Marketing 101

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

            After today’s Gospel, we might be thinking, ‘Jesus should have taken a marketing class!’  Telling people, “‘Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me,’” is a great way to have no followers.  He should have minimized the trials and emphasized the joys, to the effect of, “Yes, there may be some sufferings, but then you’ll never have to worry about anything!!  You’ll get a glorified body, be able to rejoice at the big celebration in heaven, and it will never end!!”  Instead, the “payoff” if you will, is only at the end: “‘For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to their conduct.’”

            Jesus clearly is not trying to sell us the new fad.  The life of His disciples, the life of those in the Church, is to be centered on the cross.  It’s surprising that any disciples continued to follow Jesus.  But Jesus doesn’t change his “ad.”  He doesn’t tone it down, or repackage his message to make it more appealing.  Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, sets before those who come to Him, the Way of the Cross, the Truth of suffering, and the Life that is possible only after passing through death.

            We generally hate suffering.  It is repulsive to our very nature.  Why should I have to go through pain?  I want to avoid, not embrace, suffering!  We’d rather not have to eat our vegetables to have dessert when we’re young.  We’d rather not have to go to practice and work out in order to play sports, or be in band or drama.  We’d rather not have to work hard to be able to earn a good grade in class or go on vacation from our jobs.  We’d rather not have to endure some illness or disease.  Just last week, as my great-aunt was dying, my family asked me why the woman we all loved had to endure so much pain?  Why would God allow this?

            In the midst of the problem of suffering, it would be great if the Church had a quick answer that perfectly responded to the problem and that would solve it.  It would be easy to think, ‘if I just lived perfectly, maybe I wouldn’t have to suffer.’  But that’s not the case.  Look at the Blessed Mother: what suffering she endured watching her Son die on the cross, innocent as He was.  Look at Jesus, the Beloved Son of God the Father, Who was perfect in His humanity and divinity, Who, nevertheless, was scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked, and executed in an extremely painful way.  Those who lived perfectly still had to suffer.  Yes, suffering increases in relation to our sinfulness.  But even the sinless suffer.  Even Jesus had to unite His will always to the Father’s, and take up His cross.

            In the midst of the question of suffering, the Church responds that suffering is not good in and of itself; it is something that should repulse us.  And yet, it is suffering that saves us.  Jesus’ suffering on the cross brought life, not only to Him who was raised on the third day, but also to us who were united to Him in His death, so that we can also be united to Him in His resurrection.  Our suffering can save us, and save those we love. 

            Last week we celebrated the memorial of St. Rose of Lima, the first saint of the Americas.  In the Office of Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours, St. Rose wrote, “Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said…‘Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation…This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.’”  In this vision that St. Rose had, Jesus reaffirmed the words of today’s Gospel.  Now, this is not to say to Jesus enjoys watching us suffer, like some sadist.  But, it is only by dying to ourselves, and uniting that death with Jesus on the cross that we are able to share in the resurrection.  New life can only take place after death.  The new flower can only come after the seed dies.  The old saying, “offer it up!” was not just something the nuns said to keep children in line, or that parents said to stop the kids from whining.  It is a great truth that when we unite our small and large sufferings with Jesus on the cross, that suffering becomes not just a burden and meaningless, but something which can bring joy and peace to ourselves and to others.

            And the great news is that we do not suffer alone.  When we unite our suffering with Jesus, we also invite Jesus, and all the angels and saints, into our own passion, just as they were present at the Passion of Our Lord.  And we know how much easier suffering can be when we are united with others.  If a person gets hurt, it helps to have someone be with you until the injury can be dealt with.  If a person loses a job, it helps to have someone, not just to commiserate with, but to truly guide us through the trial.  And when we suffer and unite our sufferings with Jesus, we know that we are never alone.

            The challenge for us is to make that conscious choice to offer our sufferings with Jesus.  St. Paul tells us to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.”  What does this mean?  It means that, as we come to this Mass, we unite all those sufferings we have experienced in the past week with the host that is on the altar, which is the sacramental re-presentation of Jesus on the cross.  If we lost a sports game, we unite that pain to Jesus; if we got hurt or are going through a serious illness, we unite that suffering and frustration to Jesus; if we’re not doing well in school, or are nervous about a new school year, we unite that anxiety to Jesus; if we have lost our job and don’t know how we’re going to make ends meet, we unite that uncertainty to Jesus.  People say that things are bad right now: unemployment, wars, natural disasters, uncertainty, etc.  These are not good things.  But they can be great opportunities for deeper prayer, and real growth in grace by uniting ourselves to Jesus on the cross.  If we truly wish to be a disciple of Jesus, we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, big and small, and follow Jesus.  “‘For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay all according to their conduct.’”

