Tag: Endurance

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Gospel Reflections

Only Love Endures

perseveranceThirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time: 11-13-16

Peace be with You,

Last weekend we began the first of three weekends that have to do with the “end times.”  Therein, we saw that though our lives stand to be perfected at the end of time, we can begin to and indeed are meant to experience a life of salvation starting here and now by living a life of unity with our God (to the extent that this is possible this side of eternity).  This weekend, we continue on the same topic, but with added emphasis on the difficulties we will face as we make our pilgrimage home to God.

The first reading from Malachi sets an eerie tone for the weekend by speaking very graphically of the judgment that is to fall on the nation of Israel.  Malachi writes: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the LORD of hosts (3:19).”  To be sure, the prophet is speaking in terms of divine judgment and is not in danger of mincing words in expressing his message.  It is clear that the people have acted in a way that violates God’s law, and it is likewise clear that they will suffer the consequences of doing so in a catastrophic way.  However, there are a few things to keep in mind when hearing these words from Malachi.  First, though taking up the tenor of Isaiah and some of the other prophets who very graphically condemned the betrayal of God’s law on the part of Israel that would lead to their exile, Malachi is writing in the post-exilic era.  The people have returned to Israel, their homeland and thus have seen the salvation God has brought.  However, they do not seem to have changed their ways, resulting in the stern message they receive from the prophet.  Secondly, as the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi represents a transition of sorts.  The judgment to come is described in apocalyptic terms which parallel the words Jesus will use to speak of the final judgment, e.g. fire and utter ruin (Matthew 24:2 & 25:41; John 15:6).  However, the fire of God’s judgment from the perspective of Malachi will come in a very different form, i.e. in a person.  It is from the book of Malachi that we hear that God will send his messenger who will act as ‘a refiner’s fire, like fuller’s lye (3:2b),’ who will cleanse the people in order that they may make a sacrifice acceptable to God once again (3:4).  Thus, while Malachi uses “end times” apocalyptic terms, and can thus be read in such a fashion to speak of the parousia, Malachi’s immediate context speaks of the arrival of Jesus, which is why the Church has traditionally read the above passages as the foretelling of the episode of Jesus cleansing the temple (Matthew 21:12-13 & John 2:13-22).  Third, it is important to notice what exactly it is that the people have done that must be corrected.  On this aspect, Malachi is not short of examples, he speaks in very strong terms of the people being stingy in their offerings to God (1:6-14 & 3:6-11); the breakdown of marital unions (2:10-16); and the taking advantage of workers and the needy (3:5).  In short, the people have not only failed to live up to God’s law even after receiving the good fortune of returning to their homeland, they seem incapable of doing so.  Thus the people are in need not only of a judge, but a judge who is first a savior that can cleanse the people in order that they might once again live in right relationship with God.

There should be no doubt that the Savior Malachi speaks of is Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who unites the human family to God in his very Person and will ultimately solidify this union through his saving death, resurrection and ascension.  However, we must not believe that these are the only saving acts of Jesus; rather, we must realize that it is the whole of Jesus life which is salvific.  How can we understand this?  For every charge leveled against the people by Malachi, there is a plenty of examples from the life of Jesus that do the exact opposite.  For instance he makes the whole of his life an offering to God (John 4:34 & 6:38), categorically condemns divorce (Matt 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-9), and identifies himself with the poor and outcast of society (Matthew 25:42 & 45; Philippians 2:5-8).  In short, because Jesus experienced the whole of human life, he likewise sanctified it in its entirety, and while doing so demonstrates what it means to live a life of unity with God beginning here and now.  Moreover, he does not simply ask us to believe that he has saved us and then sit and wait  for the day of final judgment, resting on a the idea that because we have faith that we have been saved we have nothing to do concerning our salvation, far from it.  Instead, he asks us to live in a similar manner, demanding that we strive for perfection in life (Matthew 5:48), telling us that if we love him, we will live out the command he has given us which culminates in a love for God and neighbor (John 14:15 & 23).  However, as we in today’s gospel, living life in such a way is sure to bring hardships to our lives.

