The Great Reveal: a deep anticipation

Matthew 16: 13-19

O’ Lord, You are the Divine Architect whose wisdom surpasses all others – it is truly remarkable and incomprehensible.

Lord, You know everything about me, especially my vulnerabilities and my deep yearning for a love that is waning from this world.

Praise to the Wonderful Mystery!

O’ Lord, allow me the courage to pull back the veil that will reveal Your magnificent presence and glory.

Lord, I have many more days that are behind me than remain, increase in me a holy desire to know You more with each sunset.

Glory to the Divine Architect!

O’ Lord, it is impossible to know the depths of Your love, for I can only taste it through Your son’s mercy and sacrifice.

Lord, I seek the answer to the question that is lifelong for me, “Is it me that hides from You or are you hiding from me?

Praise to Divine Majesty!

O’ Lord, Your love drenches me  and covers me like the refreshing water gushing from an underground spring.

Lord, You are the affirmation of Truth revealed and my anticipation to know You more grows intensely with each passing day.

Glory to the Good News!

Lord, Your divine Truth is like a strong braid that holds the fabric of an elaborate quilt together.

Lord, Your Truth is the Divine garment of humanity, for it covers the bearer with a peace unknown to man.

Praise to the Essence of Love!

O’ Lord, do You see how man has mastered the art of babel that only serves the idol of confusion and deception?

Lord, as peace retreats from this place, please reveal to us the Spirit of Truth that will guide us away from the alternative facts of mankind.

Glory to the God of Revelation!

                                                                                                                   The Pilgrim

12 Wicker Baskets

Have you ever felt like you want to help, but there's nothing you can do? You want to give, but there's nothing for you to give? In this week's gospel reading the Apostles are worried about the crowd, the lack of food, and the distance from any useable food supply. The only solution that makes any sense is to send the crowd away early enough so that each one can take care of themselves.

That is their advice to Jesus. (The absurdity of anyone giving advice to our Lord is an interesting thought to ponder, perhaps another time...) 

Jesus's response is "Give them some food yourselves." You know the rest of the story. What I would like to bring attention to is the fact that the leftover scraps filled 12 baskets. Spiritual math is very different from any other math: 5 loaves of bread plus 2 fish minus enough to feed over 5 thousand people equals 12 baskets full of leftover food. 

Perhaps this thought is worth contemplating: love and mercy are like the flame of a candle - the more you share, the more there is. This is a spiritual truth, which is greater than any law of physics, because Heaven and Earth will pass away, but the words of the Lord will never pass away........

+ Theophilus

 

Solemnidad de la santísima Trinidad

 

El domingo pasado celebramos la gran fiesta de Pentecostés, la venida del espíritu Santo sobre los apóstoles y el nacimiento de la iglesia.

 

El domingo siguiente a Pentecostés se celebra la solemnidad de la santísima Trinidad, un solo Dios y tres personas distintas, Padre, Hijo y Espíritu Santo.

 

En una ocasión escuché decir a Monseñor John Martin, que en paz descanse, sacerdote que vivió con nosotros en Santa Brígida por muchos años, dijo él, “ busca a Dios, no busques respuestas a tus preguntas“ .

 

En esta reflexión voy a tratar de exponer cómo mi relación con cada una de las personas de la santísima Trinidad me ayuda a buscar a Dios.

 

Cuando estaba en “”high  school” uno de mis profesores Marianistas puso en mis manos un libro que en inglés se llama, “Many are one“.    Explicaba de manera sencilla la doctrina del Cuerpo Místico de Cristo. Sencillamente, que todos somos uno en Cristo, que San Pablo al caer en cuenta en esta realidad, exclama, “ ahora vivo ya no yo, sino que Cristo vive en mí“.

 

De ese momento en adelante la presencia de Jesús en mí comenzó a hacerse sentir en mi vida  No puedo decir que siempre haya sido fiel a esa presencia pero por su gracia, la gracia de Dios y la fuerza del espíritu Santo lo he tratado de tenerla presente en mi vida y he tratado de recordar que no solamente está presente en mí sino en toda persona con quien me relaciono, especialmente en los pobres y los menos atractivos. Una vez más no puedo decir que he vivido esta realidad siempre…

 

Se ha dicho que el Espíritu Santo es la persona olvidada de la Santísima Trinidad. Mi devoción al Espíritu Santo comenzó más tarde, no recuerdo exactamente cuando.

