Fr. Mark Miller, CSsR
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Living While Dying
First, we human beings do not like to lose abilities, to grow older and be less able to accomplish what used to be taken for granted. And yet I think that this is one of God’s special gifts to us as we age and diminish. We are mortal, we are limited, we are fragile—and still we are in God’s hands. The more frail we get, the more we have to trust in the God of Love who will never abandon us – but who asks us to trust Him through thick and thin.
Praying for the Parousia
Catholics pray at every Eucharist for the end of the world. For we pray a prayer of belief and trust that somewhere ahead of us, Jesus will come a second time and this world as we know it will be replaced. We call this second coming of Jesus the Parousia. Of course, we have no idea when this will happen; we are as much in the dark as the generations before us who were convinced that they were on the edge of destruction and transformation.
Suffering
Those who are suffering may often be the greatest teachers to the rest of us as they accept their suffering or offer it for others or radiate the gentle presence of Christ. Faith and hope and trust in God are treasures shared through the witness of those who are suffering. And if we are too busy trying to explain the supposed reasons behind the suffering, we may miss some of the most profound lessons of life.
Gossip
“Judge not, lest you be judged,” says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. I think he is giving us a double caution. First, don’t jump to conclusions. Every human being is something of a mystery, even to themselves. Sharing with others and learning from experience is often more revealing than jumping to conclusions long before you know the person. And, second, we need to be humble about judgements that often pigeon-hole people so that it doesn’t matter what they do or how they change, we react to them because we think we REALLY know who they are.
Worthless Slaves
When we do good for others, when we push ourselves to put the needs of others ahead of ourselves, when we, in short, fulfill some of the demands of being disciples, we are simply doing what flows from faith. And, in faith, we have complete confidence that God overlooks nothing and that, indeed, Our God has promised us eternal life wrapped in His perfect Love if we trust in Him and walk, as best we can, in the light of His Son and by the power of His Spirit.
The Name of God is Mercy
God’s mercy ought not simply to free us from guilt, but to fire us with a thirst for justice, fairness and equality in our society. Then perhaps we will learn lessons about balancing justice with mercy.
Making Mercy Real
Pope Francis has been emphatic during his Pontificate to help Christians re-focus on the Gospel message of mercy. “The Name of Our God,” he says, “is mercy.” The coming of Our Saviour Jesus Christ is God’s great gift of mercy to sinful humanity.
Idolatry and Despair
We need to stop and meditate, to ponder in our hearts like Mary did, on the first great commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength. That’s not a concept; it is a relationship. Love is our calling.
The Sin of Apathy
What we are missing is how truly loving our God is, how close God is to us, and that this God’s love is given to us most especially as mercy, that is, as forgiveness of our sins to free us for service, particularly to our sisters and brothers in need.
Attitudes in Prayer
When we pray, we are not throwing words into the Great Unknown, into some infinite and distant universe. No, we are conversing with Our God.
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit works with each baptized person and with each community of two or three gathered in the name of Jesus to change bits and pieces of our world.
Overcoming Prejudice
All of us are part of a society and a world that can be very hard on those who are not white and middle-class. Black Lives Matter has become a plea not only to recognize individual prejudice but also societal attitudes that most of us absorb without thought.
Why Did God Create the World
Rather than challenge God that He should have made a better world, we need to collaborate with God in Jesus precisely to transform this world by the power of the Holy Spirit into more of what God intended. That is discipleship in the Kingdom of God!
Mercy for Sinners
We Christians live our lives in a great tension. We are sinners and that drags us down; but we are also healed by the Mercy of a God who cannot wait to kiss us on both cheeks, to welcome us home with a bear hug, and to treat us as beloved sons and daughters.
Mercy Never Ends
Perhaps we all have an image that God is like human fathers, ready to judge, ready to punish, ready to admonish, ready to scowl at us because of our failures. But if this human father and mother could love their son right to the end, how much more can we depend upon the never-ending Love and Mercy of Our Father in Heaven.
