Author: dweldon8

In a letter to Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, coined the phrase “read the signs of the times.” If I were to weigh in on my view of the signs of the times, I would say everything is out of balance.  Everything is spot on or close to it – as for the overall teachings of the church, but from my Catholic view of the world:

•It is out of balance in the focus of Jesus in the Eucharist, and needs to be balanced with awareness and cultivation of the Holy Spirit within us.  

•It is out of balance in caring for the souls of the dead and the unborn, and needs to be in balance with unity; living a part of the Body of Christ. 

•It is out of balance with the idea of liturgy, and needs to be counter-balanced with mission; apostolic works, and evangelizing the living.

•It is out of balance with clericalism and the idea that priests are “all that.”  They are, but while the hierarchy trusts a bunch of men who have been ordained, they do not trust the laity.  A small percentage of them have broken the trust with sexual misconduct.  A larger, but still small percentage preach their version of the truth.  Diocesan priests are overwhelmed with responsibility and requirements for pastoral ministries.  So, we trust these ordained men, the majority of whom are trustworthy, but we do not trust the equally educated, equally sinful laity to chip in on a deeper level.  I can see where having the ordained in charge lessens the amount of people over whom the Church must oversee. Then, I’m not sure how much oversight is given to priests.  

We live in a world where men are not feeling called to the priesthood (or are not responding to the call).  The faithful are hungry for truth, and all they get is a 10-20 minute homily at mass.  Yes, we have radio shows, books, lectures and the like, but we need more people involved in grass roots efforts, too. We need the laity to understand their call to receive communion, and to be dismissed to go out into the world to share what they have received; to share Jesus in word and deed.  

To do this effectively, we need people who understand their place in the Body of Christ; to understand that we are no longer individuals, but a part of us resides in all of those who live in shelters, and in those who sit on our borders longing for a better life. A part of us lives not only in those who are incarcerated, but in a co-worker, grumpy boss, and in a person who just cut one off in traffic.   

To do this effectively, we need the ordained to trust the laity, and if not us, then to trust the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.  Even mistakes work towards the good of those who love Christ.  I do not believe that we can make things any worse than they are now.  Then again, I do have my fears that more people means more damage, but as I pray, I feel compelled to trust the Holy Spirit.  I feel compelled to have faith.  I mean, the Bible is pretty clear that evangelization and diaconate work in its original Greek meaning of service are the role of the entire Church.  

We live in an era where co-dependency and lack of boundaries impact our relationships with others. Things can get sticky, and sometimes dicey. We live in an era where people seem to believe all efforts must result in victory, or why bother?  Why visit someone in prison when there is such a high recidivism rate?  Why give cash to someone on the streets when they are likely to buy drugs or alcohol?  Why?  I think Mother Theresa summed it up best when she talked about being faithful, instead of worrying about being successful.  If we are successful, we are drawn to pride. If we are little and just trust, then we are drawn to humility.  

We live in a time when significant prayers are needed.  We live in a time when our internal relationship with God needs to be set on fire.  We live in a time where Jesus is the answer to depression and addiction.  We live in a time where people are verbally persecuted for living and speaking the Gospel. This should not surprise us.  Jesus predicted that this would happen.  So, we need to support each other in our endeavors. We need to be open to constructive feedback when God might be speaking through others in order to perfect our efforts.  We need to know more fully how much God loves us, and out of a response to that love, set the world on fire with our endeavors of letting Jesus work in and through us. 

In Him,

Dw

You are my God. I praise you. You are my God. I revel in your glory.  I pray for the insight of the truth between you and me.  I know you are creator and I am created. Still, in my pride, I want you to be more equal to me than you are.  You are greater than my imagination. You are more marvelous than my intellect can fathom.  You are nothing like me for you are holy. You are all-powerful and all knowing.  You are without sin. You do not rationalize or justify your actions. 

You know what is best for me, and you lovingly accept my attempts to control my own destiny. This is so even though I do not know what is in my best interests. My pride and my shortsightedness impact my decisions.  Still, somehow, you right the path when I have turned wrong.  You are gentle; always guiding me to bigger and greater things.  You open my eyes to the folly of this world, and you are patient with me as I learn to let go of worldly things so that I might pursue you with even greater desire. 

Teach me to surrender. Teach me to be counter-cultural. Use me to preach the Gospel to all nations.  Perfect me.  Show me how to live in your kingdom, which is present here and now.  Show me how in turning to you there is peace and love, even when I alienate others in my decisions to follow you.  

