Meditations

Read more about the article Nativity

Nativity

A Meditation on the Nativity from the perspective of St. Joseph:

We have traveled many miles to Bethlehem.  Mary and I are hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. So often she looks at me and smiles her gentle smile and I know that she is praying as I am praying. Yes, we are weary but at peace.  The journey will soon be over.  We will find an inn and rest.  Then we can report for the census tomorrow and return home to Nazareth.

Then Mary says very softly, “It is time.”  It is too soon.  We don’t have a place to stay. The sun has set and it is bitter cold.  I have given Mary my cloak and she is still shivering. I go from inn to inn and get more worried as time and again they say there is no room.  I search their faces for some shred of compassion – a baby is going to be born.  Mary and Jesus need shelter.  I can’t let them down.

Why is this happening? My dear Mary can’t give birth in the street.  I even plead with one man, but Mary says “It is okay. Don’t insist, Joseph.”  She is so calm.  I meet her gaze and see only love, compassion, and trust; I know that somehow it will be okay. I keep knocking on doors.  Finally, I am offered a place in the stables, a cave really.  The animals are there, but it is warm and dry.

I don’t understand why this is happening, but I trust that Our Father has His reasons.  I prepare a place for Mary.  I look for a place to prepare for Jesus and I remember the crib I made him – it’s back in Nazareth.  The hours I spent lovingly carving it, putting my whole self into that crib.  I wanted it to be perfect for Him. All that is in front of me is a manger – a feeding trough.  There is clean hay to put in it and use it as a bed.  I am thankful for the clean hay.

Mary settles in and I sit and pray.  Suddenly there is a brilliant flash of light and I hear baby Jesus crying.  He is here.  I wait until Mary has wrapped him in cloth and I go and kneel before Him.  Mary smiles and says, “Here Joseph, hold Him.”  Hold Him? Hold God?  I am about to say no, but He looks at me and smiles and then gives a little shiver from the cold.  I go to Him and hold Him close to my heart.  I will keep you warm, My Lord.

After a while I hear noises outside.  “Who’s there?”  “It is only us. We are shepherds.  The angels told us the King of kings is here.  We want to worship Him.”  I pull aside the curtain and they file in.  They tell me how thousands of angels filled the sky and sang so sweetly that they would never forget that music, that love, that joy they felt.  They came at once.  As they see Him they kneel down in homage.  I see their grubby faces transform into radiant joy.

I begin to contemplate all of this.  Shepherds.  The poorest and humblest of our people, yet the angels came to them.  And they, they believed.  No questions, no doubts.  God is born and lying in a manger, go worship Him. And they did. Such reverence, such love, such faith. 

And now I understand why God chose a stable; the innkeepers would have never let them in.  The dynasty of kings came from a shepherd such as these – David, a man after God’s own heart.  The humble and pure of heart draw God’s loving glance.  These shepherds are the faithful ones who have waited in joyful hope.  And He has come to them.  He has met them where they are. He chose this stable so that he could come to them, the faithful ones.  And the last shall be first. Praise God.

Pope Francis has declared the Year of St. Joseph from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021 and granted Plenary Indulgences. For more information, go to: Vatican News

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Read more about the article The Book of Job

The Book of Job

Then the LORD* answered Job out of the storm and said: Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance? . . I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its size? Surely you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it? Into what were its pedestals sunk, and who laid its cornerstone, while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God* shouted for joy? Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place for taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from it?  Then Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.  I have spoken but did not understand;  things too marvelous for me, which I did not know. (Job 38:1-7,12-13, 42:1, 3) (Bible.usccb.org)

