An Inopportune Invitation

An Inopportune Invitation

'There was a man who gave a great banquet, and he invited a large number of people.  When the time for the banquet came, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, "Come along: everything is ready now".   But all alike started to make excuses. The first said, "I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it.  Please accept my apologies."  Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out.  Please accept my apologies."  Yet another said, "I have just got married and so am unable to come.” … Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame." …“I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet”.’ (Luke 14:16-24)

         In this parable, in the context of the moment, Jesus was illuminating the Jew’s rejection of God’s invitation, and how society’s outcasts will replace them as his Chosen People. This is dangerous to know, as it gives us cause to think it has nothing to do with us today.  His parables however, and the bad actors within, have everything to do with us today.  Their purpose is to disarm our pretences with a story, so that Truth may convert our hearts.

         It is not a great leap to see in this parable, that Jesus is also expressing his sadness for those today: who decline the Feast of his Body and Blood; or, for the Lost, who have no taste for his Eternal Banquet.  This insight too is dangerous, as we still may think he is not speaking to us who are hungering for things that do not fill.   And there is yet another Banquet to which he is calling us.  

         When the contemporaries of Christ broke bread together, it was much more than a social gathering.  It was a mingling of blood -it made you brethren.  So it is understandable that they were shocked by Jesus eating with the Pharisees.  But he was not scandalized then for commingling with sinners, nor is he today.  He still is the Physician who comes not for the healthy, but for the sick; and because we do not recognize our sickness, we also do not heed his invitation sup with him –to commune with him in our hearts; to receive his Quiet Presence; to consume his Words; to be consumed by his Love.  This is the Banquet to which we are called every day of our lives and forever -to share the intimacy of his Love in the communion of prayer; where we exchange sacred words and thoughts and secrets of heart.  

         Unlike in other parables, where the bad actors are conniving hypocrites, here, they –the Invited Guests- are normal, happy, hard working people, not unlike us.  They just all happened to be caught in a moment of fulfilling a dream of their life.  There was no crime, or immorality, or flaw in their character.  Their misfortune was that they were blessed with fortune.   They were so excited about it they could not be bothered by an inopportune invitation -to celebrate with the God of their blessing.  They were not guilty of premeditated sin; they were guilty of an unexamined life.  They failed to see that their dreams could not compare with God’s Dream for them.  They were too distracted by life to take time to commune with the God who gives them Life.

Jesus then, was not expressing vengeful indignation when he said …“I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet.”  These Words are not cold and cruel; they are to the contrary, sorrowfully mourning the rejection of those who could not recognize the Voice of his Father.  He was only verbalizing the fate of  unexamined lives –of those who could not comprehend the privilege of his invitation, who submitted to the tyranny of the moment only to forfeit Eternal Joy.

Indeed, in the end, it was the Fortunate and the Comfortable who mindlessly rejected the invitation into God’s Presence –who believed their own excuses; and it was the Sick and the Poor whose desperation made them hungry for the Master’s Banquet –whose suffering opened their eyes to God’s Grace.

         Lord Jesus, every moment, every heartbeat is a privilege to be lived in your Grace.  I am attracted to trivialities.  I easily wander.  I am too small to grasp the grandeur of your Will.  Commingle your heart with mine -that I may live in you, with you and for you.  Holy Spirit, open my mind to Father’s Plan for my life.  Teach me to sit at the feet of my Lord; to exchange hearts with him; to receive him; to thank him; to worship him; to be possessed by his Love –to say yes to it with every breath. 

Remain In My Love

Remain In My Love (John 15:9-11)

         From these few Sacred Words, we receive from Jesus all that is sufficient to obtain happiness in this life and in Eternity…

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” (15:9a)

           This is why Jesus came, that we may know the Love God has for us; that we might hear it with our ears, see it spoken from his lips, and witness it both in the life he lived, and in the death he chose.  Jesus gave his life for us.  The Father gave his Son for us.  This is how we are Loved.

