Bread of Life

• The Catechism
• Patron Saints
• Papal History
• Stations of the Cross
• Catholic Prayers
• Wkly Word Archives
• Return to St. Joe's

He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

On September 15 we honor The Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Sorrows. As our Blessed Mother in Sorrow, her image is shown with seven swords piercing her heart, one for each of the inexplicable pain inflicted in her broken heart as she shared in the Passion of her son Jesus. In her obedience she accepted in faith all that Jesus is beyond her comprehension: before her victory there was her sorrow. Like her, saints have also accepted Jesus' invitation to share them a portion of His passion. However, all of them were ordinary human beings like us, trapped in the weakness of our human bodies. Oftentimes they too cried out in pain like us, unable to bear the sorrow. And yet, like Mary, they spoke of the joy, and of peace.

But of course we ask, "how to follow you, o Lord?" Or, "why me, o Lord?"

Last September 8, also the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was a birthday for someone I knew who is still bearing a great, unimaginable sorrow. I grappled with a way to find words for her whom the good Lord has bestowed a seemingly heartbreaking loss that very few of us would ever endure. Yet through these past months as she endures her cross she remains firmly faithful to Jesus and His promise of eternal life. Although her sorrow is great, her faith is unerring. As I struggled to find a way to honor the gift of life that the good Lord continues to shower upon her I also wanted to understand her singular separateness because of her sorrow. It is as if the good Lord has set her apart from the rest, with no words or deeds from us ever enough to cover her loss, her pain - to be with her.

And then the word came: "consecration." "Consecrate" means "to declare or to set apart as sacred." Its root word "sacere" means "to make sacred." But of course: even in our daily lives, isn't that which we set apart the one that we hold in high value? With the great sorrow she endures, my friend has been taken to a place where only she and Jesus can share. In this place only she and Jesus can know the innermost of her heart and her soul and with her surrender to this, she accepts the transformation of spirit that only an intimate communion with Jesus can produce. From afar as we behold her, all our human eyes could see was the outer shell and our hearts grieve for what we thought was forsaken sorrow. But as I slowly understand why she has been set apart and called to a place that she alone can share with Jesus, I begin to see a glimpse of that wonderful unseen.

I once read someone who wrote asking how to go about living the Gospel and being a believer of Jesus. Based on what I have gone through in my own life, for me it is like taking a step, no matter how small at a time, closer to where Jesus would be, closer and closer until we are apparently apart from the rest. Jesus did say that this earth is not His kingdom. Through the powerful message of His resurrection He continues to show us that we do not belong to this world and that this is not the end, the final destination.

Like the Blessed Virgin Mary, all the saints, and my friend, never knew and never could understand why, for them, Jesus chose to hollow out a place for them to share with Him under the cover of sorrow. But in deep faith they surrendered to His invitation and after they did, Jesus in all His mysterious ways transformed for them this sorrow into the sweetest of peace, the exquisite gift of tasting here on earth, briefly, what it will be like in heaven for all those who believe in Him.

Life around us continues to show us our separateness from those who do not believe in Jesus. Whether we see it or not, all of us share in the great mystery of sorrow, of pain. But there is a difference: for those who do not believe and refuse to share that special place with Jesus in their broken hearts, sorrow begets unbearable despair, thinking there is nothing to look forward to, and that life ends with the shedding of our bodies. But for those who believe that they will share in the resurrection of Jesus, this earthly life in our human form with all our infirmities and pain, is but a blink in eternity. Because we raise up our eyes and try to see through the eyes and intentions of our Heavenly Father, we transform our sorrow into courage, into faith, into gratitude that for this moment, we are given a gift of being in the arms of our Savior. We are set apart because we are loved:

"Those who sow in tears shall reap with joy." (Psalm 126:5) St. Paul says:

• We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; (2 Corinthians: 4:8-9)
• Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
• For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18)

If you feel that Jesus has set you apart by giving you a terrible burden ask Him to give you the faith and the grace sufficient to take those little steps toward Him, constantly asking Him to let you hear His voice. In that dwelling place where only you and He can share, you will discover in time that even the most bitter of cups becomes sweet because you have let Him guide you.

URLVD

If you would like to comment on any article written or would like to contact one of our writers, please feel free to do so my filling out the simple form below. If you would also like to submit some sort of spiritual writing of your own, please feel free to let us know, we'd love to place your writing right here along with our regular writers. Thank you!