Our Demons

What has a hold on us?

     Yesterday, the last day in January, the Gospel reading (Mark 5:1-20) was about Jesus casting out the demons into the pigs that were nearby. However, this is not about the exorcism, but the person on whom this event centers.
     After being freed of the demons that had plagued him, only naturally, the man, wanted to follow Jesus. Isn’t this a normal reaction? Having been freed of some life-long illness, some evil that we have struggled with all of our lives, wouldn’t we want to follow and praise the person who had healed us? But, Jesus told him “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
     How many demons do you and I have? What sins devastate us? What illnesses wreak havoc with our bodies? What things persecute us and wear us down? From some of these demons, we may even have been freed. Somewhere, somehow we got the strength to overcome them. We may feel that we found a way, or we might believe that only through Jesus’ help were we able to overcome them. The emphasis is not on how we were healed, but that we were healed.
     The joy of having a heavy burden lifted from us floods our souls. The tears of relief flow down our cheeks. We have been healed. We are being healed. Our resultant life has been changed for the better. Christ’s words ring in our ears, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Here is where our faith in Jesus, our trust in His love comes into play.
      Sometimes, our problem is a result of our own negligence, our own willfulness, our own doing. But now, now we are out of the hole that engulfed us. We look around. We make sure nobody has noticed the cancer that has plagued us. We don’t want anyone to know of the shame that we have carried. Tell someone else? Let somebody know what problems I am, and have been struggling with? Why would I do that?
     It has been said here, many times, that Christ loves us as we are. We are, right now, the results of everything that we have lived, and experienced. Someone with whom we see, or meet, we may even love them and they love us, someone is experiencing a problem similar to what we have struggled with. If we truly try to love the people that we come in contact with, then in that love we will say something of our own experience that will help them. We won’t know WHEN we are helping them, we won’t know HOW we are helping them, and so it is very important to love all that we meet. “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Advent: Looking Toward

     I feel very badly, for what must look like my abandoning this site. The last three weeks have been very hectic. It seemed like there was always something else that needed to be done. Even now, as we get ready for Christmas, many more things still need attention.  Enough with the excuses, let’s talk about the Advent season.
      Jesus is coming! Joy To the World! Do You Hear What I Hear! I wish I knew of a way to play Christmas music for you, while you read here, right now. This is a happy time. It’s happy, but not because of gifts that we will receive. It is like the whole world is about to be reborn again. All the doubt and frustration of last year is being laid to rest. An opportunity for a new beginning is at hand! A time for joy and happiness is upon us.
      We distribute gifts to loved ones and acquaintances. Our focus is not, should not be on the gift, itself. The gift is an expression of the love that we have for one another. With Jesus, Love comes into the world. Once again, in celebrating His birth, we celebrate the infinite love that He has for each of us. And so, we try as best we can to pass this love on to others.
      I always feel guilty when I have to ask a person what he or she wants for Christmas. The fact that I have to ask is a pretty good indication that I haven’t been very attentive to that person’s needs. I had 364 days to observe what he/she needed, or could use. And yet, I still have to ask? If I ask, maybe too much attention is on the gift and not on the needs of the person.
      Gifts don’t always have to be bought. Maybe the person living next to us has no way to get to church, to the store. Maybe the person is unable to straighten or clean their house. Maybe they are unable to move their trash to the curb. Here is where our attention to others and what their situation is, will cry out to us what we can do for them. Just a moment of reflection and observation can tell us, the best way to pass on the love that has been brought into this world. Christmas can be every day of the year, if we let it.

Are We Moving To or Away From Pentecost?

