Puffer Fish

 

Day 15. Admonition   Of Knowing the Spirit of God.   A servant of God may know if they have the Spirit of God: if when the Lord works some good through them, their body—since it is ever at variance with all that is good—is not puffed up.  But rather they become viler in their own sight, and they esteem themselves less than others.  [4]

Puffer Fish   My reaction to this admonition is different than before, immediately I read the admonition  I thought of ‘Puffer Fish”   They are also known as blowfish, Puffer fish are clumsy swimmers who fill their elastic stomachs with huge amounts of water (and sometimes air) to blow themselves up, hence Blowfish/Puffer fish, to several times their normal size.   Puffer fish do appear on the menu here and there and unless the soup is properly prepared can be deadly, resulting in the person becoming a zombie.   Yet the poison resides not in the fish but rather in its previous meal.   In carrying out God’s work in the world we can become puffed up with pride when we lose sight of the fact that in our selves we can do nothing for the Lord; we are vessels of the Holy Spirit who works through us.   In forgetting this we sometimes become full of ourselves, forgetting the Holy Spirit, puffing ourselves up for all to see, the poison of our delusions of grandeur doing mischief…   Despite this I feel that reviling ourselves is too strong a term for today’s world. We do need to keep our proportions right, but rather than cause harm to ourselves, better to pray for the Spirit of thoughtfulness to remind us that it is God borrowing us for God’s own good purposes.   We are only truly human when we are conscious of our place in the hierarchy of the created

[4 ]Cod O and Is. read “If therefore his body is puffed up, he has not the Spirit of God. If, however, he becomes rather viler in his own sight, then he truly has the Spirit of God.”

Information about puffer fish from National Geographic for kids   And Wikipedia

 

If my finger sins.

Day 13. Admonition  10   Of Bodily Mortification.   There are many who if they commit sin or suffer wrong often blame their enemy or their neighbour. But this is not right, for everyone has their enemy in their own control.  This is their own body by which they sin. Therefore blessed is that servant who always holds captive the enemy thus given into their power.  Who wisely guards themselves from it.  As long as they act like this, then no other enemy, visible or invisible, can do them harm.

If my finger sins.   In these times, in my experience, it is more likely that the Holy Spirit will send us to Reconciliation for the sins of the mind, and by extension our fingers rather than those of the body.   The mischief in our minds in translated to our fingers and we type merrily away sending blessings or curses over the web, texting away on our mobile phones to send evil to those far away. Else we write calumny in News Print and rain scepticism down upon the heads of the innocent; then we point the finger at someone else, protesting our innocence as we do so.   In his own way Francis calls us to the blessings of a changed heart to turn our minds away from thinking evil and our fingers from writing hurt and to place these in the Father’s hands for God has no hand nor mind of God’s own to work well in the world, save our own

 

How is the Shepherd good?

 

 

Day  9  Admonition 6   Of the Imitation of the Lord.   Let us all consider the Good Shepherd who to save His sheep bore the suffering of the Cross. The sheep of the Lord followed Him in tribulation and persecution and shame, in hunger and thirst, in infirmity and temptations and in all other ways.  For doing these things they have received everlasting life from the Lord. So it is a great shame for us, the servants of God, that, while the Saints have practiced works, we expect to receive honour, and glory, for reading and preaching the about them.

How is the Shepherd good?   Unlike the shepherds of his time, Jesus was a good shepherd ,Robert Monti in his Short Pastoral Theology tells us that in the Palestine , of Christ’s day, shepherding was considered a dishonourable profession  and held in contempt by the religious leaders of the time.*   From the very beginning of his ministry Jesus shared this contempt and was considered vile and detestable by the Religious leaders of his time.   If we would share his ministry then we must be willing to share this contempt, to be detested and vilified; to allow the religious leaders of our time to send us to our deaths, if they deem it necessary. For this we will receive everlasting life in His name.   Unless we are willing to do this, rather than merely speak of it, (for talk is cheap) and of those who did so brings, shame upon us. There will be no honour or glory for us in this.

