Beca Lucena’s Reviews > Here and Now: Living in the Spirit > Status Update

“”Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” The conversion between the two sides of this sentence is the same connection that exists between the love of God and the love of neighbour. They cannot be separated. This connection, however, is not simply a logical connection that can be thought through. It is first and foremost a connection of the heart that is made in prayer.”

“”Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” The conversion between the two sides of this sentence is the same connection that exists between the love of God and the love of neighbour. They cannot be separated. This connection, however, is not simply a logical connection that can be thought through. It is first and foremost a connection of the heart that is made in prayer.”

“(..) he was asked whether these man and women were worse sinners than others. “They were not. I tell you,” he said “No, but unless you repent you will perish as they did.” Jesus shows that the victims become ours evangelists, calling us to conversion. That’s the reverse mission that keeps surprising us.”

“This “reversal” is the sign of God’s Spirit. The poor have a mission to the rich, the blacks have a mission to the whites, the handicapped have a mission to the “normal”, the gay people have a mission to the straight, the dying have a mission to the living. Those whom the works has made into victims God has chosen to be bearers of Good news.”

“Indeed, true conversion asks for a lot more than a change of place. It asks for a change of heart.”

“The tears of grief and the tears of joy shouldn’t be too far apart. As we be friends, our pain — or, in the words of Jesus, “take up our cross” — we discover that the resurrection is, indeed, close at hand.”

“Herd a completely new way of living is revealed. It is the way in which pain can be embraced, not out of a desire to suffer, but in the knowledge that something new will be born in the pain. (…) The cross has become the most powerful symbol of this new vision. The cross is a symbol of death and of life, of suffering and of joy, of defeat and of victory. It’s the cross that shows us the way.”

“Jesus shows, both in his teachings and in his life, that true joy is often hidden in the midst of our sorrow, and that the dance of life finds its beginnings in grief.”

“The external circumstances are the same, but the choice of response is completely different. Some people become bitter as they grow old. Other grow old joyfully. That does not mean that the life of those who became bitter was harder than the life of those who became joyful. It means that different choices were made, inner choices, choices of the heart.”

“Jesus’s core message was that Gos is neither a powerless weakling nor a powerful boss, but a lover, whose only desire is to give us what our hearts most desire. (…) When we no longer pray, no longer listen to the voice of love that speaks to us in the moment, our lives become absurd lives in which we are thrown back and forth between the past and future.”