Bible Stories Archives - Amazing Catechists

The Woman At the Well

as retold by Tanja Cilia

The woman was looking around her furtively. She was feeling uncomfortable, knowing that she did not “belong” where she was. This woman was from Samaria, and Samaritans were the mixed race of the Assyrians and the Jews of the former northern kingdom. So they were neither one, nor the other.

She was a woman at a time when women were treated as second-class citizens. She was a foreigner, living in a strange country. She was not married, but she lived with a man, and this meant that the other women looked down upon her.

This is why we find her at the well in the oppressive noon heat, “the sixth hour”. This well was dug on the plot of ground that Jacob gave His son Joseph. The other women used to fetch the water in the early morning, or in the evening, when it was cool. So in order not to meet them, she used to go when the sun beat down mercilessly upon her; but at least she did not have to avoid the eyes of the others, knowing that their malicious whispers were gossip about her.

This story happened when Jesus was traveling to Samaria. Now we must realize that the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans, and even with their country, if at all possible. For a Jew to call another Jew “A Samaritan” was a grave insult – in fact, in the Gospel of John [8:42] we find how during a quarrel, some of His fellow countrymen told Jesus “You are a Samaritan, and you are possessed by a demon.”

Jesus could have taken another road, skirting past Samaria, but He did not. He wanted this event to happen. He and the disciples came to a town called Sychar.

So, imagine her surprise when a man comes to the well, and talks to her. From His clothes, she realized that He was a Jew – and at that time, men just didn’t walk up to women and engage them in conversation – not even if the women were related them and especially so if the women were foreigners.

So it is to be expected, somehow, that the conversation which follows is not one that would have occurred between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. For instance, there was the quasi-theological discussion about where God prefers to be worshipped – in Jerusalem, or on Mount Gerizim.

Jesus tells her “Believe me; the hour is coming when we will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. Indeed, the hour is already here when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

Jesus, of course, knew all the answers. But He had a lesson to teach her – and us. That is why when the disciples had gone into the town to buy food, Jesus stayed behind.

He asked the woman to slake His thirst – and she was taken aback. This would entail her lending Him a cup – and that was unthinkable. “What? You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan!”

The Gospel explains that ‘Jews will not use the same cups or dishes that Samaritans use’, because Jews considered themselves as pure, whereas to them Samaritans were racially impure. Then He told her that He, too, had water, but His water was special because it gave eternal life.

She could not comprehend the deep meaning to His words. She stated the obvious – that He could not bring up water from the well, because He did not have a bucket. Perhaps with a bit of sarcasm in her voice, she asked whether He was greater than the forefather Jacob; who, it was said, had constructed the ancestral well, used by generations of people, each father and mother taking the children to it as a necessary part of tradition.

Then, she though better of it. How much better it would be to have the water that this person would give her, and never thirst again. Oh, this would mean she could steer clear of the well, and she would never, ever, have to see those women again.

Then, something inside her moved, and she realized that Jesus was special. She told Him, not asked Him, whether He was a prophet. She stated adamantly that she knew the Messiah was coming, and that when He came, He would make known all the things that until then would have been hidden. It is pertinent to note that the conversation between Jesus and the woman takes up nearly 40 verses in the Bible.

At this point, Jesus said the beautiful words that she treasured forever after: “I am He, the One who is speaking to you.”

Can you blame the woman for being so excited? She dropped everything – and this is an important thing – and ran into the village, telling everyone what had happened. She begged them to go to the well and meet Jesus. “He told me everything I have ever done!”

Later, when the disciples returned with food for Jesus, He told them He had food they didn’t know about. They assumed the woman had shared her lunch with Him.

Exactly because she was a Samaritan, people from her nation went to look for Jesus, something they might not have done if the Good News had been told by a Jew.

We do not know the name of this woman – but the Eastern Orthodox Church gives her the name Saint Photina (from the word for “light”), and celebrate her feast on February 28. The well is re-named as The Well of Jacob and Jesus.

The woman, like Saint Paul, is honored as an Apostle and as an Evangelist who spread The Good News, and there are apocryphal stories about her that say she went to Carthage and Smyrna in Asia Minor.

This is the hymn sung in her honor:

By the well of Jacob, O holy one, thou didst find

The water of eternal and blessed life.

And having partaken thereof,

O wise Photina,

thou went forth proclaiming

Christ, the Anointed One and the light of the world.

Great Photina, equal-to-the-Apostles,

Pray to Christ for the salvation of our souls.

Zacchaeus

By Tanja Cilia

as retold by Tanja Cilia

It was a cool, crisp, spring morning in Jericho; a beautiful town that lay in the valley of the River Jordan, right between the river and the hills. There was a smell of baking in the air as the women made bread for breakfast, and everyone else was yawning, stretching, and getting out of bed.

“I’m so excited!” said Zacchaeus to himself. He knew that on that very special day, Jesus, the person they called The Prophet of Nazareth, was going to pass through his town on His way to Jerusalem. “He must be a special person, to have so many followers leave everything and follow him!”

