Grand Events

 

17^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

2 Kgs 4:42-44

Eph 4:1-6

Jn 6:1-15

 

I’m sure most, if not all of you here are aware of what’s been happening across the country with the three-year-long National Eucharistic Revival that began in 2022. It is a grassroots movement called by the US bishops to rekindle a living faith in the hearts of all Catholics across America to unleash a new missionary chapter in this pivotal moment in Church history.

 

As part of that movement, last year all dioceses hosted a local Eucharistic Rally. Last summer here in Salt Lake City 10,000 Catholics gathered together at the Mountain America Center for a full day of events and one huge Mass. So many St. Mary’s parishioners volunteered to make it a success and many more participated in the Mass. It was truly a wonderful event and experience and touched so many people in this parish and in the diocese that we are still talking about it a year later. One man I spoke with who attended told me that it has inspired him to return to regular Mass attendance.

 

This year starting in May there was a pilgrimage that processed with the Blessed Sacrament from the four corners of the country converging last week at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. We were blessed here at St. Mary’s that the pilgrimage went right through town and hundreds of us participated. We even celebrated a special Mass here with the pilgrims, Bishop Solis and Bishop Gordon from Las Vegas. It was so cool to see the video and pictures of our parish eucharistic procession from the Old Town Chapel to this church posted on social media and news channels nationwide.

 

The pilgrimage culminated at the Eucharistic Congress last week in Indianapolis, the first Congress in the US in 83 years. According to a statement by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, “The 10th National Eucharistic Congress was a profound moment for the whole Church in the United States as our Catholic family united in prayer. 60,000 Catholics gathered in Indianapolis for this generational event, and countless more across the nation joined via livestream. This was a pivotal moment in both American history and the legacy of the Catholic Church. After a historic National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, tens of thousands of pilgrims welcomed Jesus to Indianapolis. United in spirit with our brothers and sisters across the nation, we worshiped Jesus as the Body of Christ and sought repentance in joy and hope.”

 

It’s a big deal. A bigger deal than we’ve had in a long time. I’ve actually heard people comment that things like this are obsolete and old fashioned. Someone called them simply medieval. Why do we have to make such a show about something we can do ourselves privately or in our parishes? They’re so over the top. But there’s something different about coming together in large numbers to share our faith and worship. If where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am among them, then what outpouring of the Spirit they will be with tens of thousands?  Just as it is different to watch a football game in person versus on TV, the enthusiasm factor and sense of belonging and community are so much higher. Large events such as these create great enthusiasm, they revitalize the faithful and re-focus us on our faith. They also help us to spread the gospel throughout our communities and the world.

 

There were many processions where I grew up in Massachusetts, both eucharistic and for feast days. You would just see a bunch of folks following behind the priest carrying the monstrance down the street to the church. Since I was in Catholic school, I had to join in. I always thought they were pretty hokey, and somewhat embarrassing, because it was a Catholic thing, and my non-Catholic friends could see me marching down the street. I was a Holy Joe. And I was too young and too self-absorbed to realize that that’s the idea. It is to make our faith visible to the world. The processions are for the pilgrims, yes, but they are more for the spectators. They are for the non-believers. They are for the world to see our devotion so that some will find that attractive and want a part of it. They are a way for us to witness to the world who we are, what we believe in, and to claim part of our Catholic identity again. Large public displays of devotion are missionary events, and we are a missionary Church. The entire world saw our faith on display last week.

 

Most of Jesus’ teaching, healing and preaching happened with individuals or smaller groups. But sometimes they were grand events, like the feeding of the multitudes. The story of the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle that is recorded in all four gospels. Matthew and Mark also tell of feeding another 4000 at one time. These miracles are a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and distributes. But I think the most important thing about them is the leftovers.

 

What do you think they did with the 12 baskets of leftovers? They gave them to the people to take home with them. The people were enthusiastic that day. They had just witnessed something extraordinary, and they were eager to spread the news. They didn’t just take bread and fish home with them, they took the story. They evangelized to their family and friends about the man from Nazareth. Those same people who Jesus fed that day followed him to Galilee, and they are the ones who he gave the bread of life discourses to. Once fed a little, they wanted more. They were touched by Jesus, and they wanted to make him their king.

 

Those 60,000 Congress participants and the thousands more who experienced the eucharistic pilgrimage were fed, and now want more. They are enthusiastic. They have witnessed something extraordinary, and they are eager to spread the news. And they will follow Jesus wherever he goes to get more. They have brought the fragments of their experience back home with them to their parishes, homes, families and friends. The gift with which they have been fed has reinvigorated them and recommitted them to their faith. I have read the testimonies of people who were interviewed about their experiences. So many of them had been on the peripheries, not zealots as you might expect, but ordinary people who have a simple faith, oftentimes a wavering faith in the face of so much secular opposition, and something has come alive in them.

