Author Archives: Bill Dalgetty

Friendship with Jesus

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Do you have a friendship with Jesus?

St. Paul considered his friendship with Jesus the most important thing in his life.  It exceeded his ministry, preaching, miracles, prophesies and every aspect of his life.  He said, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”  (Phil. 3:8)

Jesus seemed to confirm this priority in his final words to the disciples when he prayed, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)  The knowledge that Jesus was referring to was not just knowing about God and himself, but knowing the Father and the Son as a person and friend.

Is it possible to have a real friendship with God who we can’t see, or Jesus who died as a human person 2000 years ago? 

The disciples and the 500 other people who saw Jesus after his resurrection (1 Co.15:6) would likely say yes.  Paul, who had been persecuting Christians met Jesus in a vision on his way to Damascus and was given specific instructions about what he was to do next.  Paul later describes how he was taken up into heaven to hear indescribable things.  Various saints throughout history have had similar experiences.

Many years ago I was at a Christian gathering in which a priest asked us to engage our imagination to experience Jesus.  You may think this sounds phony, but Jesuit author, William A. Barry in his book, A Friendship Like No Other, says that the principal way in which God communicates with us is through our imagination, memories, insights and thoughts.  Whether they are from God is a question of discernment, which is often determined by the fruit of what follows.

At that gathering, I imagined that I met Jesus on a lonely country road, south of Kansas City, Missouri on the way to my wife’s grandmother’s farm.  I asked Jesus to take a particular burden from me.  He did.  And my life has never been the same since.  I can describe every detail of that encounter – the gravel road, the farm house nearby, where the mailbox was, and what Jesus looked like and said.  It was so real!

For almost 40 years I have been meeting with Jesus nearly every morning for coffee.  We are friends like my best friend who is my wife; like a few Christian brothers who know me inside and out.  The change and fruit in my life following that encounter would indicate that it was authentic, though I am still capable of messing up.

Jesus told the disciples, “I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” (John 15:15)  We have the benefit of scripture to learn about the Father and the Son, and their offer to dwell within us. (John 14:23) We also have our God-created ability to think, imagine and receive insights.  This, in combination with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, enables us to establish a friendship with the Father and the Son.   

Friends share knowledge and experiences.  A husband and wife share intimate details about their lives.  Good friends share joys, sorrows, and the mundane.

God the Father and God the Son invite us to do the same.  

Separation Now, Separation Later

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In Jesus’ story about Lazarus and the rich man, what was the rich man’s sin?

To recap, there was a rich man who lived in luxury and a beggar named Lazarus who lay at his gate, covered with sores, longing to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.  They both died.  Lazarus was taken by angels to Abraham’s side, while the rich man ended up in hell.  In torment, the rich man asked Abraham to let Lazarus come and dip his finger in water to cool the rich man’s tongue.  Abraham reminded the rich man that in life he had received good things and Lazarus only bad things, but now Lazarus was being comforted, and the rich man was in torment.  Furthermore, there was a great chasm, separating them that neither could cross.  (Luke 16:15-31)

It did not appear that the rich man had violated any of the Ten Commandments as originally set out in Exodus 20 or Jewish law.  But he may have violated Jesus’ restatement of the commandment to love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

The rich man’s sin was not the fact that he was rich.  It was his indifference.  Though Lazarus lay at the rich man’s gate (his neighbor), the rich man never noticed him.  The rich man had let his wealth and way of life separate him from the people in need of his day.

By historical standards, many of us in America today would likely be considered rich.  We do not want for food, shelter or clothing.  We have employment that enables us to live in a home we have bought and provide for our families.

Our circumstances may have the effect of separating us from people like Lazarus.  They still exist, but we don’t see them.  We do not see them in our neighborhoods.  We don’t see them at work or in our churches.  There may be the occasional homeless person begging at an intersection or Metro stop.  But for the most part, unless we take some affirmative action to step outside of our circumstances, our default response tends to separate us the very poor of our world.

