Traditions
FEAR
He is Arisen!
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
There are
legions of us asking that very question in languages other than Latin. The
world is not the one we remember as a child. Arriving at the same conclusion
but perhaps through different indicators, tumult reigns ever more supreme. Up
is down and right is wrong.
What is
truth?
The answer
is not coming from elected leaders. If it was, the seats and the tables of the
endless-money changers would be overturned. Their doves of arbitrage would be
released, and they would be driven from the halls of false leadership.
Change
would be immediate.
There would be a rapid return to
gatherings in places like Kenna in rural New Mexico where like-minded men meet once
a year to pray together in unabashed joy. Churches on the west side of El Paso,
central Ft. Collins, and Cliff, alongside the Gila River in Grant County, would
welcome worshipers with not just open doors, but by the laying on of hands.
Masks would be thrown away so that those who need to read lips and facial
expressions could join in the exchange of greetings and well wishes.
Many more sunrise services would be
scheduled where families of faith could view the spectacle of a new day by
praying to the Creator of all things … rather than the abstract and beauty of
His creation.
Traditions
This weekend should have been
centered on the crowning Christian holy day of the church year.
It should have started with the
traditional day of prayer and fasting on Good Friday. The real meaning of
Easter, the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, should have
been at the center of the reflection.
Daily meditation complete with the
scripture lessons of each day should have added to the importance of the
season. The Stations of the Cross along with your own Divine Prayers of Mercy
would have brought the importance of Easter morning into brighter view.
We should have been taught that
constant prayer holds us closer to God. The daily Gospel, the Rosary, a litany
for the unborn, and individual meditation all add to process, but the foundation
is eternal and most important.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
FEAR
Worldly fear is an emotion that most
of us share these days.
If our attention was absolute,
though, the Easter weekend would have reminded us our view of fear is
misplaced. In faith, it stands in juxtaposition to the Biblical expression of FEAR.
We exist within a divine order.
These distinctions are fundamental.
It starts with creation and the Creator.
Then, there is God and man. There is man and woman. There is animal and man. There
is secularism and there is Divine Soul. There is evil and there is good, and
then, there is fear and FEAR.
All the former is the body of
Christianity as set forth in constant biblical study. It is the latter that
holds the key to our salvation.
Fear is worldly. FEAR is Biblical.
The Bible is full of this reference
(here is a list of 38 references). If reading through the scripture
emphasizing real FEAR ushers forth a dread of the obvious, then the lesson is
incomplete and misunderstood. The lesson of Easter is divinely simplistic.
FEAR God, not man!
Among the many scriptures setting
forth this concept of FEAR, Luke1:50 is most simplistic. And His mercy is
upon generation after generation. Toward those who FEAR Him.
It is God we seek and not the works
of man that surround us. Glorious Word! Now reconciled is God, my Lord!
What we see and experience all
around us is not a foundation of morality, but a consequential and improper
devotion to an imperfect society. Our
test and our objective must be the making of good people, individuals who
understand liberty is not just a word but a Biblical expectation.
There is hope … He is Arisen!
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “Thanks to Don, Pat, and Luke
for their words and acts of inspiration for this imperfect attempt to elevate
and separate the fear of our surroundings with the FEAR of eternal Grace and
Salvation.”
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