Ijournal entry 092616 #39. September, Month of Our Lady of Sorrows. Aphorism by Balthasar Gracian. Quotes by St. John Paul II, St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. Rose of Lima, and Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo. Article: "5 Eye-Opening Things a Layman Learned From Wearing a Cassock for a Day", by Brantly C. Millegan. "Understanding God’s Anger: Compline, Anger, and God", by Joseph Campos. Audio presentation:
"From Humdrum to Holy-A Step-by-Step Guide to Living Like a Saint", by Fr. Ed Broom
"From Humdrum to Holy-A Step-by-Step Guide to Living Like a Saint", by Fr. Ed Broom
By Balthasar Gracian
"In the house of Fortune, if you enter by the gate of pleasure you must leave by that of sorrow and vice versâ. You ought therefore to think of the finish, and attach more importance to a graceful exit than to applause on entrance. Tis the common lot of the unlucky to have a very fortunate outset and a very tragic end. The important point is not the vulgar applause on entrance--that comes to nearly all--but the general feeling at exit. Few in life are felt to deserve an encore. Fortune rarely accompanies any one to the door: warmly as she may welcome the coming, she speeds but coldly the parting guest."
MTA = This aphorism swiftly brings to memory, but on second thought, it really it serves as a warning, that it is not how you start, but how you finish. Upon hearing the starting gun, we are apt to start off with a bang, then when the going gets tough, or boredom creeps in, progress fizzles out in time. Because of my family's advice, about starting what you finish, it makes me careful about what is undertaken. Disillusionment may occur, but my motto is to stick with it. Thank God this seldom happens because of being careful about becoming involved with the passing attraction of the day.
"In the house of Fortune, if you enter by the gate of pleasure you must leave by that of sorrow and vice versâ. You ought therefore to think of the finish, and attach more importance to a graceful exit than to applause on entrance. Tis the common lot of the unlucky to have a very fortunate outset and a very tragic end. The important point is not the vulgar applause on entrance--that comes to nearly all--but the general feeling at exit. Few in life are felt to deserve an encore. Fortune rarely accompanies any one to the door: warmly as she may welcome the coming, she speeds but coldly the parting guest."
MTA = This aphorism swiftly brings to memory, but on second thought, it really it serves as a warning, that it is not how you start, but how you finish. Upon hearing the starting gun, we are apt to start off with a bang, then when the going gets tough, or boredom creeps in, progress fizzles out in time. Because of my family's advice, about starting what you finish, it makes me careful about what is undertaken. Disillusionment may occur, but my motto is to stick with it. Thank God this seldom happens because of being careful about becoming involved with the passing attraction of the day.
⚫️ “What is urgent is the evangelization of a world that not only does not know the basic aspects of Christian dogma, but in great part has lost even the memory of the cultural elements of Christianity.” By St. John Paul II
🔵 "All living creatures are sparks from the radiance of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from God like rays of the sun" By St. Hildegard of Bingen
⚪️ "If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.” By St. Rose of Lima
🔴 Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo of September 2nd, 2016
"Dear children, according to the will of my Son and my motherly love, I am coming to you, my children, but especially to those who have not yet come to know the love of my Son. I am coming to you who think of me and who invoke me. To you, I am giving my motherly love and I am carrying the blessing of my Son. Do you have pure and open hearts, and do you see the gifts, the signs of my presence and love? My children, in your earthly life, be led by my example. My life was pain, silence and immeasurable faith and trust in the Heavenly Father. Nothing is by chance: neither pain, nor joy, nor suffering, nor love. All of these are graces which my Son grants to you and which lead you to eternal life. Of you, my Son asks for love and prayer in Him. As a mother I will teach you: to love and to pray in Him means to pray in the silence of your soul and not only reciting with your lips; it is even the least beautiful gesture done in the name of my Son - it is patience, mercy, the acceptance of pain and sacrifice done for the sake of another. My children, my Son is looking at you. Pray that you also may see His face and that it may be revealed to you. My children, I am revealing to you the only and real truth. Pray that you may comprehend it and be able to spread love and hope; that you may be able to be apostles of my love. In a special way, my motherly heart loves the shepherds. Pray for their blessed hands. Thank you."
