Operating out of fear

Like you, I awoke to the news that the United States took the first steps toward war with Iran. I found the news devastating.

Then I opened today's gospel reading and, wouldn't you know it, it was Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 43-48 on loving our enemies!

What Jesus teaches us in those verses, and the ones before them on retaliation, is an exact contradiction to today's military actions. Be sure to take some time to reflect on these passages as soon as you can.

What always come to my mind in situations like this is two things. 

First, I feel great sorrow for the innocent people who will die (as well as our troops.) I think about how killing does not solve problems, even though the myth that it somehow will continues to thrive.

Second, the word fear comes to mind. The actions that the United States took today rest soundly on fear. I'm not saying the fear is irrational, but when our killing actions are the result of the fear of some future, potential danger, they are misguided.

How would your life work if you operated out of the fear of potential danger? 

Think about it. 

As it says in 1 John 4:18:

 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love."

Let us pray for our leaders, for moral decision-making and for a return to confidence in God. 

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy 

 

 

 

God, help my attitude!

 

 

If you ever wonder if you are saying or doing the right thing, in the moment just ask yourself, "Is this pleasing to God?"

And then take another moment to think about it. 

Is my attitude toward this person pleasing God?

Is my response to this situation pleasing God?

You get the idea.

How free we would be, if we could free ourselves of our own behavior when it is self-centered, petty, jealous or irrational! 

You can do a complete 180 by asking yourself this question and then asking the Holy Spirit for help.

It doesn't matter whether you are arguing with someone, gossiping, or feeling some road rage. You can get yourself out of whatever you're in the middle of, because most of the time--if we are being honest--we know that our elevated emotional response is not pleasing to God.

At the end of this blog I have put the prayer that inspired me to write this. It comes from the Daily Prayer tab on the Laudate app.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy 

"Lord Jesus, change my heart and fill me with your wisdom that I may love your ways. Give me strength and courage to resist temptation and stubborn wilfulness that I may truly desire to do what is pleasing to you."

(Don Schwager, Dailyscripture.net) 

Feel Like Running Away?

 

                                              Photo Credit: Dreamstime

  

What do you have the urge to run away from? 

Is it your job, your marriage, your children? Or maybe you are trying to escape yourself, the things you know about yourself that no one else knows, such as your sins, or your dark thoughts or tendencies.

Thomas Merton wrote about "wrestling" with his own darkness and discovered that he didn't so much need to run away from himself as he needed to turn to the light of God.

He put it this way:

"It is sufficient to turn away from my darkness to His light. I do not have to run away from myself; it is sufficient that I find myself, not as I have made myself, by my own stupidity, but as He has made me in His wisdom and remade me in His infinite mercy." 

The key here, I think, is that we recognize how wonderfully God made each of us and that while through our own sins we taint that beauty . . .

"it is His will . . . that my life should reflect the radiance of His love and my whole being repose in His peace. Then will I truly know Him, since I am in Him and He is truly in me." (Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude")

In other words, we don't need to wrestle, we don't need to escape, we simply need to turn to God and rediscover his beauty in us. He made us, we didn't make ourselves, and knowing that he can remake us, gives us hope that we can reflect his love.

While at times you might feel the need to run away from your life (or the people in it), look closer for the light of God, his wisdom and mercy. It is there, in his light, that you will find freedom from your own sins and the peace you so much desire.

I hope you are having a fruitful Lent.

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

janetcassidy.com
https://www.facebook.com/reflectionsinfaith/
https://www.youtube.com/@janetcassidy