I am so blessed to have two of my children here helping me with the big job of taking care of 4 pails of tomatoes yesterday... They visit and share in the work - so familiar over our entire marriage. And Pat too is a big help on these days - always willing to do a lot of the stirring, putting through, lifting and turning the sealing rings on super tight with all his strength. Reminded today by a dear friend how hard it is to see these strong men become weak as they approach the end of their lives. A call to prayer for my friend, Deb, and her family as her dad is down to facing the end of his life here on earth and walking into the sunset of his life.
With tongue in cheek this morning I wished John a happy feast day - today being the passion of St John the Baptist. Why do I say that? Because this is one of those very uncomfortable days in which we read the gross Gospel of drinking/partying/ suggestive dances by young girls/beheading/and then presenting that head on a platter. It truly makes my stomach turn and last night when I usually read with great excitement the Gospel for the next day - I couldn't make myself read it. This morning I did read it with Pat and then again with John as we shared morning prayer and the office together, and it was still a very hard Gospel! It seems to me that there was really nothing very sweet, beautiful or nice about John the Baptist... yet, people flocked to him to be baptized, including Jesus himself! John confronted us with the Truth, and it stung yet it struck a nerve close to home - we are sinners and we need to be washed clean in the blood of the Lamb! Is there anything that is not gross about that? No! This is one thing that people criticize our Church about - we are cannibals in that we eat Jesus' Body and Blood. It doesn't matter that He asked us to do that - see John 6 - it is gross and horrible to actually believe that this is Christ Body, Soul and Divinity that we are taking into ourselves! No! It is LIFE given to us, and we are gifted with it each day of our lives as long as young men continue to answer the call to become his priests in this world of darkness.
I once entered a hospice photo contest with a different picture of Ruth and John walking into the sunset on this exact same beach... I spoke about how with Hospice the patient and his family are given what they need to face death knowing that all their needs have been met - first of all giving them relief from pain and peace. From that place of comfort then to look at all areas of their lives and meet those needs - physical, emotional, and spiritual. What matters most at the end of our lives is our Faith and our Family. All the other trappings of life that seem to consume us - money, power, houses, cars, boats, vacations - we see them for what they really are - nothing! Death is very difficult for many and hard for the family to watch their loved ones go through. It can in many ways be Ugly, Gross, and hard to take or watch our loved ones endure. I first hand have been a hospice nurse for probably almost 20 years - even my work now in the nursing home involves hospice work on the trench level - there is a lot about it that is difficult, yet there is a lot of satisfaction in helping those that are facing death find peace and walk into the sunset prepared and ready. Ready to be done with this life and on to Newness of LIFE with HIM! It is that ever present Most Cherished Cross which we must embrace to find LIFE. I look to that day with great anticipation and almost find myself longing for it at times, to be brutally honest. For some reason that word - "brutal" - just seems to fit todays sharing. The Cross is brutal and hard and gross - the worst - yet it is where we leave our selfishness behind and find LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT that Christ brought into the world through his horrific death even though He was God/without sin! Psalm 90 from mass today
"Teach us to number our days aright,
That we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O Lord! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!"
Lord, life is not pretty or nice much of the time. We are humbled and robbed of the false/lies of the world which wrongly try to lead us into the darkness and confusion of this world, when the Cross enters our lives in many forms - facing death is the final and most shocking of all! We "see" with eyes of Faith that power and riches make us think that we are above moral Truths - look at King Herod and how he took his brother's wife. Yet, this is what so many strive for and dedicate their lives to - be rich and powerful. Lord, help us to be humbled this day and in our weakness give up more and more of our selfishness - looking to YOU and your beautiful Bride, The Church! Life has taken ahold of this sharing and I am now going to call it ended for today. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Hallelujah
Bless-bless, Barb
One of those hard things - losing my sister, Mary, at 28 to lymphoma cancer.
"Now may God himself, Our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen." I Thessalonians 3: 7-13 The first reading for today - heard around the world today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PANiveIKVX0 Come to Jesus by Chris Rice
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