A Tribute to Rosemary

 

In Matthew’s Gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus yet another “test” question: “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?”  Jesus answers without a moment’s hesitation: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all our mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

 

Love God.  Love your neighbor.  On these two commandments hang everything else that matters in this world.  Period.

 

May I take a moment here to point out what Jesus doesn’t say in response to the Pharisees’ question?  Remember, at this point in the story, Jesus’s crucifixion is just days away.  Death is literally breathing down his neck, and he is rapidly running out of opportunities to communicate the heart of his message.  But when he is asked what matters most in a life of faith, Jesus doesn’t say, “Believe the right things.”  He doesn’t say, “Maintain personal and doctrinal purity.”  He doesn’t say, “Worship like this or attend a church like that.”  He doesn’t even say, “Read your Bible,” or “Pray every day,” or “Preach the Gospel to every living creature.”  He says, “Love.”  That’s it.  Love God and love your neighbor.

 

Okay.  But what does it mean to do this?  How are we to love?  This is where, I fear, our overuse, misuse, and even abuse of the word “love” gets us into trouble.  We claim to “love” many things.  We “love” our favorite celebrities, movies, bands, and television shows.  We “love” going on vacation, or reading a well-crafted novel, or watching the Buffalo Bills play football.  We “love” chocolate or bacon or sushi or spicy chicken wings. 

 

The invitation to love comes from our God who first and foremost wants our love — not our fear, penitence, or piety.  And we have a God who wants every one of God’s children to also feel loved.  By us.  Not shamed.  Not punished.  Not chastised.  Not judged.  But loved.

 

For several months, I have had the humble privilege of visiting and praying with Rosemary in the hospital. She is a beautiful witness of love for her devoted spouse Ted, her children and grandchildren. Ted shared that two weeks ago, a long lost goddaughter who we haven’t heard from in ten plus years heard about Rosemary’s plight from their daughter on Facebook and she hopped on a plane in Florida and flew in on Saturday morning.  His daughter picked her up at the airport and brought her to see Rosemary in the ICU. She brought a collage of photos of how much we were a part of her life as she grew up, a very emotional reunion.  She and our daughter talked and laughed for four hours with Rosemary.  Rosemary’s condition on that Saturday was transformed with joy and hope.  Ted could hardly believe it she was on a high on Sunday as well and their doctor was astounded as well. The goddaughter flew out back to Florida on Sunday. Ted shared that God works in strange ways…

 

So here is a beautiful example of what is it that we are commanded to do?  I believe the call is to follow in the footsteps of the one who stood in the presence of his accusers and enemies, and declared love the be-all and end-all.  The call is to weep with those who weep.  To laugh with those who laugh.  To touch the untouchables, feed the hungry, welcome the children, release the captives, forgive the sinners, confront the oppressors, comfort the oppressed, wash each other’s feet, hold each other close, and tell each other the truth.  The call is to guide each other home.

 

In remembrance of Rosemary who I had the privilege visiting in her home,  listening to her stories about her children and praying with her in the ICU, let me share this blessing prayer. 

 

The world now is too dangerous and too beautiful 
for anything but love.
May your eyes be so blessed you see God in everyone.
Your ears, so you hear the cry of the poor.
May your hands be so blessed
that everything you touch is a sacrament.
Your lips, so you speak nothing but the truth with love.
May your feet be so blessed you run to those who need you.
And may your heart be so opened, so set on fire,
that your love, your love, changes everything.
And may the blessing of the God who created you, loves you,
and sustains you, be with you now and always.

May it be so.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends and especially for the gift of Rosemary's faith, courage and her love of God and neighbor. To know Rosemary’s touch, her smile and joyful heart is a gift that guides us home close to the heart of God. May she rest in your tender loving arms and bring comfort to her beloved Ted, her children, family and friends.

