Simply Love Now

When we live simply, we love God, for then we trust Him.  When we live without a huge surplus, we come to rely on God.  Content with who we are, dependent on God, we come to praise God, for we know that is who we are, people who God created to adore and praise and glorify Him.  Content with what we can do, with how we can serve, we find joy in the little acts of love we can show to our neighbor.  Living in love, we find the joy God has always intended for us.  So we were told in the Gospel reading this past Sunday, in which 

Jesus said to his disciples: 

"No one can serve two masters.  
He will either hate one and love the other, 
or be devoted to one and despise the other.  
You cannot serve God and mammon."  

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, 
what you will eat or drink, 
or about your body, what you will wear.  
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  
Look at the birds in the sky; 
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, 
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  
Are not you more important than they?  
Can any of you by worrying 
add a single moment to your life span?  
Why are you anxious about clothes?  
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.  
They do not work or spin.  
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor 
was clothed like one of them.  
If God so clothes the grass of the field, 
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, 
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?  
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'  
or 'What are we to drink?'or 'What are we to wear?'  
All these things the pagans seek.  
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 
and all these things will be given you besides.  
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Sufficient for a day is its own evil."*  

We are not to worry about what we are to eat and drink and wear.  Instead, we are to look at the example of simplicity being lived in front of us.  We are to be like the people before us who are grateful to be living with whatever God gives them to eat and drink and wear.  

Although I could refer to various indigent persons at this point, I am thinking of a particular homeless man here in Redwood City.  Here I'll call him "Manuel."  More than once I have heard him softly, politely, meekly ask for food, drink or clothing.  I saw too that he was rewarded for his courtesy with all he had requested.  

He is well aware that God has been calling him to be humble.  Recently Manuel confessed to me that he believes that in his having to wear the particular clothes he wears, that God is calling him to embrace his current circumstances out of humility.  Manuel admits that he struggles with this lesson from God, which he believes God has been persistently presenting to him.  

Recently all of his property was stolen.  He has almost nothing now, but he has been replenishing what he lost.  He is truly living in simplicity, yet involuntarily so.  I do not mean to insinuate that the simplicity in which I aspire to live can be like the simplicity in which he lives.  I am not desperate, but he lives on whatever people are willing to give Him.  God loves all of us through our neighbor, yet often the less one has, the more evident this truth becomes.  

Manuel gratefully accepts what people give him, which is not much, yet he does receive all he needs.  He is not gathering supplies and bringing them back to a safe and secure home.  He sleeps in the bushes.  He is living on whatever God sends his way.  

Yet Manuel gets what he needs.  By how he lives, he shows us that we can totally rely on God.  When we consider that Manuel is getting all of the food and drink and clothing he needs, we realize that we have no reason to worry about whether God will feed us and clothe us.  

Manuel utterly depends on God.  He must turn to God.  God does not want us to live in destitution, but He does want every one of us to be in constant contact with Him.  Insofar as Manuel has to turn to God, he lives in resplendent simplicity.  In his circumstances which seem tragic and disastrous to some, he is blessed to be in a position which inclines him to be habitually in prayer to God, continually petitioning God.  He is like a little wildflower, clothed in complete simplicity, relying totally on God, and thus magnificently adorned as rich people tend not to be.  

God provides for the little flowers of the fields.  God gives us all we need too, if we welcome the light of God which enables us to see clearly what God wants to offer to us.  

God calls us to have faith in Him.  We are not to ask how we will get what we need.  

First we are to seek the righteousness of God.  If we do, everything else will be given to us.  

How can we first seek the Kingdom of God?  How can we act so that we value building the Kingdom of God as being more important than everything else, which will then be given to us?  

We will succeed as God's servants even if we are only like little flowers.  We will thrive if we emulate those who live in simplicity.  Just as we can benefit by living in material simplicity, so too we can benefit through simplifying our desires.  Like becoming little in how we view possessions, we can also become little in our actions.  In seeking to love our neighbor as ourselves,** we are to perform little acts of love for our neighbor.  

We are to put first before all else simply loving our neighbor.  God calls us to be simple in our desires.  We are not to worry about ourselves; we are to focus our attention on loving our neighbor as ourselves.   

Saint Therese of Lisieux spoke to this simplicity of spirit.  She addressed this simplicity of desire, and wrote about how we will get to Heaven by simply loving our neighbor, whether we seem to be small or great.  

