RAIN

Tomorrow should be a challenging day: 160 hot, humid miles across Indiana on a bicycle. We drive to Terre Haute tonight, get up early on Saturday and to Richmond by late afternoon; I 'm hoping we're done by around 5.

It's amazing what we'll put ourselves through for the sake of group membership and a sense of accomplishment!

Go Team Dog!

Grace

Everybody in the world wants a second chance . . .

. . . until it’s someone else who desperately needs a second chance. Then, too often, it’s, “They don’t deserve another chance, after what they did.”

Y’know what? None of us do.

"What you have received freely, freely give."

I contend that the largest obstacle to the manifestation of this command by Christians in the world today is that too many of us fall into at least one of two categories:

• we have not fully received the gift of forgiveness which we have been offered
• we don’t truly believe ourselves undeserving of the grace we have received

That is, we insist on evaluating ourselves in terms of others, as respectively worse or better. We would never think to judge others, of course, because we’ve been so clearly warned against it. Yet in evaluating ourselves in such terms we unconsciously judge, in spite of the warnings.

Christianity is about a different thing entirely. By the action of the Holy Spirit:

• I see that I desperately need what Christ has done for me, could never deserve it and, in fact, have no hope without it (end of evaluation of self/others)
• I embrace the gift of Christ, both of his sacrifice on my behalf in atonement for my sins and of his presence in my life (beginning of my transformation in Christ)
• I recognize that every neighbor desperately needs what Christ has done and the new life I am experiencing in him, realizing that no one else deserves it any less than I do (beginning of personal evangelization mission, sharing mercy and love with others)

But without the first step, often referred to as the first spiritual truth, no matter how much we may think we've taken the second one, we can never overcome our tendency to judge others, whether we're conscious of it or not.

Strength vs. weakness

Some people see religion as a crutch, something the weak need to help them deal with the difficulties life brings.

This may be true of many religions, but there are two ways (aside from its verity) in which Christianity differs from these.

First of all, Christianity readily acknowledges that it is a religion for the weak. St. Paul says "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Cor 12, 8-10) If you're strong enough to be able to stand between God and Satan in your own strength, then you don't need a Savior; you're already better than the rest of us, and Christianity isn't the religion for you.

And when asked why he ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, Jesus replied, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mk 2, 17)

But Christianity is not a crutch for those who just need a little help getting to heaven. It is a gurney to carry in those who have no hope of getting there themselves.

I am so weak. Lord, may I live by your strength.

In the quiet

It is time to take stock of my decision-making when:

• I'm not willing to be quiet and listen, either in the morning or the evening


• My schedule fills up with activity


• I choose mindless entertainment or even utter wasting of time over anything thought-provoking or nurturing


• I begin seeking affirmation in the wrong areas

Opportunity knocks

Every day, opportunity knocks.

It isn't always the opportunity we're looking for.

But each day presents us the opportunity to come into God's presence, to spend time just being loved by the One who loves us perfectly.

Unless we receive it, what we have to offer others is paltry, and far less than they deserve.

Until we receive it, we mistake all kinds of other experiences for love. In fact, much of what we think of as love, what we mistake for love when we haven't experienced real love, is often just self-indulgence of one form or another.

It may be codependency, power struggle, co-existence.

But when we spend time in the presence of Love, our perspective shifts. It doesn't happen all at once, of course, but we gradually become more attuned to the love that awaits our full participation.

Good meeting tonight

I went to my wife's small group this evening. What a nice meeting. Every now and then I guess I need to be reminded that the Truth in whom I believe is bigger than my failings.

This weekend we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. While literally translated "The Body of Christ," this is celebrated in the Church in America as "The Body and Blood of Christ." The selected Scripture readings for this Sunday clearly indicate that the blood is an important element of the feast, as the first two readings have to do with the sprinkling of the Hebrews of the Old Testament with the sacrificial blood, and then the letter to the Hebrews comparing and contrasting the effect of Christ's blood.

While the feast is certainly about the Eucharist, as indicated by the Last Supper reading from St. Mark's gospel, it seems to me that it is impossible to discuss the Eucharistic presence of Christ without also considering his mystical presence in his Body, the Church. The reason that the bread and wine are transformed into Jesus' body and blood is so that the Church may be likewise transformed, which happens as individuals are increasingly transformed. And the reason for the institution of Old Testament sacrifice was to presage Jesus' sacrifice, so that we would recognize it and subsequently be transformed in him.

A fresh post, finally!

Time to return. Have been quite busy. Cycling, church, Habitat, etc.

I have a regular Tuesday evening prayer group I co-lead, and I hate to miss it two weeks in a row. Meanwhile, I've been trying to meet with another Tuesday group as well, except I keep having other Tuesday stuff come up instead. Last week we had a really nice visit with our in-laws, who came in from out-of-town for a couple days, so it was important to me to spend as much of their visit with them as possible. Three weeks ago was Confirmation. Not long before that I was tending my wife who was recovering from surgery. The thing is, if this keeps up, I'm going to have to reevaluate my sense that I ought to be meeting with this other Tuesday group from time to time!

At any rate, I hope to spend some time on here reflecting after morning prayer time again. At least the prayer time has been there, even if the reflection time hasn't!