🔵 "All living creatures are sparks from the radiance of God’s brilliance, and these sparks emerge from God like rays of the sun" By St. Hildegard of Bingen
⚪️ "If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.” By St. Rose of Lima
🔴 Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo of September 2nd, 2016
"Dear children, according to the will of my Son and my motherly love, I am coming to you, my children, but especially to those who have not yet come to know the love of my Son. I am coming to you who think of me and who invoke me. To you, I am giving my motherly love and I am carrying the blessing of my Son. Do you have pure and open hearts, and do you see the gifts, the signs of my presence and love? My children, in your earthly life, be led by my example. My life was pain, silence and immeasurable faith and trust in the Heavenly Father. Nothing is by chance: neither pain, nor joy, nor suffering, nor love. All of these are graces which my Son grants to you and which lead you to eternal life. Of you, my Son asks for love and prayer in Him. As a mother I will teach you: to love and to pray in Him means to pray in the silence of your soul and not only reciting with your lips; it is even the least beautiful gesture done in the name of my Son - it is patience, mercy, the acceptance of pain and sacrifice done for the sake of another. My children, my Son is looking at you. Pray that you also may see His face and that it may be revealed to you. My children, I am revealing to you the only and real truth. Pray that you may comprehend it and be able to spread love and hope; that you may be able to be apostles of my love. In a special way, my motherly heart loves the shepherds. Pray for their blessed hands. Thank you."
This initially was a text mess sent out one day to those in that apostolate, now it is being recycled as a veggie for the GIG. The info was taken from the Diary of Divine Mercy.
Jesus to St.Faustina: M"Give away everything @ da 1st sign of a demand, even if they were da most necessary things. Don't ask 4 anything without consulting Me. Allow them 2 take away even what is due U—respect, UR good name—let UR spirit rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close 2 My Heart, not allowing UR peace 2 B disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider da words which I have spoken 2 U"
The words of Jesus speak to me in this way: The first sign of demand is signified by the present moment. Living the present moment to it's fullest is allowing everything to unfold as God is permitting or perpetrating. In peace and with great patience it is to pray and work to change what can be changed or accept what can't be changed. Every second of our lives develops in a purposeful manner in the sight of God, and for sure we can "believe dat!". So seeing things in that light, "giving away everything at the first sight of demand", that can be translated to simply praying and acting upon the following: "Lord let this cup pass, but not my will but thine B done".
In regards to:"don't ask 4 anything without consulting Me", to me it's strictly about living each moment with the dominant mindset of: Lord, what would U have me do? That essentially lets us B led by da Holy Spirit in all that we say and do. We may not always get it right, but nevertheless, when we are trying, God can meet us and write straight with crooked lines.
My response to: "Allow them to take away even what is your due, means to me making an exchange. The exchange results in a give and take situation. The achievement is receiving peace as we give up control of what is sometimes uncontrollable anyway. Resting close to the heart of Jesus, who is abiding within da sanctuary of one's own heart, if He has been granted admittance there, will allow a great work to take place. There is where by His graces, trust will construct guard rails, hedges, fences, etc., in order to seal in peace, deep. deep within. Trust is such an effective barrier, that put into action, it will bar troubled waters from affecting and disturbing one's inner peace. Like tides, they may roll in, but can be immediately repelled by twelve barriers that are coming to my mind: (any additions?)
