Into the Sacred Hills of Jade

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

The collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes, He does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”
“From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.  “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.” – Matthew 17: 24-27

Possibly one of the enigmatic moments recorded in the Gospels, this question about paying the tax to pay for Herod’s massive Temple project.  Peter answers the tax collectors with a confident “Yes, my rabbi does pay the Temple tax”  But then on his return, Christ challenges Peter … “Have you considered this Temple tax in this way.”  A teaching moment, most likely, but then that almost cynical statement …”Go fishing and you will find the money for the tax in the mouth of a fish!”  What is this … a miracle of a more magical kind?

Through the years I have pondered the meaning of this strange conversation.  In the end, it appears that Christ and Peter will go ahead and pay the Temple tax.  Yet … Christ argues that the people ought to be exempt from this taxation ordered by King Herod.  It is as if He is implying that any temple should be built out of the generosity of the people and not by dictate of a corrupt king.  But in order to keep the peace … the Lord will provide the means to pay the tax.

In this discourse with Peter the fisherman, the emphasis is that the Lord will provide … even for this questionable Temple tax.  For if there is to be a Temple, it is the Lord who provide for its construction in spire of the questionable intent of the King.

And what do I learn from this strange matter of the Temple tax and fish with coins in their mouths?  The Lord will provide in spite of our questions and moral dilemmas.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Jesus and His disciples came to Capernaum. When He was in the house, He asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.  Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” – Mark 9:33-35

I would rather be known as a good and godly man than to be known as the greatest, richest,  most powerful man in the world.  Why?  Because the former is of a nobility of a far higher kind, the nobility of a humble servant.  Yet, we live in a time and place where so many seem obsessed with being the greatest, richest, most powerful nation in the world, and so few hope that we will become a good and godly nation.  And herein is the worldly sin of nationalism and nationalist arrogance and lust for being the greatest among us, the children of God.

So many preach that we are a nation based on Christian values, yet we totally ignore this value that Christ required of His disciples.  You must not seek to be greater than one another but that you might be as servants to one another.

Now this lust for worldly power is rather consistent through the history of nations, but it becomes unbridled when the people of faith collaborate with these worldly forces.  The prophetic voice collaborates with the powers of this world, and the martial values of the nation first exploit and then cast aside the support of the godly.  Eventually this collusion, this alloy of worldly power and heavenly power, is a smoldering treachery that ends up as but ashes in a hellish forge.

In Christ, we are called to be servants, not merely in lip service but in our day-to-day devotion.  We are there among the poor of the poor and the least of the least.  We are among the oppressed and not among the oppressors.  We are people of the soup kitchen and not penthouse.  We are not Caesar, but rather we are Christ.

And yet … from time to time there are those who succumb to the Tempter who showed Him all the nations of the earth and said, “You can be greater than all of these.”

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, November 19, 2018

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives [to pray in the quiet of the night]. – Matthew 26:26-30

When the apostles gathered for that meal in the upper room, Christ offered prayers of thanksgiving, possibly such as these …

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ  Blessed art Thou, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, King of the Universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine.

In its way … that Last Supper was a thanksgiving meal, though shared in the shadows of intrigue and treachery, but also in the first light of an Easter dawn.  Christ offered thanks for the bread and the wine and in the process, gave them new meaning.

Our thanksgiving feasts are harvest feasts, though for many today, the link between harvesting the fields at the end of a long season of labor and the feast are less obvious and tangible.  We still sing of those agrarian images of the harvest, but modern life is more about paychecks and electronic transfers of money.  Faint is the sense of having survived by way of the providential hand of God.  Faint are the pangs of hunger that make this feast so remarkable.  Faint is the recognition that if it were not for the cooperative community will to share both labor and blessing we would not have prospered.  And because of how these experiences have grown faint, the thanksgiving feasts of today are not as spiritually significant as once they were.

I try to experience the powerful thanksgiving in His heart when He looked at those men who stood by him through the struggle and who always struggle for Him in the days and years to come.  I imagine Him gazing into the eyes of each of them and cherishing the persons represented by names such as Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, …. I imagine how He was thankful for what distinctive they brought to enrich this common table that on this historic night they brought.  And I imagine how thankful He was that He would be a part of their lives forever.  And through it all … He was thankful that this meal midst the starlight and lamplight would be shared with those whom He loved and who loved Him in response.

I think this year I will add the Holy Communion to our thanksgiving feast … in remembrance of that thanksgiving feast of long ago.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Sunday, November 18, 2018

In the midst of His disciples, Jesus prayed …  “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified You on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in Your presence before the world existed. – John 17:3-5

What is “eternal life”?  I suppose there are many ways to explain the nature of “eternal life”.  I think that most people think of eternal life as a never-ending time after time.  In my contemplative tradition we speak of eternal life as a Timelessness in which time is no longer about clocks and calendars.  But Christ in the Gospel of John states that eternal life is the knowing God and Christ in deeply intimate ways.  It is the knowledge not confined to thoughts and feelings, but the knowledge that is experiential.  It is the knowledge of the bee of the flower.   It is the knowledge of coming together in a work of providential creation.  It is the knowledge of an interplay of lives.  It is the knowledge of the essence of life.

