Tag: Values

Prizing and Praising and Blessing

Prizing (to prize) means to estimate the worth or value of something, to value or esteem it highly.

Praising (to praise) means to express approval or admiration of something, to commend, to extoll.

   There’s no praising without prizing. We can’t sincerely express admiration and extoll something or someone if we don’t actually value and esteem that thing or person.
   Praising without prizing is a dishonest, false, and fraudulent thing to do.
   If you’re singing along in church, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow”, it presumes you really mean it, that you have a genuine appreciation of some of the wonderful works of God and value and appreciate his mercy and love.
   Good praising needs good prizing, and good prizing means first seeing and then appreciating, valuing, and esteeming.
   Good prizing needs sound values, needs open eyes and ears and mind and heart—but it doesn’t necessarily need an open mouth! That’s the praising part—that comes later.
   In the hustle and bustle of modern life and the myriads of obligations and requirements of our jobs, our families, and, in general, modern living, it’s easy to become blind and deaf to the works and actions of God in the whole world, in that small part of it where we live our lives, and in our very life itself.
   Taking time to see, to hear, to think, to reflect, to appraise, to prize, and to praise is at least as important as taking time to eat, to drink, to rest, to exercise, to care for health, to work, and to earn money.
   Prizing and praising are key ingredients of praying—in fact it’s pretty much what praying is all about. Praying isn’t just providing God with a shopping list of our concerns, hopes, fears, woes, and wants.

Blessing (to bless) usually means to consecrate, sanctify, make holy or to request God to bestow a good upon a person, place, or thing.
   In church Latin usage, to bless is “benedicere”. “Bene” means good or well; “dicere” means to speak.

   When we say grace before eating, we say, “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts…” However we also pray (e.g. in Daniel 3), “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord…”
   “Bless the Lord” can’t mean to ask God to bestow some good thing upon himself—but it can mean to speak well, in some way
   Actions speak louder than words. Any creature and all creation can “speak well” about God by manifesting him through the beauty and the wonder of his work in them.
   In this sense, to bless God means to display and show forth the work of God in us, to “bespeak”.
   Paradoxically, “bespeaking” doesn’t involve words at all. It’s means allowing the wonder of the work of God and his goodness to be seen through our lives.
   This brings us back to prizing and praising. Praising, like bespeaking, is not so much a matter of words at all.
   If the quality of our lives, our behavior, and our dealings with others are aligned with the designs of our maker, we are showing forth, bespeaking, blessing, and praising God.
   Contrariwise, if the way we live and act and treat others is not in accord with the will of God and his designs in our creation, we’re not bespeaking, blessing, or praising God at all.
   Be good—you don’t have to say a word!


30 May 2021

The Martha Complex

“To be or not to be?” For Hamlet, this literally was a life or death question. Is life worth living? Why must I prolong the agony? What have I done to deserve this? What alternatives do I have?
For most of us in this ever busy, bustling world we live in, our question could well be “To do or not to do?” Why do I have to do so much? Why do some others get away with doing much less or so little? What’s this rat-race for anyway?
Usually from earliest childhood we’re used to being judged on performance:
– “Oh, you’re such a good baby! You ate all your dinner.”
– “Oh, what a good girl! Look how nice and neat your room is.”
– “Great job! You really cleaned up the yard.”
– “Hey, man, your home run won the game!”
– “Your thesis was outstanding. You’re going to graduate cum laude.”
– “You’re going to get a good raise this year. Your work was super.”
– “Congratulations! For outstanding service, you’re going to be promoted next month.”
In the U.S., usually when you meet a stranger, after a while a common question is, “What do you do?” Meaning, of course, what is your job?
We have become used to identifying ourselves by what we do. Often it’s our label: farmer, waiter, cop, preacher, painter, aid, teacher, doctor, nurse, and the like.
You can even pass the “do” test with a label like poet, so long as you can point to your poetry, preferably published.
Once upon a time college was associated with training in “liberal arts”; now it’s much more likely to be a matter of job training and preparation.
For better or worse, we live in a world that esteems doing and doers.

