Category: Seeing with Jesus’ Eyes

Harmon Killebrew, the Hall of Fame former major league baseball player for the Minnesota Twins, admires his father. His dad spent hours playing baseball with Harmon on their big farmhouse lawn. As he taught Harmon how to play baseball, he also taught him how to be a good father. Harmon fondly remembers when his mother complained that this nonsense of playing baseball was ruining the lawn. What would the neighbors think?

His dad replied, “Dear, we are not raising grass. We are raising children.” His words reflect Pope John Paul II’s words, “Children are the hope of the future.”

Harmon Killebrew’s dad knew how to raise farm crops. Better yet, he knew how to raise children by sharing the gift of quality time.

The storm’s thunder and lightning frightened Danny, a five-year-old boy. He fled to the safety of his parent’s bedroom.

”Mommy, Daddy,” Danny begged, “Can I sleep in your room tonight? I’m scared of the thunder and lightning.”

His mom hugged him. “Honey, don’t be afraid. God will protect you. Now go back to your room,” she gently ordered her son.

Danny cried, “Mommy, I know that God will protect me. But right now, I need someone whom I can see. I need someone who can hold me and pray for me like you do, so I won’t be afraid.”

On May 1st, we Catholics celebrate the Feast of St Joseph, the Worker. St. Joseph is the patron saint of workers.

Throughout our diocese, statues of St. Joseph the Worker show him holding a saw, eager to give another day’s work to help support Jesus and Mary. His example reminds us of the graced work, sweat, and sacrifice that go into the building of our churches both physically and spiritually. He reminds us that honest work can be a grace or ladder to God.

Lent, Easter, and the Jubilee Year of St. Paul invite us to receive God’s mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. God offers us these healing gifts to renew us to live our vocation of Christ-like love when we sin and lose the Way of Jesus.

In Genesis 1:27 it says, “God created man in his image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female, He created them.” In 1 John 4:8 it states, “for God is love.” Since God is love, we image God best when we truly love. But the sin of Adam and Eve wounded our ability to love. Consequently, we commit sins which enslave us and weaken our love ability.

Lent is a time for fasting. When we think of fasting, we probably think of fasting and abstaining from food and drink for the sake of Jesus according to the Lenten regulations.

However, in Isaiah 58:1-9, through Isaiah, God reveals another kind of fasting that enables us to feast and feed on living God’s way more fully.

Jesus, God’s Word, became flesh in order to ultimately offer us the gift of his heavenly home. In John 3:16, it is stated, “Yes, God so loved the world that God gave us his only Son so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have Eternal life.”

A great Catholic writer wrote that, out of love for us, the mighty hands that created the sun, moon, stars, and planets and hurled them into space became a tiny baby with hands so small that they could not reach up to touch the noses of the sheep and oxen who warmed him with their hayed breath.

In his writing prime, Mark Twain reportedly earned five dollars for each word that he wrote in articles that were published.

Even without considering inflation, this is good pay. A friend once playfully sent him a letter with a five dollar bill enclosed. He requested that Mark Twain send him his favorite word.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus which means coming. During Advent we wait patiently for the coming of Jesus. According to the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar, Advent has a two-fold character. It is a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered. It is also a season when that first remembrance directs our minds and hearts to remember Christ’s second coming at the end of time. Thus Advent is a season of devout and joyful expectation.

Mary is the model of Advent waiting for us because she joyfully, prayerfully, and patiently waited for the birth of Jesus whom she carried in her womb close to her heart.

In 1972 Jim Croce recorded the song, “Time in a Bottle.” The lyrics of the song that especially spoke to me were, “But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them.” These words seemed prophetic. Jim Croce was killed in a plane accident on September 20, 1973.

Jim Croce’s death or any death reminds us of the fragility of life. Death reminds us Catholics that we are pilgrims on a journey through time to Eternity. Earth is our temporary home. Heaven is our Eternal Home. St. Paul urges us to run the race of life for the prize of Eternal Glory.