Tag: eternal life

Exodus 34: The Richness of God
Exodus 34: The Richness of God

Monday, November 3, 2025

When Moses sees the people worshiping a golden calf they have fashioned for themselves (Exodus 32:19) he smashes the tablets containing the Ten Commandments in a fit of wrath. In today’s Noontime we read of the renewal of these tablets. Even in the face of a willful turning away, God shows his chosen people kindness and mercy. And God shows us this same gentleness and compassion today.

Murillo: The Good Shepherd
Today’s readings are centered on God as the Good Shepherd, the patient night-watcher, the constant day-herder, the wise and loving one who knows us from the womb until our last breath.

Paul writes to the Colossians (3:12-14) and to us: Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection.

Moses describes God as merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin. Moses also speaks of how God chastises us – all the while loving us as a loving parent wishing the best for his child.

The Psalm in the Morning Prayer today is Psalm 36:6-10 and it reminds us of the depth and breadth of God’s love. It also reminds us that God will be painfully truthful with us in order that we also grow in mercy and goodness and truth and justice and light: Your love, Lord, reaches to heaven; your truth to the skies. Your justice is like God’s mountain, your judgments like the deep. To both man and beast you give protection, O Lord, how precious is your love. My God, the sons of men find refuge in the shelter of your wings. They feast on the riches of your house; they drink from the stream of your delight. In you is the source of life and in your light we see light.

The MAGNIFICAT mini-reflection (Cameron 132-133) helps us to understand why we gather to celebrate Eucharist as often as possible: Through the mystery of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, God has destroyed death forever by transforming it from the end of our story to a passageway into eternal life. In the Eucharistic feast, we taste the promise of the fulfilled. It is in and with and through Christ that come we come to know the fullness of God’s love, that he gives his own child so that we might live. Such is the richness of God. Such is his gift of light and life to us.

Toward the end of exodus 34 we read about how Moses’ face is so transformed into light that he puts a veil over his face. God’s radiance is reflected in Moses’ face. All of this goodness is nearly too much to bear.

The MAGNIFICAT Morning Intercessions help us to make the connection between God’s feeding of the Hebrews in the desert with God’s abiding love for us in the 21^st century. They let us know that God’s eternal message of peace that made Moses’ face radiant in joy is the same message God has for us today. When we cry out in sorrow, God nourishes us. When we wander in the darkness, God brings us the gift of eternal life.

God feeds us with the finest wheat: our Lord Jesus Christ, source of our life. And so we pray . . .

You feed us at the table of your word: nourish the thoughts of our heart.

You feed us with the bread of life: grant that we may live in the spirit of self-giving love.

You feed us with the pledge of eternal life: grant that we may receive our daily bread with gratitude.

God of life, you invite all peoples to the feast of life in your kingdom. Forgive us when, in our foolishness, we refuse your invitation to pursue other interests, and bring us back to your table that we may continue to grow in the life of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord for ever. Amen.

God is the Good Shepherd of all creation; he is the patient night-watcher and the constant day-herder. God is the wise and loving one who knows us from the womb until our last breath. God nourishes and feeds; he rescues and saves. God always calls us to return. For God is rich in kindness and mercy, quick to forgive, slow to anger, always calling us home.

A re-post from October 9, 2011.

Cameron, Peter John, Rev., ed. “Mini-Reflection and Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 9 October 2011: 251. Print.

Images from: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-good-shepherd/28013a12-7a77-4a4f-9b26-85422f4d7afe and https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunset-over-wears-valley-tennessee-mountain-art-reid-callaway.html

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November 3, 2025

Colossians 3:12-14, eternal life, Eucharist, Exodus 32:19, God nourishes, Good Shepherd, Magnificat, Psalm 36:6-10
Sirach 40: Joys and Miseries of Life
Sirach 40: Joys and Miseries of Life

Monday, June 2, 2025

This reflection is adapted from one written August 8, 2007, and it reminds us that we benefit from exploring the human life of Jesus as we navigate the highs and lows of life.

The book of Sirach contains wonderfully easy-to-understand capsules of true wisdom intermixed with Old Testament ideas that Jesus the Messiah asks us to put aside. Jesus Ben Sirach must have lived a full life in order to write all that he set down for us; and this chapter is no exception. We examine verses 17 through 27 where he directly compares ways to measure our true success. Gold and silver make one’s way secure but better than either, sound judgment . . . The flute and the harp make sweet music, but better than either a voice that is true.

