And the lava flowed into the sea...

I remember as a young man seeing video of a volcano for the first time.  The lava was flowing down the mountain into the ocean.   When it touched the water, it roiled and exploded.   Such raw power, such destruction!   I was filled with fear that such a thing could happen to us!  I knew there were no active volcanoes anywhere near our home in Virginia.   Yet, the image was stuck in my mind and for days I couldn't sleep for fear of seeing them in my dreams.  That's the image that the Israelites experienced first hand in the desert of God.   Loud booming sounds, smoke and fire, lightning and thunder.   An image of God so terrifying that they begged Moses to go intercede for them for fear that just hearing God's voice would cause them to die.

The author of Hebrews gives us a different image of God.  That of a 'festal' gathering.  A party!  Recently I went to a wedding with Julie's family.   It had been years since we had been to anything of this sort.  With work and the kids we just couldn't find time or the money to go.   When we arrived though, we were welcomed with open arms and warm familial hugs.   We didn't feel out of place, but rather felt we were part of the family... The words that come to mind are: familiar, warm, inviting, peaceful, joyful, welcome.   That's the image we get of Heaven.   Not something to be feared, but a place to long for.   A gathering around the wedding feast of the Lamb where "everyone knows your name."

The key to being invited though, the key to the entire walk of the Christian life, is humility.   Not some false humility where one puts themselves down in order to make them look even more 'humble' than someone else, but a true sense of humility in which we realize exactly who we are.  An honest assessment of ourselves. A recognition that we are indeed sinners, and yet are called adopted Sons/Daughters of the most High!   That we are fallen in nature but chosen in calling.   Acceptance of the fact that we are holy, set apart, consecrated for God... not in some haughty manner, but in gentle, silent awe filled wonder that we are who God says we are.... that kind of humility allows us to take the lesser seat.   To sit at the foot of the table.  Because we know that's where we belong... and if God left us there?  We would have no qualms, no quarrels of sitting with the least of our brothers....

It's there that we encounter Christ in the here and now.   In the eyes of the distressful disguises that He chooses to wear.   In the outcast, the orphan, the widow... the broken, the fallen, the addicted, the scared... yes, there that we sit with Him at the table... Yet we are called to be like Christ in all things, yes?   To be not just guests at the wedding, but co-hosts with our adopted Brother.   Are you doing your part?  Are you going out to the honored guest and lifting them up to a higher place?  It's in the sick, the poor, the angry, the unappreciated, the fallen away, the mangled up, chewed up, and spit out person that we encounter Christ face to face... are you helping Him find a higher place at the table?  Christ deserves the seat of honor.. the highest praise... the best meal and the best plates... are you offering Him the best you have?  Or are you leaving Him sitting at the lower end of the table while you sit with those who make you comfortable?

We have work to do Church... more especially I have work to do.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

 A reflection on the readings for the Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 28th, 2016.  Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Psalm 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11; Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14

So soft and cute...

There is this overwhelmingly powerful scene in the Fellowship of the Rings in which Galadriel is tempted.  Galadriel is already a powerful figure with great magic and power.   The ring though would make her even stronger, so powerful in fact she could control the entire realm.  She has this amazing line in which she says "I will be great and terrible as the dawn!"  We have lost the meaning of that word.  We see terrible as something horrendous, horrible, ugly, or bad.  

terrible

[ter-uh-buh l]  exciting terror, awe, or great fear; dreadful

In Abraham's time this was the image of who God was.   He was the all powerful Lord, the creator, the judge and the king.   For Abraham to stand up for those people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would have taken a great deal of courage.   We lose that sometimes when reading the old testament.  Here Abraham is facing God and saying, Hey can I change your mind?  What if only... over and over.  Not only asking God for a boon but also thinking he might be testing God's patience.  How scary should that be?

Christ on the cross stood in the gap for us as well.   Knowing that not a single righteous man could be found, Christ went in our place to suffer the punishment.   All of us deserve what Sodom and Gomorrah got.  "The wages of sin is death."   None of us can say we haven't sinned either.  So here we have Christ, fully God but also fully human... going to the cross in complete trust of God but still aware of His great power and the terrible visage, but also seeing the Father.   That was something most of that age were unable to bear, to think of God as Father, and even today there are religions in the world that will find it blasphemous to do so.  Christ gave us that gift while nailed and tortured in our place.

I think that's part of the message that God has given us in the Scriptures and through the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   To trust in God.  To see Him as Father.   To know He will only give us what is good.   Yet, to remind us that what we do is make a bold claim.  That we are approaching the all powerful, omniscient God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   That it is an audacious thing to step forward in His presence and say "God give me..."   We should never forget though, that we aren't just praying for 'bread', but also for the will of God.   So we are saying "God give me... but if you know something better... your will be done."   Never forget that last part.  Never forget who it is we approach, and what is at stake.  Abraham knew what was at stake as He prayed for the people, and his prayer was unanswered... Christ knew death was the cost and He suffered it to save us.... Do you realize what is at stake?  Are you ready to pick up your own cross? To stand in the gap for others in prayer?   It's a privilege that we should never take for granted.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection the readings for Mass on the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 24, 2016.  Genesis 18:20-32; Psalm 138; Colossians 2:12-14; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke 11:1-13