Truth Is

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Our first reading and Gospel focus on keys: the keys of the house of David and the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  We’re no strangers to the power of keys.  Just imagine (or remember, depending on the person) the terror that enters a person’s heart when he or she suddenly realizes that the keys are locked in the house, or the car, or are lost somewhere.  Or think about the real pain that is caused when a parent tells the teen that the privilege of having keys to the car is gone as a punishment for some bad behavior, or, when the tables are turned, when a child has to tell their parents that they no longer have the privilege of the keys and that they can no longer drive out of a concern of safety for the parents and for others. 

But keys are not simply taken away.  When keys are given, it’s a great experience of freedom.  Think about the joy that you had, or that your kids have, when you first get the keys to the car after you’ve gone through driver’s ed.  Think about the joy that comes when you’ve gone through what seems like a mountain of paperwork and you are finally handed the keys to your new home.  Keys can be a very uplifting aspect of our lives, not just a negative one.

In the first reading, we do get a more negative sense of the keys, because they are being taken away from Shebna, the master of the palace.  Earlier in this same chapter, the Lord condemns Shebna with being more concerned with monuments to his glory than with God’s own people.  And so God speaks through Isaiah to say, “‘I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim’s shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut; when he shuts, no one shall open.’”  Eliakim becomes the new bearer of authority and power, because he has the keys to the House of David, the royal house.  Eliakim, and no longer Shebna, gets to decide who can enter the House of David, and who will remain outside.  He is the gatekeeper, now, to Shebna’s shame.  Shebna is like the young driver that just lost his driving privileges.

Statue of St. Peter near the
Sea of Galillee

In our Gospel, though, St. Peter is given the keys, which are not taken from another, but are given freely as a gift.  And this gift comes as a reward for the faith that Peter exhibits at this moment (although at others he doesn’t show such a great faith).  Jesus asks the disciples who others think He is.  It’s almost as if Jesus is posting, “Truth is…” to his disciples, except that Jesus wants to know what others think about Him, rather that posting what He thinks about others.  And when Peter, by the grace of God, is able to say the words, “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,’” Jesus responds to those words with even more powerful words, words that ring the interior base of the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome: “‘You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.’” 

We lose the connection that existed in the original Aramaic that Jesus spoke, but which is still communicated in the Greek (in which the Gospel according to St. Matthew was first written) or even the Latin, which was copied by St. Jerome from the Greek.  In Latin we would hear, “Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram…”  We hear more clearly that our Lord, who gives Simon the new name of Peter, meaning a new identity that he has, just like Jacob was renamed Israel by God in the Old Testament, makes Peter the rock upon whom the Church is built.  Peter gains the special ministry to act not only in the person of Christ, but as Christ’s vicar on earth.  Peter is the Rock.  Petrus est petram. 

And while all the apostles, in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John, will receive the power to forgive sins through the words, “‘Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,’” Jesus says to Peter alone, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.’”  This unique authority is given to St. Peter alone, and is part of the basis for the Catholic teaching on the unique role of the Pope as Head of the Apostolic College (the bishops united as one), just as Peter is the Prince of the Apostles. 

This power and authority, really a service to the unity of the disciples of Christ, continues today through the Petrine Ministry of the pope.  The Pope, as successor of St. Peter, continues to hold the keys, allowing him, either by himself, or as the head of the college of bishops, to guide all of us in knowing how the teachings of Christ apply to today’s situations, letting some things in, and keeping others out.  Some may not like that the pope, as successor of St. Peter, has the power of the keys, but they’re not our keys!  The keys belong to Christ, and He bestowed them on Peter; not because he was the bravest, or the wisest, or the holiest.  But, Jesus knew that Peter was the one to receive them according to the plan of God.  The great news is that, if we stick with St. Peter and his successor, then we’re sticking with the guy who has the keys into the house that Jesus promised he had prepared for us, just like when we are young, if we stick with our parents, we’ll always be able to get into our house.

Pope Benedict XVI at the Mass of the Rings

More often than not we hear people nay-saying the pope.  Someone always has some kind of complaint about this or that homily, this or that teaching, what he wears, how he celebrates Mass, etc., etc.  Today I want to be clear to you: I love the pope.  I thank God now for Pope Benedict XVI, just as I thanked God years ago for Pope Bl. John Paul II.  I thank God for the pope’s leadership, his teachings, and all that he has done to guide the Church to further holiness, while he himself strives to be a saint.  I hope that you, too, will join me in praying for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as he fulfills his Petrine Ministry, and show your love and support for him, especially when he is under baseless attacks from others that we know.  Is Pope Benedict perfect?  Certainly not.  Neither was St. Peter.  Pope Benedict is, however, striving for perfection just like you and me.  But he’s our pope who has been given a special mission by Jesus to guide the Church into greater holiness.  And, after all, he has the keys!

