Drawing Near the Unworthy

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Last week we had the profession of faith by St. Peter that our Lord is the Christ, the Messiah, and this week we get a second dose of St. Peter, but this time we hear about his call.  What strikes me in this Gospel passage is that Peter acknowledges his own sinfulness, and yet the Lord does not draw back.  In fact, the Lord draws in Peter and gives him a new mission, no longer to strive to catch fish, but to work at the catch of men, captured in the nets of the love of the Lord.
    We’ve all, I believe, been in the position of Peter.  We sin, whether venially or mortally, and we don’t feel worthy for Christ to be around us.  I think this is especially true of mortal sin.  Mortal sin, as we hopefully remember, is when we commit a grave sin (something serious); we know it’s wrong; and we freely choose to commit that sin anyway.  All three characteristics have to be present in order for a sin to be a mortal sin.  Mortal sin separates us from God and takes away sanctifying grace, the grace that allows us to go to heaven.  Mortal sin is ordinarily removed by sacramental confession, though it could be removed if we had perfect contrition (though I’m not sure you want to take a chance that you had perfect contrition if you have the chance to go to confession).  The Church teaches that if a person were to die in a state of mortal sin, we do not know a way that that person could go to heaven.
    But, some may espouse the view that if we are in mortal sin, God stops loving us.  Or that, if we are in mortal sin, we should stop praying, because God won’t hear our prayers anyway, since we’re not in a state of grace.  But that’s not what our Gospel shows us today.  Who knows if the sin Peter thought of was mortal or venial.  But to fall on his knees makes me believe that there was something big, maybe even just his lack of faith in our Lord’s command.  Still, the Savior doesn’t say, “Sorry, I can’t hear you; your sin is blocking my hearing.”  The Savior doesn’t say, “You should have thought about the consequences before you chose to do what you did.”  The Savior didn’t say, “I can’t love you if you choose to sin.”  Our Lord told Peter not to be afraid, and called him to mission as His Apostle.
    We shouldn’t give sin more power than it has.  We shouldn’t give sin more power than God, which is what we do if we think that God stops loving us or God cannot hear us or will not answer our prayers if we are not in a state of grace.  Anything good only happens by the grace of God, including repentance.  Otherwise, we fall into a kind of semi-Pelagianism, where we earn our own salvation.  Feeling sorry for what we have done can only happen by God’s grace.  The movement towards the confessional can only happen by God’s grace.  And God does not stop being our loving Father when we have been sinful children.  
    Think about it in human terms.  If your child comes to you with an obviously broken arm, but is also covered in mud, do you make your child shower off before you address the broken arm?  Do you yell at the child because he’s making the house a mess when your child just wants you to take care of his fracture?  Do you tell your child you won’t listen to her request until she takes off her dirty clothes and cleans up the mud she has tracked into the house?  “‘If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heaven Father give good things to those who ask him?’”  
    Now, this is not to ignore sin, or say that mortal sin is no big deal.  Some of the saints have said that they would rather have excruciating pain than commit a mortal sin.  But if we fall, do not push the Father away because you feel unworthy.  To be clear, you are not worthy.  But the Father doesn’t care about your worthiness.  He cares about your salvation, and will do whatever He can to affect your healing.  
    And, having been healed, the Lord also wants us to become fishers of men.  Some are called to be fishers of men in the sense of a call to a vocation to the priesthood, where they will join others to Christ through the Sacraments, especially Holy Baptism, Holy Penance, and the Most Holy Eucharist, though certainly the other sacraments as well.  But God calls all of us to seek out those who have strayed from their Catholic faith and to invite in those who are not Catholic so that they can have union with Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church, so that they can be saved.  Is it possible to be saved without baptism, or without full union with the one Church that Christ founded?  God can save people however He wants.  However, our more certain way towards heaven is through the narrow way that Christ shows us through what He teaches us in the Scriptures and in the Church.  How sad it would be if others missed out on salvation, or maybe even just had a longer time in Purgatory because we were unwilling to invite them to become Catholic, or to return to the practice of the faith of their childhood.  
    Does that mean that all whom we invite will accept the invitation?  No.  Sadly, sometimes when we present people with the joy of following Christ, they walk away.  It happened in the Gospel; it will happen in our interactions with others.  But woe to us if we do not at least invite people convincingly and joyfully show them how much we love Christ and how it makes our life more fulfilling.
    Our Lord did not depart from Peter when he acknowledged his sinfulness.  Our Lord does not depart from us when we sin.  May we do all we can to avoid sin, especially mortal sin.  But if we do fall, may we run back to our loving Father and trust in His mercy.  And then, strengthened by His mercy, may we invite others to run to the Father and His merciful love, and find the joy and peace that all people desire, because they are made in the image and likeness of God: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   

