Faith invites, Beauty excites, Love unites

Exposition is truly an action of the Holy Trinity made visible in time. This action continues in time what never ceases in eternity, namely the gaze of love, which raptures the heart of each member of the Trinity in the beauty of each other. The Trinity is One God united in Divine Beauty. Divine beauty causes the heart to become transfixed on it. As we humans engage in this activity of the Trinity we should be aware of the presence of the Father and Spirit who with us and in us are gazing upon the loveliness of Christ. Through the mutual indwelling that is always taking place among the members of the Trinity we must also be aware of the fact that not only are we pondering the beauty of Christ but the beauty of the Father and Spirit as well. Exposition in a real sense is an exchange of loving glances between God and humanity in an atmosphere of faith. The timelessness of beauty gives rise to the eternity we find in the Triune God. Through exposition of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar we experience a foretaste of this heavenly activity. Time loses all meaning before beauty hence the reason that the Beatific Vision occurs in the timelessness of the rapture we call eternity.

Holiness 2

Holiness is a hatred for the mediocrity in oneself and a love for the other who carries it yet.

Holiness

Holiness is the soul blushing at the sight of itself for having freely loved Him whom the soul was ordered to love by law.

Going Back; Staying the Course

Going back means slavery; staying the course means loyalty, perseverance, wisdom, discipline and love. Going back means never having enough; staying the course means freedom from a one track mind. Going back means shackles; staying the course means sharing the key to a freer tomorrow. Going back means I’m too slow to learn; staying the course says teach as you go. Going back means it feels right; staying the course means when its right it is right regardless of how it feels. Going back means Egypt; staying the course means manna and quail while awaiting the milk and honey. Going back means season finale; staying the course means season premiere. Going back means it wasn’t worth it; staying the course means the worth was in the end not in the means. Going back means ‘nothing’; staying the course means everything. Going back says live for the day; staying the course says remember which day. Going back says I can’t help it I’m weak; staying the course says grace is sufficient for your need. Going back says pleasure is immediate; staying the course says through patience you will gain your souls. Going back says just one more time; staying the course says you owe allegiance to One more Just then time. Going back says there’s no victory; staying the course says there’s none by going back. Staying the course says stay the course. Thanks be to God for forgiveness and the grace to stay the course.

The Cross

Behold the cross of autumn beauty shedding its colorful cloak upon the naked world below. What a fragrance of love arises to heaven on account of its singular condescension. How truly blessed are those so clothed for they are deemed worthy to bask in the suns ceaseless light.

The Sight

The Sight of Him, which left my heart bleeding, hath filled, in His absence, my vision with unimaginable poverty as I now gaze upon the grandeur of earth’s celebrated cloak. I see no longer any depth to the sea nor dizzying height to mountain peaks for now all that remains is created beauty when all that my heart needs is the uncreated beauty, which is Him whom my eyes have graciously seen.

No comparison

The grandeur of His creative works does not nor can it ever measure up to the splendour visited upon the eyes of those who behold Him in His essence. The works of His hands would have been completely meaningless to us if we had at first the grace of seeing Him. Having seen Him first would have blinded us to the genius of His works for the sight of Him would have left us longing for the sight of Him again

Bear fruit in keeping with repentance

Tears devoid of resolution are empty. Sentiment alone does not produce the fruit of love. Challenge your tears when they fail to challenge your hands to reach out. Challenge those tears that feed the hungry but not in practice. Challenge those tears that promise change but change nothing to keep the promise alive. Rebuke those tears that fall so easy but dry up easier when once the channel has been changed. From where doth your tears flow, the eye or heart? The answer will be found in whether your tears solidify in works of charity towards God, others, self or merely bring warmth to your cheeks. Remember our cheeks were not made for warmth but for turning so that the love of Christ could subdue the weakness of our flesh.

His Own, He Who Sent Me, Abiding as One

Behold His Own emerging from within Water and the Spirit, bearing the ‘Sent’ characteristic of the Anointed One, upon whom the Father has set His seal. Come and See how pure and of what great price is the abiding ‘Sent’ of unity with which His Own fill the Father’s House upon having celebrated the Fruit of the Vine and the Single Grain of Wheat, wherein lies the meaning of the washing of the feet.

