Encountering Christ in our life's storms

This week Christ invites us to join Him in walking on waters. Is it really possible? Do I believe that He can ask me to do such a thing?

The disciples find themselves in a frightening situation: they have obeyed Jesus’ command to leave the place where they were, to get into a boat and precede Him on the other side. To do the Will of God does not mean that our rides will be smooth or that we will not encounter storms on the way, storms that always seem to come at night. To say Yes to God means to know that He is with us, even in the storm; this allows us to live our lives even more deeply because we know that everything is allowed by our loving Father. We become aware that even in the darkest night there is “someone else” with us. How often and how easy it is to forget this and to live as though we are all alone on our little boat.

Fear, it is said, always tricks us. It makes us see things and people in a different way, it makes us act and speak differently as well. It changes our perception and it’s easy to confuse people for ghosts. Our neighbor doesn’t look like our neighbor anymore and we fight him or her as though they we have seen a ghost. But it’s always Jesus who, like a new dawn, brings to us a new day. Although He may not appear as clearly as in the day, it is always Jesus.

Where was Him? As the disciples left for the sea He went on a mountain. to pray. The disciples and Jesus are in opposite places: sea and mountains. One, the sea, is the place where the chaotic and evil spirits who oppose our journey dwell; the other is the place where God speaks to us, not in the rumbles of the sea storm but in the gentleness of the breeze. Sometimes it seems as though Jesus is in the opposite place of where we live, in a place where He is too far to come and help us out. But space and time are in His hands and nothing can separate Him from us.

The boat is buffeted by the wind. Interestingly, the word to describe the effect of the wind on the boat is also used to translate the english word: to torture. In the Gospel of Matthew is used in two other places: in reference to paralysis and to demonic possession. Like that boat, we also are buffeted and tortured by the winds of our lives storms.

I look at that boat. Back then, the floor of the boat was flat and not curved as today’s boats. They were really surfing the surface of the sea. It was easy to lose stability, even the smallest of waves and the gentlest of winds would have quite an effect on that boat. I think about my life: it seems that the storms of life have a more devastating effect on those aspects of my life that seem to be the most “flat” and not curved and shaped by the Will of God. I want to welcome, therefore, the Word of God that shapes me from within. The more I allow God to shape me, the safer my journey through the rough waves.

Jesus comes into our storms and calls us to peace. He invites us to share with His authority over chaos. As Peter did, we also are called to walk on water and move towards Him. Peter focused on his fear that became self-fulfilling prophecies: nobody can walk on water and therefore neither can I. He sank. How many times we sabotage our own faith by believing more what seems to be normal rather than putting our faith in the supernatural that comes from Jesus’ invitation to “come” to Him? Yet, even in these situations, when our faith becomes inadequate, He is there to pick us up.

But, as our boat reaches the shore, we find ourselves totally transformed: He has changed us and empowered us to be like Him.

If we want to start walking the supernatural walk... our walk on water, and encounter Christ in our lives’ storms, we ought to get out of the boat.

Finding true Rest

Life is full of contradictions and paradoxes.

I see them everywhere. This weekend, the liturgy of the Word allows me to enter into this very basic human reality and come to terms to it. How can I deal with contradictions and paradoxes? and what does Jesus wants me to do with those?

The Word presents the King who comes to rule from “sea to sea” not riding a mighty horse but a mule; His dominion will not oppress but bring peace and freedom. Paul translates this in terms that are more familiar to me: flesh and spirit. Jesus tells us that God chooses to reveal Himself not to the smart ones but to those who are simple.

On one hand, I claim to loathe contradictions and compromises but on the other hand I live with them every day. With Paul, I also know what it means to know what the right thing to do is and yet I find myself unable to do it.

I experience these most especially about people and things that mean the most to me. If left unguarded, I tend to make choices because I long to “rest.” (how important, therefore, to live well this month’s Word of Life!).  If I can chose the easier way out, I tend to do so... so that I can go back and do what I really wants to do.

This “Rest”, that Jesus brings up, is a powerful force in me and in every human being. In order to get it, I am willing to do whatever. I see it all around me! What power this force has: how many people has chosen to find “Rest” in alcohol, sex, drugs, TV, shopping. Anything that can take our minds off life’s problems. Yet, when we wake up the next day, we find ourselves bound to a heavier yoke. No rest but only more and more problems.

