From the category archives:

Thought for the Day

Calming the Storm

June 21, 2009

From the Gospel reading today, Mark 4:35-41, we get the wonderful image of the Calming of the Storm.

Yon Galilee

The Sea of Galillee is known as Lake Kinneret around and about Israel. Kinneret means ‘harp’; the lake is harp shaped, though the name is taken from an ancient town which was located on the northwest shore. Galilee means “circle” and it’s the name of the lake and the region where it is located.

It’s below sea level, about 695 feet below at that, making it the lowest freshwater lake in the world. Because it is so low, air from the nearby mountains or deserts can settle in and cause rapid shifts in weather patterns, creating huge storms over the sea. It’s one such storm that the Gospel brings to life.
calming of the storm 1695
I visited the Sea of Galilee several years ago and was struck by it’s beauty. No picture I have ever seen does it justice, or prepares one for the rich abundance of the area. It’s no wonder God chose to live in that area for several years.

One of the most popular images of the calming of the storm on the internet is a picture of that name done by Rembrandt, The Calming of the Storm . It’s currently on the list of the FBI’s Top Ten Art Crimes! Who knew! (Great images of Biblical themes can also be explored via the Biblical Art Site.)

man of gentleness, man of peace, with words of life

Exploring and meditating on the life of Jesus Christ, which of course is what a Christian does, we note he’s a man of great gentleness, a man of peace; his words are life giving.

That description has been with me for several months now, and I keep going back to it, dwelling upon it to model my own life. In the calming of the storm we often look at the metaphorical level: Jesus calms the storms of our often troubled lives.
calming of the storm rembrandt

That’s great. Obviously.

But we should also look to the fact that we are called to be Christ-like, and that we are called to be people of peace in a world which is often troubled.

A must see.

There’s a movie made in 2002 about John XXIII, his life, his election as Pontiff, his pontificate and ultimate calling of Vatican II. It’s a must see.

In it, he says of the Pope to be elected, that he must be a man who has peace in his heart. Because if a man has peace in his heart, then all else will work out well.

And of course peace in our heart comes from submission to the rules of right living, which is what a submission to Christ is. A true submission in humility, patient endurance, in love… It’s not about an idle or fearful subservience, rather it’s a submission to the rules of right living, a recipe for greatness, and a call to nobility of character.

Right living produces right results.

St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians reminds us today about love. The Corinthians were the recipients of a fantastic reminder of the greatest gift, the gift of love, in Paul’s first letter to them (1Cor13 ) Of course being all too human they needed a second letter from Paul to stay on course. (I mention that because I can relate to so well to being human.)

Through love, a loving personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through faith in him, we are transformed and made mysteriously new. All things are renewed by Christ’s redemptive work. It’s mysterious; no one expects that everyone will believe or accept that fact.

But it’s also true, and will transform the lives of those who believe. Immersed in Jesus Christ we are made new; we become a new creation in a mysterious, yet very real, way. We become oriented to understanding the mysteries of Faith, of Scripture, religion, of spirituality.

People of Peace

Becoming an instrument of peace in the world today is probably one of the greatest things that one can do with one’s life. We need to have healing hearts. We need to all become men and women of peace, men and women of gentleness, whose words are life giving.

Thomas Merton wrote of peace:

To adopt a way of life that is essentially nonassertive, non- violent, a life of humility and peace is in itself a statement of oneís position. But each one in such a life can, by the personal modality of his position, give his whole life a special orientation.

It is my intention to make my entire life a rejection of, a protest against the crimes and in- justices of war and political tyranny which threaten to destroy the whole race of man and the world with him. By my monastic life and vows I am saying no to all the concentration camps, the aerial bombardments, the staged political trials, the judicial murders, the racial injustices, the economic tyrannies, and the whole socioeconomic apparatus, which seems geared for nothing but global destruction in spite of all its fair words in favor of peace.

I make monastic silence a protest against the lies of politicians, propagandists, and agitators, and when I speak it is to deny that my faith and my church can ever be aligned with these forces of injustices and destruction. But it is true, nevertheless, that the faith in which I believe is also invoked by many who believe in war, believe in racial injustices, believe in selfrighteous and lying forms of tyranny. My life must, then, be a protest against these also, and perhaps against these most of all.

Our lives are a witness to peace.

John XXIII left us great advice:

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.” John XXIII

john xxiii
For future reference, check out the Catholic Peace Fellowship.

