Category: Gospels

The one who bears our burdens with us and for us is not weak at all.  He is the Almighty, and can suffer no change in what He is.  When we suffer, we may experience anxiety at the kind of change we experience.  Suffering reminds us that we are susceptible to destructive change, so, naturally, we do not seek it out.  God wants to encourage us through what we suffer – He has sent Jesus to bear with us the trials of life.  Jesus did not endure these trials in an apparently invincible way – He seems to be defeated by them until He manifests the resurrection.  Whatever we may suffer, Jesus bears it with us, it is only for a time.  He does not command us to bear our sufferings as though they cause us no distress – Jesus Himself showed signs of distress when He suffered.  But He invites us, through suffering, to grow in gentleness and humility.  Since Divinity cannot be altered by suffering, we see revealed in Jesus how suffering actually transforms our humanity into something divine.  The secret is not to discover how to eliminate or avoid all suffering, but to learn from Jesus – in the midst of our sufferings – compassion and humility. read more

Attaining the spiritual attitude of a child after having grown up in our world requires grace.  Our heavenly Father is, even now, Fathering us into eternal life.  This new birth already started at our Baptism, and will be completed at our death.  Dying to this world is part of being born again, but it doesn’t mean that we are to become cold and callous – stoic.  The Love of God mysteriously breaks down our attachment to this world while at the same time making us care more than ever for each other and for God.  The wise of this world recognize so much vanity but fail to recognize the revelation of the Father.  Worldly wisdom is like a hard leather shoe, worn by the mind as it journeys towards meaning.  This shoe on the one hand protects the mind from vain pursuits, but on the other hand makes it lose sensitivity to grace.  We have to remove our shoes in the presence of God – becoming vulnerable and childlike again – because we cannot ultimately protect our minds from the apparent vanity of death.  Faith gives us immediate access to the Father.  The time we spend with Him each day, barefoot and childlike, refreshes our soul with that life which is beyond death.  The more we are filled with that life, the less we need to wear shoes or protect our mind with vain wisdom – the less we have to consider daily death and loss as anything other than detachment from what is passing away. read more