Jesus is calling us to come to Him to find rest. He is not telling us that life’s burdens will not be there anymore. He is just promising us to replace the Yoke that we have made ourselves with one that fits us better. But that’s not enough! He is willing to bind HImself to us so that He can help us out and share the load with us.

What love He has for us!

It comes down to a fundamental choice: acknowledge that we are messed up and not together. Offer to Him all that burdens us and clearly declare the need we have to “rest”. He will exchange the yokes; the more we do the will of the Father the more the new yoke will lighten up; the more we realize we don’t carry it all by ourselves.

This week, then, I do not want to do things “for Him” only, but also “with Him.” All that I do, I will start by saying “With You, Jesus.” Whenever I face my “old self” (my “evil twin,” as I call it), I will choose to exchange it with what Christ wants me to have and do at that time.

Living in this way, then, I will make sure that this exchange of yokes will never be undone and that we can continue to live as one with HIm forever and that the Love that is generate by this union with Christ will continue to bring life, true life, into the world.

I don’t want to avoid contradictions and paradoxes anymore; I just want to chose to have Christ involved in them so that He carry the burden with me.

The Easter Journey (so far)

This Easter Journey has brought us to a closer relationship with Jesus: He is always with us and He encounters us where we are in life. We learned that we cannot look for Him among the dead because He’s alive. Where, then, can we find Him? 

We can find Him in the assembled gathered in His name, to worship Him. The disciples were together when Jesus first showed Himself to them wishing them peace. Thomas unfortunately was not there; eventually, he too encountered the risen Christ once he joined the worshipping community.

Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we find Him in the Breaking of the Bread. It is when we celebrate His memorial that we experience the burning presence of Jesus in Scriptures and Sacraments.

We find Him in His word. He guides us like a shepherd guides his flock. How important it is for us to train ourselves in recognizing the voice of the Shepherd over those who compete for our attention and devotion. Just as it is matter of life and death for a sheep to recognize the voice and follow, so is for us: our eternal life depends on knowing the Voice of God in our hearts everyday.

We find Him in our lives when we pattern our own on His who is “the truth, the way and the life.” He is the true way of living our lives. Jesus is the incarnated will of God for everyone; looking at Him, we can truly see ourselves and how God wants us to be truly alive.

We find Him in Love, especially when, our of Love for God, we love one another. In every loving relationship we can see Jesus present in our midst. The more we becoming loving the closer we feel to God because He is love.

Where did you find Him?

Easter: Let God roll the stone back

This has a been a journey focused on transformation: God has a specific plan on us and He is willing to do whatever it takes to bring it about. If we let Him, He will wash our feet and take away the mud the world puts on us. If we let Him, He will open the doors to Heaven for us as He took on Him all that separates us from God.

If we let Him, He can roll back the stone on the tomb and allow us to experience New Life, experience Him alive and living in our midst. God is not dead, but too many look for Him among the dead. They will never find Him, and yet, they are those who go around in the world saying that “God is dead.”
God is alive. In Jesus, God has accomplished the unthinkable: He who was “in heaven” is not living in our midst, we who were His enemies have become friends and now able to share His life in us through Baptism.

If we let Him wash us in this living stream of new water that He provides, we will be able to see that we are His children. And Life can start again.
What will it take? and, how will this new life look like? Can you imagine: living a life with a heart as big as the world?

This is the beginning of a new era for each and everyone of us. this is the time when we can taste the Newness that we long for.

I am ready to follow Him; who else will join me?

Good Friday: "we are the 'Because' of God

We walk together on this most beautiful of days, following Jesus who carries His cross. We go with Him all the way to Calvary where we see Him, true God and true Man, hanging on the Cross, dying for our salvation.
We walk today with Him and we will see Him crying out “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

“Why have you forsaken me?”

In this Cry we find the cry of every people, of every age, of every nation who struggle to find God today. We walk with them, we walk for them, and we walk on their behalf. With Jesus, we cry with them as they wonder: “where is God when tragedy struck? Where is God, when I can’t find a way to sustain my family due to loss of jobs, poverty, illness…? Where is God, when I experience injustice and discrimination?”

