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
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
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