MEMORIES OF REFLECTIONS

Saint Augustine said:

Love,

Endures in adversity

It shows prudence in prosperity

It is strong in suffering

It rejoices in good deeds

It is safe in temptation

It is generous in hospitality

Cheerful among true brothers

Patient with the faithless

It is the soul of the Scriptures

The virtue in prophecy

The salvation of the mysteries

It is the strength of knowledge

The bounty of faith

It is wealth for the poor

Life for the dying

Love, is everything.

 

I have suffered with disease and creeping disability most of my adult life. Diagnosed with aggressive multiple sclerosis at thirty, I endured a muriate of frightening neurological symptoms for decades. I am an old man now. Looking back, I’ve come to the same conclusion: Love is everything. Even when the body fails, love remains.  Love is the only possession we can take from this life. 

 

Saint Paul wrote about love. He said that even if we were to possess all knowledge and have profound spiritual gifts, and have faith that can move mountains, if we do not have love, we are nothing. 

 

Loveless faith is harsh, unbending, legalistic. Loveless faith lacks the love of Christ. Real love has certain characteristics. Augustine spoke of them in the passage above.  Paul said:

 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

My life has been a journey toward love—at times halting and uncertain, jealous and envious, often miserly in its expression. But God has been slowly teaching, wooing, chastening then blessing.   

“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Again, Saint Paul’s words. Saint Augustine understood. No doubt, he drew much of his understanding on love from the 13^th Chapter of 1Corinthians. It has blessed and inspired humanity, and read at countless weddings.

For me, it was a passage of the holy Scriptures I kept in mind and close to my heart during my worst attacks of multiple sclerosis. And they were bad, so bad that my doctor did not think I would live more than a few years after being diagnosed. The best doctors could do nothing to stop the savage attacks and slow degeneration. My wife had to watch it all ! She was convinced she would be widowed as a young mother with two children.  That’s how bad things got during the 1980s and ‘90s.

American author, lawyer and senior Fellow for the Discovery Institute’s Center for Human Exceptionalism met me. He described what he saw:

“I met Mark in the early 1990s and we became good friends. When I met him, he could barely walk using two canes because of his progressive MS. Over time, I observed his physical condition worsen, to the point he became triplegic, that is, was only able to use his left arm. He had no use of his legs whatsoever.”

Yes, the MS also began to affect my left arm and hand. My neurologist had exhausted all his treatment options. He resorted to administering the chemotherapy drug mitoxantrone (at that time still an experimental treatment for MS) to try and stave off quadriplegia. It had some ugly side-effects and was discontinued. 

During those dark days, the knowledge that I was loved, and had always been loved, became magnified—it was my comfort and my consolation. One night I was lying awake on my bed in the middle of the night, gazing at the shadowy hoist hovering above me (used to help get me out of bed). I thought about what I'd lost over the years: My career, my health, use of my body, many friends and family. The words of Job came to me:

“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19.25-27)

 

Throughout the ages, a great sea of heavy-hearted humanity have identified with Job's words, the words of a man who lost everything: his health, his children, his wealth. His "friends" Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar taunted him under the guise of comfort. Even Job’s wife taunted him: “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die.” (2.9).  And yet, even in his deepest sorrow and discouragement, Job cursed the day he was born, but not God. 

 

Those of us who have passed through that great sea of heavy-hearted humanity, can learn much from Job. Even if we die having lost everything in this world, through faith in Jesus Christ, we will have everything in the next world. Job reminds us that although our flesh will be destroyed, we shall see God. 

 

The love we take from this life will be perfected as we enter God's perfect love. All things will be made new for us who believe in His Son! 

Mark 

 

 

THE GREAT COMMISSION IN A WORLD OF WOKE, VICTIMHOOD AND IDENTITY POLITICS

 

Then Jesus came to them and said, 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has

 been given to me.  Therefore go and make

 disciples of all nations, baptizing them 

in the name of the Father and of the Son

 and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them

 to obey everything I have commanded you. 

