POPE FRANCIS ON PETER AND PAUL

The Holy Father’s Full Homily

The Apostles Peter and Paul stand before us as witnesses. They never tired of preaching and journeying as missionaries from the land of Jesus to Rome itself. Here they gave their ultimate witness, offering their lives as martyrs. If we go to the heart of that testimony, we can see them as witnesses to life, witnesses to forgiveness and witnesses to Jesus.

Witnesses to life. Their lives, though, were not neat and linear. Both were deeply religious: Peter was one of the very first disciples (cf. Jn 1:41), and Paul was “zealous for the traditions of [his] ancestors” (Gal 1:14). Yet they also made great mistakes: Peter denied the Lord, while Paul persecuted the Church of God. Both were cut to the core by questions asked by Jesus: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” (Jn 21:15); “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). Peter was grieved by Jesus’ questions, while Paul was blinded by his words. Jesus called them by name and changed their lives. After all that happened, he put his trust in them, in one who denied him and one who persecuted his followers, in two repentant sinners. We may wonder why the Lord chose not to give us two witnesses of utter integrity, with clean records and impeccable lives? Why Peter, when there was John? Why Paul, and not Barnabas?

There is a great teaching here: the starting point of the Christian life is not our worthiness; in fact, the Lord was able to accomplish little with those who thought they were good and decent. Whenever we consider ourselves smarter or better than others, that is the beginning of the end. The Lord does not work miracles with those who consider themselves righteous, but with those who know themselves needy. He is not attracted by our goodness; that is not why he loves us. He loves us just as we are; he is looking for people who are not self-sufficient, but ready to open their hearts to him. People who, like Peter and Paul, are transparent before God. Peter immediately told Jesus: “I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8). Paul wrote that he was “least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle” (1 Cor 15:9). Throughout life, they preserved this humility, to the very end. Peter died crucified upside down since he did not consider himself worthy to imitate his Lord. Paul was always fond of his name, which means “little”, and left behind his birth name, Saul, the name of the first king of his people. Both understood that holiness does not consist in exalting but rather in humbling oneself. Holiness is not a contest, but a question of entrusting our own poverty each day to the Lord, who does great things for those who are lowly. What was the secret that made them persevere amid weakness? It was the Lord’s forgiveness.

Let us think about them too as witnesses to forgiveness. In their failings, they encountered the powerful mercy of the Lord, who gave them rebirth. In his forgiveness, they encountered irrepressible peace and joy. Thinking back to their failures, they might have experienced feelings of guilt. How many times might Peter have thought back to his denial! How many scruples might Paul have felt at having hurt so many innocent people! Humanly, they had failed. Yet they encountered a love greater than their failures, a forgiveness strong enough to heal even their feelings of guilt. Only when we experience God’s forgiveness do we truly experience rebirth. From there we start over, from forgiveness; there we rediscover who we really are: in the confession of our sins.

Witnesses to life and witnesses to forgiveness, Peter and Paul are ultimately witnesses to Jesus. In today’s Gospel, the Lord asks: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The answers evoke figures of the past: “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets”. Remarkable people, but all of them dead. Peter instead replies: “You are the Christ” (Mt 16:13-14.16). The Christ, that is, the Messiah. A word that points not to the past, but to the future: the Messiah is the one who is awaited, he is newness, the one who brings God’s anointing to the world. Jesus is not the past, but the present and the future. He is not a distant personage to be remembered, but the one to whom Peter can speak intimately: You are the Christ. For those who are his witnesses, Jesus is more than a historical personage; he is a living person: he is newness, not things we have already seen, the newness of the future and not a memory from the past. The witness, then, is not someone who knows the story of Jesus, but someone who has experienced a love story with Jesus. The witness, in the end, proclaims only this: that Jesus is alive and that he is the secret of life. Indeed, Peter, after saying: “You are the Christ”, then goes on to say: “the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Witness arises from an encounter with the living Jesus. At the center of Paul’s life too, we find that same word that rises up from Peter’s heart: Christ. Paul repeats this name constantly, almost four hundred times in his letters! For him, Christ is not only a model, an example, a point of reference: he is life itself. Paul writes: “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21). Jesus is Paul’s present and his future, so much so that he considers the past as refuse in comparison to the surpassing knowledge of Christ (cf. Phil 3:7-8).