Zacchaeus, whose name means “pure, clean, just, and righteous,” was very, very short. He realized that in order to be able to see Jesus, he had to leave his house early; otherwise with people standing in front of him would block his view. So he had some breakfast and put on his best clothes, an expensive cloak and new leather sandals. Zacchaeus was a rich man, so he could afford the best of everything. He had the best house in the street and ate the best food that money could buy. But Zacchaeus did not have many friends. This is because he worked for the Romans, and the Jews did not like either the Romans or the people who worked for them.

Jericho was a very important town, because anyone who wanted to go to the Big City had to pass through it. So people like Zacchaeus, who worked for the Romans, made a lot of money. They were called publicans. They collected the tax from everyone who used the toll gates and the people who lived in Jericho, but they also asked for more money than they were supposed to, and kept it for themselves. Zacchaeus loved his money, and the more he collected, the better he felt. Sometimes he minded that his fellow Jews did not really like him, but at other times he was not worried at all — just as long as he had money to buy all the things he wanted.

Like everybody else, he had heard about Jesus the Galilean, and what a good man He was. But there was something else that made him curious. He had heard that Matthew, one of the disciples of Jesus, was a publican like himself. He wondered how it was possible for a rich man to be a disciple of someone who didn’t even have a house of his own, and who owned only the clothes on his back. “How could a publican live without money, and lots of it?” he wondered.

He kept asking himself questions like this as he huffed and puffed and bustled his way towards the main road, where Jesus was going to pass.

“Oh! Bother!” he exclaimed, as he saw the crowds that had already gathered. Even though he was an important man – or so he thought – nobody would be willing to give up his position at the edge of the street to let him stand in front. And Zacchaeus knew that he was too short to catch a glimpse of Jesus from the back of the crowd, even if he stood on tip-toes. He did not want to ask people who lived along the main roads for permission to look out of their windows – he was sure they would not let him do so. His heart filled with sadness, he nearly returned home. But then he thought of something.

“I have a brilliant idea!” he exclaimed, as he struck his forehead. “I know what I’ll do; I will climb a tree and see Him from there. I will see what all the fuss is about! So the short man bunched up his robe and his cloak, not even minding that he was creasing the expensive fabric. He started climbing up a sycamore tree and the people looked at him and laughed, passing silly comments about him. Now the sycamore tree is a big tree, and at the time it was a very important tree because the poor people used to gather its fruit and eat it. Some people even used to boil the leaves and eat them like we would eat lettuce or cabbages. Poor Zacchaeus! He snagged his clothes on the branches of the tree as he climbed, and scratched his arms and legs on the twigs as he struggled to find a comfortable perch.

“He’s coming!” exclaimed Zacchaeus, when he heard an excited babble of voices and saw people’s heads turning. And indeed, Jesus and His followers were walking slowly along the street, talking amongst themselves. Although he had never seen Him before, Zacchaeus could immediately make out which one of them was Jesus. Although He was dressed in a simple robe like all the others, He had regal dignity and bearing, like a King.

Suddenly Zacchaeus wanted to reach out and touch Jesus, and to follow him like all the others were doing. But that would mean giving up all his money and his lovely house and all his things, and Zacchaeus did not want to do that. His mind and his heart were telling him different things, and he was feeling so mixed up!

Jesus reached the sycamore tree where Zacchaeus was hiding between the branches. He stopped. “What’s happening?” people began asking one another. “Is the Master tired? Does he want to sit down? Does he want a drink of water? Shall we fetch him something to eat?”

Jesus stood right beneath the branch where Zacchaeus was, and looked up. He said “Zacchaeus, come down! I want to eat at your house today!”

Zacchaeus gulped, and nearly fell out of the tree in his excitement. “He knows my name! How can this be?” he wondered, and almost slid down the branches in his hurry to get closer to Jesus.

Some of the people were angry when this happened, because they thought that Jesus should not go into the house of someone who worked for the Romans. They muttered nasty things about Zacchaeus, and said that he did not deserve to have Jesus as his guest. They all thought he was a bad man because he stole money from others. Many other people grumbled because they thought they deserved to have Jesus in their house more than Zacchaeus did. But Jesus did not judge, accuse or criticize Zacchaeus. He just invited himself over for lunch.

Zacchaeus felt special. He had been singled out by Jesus from the hundreds of people present. He bustled along the street, holding his head up high with Jesus by his side. But he had heard the grumblings of his neighbors and a new thought came to him. Suddenly, Zacchaeus was sure of what he had to do. He turned to Jesus, and in front of all the people, he said to Him “Lord, right now I am promising you that I am going to give half of my belongings to the poor. But that’s not all. If I have cheated anyone by taking more taxes that I ought to have done, I will give them back four times as much as I took extra from them. I promise you this, Jesus.”

Jesus smiled calmly as the crowd fell silent, and said “Salvation has come into this house today, because Zacchaeus is also a son of Abraham. And because the Son of Man came to look for the lost, and to save them.”

My Way is Not Always The Answer

By Gabe Garnica

I Did It My Way…..

