peace – True North Missionaries Journal

Today, God Made Me Laugh

If you ask certain people, they’d say I’m funny. (I don’t agree with them) If you ask other people, they’d say I cross way too many lines. (I agree with them) I’d say I’m one to enjoy a good laugh, even if it meant to be at the expense of others. (I’m sorry to those whom I do it very often to. You guys know who you are. We’ll talk soon.) But there are certain issues that I rarely laugh about, in fact if a certain topic is brought up in a certain way – my emotions flare up and I go berserk. Well maybe not berserk-berserk, but you get what I mean. The topic of God is one.

About two years ago I was introduced to the concept that humour, joy, and laughter are part of a healthy spiritual life through a couple of books by Fr. James Martin, SJ. (One of my favourite priests/authors) To be honest, when I read about that subject, I found it to be sketchy. How can an all powerful, almighty, all knowing God be funny? Well Fr. Jim did an awesome job in making me understand that it was indeed not just a possible but a very certain reality that God is a God of joy.

Fast forward to a few months back, I was able to read a book by Matthew Kelly – The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. It was really a practical guide on how one can be a better Catholic. Of course, so I can “look like I know my stuff” – I tweeted one of the lines that spoke to me. Little did I know that it wouldn’t get sent. So when I was cleaning my twitter drafts, I saw this there. So I decided to tweet it yesterday.

So I was a bit surprised while I was on my way to the office to get a reply from somebody I did not know. He said this.

Twitter___KevinMuico___bracealmighty__RobinGrainger____

My first reaction was to flare up. Who the heck is this guy. Why is he saying that what I quoted was crap. So I did a quick search on google, a found out that there is a Matthew Kelly from Britain who has a 90s show. So I responded that I was quoting a different guy, and I don’t believe that the quote was crap. And it escalated quickly.

As I was walking to the office, I was already thinking of ways to defend the faith in 140 characters – well less than given that I needed to tag these two guys. My emotions were high. Then I said to myself, that verse is familiar. So I looked it up and it was…

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

And I burst into laughter.

Today is the feast day of St. Philip Neri, the patron saint of humour. Both of the guys “mocking” me (well they said they were mocking the TV show) were actually british comedians. And the verse capped it off – I don’t bear the burden of defending what I believe to be true. God can defend Himself. In fact theology and philosophy will point this out to be true. I come to God so I can rest in the One who loves me.

God was doing a prank on me, if I was actually listening to Him during my prayer time this morning. If I was looking to the Saint who found way to holiness through joy.

Today’s Gospel says:

You also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. – John 15:27

I am called to bear witness to the gospel, the good news. If I am not joyful, then the medium hinders the message. The message is love – and in, with, and through it – we find faith, hope, peace and above all joy. Today I found joy in a weird circumstance. But it is still joy found in the Lord.

Saint Philip Neri, we take ourselves far too seriously most of the time. Help us to add humour to our perspective — remembering always that humour is a gift from God. Amen

PS. You can read the rest of the conversation here: https://twitter.com/KevinMuico/statuses/470666370322280448

Life After Dying in the Desert

When I think of a desert, I think of a barren place full of sand with extremely hot temperatures. It’s a dry place that is almost humanely inhabitable because of the lack of basic necessities like water and food. I think of hunger and thirst, and I see dry bones of animal carcasses. How fitting is it that Jesus and many other missionaries had to experience 40 days in a desert before commencing with their ministry. Dying in the desert is necessary so that we can quite profoundly and literally die to ourselves so that we can truly focus on the Lord and others. This is what ministry is about.

However, Jesus was perfect so He had no imperfections to die to. Just like Baptism, He had to do it for the sake of our sanctification. Now we can rest assured that when we go through our desert, it has been sanctified by Christ and there is redeeming value in it for us. Because of Jesus, the suffering we experience in the desert is now redemptive.

The beauty of lent that we just experienced was truly in our prayer, fasting, and alms-giving because each required us to sacrifice something in our lives. Prayer is a sacrifice of time, fasting, a sacrifice of carnal pleasure, and alms-giving, a sacrifice of our treasure. We truly experienced a desert during lent because we were called to sacrifice everything and be left in a barren place lacking many things we thought we needed. Praise God for this because it led us to realize that God is all we need, that He is the only one that can quench our thirst and satisfy our hunger.

Easter is experiencing resurrection with Jesus after dying. Have you ever been so famished and then finally ate or drank? When it comes to Easter, we are not happy because we no longer have to sacrifice like we did during lent, but because we now appreciate our relationship with God more, having died to ourselves in one way or another. We now appreciate even more how the Lord gives us food to eat and water to drink. We are able to see with more clarity, the lush oasis of God’s love in our lives. The Lord used the sacrifices of lent as an opportunity to mold our hearts from stone to flesh. A heart of flesh is a living heart, one that is truly alive and life-giving, like a fountain of water springing forth from dry lands. Dying to ourselves has increased our capacity to love and has helped us to be more sensitive to the everlasting life of Jesus within us.