Brothers and sisters, in the presence of these witnesses, let us ask: “Do I renew daily my own encounter with Jesus?” We may be curious about Jesus, or interested in Church matters or religious news. We may open computer sites and the papers, and talk about holy things. But this is to remain at the level of what are people saying? Jesus does not care about polls, past history or statistics. He is not looking for religion editors, much less “front page” or “statistical” Christians. He is looking for witnesses who say to him each day: “Lord, you are my life”.

Having met Jesus and experienced his forgiveness, the Apostles bore witness to him by living a new life: they no longer held back but gave themselves over completely. They were no longer content with half-measures but embraced the only measure possible for those who follow Jesus: that of boundless love. They were “poured out as a libation” (cf. 2 Tim 4:6). Let us ask for the grace not to be lukewarm Christians living by half measures, allowing our love to grow cold. Let us rediscover who we truly are through a daily relationship with Jesus and through the power of his forgiveness. Just as he asked Peter, Jesus is now asking us: “Who do you say that I am?”, “Do you love me?” Let us allow these words to penetrate our hearts and inspire us not to remain content with a minimum, but to aim for the heights so that we too can become living witnesses to Jesus.

Today we bless the pallia for the Metropolitan Archbishops named in the past year. The pallium recalls the sheep that the shepherd is called to bear on his shoulders. It is a sign that the shepherds do not live for themselves but for the sheep. It is a sign that, in order to possess life, we have to lose it, give it away. Today our joy is shared, in accordance with a fine tradition, by a Delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, whose members I greet with affection. Your presence, dear brothers, reminds us that we can spare no effort also in the journey towards full unity among believers, in communion at every level. For together, reconciled to God and having forgiven one another, we are called to bear witness to Jesus by our lives.

© Libreria Editrice Vatican

JUNE 29, 2019 16:30ROME

PRAYER, THE NATURE OF

THE NATURE OF PRAYER

Prayer is the language of friendship with God. Prayer sustains a life of friendship with God, a friendship that God took the initiative to start. It has the pedagogical and transformative aspects of all spiritual practices. They help situate daily life in the horizon of God’s friendship. Spiritual practices should not degenerate into mere technique. Friends enjoy regularly conversing with each other because that is the lifeblood of the friendship. The practices of Christian prayer have their own integrity; they are not means to personal growth or strategies to trigger peak experiences. As disciples of Jesus we are expect to admire and revere him. But Jesus desires more than that: “I call you not my servants, but my friends.” The servant-master relationship has little room for the intimacy of friends. Jesus treats them as friends by disclosing who he is and where he is going. Knowing Jesus is mysterious, but that knowledge grows through intimate conversation that is the basic medium of friendship.

We start to pray not in a vacuum but in community through forms and rituals that have been shaped over time. The Lord’s Prayer shows that we are introduced into God’s family, and it contains the basic modes of all private and communal prayer: praise, thanksgiving, intercession, repentance.

As with the initial stages of friendship, people begin to pray for a variety of reasons, some of which are probably self-interested. Typically we begin to pray for what we want, then we are gradually led to seek what we need, namely, a deeper and unconditional relation with God where we let God be the judge of what we should receive. Prayer may begin as a technique, but under the impetus of the Spirit it becomes a practice, a virtue, sheer joy. A regular discipline of prayer has its own dynamic and rhythm that should shift attention from self-concern to the Other. It moves toward whole-hearted attention to God who is revealed through Christ. Prayer becomes an activity that is done for its own sake, just as friends want to be in each other’s company simply because it is good.

At the same time, friends are bound by common interests beyond themselves. Their common cause, whether sports or justice or the environment, enriches the bond of friendship and draws the best from them. Christian prayer pulls Christians beyond themselves to active devotion to God’s cause in the world. It longs for God to reign in the whole of creation, for a deeper impact of God’s liberating and healing Spirit. Intercession for the world naturally leads to service in the world.

Prayer is not an aid, a technique or means. Rather, prayer is part of having a life formed in joy, gratitude, awe and compassion. These gifts are directed towards God and all God’s creation.