 

Wow, this isn’t just me. This is a movement. I am not alone. We really can revive the church.

 

The leftovers are here, in this parish. Just as 60,000 people knelt on the floor of that stadium last week in silent adoration of the blessed sacrament, so can we here. Just as 60,000 people received the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ together in that stadium every day, so do we in our little parish, at our Sunday gatherings or even with a handful of friends at daily Mass. The size and scope of the gathering does not affect the reality of the sacrament, nor its efficacy. It’s the same Jesus feeding us. The loaves are still being multiplied. We still take the fragments of the grace we receive home with us to give to our family, friends and community.

 

Will that enthusiasm fade over time? Probably. But you know, we can always have another procession. We always have eucharistic adoration in our parishes. We still have daily and Sunday Mass. We still gather as pilgrims throughout the world, in large and small congregations, to be fed by our king. A flame has been kindled, the same light of Christ that was lit in you at your baptism. It’s up to us to keep that flame burning brightly and to feed it until it grows to a roaring conflagration.

 

Grow Up!

 

10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Gn 3:9-15, 2 Cor 4:13—5:1,  Mk 3:20-35

 

I saw a really adorable video this week of a three-year-old girl whose father was questioning her about why she painted her entire Barbie doll with blue nail polish. He would ask her, “Why did you paint your Barbie with nail polish?” And she kept saying, “She told me to do it, and I told her hundreds of times no.” She was crying and anguished. Every time her father patiently questioned her about what she had done she kept repeating, “I told her hundreds of times no, but she kept telling me to do it.” I think we have all experienced this with little ones. This father had a really hard time not busting up. She was so innocent and so sincere. We expect that type of thing from kids. We know they don’t know any better. We know they aren’t really responsible for their actions at that age. They’re just trying to get out of it.

 

Passing the buck is our first instinct. When asked why he ate the forbidden fruit, Adam said he was just doing what Eve told him to do. No questioning it; she gave it to him so he ate it. And he tells God, “It was the woman, who you put here, who did it.” And it really wasn’t Eve’s fault either, the serpent tricked her. Nobody takes any responsibility for what they did. The serpent was the only honest one. He knew what he was doing. He was just doing his job.

 

Today we see the entire spectrum of moral development, starting with the first Adam and ending with the second Adam, Jesus Christ. The development of our own moral lives follows a pattern. The first sin was pride. You will become like gods. Totally self-centered. So, at this end of the continuum, we have pride. Everything’s about me. At the other end we have mercy. Jesus considers everyone to be his brothers and sisters.

 

In the middle of the maturation process we move through stages of growth from self-centeredness to awareness of others and our relationships with them, to the realization that we are all interdependent with one another and are all responsible for one another. And it has nothing to do with age. There is a big difference between a 20 year old TikTok influencer who posts suggestive selfies all day and the 20 year old army Ranger scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. There is an overlap in our personal growth curves and our spiritual growth curves when we understand our need for forgiveness. We cannot receive forgiveness just by forgiving ourselves. We need to be forgiven, by God and by those we have sinned against. We can move to forgiveness when we experience forgiveness. We can move to mercy when we feel God’s mercy towards us. The morally mature person gives and receives mercy willingly.

 

This story is the story of us all. It takes so very long, oftentimes our entire lives, to fully mature. Some people never move beyond a 3-year-old’s understanding. Where are you on the continuum today? Are you still a child, thinking everything revolves around you? Do you habitually pass the buck and make excuses? Is it all about your own self-esteem?  Do you think you need to remove all the people from your life who don’t build you up or treat you as you deserve to be treated? Or do you understand that we are all interconnected as brothers and sisters, that we all need to forgive one another and show mercy to those who hurt us the most? Is your pride your biggest stumbling block or have you reached the heights of humility? Have you widened your perspective beyond your own little world to extend to the entire world, as Jesus did? Do you see everyone you meet as a brother or sister?

 

Jesus wasn’t disrespecting his family that day. He wasn’t ignoring or avoiding them. He was asking his disciples to expand their thinking. He wanted them to grow up! Being his disciple means you have to see everyone as your family. We don’t ignore our family, we expand it. Jesus was at the pinnacle of human moral and spiritual maturity, where he truly saw the big picture.

