In today's first reading we hear:
perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.
This raises one simple question for each of us: What is the place of fear in my life ?
Despite everything God has said and done, how much do any of us allow fear to be a part of our life?
It is a very natural thing for us to feel fear. For that reason St. John provides us with the remedy. Turn to that presence of God that dwells in us through faith and love and allow it, allow him to drive out the fear.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Feelings
Today's first reading is at the very core of our understanding of God:
"God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us..."
One of our greatest challenges in the 21st century it seems to me is to recover the full depth and breath of all the gifts that God has given the human person: our intellect, our free will, and our capacity to love.
One of our great mistakes of the 20th century was our reduction of the human being to feelings, and our myopic focus on how we feel. From the insanity of a reporter asking a Sandy Hook parent "How do you feel?" to someone abandoning their marriage covenant because," I'm don't love you anymore."
Love is not a feeling, nor is it about following our feelings. Real love finds its source in God. As John reminds us, God is love and before we ever loved God, God loved us. The very reason for the creation of the first human beings was God's love of us.
Even science has now shown that every human being comes into the world with a need to be loved. An infant is fed but not held will not thrive.
More important is that when this real love is allowed to guide us, it is not a feeling but is what empowers us to do the right thing even when the right thing is contrary to how we feel.
How often did we make our parents so mad they were "ready to kill us", but love overcame the feelings.
As a society we see an event like Sandy Hook and the emotional response is to want to strike back, to kill the killer. When we are best, the Christian virtue of love intervenes and is able to see mental illness for what it is. Love conquers vengeance.
When you see a marriage that has lasted, they will all tell you there were moments when they did not feel "in love", but real love is what held them together through the hard times.
When Jesus calls us to love our enemies, we see most clearly how love runs contrary to our feelings. The good news is that over time as we choose to allow love to guide our words and actions, it can become a habit, and that habit we call virtue. It's not do what you feel, but do the right thing, and over time your feelings will change, we call that conversion.
"God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us..."
One of our greatest challenges in the 21st century it seems to me is to recover the full depth and breath of all the gifts that God has given the human person: our intellect, our free will, and our capacity to love.
One of our great mistakes of the 20th century was our reduction of the human being to feelings, and our myopic focus on how we feel. From the insanity of a reporter asking a Sandy Hook parent "How do you feel?" to someone abandoning their marriage covenant because," I'm don't love you anymore."
Love is not a feeling, nor is it about following our feelings. Real love finds its source in God. As John reminds us, God is love and before we ever loved God, God loved us. The very reason for the creation of the first human beings was God's love of us.
Even science has now shown that every human being comes into the world with a need to be loved. An infant is fed but not held will not thrive.
More important is that when this real love is allowed to guide us, it is not a feeling but is what empowers us to do the right thing even when the right thing is contrary to how we feel.
How often did we make our parents so mad they were "ready to kill us", but love overcame the feelings.
As a society we see an event like Sandy Hook and the emotional response is to want to strike back, to kill the killer. When we are best, the Christian virtue of love intervenes and is able to see mental illness for what it is. Love conquers vengeance.
When you see a marriage that has lasted, they will all tell you there were moments when they did not feel "in love", but real love is what held them together through the hard times.
When Jesus calls us to love our enemies, we see most clearly how love runs contrary to our feelings. The good news is that over time as we choose to allow love to guide our words and actions, it can become a habit, and that habit we call virtue. It's not do what you feel, but do the right thing, and over time your feelings will change, we call that conversion.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Not the end of Christmas
Today we celebrate the Epiphany, literally "manifestation"of Christ to the world, represented by the three Magi. What many Catholics still do not seem to get is that in our present calendar it is not the end of the Christmas Season. There is still another full week of Christmas. The Christmas season ends when we celebrate the beginning of Jesus's ministry,the Baptism of The Lord.
Why are we in such a hurry to be rid of Christmas? I went out on the 27th and the stores were already taking down Christmas and putting up Valentine's Day. Even among Catholics many will be packing up the decorations this afternoon.
Part of the problem of course is that at least in the US we let the stores dictate the season. Christmas begins even before Thanksgiving, and except for the wreath Advent is all but forgotten. Add to this the drowning in Christmas music and the unrealistic expectations of joy and parties, and by the 26th people are physically and emotional exhausted.
