Do you love me? (Pope St. John Paul II)

Christ is asking each of you 

the same question: 

 Do you love me? 

--Pope. St. John Paul II, 

Homily, August 17, 2000 

Image source: Raphael, Christ’s Charge to Peter, https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/christs-charge-to-peter-feed-my-sheep-76296 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 1, 2022: Do you love me more than these?

Do you love me more than these? 

Are we willing to proclaim our love for the Lord? 

    One might imagine that, once Jesus has revealed his risen self to Thomas and the others in the upper room, the disciples would feel compelled to rush out and proclaim this good news. Yet the very next chapter in John’s Gospel finds them fishing, of all things – returning to the familiar, they fall back on what they know. But Jesus once again seizes this moment as an opportunity for revelation, appearing to them on the shore and encouraging them to cast the net yet again, though they have not caught anything all night. The abundance of fish that they pull in this time is a manifestation of the extraordinary love the Lord has for them. Once they have finished eating breakfast together, Jesus engages Peter, allowing him fully three times to affirm his love for Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love me? Jesus asks. How else will Peter, who denied Jesus three times, come to understand that Christ came for repentance and forgiveness, if not by having the opportunity to say, without hesitation, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you? Yet Jesus also tells him that one day, Peter will be led where he does not want to go. The Lord will lead all of the disciples where they do not want to go; his intent, first and foremost, is that they proclaim the good news of his death and resurrection, no matter where it might lead. Their purpose in life now is defined by his call to give testimony to the good news of salvation. 

    By the time the apostles are brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, in Acts of the Apostles, they are absolutely committed to teaching in Jesus’ name, proclaiming to all that God exalted Jesus at his right hand to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. Indeed, they rejoice that they have been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. It is an invitation open even to the Sanhedrin, to whom repentance and forgiveness of sins is also extended. Eventually, the apostles will give witness to their faith with their blood, martyred for the sake of his name. 

    We too look forward to heaven and our own eternal life in Christ, a union we hope for, and the opportunity to join our voices to the voices of the many angels who cry out in the Book of Revelation, praising God with one voice, for Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor and glory and blessing. We, too, will sing praise to the Lord, as does the psalmist in Psalm 30, and we will give thanks to his holy name. But first we must answer – not once but daily – the very same question Jesus asks Peter – do you love me? – with clear awareness of all that that love means for us, ever striving to live for the sake of his name, and his love. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

An extraordinary life (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   God has chosen us to be peculiarly his own. To be peculiar in the sight of all the world, faithful to God and to other, is not to live our lives for ourselves, but to stand out, to be extraordinary in our world. For that is what he has called us: an extraordinary life, one in which he is at work. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, March 12, 2022

Happy Birthday, Fr. Pat!
We are so grateful for all of the ways
the Lord is at work in you...
You are extraordinary in our sight! 

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.michaels.9022/photos

If I fall, will You catch me? (Elyssa Smith)

If I fall, will You catch me?

If I get lost, will You find me?

I feel afraid of leaving what's safe, but I can't stay here

If I fall, will You catch me?

If I walk through that doorway

And the look on their faces say I'm crazy

I'm learning that risks feel like

Mistakes, but isn't that called faith? 

And if I fall, will You catch me? 

If I fall, will You catch me? 

Sometimes the valley looks too low 

Sometimes the mountain looks too high 

There must be more than what I'm seeing 

How can I know if I don't try? 

And if I fall, will You catch me? 

If I get lost, will You find me? 

I feel afraid of leaving what's safe, but I can't stay here 

And if I fall, will You catch me? 

Will You catch me? 

Will You catch me? 

And what if the doors all close and lock 

And I find out I chased a mirage? 

Wondering if I even heard You at all 

And what if the cost is high to pay 

And I'd rather you take the cup away? 

I second guess if the choice I made was worth it 

But what if Heaven is cheering me on? 

David's pleading, "Sing your song" 

Mary's shouting, "Waste it all, He's worth it!" 

And You will catch me 

You will catch me 

And You will catch me 

You will catch me 

Oh, say You'll catch me 

I know You'll catch me 

You will catch me 

To hear Elyssa Smith singing Catch Me, click on the video below: 

 

Image source: https://www.the-river.org/estuaries/learning-to-trust/ 

Video source

Song analysis by Philip Nahlik, SJ

Faith and love (St. John of the Cross)

    Faith and love are like the blind man’s guides. They will lead you along a path unknown to you, to the place where God is hidden. 

