Oh Jesus!
April 18, 2021 1 Comment
Oh Jesus, the One who can walk through closed doors, yet you knock, that we may open our doors to you and choose you of our own free will, thus participating in your love and grace!
I am the Possum you Killed
November 20, 2020 Leave a comment
It was an invigorating Spring day, and I had just crawled up from the creek between the 20-acre and 15-acre McCulley fields where I saw you last Fall, hand picking the outside rows of corn to make way for the John Deere corn picker. You were working with your Uncle Bill last Fall. I have good hearing, and I heard you coming. Stepping in the crisp leaves, your feet crunched along the path leading to the larger creek. You often went this way, crossing the creek to reach the lower fields for hunting. I could smell you. Humans have an odd smell to possums like me.
I saw your 22-caliber semi-automatic rifle and recalled that many times you shot sparrows on the electric high wire, “just for the fun of it.” Oh no! I didn’t have time to crawl back to safety. At least rabbits have a chance. They can run fast and jump and dart around, but my only defense was to lie there, helpless, playing dead among the fallen leaves.
But you saw me and decided it would be “fun.” I heard a “crack” and instantly felt searing pain engulf my body. I think you thought I would just die instantly, like on Gunsmoke, like when Matt Dillon shot the “bad” men. Pain seared through my body, pain like I had never felt before, even birthing my new litter, my eight joeys, hidden in my pouch. What would happen to them? I realized they will die too, after suckling the last of the milk from my dead body. Please take care of my babies!
I was still playing dead when you poked my hairless stomach with the barrel of your rifle. I squirmed with the intense pain. You shot me again, you evil monster, with your weapon of destruction, towering over me with your testosterone-laden teenage body. Your power was absolute. As life seeped from my body, my spirit rose, and, for an instant, hovered over my lifeless body, and over you~~you heartless boy. Don’t you know that creatures suffer too? What have I ever done to you? Why? I have always done my duty in life, eating ants and ticks and taking care to offer balance to the environment.
As I watched you from above, I saw that you had tears in your eyes. You had seen my babies when you poked me in the stomach. I could see guilt and remorse on your face as you realized that they would die too, from starvation or prey to another of God’s creatures. I heard you moan, “Oh, no! What have I done?” I believe that you felt badly for taking my life for no good reason. But, why didn’t you bury me? You just left me to rot… I hope that my death will influence you to put away your rifle and live peacefully in this world with all of God’s creatures, and that we will meet again someday.
God told me I will be resurrected when you are, just at the right time, the same time as you, and I will be your pet possum, with my little babies again too, and with Pal, your boyhood dog, and Ossie, the cat you loved, and all your ancestors, your father and your mother, your brothers and sisters who have died, Faith, Hope, Paul, David, all of them, and we will live in peace in a Peaceable Kingdom, for evermore.
In Love,
Your possum, Mercy
p.s. Don’t think yourself better, dear Reader, you who pay other people to do your killing for you. You who go to Church and pray to your God. Your God is my God. He is in you, Brother or Sister just as God is in all things, and in me too.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
I was that teenager who thought shooting animals was “fun,” whose life changed forever that Fall day, as I stood over Mercy’s lifeless body and heard her pups mewling for milk. I have confessed my sin to others. Mercy was one of my greatest influences. I am thankful that Mercy had some little part in my putting my gun up for good. Mercy had a little part in my becoming a Conscientious Objector to killing and war. I am satisfied Mercy had some influence in changing my life. Thank you, Mercy, for all you have done for me. I think of you often and will always remember you, Mercy!
In Love and Mercy,
John Cooper
Breath of Life
May 29, 2020 Leave a comment
Our prayer is living our lives in your Presence, oh Lord, every breath in, every breath out, given in all places and at all times for Your praise and glory. Breathe on us, holy Spirit; ignite our hearts with Your love, grace, and mercy that we may be one with You!
John Cooper
Let God In: One Ignatian Journey
October 17, 2019 Leave a comment
My book, Let God In: One Ignatian Journey, is to be printed on October 30th. If you are wondering about the afterlife, Ignatian Spirituality, or the Spirituality of inner peace, consider reading my book.
It may be ordered at: Amazon
Or from the publisher: Austin Macauley
Thanks!
John Cooper
Grace and the Middle Voice of Spirituality
November 14, 2018 Leave a comment
Grace and the Middle Voice of Spirituality
As a little cradle Catholic boy, I think the first prayer I learned was “Bless us oh Lord, and these thy guests, which we are about to receive, Amen.” I thought I used to hear that around our farmhouse table. I always wondered, for a long time, “When are the guests coming?” We did not have any guests yet, but we were about to receive them. They never seemed to come. We called this saying Grace. Those who know me know that I am very hard of hearing. I began to wear hearing aids in my early 40’s. I don’t think God disparaged my prayer of blessing the way I understood such a “simple” prayer. Actually, the words are “Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive, Amen.” Either way, the prayers we do, whether “simple” “verbal” payers in the Mass or at your worship service, or even deep contemplative prayer, should never be disparaged. God receives us where we are, and loves us as sinners as he gazes upon us as a mother gazes upon her nursing child at her breast, or as an eagle takes its babies under its wings.
Whether we are “saying” grace before we eat or are receiving the “gift” of the Eucharist, we are all in God’s grip of grace. Grace has a lot to do with Spirituality of any type, whether one is Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc. Even Atheists have to face Grace, although they may deny it or call their spirituality “mindfulness.” Still, grace is involved. My intention for linking the two, grace and the middle voice of spirituality, comes from my studies of Ignatian Spirituality during the Fall Semester of 2018 as I study for a certificate in Spiritual Direction via Spring Hill College. One of the statements that got my juices flowing is from the book, Candlelight, by Susan K. Phillips.[1] Dr. Phillips states:
Linguistically, we have lost the middle voice that lies between the active and passive voices. In using the active voice, one speaks of initiating an action. In the passive, one receives the action that another initiates. … In the middle voice, the person actively participates in the results of an action that another initiates.[2]
In Spirituality in the terms of the English language, one thinks of contemplation as “active” contemplation where we mentally think thoughts about God, Scripture, etc. actively in our minds. We think this contemplation can slip into what is called “passive” contemplation whereby we are supernaturally given thoughts to think by God, or perhaps given no thoughts at all and slip off into a thoughtless state of unknowing, or a state of union with the Divine Presence. What if we thought of spirituality and contemplation in terms of the middle voice, which we do not possess in the English language? This spirituality would be a participation in a gift that God has already given to us, a gift of Grace. Referring to Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address at the looming of the Civil War where Lincoln urged Americans to heed the “better angels of our nature,” Phillips states:
It is, rather, siding with the “better angels” of a person’s nature, his or her middle-voice willingness to participate in God’s grace.[3]
I think back to the creation story, where God made mankind in His image and likeness, placing in mankind a Divine essence, a spirit in man that was the action of God, that gave mankind a receptor, a sixth sense, or a taste for God. This image came from God and is set to autopilot back to God upon our death. It is in fact, eternity set in our being. It is an act of God’s grace with which we should long to participate, in a middle-voice way, the action that another, God in us, in whom we live and breathe and have our being, initiated.
Another book we have read in our studies, Moving in the Spirit, by Richard J. Houser, S.J.,[4] refers to this grace and essence of God within us from an Eastern point of view:
The Western or Pelagian model is clearly at odds with Scripture, misunderstanding the origin of our inner desires and movements toward good. In this model all inner experiences moving toward the desire to love and serve God and others are seen to flow from ourselves apart from the grace of God within us.[5]
Below is a wonderful illustration that pictures what Hauser is speaking of:
Scriptural Model: Self in God:
[6]God initiates: Self Responds
Grace and the middle voice of our participation in the gift of the Spirit that God has initiated are absolutely critical to beginning to understand Ignatian Spirituality. Let us keep the illustration above in mind as we proceed.