When I read this story or the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46), I struggle with how much my life is separated from those in need, and the serious consequences that can result if I do not seek to remedy that separation.  

So, we write checks and give used clothes to various organizations assisting the poor.  I keep some dollars handy in the console of my car for the homeless soliciting at an intersection.  I volunteer in the Chaplain’s office at the county jail.  But do these things fulfill the spirit of the King in the above parable?

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”    

The tragic irony for the rich man and perhaps for us is that letting our circumstances separate us from those in need at this time can also lead to separation from God later. 

The Yoke of Jesus

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What is the yoke that Jesus invites us to put on? 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,” Jesus says, “and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

This may be one of the most loving and grace-filled invitations of all time. 

Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church in the 16th Century, says that the yoke that Jesus is talking about is the first and greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.”  Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as our self, is the yoke Jesus invites us to put on.  In contrast to the yoke that holds two animals together for purposes of pulling a wagon or plow, Jesus’ yoke is not heavy or burdensome.

Many years ago, my wife and I purchased an ox yoke which we found in the attic of an antique store while traveling in Maine.  It is massive, made of solid oak.  Its beam is more than a yard in length with a girth of six inches.  It is quite heavy to lift.

In contrast to such a heavy burden, Jesus tells us his yoke is easy and light.  It is not a burden to carry.  In fact, when we choose to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as our self, whatever other burdens we may be carrying become lighter.

Life’s circumstances can be filled with a variety of burdens — a chronic illness, the care of a spouse with terminal cancer, the loss of a job or career opportunity, the estrangement from a son or daughter, the challenge of a difficult boss or colleague, to name just a few.

One of the greatest burdens that we often choose to carry is sin.  What kind of sin?  St. Paul offers a long list, which he characterizes as obvious: “sexual immorality, idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21)  Implicit in this list is anger, resentment and unforgiveness, not only a heavy burden, but also an obstacle to experiencing the presence and fullness of God in our lives.

But if we accept Jesus’ yoke of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we will want to repent of our sin, accept Jesus’ forgiveness, and experience his presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit.  Instead of experiencing the sin described by Paul, we experience the fruit of the spirit, also described by him as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5: 22-23)

The contrast of the two lists is stark.  The first, a heavy burden; the second, the means to lighten the burden.  Jesus tells us to learn from him.  He says he will be gentle and humble with us.  Paul eloquently captures the result of carrying Jesus’s yoke –

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)

The Heart Replaces Stone Tablets

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What is your motivation to live out your faith day to day?

Six centuries before Christ, Jerimiah announced God’s intention to make a new covenant that Jesus later inaugurated with his passion, death and resurrection.

“’The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel …It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers…I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts.’” (Jerimiah 31:31-33)

God is changing his writing materials.  This new covenant will differ from God’s earlier covenant in that it will not be written on tablets of stone but on people’s hearts.  While writing on stone can last a long time, it can still wear and fade just like the grave markers in an old cemetery.  Writing on the heart can last forever. 

There is another difference.  What is written on the heart is done so with the Holy Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit not only imparts knowledge of right and wrong, it also provides the desire to do the right thing.  No longer are we trying to comply with the law based only upon our human will, but out of our love for God and the power and strength provided by the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit.  

While compliance of the law may be encouraged by punitive consequences, compliance is better assured when the love of God and the desire to do the right thing is written on our hearts.  

Many ethics programs in business, government and the professions fail because they are based only upon rules and consequences, rather than a heart desire to do the right thing out of the love of God.  The decision to comply then becomes an evaluation of the risk of consequences vs. the benefits of noncompliance.  There is no motivation of the heart.

This past Sunday, we remembered the 15th anniversary of September 11, when terrorists seized airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.  A number of the victims included first responders and others who gave their lives trying to rescue and assist others.  Their actions resulted from decisions of the heart on which God had inscribed his commandment of love.

Jesus affirmed all of this when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)

Heart, soul, mind and strength are not made of stone, which can wear and fade, but are aspects of our inner being created by God which we will take with us to eternity.   

