of abundance God has prepared for us. We receive direction and guidance for our lives.
Fourth: we make the paths of our souls straight so we can fulfill the second summary of the law. Love others as you love yourself. God has given us a job to do. Our job is to live life from the question: how may I help? As you make the pathways of your soul straight to receive the fulness of Jesus Christ, you will begin to notice human need.
Human need has two aspects: material and spiritual. God wants each of us to offer the gift of reunification with divine love to all people. We cannot do this if we are lost in a detour or tied up in knots. We make our paths straight so we can be open to the Holy Spirit speaking through us to others to offer them the gift of love in Jesus Christ. Jesus says: when you encounter some one who is lost- offer to show them the way.
Human need also has a material aspect. Jesus says, if you see some one who is hungry- feed them. If you encounter some one who is lonely- spend time with them.
There is always an urgency in the prophetic voice. Repent and Prepare. The time is short. The moment is now, not later. If we delay until later we delay until never.
Our need is too deep to delay. Human need is too insistent for us to delay.
Now is the time to repent.
Now is the time to prepare.
Now is the time for each of us to prepare our souls in the way of our living Lord Jesus Christ.
Now is the time to make the pathways in our souls straight and open to the real presence of our living Lord Jesus Christ.
The word of God for us on this second Sunday of Advent is the voice of the prophets who cry out loudly and urgently: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
A true prophet of God is a time traveler.
A true prophet of God reaches out with one hand into the past to hear and echo the voice of God speaking to Moses the ineffable and omnipotent Name of God: I am. I am. It is in the context of that awesome and holy name of God that the prophet hears the Law God spoke to Moses.
The prophet hears the Name and in hearing the Name understands the Law. God is. Because God is, the Law is. People rebel against the law. People reject the Law. But, no one ever breaks the Law. The Law is absolute eternal truth. The Law proceeds from He who is: the eternal presence in the timeless present.
No human being ever breaks the Law. It is the Law that breaks human beings. This is not God’s will for us. God created us to be his children. God loves us.
And so, it is the call of the prophet to bring God’s Name and God’s Law forward into the present. As the prophet brings the Word of God into the present he confronts the power of sin.
The power of sin is the human will to power that insists: my will be done. I want what I want and I want it now and I refuse to acknowledge the consequences.
The human will to power is self will that produces separation from God.
As the prophet holds the Law of Moses to the present he hears the voice of God speaking one word: repent. Turn around. Make a change. Embrace the Name. Accept the truth even as you are broken by the Law. It is the duty of the prophet to proclaim the eternal truth of God to his specific generation.
God spoke to Moses and said: I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods but me.
The prophet brings that past statement to the present reality. As the perfect Law of God meets imperfect, lost and rebellious human beings, the prophet discerns where and how people reject the law and walk away from God. The urgency of the prophetic voice is the call to repentance.
The call to repentance says: Stop. You are going the wrong way. You are making choices that distort your soul and disrupt your happiness. You need to turn around. You need to head into a different direction. Because, if you continue in your present direction you will create pain and suffering, fear and frustration, isolation and separation.
The Law is holy and good. If you continue on this path, you will break your mind, your heart and your will on the Law. Stop.
God then invites the prophet into a very specific time into the future to bring into the present a different message. It is also a complementary message. The prophet perceives the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah is the personal presence of God in the world. The Messiah is the fulfillment of the plan of salvation God initiated with Abraham and Moses.
The prophet holds the reality of the Messiah to the present moment and perceives the truth of the hearts and minds and wills of the people. No room. There is no room in our souls for the Messiah. Self will rejects the Messiah.
And so, the prophet cries out. Prepare. Make a different choice. Make his paths straight.
The invitation to prepare is the invitation to reconcile the absolute holiness of God as revealed in the Law with the eternal love of God made flesh in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Repentance is the cleaning out of accumulated debris in our path. Preparation is the intention to walk the path God has set before us. That path is steadfast holy love.
There is an old saying: short cuts make long delays.
The path that God sets before us in Moses and in Christ is the straight and narrow path of life. There are detours. And, there are signs left by people who took those detours. The signs say: this way is so much easier. This way brings so much more pleasure. This path is just as good as the narrow path and will ultimately take you to the same place.
Every one who left these signs at the off ramps to the detours lied. They either believed a lie and repeated it. Or, they simply ignored the truth and lied.
The voice of the prophet cries out in the wilderness of false teachers, false promises and false gods. God is the great I am.
God doesn’t just offer an opinion about truth. God is truth.
The bad news is, if your life is broken, hollow, meaningless it is because you chose a detour off the straight and narrow path of life. The good news is, if your life is broken, hollow, meaningless, you can make a different choice.
Make room for Jesus Christ. Make his path to your soul straight.
How do we do this?
First, if you have never accepted the gift of reunification with God in Christ do it now. Make the real choice to stop. Turn around. Face Christ. Make a real chouce to make room for Jesus in your life. Say yes to his gift of eternal love. Receive the gift. Then know, you are one with the Father through the Son, now and forever.
Second, once you have received the gift Jesus brings it is time to straighten out the detours in our souls. The inner detours are like knots. Some times with patience we can unravel them. Some times we just need to take a more direct approach and cut them open and remove them.
How can we identify these inner spiritual detours and knots? The only way we can do this is by reading the Bible prayerfully and intentionally. Before we begin to read the Bible it is important to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us. It is also important to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the way to implement in our daily lives the lessons we learn.
Third: make worship the single most important priority in your life. Nothing is more important. It is the first and great commandment that summarizes all of the commandments. In worship we immerse ourselves in the eternal love of God. We rediscover our meaning and purpose. We claim the joy of abundance God has prepared for us. We receive direction and guidance for our lives.
Fourth: we make the paths of our souls straight so we can fulfill the second summary of the law. Love others as you love yourself. God has given us a job to do. Our job is to live life from the question: how may I help? As you make the pathways of your soul straight to receive the fulness of Jesus Christ, you will begin to notice human need.
Human need has two aspects: material and spiritual. God wants each of us to offer the gift of reunification with divine love to all people. We cannot do this if we are lost in a detour or tied up in knots. We make our paths straight so we can be open to the Holy Spirit speaking through us to others to offer them the gift of love in Jesus Christ. Jesus says: when you encounter some one who is lost- offer to show them the way.
Human need also has a material aspect. Jesus says, if you see some one who is hungry- feed them. If you encounter some one who is lonely- spend time with them.
There is always an urgency in the prophetic voice. Repent and Prepare. The time is short. The moment is now, not later. If we delay until later we delay until never.
Our need is too deep to delay. Human need is too insistent for us to delay.
Now is the time to repent.
Now is the time to prepare.
Now is the time for each of us to prepare our souls in the way of our living Lord Jesus Christ.
Now is the time to make the pathways in our souls straight and open to the real presence of our living Lord Jesus Christ.
The word of God for us on this second Sunday of Advent is the voice of the prophets who cry out loudly and urgently: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.
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