O Lord, my heart is not proud
Nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great
Nor marvels beyond me.

Truly I have set my soul
In silence and peace.
As a child has rest in its mother’s arms
Even so my soul.

These verses from Psalm 131 are a good antidote to an overdose of “doing”.
Resting is not “doing”—it’s an abstention from doing. It’s just “being”.
“Being” allows basking in silence and in peace. It can be accompanied by joy and gladness. It can be far more contagious than any virus. It is the great liberation from the slavery of “doing”.
Thanks be to God for the state or stage of life when the demands of “doing” abate, when we no longer are being judged by achievements and successes, when we are retired or exempted from the requirements of doing and accomplishing.
It is a great time for “being”, especially if we rarely found much time for it before.
Poor Hamlet, so wrapped in the tragedies of his life, in what he had to do to oppose and reveal them, in the requirements of honor and vengeance, and in his relative inability successfully to “do” all that overwhelmed him, that he seemed to see “being” as no more than “not doing”.
Martha complained of Mary because she wasn’t “doing” enough. Jesus rebuked her, saying that “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
If you’ve got to “do”, do like her.


28 February 2021

Trying to Do the Right Thing

confuse  1. to mix up; jumble together; put into disorder  2. to mix up mentally; specifically, a) to bewilder; perplex  b) to embarrass; disconcert: abash  c) to fail to distinguish between; mistake the identity of

The last part of the definition is an important danger signal. It’s about something we often tend to do, and rarely recognize—although lots of folk sayings should warn us:

– separate the wheat from the chaff
– two wrongs don’t make a right
– don’t be misled by appearances
– don’t judge a book by its cover
– action speak louder than words
– all that glitters is not gold
– don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater

When it comes to right and wrong, things can get confusing. We may fail to distinguish between and mistake the identity of what is of God and what is merely human custom.
I learned a little lesson about that a long time ago, when as a young priest I was sent to Puerto Rico to learn to speak Spanish and to understand the challenges of intercultural communication.
There are many differences between North American Catholicism and Latin American Catholicism—different priorities, different popular customs, different cultural values—but the same fundamental faith.
Here’s a very simple example:
When I heard the confessions of children in New York, it was likely that their main sin would be, “I disobeyed” my mother, father, teacher, etc. But I found that in Puerto Rico the main sin of children was more likely to be, “I disrespected” my mother, father, teacher, and the like.

Are they both sins? Is it ever right to disobey or is it always wrong? Is it ever right to disrespect or is it always wrong? Which “sin” appears to be worse? Which is worse? Like many things, the more you think about them, the more confusing they can become.
Take a far more complicated example, a very contentious matter in the United States both politically and religiously, about being “pro-life” or “pro-choice”.
At first it seems simple enough: we should be both! If “pro-life” refers to respecting human life from conception to death, we certainly should try to do that. If “pro-choice” refers to respecting each person’s God-given right to make his or her own free choices, we certainly should try to do that.
But . . .
What to do, if your free choices limit or block mine or someone else’s?
Is it legitimate for me to take the life of another if it’s the only way to defend myself or to defend another or to defend my home, my family, my land, my country?
What about turning the other cheek or Jesus’ praying, as he accepted being crucified, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do”?
If I’m a doctor, must I do every possible thing to heal and prolong life even though it seems clear that my patient is dying?
Is there such a thing as a “just war”? And if so, when? Who decides? If I’m raped, must I bear the child? If I’m dying and in great pain, may I decide not to be resuscitated?
What about the execution of criminals?
O to have Solomon’s wisdom! But even he sometimes confused things and made mistakes. Hopefully he learned from them!


7 February 2021

Righteous

Basically “righteous” is a good word, but it sometimes has the feel of being pretentious or ostentatious. But it really doesn’t mean anything like that. It’s usually defined as:

– Characterized by uprightness or morality.
– Morally right or justifiable.
– Acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous.
– (Slang) absolutely genuine or wonderful.