Even prayers of intercession are not pragmatic strategies but they are exercises in locating our concerns in the concern of God and opening ourselves to finding God’s way of responding, which quite often does not match our requests.

 Although we do not pray in order to become reverent, humble, grateful, caring, and hopeful, these virtues are formed in paying whole-hearted attention to God and seeing the world through the perspective defined by God’s word.

The Gospel tells us that the intercessory prayer locates all the events of life and all the happenings of our time within the space of God’s reign. Nothing great or small falls outside the compassion of “the One in whom we live and move and have our being.” Intercessory prayer helps us perceive traces of the dawn of God’s reign. It brings what we need into the scope of what God wants, relating all things to the friendship that God has for us.

REORGANISING OUR LIVES

                    REORGANISING OUR LIVES

It is a shocking reality that the greatest cause of death in young people under 25 in the developed world is not the abuse of drugs or alcohol or misadventure, but suicide. Young adults living in the countries with the highest standards of living and with the greatest educational opportunities, in theory, should have the most to live for. Yet, in a generation that is sometimes described as the most socially connected ever, the feeling of isolation appears like a pandemic. Many contemporary young people are not OK. The reasons for this poor state of mental health, the increase in suicide (or “self-delivery”, as suicide is now sometimes called) and attempted suicide, are many and complex.

Happiness has become an industry that is selling all of us a lie. I don’t mind people being happy – but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease which is fear of sadness. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. I’d like to take the word ‘happiness’ and to replace it with the word ‘wholeness’.

Parents tell me: “I don’t care what my kids do, as long as they’re happy.” Although it may be just a casual throwaway line, it is a symptom of a deeper anxiety. Why are we setting our children up for such failure? Why don’t Christian parents say: “I want my children to be faithful, hopeful, loving, honest and good?” Living those virtues will not always lead to happiness – but it will bring something more valuable and precious. Joy. Joy is one the great themes in the teaching of Pope Francis. Christian joy is not the same as happiness. Christian joy celebrates that we know where we have come from, why we are here and where we are going.                                                                                            

It is not looking for the easy side of life, but rather confronting the inevitable tough moments in our lives, and embracing suffering as an inescapable reality of the human condition. It seeks to be resilient in the face of adversity by embodying Jesus’ call to love God and our neighbour as we love ourselves. And it tells us that we are not meant to live isolated lives like “rocks and islands”, as the Simon and Garfunkel song has it. There was a good reason why Jesus sent the disciples out in twos. Living Christian joy is not easy or straightforward. But setting out on this path might be the way to be more than OK. So let’s help reorganise our lives not around happiness but the Joy of Christian Life.                                                                                                                      

 Periods of sadness, depression and doubts can enter the life of even the most devout Christian. We see many examples of this in the Bible. Job wished he had never been born (Job 3:11). David prayed to be taken away to a place where he would not have to deal with reality (Psalm 55:6-8). Elijah, even after defeating 450 prophets of Baal with fire called down from heaven (1 Kings 18:16-46), fled into the desert and asked God to take his life (1 Kings 19:3-5).

             

So how can we overcome these periods of joylessness? We can see how these same people overcame their bouts of depression. Job said that, if we pray and remember our blessings, God will restore us to joy and righteousness (Job 33:26). David wrote that the study of God's Word can bring us joy (Psalm 19:8). David also realized that he needed to praise God even in the midst of despair (Psalm 42:5).

                                                                             

                                                                                        

In Elijah's case,                                               

God let him rest for a time and then sent a man, Elisha, to help him (1 Kings 19:19-21).

We also need friends that we can share our hurts and pains with (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12). It is helpful to share our feelings with a fellow Christian. We may be surprised to find that he or she has struggled with some of the same things that we are going through.

Most importantly, it is certain that dwelling on ourselves, our problems, our hurts, and especially our pasts will never produce true spiritual joy. Joy is not found in materialism, it is not found in psychotherapy, and it most certainly is not found in obsession with ourselves. It is found in Jesus. We belong to the Lord and we “glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in our flesh” (Philippians 3:3). To know Christ is to come to have a true sense of ourselves, and true spiritual insight, making it impossible to glory in ourselves, in our wisdom, strength, riches, or goodness, but in Jesus—in His wisdom and strength, in His riches and goodness, and in His person only. If we remain in Him, immerse ourselves in His Word, and seek to know Him more intimately, our “joy will be full” (John 15:1-11).

