Sunday, October 31, 2021

Single Minded

 

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Dt. 6:2-6

Heb 7:23-28

Mk 12: 28b-34

 

What motivates you? What is the most important thing in your life, the one thing you cannot do without, the one thing that really defines you? What would you be willing to give everything else up to obtain?

 

I myself have a hard time defining what that is. Maybe it’s my personality. I am not a particularly driven person. I do not throw myself fully into my career or a project or even any of my many roles. I am more of a generalist. I like to do a lot of things and many things interest me, but I do not get my sense of purpose out of the things I do. I tend to get it out of my relationships. Maybe you’re same way or maybe you do have things in your life that you are so passionate about that nothing else matters. If you do I envy you in a way, because I think the people who make the most difference in the world are those who can be single minded.

 

I hear passages like these this today and wonder if it is even possible to be so single minded. How can I love God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my strength? Wouldn’t that mean there’s no room for anything else? There is so much going on in my life that demands my attention. I find it difficult enough to love those closest to me with that much devotion and focus. There are so many things that excite me, that make me feel good, and so many other things that worry me, that take up so much energy. How can I even take the time to focus so much of myself on God? And why does God demand such attention and devotion?

 

I would think that many of you are driven by certain goals, goals that you do devote all your heart, mind, soul and strength to. Lofty, important goals. Many of you are very successful in your careers and have acquired lots of wonderful things along the way that are signs of your success. I imagine you have to sacrifice a lot of things to do whatever it takes to get you what you really feel is important in life. But does that make you happy? Is that all there is? Are we really focused on what is truly our purpose here in life? These are questions I hope we all struggle with.

 

And I struggle with this a lot. I can understand how someone can be so driven and focused on earthly things like a career or relationships, but how can we be so focused on a God we cannot see, on a God that is so often overshadowed by all those other things we focus on in our lives? Those things are front and center. I don’t always see God that starkly or obviously. God stuff floats in and out of my thoughts and my days. Sometimes I think of him throughout the day but oftentimes He is pushed into the background by the whirlwind of my life.

 

I spent some time this week pondering what types of people are single minded. I thought of athletes, especially those at high levels whose goal is to win a championship or a gold medal. They visualize themselves winning that medal, they work with coaches and train using the latest techniques and eat special diets. Top athletes have to be that obsessed and focused in order to succeed.

 

I thought of priests and bishops and people living the consecrated life, especially monks. Their days and nights are caught up in God stuff, in prayer and sacrament, service, being there for the people. God is their job, they don’t have all the other things the rest of us do to distract us, right? God is front and center for them all day long, so it’s easier for them.

 

I thought of lovers, especially those in the early stages of their relationships, when all they can think about is their beloved, and it actually hurts physically when they are apart. I thought of those who are suffering. Suffering can really focus you. And I thought of their caregivers, who are focused on the love they have for the person they are caring for. When you have to take care of someone, especially someone who is helpless, you go to extraordinary lengths to organize your life and your time. They become the center of your life.

 

This last week Nancy and I had our one-year old grandson staying with us while our son and his wife were on a trip. Boy, I had forgotten how all-consuming having a toddler is. We had to rearrange our entire lives for him, from baby proofing the house to giving up some of the activities we had wanted to do, to feeding, changing and playing with him on his schedule, not ours. We could never let him out of our sight. Even when he was asleep we listened to him on the baby monitor. I began to see how I might begin to devote all my heart, all my mind, all my strength to someone.

 

And I also witnessed single mindedness in him as he constantly fixated on the dog’s water bowl. Every time we would take him away from it he just crawled back to it, again and again and again. He was obsessed. Maybe that’s what Jesus was talking about when he said that we will not enter the Kingdom unless we become like little children.

 

Can I be obsessed with God? Can I grow in love for Him so that no matter what sidetracks me I keep crawling back, again and again and again? I hope I can. But it will require me giving up all those other things that I have thought to be important and submit to what God wants for my life. It will require not just setting the proper priorities but actually removing and reducing the things that keep me from focusing on God alone. Jesus said to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all its righteousness, and everything else will come to us. Like an athlete, those are the fundamentals we need to master before everything else can happen. We need to lay the foundation of our relationship with God first and firmly, and not worry about the rest so much. It will happen if we submit to His divine will.

 

Both Moses and Jesus ties that submission to understanding and keeping God’s commandments. God ties happiness to keeping his commandments because they are all about how we are to live in relationship, both with God and with one another. We will be happy if we do not steal, kill, covet, or be unfaithful, and other people will also be happy if we don’t do those things. The commandments are natural and true and how we were created to live. If we live as we are created to live then we will be happy. Moses says today that we will grow and prosper the more. Jesus says that if we keep the commandments we will be close to the Kingdom of God.

 

I find it interesting that Jesus does not say that the second commandment is also to love your neighbor with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and with all your strength. He only says to love your neighbor as yourself. But that assumes the same single mindedness we must have for God when it comes to our neighbor. And it also assumes you love yourself with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and with all your strength.

 

It’s all tied together.  Because if you love your neighbor you can’t help but love God. If you love God you cannot help but love your neighbor. If you truly loved yourself as you should you would be loving God. If you love God and your neighbor you will be loving yourself.

 

What motivates you? What is the most important thing in your life, the one thing you cannot do without, the one thing that really defines you? What would you be willing to give everything else up to obtain? Is it God? Is God that important to you? Is life eternal with God the most worthwhile goal you could have? Is it worth giving it all you’ve got?

 

Believe it or not, you and your life are the most important thing to God. God loves you with all his heart, with all his mind, and with all his strength. You are the one thing God chooses not to do without. He was willing to give up his very life for you so that you could have the chance to live forever with Him. That’s God’s goal for you. All you have to do is accept it as your own.