 

Being Blessed by my Unchurch Friends

 

As Christians, we need to both bless our good “unchurch” friends and let ourselves be blessed by them. I am not comfortable with the term “unchurch” a reference to folks who no longer attend Mass on Sunday. However, when I research the internet, the labels include jargon like atheist, dechurched, or worse pagan. 

 

I have friends who aren’t professed agnostics or atheists, but they don’t exactly fit the description of a practicing Christian either. They rarely go to church, mostly disregard church teachings, pray only when in crisis, and are basically too immersed in life here-and-now to think much about God, church, and eternity.

 

But, even so, I love them dearly because they radiate life, sometimes in ways that shame me. There’s something about them that’s very right, inspiring even. They are volunteer firefighters, a grandparent providing legal custody of their grandchildren, or caregivers to elderly neighbors and family. Their presence brings positive energy, goodness, love, intelligence, humor, and sunshine into a room. 

 

Don’t get this wrong: this is not to imply that those who do go to church and try to follow the church’s rules are hypocrites and immature, while those who don’t go to church and make their own rules are the real Christians. No. There’s nothing enlightened about people drifting away from the church, thinking they are beyond church, living outside its rules, or believing that a passionate focus on this life justifies a neglect of the other world. That’s a fault in wisdom and maturity. 

 

However, the wonderful energy that we see, and should bless, in the many good persons we know who no longer go to church with us is precisely that, wonderful energy, not depth. But it’s on the right side of things, on the side of life. It’s wonderful, it helps bring God into a room, and it should be blessed. 

 

And that’s why, as Christians, we need to both bless our good “unchurch” friends and let ourselves be blessed by them. God is the ultimate author of all that’s good, whether that goodness, sunlight, energy, color, and warmth is seen inside a church building or outside of it. 

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, bless my unchurch friends, at their energy, their generosity, their warmth, what they bring into a room, and my heart lifts and I believe in God more deeply. God also made their sunshine and their warmth. They don’t go to church, and our faith community sadly misses their energy and spirit, but they’re on the side of life and that implicit faith, is a challenge for me to remain too on the right side of things.

 

 

No Water, Again!!!

 

What’s its like? The Kingdom of Heaven is like the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet. The king’s guests refused to come I mean the king was furious. Can’t blame him if it’s like most of the weddings I’ve seen that have a lot invested in a caterer, reception, musicians, a priest, florist, invitations so he sent more servants to go out and invite more people. Look we’ve the best calf come on down and they still refused to come now they had their excuses, they had good ones. They had to plow their fields, one had to attend a business, finally the king sends his servants into the street corners to invite anybody they could find and invites everybody.

 

Now his son’s wedding hall is teaming with people of all kinds. The king enters the gala and he sees one person not wearing wedding clothes and he asked a startling question. How did you get here without a wedding garment? He doesn’t ask who invited him or who let him in. Rather, he focused on what the guy’s wearing and he has him thrown out into the darkness.

Question, is God a snob just because the poor guy didn’t have the right clothes to wear to the wedding? However, keep in mind what a person wears for the wedding banquet is the sum total of what we have done with our lives. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul says: “As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (3:12-15)

 

 

What Jesus is getting at in his parable is we wear the clothes of our acts and deeds for everyone to see. In other words, a cup of cold water means the difference between heaven and hell.

 

On Sunday afternoon, Maggie our neighbor called for help to install a new shower faucet. Once connected, I turned on the faucet and no water came out. Maggie had a vendor come twice to her home to check the water in her well. She paid $500 for two  service calls and she has no water again. 

 

The wedding garment we might be wearing may be quite stinky from helping our neighbor repair a dry well, or maybe ragged tagged caregiving a dementia mother, or a little shrunken letting the kids have extra money for a class trip, but remember as they finished mocking Jesus at the cross they took the robe off him and placed his own clothing back on him to lead him on the road to the cross probably so he wouldn’t get their robes stained with blood as he carries the cross.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we accept the invitation to your banquet that means we want Jesus blood on our clothes because when we give a cup of water to our neighbor, it’s like Jesus blood touching our sin stained earthly garments and they become whiter then snow and that means they are the perfect clothes to wear to His heavenly banquet table. Next Sunday, you have an invitation from Jesus to attend a banquet, you need to RSVP. What will you wear? What deeds will you perform this week that show Jesus you are most welcomed at his banquet.