          God, Creator of the Universe, loves us as he loves Jesus –as an Only Child.  He is not a Disinterested Entity who brought us into existence just to abandon us into chaos.  He is a Loving Father who cannot cease longing for us, to exchange his Love with us.  He created us to be eternally in love with him.  This is our God -the Word made man, the Truth revealed.

“Remain in my love.” (15:9b)

            This is not God demanding.  It is Love pleading.  God’s Love for us is unchanging, unaffected either by our virtue or our sin, it is eternal.  Our love for him is what ebbs and wanes.  The desire of God’s Heart is that we remain in his love; that we make our home in him; that we abide in him; that we choose him above all things; that every decision we make is an expression of our love for him; that our life is set apart, consecrated to knowing him as the fulfillment of our being.  These Words are a Love Proposal -patiently calling, ever wooing us to give up our petty desires in exchange for his Wonderful Plan.

“If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.” (John 15:10)

          Jesus is not saying, that if we do not keep his commandments we will lose his love, for he cannot not love us.  What he is saying is that being faithful to his commandments is the only Way to remain in his Love.  His commandment is that we love as he loved us.  To turn our back on Love is to turn our back on Jesus.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, to love is to remain in him, to know Eternal Life.  

The essence of love is Sacrifice.  Love is making our wishes subservient to the wishes of an Other.  If we are to remain in his Love, then we must place his Will above our own, or better, make it our own.  Faithfulness and Obedience are the expression of Love.  Jesus showed the Way, he was Obedient unto death.  No less than Jesus, we too must experience death to Self, if we are to remain in his Love.  In giving Jesus our mortal lives, he gives us his Eternal Life.

I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.” (John 15:11)

              This is a Promise.  God has made it.  Let us believe it.  He knows what brings us Joy -more than we know ourselves.  He made us for Love.  As a petal unfolds in the Light, so Joy springs forth from Love.  Only in Love are we complete.  Only in Faithful Obedience will we find true reward.  Only in losing ourselves in him does our heart become transfigured –able to grasp the height and depth, the Beauty and Joy of knowing the Source of All Love.

          “My Lord and my God, I want to know you as my Father.  In vain, I have tried to earn your Love.  So often have I fallen short.  I know too well what I deserve and I have trouble giving my eyes to yours.  I believe you love me.  I believe I am forgiven.  Yet still, it seems too good to be true.   And in spite of all that you have shown me, of all that you have made so clear, when I am put to the test, your Truth seems but a shadow.  

Jesus, my smallness is awash in your Mercy.  You are Faithful when I have failed.  Never let me withdraw from your Love.  I give you permission, in advance, to work in my life any way you see fit, that I may remain in your love, that I may be obedient to your command.

          Holy Spirit, you are my reason to Hope.  Release anew today your Grace to live fully alive, undaunted in my heritage –that I am Loved as an Only Child.  By your Living Waters am I refreshed.  In weakness you bring strength, in darkness you bring forth Joy.  Because of you, because of the Father’s Love, which you pour into my heart, I shall remain  in your Love.  Amen”

Well Of Salvation

Well Of Salvation

“…anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life'.” (John 4:14)

            John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well has become one of the most popular Gospel stories, in no small part, due to the endless lessons to be drawn from it.  

         After a half day of walking, Jesus sat down at Jacob’s well.  He was tired.  It was hot. Everybody was hungry and the food was gone.  He sent the disciples to go to town for food, leaving himself alone under the noon sun.  

For most of us, this would not be a good time to pray.  But for Jesus, whenever he is off alone, we find him in prayer with his Father.  And whenever he prays, something big happens.  This inopportune prayer was no different, for it set up an encounter which has become a Window-to-God for all of history.  Two millennia and billions of views later, I peeked into it this morning, as I reflected on this glimpse into the Mind of Jesus.  