We all know the story of how Abraham and his wife Sarah tried to sidestep God’s promise that they would have a child despite their old age ( Gen 16:1-16). Rather than trusting and waiting on God to fulfill His promise, these two used her maid Hagar to result in that long-awaited child only to end up with family jealousy and turmoil that still rages today through their descendants.

This initial story of a fall reminds us of a very familiar human tactic with God. We ask Him for something and then set a subconscious, unstated deadline on that request. This time limit may not be express or concrete as in a certain date, but it will at least be an openness to finding some sort of shortcut to our desired goal. We ask God to find us a mate and then go on 45 online dating sites to sift through pathetic examples of potential mates which will either lead nowhere or, worse, somewhere worse than where we are now.

Others will ask God for a job and grab a job God clearly would not want them to have. Still other folks will pray for something and then grow impatient and even bitter when the desired result does not come. I have often been guilty of this, using my supposed petition more as a purchase order than a humble request from a Creator to Whom I owe everything I have and am already. Therein lies the core problem: we should spend most of our day thanking this wonderful, generous, and loving God who invites us to trust and love Him enough to ask for more. However, our weak and defective humanity leads us to go overboard and either ask for too much or, just as bad, please-mand, which is my new word meaning demand with a please on top.

Abraham and Sarah were so wrapped up in what they wanted, what they probably felt that they deserved, that they did not stop to consider what God wanted and deserved from them: simple faith and patience. All too often, we sing Frank Sinatra’s hit My Way, proud to have handled things our way on our time and on our terms. However, is that what God deserves from us?

Close Your Human Eyes and Practice Blind Faith

As defective people moving in a defective world, we need to close our eyes from time to time and ask ourselves who or what our daily GPS is or should be. All too often, we will find that expediency and practicality often push us to find our own way on our terms without even asking God to chime in. We will fool ourselves into pretending that we are doing a very busy God a solid by handling things ourselves. After all, how sick of you would your plumber be if you called him every single time your sink was slow?

The truth is, God wants us to be assertive and independent in many ways, for that is how we will grow as human beings. However, God’s definition of those traits does not include brushing Him off like some meddling uncle. Our Lord wants us to always have Him on speed dial when we need Him. It never hurts to ask for God’s help and give God time to respond, His way. That is not to say that we will foolishly wait four decades for something we need to decide soon. What it does say is that we should give God a reasonable time to respond. That response by the way, may be no response, which may still be a response on God’s terms. Begin with the conviction that God knows what is best for us and run with that. Abraham and Sarah did not do that above; they gave God the keys and then used a brick to open things their way.

The Gideon Pill

I refer to the Gideon Pill as God’s way of showing us who is boss. He will wait beyond our patience or beneath our means to accomplish miracles, just so we know who performed those miracles. The Israelites had to wander in the desert forty years before entering the Promised Land due to their disobedience and lack of faith. God waited until there was no doubt He was doing the work for them and until He had stamped out the last of the disobedient doubters (Num 14: 1-21).

One of my favorite Bible stories is that of Gideon; a military leader, judge, and prophet chosen by God to defeat the Midianites and avoid slavery for his people. God reduced Gideon’s army to 300 men against a vast enemy in order to leave no doubt who was responsible for the victory( Judg 7:2-8). We all need the Gideon Pill from time to time, being put in situations where seemingly God is the only way out just so we can grow in faith, appreciation, and obedience to such a wonderful God.

Abraham’s Recovery

An even more famous story than those noted above is Abraham’s great response of obedience to God’s request that Abraham sacrifice his only son Isaac ( Gen 22: 16-18). God knew how much Abraham waited for and loved his son, so He put Abraham to the test of sacrificing everything for God which, of course, Abraham passed with flying colors. Abraham had learned his lesson from the Hagar mistake. He knew that loving and trusting God is not something you dip your toe in. You are either all in or you should get out. Nothing of this world is worth losing God.

Conclusion

This world tells us to show off and prove we can handle everything ourselves. Certainly, one of the signs of maturity is the greater ability to be independent and self-reliant. However, regardless of our age, we all need God at all times and need to remember that. Like Abraham and Sarah, we sometimes think we know all the answer but, like Gideon, we all learn soon enough that God is pulling all the strings one way or the other.

This world tempts us to run everything in our lives our way, on our time, on our terms. What we need to avoid, however, is that we are not running away from God in the process.

2019 Gabriel Garnica

This Just In: God Wants Us to Re-Gift!

By Gabe Garnica

The recent Gospel on the poor widow’s mite ( MK 12: 38-44) reminds us that loving God means giving Him everything we have at all times. The 3 poorest folks in Christ’s time were the handicapped, beggars, and widows. Given this reality, many would snicker at any poor widow foolish enough to give what little she had to corrupt men running a corrupt temple. However, we might do well to consider three valuable lessons from this Gospel and the widow’s example.

Keep Your Eyes on God and Nowhere Else

The widow must have been a pathetic sight in the eyes of a superficial and judging world. Clearly destitute and likely desperate looking, she must not have inspired much admiration to earthly eyes. Many in her state would have been too ashamed or too self-conscious to even approach the place of offering. However, this woman only had eyes for God and nobody else. Inspired by a true love of her Lord, she merely wanted to express that love in some tangible way. Needing every coin she could get her hands on, she nevertheless trusted that God would provide as she sacrificed.