Hauser states:
Those of us living with this Western understanding of the self and God will never appreciate the all-pervasiveness of the presence of grace in our life. … they do not acknowledge that the initiative toward the good comes from the presence of grace.[7]
Ignatius was a product of the period in which he lived. The Western Church as a whole may have understood grace in a proper manner but errored in some parts of the Church concerning Pelagianism.[8] An attempt, at the Council of Trent, in the general period of Ignatius’ lifetime, tried to solve the problem of Pelagianism, or semi-Pelagianism.[9] Ignatius himself speaks of the grace that is crucial in Ignatian Spirituality:
When one is in desolation, … He can resist with the help of God, which always remains, though he may not clearly perceive it. For though God has taken form him the abundance of fervor and overflowing love and the intensity of His favors, nevertheless, he has sufficient grace for eternal salvation.[10]
Even from the very start of Ignatius’ Exercises, it is very clear that the crucial understanding is that it is God who first calls us and it is God’s grace that first initiates the acts of God in us, in which we participate. The human Spiritual Director is to keep his or her “teaching” short and allow God’s grace to work directly with the directee.
The one who explains to another the method and order of meditating or contemplating should narrate accurately the facts of contemplation or meditation. Let him adhere to the points, and add only a short or summary explanation. The reason for this is that when one in meditating takes the solid foundation of facts, and goes over it and reflects on it for himself, he may find something that makes them a little clearer or better understood. This may arise either from his own reasoning, or from the grace of God enlightening his mind.[11]
This may remind us of one of God’s first intentions for mankind, spoken of us in the Garden of Eden, that we are to be dressers and keepers of the earth, which by extension would include each other. We are like a tree, planted in the garden, planted by the water.
7“But I will bless those
who put their trust in me.
8 They are like trees growing near a stream
and sending out roots to the water.
They are not afraid when hot weather comes,
because their leaves stay green;
they have no worries when there is no rain;
they keep on bearing fruit.[12]
We are to bear the fruit first nourished by the water of God’s image and Spirit, given us by God, not of our own doing, it is by grace. We are created by God’s grace, we are sustained by His grace, and we are renewed by His grace, bear fruit by His grace, and are saved by His grace for good works. We take of God’s grace, of his sustenance, and give back the fruits of His grace.
In the season of fruition, there may be the experience of enhanced night vision. Suffering may render the world dark, and certain forms of suffering include losing the sense of God’s presence. … We are to bear fruit by loving our neighbor, setting the captive free, giving food to the hungry, sheltering the homeless, loosing bonds of injustice, clothing the naked. By doing so, we will be light in the darkness, well-watered gardens, and pilgrims guided by the Lord.[13]
As we consider our years, what we have done, and what we have failed to do, we think back to the Sabbath, also initiated by God in the Garden, when God rested. Are we not called to rest with God too, to rest our egos as he works by grace in us?
28 “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. 30For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.”[14]
Are we not called to give up our ego, to reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, to be a tree of life, to bear fruit for our fellow humans, for God, and all the angels and saints? We are pilgrims on this earth. We are just passing through. We are aliens to earthly kingdoms and citizens of a Kingdom to come. This Kingdom lives in us, a Kingdom for and in which we participate by bearing fruit, by grace, the middle voice of spirituality.
So… Why should we be concerned about this matter? See:
3I thank my God for you every time I think of you; 4and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy 5because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel from the very first day until now. 6And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.[15]
Try doing a computer search of an online Bible, using the words, “Christ in you,” and you will soon find that any spirituality we may claim to possess was because God began the work in which we participate. In other words, I may serve my friend, or I may have been served by my friend, but I also take service in a middle-voice way as I share actively in the service that another, God, first initiated. He placed His Image in us, and continues to sustain this image.
Even a little Catholic boy or girl can receive and participate in this grace.
John Cooper
[1] Candlelight: illuminating spiritual direction, by Susan Phillips, Morehouse Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8I92-2297-8 (pbk.)
[2] Ibid, p. 168
[3] Ibid, p. 169
[4] Moving in the Spirit, Becoming Contemplative in Action, by Richard J. Hauser, S.J., Paulist Press, 1986, ISBN 0-8091-2790-3 (pbk.)
[5] Ibid, p. 26
[6] Ibid, p. 27
[7] Ibid, pp. 26,27
[8] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pelagianism
[9] http://pauliscatholic.com/2009/07/canons-of-the-council-of-trent/
[10] The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, a New Translation Based on Studies in the Language of the Autograph, Ludovico Puhl, S.J., Loyola Press, 1951, ISBN 978-0-8294-0065-6. P. 143, – 320. 7. (emphasis mine)
[11] Ibid, p. 1, 1. 2. (emphasis mine)
[12] https://www.bible.com/bible/431/JER.17.GNBDK
[13] Candlelight, p. 172
I Can’t Breathe!