When we “know” God and Christ in such an intimate way … we enter into a Realm which is beyond what we once experienced in a limited way, a Realm where the qualities of heaven and earth come together as well as where the qualities of Forever and the Present Moment come together.  It is the “abundant life” of which Christ speaks; it is the “glorious life” of which we sing.

So, my Loved Ones, draw close to the Lord and the life of the Lord will appear in your midst, and the eternal life will become known.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Friday, November 16, 2018

“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”        – Luke 16:18

Christ with this teaching is not emphasizing a Biblical Law, or bringing it back to mind, but rather is about scribes and Pharisees, Sadducees and others who used holy scriptures to justify their callousness of heart.  This law of divorce applied only to men who treated their wives as property, there is no counterpart from the perspective of the woman.  In this very way, it is unjust in its text.  Christ characterizes this law of divorce as a means of dealing with a man’s callousness of heart. 

This teaching is a caution to the men who were listening that they must remember that God looks to the heart, to the true motive of a person, to hidden intention.  To manipulate the scripture in a self-serving way is a matter of concern for God.  “Just because you can justify your intention with a quote from scripture, does not turn a wrong into something right. And when you do … you set into motion a cascade of moral dilemmas. 

We still use scripture in self-serving, possibly even more so than those “devout” men who listened to Christ admonish them.  We still treat scripture as codes of intricate law, wherein the weaving of citations we can confound God’s loving intention.  We go about making laws and rules rather than fulfilling the intentions of the Lord; we go about patching together disparate passages to prove our point-of-view.

Like humanly contrived tax law … there are always those who try to find the loopholes for their own personal gain.   Loved Ones, this is sin … the manipulation of the intentions of God.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

November 15, 2018

“Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” – Matthew 6:1-4

“So that your alms … your giving to the poor … your love made tangible in the practice of charity … may be done in secret.”  I have come to believe that Christ is here revealing something Beautiful in the nature of God’s Grace … a secret key into an even greater Realm of Grace … authentic charity of the heart that allows one to hear the applause of angels.  It is the glorious joy of being part of the Mercy of God.

We often speak of Christ calling us to be one with Him and with the Father.  And here in this tucked away teaching to which we give merely passing nod, Christ us a tangible expression of that oneness … being one with the providential work of God.  In this giving of alms, this giving to the poor, we become as the rain and the sunshine to a farmer’s field.  We enter into a most holy work … an instrument of the merciful Love of God.

Oh, when we seek the praise of onlookers in our giving to the poor, we decline to fully enter this experience of Oneness.  We are seeking satisfaction from worldly sources rather than from sources Divine.  Such giving has its worth and it is a good thing within its limitations, but it steals from the experience of becoming a radiance of the Glory of God.

Loved Ones, be as the rain and the sunshine on a farmer’s field.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

One Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched Him to see whether He would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him. Even though He knew what they were thinking, He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” He got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to scribes and Pharisees, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?” After looking around at all of them, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was restored. But the scribes and the Pharisees were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. – Luke 6:6-11

Such an irrational reaction to a man being healed, to react with fury, fear and disdain!

One can be so obsessed with defending doctrine that one loses its essence and its purpose.  The original law was to rest on the Sabbath, to devote it to the Lord and not to one’s own personal gain.  The original law was to not become enslaved solely as a worker for a worldly master but to be more than this … to live lives that are more than one’s industrial worth.  But by the time of Christ, the scribes and the Pharisees were caught up in the making and keeping of rules, to the debating of the details at the sacrifice of the Divine intention.

I think we as Christian community seem to repeatedly fall victim to the folly of the scribes and Pharisees.  Over and over we slaughtered the Goodness and the Love out of zealotry for this or that.  Sometimes it is over a detail of doctrine; sometimes it is over a moral specific.  And as a result … we subconsciously or unconsciously and almost unintentionally plots schemes to circumvent Christ’s teaching and example.  Yes … we keep doing it for it is how our mortal sinfulness confounds God’s ways and wishes.

Is it holy and acceptable to heal on the Sabbath?  The answer is yes!

Is it holy and acceptable to plot treachery on the Sabbath?  The answer is no!

