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- Herausgeber: anna ruggieri
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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In Praise of Meeting Jesus Christ
“The door of faith opens to the Person of Jesus Christ. Msgr. Brian Bransfield’s latest book, Meeting Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Word, invites the reader to be drawn in and meet Jesus so as to love him and make him known and loved.”
— Bishop Paul Sirba, Diocese of Duluth
“Msgr. Bransfield shows us that the scenes of the Gospels are not sword-and-sandal dramas. They’re our lives. Jesus is walking our streets, and he’s healing people who have jobs and emotions and motives that are a lot like yours and mine. ‘God loves to hide in the ordinary,’ the author tells us as he enlists us in his search party. And our companions as we search are not only Msgr. Bransfield, but also the great cloud of witnesses he invokes, saints like Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Bernard, Bonaventure, Thomas More. Msgr. Bransfield’s approach is poetic, memorable—and practical, full of time-proven insights as well as fresh life applications.”
— Mike Aquilina, Executive Vice-President, St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, EWTN host, author, dad, mower of lawn and shoveler of snow
“This is not a book to be read; it’s to be experienced. Msgr. Bransfield opens up the Scriptures in a way that brings Jesus to life with a tender brilliance that makes it difficult to close the book and end such a profound encounter. Best of all, it’s not a ‘one-time’ read. It’s full of insights that can be plumbed and explored over and over again. Rev. Bransfield has given the faithful a true gift in this book!”
— Susan Brinkmann, OCDS, author and staff journalist for Women of Grace.com
“C. S. Lewis once said that to write well you don’t describe something as good but you must make the reader feel and experience the goodness of the thing itself. This is precisely what Bransfield does. His book Meeting Jesus Christ is not just a good analysis of biblical texts, but we actually feel ourselves being drawn into the very dramatic structure of the events themselves. More, Bransfield has the uncanny ability to make Mary, Peter, the healed leper, etc., as real as the people we pass on the street. It is as if we are reliving the biblical events through their hearts and minds, their fears and hopes. Bransfield’s use of concrete images, his acute psychological insights, his powerful dramatic sense, and his poetic imagination all combine to enable the reader to recapture the newness and freshness of Christ’s ministry.
“Bransfield is a gifted spiritual writer with a powerful dramatic sense and poetic imagination. Meeting Jesus Christ is not merely a good analysis of key biblical texts, but the book also opens up for us the dramatic structure of salvation history. Like anamnesis, the past events in the Bible suddenly become alive for us. His insights are like midrashic explanations, which open us up to ever-deepening insights about the Bible and ourselves. Reading this book, precisely because it allows us to grasp spiritual truth at a deep emotional and psychological level, is a healing experience.”
— Joseph C. Atkinson, Executive Secretary of the Catholic Biblical Association
Meeting Jesus Christ
Meditations on the Word
Reverend Monsignor J. Brian Bransfield
With a foreword by Cardinal Francis George, OMI
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bransfield, J. Brian.
Meeting Jesus Christ : meditations on the Word / J. Brian Bransfield ; with a foreword by Cardinal Francis George, OMI.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8198-4930-4
ISBN-10: 0-8198-4930-8
1. Jesus Christ--Biography. 2. Bible. Gospels--Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BT301.3.B73 2013
242’.5--dc23
2013013404
Cover design by Rosana Usselmann
Cover photo: isockphoto.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
“P” and PAULINE are registered trademarks of the Daughters of Saint Paul.
Copyright © 2013, J. Brian Bransfield
Published by Pauline Books & Media, 50 Saint Pauls Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-3491
www.pauline.org
Pauline Books & Media is the publishing house of the Daughters of Saint Paul, an international congregation of women religious serving the Church with the communications media.
For Martin and Cynthia, Christian, Daniel, and Andrew
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction The Light of the Word: Praying with Sacred Scripture
Chapter One The Annunciation
Chapter Two The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Chapter Three Christmas: The Nativity of Our Lord
Chapter Four “Isn’t This the Son of Joseph?”
