“If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”  (Genesis 4:7)

God was responding to Cain who was angry when God had rejected his offering but accepted the offering of his brother, Abel.  God was asking Cain why he was angry, that if he did what is right he would be accepted.  Then God goes on to warn Cain that if he doesn’t do what is right sin will be crouching at his door, ready to entrap him. 

This reminds me of the words of a wonderful woman who was 101 years old that I took communion to on several occasions. Even though Dottie did not hear well, she loved to talk and share experiences from her long life.  Among her many words were:

“Love covers a lot of wrongs.  I am not a perfect person, but God gives me a lot of love, so I love and that makes up for me not being perfect.  I have found that it is easier to be happy than sad, and it’s also more fun.  So, at my age, I just think happy thoughts.  Satan is always hanging around to cause us trouble, but I just tell him, ‘Satan, be gone!’ and he runs from me.  He is very tricky.  He tries to get us to do things we shouldn’t do, but I tell him, ‘You get out of here!’”

Her observations are in line with God’s admonition to Cain that sin is always crouching at our door, waiting to ensnare us.  This is also in line with other scripture from the New Testament.  Saint Peter in his first letter says, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

As God suggests to Cain, and as Dottie offers in her long life of experiences, we must be aware that Satan is real.  He puts thoughts in our minds and is looking to entice us to do things that lead us away from God.   We need to be alert to his ways.  Prayer, scripture, and the sacraments of the church are tools to resist his efforts. 

As the apostle James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:7-8)

How do you resist temptations that pull you away from God?

The Gospel of Mark reports that when Jesus arrived in the region of Gennesaret on the Sea of Galilee, people ran throughout the area and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.  “They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.” (Mark 6:56)

It doesn’t take much to get a response from Jesus.  He and God the Father have great love for us.  They are waiting for us to invite them into our lives in any manner of ways.  In this Gospel passage all they had to do was touch the edge of his cloak. 

The smallest action on our part can secure a response.  Whatever that action may be, if it evidences a desire to move toward Jesus and seek his help, he is waiting to respond.  Earlier in Mark’s Gospel there is the report of a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and came up behind Jesus in a large crowd and said, “’If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.’  Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”  (Mark 5:25-29)

In a similar way, regardless of whether you are a practicing Christian, the slightest move toward Jesus will likely beget a response from him.  There is the famous painting of Jesus knocking on a door with no handle.  When the artist was asked why he did not include a handle, he said that the door could only be opened from the inside.

Jesus wants us to open the door of hearts to him, but the door can only be opened by us.  He will not force himself on us but will respond to any gesture or the slightest move on our part. 

Are you willing to make the slightest move toward Jesus for a need in your life?

As Jesus was entering Jerusalem prior to his passion, a crowd of his disciples began to praise God joyfully in loud voices for all the “mighty deeds” they had seen.  Their exuberant and unrestrained praise caused some Pharisees in the crowd to complain to Jesus, asking him to rebuke them, but he responded, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40).   

All of creation had been awaiting God’s personal and physical visitation to make things right upon the earth.  That visitation was now taking place in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah and Son of God.  Jesus is saying that if those who recognize his visitation and miracles are restrained in their joy and praise, even the stones, though inanimate objects, will cry out.

As current day disciples, are we joyful and loud in our praise of all the good things God has done in our lives, or are we restrained in our cool and sophisticated ways?

Many years ago, I was prayed with for the release of the power of the Holy Spirit by some nuns from the St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton House of Prayer at an evening of renewal program in Briar Cliff Manor, New York.  I experienced a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and my faith was renewed.  It was a mountain top experience.  I remember driving home in a blinding snow storm on the hilly and curvy roads of upper Westchester County, New York.  I could hardly see beyond the hood of my car, but it didn’t matter, for I was brimming with joy and praise of God for his visitation and the changes that he was bringing about in my life.  Even the blizzard, like the Pharisees, could not restrain my joy and praise. 

Today, with five older children and thirteen grandchildren, many Christian friends, and the Lord’s faithful presence, this space is not sufficient for me to acknowledge and praise God for all his works and miracles we have witnessed in the past forty-five plus years.  But if you stay tuned to this blog, I promise that I will share some of the stories in the weeks ahead.

Do you hold back your praise of God for the blessings and miracles in your life?

When I was in my mid-thirties, I met Jesus in a new and personal way, different from anything I had experienced before in the practice of my Catholic faith.  While I have shared the details of this encounter in prior blog posts, let me just say that it had the effect of enhancing my faith in God and the Church.  It gave me a desire to pray more, read scripture, and experience everything about my spiritual and faith life in a more intense and real way.

As John the Baptist saw Jesus passing by one day he observed to Andrew, one of his disciples, that Jesus was the “Lamb of God!”  Andrew then spent the day with Jesus, and afterwards, went to his brother, Peter to share that he had found the Messiah and wanted to introduce him to Jesus.