Indeed, the harder we try to be joyful through our own efforts, the more miserable we can become. Rest in the Lord's arms (Matthew 11:28-30) and seek His face through prayer and the Bible. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

                                                                                                                                                                             

Blessed John Henry Newman always insisted that the Christian vocation was one of light and joy. “Gloom is no Christian

temper; repentance is not real which has no love in it; penance is not acceptable which is not sweetened by                                                       

faith and cheerfulness. We must live in sunshine, even when we sorrow; we must live in God’s presence; we must not shut ourselves up in our own hearts, even when we are looking up our past sins.” “Left to itself, human nature tends to death and utter apostasy from God.

Character cannot be developed in ease and comfort.  Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.  You gain strength, experience, and confidence by every experience where you really look at fear in the face.  You must do the thing you cannot do.  And remember, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace.  A REAL WINNER is not one who never fails, but one who NEVER QUITS!  In life, remember that you pass this way only once!  Let's live life to the fullest and give it our best.

 What’s our ultimate point of growth? I suspect that we tend to think of this in terms of some concrete, positive accomplishment, like a successful career or some athletic, intellectual or artistic achievement that’s brought us satisfaction, recognition and popularity. Or we might answer the question differently by saying that our ultimate achievement was a life-giving marriage, or being a good parent, or living a life that served others.

                                                                           Henri Nouwen suggests that people will answer this very differently: “For some, it is when they are enjoying the full light of popularity; for others, when they have been totally forgotten; for some, when they have reached the peak of their strength; for others, when they feel powerless and weak; for                                                                            

some, it is when their creativity is in full bloom; for others, when they have lost all confidence in their potential.”

For Jesus, it wasn’t immediately after his miracles when the crowds stood in awe, and it wasn’t after he had just walked on water, and it wasn’t when his popularity reached the point where the people wanted to make him king, that he felt he had accomplished his purpose in life and that people had begun to be touched in their souls by his spirit. No, not all that.

When did Jesus have nothing further to achieve?               When he was nailed to the cross, robbed of all human dignity, he knew that he had matured enough, and said: ‘It is fulfilled’ (John 19:30).

 On the Cross, faithful to the end, to his God, to his word, to the love he preached and to his own integrity, he stopped living and began dying. That was when his spirit began to permeate the world. He had reached his deepest centre. His life was fulfilled.

It is important that the first thing we do when we open our eyes is to be grateful and to acknowledge our purpose so that we may align our motivations and our actions with God’s will. And when we do that, we are able to structure the day ahead in a positive and meaningful way. Evidence from psychology research suggests that positive emotions such as joy, gratitude, and interest, lead to a positive tone that tends to be long-lasting; and so why not start the day with positivity? Why not start the day inviting Jesus into our lives? Making time in the morning to pray gives us not only to get a head start on our day but also the opportunity to reflect on God’s calling in our lives, our purpose. We get to discern what God’s will is for us that day. The better we are aligned with God’s will, the clearer our pursuits in life will be.  “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). 

  

                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The Gospel of Mark tells us that our Lord Jesus got up very early in the morning, while it was still dark, to go off to a lonely place to pray (Mark 1:35). That time of prayer was followed by a very productive day when he went preaching throughout Galilee, casting out demons, and healing the sick. Jesus shows us that no matter how long, busy, and tiresome our day will be, it is important that our daily activities start off with prayer, even if it means waking up very early.

So, let’s look into our lives and reorganise!

                                             

WHO CAN BE SAVED?

WHO CAN BE SAVED?

