Happy 29th Anniversary to our dear friends Chris and Liz Mossinghoff. It’s easy to tell how many years they’ve been married because they got married 3 days after the birth of my first child. Chris and I will celebrate our 40th year of friendship in August – which means two things. First and foremost, we think the world of each other to have spent this much time together (along with Mark and Damien) and second – we are getting old.
It’s kind of fun to see how putting things off a day can work wonders with what I’m trying to do with this blog. Yesterday I should have finished up with the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit but didn’t have time to do it. So today, as I’m reading our first reading, what does it start with but our 7th gift – Fear of the Lord.
The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria
was at peace.
She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.
In looking up fear on Merriam-Webster’s site, I was bit shocked that they had the Church’s definition of fear listed amongst their definitions. Fear of the Lord is not, as the Church puts it, a servile fear where we fear punishment but rather a filial fear were we understand we are to revere God and avoid separation from Him.
I was able to find this meditation written by Msgr. Charles Pope (a man born to be a Pope)…Take the time to read this meditation– it is beautiful.
Now that we’ve completed the studying the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, I will prepare a test for all you to take on Monday. Right? I shouldn’t say completed though, I believe what we’ve done over the past couple of days merely scratches the surface of what we should know about these 7 gifts. Hopefully we will all spend more time in not only studying these gifts but putting them into action by all we do.
One more thought before we go. The past couple of days the Gospel has been about Christ teaching that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink. This seems to cause a divide amongst Christians even to this day…some faiths only see the Eucharist as a symbolic representation and other faiths – mine being Catholic – see the Eucharist at a true representation of the body and blood of Christ. In today’s Gospel, Christ doesn’t dance around what He stated earlier and this caused many of His disciples to leave…
Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.”
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”
As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
My question to all of you – do YOU believe that our Eucharist is TRUE FLESH and TRUE BLOOD? Do you believe that through the Eucharist, we consume the BODY and BLOOD of Christ? As you are in church this weekend, spend a few minutes contemplating that.
Do something great for our Lord today.
God’s will, not mine, be done.
Be not afraid.
Jesus, I trust in You.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 