Do Not Doubt

If I say that I am right with God, all I do is prove that I am not right with God.  We are all sinners.  We are all in need of God's mercy.  

Do not doubt; sin we will.  This is not to say that we should abandon our best efforts not to sin; certainly not.  Since God calls us back to Him, God calls us not to sin, for to sin is to choose to turn away from God.  

Despite our best efforts, we will sin.  When we sin, God calls us to repent.  

Do not doubt; God's mercy is greater than our sin.  God is infinite, and so God's mercy is infinite.  The name of God is mercy, as our Holy Father Pope Francis reminds us.  Jesus is love and mercy itself, as He told Saint Faustina.  

Do not doubt; God is love,* and so God is merciful.  If you think that God will not forgive your sin, you forget that God is infinite, and thus that God's love is infinite.  

God's love is greater than anything we think, say or do.  So often what we think, say and do is sinful.  As we come to see how much we sin, we can allow ourselves to be humbled.  If we come to see ourselves as the grains of dust that we are in this vast universe, then we can welcome the humility that can lead us to beg God to forgive our sins.  

God gives grace to the humble.**  By the grace of God, we can come to be who God made us to be, acknowledging that His love and mercy are infinite.  Through the grace of God, we do His will, and take our rightful places in this life, and in the next.  Amen.  

* 1 John 4:8,16 
** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 

Be His Will

Today as we celebrate All Saints' Day, when we honor all saints, those both known as well as those unknown, we can be encouraged if we keep in mind how Pope Francis has reminded us that we are all called to be saints.  This might seem like such a lofty calling that it is beyond our grasp.  Perhaps we obscure what we try to see through our own tendency to short-sightedness.  Maybe we fall into the trap of feeling like we can't do something because we rely too much on ourselves.  When we refuse to depend on God, we are telling God that we do not want Him to perform miracles through us.  

God can work miracles through us if we but give our consent.  If we simply submit and give our assent to the Word of God like Our Blessed Mother Mary did, if we merely respond to God that it be done unto us according to His Word,* then we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and show God that we wish that the Holy Spirit dwell in us.  

Until we offer this complete obedience to God, we are cutting ourselves off from how the Holy Spirit can radically transform us.  We can't do much without God, but God can do much through us.  What is impossible for humans is possible for God,** for nothing is impossible for God.***  

If we open our hearts to God, God can work wonders through us.  If we allow ourselves to be humbled, God will give us the grace**** and the strength we need to do His will.  God will exalt those who humble themselves.*****  

In deciding whether or not we would like to be humble, we determine who we will become.  We spend our time well when we ask ourselves who we would like to become.  Having pondered who we wish to become, we then do well to request what we need to evolve into who God has always intended us to be.  

If we pray to God that He give us what we need to do His will, He will give it to us.  Those who ask will receive.  Those who seek will find.  Those who knock will have the door opened to them.******  

God answers the prayers of those who seek to serve Him.  God gives people what they request when they seek to be who He made them to be.  

As I recently suggested to someone, God made us to pray to Him, to praise Him, to adore Him, to glorify Him, and to honor Him.  When we do so with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength,******* and when we love our neighbor as ourselves,******** then we become who God made us to be.  When the will of God is what we will, then we are saints.  When we live the will of God, we become who God has always meant us to be.  Amen.  

* Luke 1:38 
** Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27 
*** Genesis 18:14; Luke 1:37 
**** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 
***** Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
****** Matthew 7:7-8 
******* Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
******** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Wonders Through Littleness

We have not been left alone.  We have our guides, companions, protectors and advocates with us, now and always.  They come unto us to tell us The Truth, so that we may remain on The Way, so that we may have The Life,* and so that we may have it to the full.**  

Jesus is gone from our bodily sight, yet He is with us always.***  Jesus further said He would not leave us orphans, but that He would send us another advocate, namely, the Holy Spirit, Who would lead us into all truth.****  

And from the Cross, Jesus entrusted us to His mother, to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  In the Gospel according to Saint John, we hear that when Jesus was on the Cross, 

