Henry Nowen was a famous spiritual writer at Harvard University. He was a Chaplin, then joined Larch community. It was for him a real transformation. When he came to the mentally handicapped he found out they didn=t care about all his degrees. He had to learn to live much more closely to a relational and emotional life. While Henry was there he made a friend of one of the persons there named John. Then Harvard decided to honor him. Henry said he wasn=t going to come unless he could bring John with him. The people at Harvard got nervous about the situation but they gave in and let John come with Henry to Harvard for the ceremony. Henry and John were mixing with people but you could tell the whole place was real tense. John gets a glass and he raises it and says, AIf you=re happy and you know it raise your glass. If you=re happy and you know it raise your glass. If you=re happy and you know it and you really want to show it. If you=re happy and you know it raise your glass.@ It killed all the tension. All of a sudden everybody was talking, sharing and it was beautiful.

            It seems to me that this spontaneity, this kind of openness, should be our life. We have a great obstacle to this in Satan. Satan wants to get us to sin, seriously, to break our relationship with God. We see it in the world around us. The problem with the bishop in the Episcopal church and many other examples. If Satan can=t do that then he wants to diminish our life. To take glory away from God and take away from us our happiness that we are God=s children and saved. So we have to be able to see that operative in our life.

            Why do we have temptation? We have temptation because of Original Sin and because we are limited human creatures. We have the possibility of consciously and willingly committing serious sin. If we are trying to be faithful in our prayer and we avoid conscious, serious sin, we still have in us tendencies and emotional needs for healing that have not been dealt with. What do these things do? They tend to run our life. They can be dominant. We can be angry, or upset, or proud or a whole number of dispositions. It=s important for us to realize that our focus has to be radically on Jesus. That=s not a heavy thing. It=s not a rigidity. It=s a disposition of the freedom of John to be happy in the Lord. To live in the spirit. That means we have to learn to deal with the Ame@ that doesn=t do that. We learn where we are not before we begin to see how God brings us to where He wants us to be.

            We need to learn how to really address God the Father? Are you a grateful person? Can you say, AI thank you Father for giving me and sending me, and sending us Jesus, your Son. Who takes away our sins and even the consequence of sins against us and around us.@ It=s that lifting up of the heart in gratitude. The priest says before the preface, ALift up your hearts.@ If we=re bogged down we can=t even lift up our hearts. This is a question of gratitude to the Father for what He has done and the gift of His Son and we should be rising up with that.

            How do you address Jesus as your Savior? Do you really believe that He has washed us clean in His blood? Is there an uplifting spirit that is saying, AThank you, Jesus, for washing me clean in your blood.@ Especially if you=ve just come from confession, or the Mass after receiving the precious Blood.

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