Real life is Life beyond mere 'Accident'

A 7-month long winter and my poor soul is all icicles despairing of spring’s arrival. Hope, I’m afraid is not merely buried beneath a cloak of snow but so too is its young, who would normally brighten these days of dark cold. Frostbitten toes have greatly reduced the amount of ground I once would have covered. Each step I take it seems bears witness to the presence of black ice. The tears I choose not to cry sound like hail beating off my well-worn heart. Certainty is a sign obscured by snow squalls that intermittently prove the futility of thinking with any real purpose. I feel like a man wearing the hangman’s rope yet death evades me, as the noose is not tight enough to extinguish life, simply strong enough to keep me suspended between heaven and earth in a state resembling life. When will the sentence be lifted, the prisoner allowed to go free? Is winter to increase its share of the stock and my poor soul to find itself bought out? Only the Sundial will tell. How I wish it would tell.

Love with Sight

Miserable and alone I’ve been wandering in and out of hearts looking to find a home. I’ve performed all the pleasantries for which sick people seek and knowledge at last I have that such table etiquette was mere want of soul but knowledge like this may in fact be light but its far from food for a pang-ridden heart needs love to live not just sight. For what is sight without love but a passing glance that offers plenty from afar. Love with sight now there’s a parachute that works. Love with sight now there’s a pillow upon which to find rest. Love with sight now there’s a casket without fright because its airtight and I will live forever because the Breath of my lover is mine even there in that casket. Ah! Love with Sight.

Eagle's eye view

O foot washing Shepherd lay down Your bread,

Take it up that Temple when you rise from the dead.

Prune Your sheep gently, for we are fragile and blind.

Teach us that in You, eternal life we will find.

In the tomb 4 days already we’ve been,

We pant for the Light which in You is seen.

And to be washed in Your word is to be already clean,

For Your word is Your life upon which we lean.

And in ‘Water to Wine’ we taste fully what You mean.

Summary of John's Gospel

O Fruitful Vine, O Grain of Wheat O Living Water, What Love replete. O Servant Shepherd, Protecting Gate Siloam Incarnate, Thy Hour is Late. Show forth Your Glory, Let there be Light For believing is sunrise, To ask, “By what authority?” – Night. Communion is abiding; the New Law is love Where abiding is dying, the fruit of being born from above. As the serpent is rising the bronze pole for us to see So too will believers be drawn unto Thee. For You know in Your love, Your own to the ‘End’ By the Advocate Spirit whom by ‘betrayal’ You send. Witnesses of life we are, espoused by the Well Renouncing our pottery, Your praises to tell. We are the books that the world cannot hold Which reveal the greater works, which the Word once foretold. Amen, Amen, O Come and See, the Great I am, the Lamb is He.

A Cross-eyed Vine in love with a mixed-up world

In the garden of Slumber there stood a Cross-eyed Vine; His gaze was sorrowfully fixed upon the Vinedresser’s Hand as it held out toward Him a cup overflowing with the wine of sour grapes, the fruit of a vineyard gone bad. Gracious were the full-bodied words that He prayerfully uttered thrice with persevering spirit. Fragrant was His humble acceptance of the Chalice that weighed heavy upon a world deserving of its deathly intoxication. With thirsty onlookers vying for a taste of His passion-fruit wine this Cross-eyed Vine proceeded to shade His tender branches, for which He was willing to be thrust through. He alone at that moment was to be pressed for little branches can only bear the fruit that the Vine gives them to bear in their own well-aged time. Branches can only go where the Vine chooses to grow. Be it in sorrow or sunshine the growth that matters is the love that learns to abide in the Vinedresser’s side. The Cross-eyed Vine alone knows the way to this table of plenty where the language of love is the food that doth not perish. Now having secured the safety of those who were His own, our beloved Vine was led forth into the darkness of the high priest’s house where one would expect the light of judgment to shine. And yet in the utter darkness of that room the only light shining was the light that darkness cannot overcome. Behind the curtain of his high priestly robe he was not able to recognize the presence of the Light burning before him and from here our beloved Vine was led out to be covered for the night in a chamber as if hidden beneath a bushel basket. In the morning’s youth the fruitfulness of the Vine was beginning to peak because His hour to be pressed was now at hand and despite attempts to sway His Cross-eyed truth in favor of personal safety our beloved Vine affirmed the safety of His branches to the End by willingly divesting Himself of His ‘stone rejected by the builders’ – wine, which has now become the celebrated Passover blood from which the New Vineyard has its life and in which it will always draw its life. The fruit of the Vine IS the fruit of the branches and without it there is no fruitfulness at all. The Love that sparkles therefore is the love that abides, and to abide is to lay down one’s wine for one’s friends. This is the Vinedresser’s design. Hence the Table of plenty wherein the language of love is the food that doth not perish. Our beloved Vine, with heartfelt gratitude we thank You for shedding Your wine so that in the fruitfulness of ‘love to the end’ we can call the Vinedresser – Daddy Abba, and be Your beloved Friend. Amen