Your salvation is more than words on my lips; words professing Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  These words are but a door that opens a new world.  For it is through baptism that I die with you, and rise no longer me, but Christ in me. It is a door that opens to a world where I learn to be one with the Spirit. It is a world in which I am called to join you in your divine life.  It is a world in which I am a part of a body; Jesus’ body. It is in baptism that all of my actions impact the entire faith community. It is in baptism that I continue the works of Jesus, for Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, lives in me.    

May each day be a new day in learning how to grow deeper in love with the God of the universe.  

In Him,

dw

This morning, I was challenged by 2 Cor 9:1-15.  It talks about giving freely to those in need, and trusting God to take care of me.  Our culture is so geared towards taking care of self, and giving from our excess; some of our excess.  This is counter-cultural to Jesus’ teachings.  He said to give, and you will receive. He said to trust in him.  Our culture is to trust in ourselves.  I know for me, I see through worldly yes, and what I have accumulated is something that I have done for myself.  No.  God gave me the gifts, and opened the doors, and he is responsible for all that I am (except sin).  He is the provider, even if I feel like I have done it all on my own. He is the Lord, not me.  

I think that is a problem with our modern American culture.  We have created an economy that, for the most part, allows us to be our own savior; our own provider; our own security.  I think, to some extent, that back in the days when famine, war, and the like kept people in need, it was easier to trust in God. Then, that assumes one trusted God, and did not resent him for allowing bad things to happen. Maybe it is an even trade-off between which culture was better able to appreciate God, and to trust in him.  

Back to the present age: 2 Cor talks about giving, and that God will multiply what you have.  I have seen this in action.  I have given generously, and seen that my bank account was not as impacted as it should have been.  Miraculous things happen when we follow the Gospel, and provide for those less fortunate.  

Therefore, I challenge everyone reading this to try giving a little more than you normally would, and to ask God to open your eyes to his generosity to you.  In so doing, I pray that we become a society that is more generous, more aware of his tender care for us, and more willing to be counter-cultural.  

May God prove his benevolence to us today!

In Him,

dw

Luke 11:9 – “Ask and you shall receive; seek, and you will find.” 

God has promised to give us what we need. All we need to do is ask.  Am I using this “power” on a daily basis? Am I asking God to provide what I need? Am I seeking truth on a constant basis?  I definitely do better at asking for what I think I need, but there is a part of me that is challenged in the quest for truth.  It is easier to sit in the midst of what I want to be true than to let God reveal more to me. Why? The more I know, the more I realize I need further conversion. 

The truth is that we who are baptized are called to truth. We are called to seek truth.  Sometimes this truth is revealed as something wonderful and glorious. Sometimes, it reveals us for who we are – sinners.  Still, on that final day, we will stand before a God who is truth. This will require us to see and accept truth. Why not start now?  Truth about self is two sided. It includes the good and the not so good.  The not so good is hard to see, but it is in living in truth that we find true humility, true conversion, true joy at the gift of Jesus’ death and resurrection for our sakes.  

In the Bible, Jesus tells us not to fear. He is with us. As you learn to see the good and the bad, keep everything in balance. We do not need to be hard on ourselves. In fact, as I have grown, I have learned that when I see something not so perfect in my life, I smile, and say, “God, I look forward to seeing what you can do with this. I am too little, too weak, to change this on my own; however, I know that you can do all things. I invite you in to fix this.” 

There are many ways to quest for truth.  If you have not engaged in this endeavor before, an easy way to start is to pick up the Bible and read. It doesn’t have to be a large segment.  Before you start to read, invite the Holy Spirit in to reveal greater truths.  After reading, put the Bible down, close your eyes, and follow where he leads.  What words jumped out at you? Is he trying to reveal something to you through that word? Place yourself inside the story, and see how the story goes with you inside it. What do you learn about God? The world around you? Yourself?  I encourage you to journal the results. 

In Him,

dw

“For our sakes God made him who did not know sin, to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God.” 2 Cor 21. 

This passage really hit to the core this morning.  I am called to be no longer me, but Christ living in me.  That means that I am called to holiness in this life.  How much of my daily activities includes holiness? There is a part of me that thinks – that happens in the afterlife, but I know that it starts in this life. It is perfected in the next.  

How does one live this life in this world?  I think it means dying to self. I think it means getting out of my comfort zone and serving God’s people. I think this can happen by being polite to and compassionate with the person at work who is making one’s day difficult. I think it means treating people with dignity and respect. I think it also means feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison, and clothing those with little possessions.  I think the more we ask the Holy Spirit to show us how to live more Christian lives, the more we will see the path to holiness.  

