More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 28 - February 9, 2023
The presence of God is often subtle, small, quiet, and hidden. “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom” (Isa. 11:1–2 NAB). Our salvation comes from something small, tender, and vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. The Lord, who is the creator of the universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness. When I have no eyes for the small signs of God’s presence—the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children, the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends—I remain spiritually blind. The promise of divine presence is
...more
Jesus walks with us on the road, unrecognized; he joins us in our sadness and despair. Having been in the tomb for three days, he understands what it means to be stuck there. He listens to our story of confusion, disorientation, deep grief and loss of direction, human failure, and inner darkness. Yes, he is with us in our lostness.
God’s love is stronger than our despair, that God’s faithfulness reaches beyond the experience of divine absence, and that God leads those whom he loves through the darkness of the tomb into the light of the resurrection. That’s why hearts that have grown cold can burn with joy once again.
Speaking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus asks, “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26 NIV). These words are among the best known of the Gospels, for they radically change our view of suffering. Pain and suffering are no longer obstacles to the glory of eternal life, they have become the inevitable way to it.
Rather than expecting a life without disappointments or moments of depression, they see that Jesus comes to meet us right in those moments, with hope and the potential for a new way of seeing and believing.
The Eucharistic presence is first of all presence through the Word. Without presence through the Word, we aren’t able to recognize the divine presence in the breaking of the bread.
It is important to remember that interpreting scripture is best done with others. Just reading a bit of scripture in isolation does not allow us to enter fully into the mystery of Christ’s promise to be present when two or more are gathered together.
Eucharist—in both the ordinary and sacramental meaning of the term—is recognition. It is the full realization that the one who takes, blesses, breaks, and gives is the one who from the beginning of time has desired to enter into communion with us. To do so is to receive and recognize the gift of divine presence.
Precisely when he becomes most spiritually present to them, he also becomes physically absent. Here we touch one of the most sacred aspects of Eucharistic theology: the deepest communion with Jesus is a communion that happens in his absence. This is a mystery of faith. Christ is with us and yet we await his full return.
There is reciprocity to receiving God’s presence. We are comforted and restored to offer comfort and restoration to another who is struggling on the road.
When we “remember” God, we are touching the divine nature within our very souls. For God knows us from eternity to eternity, has loved us with an unconditional love, and has carved us on the palm of his hands. Through the spiritual practice of learning to be aware and expectant, we remember God as love and ourselves as God’s beloved.
Reading and thinking with the Christians of the past is a helpful way to widen our view of faith and solidify our trust that God is at work in often mysterious ways.
in times of crisis, many of us can’t think much about the workings of God because we are consumed with recollecting and remembering our past pain in the experience of the present moment. We go back again and again to re-look and re-feel hurtful times. The memory of unhappy events in my personal life can lead to painful and often damaging emotions.
When I relate to my past with remorse, shame, or guilt, the danger is that I will harden my heart and be unable to discern the divine presence within and without. When my heart is hardened, it is closed, unavailable, and cold. A hardened heart is a heart in which remorse has turned into morbid introspection, shame into low self-esteem, and guilt into defensiveness. When I keep thinking about myself and my motivations, constantly comparing myself with others and trying to defend my behavior, I am becoming more and more self-centered, and the divine love diminishes in me.
It is easy to miss seeing that we are not alone when defensiveness and despair are sown in our hearts.
Remembrance of Christ converts shame to compassion, which allows us to reach out to others who share our struggles. And the memory of Christ prevents guilt from overwhelming us and makes us receptive to forgiveness. The memory of Christ is thus a healing, spiritually therapeutic memory. By remembering my life and struggles in the light of Christ’s presence, my past is redeemed and can become an occasion for thanksgiving and praise.
Remembering grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, and friends who have died or gone away is not just some sentimental, pious custom of those who can’t move on; it is the continuation of a relationship that still exists and has yet to come to fulfillment. Indeed it is the Spirit of Christ that tells us there is a coming reunion more profound than the relationship in the past or present.
He is with us now, he will be with us tomorrow, and he will still be there in our near and far future. In the midst of all the storms, he is the quiet presence; in the midst of all our doubts and fears, he is the safe dwelling place; in the midst of all our restlessness, he is our home. Why feel anxious in the presence when he is reaching out his arms to us? Why worry about the future when Christ says, “I will be with you until the end of time” (Matt. 28:20)?
Jesus’s entire mission on earth was to lead us into his own divine life. In no way does Jesus want us to know less or do less than he himself knows or does. We are called to be like him, and to do the things he did. Indeed, Jesus said, “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these . . .” (John 14:12 NIV). Jesus wants our whole being to be where he is, our deepest identity to be grounded in his, and our spiritual life to be in sync with his, so that we can live our lives as he lived his—fully in God.
