Jer. 38:4-6, 8-10; Ps. 40:2-4, 18; Heb. 12:1-4; Lk. 12:49-53
“Fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfector of faith” is faithful when we call out to him, “Lord come to my aid.” This is our hope, in a world where humanity comes short of being a “faithful and prudent steward” as servant of the Lord, Jesus is ready to respond to our plea when we pray “Lord come to my aid!” As a child or adult children of a dysfunctional world growing up with sin and suffering, abuse, broken homes, absent parents, drugs, alcohol, and all types of sinful “land mines” our hope is to remain fixed on Jesus. Jesus is always ready for us even when we are not ready for him.
Fixed on Jesus, “He drew me out of the pit of destruction” says the psalm. Bad things happen and it happened to Jeremiah when the leaders turned against him for speaking up to the people what the Lord said was to come. Take note that Jeremiah is silent other than speaking what the Lord was saying. He is handed over to death but Jeremiah remained fixed on the Lord until he was rescued and spoke directly to the king.
The Lord will rescue us if we trust in him. He is the king we are to wait for who will direct our mind, heart, and soul with what to say to those who wish to destroy, persecute, or bring us to death for speaking up against the sins of this world. Speaking against the sin of abortion, homosexual acts, gender transition, and the misuse of alcohol, drugs, food, money, and power is being the voice of Jeremiah, John the Baptist, the apostles, the martyrs and Jesus. In all of them we are to recognize we are called to speak up for the Lord’s righteousness.
The Lord will “put a new song into my mouth” says the psalm. It is a song of salvation to perfect our faith not by escaping this world but when we “persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” Jesus gives us the witness of shedding blood on the cross for our sins. Now he is calling us in our struggle against sin to resist sin “to the point of shedding blood.” Think of the lives of the saints and their acts of mortification. Think of the temptation to sin when being rejected, cursed, bullied, sexually harassed, or denied fair treatment and instead of responding with hate, retaliation, revenge, or vengeance we resist sin and offer it up to God. This is the shedding the blood of his mercy.
Saint Francis threw himself onto a bed of rose thorns and Saint Theresa of Avila who was seen on her knees with a cord whipping her back. They were ordinary people who took extraordinary acts to shed blood for their sins. We are all called to sainthood and we are all given through the church an opportunity to make a sacrifice for the Lord. It comes during the season of Lent, it comes when we kneel before the Lord in adoration, it comes in Mass when we enter into the mystery of faith beginning with our confession. In many little ways we can make an act of sacrifice, do reparation, and offer ourselves up with love, for love, to love itself. This is our shedding of blood when we are fixed on Jesus.
What is up with Jesus today? Why does he say, “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” What happened to peace, love, and unity? If our eyes are fixed on Jesus something has changed in us. It will make others uneasy, having to see themselves in the light of our reflection of Christ and they will do one of three things. They can rebel and go on the attack with words such as “religiosity, weird, eccentric, boring.” They can withdraw, avoid us and “quietly quit” from having a relationship with us. They can also be drawn closer seeking to understand asking questions that allow us to evangelize. Where does our faith fixed on Jesus become most disruptive? In the home where we not all are on the same level of commitment or share the same desire for unity with Christ. A simple test question is “Who is ready for Mass on Sunday?”
Readiness includes a predisposition to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul in the Mass. It comes with thanksgiving for all the blessings of the week. It is being childlike in our petitions trusting God and believing “the Lord comes to our aid.” It is offering up a sacrifice of praise that goes from the lips down deep in the heart. Are we that ready or are we simply minimalist, conforming to tradition but our hearts are far from God? Thank God he is love and mercy, slow to anger, and rich in kindness who knows our true self and is faithful to us as a work in progress.
The Lord works in mysterious ways. Last week, I had just finished working on my homily and closed my tablet. When I went to open it up to print it would not boot up. At first, I thought it might be low on battery so I plugged it in and waited with no result. I thought if I do the homily I am going to go from memory and that is not a good thing. My prayer was “Jesus, I trust in you. It is in your hands.” The weekend came and on Saturday I went to Best Buy to have Geek Squad check it out. At this point I thought regardless I am not getting it today. As I was standing in line with one person in front of me, I accidently dropped the tablet to the floor. My thought was this could get worse. I picked it up and automatically pressed the power button. It lit up. I lit up with a big smile of gratitude.
Rather than stress about it for days, I waited for the Lord with a new song of prayer fixed on Jesus and he answered me. Even if I had not had the written copy to go by, I believed the Lord was going to be with me and I was waiting to see with the attitude “it is in God’s hands”. God must have thought, “I don’t trust his memory.” If it has to do with God, he is on it. It all has to do with God. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He is the perfecter of faith and he is listening.
Recent Comments