Strategically placed must be these twelve barriers:
1. Belief
2. Acceptance
3. Understanding
4. Trust
5. Truth
6. Hope
7. Faith
8. Love
9. Patience
10. Endurance
11. Perseverance
12. Fortitude
In essence what this is speaking loud and clear in simplicity to me is: "Let God Be God, and let go minute by minute. Being docile in spirit and willing what God wills is the only way to go about living the spiritual life in spirit and truth'
Jesus to St.Faustina: M"Give away everything @ da 1st sign of a demand, even if they were da most necessary things. Don't ask 4 anything without consulting Me. Allow them 2 take away even what is due U—respect, UR good name—let UR spirit rise above all that. And so, set free from everything, rest close 2 My Heart, not allowing UR peace 2 B disturbed by anything. My pupil, consider da words which I have spoken 2 U"
The words of Jesus speak to me in this way: The first sign of demand is signified by the present moment. Living the present moment to it's fullest is allowing everything to unfold as God is permitting or perpetrating. In peace and with great patience it is to pray and work to change what can be changed or accept what can't be changed. Every second of our lives develops in a purposeful manner in the sight of God, and for sure we can "believe dat!". So seeing things in that light, "giving away everything at the first sight of demand", that can be translated to simply praying and acting upon the following: "Lord let this cup pass, but not my will but thine B done".
In regards to:"don't ask 4 anything without consulting Me", to me it's strictly about living each moment with the dominant mindset of: Lord, what would U have me do? That essentially lets us B led by da Holy Spirit in all that we say and do. We may not always get it right, but nevertheless, when we are trying, God can meet us and write straight with crooked lines.
My response to: "Allow them to take away even what is your due, means to me making an exchange. The exchange results in a give and take situation. The achievement is receiving peace as we give up control of what is sometimes uncontrollable anyway. Resting close to the heart of Jesus, who is abiding within da sanctuary of one's own heart, if He has been granted admittance there, will allow a great work to take place. There is where by His graces, trust will construct guard rails, hedges, fences, etc., in order to seal in peace, deep. deep within. Trust is such an effective barrier, that put into action, it will bar troubled waters from affecting and disturbing one's inner peace. Like tides, they may roll in, but can be immediately repelled by twelve barriers that are coming to my mind: (any additions?)
Strategically placed must be these twelve barriers:
1. Belief
2. Acceptance
3. Understanding
4. Trust
5. Truth
6. Hope
7. Faith
8. Love
9. Patience
10. Endurance
11. Perseverance
12. Fortitude
In essence what this is speaking loud and clear in simplicity to me is: "Let God Be God, and let go minute by minute. Being docile in spirit and willing what God wills is the only way to go about living the spiritual life in spirit and truth'
John 4:23-24 "But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth" |
Psalm 145:18 "The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth" |
"5 Eye-Opening Things a Layman Learned From Wearing a Cassock for a Day", by Brantly C. Millegan"
Info from this site:
churchpop.com/2015/08/29/5-things-we-can-learn-from-a-laymans-experiment-of-wearing-a-cassock/
"Esquire Magazine – not a publication ChurchPOP would normally recommend reading – published a fascinating article on August 24th titled “What Happened When I Dressed Like a Priest: An investigation into the power of the uniform.” The author decided to do an experiment to test the power of various uniforms. He bought four: the uniforms for looking like a Catholic priest, security guard, mechanic, and doctor. He explains why he wanted to do the experiment: I have no uniform. […] I have a really nice blue shirt when I want to wear one. My choice. This is a ho-hum freedom, earned in some societal shift located broadly in one or another populist surge last century. People see it as a kind of liberation. We are individuals, after all. We are not automatons or drones. We are not our work. And so on. But a great many people put on a uniform for work every day.
I’ll admit that I’ve often longed to wear a uniform, one that demanded something from me and maybe from the world around me. A good uniform represents. It makes sure you show up. It suggests a simplicity of mission. Once you slip it on, any uniform calls for its own posture. Everyone reacts. They step aside, shoot knowing glances, make room for you; or they turn away, try to forget their foggy prejudices, and ignore you. The first part of his article describes what his experience was like walking around Chicago in a full priestly cassock. To be clear, he said he didn’t lie to people or call himself a priest – he would tell people he wasn’t a priest if asked. He simply wore the priestly clothes to see what it was like. I recommend you read the whole article, but here are 5 things about his experience that stood out.