New Catholics, New Life

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    Today we have the great joy of celebrating the baptism, confirmation, and first Holy Communion of Mia who has been preparing over these past months, growing in her desire to follow Jesus and make the pattern of His life her own.  We also have the great joy of welcoming Kelcie into full communion with the Catholic Church, and then celebrating her confirmation and first Holy Communion.  The prayer of St. Paul from our second reading we make our own for you both: may you excel in faith, knowledge, and love.
    Christ is doing for you both, each in your own way, what he did with the daughter of Jairus: raising you up to new life.  From today on, you begin a life that is meant to be a witness of the emptying of Christ (we use the church word kenosis) for our sake.  There are so many people at the point of death: not physical death so much, but spiritual death, but God does not want it to be that way, as He said through the sacred author of the Book of Wisdom.  God wants us to be with Him for eternity, and He has give us the Church to help us get there.  Really, the Church is a map to eternal life and happiness, helping us know which way we should go, and which ways lead to danger and move away from our final desired destination.  
    When I use the word Church, you may think of the official teaching office which promulgates and clarifies Church teachings.  And there is truth in that.  But you, as our soon-to-be newest members of the Church, also have that mission: to know which way we should go, and to know which ways lead away from salvation.  You might think that is a bit much for someone who is just joining the Church today, but guiding humanity to God is the mission of each baptized and confirmed person, no matter how long he or she has been Catholic.  We all help others to know what to do and what not to do.  Sometimes we know this because we have studied the faith and learned in our head the path to salvation.  Sometime we know this because we have wondered away from God and felt the negative consequences that come with opposition to God, and so we can let others know that we’ve been there, done that, and how it hasn’t worked out for us.  
    You also inspire us today by your choice to become Catholic.  Many here were born into the faith, so to speak.  As infants, our parents had us baptized, and so we take for granted sometimes the profundity of what it means to be Catholic.  But, as we see you, both adults, make a free and purposeful choice, we can be stronger in our convictions that our life in the Catholic Church makes sense, and is something others have chosen who didn’t grow up surrounded by Catholicism in their family.  So it’s not just others outside whom you will impact.  We feel the impact of your faith even now, inside the four walls of this church building.
    In confirmation, you will receive the Holy Spirit again, so that you can have the courage to proclaim the Gospel by word and by deed.  You will be filled with power from on high to live a life that reflects what you believe, and help people understand how the answer to the deepest questions of their hearts is connected to Christ and faith in Him.  

    But, let us now return to the daughter of Jairus.  We also see in this passage something that many pass over, but is also important: after Jairus’s daughter comes back to life through the prayer of Jesus, He tells them to give her something to eat.  New life has to be strengthened by food.  And so, the culmination of her new life on earth is strengthened by food to sustain her newly-animated body.  So your new life that you are given, either through baptism, Mia, or by your profession of faith, Kelcie, which joins you to us in fulness, will be strengthened by the heavenly food, the Bread of Angels, the Eucharist.  
    For children, the order has been changed, but the ancient order of the sacraments of initiation was baptism, confirmation, then the Eucharist, an order restored for the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults.  The Eucharist was the culmination of becoming Catholic and growing in the faith because it is the closest one can come to Christ.  Your entrance into the Catholic Church again confirms that all of our life as Catholics leads to the Eucharist, and then flows from the strength we receive from the Body and Blood of Christ.  
    So today we rejoice with you; we thank God for you; we thank you for your “yes” to Him.  May you remain in Christ’s Holy Church while on earth, and so enter the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church in triumph in heaven, which is the goal of your baptism, confirmation, and reception of the Eucharist today!
   

Going Through Difficult Times with St. Pius X

Solemnity of St. Pius X
    We certainly live in tumultuous times, both locally, nationally, and internationally.  As a parish, we continue to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we can best serve the mission we have to proclaim the Gospel, whether as a part of this parish, or if this branch should be pruned to allow the rest of the vine to produce more fruit.  Our nation continues to see unrest, political intrigue, and scarcity of some supplies.  Wars and threats of war exist around our globe.  Even our beloved Catholic Church seems to be afflicted with confusion and antagonism.  With so many things changing, we look for a stabilizing factor to keep us on the right path.

