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Read more about the article Your Faith Has Saved You

Your Faith Has Saved You

In the Gospel of Mark we encounter the story of the woman with a hemorrhage who follows behind Jesus in a crowd. She touches His cloak and is immediately healed. (Mk 5:21-43)  It is one of Jesus’s many miracles -- in the Bible and throughout history.  He continues to work miracles in our lives today, but so many times I hear people complain “Well, I prayed for healing and He didn’t listen to me.” These are among the most bitter people, disappointed and angry with God. So why does God heal some but not others?  I certainly cannot presume to know the mind of God, but I have pondered this question, and as I do, I turn to scripture as the key to unlock some answers.  “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Mt 18:3) There’s that word we all run away from: “change.” None of us really want to change ourselves.  We would be much happier if God would change and run things our way, so that’s the first stumbling block. He says to become like “little children.” Little children are humble and trusting.  They don’t think they have all the answers.  Instead, they turn to their parents.  They aren’t afraid to say “I don’t know” because they haven’t had enough time on earth to become prideful -- and they trust completely. Would it be so terrible to become like little children? Wouldn’t it be a welcome respite to not feel the need to have all the answers? To not have to be in control? To not feel responsible for everything? Wouldn’t it be a relief to put down those heavy burdens He never asked us to carry in the first place? True freedom actually comes when we have the courage to change – to become humble, to become trusting, to let God be in control. This was the disposition of the woman with the hemorrhage. She didn’t demand Jesus’s attention. She didn’t try to bend Him to her will. She didn’t even try to delay Him.  She only wanted to touch the back of His cloak. She was humble. She had complete faith in Him, trusting that she would be healed. He says to her, "Your faith has saved you." He didn't just heal her physical body; he saved her soul for eternity. The woman did something else we usually overlook. She listened when He spoke to her.  Do we do the same? Prayer is a dialogue with God which means both people talk and both people listen. Do we just talk at God to give Him our list of wants and consider our “prayer” done? Do we sit with a closed heart, hoping not to hear the voice of God because we aren’t sure we are going to like what He has to say? What about forgiveness? Have we forgiven our brothers and sisters from our hearts before approaching God? If my child comes to me with dirty…

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Read more about the article Good Friday

Good Friday

A non-religious friend of mine asked me, “What’s so good about Good Friday?  What’s so good about Jesus being tortured and dying?” It got me thinking about how lazy we have become in our language.  In Shakespeare’s time the average person used about 30,000 different words; we use about 5,000.  We substitute one word to mean so many things that the word loses its real meaning.  We use the word “good” when we mean “tasty” (a good meal), “entertaining” (a good movie), “pleasant” (good weather), “loyal” (a good friend), and let’s not forget “nice” (good manners). “It is good” spoken by God at Creation, gives us insight into what goodness really means.  At this moment there is perfect order in the universe.  All of nature is in harmony with God.  The “good” accomplished on Good Friday is that Jesus has completed the work to restore the universe to perfect order.  We have the opportunity to be restored to the state of grace that had been lost and can choose to live in harmony with God. What is good about Good Friday?  The price for our sin had finally been paid – one time for all eternity.  Every time God entered into a covenant with humankind, we broke the covenant.  He finally made a covenant with the one person who could and would keep it – His Son – and God became Man for us to make and keep the covenant as a Man for all humanity.  It is His fulfilling of the covenant perfectly that is “good.”  The word “good” is a reflection of God Himself in His glory, in His mercy, and in His love. It is this love which we seek to understand better and why Good Friday calls every Catholic home – even those who have been away for a while.  To contemplate His suffering is to enter into the mystery of His profound love for us.  We cannot grow in our love for Him without entering into mystery of His suffering.  It is this willingness to “compassionate” Jesus, to enter into His suffering with Him, placing ourselves at the foot of the cross next to Blessed Mother, that brings so many graces into our lives, enabling us to break the chains of habitual sin and free our souls to love Him more deeply and become the best version of ourselves. I have written 15 meditations of The Passion below.  They can be used for a 15 decade Rosary, a 15 decade Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or Stations of the Cross.  The tone in these meditations is unlike my regular posts.  They are very graphic, so sensitive people may find them disturbing.  If you don’t want to read them, stop reading here. 1st Decade:  Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he was more interested in keeping power. He knew that once he gave Jesus over to be scourged, the soldiers would be merciless to Jesus.  He had seen it before many times.  Many people never made it…

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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…

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