25 July 2016

Our Catholic Life of Prayer

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Question for you this afternoon/morning: if you’re married, when was the last time you spoke to your spouse?  If you have kids who live with you at home, when was the last time you spoke to them?  If you’re in high school or college, when was the last time you texted your friends?  Now, when was the last time you prayed to God?
If you are married and you haven’t spoken to your spouse today, then I might be seeing you later this week in my office for marriage counseling.  If you have kids who live at home and you haven’t spoken to them yet today, you’re probably not going to win a parent of the year award.  If you are in high school or college and you haven’t texted someone yet, you probably have been asleep until about 20 minutes ago.  But when it comes to talking to God, when it comes to prayer, we tend to be ok with letting that go much longer.
Sometimes we can treat prayer as pretty complicated.  We feel like it has to meet all these different criteria, and so, because it requires too much, we don’t do it.  But prayer is not necessary complicated.  Look at our first reading from the Book of Genesis.  Abraham speaks with God, after God reveals His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their grave sins.  Abraham is simply walking with God, and starts bargaining.  Abraham simply talks to God.
Part of prayer is simply talking to God.  The other part of prayer is listening to God.  We tend to be good at the first, but not so good at the other.  But the Lord invites us to listen to Him as well as to speak to Him.  For our daily prayer, there is no special language needed, either.  Simply talk to God; say what’s on your mind and heart.  And then have some time of silence to listen for His voice, even if it’s in our hearts.  Talk to God like you would talk to a spouse, a family member, or a friend.
At the same time, when it comes to our formal prayer, we do have specialized ways of speaking to God.  In our Gospel today, Jesus teaches us the Our Father.  Today we heard St. Luke’s version.  We say the version that St. Matthew reported, but at its heart, it’s the same prayer.  Sometimes, especially when we are at a loss for words, formal prayers are nice because we don’t have to spend the time thinking of what we want to say.  We can enter into the words that Jesus or the Church gave us, and pray the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Memorare, or the Glory Be.  
We are also in the midst of the Church’s great prayer: the Mass.  We began our prayer with the sign of the cross, and we will end it with the dismissal after the blessing with the sign of the cross.  Now, as the official prayer of the Church, we have a different way of addressing God.  How often do you say, “bestow in abundance” or “these most sacred mysteries” or even “grant, we pray”?  Probably never.  And yet, in this formal prayer of the Church, we elevate our language to remind us that we are not simply in a brick and mortar building.  We are not in an earthly place when we celebrate Mass (at least not the way we are when we go to the mall, or a bank, or a restaurant).  When we are at Mass, we are in a foretaste of heaven, the halfway point between heaven and earth.  And so, just as we are invited to lift up our hearts, so we also lift up our language and grammar to reflect the greatness, the solemnity, of the event we are entering: the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.  
Some people like formal; some like informal.  Some people like memorized words; others like extemporaneous.  There is a place for both in the Catholic life.  If our only prayer is formal prayer and the Mass, then we are missing out on the more emotional parts of our faith that come from our daily devotions and times of speaking to God in our own words.  If our only prayer is our daily devotions and speaking to God in our own words, then we’re missing out on the font that is supposed to give our devotions life (the Mass), and we can easily forget that God, while our loving Father, is also our King, and we are not His equal.  Both are necessary for a healthy and balanced Catholic life.

God is both our Father and our King.  He wants to hear what is going on in our life on a daily basis.  At the same time, He is not our puppet, and we are still called to have wonder and awe in His presence.  The best way for this to happen is to pray.  Pray daily with all the things that are on your heart and mind.  Use the devotions of the Church like the Rosary, Praise and Worship music, and prayers to favorite saints.  At the same time, also join in more formal prayer.  Come to Mass each Sunday and holyday.  In these last weeks of summer vacation, come to daily Mass if you’re able.  Worship God our Lord, who created the universe and holds us in being.  Unite with the bread and the wine on the altar your cares, concerns, joys, and blessings.  And then say, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.  But only say the word and my soul shall be healed” in humility, knowing that God does not owe us anything.  Enter into communication with God.  Share your love with Him, and be surrounded by His love for you.  