 

Just as there are stages to our moral maturity, there are stages to our spiritual maturity as well. And again, it has nothing to do with age. St. Dominic Savio died at 14. Maria Goretti was 12. Blessed Carlos Acutis was 15. We start off having no responsibility for our faith. It is given to us by our parents and family. When we begin to experience community, usually through the Church, we see that we share faith with other people. We begin to see our responsibility not just for our own salvation but for the salvation of others, in fact, the two are inseparable. We understand that we are not saved alone but with and through our relationships with others. We understand that to be spiritually mature we need to act on our faith. Our faith is both personal and public. We are our brother’s keeper.

 

Where are you on the spirituality continuum? It’s possible to stop your spiritual growth at any stage, or even go backwards. Many, many people who were raised in the faith stop believing for a time or even forever. Faith is a gift that needs to be nurtured to grow. Is your faith more cultural than committed? Are you motivated by fear or by love? Do you fear the repercussions of your actions, or do you truly make God the center of your life because you love Him with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul? Do you fully participate in the entire sacramental life of the Church because that is where you enter into the mystery? Do you attend Mass because of your obligation or because for you it is the source and summit of your faith? Or is it optional based upon the circumstances of the day? How big is your heart? Do you have your own personal Jesus, or do you strive to bring the joy of your faith to everyone you meet? Do you bring the grace of the Eucharist out into the world? As disciples of Christ, we are called to do more, to love more, to give more.

 

As children we are all about us. I’m hungry, feed me. I’m thirsty, give me something to drink. I’m cold, give me something to wear. I’m sick, take care of me. Jesus loves me. I am a sinner in need of forgiveness. A mature Christian life is  about serving others. We feed the hungry. We give drink to the thirsty. We clothe the naked. We visit the sick and those in prison. We love one another as He has loved us. We love our neighbor as ourselves. We love our enemies. We forgive seventy times seven. We go and make disciples of the whole world.

 

It is only when we can see ourselves as we truly are, brothers and sisters of the Lord, loved deeply by Him yet flawed and in need of forgiveness, can we move out into the world and bring God’s love to everyone. Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? It could be everyone I meet. They are definitely those who do the will of the Father. I am one with them and they are one with me. And we are all one in the Lord. Jesus says he is my brother. God is my brother! How radical, and cool, is that?

 

Say the Words!

 

Third Sunday of Easter

Cycle B

 

Forgiveness

 

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."

 

We hear the theme of repentance for the forgiveness of sins again in today’s readings. Jesus began his public ministry with the message, repent and believe in the gospel. That message was central to his entire teaching, but it was only after the disciples had witnessed his suffering, death, and resurrection that they could finally understand the how and the why. Jesus tied it all together when he appeared to them that Easter night.

 

 "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

 

Forgiveness of sins is not only central to Jesus’ teaching but is at the core of all the scriptures. Forgiveness is talked about over 70 times in scripture, 40 times in the New Testament alone. Humanity’s fallen nature means we are in need of repentance and forgiveness. The bible is one long story of our falling again and again and being lifted up again and again. Jesus spoke of and offered forgiveness so many times, even from the cross to those who were killing him. To the very end he offered them hope and a relationship with him. He offered them salvation by forgiving their sin. Jesus knows how broken we are. Jesus knows how desperately we want and need to be forgiven, and he offers it to us constantly through His church today.

 

Forgiveness is central not only to our faith but to our very well-being. We all live in relationships with others, in fact, we cannot even be saved outside of relationships with others, yet we always seem to hurt one another and break those relationships. That is the definition of sin. There are many, many people today who do not have a sense of sin, what it is or if it even exists, but everyone can understand broken relationships because they are so painful. One of the great tragedies of humanity is that so many relationships are never healed because so many times forgiveness is never asked for or given or received when they are broken. And all our relationships will be hurt or broken from time to time. The only way to restore those relationships is through forgiveness, asked for and given, freely, honestly and truly.

 

If there was no forgiveness for our sins, there would be no hope for us. Not just hope for eternal life but hope for happiness here in this life. Without forgiveness we will spiral down into self-loathing, or we will become so scarred and jaded that we give up and not care. And that is the most frightening thing of all. Forgiveness is true love, and the opposite of love is apathy.

 

We all want to be forgiven; we all need to be forgiven. We all need to forgive.

 

Have you ever asked someone to forgive you and they refused? Or they sloughed it off and didn’t take it seriously? Or they said they accepted your apology, but you felt deep down they didn’t mean it, and the relationship remained strained? How did that make you feel? Hurt, angry, worthless? What did that do to your self-image? What did you think about the other person? Do you still feel that hurt today?

