#scripture devotions

Charlie (Finale, The Show Must Go On)

Giving your life for another has long been known as "the ultimate sacrifice," just as it is called here. That is a view I would say is biblical. But biblically it is called something else as well, love. John 15:13 says, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (NIV [ source: Bible Gateway]). Biblically love is powerful. In fact "God is love" (1 John 4:8). The passage frequently known as the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, ends with this statement “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.(1 Cor. 13:13 NIV [source: Bible Gateway]). Love is called “the greatest” and the greatest show of it is in giving one’s life.

In Hazbin Hotel, it is Sir Pentious who makes this sacrifice, but he doesn’t start there though. In fact in the beginning, he tries to kill, and then spy on the occupants of the hotel. Even once he is welcomed in, he starts building weapons to attack the others. Love does not come naturally to him. In fact, I would say he only learns to love when he is shown love.

“For years I tried to bury the hurt and brush off the damage she’d caused. After all, her own childhood was abusive.

Yet under all my dismissiveness (wrapped in a pretty package of so-called forgiveness) was a deep, festering wound of abiding pain and anger.

My error wasn’t in thinking I should forgive, but in misunderstanding the real meaning and extent of forgiveness.

I wanted it to be quick, once-and-done—it felt easier to minimize the pain and run from the feelings. Yet in running, it pursued me. In slapping a Band-aid on the wound and trying to ignore it, I learned that the infection kept surfacing in new and destructive ways.

Real and total forgiveness, on the other hand, begins with acknowledging the full depth and breadth of our wounds, the totality of mourning and grief.

Our Lord commands us to forgive, yet He didn’t minimize His agony in the garden or Passion and death. He models how we must acknowledge the entirety of our suffering, and invite the Divine Physician into every step of the process.

When we do so, He slowly fills our hearts with new understanding. We see that the wounds inflicted upon us are born from others’ deep poverty and wounds—and the real enemy is Satan who loves to keep us trapped in a cycle of inflicting pain upon each other and perpetuating resentment.

Real forgiveness breaks that cycle, letting God transform bitterness and hurt into desperately-needed intercession—seventy times seven—for the wounded souls who have wounded us. Whether this forgiveness leads to restored relationships or draws healthy new boundaries, we find that instead of running from the suffering, we can be redeemed through it—and given the chance to help Our Lord redeem others, too.

Even if we’re too weak to forgive on our own, we can pray as Christ did from His torturous Cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Always, waiting on the other side of our cross, is new life and resurrection.

“When I was pregnant with my first child, the doctor told me that the hardest part of the entire process was going to be giving up control.

I laughed it off and proceeded to write out a three-page birth plan, which later had the labor and delivery staff laughing.

No one was laughing as I entered my forty-fourth hour of labor, but now eighteen years later I can see the humor in it all.

I wish I had let that time of surrender permeate me. Instead I tolerated the elements I couldn’t control, planned what I could, and then moved back to trying to control and plan everything possible once the baby came.

What I didn’t realize was that time of unpredictability and waiting was preparing me for all that was to come. It was training me to be a better mother, sister, wife. It was readying me for a future life, which was far more self-donative and much less predicable than the life I was living.

In the opening lines to today’s Scripture, Saint Peter talks about waiting for the Lord (2 Peter 3:12-13). How we carry ourselves during any time of waiting is important, whether we are waiting for a big event, a little hope to be fulfilled, or our eternal welcome home.

When we are waiting for something big, we are forced to live in the present even as we anticipate the future. In doing so, we can become either obsessed with some future event or milestone, or we can choose to ground ourselves purposefully in the present.

There is beauty in living in the present, in the silence, in the chaos, in the face-to-face interaction, and in the peaceful moments of prayer. And it is in the present that we are able to grow in grace.

God’s plan for us is a radical improvement over anything we could dream up. Rather than chasing our future or becoming concerned over God’s master plan for our life, let’s take time today to appreciate the present as a full and beautiful day in God’s special plan.

“One of the great blessings of a big family, and a  w  i  d  e  family in particular, is seeing the unlikely sibling pairings that develop.

Since her toddlerhood, my seventh has had a special relationship with her oldest brother, despite—or perhaps because of—their eleven-year-age difference. She’s now six, and he’s seventeen and a senior in high school. She recently whisper confessed to me that while the rest of us have been praying for him to get into college, she hasn’t been because she doesn’t want him to go away. <slight mama gasp, right?>

We had to have a chat about how our relationships with the people we love the most change and evolve throughout our lives. We will probably have to let him go, for now, and trust that our love for him will be deepened and transformed as it moves to another phase.