Chapter Five Casting Out a Demon
Chapter Six Follow Me: The Call of Saint Matthew
Chapter Seven The Great Catch of Fish
Chapter Eight The Cleansing of a Leper
Chapter Nine The Wedding Feast of Cana
Chapter Ten The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Chapter Eleven “Zacchaeus, Come Down”
Chapter Twelve The Pool of Bethesda
Chapter Thirteen Martha and Mary
Chapter Fourteen The Woman Caught in Adultery
Chapter Fifteen “Love Your Enemies”
Chapter Sixteen The Sinful Woman
Chapter Seventeen The Unjust Judge
Chapter Eighteen The Defenseless God
Chapter Nineteen The Stone Was Moved Away
Chapter Twenty The Sea of Tiberius: The Old Ways Are Never Far Away
Chapter Twenty-One Saint Stephen: The First Martyr
Afterword The God Who Waits
Select Bibliography
Credits
Foreword
William of Saint Thierry, a twelfth-century contemporary of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, found in prayer the “mirror of faith.” Prayer, he wrote, is the context in which faithful but fearful men and women find the courage to remain in wonder before God, immersed in the mysteries that God has revealed to those who love him. Authentic prayer reflects God’s initiatives in the world.
In this Year of Faith, Monsignor Brian Bransfield, associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has written a set of exercises designed to help believers today enter into the mysteries of faith through meditative prayer. These introductory remarks can therefore be read, but the book itself must be prayed. It is a workbook.
The exercises in this book will help frame the prayer of those who are neophytes as well as those who are mystics. They draw on Holy Scripture, interpreted according to the analogy of faith, “Bible stories” in their original context and in the context of the Church’s liturgical prayer. The interpretations offered are therefore both traditional and original. Poetic reflections open up analogies that bring the text into a lived context. Questions that could distract from prayer become, instead, part of an experience that keeps us close to the living God.
Monsignor Bransfield elicits more than reflection. He invites self-involvement by moving behind the text of Scripture to common elements of human experience that appear in novel ways: silence, speaking, listening, judging, journeying, darkness and light, and the joy that permeates a life shaped by faith and prayer. Prayer reflects and brings to full consciousness what God is doing in our lives.
The unseen partner with whom one enters into these chapters is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God waits and listens until prayer makes us ready to welcome him who is already present but often ignored. The Holy Spirit “groans” in us, as Saint Paul says so forcefully, when we surrender ourselves to prayer. The Paraclete speaks for us, as advocate when we are in the world’s courts, or as comforter when we are trembling before the majesty of God. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” (Jn 20:22) the risen Christ tells his disciples. Prayer creates a haven in us for God to act, a home where we can live as sons and daughters of a God who wants us to be holy and who listens for signs of our readiness as much as we watch for signs of his presence.
It’s been said that the Bible is as much anthropology for God as it is theology for us. Monsignor Bransfield writes in the interstice between God’s will and our desires. Prayer purifies our hearts until all that we desire is what God wants for us. Since God wants for us infinitely more than we can want for ourselves, prayer is never finished. There is always more. Christ is always more.
This book guides us into ways still unknown, even to its author. For that reason, in particular, we owe him a debt of gratitude for his work.
Cardinal Francis George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, January 3, 2013
Preface
This book is about Jesus Christ. It is not about tasks or techniques; it is not a “how-to” book. It has no “steps.” In fact, it takes a step back. Moreover, one does not need a degree in theology to understand the message of these pages. One only needs the desire to meet Jesus, because this book points to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, in his Church. Whenever we approach Jesus, he always does more than we do; however much we are searching for him, he searches for us all the more. When we take one step back, God takes three steps forward. Taking such a step back is to risk letting go of fear so as to look at God.
This book is about allowing the act of faith and the new life of grace to shed new and deeper light on our life’s journey and our daily decisions. This book is not meant to become another task. It will accomplish its purpose if through its pages the reader focuses on Jesus, is drawn even for a brief moment into meditation, or thinking about Jesus, and for a time forgets time and remembers God. In fact, the reader who turns these pages might even forget time in the encounter with Jesus so that he or she ends up being late for an otherwise incidental appointment. If that happens, the book will have accomplished its initial purpose.
When we read the Bible or hear the words of Scripture proclaimed at Mass, we are not simply readers or listeners. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that Jesus Christ is present in his word; that “it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the Church.”1 As we read and listen, something more than reading and listening happens: We are actors in the drama itself. We are meant to be “drawn in,” not simply to “read over.” This is because we meet Jesus in Sacred Scripture, which is the revealed word of God read with and in his Church. As we listen in faith we hear, in the Church, the one message of Christ, his one plan of salvation and sanctification. The authentic proclamation of the word of God takes place only on the foundation of the apostles in the context of apostolic succession.2 This is not a private or elitist knowledge meant only for a privileged and select few.3 It is the universal saving truth for all to hear.
This book you are now holding is a guide to meeting Jesus Christ through meditation on the revealed word. It consists of twenty-one chapters. The Introduction explains the way in which the word of God is a light for us. Each of the chapters takes up a different scriptural account, helping us to step into a meditation on a mystery from the life of Jesus. The various chapters provide meditations on such familiar events as the Annunciation, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, the Nativity of Our Lord, Jesus preaching in Nazareth, his casting out of a demon, the call of Saint Matthew, the great catch of fish, the cleansing of the leper, the wedding feast of Cana, and many more.
The book has a threefold purpose. The first goal is to open up the Scripture passage so that readers hear something new in these familiar passages, something they have not previously heard. The second goal builds on the first. Even though this is not a “how-to” book, once readers have read these meditations, on their own they can move on to meditate on other passages they may hear or read. Once familiar with the style of meditation presented here, readers may find a fresh approach to reading Scripture. The third goal is that this book itself will be left behind as readers put it down and pick up the Scriptures themselves. Therefore, the third and ultimate purpose of this book is to get out of the way and to give way to Christ. Across the spectrum of meditations presented here, the trajectory always remains the encounter with Christ in his mystery.
The book allows for a flexible approach. Readers can begin with page one and go straight through as one chapter flows into the next. Or they can parachute in and begin anywhere, since each chapter is written to stand on its own, and because God is everywhere in his word.
As we begin, and no matter how many times we begin again, we are never alone. The Holy Spirit is with us, within us, and within the text we read. The Holy Spirit overcomes our complexity, disables our fear, and introduces us to Jesus.
If we truly want to know the God within, one person above all others is eager to introduce us: Mary. In every age it is she who takes man by the hand and leads him into the very heart of her Divine Son. There she shushes us, telling us to be still in prayer, to listen, and to “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).
Acknowledgments
One of my earliest memories as a young child is sitting with my mother and my father as they would read me stories from my picture Bible. After they read the words they would describe the biblical scene presented in the pictures. They’d point to the sky, the persons, the surrounding features of the biblical scene, and continue to explain to me the great action of God.
Those images still remain in my mind today. Those moments were my first experience of contemplation. The pages that follow are, in a real sense, an extension of those profound early moments. And so, my first word of gratitude on the publication of this book goes to my mother and father, now gone to God, for the faith they patiently and devotedly handed on to me and to my brother, Paul, and my sisters Margaret Anne, Mary Jane, and Paula. How blessed my family is to see that faith handed on now to my grandnephews Stephen, David, and Connor, and my grandniece, Katherine.
I am very thankful to all who have supported me in writing this text. A word of most sincere thanks goes to my archbishop, the Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap, archbishop of Philadelphia, for the inspiration and confidence he inspires through his steadfast example and focused faithful leadership. I am humbled by the very thoughtful foreword to this work offered by His Eminence Cardinal Francis George, OMI, archbishop of Chicago. The Cardinal’s dedication to the Church is a genuine inspiration to so many.
The expert staff of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, with whom I am privileged to serve, never ceases to be a source of brilliant insight and support. I am grateful to my brother priests who serve at the Conference, as well as my colleagues in the general secretariat, and most especially to Reverend Monsignor Ronny Jenkins, general secretary, for his unfailing dedication to specialized scholarship, professional excellence in leadership, and his friendship. Likewise, I am grateful to Dr. Andrew Lichtenwalner and Dr. Peter Murphy.
The highly skilled efforts of the Daughters of Saint Paul were evident at every stage of the preparation of the manuscript for publication. I am appreciative of the hard work of Sisters Sean Mayer, FSP, and Marianne Lorraine Trouvé, FSP, Ms. Holly Kalinski, Ms. Vanessa Reese, Ms. Brittany Schlorff, and Mr. Brad McCraken.
A strong word of thanks is joyfully extended to my brother priests, the Reverends John Pidgeon, James Olson, Michael Gerlach, Eric Gruber, and Stephen Dougherty (who sadly passed away before the publication of this book) for their fraternal support. Finally, I am grateful to Brian and Joan Gail and to Martin and Cynthia Lutschaunig and their sons, Christian, Daniel, and Andrew, for their friendship.
Introduction
The Light of the Word: Praying with Sacred Scripture
The purpose of life is to track down God. The task within all of our other important daily tasks is ultimately to track down God in and through the moment before us. Many actions make up our daily life. We have to stop at the supermarket, pick up the dry cleaning, fill the car with gas. Our ordinary daily tasks may seem random, unconnected, and even repetitive. But God loves to hide in the ordinary. The noted thirteenth-century Carthusian Hugh of Balma taught that God, in a way that is faster than our human thinking, makes countless varied attempts every day—hundreds or thousands of times, day or night—to draw the human soul to himself, train us in his ways, and renew us according to his will.1
This means that God is always near us. Saint Alphonsus Liguori tells us that when we sleep at night God is closer to us than the very pillow on which we lay our heads, and that even during the night God does not want our conversation with him to pause.2 The psalmist confirms this: “If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me . . .” (Ps 17:3) and “By day may the Lord send his mercy, and by night may his righteousness be with me!” (Ps 42:8 NAB). The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that God always takes the initiative in calling us to prayer, and he is tireless in doing so.3
The interior goal of every action and of daily life itself is to discover in each hour and in each moment the One who is Life Itself. Only in this discovery do we reach genuine reality. Without God at the center, everything else detours into worry, confusion, disorder, and ultimately, sin. The baptized Christian, with original sin forgiven, has already met Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection and has become a member of the Church. The baptized Christian has received the Holy Spirit and is strengthened to live the life of grace and virtue. As Catholics, our life is centered on Christ in the Holy Eucharist, whom we adore and receive during Sunday Mass, as well as the forgiveness of sins through regular reception of the Sacrament of Penance. All the daily moments of our week point to and lead from the Sunday Mass celebration. From this center, in and through the Church, we can recognize God at the center of all we do through the week. Sacred Scripture gives us the prime coordinates by which we pick up his path.
Praying with Sacred Scripture
In Sacred Scripture the triune God freely discloses beyond all expectation the mystery of God’s own life and loving plan for our salvation. Through the words of Scripture we are touched and shaped by all that God has revealed and offered. Upon hearing his word we respond with an act of living faith, and take to ourselves the complete truth of Jesus Christ revealed in and through the authentic teaching of the Church. As Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized, the life of the Church is the primary setting for scriptural interpretation.4 Through the working of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the magisterium, the Church hands on to every new generation all that has been revealed in Christ.5
Opening the Scriptures is not like opening the pages of the recent best-selling novel, popular magazine, or even the dictionary. As we open the Scriptures and begin to read, something begins to happen. The psalmist proclaims: “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple” (Ps 119:130). Pope Benedict speaks about the word of God as a true light.6 A light comes forth from the Scriptures. This light does not come from a bulb or candle, nor does it depend on electricity or wax. The light of the word of God is brighter than all other kinds of light.
The light of the word of God is so bright, in fact, that only the heart can detect and see its brilliance. When the heart sees this light, it immediately wants to tell the mind. But the mind is often preoccupied and busy. Sin and the ways of the world get in the way. But the heart hopes; it never ceases to call to the mind. With the urgency and insistency of a child, the heart continues to show to the mind the most ordinary things: a leaf, a rock, a sunset or sunrise, or a book, a sentence, phrase, or word—especially the word, the divinely revealed word of God. And the heart wants the mind to see and hear what the heart sees and hears. The Holy Spirit tirelessly assists the heart to see that all things point to an awareness of the presence of God—that all things lead to the worship of Christ in the Holy Eucharist and the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of Penance, love of neighbor, and the life of virtue.
