In several of St. Paul’s letters, he often begins with encouraging words to the recipients and thanks God for their faithfulness to the gospel he had taught them. To the Thessalonians, he says that he knows they were chosen by God because the gospel came to them not only with words, but with power, the Holy Spirit, miracles and strong conviction. (1Th. 1:5, CCB)

We see in both Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of the apostles that signs and miracles often accompanied the proclamation of the gospel. Mark, at the end of his gospel sets forth various signs that will accompany believers including the casting out of demons, speaking in new tongues and the placing of hands on the sick that get well. (Mark 16:17)

We might ask ourselves if we experience the gospel as only words or do we experience it with power through the Holy Spirit, and with miracles and signs. Ironically, Jesus criticized those who came to him to see miracles, but he nevertheless performed miracles throughout his ministry. He forgave a cripple his sins, but to show that he had the authority to do so, he visibly healed the cripple of his physical condition. (Luke 5:17-26)

In the late 1970’s my wife and I were prayed with for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We each experienced a renewal of our faith and the presence of God in a way we had not before. A year later we attended a Jesus ’79 rally in Shea Stadium in New York along with several friends from our parish prayer group. After listening to a talk on healing, the speaker asked the 30,000+ people in attendance to turn to one another and pray for any needs of healing.

Our friends, said, “Let’s pray for Bill’s eyes.” (I had been previously diagnosed with glaucoma and the loss of about 30% of my field of vision.) They laid hands on me and prayed that my vision would be restored. The following Monday morning, I just happened to have one of my quarterly examinations with my ophthalmologist and he just happened to conduct a yearly field of vision test. As he conducted the test I began to hear him say “hum” repeatedly. After about the fourth “hum” I asked if there was something wrong. He said, “Well, you seem to have a full field of vision.” I said, “I thought you told me I could never recover the vision I had lost. He said, “Yes, I did.”

I then told him where I had been on Saturday and how some friends prayed with me for healing, and he said, “I will take all the help I can get.”

To me, my wife and friends, it was a physical affirmation of God’s presence in our lives, a sign of the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and the world today. We weren’t looking for a sign in order to believe. We believed and would have continued to believe even without the sign. But it built up our faith, and affirmed the reality of God’s presence and love for us.

Signs of God’s presence can take many forms. Perhaps the most powerful and lasting is a changed heart. Jesus’ self-invitation to Zacchaeus’ house was not accompanied by a physical sign of healing, but it did result in a changed heart with a far more enduring effect on Zacchaeus and no doubt the people in his life. (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus is about to raise Lazarus from the dead and asks that the stone covering his grave be removed. Lazarus’ sister, Martha, protests that it has been four days since his burial and that there will be a stench. Jesus says “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God.” (John 11:38-43)

Martha is looking at the physical reality of the situation as she knows it. No one has ever walked out of a grave four days after being buried and dead bodies start to smell from decay soon after death. Jesus, however, is looking beyond the limitations of physical reality to demonstrate God’s glory by raising Lazarus from the dead.

How often do we minimize the glory of God by not being able to see beyond some present day physical reality? We may be trying to cope with a difficult boss or a lost job, the prolonged care of a loved one who is ill or who has died, or any number of circumstances that consume all of our energies and leave no room in our perspective beyond the present reality in front of us.

When our daughter, Emily, was born with Down syndrome I was shocked. I didn’t know anything about Down syndrome children, and thought only the worst. After having three older daughters, followed by an eleven year gap, and then a son, we were hoping for the son to have a sibling to grow up with like his older sisters had with one another. Now our plans seemed to be thwarted. I could not see beyond the present reality and cried out to the Lord for understanding.  He responded in varying ways, calming my fears and giving me peace.

One of the ways in which he shared his mind with me about his love for his special children was through the words of author Morris West in his book Clowns of God, a book I just happened to pick up randomly and begin to read at a rented beach house when Emily was one. It was a novel about a Pope who had seen a vision of the end times, the imminence of a nuclear war between the U. S. and Russia, and the return of Jesus in the form of a care giver to the Pope. The care giver identifies himself as Jesus the night before war is to break out and he is challenged to prove who he is. He picks up a little girl with Down syndrome, sets her on his lap and says:

“I know what you are thinking. You need a sign. What better one could I give than to make this little one whole and new? I could do it; but I will not. I am the Lord and not a conjuror. I gave this mite a gift I denied to all of you–eternal innocence. To you she looks imperfect—but to me she is flawless, like the bud that dies unopened or the fledgling that falls from the nest to be devoured by the ants. She will never offend me, as all of you have done. She will never pervert or destroy the work of my Father’s hands. She is necessary to you. She will evoke the kindness that will keep you human. Her infirmity will prompt you to gratitude for your own good fortune…More! She will remind you every day that I am who I am, that my ways are not yours, and that the smallest dust mote whirled in the darkest space does not fall out of my hand. I have chosen you. You have not chosen me. This little one is my sign to you. Treasure her!”

