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Sirach 38:1 offers some wise words: “Hold the physician in honor, for he is essential to you, and God it was who established his profession.”
Paul, Apostle of Christ
In AD 64, Rome is burning. Emperor Nero blames the destruction on the Christians living there. He imprisons the aging apostle Paul (James Faulkner) and any other Christian he can capture.
You know what they say: “You can’t win the lottery without buying a ticket.” It seems fairly obvious, right? How could one ever expect to win without actually entering the contest?
One of my favorite features on the television show Sesame Street when I was growing up was a game entitled, “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other.” As the song played in the background, we were challenged to find the one object out of the four that was different: an orange, an apple, a pear and a spoon, for example. Tucked in among the apples-and-oranges books of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible is a spoon!
We see so many dark valleys, so many disasters, so many people dying of hunger, from wars, so many disabled children, so many.
“Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there” (Lk 9:2-5).
Paradise is not found on the beaches of a Caribbean island or in some mythic garden from the book of Genesis. Paradise is where God’s will is done. It is the very reality of our existence with God without the gloss of our own selfish desires, without our own obsessive need for control. It is the location—not so much in time and space, but in experience—where, like God, we live more and more as women and men for others.
To meditate, begin with your physical posture. Sit down (chair, cushion on the floor, or meditation bench). Keep your back straight.
One of the phrases most likely to be associated with Pope Francis is “Who am I to judge?”
Like us, Jesus could be besieged by his emotions. But his example shows us that God is there to comfort and support us.
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