👉🏼1) People stared at him everywhere he went“One hour in the uniform and I knew this much: On a bright summer’s day, in a sprawling city, a priest in a cassock is a thing to behold. People draw out their eye contact with a priest. They give nods or bow just a smidge. Or they stare. Openly. Respectfully. Distantly.“When walking in pairs, men wind up their cheeriest selves to blurt out suddenly, “Good morning, Father.” A habit learned in high school, revisited gladly. Twenty-three blocks and the world could not take its eyes off me. A priest, striding north.”
👉🏼2) People wanted to touch him“Generally, when you wear a uniform, no one will touch you. Except the priest. People will touch a priest. On the wrist mostly. It happened to me twelve times, just a tap in the middle of a conversation. An assertion of connection, an acknowledgment of some commonality I could not fathom.
“Weirdly, the priest’s outfit was the most physically demanding uniform to wear. All day with the hugging, and the kneeling to speak to children, and the leaning in for the selfies.”
👉🏼3) Homeless people especially reached out to him for help“Especially people in need. All day long, I was faced with homeless men, homeless families, crouched in the street. Sometimes they reached up to me, touched my wrist. Twice I was asked for a blessing that I could not give. Not in the way they wanted. I started wishing that I were capable of performing a service for the world. And I found I could not do nothing.
“The uniform comes with some responsibility; otherwise, it is just a party costume. I started kneeling down, holding out a ten-dollar bill, and saying, “I’m not a priest. But I feel you.” And I couldn’t do it once without doing it a couple dozen times. Chicago is a big city, with a lot of souls stuck in its doorways. It still makes me sadder than I could have imagined.”
👉🏼4) He became part of the city tour“Exhausted, Father Tom [the author] walked to a food cart, bought a tamale, and waved to a tour bus that honked at him. They waved back, too. Both decks.”
👉🏼5) Being a priest is hardGiven how so many people looked to him for help or hope, the author concluded:
“Weirdly, the priest’s outfit was the most physically demanding uniform to wear. […] It’s easy to put on a cassock. And it’s really not easy to wear one at all.”
Info from this site:
churchpop.com/2015/08/29/5-things-we-can-learn-from-a-laymans-experiment-of-wearing-a-cassock/
"Esquire Magazine – not a publication ChurchPOP would normally recommend reading – published a fascinating article on August 24th titled “What Happened When I Dressed Like a Priest: An investigation into the power of the uniform.” The author decided to do an experiment to test the power of various uniforms. He bought four: the uniforms for looking like a Catholic priest, security guard, mechanic, and doctor. He explains why he wanted to do the experiment: I have no uniform. […] I have a really nice blue shirt when I want to wear one. My choice. This is a ho-hum freedom, earned in some societal shift located broadly in one or another populist surge last century. People see it as a kind of liberation. We are individuals, after all. We are not automatons or drones. We are not our work. And so on. But a great many people put on a uniform for work every day.
I’ll admit that I’ve often longed to wear a uniform, one that demanded something from me and maybe from the world around me. A good uniform represents. It makes sure you show up. It suggests a simplicity of mission. Once you slip it on, any uniform calls for its own posture. Everyone reacts. They step aside, shoot knowing glances, make room for you; or they turn away, try to forget their foggy prejudices, and ignore you. The first part of his article describes what his experience was like walking around Chicago in a full priestly cassock. To be clear, he said he didn’t lie to people or call himself a priest – he would tell people he wasn’t a priest if asked. He simply wore the priestly clothes to see what it was like. I recommend you read the whole article, but here are 5 things about his experience that stood out.
👉🏼1) People stared at him everywhere he went“One hour in the uniform and I knew this much: On a bright summer’s day, in a sprawling city, a priest in a cassock is a thing to behold. People draw out their eye contact with a priest. They give nods or bow just a smidge. Or they stare. Openly. Respectfully. Distantly.“When walking in pairs, men wind up their cheeriest selves to blurt out suddenly, “Good morning, Father.” A habit learned in high school, revisited gladly. Twenty-three blocks and the world could not take its eyes off me. A priest, striding north.”
