News - December 2019 RSS Feed

¿Cómo decidimos el fiarnos o no de alguien? Nuestra habilidad para hacer la decisión correcta es crucial y afecta nuestras relaciones, finanzas y profesión. El hacer una decisión errónea tiene consecuencias devastadoras. Por eso, es sorprendente, el que algunas publicaciones psicológicas, sugieran cómo el juicio sobre la confiabilidad es algo instantáneo, basado solamente en el aspecto facial. Aparentemente, las caras más confiables, tienen pestañas altas, labios y pómulos salientes, mientras que en las menos fiables, las pestañas están hacia abajo, la frente arrugada, labios y pómulos hundidos. (Como el Joker de la película: Batman). Esta forma de hacer un juicio instantáneo, sobre la confiabilidad de alguien, pudo haber sido efectivo para nuestros ancestros, para su sobrevivencia.

Un monasterio, antes muy famoso, estaba pasando por una crisis fatal. En otro tiempo albergaba a una comunidad religiosa, vibrante y feliz. Sus campos, bien sembrados, producían cosechas abundantes. Los visitantes eran numerosos, participaban en sus cantos litúrgicos y regresaban a sus casas llenos de paz y con los productos que vendían  los monjes, hechos con su trabajo. Cada año entraban vocaciones nuevas. Pero tanta belleza empezó a decaer.

Jesus our Lord, King of the Universe Source and ground of all existence Word made flesh you traversed the distance King of Kings becomes next of kin Word of God, comes to dwell within

Happy New Liturgical Year!  We are in the season of Advent and we thank God for offering us new beginnings, a time of reflection and preparation of our hearts so that our coming Lord may find a place to dwell.  The Lord has already come in history, he will come in glory at the end of time, but he always comes to us in mystery, especially in the Holy Eucharist, and surprising us by his presence along our journey of life and in the poor.  Advent is a time to adjust our antennas to receive the signals of God coming to us; to ready the way.  As a community of faith we will have a wonderful opportunity to do that at our penance service tomorrow Monday evening, where we can receive the sacrament of reconciliation.

Pope Francis’ Exhortation: Christ is Alive, Christus Vivit, says: “He (Christ) is in you, he is with you, and he never abandons you. However far you may wander, he is always there, the Risen One. He calls you and waits for you to return to him and start over again. When you feel you are growing old out of sorrow, fear or resentment, doubt or failure, he will always be there to restore your strength and your hope.” (#2)

What are we willing to live for?  What are we willing to die for?  We may not be constrained to witness in such a radical way to our values and our faith as the seven brothers and their mother we hear about in the book of Maccabees, but their story triggered my reflection on what underlies or motivates such willing sacrifice even in the face of death.  How can I grow in such freedom and commitment that allows me to freely let go, not just of things that cause me harm, but good things, even my own life like the seven brothers and their mother?  There must be a higher love.

We just heard in Wisdom: “you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned.” Why is it that Paul recognized that all things that God created are good, and yet we have the audacity to create categories of judgment and condemnation? We also are so legalistic that we forget that the authors of the books of the Bible were men, and I do mean men, who had their own categories of judgment and condemnation that do not correspond to God, any more than ours corresponds to God.

Have you ever taken a walk around a small mountain lake? Don’t you just love seeing the reflections of the mountains, the trees, the houses on the surface of the waters when they are calm, and there is no breeze or wind to make the waters agitated or troubled?