Perhaps it is good we pack away the trees,and the lights, and the carols (particularly the ones with no mention of Jesus). Perhaps it is a good thing that the stores and TV have by Dec 26 already abandoned Christmas.
Perhaps in these last seven days of Christmas between today and next Sunday, without all the noise and lights, we Christians can turn our hearts toward the true purpose of Christmas, and reflect on our faith in a God who so loves us that he chose to become incarnate to bring salvation, and not simply for one "chosen people" but to every single nation on earth. With secular Christmas over, let us celebrate real Christmas, giving Glory to God in the highest, and truly wishing peace to all people of good will.
PS. And let's not be so quick to judge the will of others.
Why are we in such a hurry to be rid of Christmas? I went out on the 27th and the stores were already taking down Christmas and putting up Valentine's Day. Even among Catholics many will be packing up the decorations this afternoon.
Part of the problem of course is that at least in the US we let the stores dictate the season. Christmas begins even before Thanksgiving, and except for the wreath Advent is all but forgotten. Add to this the drowning in Christmas music and the unrealistic expectations of joy and parties, and by the 26th people are physically and emotional exhausted.
Perhaps it is good we pack away the trees,and the lights, and the carols (particularly the ones with no mention of Jesus). Perhaps it is a good thing that the stores and TV have by Dec 26 already abandoned Christmas.
Perhaps in these last seven days of Christmas between today and next Sunday, without all the noise and lights, we Christians can turn our hearts toward the true purpose of Christmas, and reflect on our faith in a God who so loves us that he chose to become incarnate to bring salvation, and not simply for one "chosen people" but to every single nation on earth. With secular Christmas over, let us celebrate real Christmas, giving Glory to God in the highest, and truly wishing peace to all people of good will.
PS. And let's not be so quick to judge the will of others.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
No duplicity
In the Gospel today, we hear Jesus say about Nathaniel "there is no duplicity in him." While we would like to say the same about ourselves, it is not always true.
Today's first reading is about the simple commandment love one another. It is very easy for us to see the many simple ways when we can fail that commandment. Rather than focus on the failure, perhaps it is better to focus on how we can succeed.
David Brooks wrote a very worthwhile column on, what could seem to be a passé topic, manners and I provide the link here.
Today's first reading is about the simple commandment love one another. It is very easy for us to see the many simple ways when we can fail that commandment. Rather than focus on the failure, perhaps it is better to focus on how we can succeed.
David Brooks wrote a very worthwhile column on, what could seem to be a passé topic, manners and I provide the link here.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
It's all Greek to me
Today the Church celebrates the Most Holy Name of Jesus.
I could not help but recall all the fuss years ago when people were seeing the abbreviation Xmas and complaining that someone was trying to take the Christ out of Christmas. While there are many places and ways in which Christ has disappeared from Christmas, this abbreviation isn't one of them.
Remembering that Greek not Latin was the language of the New Testament and the early Church, there are two ancient abbreviations which are often seen in art.
Χρ -the first two letters of the word Christ in Greek, and
Ιης( often written IHS) the first three letters of the word Jesus in Greek)
In art the XP or the IHS are often superimposed one over the other
These abbreviations have, over the centuries, been literally woven into people's lives in tapestries, vestments, altar clothes, and other small objects to keep the name of Jesus, and his title Christ before the eyes of the faithful. This year how will we keep Jesus daily before our eyes?
I could not help but recall all the fuss years ago when people were seeing the abbreviation Xmas and complaining that someone was trying to take the Christ out of Christmas. While there are many places and ways in which Christ has disappeared from Christmas, this abbreviation isn't one of them.
Remembering that Greek not Latin was the language of the New Testament and the early Church, there are two ancient abbreviations which are often seen in art.
Χρ -the first two letters of the word Christ in Greek, and
Ιης( often written IHS) the first three letters of the word Jesus in Greek)
In art the XP or the IHS are often superimposed one over the other
These abbreviations have, over the centuries, been literally woven into people's lives in tapestries, vestments, altar clothes, and other small objects to keep the name of Jesus, and his title Christ before the eyes of the faithful. This year how will we keep Jesus daily before our eyes?
