Remember His Love

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.  Some might ask what difference it makes to them in their everyday lives that Our Blessed Mother Mary was immaculately conceived without sin in her.  

In our lives everyday, we face challenges.  When these obstacles in our lives seem so daunting that they feel overwhelming, we can be considerably heartened and strengthened if we ponder the Immaculate Conception.  

In the midst of formidable trials, we can be fortified, and can remain on solid rock, if we consider the Immaculate Conception, for it is a sign of God's great love for us.  Our Blessed Mother Mary had not yet come into being, and so she had not done anything to merit being conceived without sin in her.  She was so conceived purely from the love of God.  

God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to us.*  God sent His Holy Spirit upon Our Blessed Mother Mary; she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.**  God sent the breath of His love into Mary, she conceived by the power of that love, and Jesus, love incarnate, came forth into the world.  God brought love into the world through Jesus, for God is love.***  

We can remember this immense love God has for us when we feel we are being overcome by misfortune.  If we keep in mind this tremendous love God feels for us, we can remain in peace despite intense tribulation.  God gives peace to those who remember His love for them.  Amen.  

* John 3:16 
** Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35 
*** 1 John 4:8,16 

Proclaim Your Identity

We find ourselves in our choices.  Out of challenges which force us to make decisions emerges who we are.  

Today we are encouraged to consider how, in our own choices we must realize who we are, as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours.  Saint Martin of Tours was a soldier in the Roman army in the fourth century.  He concluded he could not be both a soldier and a Christian.  He renounced his standing in the military, turned away from war and toward peace, and so courageously declared the truth of who he was.  

We must choose.  Do we realize who we are?  Do we proclaim our true identity?  

Seek Her Intercession

October 13, 1917.  The town of Fatima.  Portugal.  The night before, it had rained torrentially; on October 13, the people there and the ground there were thoroughly soaked.  Seventy thousand people gathered in Fatima on October 13, 1917; they had heard that three little children had seen apparitions of a Lady there that year.  The Lady had promised that a miracle would take place when she appeared there on October 13.  

There, in Fatima, exactly one hundred years ago on this date, before 70,000 people, the sun danced back and forth in the sky, defying cosmic laws.  It fell toward the earth.  When the sun returned to its usual location and remained in its place, all the people there were completely dry, even though just a short time earlier, they had been drenched.  The ground too was dry, even though it had just been saturated.  

On October 13, the Lady identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.  The three little children were Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco.  

In her apparitions to them at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother Mary told them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace and for an end to the first world war.  She explained to them that Jesus wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart.  

As we show devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and thus are returning home to Our Heavenly Father.  When we pray seeking the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we are asking her to assist us in returning home to God.  She supports us in doing as Jesus told us to do because she loves her Son, because she loves God.  

Our Blessed Mother Mary, who is so kind and sweet and loving, who cares for us so tenderly, helps us to welcome Jesus into our hearts.  Just as she told the servants at the wedding feast in Cana, so she tells us about Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*  

If we beg Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we request what we need to be able to do what Jesus commands us to do.  When we ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we ask her to beseech Him that we may have all we need to do God's will.  Through her Spouse, The Holy Spirit, we are empowered to do the will of God.  Through her assistance, we are given the grace we need to do the will of Our Heavenly Father.  

Let us pour out our hearts to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  Let us implore her to come to our aid.  She loves us so tenderly and sweetly--indeed her will is love, since her will is the will of God, and we know that God is love**--that she will surely love us with great love.  

Knowing that Our Blessed Mother Mary loves us so much, we come to realize that we are tremendously aided in coming home to God, who is love, when we seek her intercession.  If we wish to return home to God, we have a powerful intercessor in Our Blessed Mother Mary to help us draw back to God.  Let us entrust ourselves to the loving care of Our Blessed Mother Mary, consecrate ourselves to her, and, greatly supported by her, thus return home to God.  Amen.  

* John 2:5 
** 1 John 4:8,16 

Love Through Respect

On Friday mornings, in our driveway persons in need line up and get free food.  Thus this morning people here filled their bags with fruits and vegetables and bread and desserts.  

Today after everyone had acquired their food, the leftover food was being brought out of the driveway.  Some was being loaded into the volunteers' cars for them to take home.  Overripe food had been sorted to be added to compost.  

As this leftover food was being carried out of the driveway, I noticed that a woman walking her bicycle on the other side of the street had stopped.  She called out asking if any of us needed any help.  

At this point, a box of brussels sprouts was being brought to a truck.  The box fell to the ground and the brussels sprouts spilled onto the street.  