      The first recorded miracle of Jesus was done at the joyous occasion of a marriage in Cana. Mary’s simple statement, “They have no wine”-1 results in the beginning of Jesus’ public life. From Cana He travels to Capharnum and then Jerusalem. Where today’s Gospel shows Jesus in the temple where he found people selling pigeons, oxen and sheep.-2 His righteous anger spills out of Him causing chaos among all the bewildered sellers. They in turn, challenge Him with, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” To which Jesus replies, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” -3
      These three encounters are listed here to show how even the earliest events in Christ’s life affected the Apostles, later on. The Gospel verse John 2:22 shows the impact of these events with, “When therefore He was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that He had said this; and they believed…”
      We commonly understand that Christ’s public life lasted for three years. We don’t exactly know when the group of the apostles came into existence, but it seems to be shortly after Jesus’ public life had begun. So for three years, this group of men had heard and seen things but, more than likely, did not really understand what was going on. What kept them together? Curiosity? Wonder? Amazement? Can you imagine the arguments that must have been started within the marriages of those Apostles that were married? It probably sounded something like:
Wife: Where are you going now?
Apostle: Me and the guys are going with this Jesus fellow.
Wife: Again? You’ve been wandering all over this countryside with him.
Apostle: Don’t start on that again. He is different, somehow.
Wife: Different? Is he going to put food on our table?
Apostle: No, he just says things that I feel inside me. I can’t explain it.
Wife: Mark my words. No good is gonna come from this. Just mark my words.
      And still, they stayed with Him, listened to Him, thought about what His words meant, and how they applied to them. What happened after those three years? What changed them? The best comparison we have in the terminology of today is when someone says a light bulb went on. OR RATHER…….
      Jesus told them that, only if He went to the Father, could He send them the Holy Spirit. Picture that first Pentecost. There they were, leaderless, afraid. They probably spent those days together praying, recounting the things that Jesus had said, and remembering the things that He had done. (Very much like our modern day retreats.) Maybe one, maybe it was Peter, or John, maybe all together, but at some point things began to make sense to them. Things started to add up. The more they thought, and talked, the more they realized the significance of Jesus’ actions, His words.
      Can you imagine that first Baptism of the Holy Spirit? They were probably crying with joy, fascinated with the goodness that had been part of them, and that was, now, in them. Joy, relief, understanding it came upon them in waves. They understood. They were fearful, no more. They may have been poor in the eyes of the world. They may have been considered ignorant, illiterate men. But, they possessed the most beautiful gift of all. The Holy Spirit had enlightened them, had given them wisdom beyond all comprehension. Their hearts were filled with compassion.
      Though it appears that it happened all at once, these men had been growing and learning beside the greatest Teacher ever known. But, the Apostles, who at times, floundered in their disbelief, who struggled to understand, who argued who would be first in the kingdom of Jesus, they had been reduced to shells of men because of the weight of all their anxieties. The goodness was there, had been nurtured by Christ, carefully shaping these men. It was there, but now, without Christ, they had allowed these things to overcome them, to cloud their vision. And then came their Pentecost.
      It can happen like that to us, as well. Our minds and nerves are overwhelmed with problems. Some are of our own making, and some are not. Our daily planners look more like children’s scribble we have crossed out and entered so many things. We say things like there isn’t enough time in the day, and don’t know where to turn next. We are confused, bewildered, stressed, anxious and many times even depressed. The more we twist and turn to extricate ourselves, the deeper we seem to sink in this quicksand of activity.
      This helter skelter life may actually be telling us, warning us that we are distancing ourselves from Christ. We have so much to do, we cry out, “WHO HAS TIME FOR PRAYER!!!” We flee the very thing our heart is craving, peace. It is time for us to begin the journey back. It may be shorter than we think. It is time to reacquaint ourselves with Jesus. It begins by reading about Him, getting to know Him again, talking to Him in meaningful conversations, listening intensely to hear His words in our heart. If we do these things, we cannot help but to love Him. Because we will realize that all He said and did, was for us, for me. His words, His love will prepare us for our Pentecost.

-1 John 2: 3
-2 John 2: 13-15
-3 John 2: 18-20

I Live, Now Not I…

Saul, why do you persecute Me?

     St. Paul’s words, “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me…”^-1 seems to be one of the best explanations of what Christianity is all about. Much has been written about the significance of Christianity and the meaning of Christianity. In these eleven words, I believe, St. Paul has succinctly described for us what Christian Living is.

Weddings: Their Joys and Sorrows

His Gentle Love

     Weddings are such special events, and they affect everyone who has the joy of attending. Those who are already married, find themselves thinking back to their own marriage beginnings. They remember their ceremony, their feelings of love and their intentions. The wedding provides for them, a time to remember and renew.

Our Weakness, Our Strength

On one of my normal outbursts in the car about the stupidity of other drivers, my wife just looked at me and shook her head.

On Joy

Today’s post on joy may seem a strange choice during this time of Lent. Usually, that is a time we talk of sacrifice, penance, and suffering.