Saint Therese, also known as "The Little Flower," since she saw herself as a little flower, mused upon why some saints were towering giants, while other saints were simple little servants.  She realized that just as a meadow has many different types of flowers, so the Kingdom of Heaven is populated with many different kinds of saints.  The strikingly deep red rose does not deprive the lowly little daisy of its modest charm.  And both are infinitely loved by Jesus.  

Seeing herself as a little flower, Saint Therese spoke of her little way of getting to Heaven by doing little acts of love for her neighbor.  She knew that this little way would get her to Heaven.   She insisted, "My way is a sure one."  

We are not to worry that we must be doing huge grand works.  We are to be content to do what we can.  God calls us simply to love the person directly in front of us.  

We too can be clothed in abundant simplicity.  If we consent, God will clothe us in brilliant majesty.  

This way is sure.  If we have so little faith that we have no confidence in God, we will not believe in the surety of this way.  Yet if we have the little faith of the sure way, then in confidence we will believe The Truth that This Way is The Life.***  

God calls us to love our neighbor.  If we truly, deeply love our neighbor, we will feel true, profound, eternal joy right now.  

If we have the sure trust in God which He wills us to have, we will have the joy that is yet to come, and this is a sure hope we have in His promise.  Yet if we trust God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength now, we will start to have some of this joy now, while we are still in this life.  

This eternal joy is the joy that is born of everlasting love.  We can be in this joy right now when we totally love the person right in front of us, when we completely depend on God, when we love God with all we have right now.   

* Matthew 6:24-34 
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
*** John 14:6 

Joyfully Embracing Suffering

Recently I received an excellent example.  Once again someone right in front of me showed me how I am called to live.  

Yet again I have seen how living is found through dying.  I am reminded once more that all of us must decide how we view the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  In how we choose to respond, we determine the path we take.  In how we reply to Jesus giving Himself up for us, we set ourselves up for despair, or ultimately for rejoicing.  

I was reminded of these critical choices as I was speaking with a particular person about what material assistance she required, and how she could get it.  As we spoke with each other, suddenly tears welled up in her eyes.  Her voice cracked.  She said that she had watched the film "The Passion of the Christ" a half dozen times.  She said that every time she watches that film, she can't believe how we have treated Jesus.  

This woman, with whom I have interacted countless times, is showing me how I am to be grieved at the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus.  She demonstrates to me how my spirit is to ache at how Jesus died to save us.  

She recognizes the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  In that giving of Himself for us, she sees the great love Jesus has for us.  Since He has so loved us, she is greatly distressed when she considers how we have sorely mistreated Him.  

Who is this woman who is so disturbed at how we have so abused Jesus?  One might expect her always to have exhibited exemplary behavior.  Yet at one point, she was convicted of committing a felony.  Is that all she is?  We are defined by the choices we make, by the decisions we made which we now disavow, by who we embrace, by who we love.  Warm and loving people are in our lives, here to help us love.  Will we listen to them?  There are people in our lives who have opened their hearts to Jesus.  Will we close our hearts to them and to what they have to teach us?  

If we're busy judging someone, we can't learn from that person.  The individual we're convinced is worthless might be one who is worthy of our attention.  The person we think is failing in life in fact might be one for us to emulate.  

Due to our stubborn refusal to learn from those who have been sent to minister to us, we end up in spiritual shadows.  We insist upon standing in shadows rather than stepping forward into the light being shown towards us.  We turn aside from those who can teach us how to embrace the Cross and how to die to ourselves so we can live for our neighbor.  

There have been times I have been in spiritual turmoil, and after emerging from such spiritual darkness, I have realized that I had been in the midst of such spiritual turbulence because I had failed to reverence the Cross.  We would not struggle as we do if we were to meditate fruitfully upon the Passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

I am not saying that we will not undergo trials if we properly value the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  I am saying that with appropriate reverence for His Passion, we would feel our apparent misfortune to be not so much of an ordeal but rather a gift.  Knowing that through His death and resurrection, Jesus set us free from the bonds of sin, and that through adversity we are purified and sanctified and drawn back home to God, we come to value hardship, even to welcome it joyfully, and thus come to view it illuminated in a completely new and transformative light.  