 

 

Making Choices

Jesus tells this story about two brothers who are asked to do something.  Their dad asks them to go take care of his vineyard.  One says no, feels bad and then decides to go.  The other says yes and then decides not to.  Jesus uses this story to get to a bigger issue.  He is worried about the religious experts and their salvation.  Because after this story, he refers to the fact that prostitutes and tax collectors who when they heard the word of God preached from John the Baptist, they made a radical change in their life. They had a conversion of heart.

The religious experts didn’t. They were collecting money for the government – they were helping the enemy Romans in suppressing their own people and basically stealing from their own people by charging a little bit extra that they could pocket themselves. Not very Christ-like behavior.

So Jesus is worried that a great tragedy is unfolding.  That if the religious leaders continue to choose to be blind to His presence, if they continue to be deaf to His words, they’re making a terrible choice that can result in a tragedy – them missing being a part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

You and I need to constantly be reminded that the call to repentance, the call to conversion, the call to turn away from sin is something we need to hear over and over because the devil is not going to cease trying to tempt us.  There’s never going to be a time where we have completely overcome them.  Jesus knows that – it’s why this parable is somewhat comforting, because neither son really acts appropriately.  The correct response to the father’s command should have been “Yes Father” in word and in action.  But His example isn’t that ideal.  He holds up the example of the son who said “No” to the Father’s request but then changed his mind and went.   Which highlights the fact that Jesus doesn’t ever use examples of people who never stray, who never doubt or question when he’s teaching. In fact it’s quite the opposite – The gospels are filled with examples of people who struggle, who disappoint, who fall away. And consistently, Jesus rejoices in the moment of conversion, holds up as an example the time when the person realizes they’ve messed up and turn back to him.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, there are choices and decisions we are confronted with every day that will either bring us closer or further away from the Lord.  Wherever we find ourselves right now, the importance of being both people of word and action is essential. Our Loving Father constantly is calling out to us… looking at us, His sons and daughters, seeing the great potential that is possible within each of us… Longing for us to hear that truth, and come back to Him, come back to His vineyard.

 

Thank Goodness

 

My good friend Denny volunteered his son, an electrician, to repair Maggie’s kitchen light that has been flickering for three months and driving her bonkers. It took me three months to find an electrician, but Cory had the repair completed in 20 minutes. When Maggie asked how much, he kindly nodded no thanks that he was glad to help. A nice God moment.

 

However, let’s be honest there are times when Jesus is outrageous when he teaches that everybody gets to receive the treasure of the kingdom and the blessings of grace no matter how much they have done.

 

Denny is a farmer and this week he will be harvesting his corn crops with the help of his sons and neighbors. He asked me to come and take photos of the harvest. This reminds me of another farmer who needed some help at harvest time. So he goes to the labor pool to the marketplace where the labor is gathered and he hires people for a normal day’s wage which today would be about a $100. Later he needs some more help so he goes back and he hires some more people. He does this several times throughout the day all the way till almost sundown and there’s not one hint that he’s going to pay everybody the same amount.

 

The people who worked all day, the people who worked eight hours the people who worked four hours the people who worked only an hour. Some worked in the blazing sun all day got the exact same pay as Johnny come lately. It wasn’t only unfair, what’s worse is there is no explanation why and it just drives me crazy.

 

It reminded me way back to 9/11 and the years afterward when Osama Bin Laden became a household name and so it took a lot of guts that day when the man who was teaching the children decided to teach the kids about Jesus’s greatest commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. That’s always a tough lesson because a lot of us really don’t want to love but the man’s example was even harder Osama Bin Laden. He asked the kids that day in church the whole world hates this man do you think God loves him? Everyone in church squirmed in their seats thinking of sons and daughters overseas at war yet somehow I think the teacher understood best of all God sends His reign on the just and the unjust.

