Day 3, Lect. 9 - Compassion and Solidarity

Compassion and solidarity

We are all called to contemplatives in action (ones who see then act with thoughtfulness and deliberation) in this world. We are co-creators of the Kingdom, with God, and with each other. We need community, compassion, and solidarity if we are to help this world.

What if we could give without counting the costs? What if we could see our neighbor suffering, and enter into their life with true love and compassion to help them. And sometimes it is not about "fixing" their problems, sometimes it is just about "being there" for them.

It is hard. If you live in a big city like I do, you tend to get overwhelmed by the shear number of homeless and destitute. And some not so much physically destitute as spiritually destitute. I live on the edge of a DMZ. I am in a quite little pocket of a neighborhood, but I am surrounded by... well, by ghetto. Everyday, I drive through "Cracktown", see the girls working the corner (or at least dressed as though they were), and the guys with their britches falling off, buying Swisher Sweets and magnums of Colt 45 malt liquor at 830 in the morning. Everyday, I see these people pulling out of their Section 8 supported apartments in their Cadillac Escalades, and their BMW's. I find it very difficult to not shut it all out. To try to see God at work in this environment. To think to myself, "What can I do to help these people? Do they even really need or want my help?"

We are called to give all of our love to God, Christ, Ourselves, and Our Neighbors. But Lord, it is hard. Sometimes I have to block it all out, lest I become overwhelmed with it. There are times that I would take on all of the pain of a complete stranger, so that they may experience the Love of God. But I know that is not always, or even often possible, so I feel I have to lock it down.

But I am just one man... Do you notice the overwhelming flood of compassion and support that comes to a community after a natural disaster or a tragedy? It is immense! But where is it in the quiet days in between? For the homeless, for the sick, for the mentally ill? No one man can fix it all, but as a community, can we come together in love and compassion, in solidarity, to fix what is broken in our communities, in our cities, in our country, in our world?

One must open oneself up to see the suffering, before one can be available to heal the suffering.

In the eyes of God, no one life is worth more than any other life.

Day 3, Lect 8 - Passion

Readings: Jn 19:25-27     Mk 15:22-41    Lk 23:44-49     Phil 2:5-11


The conversion experience is a continuing process. It is continual and ever renewing. Each morning when I wake, I have to decide to pick up my cross and carry it, or I can decide to lay it down and walk away. Now, by this, I do not mean to imply that bearing my cross is always a bad thing. It is simply making the conscious decision to try to walk with God that day, to lay down and turn away from my sins, to bear my burdens, and to be continually thankful to God for all of the good things that I have, and thank Him for the lessons to be learned from the bad.

When Jesus was crucified, it was because he was a political and religious dissident. He was showing the people a new way to live, think, and love, and that threatened to turn the Hebrew and well as the Roman establishment on its ear. So they arrested him on more or less trumped up charges, beat him, humiliated him, tortured him, denigrated him, and ultimately executed him. And all the while he maintained his connection to God. All of these things that man could do to him would not, and could not break his connection to God; break his spirit. All of this he suffered without anger. Without thoughts of revenge. To the very end, even as his spirit left him, he showed compassion.

All of this suffering is us. We are the arrested, the tortured, the beaten, the denigrated, and humiliated, the sick, the damaged and broken, and even sometimes the executed. Every one of us experiences some of this in our lifetime. And He experienced it all for us all at once. Why?

So that He could be the very embodiment of compassion. He came here to experience being Human. What does it mean to be these things that I made? What do they do, how do they live, how do they love, laugh, suffer, cry, and even die? How I can I love them if I don't know them, and how can they love me if they don't know me? So He came to us, in the form of a human male, Yeshua bin Yoseph of Nazareth. He walked with us for 33 some odd years. Lived as we live, loved as we love, laughed, cried, suffered, and died, as we laugh, cry, suffer, and die. As we do. And as he did, the sought to show US the nature of God. A God of love, compassion, honesty, and integrity. A God that now understood what it meant to be human, and so that Humans could understand what it meant to be as God.

In the end , he suffered and died on the cross. But even as he did, he suffered and died in solidarity with and with compassion for all of mankind's suffering. And what happened? He overcame it. He rose. He became God again. This is our fate. This is our mission, our journey, our destination, our destiny. If only we will learn the lessons that He taught us, and walk in His footsteps, carry His/Our crosses, whatever they may be.

+BLESSINGS+

Day 3, Lect. 7 - Announcing the Kingdom

Day 3, Lect. 7 - Announcing the Kingdom
Readings: Mark 10:35-45  Luke 4:14-21  Matthew 25:31-46  Matthew 4:12-17

What is The Kingdom if not Heaven? It is the world of Christ. It is living in Christ. Living IN Christ IS living in the Kingdom.

As a retired military man, +Ignatius spoke of serving under the banner of Christ versus serving under the banner of the World.

Jesus brought us the Kingdom: Peace, love, justice, compassion, all of those things he showed us that we may know God, and may be as God, and be IN and OF the Kingdom of God.

The Messianic Age- When the Messiah comes, so will come peace. But WE have to be that peace! He cannot FORCE it upon us!

The word Shalom means peace in a very holistic way. Peace of mind, body, and soul. Much the same was that Agape means love, but means more than love.

The Kingdom is with in and around you:

"The Kingdom of God is inside you and all around you,
Not in a mansion of wood and stone.
Split a piece of wood and God is there,
Lift a stone and you will find God."

Jesus gave of the gift of the Kingdom. In 2000 years, we have not managed it very well.
It is time we took it back. One person at a time. One interaction at a time. One act of Love at a time.

As Babptized Christians, we are called to:
     1. Follow Christ- that is "live in/as Christ"
     2. Establish His Kingdom and continue it.

The Kingdom is all around us, and in us, but it begins in our hearts. It begins with Love.

The "Here/Not Yet" paradox: This is something that has never really occurred to me, and is worthy, I think, of some serious consideration. "Here/Not Yet." The Kingdom of God is Here! ...Don't get it? Not Yet. ... Christ gave us the Keys to the Kingdom, right here, right now, in our hearts, in our minds, in our spirits, in our relationships, in our communications, in our interactions with others, in our whole lives. He brought the keys to be given to everyone. But it is up to US to use the keys. To Open the Kingdom, to maintain the Kingdom. The Key is in CHRIST. In the CHRIST consciousness. In the "imitation of CHRIST." If we could all be more CHRIST-like, the world would be a much better place, so we ARE the Kingdom... or at least we should be.


Q: What does it mean to you that The Kingdom is here and now? What does this call you to?
I think these questions are fairly well summed up in the paragraph above.