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Good Friday Reflection: The Power of Christ’s Blood (St. John Chrysostom)

You may not know that one of the promises clergy & religious make upon entering their vocation is to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (AKA Divine office.)  This is a routine of prayers that they pray at various times throughout the day to make sure that they don’t lose sight of their relationship with God within their service to His Church.  One of the hours they pray is called the Office of Readings, which includes both a selection from the Bible and something from one of the saints.  The following is the reading for Good Friday, taken from the Catecheses by St. John Chrysostom, one of the early Church fathers.  I moved it back to the front of the blog in honor of what we celebrate today, because Chrysostom says it all so much better than I ever could.  If you’re looking for the readings for the day, click here to get them from the USCCB website.

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt.  Sacrifice a lamb without blemish, commanded Moses, and sprinkle its blood on your doors. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood.  In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so much less will the devil approach now when he sees, no tthat figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ. [Read more…] about Good Friday Reflection: The Power of Christ’s Blood (St. John Chrysostom)

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A New Hope Comes at Christmas (Grandin Media)

The following is a column I wrote for Grandin Media reflecting on the birth of Jesus… and Star Wars:

The world of Star Wars has a great deal in common with the world into which Jesus was born.

When the original Star Wars movie (“A New Hope”) was released in 1977, we learned about a history which took place “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.”  We heard how much of this galaxy was being oppressed by an evil Empire, under the leadership of the all-powerful Emperor Palpatine. The Empire sought to bring order to the galaxy by conquering it, but the common people understandably did not wish to be conquered.  This would give rise to the Rebellion, where we would encounter those compelling heroes of the original Star Warstrilogy.

At the time of Jesus, the known world was being oppressed by an evil (Roman) Empire, under the leadership of an emperor who believed himself to be all-powerful. The Roman empire had achieved what is known today as the “Pax Romana” (Roman Peace) – a period of relative peace and stability for the known world, that was achieved largely because Rome had conquered everyone else.

In Scripture, we hear about the ways in which the Israelites, like many others, were not pleased with having been conquered … in the midst of their own rebellions they were awaiting a promised Messiah…

(Follow the link below to read the rest.)

A New Hope comes as an infant born at Christmas

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What’s wrong with the ‘right’ to Happiness? (Grandin Media)

Fifty-five years ago last week (November 22, 1963), C.S. Lewis died.  A few weeks later, his final piece of writing – an essay entitled “We Have No ‘Right to Happiness'” – was published, and it still gives us food for thought.

My recent piece for Grandin Media offered some further reflections on these challenging words from C.S. Lewis:

What’s wrong with the right to happiness?

 

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Fire of God’s Love & Hard Hearts (Grandin Media)

The following is an article I wrote for Grandin Media, reflecting on the ways in which an encounter with God can cause our hearts to soften or become harder.

Last week, a student asked me a question about a biblical story that I, too, have struggled to understand.

During the lead-up and eventual escape of the Israelites from Egypt, we read multiple times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, with dire consequences including the death of many in the Egyptian army.

At first glance, this passage seems to imply that God acted to ensure the death of those Egyptian soldiers – and it’s led me to wonder how God, who is love, would deliberately set into motion events that would cost so many lives.

I’ve typically answered others’ questions on this passage (Why would God…?) by explaining that God allowed Pharaoh’s heart to become hard in much the same way as God often allows us the exercise of free will even when it brings great evil in our own lives, and in the lives of others.

It’s often felt like an incomplete answer.

The discussion I had last week led me to dig a little deeper on the subject…

(Click the link below to read the whole article…)

Fire of God’s love will help or harden our hearts

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Knowing we are Loved by God Changes EVERYTHING (Grandin Media)

The following is an article I wrote for Grandin Media, reflecting on the ways in which recognizing we are loved by God influences how we live and how we act.

If you spend any amount of time around the Church, you are likely to hear some discussion about God’s love for us.  It’s written into many of our liturgical prayers.

You might hear scripture passages like “God is love” (1 John 4:8) or “For God so loved the world He gave His only Son…” (John 3:16).  Some homilists and speakers like to quote saints poetic descriptions of what God’s love for us actually means.  (One of my favorites comes from Pope Benedict XVI: “Each of us is the result of a thought of God.  Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”)

The reason that the topic of God’s love comes up so often is simple: it’s foundational to our understanding of why God made us.  St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us via the Catechism that “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened (God’s) hand” (CCC #293).

All of that being said, our ongoing understanding of God’s love can have a much more personal meaning: the simple fact of knowing we are loved has an impact on how we live and on how we act.  I had my clearest lesson in understanding what this means the first time I took one of my kids to get stitches.

(Read the rest of the article by following the link.)

Knowing we are loved by God impacts on how we live and act