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 

Lovingly Choose Life

Earlier this week a homeless woman who I'll call "Katarina" told me that a homeless man who I'll call "Zack" had brutalized her.  Soon after she had shared this raw wound with me, again we crossed paths.  Then Katarina told me that Zack had come to her, repentant and regretful.  Zack, a tall, burly, muscular man, had stood before Katarina, his lip quivering with remorse, and had apologized to her for how he had grossly mistreated her.  

God can soften hardened hearts.  God can transform brutality into repentance.  

Just as God can lead us sinners to repent by guiding us through the Holy Spirit to forsake our hurtful behavior, so God can heal our wounded neighbor.  I have already seen how Katarina has been healing, since she has been forgiving Zack.  We heal ourselves and our neighbor when we forgive our neighbor.  

To heal ourselves, also we must forgive ourselves.  To heal ourselves, we must love ourselves.  So that we may be restored to health, sometimes we must recognize that we are not responsible for how others have harmed us.  Some people who have been abused blame themselves.  We are not responsible for others' actions.  However, we are responsible for how we respond to others' actions.  God calls us to love ourselves, such that we do not blame ourselves for what others do to us.  

God calls us not to perpetuate the suffering that others have inflicted on us by abusing ourselves.  God calls us not to cling to our pain.  God calls us to let go of our anguish by not fostering it through inaccurate images of ourselves.  

God calls us not to recreate our torment by continuing to live in our pain.  Some people who have been traumatized choose to relive the harrowing experience by putting themselves back into the same situation with the same person who abused them.  Rather than live in past abuse which binds us to death, God calls us to new life.  Jesus has told us that He came so that we might have new life, and have it to the full.*  

We find life in Jesus, who is The Way to The Life, which is The Truth.**  We find life when we love others as Jesus loves us.***  
God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.****  Since God calls us to love others, we must also love ourselves.  We must accord ourselves the same love we bestow upon others.  We owe ourselves a duty to love ourselves.  

If we love ourselves, we choose life.*****  As we love ourselves, we move toward having life to the full.  When we love ourselves, we move toward God.  In loving ourselves, we start to become who God has always meant us to be.  

As we become who God has always intended us to be, at the same time we are praising God and glorifying Him.  When we open our hearts to who God made us to be, we acknowledge His rightful place as our Creator, and thus come to love our Heavenly Father with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength.******  

As we become who God made us to be, we draw back home to God and toward Heaven.  Let us love ourselves, our neighbor, and thus become who God created us to be.  Amen.  

* John 10:10 
** John 14:6 
*** John 13:34; John 15:12 
**** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
***** Deuteronomy 30:19 
****** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 

Love With Mercy

Everyday we are presented with chances to love.  We are repeatedly faced with the choice of whether we will stop what we are doing so we can love others.  Thus we are called to love rather than to fear.  When we fall prey to fear, we fall away from love.  We decide to love when we listen to our neighbor.  We choose love when we are willing to learn from our neighbor.  

Today as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Matthew, once again we hear how Jesus calls us to love and to be merciful and thus to open our hearts to our neighbor.  In today's Gospel, we hear that 

Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.  
He said to him, "Follow Me."  
And he got up and followed Him.  
While He was at table in his house, 
many tax collectors and sinners came 
and sat with Jesus and His disciples.  
The Pharisees saw this and said to His disciples, 
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"  
He heard this and said, 
"Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.  
Go and learn the meaning of the words, 
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.  
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."*  

When Jesus told Saint Matthew to follow Him, Saint Matthew got up and followed Jesus.  As a wise person once pointed out to me, Saint Matthew didn't ask Jesus what his invitation entailed.  Saint Matthew simply got up, left everything, and followed Jesus.  Saint Matthew didn't have to discern what he was going to do; it was clear to him that he was going to follow Jesus, so immediately he did so.  

