What Heaven Requires

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

    There are definitely a few extended family members of mine that think, quite incorrectly, that just because I am a priest and they are related to me, they will automatically go to heaven.  Sometimes people joke about that, but I’m pretty sure some of my extended family members are quite serious.
    There are also probably large amounts of people who think that, as long as you’re not Hitler or Stalin, then you can go to heaven, too.  We presume Hell is only for those who are the worst of the worst, and that you have to do something horribly evil even to be considered for Hell.  In contrast to that, Jesus says in today’s Gospel that “many…will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” to go through the narrow gate.  It’s not even enough to have dined with Jesus and listen to His teaching.  There is something more that is required. 
    We honestly don’t know much about what exactly it will take for us to go to heaven.  Jesus didn’t give us a list to check off or leave blank, and if we get everything done, and don’t do any of the things on the naughty list, then we’ll get in.  We do know that the ordinary way of preparing to go to heaven is through baptism.  But even that is simply a beginning to our salvation, not the end.  We also know that part of our judgment is how we treated Jesus by the way we treated the least of His brothers and sisters (see Matthew 25, and the parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus).  But even in those accounts, there is surprise: surprise by those who cared for Jesus when He was in need; surprise by those who didn’t care for Jesus when He was is need; surprise by the Rich Man who enjoyed a pleasant life on earth, but then ended up in Hell. 
    I think part of our issue is that we often view heaven like becoming an Eagle Scout: if I get all the right merit badges by the time I die, then God has to give me the reward.  Instead, I believe the Lord, in today’s Gospel, is inviting us to view our path to heaven in a similar way to a marriage.
    After all, a good, happy, and holy marriage is not about doing this and not doing that.  Certainly there are things you should do, and things you shouldn’t do.  Do remember your anniversary and your spouse’s birthday; don’t have an affair.  Do things that your spouse will appreciate; don’t verbally or physically abuse your spouse.  Do things that make your spouse’s life easier and more enjoyable; don’t treat your spouse like you would treat a maid or butler.  And the list goes on. 
    But, the loving husband (the image that comes easiest to me as a guy; but ladies, just flip it around for yourselves as a loving wife) isn’t checking-off the boxes of things that need to be done.  He anticipates his beloved’s needs and wants, and does his best to fulfill them.  He prioritizes his wife above everything other than God, and shows that priority by the way he works, the way he takes time off, the words he says to her, the things he does for her, the way he loves their children, etc.  The couple who has been happily married for 50 years didn’t get there by only having a great wedding and celebration, or only doing the things that were the bare minimum for the relationship.  The happily married couple was always looking for new ways to grow in their love for each other and express it in word and deed.
    Is that how we view our relationship with God?  Because heaven is simply being with God forever, and God will not force us to be with Him if we don’t want to be.  If we’re not in love with God, then we may find the teaching that skipping Mass without a good reason (and no, sports is not a good reason) could lead you to Hell very difficult.  But if we love God, we work the rest of our day, even our recreation, around Him, because we want to spend time with Him.  If we’re not in love with God, then following the Church’s teaching to not use artificial contraception is going to seem “out of touch.”  But if we love God, we see that the sexual act has a meaning given to it by God, and when we go against that meaning, we do not express love in the way God wants us to express it. 
    The key that Jesus gives us today, it seems to me, on how to get to heaven is precisely about if we showed our love for Him by following Him.  It wasn’t simply about being the Chosen People; people “from the east and the west and from the north and the south” would be entering the kingdom of God because they fell in love with God and made Him the most important part of their life.  I think Jesus would say to us that it’s not simply about being a baptized Catholic, or going through the motions of what our faith requires (hearing the teachings of Jesus, getting the right sacraments, and making sure to avoid the big sins).  It’s about being in love with Him and letting that love be manifest by the choices we make in our home, in our office, in our recreation, in our voting, and in every aspect of our life.  Listen to the words of the Letter to the Hebrews: “Make straight paths for your feet.”  Set out for heaven, not as a task to be accomplished with certain actions to be avoided, but as the final destination of a heart transformed by the love of God which seeks to grow ever more deeply in love with the One who first loved us.

Currahee!

