Always Welcoming God

God is constantly inviting us to welcome Him into our hearts.  At times God gives us pleasure: at these moments, we are to thank God for how He nourishes us.  At other times God tries us, and tests us through difficulties: at such junctures, we are to thank God that He is strengthening us.  At such times, we are to petition God that He help us to weather what we are enduring.  In any event, no matter what our circumstances, we are to thank God, aware that God loves us immeasurably.  As we welcome the love of God into our hearts,* we see the love we want there to be in the world.  Thus conscious that all we receive provides occasions to be grateful to God, we come to appreciate the value of both delights as well as pains.  

Here in this country so often we are given numerous material blessings.  In this way we have constant opportunities to thank God.  Through so many avenues I have witnessed the generous loving care of God, including through substantial amounts of food which caring people donate.  

Occasionally I've gotten calls from a certain supermarket, telling us that they had a lot of food to donate to us.  Amongst the food they gave to us, we received some particularly delectable desserts.  

Both a certain homeless friend of mine and I are fond of sweets in general, and also this one particular dessert.  So both she and I enjoyed this one certain dessert.  

Weeks after I'd picked up one of those large donations of food and we'd enjoyed some of those especially delicious desserts, my friend asked me, "Hey, you haven't gotten any more of that kind of dessert, have you?"  

I replied, "No, we haven't gotten any more of those.  We don't usually come across those."  

Ever since she asked for more of those particular desserts, from time to time I think of how her request reflects how we live in such a state of abundance in this country.  I've thought that if, as a homeless woman, and as a man who survives mostly on food donations, we can not only get all the sweets we want, but can express our preferences for types of desserts, it's a good reflection of how incredibly God blesses us with material benefits here in this country.  

Being incredibly blessed, we are called to give thanks to God always** for these material blessings.  God can draw us closer to Him by doting upon us.  We can be sanctified through comforts, we can be purified in our relationship with God due to luxuries, if such blessings lead us to thank God more fervently and more often than we have been thanking Him.  

Some people complain that there are many poor people who greatly suffer.  They demand how God can exist when such suffering is felt.  As we become increasingly desperate, we are presented with ever more precious opportunities to grow closer to God by depending ever more upon Him.  When we are faced with hardship, we are presented with a chance to call upon God to help us.  If we respond to adversity by praying to God to give us grace and strength, through an ordeal we can be sanctified, and our relationship with God can be deepened.  

Here in this country so often we are bountifully blessed by God with numerous material benefits.  We can become complacent in our acceptance of such blessings from God.  We can get used to not expressing our gratitude to God for how generously He blesses us.  If we start to take for granted copious blessings from God, and thus show a lack of gratitude to God, we come to resent trials and tribulations when they befall us, instead of recognizing them as the loving invitations from God that they are.  

When we come to realize that God is love,*** we come to see that God is always inviting us to welcome Him into our hearts.  Once we recognize that since God is infinite, and thus that God loves infinitely, we come to see that God works all for the good of those who love Him.****  As we open our hearts to all that God presents to us, we realize that God intends everything in our lives for our benefit.  

By thus coming to trust in God and have faith in Him, we open our hearts to His love.  In welcoming God's love, we come to be channels of His love.  In time we can bring peace to our neighbor, by helping to show to our neighbor through our loving actions that God is loving us in every moment, in all that happens.  As we welcome the will of God in our lives, and the love of God into our hearts, we become empowered to love our neighbor.  With God in our hearts, we love our neighbor as ourselves, just as Jesus taught us to do.*****  With God abiding in us,****** and loving through us, God gives us peace, and the world comes to be as we wish it to be.  

Opening our hearts to God, we welcome God into our lives, no matter what happens.  Opening our hearts to love, we love regardless of what occurs.  Fully open to God, and thus completely open to love, we become love.  Let us open our hearts to God, and thus to love, so that He may love our neighbor through us, and so we may become the love we wish to see in the world.  Amen.  

* Romans 5:5 
** 1 Thessalonians 5:18 
*** 1 John 4:8,16 
**** Romans 8:28 
***** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
****** John 15:7 

Keeping Some Perspective

Today a particular homeless man I know who I'll call "Han" arrived here at the Catholic Worker House with his bicycle.  I asked him how his day was going.  He responded that he had a flat tire.  

I replied, "Oh, man.  Bummer."  

Han noted, "Well, this isn't that bad.  If this is the worst thing that happens to me today, this is a pretty good day."  

Han makes a good point.  When mishaps seem to occur to us, do we keep them in perspective?  

