The Path of Knowing God

May 26, 2019: Sixth Sunday of Easter

Acts 15:1–2, 22–29 / Psalm 67 / Revelation 21:1-–14, 22–23 / John 14:23–29

The Path of Knowing God

One of the most famous quotes by St Augustine comes early in Confessions, his spiritual memoir: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Around the world and throughout time, the whole human race has a record of seeking God. As Christians we know why: There is a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts––we are the result of special creation in the image of God. We should also understand why it is hard for humans to perceive God––as Paul wrote to the Romans, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened (Romans 1:21).

But the love of God that created us continues in a love that does not leave us abandoned to find God by ourselves; God comes to us. Just as God created us in love, he comes to us fully human and fully God as Jesus of Nazareth. As Jesus told Philip earlier in the chapter of today’s Gospel, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9).

Yet Jesus is no longer here literally in his physical body. We can’t go to Israel and see him. As he told the disciples, I am going to my Father….  Having died for our sins and rising from the dead to secure our eternal life, he invites those who believe: follow me. One way we follow Jesus is a phrase in today’s Gospel: keep my word.

This invitation takes us from mere history and doctrine to something that fills the empty place in our hearts: Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. God comes to us through Jesus and lives in our hearts!

This is the Good News of Christian Faith. And it seems that with this, everyone should be “fixed” and life should be easy. Jesus even says, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. What happened? Our world is not at peace, and even Christians do not live in peace.

One problem is that we have taken this too personally. “Personal” too easily becomes “self-focused.” If we try to live a Christian life with a “just me and Jesus” formula, we get into trouble. By ourselves we often get things wrong. While Christian Faith is indeed personal, it is not individualistic.

When we come to Jesus, we come into his Body. It’s called the Church. Collectively, we have a wisdom that goes beyond our individual selves. Just as Jesus is Incarnate––fully human and fully God, the Church is also incarnate. The Church is indeed the composite of the people who belong to Jesus, but it is also a fusion with the Holy Spirit. God has provided a spiritual wisdom that goes beyond our individual abilities. This is one reason we have the Church.

We should not be surprised by questions and frustrations. From the beginning those who follow Jesus have needed to find a common way through the Church. The early Christian community had barely gotten started before it was faced with a huge question: what about people who are not Jewish who want to follow Jesus? This was crucial, and Jesus had not left a specific instruction.

But God had come to dwell in those who believed and wanted to follow, and as the assembled leadership met they came to a solution. This was the beginning the Apostolic Rule of Faith and the developing authority of the Church. Through this we see that God is at work to complete the circle that takes us back to the basic issue: how can I best fill that “God-shaped hole” in my heart?

I have shared more about my journey from Evangelical to Catholic than I have about my early commitment to Jesus. In my early teens I was in rebellion against God. I had bought into the hellish lie that the Church was something invented by old people to keep young people from having fun. I was profane and blasphemous. My focus was on the world’s triad of idols: money, sex, and power. I didn’t know to get any of them, but they were my goal. I was all about “me.”

But deep down I did not like myself, and decent kids who were my peers didn’t seem to like me very much, either. One Sunday night when I was fifteen I was in church (very much against my will, but my dad had a way of keeping authority!). As usual, I was tuned out––but as the service was ending that night the Holy Spirit flooded me with a picture of myself before God. I was worse than the Laodiceans in the book of Revelation: wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked (3:17). With that I saw that the One alternative was what God had done through Jesus Christ. My heart melted. I gave myself unconditionally to the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I was changed. I knew then––and know now––that apart from Jesus I am helpless and hopeless. Compared to having the life of Jesus, nothing else matters. And while my journey has had its ups and downs, I have not turned away from Jesus being my focus in what is now over fifty-something years.

One thing that has kept me on course and brought me to today is the Church. Just as we’re lost without Jesus, we need the Church to help us find and follow Jesus faithfully. The Apostolic Tradition takes us through the Holy Spirit to Jesus, and Jesus leads us to all the fullness of God because, as he said, I and the Father are one.

