Tuesday March 20, 2007
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 20, 2007
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been ill a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be well?’”
John 5:6
_______________________________________________________
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.
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you saved? Would not it be wonderful to point to a certain time and day when we surrendered to the Lord and say that where we became whole forever? But that is not how salvation works. Just as it takes time, experience and growth to become a mature man or woman, it takes time and growth to become holy like God is holy. It is God who makes us into saints as we allow him full authority to make us into the people he destined us to be from the beginning. Coming to the fullness of salvation is a journey, a process, an unveiling of the original blueprints that God had drawn up for us from time immemorial.
One way we can capture this journey/process of God totally unveiling the blueprint of us is by how we answer the question, “Have you been saved?” In response, we can talk about the past, present and future. Yes, we have been saved. It is an objective fact that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, died and rose for the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus death and resurrection, we have all been offered the gift of eternal life in Jesus. Secondly, we are being saved in the present. Day by day we seek to grow in the grace of God through prayer and saying “Yes” to Christ in all we think, say and do. We must remember, however, that we can lose salvation. If we begin to reject Jesus, forgiveness and the eternal life he came to bring, we move away from salvation. The scriptures talk about those who are moving towards Christ are moving towards life and those who are rejecting him are heading towards their own destruction. Finally, we speak of the future. One day we hope to go to heaven to enjoy the joy of our salvation forever.
One way we can vision wellness is living in the grace of salvation and having peace. I always say, if you have peace about where you will be for eternity, you have it all. And if you do not have that kind of peace, you have nothing. Today in our scripture Jesus asks a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years if he wanted to be well. Jesus goes on to heal him physically. His body is healed and we can assume that his soul takes on that same healing. But what about all the people we love and pray for that are never healed physically? I still believe that Jesus stands before each one of them and asks, “Do you want to be well? Do you want to live in peace that comes from knowing that you will live forever with me?”
Wellness is an inside-out job. All of our bodies are going to break down and fade away. Just think about what your body will be like one-hundred years from today. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be well on the inside. That doesn’t mean we can’t have extreme peace flowing from our being. Coming to this peace is a process as Jesus unveils our blueprints. I remember this one woman vividly who seemed to so completely exude peace that comes from God making you well on the inside. She was dying from very painful pancreatic cancer. I went to visit her right before I left with a group of kids to a service project in Mexico for ten days. In the midst of all her intense suffering she asked me how “my” kids were doing. She handed me a $200.00 check in support of the trip. I was brought to my knees in her holiness. Here she was in extreme suffering and about ready to die and she was asking me about “my” kids and giving us money for our service project. She is one of the sickest people I have known on their deathbed. But she was one of the wellest people I have known.
She died while we were in Mexico. Now, she is well and will be well for always.
Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Are you saved? Would not it be wonderful to point to a certain time and day when we surrendered to the Lord and say that where we became whole forever? But that is not how salvation works. Just as it takes time, experience and growth to become a mature man or woman, it takes time and growth to become holy like God is holy. It is God who makes us into saints as we allow him full authority to make us into the people he destined us to be from the beginning. Coming to the fullness of salvation is a journey, a process, an unveiling of the original blueprints that God had drawn up for us from time immemorial.
One way we can capture this journey/process of God totally unveiling the blueprint of us is by how we answer the question, “Have you been saved?” In response, we can talk about the past, present and future. Yes, we have been saved. It is an objective fact that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, died and rose for the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus death and resurrection, we have all been offered the gift of eternal life in Jesus. Secondly, we are being saved in the present. Day by day we seek to grow in the grace of God through prayer and saying “Yes” to Christ in all we think, say and do. We must remember, however, that we can lose salvation. If we begin to reject Jesus, forgiveness and the eternal life he came to bring, we move away from salvation. The scriptures talk about those who are moving towards Christ are moving towards life and those who are rejecting him are heading towards their own destruction. Finally, we speak of the future. One day we hope to go to heaven to enjoy the joy of our salvation forever.
One way we can vision wellness is living in the grace of salvation and having peace. I always say, if you have peace about where you will be for eternity, you have it all. And if you do not have that kind of peace, you have nothing. Today in our scripture Jesus asks a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years if he wanted to be well. Jesus goes on to heal him physically. His body is healed and we can assume that his soul takes on that same healing. But what about all the people we love and pray for that are never healed physically? I still believe that Jesus stands before each one of them and asks, “Do you want to be well? Do you want to live in peace that comes from knowing that you will live forever with me?”
Wellness is an inside-out job. All of our bodies are going to break down and fade away. Just think about what your body will be like one-hundred years from today. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be well on the inside. That doesn’t mean we can’t have extreme peace flowing from our being. Coming to this peace is a process as Jesus unveils our blueprints. I remember this one woman vividly who seemed to so completely exude peace that comes from God making you well on the inside. She was dying from very painful pancreatic cancer. I went to visit her right before I left with a group of kids to a service project in Mexico for ten days. In the midst of all her intense suffering she asked me how “my” kids were doing. She handed me a $200.00 check in support of the trip. I was brought to my knees in her holiness. Here she was in extreme suffering and about ready to die and she was asking me about “my” kids and giving us money for our service project. She is one of the sickest people I have known on their deathbed. But she was one of the wellest people I have known.
She died while we were in Mexico. Now, she is well and will be well for always.
Live the confronted life!
+Fr. John
posted by Patti @ 7:32 AM
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home