#Overflowing

[new-philosopher]

Source: GMM 2677

[momentsbeforemass]

The end times?

This time of year, the Mass readings focus on the four last things – death, judgment, heaven, and hell.

Including stuff about the end times from the Gospels, from Revelation, and even some of the Old Testament readings. Which means that people are understandably going to ask the question,

“Are we living in the end times?”

The answer? Of course we are.

Because time is divided into two parts – before Christ and after Christ. Even if you don’t use the traditional labels (BC – Before Christ, AD – “Anno Domini,” The Year of Our Lord), the event that starts CE (Common Era) is the birth of Christ.

And we are living in the back half, which will come to an end.

The important part of living in the end times isn’t knowing when it will end. Countless people waste their time trying to figure that out. None of them ever get it right. None of them ever will.

As Jesus tells us, “about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” If God’s own Son doesn’t know, the odds of a human being figuring it out are, well, you know.

The important part of living in the end times is knowing what to do with the time we have.

Because the end times are the days of grace, the aftermath of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

When God’s mercy and compassion are overflowing for all His children. When God’s call to use the time we have is a call to have a heart for Him and for all His children. As one translation puts it, to

“Overflow with mercy and compassion for others, just as your heavenly Father overflows with mercy and compassion for all.” – Luke 6:36.

Today’s Readings

[apollosbirthdayplaylist]

藤井風 (Fujii Kaze) - Tiny Desk Concert (full show)

[dabiconcordia]

When is enough enough

[stargirl-and-potts]

Mary is butch!! Jim is punk!! Stede has a big beautiful beard phase!! Izzy has a pegleg. Ed is laughing wildly into the storm and snarking and gazing wistfully into the distance so very Edfully. Swede has a style evolution. Ed meets a bunny! Ed loves the bunny! There’s duels and emotional responsibility and dykes everywhere. There’s Ed looking bright eyed and tender and glad. I have feasted.

[aizaibela]

https://youtu.be/ldVTbMypH_k

[djevilninja]

Thee Sacred Souls - Overflowing | Audiotree Live

[momentsbeforemass]

You can’t give what you don’t have.

If someone with a cardboard sign is asking me for money, the only way I can do that is if I first have some money.

Because you can’t give what you don’t have.

It’s a universal truth. The kind that seems super obvious when you say it. Almost like I’m insulting your intelligence when I point it out.

And yet, there are so many areas of our lives where the way that you and I do things? It’s like we’ve never heard this one before.

This is the dynamic that’s behind what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel, when He says,

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Loving your neighbor is no small thing. Because it’s exactly how our faith is supposed to play out in our lives. That is what you and I are called to do, if we’re really followers of Christ.

But let’s be clear – loving your neighbor isn’t some mushy sentiment. Because love isn’t a feeling. Love is a choice. As St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, “To love is to will the good of the other.”

But loving your neighbor can be hard.

Willing the good of the other – who lets their dog do it on my lawn and leaves it there? Willing the good of the other – when their backyard cookouts make the block smell like burning tires? Willing the good of the other – with that super-special [something I hate] flag on their front porch?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that kind of love. Not on my own.

And yet, Jesus is calling me to love my neighbor, to love that neighbor, as myself.

Where am I going to get that kind of love? Because I can’t give what I don’t have.

That is what the first half of what Jesus is saying, the first commandment, is all about.

If I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind? God will do things His way, by paying me back in kind, a thousand-fold. Here’s what I mean.

God already loves you more than you know (see Good Friday for details). But when you start trying to love God back, when you take that first faltering step of loving God, God lights up and says, “Game on!”

Because you and I can’t love God without God paying us back in kind, a thousand-fold.

And our dixie cup of love for God will be met by God with horse trough after pond after lake after ocean of love until we literally cannot contain it - and God’s love overflows into every area of our lives and into the lives of everyone we meet. Even our neighbor.

But it all starts with loving God. Because you can’t give what you don’t have.

Today’s Readings

[wiirocku]

Colossians 2:7 (NIV) - rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

[apollosbirthdayplaylist]

藤井 風 (Fujii Kaze) - 満ちてゆく (Michi Teyu Ku, Overflowing)

[shirozen]

Overflowing with enthusiasm

[random-xpressions]

Overflowing - in your presence. I wouldn't limit the word nor explain it...

Random Xpressions

[burntoutsouls]

I’m an overflowing glass—

More like an overflowing bucket—

Of emotions I can’t seem to grasp,

Just at my fingertips.

But it flows over the edge so fast.

I can’t seem to contain it yet.

No manual, no instructions.

I’m left,

Drowning in my own overflowing glass

[were-my-demons-hide]

My life is just overflowing right now.

I have to finish my bachelor thesis.

I am moving in a week.

In two weeks I'll be taking an exam to become a special OT for pain therapy.

Damn I need a fucking break! Uuuugh.

[momentsbeforemass]

Where are you from?

Where are you from?

It’s something we all want to know. Especially when we meet someone for the first time. Because knowing their frame of reference helps us to understand what they say and do.

There’s more to “where are you from” than just geography. It’s about the culture of a place.

The most important place, culture-wise? The culture that has the most impact on someone, even more than the culture that they’re from?

Is the culture that lives inside of them, their personal culture.

Their personal culture doesn’t just help you understand their frame of reference. Because of the way that it informs their understanding of things, and forms the way they respond to things, their personal culture tells you who they really are.

How can you tell what someone’s personal culture is? That’s what today’s Gospel is all about, when Jesus says,

“The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things…the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”

That’s how you can spot it, especially in yourself.

If you’ve ever wondered about your internal culture (and you and I should, because tainting it is one of the most subtle tools the Enemy has to put distance between us and God), about what’s informing your understanding of things, about what’s forming the way you respond to things, here’s how to do it.

Listen to what you’re speaking about. Not the topics. Listen deeper, to the perspective that reveals what we’re really speaking about.

Are you and I speaking the words of God about things? Or are we speaking an earthly perspective?

If we’re angry? If we’re lashing out (no matter how “deserved” it might be)? If we’re owning…whoever? If we’re demeaning or excluding someone? If we’re railing against “them” and how wrong they are?

It means we’re speaking an earthly perspective. Showing the world our fears and our weakness, pushing away the good people and telling the rest how to hurt/manipulate us.  

It means that we’re not speaking the words of God.

It means that what’s going on inside us is carrying us away from God. That our personal culture is carrying us away from the good, the kind, the loving, the just, the holy.

So what are the words of God?

They are overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit, with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Those are the words of God. And they’re a sign that what’s going on inside us is carrying us towards God. That our personal culture is carrying us towards the good, the kind, the loving, the just, the holy.

Today, listen closely to what you’re saying. Be brutally honest. And remember that nothing you and I say is indifferent – everything is a sign of what’s going on inside us.

If it’s not carrying you towards the good, the kind, the loving, the just, the holy? Then it’s time to ask God for the grace to change your personal culture.

Today’s Readings

[e-c-i-m]

Dear Child of God,

Let us be glad in Jesus!

Love, ECIM

Video: Canva Music: This is My Father’s World - Kaleb Brasee Cover