Blaming God or Finding God

Not surprisingly, recently there have been articles speculating that this viral pandemic we’re experiencing is God’s wrath, His anger, His punishment for – and fill in the blank – everything from not being the devout and faithful people we should be to not being good stewards of the Earth.

God does not unleash plagues as punishments on people.

As Christians though, we’re not to dwell on that. Instead we’re to redirect our thoughts on what Jesus reminds us: “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”(John 3:7).

When each of us takes steps to confront evil in a charitable but just way… when we find ways to offer forgiveness and begin the hard work of reconciliation…. when we look for opportunities to be selfless and loving and reaching out to help someone in need – that is the gentle breeze of the Spirit working in and through each and every one of us who claims to have been “born from above.”

So for those looking for where is God in the midst of this crisis – look at the health care workers putting their care for the sick above their own well-being; look at the people who are creatively finding ways to reach out and to connect with people feeling isolated, alone and depressed; look at our volunteers helping the residents at Charlotte House-- look at the littlest of gestures – the kindness and genuine care offered by a neighbor to attend to someone else’s needs. It’s far too easy to blame God for the evil we’re experiencing and missing the reality of His grace, His blessing, His very spirit being at work through countless and oftentimes unknown, invisible folks.   Kind of as invisible as, say the wind – that is blowing and driving about bringing healing, compassion and new life in the midst of this storm.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are connecting through Facebook, Skyp or cell phone to make sure their neighbors are safe and sound with plenty of toilet paper, face masks, medications and food on their tables. As our church sign says outside the front door of our church “Put a Smile on Your Mask It Will Brighten Your Day.”

Feeling Separated from God

As a Chaplain you visit many different people from various walks in life. The one thing they have in common is that they are all facing a difficult time in life. It might be an upcoming operation, or rehabilitation or for some it is their final steps in life as they face a terminal diagnosis. On one of these visits there lies a young woman, about 35 years of age, when she sees me, she becomes tearful. When I ask her what is behind the tears, she confides that seeing me, she is reminded of all the bad decisions she has made in life, and that she will never be able to enter heaven because of those bad decisions. She feels separated from God and unworthy to reach out to Him.

As we continued our conversation, I ask her if there was a time she remembers when she felt close to God. She goes on with a smile explaining a time in a church yard she was swinging with her sister and singing songs to Jesus, and how amazingly safe and joyous it felt. 

Is there a time we can remember when we were or are especially close to God? Is there an emptiness in our hearts because we find ourselves separated from God because our lives have not lived up to what we think God expects?

As I explained to the young woman, Jesus came expressly to close that separation, to reach out from the cross, to welcome us to see the empty tomb, and to cure our unbelief as Jesus did to (doubting) Thomas when he showed his nail scared hands and wounded side. Jesus loves us, and gives us forgiveness for our confessed sins, and welcomes us into the safety of his arms and blessed assurance of an eternal home with Him in heaven.

During this difficult Easter time, when the news of the day brings in loneliness and fear, go back to that time when you felt closeness to God, allow Him to enter back into your heart, take His hand and fear no evil only His love. Accept the joy of Easter morning, for He has risen he has risen indeed.

Father in heaven, help all of us to look to you for strength and assurance of your love for each of us. Grant all those that support our communities, the medical staffs, first responders, police and spiritual comforters your protection from illness and harm. Remove any doubts we have in your sacrifice for us on the cross and your rising again. Bring us peace and strength during these difficult times. We pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It Started in the Dark

For a great number of my friends this Easter morning, this coronavirus seems to have been far more successful than the Grinch could ever have imagined in his most diabolical of schemes. The Easter Bunny had to file for unemployment this year. The Easter egg hunt that would have kids decked out in their new Easter outfits has been cancelled.  Family dinners have been sidelined with, at best, arranging a Zoom or Facetime gathering.

All of those things pale in comparison to the tremendous suffering of people who are ill; people who are exhausted as they try to care for those who are sick, or are pressed into extreme overtime as an “essential service” provider; people who have died; people who are grieving their losses and cannot even gather to mourn; people who are losing their jobs; people who are depressed, and anxious and filled with fear. It’s hard for us to say ‘Happy Easter’ with the true joy we normally do on this day.

Easter happened while it was still dark. If you had been in church this Easter morning, you would have heard me read John’s version of the gospel where Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John all encounter the empty tomb. They see the stone rolled back, they see the burial cloths rolled up – but there’s no earthquakes, no angels, and not even the Risen Jesus. Mary Magdalene saw the stone removed. Peter and John race to the tomb at her news. John tells us that he saw and believed. But then quickly adds they did not yet understand.

