Fear and Love

He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults. For as the heavens are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who fear him.
Ps.102:10,11

The psalmist reveals the mighty mercy and love God has for those who fear him.

The heavens are measurelessly high above the earth yet this is how God describes his love for me despite my sins. What's the qualifier? Fearing God.

Fear has a negative connotation yet scripture constantly holds up the fear of God as a great virtue. The fear of God is the start of all wisdom. Hearing someone is God-fearing actually makes us trust that person more. If they fear God, they are more likely to keep their word and treat others with kindness. It's as though they have one eye on God while relating to people.

The fear of God is more than just holding God in awe and wonder. It's making him my constant reference point, his mercy and love the mark against which I measure how I relate to people. This is both difficult and easy. Difficult because the smoke screen of the world works to obscure my view of God. Easy because God is constantly leaning down to reveal himself to me. I just need to look for him.

Jesus, you are God-with-us. I want you clearly in sight today so I may fear you as I love others.
Little Flower, please pray for me.

Death, Where is Your Sting

‘I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ 

Jn.11:25-27

Feast of Saint Martha 

Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus and is met by Martha who remonstrates that had he not tarried Lazarus would be alive. Jesus answers with a clear revelation of who he is and challenges Martha to state her belief in him. Martha gives the right answer and in that atmosphere of pure faith Jesus performs his great miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead.

Martha is coxed by Jesus to give her magnificent statement of faith... "you are the Christ, the Son of God". It seems Jesus uses her faith to fuel the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. Here he reveals that even death, the big bogey for all of us, is conquered by his love.

My mother, on her deathbed, accepted Jesus as the resurrection and the life after a lifetime of atheism. I saw the transforming peace this gave her, even commented on by my non-believing sister.

My proclamation of faith in Jesus means death has lost its sting and the door is opened for life, peace and joy to flood in.

Jesus, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.
Little Flower, please pray for me.

Wheat Among the Weeds

Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn. 

Mt.13:30

Jesus tells the parable of the wheat among the weeds to explain the Kingdom of Heaven.

This another time where Jesus tells the unpopular truth that not everyone is going to heaven. Some come into the the Father's house while others are gathered and burnt. Sorry, there it is. According to Jesus, Hell exists and it's unpleasantly hot.

This puts a sharper focus on evangelisation, especially on ensuring my family are wheat and not weeds. It's not just a nice thing to do. It's a matter of eternal life or death.

And then there's the matter of my own salvation. What assurances do I have there? Only the assurances of Jesus. "Come to me... I am the way".

Yes, weeds exist. They are life-choking. Wheat is life-giving. Today I am to be the seed on fertile ground, the wheat among the weeds to nourish those around me.

Jesus, sometimes the weeds, the cares and worries of the world, choke me. I flick those cares off my shoulders and lift my face up to you. I want to be life-giving in you today.
Little Flower, please pray for me.

Just Breath

Their descendants stand by the covenants and, thanks to them, so do their children’s children. Their offspring will last forever, their glory will not fade. Their bodies have been buried in peace, and their name lives on for all generations.

Eccl.44:12-14

Today is the memorial of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of Jesus. Sirach writes a hymn in honour of all faithfull ancestors.

I attended grandparents day at our grandchildren's Catholic primary school yesterday and had the joy of attending Mass with my six year old grandson sitting on my knee. I was reminded of how faith is caught, not taught. Teaching has to happen but the gift of faith is something that is breathed in. And to be breathed in it has to be in the atmosphere being breathed.

My faith was caught but not in the usual way. My children evangelised me, their non-believer father. They caught their faith from their mother, my wife, who in turn caught it from her parents. So God can give the gift of faith in many ways but it always involves relationships, usually within families. It's in a family where faith is practiced that faith is breathed in, that faith is caught.

As a mighty Kauri generates oxygen through photosynthesis, I still have a role to play in my children's and grandchildren's lives. I can generate a faith-laden atmosphere so it can be breathed in by those around me.

Lord Jesus, thank you for my gift of faith. Help me add faith to the atmosphere in my home so it can be breathed in by those close to me.
Saint's Anne and Joachim, please pray for me.

Family of God

‘Here are my mother and my brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.’
Mt.12:50

The crowd listening to Jesus is so large his anxious family can't reach him. Jesus uses the situation to explain that all who do the will of God are family to him.

This elevates the relationship with God that we are invited into. Jesus says we aren't just servants, we're not simply followers, we are family. Families live together, eat together, laugh, cry, squabble together. We are real with each other. Mostly, we love each other.

Our essential humanness, our strengths and failings, are revealed in our families. Families are messy but Jesus is saying that is OK. Why? Because the glue that holds our families together, holds my family together, is love. Today, when I love my family, I am doing the will of God the Father in heaven, I am part of the family of God.

Lord Jesus, your family thought you were crazy, misunderstood you. Family can be hard. Yet my family are my first church, the very ones I am to love first. Help me do God's will and be a father, brother, husband today.
Little Flower, please pray for me.

More Oxygen - Increase the Heat

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. 

Jn.20:18

Mary Magdalene stays weeping at the entrance of Jesus' empty tomb after Peter and John leave as "They still did not understand...". She was the very first to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus is alive!

Mary Magdalene's name is mentioned more often in the Gospels than most of the Apostles. She was at the epicenter of all that happened in Jesus' ministry, death and resurrection. Her great love of Jesus is held up today, her feast day, for us to model.

True to form, Jesus continues to use the weakest to first reveal himself. He could have used Peter and John but he didn't. They left the tomb still scratching their heads. It was to Mary, lost in her grief, paying the price of her magnificent love, that he first showed his resurrected self.

It seems that love is the key, like the love of Mary Magdalene. If I want to proclaim the Good News I need to love the Good News. Love will make me run down a hill and burst into a room shouting "Jesus is alive!" That sort of enthusiasm can change lives, can change the course of history, starting today...

Jesus, sometimes my love of you wanes. The cares of the world smother me. Help me push aside the less important so my love for you gets more oxygen and can blaze with heat again.
Saint Mary Magdalene, please pray for me.

Burn the Rule Book

'And if you had understood the meaning of the words: What I want is mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless. For the Son of Man is master of the sabbath.’
Mt.12:7,8

Jesus' disciple are condemned by the Pharisees for picking and eating corn on the Sabbath. Jesus defends his disciples by pointing out the hierarchy of true religion. Mercy is greater than sacrifice.

The history of the Church is littered with times when a genuine move of the Holy Spirit has had a picket fence built around it and membership tickets, with associated rule books, handed out. At such times the Holy Spirit quietly steps over the picket fence and moves on, leaving the membership tickets and rule books behind.

The Pharisees were still inside the empty fenced area with their rule books. Sacrifice had become an idol at the expense of mercy. Jesus set the record straight.

There's a little lawyer inside of me that loves rule books. They are so neat and tidy, so black and white. Mercy can be messy, painful even. Yet this is what Jesus calls me to be, not an agent of rules but an agent of mercy.

Jesus, help me be merciful with the people I meet today.
Little Flower, please pray for me.