It’s not quite the same situation, of course, but it’s what I think of when I read what Jesus is saying to Saint Mary Magdalene in today’s Gospel. She can’t hold on to Him as her friend and teacher. She needs to let go of Him as a Man so she can embrace Him as God. She can’t get caught up in her expectations for the moment and for her life, because Jesus has a new and different love for her to experience. And an important job for her to do.

Willing to trust Jesus, Mary Magdalene becomes the Apostle to the Apostles. She is the one tasked with sharing the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection with His closest companions. What a beautiful privilege and responsibility. 

I think Mary Magdalene would tell my daughter—and all of us—to let go a little and trust that God’s plan for us is bigger than the one we can imagine for ourselves.

“When I first started driving, I was pretty ‘directionally challenged.’ Before cell phones and Google Maps were commonplace, I had to learn how to find my way around with printed out turn-by-turn directions from Map Quest.

I tried using physical books with maps but they ended up with me feeling stressed out and frustrated. If I missed my exit, I would very quickly get lost. There was more than one (or five!) occasions where I called my Dad from a gas station pay phone trying to explain where I went wrong.

We all need road maps, sign posts in life, to help us know where we are going, both in our daily lives but also in our spiritual and emotional lives.

Today’s Gospel account reminds me how much the Holy Spirit is our road map. Think of a heavenly version of Google Maps!

Jesus tells His disciples when the Holy Spirit comes, we will be guided to all truth. The Holy Spirit leads us to truth, the fullness of truth. One of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to help us know the truth about our Faith and ourselves. The Holy Spirit will never contradict Jesus or the Father because they are all on the same team.

There are times we may wrestle or struggle with questions about our Faith or how to handle certain pastoral situations. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and lead you. What is true in this teaching or situation? How shall I respond? What would You have me do here? What is the next step I am to take?

We all need maps to help us get safely to our destination.

Let us ask and rely on the Holy Spirit to be our spiritual road map as we navigate life.

“It was one of the last days of spring.

The Mission District’s streets were warm from the bright sun but breezy. Inside the shaded coolness of the writing center, groups of ESL students worked with volunteers in hushed voices. It was the internship of my college-self’s dreams, and I sat typing at a computer when I heard one of the tutors say, “What’s a bumpkin? Um . . . Bonnie! Bonnie’s a bumpkin!”

“Excuse me?!” I laughed while trying to hide how insulted I was. “I am most certainly not a bumpkin!”

The volunteer tutor sat by a tween novel-reading ESL student, and they both laughed. The tutor said, “But you’re from a small country town in Illinois. Doesn’t that make you a bumpkin?” I tried to explain that being from a small town in flyover country is brilliant, but those two city-dwellers just couldn’t understand.

But at least I was in good company.

As we see in today’s Gospel, the leaders of the Sanhedrin thought Saints Peter and John were just a couple of country bumpkins, too. And maybe they were!

But the boldness of those two uneducated, ordinary men (see Acts 4:13) was enough to scare the elders and scribes who ordered Peter and John to “not speak or teach at all in the Name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18).

Yet they refused to be silent, saying it was impossible for them not to speak of what they had lived (see Acts 4:20). Not only were they compelled to speak based on their own experiences with the Lord, but He had commissioned them to spread the Gospel in Mark 16:15. They did not allow themselves to be held back by where they came from, what they lacked in skill or talent, or really, anything else.

They were who God wanted them to be—bumpkins and all—and they were going to be who He created them to be. They cooperated with His grace and got the job done.

“I sit sipping coffee on the couch of a friend. We get caught up on each other’s kids, our husbands’ jobs, and what new shows we’ve been watching. There’s a story I want to tell about a mutual acquaintance, but I’ve made up my mind not to tell it. There are plenty of other things to talk about without resorting to gossip.

After a while the conversation lags, I listen to the clock ticking on the wall, and drain the last of the coffee from my mug. Well, maybe there’s a way to tell the story without saying anything mean. After all, what’s the harm in sharing an amusing anecdote?

I start to speak, choosing my words carefully at first. But Pandora’s Box has been opened. What starts as humor turns into harshness, and before I know it, I’ve committed the sin I just promised myself I wouldn’t.

The enemy looks for easy entry points into our lives. Most of the time it’s not the “big” sins that tempt us, it’s the “little” ones. A quick temper toward my children, a curt response to my husband, or a white lie to a friend may seem like not that big of a deal. But all of these little things we do and say actually matter a lot. Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “The things that come out from within are what defile” (Mark 7:15).

So what exactly is coming out of me? Kind words or cruel gossip? Acts of self-giving or selfishness? Peace or anger? A quick recap of the last 24 hours convicts me that I am in need of repentance, and makes me extra grateful for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The things that we do and say matter. Our words and actions, even the small ones, can lead us to either holiness or to sin. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us the grace and courage to choose holiness today and every day.