Seeking Jesus, and being sought by Him

Today's gospel: Luke 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus that we have in today's gospel is another one of those only found in Luke. I would like to reflect with you for a minute on two short verses in the passage. In verse 3, we read, "And he (Zacchaeus) sought (was seeking) to see who Jesus is, ..." In the New Testament, there are 3 verbs used for the word, "to see". One ("blepo") means simply to see something with your eyes, whereas the other two verbs and their various forms also indicate a type of perception that goes beyond the mere reality of visible sight. Luke uses one of these 2 verbs here. Therefore, Zacchaeus didn't just want to see Jesus for the mere fact of being able to say, "I saw an important person!", but rather he wanted to get to know Jesus personally. That is what each one of us is called to do daily... to get to know ("see") Jesus better every day. We can ask ourselves, "To what pains do I go through to see Jesus active in my day-to-day life? How much time do I spend each day meditating on his Word? How many times a day do I ask Him what I should do at a particularly difficult moment?" We should be able to say with the Greeks in John's gospel (12:21), "We want to see Jesus!" (Again, same verb in Greek used here!)

At the end of the gospel, we have the verb "to seek" again, which was the same as in verse 3. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Even when we sin and God is furthest from our minds and hearts, He is still there seeking us out. May we long to see and search for God everyday of our lives. As the psalmist says, "As the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul yearns for you, my God."

Today is the last day of October, the month dedicated to Our Lady of the rosary. Below is a video I found with many beautiful images and icons of Our Lady, accompanied by the Ave Maria. Enjoy!

Back online and the Word of God

Finally, they seem to have repaired the Wireless connection and everything should run smoothly.  (Hint: The key words in that sentence are italicized!)  Anyway, I would now like to share with my readers a couple of paragraphs from one of the books which I am presently reading, entitled Prayer.  This is a book written by a great theologian, Hans Urs van Balthasar.  I have not reached very far in the book and I may not even be able to finish it (it might go way over my head!), but, nonetheless, his introductory words are full of wisdom and insight.
"Prayer... is communication, in which God's word has the initiative and we, at first, are simply listeners.  Consequently, what we have to do is, first, listen to God's word and then, through that word, learn how to answer.  His word is the truth make known for our sakes.  There is no final, unquestionable truth in man.  He is fully aware of that as he looks to God for an answer and comes closer to him.  God's word is his invitation to us to enter into the truth and abide there with him.  It is like a rope-ladder thrown down to us in danger of drowning, so that we can climb into the ship; or, a carpet unrolled before us leading to the Father's throne; a torch shining in the darkness of a silent and sullen world, in whose light we are no longer harassed by problems, but learn to live with them.  God's word is, ultimately, himself, that in him which is most living and profound: it is his only-begotten Son, of the same nature as himself, whom he sent into the world to bring it back to him.  That is why God spoke to us of his Word dwelling on earth: 'This is my beloved Son, listen to Him'.
We are harassed by the burden of living; exhausted, we look round for a place of repose, tranquillity and renewal.  We would gladly rest in God and commit ourselves to him, so as to draw from him fresh strength to go on living.  But we do not look for him there where he awaits us, where he is to be found, namely in his Son, who is his Word.  Or else we do seek him because there are a thousand things we want to ask him, and imagine that, unless they are answered, we cannot go on living; we pester him with problems, demand answers, solutions, explanations, forgetting all the time that in his Word he has solved all questions and given us all the explanations we are capable of grasping in this life.  We do not turn where God speaks, there where his word resounded in the world, a final utterance sufficient for all times, whose riches can never be exhausted."
The highlighting is my addition.  It was after having read this several months ago that I began to concentrate my meditation time every morning on the Word of God which the Church presents to us for that day.  This has been a tremendous help to me, and I invite you to do just that.  As von Balthasar says elsewhere in the book, we will only find the real truth about ourselves in listening to Him who is Truth Himself!  God bless, enjoy your day, and let the Word of God enrich your life!

My God, why have you abandoned me?

Today being Friday, it is a tradition in the Passionist congregation to occasionally offer Mass on Fridays remembering some aspect of the Passion of Christ.  This is a very healthy tradition for all of us.  Today's gospel therefore was taken from the Passion according to Matthew, where we hear Jesus cry out, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"  Therefore, below I give you a video of that hymn in Italian.  Even if you don't speak Italian, you can appreciate the music and St. Peter's Basilica from the outside.  It's one of my favourite Italian hymns!  They sing this every year on Palm Sunday.  That is my favourite Papal mass.
P.S.:  I am still writing this while sitting in my chair in a corridor... no Wi-Fi service in my room!!!