I know that it also comes through silent prayer.  It comes in looking for God in the depths of our being.  This path is even harder than the love of neighbor part.  God wants to show us where our behaviors are impacted by our brokenness. He wants to heal us and to restore us to His image. He can only do it if we spend time with Him each day trying to listen, even when it doesn’t feel effective.  The problem is, most of us do not want to see what is imperfect or broken inside. It doesn’t matter that He is faithful, loving, and gentle. It doesn’t matter that He sees us as we are, and He loves us.  We still want to run from perfection, because we are comfortable in our imperfect.  

For me, this makes so little sense.  I find myself running from truth frequently.  He always finds a way to slow me down, and let me see. Still, I would love to rip the band-aid off, and go for it all at one time.  It takes patience and gentleness with oneself. We can still be good people, even though we are still sinners.  However, we will be better Christians if we allow God to heal us.  We will bring more people to Christ if we can be more holy ourselves.  

This reminds me of a news article I once read.  A journalist asked then President Bush what he saw when he met the Pope.  The President responded, I saw God in his eyes.  Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could see Him within us? I know that the reflection of God in one’s eyes comes with finding Him in the depth of ourselves.  I have seen it in the lives of more than one contemplative. I look forward to the day when I, too, can reflect His presence to the world more fully than I do today.  I pray each of you is either on this journey or encouraged to enter into this journey today.

In Him,

dw

Are you Saved? 

What does that even mean?  If you are asking me – am I choosing Heaven or Hell, I’ll choose Heaven every time. Who wouldn’t?  If you are asking me – Do I know Jesus? Has he changed my life? Am I walking with Him, and letting him transform me into his likeness every day of my life? I would say – some days better than others.  

The truth is, being a Christian  is multifaceted.  On the one hand, there is the joy of knowing I am loved, no matter what. It means that I am no longer an individual because that person died at Baptism, and I was raised into something greater – the Body of Christ. It means having supernatural gifts that should be used for lifting up the body of Christ. It means proclaiming the Good News.  

On the other hand, it is about crosses and rejection and humiliation.  Do I love him enough to accept it?  Am I running from this every day because culture permits it or because I am not willing to open my eyes and see? 

Does my faith life look more like Mother Theresa’s or like a non-believers?  I imagine that some days we look like one or the other, and I don’t have a consistent trend in one direction or the other.  

For some of you, this might be a hard message. I know it is for me.  I want to be liked. I want to fit in. I don’t want to go against the grain.  At the same time, God loves me so much that he takes me where I am. If I can take large strides towards living more like Mother Theresa, he will open those doors. If I am only willing to stand in place, he will lovingly stand with me until I am ready. If I fall back into bad habits, he is there with me.  Every day is the start of a journey with a God who loves you more than you can ever imagine.  He is there, waiting for us to put down the things that distract us.  

God, we thank you and praise you for your mercy and your love. We ask you to show us how to enter more deeply into your transforming love today, and every day. Help us to overcome our fear and our temporal desires. Give us this day a sense of what waits for us when we go deeper in this journey.  Give us consolations when we need it. Help us to trust in faith when you, in your wisdom, keep us from experiencing consolation. It is in the name of your Son, Jesus, that we pray. Amen.

We will pick up our pencil sketch of the last supper from an Old Testament (OT) perspective with Abraham. This is not to say that the chapters between Adam / Eve and Abraham add nothing to our painting. It just means that I am focusing on the high points.  

In Genesis, God establishes one of many covenants with Abraham. The concept of covenant is an important one if we are to understand what Jesus did at the Last Supper.  From a Biblical perspective, a covenant was a legal way of establishing a familial relationship between two unrelated parties.  Covenants were terms and conditions that laid out each party’s obligations. They were usually followed by a ceremony or liturgical rite that often ended with a common meal as a way of confirming the familial relationship.^⁠1   The process basically brought about a sacred bond; a fictitious blood relationship that made the participants of the same flesh and blood.^⁠2 

More to the point, the covenants between the Israelites and God required sacrifice and blood. Sacrifice had many purposes. For our purposes, it was a way of restoring the offeror to relationship with God. By sinning, a sinner is guilty to the death, and the animal’s blood is substituted for the blood of the sinner. In this way, the blood, which is the life essence of the animal, atones for the sins of the sinner.^⁠3 In other words, the sacrifice of animals was an interim way of restoring the balance of order between God and man that was lost in the fall. 