Suddenly the woman with the bicycle was next to us.  She had grabbed a broom and a standing dustbin and was sweeping the brussels sprouts into the dustbin.  

Soon I was talking with this woman, who I'll call "Melinda."  She quickly offered that she is homeless.  She related that another homeless woman had told her about the Catholic Worker House.  Melinda was asking me about the Catholic Worker House, so I was explaining to her some of the work we do.  

In addition to talking about the Catholic Worker House, Melinda started telling me about herself.  She began to tell me about some of her goals, about how she wants to become a more productive and giving person. She shared that she wants to rise above past experiences she has had.  

During our conversation, Melinda told me that sometimes men immediately make advances to her and expect her to promptly comply.  She explained to me that she rejects such premature propositions made to her.  

I said, "It sounds like you respect yourself."  

She replied, "Yes, that's right.  I respect myself."  

With her bold, confident, self-assured manner, I found Melinda refreshing and relieving.  She put me at ease since I knew I needn't be concerned about her.  I was aware that she takes care of herself.  I was able to relax insofar as I was conscious that she is tending to her own well-being.  

Melinda loves herself.  Loving herself, she is empowered to love her neighbor as herself,* as Jesus taught us to do.  Loving herself, she reassures her neighbor that she is all right, and in giving that reassurance to her neighbor, she is loving for her neighbor and caring for her neighbor.  

When we respect ourselves, we love ourselves, and, consequently, we love our neighbor.  When we respect ourselves, we give the gift of peace of mind to our neighbor and thus we love our neighbor.  

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

Blessed With Faith

To have faith is to be blessed.  You are blessed when you have the gift of faith from God, for you are not relying on yourself.  With faith, you become more than yourself.  If you are moved by faith, you trust in God.  As faith lives in you, God breathes in you and speaks through you.  If you have faith, although God has already tremendously blessed you, God gives still more by using your faith to reshape the world.  

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, we are reminded how God rewards those with faith.  In today's Gospel reading, we hear of such faith and how those with faith are so blessed.  There we hear that 

Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."

And Mary said:

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
and has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever."

Mary remained with her about three months
and then returned to her home.*  

Saint Elizabeth said to Our Blessed Mother Mary, "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."  Our Blessed Mother Mary believed what the angel Gabriel had told her, that through the power of the Holy Spirit she would conceive and bear The Son who would save His people from their sins.**  She had faith that the promise made to her would be fulfilled.  Our Blessed Mother Mary is so blessed because God gave her a gift of great faith.  

And so Saint Elizabeth said to Our Blessed Mother Mary, "Blessed are you among women."  And so Catholics praying the rosary proclaim to Our Blessed Mother, "Blessed are you among women."  

Catholics pray the rosary because Our Blessed Mother is such an effective intercessor.  We have such an effective advocate in Our Blessed Mother because she prays for us with great faith.  Faith is power.  Through faith, we are empowered to do the will of God.  With faith, we can confidently pray, believing that our petitions according to the will of God will be granted.  Our Blessed Mother desired the will of God, so filled with faith she was.  Our Blessed Mother comes so efficiently to our aid, interceding with her Son Jesus because of her abounding faith.  

We can be considerably comforted to remember the power of faith.  When events in the world appear to go awry, and when circumstances in our personal lives seem amiss, through our faith we can call upon great power in our prayer when we might mistakenly believe we are lost.  When Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Francisco, Saint Jacinta and Servant of God Lucia at Fatima in Portugal in 1917, she told them to pray the rosary for world peace.  We can achieve peace through prayer.  Faith brings peace in hearts by leading to dependence on God.  Through the power of faith, prayer can bring peace in the world.  

If we recognize that God has given us a gift by giving us faith, it follows that we are to accept this gift and use it well.  In gratitude to God, we can offer this faith to Him through our prayer.  In response to our prayer, God transforms the world.  When we accept the invitation from God to let Him transform the world through us, we are blessed that He uses us as vessels of change.  Like Our Blessed Mother Mary, if we welcome the gift of faith that God seeks to give us, we too can be instruments of the change God seeks to work in the world.  Let us welcome the gift of faith from God, and so allow the world to be transformed.  Amen.  

* Luke 1:39-56 
** Luke 1:31-35

Love Gently Waits

If you love someone, you wait for them.  Feeling love, you do not try to force or coerce another person.  

If your friend does not wish to go with you, with love you do not insist on your friend going with you.  Love does not demand; love does not intimidate; love is not overbearing.  

Love gently waits.  Love generously gives room to another person to come when he or she is ready, or even never at all, if that is what the other person chooses.  Love lets someone else choose for herself.  

