The winds of change are blowing wild and free,
You ain’t seen nothin’ like me yet.
– Bob Dylan
The drive to Calgary means that you go across British Columbia. You see lakes and rivers, mountains and trees – so close to the clouds you can literally see the rays of sunshine. Every single thing is so beautiful. And all I could focus on during the 10+ hour drive is how great our God is.
When it was cloudy and dark during the drive, we asked for sun, and right away God shone a ray of light out of the clouds. And when it was too bright, God sent us clouds to ease our eyes. And when the rain poured down, as soon as we asked God to stop it, He did.
That is the glory and might of our God. He answers all our prayers. It was as if God was telling me, without any doubt, that He hears me. And that He can answer my prayers immediately, if He wants. And just because I’m unsure of His call doesn’t mean that He isn’t going to make it clear soon. He can calm the storm and bring light to darkness – He will surely hear my prayers.
And if God created all the beauty I’ve ever seen – how glorious and breathtaking will our God be?
May it please the supreme and divine Goodness
to give us all abundant grace
ever to know his most holy will
and perfectly to fulfill it.
—St. Ignatius of Loyola
More often than not, we tend to associate God’s will as something we could really adhere to, even obey. What I’ve learned recently is that even deeper than God’s will as a command is God’s will as Truth — a perfect Truth that longs to be fulfilled. Denial of God’s plan is not merely an act of disobedience, but a blind eye from what is – perfect, beautiful, and true.
In Exodus 3:14, God reveals himself to Moses, “I am who I am”. The divine Truth simply is. When we say “non serviam” in our work, it does not change the nature of God’s will. We are making the conscious choice to close our eyes from divine Truth, yet it does not cease to exist. God’s will is perfection in it’s highest form, and when we open our eyes, ears, hearts, to that very Truth, we are graced with glimpses of God’s goodness. We are made free.
“and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32
A brother once told me that the image of Truth manifested in the physical is our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It encompasses all that is perfect, beautiful, and true — compassion, sorrow, love, suffering, sacrifice, forgiveness and so much more. Yes, it may be easy to close ourselves to God’s will, yet in those times of desolation, he has given us an image in the crucifixion to remind us of our alpha and omega here on Earth – dying for the sake of love. Remember, too, that honourable as it is to die a martyr’s death, is also to live a martyrs life.
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21
Christ on the cross is the ultimate example of a heart faithfully abondoning itself to Father God – totally, faithfully, freely, fruitfully. I can only hope and pray that, through constant mortification and sanctification through grace, and consecration to our Blessed Lady, I will be the man that God had intended only because of my total reliance on the Lord and openness to the Truth. I will be one who answers You and I will respond in the only way I know that is true – by loving You with all of me, God-willing.
This reflection is inspired by CFC-Youth Canada’s Eastern Mission Volunteers Coordination Meeting last Friday, July 12, 2013.
Let our faith be like the roots of a tree. Always looking for nourishment, always going deeper, always anchoring ourselves to the bedrock of the faith. So when a storm of anxieties, fears, doubts, and uncontrollable situations arise; we may be moved and shaken a bit, but never destroyed. (Colossians 2:6-7)
Let our hope be like that of a trunk of a tree. Always aiming higher and trying to reach the sun – the Son. The more we have hope, the higher the tree becomes, the easier it is for people to see what we hope for which is the Son. We become landmarks, a sight to see, a light to the world. (Matthew 5:14)
Let our love be like the branches. Giving shade to those who are in need of rest, giving life who eat the fruits of our labor, extending outward and always seeking out to cover more ground. (John 15:2)
If we become a tree of faith, hope, and love – we not only prosper and become fully alive, we also become a breath of life to those around us.
Lord, allow me to grow in faith, hope, and love – rooted, reaching, and abounding – with, in, and through – You. Amen.
This blog is also cross-posted on my own personal blog: http://www.kevinmuico.com/2013/07/14/the-tree-of-faith-hope-and-love/
There are times when I’m so busy looking for God that I forget the most obvious thing – God is everywhere. He is in everything and in everyone. He is in me.
Our Lord says to stop asking for miracles because your lives are miracles. A true miracle is a child in the womb; a mothers love is a miracle; a forgiving heart is a miracle. Your lives are filled with miracles, but you’re too distracted by material things to see them. Jesus tells you to open your ears to hear his messages and open your hearts to receive His love. Too many people have lost their way and walk the easy road that leads away from God. Jesus says to pray to his mother, and the Blessed Virgin Mary will lead you to God Almighty. The Lord has come to you with messages of love and the promise of eternal happiness, yet you ask for miracles instead. Stop looking to the sky for miracles. Open your heart to God; true miracles occur in the heart.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Cor. 3:17)
This verse brings back fond memories of YFC back in the day, when we would sing “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM! (FREEDOM, what what, FREEDOM, oh yeah…).” It makes me reminisce about the community in the past—the good ol’ times—and also causes me to reflect on the community now. I’ve realized that in this community we have and still experience true freedom.
