After the Blessing

Glorious mud, new life, and contentment

Ezekiel: "I will take your stony hearts from your bodies and give you natural hearts"

If we recognize the hand of God at work in our lives it is unnatural to have a stony heart. If we are aware of the life and love that flow from the Author of Life and the one who is love, how can we be "stony hearted?" But people do, nevertheless, become stony hearted. I wonder why that is so common? Is your heart "stony"? There is no higher calling for us than to glorify God, and there no way more pure to do that than to truly love with our hearts.

Today's gospel has the story of the woman caught in adultery that the crowd drags before Jesus and asks if she should be stoned under Moses' law. The stony-hearted crowd was standing around, ready to kill, but they had made Jesus her judge. Instead, he frustrates their effort by asking them to first judge themselves, saying "let the one without sin cast the first stone". Imagine the tension in the crowd as they waited for somebody else to make the first pitch, and the pressures as more and more turned away in admission of their guilt. Jesus does not condone adultery, which is clearly sin. But he does give this guilty woman a chance for salvation, telling her "go and sin no more". He separates the sin from the sinner, who he is about to suffer and die for.

This passage reminds me of the excerpt from Matthew where Jesus is talking about divorce. There he says Moses allowed divorce because the people were "stiff-necked", adding that it was not so from the beginning. With the New Testament comes the higher standards Jesus sets for all the commandments, without allowing for natural human frailty, but adding the power of the Messiah's saving grace.

Remember this story the next time you are ready to chunk a rock at someone who has behaved badly.

Another Rain!

.7 inches today. Total for week: 6.43 The drought is taking a beating!

Psalm 33: (unofficial translation) Give thanks to the Lord upon the harp,
with a six string guitar play him songs.
Play him a song that is new,
play loudly, with all your skill.

The podcast should be up within a month...

Are we any better than those who came before us?

This is Joseph Oliver Russell. He is my great-great grandfather, and was a man with LOTS of stories. He was a prospector par excellence, and successfully mined gold in Georgia, California and Colorado before the War of Northern Aggression. He co-founded the City of Denver. He was also a very talented solo violinist and entertained at dances and pioneer campfires in the days before radio or recordings. After the War he moved to Texas where he fathered 12 children and brought civilization to the wilderness. He was described by his grandchildren as a quiet, humble, hen-pecked man in his old age, and they had never dreamed of all his brave accomplishments.

At Mass today we hear the story of God's anger at the Israelites for making a golden calf to worship after he rescued them from slavery. Moses intercedes in their behalf. Then in the Gospel Jesus says that he does not testify in his own behalf, but says that John the Baptist did truly testify in his behalf. He says his acts testify in his behalf and in fact are the testimony of his Father. The Jews do not recognise the Lord, so they will be accused by Moses for their failure to do so, since Moses is the one in which they trust.

Aren't we like the Jews? We turn away from God and his ways at every opportunity, even though his glory shines throughout his creation. It is really a good thing that we have the living Christ to intercede in our behalf before the Father. He knows well of human frailty, since he was one of us. Ask for God's grace when you go to examine your conscience. Find the truth about your own sinfullness, and offer yourself to divine mercy. Be silent and listen for the Lord. "It is in silence that he instructs the mind and instills compunction and remorse, softening the heart with tears, shedding his light, inflaming us with his love: and in silence he refreshes us and inebriates the listener with the wine of his love." Father John Justus Lanberg, a 16th century monk.

I hope only that my acts and accomplishments can vaguely measure up in theory to those of the good men and women who came before me. Pay close attention in your moments of silence. Since it is Jesus in whom we trust, he will be the very one who condemns us if we proudly refuse to acknowledge and repent of our own faults.

Rain!

About 5 inches in one day. What a blessing indeed. The first rain over 4 tenths since last July. The ponds are full, the ground is soaked, and just in time for spring! Hooray for God!

Wearing the Green

Replacement heifers wearing the green.

We all know that anybody of Irish decent is supposed to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. These heifers are black hided but are "wearing the green" in the form of body fat from eating the lush new growth on the Pearson bottom. We planted rye and clover into the brome grass last fall, but the drought had kept it from emerging until this week.

Today is St. Joseph's feast day. A just man. He did a really good job of doing his best in difficult situations.

Saint Patrick's Day

From today's Magnificat:
It is always tempting to take credit for the gifts of grace and to lay the blame elsewhere for our faults. If we do not claim responsibility for the choices that are truly ours, neither can we ask for or accept forgiveness. Too heavy for us, our offenses; too heavy not to allow the Lord to wipe them away.

Todays gospel is about the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple. The humble heart came away justified.

From Hosea: Come, let us return to the Lord, it is he who has rent us, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after 2 days. On the third day he will raise us up. He will come to us like the rain, like sping rain that waters the earth.

The forecast in Oklahoma is for rain all next week. Praise the Lord for blessing the earth! Easter time is coming!

A New Dawn

Hosea: I will heal their defection. I will love them freely.

The quote above is from the end of the story of Hosea, and is the promise that God's love is not lost to his people in spite of their having turned from him. The rest of the story is about Hosea's marriage (at God's direction) to an unfaithful woman, and the frustration she encounters from her unfaithfulness. After a difficult time for the woman and an embarrassing time for Hosea God directs Hosea to go and take her back. He does so, and they spend another period of time in abstinence. The story doesn't really deliver the happy ending of a fruitful and faithful domestic life for the couple, but does hint that that is the promise for the future. The woman decides she was happier with her husband and the husband loves the wife in spite of her infidelity. The story compares Hosea's marriage to God's relationship with his chosen people. He gets angry with their bad behavior, and they suffer consequences, but he still loves them freely after they repent and humble themselves.