Now that Lent is over and as we enter Eastertide, let not our prayers, fasting, and alms-giving stop because the Lord is not done with us yet. He continues to mold us to be more like Him but we must allow Him. We allow Him by continually giving ourselves to Him in the morning and the night, in the garden and in the desert. Let us continue on this journey together, denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Him every day. As we journey, we can rest assured that He is with us.

After resurrecting and when Jesus first appeared to the apostles He said to them “peace be with you.” Amen and amen, Peace is with us when Jesus is with us. The apostles lived with this faith, knowing that Jesus was always with them in their ministry. They lived this faith even unto death, knowing that death would only bring them closer to Him. We may not be called to physically die for our faith, but we are called to die to ourselves. Let’s not be afraid to do this because even in the face of death, Jesus is with us and that’s where we can find rest in the peace that only He can give.

Christ has resurrected and promised that He’ll always be with us.

So peace be with you! Even in the desert, peace be with you.

Mercy and Peace

The Lord revealed a simple Truth to me yesterday during Mass with Char while we were all praying and singing “Lamb of God.” When we all sang the last line “grant us peace,” that’s when He made it clear. He said “My merciful love grants peace.” So many things made sense the more I meditated on this.

It’s amazing how many times we beckon the Lord to have mercy on us during Mass. It is the only proper posture to have when knowing that soon we will be receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of all. We all stand before Him great sinners and truly unworthy of approaching the Holy of Holies. We must totally rely on His mercy toward us if we would like to have peace in our hearts when receiving Him.

Moments before receiving the Holy Eucharist, and after praying the Lamb of God, we humbly say while kneeling, “Lord, I’m not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” In this prayer we imitate the centurion who was the one who said this. His posture was that of complete humility, contrition, and faith. He knew the Lord would hear his prayer and be merciful to him, and because of that he had peace. A priest once told me that the word Jesus says that heals our soul is peace—the peace that only He can give. And this peace comes from His merciful love.

Whenever I feel like things are not going so well in my life, like being caught in a storm, feeling lost, confused, and being more prone to sin, it is because I stop relying and believing in His mercy. When I take my eyes off His merciful gaze, that is when I lose the peace in my soul. What usually helps is when I do a thorough examination of conscious while asking God to help me see my sins. It hurts but it is necessary. I praise God when I feel very sorrowful for the ways I offended Him. I then ask for the grace to have true contrition for my sins, and to help me repent. With this posture I go to Confession to receive total absolution and forgiveness of all my sins. That is when He restores that peace in my heart, and what helps me to be merciful to others. It’s a lot easier to be merciful to others when I realize how merciful God has been to me.

Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace. Amen.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

Hero’s Welcome

Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!

Yesterday, I had the great honour of reveling in one of the most significant moments in the history of salvation. No, not the Passion of the Lord, but of course, Jesus’ triumphant entrance in to Jerusalem. To me, this holds great significance because for the first time, he makes a very audacious public statement, to believers and non-believers alike, with a sense of great regalia but at the same time, humility. He was, indeed, their king. Though they failed to see what being King really meant, this sense of overwhelming hope and devotion to Christ affirms me of the posture of hope we should maintain in our full awareness of his divine and royal sovereignty.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey”

Zechariah 9:9

Jesus, Prince of Peace

St. Ignatius always taught that to really contemplate on the scripture, we must picture ourselves present in that exact moment in time. I could imagine myself being one of the Jews on the sideline thinking, “We’re waiting for a great military leader who will lead us to redemption and we get an average joe on a donkey?!” That exact way of thinking is likely how must Jews would have felt at the time, however something that I recently learned was that Jesus’ triumphant return by way of donkey was no mere coincidence. In fact, It was written. Not only was in prophesied by Zachariah, but Jewish tradition tells us that all Jewish kings who have entered a city ride in one of two distinct animals: a horse or a donkey. A horse symbolizes readiness for battle. It signals his troops to take heed and also sends a message to the men of the town that he’s ready for war. However, a donkey, signifies just the opposite. It signifies that he comes in peace. The donkey, in it’s lack of size and “masculinity” is meant to show humility and in an altruistic sense, meekness. When Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey, He sent a very clear message to the Romans and Jews that he and his apostles came in peace.

Our Personal Pilgrimmage

The great truth the Lord has been revealing to me this Holy week (thus far) is really to pilgrim through this faith journey by way of donkey – to make known of our peaceful intentions by maintaining a humble heart and a charitable Spirit. Though no one will know what the Lord intends for us, not even us, we should always make it very clear that we, as Christians, should be vessels of virtue. Christ already knew of the suffering that was to come, he entered willingly His passion. Similarly, we, with the same God-given wisdom and discernment, must enter willingly our own personal passion not with a heart of conflict or waging war, but with a peace, joy, and charity. When there is suffering, we must burst from the seams with overwhelming compassion and we must always call in to mind that though we remain pilgrims in this life, we are ultimately called to be eternal residences in the next.

Father, allow me to be a faithful pilgrim to you this Holy Week. Allow me to immerse myself in deep conversation with you, as I strive to deepen my love for you. Allow me to strength and grace to do what is needed to enter in to your kingdom in the same manner our Lord entered Jerusalum, in meekness, humility, and peacefulness.

Pater Noster. Ave Maria. Gloria Patri.
Amen

cpm