Sunday, May 25, 2014

Pop Quiz: Short phrases

It has been a while since I threw a pop quiz out there, so here it goes:

What is the shortest passage in the New Testament?

Please post your guess in the comments. The answer, and accompanying post, comes your way next week.

God Bless you.

  

Sunday, May 18, 2014

You are his body


"Christ has no body now but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours."
                                    - St. Theresa of Avila 


In today's Gospel, Jesus tells us He is the Way.  
This statement made such an impact on His followers, that after His death, they called themselves "Followers of the Way".  But they were more than that. 

And so are we. 

In Christ's physical absence, it was their job - and now ours - to show others the Way.

But St. Theresa's quote made me see this from another perspective. Aren't we also "the way" Christ shows His love to the world today?

A wonderful reminder, lest we forget what our first priority is here on Earth.

God Bless you.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Why The Thomas Story Makes Me Sad

I used to love the Doubting Thomas story. 

To me, it was always a microcosm of us.  We're all followers of Christ who go through periods of varying degrees of understanding - who eventually become passionate believers through the Resurrection.

Then one day I saw something in that story that made me very sad.

First, Jesus shows the eleven "his hands and sides".  Then, later, when Thomas arrives, he says "Put your finger here and see my hands".

This, of course, is meant to convince them that He was the same One who was nailed to the cross just days ago.  

But can't we look at that same image, and imagine God saying "Look at what you did. I came down from Heaven to live among you, and you pierced me"?  I mean, wouldn't the storybook version of the resurrected God have Him look pristine and whole?  

Think about that.    

God came here to live with us - which is unfathomable in its own right - and we thanked Him by putting nails into His hands.  

Who does that???  

Answer:  we do.

And by the way, how sad is it that it is these holes that finally help the Apostles (and us) believe.  Not some glorious piece of evidence, mind you, but icons of the suffering we put Him through.  

Yes, Christ showed us his scars so that the twelve, and eventually all of us, all may believe.  But for me it is also a very sad reminder of what our sins did to Him.  

God Bless you.