One thinks of Cain murdering Abel (Gen 4:1-8) because Abel gave his best to God while Cain did not and resented God being more pleased with Abel’s total giving. Abel gave God his best because God is all that mattered to him. By contrast, Cain clearly loved himself more than he loved God because he kept his best for himself. Likewise, one is reminded of Abraham preparing to offer his only son Isaac simply because God asked him to do so (Gen 22:1-19). What greater love, obedience, faith, and trust can one have than to be willing to offer one’s only child to please God? My youngest daughter is mystified that God would ask anyone to do such a thing, but I have told her that it was all a test and Abraham passed with flying colors. Abraham’s willingness makes sense if one keeps one’s eyes on God. However, the more we let our gaze stray toward this world, the more absurd Abraham’s actions appear to us. Keep your eyes on God because He is all good, all just, and all loving–and let your faith and love do the rest!

God Will Multiply Our Humility and Subtract Our Arrogance

Let us note God’s majestic irony! Abraham offered his only son and God rewarded his obedience by multiplying his descendants. The boy offered Christ his only food of five loaves and two fish and Our Lord rewarded his unselfishness with food for everyone (Jn 6: 9-14). Now, that boy brought that food either for himself or to sell it to a hungry crowd. Either way, he scrapped his self-interest to serve God and set the stage for a miracle of multiplication.

If God blesses our humble offerings, we may expect Him to reject arrogance and self-interest. In the case of the poor widow’s offering, we note that Christ dismissed the ample offerings of the rich and scribes as so much empty self-affection. Again, no matter how much we give, if our intentions are merely to look good or appear holy, that giving is not genuine and sincere but self-interested and superficial. We should only seek to impress God and, even then, more with our motives and actions than with our mere words.

Over 140 years ago, a little, poor Philadelphia girl named Hattie May Wiatt discovered that her church needed a larger Sunday school building to accommodate the many children who were unable to fit into the smaller structure that existed then. She wanted to do something to help but, sadly, died very soon afterward. Her mother gave the pastor Hattie’s purse containing 57 cents (the equivalent of $15 dollars today) which little Hattie had saved to help. Moved by her unselfish and humble generosity, the pastor informed the congregation. Soon, newspapers spread the news of this little girl’s actions, inspiring many donors. As a result, not only a larger Sunday School, but also a hospital and an expansion of Temple University resulted. From this little, innocent girl’s unselfish love of God’s Word, a multiplication miracle occurred.

God Has Given Each of Us The Right Gifts to Offer

As a New Yorker, I have seen just about everything. One day, a man entered a subway I happened to be taking to work and began singing. He was easily the worst singer I have ever heard. Now he was clearly trying to sing well, but his voice was just terrible. The people began giving him money, so he would go away. Despite his hefty haul that afternoon, I would argue that this man was not offering the right gift to others. I am fairly certain that my singing would make that poor man sound like Frank Sinatra but, thankfully, God has given me a few gifts to offer back to Him and others. I can write, speak, and teach well enough to offer these to Our Lord, and I will continue to try my best to offer these humble offerings. I know that I have a long way to go and that I need to keep trying harder, but I am ready to keep up the effort as best I can.

We all have a responsibility to discern what gifts God has given us. We all then have a responsibility to figure out ways to offer these gifts for the love and service of God and others in that order. Any gifts we use merely for ourselves, much less to harm others or ignore God, are not fulfilling God’s purpose. The right gifts, then, are those gifts clearly given to us by God based on our talents and aptitudes. People who cannot stand the sight of blood are not called upon to be doctors, and folks who hate math are clearly not called to be engineers. However, all of us are called to serve God through the gifts He has given each of us.

Our duty as children of God can best be summarized by one of my favorite saints, St. Therese, “The Little Flower,” who once said that one’s goal must be to present oneself before God with empty hands because one has given away all of God’s blessings to others. This great, humble, yet profound saint also said that when one loves, one does not calculate. Let us each love God and others so much that we do nothing but offer our talents and gifts in service and love leaving all calculations and judgments to God Almighty.

2018 Gabriel Garnica

Serving God is all about Re-gifting

By Gabe Garnica

As Christmas approaches we begin to hear the familiar stories about gifts, traditions, and what is appropriate or not regarding gifts. I remember growing up hearing horror stories about people passing unwanted gifts to others or, as accurately described in popular culture, “re-gifting”. The argument against this practice centered around being cheap, ungrateful, inconsiderate, and deceptive. The general feeling in those days was that re-gifting was a slap in the face of the original giver, and a blatant sign of ingratitude or disrespect for the time and effort that person put into giving the gift. Certainly, even today, most would agree that giving away a personalized or meaningful gift is improper form, as would be passing over a used or dusty gift from the past.

However, a review of more recent thoughts regarding this practice shows a growing sentiment away from total negativity toward measured acceptance and even praise of this behavior. The general sentiment seems to be that passing off an unwanted gift to someone who might enjoy or use such a gift more is a noble way of avoiding waste and spreading enjoyment. It seems that, as long as good taste and practicality is observed, many people today do not automatically shun re-gifting if the recipient will benefit or enjoy a gift which would otherwise remain unused.

