No Quid Pro Quo

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time   

    Our society operates most frequently on a transactional mentality.  If I give you this, then you give me that.  It used to require physical money, or at least a card which represented money, but not you simply click a button, input some information, and the transaction can take place.  I click on the song I want in iTunes, it asks for some information which I have to input, and then the song is mine. 
    Maybe, in hearing the first reading and the Gospel today, we suppose that God’s blessings and eternal life operate in the same way.  Elisha goes to the Shunamite woman, who gives Elisha something, so he wants to give her something back.  In this case, Elisha intercedes and the woman is able to conceive a son, even though she has an old husband.  At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus says that if we host a prophet, we’ll get a prophet’s reward, or if we welcome a righteous man, we’ll receive a reward for that, or if we simply give a cup of cold water to a little disciple, we will not lose our reward.  Sounds very much like a quid pro quo. 
    But, while God does reward generosity, and, in fact, cannot be outdone in generosity, getting to heaven is not about a transaction.  It’s not so much about giving up anything, as it is about becoming something.  St. Paul in the second reading talks about being baptized into the death of Jesus, buried with Jesus through baptism, so that we can rise with Christ.  What St. Paul is talking about here is becoming one with Jesus, in His Death, so that we can also be one with Jesus in His Resurrection.  And the whole of the Catholic life is about becoming one with Christ, so that, as St. Paul says elsewhere, it is not longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 
    Heaven is our destiny if and only if we have been transformed into the Person of Christ.  In the Christian East we use this term, divinization.  St. Athanasius said, “God became man so that man might become God.”  Baptism, into the Death of Jesus, is meant to being that transforming process by which, each day, we die to our fallen humanity and rise with our risen humanity, which is seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ.  Heaven is a reward, but perhaps it’s better to speak of it as the logical destination for one who is configured to Christ, since Jesus Christ is already there.  It’s not, “If I give Jesus the right stuff, then He’ll let me in to heaven.”  In that mentality, we’re viewing salvation as secular economic theory: I need to give the least I can to get the most I can; it’s getting the biggest bang for our buck.  But that mentality is antithetical to the Christian life.  Christ demands all of us, because that is what He has given fully the Father.  That’s why Jesus also says today, “‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’”  It’s not that Jesus says we can’t love our parents or children, it’s that Jesus deserves all of who we are.  He wants to transform us entirely, not simply the parts that we feel we can part with.
    How do we know if we’re living in a wrongheaded, transactional mentality?  All we have to do is ask ourselves: ‘Is there a part of my life that I don’t want to give over to Jesus?’  And of course, Jesus’ Mystical Body is the Church, so what the Church teaches as belonging to faith or morals is precisely important for recognizing what we’re truly willing to give to Jesus.  How often to we hear some form of, “The Church can’t tell me how I’m supposed to live out my sexuality;” or, “I want my wedding on the beach, not in a church;” or “Why does the Church think that she can tell me what to consider when I’m voting?” or, “I’ll only support the Church financially if I approve of what this priest/bishop/pope is doing”?  If our mission, as Catholics, is truly to conform our lives to Christ, then no part of our life, those I’ve mentioned or others, is off limits to being transformed by Jesus.
    But take comfort that we may want to give ourselves entirely to Jesus, but we’re not quite experts in it, yet.  One can easily say, “Jesus, I give you my entire life; do with it as you please,” and shortly thereafter, as Jesus tells us what He desires of us, we fall into the temptation of holding back from the Lord.  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, grasped at the fruit because they were afraid that they had to take in order to receive good things, and that tendency remains strong in us.
    Still, the important part of our pilgrimage with the Lord is that we are doing our best to allowing the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance, Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Holy Matrimony or Holy Orders to truly transform us to be more like Jesus.  It’s not about giving Jesus the least amount of ourselves that we can, just barely enough so that we can squeak into heaven by the skin of our teeth.  Today, and everyday, Jesus invites us to give all of who we are to Him, so that we might, in return, receive everything from Him.

Love which Helps Us Love

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)

