Sexagesima: Good Ground As Living Monuments of God's Grace

Oswald Chambers has given us an encouraging glimpse of what it means to be "good ground," upon which the seed of the Word takes root and bears fruit:

"God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way. Every vision will be made real if we have patience… God has to take us into the valley, and put us through fire and floods… until we get to the place where He can trust us with the veritable reality... all things noble are difficult… Believe steadfastly on Him and all you come up against will develop your faith… It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him… We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace.”

—Oswald Chambers

Quinquagesima: Sight Sunday - O Say, Can You See?

In the Gospel reading for Quinquagesima (Luke 18: 31-43), Jesus gave his Disciples a glimpse of his upcoming Passion, but, at the time, they could not see how it fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies.  Jesus then passed by a blind man who begged for mercy and asked to receive his sight.  He received his sight. Our Lord could have said, thy faith hath healed thee.  Instead, he said, thy faith hath saved thee.  A mystery revealed: faith by the Spirit gives us our spiritual sight, that we may see our way to accepting the Lord’s gift of salvation, which begins our understanding of love. “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known.”  Thus, by faith, sight; by sight, salvation; by salvation, hope; and by hope, love, the perfection of which we see in Christ’s Passion.

Septuagesima: Are You Brave Enough?

In our annual journey through the "Gesima" Sundays, we receive the wisdom of the scriptures pertaining to the nature of God's Kingdom and its living promise (that, in Christ, all things will be made new). Also in this journey, we learn much about the nature of man, ourselves in particular, and are invited to commit ourselves in humility to our faith more fervently. Honest introspection can be disconcerting, but it is essential to our moral strength and our spiritual health.

Samuel Johnson once said, "Where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident." Although uttered in the late 18^th century, this observation of human nature remains valid today. Several years ago, a man was shot and killed in broad daylight on a busy street, near a gas station. A man close by at the gas station merely looked at the victim for a moment and then went back to pumping his kerosine. He then drove a away, doing nothing to assist or cause assistance to be summoned. Others did likewise in their own fashion. No one showed any care or concern. No one made any attempt to help or call for help. The man who was shot died within minutes, according to the medical examiner. The first call to 911 came about 30 minutes after the shooting. It was all caught on the video of a surveillance camera. What are we to make of this? That this was a bad place to live? These were bad people? That society is becoming more and more callous and apathetic? I don’t believe we can or should dismiss it so breezily. I believe the root of what occurred that day is one thing. The absence of courage. It is not just in so-called bad areas of town. It is happening more and more everywhere. People are afraid to take a stand, or to expose themselves to risk by openly opposing crime, either as witnesses or in the assistance of victims. They just don’t want to get involved. Yes, apathy and self-centeredness are at work here. But these processes have their initiation in the fear of the consequences of being involved. The human mind in induced to adopt callousness and apathy as a way for a person to shield himself from the reality of his cowardice. It is cowardice that brings the demise of virtue, and the slow but sure destruction of our society. So let us today start a fervent time of prayer, through Lent, for the condition of our society, and for people to have the courage to practice the virtue of God’s Kingdom.