Love respects another person's free will.  Love gives someone else comfort and peace from the dignity of being allowed the latitude to make his own choices.  

Love softly submits to the law of freedom.  Love obeys the necessity that people must have the dignity of making their own choices.  Love tenderly tells that others must be free to realize in their own time who they are.  

Since we desire our own freedom, we must let others be free, and not enslave them in our ideas of who we want them to be.  If we wish to be respected, we must respect others.  Knowing that we wish to be loved, we can come to love our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus taught us to do.*  

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

Presently Prayerfully Loving

Today is the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.  Today we also celebrate the feast day of Edith Stein, a nun martyred in Auschwitz.  One could think that these commemorations have nothing to do with how today I sat and talked with a recent college graduate.  Yet in all of these opportunities rests the duty of the present moment.  In every moment we are called by God.   
As we remember how a plutonium bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki exactly 72 years ago on August 9, 1945, killing tens of thousands of people, some of us might wonder what we can do to avert war.  I am convinced that in seeking world peace, the most effective step we can take is to pray.  I also strongly believe that we can take efficacious measures for world peace by praying the rosary.  One hundred years ago, at Fatima in Portugal, our Blessed Mother Mary instructed us to pray the rosary for world peace.  Had more people ardently implored our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus, the second world war would not have happened.  We fulfill the duty of the present moment when we pray.  

We also carry out the duty of the present moment, as was described in the eighteenth century by the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, when we seek to do God's will.  Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, previously known as Edith Stein, was raised Jewish.  However, after voraciously reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila late into the night, she not only became Catholic, but eventually also became a Carmelite nun.  Due to her Jewish heritage, the Nazis arrested her and sent her to Auschwitz, where she died in a gas chamber, probably exactly 75 years ago, on August 9, 1942.  She said that we surely may pray to be spared, but that certainly we should add the additional prayer to God, "Not my will be done, but Thy will be done."*  We find God's will in the present moment, so when we submit to the present moment and what it demands of us, we obey God's will.  Wherever we are in the present, there may God's will be done.  Where we find ourselves, there we pray.  

Today I found myself sitting at the kitchen table here in the Catholic Worker House with a young woman who I heard speak at Mass this past weekend.  At the end of Mass she got up and spoke briefly about how she is devoting her efforts to helping other young people who have fallen away from their faith.  She indicated she would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to hear more about her work.  After Mass, I asked her to contact me.  We arranged for her to come here to the Catholic Worker House.  

In relating to me how she aims to get to know the persons she seeks to help, I felt indirectly guided in what she said.  It seemed to me that the Holy Spirit was speaking through her.  It occurred to me that perhaps Jesus was telling me that I must get to know the homeless people and other impoverished persons I aspire to serve as a Catholic Worker.  I believe that in hearing her story, I was being told how I am to live my life, how I am to love my neighbor as myself.**  I would want someone to care enough about me to get to know me, so as to understand me; thus I should get to know others so I can better understand them.  In better understanding others, I can more easily be compassionate towards them, and thus love them as I love myself.  When I find myself in the present moment, I am to listen as best I can to my neighbor.  In giving my neighbor my full attention, and learning about her, I love my neighbor, and thus I fulfill my duty to the present moment.  

We embrace the present moment when we love our neighbor.  We carry out the duty of the present when we pray.  We open our hearts to the present when we do the will of God.  No matter how disparate the circumstances, no matter what is happening, we are called to pray and to love our neighbor, and thus do our duty right now, and thus do the will of God.  Let us open our hearts, and love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength,*** and our neighbor as ourselves, and thus do God's will.  Amen.  

* Matthew 26:39,42
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
*** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

Waste Not Tears

We are all faced over and over with the decision of whether or not we will love.  We all choose our relationship with pain.  We all decide whether we embrace suffering or reject it.  In what we accept or deny, we determine whether or not we love.  

We can cry out of hopeless desperation, feeling frantic, and convinced that all is lost.  Or we can profoundly weep out of great love for others.  

We can let tears fall from our eyes without realizing their value.  Or we can weep offering our tears as prayers to God.  

All we send out from our being echoes out into the universe.  As a tear falls from your eye, if you offer it as a humble prayer to God, when it drops into the liquid lake of spiritual solidarity we share, you can implicitly offer that tear to help others.  Your tearful prayers are effective when they are offered as the basis of humble and earnest prayer.  When such humble, ardent tears of yours hit the liquid lake of spiritual community we share, these tears send out ripples of love across that surface.  Thus through such tears you can seek to strengthen your spiritual brothers and sisters.  

