Christ

Oct232016

Scapegoat

It is from here that comes the burning wind which parches the land of Judea, as the breath of evil sterilizes the soul. The ancient Jews saw in this desert the region of sin. The neighborhood of the Dead Sea evoked in their minds the thought of God’s avenging visitations, and this is the reason why every year they drove into this desert the scapegoat, laden with the sins of Israel. The beast was solemnly cursed before the altar, driven into the valley of Kedron, where it was cast down into the deep abyss as a sacrifice for the people.

Jesus, as He looks in this direction from the Cross, cannot fail to reflect that He is this beast accursed, driven this very day out of the city, shut out from the world, driven forth to die, humbly and silently allowing Himself to be counted among the goats.  –Father A.G. Sertillanges ‘What Jesus Saw From the Cross’

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Oct172016

Ultimate acts

The symbol (Jesus washing the Apostle’s feet) of love is mingled with the symbol of purity, so that we may learn that where true love is, there also is the assembly of saints. Jesus does not need to be purified, but He humbles Himself and He loves. He gives an example of every virtue. By this act, He affirms that the enemy of love is pride, and that the enemy of all good is the refusal to love. Humility and charity are the foundation and the crown respectively of the spiritual edifice which He intends to erect, both in the individual and in the human race. And the Cross, too, which supports this edifice, is as humiliating as it is painful; but when the work is accomplished it will be glorious as the instrument of union and the source of bliss. Every thing is there. All is in the Cross, because all is in humility and love, and the washing of the feet is the herald of the Cross. –-Father A. G. Sertillanges ‘What Jesus Saw From the Cross’

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Sep222016

Surrender

At the moment of His entrance into this world Our Savior offers Himself to His Father to be the universal Victim.  His whole life is to be a cross and a martyrdom.  He sheds just enough tears to prove the tenderness of His Heart, manifests just enough anger to inspire the guilty with salutary fear. Otherwise He preserves in a wonderful serenity, even longing for that baptism of blood wherewith He will cleanse the world.  Now His hour is come. Restricting the joys of the Beatific Vision to the topmost region of His Soul, He voluntarily delivers up each of His faculties and His entire Body to the most terrible agony.  By His own free choice, He abandons Himself to fear, weariness, disgust; and His Soul is sorrowful even unto death.  He beholds our accumulated sins, the rights of His Father criminally ignored, immortal souls heading for the abyss, the torments and ingratitude that await Him; and the sight plunges Him in an ocean of bitterness.  Three times He appeals to the mercy of His Father: “If it be possible let this chalice pass from Me,” and He is pleased that an angel comes from heaven to console Him.  A sweat of blood inundates Him, but on that account He prays the longer: “My Father, not My will but Thine be done.”  –Abbot Dom Vitalis Lehodey ‘Holy Abandonment’

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Sep152016

Exaltation of the Cross

Closing wings, the iridescent blue butterfly,
Disappears within the branches breaking in the sun,
Beauty perceived resting unadorned amidst the ninth hour,
Pleasant affirmations growing quieter still,
Acceptance settling beneath the dissipation,
Expanding out in silent waves, centering upon the Cross.
Resounding eternal, love elevates torment and toil.
Death the final plague, sprouts salvation within the grave.

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Aug112016

Through the eyes of Christ

I used the term fully engaged the other day regarding the significant other. I would like to expand. Being fully engaged is being present for another in a way that one is completely where one is at, within imperfection being everything Christ desires one to be in regards to interacting with another. To stand nowhere except where one stands. To see exactly what is before one within humility, love, and the desire to see through the eyes of Christ. To think and act with pure motivation to the best of one’s abilities. I always perceived it as an essential statement of Jesus missionary work on earth that he was absolutely present, aware and loving in the fullest, for those he encountered. The woman at the well comes to mind. Other factors: Mosaic Law, His own identity, the influence of others, the need to compare and judge, never usurped the salvation of the one He directly interacted with. At the moment of engagement, that one before Him meant everything. It is truly a rare feat to be able to fully engage one’s self when encountering others. The overwhelming factors of life coupled with crippling and successful experiences burden most with the need to be consumed with themselves—the reality of encountering the world in a defensive manner, even when that defense is a constant offense. Even in many of the well-intended, greetings and kind words come off as self-glorifying, vanity of vanities, an exercise of doing what is easily perceived as correct while interiorly condescending, holding one’s self as a purveyor of righteousness, never for a moment becoming vulnerable and truly loving in openness and nonjudgement. It is so easy to force the world and others to be constantly answering to my expectations and desires, to force others to line up amidst a row of suspects and allies, forcing competition—comparing and contrasting in order to belittle all and protect myself. I had more to say on this yet time is short. Within the embracing of experiential rather than theoretical, I am committed to increasing my physical exercise and reading.

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Jun102016

Allowing Jesus to heal memories

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…fortunately our past is always present not only to us but also to Jesus. We can get untracked from the negative effects of past hurts and turn those hurts into gifts for loving by bringing Jesus’ love into hurtful memories. When we invite Jesus into a hurtful memory, we are not asking him to erase or help us forget the past. Rather, we are asking Jesus to “heal our memories” just as he did for the Emmaus disciples (Lk 24:13-35). When Jesus joined the depressed disciples on the road to Emmaus, the disciples’ hearts were filled with grief and disappointment from their hurtful memory of Jesus’ death. As they shared the events of the previous three days, Jesus listened and lovingly responded to each of the ways they felt hurt. Eventually the disciples’ became so full of love that they could forgive Jesus, themselves, and all who hurt them. The disciples’ traded their depressed hearts with Jesus’ joyful, loving heart. When they left Jesus, their own hearts were “burning within them”. In healing a memory, we share our hearts with Jesus and take on his loving heart until we can see the past in a whole new way, with Jesus’ vision. By the time the disciples arrived at Emmaus, the greatest tragedy of their lives had been transformed into the greatest gift for loving as they joyfully announced to those who still grieved, “The Lord has been raised!” –Healing the Eight Stages of Life

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Jesus the Greatest Therapist

 

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May212016

Live in me, Jesus Master

Master, Your life traces out the path for me; Your teachings confirm and light up my steps; Your grace strengthens and sustains me along the journey to heaven. You are the perfect Master. You teach and give example and encouragement to us, the disciples who follow You.

Master, You have the words of eternal life. Transform my mind and my thoughts with Yours. You enlighten every person, and You are Truth itself; I want to reason things out only as You taught, to think as You think. Live in my mind, O Jesus Truth.

Your life is the way, the only secure and true way. In the stable, at Nazareth, on Calvary, You traced out for us the divine path of love for the Father, of love for humanity; to the point of total sacrifice. Make me know Your way, and in every moment may I be able to place my feet in Your footsteps. Any other way is wide and is not Your way. I want what You want; transform my will into Yours.

Transform my heart with Your heart. Transform my love of God, of self, and of neighbor, with Your love. Transform my sinful human life with Your divine life. May this life manifest itself in all I do. “May the life of Christ be manifest in my body,” as it was in Saint Paul, who said “Christ lives in me”. Live in me, O Jesus, eternal and substantial life.

Blessed James Alberione

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