 

According to the Scripture God is kind to the wicked and even to the ungrateful. God can act however He wishes. He’s free to love however He desires whether we deserve it or not, whether we like it or approve it or not. God is God and we are not. Frankly Jesus sounds a little outrageous even offensive doesn’t he and you know what, “thank goodness.”

 

Thank goodness that God is not just a God who gives us what we deserve but is also a God of grace. Thank goodness that no matter how much we may think that we’ve somehow earned God’s blessings and gifts the fact remains that we don’t. No one in this world is perfect only God is and everyone of us has regularly missed the mark in our lives. We may think that somehow that we’ve earned God’s favor but as soon as anyone thinks she’s worthy it’s good to remember no matter how good you are there’s always someone better no matter how much you have done. There’s always someone who has done more. None of us matches the holiness and perfection of God.

 

I thought I gave a lot to God until I saw the widow hobble up to the offering plate and give her last coin to invest in the kingdom of God. I thought I worked pretty hard for God until I read about a fellow who led a group of two million whiny complainers through the wilderness for 40 years and then Moses didn’t get to enter the Promised land. I thought I knew what suffering was and until I looked at the body of Jesus my savior, My Lord hanging on the cross bleeding, asphyxiated being pulled apart all the way to death no matter how much you do there’s always someone who has done more. So I say thank goodness, thank goodness we don’t get what we deserve or what we have earned instead verse 12 tells us that we have all been made equal thank goodness that God offers the same grace to the faithful elderly lady who attended Mass every Sunday for 63 consecutive years as He does to the thief gasping for his last breath as he welcomes Christ just moments before dying on the cross right next to him the ultimate holy moment of all. Thank goodness.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Frineds who are thankful to God for we deserve nothing but we have been given everything. Jesus is outrageous and for that I say, thank goodness.

God's Love Isn't a Reward

 

God’s blessings go out lavishly to those who don’t seem to deserve them.

There comes a point in life when our major spiritual struggle is no longer with the fact that we are weak and desperately in need of God’s forgiveness, but rather with the opposite, with the fact that God’s grace and forgiveness is overly-lavish, unmerited, and especially that it goes out so indiscriminately. 

 

God’s lavish love and forgiveness apply equally to those who have worked hard and to those who haven’t, to those who have been faithful for a long time and to those who jumped on-board at the last minute, to those who have had to bear the heat of the day and to those who didn’t, to those who did their duty and to those who lived selfishly. 

 

God’s love isn’t a reward for being good, doing our duty, resisting temptation, bearing the heat of the day in fidelity, saying our prayers, remaining pure, or offering worship, good and important though these are. God loves us because God is love and God cannot fail to love and cannot be discriminating in love. God’s love, as scripture says, shines on the good and bad alike. 

 

That’s nice to know when we need forgiveness and unmerited love, but it’s hard to accept when forgiveness and love are given to those whom we deem less worthy of it, to those who didn’t seem to do their duty. It’s not easy to accept the fact that God’s love does not discriminate, especially when God’s blessings go out lavishly to those who don’t seem to deserve them.

 

I have been a priest for over 46 years, and if someone asked me “If you had your priesthood to do over again, would you do anything differently?” My answer would be “Yes.” “I’d would encourage my superiors to be easier on people. We need to risk the mercy and forgiveness of God more.” 

 

As I get older I’m finding it harder and harder to accept the ways of God. Now that I’m old I’m struggling with all kinds of bitterness and doubt. That’s natural, I guess. But what upsets me is that I look around me and I see all kinds of people, young people and others, who’ve never been faithful, who’ve lived selfish lives, and they’re full of faith and are speaking in tongues! I’ve been faithful and I’m full of anger and doubt. Tell me, is that fair?”