When the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich felt that she was being assaulted by demons, she fixed her eyes on the Cross.  After God had delivered her from the temptations she had been enduring, Jesus reminded her that the Devil is overcome through the Cross.  

We are lifted out of discomfort through our embracing of pain.  We are delivered from torment through the suffering of Jesus.  We are saved by embracing Jesus.  We are saved when we give up our lives for others.  We are saved when we love others as Jesus has loved us.*    

And so Jesus instructed Julian of Norwich to take comfort in the Cross.  He told her to trust in the Cross.  He assured her that she would not be overcome.  

And so we are all faced with this fundamental choice.  Do we capitulate to fear, or do we trust in God?  Out of pride, do we hide ourselves from God, not wanting to approach God, refusing to acknowledge that we are defenseless without Him?**  Do we turn to Jesus and embrace Him?  Do we turn toward the sacrifice we are called to make for our neighbor?  

While Jesus died for us, in addition to this generous gift of the sacrifice of His Son, God also gave us our free will.  Herein lies our part: we must choose.  Saint Augustine explained that "The God who made you without your cooperation will not save you without your cooperation."  For God to save us, we must turn to God.   

If we turn away from God, we act from a place of pride.  Pride leads to ruin.  If we turn to God, we value humility.  Humility leads to salvation.  

The person who is humble will find no cause for griping.  For when we truly and accurately grasp reality, we see that we have no cause for complaint.  

When we realize we are nothing, we see we can do nothing without God.  If we embrace our true identity, we recognize that we are to completely rely on God and welcome everything that He allows to come to us.  

Jesus embraced his true identity.  He saw that He was not only the Messiah, but also was the suffering servant foretold by the prophet Isaiah.***    

When we consider that Jesus did not have to suffer and die for us, but that He did so because He sought to do the will of His Heavenly Father, our perspective on pain shifts.  Jesus died for us because He loves us, for God is love.****  When we remember how much God loves us, how much God has given us, then we are led to embrace the obstacles we encounter.  Then, as Julian of Norwich reminds us, we see that "we should meekly and patiently bear and suffer the penance that God gives us, with mind of His blessed Passion.  For when we have mind of His blessed Passion, with pity and love, then we suffer with Him like as did His friends that saw it."  

If we meditate deeply on how Jesus was persecuted and on how He died for us, we hurt with Him.  Then we feel anguish out of love for Jesus, because we have crucified Him.  

There is a tendency also, when we are in agony, to assume that we have brought misfortune upon ourselves through our own imprudent choices.  Don't think that every hardship that falls upon you is your fault.  Jesus told Julian of Norwich, "Accuse not yourself that your tribulation and your woe is all your fault."  
Nor should we think, even when we have tried our utmost to lead outstanding lives, that God is unjustly punishing us when disaster befalls us.  Jesus also directed Julian of Norwich not to expect a lack of trials, saying to her, "For I tell you: whatever you do, you will have woe."  Even if we live in an upright manner, nevertheless inevitably we are going to have troubles.  We should anticipate that we will endure hardships.  

Despite the torments in this life now, in light of what awaits us on the other side of death, Julian of Norwich realized about this unavoidable agony we feel now in this life, that "this place is a prison: this life is a penance.  And in the remedy for it, He wills that we rejoice.  The remedy is that our Lord is with us, keeping us, and leading us to fullness of joy.  For this is endless joy to us, in our Lord's meaning, that He that will be our bliss when we come there--He is our keeper while we are here, our way and our Heaven in true love and faithful trust."  

Thus we are led to view our difficulties in perspective.  To appreciate suffering, we must be humble as Jesus was and is.  To realize the full value of our own pain, we must be grateful for how Jesus was agonized for us.  To be delivered from our distress, to be brought out of death into life, we are called to trust as Jesus trusted His Heavenly Father.  

In this life we can be sure that at times we are going to be in misery.  We can find meaning in our pain if we are open to what God is trying to show us.  We can learn if we open our hearts to how God wants to teach us through our neighbor.  

While we may feel that the torments of this life are nothing but torture, in such challenges we may be tasting the cure for all our woes.  Although we may find it difficult to do so, if we accept trying circumstances as opportunities for growth, we will become more than we have been.  Jesus showed us, through how He lived His earthly life, how we are to face pain.  We are to embrace suffering, through which we love our neighbor.  By dying to ourselves, so that we may live to our neighbor, we are saved.  When we welcome discomfort out of love of neighbor, we welcome our salvation.  