    Pope St. Pius X reigned through his own tumultuous times.  His baptismal name was Giuseppe Sarto.  He came from a poor family, but his family valued education, so he walked 3.7 miles to school each day (though likely not uphill both ways).  He was the second born of ten children, one of whom died after six days, one of whom died after six months.  His election as pope came after Jan Cardinal Kosielsko of Poland, in the name of Emperor Franz Josef I, vetoed the election of Mariano Cardinal Rampolla as pope.  While the veto was rejected, Cardinal Rampolla lost enough support to continue voting on who would be pope.  Cardinal Sarto thought death a better fate than being elected pope, but that fate would be his.  He was elected pope on 4 August 1903, and took the name Pius X, both out of admiration for recent popes who also chose the name Pius, and stating, “As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered.”  He had as his motto: Instaurare Omnia in Christo; To Renew All Things in Christ.
    During Pius X’s reign, Communism was gaining strength in Russia.  There was a Mexican Civil War.  And World War I broke out two months before Pius X’s death.  There were theological controversies running rampant, leading to Pope Pius X requiring all priests to take an Oath against Modernity, Modernity being the name Pius X gave to the recent group of heresies that was springing up.  The world and the Church seemed to be in turmoil, much like our own days.
    What kept Pope St. Pius X grounded was the Eucharist.  He had a great devotion to the Eucharist, and encouraged children to receive the Eucharist at the age of reason (around 7), rather than the previous age of twelve.  He wanted people, as long as they were not aware of grave sins, to receive the strength to live the Catholic life from the Body and Blood of Christ, because Pius X knew that without Christ, we can do nothing as disciples, and if we wish to remain strong, we must stay with Christ, even as the waves broke all around the barque or ship of Peter. 
    As we, as a parish, go through this ten month study of the current financial and demographic reality of our parish, to help us discern where our trajectory is as a parish; as our government seems to work more and more for the benefit of those who have power and wealth; as people within our country seem to war against each other, and wars and attacks between nations seem to grow with each passing month; as so many Catholics abandon the faith that raised them, or reject the timeless and infallible teachings of faith and morals that have defined Catholic identity; we, took, might wonder what we are to do to be strong and have a firm base.  That strength and that firm base come from where it always has and always will: Jesus.
    If we wish to be strong, if we wish to weather these storms around us, we, too, need to be close to Jesus in the Eucharist, as Pope St. Pius X recommended over a century ago.  For it is only when we are connected to Jesus that our faith can survive.  Our love for Jesus is shown in a primary way by asking Him for forgiveness when we have strayed from the way of life that we are called to live by Christ, and then, having been forgiven, receiving in a state of grace the flesh that gives life to those who receive it, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.  The Eucharist is the nourishment that feeds our soul, that strengthens the muscles of our faith, that provides the fuel to keep us walking on the pilgrimage home to heaven.

    But receiving the Eucharist is not meant to be the end of staying close to Christ, but the catalyst to then sharing that strength and firm base that we have in Jesus.  Jesus asked Peter today if Peter loved Him.  When Peter said that he did, Jesus gave Peter a mission.  When Giuseppe Sarto was elected pope, Jesus asked Giuseppe to practice that love by shepherding the entire Church of Christ.  Each time we receive Jesus as an act of love, Jesus gives us a mission to share that grace and love with others.  We, as sheep of the Lord’s flock, are to find the lost sheep and invite them back to the fold, so that they may recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd and find the pastures of eternal life. 
    That may seem difficult.  It may seem hopeless and futile.  Amid so many concerns, why still remain faithful to our Church?  Why spread that good news to others?  Because the storms will pass, the tumult will subside, and Christ will be the One who remains.  Will we stay connected to Him, especially through the worthy reception of the Eucharist, and so outlast whatever trials and tribulations come our way?  Pope St. Pius X, help us to stay faithful to Christ so that all things may be renewed by Him; Pope St. Pius X, pray for us!