April 18, 2018 Leave a comment
I Can’t Breathe!
I can only imagine how a drowning person may feel. My Uncle, Bill McCulley, taught me to swim on his farm in Illinois, in a pond on the Wilt Place. He was a Navy veteran, and an excellent swimmer, and I trusted him to save me if anything happened to me. The fish and snakes brushing up against my legs did not seem to matter. One of Bill’s attributes, besides being very strong, was his ability to go under water, without breathing, of course, for a long, long time. I know he loved me enough to save me if I went under water. Jesus died because he could not breathe under water. I can only imagine the suffering he felt. I know Jesus loves me, and will save me, just like my Uncle, Bill would have. We will get back to Jesus, and breathing under water later.
I am writing this reflection about Breathing under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, by Richard Rohr, a well know Franciscan teacher and priest. We are discussing addiction and will also draw upon Addiction and Grace, by Dr. Gerald May as appropriate. I am specifically selecting one concept, extant in both books, concerning our addiction to war. Refusal to submit to Satan’s political ploy, to fall down and worship Satan, cost Jesus His life, as we will see as we go along. Because of our addictions to “oil, war, and empire; the church’s addiction to its own absolute exceptionalism;” (Breathing Underwater, p. xxii), among other addictions, Jesus had to die. Because He died trying to breathe under water, Jesus is able to save us from our own addictions, all of them.
When we cannot breathe, and are under water for a long time, we must eventually surrender, or give up our life. As Ignatian students we are aware we should give up everything to live only in God’s love and grace. Step three of the twelve steps in Breathing Underwater is about our decision to give up to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand God (p.17). We have not been taught this surrender by our nationalistic political systems, nor have our institutional religious systems as a whole taught us this surrender, but Jesus teaches us (Matt. 5: 39) (p. 19). Bye, bye ego. Addiction to the ego and to power must go (p. 21). The devil wants to make us a great “deal”. The art of Satan’s deal is to give us instantly the power without pain and without self-surrender (p. 21). This was Satan’s third temptation which most institutional religions have accepted even to this day. It is a myth, a myth of redemptive violence that we can personally save ourselves by violent means. For thousands of years this myth has never worked. Rohr calls it the “myth of heroic sacrifice” (p. 21). It is the American “way”, and the way of most every nation. We have learned well and are addicted to this myth of self and violence and our society, our nation, (p. 22) and in too many ways our churches are co-dependents to help us believe in this myth and be self-glorified as martyrs of the church (p.23). True believers, we are giving up our body to supposed chastity, poverty, and obedience to look good, to fool many people, and to puff up the self (p.24).
To give up this puffed up, narcissistic self, as individuals, politicians, nations, and institutions including business and religious institutions is to realize we are sinners, yet loved sinners surrendered to the lover (God the Higher Power) who loves us (p. 24, 27). As the Holy Spirit helps us, we are infected by the Spirit of Jesus (p.25). Rohr says the Holy Spirit “sneaks in through the ducts and the air vents (p. 25). In some ways we would rather just have someone tell us what to do, to manage our sins for us in the confessional booth or church sermons than surrender our will and accept God’s radical grace freely. This grace is given to us by a higher power we understand to be God, as much as we understand Him, who loves us without expecting to be paid back. He loves us because He is love (p. 27). Only grace given in love can cure addictions.
Both Rohr and May speak of nonviolence and trust in a higher power for our salvation. Jesus spoke Truth to Power when He refused Satan’s third temptation to fall down and worship Satan and did not accept the “deal” to be given earthly kingdoms before it was time. As a result, Jesus had to suffer and die to save us, who are addicted, and complicit with this warmongering society.
Referencing May’s book, Dr. May echoes rule 98 of Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises when he states “detachment does just the opposite. It seems liberation of desire, an enhancement of passion, the freedom to love with all one’s being, and the willingness to bear the pain such love can bring.” (Addiction and Grace, p.15). This can be freedom from political slavery too, and freedom to love even our enemy, one of Jesus’ primary commandments (Matt. 5: 43, 44). The Spiritual Exercises, rule 98, promotes the willingness to bear all wrongs. It is this suffering love that brings detachment and personal freedom as it is greased by the wheels of grace.
