Find Joy Now

We are called out of ourselves.  We are called into new life.  We are called to become our true selves.  When we step out of being the people we thought we were, as we become our true selves, we find a joy we find nowhere else.  We find such joy because we have found new life, since we have been born into true life.  Then we feel great joy because we've become who we've always been meant to be, opening our hearts to expand.  

If we're awake then we recognize new life walking right through the door.  Recently when I was working in the bookstore here at the hermitage, in walked someone who, I later learned, ventured out into the world to find her true self.  She traveled to another country where she learned the art and practice of yoga.  She returned to the states applying the new knowledge she learned as she became a yoga teacher.  

When we reach a certain point in life, we reach a crossroads.  At some moments we must admit that the life we have been living has not been feeding us with the sustenance we need for the journey we are making.  Although it might seem unthinkable to continue while malnourished, nevertheless at times we do so.  Sometimes the thought of making a change can produce such fear in us that we become paralyzed.  Yet we're called to have the courage to step out of ourselves.  

There's making the change so we can start being fed how we need to be.  For some of us, we hear a call to learn a new trade, or to hone a talent we've been given but not been using.  When we start risking for the sake of our development, and moreso when we do so with love of others, we grow into who we're meant to become.  If our lives are not about evolving, if our lives are not about becoming more than we have been, then our lives are about nothing at all.  

Then there's the question of whether we're making a change that will only benefit ourselves, or whether we're shifting in a way that helps others.  It's easy to run off to another country for pleasure; it's a very different matter to go abroad to learn, then return and apply the knowledge gained for the sake of others' health, as with the yoga teacher I mentioned.  We are called to develop ourselves not only for our own sakes, but also so that we can apply our skills with love of our neighbor.  

When we give while providing a service which helps others come to fuller health, we help others to live in the way we're meant to live.  When we're channels through which life flows, we find joy.  When we help bring new life, we find the joy we've been meant to have, since God made us to take care of each other.  We were made to show each other the love we would like to receive.  When we embrace this duty of love, we find joy.  

We find this joy here, right now, in this life.  In this life as a monk that I've been living, I was privileged to have the joy of having Brother Joshua as one of my brother monks.  Some of you know that Brother Joshua unexpectedly passed away last month.  He had stressed that whenever he passed away, he wanted the celebration of his passing away to be an occasion not of sorrow and tears but of joy and laughter.  

Given his spirituality and his enthusiasm and enjoyment of life, Brother Joshua viewed his passing out of this life as an opportunity to rejoice, to revel in the countless blessings he enjoyed while he was alive.  Accordingly, not only during the funeral Mass yesterday, but also during the remembrances of him we shared after Mass, we happily and joyously recalled fond memories of him.  We celebrated his life here and the new life into which he has just been born.  

When we die, we're born into new life, a life that never ends, a life of joy since we are born into the eternity of the love of God, Who we will then finally see face to Face.  Yet we get glimpses of that great love now, when we open our hearts to become who God made us to be, taking the risk to become our true selves, to become conduits of God's love, as God loves our neighbor through us with the love God pours into our hearts.*  

* Romans 5:5 

Give Some Thought

We're the authors of the stories of our lives.  In the words we use, in what we believe, we decide who we will become.  Our words play crucial roles in our lives.  

While I was back east in June, I happily went to four of my nephew's baseball games.  One of the players on his team said something like, "We haven't gotten blown out yet."  I suggested, "I'd delete that last word."  

One day a chef here was receiving compliments.  That person ventured, "Maybe I do know what I'm doing."  I recommended, "I'd delete that first word."  That person restated, "I do know what I'm doing!"  

We start to believe our own idea of ourselves.  Yet we can write our story so we succeed.  Our success begins with what we believe.  Give some thought to what you believe, since it will determine where you end up.  

