E Pluribus Unum

3^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

Is 8:23-9:3-1

Ps 27:1,4,13-14

1 Cor 1:10-13, 17

Mt 4: 12-23

The United States of America. One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for All. E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One.

There is strength in numbers. There is power in unity. This has been proven time and again. The 13 colonies ditched the Articles of Confederation and joined together under the Constitution because there are some things that can only be done by a unified nation. National defense, consistency in laws, a strong economy.

People always come together under common beliefs, values, and goals. That is not a coincidence. That is one way we as human beings image God. One God, three divine persons. There are many parts, but one body in Christ. A house divided against itself cannot stand. One bread, one body, one cup of blessing.

We hear today the prophecy of Isaiah regarding Zebulun and Naphtali, how the people in darkness have seen the light. You may recall that when the Israelites left Egypt and settled in the promised land, they did so according to their tribes – the 12 tribes of Israel. 10 settled in the northern part of the land and 2 settled in the south. King David was the first to unify the tribes into one nation, however, after his reign the kingdom split into two, Israel in the North and Judah in the south, each with their own kings.

The Assyrians invaded the Northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC and carried the 10 tribes there off into captivity. One reason Assyria was able to do this is because Israel and Judah were no longer unified, and therefore were weakened. The remnant that remained in Israel intermarried and assimilated over time with various foreign groups. Two of those tribes were Zebulun and Naphtali.

Unity and purity of belief have always been two of the most important values of the Jewish people. They have worked very hard to maintain their particular identity as God’s chosen people by not intermarrying and assimilating into the cultures they have inhabited. Those who did were considered unclean and were to be avoided and even shunned. That is why the people who lived in Zebulun and Naphtali were considered to be in darkness. They had been cut off from the unified nation, they had defiled themselves by assimilating. They were impure and were therefore were without hope. They were considered Gentiles, not Jews.

That area is also known as Galilee. And it was no coincidence that Jesus chose to live there, chose to begin his ministry there, laid the foundations of his church in the apostles there. Jesus did not simply desire that his church be unified with him in all things, he actually said that he and the church are one in the same thing. He prayed, “that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”  And he left us the greatest sign and creator of unity in all of history, the Eucharist.

But maintaining unity is difficult. We hear St. Paul say today,

I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.

From the very beginning of the Church there have been divisions. We hear today that the Corinthians were already taking sides, this one following Apollos, this other one Cephas, and yet another Paul. And it’s a natural thing to do. We do it ourselves. We prefer this priest or that, this pope or that, this politician or that. And I think that we follow them because they agree with us. Their worldview parallels ours, and that makes us feel justified and important.

Human beings have always joined themselves in factions, usually based upon what we feel best serves our interests. We naturally are attracted to people and movements that coincide with and reinforce our own beliefs. Ironically, in this way when we group ourselves with others we do it for completely selfish reasons. It really isn’t about the group, it is about us.

And I think the most destructive thing about this tribalism is that typically it moves beyond just identifying with a specific group to vilifying and demonizing people outside the group, who do not agree with our worldview. Factionalism often leads to arrogance and discrimination and closemindedness. It can ultimately lead to violence astonishingly quickly.

So, St. Paul is understandably frustrated. Didn’t they get it? It wasn’t about a human being’s thoughts or teachings or eloquence. It was about Jesus. It is about God. The one person who can truthfully claim that it is all about him is Jesus. The deeper your understanding of your discipleship, the more you become like Jesus and the more he becomes the center of your life.

It’s like a cup of water. It can only hold so much. If you fill it with something else the water must be displaced. The more we let Jesus fill our souls the less space we ourselves will take up.

I think that’s what the apostles experienced when Jesus called them by the seashore. Their lives were filled with the cares and simple joys of their everyday lives. Like us, they were focused on themselves, even though they were devoutly religious people. Their belief in God was very important to them, but it wasn’t everything. They needed to make more room in their lives for God.

Jesus had one consistent message throughout his earthly ministry – “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Sometimes he referred to the Kingdom of Heaven, like today. Either way, the message is the same, for them and for us. I think we all too often think of God as being somewhere else. God is in heaven, a place we have some foggy idea of. Every now and then we are aware of God’s presence in our world; when we reach out to him in our distress, when we thank him for something wonderful that has been given to us, when we see the beauty around us in nature and in one another. For most of us, we move through awareness and unawareness of God.

Jesus is telling us something different today. He is saying that God is not somewhere else, he is here. And he is immanent, here at this very time in our lives and active in history. There are some people who view God almost like a celestial watchmaker. He has fashioned an unimaginably complex universe, set it in motion, and then lets it run by itself with no continuing interference from him.

But the reality of the incarnation – God become man – refutes that belief. Our king is so involved in our lives, in every area and fiber of our lives that he chose to become one of us. He is intimately a part of who we are and who we are destined to be. We are fully human when we rally around our king. We are fulfilling our destiny when we subjugate our will to His.

Jesus urges his disciples to be united around their king. But it’s so much more than just being subjects of the king. No matter how benevolent an earthly king is, there is still always a degree of separation between him and his subjects. Jesus said that our unity with our king is so much deeper, the lines of separation destroyed.

We are unified around our king. He is and should be the center of everything in our lives. It is difficult I think for us to submit to our king. As I said before, we gravitate towards those who agree with us. With God it’s different. We should not rally around our king because he agrees with us but because we agree with him. We are subjects, not the king ourselves. It is easy to forget that sometimes, especially in our self-centered society.

Remember that the beginning of Jesus’ call to us is the word “Repent”. We are to first and foremost get our relationship right with our God. We need to realize that we all have the need to repent, to change, to turn from our sinfulness and re-orient ourselves to God each and every day. And the best way to do that is to participate in the Mass, to partake of the one loaf and the one cup, to become one with Jesus body and blood, soul and divinity. To become Jesus active in the world today. To become what you eat.

Just as Jesus fulfilled the prophecy by bringing the gentiles and the outcasts back into union with the chosen people, he does the same with everyone who seeks him. The kingdom of God is at hand, and it is one kingdom. It is one kingdom of hope and of peace, and it is achievable and real.

Leave behind your tribe. Leave behind your faction. Leave behind anything and everything that causes division and strife in your church and in your life, and switch your allegiance to the King.

That is the one path to being truly happy in this life and in the kingdom to come.

Gaudete!

3^rd Sunday of Advent

Gaudate Sunday

Cycle A

I woke up this morning in the middle of a Hallmark Channel movie. I live in a small town away from the hustle and bustle of the city. A gentle snow was falling, the house was warm and quiet and decorated for Christmas. There was a tree and ornaments and stockings hung on the fireplace. There was hot coffee and warm blankets, a beautiful woman at my side (although she’s not a blonde) and a dog at my feet. It was like I was living in a snow globe.

That’s what we have come to expect from Christmastime. And that’s how I categorize it. The secular season I call Christmastime. The religious observation is Advent. And every once in a while the two seasons connect, but oftentimes not.

Advent is different from Christmastime. Both are all about anticipation, but what we are anticipating in each is very different. Both set expectations, but one will never fully satisfy. One is looking forward to a day, a single day, and the anticipation is mostly around what we are going to receive. Christmastime is about an experience, one that will soon end. Advent is looking forward to what that first Christmas day put into motion. The incarnation of the Lord paved the way for eternity. The first coming of the Lord set in motion the second coming.  The birth of Jesus was the beginning of something that will never end.

Christmastime as the world now celebrates it is empty. It is never really like we image it should be. My house will never be a beautiful as in a Hallmark movie. The problems in my life will never be neatly wrapped up and resolved in the same way they are in an hour and a half on TV. And we never seem to be satisfied. It’s like the anticipation of little children. They are not excited about the day as much as about what they will receive that day. Have you ever seen it? They are so excited with this present in their hands, but as soon as they open this one they are looking to the next, and the next, and the next. They tear into their presents to see what they are and then push them aside so they can get the next one. And two weeks later, many of the toys will be forgotten, meaningless, nothing special. It seems to be a metaphor for life in the US in general. Disposable joy.

And Christmastime ends abruptly once Christmas day is over. You see it driving down the street the day after Christmas, with all the Christmas trees lying on the side of the road or, here in Park City, piled up at various empty lots around town. We must set aside this holiday to prepare for the next. On to New Year’s Eve! Break out the Valentine’s candy!