See:
(098)
Eternal Lord of All Things
Eternal Lord of all things, in the presence of Thy infinite goodness, and of Thy glorious mother, and of all the saints of Thy heavenly court, this is the offering of myself which I make with Thy favor and help. I protest that it is my earnest desire and my deliberate choice, provided only it is for Thy greater service and praise, to imitate Thee in bearing all wrongs and all abuse and all poverty, both actual and spiritual, should Thy most holy majesty deign to choose and admit me to such a state and way of life (http://spex.ignatianspirituality.com/SpiritualExercises/Puhl#marker-p101)
True freedom is the freedom to love one another, including our enemy. If we maintain our addictions to war and killing this is what May describes as a security addiction (p.31). May states, “we can and should trust in God for our ultimate security” and he speaks of relaxing our grip about lessor sources of security.
It is Jesus, who is our ultimate source of security. Rohr states “only people who have suffered in some way can save another” (p. 123). Jesus died and suffered on the Cross. He did not die of blood loss. In excruciating pain, His feet nailed to the cross, and His hands too, Jesus couldn’t breathe unless He pushed up on His pierced feet, and said, “I thirst.” He was given the fourth cup via the hyssop branch which should have been given at the Passover meal, and He surrendered just for you, and just for me, to save us from our addictions to sin. His lungs had filed up with water and blood. He could not breathe. He had to die; He could not breathe, but now He saves us, we who think we can breathe, but are underwater with all our addictions.
John Cooper
Jesus Dies Everyday
March 13, 2018 Leave a comment
Jesus Dies Everyday
This morning I greeted one of my church friends at St. Francis who has cancer. He recently began chemotherapy. Today we said good morning, but I did not recognize him immediately until he passed by because either is hair had fallen out or he had his head shaved. I exclaimed his name, when I recognized him. He had just walked a long way from the parking lot into the church in order to faithfully worship with us, as is his habit.
Part way through Mass, he got up with two people, one on each arm to go out. I was serving as an usher this day and I recognized the problem and started up to help, but seeing two people already helping, I sat back down. He collapsed to the floor, the people helping him not able to hold him up. I rushed across the room, but he was already surrounded with others in his seating area helping him. Silently I prayed, with tears, and assisted a woman who had called 911 in flagging down the fire trucks who arrived before the ambulance to help. The ambulance arrived and he was put on a stretcher while conscious and rolled out of the sanctuary with applause by the congregation.
Later, after church, several of us held hands and prayed for him, and recited the “Our Father” at the end. As I write, I don’t know how he is doing, but as I am doing my Examen this night a thought occurred to me: Jesus dies every day!
What do you mean, John, that Jesus dies every day? He died only once, on the cross, for all of mankind and Jesus said, “It is finished.” Jesus also lives in each of us and the image of God lives in every man. We can find God’s presence in everything that exists, in every sparrow which falls to the ground which God knows. Why? Because He lives, and in Him we live and move and have our being. God is in all things.
By now you may have figured I am not going to thump on the Bible for scripture references concerning what I am writing, and what I am imagining. Let’s just think about it, and if I imagine something wrong, I stand corrected.
Thus, I imagine that God who lives in us also dies with us when we die. When we are in pain, so Jesus is in pain. He knows. We are supposed to die daily to ourselves, putting away the old man of sin. Why would a little of God not die when we die too, to be later resurrected?
Jesus promised to draw all men unto himself. Even if Jesus does not do that in our life time in this physical body, what prevents Him from drawing us to Himself at our (our and Jesus’) death? He could just show us in brilliant light, in a love filled way, what with God is really like and let us choose life. If you want to live forever as He draws us to the loving light and unto Himself, now is the time to believe. Don’t count on the unknown future. I will overlook the objections that Jesus cannot save us immediately because we have to pay for our sins, or be purified in purgatory. I wonder if Jesus does not in a way die again with us, experiencing our pain, our suffering, His hands held out in compassion and love for those who live in Him and Him in us, and if we fall, to raise us up again?
