Tag Archives: salvation

The Way of the Cross: Path to Joy

04 Sunday Apr 2021

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The Resurrection_Andrea Mantegna, 1459

The Resurrection
Andrea Mantegna, c. 1459

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Halleluiah!

On this day that Jesus burst forth from the tomb, conquering sin and death, it is important to comprehend and appreciate what He has done for us by dying on the cross. Let us begin with prayer:

Lord, help me to understand the cross. Help me to comprehend all that Christ has done for me in dying for the forgiveness of my sins. Lord, give me grateful awe as I ponder the mystery of the cross. Give me the grace to respond to your generosity by giving you my all, my very life, for your love and mercy are beyond compare. I ask this through Christ Jesus, Amen.

To begin to understand Christ’s willingness to suffer and die for you, imagine heaven. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are looking at you with unimaginable love. They are discussing your life, how you have sold yourself into sin and slavery. They see you lost and without hope, heading to eternal destruction. The Father speaks, “Who will bring him back?” The eternal Son of God, robed in majesty and splendor, immediately responds, “I will go.” The Holy Spirit realizes what this will cost. God’s magnificent plan for your salvation is set into motion. The Son leaves heaven to be nailed to a cross…for you!

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Take Up Your Cross

20 Sunday Sep 2020

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Christ on the Cross_Eugène Delacroix_c1835 Christ on the Cross, Eugène Delacroix, c. 1835

Last week, we commemorated the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross by urging you to view your spouse as your cross, your path to sanctification. This week, we want to delve into the theology behind the exhortation.

Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23).

Denying ourselves and taking up our cross entails sacrifice. It means giving up something for the sake of something better. For example, we might give up time that we would have spent taking a nap so that we can read a book to our three-year-old daughter. Or it might mean biting our tongue instead of lashing out at our spouse who has just said something hurtful.

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Feast of the Exultation of the Cross

14 Monday Sep 2020

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ExaltationoftheCross

We should glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through him we are saved and made free.[1]

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross. This feast is a celebration of God’s greatest work: Christ’s salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection, through which death was defeated and the gates to Heaven were opened. The cross is the universal image of Christian belief. Today is a time to ponder what Christ accomplished through His horrific Passion. Look upon the wounds of Christ, gaze into His eyes. See the love that He has for you; His willingness to suffer and die so that you may gain eternal life.

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

Jesus calls us to follow him by taking up our cross daily. In marriage, your spouse is your cross. Some of you may be snickering in agreement with this statement but this cross is your path to sanctification. As Christ was wounded and died on the cross, marriage binds two wounded individuals in a lifelong covenant. The wounds of your spouse are holy ground. We are called to unite our woundedness and suffering to those of Christ on the cross.

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Love Revealed

21 Sunday Apr 2019

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God is Love

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 makes up the fourth of the “Servant Songs” of the Book of Isaiah. This prophesies of the one who will save us from our iniquities. God became man for one reason: to die on the cross to free humanity from the chains of sin and death. Jesus is the “Suffering Servant” foretold in these prophecies. His death on the cross for our salvation shows us the true meaning of love: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down is life for his friends” (Jn 15:13). Jesus is love personified.

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A Reflection for the First Sunday in Advent: Encountering Jesus

02 Sunday Dec 2018

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Jesus Healing Blind Man_El Greco

Healing of the Man Born Blind, El Greco, c.1573

One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see. John 9:25

In the account of Jesus healing the man born blind (see John 9), the blind man encounters Jesus and his life is forever changed. The Gospels are full of stories of people who encountered Jesus and had their lives turned upside down. Examples are Jesus Calling the First Disciples (Mt 18-22), The Call of Matthew (Mt 9:9), The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46-52), Jesus and Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10), Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (Jn 4:1-30), and The Conversion of Saul (Acts 9:1-22).

This Advent, we invite you on a journey toward Bethlehem where you will find the Christ child waiting for you to embrace Him. Along the way, you will discover the importance of encountering Jesus personally. You’ll also discover why it is important to make Jesus the center of your marriage and the center of your family. Finally, you’ll discover the mission He has called you to carry out in your neighborhood and the world.

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Married Love: A Foretaste of Heaven

22 Thursday Feb 2018

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Ben XVI_Married Love_02

Have you ever thought of your marriage as a foretaste of heaven? When marriage is lived as God intended – with permanence, partnership, fidelity, and fruitfulness – your marriage is the image of the love that unites the three persons in the Holy Trinity.

Pope Benedict XVI offered high praise for the family in one of his audiences. Here is what he had to say about the gift of marriage and family:

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Manifestation of the Lord

07 Sunday Jan 2018

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'ADORATION OF THE MAGI'

Adoration of the Magi

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”…and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11 (emphasis added)

“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 528). The joy of the Magi upon seeing the Child is the joy of the Gospel. It is “the joy of one whose heart has received a ray of God’s light and who can now see that his hope has been realized—the joy of one who has found what he sought, and has himself been found” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, 106). The Magi find “crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky…in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars” (St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 150).

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More Precious than Silver or Gold

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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advent-wreath-02

Today is the second Sunday in Advent. In a society that has lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, many are already suffering burnout from all the pre-Christmas activities. The secular “Holiday” season kicks into gear earlier and earlier with each passing year. The reality of the materialistic Christmas is that people have forgotten the Christ Child. Christmas is not about buying the latest high tech gifts or winning the subdivision’s “Holiday Lights” competition. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are called Advent – from the Latin word Adventus – which means “coming.” This is a time not for the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and office parties, but is a period of waiting in joyful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas has been hijacked by commercialism and the secular society; we have forgotten to wait in darkness for the coming of the Light into the world.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:1-5, 14

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All Souls Day: Our faith is built on those who have gone before us

02 Thursday Nov 2017

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Makonde Family Tree

The Makonde people of Tanzania in Africa are known for intricate wood carvings. One style of carving is called the Ujamaa, which means community and family. Also known as “Tree of Life” carvings, they are fashioned from a single piece of African Blackwood (mpingo), and can be as high as six feet tall. They depict past and present generations of a family, supporting each other around a central family ancestor. The sculpture poignantly illustrates that each person’s life is built upon the lives of those who have gone before them.

So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22

The image of the Ujamaa is helpful in thinking about the souls of the faithfully departed that have gone before us. Our Christian faith has been built on generations of faithful disciples who have kept the flames of the faith burning for more than two millennia. We are truly “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets… [with] Christ himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:20). Our ancestors are part of this foundation along with countless saints and unrecognized champions of the faith. This “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1) is praying for us, urging us to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).

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