Unbelievable

1^st Sunday of Lent

Cycle B

Gn 9:8-15

1Pt 3:18-22

Mk1:12-15

Have you ever thought of what the odds are against you being here?

Harvard Law School blogger Ali Binazir produced a “probability chart” a couple of months ago contemplating this very question. In the chart, Binazir calculates just how improbable it was that the right sperm from your father hooked up with the right egg produced by your mother. By his estimate, it’s about one chance in 400 quadrillion. And that’s not all. To even get to that stage, all of your ancestors, going all the way back to the beginning of life on earth, had to survive to reproductive age. Multiplying the string of probabilities together, he concludes that the odds of your existence are an astronomical one in 10^2,685.000. That’s a ten with two million six hundred eighty-five thousand zeros after it. Enough zeros to fill 11 250-page books.

The string is very thin indeed. There’s the probability of one particular boy meeting one particular girl, then the chance that they actually talk to one another, then the chances of that turning into another meeting, then that meeting turning into a long term relationship, one that lasted long enough to result in offspring. The chances of your parents’ meeting resulting in marriage and kids is about 1 in 2000. The combined probability of all those events occurring is around 1 in 40 million.

When you get into the math of that one specific sperm with half your name on it hitting that one egg with half your name on it you come up with odds of 1 in 400 quadrillion. The right sperm also had to meet the right egg to create your grandparents. Otherwise they’d be different people, and so would their children, who would then have had children who were similar to you but not quite you.

This is also true of your grandparents’ parents, and their grandparents, and so on till the beginning of human time. If even once the wrong sperm met the wrong egg, you would not be sitting here daydreaming and wondering when I will get to the point.

Now multiply that by the billions of souls that have inhabited the earth and it blows your mind. Never mind the improbability that a planet could evolve out of the entire universe that could sustain life, not to mention intelligent life, and it’s time to quit.

So, you’re pretty special, aren’t you? You are not random. God willed you into being. Unbelievable. Even though the odds were stacked against you, God has known you since before you were conceived. He knew who you were going to be before he created Adam and Eve. He knew how much you would love him and how much you would turn from him, yet he willed you into existence anyway. Unbelievable. And the Good News is that he came down from heaven to redeem you, and he knew he would do so before he created the universe.

That’s pretty good news.

Yet that good news itself is unbelievable. Not because it is impossible but because we find it to be improbable. If it’s hard to believe in the improbability of our own existence it is even harder to believe that God would care so much for us. Why does he care that much for such insignificant creatures? What have we done to deserve this? But then again, why wouldn’t He; it took a lot of work to get you here.

Jesus says today to repent and believe the Good News. That good news is that the kingdom of God is at hand. God is here, now, in this place, and He’s here just for you. Throughout all of time the plan has been in place. And that plan is for you to be with him. All we have to do is turn from the things that keep us from accepting his love.

Repent and believe in the gospel. The two things go together.

We don’t need to repent in order to be worthy of the gospel; the gospel is what it is no matter what we do. We need to repent in order to believe in it. When we sin we are cut off from God and we feel unworthy of His love. Sin is like a wall that encloses us so that we feel completely worthless. Sin blinds us to the mercy of the gospel. How could the good news be for me since I am such a loser? I can never seem to get it right. I keep falling back on my old ways. We need to repent because then we will be in right relationship with God and the gospel will make sense to us. Repentance opens our eyes to the wonderfulness of God’s plan for us.

God has raised us up to the level of his equal, in a way. We know that we will never be equal to God, but he chooses to treat us that way. We hear today that God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants that he would never send another flood to destroy life on earth. We hear that word “covenant” at every Mass, yet I don’t think we truly understand what it means. We have lots of contracts today, but not many covenants. A covenant is not just an agreement, not just a contract. A contract usually is made between unequal parties, with the purpose of protecting the parties in case something bad happens. A covenant is much more. First, it is made between equals, and it is much more open-ended. It is simple. You do this and I will do that. That is why we call marriage a covenant. Because it is between equals and doesn’t try to guard against any eventuality. It is open-ended and both parties promise to be faithful to the covenant upon pain of serious consequences.

When God made a covenant with Noah, he raised Noah and his descendants to the level of equals. That covenant was renewed with Moses, then with King David and the Israelites, then finally in Jesus the covenant was made eternal. No more would it have to be renewed because it is forever. Whenever a covenant was made the parties would kill an offering of a lamb or a bull or whatever, then they would cut the carcass in half and walk between the two pieces, signifying that if either one broke the covenant that is what would happen to him. With Jesus no offering was needed because He himself was the final perfect sacrifice.

