Angela’s Blog

A Beautiful Mess: A Few Pro-Life Thoughts on the Mystery of Unplanned Plans

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“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he made him; male and female he made them” Genesis 1:27

“God is love.” 1 John 4:8

“Let all who thirst come; let all who desire it, drink from the life-giving water.” (Revelation 22:17)

Life is messy, and oftentimes the messiness brings pain and difficulty. We grasp at control in an effort to prevent pain or avoid problems, and sometimes it works for a bit. However, the messiness of life is unavoidable and attempts to get around the concomitant pain and trouble only causes other pains and troubles. The ceaseless effort only exacerbates our thirst for happiness and peace.

Everyone desires happiness – a fulfilling life of love and purpose. If we want this thirst satisfied however, we would be better served by looking to Christ. Contemporary cultural solutions tend to be short sighted; Christ alone provides the life-giving water that can redeem our efforts.  Our lives will be messy.  The lives of those we love will be messy. God isn’t afraid of our mess, rather He chose to become man to stand in the middle of it with us, roll up His sleeves, and put it back together.

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.  

With Christ however, He never puts it back the way it was.  Instead, He makes all things new (Revelation 21:5).  He’s so much more loving and wiser than we can imagine, so allowing Him into our mess, also means allowing Him to work in His way. And the Lord has told us ahead of time, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).  He does not see as we see – from outward appearance, rather he sees straight to the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7).

Nothing seems to be as messy as human relationships; probably because it’s where we ought to resemble God the most and where we struggle with our fallenness the most. Anxiety around relationships takes many different forms, but everyone struggles in some way or another.

On January 22nd, we will be remembering a particular relational struggle-that of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. Rallies will be held around the United States to promote the protection of all human life.  Arguments and pleas on both sides of the abortion debate will be made about choice.  I’m not going to offer an argument – many thoughtful and knowledgeable people have already done so.  Rather, I’d like to offer a reflection on the mystery underlying the dialogue around what choice one should make when faced with such a profoundly delicate and meaningful “mess” – a drink of life-giving water from Christ amidst the stress.

The debates around pregnancy must be heated because the reality of pregnancy and its consequences carry such profound significance – literally life altering.  When considering a “wanted pregnancy”, this profundity is obviously apparent.  The deepest joy and depth of meaning for a couple is becoming a family. However, the exact same act done in love and producing the most beautiful miracle, can also be done without love or without meaning and somehow produces the same miracle. This is the mystery of the mismatch underlying the abortion issue. An unremarkable sexual encounter, or a remarkable encounter but lacking the necessary relational depth or perfect circumstances, should seemingly produce an equally unremarkable or superficial effect. Yet something so short can (and does) produce a someone who is eternal. A forgettable night can create an unforgettable person. One must wonder at this mystery: how can something so simple produce something so complex and weighty?

This brings us back to the messiness of human life. God made the act of love for a love that images Him – unitive, creative, life giving, meaningful, supernatural. Whether we respect nature or not, God does. The intentions of the couple do not determine the gravity of its effects. We can try to control the situation, but unplanned and unwanted pregnancies prove otherwise.

One might counter with a “simple” solution of an abortion. However, abortion isn’t merely a “procedure” – it’s a birth.  All pregnancies end with the birth of a baby, abortion doesn’t avoid that reality.  Instead, it makes it violent toward the child and emotionally traumatizing for the parents.

In our present culture, sex is associated by many with animal instinct. Yet it doesn’t result in animals but in humans, images of God with eternal souls. Maybe this is why making love is a more accurate description of the act than merely having sex.  In our fallen and messy world, we can experience a mismatch between sharing in the holiest of powers to cooperate with God in the creation of new life, and the easy misuse or degraded abuse of that power. We need Christ’s help to recover reverence for this sacred power and gift. We also need profound grace to wield this power against the fallen forces of concupiscence within. Our fallen nature means we have a weakened will and a darkened intellect, meaning we are great at rationalizing what we want to do over what we should do, and find it so hard to do what we ought rather than what we feel.