Bl. Pope John Paul II once said that “freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” I truly believe this. That freedom is not doing what we like, nor what we must, but it is in doing what we ought. The world constantly barrages us with messages to do what we like when we like. If it feels good, do it. They say this is freedom. However, a serial killer likes to murder people. A drug addict likes to use drugs. An alcoholic likes to drink. Are they free? Rather, I would think they are a slave to their impulses.
I think what separates us from animals is that we have an intelligence and will to discern and know what we ought to do, and do it because it’s morally right. An animal cannot discern the morality of its decisions but we can.
This brings me to my point, that we experience true freedom in the community because it is filled with individuals and a moral compass that is centered in doing what we ought. We are imperfect and full of sinners but we are united in one vision: “families in the Holy Spirit renewing the face of the earth.” And as CFC-Youth, our vision is “young people being and bringing Christ wherever they are.” We are not young people doing whatever we like. We are young people with a common purpose, to be and bring Christ wherever we are. To bring Jesus and to imitate Him, is to truly live a life of freedom.
In our current state it is very difficult because of our tendency to sin. I realize this in my own life, that I am a great sinner and my desires are really out of whack. I am spiritually sick. When our body is physically ill, the doctor gives us a prescription. If we follow it, we will be healthy and be able to experience life to the full. By following the prescription, we follow the path to living a good life. If we don’t follow it, we will be sick and remain sick, even die. Jesus Christ is the heavenly Physician. The Doctor of life. His prescription is His commandments written in our hearts. If we decide not to follow, we will be spiritually sick. This sickness will affect every aspect of our lives. We will even be led to a spiritual death. However, if we follow and keep His commands, we will live and experience life in all its fullness. We will be truly free from sickness and death, and we will be free to love.
“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ ” —Galatians 5:13–14
This is what we ought to do: love our neighbour as ourself.
I have a thing for zombies! And that would still be an understatement.
I love watching zombie movies (I am Legend, Night of the Living Dead, Zombie Land, etc). Watching zombie series (The Walking Dead). Reading zombie comics (The Walking Dead). Playing zombie related games like Plant Vs. Zombies and Left For Dead. I actually bought Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 because of the zombie game.
I am fascinated by them. In fact, if the world ended, I’d prefer a zombie apocalypse more than anything.
So when Tito Melo Villaroman, one of my favorite speakers of all time, shared to us in our FTPW Trainee SHOUT that Warm Bodies was a good movie, I was intrigued to say the least. Since that time however, I never really had the chance to watch the movie until now.
If you haven’t watched the movie, go and watch it before you read this. I’m not sure how this will go but I may write some spoilers. I might. Don’t say I did not warn you.
In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a zombie world. People are so engrossed in their busy day-to-day lives that they go through life as – your guess is correct– zombies. We go from one place to the next, looking for something that we think may bring us life, money, fame, power, women, pleasure, etc – in zombie terms – brainz.Only to find out that our consumption of brainz follows the Law of Marginal Utility.
The Law of Marginal Utility states that the pleasure we derive from our consumption of a certain product (in this case: money, fame, power, glory, pleasure (drinking, drugs, and sex…etc)) is on a constant and significant decline. The cycle then becomes vicious, we consume more looking for that initial high, only to find out that it’s no longer there, so we consume it more. Hence the zombies, or in the movie’s term – turn from corpses to boneys.
Corpse-to-Boney. Doesn’t look too good.
The world likes to present to us that we are zombies that in fact we live only for the brainz.That without it we would die. Eventually we reach a point that it strips us of what we were meant to be – alive. We then become a legit boney.
Legit Boney.
Spoiler Alert – No seriously, this is not only a movie spoiler alert but a real life legit spoiler alert as well. In a good way!
But the movie, as it is in real life, shows us a beautiful inexplicable reality. That it is not about the brainz, that the world would like you to believe. There is something more. And that more is love.
The main character, R, yes it’s R, finds himself in the midst of his brains-eating-activity – love. He did not understand it at first, but he went through with it. Why, because he found something that did not make sense but it brought him true satisfaction – his restlessness of being a zombie for years found solace in something beyond him, something beyond his zombie-fied self. And that something was someone and that someone was love. That love eventually changed him enough to bring him back to life.
