2221AFC052722 – Make me an offer(ing)!
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John 17:24-26 [1] – 24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE) [
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Last week we looked at the idea “Offer It UP.” We saw – Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory! Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Normally this weekend I would be writing to you about the biggest event in my Christian life – the Ascension. Why do I say “in my Christian life?” I say that because of all the events in Jesus’ life, that moment gives me the greatest hope; it confirms everything else that Jesus said. Today I am going to just ask you to look at this essay posted in 2017 called Look Him Up. It contains my thoughts about what the angels said to the Disciples as Jesus ascended into heaven. Now on we go to today’s topic.
Belovéd, what is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? “Make sure the coffee is ready.” “Let the cat [or dog] out.” “Get ready for a run. (Ugh!)” “Thank God for waking me up.” I don’t do any of those things, at least not first-thing. Nearly 60 – sixty! – years ago I wrote a short little Gospel chorus called “I Greet the Lord.” (↔ Click Link) the lyrics say
“I greet the Lord when I get up each morning and I thank him for the day. Then we go out to help the World together. He’s beside me all the way. Thank you Lord, Almighty God, for saving me each day. I only hope that someday soon I can help someone else to say, ‘I greet the Lord when I get up each morning and I thank him for the day. Then we go out to help the World together. He’s beside me all the way.'”
And it is true. Every day starts like that. “Good morning Lord! Thank you for this day. Show me what you have for me today so we can help the World together. Teach me and help me to be just and merciful, to live righteously, and to walk humbly before you wherever your Spirit guides me. Let the constant Hope I have in you be the light that drives away the darkness and draws me and everyone I meet to your Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen.” When we were living in Chinle, AZ my Spiritual Director was Fr. Blane Grein. Even after all of these years, I still think of him in that role. One of the things we talked about was the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “Pray without ceasing” as we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 – 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That’s a tall order indeed! How does one do that? I think I sort of blundered into the answer when I realized I could make my entire day a prayer by starting it with a prayer for all my thoughts, words, and actions. Then I came across this prayer in something sent to me by the Priests of the Sacred Heart (↔ Click Link) in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Here is a copy from the USCCB site (↔ Click Link):
O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.
Amen. (Written in 1844 by Fr. François-Xavier Gautrelet; found in Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, pg. 48)
That became, over the years,
“O my Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary our Mother, I offer you this day,
All of my thoughts, words, and deeds,
My works, my prayers, my joys, my sorrows, my victories and my defeats,
My fears and anxieties, my heart’s desires, everything I do and everything I fail to do,
All than I am (↔ Music Link), all that I have, everything that I can become,
My body, mind, Spirit, and pain – all of it is yours.
Even my temptations and my sins I lay at your feet so that you might possess all of me.”
Anyone who knows me knows that on many days my ways are not all sparkling shine-a-gemic perfect. I can be a real loud-mouth grump, come back with a cutting quip, or storm around like a three-year-old in a tantrum. I can walk right by a panhandler, take a verbal punch at a politician or late-night “comic” (not the usual word I use), and overdo it at the table. None of those are things I am proud of, and all of them are things I wish would not and could not be part of my day. BUT THEY ARE. They are part of me, a part of me I’d like to leave stranded in the desert. All of these defects are part of my daily offering. After all, isn’t everything I think, say, and do part of all of me? One of the phrases in the Act of Contrition is “I detest all my sins.” That is also true, and as much as I detest them, repent of them, and try to be wary of them, I am still a sinner, and I own those thoughts words and deeds. They start in my heart – especially when I don’t want them to – and tarnish my Daily Offering. (See Mark 7:18-23)
My El Shaddai-Olam hasn’t sent me to jail, zapped me with lightning, or parted the heavens to proclaim my doom. I envision him watching me and sadly shaking his head. Then he speaks: “Come here, son, try to keep up. Pay attention. You nearly stepped right off that precipice.” That’s embarrassing, but also essential because I asked for it when saying “teach me and help me to be just and merciful, to live righteously, and to walk humbly before you.” He is, was, and will be SO-O-O-O-O good to me!! I belong to him, (↔ Music Link) and every day I acknowledge and renew that relationship. Everything I have and am comes from him. I am part of Creation even in my chaotic disobedience. I am part of the Gift God the Father gave to God the Son in
god the Holy Spirit. At this very moment, as I look at those words on my screen, I am unable to understand how, or why, I can be part of that Gift. But I am, and so are we all, Belovéd. When Satan tries to accuse me of being disloyal, sinful, a reprobate, Jesus says, “All true, but he’s still mine. I paid for him, and I’m keeping him.” Knowing he says that doesn’t make me any less Loved. I can always repent and believe the Gospel. Whenever I do, Satan’s accusations fall flat – like I said last week – “Dismissed for lack of evidence.” Jesus included us – the Believers – in his offering to his Father. Jesus offered his prayers, his forgiveness, his Love, his Peace to God on our behalf. He even offers up me, and if he’s willing to do that, then I want to follow Jesus and do what he does; I want to offer up me. I want him to have ALL of me – no secrets, nothing hidden in the recesses of my heart, nothing to be left without being offered. Right or wrong, it’s all his. He gave his all for us because he Loves us. We can give our all, too, because we love him. I know because he said so: “… that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. We are sanctified in him when we offer him all of each of us as a gift that is wrapped up in our Love. And here’s how that works.
We read it in Hebrews 2:10-18. Please read that. It will help you understand this: God the Father has given us as a gift to his Only Begotten Son because he loves him. We, 
too, give gifts to those whom we love. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We don’t love him because we have to prove our love by being obedient. When we Love God as he loves us (“This is my command that you love one another even as I have loved you” See John 13:34-35 and Romans 13:10) that is how we keep the Commandments “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and all you mind, and all you strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Can you think of any Gift God greatly desires? We are that Gift when we completely offer our entire life to the One who loved us first, last, and always. Performing the works of the Law of God cannot save you; they never could. Obey because you love the Creator, letting your love prove whom you serve. After all, that is what God longs for – Love; for God is Love, so make him an offering – the gift that Lives forever – Us
Our offering becomes his offering if we give it in and through him: A Morning Offering (↔ Click Link): “Bless and approve this offering, sanctify it and make it Holy, so that it becomes for you a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to You, O LORD, my Strength and my Redeemer – an offering made in Spirit and in Truth.” I believe in God’s Infinite Mercy and that he will always remember me as part of his Creation. The parts of us that are not connected to his memory are to him irrelevant once we have repented, believed the Gospel, and done our best to make use of all the Good Gifts he gives us every day. In our hearts we want and need to do that every day. How wonderful it is that God looks upon the hearts and not the appearances! “Lord, I offer me as an offering to you. Thank you for offering Jesus as an offering for me. With all my Love – Amen.” All you need is Love, and God offers that in abundance! Remember this?
GOD ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ MERCY ≡ LIGHT ≡ LIFE
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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[1] Some of the scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
