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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~

Do you notice that betrayal is a big part of Easter? Does that strike you strange that we would be discussing betrayal surrounding our most Holy of days in the year? As with most things found in scripture, there are no coincidences. Because along with betrayal, healing naturally follows. After all of the betrayals of Jesus: the obvious Judas, but also Peter who denied Jesus three times and the apostles who scattered like rabbits when Jesus was arrested; we have the death and resurrection of Jesus who promises the same resurrection for all of us. The forgiveness and resurrection is promised to all who betray Jesus.

I guess all of that betrayal of Jesus by his closest allies is over now. Wrong! We betray Jesus every day when we fail to follow the smallest of his commandments. Mainly, we fail at loving our neighbors and giving proper dignity to God.

I have found renewed gratitude in the sacrament of reconciliation. For a number of months now, I have failed to seek forgiveness because I am thinking that the God of the universe would not be concerned with my petty sins. Why would He even notice? My problem in this thinking is that; it's not about me. It's pretty selfish and little of me to think that my concerns should trump God's loving forgiveness available for all of His creation. God offers forgiveness so that His creation will not be apart from Him. God wants all creation to be fully functional to carry out His will. God's forgiveness for me is for the benefit of all creation so that relationships within the Body of Christ are solid and true. Forgiveness is about relationships.

Now that I have accepted God's forgiveness, I am able to carry out His will. The ultra-concentrated Joy of God's forgiveness has cleared out the gunk of my soul. The apostles were able to accept God's forgiveness after their betrayal of Jesus and look how they built our Church!

URLVD

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