Restless

Restless

We are all on a journey; we are all searching for more.  If we manage to let go of our arrogance, if we experience the fundamental human need for and dependence upon Other, and particularly upon God, then we can feel the connectedness and realize that it is in our weakness, our vulnerability, our desire for God’s love and for love of other, that we fully realize what it means to be a Christian people.  As this song from the alternative rock band Switchfoot demonstrates, we are all restless, waiting for God, waiting for Love, longing for connection with the divine being whose love surpasses all human love.  We are restless, until we allow ourselves to rest in God’s arms.  (Lyrics below:)

"Restless"

I am the sea on a moonless night,

Calling, falling, slipping tides

I am the leaky, dripping pipes

The endless aching drops of light

I am the raindrop falling down,

Always longing for the deeper ground

I am the broken, breaking seas

Even my blood finds ways to bleed

Even the rivers ways to run

Even the rain to reach the sun

Even my thirsty streams,

Even in my dreams

I am restless, I am restless

I am restless, looking for you

I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore

I’m looking for you

Sunday Gospel Reflection: July 8th 2012

Mark 6:1-6

Have you ever found it easier to do something kind or loving for a new friend or a stranger than for someone in your own family? As a child (and still today) I was far more willing to help someone clean their house or to help them out with a chore than I was to clean or help out at home. Oftentimes our hearts are hardened toward those people whom we know well. It is easy for hurts to build up and resentment or pain to grow.

When we love someone without expectation or condition, when we have soft hearts, we have an insight into God’s own love for us and for how He created us to be and love. In today’s Gospel we hear how Jesus is not welcomed as a teacher in His hometown. People saw Him grow up, knew His family, knew Jesus. Yet this thin knowledge of the person of Jesus covered their eyes and hardened their hearts to a real relationship with Jesus as their Teacher, Savior and Lord. When we box people in or build up walls of expectation or fear we limit our ability to see the miracles of daily life that have the ability to transform our hearts and our world.

The process of loving through our expectations, hurts and fears is not easy. St. Paul identifies with this in today’s Second Reading, reminding the people that God never promised that the Christian life would be pain-free but that the love and grace of Jesus is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. God is always near to us and is stronger than what we are dealing with, even stronger than death! By dying on the cross Jesus shows us that true power is not wielded or lorded, but with a soft heart, freely broken open and given to others to transform the world.

This week: Go out of your way to be more vulnerable and loving to those whom you know best or find it hardest to love.

Newly Discovered "God Particle"?

Check out this article about a new particle that may unlock the keys to new scientific discoveries!

Does the progress of science challenge our faith in God? Vatican Astrologer and Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno says no:

"No one would have built this enormous experiment," tapping the time and talents of thousands of scientists around the world, "without faith they would find something," he said.

"My belief in God gives me the courage to look at the physical universe and to expect to find order and beauty," he said. "It's my faith that inspires me to do science."

May we see the beauty of God in all of creation, most especially in the human mind and heart that is built with the desire to know.  

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That I might not become too elated...

That I might not become too elated...

We’ve all heard the expression, “He’s a real thorn in my side.”  Interestingly, the expression has its roots in St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  In a passage that has elicited many (inconclusive) interpretations, St. Paul says that a thorn in the flesh was given to me.  Whatever this thorn might have been, literally or figuratively, we know that it was a perpetual reminder to Paul of the constant place of the cross in the Christian life.

Paul had a lot going for him; the danger was that he might let his own ego get in the way, that he might think the message was about himself, rather than about God.  And so Paul holds fast to his difficulties, whatever they may be, so that the power of God’s grace might be sufficient for him.  Power made perfect in weakness is the fundamental Christian paradox:  our power is found at our point of greatest weakness, since it’s at that moment that we know we need God.  To accept the cross is to allow God’s love to touch us; rather than relying only on ourselves, we need to eschew arrogance and embrace vulnerability, allowing ourselves to become defenseless, so that we might find our true strength in God.

Prophets like Jesus and Ezekiel before him (see this Sunday’s readings) bring a message that many don’t want to hear.  No one wants to believe Ezekiel’s prophecy that Jerusalem will be destroyed, just as the people of Nazareth, Jesus’ native place, are unwilling to be open to who Jesus truly is – they think they have all the answers already.  Our own journey is about letting go of our arrogance so that we might go to our weakness, so that we might experience our need for others and allow them (and God) into our weakness as well.

(This reflection is based on notes from Fr. Pat's Thursday night Scripture class.)

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Doubting Thomas

Today is the feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle, doubting Thomas. Check out this great article about how Jesus deals with followers who doubted and how we can do the same!

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Made in God's Image

Life Without Limbs, Love Without Limits

Nick Vujicic’s inspiring story has circulated widely on the Internet.  Born without arms or legs, Nick has devoted his life to teaching others about accepting themselves as made in the image of God’s own nature (an expression taken from yesterday’s reading from the Book of Wisdom).  But more than simply encouraging people to seek their validation in God rather than in society’s distorted notions of self-worth, Nick is a catalyst for connectedness.  Visibly radically different, Nick reaches out to connect with others, not with the arms he lacks, but with the heart he opens to all with immense love, inspiring the life-giving generosity we are all called to practice.

Click on the video above for an introduction to Nick’s radical openness, then visit his website, http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/, to learn more about his story.

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You have rescued me...

You have rescued me...

Even trivial experiences of exclusion can shatter our sense of self.  So imagine what effects full-blown ostracism might have on the individual who is systematically isolated from her community, cut off from love and human affection.

In the Gospel this week, Jesus heals a woman who has bled for twelve years.  In the minds of her community, her condition has left her unclean, and she has therefore been shunned, excluded from full participation in that community.  Likewise, Jairus’ daughter, whom Jesus raises from the dead, would have been ritually impure, but that does not stop Jesus from taking the child by the hand and raising her to life.  In both cases, Jesus restores the afflicted to relationship, thereby calling all those around him to be generous in their love and inclusive in their embrace of Other.  All creatures of the world are wholesome, the Book of Wisdom tells us.   Jesus’ interventions in the lives of the woman with a hemorrhage and Jairus’ daughter teach us to value the human contact that is central to our humanity, and to reach out to others with a strong sense of justice, working for that which is life-giving, supplying the needs of all, inclusive of the poor, the wounded, the rejected, for they, too, are the image of God’s nature, and reflect God’s love for the world.

This reflection is based on notes from Fr. Pat's Thursday night Scripture class.

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