Posted on 23 March 2012
Tags: altar, Answer, career, Christmas, death match, depression, faith, fire, freedom, god game, Health, Music, obama, prophets of baal, true faith, water, Wet, wood, yhwh
When you struggle to share the faith and need some motivation, flip to the action-packed Divinity Death Match in 1 Kings 18, the showdown between God and Baal.
Elijah lays down the terms of the duel: “you call on the name of your god and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, he is God.”
Game on. The prophets of Baal go hoarse screaming, “Answer us Baal!” Meanwhile, Elijah is getting a good laugh on the sidelines, taunting, “Louder, fellas! Maybe Baal turned down his hearing aid. Louder!” And sure enough, they shout louder and longer. They even slash themselves until they’re gushing blood. Yikes! But the heavens are silent.
Elijah up to bat. He calls the people to him, and amazingly, they actually come. Perhaps they are frustrated. Perhaps they just want to see Elijah fall on his face.
Elijah is surrounded by 950 blood-soaked prophets and a mob of idolaters. Alone he stands for the true faith in YHWH. What if YHWH doesn’t pull through for him? Is he scanning for an escape route … just in case?
Au contraire! So sure is he of God’s power and willingness to intervene that he ups the ante. “Fill the jars of water! Douse the wood!” They saturate the altar. “Do it again!” They do it again. “DO IT AGAIN!” Water cascades over the altar’s edge, forming puddles at its base.
They must be thinking: this prophet is insane! Elijah, buddy, just so you know wet logs don’t burn! Body-slashing wasn’t enough to compel Baal to breathe fire; will you make YHWH’s job even harder?
But Elijah is not afraid, because he knows exactly who YHWH is! He does not pray for God to validate him before the people. His motives are crystal clear: “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O LORD, art God.”
*****
Alas, at times we feel like wet logs, and this causes us to falter. We sincerely believe Christ can do all things. Yet the difficulty comes when we contemplate our own weaknesses. We think we are not well-spoken, or brilliant, or wealthy, or creative enough to be used by God.
And you know what? We’re right! We’re not.
But God’s Word brings incendiary Good News. It doesn’t matter how combustible your raw material is: God’s holy fire can set you burning, if only you believe unconditionally. Look, it worked for Elijah:
“Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, ‘The LORD is God! The LORD is God!’” (1 Kings 18:38-39)
So trust in God. Trust in yourself. Not because you are strong but because you are united to Christ, who is everything. When you are feeling ill-prepared on the stage of life to give a good Christian witness—in catechism class, on the phone with a fallen-away friend, in the grocery store checkout line—tell Jesus:
“Lord, I lay down my fears before you. I let go of my worry. In exchange, I beg you for the grace of an unwavering faith in you. Despite my littleness, come in power and use me to be your instrument. Though it is nothing, here is my best, Lord, offered in love for you. Take hold of this wet log, Lord, and set the world ablaze!”
By Andrew Dalton
Posted on 15 March 2012
Tags: altar, catholic, gaithersburg md, intention, john neumann catholic church, migraine attack, ministry, RNS, st john neumann, st john neumann catholic church
(RNS) A Catholic priest who was pulled from ministry after a furor over denying Communion to a lesbian at her mother's funeral insists he did the right thing and criticized the Washington archdiocese for disciplining him.
“I did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do in such an awkward situation, quietly, with no intention to hurt or embarrass,” the Rev. Marcel Guarnizo said of his decision to withhold Communion from Barbara Johnson during a Feb. 25 funeral Mass for Johnson's mother.
Guarnizo, who issued a statement to conservative Catholic news outlets on Wednesday (March 14), explained that he left the altar for a few minutes during the funeral and did not accompany the family to the cemetery because a migraine attack had left him “incapacitated.”
While both sides offer differing accounts, Guarnizo said he learned moments before the funeral at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md., that Johnson was a lesbian and was attending the Mass with her partner. Guarnizo refused Johnson Communion when she approached the altar during the liturgy.
The Archdiocese of Washington said the priest's action was a violation of church policy because he had not spoken in detail with Johnson beforehand to be able to make a proper determination of her status. The archdiocese later placed Guarnizo on administrative leave, citing “intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others that is incompatible with proper priestly ministry” in unrelated incidents.
In his statement, Guarnizo accused archdiocesan officials of treating him unfairly, and said “the lack of clarity on this most basic issue puts at risk other priests who wish to serve the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.”
Guarnizo said that he denied Communion to Johnson — a baptized Catholic — on the same basis that he would have denied it to a “Quaker, a Lutheran or a Buddhist,” or someone who “had shown up in my sacristy drunk, or high on drugs.”