Do you have questions? Do you sometimes (or even often) feel frustrated? Be sure you are listening to the Church in a way that keeps the focus on Jesus. Always cultivate that hunger for God which inhabits every human heart––a hunger that prays: You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Give yourself unreservedly to Jesus. Jesus has promised us his peace. His desire is to live in our hearts. Trust the graces he has given to help us through his Church. This will fill that “God-shaped hole” in your heart with the fulness of God.

Feed My Sheep

May 5, 2019 –– Third Sunday in Easter

Acts 5:27–32 / Revelation 5:11–14 / John 21:1–19

Feed My Sheep

There is a mental and even spiritual fog permeating our society. Social media flood us with divisive issues and poorly-formed opinions. Too many people speak more quickly and more often than they listen. Huge things are at stake: issues that touch our safety and security; others go to the core of the definition and meaning of human life. We find ourselves debating what is right or wrong, good or bad, false or true. Who are we to listen to? Who are we to trust?  Today’s Scripture readings help answer these questions.

We can start with Peter. Peter’s prominence among the apostles is obvious. As the book of Acts unfolds, Peter is the spokesman. Peter is the one whose presence verifies the gift of the Spirit as the Faith extends from Jerusalem to Samaria and then to the Gentiles just as Jesus said. The Church is, indeed, being established by Peter.

Today’s Gospel gives the story of Jesus affirming Peter three times, surely for each of Peter’s three denials. For each time that Peter had proclaimed “I don’t know the man,” Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” And each time that Peter humbly and tenderly tells Jesus, “you know that I love you,” Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep.”

There are numerous biblical themes converging here. Earlier in John’s Gospel Jesus refers to those who follow him as his “sheep”: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (10:27).

When we embrace our baptism––when we own the name of “Christian”––we are among those Jesus calls “my sheep.” So returning to my opening observations and questions, how are we to hear the voice of Jesus? As the issues of our world whirl around us with a cacophony of voices trying to tell us to think this…. do that…. be for something or against something, we need to be able to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. How do we recognize Jesus’ voice? Many people in our world claim to speak for Jesus, and they often totally disagree with each other. Who are we to trust?

Jesus makes it clear. He calls Peter and gives him the opportunity to express his heart: “Do you love me?” And when Peter declares his love Jesus tells Peter, “Feed my sheep.”

We see Peter doing this in the Acts reading. He and the other apostles are preaching Jesus. The very ones who arrested Jesus and had him put to death now arrest Peter and the others. They are blunt: “Quit doing this.” They threaten the apostles, but Peter loves Jesus. He does not back down: We must obey God rather than men. Peter is feeding the sheep. He is declaring what is true. He is modeling how the sheep are to follow the Good Shepherd. It’s not what human authorities say. It’s not what popular opinion thinks.

Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus had another word for the sheep: If you love me, keep my commandments (Jn 14:15). How do we know what Jesus commands? How do we know what to obey? For almost 2000 years the Rule of Faith initiated and confirmed by Peter and the other Apostles has formed and guided Catholic belief and practice. Above all the other voices trying to get our attention for the many issues inundating our world, we are called to listen to the teachings that flow from the Petrine Office. When the voice of the 2000-year-old Church instructs us, warns us, and seeks to guide us, it is living out this calling Jesus initiated with Peter: Feed my sheep. When we listen to the established teaching of the Church and obey it, we show that we are sheep who hear the Shepherd’s voice.

Jesus told Peter, Feed my sheep.

Peter declared boldly: We must obey God rather than men.

Jesus tells all of us, If you love me, keep my commandments.

These are inseparably connected. Jesus is still asking, “Do you love me?” In our world of competing voices, we need to listen to him. When the Church speaks, Peter is feeding the sheep!

All The Good

March 10, 2019 –– 1st Sunday of Lent

Deuteronomy 26:4–10 / Psalm 91 / Romans 10:8–13 / Luke 4:1–13

All The Good

How did you get here today?

You might describe your vehicle and the exact route from your home to the church.

You might think through all the steps you took to dress and get ready for church today. (I am always amazed at parents who get here on time with several small children!).

