What Must We Do?

3rd Sunday of Advent
Year C


Shout for Joy, O daughter Zion! Sing Joyfully, O Israel! Be Glad and Exult, with all your heart!

Not much to rejoice about these days, is there? Things aren’t going so well, it seems. We have wars and terror, H1N1 and recession, joblessness and division. And isn’t that Tiger Woods thing just awful? We sing Joy to the World and we put up our trees and our lights, but this year Christmas just doesn’t seem the same as before. The only thing that does stay the same is the way that Christmas is less and less about Christ and more and more about us and our stuff.

Zephaniah had it much the same way. He lived in the Northern kingdom of Judah during the time just before the Assyrians wiped it out and carried the people off to slavery. His gripe was that the people had lost sight of their religious traditions and were worshipping foreign gods. They were worshipping idols and animals and kings, just like we worship money and cars and ipods. They were not faithful to their God and sure enough bad things were in store for them unless they turned back to him.

The more things change the more they stay the same, don’t they?

But Zephaniah is also the one who told the people to shout for joy, be glad and exult. He starts out with a message of destruction, gloom and doom, and ends with a message of hope. His good news is that no matter how unfaithful we are, God is always faithful to us. No matter how bad things seem, we should always rejoice that our God is here for us. God never changes, but we need to.

John the Baptist also preached a message of change. The people who were coming to John were not the most well-liked people in society. They were some of the most hated: tax collectors and Roman soldiers. They were also some of the most feared. These were people who made their living taking advantage of their neighbors. They heard John’s message of repentance and wanted to know what they had to do to turn their lives around. And John didn’t ask them to do anything drastic. He told them to start with the simple things like treating people fairly and being content with their lives. John focused not on the woes of society but on individuals in relationships. If we get our everyday relationships right, everything else will fall into place.

John wanted his disciples not to just feel bad for their actions and just change their behavior for a while. John preached a baptism of conversion. Conversion means a change of perspective, an altering of one’s direction or changing one’s allegiance, or a turning around. And it is not a temporary thing. It’s permanent. We need conversion to prepare ourselves for our most important relationship. The good news John preaches is that the ultimate cause for rejoicing is coming, is already here among us.

St. Paul suffered more for the good news than anyone else in his time. And yet he too tells us to rejoice. His message is the same as John’s. Be kind to all, have no anxiety and trust that the Lord will take care of you. Joy comes from an absence of anxiety. If you have joy you will be kind, because kindness is a direct result of joy. And being kind will also bring you joy.

Have no anxiety at all, but ask and receive all you need from God. We have a lot of anxiety in our lives these days. We’re losing jobs and homes and possessions, and we’re having to cut back a lot on what we usually do and buy during this season. Many of us are having to take stock in our lives and evaluate exactly what is and isn’t important. And all of this causes anxiety, not joy. It’s hard to simply trust. It’s hard to see beyond our current situation and have hope in the promises of Christ.

What must we do?

What would John the Baptist, and St. Paul, and Zephaniah say to us if they were living today? How would their message of hope be translated to the modern world? I don’t think it would change much, because human nature has not changed much since their time. Treat others well in our everyday situations. Keep it simple. Focus on our relationships, especially on those in our lives who are hurting. Be content with what we have. Remember what Christmas is truly all about. The over-commercialization of Christmas has taught us to never be content. Enough is never enough, nor is it good enough. Ask and receive all we need from God. Trust him. And rejoice that there is hope. Hope in our Savior whose coming we patiently await.

Do It 'Til It Hurts

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B
1 Kings 17:10-16
Heb 9:24-28
Mk 12:38-44

About 14 years ago St. Mary’s embarked on our capital campaign to build this beautiful new church. As part of the fundraising, we hired a professional consultant to help us. He said that as part of the fund raising effort we should have some people from the parish get up at Mass and tell everyone what they planned on giving to the project. As you might expect, there were some folks who said they’d give some substantial sums, after all, this is Park City. But most of the people said they would give smaller amounts, because that was all they could afford. The idea was not to show how rich some folks were and how not so rich others were. It was to show that everyone could give something, and that everyone should give enough to make a difference…to them, not to the building. The gifts given were to be enough so that it took a leap of faith to give them. To give out of our need, not our surplus. It’s not the amount that matters, but the cost.

We can see that wonderful things do come out of sacrificial giving. Beautiful buildings, wonderful programs, vital aid to those in need. But I wonder how that sacrificial giving affected the people who gave it. It would be interesting to have those same people who stood here fourteen years ago to commit to giving from their need, and hear how it ultimately affected their lives.

The two widows in today’s readings had no idea of how their lives would be affected by their decision to give until it hurt. They trusted in God open-endedly, with no conditions and without asking for anything in return. What we don’t hear in today’s scripture is that after the widow gave her all to Elijah, her son died, and Elijah restored him to life. She had no idea of the payback she would receive for her generosity. She gave anyway. She didn’t even believe in Elijah’s god. She gave anyway. We never hear if Jesus did anything for the widow in the gospel. He uses her to teach a lesson to his disciples and to us, but we don’t know if he ever said anything to her or did anything to ease her situation. The folks who gave generously to the building of the new St. Mary’s church had no idea what they would receive in return. But I would hazard a guess that they, like that poor widow, could point to many little things that have gone right in their lives since that time.


Why do we believe that if we do what is right God will reward us? Because the entire history of God’s interaction with the human race has had one consistency – God is always faithful to us, even when we abandon him. We heard it again today in the responsorial psalm: The Lord keeps faith forever. We never know how our lives will be enriched by our giving of ourselves to God and his people. We never know when it will happen either, but we believe that it will happen because we have faith in God’s faithfulness to us.

Why does God ask us to give out of our need? Why does he ask us to sacrifice for the benefit of others? Because he wants us to rely on him completely. He wants us to prove to ourselves that we can’t always do it all by ourselves. And he never lets us down when we surrender ourselves to his will. He wants us to be like Him, and he gave his only son to us to die for our sins on the cross. What better example of giving until it hurts?