I am not merely speaking in theoretical terms here.  Ever since earlier this week, when a dear homeless friend who I'll once again here call "Sally" shared with me how she views tears as liquid prayers, her statement of spiritual insight has been echoing in my soul.  Like a drop of water that falls into a pond and causes ripples outward, so her tender spiritual musing, coming into contact with my ears, has been echoing in my soul.  
Despite the struggle, Sally has chosen not to let her agonizing experiences dominate how she responds to life.  As I have mentioned in prior blog posts, Sally has endured domestic violence.  Despite having been hit hard many times by multiple men, Sally refuses to be enslaved by the pain she has felt.  Instead she offers up her tears to God.  Interwoven with her sensitivity and fragility, she also displays a courageous and admirable tenacity, and so she sends out a strong message of faith, hope and love, that pain can be the basis of a beautiful transformation of one's spirit.   

Knowing, then, that we can consent to our suffering being transformed into the joy that emerges out of service of others, we can come to experience a radical alteration of how we feel pain, see pain, and respond to pain.  Aware that God works all for the good of those who love Him,* we come to realize that even anguish can lead to joy, if we seize upon such opportunities to petition God.  Thus in all we experience we can be joyous,** if all we do is for the praise, glory and honor of God.  

Conscious that all we experience presents us chances to glorify God by assenting to call upon Him so He may show us His great love always, we come to give thanks always for all things.***  As we come to express such gratitude at all times, God comes to give us a deep, abiding and enduring peace, as, feeling His love, Jesus comes to abide in us, and we in Him.****  

Let us embrace every opportunity we have, then, including in the midst of our tears, to pray constantly,***** give thanks for all things always, and thus love God and love our neighbor.  Thus we come to live a life of love.  Amen.  

* Romans 8:28 
** 1 Thessalonians 5:16 
*** 1 Thessalonians 5:18 
**** John 15:4-7,9-10
***** 1 Thessalonians 5:17 

Trying To Help

Yesterday we received a huge amount of clothes donated on our front porch here at the Catholic Worker House.  Jesse, one of the homeless folks who comes here to the house to receive services, was helping us to sort and bag the clothes.  We hadn't asked him for his assistance; he just started aiding us on his own initiative.  

I expressed my gratitude to him for helping my fellow Catholic Worker Susan and me.  He replied that he was just trying to do right by God and by his neighbor.  

I responded something like, "Those are the two most important things to do in life.  If you've got those as priorities, it's not like you're never going to have problems, but you'll have real peace."  

Lovingly Recognizing Ourselves

If we are not at peace with our neighbor, it is because we have failed to see ourselves in our neighbor.  If we can recognize ourselves in our neighbor, then we can come to love our neighbor as ourselves* as Jesus taught us to do.  

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

Peace Through Us

Jesus tells us first and foremost to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.  He tells us second to love our neighbor as ourselves.*  

In these two most important commandments, Jesus directs us to love.  We are to let love flow out of us to God and to our neighbor.  God asks us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, to help us to love Him.**  God asks us to consent to Him loving our neighbor through us.  

To love God, I must also love my neighbor.  Anyone who claims to love God but hates his or her neighbor is a liar.***  

To love my neighbor, I must not judge my neighbor.****  If I am judging my neighbor, there is no room in my heart to love my neighbor.   

We judge persons when we see what we do not like in them.  When I encounter thoughts, words and actions I dislike, I am to despise them in myself.  I am to be outraged at the appalling tendencies I notice in myself.  

I believe that the path to salvation is paved with despising my own horrible tendencies and begging God to forgive me out of His great mercy. We receive the infinite gift of God's immense mercy when we turn to look at ourselves, acknowledge our own sinfulness, and implore His mercy.  

Since I prefer to direct my energies toward how I need to improve, rather than on where other people might need to change, last week I made a choice reflecting this aspiration I have.  As I have previously mentioned, Catholic Workers regularly protest outside the facilities of a manufacturer of armaments here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Last week I was asked to choose the short writings we would read before and after our protest.  

In line with the sentiments I have expressed about trying to focus on how I need to improve, for our brief reading just before the protest, I selected a composition in which the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote 

Instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men and love God above all.  And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war.  If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed--but hate these things in yourself, not in another.  

I strive to love my neighbor, though often I find it challenging, and although often I fail.  We love our neighbor by taking an honest look at ourselves and how we need to improve so we can better love our neighbor.  

Thus I prefer to focus on what I need to do to treat people better than I do.  To help work for peace, we can examine our own thoughts, words and actions.  As Gandhi suggested, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."  

