Offered and Offering

 Fourth Sunday in Lent

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  In the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves in Tabgha in the Holy Land, which was itself founded around AD 350, there is an ancient mosaic dating from around the year 480 in front of the altar where there are two fish and four loaves.  Now, if you were listening carefully to the Gospel, you would know that the multiplication of the loaves and fish involved “five barley loaves.”  So what’s with this ancient mosaic?  Did they simply run out of space?  Was the ancient artist ignorant of the account?  
    In reality, the ancient artist not only knew his Bible, but also knew his theology.  There are four loaves in the mosaic because the fifth loaf is the one on the altar, being consecrated into the Body of Christ.  St. John the Evangelist had this connection between the multiplication of the loaves and the Eucharist as the rest of John chapter 6 goes on to contain the preaching of our Lord about how He is the Bread of Life, and that we need to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have life.  
    The Eucharist is the new covenant that our Lord established between Him and us so that we could have salvation and be in right relationship with God.  This is made clear in the words of institution over the chalice: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it.  For this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the New and Eternal Covenant: the mystery of faith: which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  God promises to be our God, and we promise to be His People, in this Sacrament of Sacraments, which itself points to Good Friday, as Christ shed His Blood on the Cross.
    St. Paul takes up this idea of covenants in the epistle as he sees an allegorical interpretation of Genesis and the stories of Isaac and Ishmael.  Ishmael, as the son of the slave Hagar, represents the old covenant, the Law, while Isaac, the son of the free-woman, Sarah, is the new covenant of the Lord.  
    Does St. Paul mean that God has abandoned the Jews and the covenant He made with them?  No.  The Apostle, after spending chapters explaining how the law does not save, writes in his Epistle to the Romans: “I ask then, has God rejected his people?  Of course not!  […] For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”  Even though the law does not save, God does not reject His People, His Chosen Ones.  
    But God has fulfilled what the Old Covenant was meant to prepare for: salvation through Christ.   And that salvation is made present for us in the Eucharist each time we come to Mass.  Christ offered Himself once for all on the cross, but wanted us to have access to the power of the sacrifice, just as the Jews had opportunity to connect themselves to their sacrificial offerings that were made in the Temple.  When a Jew would offer sacrifice, certain parts of the animal offerings were for God, to be burned up on the altar, while others were reserved for the priest, and still others were given back to the people.  So when Christ offered Himself in sacrifice to the Father, the priest (that is I) receives a portion from the bread and wine you have offered, and you also receive a portion of your sacrifice that God gives back to you.  But unlike the old covenant where the sacrifice remains the same, the bread and wine that we offer to God through my hands is transformed by God into the Body and Blood of Christ so that you and I receive better than what we offered.  
    But it is not simply bread and wine that we offer to God.  The boy gave five loaves and two fish to Christ in the Gospel, which was all that he had.  We, too, are called to offer all that we have to God in this Mass, and unite it to the bread on the corporal and the wine in the chalice.  Sacrosanctum concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council teaches, “But in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain.”  Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council expands on this idea of the laity’s participation in Mass when it states:
 

[Christ] also gives them a sharing in His priestly function of offering spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men.  […] For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne–all these become “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ Christ”.  Together with the offering of the Lord’s body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Even in this pre-conciliar form for the celebration of the Mass, you are called to bring to the Apostles, and their assistants, the presbyters (i.e., me) what you have so that it maybe offered to God for the salvation of you and of all.  Any reading of the best minds of the Liturgical Movement before the Council also bears witness to this.  
    So what are you bringing to this Mass?  What are you offering with me, in addition to the bread and the wine?  As I am saying the Canon silently, are you offering to God what has happened since the last time you came to Mass?  Are you giving God the joys your family brings you, and/or the frustrations you experience when they push your buttons?  Are you offering the “atta-boy” or “atta-girl” that your boss gave you for accomplishing a task excellently, and/or the lack of drive and fulfillment in the job which pays the bills but does not utilize your gifts and talents?  Are you praying silently to God thanking Him for the game that you won, and/or giving him your broken heart that was torn when your young love dumped you?  
    These parts of life, and many more that I did not mention, are all part of the sacrifice that God desires.  These ups and downs are meant to be spiritually united to the oblation that I offer, which is itself united to the one, acceptable, perfect offering of Christ on the Cross, re-presented for us in an unbloody way on this altar.  As we continue our pilgrimage this Lent, as we walk with our Lord toward Good Friday, may the joys and sorrows of our life be fitting gifts to God, so that may not only share in the Death, but also the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.  Amen. 