A friend of mine told me once that he had been having a hard time breaking some sinful habits, and he had been embarrassed to keep going to confession and telling the priest the same sins over and over. In frustration he said he couldn’t seem to change his ways. His confessor stopped him in mid-sentence and said, “Wait right there. It’s not about you. That’s the problem. You can’t do it all by yourself. But God can. Give it to Him and let Him take those sins away.”

What are you carrying around in your heart that needs healing? What fears are keeping you awake at night? We all have them. And we all seem to want to take care of them all by ourselves. We don’t think God can help us, or we don’t even let God into the equation. And what do we do when God’s answer is for us to give more of ourselves? What do we do when we ask God to give us more and he turns around and says, “No, you give more instead?” What we have to offer may seem insignificant, but if we give it to God he will magnify it and use it for great good.

What these two widows did is extremely difficult for all of us. No matter how great our faith is, it is profoundly difficult to put our total trust in God. There is something within us all that looks for solutions to our problems outside of the realm of faith. Perhaps as rugged individualists we think that we can solve our own problems, conquer all obstacles ourselves. Certainly, we are all tempted to believe that the proper amount of cash applied in the right places can heal all ills.

I know you will agree that the great fallacy of our age is that money can solve our problems. It is the job of advertisers to convince us that we can buy happiness. The fact is that among those who have been blessed with material success the happiest are those who have no qualms about sharing their wealth. Too often the comfortable give to God as though they were poor. And the poor give to Him as though they were wealthy. And not just monetarily.

Someone has enumerated four different types of giving. The first is called grudge giving. I hate to part with this twenty dollars but I will. The second is shame giving. I must match whatever the Jones family is giving. The third is calculated giving. We part with our money with what, someone deliciously called, a "lively sense of favors to come." Bingos, Las Vegas nights, and raffle tickets fit in very nicely in this category. The final category is thanksgiving. I part with my funds precisely because God has been so wonderfully generous to me. The widow of today's Gospel fits comfortably into this area. The folks who gave so generously to the building of St. Mary’s do too.

This tale also points to another truth about our Christian selves. The majority of us do not fully give ourselves to Christ. We are marking time with our Catholic lives. We are hedging our bets. The clever Mark situates his famous story during the last week in the life of Jesus. None too subtly he is reminding us that in a few days He will give His life for us on Calvary. What do we give Him in return?

Good and Faithful Servant

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A
Prv 31:10-13, 19-20,30-31
1 Thes 5:1-6
Mt 25:14-30

My father died two years ago last September. He was a holy man. I remember him as a man of deep prayerfulness, gentle and kind. His was an innocent faith, not based upon great learning but on great love. He had been given many talents. Trained as a simple draftsman, he went on to become a designer of complicated machinery and a builder of homes. He could create wonderful things with his hands. And in everything he exhibited a wonderful enthusiasm…for his work, his family, his God, his life.

I remember him today for two reasons. First, because this reading was one we used at his funeral. Second, because in the month of November we remember those who have gone before us marked by the sign of faith. As I was preparing this homily his Mass card fell out of my prayer book, and something in me wanted to tell his story.

My dad was given much in this life, just like the servant in today’s gospel who was given the five talents. And like that servant, Dad invested his talents wisely. Not just the good things he was given, but also the bad. A talent in Jesus’ day was not a measure of money, it was a measure of weight. A talent weighed about 75 pounds, so five talents of silver was a considerable thing indeed. To invest it required strength, and usually a bit of help.

In the last third of his life, Dad’s talents were very heavy indeed. He was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx when he was 47, my age, and had his voice box removed completely. For an Italian male, that may be one of the worst things that could happen to you, to lose your ability to talk. One minute he could communicate and the next he was completely speechless. Completely helpless and dependent upon the help of others.

He invested those heavy talents well. He trained himself how to speak again, swallowing air in his eshophogus and letting it out slowly to form words. We said he sounded like a frog. He could have used a small electronic device to amplify his voice, but he didn’t because he wanted to show other people who had had laryengectomies that they could return to normal life again. He went on to do just that, even taking his place again on the altar as a lector.

The master was away a long time, and so the servants had a long time to invest the talents he left them. And the value of those talents compounded over time. My father eventually suffered through three more bouts with cancer over a 32 year period. He had prostate cancer, kidney cancer, and finally melanoma, which claimed him. By the time he died he was a physical shell of the strong, vibrant man he had been. But throughout all his sufferings he became a much stronger man, a much more peaceful man, a holy man. He took each and every one of those heavy talents and invested them in other people, in his faith, and in his family. He never did it with words, he did it by quietly taking each one and placing this one here with a prayer, that one there with a hug, and that one over there with a smile. The illnesses that could have ground him down in fear, that could have forced him to bury his talents in the ground, instead paid the greatest dividends. He died in great peace, not in fear.

I tell you this story today not to brag about my dad, although I do so unashamedly. It’s because we all know people like him. We remember them especially in the month of November each year. We have their names enshrined in the Book of the Dead on our altars, and we dust off their prayer cards and their pictures, and relive our moments with them. Many times they are still among us, are even here this morning. We realize that we are indeed given great things from our Master, and not all of them are pleasant. But they are all worthwhile and valuable, and we are called to invest them wisely.

A good and faithful servant is good and faithful in all things. We are all called to be that servant, and best of all, to share our master’s joy.

Never Surrender!

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle C
Mal 3:19-20
2 Thes 3:7-12
Lk 21:5-19

We’ve surrendered. We’ve given up. We suffer persecution and do nothing. We aren’t even aware we’re being persecuted.

Some of the persecution we suffer is outright.

Go to the other side of the world, and we find Christians being tortured in China. Caught distributing Bibles, the police tied John's hands behind his back, stood him on a wooden box in the prison courtyard, and put a noose around his neck. For twelve days, John stood on the box. No rest, no food. His legs swelled to twice their size. Finally, delirious, John fell. Impressed with his faith, the guards cut him down, and he lived.

