Fourth Sunday of Advent Lectionary: 12
Sound the trumpet in Zion; the day of the Lord is near; he comes to save us, alleluia.
It is now the hour for you to wake from sleep, for our salvation is closer now than when we first accepted the faith. The night is far spent, the day draws near. Let us cast off deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. – Romans 13:11-12
The words we don’t hear enough today, backed up by action. “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you”.
The entire world today seems to be on an “Escalator”. The anger and outrage at everything is so thick, you can see it like a fog rolling in, forgetting that not every “escalator” goes up when we get on.
Newton’s Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action. Looking at this today in society, one can easily assess that for every action there is blown out of proportion over re-action.
“You offended me” is the phrase of the day and one that can be only followed by “I’m calling my attorneys”. Or, “You don’t deserve to live because you offended me”. That last line can be seen from the gang ridden streets of Chicago all the way to the Middle East, as its no different. Society as a whole, is staring to mimic a perpetual sandbox fight of six year olds in which everyone throws their sucker in the sand and stomps away to get the older brother to beat up the perceived evil kid who called someone a name or dare to knock down a “sand castle” created.
To be “Offended” is to be resentful or annoyed, typically as a result of a perceived insult. What is behind that? Pride. A deep rooted, nasty, maggoty pride that needs to be cut out completely. To do this takes humility.
When I hear souls today try to use the key trigger words like, Crusades, Molestation by Priests, Inquisition and the anti-Catholic mantra of the day, as a means of looking for anything they can grasp, as a means to make the entire faith look bad, or offend me personally, I pity them for the simple fact of what they can not see, that my faith isn’t based on the mistakes nor sins, little or big, of anyone. My faith is built on and in, the Love that Jesus Christ has for us all. On His cross, the words that left His lips, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”.
What comes with forgiveness? Forgiveness is the biggest, baddest weapon on the face of this earth. There is nothing stronger then it when it is given for and out of love for the other. It cuts to the heart of the problem and allows two souls to speak and not scream. It immediately deescalates all situations in which the soul can be placed in when it is received from the party it is given to. When it is not received, the soul giving it, not only places it firmly in our Lords hands, but receives the peace needed from our Lord to continue without any need for the receiver to acknowledge the forgiveness given as the soul understand it has done all it could and peace is achieved.
May our Lord bring His peace this Christmas, to all who seek it, through humility, in saying we are sorry, showing we are sorry and accepting the forgiveness that is given.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us
When I was a little girl, I spent many hours thinking about what my life would be like. As most do. I wondered what I would be when I grew up and would spend hours wondering who would fall in love with me. Who would want to. I was chunky & ugly and mean. (My description) I didn’t much like myself nor did many others seem to like me. I went to a Junior High dance once with a friend who attended a public school with high hopes of someone dancing with me, leaving that night, not even dancing.
I still wondered who would ever love me? I wondered if I would go up to be popular, which I did not. I wondered if I would grow up to be famous, which of course, I did not. What was I going to be? I had high hopes and a lot of dreams & ambition, that just seemed to be placed where I didn’t belong. Much of this taking place after I could not have this “True Love” (read here)
I spent most of my hours growing up, listening to love songs, hoping one day, to sing them to the one who loved me and having them sung to me. One particularly stuck out and I heard it tonight after this wonderful day in prayer.
As I was folding the laundry from todays chores, I had a music channel on and this song came on. I thought, wow, I liked this song a lot when I was little. It brought back memories. And then lyrics hit me and the tears of joy ran down my cheeks. And it happened. I realized Who loved me. Who still loves me. Who I had wondered so much about all these years. Especially listening to THIS song from my youth that I used to wonder about all the time. Here I am, writing “the story”, my on-line diary, for the first time, EVER writing something down and its all about Him. I absolutely love Him. Our Lord is, the best thing that ever happened to me. Finally I can say, Its You! It’s really YOU Lord! With Your grace, O Lord, with Your mercy, I will never leave you again! I love you!
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Peg Pondering Again 