New Year 2017

GOD IS LIGHT
(this is a re-working of New Year 2016)

            God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light then we have fellowship with one another and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-2:2.)

            Every once in awhile, I read a scripture passage that takes my breath away. I am awed by the truth of it and at the same time feel a kinship with the author that is hard to describe.  We have all had those so-called ‘aha’ moments in life when we know without doubt that something is right.  In my life, one was the moment when my boy friend and I looked at each other and said almost in unison, “We should get married.”  I don’t think our feet touched the ground for several days.  It felt right from the moment the words were spoken.  It was right for the next 45 years.  So it was this week when I read the passage from John.              God is light. God illuminates all.  God drives away the shadows and puts an end to fear and despair.  As if that were not enough, God came to us in the flesh to give us proof of this and to show us the way to live in that light.  What more do we need?  As a child I lived in fear of God.  It was a crime and punishment relationship and it wasn’t until Vatican II when our Pastor, Fr. Livius Paoli, taught us that the goal of Vatican II was to lead us to see God in a new way. I felt the way a parolee must feel, liberated and facing the future with hope.  John continues…..

            If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins             and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.  And again…

            If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the            righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for       those of the whole world.

            These words were written by someone whose life was completely changed by the moment when he believed.  He knew in his heart that what he had come to understand was the absolute truth and he shared it with his fellow believers, but I doubt he ever imagined people like us, so far in the future, would read them and find the truth in them. So many people still fear God, imagining themselves groveling at his throne trying to justify their lives to him and begging forgiveness, when the life of Christ and scripture passages like this one contradict that image.  How much time is wasted in fear and worry and guilt?  We say we love God, that we believe, and yet we ignore his words, “I will remember their sins no more.”  (IS 43:25)

            There is much talk about evangelizing those who don’t know Christ and how we should be bold and speak out.  But how can we if we actually don’t believe the most basic truth about God?   Where is the joy that comes from knowing that God loves us without reservation? Why should we agonize over our failings?  God doesn’t.  John wrote these words thousands of years ago and they still strengthen the heart and help us renew our commitment to Christ every day and they will continue to do so until Christ comes again.  We must walk in the light as He is in the light.

With love and hope that the New Year is all you wish it to be.

 Carol Lemelin  OPA

                       

EMMANUEL

EMMANUEL

(God with us)

Tradition holds that when Isaiah tells Ahaz that a son born to a virgin will be called Immanuel (Hebrew spelling) it is the foretelling of the birth of the Messiah. Regardless of what that means, we believe and know that God is truly with us.

It is the total meaning of Christmas - God is with us at last.

All Christians believe that God is with them, but I wonder why it is so hard to hold in the forefront of our lives at all times.  Surely God knows us well. He is completely aware of how easily we are distracted and swayed by outside influences.   So I ask myself, why does God choose to be invisible?  The perfect world of peace and harmony would have been a lot easier to achieve if God were visibly present, and yet he is not.

Jesus actually answers the question in Matthew 25:44 when he describes the final judgment.  “The King will say…’For I was hungry and you gave me food, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous asked ‘When did we do these things?’ and King replies, ‘When ever you did this for these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me.”

The answers are always there if we only look.  God is not invisible at all. God is in the face of the needy and the provider, the sick and the caregiver or the despairing and the provider of hope.  We are the human face of God.  How anyone feels about God comes from our relationships with other people.  It is easy to believe in and serve the Father if one’s father is good and kind, but if the experience is not good then it is up to others to provide the goodness and kindness in His name.

This kind of goodness is all around us.  Take Aleppo, for example.  On one hand, there are people who kill with no conscience at all, while on the other hand, there are people who work night and day to protect, rescue and relocate the innocent victims.

This seesaw that is life has always been going on and will continue forever until the Lord comes again.  We can’t wait for that day.  We have to be the face of the goodness of God all the time.  We are duty bound to make Emmanuel, God with us, visible to all.

Christmas Blessing on you all,

With deep affection,

Carol Lemelin OPA

PATIENCE

PATIENCE

 “ Be patient brothers and sisters until the coming of the Lord, as the farmer waits for the crops to experience both the early and the late rains.  You, too, must be patient.”

(Jas: 5:7-10)

If ever there was a time that calls for patience it’s this time of year.  When I look back over my life, especially as a mother, I am amazed at the endless patience God gave me to survive Christmas after Christmas.  I realize that some of the burdens I felt, I put on myself: trying to make everything balance, to make a good impression on family, to set impossible goals. Along with those anxieties, came the unrelenting impatience of the children.  No wonder it was so hard to remember what Christmas is all about.