Seeing His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing near Her, Jesus said to His mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'  Then to the disciple He said, 'This is your Mother.'  And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.*****  

From the Cross, Jesus told His Blessed Mother Mary that Saint John was her son.  As He was on the Cross, Jesus told Saint John the Apostle that His Blessed Mother Mary was his Mother.  
Yet Jesus looked beyond Saint John both as someone for whom His mother would care and as someone to care for His mother.  Jesus was announcing to His Blessed Mother Mary that she was becoming the Mother of all the faithful.  Jesus was telling every human being that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of all the faithful.  

We are to pray the rosary and beseech Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus on our behalf.  We are to humbly seek the aid of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for through her intercession, by her tremendously effective prayers for us, we will be protected.  

As Pope Francis declared today about Our Blessed Mother Mary, "We have a Mother!"  We have a merciful, loving, sweet, kind, gracious advocate in Our Blessed Mother Mary.  

What more can we say in describing Our Blessed Mother Mary?  We can look to when she appeared to the three peasant children Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco in Fatima in Portugal exactly one hundred years ago, on May 13, 1917, and when she appeared to them later that year.  These Fatima seers said she is beautiful.  Saint Jacinta was so overjoyed that she later exclaimed to her mother, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  

We can also recall when Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.  Someone suggested to Saint Bernadette that she offer pen and paper to The Lady who had been appearing to her, who turned out to be Our Blessed Mother Mary.  When Saint Bernadette suggested to Our Blessed Mother Mary that she write what she wanted, Our Blessed Mother laughed!  Now I would like to see Our Blessed Mother Mary laugh!  There would truly be a joyous sight.  

A glorious reward among many in Heaven will it be when we will see Our Blessed Mother Mary!  As Pope Francis said earlier today, we will have all eternity to gaze upon Our Blessed Mother Mary!  

And how are we to get to Heaven?  How are to conduct ourselves so that we welcome the guidance we need to get there, so that we invoke the protection we need?  

On our way, as Pope Francis has advised, "We can take as our examples Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta, whom the Virgin Mary introduced into the immense ocean of God's light and whom she taught to adore Him."  As Pope Francis further noted today during the Mass in which he canonized them, "That was the source of their strength in overcoming opposition and suffering.  God's presence became constant in their lives, as is evident from their insistent prayers for sinners and their desire to remain ever near 'the hidden Jesus' in the tabernacle."  

Who were Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta?  He was eight and she was seven when Our Blessed Mother Mary first appeared to them.  They were very young peasants, poor, uneducated and simple.  Saint Francisco and Saint Jacinta were humbled by the circumstances of their lives.  How can we humble ourselves?  How can we become like little children?  

Anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.******  Someone who makes himself as little as a little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.*******  

We become like little children toward God when we totally rely on God, just like little children completely depending on their parents for all they need.  We humble ourselves when we pray.  When we pray, we admit we cannot get where we are going on our own.  As we are praying, we are acknowledging that we need God's help.  

There is no way we can get to Heaven solely on our own merits.  We all are in need of God's mercy.  

God is love.********  Love is mercy.  Thus, the name of God is mercy, as Pope Francis has told us.  Similarly, Saint Faustina has told us that Jesus told her that He is love and mercy itself.  

If people ever wonder why I am looking forward so much to the next life, there is much I can say.  I know that I will enter Heaven because I will throw myself at the mercy of God's great love.  I know that God will forgive me, for God is infinitely merciful.  And on the day I enter into Heaven, you can imagine me telling you, "Today I saw Our Lady!"  I will have all eternity to bask in the unspeakably marvelous warm glow of the love and glory of God, largely thanks to the immense mercy of Our Blessed Mother Mary, for in her great kindness she has greatly aided me, for she has secured grace for me through her intercession on my behalf.  

