Tag: <span>Love</span>

August 3, 2021August 2, 2021

Transformative Love

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

Jesus once said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” (Lk. 17:5). The transformative impact of a deep faith, of intimacy with God, is monumental, and it is our destiny.

We see it in today’s readings. From the towering cloud, the Lord testifies to His intimacy with Moses:

“Should there be a prophet among you,
in visions will I reveal myself to him,
in dreams will I speak to him;
not so with my servant Moses!
Throughout my house he bears my trust:
face to face I speak to him;
plainly and not in riddles.
The presence of the LORD he beholds.”

It is as if the Lord is proud of this relationship. He considers intimacy with His creatures, it seems, His greatest achievement, one not to be taken for granted.

Today’s gospel puts an exclamation point on this reality. The apostles had seen Jesus work many miracles of nature, perhaps none more powerful than the healing of human flesh. But it may be said that they had never witnessed any miracle as impactful to the senses as the calming of an entire sea. Certainly, His Divinity–and His intimacy with the Father–is the source of this power, bringing His human reality to a whole new level. Still, maybe we would “expect” this level of power from God-made-man.

Something perhaps less to be expected is the impact on Peter–rough, vacillating, impetuous, not-yet-saintly Peter. In faith, grounded in his relationship with His Master, he asks to be bid to come out onto the water. Jesus so bids him. And regular old Peter takes some steps out onto the water–and it holds him, as surely as cured concrete.

Sometimes we think that our Christian life and its impact and power is seated on our moral advancement and perfection. It is not. It is seated upon the trusting and intimate relationship that we have with the Lord, which is the entire end game of our creation and redemption. Our moral life is merely an essential element of our “yes” to that relationship.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you become a giant of trust in Him, and to be fully infused with His divine life, not for your own sake only, but so that you may have the powerful impact in spreading His grace to others that He desires for your life.

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June 30, 2021June 29, 2021

Pigs In Deep Water

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

“No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!” “And when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.”

We may naively think that, if we follow Jesus and imitate His love and generosity, we will be profoundly appreciated by those around us, especially His other followers.

Those who are righteous in the Christian sense, however, that is, full of self-sacrificing love and generosity, encounter trouble specifically because they are so. This relates to what Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.” (Mt. 5:10)

In the first reading, Abraham wanted to be generous with his son Ishmael. Sarah, the mother of Isaac, was jealous and would not have it. In the gospel, Jesus generously rescued the demoniacs from possession and even, in a sense, even had mercy on the demons by sending them into the swine. The townspeople weren’t having it–they only perceived the disruption caused by the loss of the swine.

Some people, when they perceive love and generosity, see only that which is given to others and not them and become jealous, and/or resent the disruption in the selfish order of things caused by the generous person.

The rejection of Jesus after His exorcism of the demoniacs foreshadowed the entire world’s rejection of Him on Calvary. And still today. By and large, people do not shy away from Christ today because He is equally or less attractive to other life paths. They shy away from Him because His love and generosity inevitably involve a lifestyle of personal sacrifice. Faithful Christians remind them of their choice and cause resentment.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to free you from the sort of self-pity that naturally arises when our acts of love and generosity do not meet with gratitude. Ask Him for a double helping of His fortitude to persevere in His love in the midst of persecution in all its forms.

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June 12, 2021June 10, 2021

The Fibers of a Heart

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

On this feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, today’s readings present to us three distinct traits of the heart of the Blessed Virgin.

First, the gospel gives us a window into Mary’s contemplative heart. She was truly dismayed when she and Joseph had lost track of Jesus. Imagine losing your child in a crowd, and not finding him for three days. This would leave the heart of any parent distraught. But when she found Jesus, she did not correct Him or grow angry with Him. Rather, she asked Him, her divine Son, why He had done what He had done, and then after receiving the rather cryptic answer, she contemplated in her heart how God had been working through these events. While subject to anxiety like any other human, Mary trusted to her core in God’s loving Providence working in her life, and knew how to contemplate the events in her life continually in the light of that Providence, rather than through a prism of personal insecurity or personal vanity.

“The Lord is kind and merciful,” the psalm tells us. On this day, we celebrate that the heart of Mary imitates this divine trait and is likewise kind and merciful, always ready to hear the requests of sinners, whatever their misdeeds. We can always ask her help and intercession, and dialogue with her, no matter how ashamed we may feel of our sinfulness–and we will always receive a warm, kind, compassionate reception.

Finally, in the first reading, St. Paul expresses himself in a tone that likewise mirrors a characteristic of Mary’s heart: “The love of Christ impels us.” Throughout this reading, Paul exudes a tone of urgency as he implores his hearers to be reconciled to God. Mary’s heart is full of passion for the reconciliation of sinners to the Heart of her Son. Her entire work in the Church over the last two millennia, including the messages she has delivered with her appearances, has been full of ardent supplication for prayer and sacrifice for sinners. Her love for her children is not an idle one.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to fill you with the kind of love that filled his mother’s heart, which transcended in its trust the natural human psychological ebbs and flows, even as she experienced them like anyone else. Ask Him to fill you with spontaneous kindness, and ardent passion for the eternal welfare of others.