What Makes Us Catholic

 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Due to my retreat I had tried to get ahead of the game and write my homily before I left, which I successfully did.  And then Friday the sixteenth happened.  So, back to the drawing board.
    This past Friday morning, as I was finishing up our usual Friday morning adoration, I received a text from a brother priest of mine in the Diocese who knows how to celebrate the Extraordinary Form, or whatever we’re going to call it from now on, about Traditionis custodes, the new Motu Proprio.  We spoke after the 8 a.m. Mass about the details and the law of the new document (this brother priest is also a canon lawyer).  I then called Bishop Boyea, only to be reminded by his secretary that he is on retreat this week with the bishops of Michigan and Ohio.  I then had time to read over the document myself.
    I have to admit that, even though I only started celebrating according to the Missal of St. John XXIII a couple of months ago, my heart ached at what looks like more restrictions (we’ll see what Bishop Boyea has to say when he gets back with me).  Even in this short time I have come to see the beauty and transcendence of this form of celebration.  I will say that I also think that a priest can celebrate according to the Missal of St. Paul VI beautifully and transcendently, in its own way.  We’ll have to see what future lies in store for us, though I neither want to freak you out with specious speculations, nor presume that everything will be exactly the same.
    But Pope Francis, who is our validly elected Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, and head of the Universal Church, also reminds us of important points about our Catholic faith, that I believe are worth speaking about here.