Called to greatness, called to noble lives, we are instruments of God’s peace in our time on Earth.

Men and women of peace, men and women of life, of gentleness, with words that are life giving for all.

So let it be written. So let it be done.

Mark 4:35-41
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
35And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
36And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?
39And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm.
40And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Sacred Heart, and a Year for Priests

June 19, 2009

I’m all set to write something and suddenly I cannot upload images because my computer crashes all the time!  That and evidently there are some java issues going on.  But that won’t get me down because I, of course, can cleverly post images via source codes. Sacred Heart

EWTN’s site has a beautiful Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which is entirely appropriate for today’s Feast.

Someone was asking about the picture of the lamb I posted the other day, and it actually has to do with one of my favorite Scripture passages, John 1:5 ,  “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not comprehended it” (depending of course upon your translation.)   The lamb is the light of the world, see.  When we experience darkness in our lives, it’s good to think upon Christ shining in the darkness, always reaching out to us, always calling us to himself, into his Sacred Heart.

I was thinking about this yesterday because of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night.

Starry Starry Night

Van Gogh was of course insane… people ponder that perhaps his entire life was a spiritual journey. But then elsewhere I read that his spiritual life would be gone because he suffered with addictions to absinthe, alcohol, God knows what else. And I was left to ponder upon Christ’s work in our lives.

You see, for everyone, because everyone is addicted to something even if it’s coffee or chocolate (and thank God there is chocolate,) or operates at some level of dysfunction, (it’s referred to as a part of original sin by some, or as part of our fallen human nature,) Jesus Christ reaches out as the Divine Healer. All through the Gospels he goes out to the leper, goes out to the blind man, cures them, heals them, makes them whole, brings them back into the fold, back to the Father.

Especially when we are wounded or wandering, lost in a sea of brokeness, we should be aware of God’s presence mysteriously in our lives because he goes after the lost sheep with ardor. How much would he search for that one lost sheep while the other 99 were safe, and how much would he rejoice when we came back into the fold.

Greatly. Very much greatly.

Jesus …

I beseech Thee, through Thine infinite Goodness, grant that my name be engraved upon Thy Heart, for in this I place all my happiness and all my glory, to live and to die as one of Thy devoted servants.

Amen.

Mark 4:35-41
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
35And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
36And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?
39And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm.
40And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?
John 1:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
5And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Doxology

June 10, 2009

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen”

When I think upon the doxology I think upon many things.

The Trinity is a mysterious revelation; Father, Son, Holy Spirit, a community of divine persons so richly complex and unfathomable that I’m humbled merely contemplating them.

Then too come the whole idea of a personal God, a God of three persons. I had lived my life after ‘growing up’, so often trying to transcend everything, trying to thinking of God as an abstract energy in the universe running through all things…. that God has a personal nature, and reaches out to me specifically in a broken world still humbles me. It’s hard to accept sometimes, and gives me pause.

Created in the image and likeness of God, we are called also to communion of persons. So I often find myself in this short prayer that I often say throughout the day, thinking of all the people that I know, that I have known.

I think about my parents who have gone before me, my grandparents. I think about my immediate family and our ongoing dramas. I think about my friends and loved ones and wonder about how they are doing. I think about my enemies, the ‘hands of all who hate us’ (because let’s face it, not everyone gets along in the world…)holy_trinity

I think upon all of those people, and of those who’ve gone before and of those who will come after and how we are all somehow interconnected as children of God, as unique and beautiful creations more marvelous than the lilies of the field, created little lower than the angels, whose nature now sits at the right hand of God himself. And that’s a very beautiful image of all of humanity, struggling as it were through darkness and through light.

I think of all those others during the last part of the prayer especially; “as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever, world without end.”

Looking around the world and seeing the sun rise and set, feeling the wind, noting how beautiful all things are, all of the problems of life fade away, even momentarily. All of this has existed for ages, it will exist for ages… God was the same then, God will be the same in the future, God is the same now.

And it boils down to ‘Now’. God is a communion of persons, and in all of the created glory of the universe every moment is created to be filled with His glory. All persons throughout history can share in the glory that is always present, always given in every moment, every day, throughout all of eternity.

God is reaching out in a personal way to me, calling me to forgiveness and to repentance, calling me to love, calling me to at least try to live for the glory of eternity. God is calling out to all of us in a manner filled with a deep and personal love beyond description.

