If we live long enough, we will experience the death of someone we have loved. If we live a long life, we will experience even more of the pain of losing those close to us. I remember my maternal grandfather sharing with me when he was around ninety that he had outlived most of his siblings and friends. Unfortunately, for too many death is a daily event through violence in all its forms. Grief during this time of loss is a natural human response. It is certainly not an emotion to be suppressed.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus showed shared: “But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts” (Jn 16:6). Jesus was preparing them for his suffering and death, but also letting them know that they would not be left alone. He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them. The Apostles were not able to understand what Jesus was talking about. Who can blame them? They had no point of reference for someone dying and rising again, let alone that he would ascend and send the Third Person of the Trinity to be with them.

The Apostles would not only feel the grief of the loss of Jesus, they would also experience the fear of the same persecution that took him and experience the fear of their own death. They betrayed Jesus, abandoned him, yet, except for Judas, because he had taken his own life, Jesus came to them again after his Resurrection, and forgave them. Jesus would in a short time ascend, and the disciples, with Mary, would experience the love and grace of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they faced what was before them head on, even unto their own violent deaths, except for John. The fear of death had no more power over them, their grief and their fear were turned into joy from their encounter with the Risen Jesus and the Love of the Holy Spirit they experienced first hand.

For us, as with the Apostles, grief is real, because death is a loss, it is a change in our present reality. Though we need to remember that we celebrate this Easter Season for fifty days for a reason. Death has lost its sting, death does not hold the final answer. Jesus has died, entered into the fullness of everything that death threw at him, and conquered it. Jesus has died for each one of us so that we can also rise with him, and be with him and our loved ones again for all eternity.

Although good news indeed, this may be all a bit too much to take in. We can believe in our minds that death does not have the final answer, yet we may still feel the grief, the pain of loss, or the fear of the unknown as we or another we love prepares for death. Let us be honest with our emotions, and not stifle them, thinking by showing grief that we are in some way less of a person of faith. We need to feel the pain of our suffering. In allowing ourselves to enter into our pain, we will experience the Risen Christ who is waiting to embrace us in the reality of the truth that he has conquered death.

To experience our grief is healthy, but we must resist holding on to our grief or be attached to it. The time of grief is different for each person. “There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Jesus has welcomed our loved ones home with him and is preparing to welcome us home when it is our time as well. We can experience the foretaste of heaven now when we pray to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Love shared between the Father and the Son, so we can come to believe and trust that death does not have the final answer, but Jesus does, and so live our lives each day as an Alleluia people!

Photo credit: Flo Maderebner from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 28, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052819.cfm

What is common to all of us is that we will all experience some expression of loneliness to varying degrees consciously, or mostly unconsciously. We are social beings, we want to belong, to be part of, and we are communal. We may do, say, or turn a blind eye to behaviors that go against our conscience just to be accepted, acknowledged, or noticed. This behavior further feeds our loneliness, because though we may be accepted, we become more alienated from our true self.

At the core of our being, what we all seek is to be loved and to love. We strive from the moment of our conception not only to exist but to actualize the fullness of our potential. Through our time of gestation we are not potential human beings, we are human beings actualizing out potential. A difference between me typing this now and me when I was in my mother’s womb is that before and after my birth, I was smaller and more vulnerable.

We as human beings are a living, craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another from the moment of our conception until our natural death and continuing on into eternity. This is true to the believer and the atheist alike. Until we embrace this deepest of needs and desires, we will be restless, anxious, and unfulfilled. We can feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of a hundred people or daily likes on social media.

God has made us for himself, and constantly invites us to be in relationship with him and with each other because he is the foundation and source of our being. Sin is the turning away from that invitation, a curving or caving in on oneself away from God and others. It is also the unwillingness to bother or care, to reach out toward another in need. For what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to God. We are not just to be pro birth, we are to be pro life, and we are invited to promote a consistent ethic of life.

Jesus became human in his Incarnation to show the importance of the dignity of the person and that it is grounded in our relationship with God our Father, meaning we are all brothers and sisters. Jesus was not plan B, but he was always the primary plan. In the fullness of time, when God so willed, he sent his Son to became one with us so that we can become one with him. Jesus is the face, hands, and body of God. He came that we might see and experience God. Jesus experienced all we experienced except for sin, because he never in any act rejected the Father. His whole life was a yes to the will of God. Jesus is the bridge, the way to love and be loved, authentically.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues his farewell discourse. He prepares his disciples that he will be returning to the Father, and that he will not leave us alone. He will be with us for all ages. This is so because as the Son of God made man, in his Ascension, he returned to the Father not just in his divinity as the Son, but also in his humanity. God created all of humanity and his creation as interconnected, and because of that, we all experience this transcendent act of the Ascension.