   The first is a general point about what makes us Catholic.  We are Catholics because we believe that Jesus founded His Church in a particular way, namely, upon apostolic foundations, with the successor of St. Peter as the Prince of the Apostles, and the visible sign of unity and head of the apostolic college.  Certainly I understand and sympathize (suffer with you) in feeling hurt by our Holy Father, and likely there are feelings of anger, betrayal, or others.  But to say that the pope is not the pope, or that we do not owe him religious submission of will and intellect because he has hurt us, because he has made decisions with which we do not agree, in a matter that is not de fide or part of the moral life of the Church, is not Catholic.  As your spiritual father I understand your pain, but also want to warn against a schismatic attitude that can separate you from the Body of Christ, which is the ordinary means of salvation.  We will continue to see what this new document means, but we have to do so with respect for Pope Francis, lest we endanger our immortal soul.  Does this mean that this legislation of his is the best or even simply right?  I think we can reasonably disagree in charity with this legislation.  But he is still our pope, allowed for us by Christ Himself.  And if St. Catherine of Siena can give that same respect to popes who were wrongly living in Avignon, we can give respect and pray for Pope Francis.  I certainly mention his name every time I pray the Roman Canon.  If you want to be in a parish that is schismatic, separated from visible unity with the Church, then this is not the parish for you.  We are Latin Rite, Roman Catholics, and too many martyrs died to uphold the papacy for us to reject it because of what we consider a hurtful and wrong piece of legislation.  I invite each of you to storm heaven with your prayers, and pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for Pope Francis.  
    Secondly, Vatican II.  The jokes about the Spirit of Vatican II being the scariest Halloween costume are funny because they contain a bit of truth.  Many people have taken Vatican II to mean a variety of things which the Council Fathers never intended nor desired.  I was born in 1983 (yes, I’m young), so I have only known a post-Vatican II world, and I have seen some of the negative effects of wrong implementation on the Church.  Many people saw Vatican II as a jettisoning of everything that had come before.  
    But Vatican II, especially in the Constitutions, and even in some of the documents which have less authority (e.g., decrees and declarations), was not a rejection of what came before, but a re-application of what came before.  Lumen gentium itself contains over 200 quotations and 92 references to Pope Pius XII.  As you look through Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, there is a beautiful collection of citations from Sacred Scripture, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and the conciliar documents of Trent and Vatican I.  I didn’t have time to count them all, but the references to solid Catholic saints, previous holy popes, and previous councils, is impressive.  
    Further, Pope St. John XXIII, whose missal we use, declared it to be an ecumenical council, and it was confirmed and approved, in the ways ecumenical councils need to be, by Pope St. Paul VI.  So we cannot ignore Vatican II and its documents, without ignoring an ecumenical council called for and confirmed by the successor of St. Peter.  To do so would be to make the same mistake as Luther, Zwingli, Melanchthon, and other so-called reformers of rejecting what we don’t like and keeping what we do.  St. Augustine says this of the Gospel, but the same could be said for ecumenical councils, that if we accept what we like and reject what we don’t like, we do not have faith in God but in ourselves.  
    Further, while everyone likes to quote Lumen gentium, 16 which says that those who, “through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known through them through the dictates of conscience” can be saved, there is another quote, I would say that is even stronger, about the necessity of belonging to the Church.  Lumen gentium, 14 says, “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.”  I think all here know that the Catholic Church is a necessary connection to Christ (inasmuch as our Lord Himself said that persecuting His followers was persecuting Him as He spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus).  In the same way, then, we must hold fast to the Church, even when the barque of Peter seems to be adrift and taking on water, or risk damnation, as Vatican II clearly teaches.  
    I know these are hard days.  I know that it seems like the Church may want to abandon us.  But, St. Paul tells us, that we are not called to fear, but to have courage.  And Jesus reminds us in the Gospel, to do whatever it takes to be saved, even if it means suffering greatly.  We can likely see ourselves in the boat in Mark 4 with the apostles, as the storm is pounding us, and the waves are breaking over the boat, so that it seems like it will capsize.  But our Lord is in the boat, and He will not let it sink.  Our duty, even in our pain, frustration, and betrayal, is to stay in the boat with Christ, hold fast to Him, and have faith that He will see us safely to the harbor of heaven, where God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reign eternally, world without end.  Amen.

It's Not What We Know, It's Who We Know

Fourth Sunday of Easter

We’ve probably all heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  I experienced that saying firsthand when I studied in Rome for 5 months as an undergraduate.  During  my time I met a monsignor who worked for the Roman Rota, the Supreme Court, as it were for the Catholic Church (though that analogy is not 100% accurate, as the pope is really the supreme judge).  He was also a chaplain for the local chapter of the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta, a chivalrous religious order that provides medical help in the name of the Church.  He  took me to different churches that I would have never known about, and certainly would not have been able to enter.  To be honest, it was pretty cool.

Msgr. (now-Bishop) Giuseppe Sciacca, me, and some of
my classmates from my semester in Rome

It may sound surprising, but when it comes to eternal salvation, it is also not what you know, but who you know.  No, not in the sense that if you’re best friends with this priest, or this religious sister, or this bishop, then you can do anything you want.  But it is true when it comes to Jesus.  Salvation is intimately connected with knowing who Jesus is, and having a relationship with Him.  We can know all sorts of facts about Jesus, we can even be able to repeat the Catechism word for word.  But that knowledge does not equate to salvation.  Even Satan knows about Jesus; in fact, Satan probably knows more about Jesus than we do.  But Satan does not know Jesus as it pertains to having friendship with Jesus.