The Samaritans were despised by the Jews for having mingled with pagan gods, and, this Samaritan woman was despised by her own people for adulterous relationships.  She was a spurned woman of a spurned nation.  And, based on her history of five ex-husbands, it is certain she knew loneliness.  She went to the well in the heat of the day hoping to draw water, free from the crowd of insults.  Little did she know that her encounter with Jesus would free her from all insults, that his Welcoming Presence would slack her thirst to be known and loved,  that this Well-Coming would transform her life.

When she set off in loneliness to the well, she had no idea she was approaching the Wellspring of Salvation.  When she discovered Jesus, she encountered unconditional love.  She spent her life hiding her real self to avoid rejection.  Now, she encounters a man who knows her better than she knows herself, a man from whom there is no need to hide shame –for he knows all about her yet still gazes upon her with love.  She thought he needed her for life giving water.  Now, she recognizes Jesus as the Wellspring of Life.  She came, tough-as-nails; now, her heart is melted by Love.   She came ashamed.  Now, she knows she is precious in the Eyes of God.

The Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus prefigures our encounter with him in prayer.  When the disciples return, they urge Jesus to eat some food, but he replies, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  When they left him alone, he was really hungry, but, he was not really alone -he was encountering the Love of his Father in prayer.  He was receiving the sustenance required to be obedient to the Father’s Will.  He was finding the clarity to live in Truth.

          When we commit to a daily time of prayer, we are establishing a Well-Coming with Jesus; where he pours the Love of his Holy Spirit into our heart; where we will discover our true worth –that we are prized by the Father of Creation; where we are freed from shame and dare to gaze into his Loving Eyes; where we will find the nourishment to persevere in faith; where we encounter that spring ‘welling up to eternal life’.

Get Behind Me, Satan!

Get Behind Me, Satan!

“And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him.  But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan!  Because the way you think is not God's way but man's.'” (Mark 8:31-3)

         Hearing this stinging rebuke by Jesus used to leave me feeling a little embarrassed for him; as if these words accidentally slipped out of his mouth in a moment of passion and could have been better framed if he had a second chance.  It seemed they were angry, cutting words –not in tune with the tender Heart of my Lord.  I felt bad for Peter; both, because his feelings were hurt; and, because he was reprimanded for reasonable and loving advice given discretely, away from the crowd.

         This all changed, one morning prayer, a few years ago, when the, till then unseen words in that passage, leapt off the page: “But, turning and seeing his disciples...”   As I tried to picture that exact moment, my imagination threw me back into time –into that dramatic scene, as if it were frozen with meaning.

Peter was crying.  His eyes were begging.  He was clasping Jesus’ left hand within his own hands -pressing it against his own heart.  His voice was desperate; his mind wheeling –he could not bear the thought of his Messiah and friend absent from his life; of Jesus leaving and taking all Hope with him.  The pain in Peter’s heart poured into the Breaking Heart of Jesus.

Jesus’ eyes too, began to fill with tears, causing him to break away from Peter’s eyes –for, if but an instant more, he too would have been weeping. Turning toward his disciples, he blinked hard -to clear his welling tears- but their faces remained blurred.  Like the blind man whom he had healed by putting spittle into his eyes, he now could only see distorted figures; lost sheep staring back, befuddled; his chosen companions whom he so cherished; and his Mother, whose heart the Sword of his Cross had now begun to pierce.

Jesus was like us in all ways but sin, he experienced our weakness… (Hebrews 4:15)  He did not want to die.  He was in love with his Creation and it needed him so.  There was so much left to do; so much more he could give; but the looming Cross was now casting its Shadow –a life so bright was now made Dark; and Peter’s plea was wrenching his gut.

If Jesus, like all humanity, possessed an Achilles heel, then surely he would have been most susceptible to spiritual attack through the Passion of his Heart -since his logic and Truth were impenetrable.  His Heart was bursting within him as he searched the faces of his bewildered flock so confused and afraid.  Their faces, to the one, were pleading, ‘You must not leave us!’  And now, in the Voice of his beloved Peter, Satan too, was entreating him to forsake the only thing that could save them –the Cross.  

