MISTAKES

MISTAKES

Made any big mistakes lately?  If you can say no to that, you probably have been in bed with the covers over your head.  We all make mistakes. That’s a given. Sometimes there is a quick recovery and other times there is no recovery possible. Quick recoveries often include apologies and/or rapid effort to stem the harm caused.  A lot of times we would just like to pretend it never happened, that we didn’t say the things we said, but that never works.  Usually we have to just go forward and take the heat.

St. Paul was an enthusiastic persecutor of the early Christians.  He regarded them all as heretics and blasphemers.  His reputation for violent reaction was well known.  Then one day, on his way to Damascus to round up these criminals, he was thrown from his horse by a bolt of lightening which blinded him.  Imagine!  This proudly arrogant man, so sure of himself, was suddenly helpless.  As he stumbled around in confusion a voice said; “Saul, why do you persecute me?”  This was his introduction to Christ.  After he recovered his sight and was instructed by others, he reverted to his Roman name, Paul, a name more familiar to Gentiles, and began to preach the Good News.

Was everyone happy about this?  Would you be?  If ever there were a time for skepticism, this would be it.  Everyone was convinced that this was a new ploy of Paul to worm his way into the trust of the People of the Way, only to turn on them and have them killed.  It was Barnabas who believed in Paul’s conversion and encouraged the others to give him a chance. 

Paul took the heat and moved forward.  God used all that ego, arrogance and energy to further the gospel.  Who better to show the power of Christ than a man who had been his archenemy?  Paul did a complete turn-around, baffling everyone. 

All the events surrounding Paul’s astounding change of heart reveal plainly the hand of God.  Trusted people suddenly came to Paul’s defense; disciples heard God speak to them on Paul’s behalf.  As you read the conversion story in Acts: 9:1-30, it’s quite obvious that God is in charge.

Most of our mistakes don’t get reversed with quite the same drama, but if we understand that, like with Paul, God can and will use whatever we do for his own ends, we will begin to put our trust in Him to use our mistakes as he sees fit.  That’s not to say that apologies, amends, humiliation and shame will not be required but it’s the end result that counts and with God’s help, we will recover and resolve to do better.

With total confidence in God, Paul went on to travel far and wide and preach.  He endured enormous resentment, opposition, violence and imprisonment with the same rugged stubbornness as always.  God knows who we are and cares for us. Trust in Him.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

Finding the Truth

FINDING THE TRUTH

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:14-19)

As St. Paul prayed for the Ephesians, so must we pray for each other.  The only way the message of Christ, which is the will of God, can be spread throughout the world is for believers like ourselves to search for the ultimate truths about God which we can then share with others.  We must reach back past the institutional church, past the laws, the customs, the traditions and seek, as Paul says, the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ. 

When the authorities confronted Jesus, he knew everything they knew. They tried to trip him up but he was not fooled.  He questioned their motives and warned them, that if they maintained their attitudes of self-justification and self-righteousness, they were heading for disaster, but they ignored him. They crucified him instead and in 72AD Rome came down on them and destroyed their temple and their city. 

It wasn’t that God had punished them; it was something they brought on themselves by refusing to live their lives according to Scripture.  They built a power base of laws by which they ruled the people. They used Scripture and tradition as their rationale for lording it over the people, but in reality they ignored Scripture except when it suited them. 

St. Paul is always cautioning the early Christians to avoid complacency, rather, to grow in faith and understanding through the Holy Spirit. He encourages them to know Christ. He tells them to be brave, to speak out as he has done because God is with them and will give them the words and the strength to proclaim them.  It’s as true today as it was then.  Except for some particulars, we are no different than the early Christians and we can invite God to dwell within us so that we, too, will be grounded in the love of God through Jesus Christ.

We would do well to remember to pray for those in this world who must speak out even though they are at risk if they do..  Like Paul, we should kneel before God and ask him to strengthen these disciples with the power of the Spirit.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

PRAYER

PRAYER

Lk 18:1-8   The Judge and the Widow

 ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

Luke 11:5-13   The Neighbors

I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

These two readings are often used to illustrate how to pray, suggesting that if we persist in pestering God, he will eventually relent and give us what we want.  Looking at various translations of the parables, we get a wide variety of words like impudence, sheer audacity, pestering and nagging in place of persistence. None of those words are appropriate for prayer.  When Jesus explained to his disciples how to pray, he said, “When you pray, don’t babble.  God knows what you need before you ask.”  Those words should be the model on which our prayer is based.  Jesus also said, ‘Pray always’, which means to keep the line of communication with God open at all times wherever you are, whatever you are doing.

Some things we should ask ourselves –

Do I love God?

Do I trust God?

Do I believe in His promises as told to us by Jesus? 

If the answers are yes, yes and yes, then ask yourself one more. 

What’s all the begging for? 