Where No Christian Man Has Gone Before

Vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

            I sometimes hear from people that the Catholic Church is a “men only” club.  Sure women attend (and are often more faithful than their male counterparts!) but only men can be deacons, priests, and bishops, many of the major saints are men, etc., etc.  This solemnity stands in direct contradiction to that vision of the Church.  It is a denial of that point of view at its root.  No other Christian man in the history of the Church has received so great an honor as the one we celebrate tonight.  And what we celebrate is that Mary, at the end of her life, was assumed, body and soul, into heaven.  She is the only Christian person to receive that honor. 

Painting of the Assumption from the
Orthodox Church of the Dormition

            What makes the Blessed Mother worthy of this unique privilege?  Was it simply the fact that Mary carried Jesus in her womb and nursed him?  In our Gospel, Jesus takes the usual Jewish thought of blessing being connected with the generation of children, and modifies it so that the truly blessed ones are those “‘who hear the word of God and observe it.’”  And who has done this better than the Blessed Virgin Mary?  Mary heard the word of God through the Archangel Gabriel telling her that she would be the Mother of God.  But, while she wondered how this could happen, since she did not know man, she did not doubt the angel, but said with that great act of faith, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”  Because Christ is the Incarnate Word of God, every time Mary, along with St. Joseph, cared for Jesus: feeding him, teaching Him to walk, teaching Him to talk, and all the work of raising a child, she was being attentive to the Word of God in a way no other person could. 

            But the fact that Mary carried Jesus in her womb was also a special privilege that prepared her for the privilege of the Assumption.  In our first reading we heard about the preparation of the Ark of the Covenant made by David.  The Ark of God was the place where God dwelt with humanity in a special way, and so it was treated with great honor and joy.  At the moment of the Incarnation, when Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Mother by the power of the Holy Spirit, she became the new Ark of God, the Ark of the New and Everlasting Covenant because she carried within herself God Himself.  Because of this previous honor, she who carried within her he Whom the universe cannot contain, the Source of Life Himself, it was most fitting that she should not taste death, but be preserved from it by her Son who gained for her the blessing of the Resurrection, not only of the soul, but also of the body. 

            But there the other mysteries of Mary’s life are also connected to this great privilege.  On November 1, 1950, in the Papal Bull Munificentissimus Deus, the document which solemnly defined the Assumption as belonging to the Deposit of the Faith, and therefore which must be believed by all the faithful, Pope Pius XII recalled how all the mysteries of Mary’s life are connected to this celebration.  He cites the Byzantine Divine Liturgy which, when celebrating this day, states, “‘God, the King of the universe, has granted you favors that surpass nature.  As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb.’”  The privilege of Mary’s Virginal Motherhood is connected to this day.  So, too, is Mary’s Immaculate Conception, that she was conceived in the womb of St. Anne, without the taint of original sin touching her soul.  Pope Pius XII writes, “[Mary], by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body.”  Even Mary’s Immaculate Conception prepares her for this day that we celebrate, when she did not undergo corruption, but already enjoys the full joys of heaven, body and soul.

            There is no male human person who shares the same honors that we give to a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary.  There is no male person celebrated as much as we celebrate Mary, not even St. Peter or St. Paul.  Because of her Immaculate Conception, Virginal Motherhood, unique care for and adherence to Jesus as a perfect disciple, and her Assumption, no other human person can claim such honors.  We are a Church who celebrates only one human person who on earth lived perfectly, and that human person is a woman.  Mary is the glory of Jerusalem.  Mary is the fairest honor of our race.

            While women have often been the most faithful members of the Church, by the will of God only men can become deacons, priests, and bishops and share in the ordained ministry of Jesus Christ.  But, this is certainly not because men are better than women, smarter than women, or holier than women.  This celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds all of us, men and women, that our salvation was made possible by a woman, and that the holiest human person we have is a woman.  But she is for all of us, men and women, an example to strive to follow in her obedience and love of Christ, so that one day, after our deaths and the resurrection of our bodies, we, too might be able to share in the joys of heaven, body and soul, and Mary currently does.  

Catholic Diversity

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            If there is one value that modern-Americans hold dear, I think the virtue would certainly be diversity.  We don’t want to be the same.  We want variety.  After all, it’s the spice of life!  We want everyone to feel welcome.  In fact, we take diversity to an extreme by mandating that no one can say another person is wrong, or that his or her choices are bad.  Otherwise we lose diversity.  In some countries, like Canada, even simply calling certain actions and lifestyles bad can get one thrown in jail for “hate-speech,” and can get one branded as a bigot.