Jesus' Mission–And Ours

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
    The analogy that St. Paul uses of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, being like a human body is pretty accessible.  We think about the different parts of the body, and how they all work together.  And if a part is not working, it can pretty easily lead to problems.  Even something as simply as a foot falling asleep can be quite problematic.  The brain may want it to work, the lungs may be getting enough oxygen for the foot to work, but if there is no blood flow, the muscles can’t respond like they’re supposed to and walk.   
    But the Church isn’t about walking.  The Church’s mission is the exact same mission that Jesus outlined in today’s Gospel.  We have been anointed “to bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,…and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  Maybe you’re thinking that you didn’t sign up for that, but you did, when you were baptized, or when your parents had you baptized.  By being configured to Christ through baptism, your mission became the same as the Lord’s, as Isaiah prophesied in the Old Testament. 
    Of course, we need to go beyond the literal meaning of the words, and go to the deeper, spiritual meaning.  What does it mean to bring glad tidings to the poor?  How do we proclaim liberty to captives?  Is there any way that we can give sight to the blind?  What is an acceptable year to the Lord, and how do we proclaim it?
    First, let’s look at bringing glad tidings to the poor.  Who are the poor?  We tend to think of them as those who do not have enough money or resources, for a variety of reasons.  But as we go beyond the economic definition of the poor, we can look to those who are spiritually poor.  Those who are spiritually poor are those who don’t have enough of what they need, but instead of focusing on money, they don’t have enough of the Lord.  We are each made for God, and, as St. Augustine says, “our hearts are restless until they rest in [God].”  So when a person doesn’t have that connection to God, they are spiritually

hungry and thirsty, and need that sustenance.  Bringing glad tidings to the poor means connecting people to God.  It may be a co-worker who is bemoaning a difficult decision in life, or a family member for whom nothing seems to go right.  If we are to continue the mission to bring glad tidings to the poor, we need to tell that co-worker about Jesus, and about how He can give us wisdom to make the right decision according to what will make us truly happy.  Or we can ask the family member if we can pray with them and for them about the bad situations they are experiencing.  That is how we bring glad tidings to the poor.
    When it comes to proclaiming liberty to captives, we’re not talking about letting people out of jail, which is generally a bad idea.  The captivity that binds us all is sin, as Jesus says in the Gospels, and St. Paul reaffirms in some of his epistles.  To proclaim liberty is to let people know that there is a way to unload their burden of sin, and find the freedom they want.  It may mean inviting someone to go to confession with us.  Or it may mean being an accountability partner for someone who is stuck in a cycle of addition.  But Jesus charges us with the task of letting people know that they do not have to continue in slavery to sin, but can find the freedom that they desire, the freedom of the children of God.
    In the Gospel according to John, Jesus calls the Pharisees blind because they are unaware of their sin, even while they are condemning the man who was born blind but whom Jesus healed.  The physically blind cannot see the physical world, which creates unique challenges to life.  The spiritually blind cannot see the spiritual world, which creates challenges both in the spiritual and the physical world.  If a person believes that this life is all there is, that there is no God, they will stumble through a world that God created according to His plan.  If a person does not acknowledge what God has revealed to make them happy, then they will be miserable.  So our duty as people on the mission is to help them see how the world truly works, not from an earthly point of view, but from a spiritual point of view.  We do this by encouraging those who can work to do so, to build up the society in which they live, rather than simply taking from a government program.  We encourage the virtue of chastity, especially, but not only, to the youth in our families, because the vice of lust leads people to trip and fall over many pitfalls that God does not want for their lives.  We invite people to come to Mass with us on Sunday, not because it’s easy or we always feel we get something out of it, but because God has made us to praise Him, and when we don’t, we’re lacking the ability to hear how God wants to most easily speak to us.
    Last, but not least, to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.  The acceptable year of the Lord was the jubilee, the celebration every 7 years, and especially in the 50th year, of a rest granted by the Lord.  Our words and our actions should point to heaven, which is the eternal rest to which the jubilee year pointed.  But we get there by the narrow path, not by the wide road.  So proclaiming that acceptable year means reminding people that this life is not all there is, and that heaven is what God wants for us, but we have to accept that gift of eternal life by the daily decisions that we make.  We tell others about Jesus’ Resurrection, and how that ensures for us the possibility of eternal life, where we will eternally worship God in the wedding feast of the Lamb. 
    When we were baptized, we were anointed with the Sacred Chrism which made us little christs, little anointed ones.  At that moment, the mission that Isaiah proclaimed, and that Jesus said was fulfilled in the hearing in the synagogue, became our mission, too.  Today, the Lord invites us to recommit ourselves to the mission: “to bring glad tidings to the poor,…to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,…and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Chosen, Not the Series