“The first thing Andrew did was look for his brother, Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.” (John 1:41 NIV)

Like Andrew, my meeting Jesus in a new way gave me a desire to tell others about my experience of meeting Jesus.  I was so excited about my encounter and the effect it had on my life that I wanted to share my experience with family, friends, and even co-workers. 

I remember writing lengthy letters to my parents and a cousin, who was a nun, explaining in great detail all that happened.  I shared my experience with a couple of close work colleagues who seemed to accept what I had to say.  One of them retold my story to other work colleagues.  Some friends invited me to share my experience at a parish prayer meeting.  One invitation seemed to lead to another. 

For over forty years, I have been trying to respond to opportunities to tell people about Jesus, including this weekly blog.  Yes, there have been times when I have missed or failed to act on opportunities.  But telling people about Jesus and introducing them to him seems to be the way Jesus started out with Andrew, Peter, and the others he called.  Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus, and Peter, Andrew and the other disciples were Jesus’ “witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

Like Andrew, have you sought to introduce others to Jesus?

“Have you any reason to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4) God asked this question of Jonah after he told him to go to the city of Nineveh and declare that because of their evil ways God would destroy the city within 40 days.  Jonah did what God asked him to do, and the people and king of Nineveh declared a fast and repented of their evil ways.  So, God withheld his destruction.  Jonah became angry because God did not do to Nineveh what he told Jonah he was going to do.   

Like Jonah, our reasons for getting angry may not make any sense or appear petty.  This past week I got angry about having to attend a meeting instead of completing some work that I thought was more important.  I found myself being critical of everything that was happening in the meeting until I realized that the evil one was getting me riled up because I was having to interrupt “my schedule” and what I thought was more important than attending this meeting. 

St. Peter reminds us in his first letter, “Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Our pride, which is one of the deadliest of sins, wants to distract us from Jesus’ call for us to love and serve others and fulfill God’s will in all that we do.  Anger is often a sure sign of the devil’s presence in our lives tempting us to do something against God’s will. 

James, in his letter says it simply, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  We can come near to God through prayer, reading his word, participating in the sacraments, and seeking his presence in all that we do.

When you get angry do you stop to think that it may be the devil trying to deter you from doing God’s will?  

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:3 NIV)

These words of St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews set forth a significant truth.  Jesus is the exact representation of God.  Do you want to get to know God, get to know Jesus.  It may be hard for us to picture God and get our heads around who he is.  God may have appreciated this difficulty, so he decided to become one of us in the person of Jesus 2100 years ago.  We have just come off celebrating that event with Christmas. 

In John’s Gospel, Phillip, who had been with Jesus for almost three years as one of his disciples says, “Lord show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time.  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’” Jesus seems to be frustrated with Phillip.  He says, “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?” (John 14:8-10)

Jesus’ words to Phillip also apply to us.  If we have come to know Jesus, we have come to know the Father.  While the Church teaches that we receive the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit in our baptism, it may take an adult yes to activate that presence as we mature.  Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus says that if we love him and obey his teaching (an adult yes), he and the Father will come and make their home in us – an amazing promise! (John 14:23)

Have you opened the door of your life to Jesus so that he and the Father may take up residence?

Three times God speaks to Joseph through an angel in a dream.  The first time was to tell him to take Mary as his wife after he had decided to divorce her quietly because she was pregnant.  The second time was to flea to Egypt to escape Herod’s efforts to kill the child Jesus. 

The third time was to return to Israel when it was safe.  “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” (Mt. 2:20)

The Bible does not reveal many details, so we don’t know the time periods involved or all of the circumstances.  Whatever the time, perhaps years, Joseph’s response to the sequence of events exhibited great trust and confidence in God.  He accepts an explanation for Mary’s pregnancy that defies all human experience. Then he takes his wife and new baby to a foreign land in reliance on a warning in a dream.

We see the faithfulness of God to Joseph in his multiple words, signs and the evolving circumstances.  The angel’s message about Mary giving birth to a son, who was to be a “Savior” and “The Messiah,” was subsequently confirmed by some unknown shepherds who report that angels told them the same thing. (Luke 2:11) 

By the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognizes Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” (Luke 1:43) Further confirmation comes through the words of Simeon and Anna during the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. (Luke 2:2-38) Then God directs three kingly men from foreign lands to find Jesus, Mary and Joseph and give them gifts, including gold, that may have sustained them in their flight to Egypt. (Matthew 2:1-12) 

Finally, Joseph receives one more message that it is now safe for them to return to Israel.  We see trust and faithfulness in Joseph in his willingness to act on the words he had received and in his submission to the circumstances. 

What is your level of trust and confidence in God when he gives you that gentle nudge or whispers in your ear?    Do you see his faithfulness and desire for you in the circumstances of your lives? 

“When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.  All who heard it were amazed at what had been told them by the shepherds.” (Luke 2: 17-18)

God chose shepherds, one of the humblest of occupations, to be the news media to spread the word of Jesus’ birth.  They were told by an angel that a Savior, the long awaited Messiah, had been born. They were told where they could find him and how they would recognize him — in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in an animal’s feeding trough. 