Repent and believe. Repent so you can believe. This lent remove all the obstacles you have put up to God’s love. Your existence is not random, don’t let your lent be random. Clear the decks and be faithful to your part of the covenant. Just as a covenant has severe consequences for anyone who breaks it, it also has amazing blessings for those who keep it.

Jesus Loves Religion

4^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

Jesus Loves Religion

If I hear one more person say they’re spiritual but not religious I’m going to scream.

23-year old Jefferson Bethke posted a rap video on You Tube a couple of weeks ago entitled “Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus”. In it he makes the case that religion is destructive to the message of Jesus. He says that religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride that you have all the answers and others don’t or despair that you can never live up to all the requirements for salvation religion places upon you. He says that religion is man-centered, Jesus is God-centered. Like many people these days, he thinks that we can love Jesus without the burden of religion.

It must have struck a chord because it received over ten million hits in one week. As of this morning there have been over 17 million hits. Of those who commented, five times more agreed with Jefferson than disagreed. I’m not going to get into a lengthly refutation of his position here. You can check out his video yourself, and if you like you can buy one of his t-shirts. But I am interested in the response he received, because I have been hearing people take similar positions for a long time now, especially among our young people, and it is disturbing.

People like Jesus, or who they think Jesus is. They like his nice teachings, all about loving your neighbor, feeding the poor, let the little children come to me. Jesus is welcoming, loving, and approachable. Following this image of Jesus is easy, because there really are no challenges in doing so. We all think we’re good people. We all try to love our neighbor, give to the less fortunate, and think we love God. It’s the religion part that we don’t like, because sometimes religion can be challenging.

I think one reason people feel this way is that they have no real understanding of what religion is. Jefferson Bethke has it exactly backwards. Religion is not man- centered, it’s God-centered, and Jesus is not God-centered, he’s man-centered. Religion is God-centered because it focuses us on the Almighty, and yes, God does place certain requirements on us. If Jesus wasn’t man-centered than why would he have bothered to come down here in the first place to suffer and die for us?

We are all given faith as a gift to some degree or other. In fact, if God did not give us faith we would have no way of believing there even is a God. Religion is the way we put that faith into action. Archbishop Timothy Dolan from New York said in his blog this week, “We Catholics have always believed that God chooses us and gives us the supernatural gift of faith. It’s not that we decide our faith. You bet, we freely decide how firmly and generously we will live out our faith, but we are “born into” a Church. Faith is a gift from God given us on the day of our baptism into His Church.” As Christians we all are called to not just believe but to act upon that belief.

Action. That’s the part about Jesus people are uncomfortable with. We don’t hear them talking much about the challenging teachings of Jesus. “I have not come to bring peace but division.” “Father will be pit against son and son against father.” “They will hate you and persecute you because of me.” “If you are my disciple you must take up your cross daily and follow me.” Jesus said that if you follow him you will be hated, despised, persecuted, and even killed, just as he was. If you don’t believe this is true, post something about abortion on Facebook and see the comments. Religion is hated because it causes us to actually live the faith we profess in Jesus. The image some people have of Jesus is too easy. Religion can be hard.

You cannot separate Jesus from the Church. You cannot separate the Church from Jesus. Last Wednesday we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. You may remember the story. Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians there and drag them back to Jerusalem for trial. On the way he was startled by a bright light that knocked him to the ground and blinded him. He heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, sir? Saul asked. “I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.” Jesus didn’t say, “I am Jesus, whose followers you are persecuting.” He said, “you are persecuting me.” Jesus also told Simon Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my church.” He said, “I will not leave you orphans”, and “I will be with you until the end of the age”.

He promised to send the Holy Spirit upon his church so that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. He lives on in his church. We are Jesus to the world today. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus by yourself. He left a group of people behind to spread his good news, not individuals. Saying you love Jesus outside the community is very self-centered, not God-centered. It is exactly within religion that we are able to know and love Jesus. How else could we learn about him? By ourselves? Without it you get some really weird ideas and post them on You Tube.

St. Mark says today, “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. A new teaching with authority.” What were the scribes teaching? The Law of Moses, which had been handed down to them through the centuries. Moses was a great prophet, but he was not the author of his teachings. In Deuteronomy today God tells Moses that he will send another prophet in his place, one with authority. Jesus was that prophet. Jesus is the author of the teaching, and so of course he had the authority to preach it. Author and authority have the same root.