We could expand our perspective to include the many and various influences which motivate us to be in church. Some of us are fortunate enough to have had faithful parents who nurtured us in the Faith, and our presence in church is a continuous flow from childhood. Some have been raised in the church and then took a conspicuous detour, but now the connection has been restored. Some were raised in what be called a “neutral” environment––not religious, but not antagonistic––and along the way “faith happened.” Still others have come from broken, abusive, and hostile backgrounds, but the love of Jesus broke through and now church is “home.”

Regardless of how we came to be here, belonging to Christ and his Church is a grace story of God’s goodness. And to begin to comprehend the extent of that, we have to go far beyond our personal stories. What God is doing in each of us individually is just a small part of what God is doing and has been doing for thousands of years of human history.

One facet is in our first reading: my father was a wandering Aramean…. Long before you and I were a projected thought (other than in the eternal mind of God), the Lord was calling and building a people who distinctively belonged to him. Hundreds––thousands––of years ago God was doing something special in the life of a man who we know as Abraham, and what God was doing in Abraham would have long-term effect stretching all the way to today into your life and mine.

Yet the stories of God’s people include some awful things. The first reading recalls affliction and toil and oppression. That is why God’s grace and goodness are so incredible. The story of God’s goodness is light breaking into darkness and hope rising out of oppression and death. Over and over there is a reality expressed by the Psalm’s antiphon: Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble. This is affirmed in something Jesus told his first disciples: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John16:33).

We see one way that Jesus overcame the world in today’s Gospel. In his Temptation Jesus faced the most basic human desires which can be twisted in a way that puts our desires above God and blocks his grace. Jesus would not bow to the traps of power, pride, and even physical hunger. As the book of Hebrews says: tempted in all points as we are, but without sin. Even in our temptations we see that in Jesus we have a Savior. Lent is all about learning to trust a loving Father.  That’s what Jesus did in the desert in his own personal “Lent.”

So, how did you get here today? The undergirding and overwhelming answer is that the goodness of the Lord has brought you to this place. It is not merely the fact of your physical presence in church (although that is good). It is Goodness that provides comfortable homes and ample food and clothing. It is Goodness that we have convenient vehicles to take us where we go.

Even more, the disposition of your heart that moved you to be here today is God’s goodness at work. Goodness is the awareness you have of God when you are moved to pray and serve and give. Goodness is the awareness of God that comes when you are tempted and know you need to turn away. Goodness is even the awareness of God that is there when you have disobeyed and you sense that inner voice to turn and put things right. Wherever we go, we’re the child of a wandering Aramean who learned to trust God.

This is because we can go anywhere in life except outside of God’s embrace. At its core, Christian Faith is embracing the reality that God is here and he has done everything for us to make things right through his Son’s entrance into our world. Did you pay attention to the second reading?

What does Scripture say? The word is near you, in  your mouth and in your heart––that is, the word of faith that we preach––for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

The message that was birthed at Christmas continues into the struggles of Lent: God is with us. As we leave this place today, God is with us. As we go into the coming week with all of its demands––even stresses and fears, God is with us. Wherever we go, God is with us.

And because God is with us, we are immersed in goodness. Sometimes it is so obvious. Sometimes we have to look for it. But we are here today because of God’s goodness, and that Goodness with follow us into a future that is beyond our imagination.

A Hard Teaching From Jesus

February 24, 2019 –– 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Samuel 26:2, 7–9,12–13, 222–23 / Psalm 103 / 1 Corinthians 15:45–49 / Luke 6:27–38

A Hard Teaching From Jesus

Does Jesus actually mean what he says? Jesus said some hard things. In saying love your enemies and bless those who curse you and offer the other cheek we certainly have words coming from Jesus that go against the grain. Did Jesus intend this to be taken literally or was he speaking in hyperbole to get effect?

There are those who understand these words literally as a basis for total pacifism. I traveled this road earlier in my spiritual journey, but I do not think Jesus is negating the use of force for social order in the world at large. The Church does not teach unqualified pacifism. There is an argument that Jesus was using figurative language here, but if Jesus was using figurative language we still need to know what he meant. He surely meant something! One problem with taking Jesus figuratively is that Jesus is not taken seriously at all.