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June 3, 2021May 28, 2021

The Key

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

“Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose.” So says Tobiah in the first reading.

In today’s gospel, when asked which is first among all the Commandments, Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Purity of intention: It is not a nice-to-have; it is everything. Purity of intention consists of two elements: Obedience to God’s will, and zeal for the welfare of neighbor; in other words, love of God and neighbor.

Purity of intention is not to obey the minimum letter of the law while seeking pleasures, the esteem of others, and personal, worldly glory as the top priority.

In the first reading, God heard the prayer of Tobiah and Sarah because they begged mercy of Him with sincerity of heart, with purity of intention. We can be absolutely certain of God’s care and blessings if we pray with love of God and neighbor in our hearts.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you know that charity, that is, supernatural love, is a gift, something that cannot be obtained by personal effort; ask Him to gift you this gift, and do whatever it takes to purify it in you.

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May 30, 2021May 24, 2021

Triangulated Love

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

The richness of today’s readings, in terms of sheer revelation of God to us, is perhaps without peer in the liturgical cycle.

In the first reading we have God intervening, making a people His own, speaking to His people from within the fire, acting on their behalf to bring them out of slavery, acting among His people in a manner unprecedented in all of history.

In the second reading, we have the Spirit of God bursting into the hearts of the faithful ones, turning them into the very sons and daughters of God, adopting them into the Divinity to the point that they cry out to God, “Abba, Father!”.

And in today’s gospel, Jesus promises that He, the Son of God Most High, even after He ascends to heaven, will remain with them until the end of the ages.

These readings are not just a revelation of God; they are in the same breath a revelation of the steadfastness and, one may say, intensity of His commitment to us. We are His people, and He will take care of us; we are His children, and He will remain with us. We must remember that, in the midst of this apparently random world, His care for each of us is incredibly attentive and personal.

As today’s psalm says, “Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.”

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that union with the Blessed Trinity, your destiny, is all you want, despite the attraction of so many other things in the world. As Him to send you His Spirit, to make you and adopted child of the Most High. And to remain with you always, until the end of the age.

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May 9, 2021April 23, 2021

Overflow

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

Sometimes we may be downcast by the state of the world; belief and trust in God may appear contradicted by the sheer number of people who live in misery and in rejection of His grace.

But in the readings today, we see God’s promise play out gloriously. Jesus redefines love, not as some sort of strong superficial attraction, not as a desire to “be with,” but as the willingness to lay down one’s life for the beloved; in other words, radical choice for the beloved’s welfare. This is the love with which He loves us; this is the love for one another that He asks of us.

The psalm tells us how the outpouring of that love plays out in God’s plan of salvation: “The Lord has revealed to the nations His saving power.”

And in the first reading, after Cornelius falls prostrate before the disciples, the Holy Spirit rushes in–with reckless abandon, it seems–He rushes in to fill the hearts of the receptive Gentiles, and all give praise and glory to God for His marvels.

To understand God’s overflowing bounty, goodness, generosity, love, we shouldn’t turn our eyes to those who reject Him, but rather to those who accept Him, with all His gifts and all His demands. Those who do so unconditionally, in absolute trust, are never, ever disappointed–but rather, invariably overwhelmed by the unexpected scope of His goodness.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus how sorry you are for all the times you haven’t trusted in Him, that you’ve listened to the siren song of the world’s cynics and naysayers, seeking comfort in a dim view. Ask Him for the gift of infallible trust in that goodness that He has proven to you, and to the world, time after time.

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May 7, 2021April 22, 2021

Too Much to Ask?

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

We know that Jesus summed up the Commandments of God with the priority of loving God above all things, and loving one’s neighbor as oneself (cf. Mk 12:29-31).

On the evening of the Last Supper, the night before Jesus’ death, to which St. John dedicates a disproportionate amount of his gospel, Jesus makes this general Commandment more insistent, urgent, and intimate with His special friends. After telling them what it means to be His friends, in today’s gospel, He gives them His Commandment to them as friends: “Love one another.”

Later, in Jn. 17, throughout the chapter, Jesus prays for His friends: He prays that they be one, as He and the Father are one.

What is the name “Christian” supposed to mean, if not “friend of Jesus”? Thus, to the degree that we seek intimate friendship with Him, His command likewise to us is “Love one another.”

Why, over the centuries and still today, why do we Christians insist on pitting ourselves against one another? Why do we insist on splintering, dividing, separating, pointing fingers, finding fault? Why do we place our differences above our brotherhood?

Why do we do all this, when the ONE thing that Jesus asked for on the night He began His intense suffering, was that we be one in Him?

The answer: Because we treasure our pride above our friendship with Him. Otherwise, our only desire would be to strive mightily to fulfill His highest priority request–indeed, His Commandment.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Filled with sincere sorrow, ask Jesus for forgiveness for all the times when, even in your own mind, you have focused more on the faults of your brother or sister, rather than the opportunity to support them and love them as they are.