Jesus Himself asserts that it’s all about knowing Him.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about Himself as the “gate for the sheep.”  He is the one by whom the sheep (that is, we) enter into the verdant pastures that Psalm 23 spoke of in today’s Responsorial Psalm.  No one else is the gate: not Moses, not Mohammed, not Buddha, no one else.  If we wish to enter into heaven, we have to go through Jesus.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: what about all the people who didn’t or don’t believe in Jesus, who don’t truly know Jesus?  We can talk about people who came before Jesus, who had no way of knowing about Him, and those who have come after Jesus, who maybe do or maybe don’t have access to knowing about Jesus.  What Scripture makes clear, both in today’s Gospel, as well as in Peter’s speech in another place in the Acts of the Apostles, is that there is no other name on earth by when people are saved other than the Most Holy Name of Jesus.  So anyone who is in heaven, and only God decides who is in heaven, is there only because of the one saving act of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection.  Jews are not saved by the Law of Moses (St. Paul makes that very clear); Muslims are not saved by following the Qur’an; Buddhists are not saved because they followed the path of enlightenment.  If they are in heaven, it is only through Jesus.

The Church also taught in Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Vatican II, and I will quote the section: “Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do his will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.”  So the Church teaches that is possible that those who are ignorant of Christ through no fault of their own, and who are seeking God and following, to the best of the ability, their conscience, that they be saved.  We don’t know if they’re saved, because the only way we know to receive the gift of salvation is to know Jesus and be in a relationship with Him, begun in Baptism.  But the key is that if any person is in heaven, they are only there because of Jesus.

This should be a catalyst for us not simply to know about Jesus, but to truly know Him.  It should move us to say, ‘Do I really know Jesus?’  Simply being baptized, or even receiving other sacraments, does not necessarily mean that we know Jesus.  We might know about Jesus, but do we know Him as well as we know our friends or our spouse?

It should also be a catalyst to tell others about Jesus.  Your co-worker’s salvation could depend on how well you help them to understand who Jesus is.  Your spouse’s salvation could depend on how well you have made the life of Jesus your own and live it in your marriage.  Your classmate or friend’s salvation could be aided by the fact that you help them to know Jesus and reflect that relational knowledge through what you say and do.  Is that easy?  No.  The cost of discipleship, of knowing Jesus, is very expensive.  But God is pulling for us and giving us what we need to know Jesus and to share that knowledge with others through His divine grace, which is given to us through the Sacraments.

This weekend our First Communicants will receive Jesus, the Gate to Heaven, in the Eucharist.  In this new way, they are receiving the help to have union with Jesus, to truly know Him, and not simply to know about Him.  They asked for His mercy on Saturday, which He readily grants to those who are sorry and who seek to make the life of Jesus their own in their own way.  And on Sunday, having been purified of the obstacles to His life, they then/now receive that life and love in Jesus’ Body and Blood.  What a beautiful gift for Jesus to spread the table of the Eucharist, the altar of life, before us as we gather in the house of the Lord, which anticipates the eternal temple of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, where God wants us to dwell for years to come!  And each week we are invited back to Mass, to get to know Jesus better, and then to make His life our own by the power of His grace.  

When it comes to eternal salvation, to being welcomed into heaven, it’s not what we know, it’s who we know.  Do we know the Good Shepherd, the One who is the Gate for the sheep, who came that we “might have life and have it more abundantly”?

Shopping on an Empty Stomach

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

People say that is bad to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach.  The reason for this is that some types of food, which on a full stomach you might not have considered purchasing, suddenly seem more enticing.  I know grocery shopping when I’m hungry is definitely dangerous.  This past Thursday I went shopping on an empty stomach.  I originally had planned only to pick up a pumpkin to carve for Halloween, some carrots, potatoes, and celery for a pot roast I was cooking that day, and some apples.  But then I saw the caramel, and imagined how tasty that would be with apple slices.  And then I saw sour gummy worms, and could almost taste the sweet and sour candy in my mouth.  Needless to say, I ended up picking up a few more things than I originally had intended.

