DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Friday, April 27, 2018
How do we gain a godly heart that is overflowing with Holy Love?
Jesus then told this parable – Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finally finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. – Luke 15:8-10
Obviously, this parable is about the desire of God that no one be kept out of this New Realm of Love. That one lost coin is important to God and thus ought to be important to us. But today I take note of how Christ describes with such detail the woman’s search. He seems to emphasize the importance of the diligent searching. And so, I must consider … is there yet still another lesson to be learned? What is the significance of searching?
In many ways in both word and example, Christ teaches that we learn by way of obedience. In daring to obey the Lord’s teaching, we learn of its reasons why and we learn of the questions still needing to be asked. And I believe in searching for a lost coin, we more than we first intended.
I remember one day when I began serving a rural church, I went searching for the home of my Lay Leader. In that county, house numbers were rare. I thought I had found his house, but I found instead one of our shut-ins, and I learned so much about that woman and the Church. But still I needed to find my Lay Leader, so I set out only to err again. Met a gentleman there at the end of a wrong turn, a farmer, and we talked about life and heaven. Finally, my search for the Lay Leader was achieved and we conversed for three hours or more. That Sunday, a son brought that shut-in to Church and a farmer in a suit came to worship. I found so much of what was waiting to be found in my searching for an elusive Lay Leader.
In the trying to love with the Love of God, we learn the ways of the Love of God.
Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz
In my dozens of conversations with those considering suicide … I find so often, not always, a hollowness that is filled with fear and anxiety, uncertainty and frustration, helplessness and hopelessness. Somehow the Life flowing through them seems to have dried up … and where does one go … when the river is dry. I slowly learned through the years that usually you cannot talk one out of suicide … you can only let the river flowing through yourself to begin to flow through them.
In contrast to the Gospel writer of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, the gospel writer John has the Spirit coming gently upon the disciples, as a whispering, life-sharing breath, the Life’s Breath that bestows Peace both within the disciple and in the work of the disciple.
As I stroll in the light breeze through the cherry blossoms, some white, some pink, some still undecided, I think of how heavy the world has become, or possibly, I have grown weaker. But though my muscles are weaker and growing weaker, my soul is stronger than it has ever been strong. And when my spirit is stronger, the weight of the world seems not too much to bear. I think it may be the way of spiritual souls devoted to daily spiritual growth … we grow stronger as we grow weaker.
Twenty feet away from me is a tree that yields an amazing harvest of fruit. And this one tree serves as Providence for a number of crows and other feathered residents. And I also find the crows so joyful in their dining, they caw and caw in thankful praise. I also sense that prosperous tree is joyful with them.
As a priest, as a poet, as a person, I am sometimes so lonely for others with well-reasoned thoughts and questions needing yet to be answered. But I live in a world of slogans, clichés and set answers … and deeper reasoning seems fading away.
In a certain poetic way, the Lord saved me by way of fireflies. On a desperate night, when the Darkness that was all around me had begun to seep into my soul, I went on a midnight stroll. Part of me went searching for a lifeline from the Lord and part of me wanted to simply slip away. When my prayers had turned to tears and my tears had turned into prayers, I paused to lean against the fence of an open field. And suddenly, either in response to a heavenly command or the Lord adjusting my vision to the night, hundreds of fireflies appeared with their pulsing radiance and their playful dance. That field so filled with empty darkness was not filled with salvation’s Light.
As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? – Psalm 42:1,2
Into the Sacred Hills of Jade 