What about my friend who collapsed in church today? He has lived a good life already. Every day is a gift to him from God who gave him life and who lives in him. Maybe God will answer his and our prayers and miraculously heal him, or maybe not.
Either way, God knows how to die, every day. He knows how to raise from the dead and how to take care of those whom He loves. In the interim, if there is an interim, let us trust in Him, as does my friend.
Grace & Peace,
John Cooper
Jesus, You Here?
November 4, 2017 Leave a comment
Jesus, You Here?
It was a beautiful day yesterday, a fall day at the end of October in 2017. Leaves are changing and I am at St. Ignatius House in Atlanta, GA, for a class in Spiritual Direction. I arose very early this morning intending, I thought, to do my daily reflections with Scripture and do some review of material for the class, but I didn’t.
It came to me to go first into the Adoration Chapel to just sit with the Host and Jesus (Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist). I did some centering prayer, trying not to think of anything, just breathing in, “Yah” and out “weh” or “Yahweh.” I did that a while and since I was very close to the Monstrance,[i] I got up just to be sure the Host was actually in there.
Now I believe that God is in all things and all things are in God. The Apostle Paul noted a Greek poet, “In Him you live and move and have being.”[ii] I believe that, but some theologians don’t believe Paul really believed what he quoted. I recently talked to one of them who does not believe that. But I do.
I was reminded while I sat in meditation of the last complete sentence my Uncle, Bill McCulley, said to me as I, my wife, Wink, my sister Janelle Deblois, and I heard as we put him to bed toward the end of his life and Bill looked up in a fleeting glimpse of his old self and asked, “John, you here?” Bill soon died of Alzheimer’s, an insidious disease. Bill didn’t know anything much, even most of the time what his name was. Of course I “know” a lot more how to talk, how to add and subtract, how to read and write, etc. Bill did not know anything. It was like he was in a vast cloud of unknowing[iii] But as I looked down on him and heard the words, “John, you here,” it was so precious to me. I hope to remember those words all my life. Maybe he is looking down on me now as a part of the vast cloud of witnesses or the Communion of Saints.[iv] Maybe he will welcome me again when we meet again and I arrive wherever he is, in God, in heaven, wherever, and Bill greets me in a loving voice, with the words, “John, you here.”
Now I was not supposed to be thinking of anything in my centering prayer, attempting to enter the vast cloud of unknowing, the Divine union with the Mystery, the One God, but my prayer turned into meditation and I went up to the Monstrance and looked closely, knowing not to touch it, and looked to be sure the Host was present there, it was, and I asked, “Jesus, You here?”
I sat back down and wept silently since other people here are in a silent retreat, although I was all alone in the Adoration Chapel, excepting with Jesus, of course. Jesus was there too. If you don’t believe that, believe Jesus was is in me and He is in you, at least the image of the Divine and Mysterious One is in us all. I thought that as little as I know, and all the religions and religious institutions of the world know, including Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic, if all poured together in a bucket, would know nothing, being just be a drop in the ocean compared to what God knows. God knows how to talk in all languages including Angelic ones, He knows how to read and write in all languages too, and how to order and create the whole universe, how to create life and how to take life, just at the right time, like he took my uncle Bill’s life and received him unto Himself.
I know God heard me when I asked, “Jesus, You here?” I know He was looking down when I asked Him that, thinking I am precious in His sight, that I am a beloved sinner and He knows all of my sins since He lives in me, and I live in Him. I love you Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Divine One, and you too, Bill McCulley, and you too, the reader whom God loves, and is in, at least by His image inside of you.
Please ask yourself, if you do not believe, or if you do believe, “Jesus, You here?”
John Cooper
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrance
[ii] Acts 17:28
The Seed is Sown
July 5, 2016 Leave a comment
The Seed is Sown
(Matthew 9:32-38)
2016 Translation
Jesus went out to conduct an assessment of the state of religion in his domain. He went to all the churches, knocked on their doors, the Jewish Synagogues, the Baptist ones, the Catholic ones, the non-denominational ones, and the Islamic Mosques too. He went to all of them in every town he could and met great big crowds of people who were looking for someone to lead them and to be President, but they were uncomfortable with all the choices available. Jesus talked to them about an entirely different type of governmental system, one where there is no support for military systems, all the swords have been put up excepting some relics in museums, and the money that used to be spent on war is used to take care of sick people, to heal them, and to feed the hungry, build up hospitals and day care centers. In this Kingdom, they use bricks and stones from walls torn down that used to separate people one from another. Another great thing about this new political system that Jesus taught about, which he called “The Kingdom of God,” is that money was spent caring for the refugees of the old types of governmental systems who had no home or food because their jobs in the country where they lived and worked in factories making weapons of war and destruction had been done demolished.