Say you wanted to take a college course on a subject. Would you just go into the classroom and be handed a textbook to read, or would it better to have someone teach it to you, too? And would it be even better if the professor had actually written the textbook? Of course it would. Then why do people think they can simply sit down with the Bible and learn about how to live as a disciple? Why not go to someone with authority, someone who actually wrote the book? Jesus said he would be present in his church for all time. We don’t make this stuff up on our own. We believe that when we hand on the teachings of the apostles accurately we cannot make a mistake. Our teaching has authority, because we are guided by the Holy Spirit.

Sounds conceited? Actually, it’s the opposite. We remove ourselves from the equation. We don’t make changes here or there on a whim. We humbly follow the apostolic teachings without deviation because we know that we are not the author.

We don’t like authority. It smacks of rules and regulations. We don’t like to be told what to do. But that’s not how Jesus taught. His authority was not about sticking to the law. He did not simply repeat what Moses said and demand that his disciples stick to the letter of the law. He had certainty and confidence in the truth of what he was saying because he is that truth. We can all claim authority in our own areas of expertise. We are Jesus’ area of expertise. He knows the subject of us so intimately because he authored us. And so of course he would teach with authority. That’s the authority he endowed his apostles with. That’s the authority the Church has taught with for two thousand years. That is the authority he has endowed us with today.

The Christmas Truce

Christmas

Mass at Night

For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice,
both now and forever.

Night is upon us, the stores are closed, the shopping is over. The crowds have gone home, and we are at peace.

It was the same for Mary and Joseph. They had endured the long, several days journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, struggled through the crowds looking for shelter, then finally settled down in the stable. For that short span of time, they had some peace. Now for a short span of time, we can have some peace. Silent night, holy night.

We have been given a great gift.

The gift Jesus brings is always peace. On the night of his birth the angels proclaimed peace to people upon whom God’s favor rests. Jesus’ career here on earth began with peace. It also ended with peace. His first words to his disciples in the upper room that Easter evening were “Peace be with you”.

What happened in between wasn’t so peaceful, was it?

It reminds me of the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas day in 1914, the first world war had been raging for several months, and the combatants had settled into a terrible trench warfare, with thousands dying daily under tremendous bombardment and withering machine gun fire. Their trenches were barely yards apart from one another, so close they could hear each other’s conversations. They would even call out to one another across no man’s land.

The story goes that sometime during the night on Christmas Eve men in trenches all along the front line began singing carols. The Germans even put up Christmas trees in their trenches and hung lanterns on them. Since they were so close to one another both sides could hear each other singing, and they could see the trees lit up. It would have been so easy to fire upon the voices and the lights, but that didn’t happen. In fact, the following day men from both sides spontaneously climbed up out of their trenches and met each other in no man’s land. They chatted, exchanged gifts of food and cigarettes, and even played a bit of soccer. None of this had been authorized by the high command, and the officers in the trenches turned a blind eye to what was happening. The unofficial truce lasted all that day and in some places along the line there was a cease fire for a couple of weeks. For a span of time, there was peace.

A great analogy for life, isn’t it? In the midst of all our squabbling and fighting and hatred and murder and injustice, there are moments that arise in which we put it all aside and reach out to those we hurt and hate and realize the peace of Jesus. And it is no accident that this sort of thing usually happens around the feasts of Jesus.

The message of Christianity has always been one of peace. If you delve into the true history of the Church and actually understand our doctrines and our teachings, it is always a spirit of peace that emerges. As human beings, we haven’t always lived that spirit, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there and isn’t true and valuable.

And perhaps that is why we are usually at odds with the world, because the world is not about peace. The message of Jesus has always been met with violence. The small innocent child that was born in Bethlehem became the greatest threat ever to the status quo. So much so that he was eventually tortured and killed. But his message endures just as he endures. It is telling that the first thing he assures his disciples of after his resurrection is that nothing has changed. He is still all about peace. Yes he has suffered. Yes they killed him. But he still brings peace. And he wishes to bestow that peace upon all mankind.

Life here on earth is not peaceful. Like Jesus, we suffer, we are attacked, we are misunderstood and maligned, and we die. But God is still all about peace. We wander far from our intended path but God is always calling us back. We have holidays, holy days, that remind us of that call from time to time, and for a time we experience a taste of His peace, until we go back to our old ways. Just like during the Christmas Truce of 1914.

Just because we know we’ll fall back doesn’t mean we should stop our celebrations. It’s good that we have these few short periods of peace amidst the chaos of our lives. We need these touch points to keep us on track. Could you imagine the world without the promise of Christmas? Even the watered down, commercialized Christmas message of the secular world is based upon peace on earth, good will towards all. Christmas fills a basic human need.You can take the God label off it, but it is still God behind it. Because that need is for our salvation.

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” The two things go together. If you give glory to God you will have peace. If you have peace you will be giving glory to God.

Tonight we do both.