Let Not Our Hearts be Troubled

by Fr. David M. Knight

Friday, November 22, 2024

Thirty-Third Week of the Year

Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr

Rv 10:8-11/Lk 19:45-48 (Lectionary 501)  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112224.cfm

Revelation 10:8-11: The writer says that the scroll he ate was “sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.” This is because it predicted victory, but only after a painful struggle.

Here, in brief, is the general rule of Christian life: One attains beatitude and glory only after being tested by the cross.

This is why, in the Our Father, after asking for the “Bread of the banquet” in the triumph of total, universal reconciliation at the “wedding feast of the Lamb,” we add “Save us from the time of trial. And deliver us from evil.” Jesus has already won the victory; he has triumphed over sin and death. But we enter into that victory through a final conflict with evil. We ask the Father to make it easier for us.

And we can trust he will. Otherwise, Jesus would not have told us to ask for it. We don’t have to fear or be nervous about the conflicts ahead of us. Victory does not depend on our strength, but God’s. We just have to accustom ourselves to surrendering to him: to his thoughts, ideals, inspirations. What we cannot do ourselves, we ask Jesus to do with us, in us and through us.

It is a principle of the spiritual life that discouragement is never from God. The phrase “Do not be afraid, do not fear” appears 105 times in Scripture, 25 times in the New Testament. We are told not to be afraid when an angel speaks to us, or God sends us into an unknown land or future; or of the enemies we will face there, even if their armament is superior; or of their idols, their appearance, or their words. Or of the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day; or to speak the words of God; or to give our last bit of food to a prophet; or of what is causing panic around us. Not to be afraid if we encounter Jesus working a miracle or risen from the dead; or when people oppose, slander or persecute us, or threaten to kill us; or when worried about what we will eat, drink or wear; or about dying childless; or when we are in danger of shipwreck; or our children are in danger—or even have died.

In general: We should not let our hearts be troubled or be afraid, for God is with us. He is our God. He promises, “I will strengthen you, I will help you and uphold you with my victorious right hand; for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine; greatly beloved, you are safe.” Jesus assures us, “Your Father will give you the Kingdom, so don’t let hearts be troubled.” Not even on the cross.

Luke 19:45-48: Jesus was not afraid to denounce wrongdoing in the Temple. It was his Father’s house. We have the same right and duty to denounce abuses in our Father’s Church

Initiative: When in fear change your focus. Think of what God can do.

Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry

www.ImmersedinChrist.org 

The New (Christian) Era

by Fr. David M. Knight

Thursday, November 21, 2024

Thirty-Third Week of the Year

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Rv 5:1-10/Lk 19:41-44 (500) 

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112124.cfm

Revelation 5:1-10: The “key to the whole vision” is that Christ is “worthy to open the scroll”— “qualified to know and [achieve] God’s plan for history.” Only despair could result from a situation in which no one could come to a knowledge of the course of history, nor direct it to a goal that can give sense to human life. The situation of Christians suffering persecution would indeed be foolish and hopeless.

When the Lamb takes the scroll, the “four living creatures” who “represent the whole of creation in which God is constantly present” and the “twenty-four elders” (representing the “ideal Church in its entirety”: the twelve tribes of Israel, plus the apostles as the “twelve foundations” of the new Jerusalem), sing a “new song.”

This newness in praise corresponds to the new name given to the conqueror, the new Jerusalem, to the new heaven and the new earth, and finally to the universal renewal.... The whole universe (the four living creatures) and the Church (the 24 elders) celebrate Christ who, by the redemption, has inaugurated the new era.

All this puts our focus on the “end time,” on God’s plan for the fullness of time—the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things—to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. (See Ephesians 1:10 and 3:9.)

This is what we live for. The glory of this vision is what motivates us to abandon all we have and are, as stewards of the kingship of Christ, to the work of bringing it to fulfillment.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!... To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!

Amen!

Luke 19:41-44:  Jesus weeps over the “old Jerusalem” because she “did not recognize the time of her visitation”—literally of her “inspection” by her episkopus, “overseer.”

As in yesterday’s Gospel, God expects his People, his Church, each one of us, to “bear fruit.” Jesus told of a man who:

had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?”

We are stewards, and we should expect to give an “account of our stewardship.” The “good ground” for the seed of Christ’s word are those who “bear fruit with perseverance.”

Initiative: “Look to the end” with joy by being a “faithful steward.”

Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry

www.ImmersedinChrist.org 

Holy, Holy, Holy

by Fr. David M. Knight

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Thirty-Third Week of the Year

Rv 4:1-11/Lk 19:11-28 (Lectionary 499)

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112024.cfm

The symbolism in Revelation 4:1-11 is daunting, but the message is clear: God is “Holy, holy, holy.” He is beyond any human understanding of greatness, goodness or holiness. He is “Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” He surpasses, transcends, overflows all boundaries of space, time and being. He is simply unimaginable.

And the response we should make to him is unimaginable. “O Lord our God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor and power!” How can we praise, thank, honor, worship or adore him in any way commensurate with what we owe him? He is the Source, the Giver of our very existence. Without his original and ongoing act of creation, each of us is one “who was not, who is not, and who will not be.” Of ourselves we are nothing, created from nothing, with nothing to keep us in existence except God’s continuing desire and choice to do so. This is true of us and of everything we see, touch, feel, use, admire and enjoy: “You have created all things! By your will they came to be and were made!” Take God out of the picture and there is simply no picture left. We who know the Father through Jesus the Son pray, “Hallowed be thy Name!” But there is no way we could ever “hallow” it enough.

In the light of this, and returning to yesterday’s Reflection, is it not objectively blasphemy to be a “lukewarm” Christian? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) said, “To deal with God moderately is an abomination.” Wikipedia quotes him: “God is either of no importance, or of supreme importance." Both are true: we simply cannot deal with God as one among many. God is One. God is All. The only appropriate response to God is to abandon all we have and are to his service. To “love the LORD our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might.” If two plus two makes four, all minus anything equals zero. Take anything from “all” and there is no more “all.” Hold anything back from what you give to God, and whatever you give, it is not to God.[i]

If all we had were the logic of this, we might despair. But God is love. He accepts us as we are, works with us, waits for us to grow into the “perfection of love.” Once we love and want to give him all, he just asks forward motion.

Luke 19:11-28: Jesus says we are judged, not as performers, but as persons; not by what we produce, but by how we choose to use what we have to work with. True freedom is not psychological or physical but personal.

Initiative: Pledge all but pay as you go. God invented layaway

Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry

www.ImmersedinChrist.org