-The homily from March 20/Lent II is in the Library ->
-The Scriptures for Lent III are at USCCB.org ->
-I am preaching at the 4:00pm Saturday Mass and the 11:00am Sunday Mass
"We are not in Kansas anymore!"
This week's scriptures and the scrutiny we celebrate with the Elect for Baptism remind us that being saved is a new "place" out of which we live. The grace of salvation is a new orientation for our lives and a new arena or operation that IS our lives "in Christ Jesus."
Do we sense and interact with the grace in whch we now stand? Do we realize that our old self was crucified with Christ and that the life we now live is a life of faith hidden with Christ in God?
I hope so because if not we could be missing, not having access, to that all-important "grace", which is, partcipation in the life of God. The life of the Trinity is a new reality, new stuff, a new place out of which we can live with power and light.
By faith, let's open our eyes and see, or renew our sight, that where we are standing isn't in "kansas anymore"
7 comments:
How do we learn to forgive ourselves, after we receive the sacrament of reconciliation and do penance. How do we move beyond the sin and "forget about it" How do we give up that crucified self and get to the next step on the staircase to moving closer to being with God Our Father. I stand in the Tornado of my life and wonder if I can get past my sins of my previous younger life
I like the question – “Do we realize that our old self was crucified with Christ and that the life we now live is a life of faith hidden with Christ in God?” As I sit and reflect on the Scriptures and today’s reflection I am considering what that means in life today. The full meaning of Baptism, of joining in the Paschal Mystery with Christ – dying in Him and being born into the People of God – is a challenge to grasp, yet such a key in appreciating the fullness of our faith. I marvel at the woman at the well who, upon encountering Jesus, couldn’t keep him for herself but just had to share him and his love with others. When I try to imagine how she lived her life from that time onward I do picture her in a new reality – living out of a new place with power and light. She died to her old self – leaving it behind with her water jug – and entered a new time of communion with God and others. She models for me how life could be lived in participation with God, after her thirst was quenched by the life-giving water – by her outreach to others and sharing the incredible Good News.
Aunty Em, Aunty Em!!! I get it, I'm not in Kansas. It is no longer I that lives but Christ in me!!! I GET IT!!! I strive to live Christ!!! But what to do about all those in the pew who don't get it??? Much less those outside the Church? I want Toto with me! I even want the good witch & the bad witch!!!
Annonymous above...look up 1 Thes 5:16-18. You were created by God, who is all Beauty, Truth & Goodness to BE Beauty, Truth & Goodness. And that is what you are, BELIEVE IT!!!
There is not better freedom that to live in the PRESENT MOMENT, forget about the past nothing we can do, forget about the future
because is in God's hands. Living in the present moment will decrease our fears and increase God's trust. God is with us always he created us in his image. He loves us very much.
Why? Why? Why?... we do not need to know, really.
At one time I was asking for so many questions about my spiritual life, I wanted to be "perfect" for Jesus...
A good friend of mine, a priest, told me...
"Do not be discouraged. Embrace what ever is not working as if it is the treadmill of the soul...keep walking on it even though you
don't seem to be getting anywhere. The effect on your spiritual well-being will be great."
This maintain my mind very quiet and peaceful.
God bless. Gitana
We're not in Kansas anymore and unlike the movie, I don't want to go back. Sometimes it takes a tornado to make us realize all that Jesus did for us on the cross. Hopefully we are working hard on finding the grace of God and a new life this Lent.
How great it would be to find Jesus like the woman at the well. We have to have an empty bucket and open our eyes. This is not always easy for me.
Life ‘in Christ Jesus’ - so separate, yet connected to this world – the ‘place’ of overwhelming beauty and in sight of all the evil that surrounds it.
In my sinfully weak participation in His sacrificial love, putting God first and the other before myself, I am hoping, that even a desire to stay in God’s Grace and do God’s will – will be enough for Him.
In His Grace, (dear God, please put me there if I am not) anguish always seems to be simultaneously present.
Since there’s no place like home, I’d like to go home now . . . please.
To: The one in the tornado –
you don’t have to forget it, you have to let it go. How about telling God that perhaps, just maybe, you don’t know how to let it go quite yet and could use His help. And, EXPECT His answer ~ we don’t have the answer for you – only He does.
Sometimes it is good NOT to forget our sins because that can keep us from repeating them. When I tell my kids the same thing over and over and over, I think about how God must be so frustrated with me for doing the same sins over and over and over!
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