In the twenty-eight years since this moment, Emily has taught me as much about God and his ways and his love as anything I have ever read or experienced. When I look back and see the joy, love and understanding she has brought to our family and all who encounter her beautiful smile, her greetings of love and purity of heart, I see the glory of God in our midst.

As tenants of this life, are we producing fruit for the Landlord?

In Luke 20, Jesus had just entered Jerusalem in a triumphal way. He had cleared the temple of the moneychangers and was teaching in the temple courts. A few days earlier, he had raised Lazarus from the dead. The chief priests and elders were challenging Jesus and asking by what authority he was doing all of these things. Jesus responds with the parable of the tenants.  (Luke 20:9-19)

A man planted a vineyard – God created all that exists.

The man rented the vineyard to some farmers – God entrusts creation to us and gives us dominion over it with the specific instruction “to take care of it.” (Gen. 2:15)

At harvest time he sent his servants and subsequently his son to collect some of the fruit, but tenants beat the servants and killed the son, claiming the vineyard to be theirs.  Just as the tenants attempt to claim ownership of the vineyard, so has the human race attempted to claim ownership of creation, denying the creator and determining for itself what is right and wrong, true or false.

The response of the vineyard owner was harsh. He killed the tenants and gave the vineyard to others. The chief priests and elders realized Jesus was talking about them.

What kind of tenants are we of the responsibilities God has entrusted to us? He gives each of us a lease of time in this physical world with varying durations. He entrusts us with various talents. He puts people in our lives. He has a job or work that is to be our contribution to taking care of his creation. He expects some fruit to come from his lease to us.

Recently I was rereading a book of letters our children had put together from family and friends to celebrate a milestone birthday of mine a few years ago. In the letters from the children were various memories of when I spent time with them while they were young, playing a game, taking a hike, building something, making a trail through the woods or sharing some advice which they had requested of me. Most of these moments I had forgotten, but they had not. While I may not have realized it then, these times given to me by God in my lease from him were bearing fruit, and may have contributed in some small way to where our children are today, all Christian adults with families of their own and bearing fruit in their turn. Our special needs child, now also an adult, simply reflects the face of God in her smile, simplicity and greetings of love.

Time, spouse, children, work, friends, ministry and faith — all are part of the lease God gives to each of us. All are precious seeds waiting to bear fruit for the Lord under our tenancy.

Last week a good friend and professional colleague of many years died of pancreatic cancer. We began working together as attorneys for a large international oil company in 1974. He was such a good man – talented in his work, combining intellect and solid legal knowledge with practical application. He was always true to his word, even when the potential consequences could affect him negatively. Though our friendship was primarily professional, I loved him like a brother and we have remained friends beyond our professional lives.

When I reflect on all the reasons I respected him, very few had anything to do with his physical nature. His character and integrity; his sense of fairness and desire to do what was right; his sense of humor and willingness to have a good laugh, even at himself — all of these reflected his heart, that immaterial inner being that we struggle to define, using words like soul, spirit or inner self.

Cancer is an ugly disease. I, too, have struggled with it, but without fatal effect up to this point. While cancer can kill the body, it cannot kill the soul, or heart or whatever word we want to use to describe most of the things that make us who we truly are.

There have been several books published in recent years of people who have had “near death” experiences and later recover and tell about seeing relatives and friends who have died, hearing music and seeing sights they can’t find words to describe and in some cases meeting Jesus. The authors have included a couple of doctors, including a neurosurgeon, a minister, an airline pilot, and a 3 year old boy, among others. I grew up listening to my mother describe such an experience when she was in an auto accident and suffered near fatal head injuries before she was married.