God presents all of us with chances to love.  When God gives us the gift of an opportunity to love, get up and follow Jesus wherever He calls you to go.  We find Jesus in our neighbor, and for however long our neighbor is next to us, we can choose to love our neighbor in every single instant.  Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.**  If our neighbor requests love from us, then we are to give that love to Jesus who we find in our neighbor.  When the duty of the present moment requests, then we get up and follow the call of Jesus to love our neighbor.  
When we choose fear over love, we ignore this call from Jesus.  When we succumb to fright, then we are turning away from loving our neighbor.  When we want to run away from what we have to do, then we turn aside from Jesus and from the duty to love our neighbor.  When we run away from our duty, we fail to love ourselves.  

I felt this pull of fear, and I was taught by a friend how to properly respond to such fear months ago.  This friend, who here I'll call "Anna," had done something wrong.  She needed to set it right again.  

She went to set things back in their proper place, and I accompanied her.  When she got to where she needed to restore things, she asked me how she was to do so.  Panicking, I stammered, "Just be done with it, and let's get out of here."  Calmly, she replied that she felt it was more appropriate to speak with the people who she had wronged.  She tried to speak with them, but it turned out that they were not there when she arrived.  She could have just departed, yet she not only left a voice message apologizing to the people she had wronged, but she also left her name.  She did her best to make amends for how she had inappropriately behaved.  

What else can I tell you about Anna?  Anna is a homeless woman who is addicted to methamphetamines.  

It is easy and convenient to declare that the homeless drug addict is the sick one.  Jesus suggests that those who are morally lacking are sick.  I was the morally deficient one in that situation: I was the one who wanted to hurry up and leave so we could avoid an uncomfortable confrontation, rather than see my friend partly spiritually healed through making the appropriate reparations to the people she had wronged.  In demonstrating to me how to begin to responsibly set right one's mistakes, this homeless addict was like a physician to my sick and troubled soul.  

When we see how we can learn from others who we had previously thought were below us, it becomes easy to realize the meaning of the words, "Mercy is what pleases Me, not sacrifice."***  If we realize that we can learn from people who we think are worse off than us, then it becomes easy to be merciful toward them.  

Jesus explained that He came to call not the upright, but sinners.  It is more comfortable for me to think of myself as upright than to realize that I am a sinner.  The truth hurts.  The truth is that I am a sinner.  Yet all is not lost, for Jesus calls me and all of us sinners to repentance and to restoration with God.  
Jesus calls us.  Jesus asks us to get up, leave everything and follow Him.  Jesus asks us to leave our conceptions of ourselves, to realize we are sinners, to give up our sinful ways, to make amends for what we have done wrong, and, having renounced our sinful desires, to follow Him.  Jesus calls us to such renunciation since He wants us to love ourselves and stop destroying ourselves.  He wants us to love ourselves so we can love our neighbor as ourselves.  We are called to love so that we can love each other as Jesus has loved us.****  We are called to show great love, to give up everything, and to follow Jesus.  When we do so, we finally become who God has always meant us to be.  Amen.  

* Matthew 9:9-13 
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
*** Hosea 6:6 
**** John 13:34; John 15:12 

Forgive Through Humility

Earlier this week I saw a particular homeless woman who again I'll call "Anna."  Over the last month, Anna has felt called to change.  

Anna told me that she knows that she has to make amends with a lot of people.  She also said that she has to turn away from sin.

She shared with me that she is aware that God is merciful.  She added that although we don't deserve God's grace, He gives it to us anyway because He is such a gentleman.  

Anna has taken important steps toward the recovery of her true self.  She has realized that regardless of poor choices she has made, she can ask God to forgive her, and that God will forgive her.  

God forgives us our sins as we repent.  A humble, contrite heart, O God, You will not spurn.*  

Forgiven by God, we are shown the love we are to show to others.  Forgiven by God, we see how we are to forgive others.  

If we forgive others, God our Heavenly Father will forgive us, as Jesus taught us.**  Choosing to love, we return home to God, who is love.***  

* Psalm 51:17 
** Sirach 28:2; Matthew 6:15; Mark 11:25 
*** 1 John 4:8,16 

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 

Forgiveness Welcomes Love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They answered, "The first."  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep On Loving

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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