Jesus shared with his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 15:26-27). Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the embodiment of infinite Love experienced and shared between the Father and the Son. We become sharers in this divine love and communion of the Holy Trinity through our participation in the life of Jesus.

As we experience and enter into the love of God and develop a relationship with him we begin to feel alive, we begin to heal and to feel whole, because we have experienced the love we have been made for. We have experienced being loved for who we are and as we are. We no longer have to say, do, or accept those actions that we don’t agree with that go against our conscience, to belong. Blessed John Cardinal Newman has stated that our conscience is the “Aboriginal Vicar of Christ”. Jesus dwells within us, to guide and lead us. He encourages us to say yes to his Father as he has and continues to do.

This Trinitarian love that we share because of our participation in the life of Jesus, this great gift, will continue to grow as we testify to this love and share it with others, give it away, and the more we give, the more we will receive. We share the love of God by being willing to accompany one another. That does not mean fixing others or their problems. We are called to be present, to accompany, and journey with others, meeting them as Jesus met others and meets us, as and where we are. We are to laugh with, to cry with, to encourage, empower, and support, but above all to be present, to allow God to happen through us.

Jesus has not left us orphans. His return to the Father through his Ascension has given us greater and a more intimate access to the Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son. By saying yes to his love, trusting in his love, we free ourselves from the tendrils of fear and anxiety. We are not alone when we say yes to God and develop our relationship with him. As we do so, we continue to actualize the fullness of our potential, we become who we were created to be, and we become truer to ourselves. We experience that peace that surpasses all understanding and develop relationships with others based on authenticity and integrity, regardless of external pressures and experiences. We are loved and we love in return, which is what we all seek, which is who we are called to be.

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Photo credit: luizclas from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 27, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052719.cfm

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you” (Jn 14:27). The peace that Jesus is talking about, the peace that he gives us is a peace the surpasses all understanding, because it does not come from this world but from the love of the Trinity.

God is an infinite communion of Love. There are three Persons, yet one God, because of their infinite nature. There is a complete, perfect and infinite giving and receiving between the Father and the Son and the Love that is shared between them is the Holy Spirit. We experience this peace because of Jesus, because in his becoming one with us, we become one with him, so sharing too in the Love of the Holy Spirit, This peace is not just an absence of stress, anxiety, violence, and war, but a resting, abiding, and sharing in his trinitarian communion.

We abide in God as we continually develop our relationship with his Son and each other, so to experience the Love he shares with the Father. Jesus does not promise with his bestowal of his peace that we will now have an easy time of it. We still live in a wounded, dark, and fallen world and there will be trials, tribulations and tragedy, yet through all matter of what we are dealing with, we can tap into the infinite well spring of the love of God. He is present and accompanies us in the midst of any and every situation we invite him into, such that there may be chaos all around, but as we turn to Jesus and trust in him, we will experience his peace.

Since hearing the news of JoAnn’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer on the Wednesday of Holy Week, our life has been a whirlwind and flurry of activity as we have had to prepare for moving to California so we can be closer to our adult children and JoAnn can begin her treatment at USC, yet we have both felt Jesus close to us. We have both been straight out, yet all the pieces have been coming together. There has been a tremendous outpouring of love, support, and prayer from so many and we have felt so blessed. We continue to be blessed most of all from an abiding with and sharing of Jesus’ peace.

This promise is not just made to us, for he knocks on each of our doors, seeking to come into our lives and develop a relationship with us. This is why we are an alleluia people. We are called to live our life to the full and with joy no matter the circumstances. Jesus knocks at the door, let him in and so abide with him and experience his peace too, that peace that surpasses all understanding.

