Christmas is our feast. The time we remember Jesus, born homeless in a shelter in Bethlehem. The time of hope, of the birth of hope. The time when we try, once again, to open up our hearts our lives and let God be born in us. It’s interesting. The Gospels begin with the Christmas story, the birth of Jesus, the power of God in powerless little child, and ends with the story of Emmaus, Jesus walking on the road incognito as a stranger among His disciples. What both stories tell us is that God has inserted Himself into this … Read More
Resurrection: We Can Make It
On this night, on this very different night, as the Jews say at the time of Passover, Jesus comes to teach us how to live and how to die, That the grain of wheat dropped to the ground and dying, Can then grow and produce; And so he teaches us how to lose in order to win. AND JESUS SEEMED TO HAVE LOST IT ALL. Before us, on Good Friday, we had Jesus on the cross, the broken man; Jesus, the grain of wheat stomped to the ground as so many poor people. Jesus, crucified on wood. He did not … Read More
Now There Stood By The Cross of Jesus His Mother
Shaking on his cross, his face covered with sweat and blood, his eyes bulging, Jesus happens upon the figure of his loving Mother standing at the foot of the cross. Everyone is shouting, making accusations, hurling insults, harnessing the condemned man. Only Mary, silent and powerless to help, offers comfort and support with her presence and probably her tears. “Come, all you who pass this way, Look and see whether there is any suffering like this suffering” (Lam 1:12). It is not enough that Jesus should suffer in body and soul. Even the most sacred affection, the affection we feel … Read More
A Note For Lent
A preface about Lent: People “give up” things during lent: Pizza, beer, lobster, whatever. But does it move us closer to God, Closer to one another, to ourselves? Maybe what we should work on at Lent Is CHANGING ATTITUDES. Leaving behind frustrations, fears, Cultural attitudes Which box in others. TO GIVE UP NEGATIVE, DEFEATIST ATTITUDES To see temporary setbacks as permanent To escalate disappointment into catastrophe To experience problems as insurmountable. To try to see other possibilities When things don’t go as we had hoped or planned. Sometimes I set myself up to feel like a failure Or to feel … Read More