Mark 10:24-27

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.' The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, 'Who then can be saved?' Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.' (NIVUK)

Read the verses around this Bible passage from the Internet Bible: in English, and many other languages

You might have thought that Jesus would make it easy for people to become His disciples. He did!  Those who obeyed His commands (fishermen to leave their nets, lame people to get up and walk, and sinners to repent) found immediate access to His kingdom (Luke 23:39-43).  The difficulty about entering the Kingdom is not of God's making because He wants everybody to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4); it is the resistance of people's hearts against obeying Jesus.  The rich young man in this narrative (Mark 10:17-23) had been told to sell everything, and give the money away.  But he refused and walked away - because his heart was hard against Jesus (even though he was enthusiastic for religion!). That religious man would have been taught that riches were a sign of God's blessing - a foretaste of the Kingdom (Proverbs 10:22) .  But that sign was so corrupted by the man's sinful and acquisitive nature that it became a barrier against obeying the Word of God (1 Timothy 6:10). The man had made his possessions his god and they were in charge - that was why they could not be sacrificed.  And so, the command of Jesus fell on deaf ears.  The call of human ambition and self-satisfaction reflect the voice of the unholy world.  It so easily drowns out the Word of God.  1 John 2:16-17 says, "For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives for ever."   The disciples were hungry for fame and fortune too (Mark 9:33-34) and could not understand how possessions could be a spiritual handicap.  Jesus wanted them, as the future leaders of the church, to see how the apparent power and security of money would drive people away from security in God (Acts 8:18-23) .  He further amazed them by the ludicrous word cartoon of a camel trying to get through the eye of a sewing needle.  Impossible, they thought.  'Who can be saved', the disciples asked, 'if rich, moral, religious people find it so difficult?'  No!  Not impossible, said Jesus... if God is involved and in charge.  Those who will listen to Him and respond in obedience will be glad.  Otherwise their sadness will extend to eternal grief.   Jesus cannot be a bolt-on extra to a self-serving lifestyle.  He has the right to be your God because He is God!  So, He has the right to command according to His wisdom, and expect obedience. Refusal to submit (and its eternal consequences) is our problem and not His.  However, the Lord is more than willing to help those who are willing to let Him.  Our task is to tell the truth about how to inherit eternal life, and pray that the Lord will give them the desire to be obedient to the truth (1 Peter 1:13-16).

Dear Lord. Thank You for helping me to be willing to listen to Your voice and to obey You. Forgive me when I have soaked up the values of the worldlings I work with and justified my selfish lifestyle. Please show me one area today in which I need to change - so that others can see the real Christian life, and desire to follow Jesus too. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

FROM BUST TO BOOM

FROM BUST TO BOOM

By all immediate measures, Jesus’s ministry was a total failure. But it wasn’t for lack of effort or commitment.

At the prime of life, Jesus left his carpentry bench in Nazareth for the dusty roads of Palestine. For three years he promoted his brand, wowing crowds with miracles and captivating them with his teaching. On more than one occasion he drew thousands to a remote place to see him and hear him. He invested himself in the training of twelve handpicked men to carry his message to the world. But, despite all of his good intentions and effort, at the time of his death, his following numbered scarcely more than one hundred individuals.

Worse, at the end of his ministry, one of his trainees betrayed him, another vigorously denied him, and the rest abandoned him, leaving a handful of women to stand by and mourn as life oozed out of his scourged and nail-pierced body.

When the stone was rolled over the mouth of the tomb, Jesus was just one more in the parade of misguided leaders whose visionary movements failed to outlive them. Or so it seemed. Within two months after his death, something extraordinary happened: the Jesus Movement didn’t wither and collapse, it flourished.

Numbers and Impact
Within the span of a few weeks, the small band of deserters regrouped and their ranks began to swell—first to 3,000, then to 5,000 (not including women)—despite sustained opposition from detractors. And for two thousand years their ranks have continued to increase, making Christianity the world’s largest religion with over 2 billion adherents and counting.

But it is more than numbers that make Christianity a singular phenomenon: Against every other movement, ideology, and belief system, the culture-shaping impact of Christianity is unequalled. In fact, Christianity is the seed from which Western civilization sprang up and blossomed.

It was the belief in an intelligible universe populated with intelligent beings whom the Creator entrusted to care for, manage, and enrich his handiwork that enabled the shift from astrology and alchemy to modern science. Christian notions about equality, freedom, and man as a divinely endowed being led to the Western rule of law. Sacrificial love, as taught and modelled by Jesus, inspired the establishment of the first hospitals, orphanages, and charities. And believers who took their faith into the public square, rather than leave it at the doorstep of the church, became the vanguard of the great social movements of abolition, suffrage, and civil rights.