However, when we sin (and we all do), there can be healing redemption through taking responsibility for our actions and allowing Christ to work in the mess.  In the case of “unwanted pregnancy”, our act of selfish un-love, can be remedied by the reparative act of to-love. A child conceived in a superficial or selfishly motivated encounter is still a gift given by God for an opportunity to restore or grow one’s heart with deep and real love. Even if the conception occurred from merely having sex instead of making love, God Who is Love, created this child, and his or her growth, birth, and life can be a profoundly loving encounter. How beautiful if both the mother and the father should embrace this opportunity! If they turn from using each other, or only loving partially, to loving each other wholly and sacrificially, inspired by love for the child they have begotten together with God.  

Oftentimes when in a mess and feeling overwhelmed, we feel ashamed to let anyone see, and pride undermines reaching out for help.  When we let Christ into the mess, He not only heals us in surprising ways, but He also sends reinforcement.  Just as you have an opportunity to grow, so do others who Christ invites to participate.  It takes faith because we can’t always see the help right away. However, if we can be humble and brave enough to let others into our mess, they too can be part of the gift of love.

St. Paul wrote that “God works all things together for good” (Romans 8:28). Even though every child deserves to be conceived in love and part of a family ready to receive them, God can redeem every limitation or mistake and make it more beautiful than before. Isn’t this what He did with death?  What Satan thought to be his triumph, turned instead to be God’s weapon against him. In the same way, if we turn our problems over to the Lord, He can use the same circumstance to raise us back up. 

God is love, and we are made in His image. All pregnancies are an opportunity for the sacrificial and heroic love to which we are called, and in which we can find the happiness we are searching for. We are all part of God’s family, and all called to care for one another. Even if a child was not planned by the parents, it has a plan from God and so do they.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Connection Point – Share Your Experience

+ Are you currently in an unplanned struggle? What are your fears or worries? 

+ Have you made it through to the other side of a crisis? What encouragement can you offer those in the middle of one? What did you find most helpful during that time? How has God worked it for good?

Please keep all comments respectful; this is a platform for encouragement and accompaniment, not argument.

Join in prayer: Praying for the Unborn and Mothers in Crisis…Meditations on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary

Related post: Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

 

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

Illumined by Christ – would love your ongoing perspectives!

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Hello all! As you may (or may not) have noticed, I took a small break from writing regularly on my site. The reason is because having finished scripture mediations for you for each of the Sundays in our three-year liturgical cycle, I was praying about how God wanted me to serve you in Him next, through this writing endeavor. 

Through much prayer, thought, and discernment, I feel most passionately about illuminating the dark in our culture with the light of faith regarding our identity as human persons made in the image and likeness of God. It’s much easier to judge and criticize our confused culture than to work at healing it. My hope is to contribute my mustard seed of knowledge and experience as a Catholic writer, speaker, and high school religion teacher, praying that the Lord may apply it as a healing balm in the minds and hearts of those who need it.

My heart breaks at the oceans of young people lost with no one guiding them or sheltering them through the strong and often stormy currents of competing assertions about who they are and what will make them happy. Christians rooted to the vine (cf. John 15) can see differently in important ways that cut through cultural limits or mistakes.  We would be far better served to investigate the Christian revelation rather than the cultural and political trends to plumb deep questions such as “What does it mean to be a human being?” and more specifically, “What does it mean to be a male or female human being?”, or “What is our origin and what is our end?” since “We have the freedom to pursue happiness, but what is happiness?”

To be a human person in the image and likeness of God, means to be male or female: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gensis 1:27). Moreover, it means to live in a complementary relationship of life and love: “And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.'” (Gensis 1:28). However, because of the destructive effects of original sin, the relationship between men and women has suffered tremendously and the image of God intended to be shone has been obscured. This has led to many deep wounds, some with millennia of history. At the same time, the Lord has sent Christ, Who “heals the broken hearted and binds up all their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). We do not have to remain in this darkness if we allow grace and the light of faith to heal our wounded experience and views. 

To that end, I need a favor from all of you 🙂 I’d like to write my thoughts about what I’m seeing and get your perspective. I’d like to write what I wish I could say to every young person about what will really make them happy and some of the flaws in secular “wisdom”. I’d like to write to every person who has suffered from the fallout of sin or of the cultural deformation that has misled them down wounding paths and left them disillusioned and questioning. I want to know your experience and your perspective too. After each post, I would deeply appreciate your point of view: What resonated with your experience? What did you find helpful or healing? What did you find thought provoking? Is there another dimension to the question we could explore? Do you see an inaccuracy in comparison with your observations? Was there something you think I overlooked that ought to be included or considered?

We live in an incredible time of opportunity for freedom and creativity. Let’s use it to cooperate with Christ in His work of restoring us in the image of God who is Love. Like seeing the warmth of a lighted window on a winter’s night, let’s offer the warmth of Christ’s light and the fullness of joy He died to give us (cf John 15:11).

You will be in my prayers, and please keep me in yours!

Angela

© 2024 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Read This Sunday’s guided Gospel meditation: Have You Found What You Are Looking For?

 

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

Sunday Food For Thought: A Joyful House of Prayer

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“For my house shall be called a house of prayer

     for all peoples” Isaiah 56:7 

Full Sunday Scripture Readings Link

Food For Thought

We usually associate the house of the Lord with church, and this is true as churches are consecrated places of worship for the Lord alone.  However, through the gift of Baptism, our souls become the house of the Lord too.  St. Teresa of Avila described the Christian soul as an Interior Castle wherein our Divine King dwells. 

From this perspective, consider again the Lord’s words through the prophet Isaiah: “my house shall be a house of prayer.” The Lord invites and challenges us to make our souls a prayerful place.  One in which St. Paul exhorts that we can “pray constantly” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

How can we do this?  First, as always, ask the Holy Spirit.  Next, build a habit of being recollected. From the earliest times in the Christian church through the present day you will find spiritual authors and saints who have sought the same thing and written about how to pursue it.  (Below I have listed and linked a handful of classics.)  

Essentially, it means quieting our inner self, and being attentive to the Lord within.  Just as close friends or couples can feel connected through a simple glance amidst a crowd, so too recollection could be described as an attentive glance at the Lord.  

Building this intimacy resembles that of all relationships.  Initially it requires getting to know the Lord more through extended and intentional time set aside to listen to Him (remember He speaks to us through Scripture, His Church, His saints, and His creation, so listening can be as simple as opening the bible, attending mass, going for a nature walk, reading a spiritual book or life of a saint).  

To listen we must make room for silence: physically as well as mentally and spiritually.  Don’t be discouraged if you find yourself distracted by a clamor of thoughts when attempting to recollect yourself for prayer.  Simply ask the Holy Spirit for help.  Since our soul is the house of the Lord, I also like to ask Mary to help me prepare my home for Christ as she so lovingly did every day when He was on earth. 

As with any practice or habit, it may feel awkward at first or you may struggle with consistency. Nevertheless, persevere.  God can do so much with so little! Every bit counts.  In time, your efforts and His grace can result in a relationship of continual interior unity and love.  

The Lord promises in Isaiah 56 verse 7, that he will “make them joyful in my house of prayer“.  Recollection leads to peace in the presence of the Beloved Lord, and an abundance of joy. With this within, you can travel through your da

y “giv[ing] thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and offering all things as a prayer pleasing to the Lord. 

May the Lord make our hearts, a house of ardent, loving, joyful, intimate, prayer.

A few Spiritual Classics on Recollection and Interior union with the Lord:

A couple of modern books on the subject:

*Pray and Reflect with full guided prayer meditations on the Sunday Gospel reading in my book Take Time For Him and its series on Amazon and Kindle!

 

 

 

© 2023 Angela M Jendro

*Scriptural texts, unless otherwise noted, are taken from The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

God Can Do Anything!

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God can do Anything!

by Angela M Jendro

God can do anything. Although it can be used as a cheap and quick answer to theological difficulties, at the same time there’s tremendous richness to this simple, yet powerful truth. Think about that for a moment…God can do anything! How many times in the Gospels does someone ask Jesus, “if you will it, you can…” In response to cries for mercy, healing, and forgiveness, Jesus consistently responded, “I do will it,” and miraculously restored the person with His human touch or word, and His divine power.

Granted, sometimes God says no to our plea, or at least “not yet” or “not in the way you are asking.”  Pride or pain responds with rage.  “God can do anything, but He won’t do this which I have asked of Him!”  In these moments we are challenged to surrender our reasoning and/or our emotions to the Lord in trust.  Yes, God can do anything, but God is also love.  Not only that, but God’s love is superabundant and prefers to give the very best over the mediocre.  The most loving thing a parent can say to their child sometimes is “no.”  We see this especially today in American culture. We have so much we can give our children that we risk spoiling them and stunting their personal growth if we do not refuse them things we could give, but shouldn’t.  For us, it can be difficult to discern when to say yes, and when to say no.  Sometimes we know the right answer but are too weak to follow through with a no, or don’t have the resources to say yes. Thankfully, our heavenly Father has perfect wisdom and perfect power which He applies with perfect love.  We can trust His will, which is what Jesus did at all times and exhorts us to do as well.  

We should seek to know the Lord, and to pursue deeper understanding of His revelation. God invites dialogue and investigation.  At the same time, we need to remember that it’s not a dialogue with an equal.  There will be times we must simply surrender to His care and trust His word. Jesus taught and did things that went beyond human understanding.  Sometimes we can forget His divinity due to His extraordinary nearness; He had such humility that He “ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7).  Yet, because of that nearness, many also witnessed his divine power – healing the blind, calming the storm, raising people from the dead, and Himself rising from the dead and glorified.  

Do you believe God can do anything? Do you believe Jesus can do anything? That is the question posed to us during Easter.  Jesus has risen! Do you believe it?  You shall rise too! Can you believe that? If so, then the rest of Christ’s teachings, in Scripture and through His Church, deserve our belief.  Can bread and wine become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist? Why not?!  If Jesus said so, and He can do anything, then it’s so.  

In our Christian life of discipleship Christ challenges us both to exert our mind and seek understanding as far as possible, as well as accepting when we are in mystery territory and responding with trust, surrender, and praise before the power and glory of God.

Meditate on this truth in prayer: God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, cares for me with the full strength of His all-powerful Love. Rejoice in this and take comfort in it.

© 2023 Angela M Jendro

*Pray and Reflect with weekly Sunday Gospel meditations by Angela available in paperback or e-book on Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advent Reflection: Blessed are the Pure in Heart

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“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8

Adoration of the Shepherds by Francois Boucher (1703-1770)

God is right here, right now. Oftentimes we don’t see Him because He’s so close. God is love, and love is patient, kind, and humble. Busied with distractions, we don’t hear His still small voice (1Kings 19:12). Cluttered with worldly concerns and aspirations, Christ’s deeper calling gets buried and lost in the mess. How can we see Christ when we struggle to see anyone? Purity in heart means allowing the Holy Spirit to change our calloused hearts of stone into sensitive hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). It means seeing each person as Christ does: as someone sacred, eternal, unrepeatable, and loved unimaginably by the Lord. Oftentimes we mistreat another person because we view them as something rather than someone. Whether as a means to gratify some desire, or as an obstacle to our will, we view them in a way reduced to our passions rather than as an independent person, a brother or sister in the family of God with their own divine calling and dignity. Purity in heart includes how we see ourselves, learning to treat and value our own bodies, souls, and lives with the reverence they deserve. It means living as a child of God instead of identifying our value with status, success, or wealth.

Jesus, the Word of God, “became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth”(John 1:14). If we long to say, as St. John did, that “we have seen His glory”, then we must purify our hearts to truly love and treasure that which is most precious and in humble form. Jesus drew near in His divine humanity, may we quiet our hearts and simplify our lives, with His help, that we may see Him truly, here with us whom He loves.

Sunday Food For Thought…Gratitude

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Scripture Readings

Food For Thought

*Pray and Reflect with full meditations in my book Take Time For Him: Remain In His Love

Meditation Reflection: Luke 17:11-19

Consider the saying, “I owe you a debt of gratitude”.  The virtue of justice means giving each person his or her due.  When someone offers us a gratuitous kindness, we do in fact “owe” them our gratitude. I don’t mean this in the sense of a gift with strings attached, but rather as an expression of virtue and right relationship.  When someone offers a mercy in love, it is relational – they offer something of themselves to you as a gift.  If you in turn offer your gratitude, then not only has there been an exchange of some good, but additionally an exchange of love and mutual encouragement.

Christ is the ultimate gratuitous giver. He gives His mercy in love, no strings attached.  Offering Him back our gratitude however, is good for us as it reciprocates love for love.  Christ promises our love will always be received and appreciated by Him.  Rather than walk away with a blessing as merely divine pity for your situation, return to the Lord the love and gratitude He truly deserves and rejoice in loving relationship  with Him Who is so abundantly good to us!

Practical Application:

Praise God!  Praise Him in SONG!  Here are a couple of recommendations:

Take Time For Him: Remain in His Love available in ebook or paperback. Order a copy and don’t miss a single week!

 

Order the new set of guided meditations for this year’s Sunday Gospels!