We act as though God does not hear us, making it necessary to repeat our prayer over and over again.  This is based on our flawed understanding of what God’s love means.  If only we could rid ourselves of the notions that God can be bribed or cajoled into giving us what we want, and that if we nag enough, he will relent.   On the one hand, we say with apparent sincerity, that God is all love, but on the other hand we pray as though he is, either Santa Claus, a puppeteer or deaf.  We constantly forget that God is not us, prey to moods and unpredictable instead of steadfast and faithful.  “God knows what you need before you ask!”  God does not require anything from us except our heartfelt sincerity. God’s love is transcendent. God only wants what is best for us and if we would trust that, we would know what the peace that Christ offered us really means.

God is as immense as all the universes, and as close as your next heartbeat. 

Believe it.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

Jesus, The Revolutionary

JESUS, THE REVOLUTIONARY

I wonder if we ever realize that Jesus started a genuine revolution.  Admittedly, only in Israel and only among Jews, but the ramifications have spread to the whole world for 2000plus years.  There was quite a battle going on in Galatia between St. Paul and the Jewish leaders there.  They were insisting that circumcision be mandatory for any gentiles who wanted to be counted as followers of Jesus and St. Paul was adamant that this was a grave mistake.  Circumcision was critical to Jewish tradition, but Paul insisted that if a man submitted to it, he would then be bound to the laws, which Jesus said were strangling the people’s relationship with God.  Paul’s last words on the issue were these, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we await the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (Gal 5:5-6)

Pope Francis faces a similar situation as he tries to whittle down the many laws that have developed over time in the church.  The problem with these laws, as with the Jewish law, is that they become the faith for some and obedience to them is seen to be the road to God and often encourage judgment of one another.  Jesus opposed this in no uncertain terms over and over.  When the Pharisees condemned him for curing on the Sabbath, he countered by asking them if a prized animal fell into a pit on the Sabbath, wouldn’t they pull it out regardless of the law that forbid physical labor on that day? The Pharisees took every opportunity to judge Jesus’s actions.  One criticized him for not doing the ritual washing before a meal and Jesus responded that they would clean the outside of the cup and dish while the inside remained filthy.  Jesus was never subtle when he spoke to this issue.  No one could mistake his meaning.

Laws may have their place, but a relationship with God through Christ does not need a slate of laws, but only faith in Him, love for Him and for one another.  When those things are in place, the need for laws disappears.  The bond between God and a believer is deep and strong.  It transcends everything else because it so powerful, it can withstand any and all obstacles.

Take up Chapter 23 of Matthew’s Gospel and read how vehemently Jesus condemns those who demand obedience to the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the law.  These statements are his revolutionary manifesto.  The simplicity of his message, that is, loving one another and loving God are sufficient for salvation, was too much for many people of his time and is too much for many people today.  Be that as it may, it is still true that following the commandments that Jesus set down, are all we need for peace in our hearts and in our world. 

“Love one another as I have loved you.  This is how all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA

SPIRITUAL STONES

SPIRITUAL STONES

I love you, Lord, my God.  You are my rock and my fortress.  My deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength. 

(Psalm 18:1-3)

Throughout Scripture God is referred to as a rock. Moses’ relationship with God involved rocks a couple of times and in Deuteronomy he says: “The Rock, his work is perfect.(Deut. 32:4)”   Isaiah says, “ The stone, which the builders rejected, has become the cornerstone.” (Is: 28:16)

What do we think of when we hear the word?  We think of a big stone, a strong man, a dependable friend or a building foundation – all those things.  Sometimes you see a huge rock on someone’s lawn and wonder if they built the house around it or did they really haul it there?  There is something awe inspiring about big rocks and in a strange paradox even though they haven’t any, they are a symbol of strength. 

Jesus was a master at metaphors to which people responded.  When first he changed Peter’s name from Simon to Cephas (rock) and said, “You are my rock” His meaning was clear to all.  “This is the person you can depend on and I know he will lead with strength and not fail.” 

During his leadership of the infant Church, St. Peter, in one of his letters, calls on the faithful with these words, 

“Come to Him, the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and like living stones let yourselves be built into a spiritual house…acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter  2:4-5)

Peter is calling all believers, including us, to become the spiritual rocks on which the faith will rest.  It is a huge challenge.  It is much more comfortable to lean on others to lead the way, be brave, speak up and be the rock, but Peter, living up to Jesus’ trust in him, calls us out and challenges us to be the spiritual rocks.  We can’t just sit like that landscape rock and consider our lives justified.  It isn’t enough for us to simply build our lives on the rock that is God; we must also, by our example and words, encourage others to do the same.  In that way too, we, like Peter, are rocks.  We have to live so as to bring others to the same understanding, actively, consciously.  Faith in God is the rock and we are the foundation rocks upon which his kingdom on earth is built.  Everything else is sand.

Blessings

Carol Lemelin OPA