--St. John of the Cross             

Image source: https://www.biblword.net/why-does-god-seem-hidden-so-often/
Quotation source

To give your life for what you believe (St. Joan of Arc)

   Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing, and so they give their lives to little or nothing. One life is all we have, and we live it as we believe in living it…and then it’s gone. But to surrender who you are and to live without belief is more terrible than dying – even more terrible than dying young. 

--St. Joan of Arc           

Image source: Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc in the extraordinary silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1928), http://www.medadvocates.org/celebrati/may/may_30.htm
Film trailer available here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TPIuity1WE
Quotation source

Between knowing and believing (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Do you remember Hamlet’s great line, There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio? If we stubbornly say—even in the area of science—that we will accept only what we can clearly see and touch and control, we wouldn’t know much about reality. 

    There is, in most areas of life, a play between knowing and believing. It is not unique to the religious sphere of life. Blaise Pascal summed it up: The heart has its reasons that reason knows not.

    It is not that we who have not seen and have believed are settling for a poor substitute for vision. No, we are being described as blessed, more blessed than Thomas. God is doing all sorts of things that we cannot see, measure, control, fully understand. But it is an informed faith that allows one to fall in love with such a God. 

 --Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, July 3, 2020 

Image source: William Hole, illustration from The Life of Jesus of Nazareth, http://sacredartmeditations.com/life/detail/32

Belief (Robert Oxton Bolton)

   A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.

 --Robert Oxton Bolton 

Image source: Domenico Morelli, The Conversion of St. Paul (1876), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domenico_Morelli_-_Conversione_di_san_Paolo.png 

Quotation source

Christ came to save the earth (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Christ did not come just to save human beings; he came to save the earth as well. 

 

   The earth, like ourselves, needs saving. From what? For what? In a proper Christian understanding of things, the earth is not just a stage for human beings, a thing with no value in itself, apart from us. Like humanity, it too is God’s work of art, God’s child. Indeed, the physical earth is our mother, the matrix from which we all spring. In the end, we are not apart from the natural world; rather we are that part of the natural world that has become conscious of itself. We do not stand apart from the earth and it does not exist simply for our benefit, like a stage for the actor, to be abandoned once the play is over. Physical creation has value in itself, independent of us. We need to recognize that, and not only to practice better eco-ethics so that the earth can continue to provide air, water, and food for future generations of human beings. 

    How will the earth be transformed? It will be transformed in the same way we are, through resurrection. The resurrection brings into our world, spiritually and physically, a new power, a new arrangement of things, a new hope, something so radical (and physical) that it can only be compared to what happened at the initial creation when the atoms and the molecules of this universe were created out of nothingness by God. In that initial creation, nature was formed and its reality and laws shaped everything from then until the resurrection of Jesus. 

    The resurrection was not only spiritual. In it, the physical atoms of the universe were rearranged. Teilhard [de Chardin] was right. We need a vision wide enough to incorporate the cosmic dimension of Christ. The resurrection is about people, and the planet. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Happy Earth Day!

What will you do for the planet today?    

Image source: https://spb.hse.ru/soc/illuminated/news/363052560.html

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 24, 2022: Do not be unbelieving, but believe!

Do not be unbelieving, but believe!

Is seeing the only path to believing?

    After his Resurrection, Jesus appears to a variety of people, and he is there in person, but not in the way he had been prior to his death and rising. In John's Gospel, these people do not yet expect to encounter Jesus. Yet Jesus transcends the barriers they have erected to protect themselves from the world – the locked doors, the desolate hearts. Peace be with you, he says. When he appears for a second time, before Thomas, he hopes that Thomas will come to believe, to come to faith, to see and realize the truth of salvation with his heart: do not be unbelieving, but believe! Jesus banks on the power of his love to grow for them, that they might see him present in their midst, and believe. As they will come to learn, belief is an expanding process; we come to faith and, over time, our faith deepens and grows. 

   Likewise, after Jesus’ resurrection, as the Acts of the Apostles tells us, the disciples manifest the power of Jesus, not in order to claim Jesus’ power, but to make it clear that it is God who causes the healings to occur: Many signs and wonders were done at the hands of the apostles. And great numbers were added thanks to their efforts: some are brave enough, and have faith that is strong enough, to express their belief and formally recognize their faith in public. Psalm 118 calls all who believe to worship: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. Jesus, rejected by the world, has become the cornerstone through God’s extraordinary intervention in human existence. 