Jesus’ battle with Satan during the Forty Days in the desert was but a preview of the Enemy’s guile.  Now, Satan was using the full weight of Jesus’ immense Love to weaken his resolve –a Supremely Evil attack upon Divine Vulnerability.

As Jesus’ Heart was battling his Mind, the Spirit echoed his Word yet proclaimed, ‘For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens...’ (Eph 6:12).  Driven by Holy Anger and riled with rage against the Dark Powers waging war upon the Children of his Father, Jesus unleashes his rebuke upon the Voice seducing him from the Cross…  'Get behind me, Satan!’  

         In this pivotal moment of Salvation History, Peter’s feelings are but a speck of dust on the scale against the weight of humanity’s Eternal Life.  Jesus, though subjected to Compassion’s Scream, remained submitted to Truth –that he came as the Lamb of God whose Blood would Redeem the world.

See And Believe

“You can see and still you do not believe.” (Jn 6:36) …“Whoever sees the son and believes in him shall have the eternal life.” (Jn 6:40)   In this sixth chapter of the Gospel of John the Bread of Life is revealed, and these two verses challenge us to a Eucharistic Faith.

Jesus Christ, the ‘Un-Knowable I-Am’, has become the Word-Made-Flesh.  The Bread-Sent-From-Heaven has made himself known to us.  Because of sin, we have eyes but do not see; ears but do not hear; thirst but do not drink; and hunger but do not eat.  

To See and Believe, this is Christ’s call.  To “See” Jesus is to hear his Word; to encounter his Love; to taste the Bread of Life.  To “Believe” in Jesus is to choose to follow Him –to live in his Truth.

Jesus made himself known to Israel through many acts of love: signs and wonders; the gift of his Flesh and Blood; and his Crucifixion.  Yet most did not See or Believe.  He continues still to make himself known -to all who have eyes to See and ears to Hear; who Hunger for the Bread of Life and Thirst for the Living Water; who are willing to Drink of the Cup of His Blood.

Before we can choose Jesus, before we can exercise Faith, we must first encounter him as Truth.  As it is God’s Will that all Man be saved –that all come to Know and Love him (Jn6:39)- we have to assume that he must Reveal himself to every soul, for he is as Just as he is Loving.  However, it would be a sin of presumption to assume that this revelation will happen outside of our participation.

Free-will cannot exist without personal responsibility –we must have a Choice, and we must have the freedom to Accept or Reject it.  Neither can Faith exist without Works, nor Love without Deeds.  And so it is that Truth is only found with Hunger and Thirst.  It is for us to Ask, Seek and Knock (Mt 7:7), for “The nearer you go to God, the nearer he will come to you.” (James 4:8).  We cannot expect to See God if we are not looking for him.  But if we do so with all our heart, he promises to show himself to us (Deut 4:29).

That the Un-Knowable God will make himself Known is Truth.  It is the Word of God, witnessed and testified to throughout the ages.  He is ever waiting for us to See and Believe –through Prayer, through his Word, and in the Eucharist- waiting to be encountered, waiting to be loved.   

God is waiting, but it is an active waiting.  As Father of all Prodigal Sons, he is not just waiting for us to discover our true Sonship, but he is eternally sending forth his Spirit to woo us -as he unleashes the Hound of Heaven, to plant in our heart, pangs of hunger for Home; as he sends the Good Shepherd to seek out his Lost Love.

If we but call out to him, he will find us in our darkness.  In truth, he is already present -just waiting for us to recognize our need for him.  For it is only in our Need that we recognize his Face.  It is only in our Hunger and Thirst that we have cause to Believe in who can assuage.  In a cosmic act of Mercy, God has allowed himself to suffer need –to have to wait for us to choose his Burning Love.  

Most of us, before giving ourselves over to a life of Faith, must first discover our miserable-ness, our desperate need, our depravity of Love.  It is this Humble Knowing which loosens the scales of sin from our eyes and allows us to “See” our Lord.  In standing exposed before him, seeing that our Nakedness does not cause his Love to flinch, we are freed to love him whose Love has found us -we see and believe.  