 

 

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Go Big!

 

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Nm 11:25-29
Jas 5:1-6
Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48

You know, He’s a big god.

Let’s talk a bit about the difference between ideology and theology.

Ideology is a set of principles or beliefs upon which a political system, party or organization is based. And I guess your definition of what makes an ideology good or bad depends on your point of view. We all have our ideologies, we all have a set of principles or beliefs that we hold together with other people, and I think in many ways they bind our society together and keep us connected to one another. That’s a good thing, in general. However, when an ideology becomes more than that and we let it define our self-image and self-expression then that can be unhealthy. People who blindly hold and profess strong beliefs in an ideology are called idealogues. Again, whether or not you think that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your point of view, but generally we see idealogues as being rigid, dogmatic, and stubborn.

Theology is faith seeking understanding. Theology begins with the humble acknowledgment that we can never truly know the nature of God because God is so other than us, so transcendent. Theology is faith seeking understanding, not faith defining understanding. And theology also has a strong basis in reason and the reality of the created world and persons. It is not blind but actually very open. Theologians really just offer a different way of seeing things, of journeying to God. They will never get to the final answer, at least not in this lifetime. We are all theologians, even though few of us have degrees. We are all taking the faith that we have been given and doing our best to make sense of it and apply it to our lives.

While it is very easy for ideology to become exclusionary and closed, theology  should be more open and broad minded. It is very easy for an ideologue to become convinced that theirs is the correct and true and only way to think, believe and act. Idealogues are so sure of themselves. Theologians are comfortable with ambiguity. Theologians should be willing to be surprised.

Theology is a journey while ideology can come to a sudden, immovable conclusion. We heard it in today’s readings. Stop them, Moses, they’re not part of those of us special people God has chosen to prophesy. Stop them Lord, because they are not part of our little band of apostles. Who do they think they are? The end result may have been the same – the people prophesized and the demons were expelled – but they didn’t do it like we would have. They don’t know you like we do. We are the special ones. We have the secret knowledge and they don’t. Both Moses and Jesus rebuked that way of thinking.

“Whoever’s not with us is against us” seems to be a theme in our society today. We are so polarized. Our political parties are divided, we are split by ethnic group, religion, and class. And we think that we have all the right answers and those who disagree with us, well, it’s either us or them. It’s either/or, black and white, good vs. evil. We believe we have the truth and are beset by people actively opposed to who we are and what we stand for. There is antagonism between ourselves and the others. It’s personal. This is the attitude of idealogues in today’s world. If you don’t think like we do you must be against us. And if that is the case you must be stopped, even destroyed, because you are a threat to us.

But Jesus didn’t say “whoever’s not with us is against us.” He said, “If someone is not against us they’re for us. It may seem like a subtle difference but it’s really not. His is a much bigger idea. It assumes no malice on the part of those who aren’t technically part of our group. It assumes good intent and hope. There are many more people who are not actively against us than are. And while there surely are those who wish Christians ill, most people I think are simply ambivalent or misinformed or ignorant of the gospel. Jesus is saying that there is hope for all those who are not part of the inner circle. They too can enter in.

You know, it’s a big church!

Even within the Church it’s easy sometimes to get caught up in our own little pius thoughts and practices and think that our way of devotion is the only way or the best way. The apostles were like that to a certain extent. They had Jesus all to themselves, and they got jealous when someone else modeled Jesus’ behavior in a way different than theirs. Remember that these were the same guys we heard last week arguing about who among them was the greatest. But even though those other disciples were not part of the twelve, they were still part of the church. Even though those Jewish elders were outside the camp they were still part of the tribe.

I guarantee you that as I have been speaking of ideology and idealogues you have immediately thought that it applies to someone or some group that you are not a part of. You probably thought of a politician or bishop or priest or political party, or even that co-worker who has the wrong bumper sticker on his car. It’s always the other guy, isn’t it, who’s misguided or wrong? We’re doing it right. We are the right thinkers. It’s never us who are the idealogues. But that kind of thinking is exactly what defines idealogues. And so often that attitude causes us to close our hearts not only to what other people are saying or doing, but to people themselves. We paint entire groups of people with the same broad brush, most of the time negatively, and then wonder why they do the same to us.

We should be theologians not idealogues. In the end ideology is more about me than about you. If I’m right then you’re wrong, I’m good and you’re not. It’s easy to hide behind such absolutes, because we feel good about ourselves when we think we have a special knowledge or position. And all too often throughout history we have seen those absolutes ultimately end in violence and oppression. In the end theology is all about the other. Loving our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus commanded us. That is the definition of a disciple when you strip everything else away. That’s what we need to hear in order to understand our faith more fully.

The psalmist says, “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

We are all called to have open minds and open hearts. We’re all dealing with our own struggles and problems and issues, and yet we are all part of the same tribe of disciples. We’re all in this together. And those folks on the periphery, who are not actively against us but really don’t yet know what they are for or against, are we to write them off as wrong thinkers and outsiders, simply because they aren’t in the same place as us in our faith journey? Of course not. That is what it means to be a prophet. To bring those people into the camp.

We are all called to be prophets through our baptism. The beginning of prophesy is openness to the voice of the Lord. You cannot pass on the word of the Lord if you first do not listen to it and then accept your own individual commission from God to pass it on to those around you. Don’t worry about anybody else. Instead, rejoice that the Lord has bestowed his spirit on so many. Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all! Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Wouldn’t that be wonderful? What would the world be like if everyone spoke out the truth of the gospel and then helped one another to live it fully!

It’s a big world, and a big task, but God is bigger.