This chapter is sandwiched between two images of heaven, just as life is sandwiched between the two great transitions in life – our birth and our death. It follows one that describes the heaven we imagine and is followed by one that contemplates death. This structure reminds us that all of us suffer, and all of us gain. All of us wonder about our origin and end. All of us wonder how we will survive all that destroys us, and how we will celebrate the joys that raise us up; but through all of this, Sirach reminds us that for those who worship false gods, the suffering will be worse while our gain will be as nothing.

All that comes from bribes or injustice will be wiped out,
    but loyalty remains forever.

Like Jesus, Sirach reminds us that all we accumulate vanishes while all we enact may live forever.

Wealth from injustice is like a flooding wadi,
    like a mighty stream with lightning and thunder,
Which, in its rising, rolls along the stones,
    but suddenly, once and for all, comes to an end.

Like Jesus, Sirach reminds us that all we do in anger destroys us while all we do in love is eternal.

The offshoot of violence will not flourish,
    for the root of the godless is on sheer rock.

Like Jesus, Sirach reminds us that all we hope in Christ comes to fruition and all we enact in love will endure.

But goodness, like eternity, will never be cut off,
    and righteousness endures forever.

Like Jesus, Sirach reminds us that all we live in Christ abides with us in our sorrow, and celebrates with us in our joy.

Explore the highs and lows in Jesus’ life by entering the words Life of Jesus in Art in the search bar of this blog.

To learn more about how to find balance in life, click on the dancing flower girl image in this post or visit: https://findyourmiddleground.com/2014/01/08/the-highs-and-lows-of-life/
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June 2, 2025

eternal life, suffering and joy, wisdom
John 1: In the Beginning
John 1: In the Beginning

Thursday, August 22, 2024

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (NRSV)

No matter how often we read these words they bring us new beauty.

Footnotes tell us that the writer lays out the themes that develop as the Gospel continues: life, light, truth, the world, testimony, the pre-existence of Jesus, the incarnate Logos who is God’s revelation and the expression of God’s love for us. When we think of the stories we hear and read in this Gospel, we know for a certainty that God is calling us to be diverse, to tend to that diversity and to place our hope in this diversity – because it is in this diversity that the Spirit manifests itself best.

The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one. (MSG)

God calls us to intimacy, and Jesus calls out this same petition in his brief life. God asks us to commune with one another in a way we think impossible, and we can only do this if we rely on Wisdom. This morning’s first reading was from Wisdom 3:1-12, The Hidden Counsels of God on Suffering. Looking at verse four of that reading we are reminded that our hope is what makes us immortal. This hidden counsel of God manifests itself in Jesus, the world’s only true hope.

In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. (GNT)

Jesus, the Suffering Servant, comes to us to serve – not to be served. And so must we serve rather than be served. No one has ever seen God except through Jesus Christ, the apostle John tells us; yet God speaks to each of us through Jesus. It is fitting that Jesus represents this hope of God. It is correct that we awake and rise each day to look to Jesus. It is right that we act and live in hope, for it is this hope that makes us immortal.

Adapted from a reflection written on September 20, 2007.

Image from: https://beithashoavah.org/in-the-beginning-logo/
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August 22, 2024

eternal life, hope, light, suffering servant, The Word, truth, Wisdom 3:1-12
Galatians 3:26-29: Re-Creation – God’s People
Galatians 3:26-29: Re-Creation – God’s People

Saturday, April 20, 2024

If we wonder how God sees the children God lovingly created to bring light to the darkness, we might consider Paul’s words to the Galatians.

It is through faith that all of you are God’s children in union with Christ Jesus. You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are the descendants of Abraham and will receive what God has promised.

Through God’s grace, we receive the gift of faith and we read the testimony left by others.

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy! (1 John 1)

Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we receive the gift of life eternal. On this Easter Friday, as we gather ourselves for Easter re-creation, we benefit from spending time with John’s first letter of testimony. He tells us that all he recounts is real. He reminds us that all he recounts to us has taken place. And he states very clearly that all he reports to us continues to occur today.

To explore varying versions of the verses cited in today’s Noontime, use the scripture links and the drop-down menus.

