Tag: die to live

• John 12: This is Why

  
  

  John 12: This is Why

  Monday, September 15, 2025

  That was why the crowd met him—because they heard that he had performed this miracle. 

  What do we do when we hear of God’s goodness? Do we dismiss it as coincidence or synchronicity? Do we praise God and give thanks for God’s goodness? Our world discounts the mystical and marvelous when a scientific basis cannot be found for the miracles with which God blesses us every day. If we are in the crowd, do we follow Jesus or turn away to continue with the work and play we have already planned for the day?

  Jesus says: A grain of wheat remains no more than a single grain unless it is dropped into the ground and dies. 

  What do we do when we hear these words? Do we shrink from the understanding that each of us must die so that we are born for eternity? Do we welcome the unknown and follow Jesus in faith and deed? Our contemporary societies struggle with creating unity as we focus on our differences rather than our common substance and goal. If we are in the crowd, are we willing to follow Jesus when we know that our world we control must become the world God envisions for us?

  Then a voice spoke from heaven, “I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again.” The crowd standing there heard the voice, and some of them said it was thunder, while others said, “An angel spoke to him!”

  What do we do when we witness God’s presence in our lives? Do we hold this wondrous gift to ourselves? Do we share this good news for all the world to hear? Do we maintain our spirituality in esoteric, cerebral rites full of rules and limitations? Do we allow Christ’s passion for the poor, suffering, and marginalized to possess us fully and open us to amazing possibility? If we are in the crowd, can we say why we follow Christ? Can we say why we ask for transformation? Can we say why we turn to God in both crisis and joy? If we cannot, let us spend time with this reading today.

  When we compare varying translations of John 12, we open the door to God’s voice, and heart to God’s creation.

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  Image from: https://brisbanefire.com/messages/gods-goodness-psalm-118

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  September 15, 2025

  die to live, God’s goodness, miracles

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• 2 Corinthians 8:1-15: Equality in Generosity

  
  

  2 Corinthians 8:1-15: Equality in Generosity

  Saturday, December 7, 2019

  For in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.  (Verse 2)

  In the “feel good” society in which we live, we are conditioned to regard affliction as something to be avoided, something to move past and beyond quickly.  Somewhere on the Damascus Road St. Paul met Christ who brought him the message that one who follows the Messiah sees the inverse of this concept.  We find our wealth in our poverty, we find joy in pain, we find living water in the desert, we find life through death.

  I say this not by way of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others.  (Verse 8)

  We ought not to seek affliction.  This is not healthy.  Anyway, affliction has a way of landing on the doorstep of every human being.  We may choose to step over this affliction each morning as we set off for work and prayer and play.  We may choose to allow Christ’s compassion to move us in healing the afflictions of others – and in so doing, become healed.

  For if your eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have; . . .  (Verse 12)

  We ought not to meddle in the affairs of others or to be distraught about an affliction which only God can heal.  This is forgetting our proper place in our social and spiritual worlds.  The God who has made us knows our promise and potential.  Our God expects us to rise to this potential planted in us.  This is how we bloom

  . . . not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality your surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their surplus may also supply your needs, that there may be equality.  (Verse 13)

  The mystery of God is this . . . that in giving we receive . . . in sharing our wealth overflows . . . in putting aside anxiety for ourselves we are better able to share compassion with others.  Paul reminds us of how when the Hebrews gathered manna in the desert, all were fed.  None starved.

  As it is written: “Whoever had much did not have more, and whoever had little did not have less”.  (Verse 15)

  Our concern for the poor and marginalized in the world is easily handled by sending aid to those who have less.  Are we as quick to serve one who suffers from depression or anxiety?  Do we allow God to work through us when we meet those who have left the practice of prayer behind and are casting about looking for some firm place to stand?  Do we witness for Christ when we meet poverty in all its forms?  Do we step forward eagerly to give . . . so that others may have . . . so that all may increase in Jesus’ name?

  As members of the Mystical Body we receive by giving, we live by dying.  Anxiety, fear, poverty of any kind does not exist . . . because we all know how to give . . . in fearless expectation of equality.

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  Written on October 26, 2008 and posted today as a Favorite.

  Image from: http://www.bluewolf.com/blog/what-are-your-5-packets-generosity

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  December 7, 2019

  anxiety, die to live, fearless expectation, give to receive, manna, Mystical Body, poverty

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