Toughening It Out

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How do you respond to persistent, long term challenges? 

The prophet Jerimiah complained to God about the godless prospering and living in contentment even though their hearts were far from him.  God had called Jerimiah early in life to speak for him.  From the beginning, Jerimiah encountered hostility and persecution to his prophetic words taking place over decades under several kings and the conquering armies of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.  Seldom did the people or their kings heed his warnings.  To compound his lament, he sees people prosper who have ignored both him and God.

God’s response is not entirely sympathetic.  He says, “If running against men worries you, how will you race against horses?” (Jer. 12:5)  This sounds similar to God’s response to Job after his many complaints resulting from his lengthy suffering.  “Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?” (Job 38:2)

Like Jerimiah and Job, how often do we complain to God about the trials and challenges in our lives, or question his timing or justice?  It may be the suffering from a long term illness, seeing the life of a loved one snuffed out prematurely or protracted unemployment extending beyond our ability to cope.

I am reminded of the women who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years in Mark 5:26 or the man who had been an invalid for 38 years waiting to be healed by the stirring waters of the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:2-9.  Each had an enduring faith: the woman saying, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured;” the man waiting for someone to assist him to get into the pool while the healing waters are stirring.

For almost thirty years, I have been praying for the healing of a daughter with a speech disability that accompanied her birth with Down syndrome.   She understands fully all that we say to her, she reads at a rudimentary level, but she has difficulty articulating her feelings or thoughts that require more than a short sentence.

In spite of her disability, God has blessed her with a smile that melts your heart, an inclination to love and hug most everyone she meets and a purity of heart that teaches the rest of us about the ways of God.  While I must confess that I have given up on my prayer from time to time, I still persevere, knowing that anything is possible to God in spite of my mustard seed size faith. 

I stand in awe of people who suffer through a painful long term illness and yet retain the joy of the Lord.  I marvel at the spouse who cares for a disabled loved one day in and out, month after month and sometimes even year after year.

The apostle Paul who accepted the tough words of God to Jerimiah and Job for his own life, offers us great words of encouragement in the face of interminable suffering or challenges.  He says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12: 1-3)

Humility is a Choice

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How do we become humble?

Both Matthew and Luke report Jesus making the statement, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt. 23:12; Luke 14:11)  Jesus seems to imply that being humble or exalting oneself is an act of our will.  It is a choice we make.  Personal experience and history show that we are not naturally humble.

Jesus illustrates his statement with a parable about a guest invited to a wedding feast who picked a place of honor only to be told by the host to move to a lower place so another guest more distinguished than he may take his place.

One of the reasons being humble is a choice is that the instinct to survive which is part of our human nature and natural law inclines us to put self first.  Original sin involving pride and disobedience also predisposes us to put self first.  To overcome our nature and instead be humble, therefore, requires a choice.  To serve rather than be served necessitates a decision on our part.

Jesus praises such a decision both in the passage above and in the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:3)  Jesus describes himself as “gentle and humble in heart.” (Mt. 11:29)  Peter, James and Paul all encourage us to be humble in their letters.

In David McCullough’s biography of Harry Truman, he tells the following story.  At a special reception Truman held for Stalin and Churchill at the Potsdam Peace Conference near the end of World War II, Sergeant Eugene List, an American concert pianist, played a Chopin waltz.  List asked if someone in the audience would be good enough to turn the pages.  Truman jumped to his feet, waived off another volunteer and did the job himself.   In a letter to his wife, List later wrote, “Imagine having the President of the United States turn the pages for you!  But that’s the kind of man the President is.”   

Personally, I have to work hard to maintain a humble spirit in all my interactions with others.  Too often, my pride overtakes my intentions.  We need God’s grace to help us make decisions to be humble.  Actions that help nurture God’s grace include daily prayer, the reading of scripture and regular participation in the sacraments.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10)

Grateful for God’s Inviters

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Is there someone in your life who has invited you to go deeper in your Christian faith and your relationship with Jesus Christ?  Are you grateful for the role that person has played?

