Archive for May, 2009

Our Real Name

Monday, May 18th, 2009

At my brother’s wedding rehearsal last June, we all met in the church parking lot beforehand, talking. I had the chance to meet a lot of new people who were friends of my sister in law, so we were all making some new introductions.

In the midst of it, I went up to one woman and said, “Hi I’m Jerome, I’m the groom’s brother.” She gave me one of those looks, you know, where she can tell I had no idea who she was. She pointed over to her left and said, “I belong to him.” Standing there with a big smile was her husband, who I had just met.

So, anyway, they seemed like best of friends and a great couple. We all enjoyed the wedding. But you know, to this very day, I still don’t know her name. But I do remember what she called herself. I thought, that’s her real name.

In writing his Gospel, John never uses his own name. Instead, He calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” a total of five times in his Gospel. What is he doing? He is telling us that he belongs to Him. He is telling us his real name.

Jesus comes to us as a bridegroom to a bride. “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” (Mt 25:6) He seeks to enter into a personal covenant of the deepest union of love with each of us, a covenant that is like marriage, but even deeper. Just like in marriage, He wants to give each of us a new name: and you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will give. (Is 62:2)

He wants to give us our real name:

“I belong to Him.”

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous | 5 Comments »

The Purpose Of The Pits

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Over the last month or so, some friends and I had the privilege of bringing a missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe around the Archdiocese of Boston. One of the stops I had the privilege of being at was a county prison. The prisoners at Mass each had a chance to approach the image and express their devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Afterwards, I was talking with one of the prisoners. You could tell he was one of the leaders, and he thanked us for being there and for what we had done. I said, “Oh, it’s a privilege. I hope it gives you guys some hope and inspiration.” He said, “Yeah, some inspiration to get out of here and never come back.”

Prison is the pits. It’s one of those few places that God sends us to so that we’ll want to get out and never come back. It’s a place where many people cry out to God. And it’s also a place of second chances.

Jonah ran away from the Lord and ended up swallowed by a giant fish – maybe you remember the story? But God gave him a second chance after that, and by Jonah’s preaching, the whole city of Nineveh was saved, more than 120,000 people.

What did Jonah do in the belly of the fish?

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever; yet you did bring up my life from the Pit, O LORD my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. (Jonah 2:6-7)

If God has put you in the Pit, don’t despair, it’s not over. It’s so that you’ll want to get out and never go back again, so you can fulfill the great plan He has for you. Remember Him and cry out in prayer to Him.

He will give you the inspiration to get out and never go back.

Posted in Serving Others, Sorrowful, Work & Career | 1 Comment »

The Way Out Of The Way

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

A friend of the family, Jake, came by a few months ago to watch a movie with my father, and we all got to talking about my father’s trip back down to Virginia. Jake loves to travel, and he especially loves to drive – he used to be a truck driver. So, he offered to drive my father down to Virginia when the time came. What a gift of a friend he is!

Well, when we started talking about the trip down, we talked about route 95, and how it’s pretty much a direct trip from Boston to DC. Jake started describing the routes he takes. “I don’t take 95, even though it pretty much goes direct all the way down. I’ll take the Mass pike to 84, all the way through New York and into Pennsylvania. Then I’ll take 81 to 83 into Maryland.”

Wow, I’m thinking, that’s way out of the way. I have done lot of traveling from Boston to Pennsylvania, to New Jersey, even some to Maryland and Virgina. I’ve gone 95, 84, 684, 287, 80, Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, and other ones. But I never would have thought of taking the route he described.

I said, “No Tappan Zee bridge?” “I don’t even take the Tappan Zee – they’re always doing construction on that.”

He said, “Even though it adds 90 more miles onto 450, it takes an hour less time. It’s because, except for Hartford, you skip all the traffic in Connecticut, and then you skip New York and Philadelphia completely.

I would never take 95 the whole way.”

Jesus has come to us, and He desires each of us to come to Him. But reaching Him is a journey that takes effort. If we look to reach Him directly, we’ll meet many obstacles in the road – traffic, construction, accidents on the side of the road, backups, delays.

But there is an indirect way we can take, and His mother knows it. She knows it because she is it. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Cor 11:1) This way looks like it’s way out of the way. It looks like a longer way, and it may not even make sense to us at first. But we get there faster and easier.

We skip all the commotion, the back-ups, and delays.

And after taking this way, you’ll never take the direct route again.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Serving Others | No Comments »

The Lord is Our Life Buddy

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

A few years ago, I had the gift of scuba diving pretty often with my friend Ron. Now, he’s a dive master, which means he can do just about anything under water. That’s good for me, because I’m a beginner. He would help me with the gear in setting up, he would lead me where to go, and he would help me with the lobstering underwater. And, he always gave me the lobsters afterwards!

Well, one day I went out to dive with another friend Keith, who is not a dive master. He brought some of his equipment. “You need a breather?” “Yeah.” “This works pretty well.” Well, sort of. “The compass doesn’t work on this one – you can use this one.” “OK.” So, off we went into the ocean.

We swam out about a hundred yards and were poking around for lobsters. Nothing was really happening. Finally, my air was running low, so I let Keith know it was time to go back. He says no – see he had only one lobster and needed another one for his wife for dinner. So he kept going. I stuck with him, and gave him some more time.

A little later, again I told him it was time to go back, I was running low. But he still needed that lobster. Finally, I made as much noise as I could underwater, and got him to surface.

Here we were, about 150 yards off shore, with the sun soon setting, and no one on the beach. By this time, I was just about out of air. Now, let me explain a few things to help understand. With scuba, it’s easier to travel at the bottom of the ocean than to swim on the surface. But now, I had to swim on top because my air was almost out. And I am not a good swimmer.

So, I aimed toward the shore, put in my breather, plunked my head into the water, and began to kick, trying to keep my eyes on the bottom of the ocean as a guide. Kicking, kicking, kicking … am I making any progress, I’m wondering. I picked my head up to see if I was any closer to the shore.

There was no shore! I had turned completely around and was heading out to sea!

Now, I tell you, I began to get nervous. I’m thinking, this is how people die out here, heading out like dummies, with equipment that doesn’t work, without a plan, staying down too long to get lobsters. This is how divers become fish food.

So, then I decided I would not be fish food. I would go in by brute force. I aimed to the shore, put my back into the water and kicked and kicked and kicked like I’d never kicked before. We both made it back safe. And afterwards, I had the biggest fried clam dinner I ever had in my life. I never dove with Keith again.

What happened?

I went out without my dive master, my dive buddy. I put my trust in someone else.

Jesus is the only One we can trust our life with. If we abide in Him and His words in us (Jn 15:7), then He sets us up with the right gear in life, leads us in the good paths, and leads us in our life mission. But if we put our trust in someone else, we end up lost and in some predicament. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5)

The Lord is our Life Master.

He is our Life Buddy.

Posted in Family & Friends, Luminous, Sorrowful, Sports & Recreation | No Comments »