Ss. Simon & Jude

Lest anyone think that I had an excess of fervour on the first day of blogging or an overdose of laziness which suddenly hit me, know that I have an excuse.  The internet service for the past 3 days has been, intermittent at best, and nonexistent for hours at a time at worst.  Therefore, I have been unable to post anything in that time frame.  As a matter of fact, I am presently writing this sitting in my chair in the corridor, because I still have no Wi-Fi signal in my room!  And they say Italy is a 1st world country!  Ha! Anyway, the above post is a short video on Sts. Simon and Jude, today's feast day.  I had originally planned to share with you some of my meditation on today's gospel reading, but I never know how long the internet will last.  So, for now, I will leave it at this.  God bless and happy feast day of Sts. Simon and Jude.

Mission Month

October is Mission Month.  It's pretty sad when you only read the Pope's address on the 26th of the month, but... at least, I read it!  As I said in my previous post and as is the title of this blog, I want to continue the life-long search for Truth.  Lo and behold, the Holy Father himself spoke about this in the Mission Sunday address: "Like the Greek pilgrims of two thousand years ago, the people of our time too, even perhaps unbeknown to them, ask believers not only to 'speak' of Jesus, but to 'make Jesus seen', to make the face of the Redeemer shine out in every corner of the earth before the generations of the new millennium and especially before the young people of every continent, the privileged ones to whom the Gospel proclamation is intended. They must perceive that Christians bring Christ's word because he is the truth, because they have found in him the meaning and the truth for their own lives."  The highlight is mine, of course.  That is what I hope to bring to all who will eventually read this blog, Truth, at least the search for Him.  Yes, Truth is a person, because Jesus plainly said, "I am the way, the truth and the life."  For those who say there is no such thing as objective truth have not yet come into a personal relationship with Jesus.
Speaking of relationships with Jesus, I would like to conclude with another passage from Benedict's message: "Only on the basis of this encounter with the Love of God that changes life can we live in communion with him and with one another and offer our brothers and sisters a credible witness, accounting for the hope that is in us (cf. 1 Pt 3: 15). An adult faith, capable of entrusting itself totally to God with a filial attitude fostered by prayer, meditation on the word of God and study of the truth of the faith, is a prerequisite for furthering a new humanism founded on the Gospel of Jesus."  We seriously need to ask ourselves some questions when we read this.  Do we have what Benedict calls "an adult faith"?  Do we put all our trust in God?  How much time do we spend in prayer, mediation on the word of God and study of the truth of the faith?  May the Lord always grant me the grace to be in intimate union with the Holy Trinity and may my faith grow day by day.  And may all become "protagonists of the Church's commitment to proclaim the Gospel."

First comments

I had been thinking about starting a blog for quite some time now.  However, like many things in my life, it just wasn't the time yet.  In my meditation this morning, a sort of inspiration (could it possibly be from the Holy Spirit?) was indicated to me that now is the time.  I want this blog to be a search for, a meditation on, or a reflection of the truth, or rather, I should say, the Truth, who ultimately is God.  I hope to share with my readers (if ever I get any!) some thoughts and reflections on the Scriptures, the Church, the saints, or just life in general, especially life in the missions.  I consider myself to be a missionary through and through.  It is my firm desire to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth.  That should be a desire of every Christian!  I hope that this blog will accomplish part of that desire.
I was on Facebook for a number of years, but will soon be canceling my participation in that website (if I am allowed to do that!).  Why, you may ask?  Frankly, I have wasted too many hours fumbling through people's sometimes idiotic comments and seeing their friends and their friends' friends for just too long.  Enough is enough.  I don't believe, and you may disagree with me, that Facebook is necessarily the way for spreading the Gospel.  If there are others that can work through that, may God bless them, but I prefer being able to communicate this way.
This morning's 1st reading was taken from Ephesians 5: 21-33.  Quite a number of things struck as I prayed with this passage.  Of course, feminists may say that women get the wrong end of the stick in this letter, or that Paul was speaking from the confines of thought in his day, but I don't see it like that.  Rather, I believe that men really have a challenge here!  Listen carefully, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."  How did Christ give Himself up for the Church?  All the way to the cross!  His love for the Church got him killed, and that is the love that husbands are supposed to have for their wives.  That is real love (agape in Greek and, of course, that is the verb Paul uses here in the Greek text).  To show what this means in real life, Paul goes on to say that "husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself."  A bit later in this passage, Paul will have to concede that "This mystery is a profound one."  The Greek says, "This mystery is 'mega'", in other words, huge!  It is indeed "mega" and one which we should meditate on often in searching for the Truth about male and female, husband and wife.  I hope to be able to come back to this meditation for another day.  In the meantime, I believe that this is enough for a first post.
As I would often end my classes when I was teaching, I say to you, "Have a great day, God bless you, and see you tomorrow, God willing!!!"