The love of Niagara

A friend of mine recently told me that the love of God is like Niagara Falls. His love flowing, rushing, pouring over us almost overwhelmingly. Yes, it is indeed overwhelming. What if I am holding an umbrella to stay dry? To stay "safe"? Of course his reply to that was one of common sense. "The umbrella simply collapses under the strength of the water." Duh!
But why is this so hard to grasp? How could a perfect Shepherd love such weak and distracted sheep? A bigger question would be, how could I doubt this love? Maybe it is fear. Afraid to be a reservoir that feeds love to others only because of the love that feeds it. It is much more "safe" to be an undisturbed pond, which left to itself will become a swamp. A place for bugs and critters. OK, not to safe there!
So, how does one allow the love of God to change oneself. Surely, change will happen. First, by receiving His Holy Eucharist. Allowing Christ to enter into us in a way that is real, that is tangible. This is more than just a figurative analogy, one of His parables. This is indeed real. Second, by going to confession regularly. "Cleaning house" quite frequently creats a sactuary for our Lord...and for ourselves. Thirdly, the tough part, by serving Him in the ordinary. I must allow myself to be "disturbed" from quiet times of reading and prayer to help with the daily household tasks, be it loading the dishes in the dishwasher, putting a bandaid on Molly's knee or picking up the dog's poop (after I stepped in it of course!). After all, isn't this what our Lord calls us to? To be what we are called to be. A father, a husband, a priest or religious. Most of all, His child. And if I love my children, how much more, infinitely more He loves this child?!

Look not on our sins but on the Faith of Your Church

One of the phrases said each week at Mass, after the Our Father is, "Look not on our sins but the faith of Your Church." As these words leave the priest's mouth, I feel like I can hear a pin drop...even over the coughs and crys from the wee ones at Mass. I am caught off guard. I think to myself, "Wait. What did he just say? Petitioning our God not to look on OUR sins but on the faith of HIS Church!"

Living in such an individualized time and place, this goes aginst my gut. "But MY sins aren't the 'little' ones Lord!" Lust, greed, pride, the misuse of my Irish temper(for there is even a proper place for that..somewhere, hence my soapbox!). I could go on but that is not where the focus is right now. The focus (thank God) is on the faith of His Church. I find balance here. As I said before, the problem with the church is that it is full of people. Broken people. There is an acknowledgement of OUR sins as individuals and as a community. But the gaze of God is on the faith of His church. Oh, this is why I am called to participate at Mass. Because, I can't go it alone. Otherwise, I am back to the whole "our sins" part of the equasion. Left to my own devices, there's no tellin' where I'll end up. Of course going to church every Sunday won't do it alone either but that's no excuse not to go. Not to mention the fact that not going is a motal sin. Ahhh, mortal sin and venial sin. That's another blog post for another day!

The faith of His Church. Infant baptism makes sense here. Why would we not want our babies to be brought into this faith? Sure, there is a time when they must acknowledge it for their own but why would we deny the little ones such a gift? Our faith, our salvation isn't a one-time thing but an on going process that started at Calvary and continues on in our sanctification. "God ain't done with me yet!"

Not much more to say here but I am sure glad to be in HIS church. And as the old saying goes, "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." Our Lord is the beholder.