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
    When I was in elementary school, one of the biggest highlights of the day was recess.  At our small parochial school, St. Mary in Williamston, whether it was warm or cold, we would play soccer on the asphalt parking lot.  But, before we could play, we had to choose teams, which meant that the captains had to pick whom they wanted for their team.  Of course, the captains would always pick the best players first, and it was a great ego boost if you were picked early, rather than being picked last.
    We hear about a lot of choosing today, in all three readings.  God chooses Amos to prophesy, though Amos wasn’t really looking to be picked.  Jesus picks the Twelve Apostles, and sends them on their mission to assist Jesus in proclaiming the Gospel.  And St. Paul, in our second reading, reminds us that we have been chosen “before the foundation of the world, to be holy.”  Do you consider yourself chosen?
 

The Calling of St. Matthew by Caravaggio

   God did choose you.  He chose you, not only for life, but for holiness, and for witnessing to His life, love, and truth.  You were chosen for holiness and witness when you were baptized.  At that moment, your life was not about you, but about the mission, about showing by the way you live and what you do that you belong to God and that true happiness is not found by giving in to passing pleasures, but by restraining ourselves, dying to ourselves, so that we can live most freely for God. 
    From baptism to your confirmation, you were being prepared for the mission.  You were (hopefully) being taught the basic truths of the faith, and being schooled in virtue so that you could more easily choose the good and reject what is evil.  You may have not decided to be chosen (many were baptized as infants), but you also didn’t decide to be born; that choice was made for you.  And your parents hopefully loved you enough to decide which foods you could eat to help you grow into a healthy human being.  Again, you didn’t decide that for yourself, but your parents wanted to give you the best foundation possible in both your earthly and your spiritual life.
    When you were confirmed, you didn’t decide whether or not you were chosen.  You were already chosen in baptism, and nothing can stop you from being chosen from that point on.  Each person, after baptism, has a seal, a character, that is indelible, which cannot be washed away.  So many children are wrongly taught that confirmation is them choosing to remain Catholic.  Once a  person is baptized, that person is always a baptized Catholic, whether that person chooses to live the faith or reject the faith.  Confirmation, is where you stand before God and His Church and say that you are ready to witness that life of Jesus in your own life, and that you are ready to share with others the faith you have received.  And God sends His Holy Spirit upon you to make that witness possible.  God confirms His original choice of you and continues to give you the means by which you can respond to that choice. 
    Perhaps this is a new message for us.  Perhaps you’ve never heard this before.  But you have been chosen.  Amos was accused of choosing himself, of belonging to a prophetic guild (think of it as a club for prophets).  But, he tells the pagan priest, Amaziah that he did not volunteer, but God chose him to speak God’s word to the Israelites so that they could turn away from their sins and live for God.  Perhaps you feel like you’re not stepping forward to witness to God by your words and deeds.  But God wants you anyway to speak His Word to a world that needs to hear it.
    Perhaps you do feel chosen, but you don’t feel equipped for the mission.  You might be like the Twelve Apostles, whom Jesus chose, but then who needed some time spent with Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit before they were ready to witness to Jesus.  The Apostles weren’t the smartest people.  They came from different political backgrounds, and would compete with each other for the place of honor.  But, through spending time with Jesus, hearing His truth, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were empowered to proclaim Christ by their lives and by their deaths (St. John the Apostle was the only one who was not martyred).  The same can be said for us.  If we want to live according to our Divine election, we need to spend time with Jesus, and ask Him to stir up into flame the gift of the Holy Spirit that we received at Confirmation. 
    No matter whether we feel chosen or not, St. Paul says that we are, chosen to exist for “the praise of [God’s] glory.”  As a married person, as a parent, as an employer or employee or retiree, as a priest, as a deacon, as a sister or brother, as a child, as a student, in every walk of life, we have been chosen, and our eternal salvation depends on the response to that choice.  We may witness in big ways, or we may witness in small ways, but may God encourage us as those He has chosen for His team, which, in the end, is the only team that will win.