            So today’s readings probably seem strange to us.  Why all this attention on foreigners?  What’s the big deal?  Doesn’t God love everyone, no matter what?  Why does Isaiah make such a big deal about the Gentiles, that is, any non-Jew, ministering to the Lord, loving His Name, and becoming His servant?  Why does St. Paul say that he ministers to the Gentiles “in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them”?  Why is Jesus so mean to the woman who simply wants her daughter freed from the torment of a demon?  Why this talk of, “‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’”? 

            We have to remember that God didn’t call every nation to Himself at first.  He chose Israel, the Jews, as a nation “peculiarly his own” as Deuteronomy says, with the word that is so hard to pronounce.  Deuteronomy continues that it was not because the Jews were the largest, or the wisest, or the fiercest nation on earth that they were chosen.  Rather, it was because they were the smallest, the weakest nation on earth that God chose them.  Why?  Why choose the smallest to begin salvation history?  Why not choose other nations at the same time?  To be honest, we don’t know.  That is only known in the mind of God.  It is the mystery of divine election.  All we can do is have faith in a loving and omniscient God and know that His choice is always for the best.  And it doesn’t simply have to do with salvation.  Why did God allow you married couples to marry each other?  Why not someone else?  Why did God give you the children that He did, with all their gifts and talents and their shortcomings?  We don’t know.  We simply worship the God who is Love and pure Wisdom itself.

            But getting back to salvation, God reveals through Isaiah and St. Paul and Jesus that even though He chose a particular nation as His own, that nation was called to invite others into the special relationship with God, the covenant.  The Jews were not supposed to be elitists.  They were supposed to bring the blessings of a right relationship with God to the other nations so that they might be joined to this nation that God chose and also receive His blessings.  But the Jews, time and time again, did not even value their special relationship with God, and rather than inviting the other nations into their relationship with God, chose to turn to pagan gods, no-gods really, and make themselves one with the other nations.  And so, as St. Paul says, because of the disobedience of the Jews, the Gentiles are able to be grafted onto the tree of Israel through Jesus, who made the two one, and share in the joys of a right relationship with God, receiving the same mercy that God first showed to Israel. 

Jesus does this with the Canaanite woman.  He tests her faith to see if she has the faith which Israel is supposed to have.  We may not like the words, but those words, spoken from God Himself, are the exact words which allow the woman to say that “‘even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.’”  Even Gentiles should be receiving the overflow of love that God has poured upon Israel.  And, based upon her faith, the requirement of every action of God in a person’s life, including our own, the woman’s daughter is freed from possession.

We as a nation, “enlightened” as we are, celebrate diversity.  For too many it is the good upon which all other goods are based.  This is the extreme, and extreme which is not virtuous but actually vicious.  When we condemn those who speak out against people doing evil deeds because that’s just the way they are; we need their variety in order to be truly diverse, we pervert the idea of proper diversity, which only welcomes all that is good.  We welcome every person, but not everything that person might do.

On the other hand, we go the other extreme when we feel like it and try to judge when we have “enough” diversity.  Recently, Bishop Boyea joined with the other bishops of Michigan in  support of immigrants and undocumented persons.  While recognizing the legitimacy of a nation to protect its borders and keep out those who seek to do it harm, the reality of the situation is that there are thousands of people who have never known anything else but life in the United States, even though they or their parents may have arrived here illegally.  Most of these people are not drug dealers or criminals, but very helpful members of society who pay taxes and often take jobs than many other natural-born Americans choose not to take: the dirty jobs, if you will.  And yet there is a real push to deport all those who entered the country illegally to be deported, even if that means that it separates a family, or causes American citizens who are children to be sent back to their parents’ mother countries.  The bishops and I are not saying that we have all the answers.  But we do have to ensure that whatever our actions at a national and State level, they respect the dignity of the human person, the right of a family to be united, and the proper diversity that immigrants bring to our nation.  Any serious student of the history of the Catholic Church in American recognizes that we are a community of immigrants, some who came legally, others who came illegally, and who were not welcome on these shores by many of the Americans who came before us.  We were not the kind of “diversity” that the Americans of that day wanted. 

God’s love is poured upon His Chosen People, both Israel of old, and the new Israel, the Church, who has been grafted on to the olive tree of God.  But that love is meant to be poured out upon others so that they, too, will experience the joy, the love, the warmth of a right relationship to God through the Body of Christ, the Church.  Let us truly be Catholics, not just in name but in deed, so that, while not welcoming any action or deed that is morally wrong, we welcome every person to join with us in the properly diverse, that is, catholic, Church that is our family. 