When we see that suffering out of love leads to salvation, we rejoice in the midst of hardships.  We triumph in the victory of the Cross because in His death and His resurrection, Jesus conquered death.  Death holds no power over those who have realized and embraced the saving power of the Cross.  Then, in dying, we are born to eternal life, as Jesus taught us when He walked on this earth, and as He continues to teach us.  

Jesus is always with us.*****  Jesus is sending His Holy Spirit upon us, reminding us of all He has told us.******  Jesus is guiding us into all truth,******* The Truth of who He is, and the truth of who we are.  When we finally realize the truth, we are set free,******** and so we rejoice.   

As Julian of Norwich explained that Jesus wills for us, if we shift our hearts from the pain we feel to the bliss that we trust to have, we will start to feel a slight foretaste of the joy waiting for us for eternity in Heaven.  If we have the humility to trust that God is drawing us back home to Him through our current afflictions, we are given the grace and strength we need to endure these present difficulties.*********    

When we have genuine faith in God, we welcome all that happens, whether it be pain or comfort.  If we truly trust in God, we open our hearts to all that God is trying to teach us.  When we embrace all that happens, we will be joyful.  If we trust God, we know that God loves us.  Knowing the truth that God loves us infinitely, we rejoice.  If we see the truth now, in an abundance of joy, we begin to live in eternal life while still on earth.  

* John 13:34 
** Genesis 3:8 
*** Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52, 53, 61 
**** 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16  
***** Matthew 28:20 
****** John 14:26 
******* John 16:13 
******** John 8:32 
********* 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6  

Forgiveness Welcomes Love

Who do we fear?  When we fear, we close our hearts.  

Who do we forgive?  When we forgive, we love.  When we love, we open our hearts.  

When we will not forgive, we cling to the past.  Through refusing to forgive, we will not let go of the hurt we feel.  

When we forgive, we leave the past behind us.  When we forgive, we let go of the pain which has been enslaving us, binding us to the past.  

When stubbornly we will not forgive, we insist on remaining wounded.  Similarly, when we choose to live in fear, we stay paralyzed and cannot move forward.  

When we forgive, we heal.  When we forgive, we open our hearts to a new future with our neighbor.   

When we will not forgive, and when we fear, we refuse to give.  In failing to forgive, and in fearing, we close ourselves off from our neighbor, and thus refuse to love our neighbor.  

When we forgive, we give.  In forgiving, we give the gift of love to our neighbor.  When we forgive our neighbor, we give the gift of reconciliation, and the hope of a new future together, to our neighbor.  

When we fear, and when we will not forgive, we refuse to receive.  By fearing, we wall ourselves off from what our neighbor has to give us.  

When we forgive, we receive.  Through forgiving, we receive the gift of the hope of a restored relationship with our neighbor.  Even if our neighbor refuses to be reconciled with us, still we have received the gift of our own freedom, insofar as we have been liberated from the chains of selfishness which had been restraining us from loving our neighbor.  

To whom do we give?  From whom do we receive?

This week here at the Catholic Worker House we received a call from a generous, thoughtful person.  She called us to tell us we could come to her place of employment and pick up free items.  A couple Catholic Workers went to where she works, and there she gave them free furniture.   

To paint a little more of a picture of this magnanimous person, in her home, this individual has a collection of crosses hanging on a wall.  At some point in the past, this person was convicted of committing a felony.  

If we get stuck on a label someone has been given, on how someone has been categorized by society, we can end up hostage to our fears.  Or we can approach someone with open minds and open hearts.  If we are open to what someone has to give us, then we can be open to receive from that person.  If we forgive someone, we love that person, and we allow that person to love us in return.  

If we open our hearts to others, we welcome them.  If our hearts are open to others, we accept the hospitality they extend to us.  

Who do we welcome?  From whom do we accept hospitality?  

