Emptiness

Genesis 17:3-9; Jn 8:51-59

In high school my basketball coach in seeking to motivate us would tell us to leave everything on the court; he wanted us to empty our selves on the basketball court in hopes for a good outcome.  Many times we did just that and in deed we were empty; in our emptiness we discovered our true strength, our true ability, our true identity as a team.

Abram prostrates himself before God; Abram empties himself before God; he leaves everything on the desert floor; in his emptiness he waits; in his emptiness God speaks to him; in his emptiness he discovers who he is meant to be, his true identity; Abram becomes Abraham and he shapes his life by the words God speaks.  

In his emptiness God speaks to him and he finds new life.

On Sunday, we will pray the passion of Christ, Palm Sunday.  Prior to that we will hear the words of St. Paul in regards to the condition of Christ, letter of Philippians, he directs our attention to Christ, who though was in the form of God deemed not equality with God but rather emptied himself, being found in human estate, and thus became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 

Jesus leaves it all on the desert floor to cavalry; he empties himself completely.

In His emptiness God speaks; in his emptiness God speaks to us.  We discover who we are in the emptiness of Christ, for we discover true love in such emptiness of self.   In his emptiness our true identity is revealed, we are sons in the son and our new name is Christian. 

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we re enter  that emptiness that brings life; every time we pray the words, "take this all of you and eat, this is my body given for you; take this all of you and drink it, this is my blood shed for all for the forgiveness of sin," our identity  and true dignity is revealed, we are loved and thus we have new life. 

It is in emptiness do we discover who we are called to be.

Truth and Freedom

John 8:31-42

Pope Benedict is his book, "Truth and Tolerance" written while he was a cardinal, shares a Buddhist parable to illustrate the importance of truth and how quickly it can be set aside on behalf of personal opinions.

The parable:

A king of northern India gathered together all the blind people in the kingdom and put them in one place.  He then led an elephant in front of them.  To each blind person he would let feel a particular part of the elephant and then say "this is what an elephant is like."  One blind person would feel the hairy end of the tail, one the trunk, one the hindquarters, one the ears, one the legs and so on and so forth.  Then he asked the question to all of them, "what is an elephant like."  Each person then began to explain their understanding of an elephant based on their experience; an elephant is like a woven basket, an elephant is like a store room, like a pillar, like a pot, like a plow handle, like a broom.  Quickly the blind began to quarrel with each other for the sake of their opinion and began to fist fight and destroy one another.

This is how the world is today.  People no longer seek the truth but rather they cling to their opinion.  Thus, truth slowly is lost do to the arrogance of pride that reigns in the human heart. 

If truth is lost then there can be no freedom.  Only truth makes man free.  In deed looking around at choices people make, it is sad to say that truth and freedom have been lost for the sake of opinions and convenience. 

Why?  Many hold religious truths to be a system of beliefs that are interchangeable and thus equally capable of being disregarded.  Christianity is not primarily a system of beliefs, Christianity is primarily a path to be followed.  It only truly becomes recognizable once you enter the gate and begin to walk the narrow way, only then is truth known, only then are we known to ourselves.

In seeking to follow Christ, we truly begin to recognize the truth of humanity because of the truth seen in the human face of Christ.  This is where freedom is found.  We all must be willing and ready to seek truth but we also must have the humility to be found by the one who seeks us, as Jesus tells us, "I did not come on my own, but He sent me." 

The argument that must precede any philosophical dialogue about truth with other religious systems must entail a more ardent following after Christ; we must walk the path that Christ walked, we must make the way of the cross for love alone is credible; crucified love seen in the face of Christ is the essential characteristic of truth that must be seen through us if truth is going to set us free.

Truth then is not about our opinions it is about God revealing himself in the face of Christ crucified and thus inviting us to a new understanding of freedom; we must let this voice of truth shape our lives and thus let freedom ring. 

Go forth

John 8:1-11

As we turn the corner on lent we finally reach the home stretch as we approach Palm Sunday.  Thus, this week is a week of preparation.  So much so that the prefaces at the Eucharist celebration this week  is titled the "passion of the Lord."  

In this preface the Church prays the following to the Father, "The suffering and death of your son brought life to the whole world, moving our hearts to praise your glory.  The power of the cross reveals your judgment on this world and the kingship of Christ crucified."

The power of the cross reveals your judgment which brought life to the world...these words are commentary on the words spoken by Jesus in today's Gospel to the woman caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you.  Go, and from now on sin no more."

In deed it is not condemnation Jesus comes but rather salvation, a salvation unto new life.  The life of grace poured forth from the side of Christ enters into our hearts and breaks us free from the bonds of sin and slavery and makes straight the narrow path paved with endless mercy. 

As we follow Christ we must believe that the words of invitation to the woman, "Go, sin no more," are not only an option but the true possibility of life in grace.  We can live anew, we can begin again, we can start over in Christ, each day, even today.

Every saint has a past and every sinner a future in Christ, in the new life in grace, where we are bound by love crucified in which we go forth not with our head down burdened with guilt but with our spirits high and hearts full of praise for the glory of God has stooped down to us and raised us up on the beams of the cross.  

Works of the Father

John 5:31-47

Jesus tells the Jews in the gospel that "the works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me."

The works of the Father seen in Christ are what?