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Why such difficulty to enter heaven?  Jesus says that the way to heaven is narrow, and many are not strong enough to enter.  Certainly, the easy answer is that our fallen human nature tends towards things that it should not want.  We call this concupiscence.  But I think that there’s a larger point that Jesus was making, and it didn’t really occur to me until around midday this/Saturday morning.
    For those of you who don’t know, I had been training to run the Crim, and had signed up to do the full 10-mile race.  I had never run 10 miles in my life (and this may be the only time I do so).  I knew I had to train, and in May asked one of the Powers graduates who ran cross country, Ethan Hamilton, for advice.  He suggested that I try to run 5 miles 3-4 times per week, and 7.5 miles once per week.  Because of my parish and State Police responsibilities, and especially never knowing when I would be needed for an emergency, I ran around the edge of the parking lot.  So you’re aware, the edge of our parking lot is about four-tenths of a mile, so I was running a little bit more than 12 laps for 5 miles, and around 18 laps for 7.5.  It was not the most entertaining path to run.  I trained pretty well in May, really well in June, and then in July things started to taper off a bit as my resolve wavered, and in the past few weeks, I did not run as much as I should, and I had only done one 7.5 mile run in probably 2 months. 
    So, I trained, and yesterday morning, I ran the CRIM.  I was nervous (I don't know why; it’s only running and I didn’t have a goal for time, I simply wanted to finish and try not to walk any of it).  One of our parish families helped me navigate getting to parking and getting around before the race began.  And then the race started.  My parents had come (they have both run marathons, including Boston) to support me, as well.  As I ran the race, there were people lining the streets, cheering everyone on.  But what I noticed is that, when I saw parishioners, or when I saw Troops from our Flint Post who were working traffic, I got an extra boost. 
    I had been warned about the dreaded Bradley Hills, the steep inclines on Bradley Street that occur around miles 5-6.  Honestly, and I don’t say this to brag, but they weren’t that bad for me.  And part of the reason was a word that I said when running up them (and all the hills): Currahee.  I learned the word from watching “Band of Brothers,” an HBO miniseries on Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division of the Army in World War II.  Currahee was the name of a hill they had to run up and down at Camp Toccoa for training.  And the word Currahee is a Cherokee word which means, “We stand alone.”  That word connected me to the heroes who worked hard to be prepared so that, when they landed behind enemy lines the night of D-Day; when they were surrounded and short of ammo in the snowy forest of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge; as they ran up Eagle’s Nest in some of the last holdouts of Nazi Germany; they could conquer any force that came their way.    I mention the CRIM because I realized that I was able to accomplish what I did because of others.  If I would have tried the CRIM alone, and had no support from parishioners and Troopers, I hope I would have finished, but maybe I would have walked, and maybe it wouldn’t have happened at all. 

    Salvation is hard, getting to heaven is hard, because we so often try to go it alone.  If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob couldn’t get to heaven on their own; if Moses and Elijah couldn’t get to heaven on their own, then we probably don’t have much of a chance either.  Heaven is only possible when we support each other.
    The most important support in salvation is, of course, Jesus, without whom salvation is impossible.  Without Jesus, we can do nothing that will get us to heaven, no matter how many “good deeds” we do.  But how often do we try to make it on our own good deeds and best behavior?  And how often do we not even live up the weak standards we set for our behavior?
    It’s also important to work with each other to get to heaven.  Again, without Jesus, no matter how many supporters we have, we can’t get there.  But maybe we need to focus more on helping each other get to heaven.  It’s the reason the Church exists: as a band of brothers (and sisters) who help each other get to heaven.  Coming for Mass is the chance to root each other on, as well as to partner up again with Jesus through worthy reception of Holy Communion.  Confession is saying sorry for the ways that we tried to make it on our own, and weren’t successful.  But we need each other.  It’s not simply me and Jesus.  Jesus has a Mystical Body, and that Mystical Body is the Church, where we are assembled to help each other on the way to salvation.  That’s my mission as your pastor: to help you get to heaven.  I hope your mission as parishioners is to help me get to heaven.
    St. Paul compares life to a race.  He says in his second letter to St. Timothy: “I have competed well; I have finished the race…From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me.”  In the CRIM today I was given strength by the parishioners and Troops who waved and cheered as I passed them by.  I was able to finish (my official time was 1:34:58; not bad for a first-timer) my race because of others.  Heaven is not necessarily hard because of the moral demands that Jesus makes on each one of us.  It’s hard, and many fail to enter, because they try without Jesus, and without their brothers and sisters in the Church.  Don’t run alone; you’ll never make it.  Run with Jesus; don’t simply focus on yourself; help others get to heaven.  It will make the race much easier.
   

"We need to talk..."

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

           

There are certain phrases in life that you never want to hear from a person.  If you are a student you never want to have the teacher tell you, “See me after class.”  If you’re dating someone, you never want to hear, “We need to talk.”  If you’re meeting with your doctor, you never want to hear, “We found something that we didn’t expect.”  All those things generally mean that there is some bad news coming, whether it’s a poor grade on a test, a break-up, or an illness or disease that was just discovered.

