All this and more can be yours - If only we get out of your own way!

Today at Holy Mass Jesus says something in the Gospel of St Luke that immediately caught my eye…….”Jesus said to his disciples: "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!”…….Do you somehow think this “fire” that Jesus speaks about does not live in YOU! - Because it does!….At our Baptism, we were grafted into the life of Christ and given the first installment of the Holy Spirit….When we were Confirmed, given a new name, through the hands of a Catholic Bishop, the final installment of the Holy Spirit was given to us…..Now here is the question - What are you doing with it!!!….If we only knew the power that is within each and everyone one of us!…..We need to get out of the way of our very self!…..How do we unleash this power?…..First and foremost - Go and give your confession to a Catholic Priest….And open your heart - Hold nothing back…..Some who just read this reflection are now turned off - How sad!…..Whenever we humble ourself before the Lord - The very life of Christ FLOODS into our soul like a tidal wave…Second, what do we do?…Receive the Blessed Sacrament because now you are in the state of grace……The POWER that is contained in these two actions is greater than an atomic bomb!…..What do we do next?….Pray the Rosary every day at the feet of our Lady, who will instruct us in the ways of her son…..BOOM!!!!……Any human being that commits to these actions regularly will set the world on fire!….Why?….Because Jesus Christ himself will animate them…The life of GOD will flood into their very soul……Do you comprehend what I am telling you?…It does not matter if you are rich, educated, poor…Whatever you are!….If we allow God to be God and we allow him to enter our soul on his terms - Not our own terms - And get out of the way! - You will become a force of nature……..Don’t believe me?…..Ok - Think about this reality - How did 12 uneducated smelly fishermen bring forth the Gospel message to every corner of the earth - And these same smelly fishermen are talked about to this day 2000 years later?….HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!?…Here is another example.....This is what Pope Innocent III said in the 13th century about St Francis - A reformed spoiled brat and party boy………”Give me 12 men like St. Francis and I will change the world”….This same POWER that was in St Francis and the original 12 disciples is within each of us…..It’s time to “get out of our own way”…….Burn the Boats! - Burn the Bridges!…..No more “half measure” - Its All or Nothing!……Go forth and set the world on fire!

“He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers”

Over the years that I have worked with Missionaires of Charity, I never cease to be amazed at the women whom God called to follow the radical way of life that Mother Teresa laid out…One of those nuns was Sister Paula Marie MC, an American nun who was a Regional Superior in Kolkata India….When I first met her, I said to myself how did this American, of Italian-American descent from Philadelphia get here?……Sister Paul Maria was intelligent, plain spoken, prayerful and practical…..But very American in her mannerisms, keeping in mind that the Missionaries of Charity are a third world religious order…So how did Sister Paula Marie not only become a nun but rise to become a Regional Superior in India?…..As I got to knew her over the years, I found out that Sister went to Penn State University and got married after college…Sadly, her marriage ended in divorce….So being raised a good Catholic and because her marriage was not lived Sacramentally, she looked into getting an annulment, which she obtained from the Church…So what did Paula Marie do next?…..She became a nun!…And not just any nun - A Missionary of Charity nun and the order sent her to India…..Clearly a radical move……The last time I saw Sister Paula Marie was on my second to last trip in Kolkata…She told me to come see her before I flew home to New York City….She told me she wanted to give the sisters in New York a gift…So right before I boarded the plane out of Kolkata, I went to see St Paula Marie in her convent….When I got there, she handed me 40 pounds of loose Indian tea, the best tea in the world, and told me to give it to the sisters in New York…..I looked at her and was like. “Sister, there is NO WAY their going to let me get this tea through customs”…..Following my comments - Sister looked at me with a sly smile and said, “Joe - You will figure it out” and walked away…That was the last time I saw her…..Needless to say….Somehow, by the grace of God, no customs agents questioned me about the 40 pounds of loose Indian tea - A small miracle in and of itself…..And I delivered it to the Bronx Convent once I got off the plane in JFK Airport on a cold December day in New York City……........Paula Marie, while a student at Penn State University, I bet "all the tea in India", never in a million years would have thought she was going to live a life as a nun - In India no less……But guess what? - God had “other plans”…..What about us? - What does God have planned for YOU?………Remember this before you answer that question - God calls the unqualified and qualifies them himself….All we have to do is say - YES…And get out of our own way!!!!

“I consider all things so much rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him”

Today in the Gospel at Mass, Jesus shocks us once again……Is this the Jesus I thought I knew?…..”I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!”……..There is nothing more radical then to live a life fully committed to Christ - To be a Catholic - To embrace everything taught to us….These are the real “movers and shakers” of the world….People like this “stop traffic”…..They defy logic…..They cause people to question their very existence….All this and more........Because one man - A simple Carpenter in a remote corner of the world 2000 years ago, who was God incarnate, radically spoke the Truth and walked among us…..All this and more can be yours - If only we get out of your own way!…………..JMJ

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