Photo: Two bright lights shining in the darkness! JoAnn with Christy yesterday, JoAnn is staying with Christy until our apartment opens up June 1. If you are not aware and would like to join us in our journey, go to caringbridge.org and type in the search link, Deacon Serge and JoAnn Dube. You can receive updates as I post them.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 26, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/john/14:23

With the opening words of today’s Gospel of John: Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first”, Jesus is not proposing an us verses them mentality. It can be easily taken that way, and certainly has been lived out in many ways in our society and world. An us verses them mentality is usually a defensive posture assumed by those who feel or are actuality being persecuted. It is an understandable posture. It is just not the stance that Jesus proposes us to take. We are to love our enemies, we are to love those who hate us. Impossible? Only on our own will power alone, for apart from Jesus we can do nothing, but with him all things are possible.

Jesus is making it plain to his disciples that they need to be prepared, that what is coming is the same that has been happening to him. They will be persecuted, mocked, imprisoned, and give their lives just as Jesus did. The gospel message is a challenge. We are challenged to have a change of mind and heart, to be more conformed to the love of Jesus the Christ. This means that our focus must shift from our self as first and foremost to God who is to have the primary sense of place in our lives.

We know we are putting God first instead of our fallen nature when we react less and love more. Reactions are based in an us vs. them mentality. They and them are responsible for the state I am in, they are taking my jobs, they are not allowing me to worship or speak in the way I want to, it is all their fault, they made me do it, are all reactive thoughts that lead to uglier statements and actions. Jesus invites us to assume the disposition of mindful action not reaction.

The way we can be more mindful and less reactive is to be people of prayer and meditation. Much of our reaction comes from our harried pace, keeping us from being in touch with our deep seeded fears and prejudices. We run from the mirror Jesus holds up to us. We need to stop and pray regularly. See the sin in our heart so we can admit it and let it go. We begin by taking some deep breaths, asking Jesus to be present in our lives, asking him to shine the light of his love so to see what we have hidden, so we can bring the hate to the surface, let is go, be forgiven, and be set free.

We can then be in a better place to ask for the healing to continue, for Jesus to help us to be more patient, understanding, truer to who he calls us to be, which is people of love, willing the other’s good, accepting and encountering each other as fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus on our journey together, recognizing that the common denominator for each of us is that we are wounded, lonely, and just want to belong.

This Memorial Day weekend, as we honor the many who have given their lives that we may live in freedom, may we renew and continue to conform our lives to the One who gave his life that we may be free from our own sin, prejudices and darkness. May we allow the flow of the love of the Holy Spirit to guide us, so to tear down walls of hate and division, and instead build bridges of love and reconciliation. In this way, when we experience hate, dehumanization, and defamation, indirectly through multiple media platforms and directly in our own lives, let us greet each with a breath, a pause, and a turning again and again to Jesus for the strength to resist the easy and impulsive reaction, and respond instead with mindful thoughts, words, and actions of understanding, faith, hope and love.

We are to hold people accountable, but not by reacting in the same negative manner. In a world filled with darkness, hate, and violence, let us be bearers of light and love, and advocates of reconciliation. I will leave you today with a quote from someone who understood from direct experience how Jesus wanted us to respond to hate:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive our hate; only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Photo: Crusaders ready to begin to write their next chapter, armed with light, love and reconciliation.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 25, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052519.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12). This verse is foundational to our faith as we seek to live as disciples of Jesus. Love is what Jesus lived, modeled, taught, and commanded, but even more so, Love is who, as the second person of the Trinity Jesus embodies because he is Love. By becoming human as one of us, embracing the Paschal Mystery: his suffering, crucifixion, death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, the Son of God opened up the reality that we can participate in the very same love he shares with his Father.

We are capable of loving others because Jesus has loved us first. How did he love us? We are blessed in that Jesus gave his life for you and me, each and every person, for those who believe in him and those who don’t, he gave his life for the good and the bad alike. Jesus was willing to suffer the scourging, agony of his procession and crucifixion and death. He was not just going through the motions, his divine Person was not somehow hovering over his body. Jesus felt the rejection, the betrayal, the physical torment of the nails, because, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13).

Some of us may have heard this verse so many times that we do not fully embrace the impact of it. The gift of the liturgical seasons is that the readings of Scripture are offered again and again so we can experience the telling again and again. May we sit with and breath in the reality of this passage, so that it becomes the living Word of God, not just a dead letter. May we resist taking our life for granted, the life we have been given at such great cost. In coming to realize the gift that Jesus gave for us, and meditating on that reality, hopefully we can see others in our life who we may have taken for granted. Those who have loved us, have been there for us, have been there maybe when no one else has been.