We are told, "Remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.*  By extending hospitality to strangers, Abraham received the news from his guests, who were actually angels, that his wife Sarah would bear a son.**  By offering hospitality to strangers, Lot was delivered from death when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.***  

If we are busy fearing the stranger, we cannot listen to what they have to say to us.  If we are closing our hearts to someone, we cannot at the same time open our hearts to receive what they have to give us.  By fearing our neighbors, we deprive them of the gift of loving us.  When we fear, we do not let others love us.  
One of the Catholic Workers who went to pick up the free furniture was helped by another person who has repeatedly extended hospitality to others in her home.  On countless occasions, she has given them food and drink.  She has invited people to stay at her home, offering them shelter when they had no place else to stay.  She has showed abundant generosity in the unrestrained love she has for her neighbor.  Yet years ago she too was convicted of committing a felony.  

If we get hung up on how someone has been stigmatized by our society, we can become blinded to seeing the goodness in that person.  If we open our hearts to someone, regardless of what he or she may have done in the past, we can welcome what he or she has to give us.  If we welcome someone, then we can receive the help we need from the person who is present to assist us in our time of need.  

We are called to see the love being offered to us.  We are called to love each other as Jesus has loved us.****  We are called to welcome each other into our hearts, regardless of the unfortunate decisions we may have made in the past.  Others might not understand how we forgive, and might question our judgement.  

When the Pharisees saw Jesus and his disciples eating with tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples why Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus replied that those who were well had no need of a physician, but only those who were sick.*****  Jesus welcomed those who would listen.  Jesus welcomed those whose hearts were open to Him.  

And so Jesus told a parable to those whose hearts were not open enough.  He said 

"What is your opinion?  A man had two sons.  He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'  

He replied, 'I will not,' but afterwards he changed his mind and went.  

The man came to the other son and gave the same order.  He said in reply, 'Yes, sir,' but did not go.  

Which of the two did his father's will?"  

They answered, "The first."  

Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you."******  
There are people among us who have been committed crimes, but who have repented, and who now love their neighbor.  We who are not convicted criminals may think well of ourselves.  Yet if we merely say that we will do what God asks, but do not actually do it, we are not doing the will of God.  Despite appearances to the contrary, we might very well be entering the Kingdom of God after those who have been convicted of crimes.  We might be entering the Kingdom of God after those who our society calls outcasts, rejects and failures.  

We have our own ideas about who is bad and who is good.  We decide why people are bad and why they are good.  Yet we are all sinners.  We are all in need of God's mercy.  

Therefore Jesus instructed us, "Be merciful, just as your Heavenly Father is merciful."*******  We are to forgive our neighbor, just as God forgives us.  We must forgive our neighbor if we want to be forgiven.  

Since we must always forgive our neighbor, we must always forgive as God always forgives us.  Thus God calls us to strive to be like Him.  And so Jesus has directed us, "Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect."********  

God calls us to love our neighbor.  If we love, we forgive.  If we forgive our neighbor, we give love to our neighbor.  If we forgive, we receive the love we give.  When we forgive, we free ourselves and our neighbor from the shackles of selfishness.  When we forgive our neighbor, we are freed to choose the bonds of love which Jesus offers to establish with us.  

Jesus, always with us,********* patiently waits for us to turn inward and welcome Him into our hearts.  Jesus asks us to let Him love others through us.  Jesus wants us to become like Him.  He came to help us become like Him.  Saint Athanasius said, "the Son of God became man so that we might become God."  God asks whether we will consent to become more and more and more like Him.  

* Hebrews 13:2 
** Genesis 18:2-15 
*** Genesis 19:1-3 
**** John 13:34 
***** Matthew 9:10-11; Mark 2:16-17; Luke 5:30-31  
****** Matthew 21:28-31 
******* Luke 6:36 
******** Matthew 5:48 
********* Matthew 28:20 

Love Visits Gratitude

Yesterday my fellow Catholic Worker Susan visited our homeless friend Fred who was in the hospital.  Recently Fred was riding his bicycle when a collision occurred between him and a tractor trailer truck.  

In visiting Fred, who has been recovering from his injuries, Susan practices a work of mercy.  She follows the church teaching that we should perform the works of mercy.  

Catholics, and especially Catholic Workers, practice the works of mercy.  There are seven corporal works of mercy, partly echoing the counsels of Jesus at the end of the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.  We are to feed persons who are hungry.  We are called to give drink to those who are thirsty.  We must shelter those who are homeless.  We visit people who are sick as well as prisoners.  We bury the dead.  God calls us to give alms to impoverished individuals.  