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Undying Heresy
Today the Church celebrates two great saints who were also close friends, Gregory of Nazianzuz and Basil, one of the few saints on whom the Church has bestowed the title "the Great."
Both lived in the time when the Church was still struggling with the basic nature of Christ and it is, therefore, fitting that we celebrate them on this 9th day of Christmas.
At the time there were two competing notions of Jesus. The first is the one we hold now that God is a trinity, three equal persons, all of which existed from before all time.
The second one called Arianism which saw the Father as the eternal God. Jesus was understood to be subordinate to him, created.
While I have yet to run into anyone who would call themselves an Arian, many seem to think as Arians. When you hear the word "God" what image pops into your mind? If the first image is the father, instead of all three persons of the trinity, that's Arian. If you think of the Father as outranking the Son or the Holy Spirit, that's Arian. Our creed hammers home the equality of the persons " God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God."
Why is it so hard for us to truly grasp the reality of the trinity? It strikes me that all we have to do is look at our present political wrangling, our tendency to see the world as a zero sum game, where one persons win must be another persons loss. There must be a top dog.
We cannot seem to wrap our minds around three persons in undivided unity and harmony, perfect collaboration from before the beginning of the creation of the universe until now.
And yet, as Christians we believe that we humans are created in the image and likeness of God. One aspect of this likeness is that we too are called to imitate that collaboration. May we strive to imitate the trinity we profess.
Both lived in the time when the Church was still struggling with the basic nature of Christ and it is, therefore, fitting that we celebrate them on this 9th day of Christmas.
At the time there were two competing notions of Jesus. The first is the one we hold now that God is a trinity, three equal persons, all of which existed from before all time.
The second one called Arianism which saw the Father as the eternal God. Jesus was understood to be subordinate to him, created.
While I have yet to run into anyone who would call themselves an Arian, many seem to think as Arians. When you hear the word "God" what image pops into your mind? If the first image is the father, instead of all three persons of the trinity, that's Arian. If you think of the Father as outranking the Son or the Holy Spirit, that's Arian. Our creed hammers home the equality of the persons " God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God."
Why is it so hard for us to truly grasp the reality of the trinity? It strikes me that all we have to do is look at our present political wrangling, our tendency to see the world as a zero sum game, where one persons win must be another persons loss. There must be a top dog.
We cannot seem to wrap our minds around three persons in undivided unity and harmony, perfect collaboration from before the beginning of the creation of the universe until now.
And yet, as Christians we believe that we humans are created in the image and likeness of God. One aspect of this likeness is that we too are called to imitate that collaboration. May we strive to imitate the trinity we profess.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
World Day of Peace
In the current calendar, we Catholics begin the year by turning toward Mary, as the Mother of God, the one through whom God was made visible to the world. We know that Mary looks upon every human life from the moment he or she is conceived as her child and so we also celebrate that desire that all her children live in peace. Today we set aside politics, nationality, all every other human construct by which we divide ourselves into "us" and "them."
For us in the US, we also look back to January 1, 1863 and the Emancipation Proclamation, a turning point in one of the most shameful practices in the life of our nation, slavery, the buying and selling of human beings. It would be another two years before the constitution was rectified, and the 13th amendment banned slavery or involuntary servitude. We forget that the Declaration of Independence and 1776 was for whites only. It would be almost a century before the "all men are created equal" would truly mean all.
As 2013 opens let us pray to Mary our mother, for all the ways and places in our world where the true dignity of all her children is still not respected, that this year may move our world closer to true freedom and peace.
For us in the US, we also look back to January 1, 1863 and the Emancipation Proclamation, a turning point in one of the most shameful practices in the life of our nation, slavery, the buying and selling of human beings. It would be another two years before the constitution was rectified, and the 13th amendment banned slavery or involuntary servitude. We forget that the Declaration of Independence and 1776 was for whites only. It would be almost a century before the "all men are created equal" would truly mean all.
As 2013 opens let us pray to Mary our mother, for all the ways and places in our world where the true dignity of all her children is still not respected, that this year may move our world closer to true freedom and peace.
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