Other persecutions of Christians include selling women and children into slavery. In Sudan, to become a Christian brings a death sentence under Sudanese criminal laws against apostasy. Soldiers will raid a village, kill the men, then sell the women and children as slaves. One slave, a 17 year old boy, was nailed to a board by his master and left to die. Other times government forces will raid a Christian village, burn it and all the crops. Any who survive can only escape across the desert in 115 degree heat. Sudanese Christians live with daily danger of being persecuted.

We are truly persecuted for our faith today. Around the world Christians are still being martyred by the thousands. Pope John Paul II called the 20th century the “Century of the Martyrs”, with more Christians killed for their faith in the last 100 years than in all other years since Christ combined. We don’t see Christians martyred in America today, but in a way we’re all martyrs. The word martyr means “witness”, and while we don’t shed our blood for Christ, we still suffer pain. While we may not die for our faith, we may commit social suicide for giving our testimony.


We're the lucky ones. In our country, Christians do not have to worry about being killed or tortured or sold into slavery. But, don't think we are not persecuted. Just by more subtle persecutions.

There’s a lot of Catholic bashing going on today, and we’re blind to it. Some of it is because we’re the big kid on the block, and it’s the American way to take pot shots at large organizations, whether it’s the government, or Wal Mart, or the Catholic Church. But it seems that the last acceptable prejudice out there is anti-Catholicism. Our clergy are portrayed in movies and on television as either corrupt perverts or bumbling fools, but never with any respect. We’re annoyed to read that the Southern Baptist Convention shuns prayer with other Christians. Even pronouncing that Roman Catholics are not legitimate Christians. Any time our bishops speak out on a moral issue threatening us today they’re brushed off as part of the wacko religious fringe. How can they talk about morality after what they’ve done? You’d never hear people talking about the Jews or the Muslims the way they talk about us. And nobody says a word to defend us.

We’re persecuted by a law that states that it’s ok to rip a baby out of its mother’s womb because the right to make a choice is greater than the right to live. We’re persecuted by the fact that our tax dollars are used to fund Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the country, without our consent. We’re persecuted by a science that says it’s ok to manufacture fetuses and clones for medical research. We’re persecuted by the media that throws ever more graphic sex and violence at our senses, numbing us and making the bizarre seem ordinary.

Why don’t we speak up to give witness to the gospel? Is it because we’ve bought into the culture’s values ahead of our own? Is it because we want to fit in, to be liked, to not rock the boat? Is it because we’ve bought into the ideas of relativism? Who are we to tell other people how to act or how to live their lives? Whatever they want to do is ok with me as long as I don’t suffer because of it. Is it because we don’t want to be labeled alongside those “right wing Christian conservative wackos” who everyone seems to hate? “Traditional Family Values” has become a political hot button, but what about traditional gospel values? Why should we be ashamed of telling others about what our faith in Jesus Christ means to us? If the message of Jesus is one of compassion, love, and justice, why are so many opposed to it? Why isn’t being a Christian something to be proud of in our society?

For many years in this country Catholics were persecuted outright, denied jobs and homes and even attacked physically because of our religion. Well, now we’re 23% of the population, the largest single denomination in the country, and still we act as if we’re being oppressed. We cower in the shadows, and the only time the country hears from us is when there’s this scandal or that, or when we’re criticizing our own church. Where are the voices ringing out the gospel message of Jesus? We are called today to give testimony. Where is that testimony?

There’s a difference between standing up for what we believe, for bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the world, and forcing our beliefs on others. However, we seem to equate the two, so we don’t do either. Don’t you dare bring a bible to school or work because you might offend someone, but don’t dare limit what someone says or does on television because that would be squelching free speech. Freedom of religion has become freedom from religion.

We need to offend people more. Jesus’ message is offensive to the world because it rips the façades away and lays bare all evil. It exposes the false prophets and false gods to the light. It shows us what it truly means to be human, and it’s not about possessing the most stuff or having the biggest house or letting anyone do whatever they want to do. It’s about true freedom, freedom from sinfulness, freedom from attachments that distract us from what’s truly important. That’s why people hate us and our message. Because it hurts them to see how they really should live. It hurts them to see that they need to change their attitudes about things.

But we’ve surrendered. We’ve given up. We are overwhelmed by the images and messages around us and think we can’t make a difference. We’ve become desensitized by the sex and violence we see every day in the media, so much so that we’ve come to accept it, even promote it. Language that only a generation ago would never have been condoned in public is now commonplace. Traditional relationships have been thrown aside, and the acceptable, “normal” thing to do these days is not to get married and raise a family, but to shack up and hook up. I don’t know how our kids will ever get a healthy concept of relationships if all they see on TV is people jumping into bed ten minutes after meeting each other. We let every form of immoral behavior slide in the name of blind tolerance. Jesus tolerated people; he didn’t condone or tolerate their behavior. I wonder if Jesus saw the sin of the woman caught in adultery as just another “lifestyle choice”.

The messages are mixed, and the gospel is losing. Because we’ve given up. We have not persevered so our lives are not secure. We are afraid of the persecution we’ll experience if we stand up for Jesus. I’m afraid of the persecution I’ll suffer if I stand up for Jesus.

Today's gospel is indeed frightening. But it is not frightening for the reason some fundamentalists would give: the fear of the end. It is frightening because Jesus demands that we give witness, become martyrs, if we want to be saved. It is frightening because the Lord demands that we stand up for him, his kingdom and the Christian way of life in a materialistic, self-centered world. It is frightening because it demands that we accept grief from those who mock us. It is frightening because it proclaims that only by patient endurance can we be saved.