   Not long after the Church was established, it came under persecution from all sides. The Book of Revelation is John’s witness in faith. It is Jesus – one like a son of man – who appears to John on the island called Patmos, a penal colony to which John has been sent because he proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus. It is there that John learns from the Lord himself what to write; God is responsible for John’s eyewitness: Write on a scroll what you see. The Book of Revelation was sent so that Christian communities might find hope in spite of persecution and not abandon the faith that has been given to them, but rather, expand upon it. As long as the light of the lampstands is lit, there is hope – they need to keep the lampstands burning and the flame of faith alive. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Signs of newness of life (Fr. James Martin)

   What are some ways to really put into effect your belief that Christ has risen from the dead? Well, one way is to look for signs of newness in your own life and in that of others. For example, you may have had the experience of feeling a change within yourself over time. You feel like you have finally put away some old habits, old patterns, old ways of thinking, that had kept you from living freely, living wholly. And yet you doubt. It’s natural. You say to yourself, Well, can it be that I’ve really changed? Have I really moved on? Am I really able to let go of all of those things?

   The answer is: Yes! God is continually inviting us to growth and continually enabling us to let some things in our life die so that we can experience new life. This is the process of conversion, of what the Gospels call metanoia, that will go on throughout our whole life, if we are open to it. So the dying and rising that we read about, and believe, in the life of Jesus Christ, can be experienced in our own lives, if we are open to it. God can bring us many little resurrections, every day. Maybe even today or tomorrow. 

--Fr. James Martin 

Image source: https://musingsofamountainmama.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/signs-of-life-in-progress/ 

Quotation source

New life (S. D. Gordon)

Easter spells out beauty, 

the rare beauty of new life. 

--S. D. Gordon 

Image source: https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/how-to-grow-easter-lilies 

Quotation source

To live again and again and again (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Somebody once said that the real secret of life is not to learn how to live, but to learn how to live again and again and again. There’s wisdom in that, especially given the truth of the resurrection, namely, that death is not final, but crucified bodies can rise to fresh life. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI, Facebook, April 26, 2021 

Image source: https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/dumbledores-phoenix-and-the-medieval-bestiary/

Love never dies (McGahan/Orlinski)

The very first Easter

taught us this:

that life never ends

and love never dies. 

–Kate McGahan       

Happy Easter from 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
Mill Valley! 

Add to your Easter joy by listening to this most joyful Alleluia, sung by Polish countertenor Jakub Jósef Orlinski -- click on the video below!

Image source: The Resurrection of Christ, mosaic, Church of the Resurrection, St. Petersburg, Russia, https://www.pikist.com/free-photo-szenz 

Quotation source 
Video source

The Lord is alive! (Pope Francis)

   In our hearts, we know that things can be different but, almost without noticing it, we can grow accustomed to living with the tomb, living with frustration. 

   Now that, like the two women, we have visited the tomb, I ask you to go back with them to the city. Let us all retrace our steps and change the look on our faces. Let us go back with them to tell the news, in all those places where the grave seems to have the final word, where death seems the only way out. Let us go back to proclaim, to share, to reveal that it is true: the Lord is alive! He is living and he wants to rise again in all those faces that have buried hope, buried dreams, buried dignity. If we cannot let the Spirit lead us on this road, then we are not Christians. 

--Pope Francis, Easter Vigil Homily, April 15, 2017 

 

Image source: Sr. Anne Therese Kelly and Fran Matusak, The Resurrection of the Cosmic Christ, St. Gabriel Catholic Church, Elma, NY, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2730274980381734&set=ecnf.100063229088506 or  https://www.stgabeschurch.com/

Quotation source

Waiting (Simone Weil)

   Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life. 

--Simone Weil 

Image source: https://www.markmallett.com/blog/love-waits/
Quotation source

Our Savior's Passion (St. Maximus of Turin)

   Our Savior’s passion raises men and women from the depths, lifts them up from the earth, and sets them in the heights. 

--St. Maximus of Turin

 

Image source 1: Passion Façade, Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, https://blog.sagradafamilia.org/en/divulgation/the-pediment-of-the-passion-facade-jesus-victory-over-death/  Image source 2:  View inside the Sagrada Familia, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-tortured-136-year-history-building-gaudis-sagrada-familia

Were you there? (Davóne Tines)

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? 