 

I give advice to young parents when I prepare them to have their children baptized to never hesitate to forgive their children when they do something wrong. When a child says they’re sorry to you, if you even flinch or pause or give some sort of condition before accepting their apology you plant the seed of doubt in them that you really don’t forgive them. And if you do that to them often enough, they will eventually stop saying they’re sorry because they don’t believe you will forgive them. It’s a defense mechanism to avoid the pain of that rejection because that is what withholding forgiveness really is, rejection. A deep rejection when we are the most vulnerable. Those feelings of rejection and avoidance of situations where it could occur again can carry over to adulthood and affect all our relationships.

 

When Fr. Bob would teach our catechumens about the sacrament of reconciliation, he would tell them that in the confessional it was like he is holding the penitent’s heart in his hands, and it is an awesome responsibility for him to cherish and honor that heart and not destroy it. It takes great courage to ask for forgiveness, and when we do, we are extremely vulnerable. If we are rejected at that moment, it can affect us for a lifetime. When someone comes to us for forgiveness we have great power over them, and it is at that moment we can truly offer God’s mercy along with our own.

 

The beautiful thing about our God is that no matter what we have done, if we come to him with a sincere repentant heart desiring forgiveness, he will never reject us. Even if we come to him at the very last moment of our lives, all will be wiped clean. There’s a flip side to this forgiveness thing, however. Jesus told us that we will be forgiven to the extent that we forgive. He actually said that if we don’t forgive one another, we will not be forgiven, and his forgiveness is predicated on our truly repenting of our sins. That means we sincerely intend to avoid those sins, we feel true remorse not just because of the potential consequences of our sins, but because we know that they hurt our relationship with God, who deserves all our love.

 

We all want to be forgiven; we all need to be forgiven. We all need to forgive.

 

Forgive each other constantly, even if you are forgiving the same thing over and over again. Ask for forgiveness constantly, even if you are asking it for the same thing over and over again. Never cease to persevere in doing what is right, brothers and sisters.

 

The three most important words in a relationship are not “I love you”, but “I forgive you”. The next three most important words are “I am sorry”. Say the words. We need to hear the words. We need to say the words. We need to hear ourselves say the words. Words matter. Let there be no question about your intent or what you are asking for and offering. A wise monk once told me that the most loving thing you can do for someone is to say you’re sorry to them, because you are then giving them the chance to love you in return. Give them that chance.

 

Say “I am sorry, please forgive me” or better yet, “I am sorry for doing x, please forgive me.” “I apologize” can mean anything, as does “I regret my actions”. They’re halfhearted and meaningless. Saying you’re sorry shows emotional understanding of what you are offering. And in return don’t say “it’s ok”, because it’s not ok. There is hurt involved here. Say the words “I forgive you”. That leaves no question in the mind of the asker and can open the door to true reconciliation.

 

Say the words to God, too. Go to confession often, even if you seem to be confessing the same sins over and over again. I once told a priest that it felt worthless to keep confessing the same things over again, and he said, “What, you want new sins?” Jesus knows your failings better than you do, he wants to hear you ask for forgiveness, and he wants so desperately to have you hear his words of reconciliation.

 

It’s hard. I know. It’s really hard to put yourself out there risking rejection. Especially if the hurt was a serious one, or when you feel like such a failure to keep coming back and ask for forgiveness for the same thing over and over again. And it’s hard to keep forgiving the same things because you don’t see the situation ever improving. It’s like ripping off the scab every time. But we must. Jesus told Peter to forgive a sin seventy times seven. Because if you don’t it only winds up hurting you instead.

 

Jesus told his disciples that Easter night, “Who’s sins you forgive are forgiven, and who’s sins you hold bound are held bound.” You’ve gotta let it go.  If you forgive each other’s sins, then healing can occur and relationships can occur. If you hold them bound; if you keep them tied up inside of you and let them fester into bitterness, healing can never occur, and relationships will be permanently destroyed.

 

The first thing Jesus says to his disciples is “Peace be with you”. They needed to hear the words from his mouth because they were not at peace. He actually said it twice. How do you think they felt after betraying him, denying him and running away from him when he needed them most? But instead of berating them he showed them compassion. He knew how they were feeling, how ashamed they were. He knew they were in danger of tearing apart their fragile fellowship, destroying the church before it even began, and so he offered them two things: his peace and his forgiveness. “If I can forgive you,” Jesus was telling them, “Then you must forgive one another and move on”.

That forgiveness allowed the apostles to go out and proclaim the good news to the entire world. That forgiveness is what attracts people to the faith. That forgiveness is why you and I are Christians today. That forgiveness is the hope that we continue to offer humanity by practicing it in our everyday lives.