Praying the Doxology I am rooted in time and in space, connected to past and to future, becoming an anchor of God’s love wherever I am, reaching out to my Creator for understanding, knowledge, wisdom, strength, joy…

No wonder it takes me so long to get through my prayers.

Mark 4:35-41
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
35And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
36And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?
39And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm.
40And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?
John 1:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
5And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Tagged as: , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Tobit

June 3, 2009

The Book of Tobit is a treasure. (Today’s readings rather alarmingly cuts from verses three to sixteen…)   One of my friends was laughing over the story yesterday about bird droppings getting in Tobit’s eyes:

On the night of Pentecost, after I had buried the dead,
I, Tobit, went into my courtyard
to sleep next to the courtyard wall.
My face was uncovered because of the heat.
I did not know there were birds perched on the wall above me,
till their warm droppings settled in my eyes, causing cataracts.

As he becomes miserable and cantankerous, yet still speaks with an assumed long suffering nobleness, his equally long suffering wife chimes in:

So she retorted: “Where are your charitable deeds now?
Where are your virtuous acts?
See! Your true character is finally showing itself!”

They really are living in horrible times, in the diaspora after the kingdom has fallen. He’s blinded by bird doo, which can only be called unfortunate, and their life becomes a misery. The angel Raphael is sent to help them! And help them he does, eventually being an instrument of God’s healing for poor Tobit’s eyes.

A major point being, they live in horrible times yet they remain faithful. They experience tragedy, drama, the onslaught of evil, yet God finds a miraculous and mysterious way to help them. It’s a very human tale, with humorous moments, insights into the mysteries of Faith, and lessons in living through difficult times.

Tomorrow we backtrack through the Book of Tobit a bit, which makes no sense to me. Can’t we just read the story? If the point is to read through all of Scripture in three years, why chop it up so much? Especially Tobit which not many people read as it is.

It’s a short simple and delightful book. Highly recommended!

And you can tell everyone about the Archangel Raphael, one of only three Archangels found in Scripture, and about the great exorcism prayer that Tobit’s son Tobias(h) prays with his wife before they go to bed on their wedding night. A lot of people should read that prayer because they like to have it at their weddings, but that’s a different story, though no less charming.
PWI91053
Raphael tells some interesting things about how angels interact. He appears to be human, and they see him eating and walking with them, etc. But he eventually tells right before he leaves them, that what they saw was an illusion, since of course angels are spirits and don’t eat or drink, or really even walk for that matter.

Times may be difficult, but life doesn’t have to be lifeless. There is only life, and God is always reaching out to us in it, often through all the people, things and events of the world  …. seen and unseen.

Mark 4:35-41
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
35And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
36And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?
39And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm.
40And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?
John 1:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
5And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Tagged as: , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The Advocate

May 19, 2009

confirmation

And when he comes he [the Holy Spirit, the Advocate,] will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

That’s pretty amazing. Talk about a different world view. So we’re convicted in sin, righteousness and condemnation?

“Sin because they do not believe in me.”

If we really believe in Jesus Christ our lives change. Our actions change; we can never go back to the old self without a sense of wrong. It’s sort of like the guilty feeling when you quit smoking and suddenly find yourself lighting up out of the blue. It’s just never as enjoyable again, because you know it for what it is.

“Righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me”

What in the world is righteousness anyway (And why don’t I know that by now)? Webster’s defines it as:

The quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude.
Note: Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it chiefly occurs, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law.

We’re simply restored in our basic nature by the mysterious salvation which Christ ensures for us.

“Condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned”

Are our lives ordered towards a genuine belief in Jesus Christ, or towards the ‘things of the world’?   The world, created by God, is indeed good.  But we are called to live a properly ordered life; i.e. to have our priorities straight and our heads screwed on right. 

The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will teach us all things and will speak to our conscience about the truth of sin, about growing in holiness and uprightness, and about the enemy of our souls.

Sounds like a pretty good friend to keep in touch with.

Mark 4:35-41
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
35And he saith to them that day, when evening was come: Let us pass over to the other side.
36And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him.
37And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled.
38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him: Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?
39And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased: and there was made a great calm.
40And he said to them: Why are you fearful? have you not faith yet? And they feared exceedingly: and they said one to another: Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?
John 1:5
View in: NAB NIV KJV NJB Vulg Greek
5And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Tagged as: ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }