Archives for 2023

For Scoundrels, Scallywags, and Rascals—Christ Came

By Anita Mathias

For Scoundrels, Scallywags, and Rascals—Christ Came

Jesus came for everyone, offering us joyful life in its abundance.

And he descended from many nations, tribes, peoples and

languages. From Abraham, from Ur in Iraq who, impatient at

God’s unfulfilled promises, raped his slave, Hagar. From tricky

Jacob, who scammed his brother, Esau, out of his inheritance.

From Judah, who impregnated his daughter-in-law, Tamar. From

Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, ancestress of King David. He, who

spotted the very beautiful Hittite woman, Bathsheba, bathing, raped

her, then had her husband, Uriah, killed. From their son, Solomon,

whose 300 concubines and 700 wives included the Ammonite princess,

Naamah, ancestress of wicked King Ahaz, who sacrificed his

children to Moloch. Ahaz, ancestor of Joseph, husband of Mary,

mother of Jesus, the Messiah. From all of them, Christ came.

And he came for everyone. All can dive into the cascades

of his love. He is Jesus for everyone. For the brilliant and

the shallow, the selfish and the kind. For those who’ve memorised

their Bibles and those who rarely open them; those whose

prayers move mountains, and those who worry instead; for the

theologically erudite, and those with childlike faith. Liars,

embezzlers, the avaricious, psychopaths, sociopaths, the sad,

and those who sadden others: to all, his redemption is offered.

He came for people from every nation and language. For

those we respect and find interesting and those we secretly

dislike, judge, and are threatened by. For the pushy and the

gentle, for strivers and the lazy, for the ethical and the dishonest

he comes, bearing gifts: the ability to give and receive love,

answered prayer, his guidance, his presence, his wisdom, his peace.

Nothing separates the thirsty heart from his love, not our

stinginess, vengefulness, malice, untruthfulness, selfishness or

manipulations, things he understands, for he lived among us, and

loved us and left us the inheritance of his Spirit to change us.

And we come to him through the narrow gates of repentance,

of surrender of all that we have and are to him, of soaking in

sections of his ancient sacred book. We come humbly, breathing

and praying: Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. There is room

in my heart for you. And he will come again, with grace, with

transformation, as he did all those years ago, when he came for

everyone, and he came for you. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.

How to Lead an Extremely Significant Life

By Anita Mathias

16th century icon

(I’ve recorded this as a podcast, as usual. Please click the green button 🙂

How to Lead an Extremely Significant Life Matthew 20: 20-28

Jesus came from a Kingdom of voluntary gentleness, in which

Christ, called the Lion of Judah, stands at the centre of the throne

in the guise of a lamb, looking as if it had been slain. No wonder his

disciples struggled with his counter-cultural values. Oh, and we too!

Salome, the mother of the Apostles James and John, asks Jesus

for a favour—that once He became King, her sons got the most

important, prestigious seats at court, on his right and left. And

the other ten, who would have liked the fame, glory, power,

limelight and honour themselves are indignant and threatened.

Oh-oh, Jesus says. Who gets five talents, who gets one,

who gets great wealth and success, who doesn’t–that the

Father controls. Don’t waste your one precious and fleeting

life seeking to lord it over others or boss them around.

But, in his wry kindness, he offers the ambitious twelve

and us something better than the second or third place.

He tells us how to actually be the most important person to

others at work, in our friend group, social circle, or church:

Use your talents, gifts, and energy to bless others.

And we instinctively know Jesus is right. The greatest people

in our lives are the kind people who invested in us, guided us

and whose wise, radiant words are engraved on our hearts.

Wanting to sit with the cleverest, most successful, most famous

people is the path of restlessness and discontent. The competition

is vast. But seek to see people, to listen intently, to be kind,

to empathise, and doors fling wide open for you, you rare thing!

The greatest person is the one who serves, Jesus says. Serves?

How? By using the one, two, or five talents God has given you

to bless others, by finding a place where your deep gladness and

the world’s deep hunger meet. Writers, write what is a blessing.

Entrepreneurs, let your products bless. And serving includes

hospitality, walking with a sad friend, and tidying up a house.

And that is the only greatness worth having. That you yourself,

your life and your work are a blessing to others. That the love

and wisdom God pours into you lives in people’s hearts and minds

and blesses them. May the Lord bless us as we seek to follow him.

Don’t Walk Away From Jesus, but if You Do, He Still Looks at You and Loves You

By Anita Mathias

Matthew 19: 16-26

Don’t Walk Away From Jesus, but if You Do, He Still Looks at You and Loves You

It’s a beautiful offer: Come follow Jesus on a life of divine

guidance on faith-challenging and exciting adventures.

Chasing ambitions, strutting our stuff exhausts us, but the excitements of

knowing the ever-fresh, surprising Jesus—those are inexhaustible. That’s the

magic part. Success, making money—that ego-driven slog is the boring part!

There is a cost to following Jesus, of course. We have to

move in the direction he moves, and do what he tells us to.

While he was on earth, Christ was active, energetic, roaming

through Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Following him will

mean movement and challenge. But we can’t walk behind him

laden with suitcases and backpacks stuffed with our treasures.

What would you reject Jesus’s micro-calls on your life for?

That is the idol that currently grips and possesses you.

I hear him tell me to become fitter, declutter my house,

and then move. And when I neglect these imperatives,

an idol has taken priority: my podcast and writing, alas.

So, I must surrender daily, balancing Jesus’s call to

health and peaceful housekeeping with the call to write.

What do you hear him calling you to sacrifice to follow

him? Do it. Don’t go away grieving. Nothing is worth

the sadness, the second-bestness, of not choosing Jesus.

I have decided to follow Jesus. But I waver. But for us, who

struggle to relinquish our idols of glory, achievement, whatever,

but still yearn for the peace of Jesus, there is yet mercy. Jesus

says a camel can more easily squeeze through the eye of a needle

than the treasure-burdened experience God’s peaceable

kingdom, but adds that “With God, all things are possible.”

So even we, conditioned from youth to strive, to achieve and succeed,

Can still, in fits and snatches, find our spirits singing on a walk or

during worship in church, or find our hearts strangely warmed by

Scripture, and, sometimes, even “see” Christ stand before us.

Christ looks at us, Christ loves us, and says, “With God, all things

are possible,” even we, the flawed, entering his beautiful Kingdom.

Thank you, Jesus.

How to Find the Freedom of Forgiveness

By Anita Mathias

The Prodigal Son. Rembrandt Van Rijn

We can be tortured for months, years, decades by searing

memories of past abuses, injuries, and injustices. Oh, to find the

freedom and lightness of forgiveness. But how do we command

the hurricane of our emotions to be still? How do we forgive?

When tormenting memories surface, our cortisol, adrenaline, blood pressure,

and heart rate rise. We first need to calm this neurochemical and

physiological storm. It’s good to literally go on a walk with Jesus, honestly

naming our emotions: outrage, shock, rage, hurt pride, hurt feelings, grief,

incredulity, and the longing for justice. For feelings buried alive never die!

Then, in a process called “the healing of memories,” mentally

visualise the painful scene, seeing Christ himself there, his eyes

brimming with compassion. Ask Christ to heal the sting, to

draw the poison from these memories of experiences that have

injured your mind, spirit, character, and assessment of yourself.

We are caterpillars in a ring of fire, as Martin Luther wrote–

unable to rescue ourselves. We need help from above.

Accept what happened. What happened, happened. Then, as the Apostle

Paul advises, give thanks in everything, though not for everything.

Give thanks because God can bring good out of the swindle and the

injustice. Ask him to creatively bring magic and beauty from the ashes.

If, like the persistent widow Jesus used as an example,

you want to pray for justice–that the swindler and the abusers’

characters are revealed, so many are protected, then do so–

but that’s a double-edged prayer. First, purify your own life.

And now, just forgive. Perhaps say aloud, I forgive you for …

You are setting a captive free. Yourself. Come alive. Be free.

And when memories of deep injuries arise, say: “No. No. Not

going there.” Stop repeating the devastating story to yourself or

anyone else. Don’t waste your time and emotional energy, nor let

yourself be overwhelmed by anger at someone else’s evil actions. Don’t

let the past poison today. Refuse to allow reinjury. Deliberately think

instead of things noble, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.

So keep trying, in obedience, to forgive, to let go of your anger

until you suddenly realise that you have forgiven, and can remember

past events without agitation. Hold our hand, Jesus. Amen.

The Silver Coin in the Mouth of a Fish. Never Underestimate God!

By Anita Mathias

Mosaic in a Roman Villa in Pompeii

I’ve recorded a podcast meditation on Matthew 17: 24-27 below (and would love you to listen 🙂

So the taxman comes for Peter: Does Jesus pay the voluntary,

but expected tax for the upkeep of the grand temple and its

priests (like today’s tithe)? And, as he often does, Jesus asks

Peter what he thinks because, as a friend, he’s interested, and

as a brilliant teacher, he wants Peter to think for himself.

Sons do not pay tax to their fathers, they both agree. Then, Christ,

who repeatedly referred to his powerful body as God’s temple on

earth, decides to pay temple tax anyway to avoid a skandalon, offence.