 

Saturday, July 17, 2021

The Care and Feeding of Priests

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Jer 23:1-6

Eph 2:13-18

Mk 6:30-34

 

Today we hear some damning words against the shepherds of the flock in ancient Israel from the prophet Jeremiah. Remember that Jeremiah was the prophet before, during and after the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jewish people by the Babylonians. He is called the weeping prophet, and his message is often one of woe and warning. In a lot of ways he blamed the actions of the leaders for the suffering of the people. So, it’s easy to understand why he slammed them so harshly. Jeremiah is not the only prophet who chastises ineffective or even dangerous shepherds, and we have been both blessed and cursed with both good and bad shepherds since the time of the apostles.

 

The image of sheep and shepherds is a common one throughout the scriptures, not just in the gospels. Shepherds were a paradoxical group of people in the ancient world. They were both celebrated and despised. They served a very important function, but they did so with a very dirty group of animals. Not only were sheep a great source of wool and meat, they also served a vital function in the sacrificial life of the temple. But they were dirty and smelly, and as Pope Francis has famously said, the shepherds need to smell like the sheep, and so they probably weren’t so pleasant to be around.

 

The shepherds would live amongst the sheep, apart from the community. Oftentimes they would huddle together for warmth at night. The job of the shepherd was to watch over the sheep, to gently guide them to food and water, to keep them together in one flock. But the shepherd was also called to defend the sheep from predators, to fight off attacks, to kill the predator if necessary, even give their life for the sheep. The shepherd was not some wimpy kid who ran away at the first sign of trouble. He was a strong man who was intimately involved in the wellbeing of the sheep. They were his livelihood and probably the most valuable things he possessed. And so he defended and cared for them as if they were his children.

 

The sheep on the other hand were, well, sheep. We think of sheep as being docile, not very bright creatures, who can’t take care of themselves. All they do is eat and drink and bleat a lot. They are prey, not predator, and have no real defense against danger other than huddling together in numbers. They are powerless and sort of just wander about aimlessly, unaware of what is happening around them until they are threatened. Not a very complimentary analogy for us, is it?

 

There is always a tension between leaders and followers in every society, church, organization and group, isn’t there? The people always seem to need and the leaders always seem to fail at giving them what they need in some way or other. Rarely do the people universally acknowledge that this leader or that has generally been good and effective. The sheep always seem to have something to complain about. They never seem to be happy or want to take responsibility for themselves They demand a heck of a lot from their shepherds, and rarely can the shepherds live up to their expectations.

 

We do seem to have a love hate relationship with our leaders, and them with us. For example, we make jokes about and complain about politicians as a group, it seems, but we still get a bit of a thrill when we meet our senator or governor or the president personally. And I think it’s the same way with our spiritual shepherds. You may not like or agree with your bishop or cardinal or even the pope, but it’s still pretty cool if you get to shake his hand and say that you met him.

 

Jesus himself was not acknowledged as good and effective by all during his time, and even today most people still find fault with him and his disciples. In today’s gospel we see the people being so demanding of him that he didn’t even have time to eat. Jesus took the apostles off to a deserted place so they could rest. The Good Shepherd was shepherding the shepherds. But the people would not let them rest. When people are hungry, they’ll do whatever it takes to get fed. No matter how the shepherds feel, the sheep don’t care. They just want to be fed. And the good shepherds continue to feed them, even when they’re tired or don’t feel like it.

We expect our priests to do it all for us. We want them to preside at Mass, perform weddings and baptisms when we want them to, on our schedules. We want them beside our hospital beds and gravesites. We want them to remember our names and our birthdays. We want them there to heal our broken marriages and help us raise our rebellious children. We want them to make us feel welcome and special. We expect them to run our parishes like efficient small businesses, paying the bills on time without ever having to ask us for money on Sundays. We want them live up to the highest standards of discipleship that we rarely hold ourselves to.

And you know what, all that’s exactly what our priests want to do. That’s why they became priests, and hopefully they entered the priesthood with open eyes. They knew what would be demanded of them. That’s why Anthony is here with us this year. They want to gently teach us and guide us in the truth and treat everyone with mercy and compassion. They want to smell like the sheep and be an intimate part of our lives. They want to show courage and strength in defending us from those who would cause us harm and lead us astray. They desperately want to keep us unified and whole around the truth of the gospel. But they need our help to do so.

We talk a lot about what a good shepherd is, but not so much about what it means to be a good sheep. You cannot learn what it means to be a good shepherd just by studying it in seminary or by being ordained. You learn how to be a shepherd directly from your sheep. Our former pastor, Fr. Bob, told me once that the Church ordained him a priest, but his people made him a pastor. And I can relate to that as a deacon. Much of what I have learned and experienced in my vocation has come from the joys and hard lessons learned in my interactions with my people. We are formed as shepherds through experiencing the amazing love and care we receive from our people, and also through the many mistakes we make in dealing with you. Sometimes the corrections we receive are subtle and other times they hit us right between the eyes. You become a good shepherd by making mistakes, by sometimes unwittingly hurting the sheep, by being horrified when you learn about it, and by being forgiven by those you have hurt.

That’s called wisdom, I guess, and a wise shepherd is probably the one who has been forgiven a lot. And I think that receiving forgiveness is the highest experience of love. We are all sheep and are all shepherds in many ways. And each role requires a deep level of self-awareness and humility if we are to really live them fully. Many people do not want to be sheep. They do not want to be led, or they see themselves as being greater or smarter or wiser than the shepherds. Many shepherds can be arrogant and inflexible and lord it over the sheep. We all make mistakes in our roles, yet we all need to want to live according to the gospels in all our relationships.

If we expect our leaders to have courage and protect us from attacks from without and within, we need to have that same courage when dealing with our shepherds. There have been many times in the history of the Church when some shepherds were incompetent and some outright evil. But today for the most part I don’t think there are many shepherds who knowingly want to lead the flock astray. They are sincere in their interpretations of the gospel, even though they might veer off course from time to time. Just like the rest of us, they have a worldview and a point of view when it comes to discipleship, the church, and its teachings, and that flavors their beliefs and the way they deal with others. We are all products of our upbringing and life experiences. The job of all disciples is to be sufficiently informed about the truth of the church’s teachings, and then to compassionately correct one another when we go astray. The bishops discuss and debate and work out policies and statements, bishops help their priests and deacons, priests and deacons work things out amongst themselves. And the laity are called to have the courage to speak out also. We are all struggling to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling. Everybody wants to be treated with compassion and mercy. The sheep deserve this and so do the shepherds.

So, first shepherd yourself. Allow yourself to be a sheep and be led. Take time to get better yourself by truly studying your faith and making it central to who you are. Then shepherd your family, especially your children. Look at the issues that affect your family through your eyes of faith. Fulfill the promises you made at your children’s baptisms by fully integrating your family into the life of your parish, especially by participating in the Mass. Shepherd your fellow Christians through fellowship and by sharing in each other’s joys and sorrows. Lovingly admonish one another and give each other effective feedback. Never gossip. Cut each other some slack and remember that you will be forgiven by God in the same measure that you have forgiven others. Finally, shepherd your shepherds, humbly and with great compassion. If you have questions about why they are doing something, ask them about it. Don’t assume the worst intentions. If they have hurt you, tell them. I guarantee you they are unaware of what they have done. If they have caused you joy, tell them. They are probably unaware that they had done that, too. Did I say never gossip?

 

I believe that a large part of what keeps many of us Catholic are our personal relationships with our priests. And I truly believe that much of what keeps our clergy faithful is their relationships with their people. How many of you have more than a cursory relationship with your priests? So many come through the doors, give a little nod or a wave, and then never try to get to know the priest. Have you ever met your bishop? When was the last time you invited them to a meal? Our shepherds so desire to smell like their sheep, but so often we don’t allow them to. Be aware of them, care for them, forgive them, and pray for them.

 

Because that’s what they do for you.


Saturday, April 24, 2021

Be Amazed

 

4th Sunday of Easter

Cycle B

The headlines screamed “Americans' membership in houses of worship dropped below 50% for the first time!” I read the article and it saddened me. Then I got angry. Some news outlets reported it almost gleefully. The Gallup poll showed that in 2020, 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down more than 20 points from the turn of the century. This change is primarily due to the rise in Americans with no religious preference.

Among religious groups, the decline in membership is steeper among Catholics (down 18 points, from 76% to 58%) than Protestants (down nine points, from 73% to 64%). This mirrors the historical changes in church attendance Gallup has documented among Catholics, with sharp declines among Catholics but not among Protestants. 

 

Also, each generation has seen a decline in church membership among those who do affiliate with a specific religion. That’s significant. It makes sense that those who say they have no faith wouldn’t come to church, but now people who claim to have faith no longer go to church. Church membership is strongly correlated with age, as 66% of traditionalists -- U.S. adults born before 1946 -- belong to a church, compared with 58% of baby boomers, 50% of those in Generation X and 36% of millennials. Let that sink in for a minute. It gets worse the younger the population. According to this survey the future of the Church in America is looking bleak. At the least it is a wake up call to us all.

 

In a few weeks we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension, and we will hear, once again, the great commission that Jesus gave his disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them everything he has commanded us. For centuries we did just that. We went to far flung lands and suffered great hardships and martyrdom to bring the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ to whomever would listen. This great nation began as a mission field and was founded on Judeo Christian principles. It’s amazing what has changed in just the past 20 years. What began as a trickle has become a race to the doors, and we’re seeing it most in young people.

 

It seems that we Boomers have done a poor job of making disciples, not just of all nations, but of our own children. We seem to have bought into the conventional wisdom that it really doesn’t matter what someone believes; that there is not one true faith or one true church. I hear it from Christians all the time. That is not a belief that inspires people to join, is it? And our voices are drowned out by those who claim that religion is intolerant or even oppressive. There is no God, they say, there is no absolute truth, just your truth and my truth, and everyone is basically a good person anyway. Heck, as long as they go to some church it’s better than nothing, right. Well, it turns out that more and more people are choosing the nothing. And we have no answer. But we do have hope.

 

Our most recent class of catechumens were all Milennials and Gen Yers. As you know it’s a bit of a process to become Catholic as an adult, yet every year people are called to the Church by the Holy Spirit. Every year we hold a retreat just before they are to be baptized, and during that retreat we revisit the reasons they are choosing to become Catholic. This year there were some interesting reasons. One theme that came out is that all of them have small children or were expecting their first child. All of them said, independently, that they wanted to become Catholic to try to reverse the trend away from faith and non-belief with their children, because they see what that is doing to our society. They are frightened of the world their children might inherit. They want their children to have the faith they have come to know and love. They want to give their children a fighting chance at salvation. They want them to know Jesus. They want to reconnect with the rich tradition of the Church and give their children the values of a Christian life. But most importantly, they wanted to become Catholic because they had come to believe that it is the truth.

 

Those survey results are misleading because they are superficial and do not delve into the reasons why, but they also only give part of the picture. There is nothing about the resurgence of belief and piety among the younger population, those in their 20s and early 30s. Young people and young families are returning. Our newly baptized members are not unique in their hopes for their children. There is a hunger for meaning and purpose in our youth, and they are seeking the truth.

 

St. Peter says today that there is no salvation through anyone other than Jesus Christ, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. Do you believe that? Jesus claims to be the way, the truth and the life. Not a way, a truth or a life. That’s a very bold claim, and we hear today that that is exactly how the church, from it’s very beginning, thought of Jesus and of itself. That is the faith that has been handed on to us two millenia hence.

