Category Archives: Jesus

Today’s mountain

By Frank S De Hass, [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Frank S De Hass, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It is a sluggish journey up today’s mountain of pain. Snow is coming again and once it starts, the pain will probably lessen. I hope.

It isn’t exactly hope that keeps me following the Lord up this mountain. It’s more an unwillingness—today—to give up. I’m doing my best to make this climb an opportunity  to practice patience and compassion and to put my trust in Jesus.

Maybe it is hope. I keep climbing in the hope of being led to a place of transfiguration, a place of perfect peace, acceptance, and wholeness.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. Mark 9:2

 

Driven

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837-1887) Le Christ dans le désert, 1872 Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi (1837-1887)
Le Christ dans le désert, 1872
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

God’s Holy Spirit points, pushes, drives us where we need to go.

Listen deeply. Be empty of pre-conceived notions. Let go of resistance.

Trust the movement of the Spirit.

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan. Mark 1:12

Say no to demons

Jesus heals the possessed

Christ heals the possessed. Jan Luyken. In the Bowyer Bible in Bolton Museum, England. Print 4234. From “An Illustrated Commentary on the Gospel of Mark” by Phillip Medhurst. Section D. Jesus confronts uncleanness. By Phillip Vere [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

They’re always attacking, subtle or not.

Demons of pain, fatigue, and self-doubt. Demons of resentment, disdain, and indifference. Demons of envy, dissatisfaction, and hopelessness.

Say no, in the name of Jesus. Demons have no power in the light and presence of the Compassion of God.

Jesus rebuked [the unclean spirit] and said,
“Quiet! Come out of him!” Mark 1:25

Fish or cut bait

Fisher Men 3 December 2011 By Venkateshpdy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Fisher Men
3 December 2011
By Venkateshpdy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Consider the power of a call that makes me leave my family, home, livelihood.

Consider the power of a call that changes my heart to feel the fragility, the vulnerability, the desperate need to be loved of the human family.

Consider the power of a call that transforms me into someone who fishes with forgiveness, nonviolence, and compassion as my bait.

And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Mark 1:17

God’s beloved

Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) Baptism of Christ in the Jordan chalk and pen, ca.1716 Amsterdam, Amstelkring Museum via Wikimedia Commons

Jacob de Wit (1695-1754)
Baptism of Christ in the Jordan
chalk and pen, ca.1716
Amsterdam, Amstelkring Museum
via Wikimedia Commons

We are God’s beloved and God is well pleased with us. The whole human family. All of us. In spite of, perhaps because of our human frailty, failures, and weaknesses. God made us human. We are God’s. We are God’s creation, beloved and pleasing to God.

Lord, teach me to see myself and the all of the human family  with your eyes and heart.

And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Mark 1:11

Pushed by the Light

512px-Magi_(1)

Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy: The Three Wise Men (named Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar). Detail from: “Mary and Child, surrounded by angels”, mosaic of a Ravennate italian-byzantine workshop, completed within 526 AD by the so-called Master of Sant’Apollinare
By Nina-no (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

God within me urges me on and on to find God, to encounter God, to know God. I am pushed by the light within to find the light in all creation, especially in you. In the moment of recognition, the light in me does homage to the light in you, the Light of God, the Love of God.

[The magi] saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Matthew 2:11

Respond to the voices

A voice cries out in the wilderness

“A voice cries out in the wilderness”
Israeli wall around the West Bank

[John] said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord,'” as Isaiah the prophet said.” John 1:23

Jesus does not exist apart from human struggles, human injustice, human atrocities. The voices I hear calling from war-torn countries show me where to find Jesus: right in the middle of it all.

How will I respond to the voices calling to me today? How will I make straight the way of the Lord in the midst of human suffering?

 

 

Wake up call

2_candlesJohn the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark 1:4

The gospel is our every day wake up call: a call to love, to help the poor, to show compassion to all people.

It’s a call to spend time in quiet prayer and meditation, to read holy scripture, to deepen our relationship with Jesus.

The gospel wakes us up to the reality of God’s presence in our world, in our lives, in our being.

Today I will trust the wake up call of the gospel and ask the Lord to bless me with knowledge of his will for me and the power to carry it out.

 

Watching

Candle_flame[Jesus said,] “What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!'” Mark 13:37

What am I watching for?
For an opportunity to be kind.
For an opportunity to help someone.
For an opportunity to encourage someone.
For an opportunity to feed the hungry.
For an opportunity to choose peace.
For an opportunity to speak out against violence.
For an opportunity to let go of arrogance.
For an opportunity to show respect to others.
For an opportunity to rejoice in another’s success.
For an opportunity to welcome a stranger.
For an opportunity share my gifts and talents.
For an opportunity to love my neighbor as myself.

Love or convenience?

Jan Luyken (1649-1712) Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England By Phillip Mehurst (Photo by Harry Kossuth) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

Jan Luyken (1649-1712)
Welcome the Stranger
Bowyer Bible, Bolton, England
By Phillip Mehurst (Photo by Harry Kossuth) [FAL], via Wikimedia Commons

[Jesus said,] “‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'”

It’s not always convenient to be mindful of others, especially those who need my attention, help, energy, money, talents.

Convenience is not the calling of a follower of Jesus. Love is.