          When we see Jesus as Love, then we believe in the Source Of All Love, and this Knowing Encounter impels us to Praise our God of Love.  Such is our Eucharistic Faith.  Eucharist means Thanksgiving or Gratitude.  So it is that in receiving the Love of Jesus, we find the Bread of Life –we consume him in order to be consumed by him; we embrace him to become Lost in his Mercy, where we find the courage to die for Eternal Life.

Do Not Be Afraid!

Do Not Be Afraid!

My Beloved Child,

You Belong to Me.

The God, who cherishes You,

Holds All Things in existence.

How then, can you be Afraid?

A Leaf cannot Fall,

Nor a Bolt of Lightning let fly

-unless I Permit it.

All who Call upon my Name I Save.

How then, can you be Afraid?

I Am the Lord, your God.

I Know how Tomorrow unfolds.  

I Know the plan of Hope I have for you.  

My promises Belong to You.  

How then, can you be Afraid?

   

My Beloved Child,

You Bear my Name,

Carry my Father’s Love,

and Possess my Holy Spirit.  

Go Forth then,

-in Faith and Joy.

Share what you Know to be True.  

Tell my People,

                                         “Do Not be Afraid!”

The Cross

The Cross

                 The Cross is a Darkened Doorway beckoning Sinners.  It is the Mysterious Interface between Fallen Humanity and the Glory of God - the blood stained rocky road of the Christian Way.  The Cross has two faces.  The face we can see is Black, Dark, Of Death –reflecting our Sin.  The face we cannot see, the side facing Glory, is Resplendent –reflecting God’s Light.  

The Cross is about Sin and Redemption; Death and Life.  It is a Pilgramage from Sin and Death into Redemption and Life.  All must take up their Cross.  We must enter into Suffering before we emerge into Glory.

It is the Promise of Glory hidden.  When we take up the Cross, there is no sense of Victory, only Defeat.  To bear the Cross is to Suffer.  There is no comfortable position.  The Cross only shows us our Sin, our Brokenness, our Smallness.  Even Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ as the Cross swallowed him into Death. (Matthew 27:45)

No one submits to the Cross, unless bitten by Death, unless Desperate for Life.  Even then, they must first Believe –that Self, has no power over Death, no source for Good, no claim to Eternal Life.  And if then, so humbled, the Soul must yet Believe that Glory and Life can only be found in that Darkened Cross –as when the Israelites looked up upon the Bronze Serpent Moses prescribed.   They could turn, to that which was Lowly and Raised High, or die. (Numbers 21:4-9)

If the Cross is cause for Hope, it is even more so a Quandary of Faith -for, the Tree of Life is Dark Mystery.  The Cross is Mystery because its Work is contrary to its Fruit: Dying yields Life; Suffering yields Joy; Surrender yields Victory; and Obedience yields Freedom.  The Cross is Dark -we neither taste, nor see, nor feel the Saving Fruit of its Work –we must Blindly Believe we are being Saved...

...As when the Hammer Of God beats the Sword into a Plowshare (Isaiah 2:4): every blow of the Hammer disorients the Sword; each painful blow robs the Sword of its Status and Might; each transforming blow diminishes, with Unrelenting Mercy, everything the Sword once held with Pride.  The Sword is blind to its Transformation.  And even if, the Hammer Bearer should relent a peek of the Plowshare-To-Be, the vision would be reviled.

What, but desperation, would allow the Sword to submit to the hammer?  What, but Mercy, could arrange such fate?  Dare the Sword expect to understand the Cross?  No language of words can possibly explain -and to experience the Cross only blurs its meaning.  Are we then, condemned to suffer its Inexplicable Blows without the comfort of Meaning?  Was the Son of God spared Darkness in the Sixth Hour?