Jesus warned us that following him would require sacrifice. He warned us that it would not be easy. We will be called to give testimony, and we are called to be tireless in our struggle against evil. To be a Catholic today requires that we be a counter-cultural people. What a force for good we could be! We can’t give up, we mustn’t give up, because only by our perseverance will we secure our lives and the salvation of all humanity.

It's All About Fidelity

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B
Gn 2:18-24
Heb 2:9-11
Mk 10:2-16

I had a tough choice to make this week. You see, there’s an out for me in writing this homily. I could have chosen to preach on a nice, easy topic based on the first reading or even the second. But this gospel is hard. Hard to hear and hard to preach on. It’s even called one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus. Many of Jesus’ teachings are very nuanced, in fact, some are downright indecipherable. But some are in-your-face and straightforward. And they’re hard to take, because they sometimes go against how we live our lives. And they give us some tough choices to make.

We like to rationalize these sayings to make them fit into our own life choices. Even Matthew did this, adding an exception, “except in cases of lewd conduct” to his version of this story. He gave his listeners a way out of this divorce teaching. Even the disciples in Mark wanted Jesus to explain it more. They also were uncomfortable with it. They wanted Jesus to give them a way out. I mean, Moses did, didn’t he? Why couldn’t Jesus?

We can so easily explain things away when they’re uncomfortable. Especially when they’re in the bible or in church teaching. Divorce and remarriage? Jesus was just a chauvinistic man of his times, when women were subjugated. We’re much more evolved now. We have no fault divorce. He wasn’t really talking to us.

How about when Jesus commanded “Do this in memory of me?” I can remember Jesus on any day, not just on Sunday, and I don’t have to do it in a church. All of nature is God’s church. I’m a spiritual person, I’m just not religious. And besides, the Packers are playing today.

And what about “No one comes to the Father except through me?” Or “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life within you.” Or “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.” Well, what about all the non Catholics out there who don’t have the Eucharist? What about all the baptized Catholics who don’t come to Mass? Jesus didn’t mean it literally. He was being metaphorical, wasn’t he? He was using hyperbole and parables and symbols.

And all those teachings of the church on abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage, social justice, etc., etc. What right does the church have to tell me what I can and cannot do in the privacy of my own home, or in my own life? It’s just a bunch of old, uptight white guys who don’t understand what it’s really like to live in today’s world. And what right do they have to tell us what to do, after what they’ve done?

We are so good at rationalizing our behavior in all areas of our lives. Why not our faith as well? It’s amazing the mental gymnastics we sometimes perform. Yes, we don’t agree with some of the Church’s teachings, but all the other stuff we do more than makes up for it. Abortion is just one human rights issue. There are many more to consider. I can be for it if everything else I do is alright. In the end it’s how things are balanced, isn’t it? I mean, I’m a good person. What kind of a God would condemn me for that? Life is really not black and white. It’s a lot of grey.

As Obi Wan Kenobi said, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” We have made rationalization the ultimate good and God’s absolute commandments the ultimate evil. The dark side.

It’s really all about fidelity. Jesus’ teaching on divorce is about fidelity, not just to each other but to the way we were created and taught to live by our God. Do some teachings change as social norms change? Is marriage a changeable arrangement, as so many are claiming today? What about that first reading today, from Genesis? That’s not a Catholic thing or even a Jewish thing. It’s talking about how we were first created. It’s talking about how God set things up for all humanity. It’s timeless and for all time.

Adam and Eve were created for each other. It was so personal that they were literally made from one flesh. They were called to be faithful to one another and to God’s commandments for them. As long as they remained faithful things were ok. As soon as they tried to rationalize their behavior contrary to God’s plan things went wrong. As soon as they set themselves up as the ultimate judges of right and wrong they suffered the ultimate consequence – death. That’s not what God wanted. God is all about life, not death. We talk about human rights. What is more basic a human right than the right to live as God created us? God didn’t give us his commandments to control us. He gave them to us to set us free, because if we keep his commandments we will be living as we were intended to live. It’s when we fight against our true nature that we have problems.

This teaching goes to the very heart of our fidelity to our basic beliefs.

It’s all about what we think scripture is. Is it just a set of guidelines that we can form and shape to our own thinking, depending on the time and place? Or is it the inspired word of God that we are called to follow and obey, not pick apart as it suits our purposes?

It’s about what the Church is. Is it just a community of people who think the same way and believe the same things, or is it the living Body of Christ to the world? Is it just a big Kiwanis club that does good stuff, or is it the force for moral clarity and good in the world? Are we really Christ here on earth today? Does it really matter if you’re Catholic or not, or is any old religion ok, just as long as we’re good people?

And what about Jesus? It’s ultimately all about who we believe him to be. Is he really the Son of God? Or was he just a man of his times? Was he transcendent over time or was he just speaking to the people in front of him that day? Was he really speaking to us, too? He said that we are his friends we are to keep his commandments. All of them. Not just the ones we agree with or like. Did that just apply to his disciples?

Wait a minute, aren’t we also his disciples?

You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B
August 23, 2009
Joshua 24:1-2a,15-17, 18b
Eph 5:21-32
Jn 6:60-69

This saying is hard, who can accept it?

Especially that Ephesians chapter 5, not one of our most popular readings for weddings. But all three of these readings are hard because they call into question all of our most basic relationships, and they make us choose how we will order our lives. How are we to be in relationship with our God, with each other, and with our church.

Bob Dylan says it so well:

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride,
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side,
You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair,
You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Who you gonna serve? Doesn’t matter who you are or what you do or how much money or power or prestige you have, sooner or later you’re gonna have to serve somebody. You’re gonna have to submit to somebody. And it’s your choice. It’s the most basic choice we have to make as individuals. The same choice Joshua called the Hebrews to make after they entered Canaan. Who you gonna serve? “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” All else flows from that one decision, because in it we are stating where we fall in the great scheme of things. We are not the master, we are the servant. And that gives our lives perspective.

Relationships should be all about submission. How antiquated! Don’t you know that we’re all equal. I’m not subordinate to anyone! I’m number one. So’s my country, my family, and my baseball team. But that’s not how we were created. We weren’t created to dominate, but to serve. We get so hung up on the second line of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that we forget the first: “Brothers and sisters, be subordinate to one another out of reverence to Christ.” Because we are disciples of the greatest servant of them all. Remember all that stuff about “The greatest among you should be the servant of all? The last shall be first” and all that?

We are all subordinate so somebody else in other areas of our lives, aren’t we? Children are subordinate to their parents, adults are subordinate to their bosses or stockholders, to law enforcement, to the constitution, etc. And ultimately we are all subordinate to God. We live it every day, but when we hear it at Mass or read it in the Bible or in Church teaching we get all bent out of shape. Be submissive?! It’s so hard to take. Who can accept it?

“Question authority” has been the bumper sticker since the 1960s, but it’s moved beyond questioning to ignoring authority, denigrating authority, and tearing down authority. It’s no wonder we live in such a contentious world. We’re all masters. No servants.

We have a couple of hummingbird feeders on the back porch, and recently we’ve been literally invaded by hummingbirds, about a dozen at the feeder at a time. It’s probably that double dose of sugar Nancy’s been putting in the nectar. And they’re really territorial. They’ll swoop in and hover over the feeder but not land, watching and waiting to see if another bird will try to take their spot. And when one even comes close they chase it away. They are so intent on keeping the others out that they don’t even feed themselves, so nobody eats. It’s a lot like when there’s a lane on the freeway that’s shut down and the cars have to merge over. Some people would rather die than let someone get in front of them, even though everyone’s only going two miles an hour. But when the attitude is one of submission, people let each other in and traffic flows very smoothly. I can’t wait to see what happens out in the parking lot after Mass today.

When we serve the Lord and one another there is order and there is peace. When we serve the devil there is chaos and division.

When we submit to each other our relationships have order and peace. Submitting to each other in big ways and in small. Usually it’s suppressing our own egos and letting go of our own selfishness for the good of the other person or for the good of the family or the community or the church. And it should always be done out of love and reverence for Christ. Never should it be forced nor demanded. Jesus never forced nor demanded anything of his followers. He simply told it like it is and then left it up to them to choose. And all but twelve left him.

The gospel today is a continuation of the great Bread of Life discourse in John. This was the first cafeteria Christianity. The people had been following Jesus not necessarily because they believed he was the messiah but because he had fed the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. They were following Jesus because he made them feel good. He satisfied their physical hunger with bread and he said that he had more. He had food that would insure they would never be hungry again, and they wanted it. They thought he meant that he would continue to give them free food. They followed him because they liked what they saw. It made them feel good. But when he started talking crazy about eating his body and drinking his blood, that was another story. That didn’t make them feel good. That made them feel uncomfortable. What would their friends say about that? What kind of wacko were they following? This was too radical, it would require them to move beyond their comfort zones and try to figure out what it all meant. It would mean they wouldn’t have it easy anymore, they’d have to work for it, and so they rejected it.

We’re no different today. Christians are church shoppers. Face it, we are too. We like to come and be fed at the table, we like to hear sermons and homilies that make us feel good about ourselves. We like to show up once a week or once a month and have a shot of Jesus. We insist on having a choice of Masses on a weekend that fits into our schedule and our taste in music. We like this priest or that one. Don’t like this one or that one. And we're sure to tell everyone about it.

We’ll follow Jesus as long as we get what we want. But when things get uncomfortable or challenging, what do we do? Do we go back to our old way of life? When the Vatican or the bishops issue statements on things and they don’t jive with our own politics, when they’re hard to take, what do we do? Where do we go? Or when we don’t like what the priest or deacon has to say in the homily, or when they cut back on the number of Masses on Sunday, and one of them is our favorite, what do we do, where do we go?

Where will you go? Will you also leave?

When I was ordained, I took a vow to be obedient to the bishop and his successors. I also came to this ministry with the awareness that it’s not about me. I cannot offer up my own personal opinion and pass it off as church teaching. I am bound to teach what the Catholic Church teaches. It’s not the church of Tom. I chose to subordinate myself to the Church, because I believe that Jesus Christ has the words of everlasting life, and those words subsist in the Catholic Church. I don’t always understand what those words mean, and sometimes I don’t totally agree with them. I am not a mind numbed robot. But I don’t just reject them out of hand and walk away either. I trust that Jesus has a plan for his church and for me, and will work things out. Peter didn’t understand what Jesus was saying either. But he trusted Jesus and submitted himself to his will. Where else could he go? Where else was the truth?

I don’t follow a God that dominates me. I follow a God that subordinates himself to me. Wow. I don’t belong to a church that dominates me. I am part of a church that is the servant of the world. Jesus was the ultimate submitter. He submitted to his father’s will by dying on the cross. For me. He could have refused. He had the power to do so. He could have shown his dominion over the entire world. Instead he submitted. For me. And he left behind a group of folks to carry on his mission. For me.

“And he handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

Master, to whom shall we go?

Stuff

July 24, 2009
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B

To quote George Carlin:

“That's all I want, that's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know? I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff. This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there. That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff. That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore. Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else's house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home? You know why? No room for your stuff. Somebody else's stuff is all over the place!

Sometimes you leave your house to go on vacation. And you gotta take some of your stuff with you. Gotta take about two big suitcases full of stuff, when you go on vacation. You gotta take a smaller version of your house. You get down to the hotel room and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. And even though you're far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you.”

We never have enough stuff, do we? We seem to have this deep hole in us that we try to fill up with more and more stuff. What we have never seems to be enough. We are bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages telling us to get more stuff. Whether we can afford it or not. Because that’s how we’ve come to identify ourselves. By our stuff.

Sort of gotten ourselves in a bit of trouble doing it, haven’t we? When it’s all stripped away, it’s not the fault of the banks or the car companies or the government. It’s our fault. We’ve bought into the fallacy that the American dream has become. We’re never satisfied. We’ve become the enablers of disaster.