Jesus has told us that when we care for those who are sick, we tend to Him.*  He has explained that when we do something to the least of those among us, we do it to Him.**  

Fred, our homeless friend, living on the fringes of society, is one of the least of those among us.  Jesus Our Lord is present in this vulnerable homeless man.  When we comfort this impoverished man, we are making a gesture of kindness to Jesus.  

When we love the needy person in front of us, we love Jesus.  When we love our neighbor, we love God.  

When the beggar before us is showing us gratitude, Jesus is thanking us.  When the poverty-stricken individual feels relief due to our efforts, we have gently and lovingly touched the Body of Christ.  

There in the hospital, Fred told Susan that he found it comforting to know that someone cares about him.  He was grateful for her visit.  

Susan gave the gift of her presence.  She received the gift of his gratitude.  

We love our neighbor when we visit our neighbor who is sick.  We love our neighbor when we thank our neighbor who visits us when we are sick.  When we express such love in these ways, we show the love we would want to receive if we were in the other person's position.  

We are to love each other as ourselves.***  If we consider that we would want to receive a visit while in the hospital and be showered with love there, then we can see that we are called to visit the sick.  Then we see that we are to go and do likewise.****  

* Matthew 25:35-36 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
**** Luke 10:37 

Dying To Ourselves

How do we die?  Everyday we decide how and when we die.  Each and every day we are confronted with the dilemma whether or not we will die on a particular day.  At every single moment, we are forced to choose whether we are going to die to ourselves.  Do we die to ourselves, to our own desires, so we can live for our neighbor, so we can selflessly serve others?   

We find our prime exemplar of dying for others in Jesus.  In today's Gospel, we hear that 

Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, 

"Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, 
but as human beings do."*   

As humans, we think of ourselves.  We aim to survive.  We strategize how we can get ahead in life.  We scheme how we can accumulate wealth; we plot how we can protect ourselves.  We look out for ourselves.  If we think at all about others, so often they are an afterthought.  After we have planned for our own protection, usually then we see how we can help others out of the surplus we have, from our carefully established place of safety and security.  

God thinks not how we think.  God wants us to rely not on ourselves, but on Him.  He wants us to give of ourselves.  He wants us to give, and to keep on giving, not counting the cost.  He wants us to set aside our concerns about how we will live, and to depend solely on Him.  

God wants us to trust in Him.  We are to share what we have with those who need it.  We are not to hoard.  We are not to have so much that we have excess resources which we never use.  

Today I heard a story from a worker about an interaction he had today reflecting this very approach to life.  He is employed in a homeless shelter.  A homeless man showed up at the shelter, asking for some food and for some socks as well as a shirt, because he was wearing a ripped shirt.  The worker heated a plate of meat and vegetables for the man, and also gave him a bag of snacks.  He found some new socks and gave them to the man.  

However, when the worker looked for a shirt in the facility's clothing supply, he could not find one in the size which the man had requested.  So the worker thought of a few shirts of his own which he had happened to bring with him to work.  He checked and saw that one of his own shirts was the size the man wanted.  Although the worker picked up a shirt which used to have sentimental value to him, he gave it to the homeless man.  

Later in the afternoon, in a different storage area where he works, the worker saw a pile of shirts, including in the size which the homeless man had requested.  The worker explained to me that he did not regret giving his shirt to the man.  "He needed it; I don't.  It had been sitting in my drawer for months without me wearing it.  Now he's using it: I saw him wearing it before he left the shelter."  

We are to share what we have with those who are poor, as Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement, urged when they would quote Saint Basil.  Saint Basil of Caesarea said 

When someone steals another's clothes, we call him a thief.  Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not?  The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.  

If we are not using something, by definition we do not need it.  Someone who does not have a coat needs the one we are not using.  

When we consider divesting ourselves of possessions, it becomes easier to imagine when we realize that we have pieces of property we are not even using.  It is easy to get rid of excess baggage when we realize that it is just weighing us down.  

It also becomes easier to let go of things when we see Jesus in our neighbor.  We become able to love our neighbor when we recognize Jesus in our neighbor.  Jesus is in our neighbor, yet He is particularly and especially present in those who are in dire need.  

Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  Jesus also explained that when we clothe the naked, we are aiding Him.***  

When we offer a piece of clothing to the poor person in front of us, we are extending a hand to Jesus.  When we extend ourselves to the indigent, we are reaching out to Jesus.  

Sometimes we do not recognize Jesus in our neighbor.  Then we find it more difficult to give of ourselves.  In that case, we can stretch out our hand to our neighbor little by little: we can give of ourselves a little at a time.  Dorothy Day said, "It is by little and by little that we are saved." 

My mind hearkens back to one particular day when I used to live at the hermitage with the monks I so love on the Big Sur coast here in California.  We were sitting listening to a Franciscan friar speak to us about how Saint Francis of Assisi had gradually divested himself of all of his belongings.  The Franciscan priest explained that even Saint Francis, a great saint who lived in extreme poverty, begging for alms to survive, had not unloaded all of his resources in one fell swoop.  Even Saint Francis let go of his physical property by little and by little.  

Dorothy Day was quite fond of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who boldly yet simply asserted that she would get to Heaven through her "little way."  She sought to live her life through offering little acts of love to her neighbor.  

For the vast majority of us, we will get to Heaven through making such choices to give through little acts of love.  Most of us will take the path to Heaven by being lovers in this little way.  
Of course we will hear stories of momentous change in people's lives, laced with dramatic overtures through monumental choices affecting huge numbers of people.  Today at Mass I heard about how Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto relinquished his will over to God, to accept the position, even higher than that of cardinal, to which he was called.  When he realized he was going to be elected pope, he began to weep.  In the end, the other cardinals convinced him that God was calling him to be pope, and so Cardinal Sarto became Pope Pius X, as he said, "I accept the Cross."  He not only became pope, but eventually was canonized as a saint.  

Even those who are elected pope struggle.  We do well to remind ourselves that humans always find it difficult as they strive to do the will of God.  Not only popes are called to be saints.  

As Pope Francis has directed us, "We are all called to be saints."  We can be sanctified, that is, we can be drawn closer to God, in all situations in our lives, even in the tiny, seemingly insignificant little trifles cropping up in our lives.  We can make many little acts of consent to God, assenting each and every day to God and to how He asks us to give of ourselves.  Little by little we can die to ourselves.  In tiny little steps we can give up our own desires and turn more and more to loving our neighbor.  As we open our hearts more and more to our neighbor, we open our hearts more and more to God.  As we love our neighbor more, we love God more and more.  We become more and more who God has always meant us to be, praising Him and glorifying Him through all we do.  We become who God, through all eternity, has always meant us to be.  We become love.  

* Mark 8:27-33 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Matthew 25:35-36 

Keep On Loving

Today I write to you of love.  I write to you about the love of a woman for a man.  I have seen it with my own eyes, and so I testify to it.*  As usual, I write to you of what I know.  And as I typically aim to do, I witness to how the Gospel is being lived out in front of me.  

I see my neighbor forgiving my neighbor.  I recognize my neighbor consenting to the love of God being shown through her.  I hold in high regard when my neighbor lets God love others through her.  We love our neighbor when we forgive our neighbor.  Jesus instructed us to keep forgiving our neighbor.  Saint Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?  As many as seven times?"  Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times."**  God calls us to forgive our neighbor over and over and over again, and to keep on forgiving our neighbor after that.  We are to keep on loving our neighbor despite how he or she keeps falling.  

I have seen this tireless love and devotion shown by a particular woman to her boyfriend here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Countless times I've interacted with a certain homeless woman, who I'll call "Jocelyn" here, and with her homeless boyfriend who I'll call "Jonny" here.  Despite Jonny's repeated self-defeating choices, Jocelyn has remained with him.  

I had heard that Jonny was addicted to a hard drug.  Someone had also told me that Jocelyn could easily stop being homeless.  This person opined that Jocelyn was obstructed from moving out of homelessness because she was persistently staying with her boyfriend.  This person insinuated that Jocelyn could help herself, but she was refusing to do so because she was insisting on remaining with her boyfriend.  

Essentially Jocelyn has kept putting someone else before herself.  She has kept loving her neighbor without counting the cost to herself.  

Jocelyn imitates Jesus.  Jesus gave Himself up on the Cross to save us, who are sinners.  

While He was on the Cross, Jesus was mocked by the soldiers who told Jesus to save Himself if He was the King of the Jews.  The leaders who were there jeered at Him that if He was the Messiah, that He should save Himself.  One of the two criminals being crucified next to Jesus also abused Him, demanding that Jesus save Himself as well as the two of them.***  Jesus could have saved Himself but He did not.  Rather than save Himself, He died on the Cross from love of us, praying for us even though we had ignored, mocked, disrespected, tortured and abused Him.  