We can only imagine the reaction of Mary and Joseph to having some shepherds, complete strangers, visit them and share a story that confirmed what they, too, had been told by an angel – that the son born to Mary was the son of God, Savior, and Messiah. 

The news of a savior of the world being born is of course pretty amazing stuff.  The good news the Shepherds first proclaimed 2000 years ago is just as important to the world today as it was then.   

A savior has been born!  The creator has become one of his created!  God has become one of us through the cooperation of an unknown teenage girl in a remote area of the world under the most humbling of circumstances.  The anointed one has come and is present to reconcile God and humankind, and humankind with one another.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this savior offers to dwell in us, to be present to us and enable us to be and bring his presence to the people and circumstances in our lives.   

Like the shepherds, we may consider ourselves unlikely heralds that Jesus is still present in the world today.  He is present to all who accept his offer to dwell in them.

Are we spreading the word about Jesus in what we have seen, heard, and experienced so that all who hear are amazed? 

A cabinet maker does not become a cabinet, a cobbler does not become a shoe, but God, the creator of all that exists, became one of us. Little wonder that history’s calendar is measured in terms of before and after this event.

After hearing the Christmas story over and over, year after year, its meaning and impact may fade against the backdrop of today’s culture. Yet if we think about it, God’s willingness to become one of us is the greatest act of humility and love in all of history.

Here we have God, the Father, creator of all that exists, creator of the millions of galaxies and the billions of stars whose distances are measured in light years. Here we have God who created the atom and molecule whose size is measured in nanometers (one billionth of a meter). This God, who created the human person with a body, soul, and mind, different from all other creatures, became one of his created to show us how to live and to free each of us from our sins and the world from its bondage to sin – to reconcile us to him and one another. 

Father William Barry, in his book, A Friendship Like No Other, says, “God took humanity seriously enough to become one of us, and we do God no service if we downplay what God has done in becoming human.”

It seems like it is easier for us to view Jesus in his divinity than to accept fully his humanity. But God in Jesus was a real human person, born of Mary, in the humblest of circumstances. He had to be toilet trained, learn a language, and be raised from childhood to an adult just like all of us. We can be sure that Jesus’ humanity felt the sting of the whip and piercing pain of the nails at his crucifixion. God is no stranger to suffering. God knows what human life is like from the inside. His desire for friendship with us knows no bounds.

Genesis tells us we were created in the image of God, but from the very beginning we have failed to live up to that expectation. God chose to show us how to be his image by becoming one of us. Just as Mary conceived and brought forth Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, so may we through the power of the same Holy Spirit, bring forth the presence of Jesus in our words, actions and thoughts to the people and circumstances of our lives.

A blessed Christmas to all!

“She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) How ironic!  Jesus experienced rejection even before he was born. There was no room for Jesus in the inn, so Mary and Joseph settled for a cave used as a stable for animals. 

While this may have served God’s purpose in taking on our humanity in the humblest of settings, you have to wonder what the innkeeper might have done had he known who Mary and Joseph were and what was about to happen.

We should not be too harsh in judging the innkeeper, for how often have we failed to make room for Jesus in our lives?  There have been times when I made more room for my career than I did for Jesus.  There have been other times, when I did not recognize Jesus in a colleague looking for someone to talk with or a street person looking for help.    

When I worked in New York I would sometimes attend daily mass at St. Matthews Catholic Church just a half block east of Grand Central station.  Since my train arrived about the same time mass started, I was always rushing to get there by the first reading.  One day as I was rushing into the church, a man on the church steps asked me to help him, but because I was so programed to hurry into the church, I rushed right by him. 

As I sat down I thought to myself, “What did I just do?”  Someone was asking for help, and I blew right by him in my haste to get into the church.  I was just like the innkeeper.  I had no room or time for this guy.  When I went back outside he was leaning over the front bumper of a car, vomiting.  I asked if he wanted some breakfast, and we went into a little diner next to the church. 

His name was Richard.  He had been a trumpet player for a band, got fired, started drinking, got rolled, and lost everything.  After connecting him up with the Salvation Army, I saw him a week later.  He was all cleaned up with new clothes and had a suitcase.  He said he was going home to Hartford, Connecticut.   

A couple of days later, there he was again, all beat up, his clothes torn, looking awful.  I asked, “Richard, what happened?”  He just looked at me with hollow eyes and shook his head.  I told him that I was going to buy him a train ticket to Hartford and asked him to meet me at 43^rd and Lexington.  I bought him the ticket, went to 43^rd and Lexington, but Richard never showed up and I never saw him again. 

God never ceases to give us opportunities to make room for him through his son, Jesus.  He is always inviting us to open the door of our hearts to love, to forgive, to serve — to build his Kingdom in the daily circumstances of our lives. 

Are you making room for Jesus today in how you relate to people?