April Food for Thought

Hello By My Side folks,

Happy Easter to you all. Our recent celebration of our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection is such a beautiful reminder during Easter of the Lord’s unconditional love for each and every one of us.

I find it sometimes hard to wrap my head around the selfless sacrifice the Father bestowed upon us by allowing His only son, Jesus, to die so that we can all be saved by turning away from our sins to live with Him eternally.

Jesus’ victory over death, sin, suffering, and Satan is the greatest gift bestowed upon us by our heavenly Father. To understand this incredible gift further, this month I came across some wise words for us to ponder from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to help us delve deeper into understanding our Lord’s great love for His people. Please consider taking some time in silence this month to reflect upon these incredible words.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.
The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.
Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.
It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater.
If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing, of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.
If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose the final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One who loves you.
Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and all of humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations.
Truth is not determined by a majority vote.
Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.
To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say Yes, not only to Him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try and see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover.

My hope is that as you meditate upon Pope Benedict’s truthful words this Easter season, a profound attitude of thanksgiving and gratefulness will come to rest upon your heart for the One who created us, loves us unconditionally, and sacrificed His only son so that we can live forever with Him in heaven. Blessings to you all this month of April 2024.