What is our response to the love of Jesus that we have been blessed with? Jesus answers: “This I command you: love one another” (Jn 15:17). Jesus ends today’s Gospel reading as recorded by John where he began at the beginning, he invites us to love. Jesus loves us more than our worst mistake or our most grievous of sins, he loves us more than we can ever hope or imagine, and we are to love others as well in the same fashion. May we spend some time in prayer today opening our heart and mind, meditating on the gift we have been given, the highest love imaginable, the life of Jesus, given for us. Let us savor and appreciate the fullness of this act that calls us to relationship with God and one another.

Then let us be moved by Jesus, and let him know how much we are grateful for his sacrificial love, by embracing his invitation of friendship, and with a heart full of gratitude, maybe just maybe, we can love others a little more today than we did yesterday, and a little more tomorrow than today. Love is not a willingness to love each other only when everything is going well. Love is being wiling to love one another one conflict at a time, one interruption at a time, one inconvenience at a time, one heartbreak and even one betrayal at a time. We are able to truly love, when we are willing to see each other as Jesus sees us, as friends: to see past the word and or action to the person, the human being endowed with dignity. When we are willing to do so, we are ready to love, to will the good of the other, one moment, one person at a time.

Photo: Willing each other’s good through junior and senior year!

Link for the Mass reading for Friday, May 24, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052419.cfm

The heart and soul of the Christian message, the Christian life is this: Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love” (Jn15:9).

To be a Christian is to acknowledge and live out who we have been created by God to be, which is a living, craving, hunger and desire to be one with God and each other, and this is true for the atheist and the mystic alike. We have been created by love, to be loved and to love, to belong, to be a part of, to be in communion.

Dehumanization, hatred, violence, polarization, and division are contrary to the message of the Gospel. Jesus has received the love of his Father and has been sent to share that same love with us. We are to then receive his love and to share it, to be loved and to love in return. This means we are to resist the temptation of what St Augustine called, “Incurvatus in se” to turn or curve in on oneself. This is the ego drama, the living of a life exclusively inward for oneself, instead of a going out of oneself to will the good of the other as other.

To curve in upon our self may be appealing to us because we feel we are in control, we feel safe and secure, free of risk. Yet, this act of turning within cuts us off from the source of meaning and joy in our life. When we surrender our control and walk away from the ego drama, the path of exclusive, self gratification and self centeredness, and instead embrace the theodrama, God’s love, his will for our life, we will experience meaning, fulfillment and joy.

Christianity is about building, supporting and sustaining healthy relationships grounded not in what can we get for ourselves from another, but empowering, encouraging, loving and willing the good of each other. This begins with a smile, a thoughtful or kind word, a listening ear, a gift of sacrifice for another. Let us go out from ourselves today and love each person we meet as Jesus has loved us, such that his joy may be in us and our joy might be complete.

Photo: Rejecting incurvatus in se, curving in on themselves and readying to love, to will the good of each other!

Link for the Mass readings today: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052319.cfm

In today’s Gospel reading from John we experience the imagery Jesus used of the vine and the branches. As the branch of the vine matures, it begins to look more like the vine itself. As it remains connected, is sustained by the nourishment provided, and protected by the vine grower, the branches become more and more conformed to the vine. This is also true in the event that a branch not originally attached to the vine is grafted to it. Over time, the branches are almost indistinguishable from the vine itself.

Our hope, as disciples of Jesus, no matter what our background, culture, gender, ethnicity, or race will be the same. We are to be one as the Son and the Father are one. As St Paul has written to the Churches in Galatia and Collosse: In Christ there is neither Jew or Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision, male or female, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free because we are all one in Christ (cf. Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11).

We are not to be automatons, cyborg, ants, all following mindlessly. Being a Christian means the opposite, the more we are conformed to Jesus, the more we come to know him and so know our self. We begin to let go of the pressures to conform to that which stunts our growth and begin to embrace who we are, the truth of our reality and dignity. That sense of being fully who we are that sometimes just wants to burst out is allowed to be free when we die to our false self and live in Christ.

Let us resist turning in on ourselves, for to do so, we are disconnecting from the vine, we are detaching ourselves from the very source of our life. Just as the body will suffer without water regularly, so our soul will suffer if we are separated from the source and foundation, the living spring of our sustenance. Remaining attached to Jesus the vine, means more than just surviving but maturing and living our life to the full, with joy that reaches out beyond ourselves to others, thus bearing fruit to share.