In Genesis chapters 12-22, God selects Abraham as the father of a nation, and instructs him to go to a land that God will show him, and God will make of him a great nation. In fact, God promises to make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars.  Abraham asks God how he will know that all of this will come to pass. God told Abraham to sacrifice animals. Abraham sacrifices the animals, splits them in half, and lays them out. God passed between the pieces.  In this way, Abraham understood God to say – if I fail to live up to my agreement, I will become just like these slain animals.  Luckily, God will always be faithful, so the penalty will never be triggered. In this way, these two cut a covenant. 

In concluding Abraham’s story, God calls Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac, through whom God had promised to fulfill the covenant.  Abraham was faithful and takes his son to the place God commanded for the sacrifice.  Abraham built an altar, bound Isaac, placed him on the altar, and as Abraham was about to sacrifice Issac, an angel of the Lord calls out to him, and orders him to stop.  God provides a substitute victim, and Abraham offers it in place of his son. Because of this faithfulness, God reiterates his promise to Abraham. In this endeavor, God begins to more clearly sketch Jesus, the antitype, who will one day be the lamb on that same mount; a lamb that would bring a blessing to all nations.^⁠4  

¹ Jerome Neyrey, The Passion According to Luke: A Redaction Study of Luke’s Soteriology (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2007), 10.

² Devin Roza, Fulfilled in Christ: The Sacraments – A Guide to Symbols and Types in the Bible and Tradition. (Bellingham, WA: Verbum, 2014), 122.

³ S. David Sperling, “Blood,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 761.

⁴ Thomas Nash, Worthy is the Lamb: The Biblical Roots of the Mass (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2004),  71.

© Debra Weldon, 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Yesterday, I promised to paint a picture for you of the Last Supper using the Old Testament (OT). This picture, like any master piece, may take some time to develop. We will see how it goes. Today, I want to answer the question – what does the Creation story tell us about the Last Supper and its meaning? This will be my way of pulling out the canvas and some pencils so I can start to rough out some of the details of the painting.
In the beginning, God created us. In his image and likeness, he created man and woman. It doesn’t matter if this story is a myth[1] or real or some combination of both. It was divinely inspired. It tells us something about God and his reasons for creating us. It tells us that as his creation, we are good.
He made two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve could eat of the tree of life, and the fruit was eternal life. In this era of time, there was only one command, one law – do not eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. The result of disobeying God was death.
What we see in the Eden version of the creation story is a God who walks with his creation. We see a God who is present to us. I can picture God sitting down to eat with Adam and Eve, sharing a meal, sharing communion with them. But, we all know how the story goes, right? The serpent, the cunning creature, tempts the woman into disobeying God, and she in turn passes the fruit to Adam. Alas, sin enters the world, and humanity becomes its own god, its own creator of the rules of good and evil. The great divide between God and man came into existence.
I find great humor in this part of the story. Let’s look at what Adam and Eve do with all their new found wisdom. They don fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Have you ever googled fig leaves? The first thing they do is put a leaf with caustic properties on their “nakedness”! Ouch! I can’t say that this seems very wise to me!
Here our loving God, who knew from the beginning that we would disobey, shows his creation great compassion. In the face of our disobedience, he takes from them their painful choice of clothing, and makes them clothes out of soft animal skins. Then, like any parent who has to enforce the rules, he shuts the gate and places an angel with the fiery swords to protect the tree of life.
I want to back up, and address one final issue. Did you notice how Adam tells God that he was hiding because he was naked? This used to puzzle me because the previous verses say that they had already clothed themselves with their finest choice of materials. Why did they really hide from God? In my meditation on this question, I saw their shame; I saw their fear of disappointing God. Because of this, fig leaves have become for me a symbol of sin and shame. In some respects, I see sinners wearing layers of fig leaves, and God, in his mercy, wants to work with us to remove these fig leaves. He wants to replace them with something more fitting for our station in life as his creation.
In summary, what pieces of the picture have we sketched on the canvas. I suggest that in this divinely inspired story God reveals many things. He revealed that we are good, but that we choose things that are not for our good. He tells us that his original intention was for us to be in union with him; to walk with him in a land of milk and honey. We are the ones who choose differently. In some sense, it is in our nature to be out of communion with God, but he has a plan that will restore the original balance. First, he has to finish the OT painting so we can comprehend what Jesus means in the Last Supper.

[1] Myth, a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least partly traditional, that ostensibly relates actual events and that is especially associated with religious belief. www.britannica.com

© Debra Weldon, 2019. All Rights Reserved.