The Magi brought the infant Jesus gifts in the form of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and some joke that the latter two gifts were certainly re-gifted since gold would be the preferred gift. In all seriousness, gifts were part of the very first Christmas because the Infant Jesus is a gift from God in every sense of the word. Moving forward, Our Lord’s entire ministry on earth was a continuous gift as the perfect example of loving service and care for others that we are all called to follow. Saint Therese the Little Flower once stated that she wanted to come before God with empty hands which were free of all the gifts God had given her which had been offered to others. We know from the famous Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) that we are expected to turn God’s investment in our talents into a profit of service to others.

Simply put, we re-gift when we use the gifts God has given us to serve others. Our abilities and skills do not belong to us but, rather, are merely temporary possessions which we must use to bring God’s touch to others. The singer too lazy to sing for others or, worse, who merely uses her talent to gain personal fame and material possessions without helping others is ignoring the purpose of that God-given gift. The excellent public speaker or writer who uses his talent to spread harm or create hatred is certainly misusing his talent.

At the end of the day, then, following Christ is re-gifting for the glory of God, and you are certainly welcome to pass that thought to others.

Gabriel Garnica, 2016

Zacchaeus: The Long and Short of Our Faith

By Gabe Garnica

We have all read and heard the story of Zacchaeus, the short tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus when Our Lord passed through Jericho on His way to Jerusalem ( Luke 19: 2-4). As the story goes, Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed the tree knowing that this was the only way he would be able to see Our Lord. When Jesus passed by the tree, He called out to Zacchaeus by name and called him down, for He intended to visit his house. As would be expected, the crowd was shocked once again that Jesus, a Jew, would supposedly stain Himself by being the guest of a tax collector.

As is often the case, there is a powerful lesson to be learned in this story which transcends the simplicity of the narrative. To begin with, tax collectors were despised as corrupt traitors who stole from their own to serve themselves and the oppressive Romans. Our Lord, however, sees what is in the heart of the person, and He knew Zacchaeus was a good investment. As was always the case, Jesus did not measure by the standards of this world but by the insight of God. We are certainly not God, but we can emulate Our Lord by refusing to judge a book by its cover.

Secondly, Zacchaeus refused to let the obstacle of his short stature get in the way of his desire to see this Jesus with his own eyes. Others might have used their height as an excuse to give up, or let others describe Our Lord to them. They might have let their circumstances dictate their response to Our Lord’s call. How often do we let circumstances become obstacles and obstacles become excuses?

Third, Zacchaeus ran ahead of the crowd in order to find the most effective and favorable place to overcome his obstacle. Sometimes, our greatest obstacle is failing to anticipate the very obstacles and issues that will befall us. Many people suffer from obsession with the past, which they cannot change, and the regrets that bubble from such obsession. Others are chained to the present, only focused on the here and now and what they can gain in the immediate present. Zacchaeus reminds us that following Our Lord often means that we have to think long-term, anticipate, and plan ahead. Serving God and others is often a question of proactively looking for opportunities to love, not waiting passively for such chances to arise. Great saints like Mother Teresa did not sit back and wait; they reached out in love and stepped outside of their comfort zones.

Fourth, Zacchaeus was willing to climb a tree to see Jesus. He was willing to elevate himself away from the everyday perspective of others. He knew that staying grounded, while seemingly safer, was far more risky to his ultimate goal of seeing Christ himself. Do we prefer to stay too grounded, and too safe? Are we willing to climb out of our usual perspectives to get closer to Jesus?

Finally, when Jesus called out to Zacchaeus, and expressed His intent to visit with him, Zacchaeus quickly came down from the tree, eager to obey and follow Our Lord. Do we cultivate an ability to transcend and rise above the world yet likewise become grounded in Christ? Do we realize that getting closer to Christ often means being able to both rise above obstacles and ground ourselves in His example?

As we walk through our journey on this temporary stop toward salvation, let us harness our inner Zacchaeus and be willing to identify, overcome, and transcend our shortcomings in order to answer Christ’s call to love and service !!

2016, Gabriel Garnica

The Dirty Truth About Salvation

By Gabe Garnica

The other day a friend of mine compared me to Felix Unger, the fastidiously neat character in The Odd Couple, the popular film and 1970s television program based on Neil Simon’s play by the same name. My friend made this observation based on often seeing me organizing my desk, cabinets, closet, and files, as well as often washing my hands with alcohol and soap.

Now, before you agree with my friend that I am some sort of weird, neat freak, let me assure you that the reason I organize my stuff so often is precisely because I slip back to messy so easily. Also, I only wash my hands with alcohol and soap when arriving home, having touched money, or having worked in a dirty area. If that makes me weird, then so be it. It is just that I have often gotten colds and infections after not washing my hands, and I tend not to get those things when I do keep my hands sanitized.

You may be wondering what dirt and cleanliness have to do with anything in this site, and you would not be alone. After all, isn’t it much more important to save our souls, obey God’s Will and Law, and follow Christ’s example than keeping our hands clean? As Christ Himself reminded us, it is more important to keep our inside clean than our outside (Matthew 23:26).

Christ is Not Afraid of a Little Dirt

We came from dust, and to dust we will return (Gen 3:19). Our Lord was born in a dirty, dusty place (Luke 2:7) and worked as a carpenter (Mark 6:3) which is not exactly the most immaculately clean occupation. He made mud to heal a blind man (John 9:6) and even wrote on the ground while protecting the woman caught in adultery against her hypocritical accusers ( John 8:6). Christ’s feet got pretty dirty (John 12:3) and he had no problem washing His follower’s feet (John 13:6-9). One would not assume that the poor, sick, and diseased that Jesus helped were living in perfectly clean circumstances. It is a pretty safe bet that Our Lord encountered dirt on a daily basis and continued doing God’s Will regardless. I do not know about you, but when I think of Jesus I do not imagine a man running from a dirty leper screaming, “Yikes, he is dirty!”

We came from dirt, which is our humanity, and Our Lord loves us so much that He took on the outward dirt of our humanity so that He could remove the inner dirt of our sin on a dirty, dusty cross. Thus, we see that the only dirt that God rejects is the dirt of sin (Luke 10:11) but not the dirt of humanity, which He embraces.

Following Christ Means Getting Dirty

Mother Teresa knew a thing or two about dirt; she wrapped herself in it while reaching out to those in most need. Each of us has a mission, a purpose in life which God has designed for us given our particular talents and traits. We cannot serve God without exposing ourselves to both the outer dirt of humanity and the inner dirt of sin, any more than a life guard can hope to save drowning swimmers without getting wet. It is part of the deal, the game, of saving souls. This reality is inherent in what it means to follow Christ. We have to be willing to get our hands dirty if we hope to reach out to those in need. Being a Christian is not about wearing immaculately clean and white uniforms with nice white gloves. It is about selflessly serving others as Our Lord did. Just imagine the absurdity of a man in a spotlessly white uniform and gloves carrying a cross and you will see how inconsistent such an image would be.

Conclusion

As I was writing this piece, I received a call from my plumber and a visit from my sprinkler guy. The sprinkler guy has a thriving business with 800 customers, and he was kneeling in the mud changing a sprinkler head. My plumber often looks like he fell in a sewer when he comes to my house. Imagine if you needed a plumber and had to choose between one wearing a perfectly clean, white uniform and gloves as white as snow and one who was full of dirt. I do not know about you, but I would be suspicious of the plumber who looked like an ice cream man. After all, how good a plumber would he be if he never got dirty?

The dirty truth about salvation is that salvation is dirty business. We are weak, imperfect, and sinful people far removed from the pristine state of our baptism. We also tend to focus too much on the outward, obvious dirt that we wash off with soap and water and not enough on the inner, less obvious dirt of sin on our souls. Most of us would never dream of going a month without a shower, yet many have no problem going a month without going to confession. In fact, most people worry more about washing their car than their soul.

Being a good Christian means we will need freqeunt washing, both on the outside as well as the inside, because saving souls means we often have to take our gloves off.

2016 Gabriel Garnica

The Lessons of Gideon: When Less is More

By Gabe Garnica

You may have perhaps heard the story of Gideon, ( Jdg 6:36 -7:23) chosen by God to defeat the Midianites, a nomadic people who were tormentors and enemies of Israel and would invade their land and disperse them into the mountains. The Midianites were idolaters and often led Israel astray to worship their gods. They often rendered the Hebrews tributary, mistreating and oppressing them ( Num 22:1-41, 31:1-54). They stole and destroyed the Hebrews’ crops and harvest, trampling their land as if by right.

The Hebrews definitely needed to rid themselves of these tormentors, but they had neither the courage nor the faith to do so. As was often the case, God chose a person who seemed least qualified to free his people of this problem. We know that this pattern only reinforces the fact that we do not see, measure, or value people and things as God does.

According to Scripture, Gideon began with an army of 32,300 to fight against the Midianites, but God told Gideon to send home any who were afraid to fight, for such men would only hinder the mission at hand. We are told that 22,000 men thus left, leaving only 10,000 to fight the large Midianite army. After this, God said that there were still too many and had Gideon remove those men who left themselves vulnerable to enemy attack while drinking water, by dropping all weapons and drinking with both hands. God told Gideon to keep only those who held on to their weapons, ever watchful of possible attack, and drank with one hand only. After this second filtering only 300 men remained who, following God’s strict instructions, dispersed and defeated the much larger enemy by creating confusion and panic among the Midianites.

As would be expected, the story of Gideon teaches a number of critical lessons which we can apply in our journey toward God. Each of these lessons carries the fact that God downsized Gideon’s army so as to de-emphasize the role of men in what was to happen, as well as to test the faith of all involved. Also note that the army defeated here was the one without the one true God, who relied on earthly power and perception only, and who experienced confusion and panic as a result.