Jesus is addressing his disciples here, and he is at least speaking to the way his followers should respond in their personal relationships. How do we handle it when others do bad things to us? Jesus' answer can be summed up in one word: love. We use this word “love” in a multitude of ways. No, we do not love our enemies with the same kind of love as our nearest and dearest family and friends, but we can choose to seek any person's good.

In this context, the admonition to love our enemy stands in direct contrast to the desire for personal retaliation. We inherently want to “get back” at those who harm or even threaten us. This was Abishai’s counsel to David––to “get” Saul while he could: let me nail him to the ground… God has always been concerned with retaliation among his people. In the Old Testament God gave laws limiting retaliation. When he told Israel An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, it was a divine limitation on the vengeance that says “if you break one of my teeth, I’ll smash all of yours!”

As if to emphasize that he expects people committed to his kingdom to respond differently than others, Jesus contrasts the behavior of “sinners" (this word is used in the context of those not concerned with what God wants). Jesus says that any person can love the people who love back. Most will lend if they expect to be repaid. But to love people who hurt you, and to give to people who not only are not able to repay but who may not seem to deserve it anyway, and to forgive without getting nasty about it, is to show that we really believe what Jesus says. When we choose to respond in love and forgiveness, and to give even when it hurts us, we are saying that nothing in this life is more important than showing Jesus’ kind of love.

Maybe your neighbor has a cat that seems always to be messing up your flower bed. How you respond to the neighbor is the issue Jesus is addressing. Did someone mistreat you maybe five weeks or five months or even five years ago and you can’t let it go?

The big issue here is whether anything in this life is more important to us than seeking to obey and be like Jesus. The desire to retaliate or the tendency to withdraw and sulk is part of everyone of us. Jesus isn't denying that; he wants to correct it and heal our souls.

There is a story from the gas shortage back in the early 70’s that deserves classic status. It happened in California where the population is dense and the lines were long. As one man sat waiting and waiting, a woman pulled in and cut in a small space in front of him. He was angry and got out of his car and walked up to the window of the woman's car. She locked her doors and just smiled at him. So he went back to his car and took off the gas cap which had a lock on it. He put it on her car, locked the gas cap, and drove off.

We instinctively think: the woman got what she deserved. But what if God gave us what we deserve? Maybe we think it's easy for God to forgive. We can feel so strongly whatever injustice has been done to us. But if we think it is easy for God to forgive we need to get alone and think about Jesus on the cross.

I know this is hard. It’s easy to think, "But that's not normal!" and I admit, "That's right!" But that is what the Christian life is all about––anyone can be "normal" according the world's definition. It doesn't take the love of Jesus to hit back or hold a grudge; it takes grace not to. And that's what Christianity is––being people who understand the need for God's grace, and being open to grace for ourselves so that we become channels of grace to others.

As Christians, our standard is God himself. Our calling is to respond to our enemies the way God responds to his. Paul tells the Romans: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [v10--God's enemies], Christ died for us (5:8). Jesus says this in the Gospel reading: ...the Most High / is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. We cannot lower the standard that Jesus sets and be faithful; what we can do is ask for the grace to live this way and repent of our failures every week if that’s what it takes. This is how to be faithful.

If you are holding a grudge today, if you are withholding forgiveness, I ask you to decide right now to pray to let it go. If you have withdrawn from a person because of something he said or did, let it go. If he didn't mean to hurt you, why let it stand in the way? If someone did mean to hurt you, then forgive him and leave it with God. Don’t let someone else's sin ruin your life as well!

As we learn to absorb the personal blows that come our way, we learn more and more what it means to know and follow Jesus. When we give ourselves to Jesus, it affects everything we are and do. 

A Call For Change

February 3, 2019 –– 4th Sunday in  Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 1:4–5, 17–19 /  Psalm 71 / 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 / Luke 4:21–30

A Call For Change

Change is hard. We are mostly creatures of habit. We get accustomed to traditional expectations, familiar friends, and particular routines in our own lives.

Perhaps change is the very hardest when it is something that threatens the essence of the way we see ourselves It’s really hard when we realize that the highest values we hold have lost their place in the world at large. That's one way to see this incident of Jesus in his hometown.

We know things about Jesus that his hometown did not know. We have the whole story in the Gospels. We have almost 2000 years of Christian Tradition. We know to expect the life and words of Jesus to be different and challenging because he was and is the Son of God.

So as we come to this story about Jesus in Nazareth, we have inside knowledge. The hometown people of Nazareth did not know what we now know. These are people who would have had well-defined expectations. As first-century Jews, they expected the Messiah to come some day and turn their fortunes around. Coming out of that was  a bit of prejudice. God's promises were for them (and them alone)..

Do you see the collision? There is Jesus with his mission from the Father as it came with the fresh life of the Holy Spirit. Here are people with their own expectations of what God is going to do, how he's going to do it, and who he will do it for.

Jesus read from Isaiah. It was a Scripture that triggered the hopes the people would have had. Jesus said he was the one to fulfill this prophecy. At first it seems they might believe him. They had never heard Scripture read like that before. And no wonder––can you imagine what it must have been to hear the Living Word read the written Word?  But the doubt trickles in. "Isn't this Joseph's son?” they asked. Again, they didn’t know what we know. Jesus was not “Joseph’s son” in the way they assumed.

It's here we see something else about Jesus. He doesn't coddle unbelief. He is like an Old Testament prophet. Jeremiah described some of this in the first reading. We might think that Jesus would have responded with understanding. He could have said, "I know it must be hard for you to believe this, but,…" Instead Jesus responds in a way that he does again and again: he says something else to push the offense.

He told them two Old Testament stories that they knew very well. In the two stories, the one common theme is that God's grace came to the outsider instead of an Israelite. It was a Gentile woman and a Gentile man that received the prophet's blessing. Jesus was telling them that their attitudes were causing a repeat performance; he was bringing good news to those who could truly receive it––people like Gentile sinners. If they were not open to that, they were acting like those who persecuted the prophets of old.

We need to recognize that it is easy for us to be like the townspeople in Nazareth––expecting God to fulfill all our hopes while at the same time trying to keep our own boundaries and prejudices. This cuts us off from people God loves––people God wants to love through us.

We come to church each week, I hope, because we want to identify with God's good news. Jesus' words to the people of Nazareth tell us it is not good news if we can't get beyond our own expectations.

Jesus brings all people to a point of decision. He pushed the issue with his hometown people. He will push issues in our lives. And the big issue is simply this: are we going to be like Jesus, or like the people of Nazareth? How tightly do we hold to our own boundaries and insist on our own way?

This kind of change does not come easily, but change is what Jesus is after for all of us. He does not intend to leave any of us the way we are. We all need to be in that process of change that turns sinners into saints. Our calling is to be like Jesus and not like the people at Nazareth.

God is always asking us to change our minds about things that pad our self-interest. God is asking us to change our minds about who is worthy of our attention and our love. It may mean changing our expectations of what it means to be the Church. It will surely mean going against the prejudices that are accepted by the popular culture around us.

Our culture has many wrong ideas, but there is one that needs to be front and center before us right now. As the attempted justification of late-term abortions swirls around, we need to know and proclaim (and vote): it is never okay.

We are called to invite the Spirit that lived in Jesus to extend God's kingdom through what we believe and say and do. That is the way sinners are changed into saints.

Which Voice?

January 27, 2019 –– 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nehemiah 8:2–4a, 5–6, 8–10 / Psalm 19 / 1 Corinthians 12:12–30 / Luke 1:1–4, 4:14–21

Which Voice?

We are inundated with voices.

Voices:

––in the programs we watch on TV….

––in the words of songs we hear….

––in the opinions we listen to and read in social media….

––in the expressed thoughts of our inner circle of family and friends….

––in the billboards on our roads….

––in the signs on our office bulletin boards….

––in the values that are assumed by our general society…. voices.

We often have voices ricocheting within our own heads. These voices often accuse us. They can make us feel conflicted with one voice saying yes and another saying no, and both at the same time.

Which voice gets our attention? Which voice gets our assent? How do we know which voice to trust? How do we know which voice is right?

