Lord, It's Hard to Be Humble

 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    There certainly is a country song for every occasion and situation, and as I read over this weekend’s readings, one came to mind called, “It’s Hard to Be Humble.”  When I first heard Willie Nelson singing it, someone I know comes to mind.  I have to adapt the lyrics a little to make them fit for church, but the refrain goes, “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble/ When you’re perfect in every way. / I can’t wait to look in the mirror / Cause I get better lookin’ each day. / To know me is to love me. / I must be a [heck] of a man. / Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble/ But I’m doin’ the best that I can.”  The someone I thought of isn’t really that bad, but it does bear some resemblance at times, and brings a smile to my face.
    Humility is an often unpracticed and misunderstood virtue.  It sounds good when it’s encouraged by Tim McGraw in his song, “Humble and Kind,” but then we get busy with daily life, and we default to "My Way” by Frank Sinatra.  
    Often times we think of humility as putting ourselves down.  We may think we need to pretend that we’re not good at something, or don’t have particular gifts.  But that is not humility.  Humility is the acknowledgment of the truth, not the hiding of truth.  Romano Guardini, a great German Catholic author form the mid-twentieth century, wrote that St. Francis of Assisi kneeling before the pope was not an act of humility, but of honesty.  But St. Francis kissing the leper because he saw Christ in that leper was a great act of humility.
    Humility is also not puffing ourselves up, or lording who we are or what gifts we have over others.  When we think about bragging, we don’t think of that as an example of humility, and rightly so.  We sometimes also use the word arrogant as an antonym of humility.  
    Getting back to music, pride, another opposite vice to humility, is precisely expressed in the song, “My Way.”  Pride is a turning in on oneself, an elevation of the ego, an exaltation of one’s personal desires and wants over that of others.  Pride considers others, but only inasmuch as they promote the self or advance the desires of oneself.  Others exist only as pawns to be used.  Rarely does a person operate solely out of pride; we often do think of others, not just as they help us or provide for what we want, but also because they are good and we want to affirm that goodness.  But you often don’t have to dig far to find pride lurking around the corner, or coloring what can even look like selfless generosity.
    We might try to excuse pride by saying that it allows us to get things done.  Jesus taught us today that the meek (a synonym for the humble) will inherit the earth.  But we don’t usually see that.  Those who inherit the earth–power, prestige, land, etc.–are those who seek their own plans, who make sure that they rise to the top, even if it means climbing over others.  Those who do it their way seem to get their way more often than not, while the humble and kind are left behind with the scraps and to pick-up the pieces.  
    So how can we understand humility?  How can we understand meekness?  We have to examine things not from an earthly point of view, but from a heavenly one.  We need not look with the shortsighted vision of a decade, a century, or even a millennium, but with the view of life that never ends.  If all we do is work for ourselves, elevate ourselves, hold on to ourselves, then what happens when the self falls away at death?  Sure, we may have some lasting legacy of buildings constructed or other groups or peoples conquered, but what good is that when we’re standing naked before the throne of God?  When God judges us, as He will for all of us, what remains is what was rooted in God, not what was rooted merely in us.  That is why St. John of the Cross can say that, at the end of our lives, we will be judged on our love.  We will be judged on whether or not we participated in God, because all that is connected to God will last, because God is infinite.  While all that is simply earthly will pass away, because we, and everything connected to earthly existence, is finite.  
    True happiness, beatitude, we might say, is putting things in right order, with God first, others second, and consideration of ourselves and our desires last.  That is true humility, when we don’t seek to have the universe revolve around us, but to participate in the reality which God has set before us.  We can practice true humility by not considering ourselves first when making a decision, but taking our desires and considerations to God, and then thinking how those desires, considerations, and choices will affect the people around us.  Sometimes we may have to make decisions that help us get ahead in life–maybe get a better job or enjoy certain benefits–but are we doing things only for our own good, or to help contribute to the good of others and the building up of society, not to mention, is it what we understand God’s will to be.  
    Because of our fallen nature, which seeks its own good first, rather than God’s will and the good of others, it can be hard to be humble.  But can we commit to doing our best to be part of God’s plan and support others, rather than putting ourselves first and making others pawns in the games that we’re playing?  Can we do our best to be humble and kind?