 

In the end, we need to forgive God and that might be the hardest forgiveness of all. It’s hard to accept that God loves everyone equally—even our enemies, even those who hate us, even those who don’t work as hard as we do, even those who reject duty for selfishness, and even those who give in to all the temptations we resist. Although deep down we know that God has been more than fair with us, God’s lavish generosity to others is something which we find hard to accept.

 

Like the workers in the Parable of the Vineyard who toiled the whole day and then saw those who had worked just one hour get the same wage as theirs, we often let God’s generosity to others warp both our joy and our eyesight.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we are grateful that God’s grace is amazing. Our struggle with God’s mercy points us in the right direction. May we again pray: Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner and merciful to all my neighbors too and really mean it!

 

Forgiveness is Hard

 

 

I’m not a good forgiver. There’s something inside me that likes to cling to old wounds and injuries. There’s a part of me that just has a hard time of letting go, but I really want to become one. And I discovered that for most of us that’s really hard to do.

 

Sunday’s gospel reading is a tough one we like to avoid for it challenges us to be a good forgiver. Challenge number one, it somebody bullies you, humiliates you, or worse abuses you, you go to them and tell them to stop. It may be the hardest thing you have ever done and sometimes it becomes a holy moment and sometimes anything but.

 

The second step is if that failed, take the leaders with you so you have witnesses and third if that still does not work tell it to the whole church. You want to make this thing right if at all possible.

 

Sadly, if it’s still not resolved let the person who has harmed you be treated like a tax collector or gentile, in other words “shun them.” However to shun,  does not mean punishment rather it’s intended to be a hopeful discipline. We take this step in the hope that the person who has hurt us will miss being a part of the community, our family, so much that they will repent, that they will return and apologize, make amends and restore themselves with the community.

 

We want you here not out there, we want this correction to actually be a holy moment because as Christians we are more about restoring than we are about punishing. We are more about healing than we are about revenging. We are more about loving than we are about hanging on to the grudges and nursing old wounds.

 

Remember when it comes to forgiveness remember how Jesus teaches us to pray in the Our Father: “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Help me to be right with you O Lord and with the people around me it’s important because if I can’t love other people how can I possibly love you Lord.

 

Jesus teaches us to forgive seventy times seven that 490 times hoping to restore, to heal, to reconcile in other words love knows no limits. On the cross as people ridiculed, mock and gambled away his clothes, the soldier who won his garment playing craps overheard Jesus last words: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, have mercy on us sinners. Forgiveness is hard. Help us to forgive the people who harm us just as we hope to be forgiven by them and by you. Help us truly to be a person of peace, to seek healing, to pursue love. Lord Jesus have mercy on me, a sinner.

 

 

 

You Can Do Better

 

Mom called her son who was priest to come over for Sunday afternoon dinner. She was making lasagna his favorite. When she brought the tray out, took the aluminum foil off the top. he took a look and blurted out – “What’s that?

 

Mom very simply responded “Lasagna” – “But – What happened to it?” At which point his dad was trying to stop himself from laughing. His mother, now holding a knife in her hand just said “Nothing…nothing happened to it” “But why does it look like that?” It kind of looked like a flat tire… Angrily slicing it and serving it, she said “Just shut up and eat it…it’s good – just try it”

 

Denying there was anything wrong or different about it, he went over to the garbage – which she tried to block me from doing… and found an empty box what was labeled “No boil lasagna.”

 

He knew there was something wrong but this was no way near as good what his mom normally makes.

 

The reality is that none of us likes to hear “You can do better…” 

If it’s just some random person who offers unsolicited criticism we might respond: “Who asked you, Jerk???” But if it comes from a teacher, a coach, our mom, or a really good friend – that’s quite a different thing, isn’t it? In those instances, we realize it’s coming from someone who cares about us, who knows us, and probably knows – we’re capable of much more than whatever it is we’ve offered. 