Job asks, “If a man dies will he live again?” (Job 14:14) Jesus answers the question. We die to this physical world in the current age, but if we believe in him, the best part of us lives on, soul and spirit. Jesus says, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life…he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24) Later he says to Martha before the raising of Lazarus, “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25, 26)

I believe St. Paul has the most encouraging words on this subject when he says, “ 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) My friend has died physically to his family and to those of us who knew him, but the most important part of him still lives.

Created in his image and likeness, God gives us an assignment. “The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15) Many people look on work as a curse resulting from the fall, but work was ordained before the fall, so work is a part of God’s divine plan for us. Our purpose is to take care of creation until God is “all in all.” (1 Cor. 15:28)

Lester DeKoster, in his book, Work, the Meaning of Your Life, defines work as “the form in which we make ourselves useful to others and thus to God.” He explains, “Culture and civilization don’t just happen.  They are made to happen and keep happening by work—by God, the Holy Spirit, through our work.”  He poses the question of what would happen if everyone quit working and answers, “Civilized life quickly melts away.  Food vanishes from the store shelves, gas pumps dry up, streets are no longer patrolled, and fires burn themselves out.  Communication and transportation services end and utilities go dead. Those who survive at all are soon huddled around camp fires, sleeping in tents and clothed in rags.  The difference between barbarism and culture is, simply, work.  As seeds multiply themselves into harvest, so work flowers into civilization.”

DeKoster supports his view of work by relying on the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. (Matthew 25:311-46)  While this parable is usually considered to be about the universal judgment of all people taking into account how they have loved and served others, DeKoster contends that Jesus is talking not only about specific people who are in need, but also about providing food, drink, clothing, shelter, healthcare and other needs to society [creation] at large. This involves all the basic occupations that make up civilization.  Farming, transportation, grocery stores, restaurants, public utilities, drilling, pipe-laying, plumbing, textiles, retailing, construction, medical services, health insurance, social services, education, communications, etc.  He says, “The fabric of civilization, like all fabrics is made up of countless tiny threads—each thread, the work of someone.”

All work that contributes to the production of goods and services for others, unless it is immoral, is part of God’s plan for creation.  As the parable says, our reward (inheriting the kingdom) was prepared for us “since the creation of the world.”  Thus, work has always been a part of God’s plan and his intention for his creation.  What surprises people in the parable is that in working at providing the basic necessities for others they are serving God himself.

Like the people in the parable, most us may be surprised that in doing our work we, too, are serving God. In working as an attorney for a large corporation for most of my career, I did not consider early on that my work was serving God, but it was indeed a “thread in the larger fabric of civilization” arising out of God’s creation. Even my summer jobs in high school and college of serving on a road asphalt crew and a laborer in a cement plant were “threads” making up the larger fabric of God’s creation.

Every day we have the opportunity to be the Father’s present-day incarnation by reflecting his love, integrity and service to the people and circumstances we encounter in our work, and move the civilization arising out of God’s creation forward until he is “all in all.” This is our mission.

In connection with the command to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and your neighbor as yourself, an expert in the law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus uses the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) to answer the question. After sharing the parable, Jesus asks the expert which of the three persons who passed by the man who fell into the hands of robbers was his neighbor, and the expert had to acknowledge that it was “the one who had mercy on him.” It was not the priest or the Levite, but a Samaritan, the person who would have been considered an outsider by the Jews of this time.

We face this same question whenever we encounter someone in need and have to make a decision how to respond. It could be a panhandler on the street, the person standing by a broken-down car on the side of the road, an intellectually disabled person having difficulty in the checkout line before us, a work colleague being treated unfairly by his or her boss, or a work subordinate who has violated company policy, to name just a few examples. It could also be someone as familiar and close to us as our spouse, one of our children or a close friend. There are no limitations in Jesus’ words on who we should love and show mercy.

At one point in my career I commuted on the trains to Grand Central Station in New York City and had to walk a block to my company’s headquarters at 42^nd and Lexington. Nearly every day I would be confronted with people asking for money. Some could get pretty ugly, cursing at me if I looked at them or didn’t look at them, or if I did not respond to their entreaties for a dollar or two. Sometimes I would respond by offering to buy them a cup of coffee. Most of the time, I would just pass by quickly.

On one occasion, as I was entering St. Matthews Catholic Church, a block east of Grand Central, to attend a weekday mass, a much disheveled looking man asked me to help him. I blew right past him in my rush not to be late for mass. After getting inside, I thought to myself, “What did I just do? What was I thinking?” When I went back outside, he was bent over the bumper of a car, vomiting. “No way,” I thought and started to walk on to my office. But then something turned me around and I walked back and offered to buy him breakfast at a restaurant next to the church.