 

Do you believe that? Do you believe there is something uniquely true about the Catholic faith? Is that why you are still here? Is that what you are teaching your children, no matter how old they are? Do you have the courage to state your beliefs when you know now that half the population does not share them? As the community of believers continues to shrink it will take more courage to keep, grow and share our own faith.

 

What has happened in the past 20 years that has changed the belief of the rank and file Christians so? There are so many causes, too many to talk about in a single homily. I believe that it is not just the pressures of a secular society on faith in God, we have lost a sense of sin in general and therefore there is nothing seen to be saved from. By blurring the lines of what is and isn’t sinful, the evil one has brilliantly removed our belief in the necessity of salvation. And if there is no need for salvation there is no need to believe in a God at all. But human nature requires a supreme being, so we replace that belief in God with belief in ourselves. Why would we need to be saved from ourselves?

 

And beyond that, I believe we have lost a sense of the transcendent, of the wonder of our God and how special we are to him. I believe that we can begin to reclaim our faith, begin to make disciples again, by focusing on the wonderful transcendent beauty of God, of the church he established, and of ourselves.

 

St. John says today, “How wonderful that we are called children of God. But that is what we are.” What does that mean for you personally and for society as a whole? We are so much more than just actors on a stage. Without a connection to a supreme being who is seen as a loving father – much more, love itself – we see the divisions and destruction that seem to be accelerating more rapidly every day. Without hope in something more, something other than ourselves and this life on earth, we see life without meaning, steeped in selfishness, and without real connections with other people.

 

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Maybe the reason the world does not know us is because we do not know him either.

 

Do you know that you are wonderfully made? Do you know the truth that Jesus Christ died for you and your sins so that you could be free from the slavery sin places you in? Do you know that Jesus rose from the dead and in doing so destroyed your death as well? Do you live in the hope that you will someday be just as Jesus is? Do you know that on that day you will know God just as you are known by God?

 

You may have heard that message before many times in your life, but have your children? You may have heard that message many times in your life, but have you really understood it? Have you believed it? Have you been amazed by it? That amazement is what makes disciples. That amazement is attractive and contagious and life changing. The apostles were amazed and overjoyed when they saw the Lord that Easter. It was that amazement, powered by the Holy Spirit, that gave those simple fishermen the courage and conviction to go and begin to make disciples of all the nations, and they changed the world forever.

 

Reclaim the wonder. Reconnect to the beauty of creation and of the creator, of humanity, and of yourself. Experience the beauty and majesty of the church, it’s art and architecture intended to help you image the eternal. Enter into the mystery through the sacraments of the church, especially Christ’s passion, death and resurrection during the Mass. Really study, wrestle with, and be changed by the teachings of the church and be inspired by scripture. Connect with your fellow disciples and reach out to those who really need your help, both physically and spiritually, wherever they may be. Especially in your family.

 

Allow yourself to be amazed. And then tell somebody about it.

 

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Open My Eyes

 

4th Sunday of Lent

Cycle B – Scrutiny

 

What would it be like to be born blind? What would life be like if we never had experienced light, with nothing to compare the darkness to?

 

We equate darkness with evil. We call Satan the Prince of Darkness, and we fear the dark. Because we can see we feel uncomfortable in the dark. We fear the unknown, we fear what we cannot control. We’re afraid we’ll stumble and fall in the dark. Darkness is frightening for us only because we know the difference between light and darkness. If we were born blind we would never have experienced light, so darkness would hold no fear for us. For one born blind, who has never experienced the light, stumbling and falling is a natural thing. Relying on the help of others is a requirement for survival.

 

This gospel begins with Jesus’ own disciples asking a question based upon a belief all Jews had at the time – that physical weakness and disease meant you or your family were steeped in sin. If you were a sinner God punished you with infirmity. If you were righteous you were healthy, wealthy and wise. Everybody believed this: the Pharisees did, the disciples did, and the blind man himself did.

 

The blind man could not enter the temple. Everybody said he shouldn’t be there, and he himself thought he shouldn’t be there. He also thought he was unworthy to be in the presence of God, just because he was blind. He was reduced to begging at the door. The people who passed him every day saw him as unworthy, beneath them, worthless to God and man. And so he saw himself as unworthy and worthless. How could he ever become worthy? How could he ever come in out of the darkness and be included among the seeing?

 

The saddest thing about the blind man is that he bought into his culture’s prejudices and allowed them to make him feel less about himself, to alienate himself from God and his community. Even today, we can allow outside influences to keep us from God. We can beat ourselves up so much that we actually stay away from God. How wretched you must feel to keep yourself from God. Have you ever not come to Mass because you felt unworthy? Or stayed away because you were not in the “right frame of mind” to receive the Eucharist; that you just didn’t think you could come to Mass with all those people there and try to pretend that everything was ok? Why just go through the motions?

 

Do you think that you shouldn’t come to Mass if you haven’t exactly been living a perfect Christian life lately? I mean, why add one more hypocrite to the mix? Do you think that you have to have it all together in order to worship the Lord? I’m not perfect, so I’ll stay away. Does Jesus really only call the righteous? If that were the case there’d be no one here. It’s sort of like saying that I’m starving, so I really shouldn’t come to the banquet. The very thing you think you should avoid is the thing you really need. Sometimes we blind ourselves to what we’re really doing here.

 

It’s ironic that the best way to become worthy of the Eucharist is to experience the Eucharist. None of us can ever make ourselves worthy of being here. If blindness is equated with sinfulness, then we’re all born blind, aren’t we? Only God can make us worthy, just by willing it so. So we have a choice, to beat ourselves up for not being worthy or to accept the grace of God that allows us to see. To exclude ourselves from the banquet or to humbly accept the invitation.