*Robert R. Monti Pastoral Theology Regent University Summer, 2001

 

Through the Glass darkly

Day3    Admonition 1c Of the Lord’s Body. So they who have the Spirit of the Lord, (which dwells in Gods faithful people), they, are the ones who receive the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord.  All others who do not have this same Spirit (and who presume to receive Him), eat and drink judgment to themselves. “O ye human, how long will you be dull of heart?” Why will you not know the truth and “believe in the Son of God?” Behold daily He humbles Himself as when from His “royal throne” He came into the womb of the Virgin.  Daily He Himself comes to us with like humility; daily He descends from the bosom of His Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest. Just as He appeared in true flesh to the Holy Apostles, so now He shows Himself to us in the sacred Bread.  The Apostles, by means of their human eyes, saw only His flesh.  Yet when contemplating Jesus with their spiritual eyes, the Apostles believed Him to be God. So today we, seeing the bread and wine with our human eyes, see and firmly believe it to be His most holy Body and true and living Blood.  In this way our Lord is ever with His faithful.  For, as He Himself said: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the end of the world.”

Through the Glass darkly. St Paul uses these words when he speaks of all things that fail except for Love. He says” 12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” Francis speaks of Jesus descending from the bosom of his Father into the womb of the virgin, and this is the same as when he Descends to the Altar at the hands of a priest…    When we do neither see Jesus in the Sacred bread nor contemplate him with Spiritual eyes we do not see God and do not know him to be God…and our eating of his flesh and blood condemns us.    But when we do our knowledge is complete, our vision is clear and we know that Jesus is with us until this world passes away.

God alone knows Godself

 

Day 2   Admonition  1b   Of the Lord’s Body.   For neither is the Son, (inasmuch as He is equal to the Father), seen by anyone other than the Father, other than by the Holy Spirit. So, all those who saw the Lord Jesus Christ according to his humanity, and did not see and believe according to the Spirit and the Divinity, that He was the Son of God, were condemned.   In like manner, all those who behold the Sacrament of the Body of Christ (in the form of bread and wine, which is sanctified by the word of the Lord) upon the altar in the hands of the priest, and who do not see and believe according to the Spirit and Divinity that it really is the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned..   The Most High having declared it when God said, “This is My Body, and the Blood of the New Testament” and “those that eat My Flesh and drink My Blood have everlasting life.”

God alone knows Godself       Unless we see Christ and therefore the Father through spiritual eyes, we do not see God at all.   Those that did see Jesus, physically, Nicodemus, his disciples and all others who saw him, were condemned unless they perceived his deity through the gift of the Holy Spirit.   When we behold the holy Sacrament of the Altar and, through the eyes of the holy Spirit, believe it to be the Flesh and Blood of our Saviour then we are not condemned.       The Lord’s Supper Instituted         26While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” 27And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:26-28 NASB

 

Present with his disciples

Admonition 1a Of the Lord’s Body: The Lord Jesus said to His disciples: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me you would, without doubt, have known My Father also: and from now on you shall know Him, and you have seen Him. Philip said to Him:  Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him: Have I been so long a time with you and have you not known Me? Philip, they that see Me, see the Father also. How can you say, Show us the Father?” The Father “lives in inaccessible light,” and “God is a spirit,” and “no human has seen God at any time.” Because God is a spirit, it is only by the spirit that He can be seen, for “it is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing.”

Present with his disciples.    John 3:16 was one of the first Biblical references having meaning for me. The story of Nicodemus holds a special place in my heart, because he came by night, because he feared what his peers might say or do. Later in time, Philip and the other disciples saw him, and yet unknowingly, saw the Father also.    If Jesus is the way the truth and the life and we see him not how then can we come to the Father? We see Jesus through the intercessions of the holy Spirit, and therefore come to the Father who likewise is Spirit.

Above all things - Pray

 

Day  30   Of the Virtues putting Vices to flight.   Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry. Where there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity nor avarice. Where there is quiet and meditation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation. Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter. Where there is mercy and discretion there is neither excess nor hard-heartedness.	We, in the Ecumenical Franciscan Order  Meditate on the Admonitions of St. Francis daily, as part of our Daily Office, our Br. Shepherd has therefore divided these into 31 parts; today we think about virtues and vice.   Why is Solicitude a vice? – Why is it more virtuous to be quiet than kind?   When taken to its extreme being kind, concerned, attentive etc. are degrees of anxiety and to be anxious is a vice.   Paul tells us in Philippians 4: 6, 7 – that anxiety is overcome through prayer.   6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Therefore the most virtuous thing we might do is to pray.
	NIV