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” In the abandonment of Jesus, this terrible feeling of isolation and forsakenness, we can find ourselves.
It seems as though the Father remains silent and does not answer to the “Why?”
But we know that something else was happening. As true man, Jesus uttered those words two thousand years ago; as true God, He utters them eternally.
Jesus cries out “Why have you forsaken me?” and one day you were born, “Why have you forsaken me?” and another day you were born. “Why have you forsaken me?” And yet another day I was born.
By God’s grace, in the power of the Spirit, we become part of this wordless dialogue that the Father has with His Son. We, therefore, become the “Because” of God. We are God’s answer to Jesus’ cry on the Cross.

We walk with Jesus because we matter to God; we walk because we know that His great love has reached its most sublime form: He died for us.

We walk with Jesus to Calvary because we find today the answer to humankind’s greatest question: “’Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’ ” We are here because He loves us immensely; we are here because we are God’s gift to His Son (John 17:6)

We walk also with those who cannot, those who don’t believe yet in His Love. We take their sufferings, their questions, their own “Whys?” and make them our own and we put them in the Cry of Jesus today and we pray that they too become aware of what HE does for them.

We walk with Jesus, with grateful hearts, and we say “Yes” to His love as we live our lives as “the ‘because’ of God”

We walk with Jesus together as the family of the redeemed, and we will continue to do so, brother to brother, sister to sister, until we will realize what He dreamt for us  - that we can “Become one as He and the Father are one… so that the world may believe”(John 17:21)that He died for the salvation of all. They He died because HE loved us to the end (John 13:1)

Letting Jesus wash our feet

I look at the story of the washing of the feet and wonder how can I enter into this reality so that I, too, can do this and, therefore, partake of the Kingdom.

He loved them to the end. This is the framework. Whatever Jesus does is out of Love for us. How far does this Love go? He does the unthinkable: at the table He washes the disciples’ feet.

I understand why Peter has a problem with this: those feet not only were covered with dust, but also with the human and animal waste that run in the streets. When they came into the house, they were too smelly and the lowest rank slave would wash people’s feet.

Are we willing to let Jesus do that, take away all the mud and yucky stuff that we collect from the outside? are we willing to let Jesus take away from us the mud that other people put on our feet?
The world out there wants us to believe that the Church, for example, is an old institution that needs to be taken away, filled with corrupted people who do nothing for the world. Once I let Jesus take way the mud, I see the Church as a family, made one by the meal we share at the Table of the Supper of the Lord.

Are we willing to let Jesus transform us into someone New?

New Life

The story of the resurrection of Lazarus speaks to me very strongly. I can get a glimpse of God’s heart from this story: He wants us to have and enjoy a new life, a new type of life - the resurrection life. How can I...we... experience this life?

I enter the story by following Martha. “If you had been here.” How many times I told God the same thing: where were you when that tragedy struck? when that child was being hurt?

“I am the resurrection and the life... do you believe this?” I am invited to answer. Do I believe that He is the source of this new life? nobody else and nothing else. Can I rely on Him alone for this Life?

“They brought him to the tomb.” If I want to experience new life, I need to bring Jesus to that part of my soul or my body or my mind that is dead or dying. This may be the place where I let nobody get close but it is at the tomb that new life begins. I have to bring my pain and my needs to Him, even if I am embarrassed or do not know how to talk to Him about it.

“Take the stone away” It’s not enough to bring Jesus to the tomb, He wants to face the darkness. I need to face the stench of the sinfulness, the reality that death creates.  It stinks in the cave because I allowed to many dead thing to accumulate. It’s impossible to clean up. Now what? I cannot continue to cover things us. The smell will never go away. There is only one way of letting the stench go away forever.

“Lazarus, come out!” I cannot exit the cave on my own strength but He can. And He calls me to a new life. Every time He calls us by name we are being re-created again.
But now, I have to answer. Do I have the courage to follow the voice and get out of the dark cave or will I ignore it and remain where I feel “comfortable?” Life is risky but I have to make a choice.

I choose the new life. I am ready!
Are you?