How can we get to Heaven?  Be like little children, who greatly respected and honored Our Blessed Mother Mary, Who, in her great humility, did as she was told.  And in turn, she tells us of her Son Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*********  

When we have the humility to do as God directs us to do, through us God performs miracles.  Even though we are but little children, God will work wonders through us.  And in the end, God will raise us up, so that we may be with Him for all eternity, in His glory.  Amen.  

* John 14:6 
** John 10:10 
*** Matthew 28:20 
**** John 14:16-18; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:13 
***** John 19:26-27 
****** Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
******* Matthew 18:4 
******** 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16 
********* John 2:5 

Reverence The Truth

Know thyself.  Assert who you are; declare the truth.  Proclaim your identity, no matter how much it costs, for the state of your soul depends on how you express yourself in this way.  Say and show who you really are, and you will feel a joy no one will be able to take from you, no matter what happens.  State the truth, and reverence the truth in how you act, and you respect the deepest recesses of your being.  

We hear the truth honored in these ways in the Gospel reading today, on Good Friday.  In today's Gospel reading, we hear that 

Judas got a band of soldiers and guards 
from the chief priests and the Pharisees 
and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.  
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, 
went out and said to them, "Whom are you looking for?"  
They answered him, "Jesus the Nazorean."  
He said to them, "I AM."  
Judas his betrayer was also with them.  
When he said to them, "I AM, " 
they turned away and fell to the ground.    

So he again asked them,
"Whom are you looking for?"
They said, "Jesus the Nazorean."
Jesus answered,
"I told you that I AM.
So if you are looking for me, let these men go."
This was to fulfill what he had said, 
"I have not lost any of those you gave me."
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, 
struck the high priest's slave, and cut off his right ear.
The slave's name was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter,
"Put your sword into its scabbard.
Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?"  

So the band of soldiers, the tribune, 
and the Jewish guards seized Jesus,
bound him, and brought him to Annas first.  
He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, 
who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews 
that it was better that one man should die 
rather than the people.  

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus.
Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, 
and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate outside.
So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, 
went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, 
"You are not one of this man's disciples, are you?"
He said, "I am not."
Now the slaves and the guards 
were standing around a charcoal fire
that they had made, because it was cold, 
and were warming themselves.  
Peter was also standing there keeping warm.  

And they said to him,
"You are not one of his disciples, are you?"
He denied it and said,
"I am not."
One of the slaves of the high priest, 
a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, 
"Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"
Again Peter denied it.
And immediately the cock crowed.  

Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium.
It was morning.
And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, 
in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said, 
"What charge do you bring against this man?"
They answered and said to him,
"If he were not a criminal, 
we would not have handed him over to you."
At this, Pilate said to them, 
"Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law."
The Jews answered him, 
"We do not have the right to execute anyone, " 
in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled
that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the praetorium 
and summoned Jesus and said to him, 
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered,
"Do you say this on your own 
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered,
"I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered,
"My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world, 
my attendants would be fighting 
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."  
So Pilate said to him, 
"Then you are a king?"  
Jesus answered, 
"You say I am a king.  
For this I was born and for this I came into the world, 
to testify to the truth.  
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."  
Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"  

When he had said this, 
he again went out to the Jews and said to them, 
"I find no guilt in him.  
But you have a custom 
that I release one prisoner to you at Passover.  
Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"  
They cried out again, 
"Not this one but Barabbas!"  
Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.  

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns 
and placed it on his head, 
and clothed him in a purple cloak, 
and they came to him and said,
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them, 
"Look, I am bringing him out to you, 
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him."
So Jesus came out, 
wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.  
And he said to them, "Behold, the man!"  
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, 
"Crucify him, crucify him!"  
Pilate said to them, 
"Take him yourselves and crucify him.  
I find no guilt in him."  
The Jews answered, 
"We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, 
because he made himself the Son of God."
Now when Pilate heard this statement,
he became even more afraid, 
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, 
"Where are you from?"  
Jesus did not answer him.  
So Pilate said to him, 
"Do you not speak to me?  
Do you not know that I have power to release you 
and I have power to crucify you?"  
Jesus answered him, 
"You would have no power over me 
if it had not been given to you from above.  
For this reason the one who handed me over to you
has the greater sin."
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; 
but the Jews cried out, 
"If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.  
Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar."  