It comes from the Middle English rightwos, rightwis, from the Old English rihtwis (cf. right & wise).

   The adjective “Right” can mean:

– In accordance with what is good, proper, or just.
– In conformity with fact, reason, truth, or some standard of principle; correct.
– Correct in judgement, opinion, or action.
– Fitting or appropriate; suitable.
– Most convenient, desirable, or favorable.
– Of, relating to, or located on or near the side of a person or thing that is turned toward the east when the subject is facing north (opposed to left).
– In a satisfactory state; in good order.
– Sound, sane, or normal.
– In good health or spirits.
– Principal, front, or upper.
– Of or relating to political conservatives or their beliefs.
– Socially approved, desirable, or influential.
– Formed by or with reference to a perpendicular.
– Straight.
– (Geometry) having an axis perpendicular to the base.
– Genuine; authentic.

The noun “wise”, as used here, is defined as:

– Way of proceeding or considering; manner; fashion (usually used in combination or in certain phrases): otherwise, in any wise, in no wise.

Okay, now that we more or less know what we’re talking about and know what the words may, can, or do mean, I’d like to recommend being righteous.
We’re desperately in need of more righteous men and women in every sense of the word, including political conservatives!
What’s a conservative really? As the name implies, it’s someone who want to conserve—presumably to conserve something of value in the judgement of that person, many persons of like mind, most persons, or everybody.
If we’re true conservatives, of course we want to conserve what is good—and develop and build on it as well. Naturally if it’s not good, we probably want to correct, improve, and better it, if possible—and if not, even start all over and replace it with something better.
You know, words are like weapons. We must always be careful how we handle and use them; it can be very dangerous and even harmful if we fire them off irresponsibly.
I think it’s a good thing to try to be an upright and moral person, virtuous, genuine, just, correct, truthful, sound, sane, of good spirit, principled, conservative, authentic, and all the rest.
In the best sense of the word, it’s good to be righteous. Righteous people are in short supply. Please help!


17 January 2021

Thomases Can Be Good and Tough

They often call St. Thomas the doubting apostle, but do you realize how daunting, not doubting, he and many of his namesakes have been?
Thomas the apostle is quoted only four times in the New Testament and all four times in the Gospel according to John.
– When Jesus heard the news of the death of Lazarus, he was across the Jordan, After two days, he decided to risk returning to Judea. The disciples counseled him not to go, reminding him that many wanted to stone him to death. It was Thomas who bravely, maybe brashly, rebuked his fellow disciples, “Let us also go to die with him.”
– During the last supper, Jesus spoke to the apostles about his “going away” and their ultimately rejoining him. It was Thomas who bluntly questioned him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
– After Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance to the apostles in Thomas’s absence, Thomas boldly demanded proof of what they excitedly were telling him: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
– A week later, when he saw the risen Jesus with his own eyes, he attested, “My Lord and my God!”
It was this same Thomas who proclaimed the Good News to the east, who went to the scattered Jewish trading posts in southern India and, as Paul in the West, preached first to his fellow Jews and then to the local folk, implanting Christianity in India.
Doubting is a mischaracterization of Thomas the apostle—a better description would be fair-minded, logical, reasonable, courageous, dedicated, and dauntless!
Many a holy namesake of his had similar qualities, like Thomas Becket, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas à Kempis, Thomas More, and many more.