Faith………….Obviously, we must always begin with faith in God’s Will and love for us. The first group which God removed from Gideon’s army consisted of those who were afraid and preferred to flee than fight for their cause. We know from experience that half-hearted actions steeped in doubt only hamper results, and it is often better to remove elements of doubt from our effort before we even begin. Gideon had difficulty fully believing God at first, but his ultimate faith helped him to complete God’s request. Also, reducing his army when facing a powerful foe would make Gideon look like a fool by earthly standards. Are we not called to be fools for Christ if we are to follow him? ( 1 Cor 4:10). Speaking of measuring, we move on to the second lesson of…

Evaluation of Evidence…..All too often, we love to evaluate by our standards, as if our measures mean anything to God Almighty. By earthly standards, Gideon reducing his army to only 300 men seemed a foolish and suicidal choice, yet, because this is what God wanted him to do–with God’s help–Gideon was able to set in motion the ultimate dispersal and defeat of his enemies.

Action and Application…….Having faith and not judging by our standards mean nothing if we do not follow God’s promptings as best we can. Gideon and his men followed God’s guidance to the letter, and thus obtained the results which come from obedience to God.

Review Results and Repeat…..Upon applying God’s guidance in our lives, we are called to learn from what has happened, including how to understand the results that we obtain, and repeat this process as necessary. We know from history that the Hebrews often did not fully appreciate God’s direct help and expected God to give them the results they wanted rather than letting God decide what was best. How many times, for example, do we consider our prayers answered only if we obtain the result we seek? Have we considered that God’s answer may simply not coincide with our wishes?

Our True Enemy

Please note that the first letters of the lessons cited above spell out the word FEAR, which is our true enemy. Peter denied Jesus three times out of fear. The apostles abandoned Jesus upon His arrest out of fear. The apostles did not initially spread the teachings of Christ out of fear. Saul, who later became Paul, and his ilk tried to destroy the Christians, out of fear that they were a threat to the status quo.

Whenever we violate one of the Ten Commandments in general and commit sin, it is usually out of some sort of fear. We do not put God before everything in our lives because we are afraid to let go of this world’s assurances and comforts. We lie to and about others out of fear that they will harm us in some way, if we are honest. We disrespect our parents and all authority out of fear that said authority is not working in our best interest. The best way to determine if authority is working for us and consistent with God’s will is to filter that authority, not through only our eyes or the standards of this world, but much more importantly, through God’s Word and Christ’s example.

Ultimately, sin is created out of fear, and fear is born out of a lack of faith–faith in God’s goodness, mercy, divine justice, and wisdom. God forgives our sins if we drop our fear that He will not and ask for mercy. We will keep rising up to serve God if we drop our fear that it will be a worthless effort. We will find and apply our talents for God if we drop our fear that they will be insufficient, mocked, ignored, or directly rejected.

Note that FEAR is also an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. God is truth; He is the only evidence we need. If we rely, as we should, only on God, we will not need the appearances of this world to guide us. Lastly, if we rely on what this world calls reality, we may experience confusion and panic, as the Midianites did. By contrast, if we rely solely on God and trust in Him, there will be no false evidence which appears real in our lives and, thus, no fear.

May Our Lord grant each of us the faith, courage, determination, and perception to defeat the fear, and sin, in our lives.

2016 Gabriel Garnica

Gabriel Garnica

By Gabe Garnica

Gabriel Garnica is crazy enough to believe that we can all be saints, and he refuses to buy the lie that we cannot. He is a college professor with degrees in law and mental health counseling. He was born in Colombia and came to the U.S. as a young child. While Gabe continues to enjoy teaching law, his greatest fulfillment as an educator has come from his ten years as a catechist at two local parishes. Gabe is passionate about sharing his faith through writing and speaking; and he has enjoyed giving numerous talks to children on such topics as Divine Mercy, David and Goliath, The Ten Commandments, and prioritizing one’s faith. While he enjoys talking to children, it is in writing and speaking to adults that Gabe truly feels he has found his calling. His goal is to continue developing his Catholic speaking and write several books on his topics of interest, which include meditations on the Ten Commandments, Divine Mercy, the saints, parable stories, general Scripture, Pro-Life, and The Virgin Mary. He enjoys writing for his blog Deus solus https://wordpress.com/posts/deussolus9.wordpress.com and as a columnist at Catholic Stand ww.catholicstand.com/author/gabriel-garnica/

Gabe’s favorite saints are Tarcisius, Therese “The Little Flower”, and Alphonsus de Liguori, whom he describes as giving us a powerful glimpse of the loving challenge which God has given each of us. As mentioned above, Gabe believes that we are all called to be saints, but we spend more time convincing ourselves why we cannot become one than trying to fulfill our true purpose in becoming precisely that. Gabe also speaks about Catholic marriage as being the true “Love Triangle”, with each partner and God.

Letting Go of Our Nets: A Journey with Peter

By Maureen Smith

The Call

Yesterday morning I took the walk of shame down the side aisle of the Chapel, 5 minutes late and we were already at the Gospel. Frustrated and feeling confirmation that I was definitely a failure at absolutely everything if I couldn’t even make it to Mass on time, I then listened to the Gospel and underneath my gritted teeth felt a sense of relief and the first sign of a smile since yesterday. Having experienced a personal failure a week ago (joining the ranks of the unemployed), I felt comforted by the life and example of Peter.