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival.  They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus. – John 12:20-22

I always enjoyed doing the “Children’s Chat” during my years of pastoral service, that few minutes where the whole congregation gave the children their time in the sunshine of worship.  I recall one such children’s chat when at the time I experienced as a bit embarrassing, but looking back, it was remarkably insightful.  A little boy I had not seen before asked me …”Are you Jesus?”  Of course, the congregation chuckled and I suspect there were parents out there trying to hide.  At the time I answered his question with something life …”No, I am not Jesus but I work for Jesus.”  To which he responded …”Like those Santas in the stores work for the real Santa.”  “I  suppose … now who can tell me what this is that I am holding in my hand?”

“Are you Jesus?”  In a certain way, no, yet in a certain other way, yes.  Some Greeks, probably from Jewish families that had emigrated to other countries, probably more of the Greek culture and the Greek mindset than of their ancestral Hebrew culture and mindset, asked a disciple if they might have an audience with Jesus.  “They wanted to see Jesus”.  Now St. Philip the Apostle is venerated, a famous messenger of the Gospel.  But then … Philip was merely a guy who seemed to have access to Jesus of Nazareth.  It was Jesus Himself with whom they wished to converse.

Back to that little boy’s question … “Are you Jesus?”  Maybe I ought to have offered …”Well, I hope that when you look through me you might catch a glimpse of Him.”  I know … a rather advanced abstraction for such a young mind, but still a deeper theological understanding that I am but a lower grade version of the real Santa/Christ.

In these my contemplative years, I seek to live in such a way with such transparency that people can catch a glimpse of Christ by looking through the window of MY life.  Oh, the image of Christ is probably rather dim and distorted, but I do pray that others can somehow sense that they see Him.  And in our prayerful conversations these Greeks and I somehow will sense they are conversing with Christ.  I call these moments when Christ is manifest in the conversation of souls, interpersonal communion, the Christ within the Christian calling forth the Divine Image that is latent in the Creation of all souls.

Live, my Loved Ones, with such transparency that others might behold Christ through the window of your living.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, November 12, 2018

To the disciples gathered on the Galilean hillside, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven … “ – Matthew 5:14-16

It is stated as both a fact and hope …“Fellow Galileans, fellow children of Israel, you ARE the light of the world!”  And for we who seek to be radiant with the Presence of Christ, these words apply to us as well … wherever we might be found on the face of the earth … we serve as lantern and lighthouse to all the nations of the earth, for the new Realm of God is a universal realm.  The new Realm of God recognizes no borders.  The new Realm of God is an international community, one might say a supra-national community, not allied or alloyed with any form of nationalism or ethnicity.  We ARE a light to all the world, in all the world, for all the world.  And we are TO BECOME a brighter and purer Light to all the world, in all the world, for all the world.

The people listening to Christ on that hillside were keenly and personally aware of the Roman military occupation of their land.  And before the Romans, the Greeks, the Assyrians, Babylonians each in their turn and their time occupied their land.  And with each occupation, there were Galileans who were dispersed into foreign populations yet still were ever mindful of their history with God as children of Abraham and Israel.  Thus they were not isolated from other nations of the earth, but to the contrary, they served as a highway for the nations in their international commerce and in their wars and conquests.

To serve as a Light to the world, what might that mean?  The shining example, but an example of what?  The guiding light, but guiding who and to where?  The lamp in the night, but for what purpose.  The shining example … of love and mercy.  The guiding light … to both home and promised lands.  The lamp in the night … to behold more clearly both truth and wisdom.

We, in Christ, are to be radiant with the Pure Light of God, un-tinted by the prejudices of any one worldly culture, unfiltered by the limitations of politics and self-interest, dimmed by the ideologies of worldly power.

Loved Ones, we are to serve as and then serve all the better as the Light of the Radiant Christ.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Sunday, November 11, 2018

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman military officer came to Him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The Roman centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith…” – Matthew 8:5-10

Forefront in this teaching moment is the Roman officer’s high faith in Christ’s miraculous power, not one demanding signs nor rationality.  This Roman military officer simply believe that not that Christ could heal but that Christ would certainly heal by whatever means Christ chose in this particular circumstance.  But I sense that in the background was another quality of this Roman military officer that gave evidence of great faith … and that quality was compassion.

“Lord,” military officer said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 

The Centurion did not come for self-serving reason but out of compassion for his servant.  “He is at home paralyzed, suffering terribly!”  In the context of those times, within the culture of severe military discipline and stoic bearing, this compassionate response of this military officer for a servant jumps off the page as being something quite remarkable.  I believe it emphasizes that Christ was impressed not only by the man’s confident trust in Christ but also by the compassionate response of the soldier.  Though the soldier describes his faith in the martial discipline of the chain-of-command it is actually stirred by a deeply human motivation … he has deep empathy for his servant.

I have found that great faith must be accompanied by great compassion.  Somehow they are intertwined.  Selfish faith is shallow faith; compassionate faith is deep faith.

I pray that I mature spiritually into this remarkable of faith known as compassionate faith.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz