Into the Sacred Hills of Jade

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Thursday, June 28, 2018

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.  But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. – Luke 4:28-30

I am intrigued by the drama of this encounter between Christ and his hometown synagogue.

I dare raise a paraphrase by way of parallel.  All the church members were furious at what the preacher said.  The committee met and said, “We must fire this pastor for his speaks most troubling words.  How dare he question our ways!”  But the pastor moved on from there and continued being faithful to his Lord.

Those who were about toss this young rabbi over the cliff, these were church-going people.  They probably attended classes on the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  They all went through the rite of passage into adulthood.  They were Jews of a Jewish nation.  They were people who prayed.  They were people who sang the old hymns.  They were people who kept the rules their forefathers wrote.  And they dragged a rabbi to the edge of a cliff.  Synagogue people sometimes did unholy acts in unholy ways in a false delusion that they were protecting the ways of God.  And church-going people sometimes do unholy acts in unholy ways in a false delusion that they are protecting the ways of God.

But it is the manner of Christ in this moment of crisis that models for me the Christ-incarnated way we are to carry ourselves and to advance the work of God’s Realm of a More Perfect Love.  “He walked through the crowd and went on His way.”  No kowtowing to the rage of the crowd, no surrendering to the status quo, no fighting back using their unholy ways … no, He simply carried Himself with dignity and walked on in His pilgrimage of faith.

I seek to face the judgmental ones with rage in their voices and murderous intentions in their hearts … with nobility of soul, without resorting to the ways and will of the crowd, and continue in the authentic ways of the Lord.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

For God so loved the world that God gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

I suspect this is one of the most famous quotations in scripture.  I have heard it all my life.  I have had it etched into my soul.  But now in my maturity … I believe so many may have distorted in its actual meaning.  And they did so not out of ill-intent but out of the theological scheme in which they were immersed and colored their reading.

So many people mentally change one of the words and that word is “gave”.  They subconsciously translate it to mean “sacrificed the life”.  They assume this verse speaks of the sacrificial atonement of Christ.  But the verse does not read to sacrifice His Son’s life but to give to the world His Son’s Life.

The gift to the world … the life of Christ, to learn from words, to learn from His example, to learn from the mission He undertook.  But there is more.  This gift to the world also includes the Life of Christ that continued on in the lives of those who dared trust His words and His ways.  The Church, the essential Church, is the living out of this gift of Christ’s very life in our own lives together.  We are the ongoing earthly Life of Christ living on with the “genetics” of the Lord’s Spirit within us and among us.  We are the ongoing voicing of Christ’s words and Christ’s stories.  We are essence of the Divine in the experience of the human, as was Christ in His incarnation of the Love and Concern of God.

Many will say that we are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, and that would be in certain ways would be true.  But I am one who believes that we are to a greater degree are saved by the life that He lived and His way of life now lived through us.  We will be saved, not merely me but oh so many … by the living out of His ways, His words, His compassion, His quality of spirit, His priority of values, His mission and His method.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

With a basin of water and a towel, Christ knelt before Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”                                       “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”
Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. – John 13:6-11

I think this is a defining moment in what it means to be a Christian, this conversation between Christ and he would continue with the work of Christ.  This back-and-forth speaks of moving from the place of being-in-control to the place where one places one’s life in the hands of the Lord.  This intimate interaction speaks of the abandoning of the hubris of false pride and the taking on of the humility of one who serves.  This give-and-take, this heart-to-heart, reveals where the true joy and peace of Christ is found … in the servanthood.

We live in times of blustery boasts.  We live in times of shameless self-centeredness.  We live in times when being the greatest is everything and than the being the humblest is a shameful cowardice.   We live in times when leaders are obsessed with controlling rather than serving.  We live in times when the assertion of self overwhelms being part of a whole community.

I do believe … now more than ever … that we find our true Christ-likeness in being the humble servant.  And isn’t that the message Christ whispered into the heart of Peter … when I am gone you will need to serve humbly.

Always in Christ’ Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, June 25, 2018

(And in that upper room, Christ prayed for His disciples.) My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your words from Your Mouth comprise the truth.   As you sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.  My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. – John 17:15-21

Christ has set us apart for a holy work.  This is the meaning of the action, to sanctify.  And this holy work given to the disciples, both those gathered in upper room that night before the crucifixion and we who have followed in their footsteps and in their spirit,  is to care for the world without adopting and using the wayward ways of the world.  As did Christ gave His own life a few hours after He prayed this prayer, so we, the disciples through time, sacrifice our old world ways so that we might then live with ways that remain faithful to the Truth of God, the ways that are also the ways of the heavenly life.

But alas, we are so accustomed to the ways of this world that we assume they are the ways that must be.  And so often we use the ways of this world to achieve heavenly purposes.  We resort to half-truths, shaded meanings, switch-and-bait sales pitches, distorted logic, false assumptions and conjured delusions.  But when we use tainted truth we slowly walk away from the pure, Divine truth.

Divine Truth, the Truth one hears in the Voice of God, is transparent, confessional, invitational, in quest of clarity and in search of an understanding that is both fully human and fully Divine with the latter forming the former.

The line between truth and falsehood has been blurred; the half-truth has infected the Truth; lies become means to accomplish a worldly agenda; the meanings of words are changed.

If we dare think we are disciples of Christ, then we must be sanctified by the thoughts that flow from the Mind of God with the tone and timbre of the Heart of God.  As Christian disciples, we are not to be formed by our political ideology but by the Lord, not for our worldly purposes but for God’s heavenly purposes.  As Christian disciples, we are not to be formed by world standards of success, though so often we are, but by the fulfillment of our duties as servants in the Realm of the Lord.  As Christian disciples, we are not to be formed by such worldly values as racism, nationalism, age-ism, misogyny, militarism but those heavenly values that so often go counter to the world’s values.  As Christian disciples, we sacrifice our selfishness for the safe of More Perfect Love among all.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9

It would be reasonable for Christ to have used instead the words, Blessed are the peaceful”, but He didn’t.  That would communicate something that could be considered rather passive.  No, Christ chose the more active word, “peacemakers“.

It is in the active making of the peace, in the active  work of reconciliation,  in the taking the initiative to begin the process of forgiveness and restoration, that we are active participants in the family business of the Lord.  We invest ourselves not in blaming, judging, condemning the world, but rather in saving this world by transforming this world.  We are then doing as Christ … the one who kept faithful to His work even the cross when He reached on behalf of the people, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”  In a certain sense, the common, worldly sense, He should have demanded retributive justice against his accusers and executioners, against the mockers and those standing by … but instead He offered an initiative of grace, an offer of restorative justice, an offer of a new beginning filled with new hope.

As a contemplative, I know well the experience of becoming peaceful and being peaceful, but I also must be mindful of the work I do as part of the family business.

In Christ’s Service Always,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Jesus answered Pilate’s question. “For this reason I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.”

Pilate then asked, “What is truth?”  – John 18:37b-38a

Two men met face to face, even heart to heart, both knowing in their own mind the critical moment they shared.  One of those men was a politician, the other, a rabbi.  For the most part, both men the truth of the situation, but the rabbi knew the truth of this cosmic drama and the ways of the human heart, while the politician knew the truth of his precarious political circumstance and the ways of kings and crowds.

We witness this encounter between prophets and kings over and over in the scriptural history.  The prophet is accused and beaten by the governmental powers, but in time the kings meet their demise and the crowds lose their growl.

Being a prophet is a precarious vocation for usually the prophet in his or her warning is met with anger and rejection, judged as disloyal to the king and a disturber of the crowds.  Being a prophet, a true prophet, requires a spirit of self-sacrifice in order that the Truth will be somewhere heard.  And the Truth of God so often goes counter to the truth as understood by the Pilates of this world.

Truth will always demand a certain change on the part of the people, and so many people fear change.  Truth will always demand a measure of humility that troubles the pride of people and political powers.  Truth has always been dismissed as false so that the Truth can be then ignored.  Truth is spectre that haunts the minds of kings.

In Christ … I can no stand in no other place … except in the center of the Truth of God.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Friday, June 22, 2018

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had washed the man’s eyes, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.  – Mark 8:22-25

What is unexpected in this account of Christ healing a blind man is that it takes more than one attempt for the man’s vision to fully return.  And as is usually the case with scripture, often the unexpected details bear the weight of the significance of the teaching moment.  The first touch of Christ enables the once blind man to see, but not clearly.  It is the second touch that brings clarity to the man’s vision.

When I listen to some Christian voices I discern blind men who has received that first touch of healing.  But they ask for no more of Christ, thinking that there is no need for more.  They think they see, but they still do not see clearly.

“To see people walking about as trees”, to see people in vague generalities, to see people as indistinct souls, to see people in a prejudicial blur caused by the dust in one’s own eyes.  This is so often why certain Christian souls seem not to be behold people and circumstances through the clear vision of Christ.

I have learned in life, probably too late in life, that I must keep returning to Christ so that He might provide yet another touch of bringing purer clarity to my vision.  And as the Lord washes my eyes over and over, I see all the clearer.

Loved Ones, the Christian disciple is always in need of yet another touch of healing.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Thursday, June 21, 2018

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” … The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)       – John 4:7-9

For nearly five centuries, from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, the time when the exiled Hebrews returned from Babylon, the “pure and true” Jews culturally separated themselves from the Hebrews they considered to be unfit to live in the New Jerusalem.  You see … the Samaritans were among those who did not leave the land during the period of the Exile.  So the Samaritans, no longer able to worship in Jerusalem, returned to the pre-Davidic faith and worship on the mountain, Mount Gerizim.  Thus the Jews and the Samaritans were living in a religious apartheid, a segregation for the sake of co-existence.

In the city of my youth, West Palm Beach, Florida, line of segregation was rather blatantly visible.  At the division line between the white residential community and the black residential community the names of the streets changed.  Back in the fifties and the early sixties, “Whites” and “Negroes”, well they did not mix and if they did, it was cautiously.  And then came the Cubans … and they complicated that world of division.

I would like to say that all has changed … and though much has changed … those chameleon street signs still remain.

Christ asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water.  This was a transgression of social mores of that time.  The woman was not sure how to respond.  She was cautious, possibly a little fearful, probably a bit taken back.  She confesses how she perceives the treatment of the Samaritans by the Jews.  She speaks of the cultural bitterness that led to religious division that morphed into a racial division.  She speaks of her devotion but she fears that she will not be respected.  Jesus responds in a conciliatory tone, not abandoning his own heritage but abandoning the wall that divides.  “There shall come a day when we will worship neither in the temple on Mount Gerazim nor the temple in Jerusalem, but in the realm of the Spirit and the truth.

It is the tactic of the Deceiver to build walls where their need not be any walls, to set bitter divisions between “us” and “them”.  Christ walked through that ancient wall of apartheid and offered a vision of a new tomorrow.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cuz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

I begin with an account of Christ being confronted by teachers of the Law and those declared themselves as the Holy Ones…

At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

 “No one, sir,” she said. 

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”      

– John 8:1-10

They used a woman to set a trap for Christ.  In the midst of a crowd, they challenge Christ to declare if He is a man of law-and-order, adhering to the demands of the Law.  But Christ knows the nature of their hearts … they have no concern for justice, only for political power and treacherous ends.  And so Christ confronts them …

“You who claim to be so righteous, dead set on punishing those who are sinful … then be about your work … but first, look within yourselves.  Should you then not first punish yourselves for your own sins.  Let the one among you supposedly righteous people who is not a sinner in need of mercy … let that one cast the first stone!”

To cast the first stone … in truth, that is not why they came.  They came to debate the issue of keeping law-and-order.  Then Christ performed the just purpose of mercy … “I do not condemn you … you have my mercy … now go and sin no more.”  This is the holy form of justice known as restorative justice.

So the choice is ours … do we live as the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees or do we live as Christ?

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”  – Matthew 19:14

In the context of the mores of the times, Christ’s interest in small children is rather remarkable.  But Christ and the writer of Matthew’s Gospel emphasize that this new Realm, this new relationship between God and humanity will be a children’s crusade for a freer and better future.

I also believe that these children’s moments were provided to teach us about the personal qualities of Christ and, in turn, those who would live with Christ living within them.  Here was an approachable man redefining God as an approachable God.  Here was a man who had compassion for the children revealing God’s intimate compassion for all children.  Here was a man who embraced all children as if they were His own, teaching how God feels about children, they are all family in need of my care.

Welcoming the children, caring for the children, giving time for the children, preparing the way for the children, embracing the children … I believe it has always been at the heart of the Christian way of life.

Always in His Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz