Friday, April 18, 2014

I Have Chosen Bar-abbas, I Have Chosen Sin! - A Good Friday Meditation

Today, the Church calls to mind the Lord's Passion on Good Friday.  I was blessed to give a meditation this morning on the choice given to the Jews and to us; the choice between Jesus and Bar-abbas!

Pontius Pilate brings before the Jewish people two men: Jesus, son of the Heavenly Father and Bar-abbas, whose name literally means son of the father.  Pontius Pilate makes the people choose who they will release and who will they follow.  Will they choose to follow Jesus Christ, the son of the Heavenly Father, or will they follow Bar-abbas son of the father of lies? (cf. John 8:44)  Will they follow the man whose message stands for service and self-sacrifice or will they follow the man who is known as a zealot, murderer acting on his own desires and wants.  Will they choose a life of holiness or will they choose a life of sin?  This same choice is given to us today!

The Church, in her beauty recounts for us the words of the Passion.  The congregation not only hears the words, but most will participate and cry out for Bar-abbas over Jesus!  And if we are truly honest with ourselves, we will admit, we too choose our own attachments over the Lord.  We too choose to act selfishly over being selfless.  In a sense, we too, choose SIN!  From my own heart, I can say, I have chosen SIN, I have chosen Bar-abbas!

To admit this fact is hard.  It first takes self-awareness.  It also takes humility to acknowledge our weakness and our attachments.  The reality is clear, in our human brokenness, we don't always do what is right! See St. Paul in Rom 7:15 - "What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate"

What then?  Do we just surrender, give up, live in a life of sin?  The answer is NO! We come before the Lord and seek his forgiveness!  One of the most beautiful images given to the Church is the Apostle Peter. Pope Benedict writes:
The Church is founded upon forgiveness.  Peter himself is a personal embodiment of this truth! She is held together by forgiveness, and Peter is the perpetual living reminder of this reality: she is not a communion of the perfect but a communion of sinners who need and seek forgiveness.
Recounting the Passion, Peter denies Jesus 3 times!  He betrays and fails to trust in Jesus.  But the story doesn't end there, Peter is forgiven, along with all the other disciples, and they are given the ministry of forgiveness found in John 20:21-23
[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,“Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”   
Today, this Good Friday, let us acknowledge our brokenness, seek the opportunity to venerate and kiss the cross, and ask the Lord for forgiveness because we have chosen, even yelled out, Bar-abbas over Jesus. Let us ask the Lord for forgiveness because we have chosen our attachments to our sins over choosing to follow Him! Let us seek the healing the Lord wants to give us!
But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Friday, April 4, 2014

Death By NutraSweet!

Hummingbirds are truly beautiful animals to watch.  To see them jet up, down, left and right at a whim is quite a site to behold, all with a simple humming sound.  Then we come to realize the following fact:

A typical hummingbird needs 7 to 12 calories of energy everyday. This might sound small, but when we do the math: it's the equivalent of a 180 pound human having to scrounge up 204,300 calories a day, or about 171 pounds of hamburgers.  How crazy is that!


Bird enthusiast will sometimes put out bird feeders filled with sugar water to watch these amazing fliers of the sky, while giving them necessary calories to live. But what happens when you take away the necessary calories found in the sugar and use NutraSweet (a sugar substitute)?  The beautiful bird still takes the sweet water, feels fulfilled for its stomach is full, but will die because the false substitute doesn't provide the necessary nutrients.  

How often do we find ourselves in a similar situation.  We, like the hummingbird, indulge in false substitutes that eventually lead to our own death and destruction.  The devil in many ways tries to entice us with these false substitutes of the world, such as; lust, greed, and power.  These powerful three temptations seem to satisfy for a while, but in the end leave us unfulfilled.  Note that the Church offers us the three Evangelical Councils to confront these false substitutes with; chastity, poverty, and obedience. 

Or how about other false substitutes that try to fulfill our desire to be known and loved?  Are filling our lives with artificial friendships found in most social networking programs like facebook and twitter?  Am I satisfied with my 2,000 friends on facebook?  Or tens of thousands of followers on twitter? The answer is clearly No!  
This story of accepting false substitutes isn't new!  The story of Adam and Eve is a story of grasping after a false substitute.  Instead of being satisfied in their loving relationship with God, in temptation, they reach after the fruit that would make them become like gods.  They literally had a relationship with the source of life, and decided to take the substitute over the real deal.  Taking the false substitute broke the relationships with God and literally brought death into the world!

Let us acknowledge those things in our lives that may be our false substitutes in life.  If it be pleasures, money, or control.  It's time to eliminate the false substitutes that only temporarily satisfy, like humming bird drinking NutraSweet water.  It's time to seek the food and water that will completely satisfy and give us life!  

"But whoever drinks of the water I shall give him will become in him springs of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14) 

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you!" (John 6:27)  

AMEN!