When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out 
and seated him on the judge's bench 
in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
And he said to the Jews,
"Behold, your king!"
They cried out,
"Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!"
Pilate said to them,
"Shall I crucify your king?"
The chief priests answered,
"We have no king but Caesar."
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.*  

Who are you?  When He was asked, Jesus said who He is.  He did not deny who He is, even with the great price associated with saying who He truly is.  He knew that the price, the sacrifice He was making of Himself through His death, is part of who He is.  Be ready to say who you are, no matter what the cost.  Do not forfeit your own happiness and joy, which comes from the fulfillment that arises from living out your true identity, the identity given to you by God.  

Others worry about the cost to us.  Saint Peter drew his sword to defend Jesus when soldiers came to arrest Him.  Our friends and our family want to save us from peril.  Yet when we embrace the duty of the present moment, as Jean-Pierre de Caussade notes, then we are at peace.  We abide in great calm regardless of what occurs, for then we live well aware of the truth that God ordains everything for the good of those who love Him.**  

Sometimes we might be so concerned with the cost to us and to others that we deny the truth.  When we deny the truth, we deny ourselves.  When we deny the truth, we condemn ourselves to death.  Saint Peter denied three times that he knew Jesus.  Don't deny who you are.  Don't deny who you follow.  Don't deny The Truth.  Yet if you do, God will forgive you if you wholeheartedly repent.  If you turn to God with all your heart, God will forgive you.  As Pope Francis has told us, the name of God is mercy, for God is love,*** and love shows mercy.  

We see love in how Jesus led His life.  In how He ministered to people, by teaching them and healing them, and from how He died for us, He showed that He loves us.  Jesus showed us that God is love.  How do we reply to the gift of love which Jesus has given to us?  Each and every one of us must choose how we respond to Jesus.  

Every human being must decide what they think of Jesus.  All people define themselves by how they relate to The Truth.  Pilate asked Jesus what truth is.  We can pretend that we don't know what the truth is.  Yet The Truth remains the truth.  We cannot escape the truth, nor can we escape the consequences of how we relate to The Truth.  

Pilate declared the truth.  He proclaimed that Jesus had done nothing wrong.  Yet we assert our relation to the truth not only in what we say, but also in what we do.  Although Pilate stated the truth, that Jesus had done nothing wrong, after so stating, then Pilate acted out of step with the truth.  Even though Pilate knew that Jesus had done nothing wrong, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.  

Show who you are in what you say, and in what you do.  When we fully focus on the duty in the present moment to tell the truth, we are strengthened with serenity and peace.  When we reside utterly in the present duty to witness to the truth, we remain calm in the face of adversity, and courageously proclaim the truth.  When we firmly declare our loyalty to The Truth, we abide in deep peace, since we are embracing Jesus deep within us.  Then we speak from a place of safety and security deep within our being; then we state The Truth in accord with Jesus.  When we remain loyal to The Truth, we turn to God, and our souls are saved.  Amen.  

* John 18:3-18:18; John 18:25-19:16 
** Romans 8:28 
*** 1 John 4:8, 16 

Abandoning Our Plans

We do not see what we are offered.  We are standing inside of a grand tale.  It is much larger than we are.  We cannot see how we fit into it.  We cannot even see where we are in it.  And yet we propose to determine our own place in this great drama.  However, the Master Storyteller knows and assigns the role each one of us is to play.  He will tell us, in the midst of our discernment, if we only ask Him.  We will hear Him if we merely listen.  When He tells us, we must choose if we accept the role he offers us.  In this decision, we determine our own destiny, which is inextricably interwoven with that of others.  