            At the end of our life, standing before the judgment seat of God, we don’t want to hear, “‘I do not know where you are from,’” coming from the mouth of Jesus.  That means that what comes next is not good news, and we should be prepared for the afterlife elevator to go down, rather than up.  So it makes sense that the person might say, as Jesus has them saying in today’s Gospel, “‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’”  But then they hear something even worse: “‘I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!’”  These probably sound like pretty harsh words from the Divine Person who is supposed to be a loving Shepherd.

            But both last week and this week the Church presents for us what can seem like the harsher side of Jesus.  Last week Jesus was saying how following Him will split apart families.  This week, He’s talking about eternal salvation and how many will be saved.  When we hear passages like the one we heard today, perhaps we try to theologize it away, by highlighting other passages from Scripture which talk about how God desires the salvation of all.  And certainly we take those very seriously and must read today’s passage in light of those.  But more often than not, we don’t read this passage in light of those other Scripture passages, we just ignore today’s and pretend that the one’s about God’s desire for all to be saved are the only passages that are important.  But we do so at our own peril.

            Because while God does desire all to be saved, God also tells us with great sobriety that “‘many…will attempt to enter [through the narrow gate] but will not be strong enough.’”  Enjoying eternal bliss is not the automatic destination, even one of one who is baptized.  It’s the destination God programmed into us, but sin so often takes us off course.  Just because we’re baptized doesn’t mean that we’re going to heaven.  Salvation is not a gift that is offered once for all and accepted or rejected in one moment, but is a gift that is offered to us each day that we have to receive each day in order for it to become our eternal reality.  Just because I lived a holy life yesterday, does not mean that I will today.  In fact, I could be particularly evil today, which could undermine all the good I did yesterday. 

            If you think about it in an academic metaphor, we don’t start class off with a 4.0, and then only lose it if we don’t turn stuff in, or answer questions correctly.  Rather, God offers us opportunities to respond to the love He first showed us, homework assignments and quizzes and tests, and if we do well, we can get that 4.0.  Or, if you prefer, think about it in terms of lifting weights.  We don’t start off with buff little bodies.  We need to work out in order to keep a good, muscular physique.  When we don’t, our muscles get weak and they appear smaller.  I’m living proof of that.  If muscles just came, I’d be pretty buff.  But because I never lifted weights or did any kind of muscle conditioning, I have these little scrawny arms.  Now, good grades are not the most important things in life, nor are muscles.  But what is true with getting a 4.0 and getting big muscles is true about salvation: it doesn’t just happen without any work. 

            It is not enough to be around Jesus, as if salvation comes by way of osmosis.  We might as well sleep with textbooks beneath our pillow in the hopes of learning the material.  The people in Jesus’ words today were around Jesus.  They ate and drank with Him and He taught them in their cities.  And yet Jesus says He does not know them.  It is not enough simply that we are baptized.  Each day we are called to respond to God’s love that He give us first, and the opportunities that He sends our way to share that love with others.  Each day we are called to offer to God the sacrifice of our lives as we seek to do His will in all things.  We discipline ourselves to choose God not ourselves; to choose love, not hate; to choose generosity, not selfishness; to choose truth, not lies.  Baptism is not a Get Out of Hell Free card.  It is, rather, a catalyst that can be used to propel us towards heaven.  Or it can just sit on a shelf and collect dust. 

            The work of the New Evangelization is to reenergize our own faith, and to bring others back into the practice of the faith in which they were baptized, to work out those spiritual muscles.  And our impetus in doing so is because we want them to go to heaven, just as much as we want to go to heaven.  And we know for them, as for ourselves, that the gate to heaven is not wide, but narrow, and the way to heaven is not the easiest path, but often is the hardest, and that new life in God comes only through death to ourselves.  It means that we form our minds around what God has revealed to us, rather than doing our own thing.  It means we go to Mass every Sunday and Holyday; we give of our time, talent, and treasure to the Church; that we talk about our faith in public and pass it on to our families and friends; that we live a life of chastity; that marriages for Catholics happen according to the laws of God and the Church; that we feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty; that we do all this and more according to our abilities.  I pray that I, and all of us, and all those to whom we as a parish are called to evangelize, are not spiritually lazy, but do the hard work of responding to God’s love in everyday life, so that when we die, we will not hear, “I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, evildoers!” but, “Come, my good and faithful servant; share your Master’s joy.”