Real love bringing us back to life!
R’s insatiable hunger for brainz was made full by love. Real love. In the movies it was Julie. In real life it is Him.
Love.
The truth is, love, meets us right where we are, while we are eating brainz. When we are busy in our drunkenness, in the midst of our use of drugs, in our use of women (or men) for our sexual “needs”, in our hunger for power in the workplace, fame in our talents, our strategies of making money at the expense of others and the other countless “necessities” that we deem as brainz to keeps us alive.
Love meets us in the moment when somebody gently taps us and reminds us to go back to Church. Love meets us in the moment when somebody does a random act of kindness to us even if it was inconvenient for that person. Love meets us when at the times we are low and spends time with us. Love meets us and shakes us to wake us up from our brainz binge.
The world will tell you otherwise. It will say go back to whatever that made you “happy”. Go back to eating brainz. It will get angry and tell you you are wrong. That you need to ascribe to their standards. That you belong to them and they to you. That you are one with them. And it will be an uphill battle!
The World.
Sometimes it may seem that all is lost. But it’s not. Why, because love fights for us. Love, in fact, will journey with us until we are truly and fully converted back to who we are really meant to be! Alive! Love has triumphed and it will always triumph! So don’t be afraid to take the plunge, we are meant to live for so much more than brainz, we are meant to live for, in, and with love! We are meant to live! We are meant to love!
So for those who are actually already living, don’t be afraid to journey with us who are still trying to find love. Meet us where we are. Journey with us. Enflesh the Love that is Him, and incarnate what is true. Bring us back to life.
For those of us who have found love but is still leagues away from being truly alive, don’t worry. Like R, our journey with love will be an instrument for change in others like us. Our journey with love will become an invitation for others to journey with love as well. Our yes to the invitation to love becomes an act of witnessing. To be and bring love wherever we are.
Not yet there, but getting there.
May the lives of Saints Peter and Paul inspire us to say yes to love and be fully consumed by it. May their conversion to being fully alive from the death of Peter’s denial and Paul’s persecution give us hope that nothing and no one is truly far enough from love that they are lost forever. May the Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us. Amen.
Falling in love for the first time is enchanting; you are finally at the mountain top, your expedition has brought you to the ultimate treasure trove, you finally found yourself a pair of Jordan Grape 5’s after a relentless search at every Foot Locker in the area……. (shoeholics, you understand). But, falling in love for the second time has a different effect. It’s intoxicating and euphoric, almost to the point of delusion. Falling in love for the second time is better because this time, you have something to compare it to. This time it’s even better than what you imagined.
This is how I feel about my relationship with God, but more specifically the Holy Eucharist.
Every time the Eucharist is being presented to us at mass, all of the heavens rejoice and all of time stops to celebrate Jesus’ sacrifice of self. The past, the present, and the future happen simultaneously, to recognize the significance of this beautiful offering.
I grew up in an extremely Catholic home, went to an extremely religious school (Animo La Salle!) and have been part of the Couples for Christ community since 1991. But those things became irrelevant once I moved to Canada and had to orient myself to North American culture. I had to act differently, talk differently and be different in every facet of my life. It came as no surprise that the repressed Catholic girl in me lashed out once the opportunity presented itself.
After having gone through a hiatus in the middle of my CFC-Youth life and immersing myself in all things “worldy” within that time, the Lord graced me with a second chance. A second chance to do things right- not because I had to and was taught to do so, but because I made a conscious decision. A choice where I willingly allowed God to enter my life again despite my unworthiness. And I’m glad I did.
How could I have not noticed the magnificence and splendor that is the Eucharist? How could I have not seen the importance of receiving it and preparing my body to be a temple for Him to dwell in? How could I have ignored so many homilies and feigned ignorance over his Word? How could I have overlooked every moment where God was literally and tangibly offering himself to me?
I could go and on about all the things I did wrong the first time, but what’s the point? That part of my life is gone and I can never take back what I did and didn’t do. Instead, I’m allowing myself to just bask in His glory, bask in His presence and take in every minute detail every time he reveals Himself to me. God, with all His power and greatness, chooses to make himself available to me and to us everyday through mass and adoration. Imagine that. A love so pure, so tender, so sincere that he chose to be vulnerable; He came down from heaven and offered all that He is through His son and ultimately through the Eucharist.
There is no excuse in the world valid enough to deny God through the denial of Holy Eucharist. Everything that we do, day in and day out, is it not to find love, feel love and receive love? His arms are spread wide open ready to embrace us and give us all this.
