Soar in His Love

 I found these words, Soar in His Love, on a little silver pocket stone and thought it was so beautiful. I immediately began to smile as the message resonated in my heart. To soar in His love, what does that mean? To soar puts you above all the things of this world. Looking down on them puts everything in a different perspective. Sometimes we are so caught up in something that we lose all perspective whether it is something pleasurable that gets too strong of a pull on our heart and we allow it to become our focus or maybe it is something that is painful and it causes us to lose hope. To soar in His love means to let go of everything and allow God’s love to carry us to new heights where we can begin to see with new eyes; to see with the eyes of Christ. Our pain is replaced with hope, hope for complete healing. 

We have a parent at the hospital who recently buried her son but rather than allowing her grief to draw her into herself she is reaching out to others. She is reaching out to other families who are dealing with their child’s cancer. Her heart hurts and she misses her son every moment of every day but she knows that her son is soaring with the angels in His perfect love. And she is allowing His love to carry her, too. To soar in His love allows us to be free of anything that weighs us down. But in order to soar we have to let go of everything. By letting go we let God be God. It shows that we trust in Him; we trust that He will take us to places we can never go on our own. We trust that He will never let us fall but carry us with His love.

As I was meditating on these words the image of the scales falling off of Saul’s eyes came to mind. “So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, ‘Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.’ Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight.”  (Acts 9:17-18) As we begin to soar, going higher and higher, our “scales” fall off, everything useless falls away and we can rest on the wings of love.  

Anticipation

 “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival…You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12: 35-37, 40)

Today we are reminded that we must live each day in anticipation of the Lord’s coming. If the Lord would come today, what would he find? I know for myself that he would find that it has been two months since my last confession and that my sins are weighing heavy on me. They cause me to be cynical and wonder why I should even bother going if I am going to repeat the same sins again. I usually go once a month but have allowed the business of my life to get in the way. A priest recently told me that I must always trust in God’s mercy and to see the sacrament [of Confession] as an opportunity to touch the hem of our loving, merciful savior. No longer will I allow my pride or cynicism to keep me from this gift God has given us; an opportunity to be reunited with Him and washed cleaned by the blood of his Son.

Being vigilant means to actively seek God, anticipate His coming, and to be watching for Him. I know that when I had family coming to town last month for my birthday there was joy in my heart as I anticipated their arrival. I made sure the house was in order and the day of their arrival I kept a watch at the front window checking frequently to see if they were here yet, you could feel the excitement in the air! As we await the Lord’s coming we must constantly live a life of holiness and virtue. And when we falter and sin, which we will do often, we must run to the confessional and once again be united with Christ. We need to nurture our relationship with Him through prayer and receive His grace that he offers to us through the sacraments.

Today’s gospel goes on to tell us, “That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely.” (12:47) Free will is a gift God gave to no other creature but man. And we will be held accountable for the choices that we make. If we “get beaten severely” it is by our own doing. We know what is right but are we willing to do it? We know that the Lord is coming, are we willing to live a life in constant vigilance or do we allow ourselves to become complacent? We cannot afford to become complacent about the Lord’s coming because it is truly a matter of eternal life or death.

Promises

 “Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, ‘I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned.’ When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’” Then God said to him, “Come, now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ He answered, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be your proof that it is I who have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this very mountain.’” (Exodus 3: 1-4, 10-12)

As Moses approached the burning bush, did he in his wildest dreams imagine that it would be God speaking to him? When he realized it was God and that God wanted to use him as one of his leaders, Moses balked at the idea. Was it out of humility that he protested? Did he think he wasn’t worthy? Or did he protest out of fear or because he knew that what God was asking of him would be very difficult? I encounter families every day who are facing one of the most difficult things that could be asked of them. They are faced with their child being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and having to undergo cancer treatment. I know that most of these parents, if not all of them, would take the pain and suffering on themselves rather than watch their child endure the terrible treatments.

The mother of a teen recently diagnosed with cancer mentioned that she has never felt closer to Mary then she does now as she watches her son suffer. His very life is threatened and there was no way to prevent this from happening. Her son is united with Christ on the cross and she is united with Mary, unable to take this cross from her son. God tells Moses that that he will be with him and even promises proof that it is He who is asking this of him. This very promise that he gave to Moses is the same promise he gives to each of us, I’ll be with you. As we are faced with the struggles of this life let us always remember that we are never alone and God will not abandon us.  

Faithful Servant

 “The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five. He said, ‘Master, you gave me five talents. See, I have made five more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’” (Matthew 25:20-21)

Today was the funeral and burial of a beloved Cistercian monk, Fr. Matthew Kovács. I wasn’t able to attend the funeral today but I did attend the Rosary last night. Fr. Matthew was born in Hungary and in 1949 entered the novitiate in the Cistercian Abbey of Zirc, experiencing the last 10 months of the monastery’s existence before its suppression by the Communists. Our Lady of Dallas, a monastery of the Cistercian Order was founded by refugees from Hungary. The monastery founded Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, Texas and Fr. Matthew was a teacher for many years. Each decade of the Rosary was led by one of the Cistercian monks that had been one of his students, including the present Abbot. After the recitation of the rosary, a couple of people spoke to those who had gathered in the chapel. One of them was a young priest who recounted the story of his first interaction with Fr. Matthew. It was a simple yet beautiful story of a terribly shy 10 year old boy and a Hungarian monk. Not many words were exchanged but the simple act of the monk climbing on his desk to reach his stash of cookies and then offer them to this young man left a memory that will never be forgotten. The simple act of sharing cookies began the journey of this young man becoming a Cistercian monk who will also live out the rest of his life in this same monastery that Fr. Matthew helped establish. There was such joy in this young priest’s telling of this story. My first encounter with Fr. Matthew was a little humorous and each time I think back on it I can’t help but smile.