In the Call of Peter in Mark’s Gospel, which we read yesterday, Jesus clarifies Peter’s vocation and asks him to leave behind what he thought defined him for a life of intimacy and trust in the Lord rather than in the success of the work of his hands.

Similarly, in Luke’s account of the Call of Peter, Jesus uses a moment of failure (on the part of Peter to provide fish after working all night) to reveal His identity as the Son of God while also challenging Peter to discover his own identity, not as a fisherman but as Jesus calls him in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, a “fisher of men.” John’s Gospel recounts a somewhat different, but not inconsistent, first encounter. Here Jesus also reveals to Peter (then Simon) his identity by renaming him Cephas (Peter).

Let It Go!

As we see in our scriptural pilgrimage, it takes Peter a while to really let go of what he thinks constitutes his identity, as well as his ideas of the Messiah and how His glory should be manifested. We see this when he fails to walk on water, when he rebukes Jesus for predicting his crucifixion, and when he denies Jesus three times.

He may have left behind his fisherman’s nets but there are still many figurative nets holding him back from receiving the truth of his identity as well as what it means to be an Apostle, probably because he is unable to believe the totality of Jesus’s identity which He holds unfolds (albeit sometimes cryptically) to Peter and the others.

Nets

So often we, too, link our accomplishments and the outcomes of our efforts to our identity so that, if and when they fail to measure up to our standards or those of others, we judge ourselves to be inadequate and are quickly overtaken by tidal waves of unworthiness. We assess ourselves by how productive work was, the number on the scale, the number of miles we ran, positive feedback, approval of others, or any other combination of worldly measures of success. It is not wrong that we have aspirations, but it is not true that these standards have any bearing on our identity and worthiness of God’s love and mercy. What are the “nets” we cling to for a sense of acceptance and worthiness that, although they may be part of our calling, are not essential to our identity? Do we need to put them down as Jesus instructs Peter in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew? Or do we need to trust in Jesus’s intercession and instruction as we see in Luke?

Do we struggle to put down these nets because we have a hard time believing in Jesus as truly God, as truly more powerful than our little mistakes or failures to “make something of ourselves?” Yes we can know the truth intellectually, but do we really believe in Jesus, in His power and authority over sin and death, and in the truth that our identity comes from Him rather than our accomplishments or lackthereof?

When Our Nothingness Encounters God’s Mercy

When we experience failure before the Lord we can become afraid and the shame we feel can be a barrier to further intimacy with him. But these encounters with our weaknesses are often the point of entry for the Lord, just as they were teaching moments and opportunities for Peter.

I think often of how ashamed Peter must have felt in Luke’s account of the Call of Peter. He would have felt a similar sense of failure throughout his journey with Jesus, however, Jesus uses these opportunities to fill the emptiness in Peter’s heart with His light and truth, which Peter will more fully embrace at Pentecost.

Saint Therese’s thoughts on this passage, recorded in Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of Saint Mary Magdalene, give us a refreshing outlook on what Jesus can do with our failures. She writes, “Had the Apostle caught some small fish, perhaps our divine Master would not have, worked a miracle; but he had caught nothing, and so through the power and goodness of God his nets were soon filled with great fishes. Such is Our Lord’s way. He gives as God, with divine generosity, but He insists on humility of heart.”

In her italics, Therese shows us the keys (no pun intended) to how Peter learned to follow the Lord. We will often find ourselves in the “nothing” stage. This is where the Lord’s grace is most efficacious. However, she warns that He “insists on humility of heart.” This means that we must, like Peter, let go of our fear of failure and put our whole trust in the Jesus and let him be Who He says He is, God!

Now imagine how Jesus looked at Peter in his moments of failure, for example, after a full night of reeling in net after net of nothing. Or when Jesus, after His Resurrection asks Peter if he loves Him. His gaze must have been quite the opposite of Peter’s inward gaze of self-judgment, which actually distorts his perception of how Jesus sees him.

As was the case with Peter, Jesus looks upon our failures with mercy, not with shame, impatience, disgust, etc. He may not immediately reveal His glory in our failures, that usually takes time. We may not reel in a miraculous abundance of tangible goods. Most of our failures will probably require at least a bit of waiting and trusting that eventually Jesus will use this emptiness or failure for His glory and His plan for our welfare…not woe.

Spoiler Alert! (We Will Live Happily Ever After)

Peter, whose blunders are so frequent in the Gospels, shows us that we too can achieve greatness. His ministry most likely did not feel or look successful. It looked much like that of Christ whose life and ministry was looked upon as a failure up until the Resurrection. So also our lives may appear to be lacking in value, but if we remain under the gaze of Jesus and strive to live in the truth of our identity as Children of God, we will achieve the greatest success, sainthood.

Someday, in Heaven, we will hopefully be able chat with Peter, praise God, and laugh about our failures which were transformed into our greatest moments of sanctity. We might feel like we are currently getting a poor return for our efforts, but trust in the example of Peter, it’s worth the struggle!