Christ was unafraid of offending the legalistic Pharisees; he healed

on the Sabbath; he allowed his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath;

he overturned the tables of profiteering temple moneychangers: brave

stands against legalism, greed, and hardheartedness. However, since

his blazing eyes, which see into our eyes, hearts and souls, saw silver

in a fish, to refuse to pay tax would distract from his message. And,

if we, his followers, must sometimes offend our friends, church, or

community, let’s ensure it’s on spirit-guided, God-directed issues.

And Jesus instructs Peter to cast a line and a hook–as amateur

fishermen did–insulting for a professional with boats and nets.

And Christ again demonstrates that he knows best even in Peter’s

one area of professional expertise. And Christ knows best in our

areas of giftedness. His call often involves working just outside

our zone of competence, forcing us to function with the magic of

God’s spirit and energy. The grain of pride must die for resurrection.

And Peter finds silver in a fish. When you lack the money to fulfil

the dream God has placed in your heart, do not rule out His

wonder-working power. Pray for God’s miraculous provision, or

for Christ’s surprising strategies to create wealth, rather than work

yourself to a breakdown, or manipulate or use others to get money.

Will God tell us, on request, which fish in the multitudinous seas

has swallowed silver? He sometimes might, for he hates waste. But

not always. Tim Keller writes, “People think if God has called

you to something, he’s promising you success. But He might be

calling you to fail to prepare you for something else through the failure.

To work all night and catch nothing, as Peter did, strengthens our

character and endurance so that we are capable of becoming fishers of

humans, and, if God pleases, sometimes, perhaps even fishers of money.

Following Jesus Is Costly and the Very Best Thing We Can Do

By Anita Mathias

(I have read this meditation on the podcast above. I hope you enjoy it. Feedback welcome!)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25

Jesus is blazingly honest about the cost of following him. It’s our

most brilliant, golden choice, though it does mean we can no

longer follow ourselves, and our self-indulgent or prideful desires. We

dance instead to his other-worldly, life-changing music, asking at each

transition point of our day or life, “Jesus, what is your assignment?

How do I do it your way?” And we accept the sacrifices necessary to

beautifully live the particular life God has given us, with its responsibilities.

and boredoms, to develop our unique gifts, and to fulfil our unique calling.

For me (descriptive, not prescriptive), shouldering my cross includes

eliminating sugar and starchy carbs (to lose excess weight!), not

watching TV (extreme!), endeavouring to keep my house and garden

organised and pretty enough, and using internet blockers to limit time

spent on social media or news sites. And, also, taming my anger and

outspokenness! And refusing to sing a song of worry, or linger in anger,

training myself to sing instead a song of trust, praise, and gratitude.

While following Jesus is meaningful, electric, and joyful, following

ourselves could entail ruining our health with addictive foods, caffeine,

overwork, or the siren-call of our phones. Following Jesus does not

mean relinquishing our goals and ambitions, but surrendering them

to Him. We do not own our work; God does. And so, we must repent

when we overwork, get too intense about success, or try to impress

others with it. For competitive cravings for success, fame, money,

or popularity wreck relationships, and mental, spiritual, and physical

health, and never satisfy, for the ladder of success has no end, and

climbing it means exhausting ourselves for nothing. We’re still restless.

You have made us for yourself, Oh Lord, and our hearts are restless

until they find their rest in you, St. Augustine wrote. If we do not try

to obey the Great Commandment: to love God, and Christ’s second

commandment: to love our neighbour as ourselves, we could, one day,

open the treasure box of our lives and find only ashes. Nothing!

C.S. Lewis writes, “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day, submit with ever fiber of your being. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

Following Jesus means discipline, and staggering rewards.

The restlessness-quenching streams of the living water

of the Spirit flowing from us. And Christ himself, living bread,

to help us feel alive inside, not dead. Besides, He occasionally

guides us to the one fish with a silver coin in its mouth,

or shoals of 153 fish when we’ve laboured fruitlessly for decades.

And, sometimes, he converts our water to wine, and multiplies

our efforts a thousand-fold, giving us, in his phrase,

all the things non-believers run after. Jesus, following you

is so worth it. Spirit, help us to do so. Amen.

If you’d like to listen my previous recorded meditations, they are here.

They are also availabe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or Audible. Please subscribe to read them the moment they appear, and I would be very grateful for reviews and ratings!!

And, of course, I would love you to read my memoir, Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India in the UK, and in the US, here, well, and widely available, online, worldwide 🙂 Or my book of essays, Wandering Between Two Worlds, UK or US, or my children’s book Francesco, Artist of Florence in the UK, or the US.

Persistent Prayer Turns Christ’s Silence, His “No,” and “Absolutely Not” to “YES!”