Jesus really cared about these crowds and the refugees that were going to church in the churches he visited. Jesus’ idea was that these people had been troubled and abandoned by the entire religious systems where they went to church every Saturday. Jesus taught they needed to be harvested, along with those who do not go to church, like one harvests wheat. Jesus prayed that more Mexicans would come and help in the harvest. The Mexicans could see with Hispanic eyes which are very good and picking out grain from the field and separating the wheat from the chaff. Jesus liked the Mexicans and anyone else who wanted to be a part of his harvest. Jesus often thought about his illegal alien cousin, Ruth, the Moabitist, who was very good help in the harvest too. This was way back before Jesus was born, but he heard all about it from his family history which his mother, Mary told him.
I think part of what Jesus is telling us here is that these religious systems of all kinds, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and others, are not all that bad. After all, Jesus is telling us to go to the “harvest” for the Kingdom, not to plant the seed. The seed has already been planted in these churches, It just needs to grow and be fed, and then be harvested. He asks us to do the harvesting, not the calling, not the sowing.
Because of this great need for the harvest, Jesus brought workers for the Kingdom from Africa too, because people in Africa do not have so many TVs and have time to study the Sacred Scriptures. In some countries people watch more TV than they do praying for the harvest and praying for peace, as Jesus asked. One has a tendency to pray more when it is a life and death situation. So, Jesus brought in a bunch of black Catholic priests from Africa to help with the harvest, and He even sent them across the sea into the united States. They are good Priests, and they did not mind going to little towns either. I saw one in Greenville, IL this past weekend. I also saw one in a big city, Birmingham, AL, not too long ago. I think these black priests must be everywhere. Also those Mexican workers are everywhere. They are the nearly the only ones who want to work in the harvest. The Amish want to work too and are very good people, believing in Jesus and all of that. The Amish love peace and the Kingdom of God too and hate warfare and killing. But Amish cannot do much in the world because they go about in horses and buggies and like keeping things simple. But, isn’t that what Jesus is asking us to do? To just keep it simple, that is, to love one another, and to get out into the fields and bring in the harvest? After all, He has already sown the seed, his very image, in every man and woman, and he is the one who makes this seed grow, not us.
Let’s just do it.. It is just that simple…
Grace & Peace,
John Cooper
Brother’s Blood
August 26, 2014 5 Comments
Brother’s Blood
In this terrible world of the past month and a half, let us not let Evil creep up on us and invite us to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
Accepting what is evilly inspired…
Let us hear the cry of our brother’s blood rising up from the earth,
Let us be aware that a major culprit of the violence and killing of the past few weeks is religion…
Let us walk in the Garden with God, as did Adam, and Eve, before religion…
Let us believe in God, as did Abraham, before religion…
Religion is a temporary phenomenon in this world’s history…
Religion is created by man in his own image as a bridge to reach the One God whose Kingdom already lives in us, and we in Him…
Relationships with God, and each other, and the supernatural ability to hear our brother’s blood cry from the ground are primal gifts we should strive to possess….
Not to strive against each other,
I think we are our brother’s keeper, all of our brothers…
Listen to your brother’s blood, and the survivors of our brothers’ blood who have bled under the altar of Evil, and have gone before us…..
Grace & Peace,
John Cooper
John Cooper was born in Paris, Illinois in January, 1949. He was born Roman Catholic and grew up on his father’s and uncles’ farms. After graduating from Marshall, IL High School he attended Samford University in Birmingham, AL. He left college and became a cabinet maker, having his own business for about 45 years. About 7 years ago he returned to the Catholic Church of his youth. Having recently passed along his business to a younger person, John attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL and obtained his CSD degree in Spiritual Direction.
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