February 13, 2008

• Not Too Busy to Love God

   I was too busy yesterday, though, to update my blog! Yesterday there was a big funeral that I was altar server at. An elderly couple in their late seventies were hit head-on by a drunk driver. The wife was killed instantly and the husband died on the way to the hospital. The husband was also a respected elder in the tribe here. There were a few hundred people filling the gym where the funeral was held.

  Although funerals are sad affairs, Arapaho funerals, as I have so far experienced them, are so beautiful. There is usually a drum group; a group of men sitting around a large drum and singing traditional songs, and after the funeral there is a viewing. Then is the burial, and in yesterday’s case the two caskets were laid side-by-side in the same large hole. What an enduring testimony to the sacrament of their marriage!

  Once the caskets are blessed by the priests and people have sung traditional songs, family members will put some of the personal belongings of the deceased in the grave before they start filling the grave. After the burial there is usually a large gathering where they have more drum songs, a memorial song where everyone dances around in a circle (clock-wise, mind you!) and sometimes there is a paint ceremony where a man (I assume a medicine man) comes to you as you are kneeling and pretends to wipe away all the sadness and remorse from you, dusting his hands off when he is done. Then a woman puts red ochre (kind of like rust-colored mud) as a kind of paint on your forehead and cheekbones to signify that you are done mourning a person. Traditionally, this doesn’t happen for a year after the person(s) have passed, as it was in the case of yesterday (no paint yesterday!), because the husband was very very traditional. Then, when all of this is over, there is a HUGE feast with fried bread, stew, and all manner of salads and things. During or after the feast the family of the deceased gives away gifts to everyone who came, usually things that are handy like blankets, towels/washcloths, clothing, dishes, etc.

  By the end of the day, people are pretty exhausted, especially since many funerals are preceded the evening before by a rosary/wake that can go very late. I think that this is a great way to come together and honor the dead, mourn them, celebrate them, and say goodbye. You are almost glad, by the end of it all, to see them go!

  

  But enough about me; how about Jesus?

  Mark 12:28-33

  One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

  The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

  It is amazing to think about how many billions of people in the world long for love; true, real, deep, intimate love, and do not even realize that it is right there in the center of their heart, waiting for them to reach back. Imagine! God who created everything loves us, yet most of the people in the world go about their day not realizing it. How different would a person’s life be if instead of reaching for alcohol and drugs to bring them out of despair, they reached for God, to be completely inebriated on His love? 

  A person drowning in sorrow could instead drown in the kisses of God, crushed in the depths of His embrace!

  How many people are in emotionless, meaningless relationships because of the sex that at least gives them the illusion of being loved, an illusion that is no more substantial than food that sates an appetite or water that slakes a thirst might feel loved? These people could be tangled up with God instead, who loves them to the point of His own heart bursting at the prick of a Roman spear, the greatest arrow Cupid ever loosed!

  There are so many saints and blessed that have shared their experiences of God’s personal love for them, and some of their writings and stories could move even the heart of a mountain to shed tears of spring in the midst of the coldest winter. St. Clare of Assisi, for example, or St. Gemma Galgani, St. Terese of Liseaux, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier- thousands of people whose very existence was transformed by accepting the love of God and returning it with all their being.

  How could anyone settle for chocolates and roses when God has given us His own Body and Blood? Who could be satisified with a poem when we have Scipture that is thousands of years ancient and contains the most beautiful words ever put to parchment? Who could be satisfied with the way a romantic notion makes your heart quicken or cause a warm feeling to surge through you when we have been given the very Spirit of God to dwell in our hearts?

  All the love, all the romance, all the passion and intimacy we could possibly desire as human beings is just waiting to be quested for and claimed. But you have to pass through the briar of your past sins and conquer the fortress of your own heart before you enter the inner keep of your being and find the tabernacle of your heart where, kept safe and quiet, lies the great and glorious God of all the universe, waiting for you to let Him out into your life. Once that happens, everything begins to change; things desired become things received, every gift you receive becomes a gift from God, and you begin to pick out the notes of the symphony that God has written of your life, and you see how He has taken the dissonance of our sins and written them harmoniously into His greater work.

  God bless you all tomorrow on St. Valentine’s Day, and for those who enter that day feeling unloved and unwanted, never forget that there is someone out there who loves you more than anyone ever possibly could, and He has given you everything He has every had- all of creation, His Son, His Body, His Blood, and His Spirit.

  What a Valentine!

  • 9:36 pm
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