This excerpt from the Book of Job is familiar to all of us.  Job has lost everything and everyone. His body is wracked with sudden disease and pain.  He is a good man.  Why is this evil visited upon him? He demands answers from God.  We have all been in Job’s shoes to some extent at some point in our lives.  We understand Job and can empathize with his sorrow, anger, and despondency.  Miraculously, God enters into a conversation with Job.  The conversation does not go as Job planned.  Instead of answering the question Job asks, God shows him the depth and breadth of creation – oceans, jungles, stars, galaxies.  Job is overwhelmed.  With humility he realizes with Whom he is speaking and how little he has appreciated everything God created simply so that man could exist.  He reconciles with God, not because God answers his question, but because God answered the question buried deep in the recesses of Job’s heart that he was afraid to ask:  Have you abandoned me? Do you still love me?  When God entered into a conversation with Job, He was telling him that he did indeed matter.  He had not been abandoned.  When God showed him the entire universe in a glimpse, Job finally realized that everything was created for his benefit; everything was created to support life on this little blue-green planet, because as tiny and insignificant as we seem in comparison to the universe, we matter. We are loved.

Even if God had answered Job’s original question, Job would not have understood the answer.  The Incarnation had not happened yet and Job could not have comprehended the answer. We can see Job as one of us, but he is also a type of prefiguring of Christ.  Job is a good and faithful man who loves God with all his heart.  Jesus is perfection and loves God perfectly and completely. As Job’s fortunes go from bad to worse, he does not curse God but instead continues to bless His Name.  Even after Jesus is arrested and tortured, He remains in His Father’s Will, moving toward His plan of redemption. When Job finally he cries out to God and submits himself to His will, everything is then resurrected for him.   Jesus cries out to the Father from the cross, then hands over His spirit; in three days He is resurrected.  It is only through Jesus that we can make sense of suffering.

So why do bad things happen to good people?  Bad things happen because sin and death entered the world when Adam and Eve, created in a state of grace, chose to sin — and the rest of us haven’t done any better.  There is no such thing as a private sin that doesn’t affect anyone else. The sin of a single person affects everyone.  Because sin creates disorder, there is a ripple effect everywhere, even in nature itself.  

But this isn’t cause for despair because God has fulfilled His promise.  The Incarnation – God becoming man has happened and that has changed everything.  When Jesus chose to take on human form and experience every single human frailty and hardship, He gave value and meaning to these experiences. As a baby in Bethlehem born in shivering cold, hiding in Egypt away from all family connections, losing his beloved St. Joseph, hungry for 40 days in the desert, chased out of town for his teaching, betrayed by one of his closest companions, abandoned by his friends, maligned by people for speaking the truth, tortured and put on a cross for a crime He did not commit, He experienced every possible suffering that can be experienced. 

He did not come to end the human suffering in the world.  He entered into it with us, immersing Himself into the entire human experience, using every moment of it to glorify God and thus giving value and meaning to all of it.  So, when we experience injustice and suffering, we can offer these up to Jesus as prayers.  As we ask Jesus to join our suffering to His suffering on the cross, He takes this offering and gives it redemptive value.  No longer is suffering meaningless pain, but a gift offered to the Father for the salvation of souls.  When we give this gift with love, it is then we become most like Jesus.  The angels rush to our side to comfort us, our Blessed Mother embraces us, and Jesus makes His home in our heart and gives us His peace.  It is the gifts of love, given with a generous heart, that store up our treasures in Heaven, treasures that will never pass away.  Suffering is therefore not an abandonment by God, but an invitation to imitate His Beloved Son.

Thank you to Bill Fuller for giving me permission to share this beautiful photograph of the desert sky which inspired this post.

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Read more about the article Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Poor in Spirit has nothing to do with wealth; it has to do with detachment from material things.  Yes, it is pleasant to have a nice home, an expensive car, beautiful clothes, and a respected reputation in the community, but these things are only pleasures for this world and do nothing to advance our holiness and lead us to Heaven. 

Detachment may seem difficult, but it is easy when we have the right mindset.  I have known many people who received a cancer diagnosis and not one of them ever said to me, “I don’t want to leave my stuff.”  On the contrary, they were worried about leaving children behind, or how their families would suffer. With all the fires in California in the last few years many people had to make split second decisions on what to take with them.  They took children, pets, their cell phone (which connected them to family and friends), and family photographs if they had time.  No one showed up at a shelter with their big screen tv or their trophies or awards.  We really do know what is important when we have perspective; we just need to put it into practice on a regular basis.  Recognizing these material blessings as temporary gifts intended to be shared, is where we begin.  These material gifts only bring graces to us when we use them as God intended. 

