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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~

The word traumatic in the thesaurus shows the following words that can take its place;

...shocking, disturbing, upsetting, distressing, hurtful, harrowing, and painful.

This last week during our parish mission with Fr. Francis Chung, he used the word 'traumatic' to describe the death of Jesus. He also used it to explain the sacrifice in the Mass.

I continually am learning, having an ongoing conversion that fills me with wonder. I've been a Catholic my entire life. A conservative estimate of Masses I've attended, with Catholic schooling for 12 years, and the last 7 or 8 years trying to attend daily Mass as much as possible, besides going to Sunday Mass most of my life, I have probably been to well over 5,000 Masses. During those Masses the bread is consecrated into the Body of Jesus and the wine into the Blood of Jesus. I've never reflected or even questioned why there was a separation of body and blood being consecrated. I would listen and pray and thank Jesus and ask forgiveness for the pain and suffering I had caused Him by my sins. But I have never contemplated why this would be done separately. If you think about it, the body should contain the blood so why the separation?

The scourging, the beatings, the crown of thorns, the ripping off of His garments after they were affixed to his open sores, the nails in his hands and feet, falling with the cross on his body and the sword through his side had completely emptied all of the blood in Jesus from his body. Thus to show the 'traumatic' death of our Lord, we follow what Jesus said and consecrate the body and then the blood separately in each Mass every day everywhere. Imagine the fear and pain just knowing in advance the horrible death He was about to suffer let alone having it happen physically.

During this Lenten season, take some time and reflect on the powerful love our Lord had for us and the obedience he showed by following what His Father asked.

URLVD

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