 

How about us? We know all too well how difficult, how challenging it is to follow Jesus Christ, follow his teachings ourselves. We struggle, we’re tempted, we fail and fall. Sometimes multiple times a day (an hour?) But hopefully what makes it possible for us to dare to come before the is that in spite of those struggles and failures, we have experienced, we’ve come to know and believe in the immense love and mercy of God for us. God never tires of forgiving us, it is we who get tired of asking for forgiveness. Jesus casting his light into our darkness isn’t meant to hurt or embarrass us. It’s to help become the best person we can be.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we do not get discouraged when the recipe does not rise, or our efforts fail to please. Instead of getting mad at our spouse or friend, give us the  humility to understand that Jesus is telling us we’re worth the time, worth the concern… He knows us, knows how capable we are – the potential we hold. He knows we can do better.

 

But God

 

It’s a tiny little word and it shows up two times in this gospel. Verse 23 and verse 25. “But.”

 

Every time I think about “but” in the bible I think about Joseph in the Book of Genesis because like the Canaanite woman whose daughter is possessed in the Gospel today. Joseph understood the power of that one little word. Joseph was a devout dreamer, a coat of many different colors. At the tender age of 17 he had a dream that he would be a ruler and his brothers would be subject to him.

 

Joseph was foolish enough to share that dream with his brothers and they hated him for it. They resented him further because he was their father’s Jacob’s favorite. So ,one day out in the field they decided to kill Joseph. But the oldest brother Rebar prevented the murder and they sold him instead to a caravan of camel traders heading towards Asia.

 

Imagine yourself like Joseph your hands tied behind you, transported as a hostage with uncaring strangers to a foreign land. Your status plunge from favorite son and future ruler to a slave worth twenty sheklels, less than a camel’s value. Where is God in this dream? Sounds more like a nightmare.

 

But Joseph knew two of the best words in the bible are “but God.” That pairing occurs at least 42 times in Scripture. Words that mean that God is about to do something. Things may be going one way, regardless of appearances but God is about to intervene. “But God.”

 

David is in the wilderness, Saul is in hot pursuit searching to kill David but God did not give David into his hands. The Israelites are fleeing he Egyptian army not knowing how to escape but God led the people by the desert road through the Red Sea, :”but God.”

 

Let me remind you that God protects, God delivers, God intervenes, God saves. So it’s no surprise that Joseph knowing full well the dream that God has in store for his life when he encounters opposition and he gets a bunch of hostility he gets a bunch, even failure, yep. Two words to lean on. “But God.”

 

Situation worsens, Joseph at the end of his life is able to look at his brothers and say you intended to harm me but God intended me for good to accomplish what is now being done, saving of many lives.

When there appears to be dead ends, look for God’s detour signs. His course corrections. Because what we learn from the Canaanite woman in the gospel and from Joseph in Genesis is that dead ends may turn out to be holy moments. If the dream in your life is truly God’s dream, if he has given the destination, He will make the necessary course corrections. There are no dead ends, nothing is impossible with God.

 

Down in Egypt, God helps with the first detour, Joseph gets sold to a good man named Podermer, put him in charge of management over the household. Joseph manages the household and discerns God’s dreams astounds Podemer. But Podemer’s wife sexually harasses, sexually assaults Joseph and when he wouldn’t agree to an affair, she falsely accuses him of assault. So, he goes to jail. Another dead end. But in jail God found another good detour. The jailor puts him in charge of the prison and he interprets dreams for two different inmates who work in the household. One of them is released and returns to the Pharoah as cupbearer and he promises to remember Joseph and help him but he forgot. Dead end.

 

Two years later Pharoah has a dream and desperately needs somebody to interpret and the cupbearer says “Aha,” I remember this guy in prison named Joseph. He was filled with God’s wisdom, he interpreted dreams. He also advises Pharoah on polices for government and became the second in command. There was a dead end and God turns it into a holy moment. What seemed unholy has become holy. Joseph learned to trust God.