In today’s gospel, Jesus is asked about the end times and what will take place as they approach (Luke 21:7).  In response, Jesus describes things that we readily see taking place all around us today, wars, earthquakes, famines etc. (Luke 21:10-11), and then he adds “But…”  What Jesus is suggesting here is that bad things are going to continue to happen up until the very last day, and thus his response does not point to a particular time in history but instead exhorts us to live the life he has demonstrated for us and leave the plan for history in the hands of Divine Providence, for in this way we need not worry about when the end will come, but instead will be continually prepared.  This is why following the word “But,” Jesus tells his followers that they will experience persecution at the hands of those around them (Luke 21:12) and tells them that it will lead to their giving testimony (Luke 21:13).  What does this testimony look like?  To be sure, it includes being ready to give a verbal response for…what exactly?  He tells them, “you will be hated by all because of my name” (Luke 21:17).  Seems odd, doesn’t it, that believers in Christ should simply be hated for their belief, in fact, such a proposition seems absurd.  For if all that was needed was a simple belief in Christ, couldn’t one hold that in the safekeeping of one’s heart and mind without anyone ever knowing that they in fact held such a belief?  Put simply, no.  This is why Jesus orders us time and time again to live out the command to love, why Paul tells us to ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling’ (Philippians 2:12), and why James categorically tells us that ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:17).  It is precisely a faith that is lived out that is the cause of the followers of Jesus being persecuted and having to give testimony of their faith, for living a life of pure and true love (which it tragically misunderstands) is so contrary to the life of the world that it not only befuddles and annoys them, but is detestable to them to the point that they desire to blot it from their sight (cf. Wisdom 2:12-20).

My friends, as promised by Jesus, we live in such a time.  We live in an era where many attempt to relegate the message of the gospel either as that of a teaching of a bygone era, and thus in need of reform in order to “keep up with the times,” or as a simple moral teaching that simply wants people to be kind to one another.  But you see, this is not the gospel.  The teaching and life of Jesus did not have as its aim for people to get along or to simply be nice to one another (cf. Matt 10:34), he did not come to give the people of his time some simple rules to live by that could be disposed of and set aside when they became inconvenient (cf. Luke 21:33), he came to show the world how much God loves us and desires unity with us (cf. John 17:23-24), and in order to do that, he lived a life of love among us; a love that has benevolence, justice and self-sacrifice as its distinguishing marks, characteristics which a world so tragically fallen and separated from God no longer recognizes as true love’s defining traits (cf. John 13:1; John 15:13; 1 Corinthians 1:23).  This weekend, Jesus reminds us that to live such a life is extremely difficult, but reminds us that, regardless of the message of the world and the obstacles and distractions it places in our way, this is the life we are made for and promises us that if we stay close to him and remain in the unity that he came to re-establish between the human family and their Creator, we too through graced-effort and perseverance can live lives of love acceptable to God, and through that endurance to the very end, gain life in its fullest (cf. Luke 21:19).

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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Gospel Reflections

Living an Attitude of Gratitude

gratitudeTwenty-eight Sunday in Ordinary Time: 10-9-16

Peace be with You,

Last weekend we were treated to the beautifully refreshing, though be it challenging, message that we were created good.  This was indicated by the fact that Our Lord told us, that after we do everything we have been told to do, e.g. forgive endlessly, have trust in our God without measure, and be charitable to those around us, especially those most in need, we should count ourselves as having done nothing extraordinary, but simply as having done what is normal to someone who has been created in the image and likeness of God, and thus, by virtue of creation, is good.  The readings we hear this weekend exhort us not to take this reality for granted, but rather to give thanks always in the fact that we have ‘been fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14).

Our first reading from the 2nd Book of Kings and the gospel reading from Luke, both tell stories of healing, specifically the healing of lepers.  The elements of the stories tell us two very important things, serving as an allegorical representation of the universal human condition.  First, the fact that these individuals are ill (Naaman in the first reading, and the ten lepers in the gospel) indicate the incompleteness of our current state.  This is readily observable in all of our lives.  Any sickness we experience or see others experience seems to fly in the face of what we intuitively know we have been created for.  Deep within us we know that we have not been created for the debilitating impact of illness.  This intuition is only more firmly expressed in our revulsion towards death.  There is simply something about death that seems so unnatural, so unjust.  In short, we know that we were meant to live, and, when faced by personal illness, or the illness of a loved one, we ask why!  Even in our moments of unbelief, we demand an explanation for this revolting reality and we too cry out to our God demanding a response, echoing the lepers in the gospel, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

Taking into consideration our natural inclination towards life, and the unseemliness of death, we find the leprous condition of these individuals to have an explanatory function.  As lepers, these individuals would have been outcasts from Jewish society, considered unclean, both medically and religiously/socially.  Though the illness of these individuals would have preceded their expulsion from society, their social status allegorically serves an epidemiological function (i.e. it explains to us why it is that we are prone to illness), by connecting illness to societal estrangement.  Last week, we saw that we have been created to make present to the world the life of the God in Whose image we have been created by living lives of self-giving love, forgiveness, and trust in God.  By doing so, we demonstrate that what it means to live fully human lives can only be done by living in unity with God, Who Is a Triune communion of Divine Persons.  In order to do so, however, we must first take steps to be re-incorporated into this Divine Communion.

We do so at baptism.  In our first reading, we see Naaman plunging himself in the Jordan seven times, having received instruction from the prophet Elisha to do so (2 Kings 5:10 & 14).  The fact that Elisha instructed Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River seven times should not go unnoticed by us.  First, water itself is a life-giving source, without water, we die.  This bathing in water is also a foreshadowing of baptism, where plunged into the water we become alive in the Spirit of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).  Lastly, the number seven is the number of completion (e.g. God having completed the work of creation rested on the 7th day, Genesis 2:2-3).  Thus, Naaman’s bathing in the Jordan seven times indicates his restoration to the completeness of his creation, emphasized by the fact that we are told that having done so, Naaman’s skin was made like that of a little child (2 Kings 5:14).  The method of healing employed by Elisha seems to differ from that used by Jesus in our gospel for today.  In contrast to Elisha, Jesus does not tell the ten lepers to go and bathe, he simply tells them “Go and show yourselves to the priests” (Luke 17:14).  Why were they to show themselves to the priests?  The community of Israel was theocratic, led by religious officials in both civil and religious matters, and it was only by the approval of the priests that a onetime leper could be declared clean (see Leviticus 14:1-9).  But what does that tell us?  After all, we do not live in a theocracy, and so what priests or pastors say about our status as clean or unclean has no impact upon us.  What this indicates to us is that, contrary to the many NONES among us, Jesus had no intention making us spiritual as opposed to religious.  Rather, it was vital that those who were to live by the Spirit (see John 4:24 & Galatians 5:25-26) would be brought together in organized community so that each member of the Body of Christ could live life to the fullest by playing the role she or he was created for (see 1 Corinthians 12).  Thus, what we see here is that to be fully alive means to be a member of that community which has Jesus Christ as its head (Colossians 1:18), giving life to all of its members in the Spirit, the Body of Christ, i.e. the Church.

My friends, being made members of the Church at baptism, through grace we share in the life of the God Who made us and thus begin to live fully human lives.  However, we must not become lazy, or rest on our laurels, for it is just as easy to cut ourselves off from the Body of Christ and thus lose this fullness of life as it is to become a part of it.  For this reason Paul exhorts Timothy along with all of us to endure all that we may suffer for being a member of the Body of Christ, just as Paul was suffering (2 Timothy 2:10), reminding us of the conditions of our Baptism:  “This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.  But if we deny him he will deny us.  If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13).  Notice please the conditions indicated here by Paul: If we persevere, if we deny, if we are unfaithful.  And let us not be led astray by the last condition, If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.  This does not mean that no matter what we do, our baptism saves us, far from it.  These verses must be taken as a whole.  What is it that Christ remains faithful to?  Us?  In so far as we are members of his body, yes, for he is faithful to Himself as the Word of the Father.  However, as the unchanging Word of Truth, Jesus cannot go back on what He has told us from the Father, this would be a contradiction of His very Person.  Thus, to remain in Him, we must live the lives of love that he commands us to live, for only love can secure us within the community of the Life of God Which is Love Itself.

My friends, this is why today an attitude of gratitude is being put before us as an example to be followed.  As Naaman, having been made whole in the waters of the Jordan, asks for two mule-loads of earth in order to be able to offer sacrifices to the God Whom he recognized had healed him (as gods in those days were believed to be associated with the territory over which they reigned).  And the sole leper, who realizing that he had been healed came back to give thanks to the One Who had made him whole, and who is praised by our Lord for his realization.  These examples are lifted up before us today as worthy of being followed for it is precisely an attitude of gratitude that keeps us from believing that we can achieve life to its fullest on our own, and instead reminds us that only in God do we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28), and that we can hope to one day obtain the fullness of “salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory” (2 Timothy 2:10).

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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Gospel Reflections

Staying Focused on the Race at Hand

Race TrackTwentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8-14-16

Peace be with You,

Last Sunday we spoke about how faith can act as a portal that allows us to live the life of eternity beginning here and now.  Moreover, we saw that a faith-filled life is not characterized by a unique abstract mental approach to life, but rather it is characterized by an active pursuit of the life God calls us to as exemplified by our father in faith, Abraham.  Accordingly, we heard Jesus call us to pass through this portal of faith in order that we and all around might begin to live the life we were created for here and now.  This week, we are confronted with the difficult reality that living a faith-filled life can lead us down a quite painful and lonely road.

The readings for this weekend do a nice job of providing examples of the loneliness that one can experience at different societal levels as the result of living a faith-based life.  In our first reading, we find the princes of Judah demanding the life of the prophet Jeremiah.  Jeremiah had acquired such resentment by having proclaimed to the people of Judah that to resist the powers of Babylon was futile as it had already been determined by God that the people of Judah would in fact be overtaken and exiled at the hands of the Babylonian king.  Accordingly, Jeremiah encouraged the people to comply with the will of God, and surrender to Babylon peacefully (cf. 38:2-3).  This did not sit well with the princes of Judah, who not only refused to acknowledge such a message as being divinely inspired, but wished to banish the bearer of that message from their sight!

The experience of Jeremiah is the experience of many Christians around the world today, to varying degrees of course.  In the Middle East, Christians are martyred for merely practicing their faith; while here in our own country, individuals face having their employment terminated or having their business taken to court for voicing their beliefs.  What we see exemplified in the story of Jeremiah and in modern day examples, is that the Word of God is so difficult to accept that people would quite often rather eliminate or ostracize those that live in accordance with it, and hence remind them of it, than allow them to question their way of life, however fallen it may be (cf. Wisdom 2:12).

The examples cited thus far keep us in quite a comfortable position.  After all, we may look at the world around us and say to ourselves, ‘Yep, it is a hard place for us Christians to live nowadays,’ as we give ourselves of healthy pat on the back.  But before we float off on a cloud of self-righteousness, we must ask ourselves, How far does my loyalty to the word of God go?  What and who am I willing to turn away from if it keeps me from the life God calls me to live? 

In his work, The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis tells of a woman named Pam, who, upon approaching the gates of Heaven is quite appalled to be met by her brother as opposed to the son whom she had lost during her life on earth.  Her brother proceeds to inform her that before she is able to see her son, who has already reached the eternal homeland, she will have to have her loves re-ordered.  In short, as her brother tells her, Pam’s love for her son has become a false god because it has been set up as a good on its own, apart from the love of God.  And, as her brother points out, we cannot love anything properly, not even our family fully, until we love God first (see the Great Divorce ch. 11).  We leave Pam in the place we find her, refusing to acknowledge that her loves had become disordered in this way, and thus, estranged not only from God, but from her son and everyone else as well.