We can bear fruit that will last today and all days by putting the words of St Paul into action: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:12-15).

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Photo accessed: https://www.pexels.com/photo/abundance-alcohol-berries-berry-357742/

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 22, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052219.cfm

Have you ever wondered why there is so much violence? How many countries, including our own, were founded on taking of lands by force and oppression of aboriginal peoples? Has there ever been a time without war? How many of our youth and citizens have to die from gun violence and mass murders? Road rage, domestic abuse, human trafficking, terrorism – foreign and domestic, and the myriad of random acts of violence are a daily occurrence.

We often hear good will speeches, petitions and intercessions ringing from our pulpits and prayer groups, participate and see people march, and vote for change. There are those working in the trenches, putting their own lives at risk, matching their words and their deeds, yet do any of these efforts make a difference?

Amidst our own experiences, directly and indirectly, and with the constant temptation of cynicism biting at our heels, the words of Jesus are proclaimed in today’s Gospel from John: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).

The peace that surpasses all understanding, the peace that is not of this world, has been and continues to be offered to us as a gift. Many have indeed said, :”If there is a God, well then, why doesn’t he do anything?” He has. The reality is, the peace that God shares through his Son, is one person at a time. This is why when he resurrected he only appeared to those he chose and not the whole world. Even if he had, these experiences, in time, would have been attributed to mere myth and legend. Jesus must be encountered and his relationship is built with each person in each generation. What we pass on as disciples, after encountering him for ourselves, are the ways for others to open their hearts and minds to receive him and enter into their own relationship with Jesus, to accept the gift of his grace that he offers.

The peace that Jesus offers is not some abstract formula, the command to love is not some pie in the sky universal love for all. The acts of peace and love Jesus shares throughout the Gospel are very concrete, individual and personal. Jesus interacts with people as people, not as numbers. He interacts and directs us to do the same, by encountering, accompanying, and loving a person. The real question is not why isn’t God doing anything? The real question is why have we left the gift that he has given us unwrapped?

If we want peace, it begins with us. Our heart and mind must be open to want it, to embrace it, to live it in the most minute of details. We are able to receive the gift of peace Jesus offers when we are willing to let go of our weapons of hate, prejudice, cynicism, racism, paternalism, and the like. God created us as beings who are interconnected with one another, which means that what one does affects all, the sun rises and sets on the good and the bad alike.

If we want peace, let us spend the beginning, middle, and end of the day opening our heart and mind seeking forgiveness so better to receive the peace that Jesus offers us, and put it into practice each time we are tempted to do otherwise. Let us “beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks” (cf. Isaiah 2:4).

We do so when we disagree with someone, we resist being disagreeable and respect the person while we share our differing viewpoint. When someone speaks or acts in a way that gets under our skin, we take a breath, pray for patience and understanding, as we resist the temptation to react. When we make a mistake, we resist beating ourselves up over the process and instead look to learn from how we have miscalculated, learn from our misstep and begin again, while at the same time be willing to offer the same understanding and patience to another.

What we need to decide today, is how and what do we want to contribute to our realm of influence? Do we want to receive the peace that Jesus gives and put it into practice now, with each person we encounter? Can we really bring about world peace? In some abstract form, for all people, for all time, no. What we can do, is to offer one smile, one random act of kindness, one understanding and encouraging word, even to someone who we consider unapproachable, one person at a time.

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Photo: Of my Eastern Orthodox icon of the Resurrection of Jesus destroying the gates of Hell, and saving our ancestral parents, Adam and Eve, and so us! Do we want to be saved? Do we want his peace? Grasp the hand of Jesus that he extends out to us today, receive the peace that surpasses all understanding and share it with another!

Link for the Mass reading for Tuesday, May 20, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052119.cfm

Two points jump out of the Gospel of John today: commandments and love. How are each of these related to living life as a disciple? Often, many who hear the word commandments, often react and are immediately put off. There goes the Church again telling me what I can and cannot do. Yet Jesus is connecting the following of his commandments to love.

Love is another word that evokes reactions. One reason is that, even though the English language has a plethora of words to utilize and choose from, there is only one word for love and it is interpreted in many ways. In Ancient Greek, there are four words that are used to connote love. There is eros, which has do to with attraction. It is the beginning stage of love, because we are drawn out of ourselves as we are attracted to another. The next word for love is philios, which has to do with friendship. This is the love between friends. If our love matures it moves from attraction to friendship. The third word is storge, or the deeper love shared with family members. The fourth word is agape, which is unconditional love.

