WHO IS GIFT?

                                 

 

The great insight that the Gospels give us is the giftedness of everyone and everything. The very fact that you and are here on this planet earth is a gift. Every breath we take is a gift. If God, for one mille-second would forget us we would just disappear instantly. The fact that we are a breathing, walking and talking human being is all gift. 

 

The actual spirit of Jesus, the world-attitude of Jesus, is to see every person as a gift. No human being is useless. No one is of no value. It is in this giftedness that we are challenged every day. Every day, in our interactions with others, is filled with persons who are the image of God and who are gifted to us.

 

Our most difficult trials in life will be getting along with each other and trying to see value in every person. We are all in the process of recognizing the importance of the others. 

 

When we are confronted with the man addicted to drugs we need to recognize in ourselves how we are repulsed by his addiction. This is someone I would never want to be! But this man too is a gift to us. We may not be able to appreciate his existence but his life is still a gift.

 

One of our relatives got in trouble with the law and is now serving a multi-year prison sentence. His family and high school friends are tending to distance themselves from him. He is alone and almost forgotten in prison. But his life too is a gift of the Creator. 

 

Our Christian faith challenges us to recognize the giftedness of each human being. Try to speak good things about everyone because you respect and treasure their giftedness.

 

One beautiful grandmother caught herself. She spoke of her daughter-in-law. ”Oh, is she a messy housekeeper.” Then she immediately added as she caught herself, “But she is such a good mother!”

 

We are challenged to recognize the women and men who serve us in our restaurants, the care-givers in our nursing homes, the truck drivers that deliver food to the supermarkets and person who walks their dog by our house every day. 

 

As we take note of the giftedness of others we must also ask, ‘and whose giftedness do I not recognize?’ Who is just invisible on my radar screen? Are there certain groups of people who are not recognized in our culture, i.e, factory workers, First Nations people, the handicapped and the elderly? 

 

The more effort we put into recognizing the giftedness of each person, the more we will appreciate what the Creator God has given to us. We will appreciate our health, our energy and our joy toward the other. We will find ourselves saying, as we recognize the gifts in others, “Oh, how good it is to be human.”

 

Our Christian faith is very powerful in moving us to see the good in others. All of life is truly gift. How wonderful to be alive this very day to enjoy this giftedness from God.

 

 

 

EVIL IS REAL, HONEY!

    

When the president of Russia invaded the Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we were jolted into the reality of evil. This was launching an unprovoked war of destruction and death on an innocent population. It also inflicted death and suffering on many Russian soldiers and their families.

 

And then we had the mass shotting of ten people in Buffalo, New York. The crime was racially motivated. How could anyone want to shoot people because they were  black people?

 

There are a few religious people that attribute this to the ‘evil one.’ No one can conclude that these evils happen at the instigation of the devil, the evil one! That is dishonest thinking.

 

These evils (and all evil) are carried out by the evil willed by human beings. It is a human being who ordered the war! It is a human being who pulled the trigger of gun!

 

Every human being  must try to cope with evil in order to make sense of life. Why would one human being hurt, injure or kill another human being? What is there in the heart of a human being that they could inflict such evil on another?

 

We have always tried out make some sense out of this. Our ancestors told the story of Cain and Abel. One brother killed the other brother. When God confronts the murderer, he asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4, 9) 

 

Evil fermenting in the human heart has been with us from the beginning. 

 

Every time a human being inflicts evil on another they become less of a human being. Their cold, heartless calculating makes us cringe that one human being could go so low.

 

Religion tries to make some sense out of evil, but all explanations always fail. What could be in any human heart that a man would beat up his woman? Anyone sexually moleste a child? Be so uncaring as to leave poor people starve to death during a famine? 

 

In the face of evil we have the promise and the power of our God. We are given hope to help us through the great evils that human inflict on another. 

 

The very center of meaning of the cross of Jesus is that evil will not triumph. Evil will never have the last word. God has turned the power of evil into the grave and given us the resurrection. God will also give us the power to change the power of evil into goodness and life.

 

It is the Holy Spirit that is giving us power to be revolted by the senseless killings of civilians in the Ukraine and in our grocery stores. The movement or effort to try to correct such a horrible, evil situation is part of the movement of God’s Spirit.

 

I am so strengthened by the Holy Spirit that whenever there is evil done, I am being moved to  practice justice and compassion. I am being moved to treat my fellow human being with more respect and to value their lives more intensely. 

 

Never poh-poh any evil. Always listen to what the Holy Spirit is moving you (us) to stronger goodness and justice. Out of the ashes of Good Friday arise the justice and compassion of Easter morning!