 

Trust God…

 

Joseph had dreams, his brothers sold him into slavery but God was with him. He was accused by Padermer’s wife and put in jail, but God was with him.. He was forgotten by the cupbearer but God was with him. It took 23 years for the dream to become a reality. A lot of twists and turns. False accusations. But Joseph had patience and persistence to wait and trust God.

 

So I invite you today as you hear about our parish being threaten to close and accused of false accusations to think about Joseph and think about the gospel, learn those two words, “but God.”

 

They work in every situation when you’re alone, when you’re wandering, when you’re struggling with the decision to go to trial, when you’re a committee member and tired of trying to save this parish, when you accused, when you’re teetering and ready to give up the fight, “but God.”

 

Joseph trusts God, despite prison, poverty, suffering. All the members of your parish committee and all of you who are parishioners need to “trust God” despite harassment, bullying and deception these past six months of detour.

 

Joseph despite 23 years of detour of suffering gets better, not bitter. And all of us on Divine Mercy’s committee and all of you in these pews are better not bitter.

 

God has dreamed your life and it will require your cooperation. As your pastor and your parish committee members we humbly ask your support to make a decision to move forward in our legal proceedings and give us your permission and support to go to trial to return this building to Divine Mercy.

 

There are challenges ahead and everyone will not get excited about God’s journey. You will get to a point what appears to be dead ends, setbacks, disappointments but in those moments turn to God. I mean really where else will you go. DON’T GIVE UP!

 

He will help you turn what would make you bitter, into something that will make you better. Because truly, there are not more beautiful words then, “BUT GOD.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God Will Catch Us

 

Yesterday, I was called to provide grief support to teachers at a daycare center. Last Thursday, a mom while driving to pick up her two-year old daughter was killed in an auto accident.

 

As I listened through their tears, one shared that when she heard about the tragedy, all she could think of was who was going to feed this child, where was she going to live. This mom was a single parent with no family. 

 

Go ahead and say it aloud, "How can your God allow this?” This child will never know the love of her mother. Her teachers are  devastated and will probably never get over their sorrow. “What meaning can this tragedy have except to prove that life itself is ultimately meaningless?"

Both teachers shared that they cried in their classroom throughout the day while taking care of their little ones. As I listened, I could only drank in their sorrow that filled the room and let the storm within their hearts run its course. 

 

To his credit, feeling himself sinking into the waves, Peter stretched out his hand to the Lord saying, "Lord, save me." And of course, Jesus saved him. Even in his failure Peter teaches us the invaluable lesson of always reaching out to the Lord when we're in trouble or when we encounter life with so much sorrow.

 

Many people find it difficult to believe in a loving God because of the suffering of the innocent. As a hospital chaplain for a decade in the pediatric unit and serving now as a trauma specialist, I am no stranger to doctors, teachers, nurses and parents brokenhearted, frustrated and angry because they could do nothing to save or even alleviate the pain of a child.

 

In the moment of sorrow, I have no wish to change a person’s feelings. “I feel the same way." I am a human being and have the same emotions as anyone else when faced with agony. Nevertheless, although my feelings are the same, my conclusions are quite different from others. What angers us is not God's indifference but our own powerlessness and the pain it causes us. If we can blame it on God or use their suffering to disprove the existence of God, we can relieve ourselves of a great deal of responsibility but we will not solve the mystery or relieve the suffering of these teachers.

Peter wants to walk on water, and Jesus says to Peter, “Come.” When Peter’s initial success morphs into failure, Jesus is there to catch him. Peter, the former fisherman, gets caught in the net of Christ’s love, safety, and assurance. Maybe the response to that failure was an even more important demonstration than the ability of someone to walk on water. No one, in fact, actually needs to walk on water. Many of us desperately need to know that God will catch us when we can’t.