By Anita Mathias

From Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry

(The transcript to the recorded podcast meditation is below, here).

Persistent Prayer Turns Christ’s Silence, His “No,” and “Absolutely Not” to YES!

So, a Gentile Syro-Phoenician woman comes to Jesus, crying out,

“Lord, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly.” But

Jesus remains silent. Undeterred, the woman keeps crying out.

And Jesus snubs her: “I was sent only to the lost

sheep of Israel.” But she can’t believe “No” could be

his final word. “Lord, help me,” she says simply. And

then, a crushing rebuff. “It is not right to take

the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” But hitting

rock bottom makes your prayers strangely powerful. “Yes,

it is right, Lord,” she contradicts him, “Even dogs eat crumbs

that fall.” Dogs, never entitled, hungry, humble, grateful, happy.

And Jesus praises her dogged faith in his goodness and

power. Her faith catalyses the miracle she longs for. He

says, “Woman, you have great faith. Your request is granted.”

Never passively accept any apparently intractable situations.

Reality is infinitely malleable in the hands of God. We pray,

and people change, circumstances change. We change. So

keep praying until little drops of the kindness of God

soften and change the impossible situation and your heart.

So take your little mustard seed of mountain-moving faith in the

goodness of God, and pray, seeing the kind Jesus in your mind’s eye.

Continue praying, past God’s silence, his “No,” and “Absolutely Not,”

until Christ, charmed, says, “Yes. It’s time! Go, girl, go. This way.”

Dream big and wide like childless Abraham stepping outside,

dazzled by an immensity of stars, and believing God’s power

could give him as many descendants. But don’t waste your

passion and dream-energy. Pray for things that will bring you

joy, yes, but will also bless myriad others, creating something,

in Milton’s phrase, that the world will not willingly let die.

Each of Jesus’s prayers were not answered affirmatively; neither

will each of our requests be granted. We are not wise enough

to know what best to pray for. But prayer, incredibly, does change

things. So keep praying for the shimmering dream which makes

your heart burn and quiver; pray past apparent impossibility until

the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and you live and work

and create with God’s spirit energising and filling you. Amen.

(Matthew 15: 21-28)

If you’d like to read my previous recorded meditations, they are here.

If you’d like to follow these meditations the moment they appear, please subscribe to Christian Meditation with Anita Mathias at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts,

Amazon Music or Audible. And I would be very grateful for reviews and ratings!!

And, of course, I would love you to read my memoir, fruit of much “blood, sweat, toil and tears.”

Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India in the UK, and in the US, here, well, and widely available, online, worldwide 🙂

Grab Christ’s Hand When You Are Sinking

By Anita Mathias

Hi friends, I’ve recorded a podcast meditation, which I hope you’ll enjoy. Feedback welcome 🙂

Sometimes, the little boat of your life is tossed in

the darkness, in a storm-swept lake, far from shore,

It’s buffeted by waves, with the wind against it. And a dark

figure looms, walking on water, and you cannot see his face,

and you do not know his name, and you are terrified.

And in the encircling gloom, Christ always speaks the same

magnificent words, “Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid.”

He comes to us in the darkness, a future that looks bleak,

with unsolvable relational difficulties or financial difficulties, or

when intellect, energy, and organisation feel puny, matched with

our dreams and calling. But it is Christ. Do not be afraid.

And Peter, the risk-taker, from an overabundance of love and

impulsivity, says, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on

the water.” And Jesus speaks another of his great words, “Come.”

Jesus, the merciful, did not ask Peter to do something that

transcended the humanly possible and Peter’s faith, but

since Peter wanted to get to Jesus as quickly as possible, and to

do whatever Jesus did, he gives him permission to walk on water.

We sometimes yearn to do things for which we know we don’t

have the money, time, abundant gifting, or even the character.

Never begin them before you’ve prayed, “Lord, tell me to do it.”

If he says, “Come,” start tackling the impossibility, immediately.

And Peter walks on water, until he sees the almost visible wind,

is afraid, and begins to sink. Fear paralyses, sinks, and destroys.

And Peter prays a powerful prayer, “Lord, save me.” And

immediately, Jesus reaches out his hand and catches him,

scolding, “Oligopistos. You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”

And the wind dies down, and Peter learns to keep his eyes

on Jesus and his power when he attempts the impossible,

and to cry out for Jesus’s help when he begins to sink.

Help us, Jesus, you who control the wind and waves,

and all things, when we are sinking in the darkness,

and all seems impossible. Tell the wind to be quiet.

Take my hand, precious Lord. Lead me on. Let me stand. Amen.

Archives for 2023

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