Well, most of us are doing with less and less stuff these days, aren’t we? And many of us are actually selling a lot of our stuff, even our houses, so we can have the stuff that is truly necessary and valuable. Having better stuff than the folks next door is not so important these days, is it?

I guess the main difference between us and God is that the more we acquire the less satisfied we are. We feel the need to get more and more and more, and we’re never fulfilled. Jesus is different. What he gives he gives in such abundance that everyone has their fill and there is even stuff left over.

Everyone has his fill. Not just the one who brought the loaves and fishes had something to eat. Everyone did. Because no one was left out there was enough. Only when everyone is included in the feast can Jesus work his miracle. Only then can there be an abundance. When we exclude others from the feast we block Jesus’ miraculous mercy.

Pope Benedict issued an encyclical this month entitled “Caritas in Veritate”. Charity in Truth. In it he builds upon centuries of Church teaching on justice and the economy. It is very fitting that this comes out at this time. Perhaps we’re ready now to hear the message it contains. Without all the stuff in the way. It’s a 30,000 word encyclical, so I won’t get into too much detail, but you should read it. It takes the message of charity in today’s gospel and applies it to the world economy. The basic theme is that stuff should not be just for a few, but that everyone has a human right to the stuff they need. This applies not just to individuals but to nations as well.

According to Benedict, man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life, not the other way around. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Charity is necessary for justice, but without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. The primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is the human person in his or her integrity. Therefore, every economic decision has a moral consequence. Every economic decision. What house you buy, what car, where you vacation, what you buy at Wal Mart. Because every time you buy something you affect someone else’s life.

The US Catholic bishops issued a statement on the economy in 1996 saying much the same things. The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy. All economic activity should be shaped by moral principles. Economic choices and institutions must be judged by how they protect or undermine the life and dignity of the human person, support the family and preserve the common good. A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.

One man may be able to produce an amount sufficient for his and his family’s own needs. A society can produce an abundance to feed not just themselves but other nations as well. Believe it or not, it is times like these that we need to focus not just on our own needs but on the needs of the world. There can be a tendency to hunker down and hoard our stuff. Jesus says that if we do that we will not allow him to work his miracle. If that small boy had hoarded his loaves and fish no one else would have had anything, and there would not have been anything left over.

Now is not the time to conserve. Now is the time to give.

But if God is involved there can be more than enough for all in the world. That’s where the miracle happens. We may not be able to change the heart of a senator or a president to pass and sign bills and treaties that protect and enhance life and are fair and equitable for everyone in this country and for people of all nations, but God can. But you and I have to take the first step and vote those people into office. And you and I may have a hard time figuring out what stuff is important to keep and what is meant to be given away, but God knows.
The miracle of Jesus in today’s gospel is not that he multiplied the loaves and fishes; it’s that everybody was satisfied. They didn’t want any more. They were content with what they had. That’s what happens when we’re filled up with the right stuff. Not the stuff that decays or goes out of style, but the truth of Jesus Christ. That’s the stuff that we were meant to have, and that’s the stuff we were meant to share with the entire world.

A Matter of Life & Death

June 27, 2009
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B

You’ve all seen the pro life bumper sticker that proclaims, “Choose Life”. I don’t think one that reads “Choose Death” would sell very well. But is life a choice? Can and do we choose to live? And who really wants to choose to die? Doesn’t life just happen to you? I didn’t consciously ask to be created. Neither did you. And if I had a choice I wouldn’t want to die. I’d want to live forever. And all that pain in the world. Who would choose that? Does pain just happen? If I really had a choice I’d choose to have no pain in my life, wouldn’t you?

The first reading today is tremendously important, addressing some of our deepest questions: “Why does Death exist?” and “Did God make death?” The Book of Wisdom says that God did not create death, and He is not happy about it. All that He created was meant to be wholesome, not destructive. In the Book of Genesis, when God created the world, at the end of each day he looked at what he had created and saw that it was good. Until the sixth day, after he created man and woman, and he looked and saw that it was very good.

God cannot create evil. Wait a minute, you say, God can do anything, so of course he can create evil. But think about it. God is love, and true love cannot be evil, it is always good. Therefore it is not in God’s nature to do or create anything less than good. Evil must come from somewhere else.

Why then does death exist? Well, there are two very wrong yet opposite opinions that people hold regarding death, pain and suffering. The first is sort of like, “Stuff happens.” There is a fatalistic idea that we are the victim of forces beyond our control. The ancients believed that we have no control over our lives and so have no responsibility for our destiny. “It’s all in the stars,” they would say, or it’s all up to the will of the gods. And some religions believe in Karma or Joss. Fate or luck. That’s not what we believe. The Book of Wisdom tells us that we do have control over our destiny: if we follow God we will be raised up by Him. If we turn from Him, we turn to death.

The opposite and perhaps more widespread wrong opinion on why death exists is that somehow God wills it. A wife, husband or child dies. Well meaning people and even clergy will say, "It was God's will." This is blatantly wrong. God does not will death. We've got to get the concept, "It was God's will" out of our vocabulary when dealing with death. Remember the Book of Wisdom, "God did not make death and does not delight in the death of the living."

Why, then, does death exist? Death exists because we can choose good. The ability to choose good means that we can also choose not to do good, and that's evil. The ability to choose life means that we have the ability to reject life. That's death. Evil does not exist for the creatures who do not have the ability to choose it. Neither does good.

Perhaps you may be saying to yourself, "Then wouldn’t we be better if we couldn't choose at all." Would we? Do you really wish you were a robot? Or a slave? Do you realize that if you could not choose you could not give and receive love. After all, real love is a matter of a choice. If people truly love each other they choose each other over others. In fact they even choose each other over themselves.