There are numerous places in Scripture where patience is called for, but none as long-term as waiting for the Messiah.  There were centuries of prophecies foretelling the arrival of Messiah, each one more dramatic than the last.  It was something of an anti-climax when Jesus finally arrived to what can only be described as a seriously lukewarm reception.

After Jesus ascended the waiting began again.  St. Paul encouraged people to live so as to be ready when Jesus came again as though it were imminent. St. Paul can be forgiven for such wishful thinking, since he longed to see Jesus in person. But, as with the Messiah, the time is not predictable since it is God’s time, which cannot be measured by any human formula.

The birth of Jesus is more than the coming of the Messiah.  It is the coming of God to earth, to us.  The mundane environment of the stable, the loneliness of Mary and Joseph and the indifference of the townspeople touches our hearts with its familiarity and makes the event more holy and precious to us.  God came as he said he would. But in a way no one was prepared for. 

The fulfillment of the promise should color our thinking all through the season and beyond.  Patience is called for as we put our trust in God. We should never be impatient with God. God hears our prayers.  As Jesus told us, God knows what you need before you ask.  Christmas should remind us that waiting for God to act is worth the wait, because when he does act, the results are so much better than we could ask for or imagine.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

PROMISES, PROMISES

PROMISES, PROMISES

The desert shall bloom, the mountain will be brought low, the wolf will be the guest of the lamb, the lion and the calf shall walk together, the crooked road will be made straight, the baby will play in the cobra’s den and not be harmed.  All this when the Messiah comes.  So promises Isaiah. 

I heard someone say that Isaiah’s prophecies regarding the Messiah were very upbeat and optimistic. Isaiah did not intend to mislead, but believed that when the Messiah came all those trials and tribulations of his people would just be bad memories and going forward things would be better.

Things could be better. They should be better, but it wasn’t just His presence on earth that would make the difference, it would be what he said and what he did and the example he left behind. The prophecy surrounding the Messiah gives the impression that the Messiah will correct everything and make everything perfect.   That would be all well and good if Jesus were intending to do it all by himself, but that is not how it was meant to be. Obviously God’s plan was different.  As St Paul reminds us, ‘Who has known the mind of God?’

Jesus is definitely the Messiah, but he only laid the groundwork for these things to happen. He set the example, and gave the guidelines, but we must do the work.  If the mountains of greed and corruption are to be laid low, we must do it.  If the swamps of hatred and discrimination are to be drained, we must do it.  If the lions of violence are to lie down with the lambs of peace, we must see to it.  Jesus is with us to guide us but as a great saint said, we are his hands, his feet, his mouth, and his beating heart.

Advent should be a time when we contemplate just exactly what the birth of Jesus means, meant, and will always mean to the world. We must understand that this is our world and God has given us all we need to bring it peace, prosperity and happiness.  The birth of the long awaited Messiah had nothing to do with Romans, or Zealots or any other political entity.  He came to world to stay, but to stay within us.

We are the tools, we are the future, and we are the hope.  Our belief in Jesus should be obvious to everyone because of how we speak and act.  When Jesus told the disciples to love one another, he did not mean just each other and their immediate families.  He meant that leper, that Samaritan, that blind man, that fellow in the turban or the woman in the hijab or that person on trial.

Advent and Christmas pose the question; “Just exactly what does the Birth of Christ mean to me and how do I respond?

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING

In the pantheon of prayers there a many sub-divisions something like the Hallmark Card racks.

Something for every occasion and person.  But the smallest selection of prayers is Thanksgiving prayers.  Not for the holiday but for all of life.  Twenty-six years ago our family didn’t know what was coming next but we knew where we had been and so we composed a prayer for Thanksgiving Day that we felt encompassed all that we wanted to say.  I share it with you today and hope your family gets a blessing out of it.

LEMELIN FAMILY

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

Most generous and gracious Father,

we come today in humble thanksgiving.

We ask nothing from you because we

know that, without our asking, you

provide all that we need to live and be happy

in this world.  On this special day

of Thanksgiving we express our gratitude

for all our blessings.  In particular

We thank you for our very lives,

for the love we have known,

for the strength to endure pain and grief,

for the freedoms we enjoy,

for the glories of nature,

for the warmth of our family,

for the good that is in people,

for the challenges of every day life,

for the capability of the human mind to improve life,

for our faith, which guides us through all of our experiences,

and most especially, Lord, we thank you for your

continuing love and presence in our lives. Amen

Carol Lemelin

1990