Enjoy The Strawberries

This afternoon I was walking on the sidewalk behind the church here at the hermitage.  I was walking to look for James, the other man in formation here at the hermitage.  We share duties in the Sacristy, sometimes helping to set up for Mass.  I wanted to talk with him about which of us was going to set up for Mass, which was combined with Vespers today.  I was absorbed in these thoughts as I walked along.  

As I went where I thought James might be, Edson, who is one of our cooks, excitedly asked me if I had eaten any strawberries.  I didn't know what he meant.  I asked him.  He explained that in one of the garden plots right behind the church, little strawberries were growing.  He showed me; I saw that each of them was only a quarter of the size of my smallest fingernail.  I picked one and ate it; it was delicious.  

We can be going along wrapped up in our own little world.  Meanwhile, God is gently reaching toward us with presents of delectable delicacies.  If we look carefully, we find God showing us love in what is right next to us.  We pass up the nourishment God wants to give us.  Since God loves us, God doesn't force anything on us, even what is good for us.  God patiently waits for us with love.  When we're ready, we find God's love.  

Recover By Giving, Modestly Use Less, Ask And Receive

Give what you have and forget about the cost.*  In that way cover over what you hope not to do again.**  

You can choose to be less of a consumer.***  Lose in such a way that no one knows.****  

Ask for all that you need.  You'll get it.*****  

* Matthew 6:3 

** Sirach 3:30; Sirach 29:12; Tobit 12:9; Daniel 4:24 

*** Matthew 6:16 

**** Matthew 6:18 

***** Matthew 7:7; Mark 11:24; Luke 11:9 

Let Us Forget Ourselves So We Can Love More

We learn how to love from those who have gone before us.  Mother Teresa said, "It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing."  Saint Teresa of Calcutta continued, "It is not how much we give, but how much love is put in the giving."  At times I've considered what it looks like when much love is put in the giving.  I've also wondered how we know how much love we're putting into what we're giving.  

Recently I realized that the answer to these questions had been given decades ago.  In high school my classmates and I learned about putting love into what one does.  One day we were taught that hungry, vanquished Confederate soldiers were treated kindly by a victor in the Civil War.  Looking at the defeated southerners, the northerner told those under his command, "Get these men food and blankets."   

Love your enemies.*  Do good to those who hate you,** who want to kill you.  If your enemy is hungry, feed him.***  Even when you've just supposedly won a war, tenderly treat the person in front of you, who is in dire need.  See the broken individuals in front of you and treat their wounds, filling them up with what they need.  Love your neighbors**** in such a way so they are sure of your love.  

In history class in high school, we heard of this merciful combatant of the Civil War.  As our United States History teacher, Mr. Bill Street, related the tale of this compassionate member of the Union Army, he conveyed the story with such emotion that his voice broke.  As he told us of the clemency shown to the beaten Confederates, he showed us his profound concern for his fellow humans as he nearly began weeping.  

Mr. Bill Street will weep no more.  Earlier this month he passed away.  As I have remembered him, again came the memory of the compassion shown by the apparent victor in war.  Once again I was struck with how our much beloved history teacher told us that story with love, such that he not only felt deeply as he recounted it, but he went further, sharing his tender feelings with us.  He let us see his vulnerability.  

As we make ourselves more vulnerable, we show more love.  The less concerned we are with how we look, then the less we think unnecessarily about ourselves, and the more we turn our attention to our neighbor.  As we forget ourselves, we put more love into what we give.  Selflessness yields love.  When we die to ourselves, we are born into love as we live for our neighbor.  As we die, we are born into new life.  

* Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27 

** Luke 6:27 

*** Proverbs 25:21; Romans 12:20 

**** Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

In All Things God Loves Us, So Give Thanks

We can always be receiving, if our hearts are open to love.  If we open our hearts, we can see the love being extended to us.  

A woman came into the bookstore this month.  She helps to see the light.  She noted if the coronavirus hadn't forced us into lockdown, she and her husband would not have been around their daughter to notice her mental health struggles.  With the virus come what seem like restrictions.  Maybe they are more like guideposts and life preservers.  