So Joseph, the husband of Mary the Mother of Jesus, had to decide.  Earlier this week, when we celebrated the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, we heard in the Gospel reading of the day 

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.  
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, 
but before they lived together, 
she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.  
Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, 
yet unwilling to expose her to shame, 
decided to divorce her quietly.  
Such was his intention when, behold, 
the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 
"Joseph, son of David, 
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.  
For it is through the Holy Spirit 
that this child has been conceived in her.  
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, 
because he will save his people from their sins."  
When Joseph awoke, 
he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him 
and took his wife into his home.*  

In how he began to relate how the birth of Jesus came to be, it is as if Saint Matthew was saying, "Let me tell you the full story."  Within this story, Saint Joseph had an idea of what he was going to do.  It was his own scheme.  It was not God's plan.  

In our lives, we are living a story larger than we realize.  We have our own plans.  Are our limited conceptions the same as God's boundless immensity?  

Our minds are finite; God is infinite.  God can, and wants to, and does devise and execute plans far greater than what we can ever possibly envision.  

Joseph and Mary were betrothed.  They were engaged to each other.  They were not living together.  She became pregnant.  

When we have committed to a course of action, sometimes does something unexpected happen?  How do we react?  

After Joseph learns that Mary is expecting a child, he devises his strategy.  He is going to divorce her, but quietly, because he doesn't want to disgrace her.  

We come up with our own approach to what unfolds in our lives.  Are we trying to stray from where God wants to lead us?  

God told Joseph that He had intended that Mary had come to be with the child within her.  Through His angel, God told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary his wife into his home.  He explained to Joseph that the child had been conceived in her through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Joseph was to name Him Jesus, since he was destined to save people from their sins.  
Do we trust God when God tells us not to fear?  Do we rest secure in God?  Do we welcome how the Holy Spirit seeks to work in our lives?  

God seeks to give us gifts.  If humans, as evil as we choose to be, know how to give our children good things, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?**  God wants the best for us.  God wants such good for us, and so loves us that God sent His Son, Jesus, the Messiah, to save us from our sins.***  

If we abandon our own plans, then we can welcome what God has store for us.  If we empty ourselves, then we can be filled with what God wants to give to us.  

This week I've heard from both Larry and Susan, my fellow Catholic Workers here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, that when one is discerning one's calling, one does well if one is indifferent.  That is, if you are detached from all vocational possibilities, then you can dispassionately evaluate the courses of action which rest in front of you.  When you're unattached to any particular choice, then your mind is clear enough to be well-disposed to hear and listen to what God is trying to tell you.  

If we stop clinging to our ideas about where we think we are supposed to be, and what we think we are supposed to do, then we are turning onto the road of objectivity.  When we let go, and stop trying to demonstrate our strength, instead admitting we do not know, allowing ourselves to be humbled, then we are given the strength we need.  Then we are able to discern well-reasoned, wise decisions.  

Saint Joseph gave up his plan, which he had formulated without understanding where he stood in God's master plan.  After he had been told what he was to do, he let go of the idea he had had to divorce his wife Mary.  Joseph did as he was told.  Once the angel had told him to take Mary his wife into his home, he did so.  Upon being told to accept Mary as his wife, he offered his own fiat.  He awoke and proclaimed through his actions that it should be done to him as he had been told by the angel.****  

For his obedient submission to the will of God, Saint Joseph was rewarded.  For his acquiescence to the will of God, Saint Joseph became the foster father of the Savior of Humanity, inextricably and intimately linking his destiny with that of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  

Do we cling to our own ideas?  Will we open our hands and let go of our own plans?  If we merely unclench our fists, then we are able to open them to what God wants to hand us.  In what God wants to give to us, we will receive what is far better than anything we can even imagine.  

We do not see what we have been promised, for we cannot see it this side of eternity.  As Saint Paul wrote, we fix our hope on what is not seen.*****  Yet as Saint Paul also wrote, we strive toward this goal.******  We are able to make this progress since The Way we follow is illuminated by the light of faith, as Pope Francis has told us.  And so we are encouraged as we move forward, knowing that we are bound in love as part of a communion of brothers and sisters stretching out over centuries.  We are inspired by the examples of faith our brothers and sisters have provided to us over the centuries.  Encouraged by their witness, we are confident that we too can hear and listen to how God is also calling us to abandon our own plans and turn to Him so we can be who and what He has always intended each of us to be.  