When we suffer setbacks, do we keep in mind that anything other than sin can sanctify us, if we but respond to it in the right way?  Do we remember that anything that is not sinful can bring us closer to God if we merely react in the correct manner?  Do we recall that God works all for the good of those who love Him?*  

As apparent misfortune seems to befall us, do we remain grateful to God, conscious of the abundant blessings in our lives?  Once we realize how good we've got it, it becomes much easier to give thanks to God always.**  

* Romans 8:28 
** 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

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 

Loving Through Humility

We find true, lasting, limitless power in love.  Those who serve become great.  However, if we raise ourselves above others, we will be lowered.  Yet if we lower ourselves, we will be raised up.  As we bow before others, we are empowered to lift others up.  Thus, if we are humble, we will love our neighbor as ourselves.*  

And so in today's Gospel reading, we hear that Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying 

The greatest among you must be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.**  

The greatest one among us has served us, and has served us better than anyone else.  Jesus came to serve.***  He taught us The Word in all He said and did, and thus in His great love for us, He showed us that He is The Way, The Truth and The Life.****  He has loved us so much that He was obedient even unto death, death on a cross,***** so that we would be saved from our sins.  

If we too wish to be great, then we too must serve.  A servant is not greater than his master.******  We should not expect to be greater than Jesus.  When hardship befalls us, we should remember that we too are expected to suffer, just as Jesus suffered and died for us.  We are to die to ourselves so we can live for our neighbor, just as Jesus died for us.  

Essentially, we are called to consent to being humbled, just as Jesus gave His assent to His Heavenly Father humbling Him.  We are called to humility.  

Here we are not presented with easy work.  Our egos tend to get in the way.  I am reminded of an interaction someone related to me.  A young woman I know very well described how she was standing in a busy cafe.  A middle-aged woman who appeared impoverished was also standing at the counter in the process of ordering an item.  This older woman kept glancing nervously at a shopping cart loaded with personal items, which was stationed just outside the cafe.  The young woman gestured to the older woman and the merchandise she wanted.  The younger woman altruistically offered, "I'll get that for you."  

The older woman immediately and indignantly rebuffed the younger woman's generous offer, scoffing, "Oh, no, you won't!"  The younger woman was surprised and silently backed away.  The older woman seemed like she was too proud to accept help from someone else.  

Yet if we raise ourselves up, sooner or later we will be humbled.  At some point we will realize that we need others to help us.  The twentieth century Trappist monk Thomas Merton pointed out that "no man is an island."  If we isolate ourselves, we cannot survive.  

Yet if we acknowledge our weakness, we embrace the reality of our own humanity.  When we admit that we need others, we see the true nature of being human.  Jean Vanier, founder of the L'Arche residential communities for intellectually disabled persons, has noted, "If we deny our weakness and the reality of death, if we want to be strong and powerful always, we deny a part of our being, we live an illusion...  To be human is to be bonded together, each with our weaknesses and strengths, because we need each other.  

When we admit our needs, we are humble, since we are seeing ourselves as we really are.  If we acknowledge that we must rely on each other, we touch the reality of life.  

Otherwise we are destined for disaster, to have no peace.  Saint Teresa of Calcutta has explained, "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."  When we proudly insist on being completely independent of all others, we are setting ourselves up for ruin.  

However, we are set and ready to aid others if we but humble ourselves.  We witness this truth in the lives of many saints over the course of millenia.  Saint Anthony of Egypt, a great saint who was considerably sanctified during his life on earth in the third and fourth centuries, saw in a revelation numerous spiritual snares laid out in front of him.  It seemed that no matter where he would step, he was going to get caught and fall.  He prayed to God, asking Him what could possibly get him through such treacherous terrain.  He was told that with humility, he could successfully traverse such hazardous spiritual landscape.  

Saint Anthony lived for decades as a monk in the Egyptian desert.  He survived on what people brought to him.  Upon his consenting to his being so humbled, God greatly blessed Saint Anthony.  Through him God healed those who came to him.  

Once Saint Anthony had given his assent to being humbled, in effect he had agreed to let God use him as an instrument to heal others in the world, to kindle others' faith in God.  When a person, such as Saint Anthony, or like our Blessed Mother Mary, obediently acquiesces and submits to the will of God, God will utilize that person, helping others through her, since she has become an appropriate vehicle for positive change in the world due to her humility.  

At the time we may view humbling circumstances as embarrassing and demoralizing, but if we have faith in God, in time we come to realize that God will work wonders through such apparent misfortune.  Through our hardships we can come to better understand the difficulties others suffer, and thus we can become better equipped to help them.  

Thus the fifteenth century monk and priest Thomas a Kempis wrote that 

It often happens that after great consolation there comes profound desolation, or troublesome temptation, or bodily unease, or aggravation on the part of men, or loss of friends, or attacks of the enemy, or disturbance of soul, or derision from children or reproof from elders, or harsh correction by superiors.  All these are designed to humble the pride in our hearts, so that we might have compassion on those who are ill as well as on those who are tempted and troubled.  

