Peace

   “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John14: 27)

   At times accepting the peace Jesus promised seems almost impossible.  It is a tremendous challenge to trust in His promise when the world seems determined to destroy our peace.  Yet, this is what He promised, and He does not lie.

   I struggle to find the peace our Lord is offering.  Somehow I can’t seem to find it when I need it most.  I know it’s there; He tells me so.  It’s just that it seems so distant at times.  I seek His peace.  I pray for the peace.  Still it doesn’t come.  Why does it remain so hard to find?

   This world blocks the path of peace and the obstacles can be hard to overcome.  At times it seems I’m halfway up the mountain and have fallen to rocks below.  The pain and despair come flooding back, blocking the peace I seek.

   Yet my faith tells me that the peace is there.  It is up to me to accept it.  In the darkest hour it is there; at the depths of my sorrow it is there.  If only I could grasp it and hold on.  But it slips away so easily and is so hard to find.

Lord, I seek the peace you promised.

Give me the strength to find it.

Help me hold on to it.

Take away the pain and give me your peace.

Amen

The Strength of the Lord

   “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.  The Lord is the strength of his people, he is the saving refuge of his anointed.” (Psalm 28: 7 – 8)

   It’s sometimes hard to trust in God.  When tragedy strikes our first question is “why?”.  Why did this happen; what good can possibly come of it?  I’ve found that there is no answer to these questions.  To continue asking them only makes things worse.

   Sometimes we want to blame God.  Sometimes we want to turn away and say there is no God.  It’s difficult to find God in tragedy, but He is there.  Our heart may be broken but He can heal it.  Our life may be in turmoil, but He can settle the confusion and bring peace.  He can give us rest.

   I think of Our Blessed Mother and the pain she endured.  She watched as her son was beaten, spit upon and forced to carry His cross through the streets filled with jeering crowds.  She stood nearby as they nailed Him to the cross.  She watched with Him as His life drained from His beaten, battered body.  Yet she trusted, she stayed at His side.  She knew who He was and that He would arise and bring peace and salvation to all who believe.

   Hers is the trust we must try to emulate.  Her love for God is the love we must have.  Her strength and her faith give me strength and increase my faith.  There is nothing stronger than a mother’s love.

Lord, we are broken and hurt.

We turn to you for comfort and peace.

We know of the pain Your mother endured.

Her faith and love strengthen us.

Amen

It is the Lord

“It is I,” says the Christ,

“I am he who destroys death,

 and triumphs over the enemy,

 and crushes Hades, and binds the strong man,

 and bears humanity off to the heavenly heights.”

“It is I,” says the Christ,

“So come all families of people,

 adulterated with sin,

and receive forgiveness of sins.

 

For I am your freedom. 

I am the Passover of salvation,

I am the lamb slaughtered for you,

I am your ransom,

I am your life,

I am your light,

I am your salvation,

I am your resurrection,

I am your King.

I shall raise you up by my right hand,

I will lead you to the heights of heaven,

there shall I show you the everlasting Father.”

Saint Melito of Sardis

Amen Lord,

Lead us to the everlasting Father.

Into the Light

   “If I say, ‘Let darkness cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with you.’” (Psalm 139: 11 -12)

   In life there will be times of darkness.  Darkness may seem to envelope us, blocking the light of God.  It can be very easy to succumb to the darkness and dwell in it though we know darkness is not where we belong.  We are meant to be in the light of God, yet circumstances can plunge us into the devasting dark of night, blocking even the light of God.

   At such times, we must storm the heavens with prayer.  We must seek the will of God and seek His comfort and peace.  It is Satan who brings the darkness; it is the evil one who glories in the gloom of sorrow and despair.  It is up to us to reject Satan and turn to God, pleading that He show us that even the darkness is as light to Him.

   When we are in the darkness it is difficult to find God.  It may even seem as if He has abandoned us.  Even Jesus despaired on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15: 34).  Yet he trusted in God and submitted totally to His will.  And He was raised and ascended to His rightful place at the right hand of God.

   We too, can trust ourselves to the will of God.  Though we may not understand or desire what is given us to bear, we can take comfort in the knowledge that even evil can become a source of good through the will of God.  If we trust implicitly in the Father, we will know the joy and peace that is God’s will for us.

