81

Love Who love us, thank You!

Rare to see a rainbow in this direction and in the morning.  This was in the midst of a mix of gorgeous colors preceding Saturday's sunrise.

I turned 81 the next day.  Celebrated with friends and relatives.  Some lovely cards and good wishes from others.

I thank God for these extra years and pray that I use them well, trying to line my will up with Love's will.

Don't Worry

We can count on Beauty Who unveils sunrises like this morning's and cares for wildflowers and ravens.  "Don't worry," Jesus says, "you are more valuable that they." (Matthew 7:24-34)  Through Isaiah (49:14-16) God promises that even if a mother could forget her baby, "I will never forget you."  The more we center our life on God rather than on "stuff," the less worried we will be.

All Are Welcome

Jesus tells us that it's not enough to love those who love us.  We must love even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48,) every human being in the world.  That includes immigrants and refugees.  This is not just a political issue.  It is a serious moral issue.  Jesus tells us that we will even be judged on whether we welcomed the homeless.

Through the prophet Isaiah (58:7-10) God tells us, "Shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them....If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech, if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness and your darkest hour will be like noon." 

Love Your Enemies?!

These people aren't my enemies.  I was just trying to find a picture of people who are not my neighbors.

Uneasy timing!?  Sunday's Gospel selection is Matthew 5:38-48 which flies in the face of all that is going on now in our nation.  Jesus says, "Offer no resistance to one who is evil....Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."  I don't find it hard to love people of every color and of every religion.  I do find it hard to love those who don't love people of every color and of every religion.  I  see such people as the enemy, yet Jesus commands that I love them as well.

Jesus doesn't base this command on the sentimental excuse that deep down they are not so bad or that they mean well.  Jesus accepts the category of "enemy" but demands that we love them simply because that is the way the Father acts.  With sunshine and raindrops the Father shows equal love towards good and bad, not because God is indifferent to morality but because our Father loves without limit.  Jesus calls us to love, not because the other deserves our love, but because the very Source of Love lives within us and expects us to act as His children.

Belonging to God

Again with holiness!  Because the Spirit lives in us we are the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16-23.)  St. Paul says "God's temple is holy and you are that temple."  He's not asking us to make ourselves holy. 

Sacrifice means to make holy.  In his dying and rising Jesus sacrifices himself to God.  He makes his and our human nature holy.  Paul concludes, "You belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God."

Be Holy

"You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." 

      

This lofty command from God (Leviticus 19:2) is not a call to high moral behavior.  It is a call to loving surrender.  When the Bible says that God is holy it means that God is totally Other, entirely separate from all that is not divine.

We humans are not called to be holy in this sense.  Holiness in humans is the state of belonging to the Divine, being designated God's very own property.  It is not earned by our moral behavior.  God lives within us and graciously claims us as God's own.  What is required of us is surrender.  Our unearned goodness flows from that union. 

                                                                                

St. Valentine

Just as I sat down to pray this morning I saw two swans (this picture was taken several months ago.)  I thought how appropriate for St. Valentine's Day.  Both Chaucer and Shakespeare mentioned that birds chose their mates on February 14.

Valentine was a priest who was beheaded on February 14, 269, for his faith in Jesus.  80 years later a church was dedicated to him.  Those are the only facts we know about him.  Legends grew up.  Valentine would marry young couples secretly because the emperor would not allow soldiers to be married.  While he was in prison, the children to whom he had been very kind wrote little notes to "Dear Valentine," and slipped them through the bars of his cell.

This is a day to tell those whom you love that you love them.

The Statue of Liberty

A recent magazine cover had a drawing of the arm of the Statue of Liberty holding the lamp.  The flame has been extinguished and a wisp of smoke rises into the air.

Here's the end of Emma Lazarus' poem (November 2, 1883) that is on the base: 

"From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome....

 Give me your tired, your poor,

 Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

 The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

 I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

We pray that all Americans extend this invitation.

A New Birth of Freedom!

President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863, Gettysburg:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battle-field of  that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we can not hallow--this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. 
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of  freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.  She appeared to Bernadette, a poor peasant girl, several times over a month.  During one of the apparitions a spring began flowing out of the ground and continues flowing today.  Many healings there have been verified.  

I went on a military pilgrimage to Lourdes in May, 2014.  With more than 20,000 there from all over the world there was a strong sense of world unity and the possibility of peace.   This river added to the gentleness of the place.  I couldn't keep up with all the ceremonies, so I went across the river and spent some time alone in prayer.  I took this picture from there.  A friend whom I prayed for there in a specific way has survived throat cancer.

I pray to Our Lady today for a friend who has a deadly disease and another who is today in the hospital.

Mystery's Self-Communication

How does Numinous Presence, Ultimate Mystery, get through to us limited human beings in our very material world?  It was not through God's finger writing on stone tablets.  Numinous Presence chose the Israelites in the desert and in  exile to begin a dynamic process involving centuries of telling stories, writing them down, later editing, copying in scrolls, and, finally, as a community, determining which of these belonged on the approved list of sacred writings, Scripture.  We have the Jewish people to thank for being receptive to this Divine process and for giving the world a glimpse of Who is calling us into loving relationship. 

Feeling Down?

If this picture of happy people on a hot day in the tropics doesn't cheer you on this very wintry day, maybe this advice from St. Thomas Aquinas on today's calendar will:

"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep,
  a bath, and a glass of wine."

(calendar from the gifted sisters at Ministry of the Arts)

The Depths of God

St. Paul wants to make it clear to the Corinthians that he is preaching to them, not just using human reason, but letting the Holy Spirit use him to help us glimpse the mystery of God.  "To us God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God."  We want to know God better so that we can love God better.  Surrendering to the Spirit ushers us into the Mystery.

First Be Reconciled

"So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering."  This quote is from Matthew 5:20-26, a passage in which Jesus warns us how anger disrupts our relationship with God.  As I meditated on it this morning, I thought of relatives and friends with whom I am not at peace and also of public figures whom I find it hard to love.  Is my offering at the altar a true surrender of my heart? 

Langston Hughes

We need to be celebrating Black History Month.  Here's a quote I came across this week from Langston Hughes who died in the 1960's:
"Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed.
  Let it be that great strong land of love
 Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme."

Let your light shine

"You (plural) are light for the world," says Jesus (Matthew 5:14-16.)  A lamp would be useless under something like a bed.  Our goodness as followers of Jesus must shine for all the world to see.  I found myself in meditation remembering the Paschal candle being carried up the aisle during the Easter Vigil, everyone sharing its light with their neighbor until the whole church was glowing.

Salt

There's still snow in the air, but not too much accumulation today.

"You are the salt of the earth," says Jesus to us (Matthew 5:13.)  Salt was very important in ancient times, not only for flavor, but for preserving food, to purify, and as part of sacrifices.  If we stop witnessing to the world by our good deeds, we are as useless as the salt from the Dead Sea, which, because of chemical impurities, could decompose and lose its taste.

The "you" is plural.  Jesus wants to use all of us together to save the world and give zest to life.  It is as a community of witnesses that we are to show our country and our world the goodness and love of Jesus.  We Catholics make up a large percentage of our country's population.  If we took the teachings of Jesus more to heart, our nation would be salt for the world.