If that doesn’t strike you as strange, it should.

Screaming for Explanation
The Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great began splintering soon after his death. Within five centuries of the assassination of Julius Caesar (the “dictator in perpetuity”), his “Eternal City” was sacked, leading to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Scarcely one century after the death of Karl Marx, the Berlin Wall fell, the rest of the Iron Curtain came down, and the Eastern Bloc was dismantled.

Yet the kingdom inaugurated by a Galilean carpenter has not only endured for two millennia, it has grown numerically and influentially, despite being driven underground for the first 300 years of its existence, and being a target of persecution from its beginning to the present day.

How did Jesus accomplish what no other person in history ever accomplished? The phenomenon of the Church is a fact screaming for explanation.

It stems from the fact that the early Christians believed, really believed, that Jesus was more than a great moral teacher or charismatic leader; they believed that he was Lord and God. Their belief was based on the testimony of eleven men who claimed to have seen something that defied scientific explanation, reason, and common sense: the risen Lord.

Singular and Unprecedented
When Jesus, three days dead, passed through the locked door of the upper room, the disciples became witnesses to a thing unprecedented in history.

Sure, there were cases of resuscitations by physicians and stories of “raisings” by metaphysicians. There were the biblical accounts of the Sidonian widow’s son raised by Elijah and the Shunammite’s son who was raised by Elisha, as well as Jesus’s raisings of Jairus’s daughter and Lazarus that the disciples were privileged to witness first hand. But never before had the disciples (or anyone else) known of a dead person rising on their own power, and in a reconstituted body. Only Jesus had done that.

Initially dazed and confused by what they had seen, the disciples soon realized that Jesus’s mastery over death only made sense if he was the God he had claimed to be. The disciples became so convinced about the Resurrection (and what it meant), that barely one month after they bailed on their crushed leader, they boldly entered Jerusalem to broadcast their news to the most unsympathetic audience on the planet.

The Turnabout
The shift from jellyfish to ironman was exemplified in Peter.

Shortly following his second imprisonment for preaching the resurrection, Peter was brought before the Sanhedrin for repeatedly defying their gag order. After the robed masters rail against his intransigence, Peter responds bluntly: “We must obey God rather than men!” Then, continuing in his obduracy, Peter reprises his unwelcome testimony:

The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Saviour that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (My emphasis.)

Talk about chutzpah! Especially recalling that just a few weeks prior, Peter cursed at the suggestion that he even knew Jesus. The only rational explanation for Peter’s turnaround is that he really believed in the Resurrection; and the only rational explanation for his belief is that the Resurrection really occurred.

A Mistake or Ruse?
Could Peter and the other eyewitnesses have been mistaken about what they had seen? Hardly—considering that all of them remained steadfast in their belief, despite every motivation and opportunity to reconsider what had happened that Sunday morning and in the weeks that followed. Even to the point of martyrdom, an end to which all but one endured, none of the disciples ever retracted or revised their testimony.

Could the disciples have hatched the whole resurrection story for some personal gain? That was the explanation the robed masters leaked shortly after the receiving the shocking news of the empty tomb, and it is what is commonly held today among critics who spin various Passover plot scenarios. But as has been competently argued by others, while people may die for what they believe to be true, they won’t die for what they know to be false.

The Test
It is not a little ironic that after Peter’s saucy response to the Sanhedrin, one of their number, Gamaliel, proposed a litmus to his colleagues:

Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.

Gamaliel was right. If Jesus was just another dead messianic leader, his following would come to nothing—but it didn’t. Despite the suppressive forces of the cross, the stake, the coliseum, the gulag, and anti-religious legislation, law suits, speech codes, and political correctness, the kingdom has steadily advanced in hearts of men and in man’s institutions.

Outside of the truth of the Resurrection, the phenomenon of the Church is inexplicable—a fact, which itself is sufficient to establish that the “faith once given” was given by none other than God. By his own criterion Gamaliel would be compelled to agree, as would persons of any era who honestly consider the facts.

ANXIETY AND DIVINE MERCY

Anxiety and Divine Mercy

“You should not worry too much about adversities. The world is not as powerful as it seems to be.”

