Jesus taught people about God, even in the face of death! This may be a strange way to begin a blog, but it is accurate, and at the same time thought provoking. Today’s Gospel, Matthew 14, 1-12, reads like a satanic modern day novel. It addresses the lust of Herod for Herodias, the wife of his brother, Philip. An evil oath made and a horrible promise kept. All of this happens because a young girl, Herodias’ daughter, dances before him. And then, it speaks of the beheading of John the Baptist, the cousin and friend of Jesus.
Why would Herod do something atrocious like this? To a man, that he quietly admired? That is one thought that screams out at us. Another thought is how did Jesus feel when He heard the news and the manner of John’s death? He was a man. He knew fear and sadness, just as you and I. John had reprimanded Herod, telling him that it was not lawful for him to lust after Herodias. For this John’s head was severed from his body to satisfy the wrath of the woman.
Jesus was preaching a revolution within people’s hearts and minds. He was advocating peace and love, not war and lust. He did not seek out wealth and riches. He could be found with the sick, the dying, the sinner, and the wretched of the earth. He was not addressing just one evil. He was overturning the lives of everyone. His call was for each person to review their lives, to see what it is, inside them that is preventing them from honoring their Father in heaven. Jesus knew that all mankind was suffering. It was suffering then; and it is suffering today. If John was beheaded, how much worse would Jesus’ own death be? “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” Yes, Jesus knew fear. He also knew, and preached with His own life, that good shall not bow down to evil.
He tells us, here in the 21st century that our lives must be lived in a manner that has concern for all. We cannot judge others. We must not. Each person that we see riding the bus, or the subway, each parent pushing a stroller, each service provider, every person that we pass by…all are struggling, are searching, all are wondering, “why me?” No one can point a finger. Not you. Not me. ALL are struggling. We don’t like this person. We don’t like that action. That person annoys us…we don’t know why… but that person annoys us. We allow our feelings, our anger, our frustrations, and our hurt to rule our lives. We should know better. We have been taught how we should live, and yet we do as we please. And Jesus, our Teacher, still says, “Come, follow Me.”
Tag Archive: Self-Knowledge
For some reason, prominent in my mind today is Jesus lying motionless in his tomb. The horrible events of yesterday are over. All the commotion and butchery, all the insults and pain have subsided. The coolness of the cave, probably even a little damp, seems to offer some comfort, some balm to the raw wounds of His tortured body. The deafening silence seems in awe of Him, Who is laid there.
He, who taught us every day of His life, who preached by word and example how our lives are to be lived, what does He wish to show us now, as He lies there quietly, motionless? Soon there will be the Resurrection. Soon there will be the proof that He would indeed rebuild the temple that was destroyed. But right now, as He lies there motionless, what lesson, what insight can we glean?
By dying yesterday, by willingly giving up His life, He took upon Himself all the sins of the world. Everyone’s, yours and mine, He shouldered. This is what redemption required. One sacrificial lamb, the Christ, would be offered up for the sins of mankind. By our Baptism into Christ, we acknowledge that we are sinners. And, bearing the stains of sin we needed to be washed free of the effects of our misdeeds. Regardless of when the baptism was, when we were young, or in the recent past, every day we live we acknowledge our indebtedness to Jesus.
Today, though, right now, there is no movement, no preaching, and no miracles. He lies there still, as though He is waiting for something to happen. Maybe today is for us. Maybe, today is our day to feel the pain, the sorrow, the shame, that our lives have caused. Maybe today we are to focus on where our lives are headed, to recognize that there are areas in our life that need to change. What has transpired over these two days was necessary because of mankind, us. Use this time to contemplate where your life is going. How important are these events to us? Do we really see and understand that Jesus is dying for US? His conquering evil and death is so that we shall be able to rise with Him tomorrow in glory?
After reading this, close your eyes. Picture yourself there in the small cave with the buried Jesus. It is just you and the lifeless body of Jesus. There is no noise, very little, if any, light. You have witnessed the Last Supper, the agony in the garden, the mock trial, the scourging, and the crucifixion. What do you feel? What are your thoughts? Here is a man who died for you! He suffered intensely, so that you would not. Does the direction of your life change? Does it need to change? What one thing can we do to unite ourselves completely with Jesus? What will show our total acceptance of Jesus? It is to have the same love and concern for others that Jesus has for us. Then, and only then, do we reflect Christ. Then, and only then, can we consider ourselves ready for the Resurrection.
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.”
Souls ready for entrance to Heaven
In the book, “The Mist of Mercy”, authored by Anne, a lay apostle, there is a section on Purgatory, I would like to address. No definitive, final judgment has been made by the Magisterium of the Catholic Church concerning the supernatural character of the messages received by Anne, a lay apostle. Nevertheless, the book has been permitted by the Church to be printed. It is in the spirit of viewing this work as spiritual food for thought and not necessarily as Divine Revelation, these comments are made. Like others, we await the final determination of this work’s authenticity, by the Magisterium.
The book contains quite a few sections where Jesus and Anne converse. The section on Purgatory is described by her as Jesus leads her from one level to the next. It is about the level farthest from Heaven (or closest to Hell) about which I wish to discuss. (Realize that this one or two page document will hardly do justice to the work about which we are discussing.)
In the level of Purgatory where the only relief given is the knowledge that Heaven will eventually be theirs, there is great anguish or so it seems. Each soul must come to terms with their sinfulness. The lives and souls affected by their unjust deeds weigh heavily upon them. Souls in this level, “…are compelled, by justice and the need for cleansing and purification, to revisit each sin and each impact of each sin on the souls of others, as well as the impact on the souls impacted by others. This, surely, is a heavy but absolutely necessary burden.” -1 Farther on, in the book, is discussed how we, the living, through our prayers can greatly affect the length of stay, each soul must remain in Purgatory.
It is about this last level, however that we speak to, in this post. All of us will need to, either now or later, look at our sinfulness, our transgressions, and come to terms with them. We will need to understand and feel how much we have hurt others, and therefore Christ, Himself. When we begin this thought process, this emotional status-check, we must be convinced already of our salvation, of Christ’s love for us. For without that, is to be in hell already.
So what can we do? Where do we start? First and foremost we must thank Christ, truly thank Him for redeeming us, forgiving us of everything ignoble about our lives. We must mean it with every fiber of our existence. After that, we should look at the following aspects of our lives and reflect upon each one carefully:
How do we think of others? How much have we hurt others with what we have done? Do we think ourselves better than others? If we do, then we will treat them accordingly, and as a result, hurt them. Do we help people? Is the help because we want to, or because we will feel noble, or because the person needs it? How do we treat our spouse, our children, our employees, our employer? Do we look differently at persons of color, of different races, of different religions? Where do our morals take us? How important is money, and material things in our life? What are we willing to do to gain money, fame and power? Are we slaves to food, drugs, alcohol, sex? What steps are we taking, to control these vicious enticements?
These, and thousands more, questions we can and must ask ourselves. Each of us has demons that we want to conceal, that we want to be rid of, or that we wish to cater to. Like a surgeon’s scalpel, our introspection must critically cut away the excuses, the “yeah, buts” in our life. We must see ourselves, our motives, our actions in the light of what do they do to others? What affect do they have with our family? Our neighbors? Our co-workers? Who will suffer as a result of them? To view them, in such a fashion, is how they will be viewed in Jesus’ gaze. We must pray to be strong so that we can be honest in our assessment. All we have to gain is eternal life.
-1 “The Mist of Mercy”, by Anne, a lay apostle, published by Direction For Our Times.
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