Come, Holy Spirit!

Fill the hearts of Your faithful,

And enkindle in them the fire of Your love!

Early depiction from the Rabbula Gospels, 6th century

Do you realize that every time we celebrate Mass, we not only experience the re-presentation of Christ's sacrifice on Calvary, but we also experience the re-presentation of Pentecost?  We not only gather together as the ancient Hebrews did, in a holy place, to rejoice in the presence of the Lord among us, but like the Apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we ourselves are also filled with His presence! 

The Mass is the fulfillment of Jesus' high priestly prayer, which He made to the Father on our behalf before entering into His Passion (John 17),  "that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us."  At Mass, Christ is present not only among us, in the Word and in the Eucharist, but also dwells in the priest and in us, the people, who are gathered in Christ's name and enter into communion with Him-- and therefore into communion with one another as His body!

St. Joseph

Husband, Guardian, and Man After God's Own Heart

St. Joseph was of the house of David, and even more than was his royal father, Joseph was a man after God’s own heart-- for like the Lord His God Himself, his greatest desire was for mercy, and not sacrifice (cf Mt 9:13). His betrothed Mary's virtue seemed lost when she was found to be with child apart from him, but Joseph chose to spare her life and dignity rather than subject her to the tenets of the Law—under which he had every right to demand that the pregnant Mary be stoned as one who had supposedly committed adultery.

When God asked even more of Joseph, that he not only let Mary and her baby live, but based on the word of the Lord alone, that he consent to live as husband and father to them. Like a true son of Abraham, he gave the Lord his fiat without a word; without hesitation. But St. Joseph was not silent; he was unquestioningly obedient to the will of His God.

St. Joseph was more like Jesus and His Heavenly Father than any other man born of woman. While many may argue that no word of Joseph is recorded in the Bible, such is not the case. Like Jesus’ Heavenly Father, it was Joseph’s works which spoke for him—the greatest of which was preserving and caring for the life of the Son of God as though He were his own.

Abraham's Sacrifice: Rendering to God What is God's

Rembrandt van Rijn, Abraham's Sacrifice, 1655

A Reflection on Genesis 22:1-19

This passage represents the culmination of a series of events in the life of Abraham and in his relationship with God.  As that series of events seems to show, Abraham has now received everything God promised him:  the blessing of many possessions, land, God’s protection (as secured in Abraham’s covenant with Abimelech, the Philistine king), and the long-awaited promised son Isaac. Now God is going to test Abraham, but why? God’s covenant with Abraham is everlasting, but what about Abraham’s covenant with God? Has Abraham obeyed God thus far only in order that God would fulfill what He had been promising?  And now that Abraham has everything he desired, will he continue to obey God in all things?

But how can this be?  God is actually commanding Abraham to take his son, his one and only son, and offer him as a sacrifice!  That Isaac was finally born to Abraham was the fulfillment of the seemingly impossible. That God would ask Abraham to slay his son seems completely contrary to the nature of God and His own commandments; and that Abraham would obey such a command from God seems completely contrary to who Abraham is.  It broke his heart to have to send his son Ishmael out into the wilderness, to disown him and completely trust him to the care of God.  But this!

Yet Abraham does not question; he does not protest; he does not weep. He obeys without hesitation.  It would seem that God’s fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham has in turn brought about Abraham’s fulfillment of his covenant with God.  It took many years and many journeys and many lessons, but now his conversion is complete.  Abraham has become a saint!

In our own lives, in our own covenant relationship with God, He asks nothing less than everything from us.  But only because He has – in His Son, His One and Only Son—already given us nothing less than everything of Himself!  We say we will trust God in all we do, but then, like Abraham, we end up forgetting that God is with us, so we end up doing instead what we think best—because we think, after all, we have to look out for ourselves.  If only we would instead give Him our all and trust Him for all—because everything we have is, after all, a gift to us from Him; and when God asks for it all back, He is then only asking us to empty ourselves of ourselves, so that He may instead fill us with Himself!

Because Abraham was willing to give the gift of Isaac back to God as a sacrifice, God not only instead Himself provided the ram for Abraham’s sacrifice, but promised provision, peace and blessing for Abraham’s descendants to come, who would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the shore. If we then put all of our faith and trust in God and in the Ram He has provided as the One Sacrifice pleasing to Himself, we will have, as His promised reward, nothing less than eternal life.

Take Courage, it is I; Do not be Afraid!

For All Caregivers Everywhere
Matthew 14:22-33

Jesus saves Peter from drowning (Matthew 14:30-31)

Lord, what words of consolation can You give
To those of us who must helplessly look on,
As mind and body of loved ones crumble;
wash away before our eyes?
We know no comfort;
No comfort can we give them.
Our boat is a long distance from land,
Battered by waves of tears, anxiety, sinking in despair,
Our hearts torn and tattered like sails in the storm.
Yet in the midst of this terror,
It is then You come, unexpectedly,
Appearing like a ghost,
Looking like the very ones who are vanishing from our sight.
For where do we see You, Lord?
Not in a heavenly vision,
But there! in the same faces of those who no longer know us!
It is then that we hear You speak to us,
Seemingly out of mouths that can no longer form words,
Saying gently, yet ever so clearly,
"Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid!"