Lord I pray for all my Sonshine parents whose child has died of disease, accidents or unknown cause. We need to know that God will catch us when we can’t understand the meaning of tragedy in our lives. Peter represents all of us as disciples. God does not work by way of miracles in our lives. He doesn't want us walking on water. He simply assured us that he would be with us always: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them....and behold I am with you always, till the end of the world" (Mt. 28:20). That Jesus is with us always should be enough for us.

 

 

Why Does God Let Us Fail

 

What would you think is Jesus’ favorite word? Most might say love and you know that’s fair enough since Jesus talked about love. “Love one another as I have loved you” that was essentially Jesus’ parting sermon to the disciples.

 

Now some might say fear. How many times does Jesus say “do not be afraid.” He gets to turn fear into courage so perhaps more than any other phrase in all of scripture Jesus says, “do not be afraid.”

 

Or, you might go in a different direction and you might say forgiveness. That word may very well define Jesus’s mission on earth. He suffered and died for the forgiveness of sins, my sins, your sins, everyone’s sins. Everybody needs to forgive somebody.

 

I think Jesus has another favorite word. I think Jesus’s favorite word is “rise.” Rise is the word Jesus uses every time he describes how he is going to establish his kingdom and unlock the Gates of Heaven. He’s going to suffer, he’s going to die, but this is the most important claim in all of human history. He said he was going to rise, he would literally rise from the dead so that he could do the same for you and me. He would do this at the moment of our death. Instead of us being alone, we’re going to hear a simple word of life, whispered into the depths of our souls, “rise.”

Rise to life again.

 

The story of the Transfiguration suggests that rising is not just a word applied to life after death. It actually applies to the here and now so we learn the disciples are faced down in the dirt, gripped with fear because they hear the voice of God the Father. They hear him say this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him and they’re unable to comprehend what’s happening.

 

They’re unable to comprehend that Moses and Elijah are there with them and they actually heard the voice of God and they’re down on the ground, prostrate facing the dirt trembling with fear unable to figure out what to do and what does Jesus do?

 

He comes over to them, he comforts them with a touch and he says “rise.”

To rise is to go from who we are to who we could be. Whether we are  gripped by fear or lost in the darkness of an addiction, a physical sickness, being discouraged, feeling broken. Whatever it is to go from that to a future of goodness, beyond comprehension, a future of peace and vitality and life and flourishing.

 

I mean there’s no story more attractive to the human spirit than the story of someone rising. Being the underdog. Our greatest glorious moment as human beings is not failing but in the rising up every time we fail.

 

Now think about this, God doesn’t prevent us from failing or falling. He doesn’t prevent us from doing that, He lets it happen. He does so for many reasons most of which are too mysterious for us to ever know but one of the reasons we do know is this. Nothing transforms the soul into something beautiful quite like rising quite like getting up when everyone thought you were destined to stay on the ground forever.

 

God parents us in this way. He lets us fall even if we have to fall over and over and over again because we need to rise. We need to rise for a particular reason so if there are things weighing you down in life, if there are things that may make you doubt the hope that you carry within you. If  you’re weighed down by the sense of your own inadequacy, you’re weighed down by the past opportunities you’ve missed in life, the burdens and cruelties of life. If you are weighed down by the  faces of those who have wronged you and set you back permanently in life. If you’re on the ground because your dreams are lying dormant somewhere in a forgotten corner of your heart. If Iife every day feels like an overwhelming blur of a burden, if there’s something you need to but don’t want to do because it’s hard or painful or you don’t think you can do it. If you’re growing restless or if you’re stuck at a rut in your life, if you’re just limping through your days just trying to get by, if life has placed an unfathomably large burden upon your shoulders and you have no idea how you’re suppose to carry it or if the reality of who you are in relation to who you thought you could be has shattered your world. If you move through your day dazed, disoriented or uncertain of what to do next. Hear this word, rise.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they hear the word of Jesus, hear the word that breathes life and strength into our souls. Hear the word of Jesus saying to you, “rise.”  Rise. Believing who you could be is not a forgotten dream but a god-given destiny.