And surely I am with you always, 

to the very end of the age.” — Matthew 28.18-20

 

Christ has trusted faithful Christians, great and small, who came after the disciples throughout 2,000 years of history, up to this day, to take His great commission to the world. At times they were faltering and uncertain in their witness to those around them, just like Christians today.  That’s because they were flawed and frail humans, just like us. But Christ was with them, as He is with us. That is what He said in the Scripture passage above. He would be with us, in the form of the Third Member of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit. 

 

“But when the Helper comes, 

whom I shall send to you from the Father, 

the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, 

He will testify of Me.”[1]

 

The Helper He referred to—the Spirit of truth—is the Holy Spirit. The Helper is with us when we testify for Christ, the Pascal mystery, and the salvation that is offered to all through the Cross and the price Christ paid for our sins, to reconcile us to a perfect God. Jesus said that once He left the world and ascended to the Father the Holy Spirit would do certain things in the world and guide those who testify about Jesus and take the good news of salvation to everyone.

“… I will send Him [The Holy Spirit] to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. . . . I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.”[2]

Not only do we have the Holy Spirit to guide us in the world, we also have Christ’s example and teachings in matters faith, conduct and morality. Christ said if we love Him then we will keep His commandments.[3] He told us to love one another as He loves us.[4] He said  the greatest commandment is to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”[5]  He told us to love one another as He first loved us.[6]

 

For those of us who have encountered Christ, the living Christ, we know He is the only lasting peace we have ever known.[7] Internal peace of the heart touched by the Holy Spirit. It is inexplicable. It is beyond human understanding.[8]  How can we keep such peace to ourselves? From that peace springs love; from that love joy blooms almost too sweet to bear. To love God and be loved by God, they are the real reasons you and I were created.[9]  All else is ultimately inconsequential.

 

From Love’s radiance I have discovered purpose and meaning to my life, even at my lowest points of paralysis with multiple sclerosis when my legs became useless, and right hand could not even hold a spoon. He was there and the Holy Spirit’s internal light drove away the shadows of terror and despair. I have learned that the final reality is Jesus Christ. Do the politically correct and woke crowd expect me to remain quiet about the only hope I have ever known? Fat chance! They proselytize for their new paganism replete with gender confusion that defies biology, misandry, angry identity politics that flourishes in a quest for victimhood that gives birth to a new anti-Caucasian racism. And I’m not supposed to evangelize for Christ? I won’t be silenced. The gospel message is where divine love, lasting happiness is to be found. From love of neighbour grows consistent and enduring charity. 

 

The prevailing liberal left offer neo-Marxism (and a new elite) to replace Christian western civilization that raised humanity higher than any civilization in history. It is against this new backdrop of 21^st Century madness that Christians find themselves. It is imperative that we do exactly what Jesus told us to do:  “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

 

We are to make disciples of Jesus Christ everywhere throughout the world. Indeed, He is with us. We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls and minds, and love our neighbours as ourselves.  We are to reflect the towering love of Christ for humanity to those who shout us down, shut us down, tear up the streets of our cities, slander and “cancel” us.  Am I saying that Divine love is the antidote to hate, that inner peace brings outer peace? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Christ’s love did that for someone as despicable as me. why it won’t do that for other people better than me?  

MDP 

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[1] John 15.26.

[2] John 16.7b-15.

[3] John 14.15.

[4] John13.34-35.

[5] Matthew 22.36-40, cf. Mathew 19.19, Mark 12.28-31, Luke 10.25-28.

[6] 1 John 4.19.

[7] John 14.27. 

[8] Philippians 4.7.

[9]Genesis 1.26, 1 John 4.7-17

BE A WITNESS FOR CHRIST IN COMING DAYS EVEN IF IT HURTS

 The future threatens to be difficult for Christians. Governments are apt to pass laws and implement policies that directly offend Christian consciences, not only in America but internationally, as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Civil disobedience may be required. Christians can expect to be pressed to the wall to accept immorality or told not to evangelize. At some point we will have to choose whether we will obey man or God. Do not be surprised when this happens. Remember that the Apostles faced similar predicaments. 