 

 

BUT THEY DO NOT KNOW JESUS

           

One of the great pains of ministry today is that so many of our people do no know Jesus. They do not have a living and daily friendship with the very person of Jesus.

 

Far too often our religion has been diluted into ‘cultural events.’ We know it is good to get our kids ‘done’ and give our grandmothers a Christian burial but other than that, our faith does not seem to have too much an impact on our lives. We are nice people, but oh, so secular.

 

We live in a society where everything goes. We are surrounded by new world religions. There was a built-in challenge here for us to and to be reclaimed by Jesus Christ. The atmosphere we breath is challenging believers to become real. 

 

If you know the history of our church through the ages, you recognize that this is nothing new. We go through times where we need to re re-evangelized and rediscover our faith. Now, we must take each person that comes and treat them as a aspiring convert, a new believer. We do not want them to be complacent in their religion but open their lives to the great call of Jesus Christ. We are being challenged to become involved in the very project of Jesus. What was he about when he came to earth? What is he asking of us ,today, 2022? 

 

At the very same time, question the very serious situation our world challenges our belief. The invasion by Mr. Putin of the Ukraine is an event of unquestionable evil. Countless people are suffering and being displaced. It is here that we must discover the goodness and the justice that Jesus brings to humanity. Where others may kill and destroy, Jesus challenges us to build and to nourish. This is not some nice sweet invitation. It is to get in get involved in the hard work of Jesus Christ building a world of justice and peace. It means laying down our guns and planting gardens to care for each other.  This great evil provokes a stronger practice of justice.

 

We  are proclaiming our faith in a world that suffers from indifference. The great sin of indifference is ‘I do not care’ about my fellow human being. I look the other way. Jesus challenges us to look for the man and woman beaten up on the side of the road. Care for them. And we want to teach everyone that the poor are always very close to us. 

 

As I began in the beginning of this blog, one of the great pains is we do not know Jesus. 

 

 The situation of the practice of the Christian faith in our society provokes us to become a church of evangelization. Today we must proclaim and share with each one great call to live and follow and work with Jesus Christ. 

 

We must structure our churches and parish communities to be communities of evangelization. Everyone must be brought into a living faith, a living relationship, a living involvement with Jesus Christ and all that he is about. 

 

Those who may be caught up in the cultural aspects of our religious faith will resist. This does not lessen our responsibility to evangelize and call people to a living adult faith. 

 

This is an exciting time for Christianity. We may be smaller, but we may become more authentic as we evangelize, bring to Gospel reality, our society/ culture.

 

 

 

THANK GOODNESS WE HAVE FAITH

        

 

The invasion of the Ukraine has been a belly blow to the world. We used to live in a cloud that there would be no more war. We would have business as usual between countries. That illusion has been shattered.

 

We do not have words in English to describe how horrible and senseless this ward actually is.

 

We are living in a time of great evil.  Valdimir Putin and his government are cornered like a scared rat. They have lost the war (even though they might try to control the country of the Ukraine) and cannot find a triumphant way out. Where do you go with a devasted Russian army and not lose face?

 

This is where I am so glad that we have God. I am so glad that our Christian faith gives us hope and strength in the face of so much evil and destruction.

 

Faith is not a piece of mist that floats in the air in the Spring sunshine. It is very real. It is powerful and it gives us strength to continue to the next day.

 

When armies line up their war machinery and launch missiles at civilian homes, factories and hospitals, our God suffers. God has a tender heart. What causes such great pain to Ukrainian refugees causes great pain in the heart of God. 

 

The power that God gives us is the hope and the energy that we can build a world where there will be no more war. A world where the rich and the strong will seek the well-being of the poor and the dispossessed. We see this already in the countless number of people who are opening their homes and schools for the huge influx of refugees. All this goodness  is sourced in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is always moving us towards greater goodness. 

 

Our Christian religion is at its weakest when it only focuses on “my” relationship with the Divine. Whenever a believer is limited only (narrow and suffocating) to “God and me,” we are at the bottom of the pile.

 

Our Christian religion (in all its brands) has a strong sense of social justice and care for the poor and the suffering of this world.  This is where I am so thankful that we have God. We live in the horizon of God who moves us to seek the well-being of all our fellow human beings. When I pray the Holy Spirit is ever trying to push wider the walls of my heart. Prayer is never a one-way street. The Holy Spirit is always moving us to care for the poor and neglected of this world. We are being lifted up into the horizon of God.

 

I can have hope that there will be peace in this world. I can have energy that we can work towards building a better and most just world. 

 

I am so thankful to live with our God who gives us the power to hope and the energy to build a better world in the face of this horrible evil.

 

God, we bless you for the power you give us in this horrible time.