Archive for December, 2008

Is There Room In Your Inn?

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

For some years I was a Minister of Holy Communion in a hospital in Boston. It is a humbling privilege to bring the Lord to His precious ones in their dark hours. One Christmas Eve, I felt inspired to go to the hospital and bring the Lord to His patients. I thought, Christmas Eve is a special night. Surely patients will be excited to see Him.

The hospital was incredibly quiet and still that night. It was like the Christmas poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Anyways the hospital has a list of Catholic patients, so I carried the Lord to the first patient’s room: “No, I’m all set.” The second patient refused, too. One after another, everyone refused. Sound familiar?

Finally, I entered Judy’s room. Here was this older woman lying helpless in severe pain, and yet so kind and gentle toward me.

After she received the Lord in Holy Communion, I told her how it was Christmas Eve, and how all the other patients I visited didn’t have room for Him – but she did. How blessed was she! This is the greatest night to let in Jesus! She wept. She questioned her suffering. I told her about the cross and how she had been chosen by Jesus to share His cross with Him. I offered her a prayer card with the Divine Mercy image on it. When I left the room, I looked back, she was so happy praying, clutching the prayer card in her hand. And I know that she’s going to have an impact on a lot of people’s lives.

No one knows rejection like Jesus does. He was rejected by the religious authorities, the political authorities, by His countrymen, His neighbors, His extended family and friends, those He healed, even His disciples. What was true then is true now. He suffers it all because it’s the price that must be paid in order to reach that special one who will let Him in. But when He enters, it is the greatest moment.

Is there room in your inn?

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The Heart of God

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

When I was a boy, I loved basketball.  Starting from about the age of 11, it became all-consuming to me.  I played so much that by the time I was 15, I needed right-elbow surgery.

Now the most important thing to a person who loves basketball is the basketball itself.  There’s a certain relationship between a basketball fanatic and his basketball.  The feel of it, how it bounces, the width of the grooves, the material, how much it’s inflated, the color, the label – yes, even the smell, … everything is an object of interest.

One Christmas, I had a certain basketball that I picked out that I wanted more than anything else.  A Spaulding NBA Game Ball: real leather – none of that synthetic leather or rubber stuff.  The Lexus of basketballs.  It was so special, it could only be used indoors.  As Christmas approached, I could see the box under the tree.  Now, a basketball – even in its box - is tough to hide with wrapping paper.  You can just pick it up and feel around a bit and, well, you know…  I wondered: what’s it going to look like?  What will it feel like?  What will it be like when it is in my hands and I can use it?

That Christmas I was ecstatic when I got that basketball.  I took it everywhere.  I played at the Y with it each day.  I held it while I was hanging out around my house, and I even slept with it.  I loved the sport and I loved the ball.  It was everything to me, and I held it close.

At Christmas, Mary is about 15 years old and is going to get the one gift that she desires: her Son.  He is everything to her.  He is her only God and her only Son, and the only Savior of all mankind.  She has nothing else, and she loves nothing else outside of Him.  And as her pregnancy progresses through Advent, she wonders what He will look like, what it will be like when she can hold God in her arms.

But unlike me in my boyhood, Mary has the Heart of God.  When she gets her Gift of gifts, her everything, she is not going to hold onto Him for herself. “Freely have you received, freely give.” (Mt 10:8)

She’s going to give Him away.

To you.

Merry Christmas.

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Having God In Our Heart

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

How does God come into our hearts? How do we come to really and truly know Him and love Him?

A little story …

I had a wonderful girlfriend who I loved. You know how I can tell that I loved her? It’s because I came to love turtles. Confused? Alright, this takes some explaining.

You see, she loved turtles. A lot. Turtle pictures, ceramic turtles. Turtle keychain. Turtle paperweights. I think you get the picture.

So, you know what? I began to love turtles, too. But, in a different way. I loved to get them so that she could have them, because she loved them. But that also meant that I would have them, too, because we were together. So, I got turtle chocolates, turtle knickknacks, turtle statues. I began to love what she loved. What was in her heart was now in my heart.

How did it get there? I didn’t plan it. I didn’t start out loving turtles – I had no particular affinity for them. It got there because her heart was now inside my heart. That’s how I know I loved her. I know I loved her because I loved turtles.

Now, you may not have an affinity for Jesus. Maybe the Mass goes at a turtle’s pace for you. Maybe reading the Bible is like watching dry old turtles bask in the sun.

But there is someone else whose heart is filled with all of this. Mary kept Jesus inside her heart. She kept the Word of God in her heart.

If you receive Mary to be your Lady, you will come to love Jesus, too. He will come into your heart.

Then, you will have God in your heart.

