Tag: <span>Grace</span>

May 2, 2021April 19, 2021

The Vine

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Jesus gives us the key to bearing fruit for eternity in today’s gospel. Fruit for eternity is nothing more or less than the eternal life of our brothers and sisters; fruit that would not bud and ripen without our contribution.

And what is our contribution? Jesus does not tell us to rush out and conquer the heathen. What is the activity, then, that is key to bearing fruit for eternity?

It is to remain in Him. Far from a passive activity, this is the act of reserving real time to be in conversation with Him every day, and frequent reception of His life in the sacraments. If we receive His life in us in this way on a constant basis, we are joined to Him as our vine; we become His branches that bear fruit.

Branches don’t conjure fruit out of nothing. Nor do they craft it like clay on a potter’s wheel. They simply let the fertile sap of divine life course through them, and the fruit appears from that life in them. Even so, even though it is merely the life of the vine than brings about the fruit, each branch is co-responsible for the fruit, which would not appear in its absence.

“Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Mt. 10:19-20) The Holy Spirit is that divine life coursing through us.

Observe Barnabas in today’s first reading. Saul the persecutor claimed to have converted to Christianity. Everyone suspected a trick. Barnabas simply went to Saul, took charge of him, and brought him into the fold. How did he know to do that? Through some savvy calculation? No, he knew from the Holy Spirit–from the divine life in Him.

It is that same divine life that provides the confidence in our heart of which John speaks in the second reading, confidence to know that we are pleasing to God in spite of our bewildering and discouraging weaknesses, when we are not in sin.

We don’t need to conjure up a Christian mission for ourselves. If we stay firmly united to the vine, that vine itself will provide it for us. The divine life in us is everything.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you want to remain united to Him, the vine, but are very conscious that you are able to fall away in your weakness. Ask Him to take charge of keeping you forever one with Him.

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March 16, 2021February 26, 2021

Cleansing Water

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Imagine being ill for thirty-eight years, like the man in today’s gospel.

He was at the pool called Bethesda, trying to get in when the water was stirred up, in a vague hope of receiving healing. But this was ordinary water, without healing powers.

Little did he know that Jesus had come by for him–Jesus, the source of living water (cf. Jn. 4:10).

The water that Jesus brings, which in a single moment fully cured the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, is that which is represented by the pure, fresh river in today’s first reading. This living water, which purifies and cleanses the brackish water with which it comes into contact, is the grace of God.

And what is that grace? It is the Holy Spirit Himself, but seen specifically through the prism of the impact that He has on our bodies and especially our spirits.

He stands back and respects us when we resist Him. But when we open our hearts to Him fully and welcome Him, bid Him come in, He works miracles of joyful cleansing within our hearts.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In this Lent, as you struggle to work on your conversion like the man struggling to enter the Bethesda pool, ask Jesus to send His cleansing Spirit into your heart to perform in a moment what all your struggles cannot bring to completion: The purification of your heart, and therefrom, its return to full life in Him.

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March 10, 2021February 24, 2021

Law and Order

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today’s readings fit beautifully into Lent. Lent is not just a time for sacrifice. It is a time for conversion: Conversion back to the path of the Lord. And we all need it, every year–each of us who has sins in his or her life, and also imbalances and poor habits that easily lead to sin. We all need a moment to get back on track.

Today’s readings underscore heavily how this “getting back on track” involves a return to God’s Commandments. Too often, like the Pharisees, our mind gets over-complicated with all sorts of minor goals and worries, rather than simple focus on what is pleasing to God: The Ten Commandments, and their Christian summary of loving God above all things and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Jesus tells us in today’s gospel that He did not come to abolish these precepts, but rather to fulfill them. The need for focus on the straightforward commands of God is more pressing than ever.

But what about St. Paul’s assertions that it is not the Law that saves, but rather the Spirit? And that we are no longer under the Law (cf. Gal. 5)? Does Paul contradict today’s readings?

Paul correctly emphasizes that the Law does not save. No matter how perfectly we followed God’s commands, without the grace that comes from Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection, we could not attain to salvation, because we were born into sin.

Paul also tells us that we are not under the burden of the Law. This too is important. With the coming of Christ, the Law is no longer a burden. Compliance with God’s will, which we cannot achieve on our own, becomes a joy with Christ, because the grace He won by the act of salvation provides us with more than enough resources to stay on the path of God.

Thus, the grace of Christ gives us salvation. It also gives us the strength in the Holy Spirit (through the gifts of fortitude and understanding) to shoulder what was once an onerous burden and reach what was once an unreachable ideal, that is, faithfulness to God’s Law, which outlines the path to the salvation He won for us.

It is in this very Pauline sense that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. Salvation in Christ, and the grace and strength to attain it through the gift of the Holy Spirit, is now within the reach of those who wish to align themselves with the path of God’s will and His commands.

So, let us shoulder the yoke of Lenten conversion joyfully. For Jesus’ yoke is easy, and His burden light. (cf. Mt. 11:30).

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate joyfully how Jesus returned to us the ability to follow the path of God through the Holy Spirit’s gifts of fortitude and understanding, and how He made the ideal of that path, that is, eternal life, attainable. Tell Him how grateful you are, how much you love Him, and ask Him to help you succeed in converting more thoroughly to the path of God this Lent.

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February 24, 2021February 9, 2021

From Ashes to Exuberance

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Repentance–the theme of today’s readings–is not in fashion. Not even in Christian circles.

People come to Church to feel better about themselves. And, as congregations gradually diminish, pastors scramble to meet this need.

The entire topic of salvation, therefore, is also at an all-time low in popularity in the Church. Often, it does not even come up, because the topic itself implies a risk of not being saved. When it does arise, the context is often the assumption that, because God is merciful, most people reach heaven because down deep they are “good.”

The truth is, as we see in today’s readings, while God’s unconditional love is a true and lasting foundation for personal security, part of His love is His demand that we be the best that we can be. And the Church teaches that eternal salvation depends on our embracing that demand and striving to meet it, by means of the all-powerful grace that Jesus won for us on the Cross.

Repentance appears to contrast with joy, and with personal security. On the contrary, full acceptance of ourselves in the reality of what we are as sinners, without excuses or cheap escapes, forms part of the very basis of personal security. The other part is the knowledge that the omnipotent God is investing all His resources, including great personal sacrifice, to bring us up out of sin and into the relationship of His love. We can’t do it; He can.

The quest for salvation through transformation in grace is what makes Christianity exciting, breathtaking, full of hope. The knowledge that through prayer and offered sacrifice we can “stack the deck” for others to reach their salvation in Christ is immensely consoling.

A life lived in a spirit of repentance is a life lived joyfully, courageously, realistically, and filled with hope.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell the Lord about some of your sins, and how you repent of them; tell Him how hard it is to avoid them. Full of absolute trust, ask Him to take charge of the process of your repentance and transformation; lovingly place your life, your future, and your eternal salvation in His hands.

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February 1, 2021January 21, 2021

Superheroes

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

We often think of the heroes of the Old Testament as semi-enlightened; we may think of them as stumbling and fumbling their way along, faithful at times and other times not, deprived still of the grace of Christ until He came.

And indeed, there are examples of missteps and infidelity among our heroes. King David committed a horrible double atrocity in the form of adultery and murder, before repenting deeply. And for his missteps, Moses was deprived personal entry into the Promised Land.

But the author of this morning’s reading from the letter to the Hebrews reminds us of how great and faithful, in fact, the heroes of the Old Testament really were. They endured unimaginable hardships, including gory execution, the details of which the author does not scruple to exclude. They recognized the one true God, and they were faithful to Him because He deserved their fidelity. Consider, for example, the execution, one by one, of seven brothers and their mother in 2 Maccabees (cf. 2 Mac. 7).

All of this, as the author points out, without the benefit of the grace won by Christ, and without understanding of the plan of salvation.

We Christians still undergo hardships of various sorts today, from the ordinary sufferings of everyday life, to outright persecution in some parts of the world. And, the martyrs are without doubt the heroes of our Church. Still, these had the paradigm of Christ’s crucifixion after which to model themselves.

The degree to which we as Christians are “spoiled” by ready, immediate access to the wellspring of grace is symbolized by the events of today’s gospel. The man possessed by a legion of demons, whom no one to that point had been able to subdue, much less exorcise, was rescued in a matter of moments by the overwhelming gift of the saving power of Jesus.

We have what the great heroes of the Old Testament would have longed to see: We have Jesus, whenever we need Him. We have an understanding of the narrative of salvation. No matter how constant that access, how everyday the gifts become, this immense bounty is not and never will be commonplace.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate the power of Jesus in the scene of exorcism in today’s gospel. Aware of what a privilege it is to have easy access to the grace won by Christ, boldly ask Him to pour it abundantly, without holding back, into your insecure, wounded, vulnerable, needy heart.

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January 22, 2021January 13, 2021

Out with the Old, In with the New

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In today’s first reading, the author of the letter to the Hebrews makes a case to Israel for the New Covenant established in Jesus Christ, the one eternal High Priest. The author make an argument for the need of a New Covenant, indicating that the original covenant with Israel was temporary and imperfect.

This would have been a new message to many in Israel, who foresaw the coming of the Messiah as the crowning of the old covenant, rather than the establishment of a new one. But as we understand from the letter to the Hebrews, the old covenant, while foreshadowing the new, was itself ultimately inadequate and destined to be replaced. It was fundamentally different from the New Covenant, because the human side of the bargain was to live by the laws God gave to Moses. The basis for the New Covenant is fundamentally different: It is the merit of the human blood poured out as a sacrifice for the atonement of sins, effective in washing away those sins because the human making the sacrifice is also God.

So, where the fundamental basis for the old covenant is the faithful fulfillment of the Law, the fundamental basis for the New Covenant is mercy and grace brought by Christ. The part each of us plays in the New Covenant is therefore also fundamentally different. Our role is not a legalistic one–compliance with the Law–but rather the continual gift of ourselves to our Savior in loving acceptance of, and gratitude for, His unmerited grace and forgiveness.

Once again, we see in today’s gospel all these heady concepts made wonderful, concrete reality. Jesus is in the midst of laying the groundwork for the embodiment of the New Covenant, the Church, by calling his first apostles, who will be the foundations stones of that structure.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you not to become confused, thinking that His Covenant is still one of servile compliance. Ask Him to help you make a sincere and total gift of yourself, in your prayer and in your action and life.

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January 5, 2021December 29, 2020

Overflow

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In today’s first reading, St. John tells us that “God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him.”

Perhaps sometimes we think of this life that Jesus brings as a simple static state; we were dead, now we are alive.

But in today’s gospel, we see a symbol of the sort of life Jesus brings. It is not a one-time flick of a switch. It is a constant, super-abundant outpouring onto us of His love, His grace, and happiness.

So it was that Jesus, who had brought life to the people in today’s gospel through His rich teaching, went on to pour out upon them essentially infinite sustenance for their bodies as well, in the form of a limitless distribution of bread and fish.

And His promise to us: “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”

Per the unanimous agreement of the saints who have experienced intimate dialogue with Jesus, nothing is more frustrating to Him than our habit of putting artificial limits on the richness of the life He brings, through our lack of trust.

In our prayer life, we should be daring with the grace of sanctity and happiness that we ask of Him, both for ourselves and for our loved ones.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to make His dreams for you, not yours, come true. Tell Him that you want no limits to the gifts He gives you. In spite of all the disappointing realities, and suffering, and insufficiencies in the world, tell Him that you trust Him to fill your life with good things, to overflowing.

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January 4, 2021December 29, 2020

The Fount of All Grace

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In today’s reading from the first letter of John, we learn a fundamental criterion for discernment between spirits that are of God vs. those that are not: The acknowledgement of Jesus Christ come in the flesh.

This reminds us of a similar reading from the same author, the Gospel reading from Christmas day: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.” (Jn. 1:11-13)

Also, in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus Himself says, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (Jn. 11:25-26)

From these passages we may infer a clear truth: That faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God Himself who has taken on flesh, is the criterion for salvation.

This may sound like a Protestant concept. It is not. It is a Scriptural concept, a Christian concept, and a true concept.

Indeed, within the Church, individuals and groups of people have fallen into the error of overemphasizing the moral aspects of the Christian life to the point essentially of believing that salvation comes from following certain rules. Saints, then, are those who follow these rules to a more perfect degree.

Whereas in truth, the perennial teaching of the Church is that Jesus alone saves; nothing that we do contributes substantially to our salvation, except to accept: To say “yes” to this merciful Savior.

True, as St. James tells us, “So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Faith without works is dead. This does not mean, however, that a half-and-half formula of faith and works is the necessary recipe for salvation. Rather, as St. James goes onto explain, faith in Jesus is made manifest in our works. If it is not, then we do not have a living faith, but a dead and sterile one.

Said differently, part of the way we say “yes” to Jesus and His utterly sufficient and necessary saving grace is by saying “yes” over and over to His way in the little things of every day life. Indeed, he who sins says “no” and by his very act of sin rejects that grace. “Yes” is not a word; it is a lifestyle, a life.