Two of them were the subjects of beautiful and very moving films, “Becket” and “A Man for All Seasons”.
Thomas Becket (1118-1170), the unlikely saint (as are most such), although ordained a deacon in his youth, was a rogue and great friend of King Henry II of England.
Henry, needing more support and less interference from the churchmen of his day, decided on a master-stroke—to make his bosom buddy both Chancellor of England and head of the English Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Thomas demurred, warning the king against it, but, once given the role and responsibility of archbishop, he carried them out unreservedly, ultimate being first exiled and then martyred because of it.
Another fair-minded, logical, reasonable, courageous, dedicated, and dauntless Thomas!
The relationship of Thomas More (1478-1535) and King Henry VIII had some similarities. King Henry wanted a male heir, but was childless. He needed to divorce his wife and seek another, but, impeded by the church discipline and authorities, he broke with Rome, declaring himself supreme head of the English Church.
His intended master-stroke was to make his modest, respected, lawyer friend Thomas More the Chancellor of England, counting on Thomas’s full support for his decisions.
However Thomas More was fair-minded, logical, reasonable, courageous, dedicated, and dauntless. He couldn’t back his royal friend and was beheaded for it, for his integrity and overwhelming honesty.
Maybe you’re not a Thomas, but qualities like these could help make you a saint, too!


10 January 2021

For the New Year

If you’re thinking about resolutions, here are some thoughts about thinking:

THINK (Look before you leap!) Do I think before I react:
 – when I read an email or newspaper or magazine or book?
 – when I listen to somebody else in person or through the internet or on the radio or TV?
 – when I watch a movie or video or play?
 – when I chat, gossip, criticize, praise, or advocate?
 – when I go to a rally or sporting event or assembly or religious service?

THINK CRITICALLY (Does it make sense?)
 – Is what I see or hear fact or fiction?
 – Does it make sense based on what I have experienced or know or believe or have been taught?
 – Does it stand up to testing? What would happened if it were put into practice?

THINK FREELY (What am I afraid of?)
 – Do I just echo or relay other people’s ideas or words?
 – Do I trust my own judgements?
 – Do I know enough about what I’m talking about?
 – Do I have the courage to face the consequences of what I say or do?
 – Am I afraid of disagreement or negative reaction or criticism or dismissal?

THINK REALISTICALLY (“Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me”)
 – Do I confuse the impossible ideal with the real?
 – Do I remember that living in the flawed human situation includes me, too?
 – Do I remember that it’s “better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”?
 – Does practice make perfect or just make us better or neither?

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
 – Do I realize that there never has been, is, or will be a person exactly, 100 percent, like me?
 – Do I realize that I may have to face or deal with a situation that in some ways is different from everybody else’s knowledge or experience?
 – Do I realize that no one, short of God, knows all the right answers?
 – Do I realize that just because something never happened before doesn’t mean it cannot happen now?
 – When I come up with a new idea or recommendation or proposal for a solution to a problem, do I carefully explore its consequences and test it out before I decide if it’s right or good?
 – Can I live without other people’s recognition or approval or esteem or applause?
 – Can I live with other people’s criticism or misunderstanding or rejection or condemnation or ostracization?

THINK HUMBLY
 – Do I realize or sometimes forget that I am a creation?
 – Do I remember to seek to discern the designs and will of my creator?
 – Do I have a fixed set of values? If so, what is their source?
 – How do my thoughts, word, and deeds stand up in relation to my fundamental values?
 – Do I remember that even those who explain, teach, or preach about the designs and will of God have their limitations and imperfections?
 – Is “God help me!” part of my mind set?


3 January 2021

Wise Guys and Gals

The prophet Baruch (6th century BC) admonished his fellow Israelites, who were exiled, living in the land of their foes, growing old in a foreign land:
“You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom! Had you walked in the way of God, you would have dwelt in enduring peace.”
He didn’t rebuke them for their politics, for following the wrong leader or belong to the wrong partisan group.
He didn’t criticize them for greed or egoism, for feathering their own nests, while indifferent to the destitute and powerless.
He didn’t denounce them for their faithlessness, worshiping false gods that seemed to promise power and prestige, wealth and influence, lands and lordships, sensual satisfactions and fulfillment.
He didn’t waste time and words on symptoms and side effects. His diagnosis was of the root cause of all their failings and corruption:
“You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!” You have forsaken the wellspring, the precious source, the essence of life.