Something that we do as Christians during the season of lent are to meditate on the way of the cross.  We make a point to take a little time out of our busy schedule to spend time walking the way of the cross.  

As we ponder that reality we truly begin to understand the works of Christ.   As we see him fall and rise and fall again, as we see him encounter strangers and family and friends we begin to understand what the works of Christ reveal.  

On the way of the cross, each station is one step closer to revealing the truth of the Father.  In the incarnation we celebrate the reality that God has a human face.  In the way of the cross we begin to understand that God has a human heart. 

Each station reveals the depth of compassion that radiates from God through Christ to us.  Compassion is the willingness to suffer with in order to raise up.  Jesus suffers with our humanity in order to strengthen our weakness and raise us upward in grace.   The human heart of Christ reveals the compassionate heart of the Father.  This is the great work that Jesus accomplishes. This is the true testimony that sets our hearts aflame with love.  

Thus, the way of the cross becomes a way of life, an invitation to new life; just as the Father suffers with us our weakness we too are strengthen to suffer the weaknesses of  others, becoming instruments of Grace, revealing the face of God once again to a world that seeks His face.

To Mercy Pity Peace and Love. 

All pray in their distress:

And to these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy Pity Peace and Love

Is God our Father dear:

And Mercy Pity Peace and Love,

Is Man his child and care.

For Mercy has a human heart

Pity, a human face:

And love, the human form divine, 

and, Peace the human dress.

That every man of every clime,

That prays in his distress,

Prays to the human form divine

Love Mercy Pity Peace.

And all must love the human form

In heathen, turk or jew.

Where Mercy, Love, and pity dwell

There God is dwelling too.

  William Blake

Hope

John 5:17-30

Hope is essential to life.  Pope Benedict in is latest encyclical Saved in Hope reminds us  "the one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of new life."

New life is what we all are in need of; a new life of freshness and vigor that keeps us focused reaches out to us through Christ.  

In today's gospel Jesus tells us that the Father wants to "amaze us", the Father wants to "wow" us.  Do we let God wow us.  Usually we let our expectations and our own plans interfere with the beauty that the Father is trying to work in us and through us.  What would happen if we embraced each day as a new fresh beginning.  Where we surrender our old expectations and rise from our slumber allowing God to "wow" us in his way. 

This is the foundation of a hope filled life.  No matter what happens, no matter the trials, God is seeking to "wow" us.  

Jesus tells us "the Father is at work until now and I am at work."  What a hope filled life knowing that we are not alone, that Jesus never ceases to work on our behalf, he never rest until we rest in him. 

Let us boast in the hope of the Glory of God.

water flows

Ezekiel 47:1-9,12

The prophets are special characters in scripture.  It is always amazing how they become the mouthpiece of God, speaking warnings and blessings to the people.  Often times they act out God's word before the people, prophecy in action, that sometimes involves not a comfortable reality.  

Hosea in proclaiming the word of God was told to take a harlot as a wife in order to illustrate God's love for his people.  Jeremiah was told to buy a loincloth wear it without washing then bury it for a long period of time only to dig it up after it had rotten as sign of how pride rots the person and it clings to the person as close as a loincloth. 

Ezekiel is also called to do strange acts of prophecy.  He is sent to give prophecy over a field of dead bones as a sign of God's power to bring life.  And in today's reading he is sent to the temple, which leads him on a swimming expedition.  

There is beauty in today's prophecy.  Ezekiel's action points to a tremendous blessings for all of us.  His prophecy is about the restoration of the temple, about restoration of worship.  What Ezekiel reveals to us is that true worship, right worship becomes a blessing that flows outward as a stream of life to the world.  

The stream that flows from the temple, a river of life giving abundance, is meant to be a sign of what those who worship rightly are to the world.  People who worship rightly will be a life giving stream to the world upon which fruit will be abundant.  

Of course, worship for Ezekiel is not just what we do inside the temple, but it is about allowing the worship of God to transform us into instruments of grace by the way we live, serve, and act toward others.  Right worship is right living.  What we do in the temple should necessarily be seen in what we do with out hands, words we speak with our mouth, and how we truly make room for our neighbors.   

We become the river of life, because in worship the river of life, Jesus, comes to us.  We do not walk out of the church, but rather we flow forth.  The world now has to swim in the abundant blessings we become by God's grace active in us.  If Ezekiel's prophecy is to be real then we must allow the water of life to flow through us and reach every corner of our small little world and thus the river shall truly rise and the flood of grace shall transform all.

Worthy

Luke 18:9-14

The parable: 

Two people went up to the temple area to pray; the Pharisee spoke thus, "O God, I thank you for not making me like the rest of humanity..."

We profess in the creed every Sunday, "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary and became Man."

He became like the rest of humanity...

The tax collector spoke thus, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner."

In deed, God becoming man, like the rest of us, is the invitation and hope of mercy.  God does not wait until we are worthy, but in taking our flesh and blood and making it His own, he makes us worthy...Is not this what mercy is about...making worthy.

As we pray at the Mass during the Eucharistic prayer II, "Lord we give you thanks for having made us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you."

Yes, Lord be merciful to me a sinner and continue each day to make us worthy by your graceful descent into our humanity.  Help us embrace this worthiness and live it abundantly in mercy to others.

Like the rest of humanity you are, Lord, so that we might become like you, and we are grateful for we are made worthy.