Sharing the Love of Jesus

Published on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

The Good News is that God loves us to the extent of giving form and flesh to this love in Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary. It is not only to be contemplated and received. The love of God made visible in Jesus is to become visible in the lives of Christians.

Jesus’ emphasis falls heavily upon the love of neighbor in such a way that the neighbor becomes the visible focal point and even the test case for our love of God. We are to be judged finally by our attitude and response to the neighbor who is poor, naked, homeless, in prison (Mt 25). Read on »


Sharing the Hope of Jesus

Published on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

The Christian community of faith turns to Jesus for the source and shape of our specifically Christian hope. Be reflecting on his attitude of hopeful trust in the Father and examining where that led him, we will gain some insight into our hope. If we take seriously that Jesus is the way to the Father, then his way, the way of hope, must also become our way. His hope becomes ours.

To speak of the hopes of Jesus might seem strange; for hope would seem to imply distance between the Father and his Son. How could Jesus be the Savior, if he had to hope and struggle like us? These are complex questions; however, the beginnings of the answer must lie in the evidence from the New Testament and the tradition, which has always maintained, if not sufficiently emphasized, that Jesus is fully and truly human. Jesus is like us in all but sin (Heb 4:15). Read on »


Sharing God’s Vision

Published on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006

 

“Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” So we read in the Book of Proverbs 29:18, and so our life in the community of Christian faith confirms. The vision that is called for is the vision of our Catholic faith, the depth-vision that enables us to face the vicissitudes of life, a vision that provides a sense of direction and a central thread to the meaning of our existence.

The evangelists presume the historicity of Jesus’ giving sight to the blind as part of his public ministry. They present their accounts of healing from blindness as symbolizing realities that go beyond the physical fact. Their accounts of his giving sight to the blind are a scriptural matrix for our appreciation of the basic faith-vision that Jesus communicates to all who confide in him. Jesus’ giving sight to the blind witnesses to his sharing his own vision, God’s vision, with all who welcome him. Read on »


God calls for generosity

Published on Sunday, March 19th, 2006

God’s people, in Luke’s Gospel, are called to show  the generosity and mercy of their God. Community relationships should not feature reciprocal exchange, with persons asking what they will obtain  in return for their generosity, but in benevolent  and gratuitous care for the needy who cannot repay (14:12-24). A society reconfigured according to the norms of God’s sovereign rule will place a premium on compassion and mercy without thought of reward. Authentic disciples will evidence the generosity and mercy of their God (6:35; 10:37; 15:1-32). When Jesus calls a “toll collector” saying “Follow me” (5:27), and the toll collector then gives a great banquet (5:28), an exploiter of others has been converted into their generous benefactor. Generosity evidences the authentic discipleship of one sharing the spirit of his master. Read on »


Created for Communion, Community and Communication

Published on Thursday, March 9th, 2006

We are created to know what God knows, to love what God loves, and to enjoy what God enjoys. We are created for communion, community, and communication with God in his knowing and loving and enjoying, respectively, the truth and goodness and beauty of things in the relational life of our basic self-others-world-God relation.

Inasmuch as every individual is a together-with-all-others under the sovereignty of a knowing and loving and joyful God, the quality of our knowing and loving and enjoying any one aspect of our relational life is all of a piece with our knowledge and love and enjoyment of every other aspect.1 The way the we treasure or fail to treasure all the persons, places and things around us is all of a piece with our treasuring or failing to treasure God. Read on »


God is Happiness Itself

Published on Thursday, March 9th, 2006

God’s pleasure and joy is pleasure and joy in himself. As Happiness Itself, or Ipsa Felicitas in the words of Thomas Aquinas, God does not have to go out of himself for joy and happiness

The happiness of the Triune God, knowing itself in its Word and loving itself in its Spirit, is externalized by being known and loved and enjoyed by his creatures.

God enjoys creating and giving to his creatures. God does not create because he needs creatures; rather, he creates for his enjoyment, for himself. Happiness Itself is the generous origin and ground, destiny and fulfillment of all creation. Read on »


Beauty Evokes Joy

Published on Monday, March 6th, 2006

God’s manifestation of his beauty/glory is both a grace, expressing his self-giving generosity, and a call to his joy Beauty, a relational aspect of created or uncreated excellence, is always the self-manifestation or communication of excellence.

Our enjoyment of God’s radiant beauty/glory evidences our communion, community and communication with God. Our joy/enjoyment of God’s beauty/glory is the created effect of the divine generosity sharing itself with us. Our joy or enjoyment is being “effected” or caused by uncreated Joy or Happiness Itself. It evidences the active presence and vitality of a joy that this world can neither give nor take from us. The absence of such joy evidences the failure of Happiness Itself to take effect in our lives. Read on »


Generosity evokes Gratitude

Published on Monday, March 6th, 2006

 

God as Creator is Generosity Itself whose self-gift is both the grace and call for human gratitude All creation is an expression of God’s generosity in sharing his true goodness and beauty. God is all-giving magnanimity and never exploiting or taking. God does not use or abuse/exploit his creatures. The created goodness of God’s creatures is a finite expression of his uncreated and boundless goodness and generosity. Nothing that comes from the hand of God, the Generous One, is insignificant. God’s generosity is the source of all meaning, value and beauty. Each human being expresses the generosity, wisdom, love and joy of its Creator. Read on »


The Liberating or “Decentering” Aspect of Beauty

Published on Monday, March 6th, 2006

There is a continuity and an affinity between beauty and the beholder. Each affirms and enlivens the other. Beauty delights and captivates the beholder. Each “welcomes” the other. Each is in accord and harmony with the other. Each fits the other.

Beauty decenters the beholder, requiring us to give up our imaginary position as the center. Beauty draws us beyond ourselves so that a transformation occurs at the core of our consciousness. It is not that we cease to stand at the center of the world, for we never stood there. It is that we cease to stand even at the center of our own world. We willingly cede our ground to the beauty before us. Read on »


Happiness Itself Encompasses Creation

Published on Monday, March 6th, 2006

God’s pleasure and joy is pleasure and joy in himself. As Happiness Itself, or Ipsa Felicitas in the words of Thomas Aquinas, God does not have to go out of himself for joy and happiness

The happiness of the Triune God, knowing itself in its Word and loving itself in its Spirit, is externalized by being known and loved and enjoyed by his creatures.

God enjoys creating and giving to his creatures. God does not create because he needs creatures; rather, he creates for his enjoyment, for himself. Happiness Itself is the generous origin and ground, destiny and fulfillment of all creation.

God regards us in his self-regard; he loves us in his self-love; and he enjoys us in his self-enjoyment. God enjoys regarding us in his self-regard (knowing); he enjoys loving us in his self-love; he enjoys us in his self-enjoyment. God contemplates us with the love and joy with which he contemplates himself. Read on »


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