* Matthew 1:1-18, 24 
** Luke 11:13 
*** John 3:16 
**** Luke 1:38 
***** 2 Corinthians 4:18 
****** Philippians 3:14 

Mercifully Giving Love

When we open our hearts, we give.  In whether we give, and with how much love, we ourselves determine how much we will receive.  To enable us to love, we are not to judge.  Rather than judge, we are to forgive.  In deciding not to judge, we give.  In choosing not to judge, we are set to receive.  

And so in today's Gospel reading we hear that 

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.  
Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, 

packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you."*  

If we judge others, we close our hearts to them and refuse to show them compassion.  In judging others, we are not listening to them.  As we judge others, we are deciding that we are not going to learn about them.  

I recently received a lesson about the importance of not judging others.  I've mentioned before a specific homeless woman who I'll call "Roslyn" again here.  For quite a while now I have seen Roslyn take many bottles of water when water is available to her.  Quite recently she told me that she takes so many water bottles because she has only one kidney.  Without knowing this fact, someone could look at her and conclude that she is greedy, selfish and inconsiderate.  Yet she has a particular need for water in a way that most other people do not.  

There is so much we don't know about other people.  Even if we did know everything there is to know about others, still we would not be in a position to judge others.  It is not our job.  Besides, in this life never will we know everything about others.  

Only Jesus knows everything about each of us.  Jesus knows every one of us better than any of us know anyone else.  Thus Jesus judges us according to The Word He has spoken, according to the law of love which is the rule presiding over all of our thoughts, words and actions.  

And so Saint John of the Cross explained, "In the evening of life, we will be judged on our love."  At the end of our lives, we will be judged by how much we have loved.  Thus we will do well to concern ourselves with how much we are loving, and not preoccupy ourselves with judging others.  

We are in a position to love others: the duty of this hour is to love our neighbor as ourselves.**  It is not our duty to judge our neighbor; we are not positioned to judge others.  

Insofar as we are not in a position to judge others, when we catch ourselves judging others, we can follow the example of Pope Francis.  Today, on the fourth anniversary of his becoming pope, we can recall how Pope Francis once asked, "Who am I to judge?"  

In this vein recently I overheard a conversation which has stayed with me.  I heard an addict, in the midst of relapsing, saying to his friend, "Please don't judge me."  His friend gave a reply something like, "I don't have your problem.  I'm not in your position, so I won't judge you."  

Even if we are facing the same type of difficulty as someone else, still we are not in the exact same set of circumstances as someone else.  Each person brings his or her own experiences to what he or she encounters.  Just because we have overcome a certain obstacle, we are not entitled to judge someone else who is struggling with that same challenge.  Rather than judge someone who is falling prey to adversity that we have successfully weathered, instead we can mercifully forgive that person's failings and thus compassionately love that person.  

Saint Teresa of Calcutta pointed out, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them."  If we judge our neighbor, we are enslaving ourselves to our false ideas of our neighbor, and thus we are not free to love our neighbor.  By succumbing to our inaccurate views of our neighbor, we are closing our hearts to love.  However, when we refuse to let our misperceptions dictate our behavior, then we can open our hearts to love our neighbor.  

If we love our neighbor, then we are not judging our neighbor.  If we do not judge, we will not be judged.  If we give mercy, we will receive mercy.  Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote, "It is the Lord, it is Jesus, Who is my judge. Therefore I will try always to think leniently of others, that He may judge me leniently, or rather not at all, since He says: 'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.'"

In however we think of our neighbor, in any event we give to our neighbor.  Instead of giving judgment to our neighbor, we can give love to our neighbor.   

According to the measure we give, with that same measure will be given to us.  What do we want to receive?  Considering that, let us give out of our hearts accordingly.  