When Jesus shares that we are to follow the commandments, he is not demanding that we do so as a tyrant would. He is providing the boundaries and parameters for us to grow and mature as people who love, who, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, will the good of the other as other. As humans we are social beings. We want to belong, to be accepted, and to be a part of. We seek meaning, purpose and fulfillment in our lives. This is best done through cooperation and collaboration with God and with one another, striving to love unconditionally, agape.

If we operate from a self centered posture in which we are only turned in on our self, and we only seek to manipulate and get from others, instead of working for consensus and sharing a common vision with others, we will ultimately be empty with the exchange on any level, because we will be left wanting more. This is true because once the immediacy of the stimulation, whether material or sensual, ends, so does the experience of the feeling. Some happiness may linger from the effect, but we will never be filled or satisfied from finite things, so we will seek more and more, until the pursuit of the instant and constant gratification ensnares us and we are entangled in a web of addiction.

The commandments, grounded in love, are meant to provide boundaries for us, training wheels, and to keep us free from enslavement to sin, while at the same time help us to be persons who mature to be other centered instead of self centered. They are meant to be a means of freedom for excellence such that we can become who God calls us to be and who we truly desire to be. God is not in competition with us. He is our biggest fan. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is the human being fully alive.

Commandments and morality imposed without law is a bludgeon. Love and mercy without accountability and justice enables. Jesus provides the blueprint for a balanced both/and approach. May we seek this day for opportunities to be loving guides, to align ourselves with the Holy Spirit, who is the Love expressed and shared between the Father and the Son. May we seek where we can improve our lives so to be more mindful and whole, to be more honest with our weaknesses, and to seek God when we are tempted and seek forgiveness when we have fallen.

As we journey in this life, we do not do so alone. As we seek to follow Jesus’ lead, as we grow and mature, we do so while in the midst of encountering and forming relationships with others. Conformed by the commandments, we reach out in love to each other as Jesus has done for us. As we form and deepen relationships, new and old, may we encourage, support, and love one another while at the same time, challenge and hold each other accountable as we strive to be who Jesus invites us to be.
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Photo: Four years learning to love and follow the commandments, now ready to put what they have learned into practice at the next level, at university!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 19, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/052019.cfm

“I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).

We are capable of loving because Jesus has loved us first. All of creation is an expression and an outpouring of the divine love and communion of the Trinity. Love, if it is true, goes out from the self to be there for the other. St. Paul wrote that love is patient and kind (1 Cor 13:4). These are virtues that flow out of our willing the good of the other as other.

When we act with patience, we love because we resist the temptation to react and strike out. We do not seek to protect our ego, but seek to understand and be present to the person. We see the them beyond their brokenness, we resist fueling and feeding their frustrations by not adding our own impatient responses, and thereby help to dissipate any growing negativity. Instead we allow Jesus to love the person through us. We listen, accompany and guide.

When we are kind, we do so because we resist returning hurtful acts with acts of love, seeking nothing in return. We are kind because this is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We are not kind in the hope that people are kind in return. We are kind because that is the foundation our being, this is our posture and disposition that we direct toward those we encounter.

So often we do not know what another is going through. When someone cuts us off in the course of our travel, we do not have to react in anger, but can choose instead to send a blessing, that the driver may find peace of mind, slow down and have a safe trip. We can pray that all those driving may drive mindfully so all may be safe on the road.

When someone is short or curt with us, instead of reacting by being sharp or snarky in return, we can take a breath, and ask Jesus in that moment to be present in us and minister through us to the person in our midst. We can choose to be open to loving the person as Jesus loves us, accepting them as they are in that moment, and being willing to allow the Holy Spirit to be present in our encounter with them.

The best way I have found to love another, to be patient and kind in the moment, is to smile, offer my hand in greeting and be available to listen. These very simple acts do have a cost in that our ego and focus on self becomes less and Jesus becomes more. In these simple acts we say to the other, even before we have said anything with our words, that they are important to us, they have worth and dignity, because we are willing to make the time to acknowledge them as a human being, not reacting to and defining them by their weakness and brokenness in that moment.

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).

CN Strong, patience and kindness in action!

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 19, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051919.cfm