For those who understand the season of Advent, Christmas day is not the end but the beginning. If we celebrated it correctly, we would wait to put up our decorations until Christmas Eve, then keep them up until January 12 for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That is the true liturgical Christmas season. But we start preparing for Christmas sometime around Halloween – that’s when the stores start putting everything out – and very rarely do we see or hear any reference to Jesus and the incarnation. It’s all Santa Claus and Elf on a Shelf. You can now go the entire season and never hear a Christmas carol that mentions the Christ child.

But today is different. Today is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing. We have been preparing our hearts and minds for the true meaning of Christmas, and now the end is in sight. We have been observing Advent, not Christmastime, and it’s time to stop and contemplate the wonderfulness of the gift we are about to receive. It is now time to rejoice because the finish line is in sight. Not presents and festivities but the greatest gift of all – eternal life with Jesus in heaven. We look forward to our salvation, when Jesus Christ returns in his glory and all creation is made new again.

The readings today speak of justice, of setting things right again. When sin entered the world the result was suffering, pain, and brokenness. When the Son of Man returns in his glory everything will be made whole again, as the creator has always intended it to be. It is good and necessary that we stop today and focus on the prize, because it is difficult to see the summit sometimes when we’re down in the weeds.

We speak of peace on earth, goodwill towards all, and we know deep down that that is what we truly crave. The peace of the Lord is different from the peace of the earth. We long for a time when there is no strife or war or suffering or broken relationships, because we feel the anxiety and pain that those things cause us. We seek relief from our suffering. The peace of Jesus Christ is deeper than that and is not dependent on any outside influences. The peace of the earth is the absence of something. The peace of Jesus Christ is the restoration of everything. It is the peace of Adam and Eve in the garden, who had their every need and desire provided, and had the contentment of children, walking hand in hand with their father in paradise.

In fact, Adam and Eve had no wants and desires, because they lacked nothing. They didn’t even know what a desire was, because they had never experienced want. That’s what heaven will be like. That’s what Jesus promised would be restored to all of creation. There will be no regrets of the past and no worries for the future. There will be no blindness nor deafness nor feebleness nor fear. Everything will just be as it intended to be. That is true peace.

Jesus began the work of restoration in his earthly ministry. It was not an accident that he was a healer. He was not just alleviating his children’s suffering as a loving father would, he was restoring them to their intended state. He was reconciling the world to himself. Just as infirmity entered the world through sin, the natural outcome of the messiah’s reconciliation would be the alleviation of suffering. John the Baptist understood the scriptures, and that is why Jesus answered him the way he did. Jesus wasn’t just offering his works as proof that he was the messiah, he was telling John that the prophecies of hope were true, and he was the fulfillment of them.

The peace of Jesus Christ can be present in your life even as you are experiencing earthly sufferings. It is a paradox that your sufferings can actually bring you that peace. Many of us know people who have that peace in the midst of suffering. I think it is because they have completely surrendered themselves to the Lord, as Jesus did. Jesus submitted to the will of his father and had no attachments to worldly things. He never thought about his own needs because he trusted that his father would provide everything he needed. That trust extended to the cross itself, and the resurrection was vindication of that trust. And Jesus was glorified because of it.

That is our future, if we are persistent in our anticipation. We focus on these things for these four weeks of Advent every year, but we are called by Jesus to live that anticipation every day. We have been given the great promise of hope, and we must live as people of hope. We start by holding that hope in our own hearts. If we do, that hope will naturally extend out from us to our families, our friends, our community. That hope will renew the face of the earth. That hope is cause for great rejoicing.

Gaudete!

Keep the Faith

29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle C

But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

I wonder…was Jesus just musing, or was he exasperated? Was he frustrated that his disciples just didn’t get it? Was he feeling that he was wasting his time, that people just weren’t getting the message or were willing to make the necessary effort? I can imagine how he felt. I’ve raised teenagers.

This passage in Luke’s gospel falls at the end of one of Jesus’ discourses about the end of the world, when the Son of Man will come again in his glory. He says that many who think they will be saved will not be and many that the righteous think are unworthy will be saved. Narrow is the door, and many will not enter it.

