Author: Bill Carroll

There has never been a greater need for Jesus and his love.  We see it all around us.  We can see the hatred, mistrust, and divisions.  We can feel the fear. 

Our own sufferings are likely to be small by comparison with those of Jesus and the holy martyrs.  And yet, there is no particular suffering Jesus has not known.  And no one (no, not one single person) is beyond the reach of his compassion. 

Despite our violence, which cost him his life, Jesus was not afraid to become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.  For our sake, he became human and showed us God’s ways.

Peace is more than absence of violence, though it surely includes that.  As Martin Luther King once observed, “Peace is not the absence of tension.  It is the presence of justice.” 

I suspect that there might be as many answers to the question as there are Christians.  Even the big answers upon which most of us agree—things like Son of God, Savior, Messiah, Redeemer, Lord—mean different things to different people at different times.

In the Eucharist indeed, we are engaged in a different, but related kind of remembrance.  As with 9/11 we are remembering a trauma, and we are striving to remember it well.  For the crucifixion of Jesus is an act of terror that left the first witnesses traumatized—at least till Easter Day.  And, whenever we gather at our Lord ’s table, his resurrection is made present to us in all its life-giving power.

Millions of Americans are celebrating Labor Day this weekend:  by taking an extra day off.  This may seem paradoxical at first, but it’s not.  Labor and rest ideally complement each other in a sacred balance. Labor can be good and life-giving, or the opposite.  So too can the ways we rest. 

If we’re honest with ourselves, we know we’ve spoken words both of life and of death.  Most often a mixture of the two.  And sometimes, it’s true, our words make a difference.

We are born, brothers and sisters, into a living ocean of grace.  We are drenched in grace before we can ever think to ask for it. 

Canon Bill Carroll offers some thought on the Blessed Virgin Mary