May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.
Amen.
(Franciscan Benediction)
This is my prayer right now. The world we live in is full of disagreement which is perceived as synonymous with hate and intolerance. The prosperity and affluence that America is known for is beginning to fade from view as we fall back to the surface. However, I begin to wonder if this fall is exactly what we need. Could it be that this fall brings us to the recognition of the physical and spiritual poverty that we blindly overlook everyday. This benediction encompasses the way of life that I believe has been forgotten in the culture that we are so absorbed by. We think that we are doing just fine, but really, I think that we are far from the heart of God.
Blaise Pascal writes, “God made man in His own image and man returned the compliment.” We have forgotten the Jesus that came down to earth, lost sight of the sweet story that broke across racial and economic divides and allowed sinners to be made whole. This “good news” is beginning to lose its punch in the lives of many. Brennan Manning writes about this in The Ragamuffin Gospel saying:
How could the gospel of Christ be truly called ‘good news’ if God is a righteous judge who rewards the good and punishes the evil? Did Jesus really have to come to reveal that terrifying message? How could the revelation of God in Christ Jesus be accurately called ‘news’ since the Old Testament carried the same theme, or for that matter, ‘good’ with the threat of punishment hanging like a dark cloud over the valley of history?
The wonderful beauty of the gospel is that God sent His Son to bring righteousness to sinners. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” This is good news. This is good news for all, which seems to be a problem, in today’s time.
Jesus came for all. He came for sinners. He came for those who are exploited. He came for alcoholics. He came for those addicted to porn and sex. He came for the sick and poor. He came for the homosexuals. He came for blacks, whites, hispanics, and all races and ethnicities between. Sometimes we lose sight of this as we fall trap to the injustices and false sense of “tolerance” in this world. We are unable to face ourselves so we begin to shun others. Thomas Merton writes, “Now let us frankly face the fact that our culture is one which is geared in many ways to help us evade any need to face this inner, silent self.” This inner silent self is where many of these deep dark places reside within us. Until we face ourself, we will be unable to accept the world around us for what it is, sinful and in need of a love that comes from something far greater than anything we could ever muster up. As a result of this, we fall at the face of the cross. This is good news.
Salvation is not earned. There is nothing we can do, it is just there by Grace and through Faith. That is it. However, as an American, I believe this frustrates us. Brennan Manning writes, “As I listen to sermons with their pointed emphasis on personal effort—no pain, no gain—I get the impression that a do-it-yourself spirituality is the American fashion… The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing… We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—indeed,we can do it ourselves.” In this way of life we discover an existence, a life of discontent, but the fact that the focus should be on what God has done and is doing, well this is good news.
If this truly is how we choose to live our life, then I believe God may “bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world” as it says in the Franciscan Benediction. The world needs a picture of “good news” and right now I do not know if Christians are giving it to them. I wonder if many Christians today would have been in the crowd carrying out a rash judgment upon a Savior bringing “good news” to all. I think most days I am in that crowd. However, I know that is why He came. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote one of the beautiful descriptions of what I believe the good news is and with that I will end this.
At the last Judgment Christ will say to us, “Come, you also! Come, drunkards! Come, weaklings! Come, children of shame!” And he will say to us: “Vile beings, you who are in the image of the beast and bear his mark, but come all the same, you as well.” And the wise and prudent will say, “Lord, why do you welcome them?” And he will say: “If I welcome them, you wise men, if I welcome them, you prudent men, it is because not one of them has ever been judged worthy.” And he will stretch out his arms, and we will fall at his feet, and we will cry sobbing, and then we will understand all, we will understand the Gospel of grace! Lord your Kingdom come!
This is Grace.
This is Good News.