It's About the Yes

Fifth Sunday of Easter

It’s a sad reality that talk is often cheap.  This is not universal, but is especially true in our Western culture.  We need a contract for everything.  When planning for my pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I wanted to go with a local group from Palestine.  However, they’re not big on contracts, and as an American that makes me leery.  Because I have been to the Holy Land before, I know that, in the Middle Eastern culture, a person’s word is everything, and if they do not live up to what was agreed, that person can lose everything, including his honor.  But I also know that, as Americans, we like to have things in writing.  So instead of going with a more local group, I went with an American tour company that has pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

St. John reminds us that we are called to love, not only “in word or speech but in deed and truth.”  It’s very easy to say that we follow Jesus, but do our actions back up what our mouths say?  In fact, St. John goes on to say that loving Jesus means keeping His commandments.  If we do this, then the Holy Spirit remains in us.  On the contrary, if we don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, then we lack a reality of the life of Christ.

John could say this because He heard Jesus say what was in our Gospel today, which is also from St. John.  Jesus told us that we need to stay connected to Him, as branches with the vine.  It’s not enough to say that we’re branches, we have to truly remain connected to Jesus.  If we are not connected, we’ll waste away and be good for nothing else then burning.  If, however, we stay connected to Jesus, then we’ll bear fruit that proves that we not only profess faith in Jesus, but also live in the way He shows us.

Words do mean, something, however.  They are cheap if they are not followed up by actions, but they can also be profound if they are connected to action.  For example, a relatively recent Pope wrote about the dangers facing society.  He warned against increased dangers of marital infidelity, and a lowering of moral standards.  He warned about how easy it is for young people to be tempted, and how they need to be taught how to live the moral law.  He also warned of a lack of respect for women, and how men could so easily make them objects of the satisfaction of their desires, rather than an equal partner “whom he should surround with care and affection.”  This pope wrote about these dangers 50 years ago, in 1968.  And in many ways, his prophecy, his words spoken from God, have come true.  It is more and more common for spouses to cheat on each other; I don’t think anyone would argue that morality has decreased over the past 50 years; young people more and more don’t know how to live the moral law, and are exposed to grave evils at younger and younger ages; and women are seen more and more not as people, equal in dignity and respect, but as tools to satisfy lust.  

These words were penned by Pope Bl. Paul VI.  And he wrote this in his very famous, and often derided, Encyclical, Humanae vitae.  This summer we celebrate 50 years since the promulgation of this prophetic document about human life.  I know it is a very contentious document, but Bishop Boyea has asked us to preach about it this weekend.  I think that one reason it is so often seen as negative is because it seems to simply say no to artificial contraception.  In fact, it actually talks about the great value of human life, something that needs to be reinforced, especially in light of the Alfie Evans’ recent.  Many people think that all the Church says is “no.”  But in fact, while the Church does say no, that no means an ability to say yes to other goods.

The Church teaches that all artificial contraception is gravely wrong, not because it can spread out childbirth, which can be a moral decision, but because the marital act between a woman and a man is meant to be a full gift of self, and artificial contraception of any kind means holding back one aspect of the gift of self, the ability to conceive, and makes that moment a lie, because one is not truly giving his or her entire self.  

But again, we can see it as no.  But in fact, sometimes, in order to say yes to a good, we have to say no to other lesser goods.  Think about when a man marries a woman.  That man, in marriage, is saying no to every other woman that has ever or will ever come along.  He is forsaking that special relationship of marriage with any other woman (and vis versa for a woman towards other men).  But I have never met a man who is so focused on the no to other women.  He is focused on the yes to that one woman.  He can’t say yes to that one woman without saying no to all others.  But it doesn’t meant it’s about the no.  It’s about the yes.

And look at what has happened with the ubiquitousness of contraception: we have a lower sense of morality, marriages break apart more and more, and we have recently seen the epidemic of men treating women in a way that is beneath the dignity and respect that they deserve.  Pope Bl. Paul VI’s words have been followed up by actions, a reality that is sad and has caused no small amount of pain in the lives of perhaps most families in America.

Today the Lord challenges us to not simply say that we will follow Him, but to actually do it, including in the ways that we regulate the size of our families.  May we not be focused on all the things we give up by following Jesus in word and deed, but in all the greater yeses that are made possible by following Jesus “in deed and truth.”

Staying on the Vine

Fifth Sunday of Easter

While I know that we have two families who grows grapes in our parish, I’m not sure that we have many more.  So when Jesus says that He is the vine and we are the branches, it might not strike us as much as it struck the apostles who were listening to Him in the upper room.  They were, undoubtedly, familiar with how we go from grapes in the field to the wine at their table.  We, like with much of our food, are more often than not removed from the process, and just go to Meijer, Country Market, or Wal-Mart to get the finished product, whatever it is.