Herein rests the reason why I don't protest more than I do and why I don't write about protesting more than I do.  While I find it important to speak out against injustice, I strongly contend that it is far more appropriate to try to improve myself than it is to point out why others are inappropriately acting. Since I wish to witness to peace, I want God to bring about peace through me.  For God to bring about peace through me, I must open my heart to God so He can transform me and thus create peace in the world, right now, in this very moment.  

Consequently, for our short reading together immediately after the protest, I selected the prayer commonly attributed to Saint Francis, which beseeches God 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.  

We can agree to God's plan to be channels of His peace.  We can consent to God bringing peace to the world through us.  

In every little fragment of time, in the present moment God is always extending His hand to us, inviting us to open our hearts to Him.  He is requesting that we assent to His will and open our hearts to Him, and love Him, so that He may enter into our hearts and love our neighbor through us, and thus bring peace into the world through us.  Let us open our hearts to God so He may abide in us,***** love through us and bring us peace.  Amen.  

* Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
** Romans 5:5 
*** 1 John 4:20 
**** Matthew 7:1; Luke 6:37 
***** John 15:7 

Little Loving Present

This morning I picked up and dropped off food donations.  When I got home, I was happily surprised to see a few of our friends on our front porch.  

One of them, who I'll call "Betty" here, asked me for a pen and paper so she could exchange contact information with someone I'll call "Jane" here.  Someone I'll call "Christy" asked me for a bag so she could more easily carry the items she had just gotten for free that had been left on our front porch.  

When I had gotten what they had requested, I came back out onto the porch to give them the seemingly insignificant items they wanted.  First I gave a pen to Betty, along with a little pad ornately decorated with colorful flowers and sparkling designs, and told her she could keep it.  Then I said to Christy something like, "And much less impressively, here is this bag."  

Immediately Jane got up and came over to me.  She embraced me.  Right away I could tell she needed comfort.  I rested my head against hers and really tried to soothe her with calm and peace as we hugged.  

Before today I had already known that Jane was homeless.  However, after I saw Jane today, someone told me that all of her possessions had just been stolen.  She had nothing.  In the context of being bereft of all she had had, she was in dire need of tenderness and kindness.  She just needed someone to do merely what they were capable of doing, showing her love.  

We do these things in life we don't even consider.  We do little things we forget.  We don't even think about them, so we wouldn't even think that they matter even if we did think about them.  

Yet tiny little moments can be windows of opportunity for great love to be shown through us. If we open ourselves up to what is happening right in front of us, we can let God love others through us.  

In each tiny fragment of time, we can be present to our neighbor to perform little acts of love for each other.  In this vein, I have been wondering if anyone has ever written about the convergence and intersection of thought amongst "The Story of a Soul" by The Little Flower, that is Saint Therese of Lisieux, and "The Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an anonymous medieval author.  

The anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" wrote of how we are responsible for even fractions of seconds.  Thus, even an instant, although it is so brief, holds much significance, since it holds the potential for great love to be expressed in it.  

Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she would get to Heaven along her little way of serving her neighbor through little loving actions.  She saw her vocation as being one of love expressed in small gestures of love for others.  

The Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, in his book "The Sacrament of the Present Moment," explains that we find our duty to God in the present moment.  He explained that we serve God when we embrace what the present moment requires of us.  
If we are attentive to what the current moment presents to us, then in every microscopic moment, we can realize immense potential to love through seemingly insignificant little acts of charity towards others.  Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.*  If love that is the size of a mustard seed is in our hearts, we can move mountains with this little love.  The mustard seed of our little loving act may bear much fruit in the heart of the person who receives the love of God that is being shown through us.  If we embrace the duty currently being presented to us, if we agree to love our neighbor** in little ways, even in fleeting instants, we can be witness to much love blooming in the hearts of others.  

Each of our little loving acts can be little flowers.  And from one little action of love, much love can be sown in the heart of another, just as from one little flower, much pollen can spread and germinate and bear much fruit.  

We can become convinced that some actions are insignificant.  How do we know this to be so?  We can assume some acts have no important impact.  How can we be sure this is so?  

Do we think that what we do makes no difference?  Maybe we think it makes no difference to us, but maybe it makes a big difference to someone else.  

* Matthew 17:20; Mark 11:23  
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Belonging To Others

When we see how alike we are, we love each other.  We love each other when we remember that we belong to each other.  