The Sound (and Power!) of Silence

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            “How does God speak to you?”  It’s a question I get asked a lot, especially when talking about my discernment to become a priest.  “How did you know, Father, that God was calling you to be a priest?  Did you hear a voice?”  We want to know how God communicates to us, to see if He is communicating with us.

            We have three paradigms for divine communication in today’s readings.  I usually work towards the Gospel in preaching, but this time I’m going to go from the Gospel to the first reading.  And each reading contains ways that God communicates to us.

            In our Gospel, Jesus speaks to the disciples in the boat, as I am speaking to you.  But whereas many of us probably think that if God were to speak to us, we would clearly understand what He was saying and do whatever He asked, this isn’t true with the disciples.  They have been with Jesus for some time, hearing Him preach, watching Him heal the sick and possessed.  And yet, when Jesus appears, walking on the sea, they figure that it’s a ghost.  They do not recognize Jesus.  Peter, to ascertain Jesus’ identity, asks Jesus to command Peter to walk on water.  And when St. Peter does, but then falters, it is Jesus who picks him up and helps him back into the boat.  In this way, we see two ways that Jesus speaks to us: in the first way, He speaks to us in the same way that I am speaking with you now, so that we can hear His voice.  But what is surprising is that, just like the disciples, we don’t always recognize the voice of Jesus even when it’s a voice.  Secondly, Jesus speaks through His care for the disciples.  When Jesus rescues Peter from drowning, He is communicating through His actions that He will never allow Peter to sink amidst the crashing waves.  We see in this the foreshadowing of Jesus’ protection of His Church, sometimes referred to as the Barque or Boat of Peter, which is not allowed to sink in the storms of world events.

            The second paradigm is in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  St. Paul says, “I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie.”  God speaks to us through His apostles, those whom Jesus called and sent out to build up and oversee the Church.  The bishops, as successors to the apostles, when speaking on matters of faith or morals speak “the truth in Christ.”  To them is given the charism, when they are united to the Pope, to teach what belongs to the faith infallibly.  Just as St. Paul says elsewhere, “It is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” the bishops are given the grace to teach, not by their own authority, but with the authority of Christ on matters of faith and morals.  If we want to hear God speaking about what we must believe, and how we must live to as to be faithful to Christ, we can look to the bishops, the successors of the apostles, to hear the voice of God.

            The last paradigm from our readings comes from the first reading, and is a very powerful way that God communicates.  We hear the inspired author tell us that Elijah, the greatest prophet in all the Old Testament, did not hear God in the heavy winds, nor the earthquake, nor the fire.  No, Elijah heard the voice of God in the whisper heard in the silence.  This voice was so powerful, that Elijah, who had called down fire from the heavens to consume the oblation, offered to the true God to shame the prophets of Baal, had to hide his face because He heard God in the silence.

            Silence is a very powerful expression of God’s voice.  It is in silence that the great things of God happen.  When God created the universe, He did so in silence.  In the silence of meditation, according to most artistic renditions, Mary heard the Archangel Gabriel tell her that God had called her to be the Mother of the Son of God.  And in the silence of the night, the Word-Made-Flesh came to be known by us as He was born in Bethlehem.  In fact, in the extraordinary form of the Mass, what some call the Tridentine Mass, part of the Liturgy includes a prophecy from the Book of Wisdom about the Incarnation.  Romano Guardini quotes it in The Lord, his meditation on the life of Christ: “‘For while all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, thy almighty word leapt down from heaven from thy royal throne.’”  Likewise, the Resurrection happens in the silence of the early morning, when the guards are asleep and no one expects Christ to rise from the dead.

            In our days, however, we manage to cut out as much silence as possible.  Are we afraid of being alone with God?  Are we afraid of what God would say?  The answer is probably as diverse as the number of people here.  I bet that if I remained silent for a long period of time during the Mass, we would try to find ways to break the silence: thumbing through hymnal pages, reading the bulletin, looking around to others.  But we need silence.  My practice is to always give up the radio and music during Lent so as to allow more time for God to speak to me in His power.  But we don’t just need silence in Lent.  We need it all throughout the year. 

            We’re taught in seminary that every homily (at least the good ones) should have a practical way to apply the readings to life.  Today we’ll apply this teaching by taking some extended time of silence, first after my homily, and then after the reception of Holy Communion.  Listen to God during this time.  Don’t just make it a time of doing nothing, but make it a time of active listening to the whisper of God, heard only in the silence.