 

Today we hear a story that closely parallels those of our elect who are here with us this morning. Like the blind man, they’re on the outside looking in. Not really sure what they’re seeing. Jesus calls them forth. He makes them uncomfortable at times and calls them to the waters. They do not know the way, so others need to help them get there .When their eyes are opened, they still are not sure exactly who Jesus is, even when he is right in front of them. They come up against opposition. The entrenched prejudices of others try to derail their journey. Sometimes they are thrown out. Sometimes others try to keep them in their places. Finally, Jesus comes to them in the light and they recognize him for who he is. They have become his disciples.

 

It’s funny, isn’t it, that the ones who thought they were worthy – the Pharisees – were the ones that Jesus said were blind. Their sin was their prejudice against people like the blind man, people they thought were sinners. They could not see their own shortcomings, and that we’re all blind in one way or another. And I am blind about many, many things. I am blind to the plight of the poor because I have never gone hungry in my life. I am blind to prejudice because I have never really experienced it personally. I am blind to the hurts suffered by other people because I am so focused on my own.

I guess in many ways we’re all Pharisees; we’re the good church going folks who think we have all the answers. We’re the ones who go along with the conventional wisdom of our day, blinded to how we are actually making things worse in our ignorance.

 

This morning we are celebrating the second scrutiny for our elect. We’re not here to scrutinize them. They’re here to scrutinize themselves. We all need to scrutinize ourselves. That scrutiny can be painful, but it must be undertaken with open eyes. Only then can we remove the blindness from our hearts. Blindness to our own sinfulness, and blindness to the needs of others, no matter how sinful they have been.

In many ways these elect see more than we do. They hunger for the light that we take so easily for granted, and they don’t have all the barnacles we good Pharisees have built up on our carcasses over time. But just as they have needed our help to see from time to time, we too can draw on their light as we all stumble together towards our Lord.

 

Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see your face… in everyone. Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see.

 

Falling in Love with Jesus

 

3rd Sunday of Lent (Scrutiny)

This is a love story.

This is the story of all of us, but in particular, it is the story of our elect with us today who have been searching, praying, and drawing closer to Jesus these past several months. And that is why we have read these readings today, because we have our elect present. At all the other Masses today we will hear different readings, but the Church says we must read these readings today, for them to hear, because they are nearing the completion of this stage of their faith journey, to enter fully into the life and love of Jesus in his Church through baptism, confirmation and first eucharist at the Easter Vigil.

Many people think that the RCIA program is all about knowledge, all about learning about the Catholic Church, and partly it is. But mostly, it is about falling in love. There are lots of people who have knowledge of the Church and its teachings, but not a lot of us are actually in love with it. There are lots of people who have a rudimentary knowledge of Jesus, but not a lot of us are actually in love with Him. Because knowledge is not enough.

Unless we move beyond just knowledge to love, our faith will never be fulfilled. It is through reason that we understand with the head. It is through prayer and contemplation and worship that we understand with the heart. If all you have is book learning then your faith has no motivation. If all you have is emotion, your faith has no roots. It is like the person Jesus said builds his house on sand. When trials and tribulations blow there is no conviction there to keep it from being torn down.

Just like there are stages of grief, there are stages of love. And the woman at the well goes through all of them. This seems almost like a sparring match, sort of like an old romantic movie. There’s a chemistry between Jesus and the woman, a reaching out, a pushing back, and gradually the woman comes closer to Jesus who is calling her to conversion.

First there is a connection. Sometimes it’s a strong attraction and sometimes it’s tentative. This is followed by a mutual give and take where both people reveal things about themselves over time. This either leads to a stronger attraction and more revelation that leads to knowledge of the other, and a growing sense of trust. Only after trust is established can love truly happen.

The woman at the well came to love Jesus only after he “told me everything I have ever done”. But that was not what turned her heart. Everyone in her village knew her past. It was the fact that even though he had such intimate knowledge of her and her life, he did not judge her for it like her neighbors did. Instead, he offered her eternal life. How liberating that must have felt for someone who felt so ostracized and worthless that she had to go to the well in the middle of the hot day, when no other people were expected to be there! Jesus gave her back her dignity. He spoke to her when he wasn’t supposed to. He conversed with her as an equal, without looking down on her. And he offered her himself, the life-giving water that would change her life forever.

And like anyone who has fallen in love, she ran and told everyone about it. She told her neighbors who had totally ostracized her that she had found the messiah, and she was compelled to bring them to him. How much courage that must have taken! But people in love do great acts of courage without thought sometimes, without considering the consequences.

We are all the woman at the well. We all have a past that includes things we aren’t particularly proud of. We all have sinned and have felt the worthlessness sin can bring. And we have all encountered Jesus in some way or other. Some of us have moved our relationship with him to another level, to the level of trust. Some of us have gone all the way to love. We have fallen in love with Jesus.

This morning we are celebrating the first scrutiny for our elect. There will be two more in the weeks to come. They’re not here to bare their souls to anyone, and we’re not here to scrutinize them. They have been scrutinizing themselves for a long time, and today we’re here to accept them as they are, just as Jesus accepts them for who they are. Just as he accepted the woman at the well.

We will share with them the statement of our beliefs. We will profess once again the truths that have been revealed to us by God himself, the truths that make us Christian, the truths that bind us together, the truths that lead us to love of God and of one another, the truths that lead us to eternal life.

The woman at the well was faithful to her understanding of her beliefs, but that alone would not ensure her salvation. It was not until she had a conversation with her God, one to one, face to face, did she begin to understand. And that conversation was brutal and honest. It brought into the light what had been going on in the darkness. We are all called by Jesus to that conversation. Our elect even more so. But that conversation should not be something to fear; it is necessary to remove the barriers we have set up to loving God. Just as we must move from knowledge to trust to love of God, we need to confront our own selves with all our imperfections, if we can allow ourselves to trust, if we can allow ourselves to be loved.

 

Saturday, February 20, 2021

New Beginnings

 

1st Sunday of Lent

Cycle A

New Beginnings

The season of lent began this week, and we hear today the story of the first lent. Just as Jesus’ 40 days in the desert were his time of preparation for his earthly mission, which would lead to his passion, death and resurrection, so too we spend 40 days in preparation for our experience of that same paschal mystery in our lives today.

The number 40 is very important in the bible. References to it appear 159 times! It symbolizes a time of preparation for something significant, usually for a new beginning. Moses, Elijah and Jesus each fasted in the desert for 40 days. Moses in preparation for receiving the ten commandments, Elijah in preparation for his journey to Mount Horeb to hear the voice of God, and Jesus to prepare for his earthly ministry. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years to prepare them for entrance into the promised land. Noah endured 40 days and nights of the flood, which cleansed the world of iniquity and gave creation a new beginning. 40 has always been about new beginnings.

And interestingly, those 40 days or years all have a connection to water. The great flood is obvious. The Israelites passed through the waters of the Red Sea when they escaped slavery in Egypt. Elijah drank miraculous water given him by an angel, that sustained him for his entire trip across the desert. And Christians have always linked the water of these events to the waters of baptism.

In fact, in our baptism rite, the prayer over the water is a beautiful recollection of all the places in scripture that refer to and prefigure baptism. One particularly poignant phrase refers to what we heard from St. Peter today is

O God, who by the outpouring of the flood

foreshadowed regeneration,

so that from the mystery of one and the same

element of water would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue.

 

It’s important that the gospel for the first Sunday of lent is about Jesus in the desert, because his time there was a direct result of his baptism. Something extraordinary happened to Jesus at his baptism. You know the story. After he was baptized, a voice was heard that said, “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”, and the spirit descended upon him. A scripture scholar once said he believed that at that moment, Jesus was virtually invaded by the Holy Spirit. Invaded by the Spirit. The Spirit compelled him, drove him, to action. Jesus gave himself over to that spirit, and he could no longer remain a simple carpenter from Nazareth.

When I meditate on this experience, I imagine Jesus needing to wrap his head around what had just happened to him. His hour had come, and he needed a final time with his Father before setting out on his mission. When he left the desert, from that moment on he rushed headlong towards Calvary, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and drawing followers to himself.

The readings today are all connected to baptism because lent itself is all about baptism. Historically, lent has always primarily been a time of preparation for baptism for catechumens – those adults who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil each year. Lent for catechumens is a time set aside for intense prayer, fasting, and study. However, over the centuries lent has become a time for all the baptized to do the same.

Our catechumens who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil have been preparing their whole lives for this event, whether they were aware of it or not. However, for the past several months they have been particularly focused on prayer, study, and preparation for this very special sacrament. Lent for them has a special meaning. During lent they turn inward to discern God’s plan for their lives, both here on earth and in heaven. They have been driven by the Spirit, as it were, out into the desert of lent in preparation for their new mission. I often wish we lifelong Catholics could have the same sense of lent and understanding of baptism that our catechumens have. I wish we had their longing.

We have this image of baptism being a beautiful little ceremony where a family gets together in a lovely church on a Saturday or a Sunday, with a little baby dressed all in white. It is all so pure and clean and hopeful. It is a time of happiness and rejoicing, a new beginning not just for the child but for the family and the entire church. To that child, baptism is all about new life. And it should be.

But there is another aspect to baptism, and that is death. Baptism is the sacrament of renewal, of washing away sin and death and our old way of life. Baptism is about dying to ourselves, to our sinfulness, and rising again to new life.

Jesus’ ministry began with his baptism in the Jordan and ended with his baptism on the cross. When Jesus spoke of baptism he was also referring to his death. When James and John asked Jesus for places of honor in the kingdom of heaven, he asked them, “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” And St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans, “Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.”

This is important because for us Christians, life is death and death is life. We understand that death is not the end for us. Jesus’ death on the cross has freed us from death and allows us to share in eternal life. Death for us is not the end but a new beginning. It was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die so that he could rise again. We also suffer and die and we also have hope in the resurrection.

Jesus understood that his baptism would just be the beginning. He knew what the end would be. He knew what would happen to him when he came out of the desert. But he needed that lent, he needed that time of preparation and clarification of the mission. Just as we do. Because we are also called as disciples to share in that mission. We too can be invaded by the Holy Spirit if we allow ourselves to be. Our baptism allows us to be open to the Spirit, and our baptism charges us with a great commission.

Jesus’ final words to his disciples were “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age”. That is our great commission. That is how we share in the mission of Jesus. That is how the world will be transformed.

Live this lent as if it were your first. Live this lent as if it were your last. Live the commission you received at your baptism. Prepare yourself for your mission as Jesus did. Be open to the Spirit of God. Let it invade you and drive you to great faith and great works.

 

 

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Fish Story

 

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Word of God Sunday

The Church has proclaimed today, the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, to be Word of God Sunday. This is a new celebration that Pope Francis instituted only 2 years ago, and the emphasis is on the meaning and importance and celebration of the holy scriptures. Sacred scripture is necessary for our understanding of God and how he has revealed himself to us. St. Paul told Timothy that,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

It is through scripture that God reveals himself to us in very important and meaningful ways, but the Word of God is not just relegated to the written word. Jesus did not walk around with the scriptures. He studied them and opened his listeners’ hearts and minds to how they applied to him as the Messiah, but he was the scriptures for them, and the word of God lived and preached was the first gospel.