Easter happened while it was still dark . . . the first of Jesus’ followers were grieving in sadness, reeling from the betrayals and failures on their parts, overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. And encountering this empty tomb has completely disoriented them. Sound a lot like we are experiencing these past weeks

While it was still dark – the world completely changed.

While it was still dark – the promises that Jesus made were fulfilled

While it was still dark – while it still looked as if death had the last word, God’s word, His love, His life destroyed death.

There’s no shortage of people who feel they are in a dark time and a dark place. Yet, Easter still comes . . . Despite the locked churches and cancelled celebrations. Despite the social distance, the isolation that we’re experiencing in unprecedented ways . . . do we welcome, do we sense, do we believe in Easter?

For us today, the challenge is far greater than to just turn away from the fear of this virus. It’s more challenging because the importance of this day, Easter, for if Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead, we wouldn’t care about Him or remember, let alone celebrate, His birth.   But because He has risen from the dead, that good news, that great news has to move us. For Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John, Easter started in the dark, but it didn’t remain there – and neither did they. They returned to share that good news with their fellow disciples . . . and as they did, they encountered, they experienced the Risen Christ for themselves. We need to believe it and share it.  We have to allow Christ’s victory over all the forces of death and Covid-19 to work in us, here and now. 

Take a look at the smiling faces of our children from last Easter. This is the challenge to share with our kids and grand-kids to see our faith and hear our prayers that we believe in the Risen Christ. Let your children experience the Risen Christ in your home. Blessed Easter!

No Greater Love

A story was told some years ago that after a forest fire at a National Park, some park rangers made their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage. As they walked, a ranger came upon what initially was a sickening sight – a bird that was literally petrified in ashes, perched on the ground at the base of a tree.

Kind of put off by the sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. As he struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings. The loving mother bird, keenly aware of impending disaster had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety, but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body, the mother had remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

Being loved this much should make a difference in our lives. Hearing the Passion of Jesus Christ proclaimed on Good Friday by Maddie in a quiet church isn’t about hearing a story that’s long and familiar. The station that really made a difference was when His Blessed Mother held him when He was taken down from the cross. At that moment I  remembered what’s really important – remembering what perfect Love is; remembering that Love is more than just saying I love you but the actions behind those words. It’s about remembering how Jesus loves each and every one of us, and being different, being changed because of it. Know that this shepherd loves all of his children, their parents, grandparents, your neighbors and friends.

I know that this love takes place in our community when you have gone shopping for groceries for a neighbor, or when you called a long-distance family member to make sure they are safe, or when you skyped your grandchildren and wished them a Happy Easter, or when you felt sick and are self-isolating to make sure you won’t contaminate anyone in the community, or when you pray for the sick and dying in New York City. 

In the past 72 hours, I have had the privilege of serving as a first responder to people in New York City listening to their courageous stories of compassion for one another. May we all continue to be resilient, may our faith give us strength to persevere through this storm. As you drive by your church on Easter Sunday know that my Mass and prayers will be offered for your continured safety and good health.

Jesus is Risen. Indeed, He is Risen!

Loneliness

In the early hours of today, Friday, Good Friday, Jesus is praying in the garden, and the disciples have fallen asleep. At this moment, and really from this moment on, Jesus is astoundingly alone That aloneness, that loneliness can be very, very heavy. And as we look around us in the world today, there seems to be increasing technology. There's ever-increasing ways to communicate with people, and yet, there also seems to be increasing loneliness. I think one of the things we're called to do as Christians in the modern world is to look at this problem of loneliness, to see it as a very real poverty, and to ask ourselves how are we being called to address this very real poverty of loneliness, because most of us do not have to go very far geographically or in our family, in circles, and friends, to find that loneliness manifesting in very real and vivid ways. It's this loneliness, this aloneness, that can be so stifling to the human spirit. And it's this loneliness, this stifling aloneness, that Jesus was experiencing in the garden and, of course, experiences now as he goes on to carry the cross, as he goes on to be on the cross alone. 

And the aloneness theme then continues. The disciples—they scatter, and they must've felt alone and afraid. The fear feeds on the aloneness. It was only when they came back together in community that they found their courage, that they found their strength, that they reconnected and realigned with the mission that God had given to them. 

And so I think it's important for us to ask ourselves how are we being called to respond to the loneliness in our world today. How can we be the answer to somebody's prayer? Somebody somewhere, not too far from you, is praying that someone will come and relieve their loneliness, just as Jesus came to his disciples and said: hey guys, can you not just be with me for now or pray with me for now? 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that the reach out to one another and check to make sure their neighbor, their friends and family are safe and well. Your prayer on this Good Friday is a phone call to someone who needs your kind and reassuring voice. Ask them to go online and listen to Maddie’s Stations of the Cross.  https://Holyfamilyncchurch.org/