“He that receives you, receives me: and he that receives me, receives him that sent me.” (Mt 10:40)

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The Lord Is Our Shelter

Friday, December 5th, 2008

There is a family of rabbits that have started to come around in my father’s yard here in Boston. We live on the edge of the city – it’s a mix of city and suburb, so rabbits are a new thing, an oddity. But at almost any time of the day, it’s no longer a new thing to be surprised by a little rabbit nibbling away at the grass on the front yard. You can get up pretty close to them, too – they seem very trusting.

So I thought to myself, how does he stick around? How does he survive? I mean there are a lot of other pets around, cats and dogs, that can chase him by land. And there is also another new animal in the neighborhood. He’s a red-tailed hawk. Hawks like rabbits – for lunch. He can catch our vulnerable friend by the air. With all these threats, I wondered, how does our cotton-tailed guest make it through life?

Then, one day, when I looked out the window, I saw him and I understood. Here is a picture of what I saw:

He’s no dummy. He rested there for an hour. The rabbit has his back to a large tree, so he’s protected from behind. He can see the open space to the left, right, and the front. And above? The tree casts a big shade over him – there’s no way a hawk can even see him, never mind swoop down to take him.

He knows where it’s safe. He knows where his shelter is.

You may feel that threats are coming at you in life from different directions. Maybe financial problems are creeping up on you like a cat. Maybe your boss is hounding you like, well, a hound. And maybe someone close to you is watching you like a hawk to take advantage of your weaknesses and bully you.

If so, then remember: you are protected in God from all sides. Always remember that God is your refuge, He is your shelter.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and abides in the shade of the Almighty
says to the Lord: ‘My refuge,
my stronghold, my God in whom I trust.’” (Ps 91:1-2)

Whatever the threats may be in your life, it’s important to know where it’s safe. It’s important to know where your shelter is. It’s important to rest in God.

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Nothing Can Separate Us From His Love

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Each of the past few years, I’ve attended the Medical Professionals for Divine Mercy Conference at Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA. Having been in Pastoral Care for 5 years and now serving a few nursing homes as a Minister of Holy Communion, it is a great place to be with other people who bring the Divine Mercy to the sick and dying.

When you arrive at the conference, you get a little care-bag with a schedule and some other things in it. One of the things is a rubber red and white bracelet, with the words “Divine Mercy” and “Jesus I Trust in You” engraved in it. Well, when I got back from the conference in April 07, I gave that bracelet to my mother. She wore it every day since, and never took it off.

When she began to become sick with cancer in late March, she began to experience more anxiety, and she was also beginning to lose some of her dexterity. One day, as she was trying to cut off a hospital tag from her wrist, she accidentally cut the bracelet. She had found comfort in the bracelet, and she was heartbroken and asked me if I could fix it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, and I tried to console her.

What never occurred to me was that I was planning to go to the conference again in a few weeks. When it came around, I had forgotten about the bracelet. I was so busy with what was happening with my mother’s health – she was in the hospital and not doing well – that I missed the first of the two days of the conference, and I made it just for a brief hour on the second day. I almost canceled altogether, but I made it. An hour drive out, an hour stay, and an hour drive back. That’s right: two hours of driving for one short talk, a bagel, and a coffee – that’s it.

But I got the bag!

When I looked through it, I saw the bracelet, and it’s only then that I remembered it. “How much You love her,” I said to the Lord in my heart. I was so happy to present it to her when I got back. On her last day in the hospital, she put it on and never took it off.

On my mother’s last night, she was fading and exhausted from the bout of vomiting and stomach cramps she was going through. We weren’t sure what was happening with her, so I thought at first I would cancel the evening plans I had and spend the evening just with her, to talk with her about the Lord and His Love, which we hadn’t done in a little while. But we all decided to bring her to the hospital. She was able to get dressed, but as we walked to the door with her walker, she was breathing very heavily and was distressed. I could see she was struggling and anxious, and I thought it was best for her to just lay down and rest, and I’d call an ambulance. At the same time, she lost all her energy, and she began to collapse. In a rush, I reached out to hold her under her arms, and said, “Ma, let go – I have you,” so that I could lay her down. When she let go, her heart had stopped and she wasn’t breathing. I called 911, and the operator coached me through CPR while the ambulance was on its way, but there was no response.

When the paramedics arrived, they took over, and I moved to the side of the room, on my knees, face to the ground, praying the Divine Mercy chaplet with all I had left. It didn’t look good at all.

I was afraid. In my mind, I’m thinking, this isn’t a happy, peaceful death. This is a distressing death. I couldn’t concentrate in prayer to pray the chaplet. There were no good signs.

I said to the Lord in my heart, “After all this, Lord, don’t let it be.” My heart desired something positive to find more hope in.

Just as I thought this in my heart, with my face on the ground, I noticed footsteps approaching me. I raised my head, and one of the paramedic crew was handing me something.

It was the bracelet.

Facing me in white were the words “Divine Mercy”.

“Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword? But in all these things we overcome, because of him that has loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35,37-39)

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