Our First and Most Important Friend

 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Some of the greatest blessings in life are friends.  They are there for you to share in your joys and comfort you in sorrow.  The best friends help you to be the best version of yourself, which is sometimes easy, and sometimes a bit painful.  St. Augustine of Hippo had a beautiful reflection on friendship from his book The Confessions:
 

Friendship had other attractions which were very important to me – we could talk and laugh – help each other in small ways – we enjoyed doing lots of things together – reading some book – going somewhere – sometimes we would be very serious together – sometimes we were able to act the fool together.  Sometimes when we argued with each other it was not a bitter argument but like the kind of argument you might have with yourself.  In fact, sometimes the argument was the kind only friends can have when they have some disagreement – it sometimes made our usual harmony more meaningful.  Each of us had something to learn from each other and something to teach in return.  If someone was absent for some time they were missed and we welcomed them back warmly.

Maybe as I read St. Augustine’s description, your own memories with friends came to your mind, and the good and difficult times you made it through.
    But, as good as friendship is (and St. Thomas Aquinas calls friendship one of the highest goods on earth), we hear a very different message from the Prophet Jeremiah today as he proclaims, “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the Lord.”  Did St. Augustine and St. Thomas decide that Jeremiah got God’s message wrong?  Does God not want us to have friends?  
    Friendship is a gift from God, and in fact, Jesus calls tells the apostles, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I no longer call you slaves…I have called you friends.”  So maybe Jeremiah did get it wrong!  God seems to encourage friendship, which necessarily entails trust in other humans.
    Of course, there’s a way to see this to brings together Jeremiah and Jesus, and Scripture and St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.  As with everything, it deals with the proper ordering of goods.  Ordering good things is one of the harder tasks in life, because we don’t have to reject what is evil, but decide which good is a higher good than another.
    As good as friendship with our fellow human beings is, our friendship with God is even more important.  And this is the message that Jeremiah is getting at in the first reading.  If all we do is trust in our fellow man, then we’re missing out, and in a great way!  There are things that only a human friend is going to accomplish (short of a miracle): helping you work on your house, throwing a birthday party, and the like.  And so it can be very natural in any need to turn to a friend to find comfort or to rejoice.  But our human friends are limited by time and space, whereas God is not.  So to neglect going to God first is to wrongly order our loves.  And, ironically, the Psalmist says, “Unless the Lord build the house, in vain do the builders labor.”  And St. Paul tells us to rejoice in the Lord always.  So even with fixing up a house, or throwing a party, we should start by turning to the Lord.  We may still need friends to accomplish the manual labor, but unless that effort is done according to the will of God, it won’t be as successful as it could be, and may even be a disaster.  
    In my own life, the temptation to turn to friends first is most evident and most seductive when I’m feeling down.  Again, there’s nothing wrong with turning to a friend to find some comfort and consolation.  But my friend, as well as he knows me, does not know me as well as God does.  And my friend cannot see how certain things are meant to happen in the grand scheme of things.  So his advice is going to be limited by whatever finiteness he has, whereas God is infinite, and is limited by no external factors.  When I need a friend to lean on, God wants me to turn to Him first.  I might still turn to my human friends, but God gets first billing, or at least, that’s what he deserves and that’s what will help us the most.  
    Relying on God first is precisely the principle behind all of the Beatitudes that we heard today in the Gospel.  The poor, the hungry, those who weep, and those who are hated do not seem to be blessed.  But they have to rely on God first, and when you get that right, everything else can be put into its proper place.  Those who are blessed are those who know that they need God, first and foremost.  Those who are cursed are those who think they can get by on their own, and do not need God.  Why?  Because God has made the world contingent on Him and His will, and truly to succeed in life means acknowledging and living by that reality.  We may not always like it, but that’s the way the world works.  In the same way, we have this force called gravity.  We may not always like it, but if we try to live as if gravity didn’t exist, eventually we get to a place where gravity imposes itself on us, whether we like it or not, and reminds us that we have to live according to that force.  
    Friendship is a great gift.  “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship,” wrote St. Thomas Aquinas.  “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”  But, friendship with God, and relying on Him first is the key to any true friendship, and not only natural but supernatural friendship.  May we not only develop our friendships on earth, but also the friendship that will last into eternity: our friendship with God.

A Strong Eighth Grader

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

This past Wednesday at our school Mass, we celebrated the Feast of Conversion of St. Paul.  And in my homily I was talking about how God chose St. Paul, even though he had started out persecuting Christians, and trying to arrest them.  And in part of the homily I referenced both what we heard in our second reading today, as well as when St. Paul says that he was given a thorn in his flesh, but God assured St. Paul that God’s power is made manifest in weakness.  To illustrate the point between being strong and weak, I asked one of our eighth grade students to come forward (he didn’t know he was going to be called forward, either).  This was one of our students who plays football and basketball, and is pretty athletic.  Once he was forward, I asked him to flex.  He looked at me for a second, turned a little red with embarrassment, but then flexed and showed off his guns (that’s how some young men talk about their muscles).  And I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize how strong he was!  After Mass he told me that he benches 200 lbs.  I can barely add any weights to the bar, so I was the demonstration of one who is weak.

St. Paul reminds us today that we don’t have to be the wisest, we don’t have to be the most powerful, we don’t have to be nobly born in order to follow Jesus.  God so often chooses those who are not considered strong or powerful or wise to be the vessels of His power.  That’s the way our God works.  More often than not, God’s choices don’t make sense in our modern understanding, whether modern is in the time of Jesus, the first millennium, the second millennium, or even now in the third millennium since the birth of Christ.  

As strange as Jesus’ teaching sounds to us, it probably sounded as weird for the people listening to Jesus.  Now, as then, we don’t tend to think of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who desire righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness as people who are blessed.  Those people, in fact, seem like the ones who are the victims of society, and those who get run over by everybody.  But Jesus calls them blessed.  

How are they blessed?  They are attentive to God and His will, rather than the will of the world.  They are the ones who spend their attention and energy on serving God and bringing about His reign, rather than trying to hoard money, grab after power, cheat people, seek after vengeance, or look for and act on the desires of lust.  

And though Jesus taught on the mount in Galilee some 2,000 years ago, those words still apply to us today.  If we want to be blessed we have to rely on God, work for justice and peace, be meek and merciful, and be clean of heart.  Clean of heart may be one of the hardest in today’s world.  There are so many groups that make purity difficult: every second over $3,000 is being spent on lewd web pages.  Lack of purity can lead to addictions, can rewire the brains of our youth not to appreciate what is truly good and truly beautiful, can destroy marriages and families, and promote human trafficking.  It is an enslaving force in general.  But Jesus desires us to be free.  He wants to unshackle us from this uncleanness, so that we can live in true blessedness.  If you or someone you know struggles with lack of purity, like pornography, the Diocese of Lansing website has resources on its Marriage and Family Life webpage.  

No matter what beatitude strikes you as the most difficult, being weak is not a problem.  God chooses “the weak to shame the strong,” as St. Paul reminds us in our second reading.  All of us have weaknesses.  And so all of us can be chosen by God to show that God does great things, not by human accomplishment, but by His grace.

The Saints–The Heroes of our Catholic Family

Solemnity of All Saints

A few weeks ago I visited my maternal grandmother.  Her sister, my great-aunt Hilda, just moved from a house she had lived in with my great-grandfather since the 80s.  Of course, there were a lot of things that had to be sorted through when my Aunt Hilda was moving.  One of the things she found was mementos from some of my grandmother’s uncles from when the family was still in Belgium.  When I visited, my grandmother showed me the holy card that was made for her uncle Jules who died in World War I, shortly before the fighting stopped.

When older families members move or die, and we start cleaning out old houses, we can often find family treasures that we might not have even known existed.  Stories are told from one generation to the next about the heroes in our family who did, at least in our family’s estimation, great things.

Today we remember all of the heroes of our Catholic family.  Some of them have been canonized and are celebrated in Catholic churches at Mass around the world.  Others are saints who are in heaven, which is known only to God.  This is so often the case with family members, or particularly holy people we know: we know people who lived holy lives, but whom the church does not canonize because there’s no widespread devotion to them by others.  Today, on the Solemnity of All Saints, we celebrate the people who lived as disciples of Jesus, making Jesus their number one priority, even when it meant giving up other good things.

Jesus gives us the blueprint for how to do that in the Gospel today.  In teaching us the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches us how to be blessed, how to be holy.  We are called to be poor in spirit–to depend on God; to mourn for the sin that still exists in the world; to be meek and not seek after power and glory on earth; to work with all of who we are for justice; to show mercy and forgive; to dedicate our minds and our bodies to the Lord in living a chaste life; to work for peace by living in justice; and even to be persecuted for Jesus and His truth.  But I think that we hear this Gospel so often, that we can forget exactly what that looks like.  So I want to share with you two stories of our Catholic family heroes that hopefully will show you what that can look like.  Having said that, holiness looks a little different for everybody, because how we follow God is as unique as we.  But it always means living according to God’s plan for our life, and living as a disciple of Jesus, following His way, His truth, so as to receive His life.

The first heroes of our Catholic family that I will highlight today are Sts. Louis and Marie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  They were canonized on October 18, just 2 weeks ago, and were the first married couple canonized on the same day.  Louis and Marie were a middle-class, French couple, who had nine children, though four died at an early age.  They went to daily Mass, made frequent confessions, and lived the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  They tried to share their financial resources for the spreading of the faith, including donating money to build a seminary in Canada, though they lived in France.  They liked to go on walks, go fishing, and travel, when possible.  In 1877, at about the age of 45, Marie died from breast cancer, and left Louis with five daughters, the youngest of whom, Thérèse, was four and a half years old.  Louis later suffered his own illnesses, and died in 1894, at the age of 70.  In many ways, Louis and Marie lived out what St. Thérèse described as doing little things for God with great love.  There was very little extraordinary in their lives, but they lived it for God.

Another hero of our Catholic Family is Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati.  He was born in Turin, Italy in 1901.  His mother was a painter, and his father was the founder and director of the Italian newspaper, La Stampa, who also became an Italian Senator and Ambassador to Germany.  Pier Giorgio went to Mass frequently, and had a strong devotion to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He joined the St. Vincent de Paul society at the age of 17, and spent much of his time serving the sick and the needy, orphans, and injured soldiers from World War I.  While his family was quite wealthy, he spent his money for the poor, without his parents’ knowledge.  He loved mountain climbing, art, and music.  He was a Third Order Dominican, and worked ardently against Fascism in the political sphere.  Pier Giorgio contracted polio (probably from the sick with whom he spent so much time), and died at the age of 24 in 1925.  The night before he died, he wrote a note, asking his friend to take medicine to a poor, sick man he had been visiting.  At his funeral, the streets of the city were lined with many mourners who were unknown to his family–the poor and needy with whom Pier Giorgio spent so much of his time.  The poor and needy had no idea that Pier Giorgio was the heir of a wealthy, famous family.

Those are just two stories of our saints.  Yes, we have a lot of saints who are priests and consecrated men and women (nuns, monks, sisters, and brothers), but here are two who are lay people, like yourselves.  They didn’t do grandiose things, but did small things they could for God.  Their spiritual lives were not overly complicated: go to Mass, confess their sins, and serve the poor.  God is inviting each one of us to be saints right here, right now, in Adrian.  It’s not complicated: love God with all of who you are and love your neighbor as yourself.  God wants you to be a saint so that you can be truly happy.  Will you deny His desire for your life?

A Master better than Lord & Lady Grantham

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

           

This past Monday was a sad day for me.  I was watching on DVR the latest episode of one of my favorite shows, “Downton Abbey.”  As I was watching it I was engrossed in the story.  But eventually I thought, ‘This episode seems longer.’  And as I looked at my watch, I noticed that the episode was already past its usual 57-minute airtime.  But then I found out why it was a longer episode: it was the season finale!  My joy quickly turned to sorrow as I realized I wouldn’t be able to watch new episodes for many months.

            I don’t know why I like Downton.  Maybe it’s the general American fascination with British royalty and nobility.  Maybe it’s just the charm of a British accent.  But I do enjoy it!  And while Downton surely paints a rather rosy picture of life in the early twentieth century, I can’t help but think that I would have been happy even just being a footman in a noble’s house, with all the order, the discipline, and the pomp and circumstance (probably not a surprise to anyone here).

            St. Paul says in our second reading that, “one should regard us…as servants of Christ.”  Now, St. Paul is not saying that we have to set out the silverware just right, or wear the right livery for a British noble family.  But he uses this term servant because, whether in first century Palestine or in the twentieth century England, the servant was always intent on fulfilling the master’s will and being about the master’s business.  Psalm 123 reveals what our approach is to be with Jesus: “Yes, like the eyes of servants/ on the hand of their masters, / Like the eyes of a maid/ on the hand of her mistress, / So our eyes are on the Lord our God, / till we are shown favor.” 

            That is the admonition that Jesus gives us in today’s Gospel: “‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [food, drink, clothing] will be given you beside.’”  Christ tells us to work intently on finding the Kingdom of God and then living out the life of the Kingdom, which he had just outlined in chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel through the Sermon on the Mount.  Seeking the Kingdom of God means living the beatitudes, and living according to the new law of grace.  The new law of grace is to be salt and light, not to be angry, not to lust in our hearts, not to divorce and remarry (unless the marriage is unlawful), not to swear, not to seek vengeance, and to love our enemies.  As Jesus says, the new law of grace means being perfect “‘just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’”

            And when we are seeking to live that way, we know that our heavenly Father will take care of us.  Even if a mother could forget her child, God promises through the prophet Isaiah in our first reading, God will never forget us.  God will take care of His servants, even better than Lord and Lady Grantham at Downton Abbey. 

            Of course, the gut check for us is whether we are like a servant, intent on keeping our eyes on the Master and doing His will.  The Prayer over the Offerings today speaks of how the bread and wine are “signs of our desire to serve you with devotion.”  Are they really signs of our intention to serve Jesus?  Where do we spend our time?  How do we spend our time?  What consumes us?  If it’s not seeking the Kingdom of God in all we do, and that certainly includes our daily life, or work, or relaxation, our study, then we are not truly living like a servant.  And then we start to worry and become anxious, because if we have to be in charge of taking care of ourselves, there’s a lot to worry about.  When we have to be the Master, we worry a lot, because we try to go beyond our station.  We are not the Master, and when the servants try to be the Master, it always gets botched in some way.  But, when we are the servants, and content with being the servants, there is a peace and relaxation knowing and trusting that the Master will take care of us.

But as servants of Christ, it’s not just about doing the will of the Master (though that is very important).  It’s also about being with the Master.  As Psalm 62, our responsorial psalm, says, “Only in God be at rest, my soul.”  As servants of the Master who are also sons and daughters in the Son of God, we should also be intent on simply being with the Master, and letting our hearts relax in His presence.  There’s nothing wrong with being like Martha, serving the Lord and doing things for Him.  But Mary has the better part.  Just being with the Lord is also a treasure, and one that we should seek.  So many of us are busy with doing things for the Lord.  How much time do we take just to be with the Lord?

