Wonder if Jesus liked liver

I love that expression, “God is good all the time, all the time, God is good”. And what an amazing God he is, for he won’t force us to accept his goodness, or reject it.  No, he has giving us one of the most beautiful and wondrous gifts - our free will.

A free gift to choose how we live our spiritual life. And I believe we would all agree, most times when we find ourselves in the confessional it’s because of the wrong use of our free will, we caved into temptation.

My father was strict and laid down the law for us growing up. And one of his laws was you ate everything on your plate or you went to bed and had it for breakfast in the morning. He liked liver and my mother loved beets and many times liver and beets were both on my plate at the same time. And, both made me gag, still do. But, it made no difference, his law meant clean your plate.

One supper when both were served the devil got into my creative mind. I so carefully slid, piece by piece, the liver and the beets off my plate onto the napkin on my lap. So far, so good.  My plan, be the last one to leave the table, stuff the loaded napkin into my pocket and quickly head to the bathroom for a flush.

The plan was on target. I managed to be the last one to leave the table as my mother, doing the dishes, had her back to me. But someone sneaked into the bathroom, so I did the next best thing.  My sister had a large hollow toy lamb, a pull toy on a string whose mouth opened and closed.  So, I stuffed the napkin with the beets and liver into the lamb’s mouth and pushed into its hollow stomach.  Ingenious!

After a few days, the little lamb really did start to have a stench. My poor little sister, every time she pulled that toy around the house, they kept checking her diaper.

My father finally figured out where that aroma was coming from, the toy lamb. When he emptied the contents into the trash, it was he who started to gag, badly, I might add. He knew it had to be me and I was punished, a bad choice breaking a rule, but you know, we never had beets and liver again.

Yes, beets and liver are bad news, and I certainly did disobey my father. On the other hand, God’s demand for obedience is absolute, his commandments are not to be tinkered with to find a loop whole to please our own desires.

When Jesus sat on a mountain side and taught his disciples, they found out that judgment and hell are no longer just for killing someone, but even just being angry with a person. Not just adultery will bring you to hell, but even looking at a woman with lust brings death to the soul. Yes, there are demands.

Jesus’ words must have astonished his followers sitting on the mountain side listening to him preach. He had their minds thinking, calling them to a higher standard of true love for God and neighbor.

Our free will is a gift, but how do we use it? When we say yes to God’s demands, we are provided the strength by grace, to nurture our faith to maturity, and then we are giving another gift from the Holy Spirit; Wisdom.

Every new day challenges us, and to compound that, every new day in isolation can tempt us with fire and evil. But we must never forget, God has a plan. Our duty through our free will is to place all our trust in God’s plan. Adhering to his demands and to preserve through sacrificing in troubled times.

St. Paul tells us that the “secret and hidden” wisdom of God can only be mysteriously explained when we nurture and mature in our faith, by using our free will.  Determined to choose eternal life. God wants us to experience his presence and refreshment every single day, in times of trial as well as in times of peace. He wants to be our light on our stairway to heaven

What is the stairway to heaven? - trust and faith. And without them, the light is extinguished and everything goes dark – we lose our vision of God

God’s only desire for all of us is to be welcomed into the open arms of Jesus when he calls our name.

Remember, even in these very unusual and troubled times, God places demands on us. But with faith and our trust in the God who loves us “we can do all things through Jesus who strengthens us”.