My Personal Testimony

travel to Australia, New Zealand, the Kingdom of Tonga, and Papua New Guinea when she invited me as her special guest in the South Pacific Regional Conference which she presided over.

I am becoming more aware that as I grow older, the beautiful memories of times past come back as a refreshing reminder of God’s goodness.

Now, here is the reflection, entitled “Life Begins Each Morning” one of the readings in Joan’s book, “In God’s Presence.”

Have you ever thought that life begins each morning? Whether one is twenty, forty, fifty, sixty or eighty, or somewhere in between; whether we have succeeded, failed or just muddled along - life begins each morning.

Yesterday has gone beyond recall, things that have happened, words that have been spoken, opportunities that have been missed cannot be brought back again. Tomorrow and all the days to compare veiled in mystery. No matter how we may plan our lives, we can never be sure that things will work out just as we want them to. Each new day begins life anew; each night is a wall between yesterday and today.

Most of us find that sorrows, troubles, anxiety and fears are magnified during the dark hours of the night, How much more optimistic we are when the new day breaks, and we find that some of our mountains of fears are really molehills. We feel so much better able to cope with whatever life may bring us. The psalmist put it this way; “Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

Blessing on my knees

A friend had quadruple bypass surgery and his first hospital stay. Instead of parking in the ministers' reserved area and visiting the sick, he lay in an airy hospital gown and received visitors. Later, his sweet wife listed the kindnesses extended from hospital staff, family, and friends because many rallied to "bless" this godly couple. Their helpers bowed their knees to them, not in worship but in service.

When God called Abram, one of the promises he made was to "bless" him. The primary root for "bless" means "to kneel" or "to bow the knee":

[God said to Abram,] "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Genesis 12:2-3).

The idea of blessing may come from several factors including that of bending the knees to give or to receive. Both elements of giving and receiving are present in God's call to Abram.

First, God bowed his knees and served Abram so Abram could accomplish God's will for his life. Eventually through Abram's lineage, God gifted the entire earth with Jesus Christ. Abram believed God's promises, used God's provisions, and bowed his knee in service to his family and foreigners.

I easily imagine Abram bowing his knee to serve God and his contemporaries. However, I have difficulty when I picture God on his knees, serving Abram, not in worship but through the keeping of his promises to bless Abram.

While the picture of God kneeling to serve might be difficult to visualize, testimonies of God's gracious service appear all through scripture. From the earliest days, God has served his creation and expressed his allout love through provisions and justice. The Creator seeded the earth and set up an atmosphere to support plant life and humans. He didn't let Cain get away with murder. For thousands of years, God has nurtured humanity, yet we as humans have continued to

Danny Hernaez

ignore or bite the hand that feeds us. In addition, God planned a complete demonstration of his love through Jesus Christ - a demonstration of love that would impact us like nothing before or since.

Ultimately, God let us view his servant heart through his Son Jesus, and his three year ministry held countless revelations of God's truth and grace (John 1:1418). On the evening before his crucifixion, Jesus assured his disciples, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

Earlier that night, Jesus had demonstrated God-as-servant, showing his disciples the "full extent of his love" (John 13:1). When the Master Teacher had gathered to dine with his disciples in the upper room, street grime had come along on their feet. That's when the God of Abram, "found in appearance as a man" (Philippians 2:8), got up from the meal, took off his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After pouring water into a basin, the God of Abram knelt, and one at a time he would lift and clean 24 dirty feet. Wash and dry. Wash and dry. Wash and dry.

Thomas. John. Thaddeus.

Bartholomew.

Andrew. James.

Peter. Judas.

The cleansing wasn't brief: The meal stopped. It took time. Minutes and more minutes ticked by as Jesus, found in appearance as a man, made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant (Philippians 2:6-8).

Servant God knelt. Moved from man to man, foot to foot, and physically touched each disciple.

Dipping water from a basin, scrubbing toes, toweling ankles, Jesus humbled himself one more time before he "became obedient unto death-even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8). When Jesus reached the

On this seventh Sunday in Ordinary time we continue reading the Gospel of Matthew chapter five that is actually a continuation of the discourse of Jesus on the fact that his mission was indeed to fulfill the law and not to abolish it. This fulfillment of the law truly introduces us to the new law that Jesus proposed his disciples to follow. This law of love which he pronounced only in the last days of his ministry he first manifested in the way he related himself with others, through his parables of forgiveness and reconciliation, healing miracles and other miracles that revealed the omnipotence of His Father and the ever present concern that he had for the poor and the helpless. In this long process of his ministry he introduced the real spirit that the law which every Christian disciple should embrace only once he is truly converted.

In today’s gospel however, Jesus directly reversed the law of relationship that governed the usual Jewish society where one was expected to duly respond to the action of the other corresponding to that one has been acted upon such as what the saying goes “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” A disciple of Jesus is rather asked “to offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you and do not turn your back one wants to borrow.”

Do you think that one who is not been converted to live according to the beatitudes, namely, being meek, patient in suffering, peace-making, enduring insults and persecution in the name of Jesus, could ever follow such new commandment? Certainly only those who have encountered the Lord and freely followed him and his new commandment can embrace such new understanding of the law.

Furthermore Jesus has completely made a new order of personal relationship when he reversed the saying “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,” asking his disciples to all everybody, “but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,…” This is a declaration of universal love for all since every person shares in the dignity of being children of God, since Jesus says “that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” Indeed this confirms what Jesus mentioned in the gospel last Sunday that his disciples should be righteous and this righteousness that we should have must surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees lest we miss entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. reluctant Peter, we find these words in John's story of Jesus: He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."

Truly Jesus has come not to abolish the law and the prophets, but he fulfilled this law of Sinai by preaching the law of love that has been pronounced in detail in the Sermon on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI himself mentioned this, in one of his Angelus messages in the past, and I quote: “Dear friends, perhaps it is not by chance that Jesus' first important occasion of preaching is called the ‘Sermon on the Mount’! Moses climbed Mt. Sinai to receive the Law of God and bring it to the chosen people. Jesus is the very Son of God who descended from heaven to take us to heaven, to the height of God, along the path of love. Indeed, he himself is this way: we must do nothing other than follow him, to put God's will into practice and enter into his Kingdom, in the eternal life. One creature has already arrived at the summit of the mountain: the Virgin Mary. Thanks to her union with Jesus, her justice was perfect: This is why we call her "Speculum justitiae" (Mirror of Justice). Let us entrust ourselves to her that she might guide our steps in fidelity to the Law of Christ.

"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me" (John 13:6-8). Later ... the disciples comprehended. They remembered the night Jesus made himself of no reputation and took upon the form of a servant - the night he declared most of them were clean and set in motion a perpetual cleansing. They learned from God "found in appearance as a man" that protocol couldn't hinder lavish love.

When Abram received his call, Servant God eventually furnished everything Abram needed to carry out the divine path for his life. Abram believed God and his belief equaled righteousness in God's court (Genesis 15:6).

I find it easy to picture looking up into the heavens and praying to God. I can even clearly picture God at my side walking in a garden as we talk about life. However, the image blurs when I look down into the eyes of the God of Abram fashioned as a man washing my feet.

I am ready for a new portrait. I am praying that God will place in my mind and heart the knowledge of a towel-draped Savior at my feet who will equip me to blessbow my knees to others.

God knows that you can stand that trial; He would not give it to you if you could not. It is His trust in you that explains the trials of life, however bitter they may be. God knows our strength, and He measures it to the last inch; and a trial was never given to any man that was greater than that man's strength, through God, to bear it.

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