IF Christ is the Sun, and his rays are Mercy…
humility is the orbit which keeps us in the gravity of his Love.
SPIRITUALITY
The Master Painter
JESUS does not take away our crosses — He helps us to carry them.
So often in suffering, we feel God has abandoned us. This is a terrible untruth. Jesus promised to remain with us "until the end of the age."
OILS OF SUFFERING
God permits certain sufferings in our lives, with the precision and care of a painter. He allows a dash of the blues (sorrow); He mixes in a bit of red (injustice); He blends a bit of grey (lack of consolation)… and even black (misfortune).
We mistake the stroke of the coarse brush hairs for rejection, abandonment, and punishment. But God in his mysterious plan, uses the oils of suffering—introduced into the world by our sin—to create a masterpiece, if we let him.
But not all is grief and pain! God also adds to this canvas yellow (consolation), purple (peace), and green (mercy).
If Christ Himself received the relief of Simon carrying his cross, the consolation of Veronica wiping his face, the comfort of the weeping women of Jerusalem, and the presence and love of his Mother and beloved friend John, will not He, who commands us to pick up our cross and follow Him, not also permit consolations along the Way as well?
Wings of Charity
BUT can we really fly to heaven on just the lift of faith (see yesterday’s post)?
No, we must also have wings: charity, which is love in action. Faith and love work together, and normally one without the other leaves us earthbound, chained to the gravity of self-will.
But love is the greatest of these. Wind cannot lift a pebble from the ground, and yet, a jumbo fuselage, with wings, can soar to the heavens.
And what if my faith is weak? If love, expressed in service to one’s neighbour is strong, the Holy Spirit comes as a mighty wind, lifting us when faith cannot.
If I have faith to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.–St. Paul, 1 Cor 13
The Light of the World
TWO days ago, I wrote about Noah’s rainbow—a sign of Christ, the Light of the world (see Covenant Sign.) There is a second part to it though, which came to me several years ago when I was at Madonna House in Combermere, Ontario.
This rainbow culminates and becomes a single ray of bright Light lasting 33 years, some 2000 years ago, in the person of Jesus Christ. As it passes through the Cross, the Light splits into a myriad of colors once again. But this time, the rainbow illuminates not the sky, but the hearts of humanity.
Covenant Sign
GOD leaves, as a sign of his covenant with Noah, a rainbow in the sky.
But why a rainbow?
Jesus is the Light of the world. Light, when fractured, breaks into many colors. God had made a covenant with his people, but before Jesus came, the spiritual order was still fractured—broken—until Christ came and gathered all things into Himself making them "one". You could say the Cross is the prism, the locus of the Light.
When we see a rainbow, we should recognize it as a sign of Christ, the New Covenant: an arc which touches heaven, but also earth… symbolizing the twofold nature of Christ, both divine and human.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.—Ephesians, 1:8-10
Why a Sleeping Church Needs to Wake Up
PERHAPS it’s just the mild winter, and so everyone’s outside instead of following the news. But there have been some disturbing headlines in the country which have barely ruffled a feather. And yet, they have the ability to influence this nation for generations to come:
- This week, experts are warning of a "hidden epidemic" as sexually transmitted diseases in Canada have exploded the past decade. This while the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that public orgies in sex clubs are acceptable to a "tolerant" Canadian society.
DURING prayer this past week, I have been so distracted in my thoughts that I can barely pray a sentence without drifting away.
This evening, while meditating before the empty manger scene at the church, I cried out to the Lord for help and mercy. As quickly as a falling star, the words came to me:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit".
Leaping Upward
WHEN I’ve been free for a time from trials and temptations, I admit I’ve thought this was a sign of growing in holiness… at last, walking in the strides of Christ!
…Until the Father gently lowered my feet to the ground of tribulation. And again I realized that, on my own, I merely take baby steps, stumbling and losing my balance.
God doesn’t set me down because He no longer loves me, nor to abandon me. Rather, so I recognize that the greatest strides in the spiritual life are made, not leaping forward, but upward, back into His arms.
Peace
PEACE is a gift of the Holy Spirit,
contingent on neither the pleasure, nor suffering of the flesh. It is a fruit,
born in the depths of the spirit, just as a diamond is born
in
the
depths
of
the
earth…
far below either sunshine or rain.
An Extraordinary Day
IT is an extraordinary day in Canada. Today, this country became the third in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. That is, the definition of marriage between a man and woman to the exclusion of all others, no longer exists. Marriage is now between two persons.