11 July 2016

Humble and Kind

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
As I think I mentioned in a bulletin article, my favorite music is country music.  This past Thursday I had a chance to go to the Tim McGraw concert in Lansing at Common Ground with Fr. Brian Lenz, one of the newest priests of the Diocese of Lansing.  One of his recent big hits is “Humble and Kind.”  Some of the lyrics are: “Go to church ‘cause your momma says to” [one of my favorites], “always stay humble and kind.//  Hold the door, say please, say thank you/ Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie/…Always stay humble and kind…When the dreams you’re dreamin’ come to you/ When the work you put in is realized/ Let yourself feel the pride but/ Always stay humble and kind.//  Don’t expect a free ride from no one/ Don’t hold a grudge or a chip and here’s why/ Bitterness keeps you from flyin’/ Always stay humble and kind.”
It strikes me as a sign of the times that an artist has to sing about holding the door, saying please and thank you, not stealing, cheating, or lying, and the rest.  These were things many of us, if not all of us, learned as children.  Somewhere, though, it stopped being taught, or maybe was just ignored.  And many of the problems we have in the world today could be solved by following these simple pieces of advice.
In our first reading today, Moses tells the people that the Law that God has given them is not overly complicated.  In fact, it is already in the hearts of the people.  They don’t have to go to extreme lengths to get the Law.  God has shared it with His People as a way that they can be fully alive in Him.
The scholar of the law in today’s Gospel tried to trick Jesus by asking him how to get to heaven.  The scholar must have figured this young man (Jesus was likely only 32 or 33 at this point, a fine age to be, I might add) wouldn’t know what to say.  But Jesus asks him about the Law that was supposed to be written in his heart.  The scholar replies with the second half of the Shema, the great profession of faith of Israel: “Hear O Israel: the Lord is God; the Lord is one.  Therefore you shall love the Lord, your God…” and we hear the rest of it today.  The scholar then also quotes the Book of Leviticus, as he says that we need to love our neighbor as ourselves.  But then Luke adds that the scholar was not humble, but wanted to show off his mental skills, so he asks Jesus, “‘And who is my neighbor?’”  
When we hear the story of the Good Samaritan (which is a parable, not an actual occurrence), we get the point quite quickly.  Of course the person is supposed to help the dying man on the road.  Of course you would help a dying man get to a place where he could be healed.  Though, I wonder how many of us would offer to pay a man’s hospital bills if he was taken to a hospital.  I’m not sure I would.
When we hear this, it does seem like common sense (which is not that common these days).  But how often do we do these things?  We have lots of reasons not to help people these days: times are tough; I have my own problems; everyone has a cell phone and can call for help themselves; there are some dangerous people out there who pose as people in distress to try to hurt others.  The list goes on an on.  Even I struggle to live this out.  About a month ago, I was on my way to Adrian from Lansing, and there was a bad accident on southbound 127 around Mason.  As a priest, I can often gain access to a scene to see if anyone needs a priest or a person to pray with them, whether the victim or the first responders.  But that day I was tired, and while I slowed down, and the thought entered my mind, especially since I was, at the time, a Fire Department Chaplain, I drove by.  All the rest of the way to Adrian I knew I should have stopped.  Odds are that they would have said everything was taken care of.  Odds are that they would have said they didn’t need me.  But I will never know, because I never stopped.
Certainly we need to know the dangers of a situation, and sometimes we are not equipped to actually help the situation.  But when we are, do we stop?  Do we help a neighbor in need?  It doesn’t have to be on the road.  Maybe it’s an elderly neighbor who could use a ride to church, or could simply use a visit.  Maybe it’s a family that could use help with their lawn.  Whatever it is, Jesus today invites us to live by the law that is in our hearts.  

Tim McGraw isn’t Jesus; Tim’s words do not save.  But the lyrics I quoted are examples that are based in the Word of God, and will help us to live as disciples.  “Hold the door, say please, say thank you/ Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie/…Always stay humble and kind…”

06 July 2016

True Freedom in Jesus

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Last week, as I prepared to leave my last parish, St. Joseph, I found it providential that God put as the readings Elisha leaving his home to follow Elijah as a prophet, and Jesus saying that, in ministry, birds of the air have nests and foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.  This week I find it providential that, as I settle in to my new home here in Flint, our Gospel focuses on sending missionaries to preach the Gospel and extend Jesus’ peace into the homes that the disciples visit.
So today I come before you as a missionary; not in the sense that we often think of: a member of a religious community who travels around the world to teach pagans about Jesus.  Rather, I come as a missionary of the New Evangelization, to proclaim to you Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead, and to invite you, with me, to conform our lives more and more each day to Jesus, who will truly make us happy.  I come today to say, “Peace to this household.”  This peace is not merely the cessation of arguments and violence, but the wholeness that only God can bring.
And I come to you today on Independence Day weekend.  I don’t know if this is a normal size crowd for Mass (if it’s like every other parish I’ve been at, I’m sure there are a good amount of people who are vacationing for the long, holiday weekend).  But as we celebrate Independence Day as a nation, as a Church we look at Jesus’ instructions on independence.  He talks about it today in the readings in His instructions to the disciples: “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals.”  Now, the word Independence is not there, obviously.  But Jesus is telling His disciples not to rely on worldly things, but to trust in Him and in the mission He is giving them.
I certainly also know that in my life.  When I was a young man (maybe the word younger is more appropriate), my dream was to be married, have a few kids, a few dogs, be decently wealthy, and be a lawyer, and then maybe later a politician.  Am I married?  Nope.  Kids?  Nope.  Dogs?  Tried it, but could never make it work.  Wealthy?  Not in financial terms.  A lawyer or politician?  Nope.  I’m a priest.  And yet I am happy.  In fact, I can’t imagine myself happy as anything but a priest.  If I would have insisted on having things my way, on doing things independent of God, then I wouldn’t be here with you today, and I wouldn’t be embarking on a great, new adventure with in my priesthood.  
In our modern understanding, independence means doing whatever we want.  But in Jesus’ understanding, independence means not being tied down by things, dreams, or even people, who want to lead us away from God.  Being truly independent, being free, means being obedient to Jesus, and following His will.  It means not letting our passions control us, not being slaves to sin.  The one who is least free is the sinner, because God never enslaves us, but that’s all Satan wants to do.  Sin binds us to death, whereas life in Christ binds us to resurrection.  Sin shackles us to despair, whereas Jesus gives us hope.  
Freedom is not doing whatever want.  Freedom is not freedom from someone else.  Freedom is freedom for someone else: Jesus, and how He reveals Himself in our neighbors.  Peoples certainly have the right to direct how they are governed, and we celebrate the freedoms enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, freedoms which come to us not because the government allows us certain permissions, but freedoms which come to us from God, and which no government can legitimately curtail.  We celebrate the freedom which is proper to every human person, no matter that person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, age, or gender.  But that freedom is meant to help us choose the good in life, not simply wherever our fancies and desires take us.

Jesus used His freedom to lay down His life for us.  And so St. Paul reminds us that we are never to boast, “except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  May we use our freedoms to preach the Gospel by word and deed, and use our freedom in being able to choose the good things that God has in store for us.