His name was Richard. He was from Hartford, Ct. He had been playing in a band, but was laid off and started drinking, was beaten up and robbed. He was a mess. We tried to get him connected up with the Salvation Army. A couple of days later I saw him again on the church steps. He was waiting for me. He was all cleaned up, had fresh clothes and was headed back to Hartford.   I was overjoyed, but my joy was short-lived. A few days later, there he was again on the church steps, his clothes all tattered; he had obviously been drinking again. I told him I was going to buy him a train ticket to Hartford and to meet me at 43^rd and Lexington at 10 AM. He never showed and I never saw Richard again. Perhaps my response to Richard needed to be more aggressive, more like the Samaritan.

Upon further reflection, I believe the answer to the question of who is my neighbor is not so much a matter of trying to discern who our neighbor actually is, as it is striving to see people with God’s eyes and to hear them with God’s heart, whether they are strangers, work colleagues or our closest family and friends. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)

The world seeks peace among nations. Individuals seek peace in their lives, but peace seems to elude the world, and based on the number of prescriptions written for antidepressants each year, peace seems to elude many individuals as well.

Jesus’ first words to the disciples following his resurrection were, “Peace be with you.” (Luke 24:35; John 20:19) Three days earlier the disciples had seen him die a tortuous death. Their hopes and dreams that Jesus was the Messiah they were expecting were dashed. Since Jesus’ arrest, they feared for their own lives and hid behind locked doors. Their world had been turned upside down. The last thing they expected to see was a resurrected Jesus in their midst. So, Jesus’ first word to them was “peace.”

Jesus’ first word to us is also peace in the midst of the challenges and difficulties we face in our day to day lives. “My peace I give to you,” he says in John 15:27 – the peace of God – the ultimate gift!  Jesus says it is a peace the world cannot give.

What does this peace look like? A few years ago I heard those dreaded words, “You have an advanced and aggressive form of prostate cancer.” I was devastated. Yet within hours I began to experience the peace of Jesus. I was prompted to let friends and family know and ask for their prayers. As I started to receive the assurance of their prayers and concern, I began to experience God’s love and peace. Their prayers and love sustained me through my surgery and follow-up therapy that lasted three and a half years. Heartfelt prayers and good medical practice are a powerful combination for healing. See Sirach 38:1-2, 6, 12. It has been over seven years now, and I am at peace, a peace that the doctors and the world cannot give.

Like the disciples, I needed to realize that Jesus was in my midst in order to receive his peace. He was with me in the actions of my wife, my children, and my brothers and sisters in Christ through numerous acts of love. He was with me as a good brother led the doctors and nurses circled round my pre-op bed in prayer for the surgery. He was with me through children who left their families to spend time with me. He was with me through my wife who was a constant support, always present. He was with me in my quiet times as he whispered to my spirit.

Jesus says, “I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If we calculate the amount of time we talk versus the amount of time we listen, what would be the ratio? Would it tilt toward talking or listening? James exhorts, “Everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak.” (James 1:19) A good friend of our family died last year who had an uncanny ability to listen. If you would ask her how she was doing, she would quickly turn the conversation back to what was going on in your life.

Last Sunday, I experienced the blessing of taking communion to a 95 year old gentleman, a widower who lives alone in the house that has been his for more than 40 years. In response to my question of “How are you doing today,” I heard about his wife of 52 years who died a few years ago; about his son who is a priest; about the many missions he flew in World War II and the Korean War; how he was a consultant to Congressional committees overseeing the Air Force, and finally, about his current health issues. What a blessing it was not to talk, but just listen.

We have the opportunity to listen wherever we are — at work, at home, or social gatherings. If our desire is to learn and grow in each of these venues, we soon realize that we don’t learn much from talking, but we do from listening. As an attorney for a large corporation, I found that I was able to serve my corporate clients better by listening more. At home, I serve and love my wife and children better by listening more. At social events I honor our guests by listening more. While my experience is sometimes spotty in some of these areas, I try to change course as soon as I realize that I am talking too much.