Our Gospel today begins by saying that Jesus intended to pass through the town of Jericho.  Jesus must have been hungry for souls, because a crowd quickly forms, and Jesus, through this crowd, sees a soul who is hungering for Jesus, even as Jesus hungers for his soul.  Zacchaeus had to climb up a tree (and there is a tree in Jericho today which alleges to be the sycamore tree Zacchaeus climbed) to see Jesus.  But Jesus notices Zacchaeus, and invites Himself over to dinner at Zacchaeus’ house.

The Zacchaeus Sycamore Tree in Jericho

 

Do we hunger for Jesus?  What would we do to see Jesus?  Recently a few new Chick-fil-As opened in Michigan.  The first one hundred people at the new stores received one free meal per week for a year from Chick-fil-A.  I know that people camp out, sometimes for days, just to have a chance to win some free, tasty chicken for a year.  It’s interesting, though, that some of us are content to show up for Mass 10-15 minutes late.  Or think about how early most people arrive at a stadium to either tailgate or watch a game.  Most people are quite upset if they miss kick-off.  And yet we can put off prayer, our time to be with Jesus and talk and listen to Him, quite easily.  

If we do show up to Mass on time, stay for all the Mass, and set aside time daily to pray, then we need to ask ourselves if we’re as hungry to bring others to Jesus as Jesus was.  Again, Jesus intended to pass through Jericho.  But, noticing Zacchaeus’ hunger for Him, Jesus spent time there, and even had dinner with Zacchaeus.  Do we want to bring others to Jesus?  Last week Deacon Dave preached about our Evangelization Plan, of how we can bring others, especially fallen-away Catholics back to the practice of their faith.  Have we filled it out?  Did we even take one home?  Or do just sit back and figure if people want to come to church again, they will?  

Imagine for a second that the Apostles, after Pentecost, waited for people to come to the upper room.  Would thousands of people have been baptized on that very day?  And would the faith have spread?  Would the world have been changed for the better by the Gospel?  The answer is obvious: of course not.  And yet, we can often have the mentality that we’ll just wait for people to come back to church, or join the church, without any work on our part.  By our baptism, we have each become a member of the Church, and by our confirmation, we have each been sent out to help people know the truth and love of Jesus, which will make them happy and will help them on the road to heaven, which God desires for every person.  At our confirmation we were given a mission to work to bring as many people into a relationship with Jesus, even as we continue to work on our own relationship with Jesus.  It is not only the work of priests, deacons, and religious.  In fact, the transformation of the world by preaching the Gospel is really the work of the laity; at least that’s what Vatican II emphasized.  

Vatican II says, in its Constitution on the Church that the laity are called to “make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope and charity (n. 31).”  In the Vatican II decree on the apostolate, or work of spreading the Gospel, we read, “The apostolate of the laity derives from their Christian vocation and the Church can never be without it. […] The Church was founded for the purpose of spreading the kingdom of Christ throughout the earth for the glory of God the Father, to enable all men to share in His saving redemption, and that through them the whole world might enter into a relationship with Christ (nn. 1, 2).”

Christ is hungry for us and our love.  Are we hungry for others to know Jesus Christ?  Jesus, and so many fallen-away Catholics are waiting for us to be hungry to help others know Jesus and His Church.  Would we have them starve?

Putting Yourself in the Mass

Solemnity of Corpus Christi

            It was not uncommon, in medieval art, for the painter to put himself into his work of art.  From what I have heard, one of the faces on the back wall of the Sistine Chapel, in the great mural The Final Judgment is the face of Michelangelo.  Caravaggio put himself into most of his famous paintings.  And even if they don’t put their image into their paintings, a painter pours his or her heart and soul into creating a work of beauty, a work which shows forth the splendor of the truth.