 

En un momento de gracia llegué a comprender, a hacer parte de mi vida que se nos da el don del Espíritu Santo en el Bautismo y que se afirma ese regalo de Dios en la Confirmación.

 

Recuerdo que un día cuando viajaba a algún sitio por avión, recurrí al espíritu Santo. “ Espíritu Santo, Ruá. aliento de Dios, brisa de Dios, levanta este avión “.

 

Invoco al Espíritu Santo en toda clase de situaciones. En las pequeñas insignificantes,y en momentos de gran necesidad. Un pequeño ejemplo:  el otro día trataba de encontrar en una  gaveta de mi escritorio un alfiler con el símbolo de la paloma del Espíritu Santo para regalar a una persona que iba a confirmarse. Invoqué al Espíritu Santo para que me ayudara a encontrarlo. No lo encontré pero encontré una crucecita que andaba buscando. No solamente encontré el objeto, la crucecita, sino que al siguiente día reflexionando en lo que había ocurrido comprendí el símbolo, encontré la Cruz, el camino a la Resurrección 

 

Escuchamos en el evangelio de San Juan, “ si me amas cumplirás mis mandamientos y mi Padre te amará y vendremos a ti y estableceremos en ti nuestra morada “.

 

La manera de amar a Dios, uno y trino, es amándonos a nosotros mismos y amando a los demás con ese mismo amor. Amamos al prójimo porque él y ella también son templos de la Divina Majestad.

 

Te deseo que la celebración de la solemnidad de la Santísima Trinidad te ayude a caer en cuenta de la presencia de la Santísima Trinidad en tu corazón.  ¡ Que el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu Santo sean glorificados en todas partes por la Inmaculada virgen María!

 

El caballero de Nuestra Señora

 

 

The Very Breath of God

 

He breathed on them.  When we think about it, nothing is more intimate than sharing someone’s very breath.  To decide if someone is alive or not, we always ask, “Is he or she breathing?”  If someone has stopped breathing, we do what is needed to breathe life into their lungs.  For those who had the experience of saving someone’s life or being saved by someone, there is a certain bond that is created.  In a sense, their lives are joined forever.

It is that relationship that God desires with each and every one of us.  God, who created everything out of nothing, shared his very life with us, by creating human beings in his very image and likeness.  That desire that God has for us to stay in right relationship with him never wanes. He wants to share his very life with us.  He took on our very flesh, so that he could share our humanity, and in so doing allowed us to share his divinity.

We, human beings, his beloved children, seem to turn away from that life.  We often think we have enough to sustain our lives on our own that we don’t need a lifeline, that we don’t need anyone to breathe life into us.  And so we go on with our own projects.  We build up our own egos. 

This is true even, sadly, of those in ministry.  We become obsessed with our own projects, our own creative ways of evangelizing that we make it all about us.  Evangelization, which is the mission of every Baptized person, is about bringing others to Christ, yet we often make it about gathering others to ourselves.  In those moments, it is clear, we are forgetting Pentecost.  The very life of God, the Holy Spirit, was infused, breathed, into the early community, the Church, and ultimately into each of us.  In that life, we share the mission of Christ.

In today’s Gospel, we have the account of Jesus encountering the apostles in the upper room.  They were locked away out of fear.  Fear so often separates us from the life of God.  He doesn’t let locked doors or walls or certainly fear keep him from wanting to be present to them.  He appears in their midst, showing them the length of his love in the wounds of his body.  He offers them the true greeting of God in all things, peace. 

Then he breathes on them, giving them once his very divine life, the Holy Spirit.  The divine life allows them to share what is the very heart of divine love and that is forgiveness.  Forgiveness has the power to transform the world.  We live in a world where true forgiveness often seems elusive.  We clearly cannot achieve it on our own.  We need that divine life in us.

So, this Pentecost, as we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, the very infusion of life into the Church, let us remember that means the divine life is breathed into each of us.  This happens in a sacramental way in the Church, but we must recognize that divine life and be willing to live it.   We need the breath of God.  It alone can transform the world.

 -          The Servant