We are called to be witnesses to the Risen Christ...
witnesses of the one who has forgiven us of our sins
witnesses of the one who said death is not the end
witnesses of the one who said there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend
witnesses of the one who endured the cross because he was deeply in love with us
We have been called to believe, even though we have not seen, and bring His entirety to all peoples
But none of us can begin to do this if we do not know Him, the one we are called to witness.
This probably sounds like common sense, but it is so essential. And to know Him is so simple, yet incredibly difficult.
What many or all of us do is demand too much, to expect too much or put unrealistic expectations on those we are in relationships with. Think about any number of relationships we are in - spouse, friend, sibling, classmate, colleague, brother or sister in Christ - and consider what expectations or demands we put on them either subconsciously or directly.
Do we demand love? Do we want to be comforted? Do we demand acceptance? Do we demand attention? Do we demand proof of love?
It is a symptom of our humanity. We are fallen creation inclined to sin and corrupting perfect relationship with self serving desires and demands. If we really think about it, we can all in some ways see ourselves falling into this with at least some of our relationships.
The same is with Christ...
How easy and how common it is for us to demand love, comfort, acceptance, attention and proof from Christ. After all, He is a real person and how else are we to relate to Him than how we know how to relate to other persons in our lives? Then we are faced with the reality that we can't interact and expect synonymous responses from Him as we would, lets say, our spouse. When we make identical expectations on Christ as we do others and then faced with the reality He does not respond as they do, we are left in doubt and frustration and faith in God is something we resign as something superfluous or impossible.
I am the first one to admit my guilt with this. There are some days where it just 'clicks' and there are others where I'm too stuck on myself and I make demands on God to make Himself more known or to do something for me - I put very finite and human expectations on an infinite and mysterious Being!
What does this have to do with being a witness? Everything.
If we are to be witness of the Risen Lord, if we are to have the fire of faith and the martyrs zeal, then our hearts cannot be in the wrong place and stifling that flame. We need to be aware of what it means to know Christ so as to be His witness.
Knowing Christ is a lifelong process and we can never fully comprehend the depth and breadth of the mystery of God in this life, but we need to get ourselves on the right track.
The mystical and other worldly experiences of God that many of us perhaps demand of God can only be possible once we simply acknowledge Him. To be consumed by the flames of the love of God is only possible once we set before us His commandments. To release a sigh of joy in the mercy of God is only possible once we acknowledge our own sinfulness. To be deafened by the choirs of angels is only possible through a simple recognition of the need for something greater than I.
To know our Risen Lord is to simply acknowledge Him and an honest desire to serve Him.
It is our constant struggle to let go of those demands and expectations and just let God BE and let Him take you by the hand and lead you to places and experience things that our minds can only scratch in imagination.
We are called to be witnesses to the greatest mystery in the universe - let's not hinder that by our own weakness and sin.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Holy Thursday: On This Night
This night, gathered in a small dimly lit room, Jesus gives is the two most essential gifts or "things" He could ever give us: The Eucharist and the Priesthood
The disciples had no idea what Christ had up His sleeve that night; only Judas had a hint of what was to transpire after the meal, but Christ knew and He was prepared. He knew that one of His closest friends was going to betray Him; He knew that He was going to be plucked from every comfort and security he had in this world; He knew that this was going to be the last meal he would share with those He loved; He knew He was about to suffer a tortuous end to His life; He knew He had to act!
Going to the cross was going to win for us salvation; it was going to defeat darkness, sin and death itself, but it was still going to leave us as a fallen people, still bound to the affects and enslavement of sin. He was going to leave us a means to experience and taste His love, mercy and intimacy after He left this earth. He was leaving us a way to taste our salvation: The Eucharist and the Priesthood!
This night, in that dim room, Christ gave his beloved twelve a model to follow. He, God made man, got on His knees and washed to feet of sinful, weak and imperfect men - Even Judas who was about to betray Him and the other ten who abandoned Him. He gave them a model of total self-surrender, total self- gift, total self-sacrifice of themselves for others.
He showed them that to be a priest was no longer about sacrificing goats and pigeons - it was about sacrificing yourself. He showed them that what He was doing and about to do was the new model for priestly service and way of life. He showed them that sacrificing the True Lamb was the only sacrifice capable bringing salvation. He showed them the model by which, men chosen from their peers by God, would give others the body and blood of Christ by sacrificing their own everyday.
No glitz, no glamour, no status or honor was he bestowing on them - He was calling these men to die so others may have life. The priesthood was no longer a sterile or apathetic position among men - NO - The priesthood was now about dying for the life of men! Each one of these disciples in that room that night was called to the cross - Each of those men realized that the greatest way of love was to deny themselves and give everything you have for another.
It is only this sacrifice and this love that suffices the cravings of the soul!
Acknowledging this reality, each Catholic man not married needs to ask himself, needs to pray about, needs to ponder this priesthood and if he is being called and chosen from among men for this sacrifice. The world cannot survive without priests giving us the Eucharist and forgiving our sins and being a man on the boundary of creation and Creator. Each man needs to talk with Christ and others so he may know if he is in this world for it's salvation. Each man here tonight and elsewhere: Are you being called to follow this model of Christ and sacrifice yourself so others may taste and experience their salvation?
Without priests, there is no Eucharist; without priests, there is no sacraments; where there is no Eucharist or sacraments, there is no Church for people to come and experience first hand their salvation and the love and sacrifice that every soul needs and craves. It is essential and not optional!
This night, Christ lays down the foundation for chosen men to lay down their lives because of love.
This night, Christ takes His new priests and gives us His very flesh and His very blood.
This night, we receive the two most tangible and eternal gifts and signs of our salvation and the love that conquered death.