When calamity strikes, understandably we feel overwhelmed.  However, we are not offered pointless agony when we encounter catastrophes.  If we look by the light of faith, that light by which God seeks to illumine the path before us, we can see that a deeper meaning rests below the surface of the apparent misfortune which has befallen us.  

In the midst of the adversity we face, and the greater understanding we are being given of others' suffering, we are being trained to comprehend others' plight, we are being led to be more compassionate, and thus to better love our neighbor.  How do we respond to such invitations from God?  Do we become angry at God?  Or do we realize that God is inviting us to open our hearts in the midst of trials and tribulations, so that, through intense pain, we can learn to love with greater hearts?  

In effect, when we find ourselves in the midst of humbling circumstances, in how we respond, we are faced with the question on which we will be judged for all of the choices we make in our entire lives.  When we are presented with chances to be humbled amidst afflictions, it really comes down to the question, are we going to choose to love?  

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

** Matthew 23:11-12; Matthew 20:26; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14  
*** Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; Luke 22:27; John 13:1-15  

**** John 14:6 

***** Philippians 2:8 

****** John 15:20 

Joyfully Embracing Suffering

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 

With Us Always

For months it has been raining often here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Recently on a rainy day here in Redwood City, I looked slightly into the sky and I saw part of a rainbow near the horizon which disappeared into a dark cloud.  I thought that was the end of the rainbow.  Then I looked past the cloud, and saw that, after not too long a distance, the rainbow emerged from the cloud and stretched in an arc far above me and all the way across the sky.  

We may think we can see only a glimmer of hope.  Sometimes we might think we cannot see even the slightest ray of hope.  If we persist in our faith, we will realize that Jesus, in His great love for us, is always present with us.*  

He only seems not to be present at times.  Then we are to call out to Him persistently and tenaciously, asking God to help us to do His will.  Then we are to pray to Him faithfully and tirelessly out of great love for Him, conscious of how He limitlessly loves us.

He first loved us,** although we had not first loved Him.  He loved us, giving us so much, yet receiving nothing in return.  Yet we have received abundantly from Him, and so God calls all of us to praise Him.  We are all to praise and glorify God, for He created us.***  We are to adore God out of love for Him, for God infinitely loves us.  Since God boundlessly loves us, God intends all things for our good.  As Saint Paul tells us, God works all things for the good of those who love Him.****

And so in the midst of dark times, we realize that God is always loving us.  God is always calling us back home to Him.  God wishes that we always respond in our lives in such a way that, no matter what happens, we continue to be sanctified, that we keep being drawn closer to Him, choosing to show indefatigable love to Him.  

Then amidst the darkness, we realize that God is indeed with us.  Then we know that God is with us now and always.  

* Matthew 28:20 
** 1 John 4:19 
*** Psalm 148:5 
**** Romans 8:28 

Trust Gives Strength

Here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, on Friday mornings a small corps of volunteers runs a program giving away food in our driveway.  They give away fruit, vegetables, bread, desserts and whatever other food happens to be available to whomever shows up asking for food.  

This past Friday morning, I was glad to see some of the homeless folks I know in front of the house here waiting to get some food.  I was so pleased to see them.  

As Jesus has told us, what we do for those who are the least among us, we do for Him.*  Thus when these impoverished friends of mine show up here, I remember and rejoice that Jesus is at my doorstep.  

I felt so joyous as I spoke with them.  My spirit felt light and my mood upbeat as I talked with them and walked amongst them on the sidewalk as they waited to receive food from our volunteers.

After they had received food and were getting ready to go, one of them, who I've mentioned in a previous post, and who I'll call "Roslyn" again here, asked me a question.  She said she has a relative who is suffering from stage four cancer.  She asked me if a person can ask God that someone else pass away so that that other person can be relieved of their misery.  Roslyn's boyfriend, who here I'll call "Sammy," said, "Sure.  You can ask God for anything you want."  

Sammy made a good point.  We can ask God for anything we want.  We are able to make whatever requests of God we wish.  We face different questions regarding the propriety and value of those requests, and concerning the likelihood whether God will grant particular petitions we make of Him.  

I replied to Roslyn, "Well, you can pray to God for a couple of things."  

I explained that we can ask God to end someone's discomfort.  Perhaps God wills that someone stop suffering; maybe God is just waiting for someone who is in distress to call out to Him, to ask Him to end the pain.  We can petition God that, if it be His will, that a particular person no longer be sick.  

I added that we can also ask God that He give us the grace and the strength to bear whatever difficulties may befall us.  We might still be undergoing torment, but with the grace and strength from God to endure it, we can go through it without it bothering us as much.  Sometimes, with grace and strength from God, we can weather intense tribulations almost without feeling strained at all.  

Would it be best for a particular pain to end?  Would we be better served living through that agony, with what we might learn from it? 