As we see that we need others to forgive us, we forgive others.  We forgive others because we want to be forgiven.  As Jesus instructed us, if we forgive others their failings, God our Heavenly Father will forgive us.  Yet, as Jesus added, if you do not forgive others, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you.*  We are forgiven to the extent we forgive.  We determine our destinies in how forgiving we are of others, and so our fates and the fates of others are tied up in each others' hearts.  

We forgive each other because we realize we belong to each other.  We forgive one another because we do not want to try to separate ourselves from each other.  We forgive each other because we do not want to live under the illusion that we are apart from each other.  The reality is that we are a part of each other.  

Being part of one another, we see we must love one another.  Seeing we are intertwined with each other, we know we must forgive each other not only to love others, but also to love ourselves.  

Realizing we need to be forgiven too, we are realizing we need to be loved.  Forgiving each other, and thus loving each other, we love ourselves.  

I have seen these truths lived out amongst the homeless people here in Redwood City.  Although they have their disagreements, they forgive one another because they love one another.  

Recently I was in a parking lot with a couple of homeless people I know, who here I'll call "Kimberly" and "Benny."  Kimberly and Benny were arguing.  Although they were not yelling at each other, they clearly were not pleased with each other.  Even though I had already started driving away, I stopped.  I pleaded with them, "One thing."  They both stopped what they were doing and were totally intent on what I was about to say.  I implored them, "Please love one another."  

Kimberly immediately replied, "Anywhere other than Redwood City, it wouldn't be this hard."  

Having made my plea, I resumed driving away.  Often it's after the moment has passed that I think of what I would have said at the time.  

Had I thought of it at the time, I would have said to Kimberly, "Sister, stop making excuses.  You and I have the same bad habit: we need to stop making excuses."  

By coming up with excuses, we seek to absolve ourselves of responsibility.  As the French priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade noted, our duty to God rests in the present moment.  To embrace the present moment, we need to be accountable for our actions in the present moment.  We must admit where we have gone wrong and how we can improve.  I struggle with this call to accept what I have done and how I can better behave.  Typically I start to explain.  I begin supplying the context for my actions.  Often people need not know what else was going on when I did what I did. Rather, we can be silent and simply focus on what we are called to do in that moment, namely, examine our own actions and how we can conduct ourselves better next time.  

To help me better prepare for another opportunity to take responsibility for my own actions, I am encouraged by my sister Kimberly.  She reminds me that I am not the only one challenged by the need to acknowledge the shortcomings in our own behavior.  

I see this and other similarities between Kimberly and myself, since I know we are more alike than many people think.  I look past the differences between her and me, so she can help me to grow.  Someone once told me, "Kimberly does meth."  Were I to dismiss Kimberly because supposedly she is addicted to methamphetamines, I would lose the insights I gain about myself through her.  Welcoming her into my heart, I allow her to teach me about myself.  Seeing the commonalities between her and me, I realize that she and I are alike in important ways.  
The Dutch priest Henri Nouwen noted this truth, that we share more similarities than we initially think, during his time living with mentally disabled persons at one of the homes in the L'Arche movement founded by Jean Vanier.  Nouwen realized that living with mentally disabled persons brought him closer to his own vulnerabilities.  He explained that 

While at first it seemed quite obvious who was handicapped and who was not, living together day in and out made the boundaries less clear. . . . And when I had the courage to look deeper, to face my emotional neediness, my inability to pray, my impatience and restlessness, my many anxieties and fears, the word 'handicap' started to have a whole new meaning.  The fact that my handicaps were less visible . . . didn't make them less real.  

At first it may seem very clear who is the one with the problems.  We can easily conclude, "That drug addict is not like me."  We can quickly misapprehend ourselves and others, and mistakenly declare, "That person is messed up; I am fine."  Sooner or later we realize we share some of the same frailties that societally despised persons exhibit.  I have been told that Kimberly suffers from depression, and that she takes meth to cope with the depression she feels.  I suffer from depression if my blood sugar level drops too low, and so I cope with depression by consuming sugar.  Kimberly is addicted to meth, and I am addicted to sugar.  I deliberately use that word: if I do not get enough sugar, my mood not only plummets, but my perceptions become severely distorted.  Since the only chemical recourse I have to alleviate my depression is sugar, I am literally addicted to sugar.  While Kimberly has chosen a less healthy, less socially acceptable, and more disruptive way to cope with her depression, nevertheless the fact remains that she and I suffer from the same problem, that of depression.  

When we glance at someone, we may dismiss that person.  If we only get a glimpse of someone, we may think we have nothing in common with that person.  At first it may seem quite obvious who is disabled and who is not.  Initially it might seem apparent who is the one with problems and who is the one without problems.  Once we get to know people, and once we see how others are like us, it might become less clear who is who.  