* Luke 6:36-38 

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

Receiving Upon Giving

We are dust, and unto dust we shall return.*  So we are reminded today on Ash Wednesday, at Mass when we step forward and each one of us has a cross of ashes made on his or her forehead.  

And so begins Lent, our more intense period of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, over the course of about the next six weeks, between now and Easter Sunday.  Today at Mass the priest noted that in Lent, we are not only entering into a practice of more frequent penance in atonement for our sins.  During Lent, on Good Friday, we especially remember our Lord Jesus dying for us on the Cross to save us from our sins.  To contrast with our Lenten penance, today the priest pointed out that we are also anticipating the triumph of our Lord Jesus over death through His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.  

As we enter this period of intensified prayer during Lent, we may examine how we approach prayer.  As Pope Francis has inquired of us, in our prayer do we only ask God for things and thank God for things?  If we are focused on what we want, we are likely to experience difficulty in receiving what God wants to give us.  If we are preoccupied with what we want, we are less likely to be adoring and praising God and always rejoicing** out of gratitude for whatever God gives us.  Yet if we are excited about whatever God has in store for us, we practice another approach.  

I heard about such a different conception of prayer yesterday when I drove with someone else to pick up some items which were being donated to the Catholic Worker House.  As we traveled to, and later back from, our donor's home, my passenger was sharing with me how she has come to view prayer.  She described that when she is sitting down to read the Bible, she feels like she is receiving a gift.  It seems to her like she is opening a present, not knowing what is inside.  She suggested that when you aspire to truly receive God's Word into your heart, you do not know what God is about to give you: you do not know how God is about to transform you, if you have truly opened your heart to God.  You are not aware what specific spiritual blessings you are about to receive.  

Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, explained, "Our God does not want to know what we want, but wants us rather to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we may be able to receive what He is preparing to give us."  How can we prepare ourselves to receive what God wants to give us?  As Jesus tells us in today's Gospel reading, "When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret."***  By sitting motionless in silent solitude, we still and quiet ourselves alone, having removed ourselves from distractions.  We are well-positioned to listen to what God wants to say to us.  We are situated to receive what God wants to give to us.  

We receive what God gives us when we let go of our own desires.  We give up our desires also through fasting.  We tend to conceptualize fasting as giving something up.   Often we give up certain food during Lent, though sometimes people fast from social media during Lent.  Someone can fast from anything.  We are to fast from all things which separate us from God.  When we fast, really we are going beyond giving something up and are doing more than trying to live in greater simplicity.  When we fast, we tell God that we are willing to, and are trying to, subordinate our desires to His will.  As we fast, we show God that we seek to be submissive to His will, and thus obediently open our hearts to what He wants to give us. 

When we give something up, we receive something back.  When we die to ourselves, when we die to our desires, when we set fire to our desires and aim to reduce our desires to a pile of ashes, we try to humble ourselves.  God gives grace to the humble.****  

When we give up what we have out of love of our neighbor, we humble ourselves for the sake of love.  So it is with almsgiving.  When we give to those who are needy, we step out of our comfort zone to help others in their discomfort.  When we give out of our comfort, we are able to comfort the afflicted.  Saint Basil of Caesarea has said that the extra coat which is hanging unused in our closet belongs to the poor shivering impoverished person who has no coat.  Out of our comfortable wealth of unused property, we can comfort people who do not have what we have.  We can easily give them what they need but we do not need since we have more than we need.  

We can give away what we have to help others.  We can give up to God what we have.  We can give up, meaning that we can surrender.  We can give up ourselves to God.  We can surrender ourselves to the will of God.  In return we can receive from God the gift of simplicity.  We can receive back from God the amazing gift of total dependence on Him.  Realizing that we are to turn to God for all we need, then we are in a position to receive from God the gift of awareness of who we truly are.   

* Genesis 3:19 

** 1 Thessalonians 5:16 

*** Matthew 6:6 

**** 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 

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