The ability to choose results in the ability to love and be loved. It also results in the ability to hate and be hated. God did not create hatred, but He gave us free will which means we have the ability to hate. He created life and gave us the ability to choose life and receive life. That also means that we have the ability to choose death and to be victimized by the choices that others make. Still, it is better to love and suffer hatred then to be incapable of ever experiencing love. And it is better to suffer the effects of death than never to live.

So then, how do we understand death? Death is due to the decision for evil we all suffer from. To fight death we have to choose life. At the same time, we recognize that ultimately we will all die, but if we have worked for what is good and right, our death will only be physical. We shall live forever with God.

Death doesn't just happen. Nor is it God's will. It is the effect of evil in the world brought about by the ability to choose. God does not want anyone to die, but He does want us to be able to choose life, and to be able to choose love, even if this means that we can also choose hatred and death. And remember, God took the very thing that keeps us from him – death – and turned it to be the thing that brings us to eternal life. Jesus’ chose his own death to bring us life forever with him.

It’s a bit more complicated than a bumper sticker, but then, most important things are. But I find that phrase, “Choose Life” to be very comforting, because it gives me hope that no matter what the world throws my way, I still have a choice. Life is mine to embrace or mine to throw away. As Mother Teresa once said, “Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.

Let the Spirit Move You!

May 31, 2009
Pentecost Sunday
Cycle B

Does the spirit move you?! Have you ever felt compelled to stand up and sing? Have you ever felt so moved by something that happened to you that you just couldn’t keep it in, you just had to tell everyone about it? Have you ever had such a deep joy in your heart that you felt you were just going to burst? You probably felt that way when you saw your children being born. Or when you bought that new Escalade. Or when the Red Sox finally won the World Series.

Have you ever had that feeling in church?... Well, no, Deacon Tom, of course not. We’re Catholic. Catholics don’t do joy. We do piety. We do obligation. We do donuts.

You just heard the story of the first Mass, of the birthday of the Church. What do you mean, you say? Well, they were all gathered together in assembly… Check. They had a priest; actually they had a pope and ten bishops…Check. I assume that while they were all there they talked about stuff, and most likely they told Jesus stories… Check. And they also probably ate, and you know what happened when they broke the bread… Check. Yup, just like us here today.

Well, not exactly. They didn’t have a magnificent building, or a piano, and all the fancy furniture and gold plates and cups. They didn’t even have the New Testament or a tabernacle. But what they did have was all they needed. They had the Holy Spirit. And more importantly, they recognized the presence of the Spirit among them, and it moved them deeply. The Spirit moved them. And they found joy.

So, maybe not just like us here today.

The apostles were profoundly changed when they received the Holy Spirit. They were cowering in the upper room, unsure and afraid. When the Spirit came upon them they immediately understood their new role in the world, and they opened wide the doors and began to preach the good news.

The Spirit does that. When we have the Spirit within us we have a deeper understanding of God’s plan for us, and we are then compelled to go out and do something about it. Knowledge by itself is nice, but does not produce fruit. If we are to produce fruit we need to put that knowledge to use in the kingdom. In fact, if we have the Spirit we really have no choice but to spread the good news. We are compelled to get out and tell people about it. When’s the last time you did that? When’s the last time you even talked about God outside this building? When’s the last time you talked about God inside this building?

I have been working with a company in Ogden that designs and builds churches for non-denominational evangelicals. I have been struck by the depth of their joy in their faith. Unlike a lot of Catholics, me included, they are not embarrassed to talk about their faith in public. They are not just trying to proselytize, although they do a lot of that; their faith is integral to who they are, and they cannot keep it in. They have a joy that I rarely feel anymore. I have really felt the Holy Spirit at work in them.

We are being compartmentalized more and more in our society. We have put up all sorts of barriers to spreading the Good News to the world. And we put them up ourselves. They are not forced on us. We do it willingly. We have created great divisions among God’s people. As the world is shrinking through advances in technology we should be able to proclaim that Good News more effectively than at any time in history. But is Jesus growing larger as our world becomes smaller, or is it the other way around?

We claim every Sunday that we are an apostolic church. One, holy, catholic and apostolic. What does it mean to be apostolic? What did the apostles do? They preached and taught, they healed and forgave. They offered their lives up for others. They didn’t just die for their faith, they lived for their faith. They were invaded by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and they had to bring the fruits of that Spirit out into the world. They left that first Mass and brought that Mass out into the world in a spirit of unity. But first they had to leave the comfort and safety of the upper room.

The Holy Spirit gave the apostles the ability to cross language barriers and cultural divides and speak the universal truth of Jesus Christ to all who would listen. Jesus is all about unity, not division. His message of peace is designed to bring us all together. Why does it seem that the greatest divisions are among the very followers of Christ? Forget language differences, forget cultural differences. Christians are the most divided religion in the world. There are more denominations in Christianity than in any other religion. There seem to be more divisions in the Catholic Church than in any other. We have fallen short in our apostolic mission. We have become splintered. We are broken and we are in need of forgiveness.

It’s not by accident that Jesus tied the gift of the Holy Spirit to forgiveness. He could have said anything to the apostles when he appeared to them that night. He is God, he knew what he wanted to say, and he never wasted words. He didn’t tell them to build this huge hierarchical church. He didn’t tell them to go back to school and get degrees in theology. He gave the task to the apostles to forgive sins. He gave them the understanding that God is all about forgiveness. His spirit is a forgiving spirit. And that forgiveness brings peace. All the rest is commentary.

We also have the power to forgive sins, you know. And we have the power to retain them. When someone hurts us, we hold the power of forgiveness. And if we withhold that power, the sins are retained. Not retained in heaven, because God always forgives. We hold them within ourselves, so that they stew and become bitter. When we retain the sins of those who hurt us, we take them upon ourselves, and they become ours. Without forgiveness there can be no peace. Without forgiveness there is no Spirit within us.