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May 6, 2021April 21, 2021

Remain in His Love

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

“Remain in my love.” If we follow His Commandments, we will remain in His love. So Jesus tells us in today’s gospel.

In the first reading, we see the early Church striving to do just that: Remain in His love, by keeping His Commandments.

Some of the believers focus on the Jewish Law–of which, as Jesus said, no letter or portion of a letter will ever be abolished (cf. Mt. 5:18). According to that Law, new believers should be circumcised.

St. Peter makes an impassioned plea, however, for new Gentile believers not to be burdened with the onus of circumcision–since they have received the Holy Spirit without having met this demand.

So, how is the Church to obey Jesus’ Commandments in this circumstance? How is it to remain in His love?

It turns out, the joyful truth is that remaining in Jesus’ love means welcoming every person, without conditions of culture or national social norms. As Jesus predicted in the Gospel, all sorts of people from all the byways would be welcomed to the wedding feast. Still, they would be thrown right out again if they failed to put on the “wedding garment” of belief in Him, and of His new Law of Charity.

The fruit of the new Commandment of Jesus, to love God and our fellow humans, is beautifully captured in today’s psalm, which captures the joy of welcoming the Gentiles into the flock of Christ: God’s marvelous deeds are proclaimed to all the nations.

So, how do we remain in Jesus’ love? How do we keep His Commandments? Through self-sacrificing love for our brothers and sisters, especially in all that favors their salvation in Christ.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you to live a life of selfless service, in obedience to His New Commandment. Ask Him to give you the wisdom to see past human customs and traditions to the heart of what His Law of selfless love requires of you.

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March 15, 2021February 26, 2021

Dancing

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

When He finds it in a human heart, true, pure love is a fulcrum that God uses to shower His grace. In this sense, there is an insight in so many merely human allegories, such as the Disney movie Frozen, that emphasize pure, self-sacrificing love. This insight can be found even in some secular idealism of our time that stresses authentic concern for the welfare, even the temporal welfare, of others.

The first reading talks about God turning weeping into dancing, creating a new Jerusalem where there will be no more suffering. The reading foreshadows the eternal life that Christ wins for us on the Cross.

In the gospel, Jesus brings the message of the first reading to life, as He turns the royal official’s mourning into dancing. The official asks Jesus to come and heal his son, who is near death. Jesus accuses the man of looking for a sign, but rather than defending himself, the man ignores the accusation entirely and insists that his son be saved.

The man is focused entirely on the welfare of the object of his love, his son. He will not be distracted by questions to his motives.

Jesus does not go with the man, but assures him that his child will live. Instead of growing angry with Jesus, the man is inspired to faith in His words–and He returns home, in the spirit of that faith.

The official’s faith is rewarded with the life and health of his son. His mourning is turned into dancing.

We have every opportunity to gain a foretaste of the dancing to come in heaven here on earth, if we wish; all we need do is beg God’s Providence, full of faith, to look after our welfare in every way, and then trust Him to do so, even when the means we foresee are not those He chooses.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to take over your life and do things His way. Tell Him you trust His plan to be the right one, and beg Him in His Providence to take over the direction of your life and the lives of your loved ones.

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March 12, 2021February 24, 2021

Laser Focus

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

“I will love them freely,” says God through the prophet Hosea in the first reading. His all-powerful, tender, effective, fruitful, refreshing love will be poured out on His people without measure.

Rarely do we find more enthusiastic imagery in the words Jesus, than those He uses when He describes this outpouring of divine love: “A good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.” (cf. Lk. 6:38)

Lent is a time for purification from attachments to created things, our own ideas, our own feelings, that hold our will, even at the expense of our faithfulness to God. It is a time for purification from attachments, so that we may access this divine outpouring.

But if it is a time for detachment, it is even more a time for increased attachment–attachment to God, as the humble and wise scribe in today’s gospel articulates:

He is One and there is no other than he.
And to love him with all your heart,
   with all your understanding,
   with all your strength,
   and to love your neighbor as yourself
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

It would appear that this scribe had tasted God somewhere along the way, both because of his clear understanding of the primacy of loving God and neighbor, and because in speaking of the “worth” of the love of God, he seems to be speaking from personal experience.

And that is just it. Detachment alone does not lead us to God. If we do not experience God and attach ourselves to Him, we become like the heart Jesus compares to a house, saying that when it is all cleaned out, it merely becomes a more welcoming place for worse demons to come and reside (cf. Mt. 12:43-45).

Attachment to God, based on experience of God. Experience of God requires something so simple that it is almost silly: Dedication of time each day, say, a half hour, for dialogue with Him in prayer. If we open our hearts to Him with consistency, He will not fail to fill our hearts with love for Him–attachment to Him.

So it is that, in addition to fasting and self-denial, the Church urges us to increase our prayer during Lent.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you to understand the attraction of loving God, and to help you with His Spirit to attain an authentic attachment to God above all things. Tell Him that you cannot attain this on your own through edifying readings, attendance at church, or any other means. Ask Him to generously infuse this love into your heart.

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