This woman has been guided into gratitude.  She is grateful for the additional time with her husband and her daughter.  She is even more thankful that this additional time has led her and her husband to help their daughter, perhaps averting a tragedy.  

Give thanks for a virus, for a fire, and for all things.*  Perhaps some people find it difficult to always thank God for all God sends us.  Sometimes we will see benefits God is giving us.  Sometimes we will not see how, if we but love God, God is working a virus, a fire, and all for our good.**  

God is always giving to us, since God is love.***  If we truly believe God is love, we will thank God for all things.  

* 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

** Romans 8:28 

*** 1 John 4:8,16

Rise Above By Remaining In Jesus

Earlier this week we heard at Mass how Jesus meets us in the challenges we face.  He invites us, through Him, to rise above what would drag us down.  

In the Gospel that day, we were reminded that 

Jesus made the disciples get into a boat

and precede Him to the other side of the sea, 

while He dismissed the crowds.  

After doing so, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray.  

When it was evening He was there alone.  

Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, 

was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.  

During the fourth watch of the night, 

He came toward them, walking on the sea.  

When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea 

they were terrified.  

"It's a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.  

At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; 

do not be afraid."  

Peter said to Him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, 

command me to come to You on the water."  

He said, "Come."  

But when he saw how strong the wind was 

he became frightened; 

and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  

Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, 

and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"  

After they got into the boat, the wind died down.  

Those who were in the boat did Him homage, saying, 

"Truly, You Are the Son of God."  

After making the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret.  

When the men of that place recognized Him, 

they sent word to all the surrounding country.  

People brought to Him all those who were sick

and begged Him 

that they might touch only the tassel on His cloak, 

and as many as touched it were healed.*  

Jesus sent the disciples out onto the sea.  God knows what is going to happen.  God lets us go through trials.  We go through fire and water.**  Through tribulation we are tested.  At times we are refined, but not like silver, rather in a furnace of affliction.***  At other times, God tries us as silver is tried in fire,**** polishes us like silver, to become ever more beautiful.  In all that tries us, God is giving us oil to make our faces shine.*****  Through all that tests us, God makes us more luminous because God is strengthening us. In giving us the grace to do what we could not do ourselves, God is thus glorified.  As God is glorified through us, we become more beautiful, because we are reflecting the magnificence of God.  

Of course the disciples probably were not thinking thus in the midst of their rowing across the sea as they were being tossed by the waves.  So often, we do not think about the benefits God is bestowing on us as we are enduring hardship.  

When the disciples saw Jesus, they fearfully cried out.  Indeed, we can become so absorbed in the struggle that we do not even recognize Jesus, that we forget that Jesus is with us always.******  

Jesus is not only there with us every moment as we are being tested; He is there for us to step toward Him in faith, as frightening and impossible as that may seem to us through our impaired vision.  He bids us come to Him as He bid Peter to come to Him.  

Peter sank because he took his eyes off Jesus.  He started focusing on the wind instead of on Jesus, and consequently he gave into fear.  When we take our eyes off of Jesus, we sink.  

Jesus wants us to rise above what would drag us down, to remain above it all by keeping focused on Him, by fixing our attention so much on Him that we remain in Him and He remains in us.*******  If we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will stay above all that would pull us down since we totally trust in Him.  

We remain in Him, we abide in Him and He abides in us, when we live in faith.  If we embrace the gift of faith that God has planted in us, we will remain above all that would drag us down.  

In the midst of these challenging days of the coronavirus, how are we responding?  Someone asked me if I have been praying for a cure for the coronavirus.  Sure, it's well and good to pray for a cure for the coronavirus and for all that threatens our physical health.  

However, if all we do is pray for a medical cure, it's tantamount to saying to God only, "God, get me out of this situation that is such a problem."  It's implicitly telling God that we're not interested in how God wants us to learn and grow through the coronavirus.  