We cannot exist without the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says that in Christ we live and move and have our being. We have our very being. We exist because of Christ living within us, whether we acknowledge it or not. And the manifestation of Christ is through the Spirit, because it is a creating Spirit. Just because we do not constantly think about the air we breathe does not mean it isn’t there, giving us life with each passing breath. Just because we don’t acknowledge the love we have for each other every minute of the day doesn’t mean we are not loved. And just because we may not even think God exists doesn’t make it so. The Holy Spirit is a reality, and realities don’t go away just because we don’t believe in them.

But how do we know the Holy Spirit exists? We have seen Jesus, who said to Philip, “If you see me you see the Father”, but we cannot see the Holy Spirit. How can we know the Spirit?

We cannot see air. It is invisible to our eye. It is only when air moves that we experience it. We draw in our breath, moving the air. We feel it moving in the breezes around us. We see the wind’s affect on the things it moves about. It’s the same with the Spirit. We only experience it when it moves things; when it moves us.

How do you know love exists? Show it to me. We can’t see love itself. Instead, we see the manifestations of love. We see the results of love. Love is always fruitful, by definition. Therefore, we know of love by its fruits. So therefore, if God is love and the Holy Spirit is God, we know of the Spirit by His manifestation, by His fruit.

The Jewish feast of Pentecost celebrates the ripening of the Spring grain and the giving of the first fruits back to the Lord. It is fitting that God chose to send the Holy Spirit upon his church at the very time they were celebrating the fruitfulness of the earth. Because the Spirit is all about fruitfulness.

Just as we know the Holy Spirit exists because of the manifestations of the spirit, so also the world knows the Spirit exists because of our actions. Whenever we act with love that’s the spirit working. But we must act or it’s not love.

What did Jesus say first that night in the upper room? “Peace be with you”. The Spirit of Christ always brings peace. His next words are pretty clear. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” So get off your tail and get out the door.

And let the Spirit move you.

Why Did They Hate Him So Much?

April 10, 2009

Good Friday

Cycle B

Why did they hate him so much?

What was it about Jesus that caused the people to turn against him so much they wanted the worst kind of death for him? What was it about him that made those same people who wanted to crown him king suddenly want him tortured and killed? He never hurt anybody. What had he done to deserve such treatment? Healed the sick? Raised the dead? Love one another as I have loved you? Were these such revolutionary ideas that they deserved a revolutionary’s death? Weren’t all these ideas already in the Jewish scriptures for all to see and follow? Weren’t they all supposed to be living that way already? Maybe that was the problem.

Most of those who condemned him were not evil people. They were not possessed by the devil. They went about their lives much like we do, and many were very religious. They did what they thought God wanted them to do. But something happened to them during that last week of Jesus’ life to rip the scab off their souls and turn them from an adoring throng into a bloodthirsty mob. They didn’t just feel the need to get rid of Jesus, they wanted to absolutely destroy him and his following. They wanted to hurt him, humiliate him, and kill him in the most horrifying way so that no one would ever remember him again. Even Pilate was shocked at the level of hatred the people had for Jesus. He tried every way he could not to condemn him. It made no sense to him, a pagan.

If you strip away all the politics, and the power trips, and the religious bigotry, you come to the kernel of truth that they hated Jesus because he forced them to see themselves for who they really were, and they didn’t like it. They hated Jesus because he called them to a life they were unwilling to live. He showed them the way, and the way was not what they wanted to do. They wanted to live the way they wanted to live. They didn’t want anyone telling them what to do or how to live. They liked their sins. They liked being in charge. They liked setting themselves up as God.

Why do they hate us so much?

The president of the United States said the other day in Turkey that we are not a Christian nation, implying that that’s a good thing. Basically saying that because we aren’t really Christian we aren’t a threat to anyone. Why would anyone think that being a Christian is a threat? What has happened to us that being a Christian is not seen as a good thing anymore? The life and message of Jesus Christ is one of love of neighbor and self sacrifice for the good of others. What’s threatening about that? Many would point to all the mistakes the church has made throughout history, when we have not lived up to our mission as we should. But the world has seen Christianity as a threat from the very beginning, before there was a church, from the life of our very founder himself. Why has the world never embraced such a message and such a messenger?

Why does it seem that the world wants to make Christianity inconsequential? Pope Benedict said today in his Good Friday homily, “Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today – when things that are most holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is allowed to erode. Everything in public life risks being desacralised – persons, places, pledges, prayers, practices, words, sacred writings, religious formulae, symbols, ceremonies. Our life together is being increasingly secularised. Religious life grows diffident. Thus we see the most momentous matters placed among trifles, and trivialities glorified.”

Is it because Christianity holds a mirror up to the world and shows us who we really are, and we don’t like what we see? Is it because Christianity holds us up to a higher standard, and we like things just the way they are? Is it because we want to play God ourselves, and don’t like it when confronted by the reality of God? Is it because the world is evil? I choose to think not.

But what is it about good that threatens us so much? We were created with the capacity to choose good and evil. Why do we choose evil so much? Why can’t we see that we are created in the image of goodness itself, and our natural state is to live in that image? And why do we feel that we have to go out of our way to destroy goodness? Are we that selfish? Are we that convinced that we are little gods who know what’s best for us? Isn’t that the sin of Adam? Maybe that’s the human condition, and we cannot break out of it. We were given the ultimate second chance; God himself came to live with us. We were given a glimpse of what it really means to be a human being, and we destroyed it.

Can you imagine what the world would be like if we all lived as Jesus lived? If we all loved as he loved? If we all emptied ourselves of all our prejudices and hatreds and selfishness, and gave ourselves to each other as completely as he did, as completely as we just heard told? Can you imagine what that would be like? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this nation, and all nations, were truly Christian nations, if not in name than in practice, and conducted themselves according to true Christian principles? Maybe that’s what heaven is like.

We read the passion every year and we think, “How could that have happened to God himself? How could those people have done such horrible things to such a good person? What were they thinking?” Well, two thousand years later, things haven’t changed much, have they. We don’t just remember Calvary on Good Friday, we live it.