            Today’s readings focus us in on offering what we have, of putting ourselves into what we are doing, no matter how little or how big.  The first reading from Genesis is the story where Melchizedek blesses bread and wine and offers them to God Most High, and then Abram offers him a tenth (or tithe) of everything.  The Letter to the Hebrews makes a big deal out of this event, because one greater blesses one who is lesser, and you only offer a tithe if there is a debt to be paid to another.  Now, Melchizedek must have been pretty important to make Abram, the Father of the Chosen People, the lesser of the two, and for Abram to offer Melchizedek a tithe.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews focuses in on Melchizedek’s name, which means king of righteousness, and his country, King of Salem, from the root word, shalom, which makes him the King of Peace, and that, unlike almost everyone else in Scripture, there is no lineage.  Melchizedek just shows up without father or mother or ancestors.  For this reason, the Letter to the Hebrews states that Melchizedek was a foreshadowing of Christ, the true King of Righteousness and King of Peace, who is the co-eternal Son of the Father, without beginning.  When you throw in offering bread and wine, too, it is not hard to see why the author equated the two. 

            And in the Gospel, there are only five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men, not to mention women and children.  But they are offered to Jesus who miraculously multiplies them so that it is enough, and not just enough, but enough to satisfy everyone. 

            And so we often talk about stewardship: sharing the time, talent, and treasure we have with the Church to continue the work of Christ.  Think of anything you like here at St. John or St. Thomas.  We can’t do it without people generously donating their time.  Think of anything you like here at St. John or St. Thomas.  We can’t do it without people coming together to use a diversity of gifts towards a common goal.  No one person has a monopoly on all the gifts necessary to preach Jesus Christ and His salvation.  Think of anything you like here at St. John or St. Thomas.  We can’t do it without people giving of their treasure to fund the staff salaries, the opportunities for retreats and programs, etc.  And the burden is not the laity’s alone to bear.  I also feel compelled to give to our parish each week, to the scholarship fund for St. Thomas Aquinas parish school, to the Capital Campaign we are in for the school, to DSA, and my list, probably like yours, goes on and on, even beyond this parish.

            But, as we celebrate Corpus Christi today, I want to ask you: do you put yourself in the celebration of the Mass?  Do you invest your energy when you come here each Sunday, or is it something to pass an hour on a Sunday morning?  I can tell you that, for me, celebrating Mass is exhausting.  Our sacristans and Mass coordinators and servers and tell you that it’s not uncommon for me to yawn out of fatigue after the first Mass and before the second.  Why?  Because each time I celebrate Mass, I try to pour myself in what I am saying or chanting and doing.  I try to bring all of who I am, and when I offer all of me, it can be exhausting.

            Because we are all members of the priesthood of the faithful, we have a priestly office, even if it isn’t the same as the ministerial priesthood.  All of us baptized are invited by Holy Mother Church to offer who we are to the Father with the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Yes, we pass the basket to collect our treasure.  Yes, we bring up bread and wine.  But united with that bread and wine is supposed to be all of who we are.  Did you have a crummy week where nothing seemed to go right?  Offer it to God, united with the bread and wine as you silently listen to the words of Jesus offering His Body and Blood to the Father.  Did you have a great week where everything was just how you wanted it?  Rejoice and thank God by offering it united to the bread and the wine.  This morning, eight of our parish children have the opportunity to offer their excitement, and maybe a little nervousness, with that bread and wine, as they prepare to receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest and Victim for the first time.  All of us, no matter what our age, vocation, occupation, or race, can put ourselves into the Paschal Mystery and offer ourselves to God.    As Lumen gentium, 34 from the Second Vatican Council stated:

all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne—all these become “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  Together with the offering of the Lord’s body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist.

Pour yourself into this, and every Mass.  Make it not just a routine, but a purposeful time to unite yourself to the Lord by offering your lives with the bread and wine, which will be given back to you as the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Put yourself into the beautiful work of art that the Mass is.

"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            In my work in our parish school, and on the monthly occasions when I teach theology at Lansing Catholic high school, I have found that generally students fall into one of two categories when you ask them a question.  The first type of student is the “pick me, pick me!” students who can barely control themselves because they know the answer and they want to prove it.  The other type of student is the “Dear God, do not let Fr. Anthony call on me!” students who try to avoid eye contact and would rather do just about anything than be forced to answer a question, whether they know the right answer or not.

