Alleluia, He's Alive

Happy Easter to all of you on this beautiful snow day in Michigan. I had an opportunity today to attend the 9:00 a.m. Liturgy where I had fresh Easter Lillie's right in front of me to smell, a group of about 12 people participating in the Mass using sign language, which was moving to watch them sing in sign language, and Fr. Jerry giving another brilliant homily that helped me understand how we Catholics should be Easter people everyday, all year.

We are just coming off a week of mourning for Jesus, fast, penance, and reflecting on our own death and resurrection. We have experienced the baptism of new members, confirmations, anointing, stations of the cross, holy water sprinkled on us, feet washings, and numerous other symbolic opportunities to connect with our faith.
Sacramental celebrations will always be a fundamental source for theological reflection. We are symbolic Christians who have experienced Jesus' victory over sin and death for our new life in Christ. Alleluia, now we just need to live it the next 364 days.

Social Justice, What's Our Purpose?

Matthew 25 creates the overwhelming responsibility and heart wrenching area of social justice that makes me sometimes wish I never would have discovered, what I really knew all along, but left my head in the sand. With millions of children and adults dying every year of starvation and the injustice taking place in our world, it is my obligation out of love to do more than I have in the past. The start of love is one person at a time in my opinion.

Discovering and growing my faith, discerning over obligations that go along with the betterment of the world as a result of my love for mankind, (Love your neighbor), and the grace that God has given me of salvation, talents and the ability to love are all obligations that need to be sorted out consciously to determine my purpose in life. Why it is some people can just say my purpose in life is to be a good father, husband, employee and go to church on Sunday and others like myself, have to make this journey very complicated and question weather we have really discovered our purpose in life.

The love and self-giving is an obligation that goes along with discovering Gods plan for us. It is also nice to realize that unconditional love is what God has for us. So when I sin or fail to fulfill my obligations as a servant, He will still love me and forgive me. It is also rewarding and comforting to know that this love has been there all the years when I was not there for God.
I guess, I really have discovered my purpose in life, however it’s like everything in the world today, change is inevitable. What do you think?
Picture Compliments of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ghavisualagency/1762930613/

Priests, Prophets and Kings –Who Me?

Prophets appear to have been inspired by God to see the divine plan during their signs of the times. As I reflected on some of my recent readings, I had to stop and think who might be Prophets today my life time? Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, all come to mind. I believe we have thousands of prophets living today or who have died recently, who have proclaimed God’s word in one fashion or another. Actually, we are priests, prophets and kings ourselves, as a result of the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist?

As I reflect on my own life I can see where I would have a long way to go in order to be any kind of a prophet like St. Francis of Assisi, Jeremiah, Isaiah, or any of the prophets of those times. Looking at their circumstances, I am not sure I would have been as brave, persistent, and obedient. I guess that is why it is a gift to be a prophet. Now, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Billy Graham have been prophets of our time and have charismatically inspired through Gods word, different concerns, complacency, errors, and ideas for our secular world to come out of its sanity. I am sure there are numerous others, like them who deserve the same credit; however as an illustrative example I have chosen these three.

Working with RCIA, visiting the Rescue Mission, Being a Eucharistic Minister or going to the nursing home does not make me feel like a prophet. Writing my Senator or local congressperson, sending a small donation to Catholic Relief Services does give me a sense of making an effort toward being a better prophet. I believe that is why we are priests, prophets and kings, so we can cover all these areas of ministry.

I think the purpose of a good prophet is to make his or her audience feel the guilt, pain and compassion concerning the situation. Over the past seven years I have tried to educate myself more and more with social justice and the current world situation, I have become very motivated to do what little I can to contribute to the cause of social justice. For me to be prophetic is to be moved to compassion, to stand with those who suffer and whom the world no longer cares about.

In the developing world 1.2 billion people are living below the international poverty line of earning less than $1.00 per day. It is a sin that 24,000 people die each day of hunger and hunger related causes. That is one person every 3.6 seconds who are made in the image of God and destroyed by the sins of omission. I must continue to ask, why are people starving around the world? Why is the USA, the richest nation in the world, allowing its people to live in poverty, and to be homeless in this land of opportunity?

I think I am becoming more focused as I continue to discern over the direction to take. I will need to become more focused in one direction in order to handle my personal work load and a balanced life. I only pray that the fire in my heart continues to burn so I can help in some small way to transform our unjust society and carry out my share of dignity with the Church and other Christian people, as one body in Christ to carry out our mission of priestly, prophetic and kingly people. I trust we will as Catholics, always have priests, prophets and kings in all the various ministries to hear God’s word and do God’s deeds. My obligation is to find out where I belong on this faith journey, so I can serve as a compassionate mouth piece for God in my time and place. What about you?

The Book of Job, Us Today, My Reflections

I have tried to put myself in Job’s position of losing his fortune and his children. That alone would be enough to make any person bitter, angry and hard-hearted toward God. Job received the ultimate test, especially with his friends blaming him, a righteous man, and his wife telling him to curse God. I honestly believe the test that Job was put through would be more then I could handle. Losing my possessions and being unhealthy, I maybe able to keep my faith, however losing my children the way Job did would require much ministering from someone better equipped then Job’s three so called friends. I also struggle with God in this story that he would play a game with Satan just to prove Jobs righteousness. Satan is termed as an opponent or adversary or one who opposes in Hebrew. This may explain why the story was designed the way it was. I think Job is a great model for all of us who will suffer disappointments, tragedy, sickness, suffering and death. The adversary or opponent is the one who inflicted the hard times, not God. God knew Job would be just, righteous, and fear the Lord.

I am surprised that even today many people believe that hard-times come to sinners. We are all sinners, we are all gifted in some fashion or another, and we will all be tested in some small or large way like Job was in this reading. I know God is the supreme judge and may afflict without cause, however that seems to be the mystery we do not have the answer for. Usually something good comes from our cross that we carry.

When my brother died fourteen years ago at the age of 56, I was very angry that I did not have the time needed to see him off. Although my mother suffered with pain at her death bed I felt at peace knowing that she understood the world of pain and did not blame God for her discomfort. She had the righteousness and patience needed to be a Job. My brother also handled his idea of death coming in his direction like a Job would. God gives us the strength we need to handle our crosses in life. He strengthened my faith when these two losses in my life came along, by putting me on a faith journey I never dreamed possible.

Job hints a few times in this story about afterlife which was not talked about much in those days. I can see where the wisdom books offer much insight for our daily ups and downs. God knows we just cannot understand the mystery of life, death and tragedy. I have learned from the Book of Job, a better understanding of the marvelous power that God has over tragedy and suffering if we keep our faith in Him. Although Job was God fearing and morally perfect, he still cannot challenge God. The moral of the story is Job recovered and also realized that he is the creature and God is the creator. I need to make the best use of this wisdom myself, for the future crosses in my life. What do you think?