Why settle for plain old vanilla?

Twice this week I’ve been blessed to hear two different speakers on the radio talking about the 7 Sacraments.  

The first speaker was a priest who refers to them as “hatching, matching, and dispatching”. 

“Hatching” refers to the Sacraments of Initiation—Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, and Confirmation—which bring us to Christ and nurture our faith.  

“Matching” is the Sacraments of Marriage and Holy Orders, which bring us closer to Christ by embracing the vocation He desires for us.

“Dispatching” is the Sacraments of Anointing of the Sick and Last Rites, which bring us closer to Christ by imparting the Grace we need to bear our distress in times of ill health or imminent death.

I just thought that was a simple way of explaining the Sacraments to someone who might be confused about their importance in our lives.

Then yesterday, I heard a woman compare the Sacraments to creme brûlée.  She came from a Christian tradition that doesn’t recognize the Sacraments as the presence of the Holy Trinity in our soul.  She said she was tempted a few times to leave the Catholic Church because of the scandals that just seem to be getting uglier and uglier, but she didn’t, because although other traditions out there can be “as sweet as vanilla” and pleasing to God, she’s tasted the “creme brûlée” that is the True Presence of Christ in the Sacraments, and doesn’t want to go back to “plain old vanilla”.  I concur.

The man in the boat.....

It’s my brother Tom’s birthday! I miss him terribly, but especially on this special day.

He was a remarkable artist who had no formal training. He could look at any scene or object and re-create it in any medium you asked him to—pen and ink, pencil, crayon—I was so envious of his talent I could scream!

I found out a few days after his funeral, when I was clearing out his things from Mom’s house and found a journal he had been keeping, that he could also paint beautiful pictures with words!

He wrote an entry dated about a month after his son Tommy was killed in a boating accident while they were out fishing.  It read:

“Every time I go fishing, I will remember that the last moments of Tommy's life were filled with love. Because I know how much he loved me and that we had spent a blissful afternoon; and we were excited about the prospect of spending the remainder of the day together fishing, swimming and laughing--completely content.

Some time ago, I was asked the question, "What do you think are the one or two words that describe how you would like to live the rest of your life?" I responded with "contentment and serenity." Afterwards, I was asked to draw what my vision of "contentment and serenity" would look like.

I drew a picture in my mind of a man sitting, no, reclining in a simple rowboat, with a straw hat providing his only disguise from the mid-day sun. Far in the distance the shoreline doubled as the horizon, with images of some agricultural outbuildings, surrounded by harvested cornfields, somewhat overgrown by time. The remainder of the horizon was in its natural state, as one would expect to see on any leisurely Sunday drive in the mid-west states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana or Michigan; Tall cottonwood trees, Dutch elms, oaks, river birch, and eucalyptus.

The sun was giving the most magnificent reflection of all of Nature's beauty on the water, ever-changing with the passing of the day. Out of nowhere the sweet, warm afternoon breeze would cause the sunlight to sparkle through the leaves of the trees on the horizon; falling, then without warning, dancing with the boat through the rippling carpet of water.

Possibly the most serene notion of this beautiful passage of time is that…"

Tom’s entry stopped abruptly there.  I wish he had drawn the picture and included it in the entry, but I could see what he was describing as clearly as if he had painted it. I was crying as I read it and I believe that the Holy Spirit allowed me to see into Tom’s heart at that moment and finish his sentence:

’Possibly the most serene notion of this beautiful passage of time is that…I am the man in the boat’.

Please join me in prayer today that since he didn’t have the “contentment” and “serenity” he so hoped for in this life that he is enjoying both now wrapped in the arms of Our Blessed Mother in the presence of her Son.

No one likes to embrace their crosses

Lily said she HATES math…especially math homework! She tried cajoling, manipulating, praying and pleading to keep from having to do it, but her mom told her she would have to sit at the kitchen table until she was finished, which made Lily think she would be there until bedtime.  “But I don’t like to do it!”, she said.  Alicia reminded her that in life we all must do some things we would rather not do but that are necessary for our success.  She still whined about it for about 10 minutes while we all went into the family room to watch a little TV.  She must have finally realized she should go ahead and get it done, because about 15 minutes later, we heard her shout “Hallelujah, I’m done!”  I thought the word ‘hallelujah’ was ironically appropriate for my meditation today.


No one likes to embrace their crosses (not even Jesus). We want to get rid of them, but the only way to experience the thrill of resurrection victory is to go through the cross. This means accepting our crosses instead of looking for the easy, most comfortable life.


Can you embrace your difficulties as you would a good friend? Indeed, that is what trials are: They are good friends if we let them bring us closer to God, if we let them mentor us into greater holiness, if we let them stretch our ability to love and to forgive those who make our journey unpleasant.


This is what it means to deny ourselves. It does not mean ignoring our own personal needs. Nor does it mean treating ourselves poorly. It does not mean that we become our own worst enemy.


Denying ourselves means that we "lose our lives", as Jesus describes it, in the crosses that we embrace rather than fight to protect the lives we'd rather have. Don't we want everything to go our way? And when things don't go our way, we want to cajole and manipulate and pray and plead to protect the illusion of how our lives "should" be (it's an illusion because it's our idea, but it's not reality), right?


We could, if we put enough effort into it, shape our lives into what we think is best for us. But what is the cost of that? Jesus says it destroys us. We lose touch with God. We lose human relationships. We lose ourselves in the process of getting what we want.


In today's first reading, Moses invited us to choose between God's ways and our own ways. He pointed out the advantages and disadvantages of our decisions.


Of course, we do want to do things God's way. We know that he's smarter than we are. But embracing our crosses and denying ourselves is painful, oh so painful!


There is only one way to do it: We must also embrace Jesus (and thus let him embrace us) as we cry our way through the Way of the Cross.


The joy that's available in suffering comes from knowing that Jesus is on our side, and from trusting our Father for a good future, and from being rooted in the Holy Spirit who affirms us, and from realizing that Jesus the Great Redeemer will transform every curse into a blessing.

But Lord, I worked so hard for everything!........

The bad news?  We are called to give up “everything” to follow Christ. (Mark 10:17-31) What does that mean?  By giving up everything, we are called to completely surrender our own will and preferences in life to serve Christ in accord with His divine plan.  This may take on many forms but, in the end, it’s always a call to give up everything.

The good news?  “Giving up everything” is nothing other than giving up our own selfish ideals and preferences in life.  The even better news is that the life He has in store for us is far better than we can dream of or imagine.  So, by saying “No” to our own will and doing things our own way, we are in fact saying “Yes” to doing things in the perfect way of God.
   

Why wouldn’t we want to seek only His will each and every day of our lives?  Why wouldn’t we want to serve Him and His perfect plan?  This may take on the form of service to our families.  Giving to them when we do not feel like doing so.  It may mean striving to find joy in small acts of service and love.  It may mean, for some, giving up all normal attachments in life and to seek His will in a more radical way.  Whatever the specific calling in life may be for you, it’s worth embracing God’s will.  
   
Have a happy Lent!