Faith of Our Friends

I can't help but notice (again) that in today's Gospel, Jesus notices the faith of the friends who broke through the roof of a house to bring down their paralytic friend. 

Now I'm wondering, what if the house whose roof they destroyed (tiles in fact!) was Jesus' house? Then it would have been audacious on their part to break through the roof and risk incurring Jesus' ire. That may have been why Jesus admired these friends' faith.

This reminds me of the Canaanite woman who had that testy exchange with Jesus (who called her people 'dogs') or the woman with hemorrhage who dared to touch Jesus and in effect made him unclean. They also had to dared to do something that would anger Jesus. 

But they had faith that Jesus could (and wanted to) heal them, their friend, or their daughter and they wanted this badly enough that they risked incurring Jesus' wrath. Because they took the risk, Jesus granted them their petition. 

Stay With Me

There's an old song Stay With Me from the movie, The Cardinal, that I learned in my teenage years.
It sounds like a song someone sings to God. Here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaHO2tFp4OM

Should my heart not be humble, should my eyes fail to see,
Should my feet sometimes stumble on the way, stay with me.
Like the lamb that in springtime wanders far from the fold,
Comes the darkness and the frost, I get lost, I grow cold.
I grow cold, I grow weary, and I know I have sinned,
And I go seeking shelter and I cry in the wind.
Though I grope and I blunder and I'm weak and I'm wrong,
Though the road buckles under where I walk, walk along.
Till I find to my wonder every path leads to Thee,
All that I can do is pray, stay with me,
Stay with me.

At some point I tweaked it to make it a God song because the truth is God never leaves us. It's us who leave God sometimes. So imagine God singing this to you:

Should your heart not be humble, should your eyes fail to see,
Should your feet sometimes stumble on the way, stay with me.
Like the lamb that in springtime wanders far from the fold,
Comes the darkness and the frost, you are lost, you grow cold.
You grow cold, you grow weary, and you know you have sinned,
And you go seeking shelter and you cry in the wind.
Though you grope and you blunder and you're weak and you're wrong,
Though the road buckles under where you walk, walk along.
Till you find to my wonder every path leads to me,
All that I can do is pray, stay with me,
Stay with me.


Remain in me, as I remain in you...
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
(John 15)

God Heals the Brokenhearted

I realized one day that we hold grudges and stay mad at people because we want them to be truly sorry for what they've done to us and by doing so, help us in our healing.

But sometimes that sorrow is not forthcoming because they do not see any thing wrong in what they did or they do not know that they did wrong. And so we hold on to our anger and wonder how the other could be so insensitive, a thought which adds fuel to the flames.

But they say anger does more damage to the angry person than it does the object of anger. Holding on to anger is a sure way to punish ourselves. So what are we to do?

I realized one day that we should bring our shattered hearts to God and let him fix the pieces. The psalmist says, God heals the brokenhearted. So we should take the psalmist at his word, bring our broken hearts to God and let God do the healing.

Maybe healing comes with a change of perspective. Maybe the person who thought he did no harm was right after all. Or, maybe there is real damage and it might not repair the relationship. But at least we let go of the anger and find ourselves in a better position to forgive when the person comes around and is truly sorry. 

It's Not About Us

I've always wondered about the crucifixion. Tonight, after dreaming a strange, completely unrelated dream, I think I gained insight.

Fr. Arnel had a nice homily about the crucifixion. He says it may be about Jesus dying to save us from our sins. But he says maybe more importantly, he died because he loved us outrageously. You can find his homily here: https://www.facebook.com/lelanddelacruz/posts/10152727423240843?notif_t=like

While I like Fr. Arnel's take on the crucifixion better than traditional interpretations, I still like what I learned in Theology 151 better. That Jesus died because he did not deny that he was God. And he hung on to that statement even after he was brutally tortured. Thus the ending in one of the Gospels (Matthew) where a Roman said, truly this was the Son of God.

But what always remained a mystery to me was how to relate to this Jesus and his Passion and Death. As with the Ignatian contemplation, at the foot of the cross, how am I supposed to behave? Should I say sorry for my sins? Should I proclaim that I am his disciple and suffer the consequences?

Tonight after I woke up in the middle of the night, I realized that the thing for me to do is to walk with Jesus through his Passion, yes, and suffer the consequence. But more importantly, to pray for Jesus on his road to Cavalry. To support him as best I can so that he sees it through to the end. To stay up with him in Gethsemane and provide comfort and support. To walk with him through His extended period of suffering and carry his cross when he is too weak to carry it himself.

The last, long temptation of Jesus is to walk away from it all; to run from his own Passion and Crucifixion. To use his powers to free himself and smite them all. And on the other side of the equation, to harbor hatred for those who crucified him and despair in his heart toward His Father.

I see now that, whatever it means practically for my life, the thing for me to do is to support Jesus to do what he had to do. To carry his cross when he fell. To pray his own prayer for him and to him while he suffered and died. To support his mother so that he need not worry about her.

And after I realized this, I prayed the Stations of the Cross in my mind, and I said a prayer for Jesus, the prayer he taught us all. And I said a prayer for Mary. Pray for them while I walk with them and stay with them. Really, that's all I can do.

I guess the problem with traditional notions of the crucifixion is that we think it's all about us. But it isn't. It's about Jesus and his mission and our role in helping him fulfill it. 

No Reason to Boast

(Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Today's second reading from St. Paul starts off as follows:

If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!

Last night I took the passage for a spin as follows:

If I live the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not live it!

Seems more relatable. If I live the Gospel, there is no reason for me to boast.