👉🏼2) People wanted to touch him“Generally, when you wear a uniform, no one will touch you. Except the priest. People will touch a priest. On the wrist mostly. It happened to me twelve times, just a tap in the middle of a conversation. An assertion of connection, an acknowledgment of some commonality I could not fathom.
“Weirdly, the priest’s outfit was the most physically demanding uniform to wear. All day with the hugging, and the kneeling to speak to children, and the leaning in for the selfies.”
👉🏼3) Homeless people especially reached out to him for help“Especially people in need. All day long, I was faced with homeless men, homeless families, crouched in the street. Sometimes they reached up to me, touched my wrist. Twice I was asked for a blessing that I could not give. Not in the way they wanted. I started wishing that I were capable of performing a service for the world. And I found I could not do nothing.
“The uniform comes with some responsibility; otherwise, it is just a party costume. I started kneeling down, holding out a ten-dollar bill, and saying, “I’m not a priest. But I feel you.” And I couldn’t do it once without doing it a couple dozen times. Chicago is a big city, with a lot of souls stuck in its doorways. It still makes me sadder than I could have imagined.”
👉🏼4) He became part of the city tour“Exhausted, Father Tom [the author] walked to a food cart, bought a tamale, and waved to a tour bus that honked at him. They waved back, too. Both decks.”
👉🏼5) Being a priest is hardGiven how so many people looked to him for help or hope, the author concluded:
“Weirdly, the priest’s outfit was the most physically demanding uniform to wear. […] It’s easy to put on a cassock. And it’s really not easy to wear one at all.”
"Understanding God’s Anger: Compline, Anger, and God", by Joseph Campos
Info from this site:
www.boston-catholic-journal.com/little-office-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary.htm
"What, then, are we to say of anger ... particularly God's anger? Is not anger one of the Seven Capital Sins? How can we, then, ascribe this to God Most Holy? We are perplexed by references to God’s anger, most often dismissing them to the cultural peculiarities and obscure literal nuances of Jewish literature evident, most notably, in the Old Testament, where, we are told, God was simply misconstrued as a “God of wrath” — unlike His Son Who revealed Him in terms of love. But even in the Son we find, “the wrath of the Lamb” in the Book of the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelation).
Info from this site:
www.boston-catholic-journal.com/little-office-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary.htm
"What, then, are we to say of anger ... particularly God's anger? Is not anger one of the Seven Capital Sins? How can we, then, ascribe this to God Most Holy? We are perplexed by references to God’s anger, most often dismissing them to the cultural peculiarities and obscure literal nuances of Jewish literature evident, most notably, in the Old Testament, where, we are told, God was simply misconstrued as a “God of wrath” — unlike His Son Who revealed Him in terms of love. But even in the Son we find, “the wrath of the Lamb” in the Book of the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelation).
What, then, are we to make of this seeming contradiction between the God of Love that we have come to understand in Jesus Christ, and the God of wrath? Is He the one, or the other? Is He both? Or is it the case that the notion of anger itself is an expression of love? Remember man, remember woman, that His ways are not your ways.
God is Love
To understand the passion of God's love, we must look carefully at our own. We are, after all, made in the image of God, and God is Love. What does love prompt in us? What does it motivate us toward? Let us look deeply into our own love first before we attempt to understand the love of God, which, we are told repeatedly, is “a jealous love”. Who has not come to understand in a way that allows of no equivocation, the depth and intensity of the love of a spouse — once that love has been provoked to jealousy through being threatened by the competing love of another? In the face of this outrage, one begins to grasp the deep sense of ones value to the lover. Who has not experienced a profound and deeply humbling sense of irreplaceable worth, when the jealous love of a lover expresses itself in anger, both at the beloved and the one provoking the jealousy?