Whatever our relationship with God may be, there is likely someone who was instrumental in leading us to our current level of faith.  It may be a parent, a priest or pastor, a teacher or Christian friend.

This past week I was blessed to have reconnected with some dear friends, Anne and her husband, Tony, who were instrumental in leading my wife and me to meet Jesus Christ in a new and personal way thirty-nine years ago.  We were living in New York at the time.  Anne and I were serving as religious education teachers for high school students in our church.  I remember Anne always having such a beautiful, joyful smile and encouraging the rest of us.

She started to invite me to various spiritual related events, but I would decline.  So then she started inviting my wife, who accepted an invitation to a “Week of Renewal in the Holy Spirit.”  It was a program conducted over five consecutive nights by some nuns at a nearby parish.  Each night my wife would invite me to join her, but I declined, claiming to have a brief case full of work.  At that time in my life I was more focused on my career as an attorney than I was on the Lord.

On the fourth night, my wife came home absolutely radiant.  She said she had been prayed with for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  I decided that I had to go to the final night to see what this was all about.  On that evening I met Jesus Christ in a new and personal way.  I, too, was subsequently prayed with for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and God started the process of changing my life.  My outlook and priorities all began to change as God became the center of every aspect of our lives, impacting our marriage, family, career, ministry, friendships, etc.

After almost 40 years, we have experienced countless blessings as a result of this invitation from Anne to go deeper in our faith.  We have been blessed in our marriage, in the raising of our five children and seeing them now raise Christian families of their own.  I became involved in a ministry to encourage people to live out their faith in their work, and we have been surrounded and supported by  many Christian friends in our church and community.

Today, we live in Virginia, and Anne and Tony live in Pennsylvania.   We had lost contact with them for a few years after they left New York, but it was such a blessing to have visited them this past week, reminiscing and catching up on our respective families.

How grateful we are for Anne and her invitation for us to go deeper with Christ!  “A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance [her] worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy.”  (Sirach 6:15-16)  How urgent it is for us to invite others to come to know Jesus through our word and example!  Our world is in desperate need of him.

Have you invited anyone lately to get to know Jesus more, to check out your church or just to encourage them in their journey with the Lord?   

Are You a Peer Minister?

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God personally ordained peer ministry when he decided to become one of us, his created, in the person of Jesus.  He experienced all of the trials, pain, sorrows and joys of our human condition, and showed us how to understand and live our lives.  He set both the precedent and the model for us to follow.

St. Paul affirms this model when he says, “Praise be to the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.” (2 Co. 1”3-4)  Paul is suggesting that whatever comfort we have received from God relative to troubles we have experienced, we should offer that same comfort to others who are experiencing similar troubles. 

This is what peer ministry is all about.  We all have the opportunity to be peer ministers.

There are of course many examples of peer ministries.  Alcoholics Anonymous is probably one of the most recognizable – recovering alcoholics helping those struggling with alcohol and other addictions.   There are numerous Christian peer ministries to high school and college students such as Teen Encounter, Young Life, Campus Crusade, and Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

For many years, I have been involved with Christians in Commerce, a ministry to encourage and equip Christians to meet the challenges of living out their faith in the workplace.  We share both our failures and successes in order to impact our work environments for good.

Then there is personal peer ministry arising out of the personal challenges we have experienced that we can share with others who are experiencing the same kind of challenge.  For example, our fifth child, Emily, was born with Down syndrome and serious heart complications.  The first few years were very challenging, but we also began to experience the blessings of Emily’s big beautiful smile, her unconditional love, and purity of heart.  It has been 30 years since Emily’s birth and we have been able to offer our experience dealing with both the challenges and the blessings to numerous couples who have given birth to children with Down syndrome.

Someone who is struggling with a particular problem doesn’t want to hear from another who does not understand what they are going through.  If we have experienced the same problem, then we have credibility.  We have walked in their shoes.  We can speak from our own experience with authority.  We can be real.

Add God’s love to that experience and you have a peer ministry, which offers comfort to another with the comfort we have received from God for the same kind of problem.