To hear the remarkable bass-baritone Davóne Tines sing Were You There, click on the video below: 

Image source: Julia Stankova, Women at the Cross, https://ancientanswers.org/2020/04/17/paradoxes-of-the-cross/
Video source

My God, my God, why have you deserted me? (Henri Nouwen)

   God is beyond, beyond our heart and mind, beyond our feelings and thoughts, beyond our expectations and desires, and beyond all the events and experiences that make up our life. Still God is in the center of all of it. Here we touch the heart of prayer, since here it becomes manifest that in prayer the distinction between God’s presence and God’s absence no longer really distinguishes. In prayer, God’s presence is never separated from God’s absence and God’s absence is never separated from God’s presence. God’s presence is so much beyond the human experience of being together that it quite easily is perceived as absence. God’s absence, on the other hand, is often so deeply felt that it leads to a new sense of God’s presence… 

   My God, my God, why have you deserted me? (Psalm 22:1)… When Jesus spoke these words on the cross, total aloneness and full acceptance touched each other. In that moment of complete emptiness all was fulfilled. In that hour of darkness new light was seen. While death was witnessed, life was affirmed. Where God’s absence was most loudly expressed, God’s presence was most profoundly revealed. When God, through the humanity of Jesus, freely chose to share our own most painful experience of divine absence, God became most present to us. It is into this mystery that we enter when we pray. 

--Henri Nouwen          

Image source: Victor Nuño, Good Friday / Viernes Santo, https://reknew.org/2013/05/does-jesus-abandonment-on-the-cross-destroy-the-trinity/ 

Quotation source

The experience of anguish (Sr. Bernadette Reis)

     I can connect most intimately with Jesus is through my own human experience. I do not know his experience. But I know my own. And that is where I can meet Jesus, who also went through the experience of anguish — whose sweat in the Garden of Gethsemane and the few words he managed to gasp out were the way he shared what he was going through with his father. Because Jesus, as God and man, experienced the gamut of human experience and emotion, I can meet him there. It is common ground. 

--Sr. Bernadette Reis, FSP

Image source: Luca Giordano, The Agony in the Garden. For a fascinating analysis of this painting by Fr. Blake Britton, visit https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/beholding-beauty-giordanos-agony-in-the-garden/23466/ 

Quotation source

Deep joy in the touching of Jesus (Ann Voskamp)

    When service is unto people, the bones can grow weary, the frustration deep. Because, agrees Dorothy Sayers, whenever man is made the center of things, he becomes the storm-center of trouble. The moment you think of serving people, you begin to have a notion that other people owe you something for your pains ... You will begin to bargain for reward, to angle for applause...

    When the eyes of the heart focus on God, and the hands on always washing the feet of Jesus alone - the bones, they sing joy and the work returns to its purest state: eucharisteo. The work becomes worship, a liturgy of thankfulness. The work we do is only our love for Jesus in action, writes Mother Theresa.  If we pray the work... if we do it to Jesus, if we do it for Jesus, if we do it with Jesus ... that's what makes us content. 

    Deep joy is always in the touching of Christ - in whatever skin He comes to us in. 

--Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: 

 A Dare to Life Fully Right Where You Are 

Image source: Max Greiner, Divine Servant (Jesus Washes Peter’s Feet), sculpture, Witness Park, Pittsburg, Texas, https://notestowomen.wordpress.com/2019/04/18/true-greatness/

What was Judas inside of Christ? (James Miller)

It wasn’t for the money. 

Of that I’m sure 

the way cancer will take your donations, 

but they won’t buy its cure. 

No, he must have had the Judas cell. 

That hell in his heart and mind. 

A cell that keeps on hating 

until it kills the soul that keeps it. 

But what was Judas inside of Christ? 

Was he his coughs? 

His fevers? 

His flu? 

I think he was Christ’s nightmare. 

There in the garden 

when all the angels left, 

and from the dusk Judas came 

smiling like a breathing ghost. 

Yes, the dread of being kissed 

by the one who hates you most. 

--James Miller                        

Image: Jesus Carries Judas, capital, St. Marie-Madeleine (12th c.), Vezelay, France https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2016/06/18/news/the-good-shepherd-who-carries-judas-on-his-shoulders-1.34989269 

Poem source

The magnificence of Triduum!

   Have you been waiting patiently? It’s almost here! We are now in Holy Week, which culminates in the Easter Triduum – three days of awe-filling immersion into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. Triduum is the goal, the summit, the extraordinary endpoint of our journey through forty days in the Lenten desert. It is unlike any other moment in the Church’s liturgical calendar – it’s almost like stepping over a threshold, out of chronological time and into kairos time, into a sacred space unique in the depth of engagement it offers, and in the beauty of liturgy that graces it. Truly nothing is like the Triduum liturgy! If you have never participated before, now is the time: you will never forget this incredible experience of time-out-of-time. 