The Woman at the Well

A Thirsty Lamb, Eternal Life

A betrothing well, Hosea’s wife

Her forgotten tears buried in shame,

Are brought to the surface by the Light of His Name.

No more, her burning thirst to slake,

Is a ‘water pot’ that gives no more than it can take.

For behold, ‘Living Water’ gushing forth in the Hour the Lamb awaits,

The promise of Cana, the glory of which, is the New Wine that sates.

In freedom now, Gomer may go, the Nuptial mystery of New Worship to show,

For those who were not My People, a ‘door of hope’ will surely know,

For when the hyssop with sour grape, is raised, My lips to taste,

Such as the Father seeks, will be brought to birth in haste.

No one takes My life from Me, not even your sins. I love you.

What was the cause of Jesus’ death? By this question I do not mean crucifixion or the loss of blood brought about by His scourging. What I am asking is where lies the responsibility for His death? People at different times and with varying degrees of animosity have pointed to the Jews as a whole as deserving to bear the sole responsibility for the death of Jesus hence the defamatory acclamation often levelled against them, ‘Christ-killers’. Though traditionally reference to the Jews meant for a number of people all of the Jews a more sober and realistic awareness acknowledges a specific few who in their antagonism toward Jesus sought for His ‘execution.’ Others have shifted the blame to the shoulders of Pilate and hence the Roman soldiers who beyond the shadow of a doubt did in fact carry out the order to ‘execute’ by crucifixion Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews as the charge above His head attested. There are others who would have us point to Judas Iscariot for after all it was Judas who betrayed Jesus to the Jewish authorities. Then we have those whose consciousness of their own sinfulness have ascribed to their sins responsibility for the death of Jesus. There are however those who would point to a collective culpability involving all of the above. While there is substantial truth in this latter recognition regarding collective responsibility ranging from those who had a part to play in how the actual events unfolded to the sins of people from every time and space there is yet one major consideration to be pondered in answering the question at hand. We may readily admit the truth of this consideration but too often with a contemptuous familiarity, as is often the case with simple answers. While it may be evident in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) it is abundantly clear in the Gospel of John. The Jesus that we encounter in John’s Gospel is the ‘Jesus’ over whom no one exercises any authority whatsoever without it having been given from ‘above’ or in other words from God Himself. Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus as the Word of God who in fact is God in the flesh shows us time after time His foreknowledge of people, places and events. He is never caught off guard. He knows from the outset of His public ministry the reality of His ‘hour’ which looms over Him at every moment and which paradoxically He considers His glorification. Jesus knows who it is who will betray Him, whom He still chooses in mercy to be numbered among the twelve. In the Good Shepherd discourse we find the definitive answer for which we have been looking, “No one takes My life from Me. I lay it down freely and freely do I take it up again.” Herein lies the entire mystery of the death of Christ. Jesus Himself is responsible for His death, not to be understood as suicide but rather as sacrifice. No one has power over Him and this includes Judas, the Jewish authorities whether they be Pharisees or Sadducees, Herod, Pilate and his Roman soldiers or even our filthy, disgusting sins. It is Jesus who is ultimately responsible for His death. Yes, our sins are the condition for the death of Jesus just as the Roman soldiers are in fact the ones who held the hammer and the nails to His hands and feet but it was Jesus Himself who freely laid down His life. If we do not allow this humble truth to penetrate our reflection upon the death of Christ then we shall surely fail in appreciating its true transforming depth. Consider this, if we say Jesus died because of Pilate and the Roman soldiers then we are reducing His death to a mere ‘execution’ as opposed to a Holy Sacrifice. If we say, Jesus died because of the jealousy or antagonism of some of the Jewish leaders then we are reducing His death to One who is the victim of circumstances. If we say, Jesus died because of the betrayal of Judas, then we are reducing His death once again to circumstantial victimhood. Even if we say that Jesus died because of our sins then we are reducing His death to act of necessity, which in fact robs His death of the quality of love that the Last Supper calls ‘love to the end’. If Jesus had to die for our sins then where was His freedom and hence where was His love. Only in freedom can love truly radiate. So it is that the death of Jesus is not a mere execution, but rather a Holy Sacrifice, it is not merely the result of a power struggle but rather the fullest display of power, it is not merely the victimhood born of circumstances, but rather the love that reveals a victimhood that does not respond in kind to the evils inflicted upon it. His death is not an expression of necessity but rather an expression of true freedom. As the true Passover Lamb Jesus is not a mindless animal led off to the slaughter but rather the Divine Word who freely lays down His life that by believing in and gnawing upon His Flesh and Blood the lintels of our souls may be passed over now and into eternity. In John’s Gospel the Greek word for ‘to betray’ is used with 4 different subjects. The first to betray as we know is Judas who betrays Jesus into the hands of the Jewish authorities. The Jewish authorities in turn betray Jesus into the hands of Pilate who betrays Jesus into the hands of those, presumably the soldiers who would be responsible for carrying out His crucifixion. But here comes the most intriguing aspect of the use of the word betray in John’s Gospel. Jesus Himself is spoken of as betraying from the Cross, in His hour of death His own Spirit. Though Jesus is the common denominator to all of these betrayals His own choice of betrayal is significant for He does not betray in kind. Despite how He is treated the power of His love is shown forth in His forgiveness as He ‘gives over’ His Spirit who will be the very One responsible for bringing out new life in those who believe in the name of Jesus thereby becoming children of God. As Dr. Scott Hahn has pointed out, ‘if the Last Supper was only a meal as opposed to a Sacrifice then the death of Christ on the Cross was only an execution. For who upon leaving Calvary that day would have said to others at home that they had just from a sacrifice. Rather they would have said that they were returning from a Roman execution. But what made the death of Jesus on the Cross more then a mere run of the mill Roman execution was that He freely laid down His life in the upper room where at the Last Supper He spoke the words of consecration over the gifts of bread and wine thereby making present sacramentally the Mystery of His sacrificial death spoken of in the Bread of Life discourse.” To sum it all up as regards what was the cause of the death of Christ we can look to St. Paul who says, “Christ shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” His death was conditioned by many circumstances one of which was our sins but not even our sins would have any authority over Him unless it were given it from above. Christ freely laid down His life for us on the Cross and freely did He take it up again. The mystery of this love is what the Church calls the Eucharist, the home of which is the Mass – the Sacrifice that makes the crucifixion more than a mere execution but in truth the Real Day of Atonement wherein Christ our Passover Lamb is Sacrificed.

The Freedom of Victimhood

Behold the Victim’s hands raised in Truth-rendered-fruitful. Behold a crime robbed of its sting by an act of love selflessly free. For indeed no one can take from us what we have freely chosen to give. It is freedom that gives what can never really be taken. What we fear losing we must freely surrender and in Truth-rendered-fruitful we will never suffer its loss for it will be ours always if we will only receive it back with a victim’s hand. What must we learn to surrender such that what is taken from us will do us no harm. Behold here lies true freedom. When forced to walk one mile, walking the extra mile proves the freedom of the one forced and the bondage of the one forcing. Behold the freedom that transforms the world by changing murder into sacrifice, bread and wine into flesh and blood. Behold the Victim’s hands raised in Truth-rendered-fruitful.