Some say go with one’s feelings––that if if it feels right it must be right. That doesn’t work so well. We live in varied social settings and not everyone “feels” the same way about everything. Whose feelings get affirmed and whose feelings get squelched? On what basis? What standard of discernment and judgment?

Some say, okay, we’ll listen to what the majority thinks. But to be honest, think how many times throughout history the majority has been wrong!

Differing a bit from “majority” is “popular.” Here we might consider the numerous entertainers (actors, musicians, and sports figures) who think that their notoriety gives them the right to speak to issues for which they are unqualified to speak. Would you want a crucial interpretation about your medical exam from a pop-musician or someone whose only claim to fame is her good looks that landed her a talkshow spot? Yet those people get a platform when they speak about crucial moral issues of our day––and only because they are popular for something that matters very little!

One other voice that can compel us is the one that suggests ease and comfort. This likely is the one that undergirds all the others. It is so easy for us to listen to voices that demand little of us. Then we are free to go our way…. but the desire to go our own way is a spiritual cancer.

Here is my point: in contrast to all that is popular and easy, we need to take the time and effort to listen to God. In the first reading, God’s people had listened to wrong voices for so long that they had been conquered, taken away from their land for seventy years, and were now back in their land looking at desolation and a total rebuilding project. A copy of the Scripture had been found and it was read publicly––from daybreak till midday…. read[ing] plainly from the book of the law of God, [and] interpreting it…. and all the people listened attentively.

They had learned that the many and varied voices from the past had not given what they promised, had not made life easier and happier, and had, in fact, caused them to lose touch with God. Now they were ready to hear the Word of God.

This lesson has to be relearned again and again. This past week there has been a chorus of voices  starting and spreading from New York which are distorted, awful, and even evil. These voices have legally approved, attempted to justify, and actually exulted in the act of killing a human child up to the moment just before birth. There is social pressure to go along with what is presented as popular opinion. It is the easy route to put it out of our minds and let it go with passive resignation. Can we hear the voice of God through the prophet Jeremiah:

A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled, because they were no more (Matt 2:18)?

God so wants his people to hear his voice that the Son of God himself came into our world so we could listen to the voice of God. In today’s Gospel, He stood up to read….where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings….

Today we still have a reading of the Scriptures before the congregation. The Church is the inheritor and the “conduit” of the Word of God. When we hear Scripture being read, we are hearing the voice of God. When we hear Scripture being preached faithfully, we are hearing an extension of the Apostolic Faith that has gone throughout the world changing lives and giving hope––Luke says his witness is so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings. We are part of that right now, because the Voice of God is among us.

Which voice are you really listening to?

Wedding Wine

January 20, 2019 –– 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 62:1–5 / Psalm 96 / 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 / John 2:1–11

Wedding Wine

Weddings carry a lot of weight in our society. Many prospective brides come to their plans with images that have simmered in their imaginations even before they became conscious of them. I have no idea what the financial outlay might be each year for the wedding industry, but I know it’s huge. Venues for the reception alone are easily in five figures for a single evening of celebration (and there is usually plenty of wine). All of this is symbolic of the hopes a newly married couple have for future happiness.

Marriage, at its best, offers some of greatest and deepest delights this world can give. Dashed marital dreams can inflict some of the deepest emotional pain. It is in this context that God speaks to his people through Isaiah after their hopes had seemingly been destroyed:

As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you;

and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.

The image of God being married to his people is woven throughout Scripture. In the New Testament the Church is the Bride of Christ.

It is no accident that the first miracle of Jesus was at a wedding. Neither is it happenstance that the specific act was turning water into wine. There is more about this written by the Church Fathers than one can easily read; one observation by Saint Augustine is that water naturally turns into wine all the time, but usually through a gradual and natural process. Out of this Bishop Barron notes: “God delights in taking what we can contribute––and then lifting all of it up to a higher pitch through his grace.” 

Then there are all the Eucharistic implications of Jesus providing “miraculous wine” so far beyond this one event so long ago. Jesus gives us miraculous wine so that all we are naturally can be transformed into the glory of God. 

We are invited to bring the water of our lives to the Bridegroom who is able to change us into choice wine. What if we had a bride’s expectation each time we came before the altar to receive Jesus?