Patience is a Virtue

Third Sunday of Lent

            I recall a time when I was at Lansing Catholic high school, and there was a dance coming up that I was planning to attend.  And there was a particular girl I really wanted to take to the dance.  I sort of had a crush on this girl, without the sort of part.  And I remember really wanting to ask her to the dance.  But, being the analytical guy that I am, I also did not want to appear desperate and ask too early.  So I made myself a deal: I would ask this girl to the dance no more than a certain number of  days before the dance.  I day before, and I’m ready to ask.  There’s a part of me that just wants to ask on that day.  But the rational side of me reminds me that I don’t want to look desperate, and that I can wait just one more day.  I go through the final day, waiting for my opportunity to ask her to the dance when I have class with her after lunch.  I see her in class and say, “So, you got plans for the dance in a few weeks?”  “Yeah,” she says, “so-and-so (I don’t want to use real names, since some of you knew me in high school) just asked me yesterday.”  “Great!”  I said, trying to play off the fact that I felt stupid for waiting that extra day.  “I’m sure you’ll have a great time together.”

            Now, if this were a modern-day fable, we would probably guess that the moral of the story is not to be patient, because you can miss out on opportunities that you might otherwise have.  And there are certainly times when being pro-active is key. 

            But even though I didn’t get what I wanted, and it seemed to be because “he who hesitates is lost,” as the saying goes, I ended up having a great time at the dance with a different girl, and my patience (which I’m still not really known for) paid off.

            Patience is a virtue with which I think most people struggle.  It’s hard to be patient, whether with family members, co-workers, people on the road, etc.  Whenever I fly I don’t want to have to wait between my flights; I would rather just land, make it to my gate, and then take off as soon as I’m ready.  Technology hasn’t made patience any easier.  Anytime I want to know something, I just type in the question to Google on my iPhone, and get an answer.  Or, if I’m really impatient, I just ask Siri to find me the answer so I don’t have to waste time typing.

            And yet, our readings today focus us precisely on patience.  In our first reading, we hear about Moses being called by God to lead the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  What does that have to do with patience?  Well, by the time the Israelites left Egypt, it had been 430 years since Joseph and his family had fled the famine in Canaan and set up residence in Egypt.  That’s a long time!  And what does God say?  “‘I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.’”  Now, our modern, impatient tendencies would probably lead us to say wonder what in the world took so long to find someone.  Why wait over four centuries to free the People that God had made His own?  To be honest, we don’t know why.  But God was patient, knowing that He would send Moses at just the right time to command that the Israelites go free, and that, when Pharaoh refused, God would manifest His power over all creation to convince the Egyptians to let the Israelites go.

            Or take the fig tree from the end of today’s Gospel.  Our modern, impatient tendencies would be to cut down the tree.  It’s had enough time to produce fruit, and it’s not, so don’t give it another chance to continue to waste precious water and nutrients in the ground.  Cut it down, and plant a new tree.  But the gardener asks for some patience, to give the tree one more year to produce fruit before it is cut down, and the orchard owner agrees.

            God is patient.  He is never in a rush to act.  And while we may complain about that, we should also give thanks for God’s patience, because it’s His patience that has allowed us time to repent.  Imagine if God were as impatient as us: how many times would he give us before He stopped allowing us to repent and turn back to Him?  And yet, each Lent, and even each time we come to Mass, we tell God that we are sorry for our lack of love for Him, and ask Him to give us another chance and more time.  God knows the fullness of time, and He knows when certain things need to happen.  Whether it was freeing the Israelites, sending us a Savior, the call of St. Paul, or any of the other aspects of Salvation History, God is patient and gives His People a chance to turn back to Him and choose life and holiness, not death and sin.

            If we are going to be like God, then we, too, need patience.  We need to be patient with others and not condemn or judge others so quickly.  We need to be patient with ourselves and realize that, while some conversions happen quickly, many happen slowly, over time, but are longer lasting.  We need to be patient with God and realize that His time is always the right time, even when we think something needs to happen sooner, or immediately.  God is not our Siri that we can make tell us the answers immediately.  God’s time is according to His own plan that often is above our understanding, and is always for the best. 

            God calls us today to pray for patience.  But, realize that, when we pray for it, God will give us opportunities to be patient, times and people that try our patience, so that we can grow in that virtue.  Don’t worry; be patient.

GPS on the Narrow Road to Salvation

Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

            It seems like you can’t drive down the road these days without seeing a GPS in at least half of the cars.  Whether it’s sticking to the inside of the windshield, on the dash, or even a part of the car, so many people utilize these great devices.  I have to admit that, especially when I’m new to an area, or when I’m going to a parishioner’s house for dinner, they make my life much easier.