As much as I love “Downton Abbey,” it’s not real.  I’m sure the idyllic picture it paints does not accurately reflect the entire truth in what it was to be a servant in a noble house in the early twentieth century.  But the Kingdom of God is real.  And God’s care for us is real.  And any idyllic picture that we can paint is only a shadow of the peace and joy that awaits those who choose to be servants of our Divine Master.

God-smarts

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time—Catholic Schools Week

            There is a group of people who have a lot of common sense and who know how the world works. We refer to them as people who have street smarts.  They may also have a degree and be book smart; they may not have any degree.  But they’re the sort of people that know how to get along in the world.  They know how to work well with others.

            Our second reading and Gospel today focus on a different kind of smart, not book nor street smart, but what we might call God smart.  It is not a worldly knowledge, as St. Paul says, “Not many of you were wise by human standards.”  It is, again, quoting St. Paul in our second reading, “wisdom from God.”  A person who is God smart knows how to connect with others according to the mind of God.  And the wisdom of God is often contrary to the wisdom of the world.

Fr. Mike Byrnes celebrating Mass at the bottom of the
Mount of Beatitudes in Israel, along the coast of the
Sea of Galilee

            For example, in the eyes of the world, if you mourn, if you’re weepy, then you’re weak.  We hear it in different forms: men don’t cry; “Big girls don’t cry,” to quote the song; or even, quoting Tom Hanks, “there’s no crying in baseball!”  And yet Jesus tells us: “‘Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.’”  Jesus is not simply rewarding the melancholic, but is saying that blessedness, true happiness, is found in those who mourn for the sinful state of the world.

            Or, as another example, in the eyes of the world, it is the man or woman with the most weapons or power who wins the day.  We saw this during the Cold War, when we wanted to have more weapons than the Soviets in order to prevent them from nuking us.  We see it today in so many nations deciding that war is the first and easiest way to solve differences.  And yet, Jesus tells us that the peacemakers are the ones who are blessed and will be called children of God.  These are not values that come from worldly wisdom.  They come from the mind of God and are active in those who have God smarts.

            Why this reversal of fortunes?  Why are the ways of God so different than the ways of the world?  St. Paul tells us that “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise…and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.”  God helps us realize that we are nothing without Him by showing His greatness in those that the world considers nothing.  He recognizes and loves those who recognize their true poverty, that they have nothing without Him, and raises them up, while at the same time lowering those who think they are rich because they are the masters of their destiny, money, or power.

            Just like street smarts, which have to be learned, God smarts must also be learned.  But, while street smarts generally cannot be learned from a book, we have a collection of books, the Bible, as well as the teachings of the Church, which can guide us in becoming God smart.

            This week we celebrate Catholic Schools and the gift that they to the Church in the United States.  Of course, we have a number of you who teach or administer in public schools, and we thank God for your Catholic witness that you provide in those public schools.  Yet, we celebrate Catholic Schools because they are fulfilling in a very purposeful way, the command of the Lord to make disciples of all nations, including children, by giving them God smarts, and becoming disciples of Christ.  In no public school can an explicit, purposeful mention be made about the way that God communicates with His creation as the truth that sets all people free and gives all people life.  While our Catholic teachers in public schools do, and should, provide by their lives a witness of the blessings of being poor in spirit, meek, and peacemakers, in our Catholic Schools we are able to back it up with daily study of God’s revelation through Scripture and Church teaching which help all of us to become God smart. 

            Are Catholics Schools perfect?  I wish I could say they were.  But in our parish school, in which I am often present, I can assure you that besides forming the mind in academics, forming the body in physical education and sports, we also work at forming the soul, helping it to realize that true blessedness is in following Christ.  And when there is a problem, as problems do occur, we can relate it back to how Jesus calls us to be so that we can be truly happy and find real blessedness.  As one of our students recently pointed out to a visiting parent who was thinking about enrolling his child in our school (uncoached and without cajoling), what makes the difference in our Catholic Schools is the formation in faith.

            Many of us are book smart.  Likely many of us have street smarts.  But what a great thing if all of us were God smart and lived out the beatitudes in our daily life, so that God could prove His wisdom in us, “as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”