April 2016 - Shepherd of Faith

Baptism

The Spirit gives life! Another great reflection from my morning prayer The Divine Office taken from a book on the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil the Great, bishop.

Our Lord made a covenant with us through baptism in order to give us eternal life. There is in baptism an image both of death and of life, the water being the symbol of death, the Spirit giving the pledge of life. The association of water and the Spirit is explained by the twofold purpose for which baptism was instituted, namely, to destroy the sin in us so that it could never again give birth to death, and to enable us to live by the Spirit and so win the reward of holiness. The water into which the body enters as into a tomb symbolizes death; the Spirit instills into us his life-giving power, awakening our souls from the death of sin to the life that they had in the beginning. This then is what it means to be born again of water and the Spirit: we die in the water, and we come to life again through the Spirit.

To signify this death and to enlighten the baptized by transmitting to them knowledge of God, the great sacrament of baptism is administered by means of a triple immersion and the invocation of each of the three divine Persons. Whatever grace there is in the water comes not from its own nature but from the presence of the Spirit, since baptism is not a cleansing of the body, but a pledge made to God from a clear conscience.

As a preparation for our life after the resurrection, our Lord tells us in the gospel how we should live here and now. He teaches us to be peaceable, long-suffering, undefiled by desire for pleasure, and detached from worldly wealth. In this way we can achieve, by our own free choice, the kind of life that will be natural in the world to come.

Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, we ascend to the kingdom of heaven, and we are reinstated as adopted sons. Thanks to the Spirit we obtain the right to call God our Father, we become sharers in the grace of Christ, we are called children of light, and we share in everlasting glory. In a word, every blessing is showered upon us, both in this world and the world to come. As we contemplate them even now, like a reflection in a mirror, it is as though we already possessed the good things our faith tells us that we shall one day enjoy. If this is the pledge, what will the perfection be? If these are the first fruits, what will the full harvest be?

God bless you!

The cross of Christ!

The cross of Christ! The more I sit in stillness – meditating, contemplating – the more I realize how connected we are to one another and how connected we are to Christ!

I sat one day during Eucharistic Adoration looking at the enormous crucifix that hung over the altar. As I thought of Christ’s journey to get there one word came to mind: contradiction. What was it about the cross that brought contradiction to mind? I thought maybe I still had Judas on the brain. However, the more I pondered, the more apparent the contradiction became. So I created this concrete poem:

CONTRADICTION

King – crucified

agony – sorrow for sin

scourged – purified

crowned – courageous; cross – patience

crucifixion – perseverance; humbled – exalted

weakness – strength; sin – mercy; hatred – love

spitting and buffets – compassion; selfishness – sacrifice

disobedience – obedience

suffering – salvation

death – life

buried – RISEN!

I wanted to post this during Holy Week but it didn’t feel complete at that time. Although I didn’t change or add anything to it, now I know why it had to wait. During my meditation this morning, it dawned on me that our lives are just as contradictory as the cross of Christ.

We journey through life happy, sad, ecstatic, depressed, anxious, at peace, loving, judging, satisfied and disappointed, just to name a few. This brought to mind a conversation I had with a priest during one of my retreats. He said to me “the sooner we realize we’re all alone in this world, the happier we will be.” This comment left me puzzled. He explained that no matter how close you think you may be to someone, there is always that little something you don’t share with them. I had a problem with that generalization because my husband and I are very close. We talk about everything, we love beyond words and we support each other in all things. I thought about the bible verse: “the two shall become one.” That IS us! But, after giving it much thought, I realized what the priest was trying to say. No one, not even people with the closest relationships, shares the exact same thoughts and feelings about EVERYTHING. So in that sense, I guess we ARE all alone in this world. Another way of saying it is we are all unique. Why is that? Here comes the contradiction. Romans chapter 12:4-8 tells us: for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly; if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. So you see, we are all separate “members” of one body but in our separateness we are meant to be part of the “whole” mystical body of Christ. We are all alone and yet we are meant to be united.

That being said, I would agree with that priest in a sense. I would go a bit further and say: the sooner we recognize the contradiction we call life, the sooner we realize we are all alone AND united in this world, the happier we will be. Let me elaborate on that for a moment. The sooner we realize that no one else in this world is like us, the sooner we can let go of the expectations we have of others and the happier we will be. Spouses, friends, siblings, children, co-workers, etc. will never think or act exactly alike. They’ll never do what you do, they’ll never be as thoughtful or compassionate, they’ll never be as caring, generous, organized or dedicated. Guess why? They are NOT YOU! They will never BE YOU! Release yourself from your expectations and focus on exercising YOUR gifts accordingly, as Scripture says.

On the flip side of that, the sooner we realize that we are ALL on this journey together, that we ALL have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, we cease to be envious, jealous, judgmental or prejudice and strive to pool our gifts together for the greater good. When we begin to realize that we are each one small part of the bigger picture, our perspective changes and we become the loving creatures we were created to be. We become that bond of love depicted on the cross of Christ! God bless you!