It’s easy to think the same thing in our world today. We can look around at the state of our culture and the trends in the churches and ask if we are facing a dwindling of faith. It seems that every few weeks this poll or that comes out with more depressing news. The Pew Research Center released their annual survey of the religious affiliations in the US this past week and it showed that the number of American adults who identify as Christian continues to drop, from 65% to 60% in the past decade, and the Catholic population has fallen from 23% to 20%. Those “nones” continue to grow, which means that when people leave they are not jumping to another denomination or religion, they are just ceasing to believe in any religion at all. We see these statistics and it’s easy to get frustrated or discouraged.

And I bet that practically all those people who leave still believe in God and still believe they will go to heaven. Because all good people go to heaven, don’t they? And most people, if not all, are good, basically, aren’t they? Narrow is the door, and many will seek to enter it, but it will be closed to them.

The danger today is not the enemy without, it is the enemy within. And the enemy is not persecution as much as complacency.

When Jesus told the disciples how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they threw up their hands in frustration and asked, “Then can anyone be saved?” Jesus gives us the key today. Be persistent in your prayer to the point of annoyance. Pray always and everywhere, pray constantly, make your entire life a prayer, never stop asking your Father for what you need, never stop praising him, never stop asking for forgiveness, never stop thanking him for his mercy.

And if you tire, get your friends to help you. Like Moses in the first reading, when you just can’t keep doing it, when the battle seems lost, when there is no hope, surround yourself with people who will hold up your hands for you. Stay faithful together around the common goal of your salvation, and help each other get to heaven. That’s what religion is all about. Religion is people helping each other be faithful. Every person is given faith to some degree or other; religion is only what we do with that faith. And faith cannot be experienced or lived outside of a community of believers. One person is not an army. You cannot be saved alone.


And, you know, things are not as bleak as they may seem, both in Jesus’ day and in ours. Yes, most of his friends abandoned him, but eleven didn’t. And look what they ended up doing. And yes, Catholics are only 20% of the population, but that’s still over 66 million people in the US alone. Did you know that the Catholic population of Africa has grown 7000% since 1975? For centuries Christian missionaries have been going to Africa to try to spread the gospel for their salvation. Now, and it seems all of a sudden, African missionaries are coming here and spreading their enthusiasm for the Lord and His church with us. 

And then there’s the amazing growth of the church in South Korea, Vietnam, and even China. In communist China, with an atheistic population and such a repressive government, the population of Christians continues to rise. In the most recent internal surveys, Christians make up only 2.3% of China’s population, which translates to over 31 million people. It’s a small percentage but it’s still 31 million people. The church continues to live out the mission given to it, by loving God and our neighbor. We lift up the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and spread the hope of the risen Jesus, both collectively as church and in our own daily lives.

Jesus left us with the great commission to go and make disciples of all the nations, and we have. Christians inhabit every nation on earth, and millions are being added to the church every year. The problem is the lack of faith in the West. The place where Christianity began and flourished for over two thousand years is where the faith is dwindling the fastest. We have abandoned the very foundation of our civilization, and what have we replaced it with? We have nowhere to look but to ourselves. We have placed our faith not in God but in ourselves, in the very people who have proven themselves to be the most unfaithful to one another.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith in the United States of America? More specifically, will he find his church here?

God calls each-and-every human being ever created to Him. He reaches into the heart of every man, woman and child and draws them to himself. He has placed a hunger for Him in each human soul that cannot be satisfied with anything else. We can try to drown that hunger with all the world has to offer, but it will not be enough. Jesus promised that he would not leave his church -us- orphan. He would send His Spirit to strengthen and guide us through his church. He promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. And they won’t.

The question is not God’s faithfulness to us, it is our faithfulness to him.

Jesus never forces anyone to follow him. He never imposes, he proposes. He calls each-and-every one of us, but it’s ultimately up to each-and-every one of us, individually, to answer that call. We are called to love our neighbor, but we cannot force him or her to love. You will be judged on your answer to the call. When it all comes down to it, it’s really just about you and your faithfulness. How you run the race. How you live your commission as a disciple, the commission given to you at your baptism.

When the son of man comes again will he find any faith…in me?

So, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus,
who will judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingly power:
proclaim the word;
be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient;
convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.

Amen.