In a slightly different manner, we find Jesus warning us of the division that will come to our lives should we live a life that seeks a relationship with Him instead of the world.  Today, Jesus tells us that he has not come to bring peace to the world, but fiery division (cf. Luke 12:49 & 51).  As he goes on to tell us, this division will not only divide believers from the world, as we saw in the story of Jeremiah, but will divide family members from one another.  To be sure, this is a difficult message to accept.  But before we choose to try and skirt around it as some sort of veiled message that surely means something other than what it says, let’s ask ourselves a question: why?  Why does Jesus say such a thing?

To find the answer, let’s reconsider the story of Pam.  What was keeping Pam from God was a disordered love for her son.  This type of disordered love, as Lewis tells us, is difficult to detect as it appears as a good, and because of its similarity, when “it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what we call the lower passions.  It is a stronger angel, and therefore, when it falls, a fiercer devil” (The Great Divorce, Ch. 11).  If we take a moment to consider, we may find that we have been misled to fall into similar patterns of disordered love.  How many times haven’t we excused the actions of those we love, looking the other way even when we know them to be living in a manner opposed to the way we have been taught to be right simply because they are our loved ones? 

My friends, what makes the words we hear Jesus speak this weekend so difficult to accept is that they are at one and the same time an indictment on a very personal level, and a call to live lives of benevolence, justice and self-sacrifice; i.e.  a life of true love.  Sadly, in this fallen world of ours, true love is often rejected, resulting in division, hatred, and even violence, as seen most emphatically on Calvary.  For this reason, we must, as the author of Hebrews tells us today, stay focused and persevere in the race we run we run that seeks unity with our God, and makes His love present to the world (cf. Heb. 12:1-4)!  If we persevere and stay focused on Jesus, we can be sure that we will overcome all adversity and live life to the fullest, in this life and the next!

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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Gospel Reflections

Persistent Prayer

Persistent PrayerSeventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: 7-24-16

Peace be with You,

Last week through the story of Martha and Mary, we received instruction about how the disciple of Jesus is to order their life.  That is, the life of discipleship is shaped by one’s relationship with Jesus, but it is not characterized by sedentary contemplation (prayer), rather our relationship with Jesus gives impulse to a life of faith based work.  Today, Jesus focuses on the prayer dimension of our life of discipleship.

If we were to sum up what Jesus has to tell us about how we are to approach prayer, we would simply say that we must be persistent in prayer.  In our gospel for today, Jesus uses the parable of a man who goes to his friend in the middle of the night asking for him to lend him some supplies.  In the end, Jesus tells us, that if the friend doesn’t get up because of their friendship, he will give him what he is asking for because of his persistence.  So, are we to understand that if we pray persistently that God will give us whatever we want?  Absolutely not.  This would be to completely misunderstand the function of prayer.  Rather, persistent prayer is meant to have a double-effect: 1) In praying persistently our wills become united with God’s, so that our desire is properly oriented; & 2) As St. Augustine says, persistent prayer has the effect of ’expanding our capacity to receive the great gifts God is preparing to give us.’

At this point you may protest saying, in the end the man gets what he wants.  Yes, we can be assured that God hears and will answer our prayers if they be according to His will.  However, the answer may not look exactly like what we had in mind.  What this means then, is that we need to be open to God surprising us.  Our prayer may be answered in a way which is completely unexpected, so unexpected we may not even notice if we are not looking for the response.

My friends, the journey of discipleship has ups and downs, twists and turns that can be made sense of only from the purview of God.  We must trust that He knows how to get us exactly where we need to go, and be ready to walk through the doors He opens, even when they aren’t the doors we expected to pass through.  Be open to the surprising plans of God, for I can assure you, the path He maps out will always be more exciting and more fulfilling than anything we could have devised.

Your servant in Christ,

Tony

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Videos

FRESH Image: Our Purpose

FRESH Image: Our Purpose

In this video, Tony explains the idea behind and the purpose of the FRESH Image ministry; briefly explaining the FRESH Image concepts of imago Dei; Faith; Respect; Endurance; Scheming; and Hope.

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Videos

Living a FRESH Life

In this talk, Tony explains how living a life based on the FRESH principles of Faith, Respect, Endurance, Scheme and Hope can combat some of the major obstacles to living a full life that we face in today’s world (especially those that today’s youth are facing).