 

© 2021 Angela M Jendro

Sunday Food For Thought…Clingy sin

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Scripture Readings

Food For Thought

*Pray and Reflect with full guided meditations in my book Take Time For Him: Remain In His Love

Meditation Reflection: 

Mud clings.  I remember walking home from school as a sixth grader one spring and cutting through an open lot only to find myself stopped in my tracks, literally.  My feet sunk into the mud so deeply that I couldn’t get my foot out for quite awhile and when I finally did my shoe remained behind!  Later when the ground dried enough for me to recover the shoe I learned just how tedious and difficult restoring it would be.

In St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews today (12:1-4), he exhorts us to “rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us”.  Imagine Jeremiah being pulled out of the cistern.  Scripture describes it as having no water, “only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud” (Jeremiah 38:6).  How long it must have taken him to get cleaned up! Sin clings to us – whether we fell in by accident, were drawn into it by others, or simply formed the bad habit over time.  We might knock off big chunks at first but the tedium of removing the clingy bits in the crevices, grooves, and fibers can discourage us to the point of despair. However, St. Paul encourages us to persevere because muddy shoes slow you down and tire you out in a race and we are running the race to heaven. 

Thankfully you don’t have to do it alone, but you do need to ask for help.  The waters of grace have the power to cleanse even the most difficult stain. If we turn to Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to remove the clinging sin then it can be done.  Psalm 40:1-2 praises the Lord for just such a miracle:

“I have waited, waited for the LORD,

     and he stooped toward me.

The LORD heard my cry.

He drew me out of the pit of destruction,

     out of the mud of the swamp;

he set my feet upon a crag;

     he made firm my steps.”

We resist clingy people, pets, and even clothing because they restrict our freedom and flourishing.  Let us resist clingy sin for the same reason. It will require patience, perseverance, and prayer, but as St. Paul reminds us “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) and they give us hope that it can be done!

Take Time For Him: Remain in His Love available in ebook or paperback. Order a copy and don’t miss a single week!

 

Order the new set of guided meditations for this year’s Sunday Gospels!

 

© 2021 Angela M Jendro

Sunday Food For Thought: Taking a Leap of Faith

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This Sunday’s Scripture Readings

Food For Thought

*Pray and Reflect with a complete guided meditation in my book Take Time For Him: Remain In His Love

Meditation Reflection: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19

St. Paul honors Abraham as a man of faith because Abraham acted on God’s word.  Abraham left his very comfortable home where he was already prosperous for a land that God would show him,  not one God had already shown to him.  Abraham received his son Isaac through two impossible circumstances in which he acted based on trust in God over trust in his own natural limitations: first, Isaac’s birth despite Abraham and Sarah’s old age and Sarah’s prior sterility, and secondly at the sacrifice of Isaac wherein Isaac’s life would be taken but would have to be restored by God.  Abraham acted on faith, he took huge risks. This wasn’t blind faith however, in some obscure and unknowable mythological or philosophical God.  Rather, Abraham responded in faith to a loving God Who revealed Himself to Abraham and Who reveals Himself to you and I even today. 

God acted in faith too and took a huge risk for us. God sent His only Son to become man, die for us, and rise again for our salvation.  Jesus Christ lived among us, taught profound Truth, and performed great miracles. This is the most historically verified fact of anyone in history. 

How will you and I respond to the revelation given to us?  Will we avoid the challenge and drown ourselves in distractions (like the unfaithful servant in Luke 12:32-48) or will we rise up like Abraham, our father in faith, and act.  

May we act, not on the reward we have in hand, but in faith in the God Who promises it and has given His own outstretched hand to us.

For a full guided Gospel Meditation on this Sunday’s readings, check out Take Time For Him: Remain in His Love available in ebook or paperback. Order a copy and don’t miss a single week!

 

Order the new set of guided meditations for this year’s Sunday Gospels!

 

© 2021 Angela M Jendro

Sunday Food For Thought: Excuses, Excuses…Be Brave! Be Determined!

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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time:   Scripture Readings

Food For Thought

*excerpt from Take Time For Him: Remain In His Love

Meditation Reflection: Luke 9:51-62

Being a Christian means following Christ, wherever and whenever He goes.  Full discipleship requires 100% commitment, not the made-to-order or pick and choose buffet we are accustomed to in our culture.  Consider Jesus’ own example.  He had to journey to Jerusalem and to sacrificial suffering.  Notice the attitude He chose – resolution and determination. 