Kimberly lives in a tent pitched behind some bushes.  I live in a Catholic Worker House.  Kimberly suffers from depression, and so do I.  Just because I cope with my mental disability in a more socially acceptable way, in a less unhealthy manner, and less disruptively than Kimberly deals with hers doesn't mean she and I don't share a mental disability.  Just because my mental disability is less evident than Kimberly's doesn't negate the fact that she and I suffer from the same condition.  

Kimberly and I share a common hardship.  Having seen that we both have the same deficiency, we are empowered to love one another.  In the past, it could have seemed only like a curse; now through the light of love, it is a blessing since it enables us to understand each other better and thus to love one another.  When we see why our neighbor acts the way she acts, we come to have compassion on her.  Realizing that we share much which is important, we come not only to respect our neighbor, but truly to love our neighbor.  We see that in loving our neighbor, we are loving ourselves.  We see that God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves** since we belong to each other.  We see that to have peace, we must remember that we belong to each other, as Saint Teresa of Calcutta implicitly urged.  

It seems that those who are homeless here in Redwood City have realized these truths.  Weeks after Kimberly and Benny exchanged sharp words in that parking lot, I crossed paths with Benny.  As we were talking, I mentioned Kimberly.  He asked me, if I were to see her, to tell her that he had her bicycle.  I told him I would convey that message to her if I saw her.  

Then my tear ducts opened.  I added, "That's why I love you all so much, all of you who are homeless here in Redwood City.  Even if you're angry with each other, you still help each other."  
Benny, who already had been speaking in a low tone of voice, lowered his voice even further.  He replied softly, "Yeah... we look out for each other."  

We look past our differences because we know are similar.  We forgive when we realize how similar we are.  When we see our faults in others, we are led to forgive them, for both their sakes as well as ours.  We forgive because our hearts are tied up with each other.  

We forgive because we love.  We love because we belong to each other.  We love because we belong to God.  We are a part of each other because God made us to love Him and one another.  In forgiving, and thus in loving, we embrace not only each other, but also the truth that we belong to each other and to God, and thus become who God has always intended us to be.  

* Matthew 6:14-15; Mark 11:25-26 
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Trust Yields Joy

Yesterday I met up with a friend of mine who's a non-denominational Christian pastor here in Redwood City.  We were drinking coffee together at a cafe downtown.  

We were discussing our faith.  We shared with each other the challenges we face as we strive to love God and our neighbor.  

We both spoke of people who are tremendously joyous.  I mentioned that years ago I had read how a Jesuit priest had written that he had met a joyous man in Africa.  The priest asked the young man why he felt such joy.  The man replied that he deeply treasured his relationship with Jesus.  This man utterly trusted Jesus.  When we totally trust God, and have complete confidence in Him, we empty ourselves of our delusions about our capabilities.  Admitting that only God can deliver us, having emptied ourselves of our insistence on independence from God, God can fill our hearts with His joy.  

God wants us to bask in deep joy.  Once we are in Heaven, we will exult in abundant joy.  However, God would like us to abound in joy now.  Jean-Pierre de Caussade advises us that we may be sanctified, drawn into more intimate communion with God, by embracing the duty of the present moment.  When we welcome what the current moment offers us, we feel peace and joy, which we experience when we trust in God no matter what happens.  

People ask why there is such suffering.  Persons ask how there can be God when there is so much suffering.  

If we trusted God, and opened our hearts to God in the present moment, our suffering would be transformed for us.  If we show the humility God desires, God gives us grace.*  If we recognize and embrace who we are, and who God is, we humble ourselves before God.  When we acknowledge that we must have God's help, God gives us what we need to do His will.  Then we are overflowing with joy.  

Yet when we do not trust God, we deprive ourselves of joy.  When we refuse to trust God, we separate ourselves from God.  

God loves us, and thus will not force Himself upon us.  God wishes that we will exercise our free will to trust in Him.  

We are told by Saint Faustina of God's desire that we trust in Him.  Earlier this week, I was reminded of this good counsel.  A couple of nights ago, at the Catholic church where I usually go, I saw a multimedia performance in which Saint Faustina was depicted in the midst of her visions of Jesus.  In the performance, Saint Faustina shared that God is most saddened when we decide not to trust in Him.  

Of course God is sorrowful when we choose not to trust in Him.  When we opt not to trust in God, we turn away from Him, and thus reject the joy He would pour into our hearts by virtue of our trusting in Him.  

Sometimes it might seem that it is impossible to feel joy in this life.  At times it may appear that we will never feel joy until we arrive in Heaven.  