“The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name [Jesus],” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!””[1]

 

You may have noticed anti-Christian bigotry and hostility are increasing and becoming bolder, more overt. Our once great western Christian civilization is being attacked and brought down at every turn. I fear direct legal and technological persecution of the church, its people, its ministries, hospitals and education. Prepare yourselves. We will need the wisdom of Solomon to discern what we must do. For example, will we be intimidated into silence about the wanton slaughter of the youngest members of the human family by abortion?  Will we lose our tongues over medical killing by lethal injections of suicidal disabled and terminally ill people.

 

We must remember that medicine used be Hippocratic: Doctors pledged to obey the ancient Hippocratic Oath which prohibited both abortion and euthanasia.  But Hippocratic medicine has been overthrown by an aberrant, distorted form of medicine governed by bioethical utilitarianism. Clever wordsmiths euphemistically promote killing of unwanted pre-born children as "choice" or "reproductive rights." They couch euthanasia as "self-determination" and "autonomy" for those with serious disabilities and have despaired of life. The disabled and terminally ill who are suicidal get medical help killing themselves by lethal injections euphemistically “medical assistance in dying” when in fact it is medical killing. Homicide. Do not be swayed by clever wordsmiths who will make evil sound good and good sound evil, or what is right appear wrong and what’s wrong appear right. There will come a time—not so far in the future—when obeying Christ’s great commission will be prohibited, under the guise of tolerance, or some other pretence. Will we obey man or Christ:

 

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”[2]

 

Do not be surprised if the Bible is declared hate literature. In some jurisdictions, it already has been. It may even banned from libraries, hotels and schools. Beware, we are entering into a treacherous time of shadows. 

 

Perhaps the barbaric Brave New World we are entering will provide opportunities for your greatest witness as you stand with the light of Christ shining in you against the darkness of a twisted generation of unbridled depravity. We do not yet know the full darkness of the abyss into which we are descending, but Christ will be with us. The psalmists wrote:

 

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.[3]

 

There is nowhere on earth that God’s presence is not found. Remember what He said to Jeremiah:

 

“Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,

“And not a God far off?

“Can a man hide himself in hiding places

So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.[4]

 

Regardless of what depravity, brutality, persecution and fear we may face in the coming years, God is all-seeing, all-knowing, and He will be with his people. Do not lose your moral courage. He is with you and me.  I know this first-hand: He has been near to me throughout 35 years of neurological terrors of MS, and cancer. Like Saint Paul, I am convinced nothing can separate us from the love of God.

 

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[5]

Stand strong, fellow Christians. Witness for the hope of Christ that abides in you.

MDP

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[1] Acts 5.27-29. Cf. Acts 4.18-20.

[2] Matthew 28.19-20.

[3] Psalm 139.7-10.

[4] Jeremiah 23.24.

[5] Romans 8.38-39.

FROM PHYSICAL BROKENNESS CAN COME SPIRITUAL HEALING

God can use us in any circumstance in which we may find ourselves, even dire circumstances. Dire circumstances and pain are teachers, if we listen for God's voice. I have been chronically ill and physically disabled with severe multiple sclerosis for over 36 years—more than half of my life. Strangely, I have been more use to God disabled than I ever was able-bodied. It was at a certain point of disability and sorrow that I asked God what He wanted me to do? He led me to speak out across North America about disability inclusion and against an emerging cultural acceptance of euthanasia.

And so from 1994-2018 I spoke to anyone who would listen to what I had to say. I spoke to community groups, colleges and universities, politicians at provincial, state and federal levels, evangelical and Catholic groups, churches, medical professionals, disability organizations, legal organizations—literally anyone and any place that invited me. Unless speaking about public policy in government settings, I used every opportunity to witness for Christ. Today, I was sent a link to a 2016 presentation I gave in Ottawa, Canada, to the annual conference of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF). They asked me to speak on the subject of "I AM MORE THAN MY DISABILITY." Click on image below. 

[NB: Notice the first inklings of my useless right hand awakening from MS paralysis.) I did not know then that a prayer not yet prayed was being answered ever so slowly. By 2019 I was walking after decades of paralysis in my legs, and regained full function of my right arm and hand.)