Devotion for today: Meet God

Matthew 5:3: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Poor in spirit: those who recognize their complete dependence on God. (USCCB)

Happy New Year to all of you! I pray the holidays found you surrounded in the peace and the joy of the new born Christ-Child. It seems that no matter what family problems we must face all year long, no matter how annoying fellow workers can be, no matter how much heartache we suffer at the hands of others, we can always find a place of solace and relief in front of the manger and the outstretched hands of the baby Jesus.

 As it has been said before, there is something so profoundly humbling about seeing the wood of the manger cradling the baby Jesus, and realizing that prophetically it becomes the wood of the cross that hung Him for our sins. His little outstretched arms and reaching hands will one day be nailed to the wood and bleed for us. Yet, here He is, like all of us: trusting, loving, and reaching out. We can see ourselves in this little baby as we try to place ourselves in the world and at the mercy of those in it. Sometimes it works out just great. We find solid friendships and loving relationships just as Christ did with His apostles and disciples. Sometimes our efforts are rejected, scorned and even hated by those who don’t understand us or by those who feel threatened by us, like the holy men of Jesus’ time. And then there is the beat of life which takes us into situations over which we sweat blood and beg God to remove from our lives, just as Christ did in the Garden of Olives.

But for now, in the glow of the holy days, it is good enough to gaze upon the baby Jesus, to soak in His innocent love and reach for His little hands, to  touch His little fingers, and let Him know we love Him, and we know He loves us. As we look at Mary with her eyes fixed on her son, let us remember to keep our eyes fixed on Him as well in this New Year, and as we study Joseph, ever vigilant and prepared to follow the messages of God, let us vow to do the same with our lives and the lives of those we love. Let us vow to keep our souls free from the dangers of the world and be prepared to flee from sin as quickly as Joseph fled with his family from the terrors of Herod and his army.

I have a little scene I like to play out in my mind as I study my nativity scene: The shepherds and kings come to the stable, kneel before the baby Jesus and look curiously at Mary. She smiles sweetly and says to them: “My children, meet God.”

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Dear readers,

I will be taking a break from my blogging until the new year. I pray you have a blessed Christmas and that the season of Christmas brings you the peace that only the Christ Child can bring.

Much love,

Sandy

Devotion for today: but deliver us from evil…the Good News

Romans 8:31-39:  What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”Psalm 44:22

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Yesterday we looked at the final petition of The Our Father and identified the singular evil that is at the heart of all evils in the world, and the biggest threat to our holiness. Today we look at the Good News, the salvation won for us by Christ Jesus. “If God is for us, who can be against?” We see in today’s commentary that Jesus is with us always, and no power on earth or under the earth or anywhere can harm us as long as we fill ourselves with Him and Him alone. Who could ask for anything more?

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2853 Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One.

Pope Benedict XVI (Jesus of Nazareth, Ignatius Press, 2007): Today, on the other hand, there is also the ideology of success, of well-being that tells us, “God is just a fiction. He only robs us of our time and our enjoyment of life. Don’t bother with him! Just try to squeeze as much out of life as you can.”  These temptations seem irresistible…. The Our Father in general and this petition in particular are trying to tell us that it is only when you have lost God that you have lost yourself; then you are nothing more than a random product of evolution. Then the “dragon” really has won. So long as the dragon cannot wrest God from you, your deepest being remains unharmed, even in the midst of all the evils that threaten you…. This then is why we pray from the depths of our souls not to be robbed of our faith, which enables us to see God, which binds us with Christ. This is why we pray that, in our concern for goods, we may not lose the Good itself; that even faced with the loss of goods, we may not also lose the Good, which is God; that we ourselves may not be lost: Deliver us from evil!

 Cyprian, the martyr bishop… finds a marvelous way of putting all of this: “When we say ‘deliver us from evil’ then there is nothing further left for us to ask for. Once we have asked for and obtained protection against evil, we are safely sheltered against anything the devil and the world can contrive. What could the world make you fear if you are protected in the world by God Himself? (de dominica oration 19; CSEL III, 27, p. 287)

Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2854: When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours, now and forever. Amen.