We need not wait until we get to Heaven to be enveloped in magnificent joy.  Right now, in this life, we can be clothed in wonderful joy.  If we turn to God now, and trust in God in this moment now, we can live a life of joy right now.  Amen.  

* 1 Peter 5:5; James 4:6 

Light Has Risen

Light has risen on us; we are no longer in darkness.  When we were in darkness, darkness clouded our vision.  Now, although we are not in darkness, but in light, yet because we mistakenly think we are in darkness, we cannot see.  Due to the darkness we think is around us, we cannot see despite the light which has already risen, which we do not yet recognize.  When we see so narrowly, we cannot see our loved ones when they are not standing before us.  When faith, hope and love permeate our being, then we see our loved ones even when they appear to be gone.  When we have faith, we welcome the Spirit at work in, through and around us, and see the Spirit transform us.  

We hear of these challenges of perception and vision in today's Gospel reading for Easter Sunday.  In this Gospel reading, we hear that 

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb 
early in the morning,
while it was still dark, 
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter 
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, 
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb, 
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out 
and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter 
and arrived at the tomb first; 
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, 
but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him, 
he went into the tomb 
and saw the burial cloths there, 
and the cloth that had covered his head, 
not with the burial cloths 
but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in, 
the one who had arrived at the tomb first, 
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture 
that he had to rise from the dead.*  

Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus so early in the morning that it was still dark.  When we are in darkness, we cannot see.  Jesus had just died.  Mary Magdalene thought she was in the midst of a dark time.  When we think we are in darkness, we cannot see.  

Yet Jesus had already risen from the dead.  Mary Magdalene incorrectly thought she was immersed in a dark hour.  Actually, Jesus had dispelled the darkness.  The light had risen.  Yet since Mary Magdalene was convinced that she was in darkness, she did not realize that the light had risen.  

Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb and saw that the huge stone, which had been blocking the entrance to the tomb, had been rolled away.  She went and told Saint Peter, and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, who was Saint John, and told them that they had taken the Lord Jesus.  She did not know where He had been taken, for she did not see Him.  

When we do not see who we love, we think they have gone.  Those we love live in our hearts.  Those we love live through us, in our thoughts and prayers.  We help those we love to live through the words we speak.  In our actions, we can give love to those we love, and let them live through the love we give.  We can honor the memory of those we love by allowing them to live on through us.  

Even though Saint Peter and Saint John saw the empty tomb, they still did not understand the Scripture passages which said that Jesus had to rise from the dead.  They did not realize that the Holy Spirit had raised Jesus from the dead.  

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us as long as that Spirit dwells in us.**  I can testify to the transformative and healing power of the Holy Spirit.  When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco, I read the entire Bible: day after day I would read a little of the Bible, so that after months had passed, I had read the whole Bible.  As I did so, I was purged of particular sinful tendencies I had had for decades.  After I had left Morocco, I looked back and I marveled, and was amazed and puzzled by how I had been purified of certain sinful inclinations I had had for so long.  When I lived at the hermitage, I related to one of the wise Camaldolese monks there how I had been rid of these sinful habits I had had.  I shared with him how I wondered at how I had been freed from the chains of slavery to sin which had bound me for so many years.  This sagacious monk pointed out to me that I was liberated from these sinful patterns upon reading the Bible.  He explained to me that I had been cleansed by The Word that God had spoken to me.***  

When we welcome the Word of God into our hearts, miracles happen.  We are transformed.  The Spirit of God flows into and through us, and frees us from what has been enslaving us.  

Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives.****  If we simply consent, God will set us free.  If we turn to God with all our hearts, if we open our hearts to what God has to say to us, God will loosen the bonds which have been holding us back.  If we want God to help us to come to Him, we must do our part: we must welcome Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.*****  When we do so, God transforms us.  

Jesus came to give sight to the blind.******  If, living in utter simplicity, we uncomplicate our lives and simply assent to God, He will show us The Way which gives us the light we need to see as we journey back home to Him.  

If we acquiesce to being humbled by God, He will exalt us.*******  When we agree to the plan God has for us, God abundantly rewards us.  Upon welcoming what God has in store for us, we feel a deep and profound joy.  Here we dwell in the knowledge of who we are and who God is.  Here we have deep peace, and a joy which no one will take away from us.********  This is Heaven.  Let us, then, in this life now, enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and enter into eternal life.  Amen.  

* John 20:1-9 
** Romans 8:11 
*** John 15:3 
**** Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18 
***** Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
****** Luke 4:18 
******* Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14 
******** John 16:22