We can also listen even when we are alone. The Lord loves to put thoughts in our minds about various things going on in our life so long as we are open to hear him. When Moses was giving his last instructions to Joshua and the Israelites, he said, “Love the Lord your God, and listen to his voice and hold fast to him.” (Deut. 30:20) Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice.” (John 10:22)

I have often allowed the noise of everyday life to drown out God’s voice, particularly when I am in my car, listening to music, talk radio, or sporting events. Today, I am trying to listen to the radio less and the Lord more. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Like Elijah, who went up on Mount Horeb to hear God, he did not hear him in the powerful wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in a gentle whisper. God loves to speak to us as a gentle whisper in our thoughts. Are we listening, or is the noise getting in the way?

Psalm 100 exhorts us to “Sing for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” Thirty-five other psalms begin with this same encouragement according to my cursory search. (Psalms 8, 30, 33, 34, 47, 48, 63, 66, 84, 89, 92, 95, 98, 101 – 108, 111, 113, 115, 117, 118, 134 – 136, 138, 144 – 150)

While I begin my prayer time each day with a short bit of praise, I am not sure I fulfill the expectation of the psalms or the level of commitment suggested by Jesus’ characterization of the Greatest Commandment to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt. 22:37) How often does my praise come from duty and routine instead of a joyful heart?

Several years ago, our daughter Emily, who was born with Down syndrome, demonstrated how we should approach the Father with praise and worship. We were at mass and I was serving as a Eucharistic minister and just happened to be serving the isle in which she and my wife were coming forward. When she realized that she was coming to me for communion, her face lit up with that big bright beautiful smile of hers, she held out her cupped hands to receive the host and started running toward me exclaiming loudly, “Daddy!” She didn’t worry about what other people thought, for there is no guile in her, only purity of heart. It was an expression of complete and total love.

As I was blessed to witness her response and give her the consecrated body of Christ, the following thought came into my mind: This is how God must feel when we unreservedly express our love for him, full of joy in praise, worship and song, intent on devotion and devoid of any concern about what others may think.

As the Psalmist says, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.” (Psalm 8:2) May we follow their example and sing hymns with enthusiasm, offer our prayers and responses with fervor, and seek the Lord with a pure heart. “Shout with joy to God, all the earth!” (Psalm 66:1)

When we read Matthew’s account of Jesus walking on the water and Peter’s attempt to get out of the boat and walk toward him, we tend to dwell on Peter’s apparent lack of faith which resulted in his sinking until he called out to Jesus to save him. Peter says, “Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” (Mt. 14:22-33) Peter did so, but when he started to experience the wind and the waves, he began to sink.

Still, of all the disciples, Peter was the only one who had the courage to attempt to accept Jesus’ offer to walk on the water toward him. He was the only one willing to get out of the safety of the boat. To the others, they no doubt thought it was foolish and reckless.

It is a normal thing for us to seek safety and comfort, but sometimes the Lord calls us to step out of our safety and comfort to do something for him or to take an action for ourselves that is beneficial, even though to us, it may not appear so at the time.

When I was in my mid-forties, I was offered a new assignment by my employer to oversee the delivery of legal services for our marketing, refining and supply operations in Asia, Africa and South America. It was a great job and would have certainly furthered my career, but would have required a move back to New York from our U. S. headquarters in Virginia. We had three teenage daughters at the time and a two year old son. Our daughters were all doing well in school, were involved in Young Life, a Christian outreach to high school teenagers and had great peers for friends.

For three days, I agonized over the decision. While I didn’t think I would be fired if I declined the assignment, I knew it would have a negative impact on my career. There was a lot of pressure from my superiors to take the job and to decide quickly. The corporate culture fostered success, and moving up the corporate ladder was something highly valued. You were expected to accept promotions, not turn them down.

After three days of prayer, consultation with colleagues, and lengthy discussions with my wife, we discerned that I should decline the offer. I had to get out of the boat of my corporate security and comfort to walk on the waters of going against the corporate culture at the time.

The decision did have a negative impact on my career for a number of years, but when I look back today and see all that has happened in the lives of our children and all the blessings we have experienced in our family, I am absolutely confident that this decision was God’s will for our family and for me professionally. Our children went on to complete their education and have since married wonderful Christians who are all raising Christian families. For myself, my career eventually got back on track, and I was also led to become active in Christians in Commerce, a workplace ministry encouraging Christians to live out their faith in their work. There is more, but too much for this space.

Is the Lord calling you out of your boat of comfort and security? Jesus says, “Come.”