We're On a Mission from God

Third Sunday of Advent

     If I say the names Jake and Elwood, those of you who remember the 80s probably know exactly who I’m talking about.  Jake and Elwood are the Blues brothers, from the movie with the same name.  And as they work to get the band back together, they make it clear to everyone, that they’re on a mission from God. 
    Our first reading and Gospel today focus on a mission.  In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we hear the mission statement that Jesus Himself will give as He preaches in the synagogue at Nazareth.  Jesus tells them, as Isaiah told Israel, that God has sent Him “to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God.”  That’s definitely a mission from God, and a pretty good one!
    Our Gospel, too, makes clear that St. John the Baptist was “sent from God.  He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”  We heard about St. John the Baptist, also called the Precursor, last week in our Gospel.  The Precursor is a man on a mission, to prepare the way for Jesus.  He is not the Messiah, as some had started to think, but wants everyone in Israel to be ready for the Messiah. 
    We, too, are called to be people on mission.  We, like Jake and Elwood, are on a mission from God.  I have used this quote before, but St. John Henry Newman wrote: 

God has created me to do Him some definite service.  He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission….He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good; I shall do His work.  I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place.

God has given us each a mission, a call, and it’s something that no one else can do like we can.  Can we respond to that call?
    Many times when we think of a call, we think of priests and consecrated men and women like monks and brothers, nuns and sisters.  But all of us are called, by baptism, to be on mission for God.  Many are called to be on mission as a wife or mother, husband or father.  Others are called to serve as a priest or deacon, or be in a religious community.  Some women are called to be consecrated virgins.  But all are called to advance the Gospel to others.
    How do we recognize our call?  Prayer is key.  A call is something that we choose, but to which God first invites us.  We make a deliberate choice to follow the urging of the Holy Spirit in our life.  Imagine how silly it would sound if I said I chose to be a priest simply because no one else wanted me.  Probably not a great way to start the seminary interview with the bishop.  Instead, a call is something to which we are driven.  A wife (hopefully) doesn’t agree to marry someone simply because no one else will have her.  She finds a man who cares for her, who puts her needs above his own, who wants to work with her to build a family according to God’s plan.  She chooses to love him because she senses that they are meant to become saints together.  And through daily prayer, taking time in silence to hear the voice of God, we learn what God wants for us.
    Sometimes our idea of the call develops or changes.  I didn’t always want to be a priest.  I wanted to be married, have a few kids, a couple of dogs, a really nice house and car, and work either in the military, or as a lawyer, and then maybe a politician (don’t let that last part lessen your opinion of me!).  But through prayer, I came to sense that I could only be truly happy as a priest.  Of course, the Church had something to say about it, too.  It wasn’t simply that I wanted a particular vocation.  But with the formation that the Church provided, and the “yes” that the Church spoke through her leaders, I came to be confirmed in what I felt God wanted me to do.  Sometimes our understanding of our mission changes or develops.
    Another key part of our mission is that we don’t replace the Messiah.  An older priest once told me that his spiritual director had counseled him when he became all-too-convinced of his own importance, “The Church already has a Messiah; we don’t need you!”  Our mission is to cooperate with God, not to take His place.  So many people feel that they can decide what they want to do, rather than God; that they can define what happiness will be–whom they can marry, how many kids they need to have, how they should spend their money–without any consideration of what God wants.  God has made the world a certain way, and has taught us, through the Scriptures and the Church, what truly makes us happy.  When we choose other than that, we are in an exercise of futility; we cannot be happy doing the things that God has said will not give us true happiness. 
    Some of you may feel, due to age or other factors, that you have already accomplished your mission because you know your vocation.  But, as long as you are alive, you still are on mission.  You can continue to spread the Gospel through your children, your grandchildren, and others.  You can offer suffering to Jesus on the cross for an intention.  You can continue to help others know the joy you have from your relationship with Jesus.  Don’t let COVID give you the blues.  You are on a mission from God!

St. John Henry Newman

Do We Truly Love Jesus?

Third Sunday of Advent

           

Think of the last person you fell in love with (if you’re married, I hope it’s your spouse sitting next to you!).  And, if you’re a teen, maybe it’s just the last person you had a crush on.  I bet you could talk about that person for a long time.  I bet that you would try to put into words what exactly it is that you like or love about the person.  You would try to describe your love.  And yet, you probably wouldn’t be able to exactly point to the thing that made you like or love that person.  You could probably talk for hours on end without being able to really explain your love.  And the person listening would probably be bored to tears, and never really get it, though they might pretend to be interested out of politeness.