But even though we’re not as familiar with grapes and grape vines, we are probably familiar with Maple trees.  Now that it’s Spring it’s beautiful to see the Maple trees starting to have leaves once again.  And in the Fall I was in awe at the beauty of the yellows, oranges, and reds of the leaves.  Of course, I didn’t have to rake them up after they fell.  But we know what happens if you cut a branch off a Maple tree: the branch dies (just like the branch from the grape vine).  Sometimes you can see even when a branch has died but remains on the tree: there are no more leaves, no more beauty, and you have to be careful for when the rotting wood finally collapses under its own weight and falls to the ground.

We need Jesus to live.  That’s true not only in the absolute sense (without Jesus willing us to exist at every moment, we would simply cease to be and would disappear), but also in the sense that Jesus makes our daily life better.  Being in a relationship with Jesus is meant to change who we are and give us more life, more vitality, more beauty.  When we are cut off from Jesus, we start to die spiritually, and if the rot continues for too long, we are good for nothing else than the fire (and we know what place is associated with eternal fire!).

We probably have heard this Gospel and this message hundreds, if not thousands of times, but many Catholics don’t live as if this was true.  This weekend we’re celebrating first communions for our second grade children.  I am so proud of them and their catechists and rejoice with them at this special privilege of receiving Jesus into themselves in the Eucharist.  Our parish policy is that they have to be involved in Faith First before second grade, that it’s not just showing up for a year to get the sacrament.  The same goes for those who wish to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  And yet, how often do families feel that, once they have passed this milestone, they can check out of church until the next sacrament comes around?!?  I’m sure that’s not true of our families here, but it’s true in so many parishes all around the world.  Pope Francis even decried this sad situation when he said that, for all effects and purposes, the Sacrament of Confirmation is called more accurately the Sacrament of Farewell based upon the lived reality.  Pope Francis must’ve heard the joke that if you have a bat problem in your church, just confirm them and you’ll never see them again.  

The sacraments, like the Eucharist and Confirmation, are meant to be the beginning of a stronger, deeper friendship with God, not the end of the road.  It’s like reaching a new section of Candy Crush: it’s not the end of the game, it’s the beginning of a new set of levels.  

But this problem is true not only of those who have received sacraments, but also of Catholics of all ages.  Today Adrian College and Siena Heights are celebrating their graduation ceremonies.  We so often take as the norm that college students will not go to church and will not live their faith.  Why do we accept that as the norm?  Why does this not cause us great sadness?  Or, as the warm weather comes, and we come closer to the end of school, families start to travel on the weekends and take vacations.  Vacations are great.  Pure Michigan has so much to offer.  But, as it turns out, there are Catholic churches all throughout Michigan.  Yes, it may take a little effort to figure out when Mass times are, and work our schedules around that, but too often our vacation from work and school becomes a vacation from God.  We, in effect, feel it’s no big deal to cut ourselves off from the vine or the trunk, as if we can have divine life without Jesus.  

Of course, people have free will.  That is a gift from God, and we can’t force people to go to church.  But do we make that choice for ourselves to keep up our relationship with God, to stay connected to our source of life?  Or do we figure it’s no big deal?  So many people I speak with who have fallen away from the church say that for a while they just skipped once a month; then twice a month; then they just started going a few times per year; then they didn’t really go at all.  Cutting ourselves off from God is a slippery slope which can snowball more quickly than we imagine, in the same way that a branch starts to lose life the moment it begins to be separated from the vine or the trunk.

Of course, it’s not only about going to Mass; it’s also about daily prayer.  Do we talk and listen to God daily?  Do we work to keep ourselves connected to God?  St. John tells us in our second reading to love “not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”  Do we only say, “Yes, of course I love God!” without our actions proving that?  By the way we live our life can others tell that we are in a relationship with God?  Put another way, if God gave us the same amount of time that we give Him, how would our life look?  The Good News is that God has already done everything to try and keep us connected to the vine, to give us new life, and to have the fulness of life.  All we have to do is respond to that love.  Will we work at staying connected to Jesus, the grapevine?

Facebook Friends with Jesus

Fifth Sunday of Easter

            Stay connected: that’s what social media says it can do for you.  It tells you that if you use the site, then you can keep track of all your friends’ (and general acquaintances’) birthdays, see what they are up to, rejoice in their triumphs, weep with them in sorrow, and stay connected. 

