A new creation dawns
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him."
Saints Sergius and Bacchus Chapel
Palm Springs, California
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him."
"For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord."
Scripture Readings Somebody is waging war on Christmas. Who do you think it is? Is it the atheistic humanists who’ve replaced “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays?” Is it the immigrants […]
“I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
"John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”
" ‘And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.’”
"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."
"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory.”
“For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had.”
“’Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!’”
Last week, Jesus addressed that question to James and John who wanted places of honor in God’s kingdom. Today, he addresses it to a blind man…and to us.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Scripture Reading Jesus drives a hard bargain. In today’s gospel, we find a man who apparently had it all: he was young, he was enthusiastic, he was spiritual, he was […]
In his private talk with his disciples, Jesus is quoted as being more forthright. He calls divorce and remarriage adultery. At the same time, this stance contradicts our nearly universal human experience. Can we resolve this contradiction? Obviously, Jesus is appealing to an ideal of marriage. We have to ask, is every committed union of two people—even a solemnized commitment—a real marriage? What is a marriage, anyway?
Strangely enough, the reward and punishment paradigm has no place in an adult spirituality. The basic problem with it is that, once people get beyond the toddler stage, the pleasure principle isn’t effective—although the success of advertising shows we’re still vulnerable to it. As we mature, we begin to realize that rewards don’t deliver what they promise. Once we attain them, we see them as the temporary tawdry counterfeits for happiness that they most often are. Punishments don’t fare any better.
What are you willing to give to get your own way? How much effort are you willing to expend? What are you willing to pay? to sacrifice? What’s it worth to you?
“Who do people say that I am?” Listen to the news. Listen to the talking heads. Listen to the preachers. Watch the Jesus documentaries on the Discovery Channel. Fine. “But who do you say that I am?” “You are the Christ.” The Messiah. The anointed king who’ll save us. You’ll make everything better. You’ll supply us with money, power, and prestige. You’ll lighten our burdens, cure our diseases, and bring our dead back to life.
Which do you think would be more difficult, to be born sight-impaired or to be born hearing-impaired? I’ve always thought that blindness would be worse: not being able to see the beauty of the world or the faces of my loved ones, and not being able to get around easily without some sort of assistance. That’s what I thought until I started meditating on today’s gospel. “And the people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment.” That’s when I began to understand things somewhat differently.
The more spiritual you are, the more conscious contact you have with God, the more mindful you become—the more religious you are—the less hold any laws will have on you. You will instinctively know what the right thing to do is by following the law of love in your heart, and you will do it.
Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.