It might seem foolish not to save yourself when you can.  Maybe it seems like deciding to die when you can live.  Yet in the perspective through which you choose to view the world, you determine whether your outlook is setting you on a path to being saved or to being lost, being on the road to life or to death, both for yourself and for others.  Saint Paul explains that "the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."****  

Those who do not love will perish.  People who do not give of themselves are doomed.  When you love, you choose to be saved.  When you persist in loving, despite all indications that your demise is imminent, actually you are working not only to be saved but also so that others may be saved.  When you love despite all evidence suggesting that your love is ineffective, you are loving from faith.  When you love not paying attention to appearances, you are putting credit in faith.   

The medieval mystic Julian of Norwich assures us, "All will be well."  When we say that all will be well, despite what we see to the contrary, we make an assertion of faith.  

If we truly have faith, we are fixing the foundation of our souls, our hearts, our minds and our bodies on what we do not see.  As Saint Paul wrote, "We look not to what is seen, but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal."***** 

Do not think that I am speaking merely of rewards that we will see only in the next life.  Certainly here I address the glory which will be revealed to us in the life to come.  Yet if you have faith and trust in God, you also reap the fruits of that faith now in this life.  I am not speaking in hypothetical terms, trying to assure you of things which I believe but have not seen.  As I have already said, I tell you of what I have seen.  

I have seen the change in his appearance.  I have seen the deep crevices disappear from Jonny's face over the last few weeks, deep lines which are symptomatic of abuse of hard drugs.  

I have witnessed the change in his behavior, how this month he walked up to me and greeted me with a wholeheartedly warm embrace.  Months ago he would barely acknowledge my presence upon crossing paths.  

Upon greeting him a few weeks ago and asking him how he was doing, I heard him excitedly proclaim to me, "Doug, I've gotten a job!"  After I had witnessed all of these and other signs of improving health, Jocelyn told me, "He stopped using the needle weeks ago."  

Jocelyn kept loving Jonny.  She did not give up on him.  She did not like what she saw, and she told him so.  I was present one day when in public she loudly and vehemently made clear to him that he did not look good, and that she was displeased with his behavior.  Yet she did not abandon him.  She kept loving him, despite his appearance, which was not promising.  Although she was not encouraged by his behavior, by what she saw, she moved forward in faith, in the hope she had for a better future.  

For centuries people have trusted in God, having hope in God's promise, having confidence that God can and will work wonders.  Indeed God will show us marvels if we will but have faith in Him.  In the fourth century, Saint Monica prayed indefatigably for years for her son Saint Augustine of Hippo.  After years of praying for him, he experienced a conversion: his life was reformed and he repented of his sins.  Having such faith in God, and being miraculously transformed from such faith, we enter into a new kind of life.  In the film "Restless Heart," Saint Monica says to her son Saint Augustine, "We are already living in eternal life."  Saint Monica and Saint Augustine lived such lives of faith in God, with such hope in His promise, that even in this lifetime, they had already begun living in eternal life.  

In this time, right now, the work before us is that of faith and hope, for we hope for what we do not see.******  The work of love is also now.  Jesus instructed us to love one another as He has loved us.*******  As Jesus has loved us, and died for us, now we are to die to ourselves for our neighbor, so that we and our neighbor may be saved.  Now we are to love out of faith and hope.  

Later, in the next life, we will see the fruits of our faith and hope.  In the next life, faith and hope will be realized in the love we will then experience.  For those in Heaven, that love will never end, for God is eternal, and God is love.********  And so love is eternal and will never end.  For those of us in Heaven, when we are in eternity, we will be with God, and so we will be with love forever.  

So keep on loving now.  In the end, love will rule.  Love will reign in Heaven once we get there, just as it rules there now.  Love now, and keep on loving.  Step onto the bridge of love which Saint Catherine of Siena described, that boundless love of Jesus, which will take you on The Way into eternal love.  Step into eternal life now.  Live the life of love now you are meant to live forever.  

* 1 John 1:1-3 
** Matthew 18:21-22 
*** Luke 23:35-39
**** 1 Corinthians 1:18 
***** 2 Corinthians 4:18 
****** Romans 8:25
******* John 13:34 
******** 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16