“Learn where prudence is,
where strength, where understanding;
That you may know also
where are length of days, and life,
where light of the eyes, and peace.
Who has found the place of wisdom,
who has entered into her treasures?

“Yet he who knows all things knows her,
he has probed her by his knowledge…
Traced out all the way of understanding,
and has given her to Jacob his servant,
to Israel, his beloved son.
Since then she has appeared on earth,
and moved among men.

“She is the book of the precepts of God,
the law that endures forever;
All who cling to her will live…”

Solomon, David’s son, the third king of Israel was famed for his wisdom. When the Lord promised to give him whatever he asked for, Solomon asked for “a listening heart to judge your people and to distinguish between good and evil.”
The Lord responded, “I now do as you request. I give you a heart so wise and discerning that there has never been anyone like you until now, nor after you will there be anyone to equal you.” (1 Kings 3:5-14)
Alas, although King Solomon still remains the very prototype of the wise man, he had many failings in spite of his many achievements. History has been kind to him!
Wisdom is not merely knowledge; in fact one can have great wisdom without great knowledge.
Wisdom is to know what is true or right coupled with just judgement as to action; it involves sagacity, discernment, and insight.
The root and fountain of all wisdom is God and God’s revelation to humankind. To be wise is ever to seek to discern the will of God, the design and purpose of the Creator—and to conform our lives to it.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, the evil one showed him all the kingdoms of the world and offered to give him all their power and glory if Jesus would worship him.
Jesus, embodiment of wisdom, told him, “You shall worship the Lord, your God,, and him alone shall you serve. (Luke 4:1-13)
We all have been given something of Solomon’s gift of a heart wise and discerning, and we all are tempted by worldly power and glory.
No more wise guys and gals, please, but more wise and discerning men and women.


13 December 2020

Rights of the Body

You know how it is, every now and then while reading, a word or phrase hits you. Instead of slipping right past it, you come to a full stop—and you look it carefully and think about it.
Well, that’s what happened to me last year on All Souls Day! During the Office of Readings of The Liturgy of the Hours, I was really struck by the second reading, from a book on the death of his brother Satyrus by St. Ambrose of Milan (340-397).
It began with Ambrose asserting, “We see that death is gain, life is loss” quoting St. Paul’s famous, “For me life is Christ, and death a gain.”
It was followed by what seemed, at first, an ordinary reflection on the dichotomy, the tension between the desires of the soul and those of the body:
“. . . our soul must learn to free itself from the desires of the body. It must soar above earthly lusts to a place where they cannot come near, to hold it fast.”
However, However, although Ambrose cautioned, “Though we are still in the body, let us not give ourselves to the things of the body,” his next words managed to avoid the extremism sometimes associated with Paul’s thought.
“We must not reject the natural rights of the body,” Ambrose wrote, “but we must desire before all else the gifts of grace.”
Ambrose avoided advocating the rights of the soul at the price of disparaging the body. So to speak, he saw the goodness of both, but simply prioritized one over the other.
However However this was not the way the world was turning.
Christianity had developed initially in the pagan Greco-Roman world with its ideals about physical fitness and sexual moderation, but, perhaps in reaction to excesses of that world, was beginning to stress more the dangers of the body and its desires and to esteem sexual abstinence over sexual moderation.

Towards the end of Ambrose’s life, controversies about the roles played by free will and original sin in human behavior weren’t leaving much room for considering “the natural rights of the body”.
As centuries passed, from the early exaltation of the heroism of the martyrs and the development of a theology of “original sin” to the establishment of monasticism and religious and clerical celibacy, a certain disparagement of the body gradually became enshrined as the new ideal.
The early development of psychology in the nineteenth century, especially the work of Sigmund Freud, opened a door to a radically different way of looking at human nature and behavior—especially traditional Western attitudes about sexuality. It impacted and challenged traditional church teachings and customs, and still does.
Extremism, no matter what kind, tends to provoke a counter-extremism. No surprise, then, that centuries of extreme disparagement of the body had been leading to a modern over-emphasis on its “rights”.
Extremism in rejecting or defending “the natural rights of the body” seems to underlie many of the social and moral issues polarizing our contemporary society—for example, contraception, abortion, the nature of marriage, different- and same-sex relations, and LGBT rights, to name a few.
We need Ambrose’s moderation, balance, and priorities. A person is more than a body, and everyone’s rights include more than the rights of the body. Some rights are more important than others—for example, the “inalienable rights” of the Declaration of Independence to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