In a particular way, the Holy Spirit takes the Sacred Scripture, the inspired word of God, and wants to announce its message to our heart and mind. Perhaps we studied it in grade school, high school, or college. Whenever we see the Bible, we sense a gentle tug at our heart. We feel the invitation to open it, to read it, to spend more time in its depths. We hunger for an authentic prayer life. The Holy Spirit invites us to this profound dialogue.7 As he seeks to awaken us, the Holy Spirit knows how to wait a long, long time.
If we take the Holy Spirit up on this invitation and begin to read the Sacred Scriptures, we will see a glimmer of light—the light of Jesus Christ. Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ, renowned patristic scholar, tells us that Christ is the fact that dominates all history, and is the source of all light in which all else culminates.8 This is one reason why prayer is necessary for us: in prayer we speak with God, and he speaks with us (see Mt 7:7; Lk 11:9ff.; Mt 26:41). In prayer God leads us away from evil and fosters our inclination to do good. Prayer is not a time to concentrate on ourselves but on Jesus Christ and the inexhaustible promise of his love. Prayer is not a time for us to seek some type of psychological or emotional experience but the mystery of Jesus Christ.9 While all things are possible for God, we do not focus on exceptional states or unusual phenomenon that at times may accompany prayer but on meditation, which makes one receptive to internalizing the life of virtue.10
Prayer can take many forms. The Mass is the preeminent prayer, followed by the Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours.11 This prayer sanctifies the day. It leads from and returns to the Mass. Saint John Cassian, the fourth-century theologian and monk who had tremendous influence on Saint Benedict, noted that the psalm invocation that begins the hours, “O God, come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help me” (Ps 70:1), is of absolute necessity for the one who would remain aware of God’s presence.12 This verse is so significant and time-tested that one thousand years later the anonymous English author of The Cloud of Unknowing references the Desert Fathers’ use of it.13 Saint Alphonsus Liguori, writing in Italy in the eighteenth century, also notes that this verse was the crucial prayer of the Desert Fathers.14
Marian prayers, such as the Holy Rosary, the Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, and the Angelus, are prayers central to the Christian spiritual life. Adrienne von Speyr reminds us that even those prayers we know very well and whose words never change are always heard by God in a new way, as if for the first time.15 The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always.”16 In addition, we can practice the momentary prayer of calling God to mind with or without words.17
Likewise, the Catechism explains, “Every time we begin to pray to Jesus it is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the way of prayer by his prevenient grace.”18 It further teaches that the “Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us . . . Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom . . .”19 The Catechism urges us to call on the Holy Spirit each day, in particular as we begin and end every important action.20
Another very effective form of prayer is devotion to one’s patron saint. Meditation on the lives of various other saints, as well, draws us to prayer. Pope Benedict XVI compares the saint to a ray of light that comes forth from the word of God.21 Saint Ambrose says that prayer is a cry of the heart.22 The author of the Cloud of Unknowing also wrote a little-known book entitled The Assessment of Inward Stirrings. In this work, the author notes that even the smallest reverent stirring of lasting love, along with awareness of God, can lead us deeper into his mystery.23 We pray not in order to change the will of God, but so that his will might truly be fulfilled.24 As we pray we grow in intimacy with God, and this closeness gives us the strength to live even in situations that do not turn out as we would have them. The word of Christ is a light that interiorizes his life within us.
Sin
As we know all too well, sin is the enemy of the new life of grace and leads us away from prayer. Sin is the disobedient choice by which man, as a creature, insists on his self-sufficient way, rebelliously refuses to do the will of God, and rejects God. Sin, the refusal of divine love, offends God. Venial sin is disobedience to God that harms the life of grace within us by weakening it, though it does not completely destroy it. Mortal sin is the free and deliberate choice of the will, made with sufficient reflection, to oppose God in a serious matter. By this we drive the life of sanctifying grace from our hearts and are deprived of friendship with God. Sin is incompatible with holiness.
Even after we sin, God, through the gift of grace, still seeks us out and stirs us to return to him, in particular through the Sacrament of Penance. God longs to share the gift of mercy and forgiveness with us. It is we who are so often stubborn and delay our return to him and his Church. It is as if, even when we realize we have sinned, our ego kicks in with an extra dose of pride and conjures a false industrious spirit that lures us into the notion, “I got myself into sin, I will get myself out of it.” The ego can also be subtle, suggesting to us that we know God so well that we do not have to follow the teachings of the Church, that our spiritual life is just a private matter between God and us. These, however, are common tricks of the Evil One, disguised with a misleading focus back upon ourselves rather than on Christ and his Church. This deceptive detour is actually engineered to draw us further into complacency, and thus toward sin, by means of the illusion of self-sufficiency. But even here, God reaches out all the more to call us to confess our sins and receive forgiveness and mercy.
Distractions
In addition to the deception of sin, we face other obstacles to prayer, such as distractions, routine, and boredom. Our human frailty is never far away. The temptations and illusions of the world continuously seek entry into our heart. The world always goes to extremes: It either induces us to crave more and more things, or to slip into a kind of sluggish and self-centered inertia, moored by old memories that never seem to heal. But Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the sustaining center of all prayer. He is the fount of all grace and the unshakeable source of all virtue. Even our distractions cannot elude him.
We are to pray our distractions into the prayer we offer. Saint Teresa of Avila refreshingly points out that God values very highly even the brief moments we spend in prayer, moments when we may feel lukewarm or less than excited.25 The Holy Spirit dwells in us and works undisturbed with divine love in the deep places of our soul. He seeks all the more to inspire us, even in moments of distraction and dryness in prayer. He helps to dispose us so that we are ready and docile at his prompting to turn our minds and hearts to Christ.
Throughout the Gospels we see the light of Jesus made visible with sharp focus and distinct clarity. The Holy Spirit longs to cast this light deep into our hearts, and he is, in fact, already doing so. He patiently casts his light by means of the Church’s ministry. The Church makes known the mysteries of Divine Revelation and points to the beauty of natural reason to find the signs that point to God. Spirituality is not a fad or an option. Spirituality is not first an individual choice. It is not me simply finding the “right” spirituality for me. It is, rather, me being found by God. Spirituality is our total response in faith, sustained by grace, nurtured through love, and strengthened by the action of the Holy Spirit, to all that God has revealed in Christ made known in and through the Church.26
The world will attempt to prevent this meeting. The devil seeks to lull us away from God into a lethargic and inimical kind of sub-consciousness. Authentic prayer wakes us up from this delirium. The world attempts to fill our thoughts with anything but God. Some people place more faith in the sales pitch of commercials than they do in the age-old truth of God’s love and his word. Simply listen to the tag line of the dozens, if not hundreds, of commercials with which the world bombards us. Each short-term thrill must lead to the next momentary payoff. Anything or anyone that gets in the way, be it my husband or wife, son or daughter, father or mother, the child in the womb, or God and the Church, must be moved along. The world tells us that all we need to feel worthwhile is one more luxury. Some people begin to believe that unless their lives have all the intensity of a music video they are somehow defective. And then they turn to drugs or other addictive behaviors to bring and sustain that intensity or to calm the hurt.
Society tells us if we could just do more things and do them all faster we would feel better. Several devices a day feed these messages to us, and we never once get insulted! Pope Benedict XVI has noted the irony that we seem to be afraid of disconnecting from the mass media even for a single moment.27 These messages linger in our memory as we go to work, to school, and to practice. And what fills the thoughts sooner or later sinks into the heart. And the heart hardens. The advertisements and commercials become a series of commands by which we judge ourselves and measure others. And each advertisement leads us to spend more money, and more and more busyness to access its “promise” of happiness. Lastly, we begin to expect the same things from God. These worldly messages jam our radar for God and blind us to his movement of love.
The Ordinary Gift
