Two For One

Having studied theology, and continuing the life long journey that studying theology is people always ask me questions which I love to answer. The seemingly most common question taking many variations has to do with sin. What is sin? Have I sinned? Mortal or Venial? Where is the list of sins? Do I just need to follow the ten commandments? Are those really for Christians? What did Jesus say about sin? These questions can be answered in many different ways, they can be long drawn out questions, with follow up readings. However the most simple answer is found in the readings for the 7th Sunday of Easter, which was last weekend (5/17/15). In the second reading (1 John 4:11-16) we find the simple answer:

STOP WORRYING ABOUT SIN AND SIMPLY LOVE. 

I of course took the liberty of paraphrasing that part above, the first letter of John does not use such language nor such a shouting manner. Rather it reads, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God Remains in us, and his love is brought to Perfection in us...God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. " 

There you have it, Love, thats what we are called to do. We don't need to worry about if we are sinning for as long as we are loving, truly loving one another we have lost the ability to sin. In the words of Victor Hugo's Bishop Bienvenu, "To love another person is to see the face of God" (Les Misérables). 

We may have never seen God, we may have never heard him call us by name, we may spend far too much time fretting over if we are sinning, when the simple answer is love. True Agape love. Not the OMG I love cats, I love Chicken, I love this song. But rather the true soul shaking love, self emptying of oneself for another. A love that placed Christ on the cross, love. 

Of course we know that that love was not left on the cross, it was not left in the tomb. Rather this has leapt into the hearts of all believers. 

This past weekend was Pentecost, the ending of the Easter season and the descending of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit works in our lives, allowing us to do things we could never do without its strength and guidance. This includes bringing us closer together as a body of Christ in ways that don't always make sense, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. As a philosopher friend of mine once said "philosophy asks all the tough questions, and when they arrive at a point where they cannot answer the question they keep asking questions, but theologians simply say 'Oh mystery' theologians offer great insight and answers but at times leave it simply at 'Oh mystery". My response, "duh" of course there are things we cannot understand, we can keep wrestling with these ideas and questions yet confidently know we will not know. All we can do is hope for and rely on the spirit. 

Its been stuck in my head all weekend. 

Veni Sancte Spiritus Come Holy Spirit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdvpiLZTZ6Q)

Hope you all had a safe happy and blessed Memorial Day. 

Remember stop worrying about sinning, and just keep loving. 

Peace and Blessings Always 

~M

Able to Love.

This weekend was a busy and important weekend. On Saturday I graduated from college, both very exciting and slightly terrifying, but something I never would have been able to accomplish without the love and support of family and friends. This realization, that it was not only congrats to me, but to all those who invested in and supported me over the years, this accomplishment was ours, not mine.


This weekend was also mothers day, what a perfect time for a graduation ceremony. All the mothers too proud to contain their excitement not only celebrating their child's accomplishments, but then also being celebrated for all the sacrifices they have made.
(here is a link to a cool video about moms, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZOgOcauDds).


As if by design the readings from this weekend were more than fitting for the events taking place. I had the rare opportunity of attending mass with my mother on mothers day at Bukowski, the on campus chapel, with Fr. Stan as the presider. The title for this post, and the meaning given to these words is born out of the inspiring words from his homily, words that evoked a response in my heart.


John 15:9-17, "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. remain in my Love... Love on another as I love you... No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." We often hear about God's love, "God so loved the world that he gave his only son" or "God created man out of love, God created all things as a result of his steadfast love." This of course is all very true good and well. However there is something that is always over looked, someone that is always over looked, perhaps sometimes taken for granted. This of course, is a mother. After all how often do we over look, or take for granted our own mother?  Mary, the mother of God, the ever virgin, the God bearer, theotokos, the first of us to answer a call with a simple and humbling yes. "God so loved the world that he sent us his only son" Mary so loved that not only did she say yes, but she raised the child Jesus. Where others may have said no, the only word on her lips was yes.


This love did not end with a simple yes, no mothers love ends at the conception of their child or even the birth. This is just the beginning of their love. The true love follows at the early hours of the morning as a new born cries, this love continues as the child continues to grow an demands more and more from their mother, sometimes offering nothing more in return than heartache. This is the love that a mother gives to her child this is the love that Mary showed to her son.


It is only as a result of the love offered to us by our mothers that we are able to love. It is only in the experiencing of love that we are able to love. It is only because of our mothers that we are able to love. As I look at the gospel with Jesus saying "Love one another as I have loved you" we are only able to do this because he was first loved by his mother and as a result learned most fully in a human way how to love.


We do not love because we are told to, we only truly love because first we were loved and as a result we are now able to love.

I know I know I'm way behind schedule

Alright so with the craziness of trying to finish my last semester of undergrad I have yet been able to take sufficient time to write. Even more tragic, I managed not to take out a simple hour from my weekend for mass attendance. In the words of my dear friend Alex, "just go to mass man" better advice has perhaps never been offered. This is advice I will take with me well into the future, and as it turns out ties beautifully in with the gospel reading from Sunday as well as this terrifying process of moving on to what lies ahead.

For many what comes next is still unknown, a dim far off light at the end of a very long tunnel. Fortunately enough I know whats next for me, I will be attending the University of Dayton for grad school. Even with this seemingly false sense of security the unknown seems terrifying. This is where Alex's advice and this Sundays gospel come into play. John 15: 1-8, in this excerpt of of John's gospel we see Jesus offering an image of the father as the vine grower, and Jesus as the true vine. All we need to do is remain in him. It's that simple, even when the unknown is looming and terrifying one thing is always certain that if we remain in him he will remain in us and more over bear much fruit.

We need not fear the possibilities of tomorrow, as long as we remain in Him who gives us strength, He will also give us hope and ensure that our lives are fruitful.