What mortal possesses such Virtue?  What Sinner can summon this Cross?  Who standing, can submit to its Stripes?  “…they were astonished. 'Who then, can be saved?' they asked.  Jesus gazed at them. 'For men, he told them 'this is impossible; for God, everything is possible.'” (Matthew 19:25)

In Truth, we do not choose the Cross –in Mercy, it finds us.  In Truth, we do not carry its weight –in Mercy, Jesus still bears its Burden.  “Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.  For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

We do not save ourselves –it is the Dark Mysterious Cross, reaching through time and space, with the Eternal Loving Blood of Jesus, carrying us -as Shepherd with Lamb against breast.  No matter how Weak, or Naked, or Alone we feel in the Darkness of the Cross, the Love of Jesus secures us, as surely as  Nails to the Wood, until He brings us into Glory.

           In the end, the Cross is the Divine instrument of Mercy: bringing Meaning to our Suffering; Forgiveness for our Sins; and Healing into our lives.  It is the Portal of God’s Love, through which he snatches us …in our Desperate need to be Saved.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Desire For God –Psalm 63

Desire For God –Psalm 63

 

“God, you are my God, I am seeking you, my soul is thirsting for you, my flesh is longing for you, a land parched, weary and waterless; I long to gaze on you in the Sanctuary …” (Ps 63:1)

 

          Lord, your Word is a Love Song –a Revelation of what Love awaits the Soul seeking its Creator.  We are created for You.  Our entire Being, body and soul, Longs for You, as parched earth for water.  Yet, our nature cannot hold this Truth, having only vague Feelings of Incompleteness, as we gaze upon your stars.

 

“…and to see your power and glory …Your love is better than life itself, my lips will recite your praise; all my life I will bless you, in your name lift up my hands; my soul will feast most richly, on my lips a song of joy and, in my mouth, praise.” (Ps 63:2-5)

 

When Grace kisses our Blindness, and we are Awakened from Death; when your Light emblazons our soul, our heart swoons at Love’s First Taste.  When your Spirit fills our soul, as wind a sail, Love’s Joy demands a Response -your Praises must be sung.  Our heart is flung toward You, our journey toward Union begins.

 

“On my bed I think of you, I meditate on you all night long for you have always helped me.  I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings; my soul clings close to you, your right hand supports me.” (Ps 63:6-8)

         Having dipped our Dry Morsel into the Wine of your Cup, we can only desire more.  Our Lowliness is displaced with Glory, our Tears transcend to Song.  Love’s Yearning longs to Cling –as a child to Mother, as beloved to Spouse, until two become One.  Only in You, oh Lord, is our soul at Rest.

I Know My Name

I Know My Name

He was a mangy looking dog.  Abandoned as a puppy, he grew up in the streets.  Master found him in the shelter the day before he was to be put down, for he was an unsightly dog that no one would adopt.  Master brought him home, and gave him a bath that made him all shiny and clean.  That is when then he got his name -Toby.

Just as his coat was getting fluffy and dry, Master went to check the barn.  As soon as Toby saw the door open, he bolted out in a flash.  Master called out his name, “Toby!  Come back to Me!”  But Toby did not know his name -he did not know Who he belonged to, and he did not know the plans of His Master. Toby just ran as fast as he could.

Master found him again in the shelter, all matted with filth, but He loved him all the more.  Toby spent time with Master.  He ate with Him, slept at the foot of His bed, and followed Him like a shadow.  He came to love the smell of Master, and his tail now waged at the sound of His Voice.

In knowing the love of Master, Toby grew devoted to Him.  He now understood that he belonged to Master.  When he heard Master’s truck, He ran to meet Him.  When Master called his name, he went bounding to Him.  He sought the touch of Master’s tender hands.  When Master said, “Fetch the sheep!” he delighted in chasing them into Master’s barn.  And when Master said, “Watch the sheep!”, he proudly protected them -he would even die for them.

If Master said, “Come!”, and pointed to the truck, he would be overcome with joy to ride with Master, so much so, that he would act like a puppy.  And when Master said, “Stay!”, Toby’s wag would slow a little, but he would dutifully guard the Master’s house.