Justice? Or Mercy?
Bill surprised me with his words. "That is why I have no difficulty believing in God's mercy. I have seen what mercy means in a good man; so how could it be any less for God?" "Mercy," he added, "is the first and foremost a profound gift of Love."
God's Invitation
We generally forget the courtesy and gentle humility of God, who calls to us, seeks us out, offers us mercy and salvation. We forget what it meant for Jesus to leave his Godhead behind and become one of us, even to the point of suffering death on the Cross. So, we rail at God and sniff at the lack of response we seem to get.
Spiritual Works of Mercy
We are Christ's disciples, indeed, because we become through baptism and Eurcharist the very Body of Christ, he wants us to provide us with a power for goodness that goes beyond our own instincts to hurt or be callous or retaliate or just be thoughtless.
St. Alphonsus and the Gift of Mercy
Alphonsus knew the mercy of God in his life and he loved God with all his heart. Knowing this gentle presence of God in his life, he made sure to communicate it to all his people. He did not chastise in the confessional, he did not probe, except delicately if it might help the sinner deal with an issue or find another way to act; and he never threw anybody out.
The Saints and Mercy
Merciful people see with the eyes of God - they see their brothers and sisters in need or who are suffering or who are marginalized by war or poverty or mental health issues and they look for ways to bring healing and dignity to these situations in which people find themselves.
The Ethics of the Christian Community
I began to realize that a great deal of our moral teaching tends to focus on actions by individuals-things like lying and gossip, or stealing or losing one's temper, or sexual sins-such that when we talk about morality for Catholics we automatically start thinking about topics such as abortion, euthanasia, and not going to Mass on Sunday as the failures or sins of individuals.However, something began to catch my attention over the years as I read the letters of Paul or Peter or James.
Loving God
I began to think of the ways in which we know God. St. Paul, in the first
chapter of his letter to the Romans, chastises the Gentiles for worshipping stones and silver or golden idols when the true wonders of God are all around us. Creation, as Ps. 19 tells us, surrounds us with the beauty and the immense creativity of God. We speak of magnificent sunrises or sunsets, the beauty of a forest or a waterfall, the wonder of seeing creatures in the wild-so the mind ought to move to a sense of wonder before the Creator.
Desire
Desire is one of the cornerstones of our lives; but we do not often think of it. We like to be rational in our choices, but we seldom recognize the forces that pull at our desires and how they manipulate our choices. I am sure that you, like me, have at times come home from a store and wondered why I bought certain items. In my case, I wanted them when I saw them; but on later reflection I realized I could easily have done without them.
Mary, The First Disciple
The reason that Mary's Feast is set on January 1st, I would suggest, is
because of how she is portrayed in the Scriptures-She is the first disciple. She hears the Word of God about Jesus from the Angel Gabriel and once she has clarified what God is doing, she says her Yes to God. She becomes the model of all disciples in this openness to God and God's Word.
Do Not Be Afraid
In our society we take so much for granted, as if we are owed a living. We tend to lose touch with the God who cares for us daily. In many Catholic homes today, families do not even say grace before meals. That troubles me because if a famine were to occur, the first one to be blamed would be God! Yet we often cannot see God's goodness and generosity when it is right in front of our noses.
Road Block to Faith
Fear, I am learning, is the great roadblock to faith. And yet I often find myself approaching God not out of wonder or awe or praise or enthusiasm but out of fear. I want something; but I find myself approaching God as if I were a child trying to get something out of a parent. Or I see somebody approaching me after Sunday Mass and I know that he wants money. My defences go up and I forget that he may also just want a listening and sympathetic ear for a few minutes.
When God Calls Us Home
I have worked for years in and around palliative and hospice care for the dying. I have been amazed and humbled by the lessons the dying have taught me. The first and most important is that when we care for the dying properly-when they are not in pain, when their symptoms are managed, when they know that they will not be abandoned by their doctors and healthcare team-the dying have a lot to live for!