Come, Lord Jesus, Come

In today’s first reading, Is. 29:17-24, we read about the promised Messiah. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says to us:

                        In a very short time, Lebanon [the world] will become rich farmland,

and the rich farmland will seem like a forest.

At that time the deaf will hear the words of a book;

                        instead of having darkness and gloom, the blind will see.

                        The Lord will make the poor people happy;

                        they will  rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

                        Then the people without mercy will come to an end;

                        those who do not respect God will disappear.

                        Those who enjoy doing evil will be gone:

                        those who lie about others in court,

                        those who trap people in court,

                        those who lie and take justice from innocent people

in court (Is. 29: 17-21, The New Century Version or the Bible).

How seriously do we take this prophesy.  The prophet Isaiah is not only talking to the people of his day but to us as well.  Truly, the world as we know it will be changed.  God will open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. Blindness and deafness to the needs of the poor and oppressed; blindness and deafness to justice will be removed. Leaders throughout the world and in any segment of society, all peoples, great and small,  “shall hear the words” of the Scriptures, the Torah, the Hindu Vedas, the  Quran—the holy books of all religions. Yes, people without mercy will come to an end; those who do not respect God will disappear” (Is. 29: 20).

God has promised and God will do it!  May we not lose faith as we wait for the fulfillment of this prophesy in the world of today!  I believe it. Do you?

Trusting the Lord

In today first reading, Is. 26: 1-6, we are encouraged with words: "Trust in the Lord forever! for the Lord is an eternal Rock."  I am at our province headquarters in Oshkosh, WI.  I came here on the 3rd of Dec. and will be here until the 14th. I came to set up a vocation committee that consists of lay people, SSM Associates and some Sisters.  I said to the Lord on the way here: "Lord, this is a trust walk, an act of faith. I have no idea who I will be interviewing or whether the persons I asked for suggestions have any information for me. The first night at Franciscans Courts, our headquarters in Oshkosh, I went to the library around 7:00 p.m. and around 7:30 a sister who does chaplaincy work at Mercy Hospital in Oshkosh dropped by and gave me a list of names of persons she thought would be good committee members. On returning to my room, the phone rang. It was one of our Associates. She had a list of names for me.  I was overwhelmed. I had been praying the prayer; Lord, bless me this day and I will indeed be blessed!

I have 12 person interested in working with us to promote religious life and priesthood, to put forth effort to make SSMs known. I will be interviewing all of these persons and writing recommendations to the Council.
Our communication specialist who is also a marketing guru has offered to analyze my work and help me develop strategies for more effective use of social media and maintaining ongoing contact with inquirers.

"Trust in the Lord! for the Lord is an eternal Rock!"  How many times the Lord confirms this truth for me! What about you?

Job: Strengthened through Suffering

Today’s first reading, Job 1:6-22, at first was very disturbing to me!  I said to myself: “How can God give Satan permission to attack Job, a righteous person, destroy his possessions and take the life of his children. What cruelty!  God? God as I know God?  No way!”   I vehemently oppose this image of God. I reject it!

Jesus does not present God to us as a cruel God. On the contrary, Jesus shows us that God is compassionate, heals the brokenhearted, binds up wounds, makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak, and gives vision back to the blind, spiritually and physically blind.  The lame walk and the dead are restored to live, physically and spiritually.  Satan is cast out, confronted, thrown into the swine.

So what does Job teach us? Not that God is cruel but that God shields us from that form of destruction that is eternally fatal: the lost of our souls, spiritual death.  Job remains strong in his faith and in his trust of God, because God did not abandon him at all.  Job’s love for his Creator God never wavered because of God’s power at work in the depth of his being.  Job comes through the sufferings of his life stronger than ever. Why? Because God never left his side.

We learn this same lesson from Jesus, who also did not escape the sufferings of this world either.  Like Job and Jesus, each of us will rise from the “ashes of death,” whatever form death takes. Who we really are and what really matters—our eternal salvation, our faith and trust in the Lord, our love for God, others and ourselves—is strengthened and purified as gold tried in fire, as we pass through this “valley of tears.”  None of us, who believe in Jesus, who cling to God, is diminished by the difficulties of this life. No our true selves emerge, as it did for Job!

Is it really the Lord? Is God really at work?

Today’s readings, for me, are about utter dependence upon and trust of God and God’s eternal faithfulness to humankind.  The first reading deals with political disasters—the Assyrians invade the Northern Kingdom, destroy the city and drive the people into exile.  In the Gospel, the disciples’ boat is on the verge of capsizing in a turbulent sea.  Out of nowhere, between 3:00-6:00 a.m., Jesus, though not recognized, is seen walking on the sea, coming toward the boat.  They cry out: “It is a ghost.” Jesus responds: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Peter says: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Peter starts out, doubts, almost drowns and cries out: “Lord, save me!” 

What lessons for you and me!  The world is in no better shape than when the Assyrians invaded the Northern Kingdom.  We have nations rising up against nations to this very day, destroying cities, driving people out of their homelands. Personal disasters also touch every person’s life, multiple times, it seems. This is life “in this vale of tears.”

Like Peter, we have the option of crying out to the Lord: “Lord, save us.”  And He will.  We also know in faith, that, as in the Old Testament, God is a warrior who fights for us, who comes to our aid, and is close to the brokenhearted who seek Him above all and in all and through all.  Evil will not triumph, even though it may look that way. With the author of psalm 89, we pray:  “O Lord, you have been our refuge through all generations. Before the mountains were begotten and the earth and the world were brought forth, from everlasting to everlasting you are God!”

God's mercy and the strength of the human spirit

September 1, 2011: The sad news about Hurricane Irene abounds here in the Eastern States. The good news is that the flood waters are receding.  Thousands of businesses have sustained considerable losses and are wondering how they will survive. Just as God witnessed the dire straits of the Israelites in Egypt and called upon someone to take up the task of leading them out of a destitute situation, so, too, God is sending persons to help. God cares as much today for persons devastated by nature’s fury as He cared for the Israelites oppressed by Pharaoh’s cruelty. God weeps, I believe, with those who weep and is stirring up the hearts of neighbors across the country to reach out in compassion to provide in whatever ways possible.

As we deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, today’s Scriptures are consoling. They tell the story of Peter being asked to cast his net into the deep. He objects, saying “Lord, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing,”  but if you say so, we will try again. People’s nets are not only empty, they are ripped apart by Hurricane Irene--that for which families worked hard all their life has been snatched from them .  What they “caught” over time is gone, swept away in the flood waters. “Try again! Start over, find another way”—“cast into the deep” are probably not happy thoughts right now! 

 In times of disasters like this one, the only thing most people have to cling to is their faith in a caring, merciful  God.  That was true of my parents, who, as farmers, often struggled to make ends. That was certainly true when bills piled up as cancer ravaged my mother’s life and stole it from her at age 50, leaving four elementary-grade children without a mom.  Hours before she died, my mother writes to me: “When I get out of here (Sacred Heart Hospital in Tomahawk, WI), I am going to get a job so we can make ends meet.” In the face of death itself, she did not give up hope. Many people whose livelihood has been destroyed by Hurricane Irene are saying:  “We will survive. We will find a way. It may be tough for a while but we will come out of this.”  What strength rises within the depth of one’s being, where the human spirit meets the Spirit and the power of God.  What inspiration people with faith and trust are to a world marred by tragedies.