We can only cry out for God to catch us so we don't sink.  When waves threaten to drown us, we can pray not only that we not be engulfed by the waves.  Frankly, though, if we nurture and cultivate the gift of faith that God has given us, we're not going to be desperately crying out to God.  If we embrace the gift of faith that God has given us, we're going to be calmly and confidently turning to God for the strengthening and sustenance and grace that we're sure God is going to give us, and that God is already giving us.  

We can prepare for such challenging times in advance.  We can decide ahead of time how we want to respond.  We can visualize in our mind's eye being in the midst of a storm and feeling assured of God's support of us.  We can envision the storm raging around us as we serenely step toward Jesus, having already chosen to keep our eyes on Jesus.  

We turn to God.  God reaches to us.  God holds us up.  

* Matthew 14:22-36 

** Psalm 66:12 

*** Isaiah 48:10 
****Psalm 66:10 

***** Psalm 104:15 

****** Matthew 28:20 

******* John 15:4, 5, 6, 7 

Out Of So Little, Much Good Can Come

A worm has been on my mind.  It's been crawling around in my head.  I can't get it out of my head.  We speak of earworms, songs that get stuck in your head.  In a similar sense, this worm has been on my mind, so perhaps it's a mindworm.  

Earlier this year I read about how scientists had determined that all animal life there has ever been on earth has been suspected to have been evolved from a certain species of worm that lived 555 million years ago.  Once I heard of this worm, it has seemed that the knowledge of this worm has been echoing, over hundreds of millions of years, after burrowing down into the earth, bringing forth to light the truth that much comes what seems to be so little.  

I imagine God saying to this worm, "I have great plans for you.  From you are going to come fish and lizards and elephants and giraffes and apes and all kinds of creatures that creep and crawl and swarm all over the earth."  

Of course the worm was not able to think as we think.  But if it could, and if this conversation were to occur, I would expect it would respond something like, "But I am nothing.  I am a nobody.  I can do next to nothing."  

In this littleness, in this next-to-nothingness, in this humility there is wisdom.  The worm would see itself as it is.  

The worm was also exactly what God called it to be.  It wasn't trying to be something else.  The worm was embracing what God made it to be.  When we are who and what God makes us to be, we give praise to God.  

In the question the worm would ask, there would be openness.  When we ask, we invite an answer.  When we ask, we are interested in finding out what we do not know, what we cannot see or find out on our own.  

An angel told Our Blessed Mother Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.  Our Blessed Mother Mary asked how this could be so, since she had not had relations with a man.  God, through the angel, told her what she could not know on her own, that the Holy Spirit would come upon her.*  

Having asked what we could not know through our own efforts, having been answered and empowered with the knowledge of who we can become, we are then faced with the choice of who we decide to become.  God invites us to become so much more than we have been.  God asks us if we would like Him to perform miracles through us.  For miracles, we need faith.  

Our Blessed Mother Mary embraced the message of the angel by going forward in faith.  She responded to the angel, "You see before you the handmaid of the Lord: let it be done to me according to Your Word."**  

And so a peasant girl, obscure, unknown, passed over, ignored by many around her, became much more.  In her lowliness, she was lifted up.  Having gone forward in faith, now hundreds of millions of people beseech her, that she may pray for them, and through her, God works countless miracles.  

God wants to work through us for the good of us, for those around us.  God invites us into much more than what we have seen.  We can be much more than we have been.  We are so much more than what our current circumstances show us.  

We are trudging along in what seems to us like drudgery.  In these days of the coronavirus which might seem to be moving along so slowly, we may feel like we are crawling through something like mud, through a murky, filthy slime, the challenging morass of a virus which seems to disable us in so many ways.  

In what seems meaningless, we might be situated very well to become so much more than we have been.  Rather than mislead ourselves into believing that we are doing nothing of much worth, instead if we ask and pray and remain open, God might work wonders through us, miracles that we never would have imagined, if we merely go forward in faith in Him.  

* Luke 1:31-35 

** Luke 1:38