My father-in-law was a wonderful example of sharing his gifts with others. At his funeral, a man told my husband that his father had loaned him money for funeral expenses.  Someone else approached and said, “Your father is the only person who would loan me money for my son’s legal expenses when he was in trouble.”  My father-in-law never mentioned the debts to anyone, including his wife, and always treated these gentlemen with courtesy and respect.  Both of these people eventually paid him back in full and were grateful for his kindness and generosity.

It is in true charity that we encounter the face of God.  To see Jesus in the face of the one in need and be moved to reach out in love, is an encounter with God.  To receive that gift knowing that our loving Father has sent this person to help us because He loves us, is also a grace.  True charity is the virtue of love in practice.

“. . .For Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”

This is the great truth the world does not know.  We gain all things in Heaven by being detached from the things of this world and using them for good.  A paintbrush is merely a tool, but in the hand of Michelangelo it was used to create the paintings in the Sistine Chapel.  For hundreds of years millions of people have contemplated God in that Chapel.  In sharing our gifts with love, we open ourselves to intimacy with Our Lord and this is how we experience the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.  God is love.  Love is in the eternal now, so the only treasure we have on Earth that we take with us to Heaven is Love. This is the treasure we can store in abundance.

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Read more about the article Baptism in the Jordan

Baptism in the Jordan

When we think of John the Baptist, we tend to picture a “fire and brimstone” preacher telling people to repent.  But the Baptism in the Jordan leads us in a better direction to reveal who John the Baptist was.  John was present when the Blessed Virgin Mary visited his mother Elizabeth.  He recognized his savior and leapt for joy in his mother’s womb.  From this moment we know that John was special. Luke 1:15 says “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother’s womb.”  The Holy Spirit filled John with sanctifying grace and he responded to this grace throughout his life.

John spent years fasting and praying.  Fasting magnifies our spiritual life and deepens our relationship with God far beyond what prayer alone can do.  Fasting allows us to see the things of God more clearly and be more open to the direction of the Holy Spirit.  So when John preached to the people, there was no doubt he was responding to the Holy Spirit.  And how does a preacher convince people to repent?  By being a force so full of love that people respond to him and his message.  He speaks in truth, yes, but also in love and mercy, drawing people in and inviting them into a deeper relationship with God.  In order to do this, John radiated peace, love, and joy.  He also radiated humility, “I am not worthy to untie the strap of his shoe.”  The people came to him in droves and confessed their sins.  As Catholics, we often choose to go to priests who connect with us, respond with love and understanding, and give us spiritual guidance. The people of John’s time were the same.  They came in droves because he did not condemn, but offered them love, hope, and mercy. 

St. John the Baptist was able to offer these gifts because he was a man of humility, the most misunderstood of the virtues. Humility is not putting ourselves down or wallowing in feelings of worthlessness.  On the contrary, humility is the grace to understand who God is as Creator, to know who we are as His creatures, and to see our neighbors as beloved souls created in the image and likeness of God.  In true humility we grow to love God more and seek a deeper relationship with Him.  Just as fasting magnifies our prayers, it also enables us to grow in humility, and as a result, experience the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Because of John’s great humility, the Holy Spirit revealed the Messiah to him and he proclaimed for our benefit: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29).  He knew what most of Israel did not; he knew the Messiah would restore the people to the intimate relationship with God they had lost through Adam’s sin.

John’s call was a call to love, a call to willingly transform their hearts so that God could make His home there. The words of John still speak to us today, inviting us to transform our hearts through prayer and fasting.  Our Lord loves us so much that He offers us the same grace that He gave John — to come before Him face to face and experience the love that surpasses all others.  He humbles Himself in the form of bread and waits for us to approach in Eucharistic Adoration so that He may speak to us in the quiet of our hearts. And if we invite Him, He will make His home here.

Continue ReadingBaptism in the Jordan

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