MARCO!!!

"When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem."   
                                    Luke 9:51

Some translations say, "he set his face toward Jerusalem," gazing into his destiny boldly, with unwavering resolve.

Truth be told, I don't know how to consistently do likewise. My walk with our Lord has always been one of what often seems like "hide and seek." I sometimes even feel like we're playing spiritual "Marco Polo." One minute, I know right where Jesus is and I leap out toward him, swinging my arms around in the darkness hoping to just brush against him for a moment. Sometimes I do. Other times I'm nowhere near him.

I don't think I ever truly doubt that he's there. It's just that sometimes I get so caught up in the effort I'm making that I don't take my time and pause to listen. I don't quiet my mind so as to notice a ripple in the pool here, a splash there, the sound of someone close by trying to breathe softly or not to laugh because I'm SO CLOSE!

And the longer my eyes remain shut the easier it is for me to become more fearful. Am I alone in this thing? Has he lost interest? Does he even want to play anymore? Should I try a real quick "FISH OUT OF WATER!!!"? How little faith have I to ask such questions? We're not talking about some absentee landlord deity, here. This is the Lord of Luke 9! This is the Jesus who "sets his face" toward my perfect, or rather "perfected," life with him forever and who resolutely determines to guide me there every step of the way.

But he wants me to make the choice, to take the step, to walk the walk - to be truly free. Love bought or sold is no love at all. He'll never take away the challenge or the toil, but neither will he refuse to yell back "Polo!" enthusiastically each time I belt out "Marco!"

Lord Jesus, guide my every step. For I abandon myself entirely to you... MARCO!

The Devil = Creation's biggest loser

Here's how scared of Satan St. Michael
the Archangel is...

The evil one, the "father of lies," is said to be like a lion, "looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Always prowling, he lurks about in the shadows. He usually does not come in great pomp and circumstance - not in a show of strength. No. His ways are far more diabolical.

Satan tickles our ears and his wicked patience is sometimes maddening, for he seemingly lures us at every moment. He does not do so in order to have us for himself, but rather to tear us away from God through selfish pride. After all, thieves are sometimes just as motivated by the satisfaction of harming someone they despise by means of theft than they are by the stealing the item itself.

He doesn't really care about any of us or want us "on his side." He wants God to be robbed of us because God loves us. In fact, tradition claims that it was God's unbounded love for human beings that served as the catalyst for Satan's hatred and downfall. He could not accept that God would humble Himself so much that He would become one of us. Being shown such intentions he traditionally uttered those cold, hard-hearted words: "Non serviam!" ... "I will not serve!" Then he and his ilk plunged into darkness.

The Devil, being ancient and a fallen seraph or "angel of light," is more cunning and more dangerous than we can ever really comprehend. Such has been the faithful's understanding from the beginning. His is the way of deception, confusion, trickery. We can meet him around any corner, in a stranger, in a friend, in a relative, in ourselves. Christ saw the devil leading Peter astray and shouted, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me," (Matthew 16:23). We must never forget that he is very real and very dangerous - to do otherwise would be a grave mistake (there's a saying that the greatest deception Satan ever managed was convincing countless people that he doesn't exist).

All things considered, though, I think that his pernicious meddling can sometimes lead us to attribute too much power to him. The Devil is not the "God of Evil." He is a created being. He is limited. While we should strive to be more vigilant against his tactics, we should also recall that he is absolutely incapable of separating us from God without some form of our consent. As we hear in the scriptures, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," and again, "Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings" (James 4:7 and 1 Peter 5:8-9, respectively).

Remember the utter cowardice and immediate fear the demons showed the instant they recognized Our Lord? "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" (Matthew 8:29). Only too well do the fallen ones know Christ's power (cf. James 2:19), for when one flips a light switch do the light and darkness battle it out in the room before one eventually wins? No. Light immediately banishes darkness - there is no contest.

We should keep such wisdom in the forefront of our minds and frequently invoke God's most Holy Name in times of spiritual battle. For as St. Paul so wonderfully wrote: "God bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11).

"The Way, the Truth, the Life"

Today we are reminded of this famous exchange in the Gospel in which Jesus begins: "'Where I am going, you know the way.' Thomas said to him, 'Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:4-6).

It seems to me that there is an ever-increasing list of various "ways" to find fulfillment, meaning, purpose, and ultimately God Himself. But that's not what Jesus says. I've been thinking and praying an awful lot lately about the various "Jesuses" floating around out there in popular consciousness and in society. They can't all be true, though, and when we fall prey to the temptation of fashioning Jesus in our image rather than recognizing how backward that is, we run into some problems.

I would merely ask a question:  Why is it so hard for us to take Jesus at his word? Those who truly believe in him have professed all along that WHO Jesus is is exactly who he claimed to be, namely the only Son of the Father - God made man, in the flesh. And if we can accept that, countless doors will open. 

When we can stop worrying about finding "ways" or "truths" or the "life" that's just right for us, we can see with the eyes of faith that Jesus himself, in his person, IS the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE! It is precisely "through him, with him, and in him" that the full meaning of human life is perfectly expressed.

May we, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, learn to see the truth that we don't merely trudge along a lonely road with God as our ultimate goal, far off in the distance. Rather, He is with us every single step of the way, enabling us to see clearly each step of our lives in his matchless light.

Gang nach Emmaus, Robert Zünd (1877)

My FAVORITE New Testament moment...

Pope Francis and PRAYER

"For me praying is in a certain way an experience of trust in which our whole being is in the presence of God. This is where dialogue, listening, and transformation occur. Looking at God, but above all sensing that we are being watched by Him. This happens, in my case, when I recite the Rosary or the psalms or when I celebrate the Eucharist. However, I would say that I have this religious experience whenever I start to pray for an extended time in front of the tabernacle. Sometimes I doze while remaining seated and just let Him look at me. I have the sense of being in someone else's hands, as though God were taking me by the hand. I believe that it is important to arrive at the transcendent otherness of the Lord, who is the Lord of all yet always respects our freedom."

- Pope Francis (then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in the book-length interview El Jesuita by Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti)

"For He is GOOD"

In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Psalm 107(106):20 reads "ἀπέστειλεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ καὶ ἰάσατο αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐρρύσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῶν διαφθορῶν αὐτῶν."  The English translation reads, "[God] sent forth his word to heal them, and snatched them from the grave."

The psalmist recounts the struggle of his people, both spiritually and earthly. He recounts the arduous toil of the Israelites under the whips of the Egyptians and God's might at work through Moses that freed them and led them into the Promised Land.

He also speaks of the people's betrayal of God over and over again from the beginning and the pain and suffering that disobeying God brings. This is not because God is waiting in eager anticipation for the first chance to punish us. Rather, when we of our own choosing turn away from Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Life Himself, we naturally reap what we sow (and we break His heart every time we do it!)

What caught my attention first in the psalm, and indeed throughout salvation history, is God's faith in us. He is always there, so patient and loving. He can't hardly wait to save us, to free us, to bring us home again no matter how often we run off.

But what struck me most of all was, thanks to my modest exposure to biblical Greek in seminary, a linguistic observation. Take a look at the Greek phrase "ἀπέστειλεν τὸν λόγον." "He sent forth his word." The prologue of John's gospel depicts God's "logos" - the mind of God, His word, indeed a real person whom Paul in Colossians 1:15 calls "the image of the invisible God." We are made in God' image and likeness, but as Paul says, Christ himself IS the image of the Father - His Word made flesh. This is His only word, the fullness of His revelation to mankind, and so Jesus proclaims, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

How beautiful! Centuries before God the Father reveals Himself fully in the person of His Son, the psalmist rejoices in thanksgiving that God has "sent forth his word" to heal his people and rescue them from death itself. I wonder what his reaction was after passing from this life into the next and seeing the rest of the story...

Eight years later...

Blessed Pope John Paul II
May 18, 1920 - April 2, 2005

“The Gospel lives in conversation with culture, and if the Church holds back from the culture, the Gospel itself falls silent. Therefore, we must be fearless in crossing the threshold of the communication and information revolution now taking place.”