April 28, 2014

Did the Good Samaritan walk away from the wounded man lying in a ditch beside the road? No.

Does Pope Francis walk away from those who are wounded and disfigured? No.

Do we walk away from those who are hurting and wounded? No.

Should we walk away from our wounded and disfigured Church?

The Resurrection reveals what God has done and is doing now.

April 21, 2014

Lord Jesus, roll back the stone that keeps me entombed in my self. Call me out of my darkness into the light of your kingdom where I may serve you in serving others. Empower me to bring your Light to the blind, your Word to the deaf, and healing to those crippled by their egos. Help me to help others live in the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

April 18, 2014

GOOD FRIDAY THOUGHTS

Power. It’s a drug that seduces everyone, an addiction that afflicts us all. We don’t think of it as a drug but it is… and it is heady. Those who have power always want more. The Evil One, the Serpent, offered it to Adam and Eve telling them it would make them like God. They could decide for themselves what was right or wrong, what was true or what was not true. They would control reality. The lie infected their very nature. “Truth? Pilate asked. “What is truth?”

Those who rule over us want more power in order to have greater control over us. They fancy themselves as gods, just as does Satan.

Our Savior was born among us in poverty and powerlessness, tightly wrapped in swaddling bands and placed in a feeding trough for animals. Our Savior died naked and nailed on a cross totally immobilized, in total poverty. After all, true poverty is the inability to access power. It’s where the Evil One wants us so he can have total control over us. He caused our Savior to be placed in a tomb, dead, immobilized and out of sight, with a great stone at its entrance, sealed and guarded by soldiers.

Rising from the dead our Savior smashed power in its very nature, making human power powerless, neutralizing its drug-like effect, revealing Satan’s lie, giving us a new Adam and a new Eve. Now, in the Garden of the Resurrection, we can walk in the glorious freedom of the children of God. True power is now ours. It’s no wonder that the rulers of this world want to keep our Savior hidden and locked, removed from our world, back in a tomb.

But our Savior is risen and lives now amongst us.

Alleluia!

April 7

Lines Written in Early Spring By William Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And ’tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:—

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?