    Join us first on Holy Thursday evening for the Feast of the Lord’s Supper and recall Jesus kneeling humbly before his disciples to wash their feet, then blessing, breaking, and sharing bread – the first Eucharist – with his disciples… Process afterwards with us to O'Brien Hall for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament… 

   Follow in Jesus’ footsteps on the Way of the Cross Friday afternoon, and venerate the Wood of the Cross in remembrance of his death at the most extraordinary Communion service of the liturgical year… 

   Witness the Light of Christ as it slowly fills Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Holy Saturday evening, and hear the story of salvation history, from Genesis to Romans… punctuated with a joyful Gloria that tells us that Resurrection is at hand… 

   And then, at last, on Easter Sunday, join in the joyful proclamation of Jesus Risen and know in the depth of your being God’s faithful and abiding love…. Alleluia! Come, make your way to the magnificence of Triduum! 

Image source: Jeffrey Smith, Sovereign (detail), prints available at: https://www.ascendingstorm.com/

It is transformation that awaits us this Holy Week! (Jessica Coblenz)

   Resurrection does not erase the pain of our shattered plans and life’s difficult unknowing. Resurrection does not undo what has been done. Yet, when we refuse to sanitize the context of Christ’s rising from the dead, we open ourselves to another hope that is revealed in it. 

   Christ’s resurrection reveals that a transformation of our suffering and uncertainty awaits us. And like Jesus’s first followers, it is a transformation far beyond what we can fathom—whether at our best or at our most undone. We do not know when it will come, or what it will look like. We do not, in fact, know how this will end. But we profess that, by the grace of God, our unraveled lives will be transformed in glory. 

   It is transformation, not reversal or erasure, that awaits us this Holy Week. And if this is so, then our movement toward Easter morning should not be a movement away from the uncertainties and sorrows of our world. If resurrection is, indeed, a mysterious gathering up and transformation of them all, then we should spend these days present to the disappointments, tragedies, and uncertainties of our lives. Let us gather them up and bring them to the cross in hope of whatever it is that is to come. 

--Jessica Coblenz 

Image source: https://www.guideposts.org/inspiration/miracles/gods-grace/happy-holy-week 

Quotation source

He emptied himself (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    In the biblical account of Adam and Eve and original sin, we see that the primary motivation for eating the apple was their desire to somehow grasp at divinity, to become like God. But like us, they badly misunderstood what makes for genuine power. St. Paul writes about the antithesis of that: Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather he emptied himself of that power to become helpless, trusting that this emptying and helplessness would ultimately be the most transformative power of all. Jesus submitted to helplessness to become truly powerful. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI, Facebook, May 28, 2021 

Image source 1 & 2: L. S. Menczel, Kenosis (bronze on bronze). This extraordinarily breathtaking sculpture is available for purchase at: https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Sculpture-Kenosis/770159/3524365/view

Pain (Blessed Chiara Badano)

   

   Embraced pain makes one free. 

--Bl. Chiara Badano 

Image source: El Greco, Christ Carrying the Cross (ca. 1590-1585), https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459087 Quotation source & more on this very young woman who may one day be a saint.

The descending way of love (Henri Nouwen)

   Jesus presents to us the great mystery of the descending way. It is the way of suffering, but also the way to healing. It is the way of humiliation, but also the way to the resurrection. It is the way of tears, but of tears that turn into tears of joy. It is the way of hiddenness, but also the way that leads to the light that will shine for all people. It is the way of persecution, oppression, martyrdom, and death, but also the way to the full disclosure of God’s love. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says: As Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up (John 3:14–15). You see in these words how the descending way of Jesus becomes the ascending way. The lifting up that Jesus speaks of refers both to his being raised up on the cross in total humiliation and to his being raised up from the dead in total glorification...

   Each one of us has to seek out his or her own descending way of love. That calls for much prayer, much patience, and much guidance. It has nothing at all to do with spiritual heroics, dramatically throwing everything overboard to follow Jesus. The descending way is a way that is concealed in each person’s heart. But because it is so seldom walked on, it’s often overgrown with weeds. Slowly but surely we have to clear the weeds, open the way, and set out on it unafraid. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: Blue passion flower (P. caerulea), so named because it represents many of the elements of Christ’s Passion, including the Crown of Thorns, the nails, the scourge, the soldier’s lance etc. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora#/media/File:Passiflora_caerulea_(makro_close-up).jpg. 