His obituary spoke about the trials he endured during Communism and the long arduous journey of his becoming a priest. It was a good reminder to us all that we must always persevere through hardships and keep our eyes on Christ. While the grief will be great for many whose lives were touched and forever changed by their encounters with Fr. Matthew, there is comfort in knowing that he died peacefully in his sleep and is now rejoicing with our King. It is comforting to know that we have another saint watching over us and interceding for us. What a great model of a good and faithful servant we have in Fr. Matthew.

The Lost Sheep

“Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, ‘Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:1, 5-6)

Jesus came for all mankind. He came for the gentiles and the Jews; the pagans and the Samaritans. But in today’s gospel he is instructing his disciples to focus on the lost sheep of Israel. 

God sometimes asks the same of us. He wants us to focus on those in our own family who have strayed from the Church and to reach out to them. Maybe it is a sibling, a spouse or a child; or it may be our parents. We need to pray for them daily and provide opportunities for them to voice what is on their heart. Maybe they feel that God abandoned them at some point in their life. Maybe they feel shunned by the church because they are divorced or had a bad experience in confession with a priest who was judgmental instead of merciful. The church is made up of sinners and we sometimes do hurtful things to one another. But as disciples we must present the divine, unchanging Truth to each person in such a way as to make it understood and loved. ~ Elizabeth Lesuer

We hear many references to sheep in scripture, especially lost sheep. In Matthew’s Parable of the Lost Sheep, the question is asked. “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.” (18:12-14)

There are so many lost sheep. Our world is full of sin, pain, hatred and death. At times the burdens of this life seem too great to bear. Often, it is during times like these that people turn away from God. But we must continue to be a hopeful people and trust in His promise. Others look to those that claim to be Christian especially during trials. They look to see if we remain hopeful and trust in God even when things look hopeless. Do we offer everything to God in prayer or do we become bitter and angry when we are faced with horrible circumstances? Do we continue to praise Him in the storm? Our life is our witness to others and how we respond to the circumstances in our life can help draw others closer to Christ or lead them further astray.  There is much rejoicing when one of the lost sheep is found and brought home.  Dear Lord, help me to lead other to you just as others led me back to you when I was so lost. I want others to know the love and mercy that I have experienced upon returning to you with a humble and contrite heart. Amen.  

The Greatest Commandments

 “One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, ‘Which is the first of 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 all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28-31)

Love your neighbor as yourself. This has always been hard for me to grasp, not the part about loving your neighbor but the part about loving them as you love yourself. For most of my life I did not love myself. I didn’t think I was loveable in anyone’s eyes including myself and God. So I’ve always prayed for God to help me love as he loves, to see others with the love of Christ. This is where I draw my strength to love those that I find difficult to love. But I have had to learn to love myself and believe that I am loveable. I prayed for God to drive out of my heart those demons that kept me in darkness and would continually pull me under when I was beginning to be free of their lies.

I have a journal of my favorite scripture passages and several of them remind me of God’s love for me that he has had from the beginning. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I dedicated you…” (Jeremiah 1:5) “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb…my days were shaped, before one came to be.” (Psalm 139:13, 16) God is all-knowing, he knew everything about me, all my failures and sins, even before I was in my mother’s womb and he has always loved me. For the longest time I believed this about others but I didn’t believe it about myself. But God has placed some amazing faith-filled people in my life that have helped me to see that I am loveable. They have taught me scripture, the very ones that I mentioned above and many more that reveal His love for each and every one of us. Our bible is the living Word, God speaks to us through this living Word. The words written in Jeremiah weren’t just written for him but for each of God’s children. Christ’s resides in me, just as he does in each one of us, and it is through this understanding that I have learned to love myself and to love my neighbor as myself. 

Faithfulness

“Jesus said to him in reply, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The blind man replied, ‘Master, I want to see.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go your way; your faith has saved you.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.” (Mark 10:51-52)

Faith is a gift from God. It is a gift that we must accept from Him and then nurture it. Bartimaeus doesn’t just receive his healing and go on like we see in the story of the ten lepers. No, he is fully aware of the Giver of his gift of sight and wants to live out his life in gratitude and faithfulness to God. The basis of our faithfulness is God’s faithfulness throughout the ages. There is a constancy to God that is unchanging, therefore he is worthy of our trust. God remains faithful even when we are not. He is always there to receive us with love and mercy when we decide to return to him. “The favors of the LORD are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness.”  (Lamentations 3:22-23)

What blindness do we need to overcome? If we truly want to “see” so that we can live as we have been called to live then we must pray for God to reveal to us our brokenness, to see the areas in our lives where we are failing. To see the sins that we try to downplay and the idols in our lives that pull us from Him.  In the gospel the men tell the blind man, “Take courage; get up he is calling you.” Lord, give me the courage to look at these areas in my life so that you can heal them. Help me to live a life of faithfulness as Bartimaeus did.  I want to live a life of gratitude and faithfulness. Help me to see that living a life of faithfulness doesn’t require me to do great things but to do everything with great love.