            For me, that person is the Bride of Christ.  I don’t really want to get started about what I find so beautiful in Her, because if I get going, I might not be able to stop!  And Lord knows the bishop doesn’t need to get letters from all of you about how I preached for 2 hours and only stopped because I needed water.  But she is the perfect one for me.

            Or maybe you’re an enthusiast for the arts.  Maybe there’s just one performance or one play or musical about which you could talk for days!  Or maybe it’s a sports team, or an athlete.  We probably all have something that we love so much, and we treasure so much, that once we get going, we’re like the Energizer Bunny, and we don’t stop, no matter how much the other people around us lose interest.

            Today’s first reading is usually connected with Jesus in the Synagogue.  Jesus reads this passage and says that it is fulfilled in their hearing.  We have all heard it before.  And we’re all quite comfortable with knowing that Jesus is the one who is anointed by God, who was sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and announce a year of favor and a day of vindication by God.  We’re probably all sold on that.  And Jesus could say that because He was (and still is) madly in love with His Bride, the Church, and wants to give Her every good thing.  He wants to clothe her with the robe of salvation, wrap Her in a mantle of justice, and adorn Her with jewels.  The whole account of Jesus, and the whole Bible, is a love story about God and His People.  It is the account of one who is so madly in love that He can never abandon Her, even when She abandons Him.

            But today’s first reading is not just about Jesus.  Hence our Gospel passage about St. John the Baptist from St. John the Evangelist’s account.  The Evangelist talks about how the Baptist testifies to the light.  The Baptist cannot stop speaking about Jesus.  He is not the Bridegroom, but He is the Bride waiting for the Lover of His soul.  And He preaches to make people ready, to help them understand why they should be so madly in love with Him.  But the Baptist’s work is only to prepare the way.  He is only a messenger, while Jesus is the Message; he the voice, while Jesus is the Word.

            Wonderful!  Very information!  Glad we now know that John the Baptist is the one who prepares for Jesus, and Jesus is the one who sets Israel free and blesses her!  But that’s only half the story.  “And now,” to quote Paul Harvey, “the rest of the story.”

            You are anointed by God!  You are sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners, and announce a year of favor and a day of vindication by our God!  The call of Jesus is your call!!  No, that’s not blasphemy, that’s sacramental theology!  When you were baptized, you became a part of Jesus’ Mystical Body.  You were joined to Jesus.  After you were baptized with water, you were anointed with Sacred Chrism, a perfumed oil, and were made to be a christ.  You were not made to be the Christ, but were made to be  a christ, an anointed one (which is what Christ means).  When your parents (if you were an infant) or you (if you were over the age of seven) said yes to being baptized, you were given that same mission as Jesus, because you were made a part of Jesus.  His life became your life.  His mission became your mission.

            “But,” you might say, “I don’t want to talk about Jesus.”  If that is the case, we have to ask ourselves if we truly love Jesus as much as we should.  When we truly love someone we cannot help but speak about that person.  “Isn’t she gorgeous!  She’s so kind!  I just want to be around her.  She brings out the best in me.  I feel happier when she’s around me.”  We can talk for hours, even if we only have a crush on a person. 

“But I don’t know how to talk about Jesus!”  When we’re truly in love, we don’t care if we have the right words; all we care about is telling someone just how great that person is.  “She does this thing with her face when she gets annoyed and she just scrunches up her face in just a way like this, but not like this because I can’t do it right, but it’s just so, I mean it makes me feel so, it’s kinda like, I don’t even know how to describe it!”  When we love someone truly, madly, deeply, we can’t hold it in, just like St. John the Baptist couldn’t hold it in.  Maybe the way we talk about Jesus won’t be in the same way as we talk about our spouse or our crush.  But let’s at least talk about Jesus in these last few days of Advent, so that we, too, can prepare the way for the Lord and make straight a path into others’ hearts to receive the love that we have received from God. 

"We're on a Mission from God"

 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Well, we all know that there’s a big game today.  To be honest, I’m not really a Giants or a Patriots fan.  I’ll cheer on the Giants tonight, mostly because I am a Payton Manning fan, and his younger brother, Eli, is playing for the Giants.  If I had my wish, the Detroit Lions would be playing this evening in the Super Bowl.  But, I suppose that if the Lions had played in the Super Bowl, and had won, then I would be coming back here, because we know that would be a sign that the end of the world was imminent.  