A completely righteous anger is stirred in the lover who perceives the possible loss of the beloved to another ... especially to another who would mistreat, use, and value far less the beloved who, to the lover, is of unsurpassable worth. Who would see his wife wrenched from his absolute love and devotion, throw off her dignity as wife and mother, and become in the eyes of the world, and eventually in her own eyes, a mere courtesan through the passing and passionate whim, the lies and deceits, of another? Who could withhold his anger? Who would not strike out, not in punishment, but in pain? Would we characterize, even dismiss, such a hapless man, in this paroxysm of jealousy and indignation, as simply an innately angry individual with a penchant for punishment? This is the Book of Hosea. If you really want to understand the nature of God's love and the essence of what we misconstrue as His “anger”, read the Book of Hosea. Is there a more poignant account of the love of God for His people than what we encounter in these pages?
Let us take another tack: what father, upon seeing his son innocently responding to the wanton and perverse solicitation of another man, would not scold the child in a rage as towering in height as the love that provoked it, and strike out at once and without compunction at the one seducing his son from his of innocence? What father, loving a child, would reason thus: “Well, such things are acceptable in these evil days, and any expression of anger on my part would not be deemed “correct”, and what is more, I am liable to infringe on the liberty of that man, however salacious (albeit, in a day long gone) his intentions are, and however harmful they will be to my son. I will then restrain myself, hold to correctitude, and say nothing and do nothing that would compromise my esteem in the community.” Do we not say as much in our reproach to God’s anger?
How incredibly blind we are to the love of God! We despise His anger as unworthy of a perfect God, instead of seeing the perfect love of God within it! The Father in His righteous anger — which flows from and is motivated by love — unmistakably communicates to the child exactly where the line is drawn —- beyond which only evil lies; His anger conveys nothing of malice; to the contrary, it is an indication of His watchful care — and above all else, His constant and ever vigilant love.
From the beginning — “anger” is first ascribed to God as early as
God is Love
To understand the passion of God's love, we must look carefully at our own. We are, after all, made in the image of God, and God is Love. What does love prompt in us? What does it motivate us toward? Let us look deeply into our own love first before we attempt to understand the love of God, which, we are told repeatedly, is “a jealous love”. Who has not come to understand in a way that allows of no equivocation, the depth and intensity of the love of a spouse — once that love has been provoked to jealousy through being threatened by the competing love of another? In the face of this outrage, one begins to grasp the deep sense of ones value to the lover. Who has not experienced a profound and deeply humbling sense of irreplaceable worth, when the jealous love of a lover expresses itself in anger, both at the beloved and the one provoking the jealousy?
A completely righteous anger is stirred in the lover who perceives the possible loss of the beloved to another ... especially to another who would mistreat, use, and value far less the beloved who, to the lover, is of unsurpassable worth. Who would see his wife wrenched from his absolute love and devotion, throw off her dignity as wife and mother, and become in the eyes of the world, and eventually in her own eyes, a mere courtesan through the passing and passionate whim, the lies and deceits, of another? Who could withhold his anger? Who would not strike out, not in punishment, but in pain? Would we characterize, even dismiss, such a hapless man, in this paroxysm of jealousy and indignation, as simply an innately angry individual with a penchant for punishment? This is the Book of Hosea. If you really want to understand the nature of God's love and the essence of what we misconstrue as His “anger”, read the Book of Hosea. Is there a more poignant account of the love of God for His people than what we encounter in these pages?
Let us take another tack: what father, upon seeing his son innocently responding to the wanton and perverse solicitation of another man, would not scold the child in a rage as towering in height as the love that provoked it, and strike out at once and without compunction at the one seducing his son from his of innocence? What father, loving a child, would reason thus: “Well, such things are acceptable in these evil days, and any expression of anger on my part would not be deemed “correct”, and what is more, I am liable to infringe on the liberty of that man, however salacious (albeit, in a day long gone) his intentions are, and however harmful they will be to my son. I will then restrain myself, hold to correctitude, and say nothing and do nothing that would compromise my esteem in the community.” Do we not say as much in our reproach to God’s anger?
How incredibly blind we are to the love of God! We despise His anger as unworthy of a perfect God, instead of seeing the perfect love of God within it! The Father in His righteous anger — which flows from and is motivated by love — unmistakably communicates to the child exactly where the line is drawn —- beyond which only evil lies; His anger conveys nothing of malice; to the contrary, it is an indication of His watchful care — and above all else, His constant and ever vigilant love.