In recent years, the Divine Mercy message has become increasingly popular. Thanks to the efforts of St. John Paul II, many individuals are aware of the fact that Jesus appeared to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (a Polish nun who died in 1938) and revealed the depth of His mercy. She was instructed to share the message that God loves us and that his mercy is greater than our sins. And, while this is great news and can fill us with tremendous hope, there is an aspect of the Divine Mercy message that is virtually unknown. The revelation given by Jesus to St. Faustina is not only directed toward hardened sinners, but also to those who live in fear. If you are looking for a way to break free from worry, the message of Divine Mercy is your answer!                                                                                          A Frightening Message   There’s no doubt that life can be challenging. At one point or another, everyone will deal with trials and tribulations. When these difficulties arise, it is perfectly acceptable to experience the emotion of fear. According to Church teaching, this feeling is not wrong or sinful. What can be problematic, however, is letting your fear lead to worry. Choosing to worry instead of turning to prayer exhibits a lack of trust in God’s providence. It also presents an obstacle to holiness. In one of His conversations with St. Faustina, Jesus had this to say:                         My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. (Diary of St. Faustina, 1488)

Both discouragement and exaggerated anxiety arise when we fail to trust in the Lord’s goodness and His desire to assist us. Addressing the idea of distrust, Jesus spoke the following words to St. Faustina:

How painfully distrust of My goodness wounds Me! Sins of distrust wound me most painfully. (Diary, 1076)

My child, all of your sins have not wounded My Heart as painfully as your present lack of trust does. (Diary, 1486)

Although these messages are startling, there is no need for us to panic. The Lord had much more to say to St. Faustina about this topic and we would be wise to listen.   You Are Never Alone

We often succumb to worry or discouragement because we live our lives as if everything depends on us. It doesn’t! We should never forget that the all-loving and all-powerful Lord of the Universe wants to assist us with our daily struggles:

Why are you afraid? Do you think that I will not have enough omnipotence to support you? (Diary 527)

Do not fear; I will not leave you alone. Do whatever you can in this matter; I will accomplish everything that is lacking in you. You know what is within your power to do; do that (Diary, 881).

You should not worry too much about adversities. The world is not as powerful as it seems to be. (Diary, 1643)

So far we’ve learned that our lack of trust hurts Jesus and that we never have to face our problems alone. No doubt these are important messages, but it’s probably not enough. When problems arise and fear sets in, we need something more than reminders of why we shouldn’t worry. We need a plan of action. Fortunately, Jesus provides us with exactly that.                                                          Ask For Help!

While most of us know that Jesus instructs us to avoid worry (Matthew 6:25-34), we often fall short of our goal. One of the biggest challenges is that it can be extremely difficult to avoid doing something negative, unless we replace it with something positive. Therefore, the “do not worry” message sometimes gets ignored because it’s deemed to be impossible. When we do make an effort to grit our teeth and not worry, we often fail miserably. In another piece of advice to St. Faustina, Jesus reveals why this happens:                                                                       The cause of your falls is that you rely too much upon yourself and too little on me. (Diary, 1488)                                                                                                         There you have it. Instead of trying to give up worrying on your own, Jesus wants us to ask for His help. Unfortunately, we often hesitate to ask for fear of bothering Him. What a mistake! Jesus specifically told St. Faustina that it pleases Him when we give Him our problems:                                                                           You will give me pleasure if you hand over to me all your troubles and griefs. (Diary, 1485)                                                                                                              I am very pleased that you confide your fears to Me, my daughter: Speak to Me about everything in a completely simple and human way; by this you will give Me great joy. (Diary, 797)                                                                                            For anyone who is prone to anxiety, the Divine Mercy message is literally an answered prayer. Jesus cares deeply about us and doesn’t want us to suffer needlessly. He desires that we share all of our troubles with Him and ask for His assistance. By doing so, we give Him a chance to work in our lives. I also encourage you to get into the habit of praying the words found at the bottom of the Divine Mercy image. These words don’t represent a feeling. Rather, they represent a conscious decision to trust Jesus with all of your needs. It doesn’t matter if your stomach feels queasy and your knees are shaking, the words will still be effective. Try it for yourself and see what happens.                                        Jesus, I Trust in You!