            We appear to have both types of people in our first reading and our Gospel today.  Isaiah is like the first type of student.  As Isaiah is caught up in ecstasy, seeing a vision of God on the throne with the Seraphim and the heavenly hosts, with incense rising, he is at first made aware of his sinfulness, but then, having been cleansed, he is all-too-ready to respond when the Lord asks, “‘Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?’” 

            In our Gospel, we see the second type of student in the person of St. Peter.  He is reluctant, doesn’t think he can succeed (both at fishing and at being a disciple), is all too aware of his sinfulness, and does not want to be called on.  But the Lord still chooses him, and, as we know the rest of the story, Jesus chooses Him to lead His Church as the first pope.

            God still calls.  Jesus still calls.  The Lord still asks, “Whom shall I send?  Who will go for us?”  Jesus still asks us to be His disciples and put out into the deep waters.  Are we the type of person who says with Isaiah, “‘Here I am…send me!’”, or are we the type of person who says with St. Peter, “‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am…sinful’”?  In both cases, God is calling us.

            Some of you single men out there in the pews God is calling to be a priest.  I am sure of it!  God is calling you to abandon the safety and security of doing what only you think is best, and to follow Jesus in a new way, to conform your life to His, to be conformed through the Sacrament of Holy Order to Jesus the Priest so that His people can continue to be fed and nourished by the grace of the sacraments, especially the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.  Without priests, the People of God will not have their sins forgiven, nor will they be able to be so closely united to Jesus through Holy Communion. 

            Some of you single men or single women out there in the pews God is calling to be a consecrated brother or sister, or consecrated virgin.  Some of you God is calling to leave everything behind and to live out by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in a religious community the life of Jesus who was poor, chaste, and obedient to the Father’s will.  Some of you women who have preserved as a treasured gift your virginity are called to consecrate your virginity to God, to hand it over to Him and to be espoused to Jesus Christ, the Divine Bridegroom for all eternity, even as you live in the world.

            Many of you men and women out there in the pews God is calling or has called to be married and be parents.  Others of you are single.  God is no less calling you to be holy.  In fact, God is calling you in a special way to sanctify the world by your presence, in ways that priests, religious, and consecrated virgins are not called.  God needs you to fill society with the leaven of the Gospel: your homes, your workplace, your rest, your vacation, politics, so that the City of Man looks more and more like the City of God.  God calls you to offer every part of your life to Him as an acceptable sacrifice, as Lumen gentium from the Second Vatican Council reminds us: “For all [the laity’s] works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne—all these become ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.’”  Without you, providing an example of holiness of life and fidelity to the teachings of God through His Church, the faith is not passed on, and people do not treasure the pearl of great price that a relationship with God is.

            Maybe we’re afraid that we’re too sinful.  So was Isaiah, so was St. Peter.  Maybe we don’t think we have what it takes.  If Isaiah or St. Peter knew everything that was ahead of them, they may have turned back.  But day-by-day they were strengthened by God to preach the Gospel, so others could believe.  This Wednesday we begin Lent.  Use this holy time to draw closer to the Lord, to learn more about Him, to get to know Him so that you are comfortable saying “yes” to Him.  All of the things we do—the fasting, the abstaining from meat, the giving up of certain good things, the extra acts of penance—all of these are meant to open us up so that it is easier for us to say “yes” to God.  It is all too easy to just do the “Lent thing” again.  Don’t waste your precious time just floating by.  Put out into deep waters!  Is it scary?  In some ways, yes!  It calls for radical trust in God to actually live according to the Gospel.  But Jesus won’t let you sink amid the waves of sea.  He will help you to make a great catch; He will help you to spread His Word that brings people happiness, and saves them from eternal death.  In the Holy Name of God I ask: Whom shall we send?  Who will go for us?  What is your answer?

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.