The first books of the New Testament were not written until almost 20 years after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. The first gospel, Mark, wasn’t written until around the year 67, and the other gospels twenty to thirty years after that. Up until that time the word was preached, not read. It was lived by the disciples, and that experience was so deep and effective that the roots of the Church were firmly planted and grew strong. The preaching of Peter that first Pentecost led to over 3000 people being baptized! We hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles dedicated themselves to the preaching of the word and to prayer. According to St. Clement, by the time of the death of the last apostle, the gospel had been preached and churches had been established throughout the entire Roman empire. And the canon of scripture has been handed down to us, unchanged and unbroken, since the 4th century.

Mark has Jesus starting his public ministry today proclaiming the gospel. The Word of God proclaimed the word of God. The gospel Jesus proclaimed was so compelling and life changing that the apostles left everything, their work, their family, their way of life, to follow him. To them the word of God was not something just captured on a page, it was alive before them. We speak a lot about living the gospel. To the disciples, the gospel was literally living amongst them.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews says that “Indeed, God’s word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates and divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart.” The word of God is alive. Sacred scripture is not ancient history, it is current reality. It is your reality. It can and should cut you to the bone and reveal your true self to yourself. It should be so compelling that it changes the course of your life. Can you see now how the living word of God, physically present to the apostles, drove them to leave hearth and home and follow him? Has it done the same to you?

I think it is serendipitous that the readings today are about the calling of the apostles. The word of God is always compelling, it always calls us to do something. It always challenges us to change. Jesus didn’t invite Peter, James and John to join a book club. He asked them to follow him in a completely new way of thinking and a new way of life. Jesus’ message was always that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and it was. His was the kingship that was at hand. His message was that God is not just found in some faraway heaven or even just in words on a page. God is found in the most common places, in the most everyday activities, and in the most personally intimate situations.

I do not think it was by accident that Jesus first called fishermen, because the analogy of fishing for men is so perfect for our own call to discipleship. There are many different ways to fish. Sometimes you throw a net to catch as many as you can, and then sort out the good catch from the poor later on. The word of God is broadcast far and wide in many ways, in preaching and teaching, in live gatherings and through mass media, and some people accept it and many do not. It is not up to the fisher to discriminate; it is his or her job to simply spread the net and then let the Holy Spirit haul in the catch of souls.

Sometimes you target a specific fish when fishing. How many here are fly fishers? It is an active activity rather than a passive one. When I bait fish, I cast the line to a place where I think the fish might be and let it sit there a while, hoping to get a bite. I wait for the fish to come to me. Fly fishing is more like hunting. When fly fishing I cast the fly upstream of where I think the fish may be and let the line float back down to that spot. We call it presenting the fly to the fish. I propose the bait to them so that they discover it naturally. I make it their idea, not mine. And if I don’t get a strike immediately, I pull the line and try again. The fish in a stream or lake are constantly moving, searching for food, working in the currents and water temperature changes. Good fishers understand this and go to where the fish are. They understand the everyday life of the fish and constantly correct how they present the fly or the bait.

Effective ministers of the word present the word, as it were, and allow it to flow to where the people are, naturally. And we keep trying, adjusting the message to the everyday life of the people. The word, whether written or spoken, doesn’t change. The gospel is always the gospel, but the way it is presented must remain relevant to each and every recipient. The word of God has little to do with the messenger. It is effective in and of itself. Even the reluctant prophet, such as Jonah today, can change hearts.

We have a wonderful combination of the written and preached word here at Mass, don’t we? The Church has structured the scriptural presentation of the word very deliberately throughout the liturgical year. Every Sunday, every Mass, has specific readings laid out. There are three cycles of readings, A, B, and C, that rotate on a three-year progression. Every three years you will hear the same readings on that specific Sunday. Cycle A focuses on the gospel of Matthew, Cycle B on Mark, and Cycle C on Luke. John is sprinkled throughout each cycle, especially during the Easter season. Three years ago, on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time we had these same readings. But even though we repeat the readings they never get stale or irrelevant.

People have asked me if I every recycle my homilies, and I tell them no, I don’t think I should. Not just because that would be lazy but because while the specific readings haven’t changed, I have. You have. That is one of the amazing geniuses of the Word of God. You can read the same passage today and a year from now and you will get something different out of it each time. It will present to you and continue to call you to conversion where you are in the stream today.

The word is actively alive in your life. How has it changed you?

There is a difference in how we should experience the word here at Mass. I think one of the positives for the changes we’ve had to make due to Covid is the removal of the missalettes from the pews. We really shouldn’t be reading along on our own during the Mass. The word must be proclaimed to the community and received by the community. Reading is a personal internal exercise. Listening is a communal exercise. When you are required to listen to the reading you can be more focused on it and receive it as the gift it truly is.

We oftentimes think that the Mass is only about the Eucharist, but the Liturgy of the Word is just as important. Jesus is truly present in the Mass in four ways – in the Assembly, in the priest, in the Eucharist, and in the Word. Each manifestation of Jesus Christ is necessary and must be present in each and every Mass.

Just as we break the bread and it is given to us, the word is broken open for us to receive as well. Just as we do not take the Eucharist, we receive it, we should not take the word by reading it at Mass but receive it as it is being proclaimed. Jesus did not hand out leaflets, he preached. The apostles received his message, and it was their reception and acceptance of his message that drove them to conversion.

But what truly made the apostles effective ministers of the gospel is that they gave themselves up completely to the mission that Jesus gave them. His first words to him were a call to follow him, to be formed by the living Word of God, to become his friends, to know him and to love him, and to become active partners in the Kingdom of God. They became like him because they shared his life with him, and he with theirs in the most intimate ways. His final words to them upon his ascension were to go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them everything he had commanded them, presenting the word of God both spoken and written. To guide future generations of believers, us, to also share in the life of Jesus; to know him and to love him and also become active partners in the Kingdom of God. To become living scripture to the world.