Image from: https://coffeewiththelord.com/2015/06/27/gods-grand-vision-in-psalm-117-can-be-one-day-fulfilled-all-nations-all-peoples-praising-the-lord-for-all-eternity/
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April 20, 2024

1 John, eternal life, faith, joy
Philippians 2:6-8: Re-Creation
Philippians 2:6-8: Re-Creation

Monday, April 15, 2024

[Jesus] always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. (GNT)

In this Lenten and Easter season, we have meditated on the humility we might learn on our Emmaus journey; we ponder the outrageous hope we have in the Spirit. We have considered the phoenix rising from ashes as we have pledged to remain in God. We have admitted that we are children of God who rest in Christ; and we have determined to remain in the world while not being of it. We have reflected on the act of allowing ourselves to be de-created so that we might become new in Christ. Today, as we celebrate the wondrous miracle of new life that conquers death, we come to terms with our human yet divine nature.

Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. (NRSV)

Richard Rohr tells us, “All healthy religion shows you what to do with your pain . . . If we cannot find a way to make our wounds into sacred wounds, we invariably become cynical, negative, or bitter . . . If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it – usually to those closest around us: our family, our neighbors, our work partners, and, invariably, the most vulnerable, our children”. (Rohr 119)

Jesus shows us how we might allow our suffering to save ourselves and others.

Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. (MSG)

On this great day we might celebrate the breaking of chains of death that none thought breakable. When we witness Christ in his interactions with those who were crucified with him, and later the women and men who discovered the empty tomb, we do not see Christ puffed up in glory. Rather, we find a humble and loving shepherd who leaves an entire flock in order to rescue a single sheep.

At this time of year we celebrate the invitation to re-create ourselves in Christ. We give thanks for the invitation to redemption in Christ. And we rejoice in the promise of hope the Spirit offers us. Let us accept these caring gifts with humility, fidelity and love.

Richard Rohr, OFM. The Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations. Albuquerque, NM: CAC Publishing, 2016.

To spend more time with these verses, use the scripture link to read varying translations of these words, and to open our hearts to these remarkable gifts of faith, hope and love.

Images from: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/273101164888773514/ and https://www.pinterest.com/pin/43558321386711784/
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April 15, 2024

eternal life, faith, hope, humility, love, salvific suffering, shepherd
John 11: Healing Death
John 11: Healing Death

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Giotto di Bondone: The Raising of Lazarus

John the Baptist was imprisoned and when he got wind of what Jesus was doing, he sent his own disciples to ask, “Are you the One we’ve been expecting, or are we still waiting?” (MSG) This week we are given an opportunity to give our own testimony.

How willing are we to believe that Jesus has power even over death?

Jesus announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.” (MSG)

How willing are we to act as Jesus does to bring life out of death?

The disciples said, “Master, if he’s gone to sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.” Jesus was talking about death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap. (MSG)

How willing are we to tell the world the Good News that Jesus wants each of us to live in eternal space and time in unity with him?

“You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?” (MSG)

How willing are we to heal death as Jesus does?

“Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.” (MSG)

How willing are we to believe?

For more reflections on the raising of Lazarus, enter his name in the blog search bar and explore.

When we compare different translations of these verses we begin to see that God wants for each of us the eternal gift of life.

Image from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/giotto/raising-of-lazarus
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December 23, 2023

eternal life, Lazarus, resurrection
1 John 2:15-17: Get Set for Eternity
1 John 2:15-17: Get Set for Eternity

Saturday, December 9, 2023

NASA and European Space Agency: Carina Nebula

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world – wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important – has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out – but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity. (MSG)

We may welcome this news from John the Beloved with eager ears, or we may want to ignore his counsel. In either case, do we not all want to welcome eternity?

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever. (GNT)

We many want to accuse others of living too much in this world, or we may see ourselves as responding to the lure of quick but temporal satisfaction. In either case, do we not all want to participate in the unending feast?

The world is passing away, along with its desires. But whoever does God’s will remain forever. (CJB)

We may want to declare that the perfection of the kingdom is an impossible dream, or we may be one who testifies to the fact that with God all things are possible. In either case, do we not all want to share eternity with our loved ones?

This world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever. (TLB)

We may want to quietly persist on our personal path with Jesus, or we may shy away from inviting others to join us. In either case, do we not all want to prepare for the gift of eternal peace?

When we compare varying translations of these verses, we find The Way to eternal life that John the Beloved assures for us.

