Behold the Man

I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.--Jesus

 

He is the Prince of Peace. He said to the disciples, "Peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give...." The peace of this world is a great spiritual enemy to us. To be lulled into complacency is the land mine we must watch for on our narrow road. When we lie asleep in the light we do not dream for God. In this false peace, we dream for ourselves, and these dreams are nightmares in disguise. Dreams that are not for God are nightmares. The peace of Jesus is hidden somewhere deep. It comes through trial, and suffering, and then it sticks with us through trial and suffering. Those who are resting in His peace know how to endure. Jesus brings a sword to our world. He cuts away our ego and bent toward sin. He does this with His cross, and with the crosses He gives us. We cannot for a moment stop meditating on the Passion of our Lord. We must not think for an instant that we understand His birth to the Virgin, His life among men, or His suffering, death and resurrection. This is one reason why the Rosary is such a wonderful gift to us. It is the greatest weapon in our battle, for when we pray the Rosary, we are contemplating the life of Jesus. This is when His peace has a chance to break through and become our peace.

 

wkm

 

Eat you up.

You must let the people eat you up.----Mother Teresa

 

Humility is the strongest virtue. It is the one virtue that creates immediate response. People either love or hate humility. It either gets on our nerves or it lifts us up. It either inspires or repels. Jesus showed the ultimate humility. He emptied Himself of Heaven's joy to come here and be one of us. We can't even begin to imagine what He gave up. His mother Mary called herself the "handmaid of the Lord." She knew she would be ridiculed and would have to embrace the unknown. She and Joseph had to flee their homeland, travel hard roads and long distances. She had to give birth to the Savior of her people in a cave with smelly animals.  Jesus let people "eat Him up" then, and He still does.  Mary let people "eat her up." St. Paul let people "eat him up." Paul was ready for whatever came his way in the spreading of the gospel. The key to this is detachment from the things of this world. Today, we often find ourselves in the presence of those who disdain our outlook and faith. Let them. Let's love them, pray for them, and smile at them. And while we're at it, let's smile at our ever silent Savior Who knows and walks with us every mundane and challenging mile. This will do more for their souls, and ours, than we can comprehend.

 

wkm

 

Reason and Faith

This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild
For if Mary had been filled with reason.
There'd have been no room for the Child.

Madeline L'Engel

 

My friend from Vancouver sent this quote to me yesterday.  This reminds me what Christmas really is. His love for us is beyond anything we understand or ever will understand. Mary became a participant of that love by faith. She reasoned to Gabriel for a moment when she expressed her commitment to virginity by saying, "how can this be?" Gabriel's answer was not a very reasonable answer, "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you.." Her response was, 'Fiat, or, "Let it be done unto me.."  This is when, "Love bloomed bright and wild."  God made us with the ability to reason, but then He gives us faith as a gift. They must walk hand in hand, but then comes those times when faith is all we have. Faith is all that gets us through the impossible, like it did Mother Mary. Reason is a good thing, it is a part of everything, but faith is the garden where "love blooms bright and wild."

 

wkm

 

 

The Annunciation by Henry Tanner

Joy is coming!

Your immortal crown awaits you, and the best of Fathers waits there to reward your duty and love. You may indeed sow here in tears, but you may be sure there to reap in joy.-----St. Elizabeth Ann Seton ( first American born person to be canonozed, she died in 1821)

 

Joy is what we all hope for. This is what Advent is all about. The world is waiting for Joy. But why was Joy born in a cave and laid in a feeding trough for the lesser animals? Why does Joy come to us only through the cross?  This joy we hope for is still to come. We do not have it yet. We are still in an Advent to see His face. We hope for the eternal joy of His Presence without interruption. Here on this earth we will be tempted to settle for lesser joys, good things that make us happy, but they pale in comparison to what awaits those who "persevere to the end.", to quote Jesus. But some days seem too dang hard for us. We cry out to Jesus for mercy and the relentless frustrations mount. The struggle deepens instead of getting easier. Nothing makes sense, all seems lost. So what do we do? We pray and we wait. We ask for wisdom and faith. We ask for grace to have faith. We will it as best we can and then we wait for Him to come. What else can we do? We could become angry and bitter, but this is the fruit of the devil. Jesus could have become angry and bitter in the Garden of Gethsemane, but He said, "Not My will, but Thine." Once again, this is not easy, this narrow road, but joy is coming!