   Darkness is a bad place.  We are meant to live in the light of God.  When darkness comes, we must remember that even the dark is as light to God.  He will share His light with us if we seek Him and His will.

Father, darkness envelopes me.

Bring to me the light of Your love.

Lead me from the dark night.

Bring me back into Your light.

Amen

Peace to You

   “Jesus himself stood among them and said, ‘Peace to you.’  But they were startled and frightened, and supposed they saw a spirit.”  (Luke 24: 36 – 37)

   Jesus brings peace.  He brought peace and understanding to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (see Luke 24: 13 – 34).  He had explained the prophesies to them, and they had recognized Him in the breaking of the bread.  They had returned to Jerusalem to tell the others of their experience but still they were uncertain, afraid.  When the Lord appeared to them they thought they were seeing a spirit rather than the risen Lord.

   We too, often find it difficult to recognize our Lord.  We find it easy to see Him in the beauty of the world; in the joy of a baby’s birth; in the happiness of marriage and love between husband and wife.  But we struggle to find Him and accept His peace in the ugliness of the world.  The starvation and disease; the senseless loss of life.

   When tragedy strikes us we, like the apostles, sometimes want to hide in fear.  We want to lock ourselves away in an effort to shut out the world that has so hurt us.  Even family and friends are at times pushed away in our effort to simply forget.

   At some point we must realize that denial and hiding away is not the answer.  We need the peace and love of the Lord if we are to ever recover from great loss and sorrow.  The family and friends we pushed away can help if we will let them in and accept their love and help.  But above all, we need to seek the peace Jesus promises.  Only through His love and strength is healing possible.

Lord, you promised peace to those who believe.

We turn to you in heartache and sorrow.

Grant us Your peace.

Give us the comfort of Your love and healing.

Amen

The Resurrection Will Dawn

   “When you feel in your own heart the suffering Christ, remember that the resurrection has to come.”  (Saint Mother Teresa, Thirsting for God: Daily Meditations)

   Mother Teresa often spoke of the poor as the face of Christ.  She saw the face of Jesus in those she helped and cared for.  The poorest, the sickest and the dying represented the suffering Christ and she served them just as she would have served Christ.  She felt the suffering of Christ in her heart as she did her work among the poorest and most needy.

   There are many ways to feel the suffering of Jesus in our lives.  We can serve the poor as Mother Teresa and many others have.  Through prayer and contemplation we can, to some degree, experience His suffering in our own life.  In prayerful study of the scripture we can see the prophesies of His suffering and the account of His life and the suffering He endured for our sake.

   At times our own life is affected to such a degree that our heart aches with the suffering and loss we experience.  It is these times when we can perhaps to begin to understand and truly know the suffering of our Lord.  It is also times such as this when our faith can deepen and grow to a level we never knew possible.

   Just as He suffered on the cross for us, we will suffer in the crosses we may be called to bear in this world.  Occasionally a cross is placed upon our shoulder that seems unbearable; beyond our ability to carry.  It is then that we can turn to Jesus and share in His suffering as He will share in our suffering with us.  Regardless of the depth of sorrow or loss, Jesus is there.  He will comfort, He will strengthen, He will carry us and our cross if needed.  That is the depth of His love for us.  Our resurrection from our sorrow and pain will surely come if we trust in Him.

Lord, help us share in your suffering as

You share in our pain out of love for us.

May we turn to you in our suffering,

Confident of Your eternal love and peace.

Amen

Life Changes

   There are times when we need to change the course of our life.  Some changes will be easy, others will be difficult.  Some of the changes we will make of our own free will.  In some cases they will be forced upon us.

   Sometimes changes are ones that we don’t want; changes that are painful and very difficult.  These are the times when it is hardest to give ourselves to God’s plan and accept the change He is asking of us.

   God told Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and the many creatures God had created from the flood.  Man had become so evil in their actions that a new beginning was needed.  By following God’s plan Noah and his family were blessed to repopulate the earth.

   Abram was asked by God to leave his home and his family to journey to a land God promised him.  He responded by doing what God asked and was blessed, becoming the father of God’s chosen people.

   Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to the Ninevites.  He refused and ended up in the belly of the great fish.  Once saved from the fish, God again asked him to go to Nineveh.  This time he accepted God’s will and the Ninevites listened and were saved by his warnings.

   But what of the great change God sometimes demands of us?  Do we like Noah and Abram willingly accept the change or do we resist it as Jonah did?  St. Augustine, in his autobiographical “Confessions” wrote of the indecision in his life, “Lord, make me pure but not yet!”  We too, often pray to be holy or chaste, but we really don’t want it to happen all at once.  We want to ease into it, taking our time rather than responding to God’s call for change.

   There are times when our lives will require great change whether we are ready for it or not.  We may have no choice in some instances; the change is required by circumstances and we must adapt.  These unplanned, unavoidable, undesired changes challenge our faith and push us to either accept and live in God’s will or attempt to reject and suffer the added pain of refusing God’s help which can see us through any challenge we may face.

Lord, you sometimes challenge us greatly.

Are You testing our faith?

I believe You are offering the opportunity to grow in faith,

Though the change may cause great pain.

Comfort us in our pain and strengthen us to accept the change.

Amen

A Faith Tested

   It’s almost easy to be filled with faith when things are going well.  In fact we can almost forget how much God does for us when we don’t seem to need His help in our lives.  We may even come to believe that we can take care of ourselves; we don’t really need God’s help unless things go wrong.

   But there is the rub; what happens when things go wrong?  Now we not only want to turn to God but also to blame Him for whatever tragedy has struck.  After all, if He were truly all loving and merciful why would He allow us to be subjected to disappointment or pain?  We tend to forget Him when things are good and blame Him when they aren’t.  What kind of faith is that?  Pretty weak in my opinion.

   In everything we do we have to overcome some difficulties if we are to be successful.  Our faith is no different.  No one ever promised a life of ease with no heart-ache, pain or suffering.  Even our Lord experienced these things.  In His life He taught us that belonging to God is not always easy, it takes perseverance and determination.  It requires accepted things that we would rather not accept and still believing God has our best interest at heart.

   “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23).  Each day we are to expect some challenge, some difficulty.  It is how we respond that tests our faith.  If we accept our cross and pray for His help in carrying it there nothing that we cannot bear, and our faith strengthens.  If we try to lift and carry that cross on our own we are likely to fail, and our faith suffers.

   Sometimes our faith is tested to the limit.  A tragedy occurs that is so great that we are shaken, we can’t accept that God would allow such an injustice to occur.  It is then that the strength we have gained in bearing the daily crosses we face can be our saving grace.  Though we may not understand, we can accept.  Though we can’t seem to bear this cross, God waits for us to hold our hand and help us.  In our faith is our strength.

Father, you have given me a tremendous cross to bear.

Strengthen my faith, give me your comfort.

Talk my hand and lead me through this darkness.

Let me come back into the light of your love.

Amen

Lost and Found

   Today is Easter Sunday.  This day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.  Through that miraculous event we have been offered the opportunity of salvation and eternal happiness with our Lord.

   On Good Friday, the greatest evil ever committed occurred; they nailed the Son of God to a cross and killed Him.  Today God turned that evil into the greatest good of all.  Jesus Christ, our Salvation and our Hope, rose from the dead and took His rightful place at the right hand of the Father.  In doing so He ransomed us from the slavery to sin and offered us adoption as children of God; His own brothers and sisters.  He came to restore us to His family;  He came to find us and bring us home.

   Jesus often spoke of this in parables.  “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?” (Luke 15: 4).  “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?” (Luke 15: 8).  We are the lost sheep; the lost coins.  We were lost to sin and our Shephard sought us out and gave His life to find us and save us.

   The parable of the prodigal son tells a beautiful story of forgiveness and redemption (see Luke 15: 11 – 32).  We are that son who left the father and squandered all he had given him.  God is the father who continued to seek us and look for our return, rejoicing when we came home.  The parable ends with the most wonderful expression of God’s forgiveness and joy upon our return, “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive, he was lost, and is found.

   May God bless you and your family on this Easter Sunday.  May the joy and promise of this day be with you throughout the year and always.