            But whether you’re a Giants fan or a Patriots fan, we all know that for each and every one of those athletes, their mind is on one thing and one thing alone: winning that game.  That is, as it were, their mission, and they’re probably hoping that they’re not on a Mission Impossible.

            What is our mission as Catholics?  As St. Thomas Aquinas parish and St. John Church and Student Center, we have a mission statement: “We are a Roman Catholic parish in a university community, joining students of all ages, joining people from all walks of life and from all corners of the world through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  As a Eucharistic people, we nurture spiritual growth through worship, evangelization, stewardship, education, service, justice, outreach and hospitality.”  This mission statement was crafted by members of our Parish Pastoral Council, which is a visionary board with the task of helping Fr. Mark with their advice of how the parish can fulfill that mission statement.

            But imagine being asked, “What is your mission?” on the street and trying to remember all of that.  It’s a great mission statement, but it would be hard to remember all of the wording.  Jesus, in today’s Gospel passage, give us His mission: “‘Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also.  For this purpose I have come.’”  Jesus’ mission is to preach.  And what is He preaching?  The Gospel, the Good News, of God’s love and Truth, made manifest in Jesus’ very Person. 

            This was also the mission of St. Paul.  We hear his words to the people of Corinth today in his first epistle: “If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!”  Yes, it is a mission for Paul, but he also calls it an obligation.

            St. Paul has this obligation because he was called to be an apostle, one sent out by Jesus to preach Jesus, and Him crucified, as Paul says elsewhere, for the salvation of souls.  But what about us, who are not the bishops, the successors of the apostles?  What is our mission?  Well, if one part of the definition of the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and we are members of that Mystical Body through baptism, then our mission is the same as Jesus’: to preach.  But we do not preach ourselves because we cannot save anyone.  Only Jesus saves.  So we preach Jesus: His Word, His Teaching, His saving Gospel.

            This was affirmed by Vatican II on the Apostolate of the Laity: “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.”  This is what the Church calls the apostolate, when each and every member, each in his or her own way according to the individual state in life, is acting towards that purpose.  “In the Church,” the document continues, “there is a diversity of ministry but a oneness of mission…[The Laity] exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel.”  In other words, while our parish mission statement is certainly helpful, we can really pare it down to the final words of Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew: “‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’”

            So how do we do that?  We know the what, now what’s the how?  To be honest, there are as many ways to spread the Gospel as there are people here.  We can do it through the way we act and talk at work, the way we relax, the media we promote, etc.  Each day God gives us new opportunities to share with people how important our relationship with Jesus is so that they want the joy and the love that we have found in Christ and His Church.  We are obliged, as was St. Paul, to make Christ known through our actions and through our words.  We can’t just choose one.  If all we do is act uprightly, that’s a good start, but we need to speak about Jesus to those who do not know Him at all, or those who do not know Him fully.  If all we do is speak about Jesus but do not let that influence our actions, then we need to show people by our deeds that the words we speak are not hollow, but change the way we live.

            One opportunity to preach the Gospel has been handed to us recently by the Federal Government.  The United States Department of Health and Human Services has declared that health benefit plans must include coverage for sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs, without an exception for those religions that teach that such coverage is contrary to its faith.  The Catholic Church in the United States will never comply with this mandate.  This nation is built upon the three-legged stool of the First Amendment.  Our precious freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly underlie everything this nation is, and everything this nation has ever accomplished.  Religious liberty gives the freedom to preach the Truth.  And the truth is that pregnancy is not a disease.  Nor is the natural fertility of a woman a disease.  Through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Diocese of Lansing is exploring a number of options, including litigation and Congressional reform.  As these efforts move forward, we Catholics should make clear to our elected officials the crucial importance of religious liberty, and we should pray daily for those who have the responsibility of making these decisions.

            By the laity taking an active role in politics, advising their representatives, regardless of political party, that we will not allow the Federal Government to infringe upon the conscience rights of citizens, we preach the Gospel.  By insisting that Christian people not be compelled to participate in immoral activity, we participate in the mission of Christ to stand up for the Truth. This is not a partisan issue.  This is our obligation, our mission, as members of the Body of Christ, to preach the Gospel, always and everywhere, even when it is difficult.