The disciples had no idea what Christ had up His sleeve that night; only Judas had a hint of what was to transpire after the meal, but Christ knew and He was prepared. He knew that one of His closest friends was going to betray Him; He knew that He was going to be plucked from every comfort and security he had in this world; He knew that this was going to be the last meal he would share with those He loved; He knew He was about to suffer a tortuous end to His life; He knew He had to act!
Going to the cross was going to win for us salvation; it was going to defeat darkness, sin and death itself, but it was still going to leave us as a fallen people, still bound to the affects and enslavement of sin. He was going to leave us a means to experience and taste His love, mercy and intimacy after He left this earth. He was leaving us a way to taste our salvation: The Eucharist and the Priesthood!
This night, in that dim room, Christ gave his beloved twelve a model to follow. He, God made man, got on His knees and washed to feet of sinful, weak and imperfect men - Even Judas who was about to betray Him and the other ten who abandoned Him. He gave them a model of total self-surrender, total self- gift, total self-sacrifice of themselves for others.
He showed them that to be a priest was no longer about sacrificing goats and pigeons - it was about sacrificing yourself. He showed them that what He was doing and about to do was the new model for priestly service and way of life. He showed them that sacrificing the True Lamb was the only sacrifice capable bringing salvation. He showed them the model by which, men chosen from their peers by God, would give others the body and blood of Christ by sacrificing their own everyday.
No glitz, no glamour, no status or honor was he bestowing on them - He was calling these men to die so others may have life. The priesthood was no longer a sterile or apathetic position among men - NO - The priesthood was now about dying for the life of men! Each one of these disciples in that room that night was called to the cross - Each of those men realized that the greatest way of love was to deny themselves and give everything you have for another.
It is only this sacrifice and this love that suffices the cravings of the soul!
Acknowledging this reality, each Catholic man not married needs to ask himself, needs to pray about, needs to ponder this priesthood and if he is being called and chosen from among men for this sacrifice. The world cannot survive without priests giving us the Eucharist and forgiving our sins and being a man on the boundary of creation and Creator. Each man needs to talk with Christ and others so he may know if he is in this world for it's salvation. Each man here tonight and elsewhere: Are you being called to follow this model of Christ and sacrifice yourself so others may taste and experience their salvation?
Without priests, there is no Eucharist; without priests, there is no sacraments; where there is no Eucharist or sacraments, there is no Church for people to come and experience first hand their salvation and the love and sacrifice that every soul needs and craves. It is essential and not optional!
This night, Christ lays down the foundation for chosen men to lay down their lives because of love.
This night, Christ takes His new priests and gives us His very flesh and His very blood.
This night, we receive the two most tangible and eternal gifts and signs of our salvation and the love that conquered death.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Palm Sunday: We have entered Jerusalem!
We have finally entered Jerusalem! We have spent this Lent in the desert, the wilderness, thirsting and pining for God. We have spent this Lent alone with our God.
Now we have joyfully entered Jerusalem waving palm branches in praise and happiness at the entrance of our God, Our King!
This week is Hoy Week. The holiest weeks of the year and nothing remotely compares to it's majesty.
This is the week where we enter Jerusalem waving palm branches in praise of Jesus, but it is also the same week where we will hit his body with reeds and whip him, shredding his flesh.
This is the week where we cry "Hosanna to the Son of David" "This is our King!"But, it is also the week where we will sentence our king to death for being our king! We will mockingly nail "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, to his cross.
This is the week where we lay down our clothes on the donkey and along the path of His entrance into Jerusalem, but also will strip Him naked in humiliation.
This is the week where we acclaim "Glory, Laud and Honor", but also the week where we shout and abuse HIm to the point of shame and leave Him with little dignity.
We have entered Jerusalem. We are holding palm branches in praise of our king, but we will by the end of the week be holding nails to affix Him to a tree.
We are not just remembering and recalling theses events, they are real and timeless. This is the holiest week of the year and a week that knows no boundaries of time or space. We are present with our Lord, our King, through it all. This week we walk with Him triumphantly into Jerusalem, but also walk with Him carrying His cross to the place of death.
May we fully enter into the liturgy, the prayer, the scripture and the intimacy of this week. May we bring our whole selves to this journey with Christ and come to know the events of this week as real and meaningful to our lives.
Now we have joyfully entered Jerusalem waving palm branches in praise and happiness at the entrance of our God, Our King!
This week is Hoy Week. The holiest weeks of the year and nothing remotely compares to it's majesty.
This is the week where we enter Jerusalem waving palm branches in praise of Jesus, but it is also the same week where we will hit his body with reeds and whip him, shredding his flesh.
This is the week where we cry "Hosanna to the Son of David" "This is our King!"But, it is also the week where we will sentence our king to death for being our king! We will mockingly nail "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" Jesus Christ, King of the Jews, to his cross.
This is the week where we lay down our clothes on the donkey and along the path of His entrance into Jerusalem, but also will strip Him naked in humiliation.
This is the week where we acclaim "Glory, Laud and Honor", but also the week where we shout and abuse HIm to the point of shame and leave Him with little dignity.
We have entered Jerusalem. We are holding palm branches in praise of our king, but we will by the end of the week be holding nails to affix Him to a tree.
We are not just remembering and recalling theses events, they are real and timeless. This is the holiest week of the year and a week that knows no boundaries of time or space. We are present with our Lord, our King, through it all. This week we walk with Him triumphantly into Jerusalem, but also walk with Him carrying His cross to the place of death.
May we fully enter into the liturgy, the prayer, the scripture and the intimacy of this week. May we bring our whole selves to this journey with Christ and come to know the events of this week as real and meaningful to our lives.
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