TIME AND ETERNITY

Between Time and Eternity

The days between Christ’s Resurrection and his return to the Father are full of mystery. If we accept them, as we should, not as a legend, but as a vital part of our faith, then we must ask what they mean in the life of the Lord, and what their significance in our own Christian existence.

These are the days between time and eternity. The Lord is still on earth, but his feet are already detached, prepared to depart. Before him unfold the reaches of everlasting light, but he still pauses here in transitoriness.

In the New Testament there are two figures of Jesus; one “the carpenter’s son.” (Matt. 13:55) It is he who stands in the midst of earthly events, who toils, struggles, submits to his destiny. He has his own personal characteristics – mysterious and inexplicable, certainly – and yet so unmistakably his that we almost hear the tone of his voice, see the accompanying gesture. In the main, it is the Gospels that portray this Son of Man. (See the Epistles and Revelation.)

The other “nature” of Jesus is cantered in eternity. Here all earthly limitations have fallen away. He is free, divinely free, Lord and Ruler. Nothing transitory, nothing accidental remains; everything is essence. “Jesus of Nazareth” has become “Christ our Lord,” the eternal one whose figure St. John describes as it was revealed to him on the Island of Patmos: “One like to a son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the ankles, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. But his head and his hair were white as white wool, and as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire; his feet were like fine brass, as in a glowing furnace, and his voice like the voice of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars. And out of his mouth came forth a sharp two-edged sword; and his countenance was like the sun shining in its power.”

“And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, and he who lives; I was dead, and behold, I am living forevermore; and I have the keys of death and of hell.’ ”

St. Paul also describes him in the Epistle to the Colossians when he speaks of him: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For in him were created all things in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers. . . .For it has pleased God the Father that in him all his fullness should dwell, and that through him he should reconcile to himself all things, whether on the earth or in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross.” (Col. 1:15–20)

Here all concrete detail falls away. Not one familiar trait remains; hardly a human feature. Everything is strange and disproportionate. Is it the same Jesus who walked on earth?

It might be asked: Why this mysterious lingering on earth after the Resurrection? Why didn’t the Lord return home directly?

What was happening during those forty days? Let us for a moment suppose that the Resurrection and the period afterwards had been only offshoots of morbid religious experience, legend or myth – what would those days have looked like?

Doubtless, they would have been filled with demonstrations of the liberated one’s power; the hunted one, now omnipotent, would have shattered his enemies; he would have blazed from temple altars, would have covered his followers with honours, and in these and other ways, have fulfilled the longings of the oppressed.

He would also have initiated the disciples into the wonderful mysteries of heaven, would have revealed the future, the beginning and end of all things. But nothing of all this occurs. No mysteries are revealed; no one is initiated into the secrets of the unknown. Not one miracle, save that of Christ’s own transfigured existence and the wonderful fish-catch, which is only a repetition of an earlier event.

What does happen? Something completely unspectacular, exquisitely still: the past is confirmed. The reality of the life that has been crosses over into eternity. These days are the period of that transition. And we need them for our faith; particularly when we evoke the great images of the eternal Christ throning at his Father’s right, coming upon the clouds to judge the living and the dead, ruling the Church and the souls of the faithful growing from the depths of God-summoned humanity “to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph. 4:13)

Such images place us in danger of losing the earthly figure of the Lord. This must not happen. Everything depends on the eternal Christ’s remaining also Jesus of Nazareth, who walks among us until the day when all things will be enfolded in eternity; on the blending of borderless spirit with the here and thus and then of the process of salvation.

In the Christ of the Apocalypse one vision holds this fast: the Lamb standing “as if slain” but alive. (Apoc. 5:6; 1:18) Earthly destiny entered into eternity. Once and forever, death has become lasting life.

But there is a danger that this truth will dangle in space, enigmatic as a rune on an ancient stone. This period of transition deciphers the rune, gives us the key to the parable: All that has been remains in eternal form. Every word Jesus ever spoke, every event during his lifetime is fixed in unchanging reality, then and now and forever. He who is seated on the throne contains the past transfigured to eternal present.