3 Sentences

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while he is still near. Turn to Him for mercy. These three simple sentences could easily be overlooked in the first reading today, but in fact they are so profound that we could base our whole lives upon them. Seek the Lord while He may be found. In other words we have the ability to find our Lord anytime we seek Him. There are no preconditions. We do not have to be perfect or without any weakness or failings. We do not have to be sinless. In fact Isaiah is speaking to sinners, and those who are struggling not only in their faith but in life as well. We will find the Lord when we seek Him. This is a promise that God give to us. In your suffering seek Him. In your addictions seek Him. In your worries seek Him. In your fears seek Him. Do not be afraid. Seek Him. You will find Him. The second sentence confirms the first. Call upon Him while He is still near. The name Emmanuel means God is with us. Jesus is Emmanuel. So Jesus is near to you. In other words Jesus lives with us. He is part of our family. He is with us in our homes. He is part of our marriages. Call upon Him. He is among us at all times. Even when our lives are in turmoil Jesus is near. Even when we are constantly fighting Jesus is near. Even when we suffer terrible things Jesus is near. Nothing can separate us from His Love. He will never abandon us. Seek Him and call upon Him and you will find that he is with you in all your struggles and sufferings. He is with us now in the Sacraments to strengthen us and he is at home with you. He is at school with you. He is at work with you. If you turn to Him you will find Mercy. This is the third promise that God gives in the first reading. Jesus is the Mercy of God. The name Jesus means God saves. Our God is a God of Mercy. Today you can experience this Mercy if you turn to Him. Seek Him. Call upon Him. Do not be afraid. I am speaking to you sinners. I am speaking to you who have addictions and bad habits. I am speaking to you who are ashamed of you sins. I am speaking to you who feel worth less. I am speaking to you who have suffered abuse. I am speaking to you who have been used and told lies. I am speaking to every single person here. God loves you. He wants you to come now in your heart to Him. He wants to pour out His Mercy upon you and heal you. Do not be afraid. Seek Him now. Call upon Him now. Turn to Him now, and be free of all that binds you. No sin, no addiction, no abuse, no suffering is greater than His Mercy. Today he promises you this. This is how he sees you. You are His children. He wants to comfort and heal you. Come to Him Be not afraid.

2 Sinners Or Maybe More

St. Paul and the woman in the Gospel today are both sinners who have been forgiven. Paul himself says that it is only by God's grace that he is forgiven. It is God's decision to forgive them. Neither felt worthy of forgiveness. Both are thus overjoyed at the Loving Mercy of God. Both are humbled by His Loving Mercy. Both then serve the Lord of Mercy unafraid of the work they are called to because they have been given back their lives. They have found forgiveness. They have found peace. So they offer their whole lives in service. Such is the gift of mercy that it elicits this total response of love. Paul says that by God's grace he is what he is, an Apostle. We can say the same in God's Loving Mercy. We can rejoice in His Loving Mercy. We can acknowledge that it is God's choice to forgive us. We do not have to be afraid of what He will ask of us. We can find in Him freedom and peace. Thus we can offer our lives to Him. We can serve Him with joy for in Him, in His Loving Mercy we have found our life. So maybe we can humbly join these two sinners today and respond in love to the Lord of Mercy. Then one day we can be confident we will rejoice together with them in Heaven.

I Am Trying

"If you are wise, then you know you have been created for the glory of God and your own eternal salvation. This is your goal; this is the center of your life; this is the treasure of your heart." These are the words of St Robert Bellarmine. Today is his feast day. Often time in our spiritual life we are obsessed with trying harder or doing better. As if we have to achieve some level of worthiness before God will even look at us. This is such a foolish foundation. Of course it is based upon a lie. Many of us believe this lie and so step upon the treadmill of self help so that one day we will be good enough for God to look upon us. Utter nonsense. See the wisdom of St. Robert's words and listen to them. Be wise! Recognize that you were created for God's glory. His glory is seen within you, it is in who you are. Why did God do this? Why did he create you this way? So that he may love you. It is his goodwill and pleasure to love you as he has created you. What about your sins and failings? Be wise! See how he himself has remedied our fallen situation by sending his only Son to be our savior, our salvation. So that in Christ Jesus the Father could see and love in us what he sees and loves in his only Son. This the Father has done because he loves you. Stop trying so hard to do better and accept the truth of who you are as a beloved child of God our Father. He created you only to love you and he has redeemed you that you may live in that love for all eternity. Thus St. Robert continues to say that this truth of the Father's love is the center of our life and the treasure of our heart. So beautiful and wonderful is this love, is this truth that we are to treasure it and base our lives upon it. In doing so we live in the freedom of the children of God. We know what our goal is and that our Loving Father is working out our salvation. If we but know and treasure his love we have no need to fear, no need to try harder to measure up for the foundation of our life is secure. All that we do begins in the Father's Love. The wise embrace this and rejoice in the Lord. The foolish move on to the next exercise, our the next book, our the next speaker, or the next spiritual practice, constantly looking for satisfaction but never finding any peace.

Seek The Smile Of Mary

On this Feast of our Lady of Sorrows anyone who reads this blog should read our Holy Father's homily today from Lourdes France at his final mass before departing. We are blessed with a very holy and fatherly Holy Father in Benedict XVI. Listen to what he says in his homily. I myself had a hard time getting through it because of my tears. You can find it at www.whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com that is where I read it. Praised Be Jesus Christ and Mary Immaculate!