At the core of my faith belongs the conviction that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. What the Father said to Jesus the Son, God also says to us: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”(Luke 3:22 NRSV). Dear friends, I want you to hear this: what is said of Jesus is said of you. I know this can be hard to affirm. You are the beloved daughter or son of God. Can you believe it? Can you hear it not only in your head through your physical ears but in your gut, hear it so that your whole life can be turned around? Go to the scriptures and read: “I have loved you with
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Janet, I want you to know that you are God’s beloved daughter. You are precious in God’s eyes. Your beautiful smile, your kindness to the people in your house, and all the good things you do show us what a beautiful human being you are. I know you feel a little low these days and that there is some sadness in your heart, but I want you to remember who you are: a very special person, deeply loved by God and all the people who are here with you.”
The blessings we give each other are expressions of the blessing that rests on us from all eternity. It is the ultimate compliment, the deepest affirmation of our true identity in God.
The truth is that God loved us before we were born and will love us still after we have died. God molded us in the depths of the earth. God knitted us together in our mothers’ wombs. God has inscribed us on the palm of his hand. Every hair on our heads is numbered and counted by God. We are held by God in an everlasting embrace. We belong to God from eternity to eternity. Indeed, we are God’s daughters and sons. As beloved children, our core identity is secure in the memory of God. Whether we do anything worthwhile, prove anything important, or give anything of value, God still loves us
...more
Our first and most important spiritual task is to claim God’s unconditional love for ourselves. To remember who we truly are in the memory of God. Whether we feel it or not, whether we comprehend it or not, we can have spiritual knowledge in the heart—a...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Once we discern our identity and accept God’s unconditional love, we are free to live in the world without being owned by the world.
Beneath any diagnosis or mental health problem, there is a person who carries God inside. Psychology can give us helpful language for the varied parts of who we are, but we need theology to remind us that we can never be defined by personality or any disorder. We are defined by something deeper and wider than those aspects.
Many Christians are taught that they are unworthy and can never merit God’s love. While it is true that we will never earn God’s love, that does not mean for us to forget that God came in Jesus to give us fullness of life. We can grow into that truth, for it is a mystery of the kind of love that is really beyond all imagination.
The gospel proclaims human freedom and dignity more than human enslavement and depravity. What is needed is a balance of biblical values and emphasis on the empowering quality of the gospel. The spiritual values of humility, long suffering, endurance, and obedience are to be affirmed alongside self-reliance, freedom, proclamation, mission, and authority. The gospel that proclaims the intrinsic worth, sacred value, and essential dignity of human beings encourages our work for equal rights, good housing, good medical care, and good education, and our fight for justice and peace in the world.
When we understand the mystery that we are loved not for what we do but because of who God says we are, we are free to love others in a similar way.
When it is time to act, we must act with repentance and gratitude.
Acting out of discernment will not lead to all persons affirming our actions, but it will point to the call to transformation of our own lives and the society in which we all live.
Why should we act in the peace movement? So we can discover the source of violence in our own hearts. Why act to alleviate hunger? So we can unmask our own greed. Thus all actions for others can become acts of repentance that bring us into growing solidarity with our fellow human beings and so establish the basis for reconciliation. Indeed, God is the one who acts, and by our repentance we can hasten God’s action. Here it becomes clear that our action is part of Christ’s coming, that in a mysterious way the realization of the new heaven and new earth depends on us.
Whenever there is a lack of clarity or ambiguous circumstances, it is time to wait.
Active waiting is essential to the spiritual life. In our mostly active lives and fast-paced culture, waiting is not a popular pastime. It is not something we anticipate or experience with great joy. In fact, most of us consider it a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait.” But the paradox of waiting is that it requires full attention to the present moment, with the expectation of what is to come and the patience to learn from the act of waiting.
Waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises to us allows us to pay full attention to the road on which we are walking. It allows us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and to live in God’s present moment. Even when we are discerning for the longer term, we are called to follow the guidance we have to pray, be still, live in community, and be of service to those who cross our path. Walking with Jesus keeps us in the present. And this kind of waiting is the opposite of worrying about the future. It’s tasting the presence to the full in the knowledge that “this is the day that the Lord has made;
...more
patience does not mean passivity. Waiting patiently is not like waiting for the bus to come, the rain to stop, or the sun to rise. It is an active waiting in which we live the present moment to the fullest in order to find there the signs of the one we are waiting for.
The word patience comes from the Latin verb patior, which means “to suffer.” Waiting patiently is suffering through the present moment, tasting it to the fullest in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us. When we know that we are God’s beloved and we are free to live in the house of love, all patience is co-patience—suffering with the suffering God, thus suffering and compassion that give birth to new life. “You will be weeping . . . you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy” (John 16:20).
When we are impatient, we experience the present moment as empty and we want to move away from it. Much of our commercial culture skillfully exploits our impatience and tempts us to move toward the “real thing,” which is always somewhere else or at some other time.
Suffering accepted and shared in love breaks down my selfish defenses and sets me free to accept God’s guidance.
while it seems impossible for Christians from different denominations, and people from different faith traditions, to participate in the same Eucharist, there remains the deeper reality that the celebration of Word and Sacrament is anchored in the wholeness that one day will take a more visible form.
The good news for the church is that, whenever we direct our attention to the poor, we find the wholeness of the body of Christ.
Greater in significance than Jonas’s gift of friendship and Nathan’s offer to become a brother was Sue’s willingness to speak God’s truth to Henri and thus serve as a living sign of discernment.
