Lin Wilder's Blog, page 52

The Empty Sky

The 11 men  stood staring at the now empty sky long after  they had watched the resurrected Jesus  ascend above their heads.

 

If You Loved Me

If you loved me…such a very human phrase. Almost banal. At one time or another, many of us have uttered that conditional phrase. Certainly young children and teens do as they justify their desire for something or someone judged undesirable  by a parent.

 

Thinking About A Novel- Writing One?

Is writing a novel somewhere on your bucket list?

 

The Good Shepherd

On this Feast of the Good Shepherd, I think of a hike I took up in the mountains behind our home here in the high desert about two years ago.

Good reflection for this Sunday's gospel, Lin. I like reading ... by Almita 

Our Adopted Dog Seymour

In just over four months, our adopted dog Seymour has taken up residence in our hearts. Even our other dog Shadow, who wasn’t all that crazy about his new four-footed roommate, protects him when he needs it. This little guy who evokes curiosity from most of the humans he meets is a remarkable combination of zany, boisterous, gentle, playful and annoying habits.

 

St. Thomas- Gifts of Doubt and Faith

History gives St. Thomas the Apostle a bit of a bad rap. Most of us consider him as ‘doubting Thomas’ remembering only his impudence. At least his words sound like the very essence of audacity:

a]">[a] in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?”

 Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world.  But at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.”  Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.”

The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died.

 So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.  And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”

nicknamed the Twin,  said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”

 And later, during the Last Supper, it was Thomas’s heartfelt plea which evoked the sublime reply.

“I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas’  question, “how can we know the way?” caused Jesus to answer, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”

And finally:

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

 

We’re tempted to overlook the fact that it is Thomas who is the first to see Jesus as one with God the Father. Not even Peter had put together the two persons of the Trinity. Even more, we easily overlook the splendor of Christ’s gentle, gracious reply to his Apostle. ‘Blessed’ are those who did not see my pierced hands and feet. Who never witnessed the wounds in my side.

You and me. Blessed.

“Faith is not a product of reflection nor is it even an attempt to penetrate the depths of my own being. Both of these things may be present, but they remain insufficient without the ‘listening’ through which God, from without, from a story he himself created, challenges me.” — Benedict XVI

The post St. Thomas- Gifts of Doubt and Faith appeared first on Lin Wilder.

                                     

The Four Chaplains

Before boarding the United States Army Transport ship Dorchester back in January, 1943, a Dutch Reformed Chaplain named Poling asked his father to pray for him, “Not for my safe return, that wouldn’t be fair. Just pray that I shall do my duty…never be a coward…and have the strength, courage and understanding of men. Just pray that I shall be adequate.”

 

When Jesus Came to Birmingham

 

When Jesus Came to Birmingham was written by an Anglican minister named Geoffrey Stoddard Kennedy. He called his poem, ‘Indifference.” Kennedy served as a chaplain in the trenches of World War l where he earned the name “Woodbine Willie” because of his habit of giving Woodbine cigarettes to the injured and dying soldiers.

 

Palm Sunday

He rides into Jerusalem amidst lavish, unrestrained, almost unanimous exaltation.

 

The Young Messiah

The Young Messiah takes a year out of the life of Christ- a seven year old Jesus bar Joseph. If you have read Anne Rice’s Jesus Christ the Lord – Out of Egypt, you’ll soon recognize this intriguing, beautifully scripted, filmed and acted story of the God-child. If not, you may choose to seek out this most imaginative and visionary glimpse at the Holy Family as they travel back to Nazareth.

The first thirty years of the life of Jesus is wrapped in mystery. The Bible tells us only that Joseph was directed in a dream to take Mary and the divine child to Egypt to escape Herod’s slaughter of all Jewish male children under the age of three.

Cyrus Nowrasteh directed and adapted the screenplay and explainins that this Rice’s book was …”as fresh and original a take on the Jesus story as any I have ever read…it’s all about a sense of wonder through the eyes of this very special child.”

Indeed.

Throughout my read of Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt, several years ago, my sense of wonder at the radical elements of the story never left me. Wonder at the distinct feeling that I had been invited to a private viewing of the private and intimate lives of Mary, Joseph and their child of God.

Rice deftly deals with the ordinary consequences of the extraordinary events surrounding the child. Like the jealousy and confusion of older brother James, like the suspicion and fear of neighbors of the aura of ‘magic’ shrouding the small family. Like the absolute mystery of Mary, her evident and unexplained pregnancy before her marriage to Joseph.

Each of these elements of Rice’s original book is preserved in the screenplay of the film. As is the impression that we are watching an ordinary Jewish family charged with the impossible- protection of the son of God. One of my favorite passages in the book was preserved in the film. Mary finally tells her son the astonishing story of his birth.

“I will tell this story only once,” the blessed  mother begins, ” so listen now. I was only fourteen…” 

Once again, there is this paradoxical impression of an ordinary mother and her child discussing the commonplace facts surrounding how he came to be.

The  most perfect description of this movie was penned over two thousand years ago by St. Paul:

Though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.*

Rather, he emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

coming in human likeness;

and found human in appearance…

Director Nowrasteh states that there is one fact agreed upon by all theologians. Jesus was entirely God while mysteriously wholly human, always.

If there’s one thing I found consensus about, it’s that Jesus was always God. But in his human experience in some matters, he veiled his divinity in accordance with the Father’s will. He subjected himself to physical, intellectual, spiritual, social growth. The Son of God is voluntarily put in the position of assimilating knowledge as a human being, as he becomes like us.

I felt that gave us a lot of latitude. There’s a line in the movie where the boy says: “There were angels at the river. I couldn’t see them, but I know they were there. How do I know that?” This is clearly a child who knows something’s up, who knows there’s something different, and he’s seeking and searching to gain that wisdom…

 

The post The Young Messiah appeared first on Lin Wilder.