_MET_DT9025.jpg)
Harry Fenn (1845-1911)
Caesarea Philippi (Banias)
Watercolor, gouache, brown ink, and graphite on light brown wove paper
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Even the low times contain a stillpoint of joy. The Lord is right there in the moment. I do not walk alone.
Gracious is the Lord and just;
yes, our God is merciful.
The Lord keeps the little ones;
I was brought low, and he saved me.
Psalm 116:5-6
Jesus and apostles. Fresco in Cappadocia
ca.XII c.
God loved us into being. God’s love pours into us and through us and out of us to touch others with tangible, visible, generous love.
Love of God, neighbor, and self: the words of eternal life.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” John 6:67-68
Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (1806-1858)
People Gather Manna
via Wikimedia Commons
A job may earn me money, but my real work is learning to love—at home, in the workplace, in the community, those I know, those I have never met.
Today my work is to practice compassion, patience, forgiveness, generosity, gratitude, nonviolence, and reverence for all of God’s creation. My never-failing mentor is the Lord.
[Jesus said,] “Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” ” John 6:27
Loaves and Fishes Mosaic
Church of the Multiplication, Tabgha
Today I choose to avoid divisiveness. I will use my energy to practice patience, treat all people with gentleness, and become more humble by refusing to compare myself with others.
…live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace… Ephesians 4:1b-3
By Phillip Medhurst [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), from Wikimedia Commons
Let us remember God’s power gives us the authority to eliminate divisiveness, war, and fear.
Let us live in humble awareness of God’s will that we love one another as God loves each of us.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. Mark 6:7
Orant statuette
alabaster, 3300 BC
Uruk Period
Louvre Museum [CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, CC BY-SA 3.0 fr or CeCILL], from Wikimedia Commons
In those moments when I am nagged by sadness or pain or fear, when I feel I cannot live one more second in this affliction, grace nudges me to call on the Lord, whose faithful compassion blesses me with a moment of rest from the “angel of Satan.” God’s power carries me because I cannot carry myself.
Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy. Psalm 123:2cd
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James Tissot (1836-1902)
L’hémoroïsse
opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
between 1886 and 1894
Brooklyn Museum
Rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, dyslexia, migraine, alcoholism, glaucoma, depression, anxiety, sleeplessness: affliction is a part of the human condition.
Through no fault of our own, our genes and bodies and minds have been wired for our particular afflictions. And while we may seek mainstream medical solutions and traditional therapies to help us cope, some afflictions don’t go away.
Afflictions do not make us unworthy of God’s love, or “less than” as human persons. We are made in the image of God’s love and goodness—and nothing can change that.
Our most important work is not to figure out why we are afflicted, but to reach out in humility to touch the Lord and ask for compassion and healing in whatever form they may manifest: mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Mark 5:25-29