            If you’ll allow the metaphor, the Chosen People were the cars that had the GPS already installed in the vehicle.  God had chosen them to share His holiness with the outside nations.  But, in order to come into a relationship with God, you had to join Israel, which for males meant circumcision (not really a great selling point if you’re simply looking at it from a secular point of view).  Also, the Jews, in order to keep ritually pure, which allowed them to worship at the temple, would often keep away from the goyim, the people of the other nations. 

            So if you were an Israelite hearing the message of our first reading, you would have been shocked.  God was telling His people that no longer would GPS only come equipped in Israeli cars, but would be installed in the cars of the goyim, of the nations of “Tarshish, Put and Lod, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,” places that were outside of the relationship with God.  In fact, they were at enmity with God because their way of life was contrary to what God had created us for.

            Of course, if you were open to it, this was good news: God was promising to bring the people of the world into a right relationship with Him, and that they would be able to see His glory.  The goal of Israel, to help people to come to know the true God, was going to be accomplished by God Himself by revealing Himself to those who before were outside of the Chosen People.

            This should be especially good news for us, because most, if not all of us, if we trace our ancestry back far enough, do not come from Jewish stock, but from Gentile, goyim stock.  And we see this promise to invite all the nations into a right relationship with God fulfilled in Jesus, who, though sent to the Jews, called the Twelve Apostles and their successors, the bishops, to spread the new covenant, sealed in His own blood, to all the nations, the Gentiles, the goyim, so that they, too could enter into a right relationship with God, find forgiveness for their sins which separate them from God, and be able to enter into eternal life.

            Our Gospel today also reflects the reality of salvation, and the possibility of not receiving it.  If it were just humans saying that it’s tough to get to heaven, then we would have reason to doubt their word.  Perhaps they were misinformed, or confused about what the Lord was saying.  But it is not a human person saying this to us: it is a Divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity who tells His disciples and us in the Gospel today: “‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.’”  These are hard words for us to hear, because they don’t reflect the nice, fluffy Jesus that we like to hear about.  But, Jesus is the full revelation of the Father, not just the easy revelation of the Father.  And so we have to treat His words seriously. 

            Jesus is telling us that, although we were created for eternal happiness with God in heaven, there are so many pitfalls because of our own sins and those of our neighbors which can distract us from the narrow gate.  It is as if our GPS didn’t accurately give us the right course from time to time.  Because of this, we can sometimes think that we’re going the right way, the way that “feels” right, when, in fact, we are moving farther away from God.

            Baptism does unite us to the Body of Christ.  And we certainly do have a right to claim Christ as our Lord and Savior through Baptism.  And yet, Jesus also said in today’s Gospel, that simply being close to Him is not enough.  Recall that some said, “‘“We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets,”’” but even this is not satisfactory.  We cannot simply have a free pass because we have Baptism and the sacramental life of the Church, right doctrine, and governance by the successor of St. Peter, the Pope.  No, we must strive, each day, by the grace given in those sacraments, to unite our lives more and more to Jesus’ life, and live like He did.

The Second Vatican Council affirmed this, when it stated in Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, that, “He is not saved, however, who though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity.  He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but, as it were, only in a ‘bodily’ manner and not ‘in his heart.  […]If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved, but they will be the more severely judged.’”  Simply receiving the sacraments and going to Mass on Sunday, simply as routine, are not enough.  The Lord wants more of us.  In fact, he wants all of us.  He loves us so much that He wants us to respond to His grace and not just give lip service to our faith, so that we can enjoy eternal happiness with Him forever in heaven.

So how do we respond to the graces?  We still have to receive the sacraments and go to Mass, but we need to be open to the graces and let them change us, and after the graces have changed us, start to change the world so that it reflects the Gospel.  We are called to evangelize: to take the prophetic graces we receive in Baptism, and critique and offer advice on how to change the world so that the poor are justly assisted; the rights of all human beings, from natural conception to natural death, are protected; the building block of society, the family, is upheld according to God’s plan for marriage and family life.  This can be done in conversation and correspondence with family, co-workers, and our government representatives, and in many other ways, all with the motive of speaking the truth in love.

As Jesus said, it is not enough that we eat and drink with him.  We must take the great grace of being His brother or sister and spread His love, His truth, His way to others so that we and they will be on the narrow road to salvation, guided by the GPS of the Church and the graces which flow from her, a GPS which does not lead us astray, so that we can recline at table in the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets and saints.