Tag: Daily Mass Readings

How To Make Peace In An Evil World

January 7, 2021 / Greg Garda

Reflection & Prayer – January 7, 2020

So… What Now?

A reading from the first letter of St. John:

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.

Reflection

Did you turn on the TV last night or look at your phone? How did you feel?

Typically, when a new year starts one tries to be optimistic. After a year violence, economic instability and health crises I feel emotionally drained? For some of you all these challenges were additional weight to personal challenges. For some of you, what you saw last night is the last thing you needed and may have crushed any reminisce of optimism you had for the new year.

So what now?

Let me share with you a brief story.

An Unintended Friendship

Seven years ago the director of a retirement home asked me to lead a Remembrance Day prayer service for their residence.

At the end of the prayer service I met a man who was a former Canadian navy officer in the Second World War. He was stationed on a battleship in the North Atlantic Ocean. One day they captured a German submarine. After the submarine pulled up next to their ship, the Canadian officer recalled how he opened the hatch of the submarine to find the Nazi soldiers ready to die. One of the Nazi soldiers spoke English, so through him, the Canadian sailors were able to give them instruction.

When the German soldiers came on board, the Canadian sailors didn’t shoot them and throw them overboard, but gave them food, conversed and even played cards with them.

The former Canadian sailor was the son of German immigrants. To his surprise, he discovered that one of the German soldiers they captured was his cousin. What are the chances?! He told me that the rest of the time out at sea, it was like a family reunion. No hate, no anger, but laughter.

The retired navy officer told me that it didn’t take long for his Canadian crew and German soldiers to ask each other, “What the hell are we even doing?”. In other words, what’s the purpose of all this violence?

The Victory that Overcomes Evil

This encounter between the two men is an example of Christ’s great commandment lived out: “Love God above all things; and love others as yourself.”

In today’s reading, the apostle John writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”

John then continues to say, “For his commandments are not burdensome.” Was this encounter a burden on the Canadian sailor? No! In fact, it was the opposite, it led to reconciliation. Yet, if his crew executed the German soldiers, that violence and hatred may have haunted him for the rest of his life.

John then concludes with the words, “…this, is the victory that overcomes the world. Faith.” In the Bible “the world” is characterized as being under the influence of satan (the devil; the great deceiver). St. Paul writes, “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Not only did this man overcome hate, but by his love, he conquered evil…he conquered the devil, just as Christ did. The man was a devout Christian.

So what to do? If you want peace in the world, start by loving those people whom God has placed in front of you every day, even if you find it difficult. For many of you, that’s your friends, teachers and families.

Mother Teresa once said, “If you want peace in the world, go home and love your family.”

Let us pray,

Prince of Peace, today we pray for the peace in our hearts, in our minds, and in our actions. In the world that is struggling to find meaning and often itself witnessing deliberate acts of violence, help us to be peacemakers. Grant us the wisdom, insight and prudence to be able to distinguish the need and necessity to resolve issues and conflicts without violence. Grant us the vision to recognize that although we are all unique and different, we share a commonality rooted in our humanity, dignity, and worth. Help us to embrace the model that you lived and to love one another as you continue to love us. Amen.

Why is Jesus So Mean?

August 11, 2020 / Greg Garda

I remember as a child playing on my great grandparent’s farm in Romania. The family would often gather on the farm to look after the crops.

Courtesy of Egor Vihkrev from Unsplash.com

One of the most laborious jobs was cutting off dead branches from fruit trees. Like weeds that choke out plants in gardens so do dead branches “choke” trees and inhibit their ability to produce many good fruits.

The dead branches were thrown into a pile and eventually burned. They didn’t fulfil the purpose for which they were created and were thrown aside.

For Jesus we are analogous to the branches on fruit trees. In John 15:5 Jesus says,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (verse 6).

If our lives are not rooted in Jesus we can achieve “nothing” in the same way a branch apart from a tree withers and dies.

By “nothing” I don’t mean sitting around and relaxing. Unfortunately, we are very good at being busy and doing things, but that doesn’t mean being “useful” in the spiritual sense.

Blind business is not holiness.

By patiently asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in your day you will achieve more meaningful and fulfilling things then if you just were busy for the sake of being busy.

My devotion to Jesus gives me focus and context.

Avoiding the Flames

Jesus continues to say,

If a man [or woman] does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

This sounds harsh. Is Jesus saying if our lives are not rooted in a friendship with him we will end up in hell? ….Yes.

If you and I know that we have the choice to root our lives in a friendship with Jesus, yet we intentionally strive to live apart from his love, hell is a logical consequence in the same way death is a logical consequence of a branch that is cut off from its host tree. Except in our case we cut ourselves off from our source of life.

Conversely, if we continuously strive to be rooted in Jesus we will experience life to the fullest and bear fruit beyond our greatest imagination.

In Christ.

April 15, 2020 / Greg Garda

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Be Careful What You Wish For

April 8, 2020 / Greg Garda

It’s so much easier to talk big as apposed to act big.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced moments where we shared with others our optimistic plans only to ask ourselves, “What have I gotten myself into?” when it’s time for the rubber to hit the road.

Finding Perfect Freedom

April 2, 2020 / Greg Garda

In today’s gospel Jesus says the following to his Jewish interlocutors: “If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32).

The word “freedom” is thrown around a lot today. On a retreat I asked students what they thought freedom meant, to which they responded “to do whatever one desires” or a cheesy statement like, “following your heart.” Ultimately, it boils down to the rejection of some kind of authority – whether it be a teacher, parent or government official.

Learning Patience

April 1, 2020 / Greg Garda

My biggest vice is impatience.

In my mind, I’m always a million steps ahead of my current situation. I always just want to get going.

Time Out!

March 27, 2020 / Greg Garda

How God is Calling You To Take A Break

Yesterday we were visiting my mom and our oldest daughter, Marian (4 years old) was loosing her mind.

Marian has a habit of consistently repeating mischievous things, even though she’s aware of the consequences.

For example, while eating at the table she will sit close to the edge of her chair instead of in the middle. Within moments, she falls off her chair. Despite hurting her bum, she will repeat the same mistake several times over the course of a meal.

Another classic mischievous act is chasing our cat around our home. Both of our daughters are guilty of this. Once our cat, Emma, is fed-up, she will take a swipe at them, resulting in small scratches on their hands. While I think Marian has learned her lesson, Katherine still insists on occasionally grabbing Emma’s tail.

As you can imagine both my wife and I get frustrated when our girls repeat the same mischievous acts even though they know the consequences.

Idleness is the Devil’s Workshop

March 24, 2020 / Greg Garda

One of the most tempting things for me is grabbing my phone first thing in the morning and scrolling through the news updates. By the time I’m done scrolling through my news feed, I get a notification to refresh the page in order to read the latest article about fatalities related to the coronavirus. Tap “refresh” and here we go again from the top.

Once my mind goes numb from refreshing my news feed several times, I turn to YouTube, to watch commentary on… you guessed it!… the current pandemic. Admittedly, most of the commentary is spiritual in nature, but I do sneak in a few videos about investing in times of recession (hint: grocery companies).

Photo by dole777 on Unsplash

If at this point, my wife hasn’t yelled at me to help prepare breakfast for the girls, I’ll turn to Twitter, which is an entire rabbit hole on its own.

Admittedly, in the past week, this pattern of social media binging, did not only take place in the morning. When the girls are napping, after supper and before I fall asleep.

Last night I thought to myself, “This is ridiculous. I’m just numbing myself. I gotta do something about it.”

The Dangers of Boredom

I realized that the root of my seemingly uncontrollable urge to numb myself is boredom. Because of the busy and “on the go” nature of our society, boredom for us is what headaches are to alcoholics who go into withdrawal after stopping drinks cold turkey. It’s almost unbearable!

A famous proverb reads, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.”

For some it can be easier to believe in God than the devil, since I think we have trivialized the devil in kid’s cartoons. Let me set the record straight; the devil is not a red dude in spandex with a pitchfork who likes to party. In the book of Ezekiel the devil is described as a fallen spiritual being (so no physical appearance) who rebelled against God (see. Ezekiel 28:16).

In Hebrew, the name “Satan” mean “deceiver.”

Don’t be Deceived!

The devil is a spiritual being who seeks to deceive us into turning away from God. He of course lives up to his name in Genesis 3, when he deceives Adam and Eve into believing that they can be greater than God.

So what is a deception? One dictionary definition reads, “The act of deliberately making somebody believe something that is not true.”

In my social media binge example, I convinced myself that I am informing myself of the latest news as a responsible citizen. But in reality, I was way passed “informing myself.” I was numbing myself to the point where I was not doing anything productive and life affirming, like spending time with my kids.

In addition, my eyes were burning and I felt emotionally and physically drained before even getting out of bed!

One of the dangers for many of us in the next few months will be boredom. For many, including myself, boredom tempts us to fall into old or new negative habits.

Stay Sharp!

Try to keep yourself sharp. Don’t develop a habit of sleeping in, endless scrolling through social media or binge watching The Office (guilty!). When you keep yourself sharp, you and everyone under your roof will be blessed.

In his book, Ezekiel receives a vision of water flowing out from under the altar in the Jerusalem temple, out of the temple into the Jordan River, to the basin of Arabah (in modern day Syria) and finally into the stagnant sea (see Ezekiel 47:1-12). Along the river Ezekiel sees “all kinds of trees for food.”

Ezekiel writes, “Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”

A little bit of history on this imagery before I conclude. In the ancient Jerusalem temple, a man made stream would flowed from the altar into the city, into a river and eventually into the Dead Sea. When a lamb was sacrificed during the Passover on the altar of the temple, the blood would drain from the altar into the stream and flow out into the city and eventually into various water sources. In antiquity, blood and water were signs of life. Therefore, the water mixed with blood from the lamb sacramentally sanctified (made holy) anything it touched.

Just as the flowing water from the temple brought about life for the Jewish people, so do we bring “life” into our household when we practice life-giving habits instead of remaining stagnant like stale water.

Here are six habits I’m going to try to be intentional with in the coming months: 1) Wake up before my family 2) Exercise for at least 30 minutes 3) write on my blog (with a large cup of coffee) 4) play with my kids 5) read books I always wanted to but never had the time for 6) tutor online for Hungarian and French. I know this will keep me feeling good. When I feel good, my family feels good.

What can you do to avoid idleness and stay sharp?

Prayer

Father God, we thank you for the gifts you have given us. We pray for the motivation and patience to conquer through these uncertain times. Most importantly, we pray for the souls of those who recently have passed from this world into the peace of your presence and for frontline workers who continue to serve our needs. We make this prayer through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.