Reflections for
May 2008

What does it mean to be holy?  Do you wonder?  Do you want to be holy?  I think at our core we all want to be holy.  It is what we are made for.  Holiness means different things to different people.  For me it means putting on the mind and heart of Christ.  

What makes us holy? St. Paul tells us there are three things that last - Faith - Hope - and Love….and the greatest of these is love.  

Faith is belief in things unseen.  We have been given this gift through baptism, the faith of our parents and ancestors, our Church and Scripture.  Like any gift, we must unwrap it….use it….treasure it.   

Hope!  How can we not have hope?  No matter the state of the world, God continues to give us the signs of hope. Even amid great tragedy and natural disasters, babies are born, flower bloom, trees turn green and lush with Spring.  No matter how many times we fail, God is ready with forgiveness and mercy.  God’s word encourages us in both faith and hope.  Faith nurtures hope. As we learn the ways of God we come to know that death…whether of a life….an idea….a friendship……is not the end really.  No matter what we see now, God transforms it, brings it back to life.  We may not always recognize the victory at first but as we live we begin to even look for the signs of resurrection in the many little dyings that we experience.  

The greatest of these is Love.  Why is that, you ask?  No greater love is there than this - to lay down one’s life for a friend.  That is the “Way” God asked us to follow. “Love one another as I have loved you”, is Jesus’ command to us. Living it as Jesus did.  Jesus reached out not to the rich and famous, not to the popular or the ruling class.  Jesus reached out to the poor, the unattractive…the untouchables…the criminal…..the lost… and he asks us to do the same. 

We experience the mind and heart of Christ lived out in large and small ways. Some people see the suffering people of Africa or South America and they cannot stay put.  They are compelled to pack up and go to be with them, to help them in whatever ways are available.  Others choose to live simply and to use their resources to feed the hungry through local pantries or work with young pregnant woman who need love in order to choose life.  Love has a way of looking at life through the lens of others instead of the lens of self.  

Living the mind and heart of Christ is living the two great commandments each day in our home, at our work, in our community.  For if we love the Lord our God with our whole heart, our whole mind and our whole strength, and our neighbor as our self, we will be holy for we will have answered the call of the Gospel.  

My prayer for you is that the good God will give you the grace to live in faith, hope and love each day.

Sincerely,