Exaltation Of The Cross

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. This is the day we recognize the victory of Christ Jesus over sin and death. In other words we celebrate the Mercy of God. When we stand at the foot of the Cross we come to know who we are in the Mercy of God. But we often prefer to be told who we are by our sins. What do your sins tell you? What does lying tell you? Are you not trying to be someone your not. What does gossip tell you? That you are better then someone else. What does cheating tell you? That it is good to get away with things. What does doing drugs tell you? That it is better to to escape real life and live in a fantasy world. What does greed tell you? That money equals happiness. What does excessive drinking tell you? That you deserve to relax because you work so hard. What does excessive gambling tell you? That one day you will hit it big and then all your problems will be solved. What about pornography? That it is okay to look at people as objects. What about casual sex outside of marriage? That we are nothing but animals and need to satisfy our base instincts. What does anger or a grudge say? That we better protect ourselves because no one else cares. How many lives, families, and marriages have been ruined by these lies. Not only these sins, but every sin begins and ends in a lie. Every sin ends with our betraying our very selves and often others as well. We often seek the comfort of our sins regardless of how they strip us of our dignity. We feel entitled to the comfort they provide. Our sins however are not a true refuge. True refuge is found only at the foot of the Cross of Christ. We have no right to embrace our sinful inclinations. We have no true need to embrace our sins. This feast of the Exaltation of the Cross reminds us that true freedom comes from the Cross of our Lord. Mercy is our true freedom and it comes from Christ Crucified. Stripped and nailed to a Cross Jesus restores to us our dignity and heals the mortal wound that sin inflicted upon us. When we look upon His Cross we come to know who we really are because we can see how much we are loved. Maybe no one else loves us. Maybe we feel abandoned and all alone. But we always have Jesus. He knows our loneliness because he was abandoned on the Cross. These are not just nice words, or childish sentiments. This is the truth of our lives revealed by Christ Crucified. Jesus loves you. You are His beloved. His Love is Merciful. No Lie! You are loved by name, personally. Come to the Cross and you will see who you really are in Christ's eyes. You are His beloved. So we celebrate the truth of our life found at the foot of the Cross. All of us have listened to enough lies in our lives. It is time we embrace this truth, and no longer live in fear of judgement and condemnation. Instead let us live in the light of the truth. Let us live in the Loving Mercy of Christ Jesus. The Loving Mercy we celebrate today as we Exalt His Holy Cross.

Listening To Christ Our Foundation

In the Gospel today Jesus tell us that it is not enough to come to Him with our requests and prayers. We have to actually listen to what he tells us and then act upon what we hear. In other words, His Word is the foundation of all our actions. How often do we repeat the same prayers over and over again waiting for the Lord to act in accord with our desires. We never really listen to His response. In not listening we become spiritually paralyzed and simply remain in our anxiety, or our misery, or our fear, and even in our sin. The foundation of our spiritual life is not doing things for the Lord, nor is it the voluminous repetition of prayers and petitions. Jesus reveals to us today that the foundation of our spiritual life is found in LISTENING to Him and then acting upon what we hear. How often do you listen? Is it only when you hear what you want to hear? If that is the case the house you construct will collapse. So how can one Listen to Jesus? Imitate Mary our Mother. Even in praying the Rosary Mary can teach us to listen to her Son. If we pray calmly the mysteries with Mary she will reveal to us what our Lord is saying to us in each one. Not only that but Mary will show us how to put what we hear into action. With Mary guiding us we will never be paralyzed, and we will not multiply our works and prayers in order to satisfy our own ideals of holiness. Instead we will quietly go about our daily labor pondering in our hearts the greatness of the Lord for looking upon his lowly servants. Like our Mother we will be blessed and secure for the Loving Mercy of Christ her Son will be the firm foundation of our lives.

The Purity of Paul's Intention

In this year of St. Paul it would be good to pay attention to the purity of his intention as he goes about proclaiming the Good News. He says in the scriptures today, that the duty to preach has been laid upon him. He goes on to say that he did not chose the work of evangelization. Thus free from his own selfish desires he can do the Lord's work. He does not count the cost and he makes a point of telling the Corinthians this. He is totally free. Free to succeed and rejoice as well as to be rejected and suffer. He is confident in God's Love regardless of what happens. The only concern he has is that he remain close to Christ. This is a great example and challenge to us today. Often we claim that we are doing God's will or being a Christian when in fact we are doing even charitable things to gain our own satisfaction. We are obsessed with success. We want to be recognized and approved of by people even as we say we are working for God. This is the opposite of how Paul lived and worked. Today we can reflect on our own intentions and see how pure they are. Today we can pray for the grace to imitate Paul's fine example of working and living for the Lord. This is the path to holiness and peace. Humble service to the Lord by serving our families, our children, our spouses. Serving regardless of the mundane nature of our job or the repetitious nature of our daily life at home. God must be part of all that we do, beginning with our initial intention up to the end of our daily labor. Then like Paul we will receive our reward from God for the good we have done and mercy for all the times we have failed. In this as it was for Paul, we will find Peace in Christ Jesus.