Burning Hearts

Tag: god

  • What do you want?

    The two blind men cried out, and then they cried out again.  They begged for pity, and Jesus was moved. He was not persuaded by them, but was rather “moved with pity.” In other words, the Lord felt their pain, their darkness, their loneliness, and was moved to bring relief.

    He touched their eyes, and “Immediately they received their sight, and followed him.” They recognized the need, they reached out to Jesus, they received His touch, and then they responded. Yet, they did not recognize with their eyes, they did not reach with their hand, they did not run to receive His touch, and they did not respond with empty words. 

    Their openness to be healed led to their ability to fulfill their vocation, their mission to follow Christ.  It demonstrates for us the patience of God and the patience that we are each called to have in pursuing our path to holiness and health.

    We often seek to ‘do’ before we seek to ‘be.’  A clear example of this is that we often ask people “what they do,” before we ask them what they enjoy or believe. And to the question, “What are you?” comes the reply, “I’m a firemen, a lawyer, a gardener.” But, that’s what we do, not who we are….

    The beauty of just existing is lost, we are blind to our own mission and vocation, and to the Lord as He walks along our path.    We become frustrated and angry when we cannot do everything that we want, when we can’t be the person we want to be, or when we can’t feel the way we would like to feel.  In short, we are like blind men – not sitting by the road – but trying to scale a mountain all alone with no tools. We try to beat down a door, when next to us there is an open window. All this, because there are parts of us – great or small – that God has not yet healed.  Yet, He is moved with pity, and wishes to heal us….

    We must allow Christ into our lives in an intimate way. Intimacy requires truth.  The blind men were asked what they wanted, and they replied that they wanted to see. There was no hesitation, explanation, or groveling: Just the simple facts.  This is all Jesus desires, a response, a dialogue, a genuine heart. They were given sight and the journey continued.  They used their new gift to follow the Lord, to watch where He was going and to go after Him.  There would be many more healings on the way, and soon there would be Calvary to climb, but the journey would not be in vain. It would no longer be in the darkness, but in the light. It would no longer be in idle anticipation, but in fruitful mission. 

    The same Jesus is here today.

  • Recognizing Our Brokenness: A Path to Healing

    Recognizing Our Brokenness: A Path to Healing

    In the synoptic Gospels, we find: lepers, fevers, blindness, hemorrhages, paralytics, deaf, mute, crippled, and even the dead.  Above all we find the sinner.  It is to these people that Christ has come. In Luke 5:31, Jesus says: “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.  I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”  Here he is connecting our physical weaknesses to our moral corruption.  It is not to say that one is the cause of the other, but rather to point out that the REAL BROKENESS IS SIN.  All other healings are a means, a way of expressing and accomplishing my salvation.  To use a well-known Pauline metaphor:  healing’s purpose is to replace our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh – burning with love and gratitude toward the Savior  

    With this in mind I have come to recognize that the maladies in the Gospels are two-fold: a true physical weakness and a sign of moral corruption. This leads me to ask myself: Have I been deaf to the words of Christ? Or closed my eyes to His presence?  Have I allowed an old injury or chastisement to drain my energy, my “life blood,” from my daily living? Have I sealed my lips against a difficult crowd, when I should have been open to proclaim the Word? Have I gone slowly through moments of life, when in fact I should have run? Have I waited, and waited, not moving at all, sedentary in my misery?  Have I allowed grace to completely drain from my soul?

    The first step to being healed of any malady, including sin, is to recognize that we are imperfect. We are intended for wholeness, and holiness.  We are good and beautiful, magnificent creations with a supernatural purpose. But like a priceless painting that was vandalized, we need to be RESTORED and CORRECTED before we can properly glorify the Divine Painter. This restoration happened once and for all in the Paschal Mystery, but we are still left to progress in holiness in this life.

    The people in the Gospel knew this reality. They are presented with both relatively small deformities, and others already lifeless.  They did not deny that they had a problem. Perhaps there were thousands more that Jesus’ could have healed, but they refused to recognize that they needed healing. Wasn’t this the problem of the Pharisees? Sadducees? Herod? Pontius Pilate? And who knows how many others….

    Let us acknowledge and come to grips with the reality that in every moment the Sacred Scripture is talking to us, as a community, and as an individual.  Every healing has a message for us, and that message begins with the need to recognize our broken spirits. This is not an attempt to deny the truth that Christ heals the body, but rather an attempt to strengthen the conviction that 

    He ALWAYS heals the soul!

  • Fascination with Fire

    Fascination with Fire

    Fire has fascinated me for a very long time. Not in a “I want to burn everything” sense, but perhaps you could say in a more philosophical way. I remember a time when I was watching a fire burn in a firepit. I was mesmerized by the flames dancing around and consuming the wood, while “clean” smoke went straight into the air. It was chilly outside, and the evening was perfect.

    Campfire burning on sandy beach by calm lake with mountains at sunset

    It struck me that this bedazzling creation in front of me was also extremely painful. So painful, in fact, that its image was used to describe hell. At the same time, it was an Old Testament image for the presence of God – but that was a fire that did not consume – such as in the burning bush. I knew about wildfires, especially those in California, and their destructive powers, and I was aware of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart, with their hearts burning with visible flames. The flames of the Holy Spirit descended on Mary and the Apostles in the upper room.

    Fire’s elegance and its many meanings have stuck with me over the years, and it continues to fascinate me. I recall those in Emmaus, around 2,000 years ago, whose hearts burned with the revelation of the resurrection and no doubt with love for the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. They were so moved that they ran to share the good news!

    The idea of sharing what I have learned and continue to learn in my journey with Christ, through times of darkness and light, has been burning in my heart. The question was not if but how. How could I go beyond the people I live with or those I meet daily? After much prayer and consultation, I decided that I could write my reflections and if someone benefits, praise the Lord!

    This is the inspiration for the name of this simple blog.