30 August 2020

(Available in
Spanish translation)

Thy Will Be Done

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21)
Ay, there’s the rub—how to know the will of the Father
St. Cyprian wrote a beautiful treatise about this, about all of the Lord’s prayer. Cyprian was born in 210 in Carthage. In those days, Carthage had a proud heritage as one of the great cities of the ancient world. In Cyprian’s day it was part of the Roman Empire (in contemporary terms it was located in Tunisia).
He practiced law. He converted to Christianity and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. During the persecution of the emperor Valerian, Cyprian was tried and executed in 258.
Here’s what he wrote about the will of the Father:

. . . Your will be done on earth as is in heaven; we pray not that God should do his will, but that we may carry out his will.
How could anyone prevent the Lord from doing what he wills? But in our prayer we ask that God’s will be done in us, because the devil throws up obstacles to prevent our mind and our conduct from obeying God in all things.
So if his will is to be done in us we have need of his will, that is, his help and protection. No one can be strong by his own strength or secure save by God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Even the Lord, to show the weakness of the human nature which he bore, said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, and then, by way of giving  example to his disciples that they should do God’s will and not their own, he added: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will

All Christ did, all he taught, was the will of God:
– humility in our daily lives
– an unwavering faith
– a moral sense of modesty in conversation
– justice in acts
– mercy in deed
– discipline
– refusal to harm others
– a readiness to suffer harm
– peaceableness with our brothers
– a whole-hearted love of the Lord
– loving in him what is of the Father
– fearing him because he is God
– preferring nothing to him who preferred nothing to us
– clinging tenaciously to his love
– standing by his cross with loyalty and courage whenever there is any conflict involving his honor and his name
– manifesting in our speech the constancy of our profession and
– under torture confidence for the fight, and
– in dying the endurance for which we will be crowned.
This is what it means to wish to be a coheir with Christ, to keep God’s command; this is what it means to do the will of the Father.
(Second Reading, Office of Readings, Wednesday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, The Liturgy of the Hours)

Even though Cyprian wrote this reflection over 1,700 years ago, it’s still a great advice and challenge for you and me today.


2 August 2020

It’s Too Hard

In the Gospel According to John, at the conclusion of Jesus’ teaching about the bread of life, “. . . many of his disciples who were listening said, ‘This saying is hard; who can accept it?’.” (Jn 6:60)
Probably your reaction and mine to this would be something like that of Peter’s, when Jesus warned the apostles just before his arrest that, “This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken . . .”
Peter protested, “Though all may have their faith in you shaken, mine will never be.” (Mt 26:31-33
Here’s a simple little test for you about some of the hard stuff Jesus teaches. Are you accepting and faithful about:
– Forgiveness. “. . . whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment . . . Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt 5:22-24)
– Non-resistance. “I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” (Mt 5:39-42)
– Love of enemies. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust . . . be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-48)

– Detachment. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Mt 6:19-21)
– Priorities. “No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mt 6:24)
– Trust in God. . . .“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear . . . Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? . . . But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself . . .” (Mt 6:25-34)
– Non-judgmental. “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.” (Mt 7:1-2)
Jesus summed it all up near the end of his life when he said,“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:12-13)
This is a curious test to take, because it’s not over until you die. You know when you have passed the test with flying colors? When you have given all that you have and all that you are including your life itself!


19 July 2020