Normandt' meditations

[Normandt]

76. The rule of Love


God is Love and his Love contains a Law:
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” 1 John, chapter 4, verse 7

A person who has a grudge or hatred is invited to do an examination of conscience. Why is he like this? Well, it’s because he is like that or has he become like that? Is it because he himself did not receive love from people or did not discover the Love of God?

It’s very difficult to define someone’s fault. This is why we are invited to let this person observe himself before God. The person who did some harm is the only one who can figure out what led him there. This harm comes either from him or caused by another person. He did not receive this evil from God.

We are invited to perform an examination of conscience before God. Jesus invites us to receive faith by inviting him into our life. The faith that will abound in us will help better understand the more difficult situations.

The Love of God is the rule of love between people. Let’s give the people back to God, even if they are unfair to us, even if we don’t understand everything.

Let’s put ourselves in Jesus’s hands, so that his Love will lead us to a new conversion. And gradually, we will obtain lights to become better, to better understand.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Refusing sin, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

77. Indispensable Love


Love is abused and very often refused. If God is Love, why does it seem there’s lack of love on earth?

Believing in God, transforming our way of life, returning to a heart to Heart with God, so that his Love flows freely within us, is indispensable.

Otherwise, we block God’s Love and without a compass we drift away. The implications of misleading ourselves or not following Jesus are many. The risk is to have difficulty returning to him.

The only compass we can trust is the Love of God. Jesus invites us to welcome and follow him to truly live within his Love. We are also encouraged to humbly find our place before God.

May we be persons who are signs of Christ present among our contemporaries, to help them receive the Love of God.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

78. God's Kingdom


Paul gives us a very beautiful message:
“For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.” Ephesian, chapter 2, verse 10

“We are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus.” How powerful, just these few words!

We usually live in a house and we always come back to the house. Our real home is in Jesus Christ. We are true when we establish ourselves in him.

Mary and all the saints are also in the Kingdom of God and they watch over us helping us constantly to get closer to Jesus. Everything is there, now, freely offered, to lead us in Jesus.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

79. Dehumanized thinking


This is a reflection that God proposes to Job. It can also feed our thoughts. The Lord addresses Job from the midst of his personal storm:
“Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?” Job, chapter 38, verse 2

Jesus showed us, when he passed into our world, how we disfigure God. We risk being upset when we chase God away. We expose ourselves to lose a lot when we back away from him.

We observe humans, we fall into the faults and sins of the past to such an extent that we come to think God is like us. We hear it everywhere. This one is like that, that one is like this. Why should I follow people in the Church if they are not able to be charitable, to be happy?

We believe that by observing the human being, we see God there. But it’s a little simpler than that. The human being is not God. So, it’s impossible for a human to be perfect either in the world or in the Church.

It will always be easy to find some fault with someone, but let’s not put that fault on God’s back.

We should be responsible in the faith to understand that a fault, a human who sin is contrary to the reality of God. God has created us Love, but we have trouble sharing and receiving it.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

80. God's grace on us


Job is in the middle of the storm. And he responds to God with wisdom:
“I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth. Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.” Job, chapter 40, verses 4 to 5

In seeking the good in the other, we will discover goodness in us and we’ll move forward together by following Jesus. Easy.

Let’s become beings filled with the Presence and the Light of God, in order to become familiar with his Light. Let’s ask God’s grace on us to discover his light in the heart, the life and the being of the people around us.

Let’s give thanks for the Presence of God in our life and welcome his Light that enlightens us on the daily path of conversion and faith.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

81. To run away


Moses responds to the people:
“Fear not! Stand your ground, and you will see the victory the Lord will win for you today. These Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.” Exodus, chapter 14, verses 13 to 14

It takes caution to clearly understand this text. The Lord fights evil among the Egyptians, although God does not fight the Egyptians. Pharaoh chooses evil by confining a nation to slavery.

Pharaoh lays his evil on the backs of his own Egyptians. He makes the Egyptians, his people, responsible for his evil and he swings his evil against the Israelites.

If the Lord fights for the people of Israel, it is simply to give them the courage of their convictions and to continue on the road of faith in God. That will set them free.

Fleeing evil leads to God. By fleeing the state of slavery in which the Israelites have been for far too long, they are giving themselves the means to take back their lives.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

82. Two Choices​

The human person has two choices: to focus on God or to move away from him. The image represented by the escape of the Israelites before the Egyptians represent a return to God. To return to God is to be placed in the line of good, to want his Love, to accept the best he offers, to let ourselves be raised and then be peacefully embraced.

A nation who is in God and on the move is recovering his freedom. All peoples should be on the way, together, both feet in the Kingdom of God.

It’s with the Love of God that people and the environment are transformed. They are walking with him.

Let’s cling to this thought:
“Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Matthew, chapter 12, verse 50

The one who loves his brother and his sister, his mother and his father and all humans, place himself in God’s family.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

83. Evil hates Light


Often in the Bible, there are clear passages like this one and at the same time, precise and without appeal:
“For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” John, chapter 3, verses 20 to 21

To do evil is to hate light. To hate light is to hate God. Evil and light are not compatible. It is unthinkable to build up a bad action and declare that it’s luminous.

It’s also difficult to get rid of bad habits. When they don’t seem too damaging, we tend to forget them. And yet the tiniest bad habit can degenerate into unhealthy or even harmful habits.

So, it’s important to watch over our habits and dig out those that can cause harm. If they can harm others, they can also hurt us:
“Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” We move in faith only with the light of God.

To come to the truth and to get rid of our bad habits is to allow the truth to be generated in our life. God’s light helps us to discern the issues of life.

Moreover, when we feel bad after an action, it’s necessary to check if it really is good or bad, true or false. It would be nice to take some time to find solutions. To realize this discernment and to want to return to goodness is to let ourselves be improved by God.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

84. The Lamb


Jeremiah has a very beautiful relationship with God. We feel he’s like a son talking to his father:
“The Lord informed me; at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings.” Jeremiah, chapter 11, verse 18

The closer Jeremiah is to God, the more the Spirit of God guides him through difficulties and sorrows. God helps him maneuver among people who hurt him and does not seem to listen to the Lord.
Besides, it doesn’t prevent the prophet of God to be persecuted because he disturbs while transmitting the truths of God:
“I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter.” Jeremiah, chapter 11, verse 19a

This text prefigures what Christ will live: “I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter.”
The only difference is that Jesus is not “like” the Lamb, but he “is” the Lamb who will be led to slaughter, because of the evil in the world and for his sole purpose to save us.

The psalm reveals the same thought:
“Lord my God, in you I take refuge; rescue me; save me from all who pursue me, lest they maul me like lions, tear me to pieces with none to save.” Psalm 7, verses 2 to 3

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

85. Free Jesus!


Nicodemus allows us to think and understand that persons can condemn other persons without knowing a lot about them. Nicodemus is touched by Jesus:
“There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night.” John, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2a

Nicodemus meets Jesus and he appreciates his quality of God. Only a person who knows Jesus and who loves him can understand what Jesus is doing in the world. He will defend Jesus after his capture:
“Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, ‘Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?’” John, chapter 7, verses 50 to 51

Can we judge Jesus? Can we ensnare Love? This is the impression that emerges: “I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter.”

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

85. Free Jesus!


Nicodemus allows us to think and understand that persons can condemn other persons without knowing a lot about them. Nicodemus is touched by Jesus:
“There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus at night.” John, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2a

Nicodemus meets Jesus and he appreciates his quality of God. Only a person who knows Jesus and who loves him can understand what Jesus is doing in the world. He will defend Jesus after his capture:
“Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, ‘Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?’” John, chapter 7, verses 50 to 51

Can we judge Jesus? Can we ensnare Love? This is the impression that emerges: “I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter.”

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

87. Jesus is so Holy


This man speaks so well that he turns us upside down and inside out. He is so true that he fills us with his presence. He is so God, that we have no more doubt. He opens our eyes.

But not of all. The only way to really follow Jesus is to take our responsibility in hand and follow him.

Let’s grant to Jesus, the High Priest of the Eternal Covenant, to fill us with his presence, to open our heart, to dispel our doubts. Let’s live in joy and hope to see the Church filled with people renewed by grace.

May Jesus be unveiled and known by the future generations.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

88. Our sins


Peter does not accept that Jesus must die for our sins. Peter stands before the reality of his own sins, his old sins, and he cannot understand why Jesus would die for him. Peter does not understand Jesus’s words and mission and he tells Jesus how he must behave. He doesn’t want Jesus to leave for Jerusalem because he’s going to be killed.

“Peter, takes him aside and begins to rebuke him, ‘God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.’” Matthew, chapter 1, verse 22

We would also like to tell Jesus what he needs to do to make us happy, but we need to walk away from that conception. It’s easier to understand how Jesus wants us to be happy. Let’s not refuse Jesus anymore in our life.

God alone knows the way. And when Jesus says he will have to surrender to the elders of Jerusalem and they will kill him, he knows what he means. He shows us his way. Jesus says what he does and does what he says.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

89. God allows evil?


God never uses the strong way like giving cancer to drive a person back to him. It’s impossible. He doesn’t need that. This is not his way.

The body is fragile and sometimes there are complications. But God does not give sickness hoping that someone will convert. Never.

The only powerful way of God is the infinite tenderness of his Love. The test can lead a person to consider God, because it allows time for reflection.
Reality and the present moment, in pain, often leads a person to ask himself the important questions of life; sickness, evil, suffering, loss of energy. Often, he will cast a simple look toward God.

Suffering takes him inside himself, turns him toward his heart, and perhaps he will shout. However, it’s always a shame when a person waits to be with his back against the wall to think and react. Perhaps he will accept to let his heart open up to let God create in him silence, then peace.

God is always present and he’s waiting for that person to turn to him. He does just that, wait for him. The person who decides to let God enter into his life will receive him in his heart. And it is guaranteed that God will be there too in his heart.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

90. Let’s find means


We are the only ones who can block off the Love of God. We are the only ones who can pretend to love if we block the Love of God in our heart. To the limit, it is inconceivable to block the Love of God in our heart, without dying in evil.

Let’s find ingenious means to not refuse the Love of God. We’ll see how simple it is. It’s not demanding to think about it and to walk with God.
Let’s give our heart to Jesus, so that he helps us to open the door, that his Love passes in us and that it overflows on people.

Let’s imagine that we hear God say this to us today: “Everyone will know that I am a Loving God when people live in my will. The world will see me in your life.”

But for us, humans, it’s not so easy, because we know how far we can dwell from his love.

We are invited to encourage ourselves and remain vigilant in prayer and spiritual friendship.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

91. Dried up


These people’s thoughts are interesting, in this next passage. They recognize that they are moving away from God. We feel here the heart that is ready to receive the presence of God:
“All of us have become like unclean men, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; We have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind,” Isaiah, chapter 64, verse 5
because we kept away from you, Lord.

Even so, the world should know that we are sinners and that we can never be perfect enough to let God perfectly pass in our lives. God is passing by, though. Let’s give him his place.

Fortunately, there are people who allow us to feel the presence of God, despite their sinful state. They become examples of faith.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s Love God, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

92. The loss of meaning


Closing in on evil leads us to move away from Love. Then Love does not stick with us because of the limits that evil causes. Jesus conveys a strong enough image of the loss of meaning and sin:
“If the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” Matthew, chapter 11, verse 21b

People who move away from faith in Jesus open the door to evil and lead others into it. When the Love of God does not pass, evil multiplies like a virus and contaminates those who let themselves be influenced by it.
Now, when Love passes, there is a progression in goodness, according to the pace of evolution of the person.

Jesus uses the example of these two cities to demonstrate to what extent sin can lead a person and groups of people, by a loss of meaning, a lack of good values, to their ruin. If Jesus’s miracles do not come to us, we should check the quality of reception we confide into his Love.

If we move away from people, for example, let’s check if the drug that we consume is not too strong and destructive. Evil and drugs acts in a similar way and destroys relationships between people.

When we reject God’s Love, what we really lack is the healing of the heart and soul through the flow of Love which is unfortunately diminished because of the evil that keeps us prisoners.

As soon as we ask Jesus for healing to welcome his Love, there is automatically something good happening in us. Even though the feeling may be subtle now, with determination, later on we will appreciate the inner transformations.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s be Loved, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

94. The need to pray


Jesus recommends to us:
“Take care.” Luke, chapter 11, verse 35

The only way we do not weigh down our lives is to live our lives like Christ, to put our trust in him and to feed ourselves with his Love.

All distractions causes wrong and move us away from the presence of God. May we remain vigilant in prayer. God does not need our prayers, but we need to pray. Prayer pulls us out of evil and leads us to a more sincere relationship with God.

We need to pray for our heart to unite with the will of God. We need to pray to better understand his will. We need to pray in order to be enlightened and inspired by God in front of multiple choices and decisions.

It’s the complete opposite of living life without God, without Love. All that unites us to God distances us from temptations and evil. It’s the only law that governs our lives. Either we move toward God, or we move away from him.
And everything that challenges and unites us to the Trinity keeps us in life,
joy, hope, service, friendly encounters, holy with ourselves, with others and with God.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s be Loved, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

95. Watch and pray


Jesus tells us:
“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke, chapter 11, verse 36

Let’s watch and pray to discern good from evil in our lives and in the lives of others. Jesus watches over us and Loves us until sin is erased. He wants to guide us to salvation. May Jesus come and convert us, so that we live with him.

May Mary and Joseph help us, by their example, to listen to what God asks of us personally. For this reason, we are invited to receive the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit in our hearts as Mary and Joseph knew how to welcome him.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s be Loved, Normand Thomas

 

[Normandt]

96. The refusal


Beyond the cause of evil on the person, there remains for us a principle that is undeniable. Even if we know that evil is mainly caused by the evil prince, it progresses when one or more people let themselves be tempted.

If, for example, someone starts bullying a student at school, he will experience the consequences of this bullying. He will “feel it deeply”. And this evil will develop in him, since he is a victim.

If other people know that he is intimidated and they are joining in, they increase the harm. They place invisible bricks around this person and they slowly build his prison. The victim will live the evil in all the fibres of his being and in his heart.

Evil is pernicious. Diseases are related to evil. Evil will not come from the one who is intimidated unless he decides not to let himself be loved. He suffers the consequences of the hurt caused by people who distance themselves from God’s desired Love.

The spirit of contradiction keeps us away from God. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to counter the surge of God’s Love for us.

Health problems are related to the rejection of Love in our life, simply because we use stratagems and we exile ourselves away from Love. Unless this evil is caused by many. That said, the rejection of God’s Love in others can also cause illness and evil that progressively destroys us.

Only the Love of God can bring back everything good, keep us from harm and give us freedom. We do not want to be around evil, but sometimes we slip into it.

The new American Bible, 2011-2014
Book: Let’s be Loved, Normand Thomas