The Hubble image above is a 50-light-year-wide panorama of the center of the Carina Nebula, and it shows a region of rapid star birth and death. (NASA and European Space Agency) For more images, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/23/science/space/unforgettable-hubble-space-telescope-photos.html?_r=0
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December 9, 2023

be prepared, eternal life, eternal peace, Hubble Telescope images, The Way
1 John 5: Walking with God
1 John 5: Walking with God

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Morgan Weistling: Walking with God

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know God who is true; and we are in God who is true, in God’s Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)

In this chapter of John’s first letter we are told how we might conquer the world: believing in Christ, observing God’s commandments, living out the testimony we witness in God’s loving care for us, believing in God’s message that we are given the gift of eternal life that is quite real and not an illusion, and entering into dialog with God who loves us more than we can understand or imagine.

What do we see in Weistling’s painting? A loving father who gingerly holds his child’s hands – not too tightly and not too loosely. We see a small, eager face filled with confidence and trust – looking up, looking forward. We see traces of a workshop, the messy business of life where there are pitfalls and obstacles to overcome and learn from rather than deny or avoid. Perhaps the child’s mother has brought her husband a meal or has stopped for a quick visit between father and child. We might ask ourselves: are the parents aware of the dangers of the workshop and the world? Most likely they are. We might also ask as we pause today: Is the father teaching the child . . . or is the child teaching the father? How much might we learn from the small ones around us?

Morgan Weistling: Kissing the face of God

Today we reflect on our own first steps as children and we remember that the human Christ had to learn how to stumble, how to fall, and how to stand again. We reflect on how we as adults have nurtured the children given as gift to us. And we reflect on how we might become childlike in our trust in and dependence on God. Are we the worried parent always looking to avoid the fall? Or are we the eager child always trusting in the Lord?

For more on 1 John 5, visit: https://www.bibleref.com/1-John/5/1-John-chapter-5.html

Images from:https://www.morganweistling.com/portfolio/

Over the next few weeks we will be away from easy internet access but we will be pausing to read scripture and to pray and reflect at noon, keeping those in The Noontime Circle in mid-day prayer. You may want to click on the Connecting at Noon page on this blog at: https://thenoontimes.com/connecting-at-noon/ In these posts, we will have the opportunity to reflect on a scripture verse and an artist’s rendition of that event. Wishing you grace and love and peace in Christ Jesus.
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July 2, 2023

eternal life, Kissing the Face of God, trust God
Romans 5: The Difficulty of Love
Romans 5: The Difficulty of Love

Monday, June 5, 2023

A Favorite from August 10, 2010.

It is in this chapter of Romans that we receive our greatest challenge of all challenges: Only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps even for a good person one might even find the courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

We read today one of the great paradoxes of Christian living – that we receive the gifts of faith, hope, love, grace, peace and life eternal when we are willing to die to self with Christ, so that we might rise again in new life. We are reminded that none of our transgressions can turn God away. Our creator is always waiting to comfort us, save us and free us from all that makes us unhappy. It is we who forget this as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Philippians 4:6-7: Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Commentary tells us that here we see the law and sin in proper relationship to one another – only through the sacrifice of Jesus. We may well wonder how we view our own transgressions against God, self and neighbor in light of this good news. Do we shrink from examining our conscience, afraid of what we might find to confess? Do we eagerly give ourselves over to recollection and self-questioning in order that we more fully understand our proper relationship with God through his Spirit? If the former, we take consolation from today’s Noontime that reassures us that no human can surprise God with sin. If the latter, we do not hesitate to quiet ourselves within so that we might fully understand and believe that God wants nothing more than to love us and be loved in return.

The difficulty with genuine and authentic love is this, that it imitates Christ. It is willing to die to self even for enemies, because genuine and authentic love knows that through Christ there is always the opportunity to transform. Through Christ we are each called to rise and live again. In this way through Christ, our hearts and minds are guarded in Christ Jesus. We can find no better champion than Christ. We can find no better protector than Christ. We can find no better lover than Christ. For it is Christ who makes all difficult things possible, through his abundant and difficult love.

Image from: https://www.gracecommunity.org/sermons/series/authentic-love
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June 5, 2023

all things are possible, authentic love, eternal life, faith, grace, hope, love your enemies, peace, Philippians 4:6-7