At day’s end, Toby would lay at Master’s feet.  It was there, in that time without words, with eyes lightly shut, that he felt especially close.  But if he sensed the slightest stir, the eye closest to Master would peek open, and his tail would begin to wag with expectant joy.

    Toby had become faithful to Master.  Everything he did, he did for Master.  Toby had come a long way since that wonderful, fearful day Master saved him.  It only took a week or so, to learn the name by which he was called.  But now, as the years have gone by, Toby, in his heart of hearts, has come to know the Name which makes him belong to Master!

Until we know our name, until we know who we really are, and who we belong to, we will not recognize the Voice who is calling.  “When that day comes - it is Yahweh who speaks - …I will betroth you to myself for ever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love; I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know Yahweh.  …I will love Unloved; I will say to No-People-of-Mine, 'You are my people', and he will answer, 'You are my God'.” (Hosea 2:18)

         And as years go by 0f having been loved by Jesus, we can look back and remember that wonderful fearful day when he saved us -when our ears were opened, when we could recognize His Voice, when we could hear his Spirit whisper those Words we are all so desperate to hear, “You are My Beloved.  I created you Good.  You are Precious in My sight, and you belong to Me!”

The Door

The Door

         What’s up with The Door?  Two Gospels make reference to The Door which locks us out of God’s Presence.  Matthew 25:10 refers to the Foolish Bridesmaids caught unprepared by the Bridegroom’s arrival.  They begged to be let in, but the The Door to the banquet hall was already locked, and the Bridegroom said to them, “I do not know you.”  Luke 13:25 refers to the Master, who after a long day’s work, got up from supper, and locked The Door to go to bed.  To the stragglers who begged, ‘Lord, open to us’, the Master said, “I do not know where you come from.”  In both Gospels, those locked out are condemned as Strangers to God.

         Lest we portray Jesus as mercilessly cruel, there is a third reference to The Door –one with a profound nuance.  In Revelations 3:20, John also references The Door which separates the Unrepentant Sinner from Jesus, but this time, it is Jesus who is begging to be allowed to come in: “Behold, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his meal, side by side with him.”  

         In all three cases The Door separates us from Jesus.  In Matthew and Luke, The Door keeps us from Jesus, yet in Revelations, The Door keeps Jesus from us.  In Matthew and Luke, the Sinner does not control the lock.  Yet, in John, the Sinner controls the lock.  So, what is The Door and how does its lock work?

         Clearly, The Door is the consequence of personal sin, for sin separates us from God.  Sin renounces the Reign of God over our life as it exalts the Reign of Self over God.  Sin is the bottom line of where we stand in relationship to God.  We are cast as Strangers, not because Jesus does not know our name, or where we were born, but because our selfish life is foreign to him –he knows only the Will of the Father.  He cannot relate to disobedience, nor can the Disobedient relate to him.

         If The Door is the consequence of sin, then the lock speaks to the ‘eternal-ness’ of that consequence.  Matthew and Luke plainly describe, that once The Door is shut, it cannot be opened –yet, John clearly has Jesus hoping it will open again.  Why the difference?  The difference is not so much ‘why’ as ‘when’ -for the ‘when’ makes all the difference in the world.

         In Matthew and Luke, The Door is locked at the coming of Night.  Scripture tells us we have but one life to live, and then we are judged.  Like the Bridesmaids, ‘we do not know either the day or the hour’ of that All Important Moment -when our ultimate destiny becomes Eternally Chosen.

         And lest we portray this Sober Truth as mercilessly cruel, John, the Disciple Whom Jesus Loved, leaves us with the Hope of Mercy –with the Sacred Heart of Jesus knocking at The Door of our heart, begging that we trust him to become Lord in our life.  While we yet breathe, we are in the Season of Mercy –repenting of our selfish ways immediately opens The Door to the Bridegroom who so Desires our heart.