So it is that Jesus Himself tells us, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Mt. 7:21)

This is the formula that Jesus applies, not only to our happiness, but to His own as well; He shows us the way: “The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” (Jn. 8:29)

Still, it would be a mistake to think of our lives as a set of individual, disjointed events, where in each event we start over and have an equal chance of saying “yes” or “no” to God. If we have a daily, Scriptural, contemplative prayer life, then in our prayer, we say “yes” to Him with all our hearts and give ourselves to Him. He, in turn, inflames our hearts with love for Him and a desire for union with Him. (Sometimes we sense this love and feel the burning flame; sometimes we do not. But regardless, if we pray, He is there to deepen and strengthen our desire.) It is this flame, this desire, that then manifests itself throughout each day in our many small “yeses.”

Thus, the life of the Christian in grace simply becomes a love story; of God constantly offering His infinite grace to us, of us saying “yes,” and of Him pouring out His grace of strength and love into our hearts to aid us in our constancy and fidelity.

To the Christian life, the same words may be applied as those applied to Zebulun and Naphtali in today’s Gospel passage: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.”

Jesus Christ is that light; He is all we need.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you want to remain in His grace today and forever; tell Him that, whatever the sacrifices implied, your answer to Him is “yes.” Tell Him that you want the manifestation of that “yes” to be molded by His Holy Spirit in your life, not by your pride. Ask Him never to let you be parted from Him, no matter what the cost.

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December 16, 2020December 10, 2020

Rain

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above.” “Let the clouds rain down the Just One, and the earth bring forth a Savior.”

God gave us a choice when He created us; we could choose Him, or choose against Him. Choosing Him wasn’t that hard and it certainly wasn’t irrational. But we chose against Him. The deed was done. There was no turning back.

There was no turning back, because God is faithful to Himself: He created us with free choice; He respected that choice; so His hands were tied to undo what we had done.

Nor did we deserve to have our choice rolled back. Our choice was entirely our own–and we had chosen wrong.

Here we are in Advent; we can imagine ourselves in that first Advent. The world is a cold, dark, hopeless place.

And we plead with God to rain down the Just One, and for the earth to bring forth a Savior.

And so, in the most creative solution to a problem ever conceived in human history, God uses the permission of a sinless young maiden to allow for His re-intervention in human history, by which–at the highest imaginable price–He will not roll back that free decision of our which He respects, but rather purchase for every human the ability to choose differently, to choose the higher, more difficult path of eternal happiness. Through no merit of ours, He intervenes.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus how much you need an extra infusion of Him in your life this Christmas. Tell Him about the darkness you feel in your world this Advent, and ask Him to send down the grace of His joy, strength, virtue, goodness, and wisdom like a rain shower in your life.

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December 1, 2020November 16, 2020

Status: Flux

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

It feels like we live in a time characterized by cycles and repeats: One of periodic conflicts and catastrophes, interspersed with beautiful life experiences. An ebb and flow that goes on through the ages.

In reality, we live right in the heart of a time of radical transition and transformation, depicted by today’s first reading.

That which is described in the first reading has already started, and is not yet complete. The great Messiah has come, but the wolf is not yet the guest of the lamb. Jesus came to our world, justice was the band around His waist, and He won the definitive transformation of the universe where all returns to harmony–but we are in the interim period, when the weeds and wheat must “grow together until harvest” (cf. Mt. 13:30). It feels long to us. It does not, to God.

As today’s gospel tells us, blessed were the apostles to see what they saw…and blessed are we to have access to one hundred percent of the benefits won by Jesus through His suffering, death, and Resurrection–right at our fingertips.

Although the calf does not yet browse with the young lion, we can enjoy the first fruits of this transformation Christ brings within ourselves. The more time we spend with Him in prayer and in regular reception of the sacraments, the more He aligns all our faculties (will, intellect, emotions, etc.) to the fullness of the glorious transformation He has won for us through His redemptive act, and which finds its definitive fulfillment in Heaven.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: In this Advent time, imagine yourself at the time of the prophets awaiting the Messiah, in a dark, broken world that knows little specific about how God will come to save. Imagine being transported from there to our present time, with the grace of Christ available not only to the original chosen people, but to the gentiles as well, in overwhelming abundance. Speak with Jesus about how He wants you to take advantage of the means at your disposal, and ask Him to help you not to be distracted by the noise of a world that wants to pull you away from those means.

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