Is Christ a way or the way?

Is Christ a way or the way?

On Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, the last time apostles would see Jesus before he was taken into heaven.  After all those years of teaching, example, miracles and finally his greatest act of love and mercy on the cross, Jesus had returned to the apostles he befriended and loved for their final instructions.  They were never going to see their best friend again in this life but what did Jesus leave them, what did he leave all of us with?  He told them not to let their hearts be troubled and that he was preparing a place in heaven for them. The told them that he and the Father were one and whatever they asked for in his name, he would do it.  He asked then to keep his commandments, and he let them know that he would not leave them orphans but send a helper, an Advocate to be with them forever – the Holy Spirit.  He told them not to be afraid and that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, would teach them everything and remind them of everything he said, giving them the power and authority to teach, perform miracles, forgive sins, and be his witnesses.   He asked them to love each other as he loved them, laying down their very lives for each other.  He instructed them to spread the Good News, the gospel, to the “ends of the earth,” and promised to return to bring them home to the Father.  

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Happy Easter - now what?

Happy Easter - now what?

We can only image how the apostles and followers of Jesus felt after he had been so brutally executed and now go forever.   This man was like no other.  He saw into their very souls with unconditional love and acceptance.  He spoke of God’s love and our lives in ways that profoundly impacted them.   He had moved them in a way that they literally dropped everything to follow him, his words, his friendship, and his example.  On the night before he was crucified in such a brutal fashion, he knelt as a servant to wash each of their feet and shared his body and blood with them so that they could become one with him and live forever in God’s love.  Within a matter of hours, Jesus was the ultimate sacrificial lamb as he poured himself out in total self-gift.  Out of pure love and mercy, Jesus took the place of not only Barabbas but of each apostle and each one of us on the cross for our sins so that we might share eternal life with him in heaven. 

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Lenten reflection - what's in a gaze?

Lenten reflection - what's in a gaze?

Have you ever met or talked with someone and the way they look at you is profoundly different?  I remember my very first day with my wife, Joanne.  We went to dinner and the movies and had really nice time with conversation was easy.  Afterward, I drove her home, and we stood outside of her apartment in a two-family house on a quiet street in Watertown, Massachusetts.  It was one of those beautiful late summer evenings but what I remember most was that look in Joanne’s eyes when we kissed under a moonlit sky.  It was a gaze that stopped my world and told me that she was nowhere but in that moment with me.  I was thinking that it was far too early to be a look of love but it was a gaze that looked deeper than just into my eyes only and gave me a feeling I will never forget, as it sits front and center in my memory file and my heart.  When I recall that moment with Joanne, I call it “the look”, but it was much more than that to me.

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