What kind of trial in your life have you experienced that enables you now to support a friend or acquaintance going through a similar trial?    

God’s Kingdom – Promise or Reality

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When will the kingdom of God come?  

The Pharisees asked Jesus this same question and his response was, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘there it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

There is a common notion among many Christians that the kingdom of God is only to be experienced after death.  Yes, if we abide in God and seek to do his will, there is a heaven that awaits us upon our passing from this life, a resurrection that follows, and an eternal life with the Father in a new creation.

But so much of what Jesus said to his disciples and the people of his day exhorted them to do something with this life in order to advance the creation that God had inaugurated and Jesus had redeemed.  

Jesus gave us a model prayer that has as its first petition a request for the kingdom of God to come on this earth here and now, as it is in heaven – “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mt. 6:10)

Jesus says when we are “born again” (accept Jesus as the Son of God)…and “born of water and spirit” (baptized), we enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 5)  Most of Jesus’ parables illustrating the kingdom of God instruct us how to live now, not after we get to heaven.

  • The kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows from the smallest seed into the largest of plants.
  • The Kingdom is like the leaven of yeast, a small amount impacts the larger dough of the world.
  • The kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field, leading us to give all to buy the field.

Jesus says if we love him and obey his teaching, the Father will love us and both the Father and Jesus will make their home with us. (John 14:23) Through their residence in us, we have the opportunity to experience the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), and share that fruit with others.

Not long ago I learned that a particular friend had lost his wife to cancer.  While speaking to someone who has just lost a loved one can be awkward, I felt like the Holy Spirit was nudging me to go see him.  When he came to the door, I said, “I came to give you a hug.”  He appeared to be all alone and invited me in.  For the next hour, I listened to him talk about the last few months of his wife’s suffering, the last few hours of her life, and of all the support he had received from friends, his pastor and medical personnel.  I listened as he reminisced about their life together.

My time with him, as well as the subsequent funeral celebrating her life, was an example of the reality of the kingdom of God here and now.   

A Fool’s Eulogy

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Have you ever heard a eulogy at a funeral commemorating the deceased for his or her wealth?  

Eulogies are usually about how someone who has been a good father or mother, a loving husband or wife, or a faithful friend.  We hear about attributes such as being kind, gentle, patient, diligent and loving.  We listen to stories about how they have served others instead of themselves, how they have been generous with their time and resources, and how they have volunteered for this or that cause.

What we hear in eulogies seems to confirm Jesus’ warning about greed.  He said, “Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” He then goes on to tell the Parable of the Rich Fool, whose land produced an abundant crop, so he decided to tear down his barns and build larger ones to store all his grain.  He then said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.  But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.’” (Luke 12:13-21)

Throughout recorded history people have been consumed with accumulating money and possessions in order to maintain their lives and achieve some level of security.  When we start out in life with little or nothing, money is of course necessary to take care of ourselves and to be self-sufficient.

As a young attorney for a large international oil company, I was very career focused early on in my life.  Marriage and children started to temper that focus.  Then I experienced an encounter with Jesus Christ, and a renewal in my faith that led to some challenging choices between career and family, and later between work and ministry.

Being blessed with resources is not sinful in itself, but the blessing can become a curse because of the temptations that accompany additional resources – feelings of independence, entitlement, and increasing comfort; growing self-focus, and isolation from people with needs.  These are not the kind of characteristics that usually end up in eulogies.  No doubt that is why Jesus urges us to “Watch out! Be on our guard for all kinds of greed.” 

When a reporter asked John D. Rockefeller, who at the time was considered the richest man in the world, how much money is enough, he responded, “Just a little bit more.”  Although Rockefeller used a good part of his surplus wealth to build hospitals, support education and other causes, his response demonstrates how insidious accumulating wealth can be.

As eulogies bear out, a kind word, a joyful heart, a loving act of service and sacrifice have lasting effect.  They are indeed eternal and, as Jesus says, “treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”  (Mt. 6:19-20)

What will be your eulogy?