Little Miracles

 

I read tomorrow’s Gospel about three miracles Jesus performed (Mt 8).  He healed the leper, the centurion’s servant (who was far away), and then Peter’s mother-in-law.  The severity of their illnesses varied, and it occurred to me, first of all, that Jesus did them all out of love, the reason for all His miracles.  Despite being fully human, I don’t recall Jesus ever performing any miracles out of anger, hurting people.  They are all God’s children and despite their sins, He loved them anyway.  All his miracles were out of love.  But a second thought occurred to me: these were little miracles.  By definition, miracles are beyond human capabilities, but Jesus is also God and as God, even as He created all people, can heal all people.  So, relative to God’s capabilities, these three miracles described in Matthew are minor things.

As God, He has done much bigger things (like created the universe), and will do much bigger things in the future, things way beyond our understanding.  So, why did Jesus choose to do these relatively little miracles?  Now, we can speculate all sorts of reasons why God does things, but these were visible examples, done in front of a group of people.  Why little miracles, when He could have done much bigger ones, so that everyone would know beyond a doubt that He was God.  Why didn’t He?  I think (sometimes I do that) that perhaps He tells us why in many places in the Gospels:  He came to teach us, teach us how to live as we were created to.  He came in human form to give human examples.  Words from on high wouldn’t get His message across.  He needed to give visible examples of how He created us to live.  He did tell us how, bluntly, in a few places in the Gospels:  Love God and love neighbor, and you will have eternal life.  God IS Love, and humans were created with the capability to love, and grow in love, and so to become more like Him.  The Gospels and His actions are nothing but examples of how He loved, and therefore how we should love.  He loved so much He couldn’t NOT work some miracles when they were called for, but they are done so they could be seen as examples of loving someone in need of love.

The Catholic Church identifies some people as saints, both because of the confidence they are in heaven, and the further examples they were of how to love.  Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a saint, and was famous or saying: “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.”  All persons and experiences of our lives are important, as opportunities to love God and neighbor, and so take another step towards eternal life.

We all can do little miracles. We were all given free will, and we can choose to love.

The Heart of Jesus

 

Learn of me because I am meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29)

 

Reflection number 214 in Divine Intimacy hit home with me this week on a number of points.

(Meekness) is the virtue by which man is enabled to master everything that falls under the heading of “anger”.  Now I don’t fall into rages, but I find that often something or someone does cause me irritation, and sometimes for reasons I don’t understand.  These irritations are almost always caused by … something which wounded our ego.  I guess if I defined my ego as “getting things my way”, I can see the book’s comment. For me, that applies equally well to the guy who is driving too slow in front of me (or tailgating me) as well as to my not finding anything interesting on the radio.  They irritate me.  And it also applies to the more obvious:  pain or suffering.  In my last posting, I noted how God created us in His Image, with “an ability to love.”  If I regularly fail to do what He created me to do (love as He does), would He be wrong to see me not worthy of having been created?  I don’t think God would ever see me in that light, but it is a good reminder to work more deliberately on the virtue of meekness, and control of anger or irritation.

That Divine Intimacy reflection goes on.  It takes only a small amount of pride, of self-love, … to make us unable to stand opposition.  Then we lose our serenity and become irritated.  If serenity is lost, calmness of judgment is also lost, therefore we are no longer able to see clearly the Divine Light showing us which path to follow.  I like that wording.  It implies getting angry gets me lost AND, that self-love is the problem. You can see why God considers anger a sin:  He made us with the ability to live in His Image, but God is not all about self-love, that is not His image.

It seems that some people act as if they were like God, totally in control of their lives.  If they truly want to be like God, however, they will love, God and neighbor.  And no one else.  The heart of Jesus is our model.

Then that Divine Intimacy passage conclude with this prayer:

O most Sacred Heart of Jesus.  You desire so ardently to shower Your favors upon the unfortunate, and to teach those who want to advance in the school of Your love; You continually invite me to be meek and humble of heart like You.  For this reason, You convince me that in order to gain Your friendship and to become Your true disciple, I can do nothing better than to try henceforth to be truly meek and humble.  Grant me, then, that sincere humility which keeps me subject to everyone, which makes me bear little humiliations in silence, which even makes me accept them willingly, and with serenity, without excuse or complaint, remembering that I really deserve more and greater ones than I receive.

I shall listen attentively to Your sweet words: ‘Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’  I can see that the storms I bear arise solely from my self-love, my vanity, my attachment to my own will.  Defend me, O Lord, protect the peace of my soul.

Amen.

What is Life?

 

The men’s group met this morning and watched some videos on the upcoming Father’s Day.  The Edgar Guest poem and Scott Hahn’s interpretation of Scriptural references to fatherhood were then discussed by the men.

A lot of the discussion reflected events of the men with their children and grandchildren.  Much differing from one another, yet much the same.  We all had our own perception of a good father, and/or the father our kids allow us to be.  I have no children, but opined that it seemed sad to me that so few parents bring kids to the adoration chapel to spend time with God and, if at all, it is usually mothers bringing their kids.  I rarely see fathers bringing their sons, a key example of modeling and teaching which most fathers are missing.  “No,” some offered in a differing viewpoint, “It is the mothers that kids look to for wants/needs and teaching; fathers are disciplinarians in a family.  And I thought:  God the Father is not a father of discipline only --- as the Old Testament Jews often saw Him --- but I was quiet.

Leaving the meeting, I saw the bright sun peeking through the morning clouds, shining on me.  I often feel as if that is a personal event, and then a thought suddenly came to me: “What is Life?”  And the answer came just as quickly: “It is an opportunity to love”. 

I pondered for a moment on how those thoughts related to fathers and their kids, and while I could create a relationship, that did not seem to be the point of the thoughts.  The questions asked weren’t relating to earthly fathers, I realized, but to our heavenly, Eternal Father.  Why did He create life?  His act of creation was an opportunity for God to love, doing what is the essence of His Being: God is Love.  From His viewpoint, the life He created was an opportunity for His creation to love, for it was made in His Image.  At his best, man is the image of his Spiritual Creator Father, so man loves.  The Father could not have created anything more valuable to Himself.

I see the morning sun so bright.  A mirror reflection is not the sun itself, but it is almost as bright.  I think God created us to be that way, as mirror images of Himself.  A mirror can spread the sun’s light, and man can spread God’s love.  Jesus said: “Love God, and love your neighbor as I love him” --- like a mirror image.

What is life?  From God’s viewpoint, it is an opportunity to love, and the focus of that love (man) can image His love, spreading it farther.  God is Spirit and cannot grow in human terms, but in man He can see growth in love.  And to help us understand God, He sent His Son as a man, to show us what His Love looks like.  He gave Jesus a human life, and an opportunity to show man what growth in love, perfect love, can look like (although every man is created as a unique being).  Man can’t be God, but man WAS created to love.  When we reflect on our children (and our neighbors), that is what we should reflect on: am I loving as I was created to be?  If we do that, even if only like a dim image of the sun, our children and the world will see that love, and God the Father will shine on us.

The Roman historians described the early Christians by saying: “See how they love one another.”  That’s as good a definition of Christ’s followers as you can get.