Followers of Christ need the same resolution and determination.  St. Teresa of Avila, the great Spanish mystic, emphasized repeatedly the necessity of determination to advance in the spiritual life.  In her instructional work The Way of Perfection, she warned against our tendency to draw back and complain when things become difficult:

“Be determined, Sisters, that you came to die for Christ, not to live comfortably for Christ.”[i]

Saint Paul also exhorted the Corinthians to live their faith with bold resolution.  He warned against conditional discipleship and encouraged the Christian community to be generous and steadfast:

“The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

As Jesus journeyed doing the Father’s will, those He encountered each had an opportunity to join Him, but their conditional stipulations determined whether they would accept it or turn it down.  The Samaritans received messengers from Christ but rejected the Lord before He even arrived when they learned accepting Christ meant surrendering their bitterness toward Jerusalem.  The next person took the initiative to seek Jesus out and requested to be in His company. However Jesus, who knows the hearts of each one of us, also knew the man’s interior conditions for discipleship. Thus, Jesus cautioned him that He would provide spiritual security and comfort but not necessarily the feeling of physical security and comfort. 

The next two men Jesus invited to follow Him procrastinated and avoided discipleship by requesting to finish up their other work first.  Their requests seem valid and even noble.  In fact, burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy and honoring your father and mother is the 4th commandment. Is Jesus asking us to neglect our duties?  Does Christian discipleship excuse neglecting our families?  Does God contradict Himself?  No.  Do we sometimes rationalize our cowardice or weakness by twisting God’s commands against Him?  Yes.  It reminds me of kids who try to avoid chores by claiming they need to work on their homework all of a sudden.

Many of us (including myself!), often excuse our lack of time for prayer by pitting it against the active life of charity.  It sounds something like this: “I don’t have time to sit and pray because I need to do [fill in the blank] which God would want me to do.”  A practical example would be, “I could sit and pray/ ‘doing nothing’, or work an extra hour to provide for my family, or do a load of laundry and dishes, or run an errand.  God wants me to care for my family, that is my prayer.”  Sometimes that might be the case.  But, in truth, there’s usually time for both.  This mentality has sometimes been referred to as the heresy of activism. 

Spending quality time with Christ in prayer first is the foundation of discipleship. How can we follow Him if we rarely take time to listen? In addition, without prayer, even our loving activities can tend to be more self-loving rather than other-loving. Jesus knew the hearts of the two men who wanted to return to their families before following Him.  Rather than contradicting His command that we love one another, especially our families, He may have been calling them out on their rationalizations. 

Let’s face it, we have an inner desire for God, and we may even have authentic zeal for discipleship, but we also struggle with attachments that hold us back.  The good news is that if we open ourselves up to Christ in prayer, He will reveal those attachments to us and provide the grace to overcome them.  It requires resolution and determination, but with God all things are possible!  

[i] Kavanaugh, Kieran, and Otilio Rodriguez, translators. The Way of Perfection: A Study Edition. ICS, 2000.

Consider:

+ Like the Samaritans, how many of us hold on to bitterness, anger, or un-forgiveness? Prayerfully ask Christ to reveal if any of these are holding you back from following Him.  Pray for the grace to surrender it to the Lord.

+ Like the man who proclaimed he would follow Christ wherever He goes, consider why you are a Christian. Is your love for the Lord intermixed with some self-love as well?  Do you complain when you encounter trials?  Are you impatient or upset when you experience discomfort?

+ What rationalizations do you use to delay responding to Christ or to responding more generously?

Practical Application:

+ Each day this week thank God for one deterrent He has helped you overcome or from which He has freed you. Invite Him to reveal and free you from a current hindrance you may or may not realize you have.

+ Pray for an increase in resolution and determination. Choose one concrete thing you can do this week to apply it.  (e.g. pray 15 minutes each morning or evening, say something kind to your spouse when you want to say something critical, hug your child when you want to throw your hands up in exasperation, choose a daily Mass to attend and do what it takes to get there, go to Confession…)

This reflection is an excerpt from Take Time For Him: Remain in His Love available in ebook or paperback. Order a copy and don’t miss a single week!

 

Order the new set of guided meditations for this year’s Sunday Gospels!

 

© 2021 Angela M Jendro