            And yet, the social fabric of our society is very disconnected.  You can have 700 friends on Facebook, and not really have anyone with which to share truly personal details.  You can follow hundreds of people on Twitter, read all of their accomplishments, sing along with their mopey song lyrics after a break up, and retweet their hilarious messages, and not truly have a real relationship with that person.  Now don’t get me wrong: I have no problem per se with Facebook, Twitter, or social media.  But, what I have noticed is that as much as social media says that it connects people, there are way too many people who feel adrift, without a true friend in the world.

            So when Jesus tells us today in the Gospel, “‘I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,’” our idea of staying connected to Jesus might be a little skewed.  After all, we’ve liked that picture on Facebook that says, “If you share this picture with your friends, Jesus will acknowledge you in heaven,” and we’ve retweeted the tweet that says, “Retweet if you love Jesus; keep scrolling if you love Satan.”  So we’re connected to Jesus, right? 

            Jesus reminds us that, “‘Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless your remain in me.’”  Our life, especially our spiritual life, depends on our attachment to Jesus.  If we are connected, then we bear fruit.  If we are separated, then we die, just as a branch connected to the vine bears grapes, while the braches that have been separated from the vine die and are good for nothing other than fuel for the fire. 

            More and more as a society, we don’t know how to be connected with each other.  We try to fake it and take the easy way out.  We’re so busy, either with our own schedules, or those of our family, that we are losing the ability to stay in touch with each other, even when it’s our own families.  How long has it been since you had a nice, Sunday dinner, where you sat around the table and just spent time with one another: hearing about what’s going on, sharing jokes and funny stories, supporting each other in hard times?  Some families still do, and they tend to be happier families.  Too often, though, there’s a game on Sunday, or work to be done, and if the family eats at home, it’s whenever each person wants, not together, and is usually enjoyed while watching TV, so there’s no real conversation.  We run around, and get fast food, and are experts at doing lots of things.  But we have become novices at simply being together, which accounts for the deep feelings of loneliness and separation that exist, especially among our youth.

            And because we don’t know how to be connected in our human relationships, we also are lost in how to be connected in our spiritual relationships.  More and more people come to me and say, “Father, I feel like God has abandoned me.  I can’t feel anything from God.”  For some, this is due to the fact that they do not know how to be connected to God, other than the shallow connections that are as ubiquitous as the dandelions in a field of grass this time of year.  So let me suggest a few ways to be connected to Jesus.

1.     Carve out daily time for God.  We’re all busy, I know.  I often feel like I’m running from one thing to another.  But, I have found that the more I am able to set aside blocks of time: 30 minutes here, 5 minutes there, 15 minutes there, the more I can respond to the spiritual needs of the parish, because I am more connected to the vine, the life, the wisdom, the patience that comes from God.  Just like an iPhone, which cannot work very long without connecting the tether to an outlet, so our souls cannot be refreshed unless they are connected to God in daily talking and listening with Him.

2.     Follow the commandments.  In our second reading, St. John tells us that the way we know we belong to the truth—Jesus—is that we keep His commandments.  Do we follow the 10 Commandments, and the precepts of the Church?  Do we strive to live an honest life, putting God first, others second, and ourselves last?  And when we fail, as we all will, then return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to be re-grafted onto the vine of life.

3.     Enjoy Mass.  Now, you might think this is outside of your control.  Maybe you don’t like the homily; maybe you don’t like the music; maybe the pew’s not as relaxing as you would like; maybe you can’t stand that young priest.  But, while we can’t control the homily, the music, the pews, or the priest, we can come to Mass thanking God that we can set aside time to rest and relax in Him.  We can come to Mass at least 5 minutes early for silent prayer, and not leave Mass immediately after communion, rushing off to the next event, but make time to be with the Lord.  Vatican II taught that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.  It is where we get our energy to be Christians and it orients us, if we are open, to the eternal liturgy of heaven where the angels and saints (and hopefully someday we will be saints) worship God.

4.     Read your monthly copy of FAITH Magazine, or check out or download a spiritual book, like The Lord by Romano Guardini, or Story of a Soul, by St. Thérèse of Lisiuex, or Peace of Soul by Archbishop Fulton Sheen, or To Whom Shall We Go? by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, or another Catholic book.  The soul is not separate from the body, and so feeding our mind with spiritual reading also feeds our souls. 

We live in a disconnected world.  We are so busy doing things with other people or for other people, that we have forgotten how to simply be with other people, including Jesus.  And no matter how many friends we have on Facebook; no matter how many followers we have on Twitter, we are not going to feel whole, to feel connected, unless we are united to Jesus the Vine.  Take time to spend with each other.  Make time for Jesus.  It will be the best investment you will ever make.