Friday March 23, 2007
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 23, 2007
“Many are the troubles of the just man.”
Psalm 34:19
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Fr. John on the Radio- Fr. John will be giving a daily Lenten Reflection in Portland, Oregon on KBVM 88.3 FM at 9 AM and 1 PM each day during Lent until Easter. Tune in if you wish.
Life is difficult! It is a given we will have troubles. Relationships fail, addictions assail, and pressures, sufferings, losses and disappointments are some of the many trials we can face. How we respond to these troubles is the deal-maker or breaker. While it is a given we will have troubles, what is not a given is how we will respond.
If we want to talk about a person who had troubles, we should talk about Jesus. As a matter of fact, he took on all troubles for all time into his body on the cross. Can you imagine the impact of all that coming to him? As we consider his life, as soon as he started opening his mouth and doing God’s work in his public ministry, there were troubles. People did not trust him. They laughed at him and mocked him for saying who he was. Some got very angry and plotted to kill him. He had to watch where he went as people were out for his life. The anger grew and he was finally arrested, scourged, whipped, beaten, spit upon, laughed at, blasphemed, and ruthlessly crucified in utter agony. Talk about troubles!
If Jesus, who loved perfectly, had troubles, guess what is going to happen to us? But the key is how we respond to it all. Troubles can either make us bitter or better. The choice is up to us. I know two men about the same age who have the same life-taking, debilitating disease. The life of their spirit is a study in contrasts. One man has become bitter, closed-in and callous. Seeking God in all of it has not been part of his response. The other man seems to be going in the opposite direction. As he opens his heart to God in all his troubles, I see his yearning to reach out to more people with the love and joy that God has given him. He has become better, softer, with an increased desire and ability to share the grace poured out in his heart.
We look to Jesus and see how he responded to the troubles. With the weight and immensity of all that was coming to him, he cried out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And because Jesus gave the Father all the troubles, The Father turned the tables and transformed this giving into eternal life. All you and I have to do, then, is follow Jesus’ lead and let Jesus turn the tables of our troubles and transform us into eternal life.
A troubled person with no way out of their troubles will become a bitter person. A person who knows that the way of their troubles is found in Jesus will be a better person in the sense of knowing a love and joy and peace that never ends.
Troubles come and you become bitter or better from them. Which are you?
Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John
Life is difficult! It is a given we will have troubles. Relationships fail, addictions assail, and pressures, sufferings, losses and disappointments are some of the many trials we can face. How we respond to these troubles is the deal-maker or breaker. While it is a given we will have troubles, what is not a given is how we will respond.
If we want to talk about a person who had troubles, we should talk about Jesus. As a matter of fact, he took on all troubles for all time into his body on the cross. Can you imagine the impact of all that coming to him? As we consider his life, as soon as he started opening his mouth and doing God’s work in his public ministry, there were troubles. People did not trust him. They laughed at him and mocked him for saying who he was. Some got very angry and plotted to kill him. He had to watch where he went as people were out for his life. The anger grew and he was finally arrested, scourged, whipped, beaten, spit upon, laughed at, blasphemed, and ruthlessly crucified in utter agony. Talk about troubles!
If Jesus, who loved perfectly, had troubles, guess what is going to happen to us? But the key is how we respond to it all. Troubles can either make us bitter or better. The choice is up to us. I know two men about the same age who have the same life-taking, debilitating disease. The life of their spirit is a study in contrasts. One man has become bitter, closed-in and callous. Seeking God in all of it has not been part of his response. The other man seems to be going in the opposite direction. As he opens his heart to God in all his troubles, I see his yearning to reach out to more people with the love and joy that God has given him. He has become better, softer, with an increased desire and ability to share the grace poured out in his heart.
We look to Jesus and see how he responded to the troubles. With the weight and immensity of all that was coming to him, he cried out, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And because Jesus gave the Father all the troubles, The Father turned the tables and transformed this giving into eternal life. All you and I have to do, then, is follow Jesus’ lead and let Jesus turn the tables of our troubles and transform us into eternal life.
A troubled person with no way out of their troubles will become a bitter person. A person who knows that the way of their troubles is found in Jesus will be a better person in the sense of knowing a love and joy and peace that never ends.
Troubles come and you become bitter or better from them. Which are you?
Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John
posted by Patti @ 9:20 AM
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