 

wkm

 

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Where else can we go....

Truly truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you can have no life in you.---Jesus

 

When Jesus said this to His followers as recorded in John 6, they were astonished and appalled. These were his disciples, not some obscure crowd just hanging out in the synagogue at Capernaum. His 12 apostles were there too. After He spoke these strange words, the disciples, not the 12, murmured. This should remind us of another story where Israel murmured. They murmured when Moses fed them with manna in the wilderness. But this was different, it wasn't Moses telling them about bread come down from heaven, this was Jesus, this was God Himself. And it wasn't manna He was going to give, it was His flesh, which He told them was "real food and real drink.". Jesus didn't mince words , and these words were something different. He had called Himself a gate and none had murmured. He had called Himself the Light of the World and none had murmured. Why did this cause such upheaval? After they murmured He made it even harder for them. He said, " Unless you "gnaw" the flesh of the son of man and drink His blood you have no life within you." Gnaw was the original Greek for the word "eat" that He used the second time He said it. He made it clear that He was not being symbolic, and they knew it. Now turn to your bible, John 6:66, and we see one of the most pivotal points in His ministry. This was the only place in scripture where His followers left Him over a teaching. It was too much for them then, and it is still too much for many today. But He said it, and He did not stop them from leaving Him. He did not run after them and say, " I was only using this as a metaphor, it is only meant as a symbol." No, He did not say this. And today, He calls all of us to the same mysterious Meal, for apart from His Body and Blood, we "do not have eternal life." He said, "If you do not eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life within you." The 12 apostles stayed, and Peter, who always speaks for the Church in scripture, gave their very childlike faith reason, "Where else can we go, You hold the words of eternal life."

 

wkm

 

 

Humility

I am at His disposal, He can do with me just as it pleaseth Him, without even a thought of consulting me. I just want to be His own little one---if He so wants, otherwise I will to be just nothing & He everything. Pray for me.----Mother Teresa, from "Come Be My Light"

 

How I wish I were like this!! How I wish my ego was so swallowed up in Him that I could pray this prayer and mean it as Mother Teresa did! This is why God places these Saints among us, and calls all of us to be like them as they are like Jesus. Isn't this exactly what St. Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ!" We fail one another often and we hurt one another daily. We get mad when someone tells us something we don't want to hear, whether it is true or not, we are offended, 'how dare they?!!' We must fight this impulse! We must be stronger by being weaker. We must allow Jesus to give us His humility, so that we can always be about the other's soul, and not our own prideful opinion. This isn't easy of course, but neither was it easy when those nails were pounded into God's human hands.

 

wkm

 

DIG!

We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures; however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.----St. John of the Cross

 

St. Paul wrote of Jesus, "In Him are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Our faith is an eternal treasure hunt! Knowing Jesus is never stagnant or complete. Paul says this is a "hidden" treasure. Why is it hidden? Why is Jesus so allusive and mysterious. BECAUSE HE IS GOD! He is the Incarnation! He is the Creator taking on a flesh and soul of us humans so that we can take on His Divinity! No matter how long we are given to live on this plane, we can never extinguish the search. Therefore, we must DIG daily into the Scriptures, especially the gospels, the Catechism, doctrines, dogmas, the Traditions of the Church, the Rosary,  the prayers of the Saints, the lives of the Saints, meditating on these things over and over. Our finite minds can only discover the richness by gazing intently upon these Truths, pleading  for the Spirit to open our hearts and minds to understand. We must not forget, Jesus said, "Seek and you shall find." St. John of the Cross sought, and the more he sought, the more madly in love he fell with Jesus. Let us pray for this kind of love, then the search for Treasures will intensify! Here is one example of some of the Treasure I have found over the past four years, Glory to God! It is by grace that we are saved, so let us ask Mary to pray for us, for, she is "full of grace", and the Queen of all graces. Her example of obedience and love for Jesus is a very important part of the Treasure of our faith we have been given. It honors the Son to honor His mother. The closer one stands to Mary, the closer one will be to Jesus. She lives to bring people to her Son. No human knows Jesus better than His mom. And this part of the treasure brings her humility to our prideful lives. Glory to Jesus! 

 

wkm