Since God is infinitely loving, and is all-knowing, God knows how each one of us, at each particular moment, may best make progress on our spiritual journey back home to Him.  If, at times, we wonder why God has not taken away our pain after we have persistently asked Him that He relieve us of it, perhaps we need to consider whether we are making the wrong request.  Maybe God sees that we are at a point where we may advance on our spiritual walk by asking for grace and strength to endure hardships, rather than by asking that we be rescued from trials.  
Thus one can ask God that if it be His will, that we be healed of particular ailments.  Then we can add that in any event, we would like the grace and strength to handle the adversity we are facing.  We might be encountering the apparent obstacle in front of us because God is allowing it to occur for our own good and for the benefit of others.  

At every particular juncture in our spiritual journeys, we must have faith in God if we are to let Him to work wonders through us.  We have to trust God if we want Him to deliver the best outcome in our lives.  We must have the humility to realize that God knows infinitely better what is best for us than we know ourselves.  To trust in ourselves is to turn away from God.  To trust in God is to consent to the will of God, even when it seems that God is abandoning us.  In such circumstances, we may be sanctified.  Thus we may in fact be drawing closer to God, when to us it seems that all is lost.  In reality, all may be found when all seems lost.  

Without God's help, we drown in the turmoil of stormy weather, tossed about on a turbulent sea without a firm vessel holding us, without a safe course to follow.  With our assent to God's loving direction, we rest secure in His loving arms, on our voyage back home to Him.  

* Matthew 25:40 

Giving Our Consent

Last Thursday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, commemorating how Mary was conceived without sin.  In our celebration of this Solemnity, we see how God invites us to greatness by asking us to simply give our assent to His plan. 

The Gospel reading on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was from Luke 1:26-38.  There we hear that 

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.  And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”  

But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”  

And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.  And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  Then the angel departed from her.*    

Saint Augustine of Hippo has explained how Our Blessed Mother Mary is blessed moreso for her obedience to God than for her having borne Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He cited the Gospel verses in which Jesus stretched out His hands over His disciples and remarked that "Here are My mother and My brothers: for whoever who does the will of My Heavenly Father is My brother and sister and mother."**  The saint explained that Mother Mary did the will of God the Father.  She gave her consent to God's plan for her to give birth to God's Son, Jesus.  The saint went on to explain that insofar as Mother Mary did God's will, and thus followed Jesus' teaching, she is more blessed in her being a disciple of Jesus than in having birthed Jesus.  

Saint Augustine invited us to examine further the Scriptures with him to see how this is true.  He referred to the instance in which a woman in a crowd called out to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that carried You and the breasts at which You nursed."  

Jesus replied, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and observe it."***  

Saint Augustine explained that Jesus responded as He did because He wanted people to look beyond the physical.  Jesus deeply desires, much more than our physical needs to be satisfied, for our souls to thrive through our embracing the will of God.  

The saint explained that Mother Mary heard the Word of God and kept it, and thus she was blessed.  The saint made clear that she kept God's Truth in her mind, which was nobler than carrying His Son's body in her womb.  

When God presented His plan to Mother Mary, she had the humility to describe herself as the handmaid of the Lord God.  She saw herself as a servant of the Lord God who would willingly submit to God's will.  She stood ready to do the will of God.  She replied to the angel, "May it be done to me as you have said."  She was waiting to do the will of God; when she was presented with the will of God, she was prepared to reply, "Yes."  
Clearly Our Blessed Mother Mary provides an example for us to emulate.  In pondering how Mary accepted Jesus into her life, we are led to consider how we respond to Jesus.  How are we preparing ourselves for the arrival of Jesus this Advent, and throughout the year, when we encounter Jesus everyday in our neighbor?  

Through prayer and fasting, we deny ourselves.  In denying ourselves, by letting go of our preconceptions and judgemental ideas and biases, we can empty ourselves so God can fill us with what He wants so dearly to give to us.  By letting go of what poisons us, what stifles us, what holds us back, we make room for what God desires to give us to nourish us, to help us grow, to draw us forward on our way back to Him.  

Once we have made room in our hearts, we can let in others.  By serving our neighbor, especially the person we see who is disempowered and marginalized, we can come to understand the struggles of those who endure much more challenging circumstances than we face.  Thus we can feel more compassion toward our neighbor, and, in turn, feel and express and show more love.  

As we love more deeply and more unconditionally, we grow closer to God as God continues to sanctify us.  Opening our hearts to God, we welcome God as He seeks to present to us what He has in store for us.  God has so many wonderful things in store for us, which we can enjoy if we only trust Him.  God is so much more powerful, and so much wiser, than we are.  If we trust God, He will draw us into becoming far more than we could ever be without assenting to His plan.  To experience great wonder, God calls us to reply "Yes."

* Luke 1:26-38 
** Matthew 12:49-50 
*** Luke 11:27-28