From the beginning — “anger” is first ascribed to God as early as
— man in his sinfulness and guilt invariably misunderstands, or better yet, misconstrues what he interprets as God’s anger, likening it to his own which, more often than not, is unjust and proceeds from the sole desire to inflict punishment, not justly, to the end of correction that is motivated by love, the constructive love which seeks the good of the beloved — but gratuitously, as a pathological means to the satisfaction demanded by pride and exacted through fury, which is disordered anger, blind, and always destructive. There is a vital difference between the two. In fury, punishment is not motivated by love, and it is not expressed as a means to correction. It is not meted in a measure commensurable with the offense (and is therefore intrinsically unjust), and of itself seeks no coherent good — which is why it is understood as disordered. This is the unbridled anger of man, the anger that caused Cain to slay Able in the beginning. It is not the anger of God.
Who among us has not encountered a situation where gentle appeals to correction fall on deaf and unwilling ears? How often has God first said, “Come, let us reason”, and that failing, resorted to the means alone through which correction would be motivated? Even after 40 years in the desert, Israel remained “a stiff-necked people”, just as we remain obdurate in our sins until some calamity befalls us that finally causes us to recognize that the way we have chosen — which was not God's way, and distinctly contrary to it — is precisely what brought calamity upon us ... and not God, Who relentlessly called us away from it. After how many appeals to a child not to touch a hot stove, does the child yet persist until, apart from our will, he has his way ... and to great sorrow? Who will call us to account? Only after he is afflicted does he see, understand, that our appeals were motivated not by malice, but by love, and that, after all, our wisdom exceeds his own? Sometimes, perhaps even often, affliction is the only way through which we begin to trust God — Who in all ways and in every place, seeks our good.
In our fallen state, even this too often fails. So Jesus Christ came to reveal his Father not as one eager to inflict punishment — but as LOVE. In Exodus we read, “God is a God of mercy, slow to anger and abounding in truth and love”
Who among us has not encountered a situation where gentle appeals to correction fall on deaf and unwilling ears? How often has God first said, “Come, let us reason”, and that failing, resorted to the means alone through which correction would be motivated? Even after 40 years in the desert, Israel remained “a stiff-necked people”, just as we remain obdurate in our sins until some calamity befalls us that finally causes us to recognize that the way we have chosen — which was not God's way, and distinctly contrary to it — is precisely what brought calamity upon us ... and not God, Who relentlessly called us away from it. After how many appeals to a child not to touch a hot stove, does the child yet persist until, apart from our will, he has his way ... and to great sorrow? Who will call us to account? Only after he is afflicted does he see, understand, that our appeals were motivated not by malice, but by love, and that, after all, our wisdom exceeds his own? Sometimes, perhaps even often, affliction is the only way through which we begin to trust God — Who in all ways and in every place, seeks our good.
In our fallen state, even this too often fails. So Jesus Christ came to reveal his Father not as one eager to inflict punishment — but as LOVE. In Exodus we read, “God is a God of mercy, slow to anger and abounding in truth and love”
And still Israel wandered in the desert for a generation. In the 2nd letter of St. Peter, we are told, “He is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins”. When the human heart is cleansed from sin, when a heart is pure it does not fear punishment — it knows God as love
It comes to know God as “Abba”, as “Father” in the most meaningful and intimate way. It comes to understand that nothing proceeds from the hand of the Father but good, and precisely because it does not always comprehend, faith supplants understanding, and through that faith, trusts! The soul, that is to say, comes to a loving trust in God that it would never have acquired apart from that anvil of Righteous Anger ... upon which it was forged by the love of God."
"From Humdrum to Holy-A Step-by-Step Guide to Living Like a Saint", by Fr. Ed Broom
Link to audio presentation:
http://www.discerninghearts.com/interviews/Inside-the-Pages-Fr.-Ed-Broom.mp3?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)
Link to audio presentation:
http://www.discerninghearts.com/interviews/Inside-the-Pages-Fr.-Ed-Broom.mp3?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)