Life

“… new children are born into our torn and twisted world every day, and each one brings the renewed message that God has not lost faith in mankind.”  Indian poet Tagore.

As I lay on my back beneath an East German car inspecting the chassis, my fingers traced the wooden frame.  “I can’t believe you build new cars like this!”

“What is it you do in America?” my new East German acquaintance not much older than myself inquired. 

“I do cancer research as a university student.” 

“Ahhh.” He exhaled throttling his voice not to be overheard.  “As a scientist, you would not go free from our country.  You’d get no visa.”  The East German youth climbed from beneath the pea green auto and assisted me to my feet.  I offered him sweetened chocolate in return for visiting with me though I think he genuinely enjoyed my company.  His eyes infected mine with his desire to visit the West.  My imagination of what was once an ornate Berlin avenue prior to the World War … collapsed to a canyon of remnants from Allied shelling.  Few cars, pea green, aqua, and brown traveled the vacant streets.

An Act of Love

by Fred Vilbig

In prayer, I have often thought about (and at times I have written about) the question of why did Jesus have to die? As with many things about our faith, my understanding comes slowly and develops over time, so I return to this question again and again.

People sometimes say that Jesus had to die to pay a debt for our sins. Maybe that’s true, but I don’t know God as an accountant or a banker. I don’t think of our salvation as some sort of a business transaction. What kind of scale would God use to measure suffering? What kind of currency does He use to value it? That just doesn’t make sense to me.

The more that I reflect on it, when I look at a crucifix, I see an act of pure, raw, naked love of God the Father by God the Son. As with many of the Saints (Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, or even Mother Theresa), Jesus didn’t have some sort of warm, fuzzy feeling about His Father when He was suffering, when He was dying on the Cross. He knew that His Self-offering was what His Father asked of Him, so He did it in complete and total submission to His Will.

Jesus loved with total abandon. We know that because Jesus cried form the Cross, “My God, My God! Why have you abandoned me?” Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, consubstantial with the Father, Who in His human nature during His life must have felt singularly united to His Father, He obediently did what His Father wanted Him to do, even though it meant that He would be somehow cut off from the Father..

What Brings you Happiness?

by Mike Hey

Psalm 16:11
"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

As you read this we will be about two weeks from Easter. How is your Lent going? Having a good one? Challenged? The point of Lent is not defeat, but victory—joyful victory. Lent is a season of austerity, but not morbidity. Lent is a sober time, but not a somber time. Nothing about divine friendship is somber. Lent is for sacrifice, but not for sadness. In fact, one of the best things to give up for Lent is melancholy.

The sixth chapter of St. Matthew captures the spirit of a happy Lent. The principal Lenten works are almsgiving, prayer, and fasting; and the principal Lenten attitude is one of private communion with God with outward cheer. But that cheer is not just a hypocritical show. Generous people are generally much happier. Wisdom knows the delight of doing well for its own sake is the most rewarding and uplifting of practices. It bestows joy because it is the basis of sanctity: a foretaste of Heaven on Earth, and Heaven is where God wants us to be happy with Him forever.

I don’t believe it was an accident that in her wisdom the Church selected the onset of spring for Lent. Lent—for all its severe associations—is rooted in the brightness of springtime. The word “Lent” is related to the word “lengthen,” referring to the lengthening of days as the world shakes off wintry darkness and turns to the dawn in the eastern, or Easter, sky. In spring we enjoy a lengthening of days increasing light (Daylight Saving!), and an unveiling, or even remaking, of the world. As a time of penance and self-examination, Lent should be viewed as an awakening from hibernation into the dawn of the world and the Word. We are called to be made anew into the comprehension and participation of the Resurrection—which is something to rejoice and be glad about.