Bringing the Sword

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.

I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”

Matthew 10:34

What?  Jesus came to bring the sword?  Doesn’t that go against everything that He stands for and is? Why not peace but the sword? The sword that Jesus was referring to is not a sword that cuts people open and kills people for no cause. This sword is the sword of Truth. And the Truth, as we can give witness to today, brings division. There will be people who stand by the Truth and others who say that is not their truth. The reality is that there can only be one truth, and if one thing is really true it cannot be false at the same time. So that “Well maybe that’s your truth but it is not mine” does not work. It’s illogical. If something is true, then it is true no matter how much you dislike or disagree with it. So, Jesus came to bring the sword and not peace because without the sword – without Truth there can be no true, lasting peace. You cannot have one without the other.

So, to follow Christ and to live out our identity as beloved sons and daughters of the Father means that we must always walk in the light with the Truth as our compass. It will not be an easy journey, but it is the only journey that will lead to joy and peace. May we ask the Lord to give us the strength and courage we need to not shy away from the Truth today.  

A Blessed Time

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

longed to see what you see but did not see it,

and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

Matthew 13:16-17

We live in a very blessed time.  You might say I am crazy or you may ask me “Have you watched the news? Have you looked out your window? With all that is going on, how can you say we live in a blessed time?” The coronavirus. The riots. The racial injustice. The violent protests. The everyday evil committed by our people. Yes, those are all horrible things, but I still say we live in a very blessed time. We live in a blessed time not because we as humans, on our own, make it blessed, but because we have a God who has revealed Himself to us.  

We live in a blessed time because God was made man for us, because Jesus came, preached, suffered, died, rose from the dead, ascended into the heaven, and asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us. We live in a blessed time because of the gift of our faith, and because we know that any suffering we endure now is as St. Paul says, nothing when “compared with the glory to be revealed to us.”

We are blessed beyond all imagining because we see what “many prophets and righteous people longed to see but did not see it,” and we hear what they longed to hear but did not hear it. Because our Lord came to earth and left us the Eucharist we see what only the eyes of faith can see, and we hear His profession of love for us as He prayed and suffered on the Cross as well as His final words to us, that He will be with us always even “until the close of the age.” So, yes, we live in a very blessed time. May we count our blessings today and ask the Lord to open our hearts in gratitude!

Send Me

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’

“Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

Isaiah 6:8

Memorial of St. Benedict

Today we celebrate St. Benedict, the Father of Western Monasticism. He strived to be with God. There were too many distractions in the world so he went away to a quiet place to listen to the Voice of God. There is too much noise in our world today that keeps us from hearing and listening to God’s voice. But the reality is that God is calling out to each one of us even if we cannot or do not want to hear it.

God calls us by name and has a unique mission for each one of us – a plan for our lives that will bring us deep joy and lasting peace. God wants this for each one of us. The Lord calls us and invites us to a mission that is uniquely ours, and if and when we answer this call, that joy and peace will get us through even the toughest moments of our lives. So, when the Lord comes to the silence of your heart today, will you answer, “Here I am Lord, send me?”