For a complete explanation of each of the parts, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora#Etymology_and_names. 
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 10, 2022: I gave my back to those who beat me...

I gave my back to those who beat me, 

my cheeks to those who plucked my beard…

What has Jesus done for you?

     As Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, in Luke’s Gospel, he knows he is about to fulfill God’s mission for him, though not as the people anticipate it. When the people proclaim, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, they believe that a political upheaval is about to take place. What is taking place is indeed inevitable, but its nature is beyond their control, and beyond the control of the Jewish authorities. Even if the Pharisees succeed in silencing Jesus, or the crowds, they cannot silence nature: if my disciples keep silent, Jesus tells the Pharisees, the stones will cry out! Jesus’ Passion will include multiple cataclysmic events that point to the truth of this statement, but the proclamation of the truth will be left to the disciples he leaves behind. 

     Jesus is the Suffering Servant of the prophet Isaiah, meant to bring the people of Israel, who had been captive in Babylon, back to life. God gives him the words to speak to those who have given up, that they might live again; the prophet is to raise the hopes of those in exile who have lost all hope. He will also suffer on their behalf, as he faces opposition. Yet he remains faithful to God no matter what happens – I have not rebelled, not turned back, he says; the prophet will not become weary; rather, he speaks to the weary a word that will rouse them. The Suffering Servant allows himself to be that which ignites the fire that gives life; the abuse he receives as he sets his face like flint will bring the salvation God has promised to God’s people. Jesus is the Suffering Servant, the Messiah sent to experience pain and rejection at the hands of others. He prays Psalm 22 in a moment of absolute loss: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? In his full humanity, he will suffer on behalf of all: they mock him; they pierce his hands and his feet; they cast lots for his clothing. 

    The evangelist Luke also understands Jesus as the Suffering Servant; Jesus will be counted among the wicked yet, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus never questions that he will die, for it is his destiny, though he prays that his disciples’ peace may not ultimately fail. Through death, Jesus creates peace where one would not anticipate finding it, for who expects to find peace in violence? Yet Jesus actively accepts his destiny. As Paul tells the Philippians, Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Jesus embraces humanity in a way Adam and Eve did not – with humility, emptying himself and taking the form of a slave. His journey will culminate as he sacrifices himself out of love for humankind, raising them up; the crucifixion reveals he is the Son of God, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth. The man Jesus who commends his spirit into the hands of the Father is greatly exalted by the Father, that all might recognize in his suffering that Jesus Christ is Lord! May we too not keep silent, that all might know the salvation that Jesus, the Suffering Servant, has attained on our behalf. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Hope (Emily Dickinson)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - 

And sore must be the storm - 

That could abash the little Bird 

That kept so many warm - 

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - 

And on the strangest Sea - 

Yet - never - in Extremity, 

It asked a crumb - of me. 

--Emily Dickinson                   

Image & poem source: https://shenandoahliterary.org/blog/2014/01/emily-dickinson-hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-1891/

Hope will fall like rain (TobyMac)

Some days, life feels perfect. 

Other days it just ain’t workin. 

The good, the bad, the right, the wrong 

And everything in between. 

Though it’s crazy, amazing 

We can turn a heart with the words we say. 

Mountains crumble with every syllabe. 

Hope can live or die. 

So speak Life, speak Life. 

To the deadest darkest night. 

Speak Life, speak Life. 

When the sun won’t shine and you don’t know why. 

Look into the eyes of the brokenhearted; 

Watch them come alive as soon as you speak hope, 

You speak love you speak… 

You speak Life, You speak Life 

Some days the tongue gets twisted; 

Other days my thoughts just fall apart. 

I do, I don’t, I will, I won’t, 

It’s like I’m drowning in the deep. 

Well, it’s crazy to imagine, 

Words from our lips as the arms of compassion, 

Mountains crumble with every syllable. 

Hope can live or die. 

Refrain 

Lift your head a little higher, 

Spread the love like fire, 

Hope will fall like rain 

When you speak Life with the words you say. 

Raise your thoughts a little higher, 

Use your words to inspire, 

Joy will fall like rain, 

When you speak Life with the words you say. 

Lift your head a little higher, 

Spread the love like fire, 

Hope will fall like rain 

When you speak Life with the words you say. 

Refrain 

To hear TobyMac sing Speak Life, click on the video below: 

Image source: https://goodinside.com/blog/response-to-child-tears/ 

Video source