    This past Thursday I celebrated the tenth anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.  Sometimes the days are long, other times the days pass quickly, but it’s hard to believe that I’ve been a priest for a decade. I look back and can remember some great moments at each of the three parishes at which I served, and I can remember some moments that I’d probably rather forget at each parish.  But that’s life, isn’t it?  It’s no different for married couples, who promise fidelity in good times and in bad.
    What is it that keeps priests and married couples going through the ups and downs?  It’s love.  Last week I mentioned that love is one of the most fundamental things for humanity, and that Bishop Barron defines love as willing the good of the other.  To love is to act in a way that places the other above oneself, and to do what it takes to help the other, no matter the cost.  As a priest, love means getting up at 2 a.m. to go to a nursing home and baptize and confirm a dying man who had earlier requested to a nurse to become Catholic; love means standing with a family and helping them grieve in the hope of the resurrection as they bury their newborn baby, or dad or mom; love means bringing a couple together in marriage, some of whom have been preparing for marriage for over a year, some of whom have just found out that the intended is about to be deployed overseas and they need to be married soon so that the US military will pay for the move to military housing; love means feeling the crushing sting of defeat in a State Championship game one year, and crying tears of pain with the seniors who will never play organized soccer again, as well as the sweet taste of victory in the State Championship game the following year, and crying tears of joy with the team who achieved the goal they set for themselves before the season even began; love means baptizing, forgiving, and confirming all in the name of Christ; and yes, sometimes love even means correcting a sheep who is starting to wander away, and the pain of that correction not having its intended effect to call back, but pushing the sheep farther away.
    As a priest, as of last Thursday, I have celebrated or concelebrated 4,073 Masses, baptized 116 people, confirmed 60 people, blessed the marital unions of 67 couples, and been the principal celebrant of 174 funerals, including 4 grandparents and other family members.  There are a lot of things that have gotten me through all of these times in three parishes: a loving family; friends, especially one or two that I can vent to; my brother priests; from time-to-time a drink or two; but most of all, the Eucharist: the Body and Blood of Christ.
    And the reason why the Eucharist is what really gets me through is because the Eucharist is love.  Follow the connections: God is love, Jesus is God, the Eucharist is Jesus, so the Eucharist is love.  And it’s not only true intellectually.  We know that the Eucharist is the fruit of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, the fruit of His love for us.  And His love for us is precisely proven in that He was willing to die for us.  Jesus Himself said that no one has greater love than to lay down his life for a friend.  The weight that Jesus had in saying that was that, in about a day from when he said it, He would lay down His life for His bride, the Church.  But since most of the apostles would not be there, and because He wanted the Church through all time to be able to be joined to that sacrifice of love, He instituted the Eucharist and the priesthood on Holy Thursday, so that we would not only think of His love, or remember His love, but we would be able to partake of His love. 
    But the Eucharist isn’t simply for priests to give them strength and spiritual nutrition in their vocation.  No matter what your vocation, the Eucharist is meant to strengthen and nourish you.  It is meant to increase your joys and lessen your sorrows.  By receiving love Himself, the Body and Blood of Christ, you are meant to be empowered to love more, to will the good of others, whether it’s the members of your family, your co-workers, or even the stranger you meet on the street.  The Eucharist is the love which allows you to show love by caring for a sick family member all through the night; to go to sporting events for your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces; to support friends and family as they begin married life, or even as they struggle through married life; to walk through the valley of the shadow of death for those you know; to work to the best of your ability with integrity in your job; to treat everyone as created in the image and likeness of God. 
    I thank God for my ten years as a priest.  I thank God for sending me to East Lansing, to Adrian, and now here in Flint.  But most of all, I thank God for the Eucharist, the fruit of Jesus’ love, which allows me, unworthy though I am, to love to the best of my ability, and act in Jesus’ power and name. 

Living Icons of the Trinity

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

    You might think that it’s strange that the most fundamental part of our faith, the belief that God is a Trinity–one God, three Divine Persons–can’t really be explained.  Our modern mind tends to think that if something is fundamental, then it should be the easiest to explain.  The more advanced, less necessary things are usually harder to explain.  That's certainly true for math.  Addition, like 1+1=2, is much more fundamental and much easier to understand than calculus.  And yet, think about something that is most fundamental in life also can’t really be explained: love.  We can talk about what love is like; we can recognize love when we see it; but it’s often hard to explain precisely what love is.  Even Bishop Barron’s excellent definition, that love is willing the good of the other, itself calls for further understanding.  What does it mean to will the good of the other?  What is the good that we should be willing for the other? 
    And yet, while God in Himself is beyond our finite minds, He does not leave us without images and some understanding of who He is.  In fact, just as the Trinity is the fundamental teaching of our Catholic faith, so one image of the Trinity is the fundamental building block of society: marriage and family life.
    People often chide the Church for being backwards about marriage and the family.  Or they may say that the Church has too many rules for couples and families or couples who want to increase the size of their family.  But if marriage and the family is meant to be an icon of the Trinity, an icon of the most important, most fundamental teaching of our faith, doesn’t it make sense that the Church would go to extreme lengths to help her children be the best icons and examples of the Trinity that they can be?
    How is marriage and the family an icon of the Trinity?  Well, to begin with, the Trinity is a communion of Persons.  God revealed His oneness through the Old Testament, and that oneness was guarded carefully by the Chosen People, especially living in the midst of pagan cultures that often had many gods or goddesses.  But even in the beginning, God gave hints about the fact that His oneness was not a solitary existence, but an existence of communion, an existence of union with others.  In the first chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we hear, “‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’ […] God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them (emphasis added).”  If we go ahead to the next chapter, we see that Adam is not meant to be alone, and that animals, pets, are no substitute for human love.  God gives Adam an equal partner, Eve, to be his wife, and to live as a communion of persons. 
    We read in St. John’s first epistle in the New Testament that God is love.  Love, of its very nature, is not inward facing, but outward facing.  To love is an action that requires another.  And so, if God is love, then God, who is one, still mysteriously has an outpouring of that love.  And, of course, that love is eternally poured out to His Son, Jesus.  From all eternity, God the Father pours out everything that He is, except His identity, which cannot be given away, to God the Son.  And God the Son receives all of that love, and also, eternally, pours out all He is, except His own identity, back to the Father.  Isn’t that what love is supposed to be like between a husband and a wife?  Aren’t they supposed to give all of who they are, except their identities, to the other, and receive that full gift of love from the other?  Don’t we see problems with married couples precisely when someone holds something back: a secret one keeps; a lie someone tells; a grudge someone holds onto?  I often tell people: love isn’t 50/50.  Love is 100/100.  Divorce is 50/50.  The image is not the reality; the Trinity is not a sexual communion.  But the image still holds that a man and a woman in marriage are called to give entirely of themselves to the other, as a living icon of the Trinity.
    But, even love does not stop between the two.  The eternal love of the Father and the Son is so strong that it eternally breathes forth a Divine Person, the Holy Spirit.  The communion between the Father and Son is not closed in on itself, but, as a true relation of love, is open to the other.  Again, this is where words fail us, because the Holy Spirit is not “other,” but the same one God.  Still, we talk about the Holy Spirit as an eternal reality of the love between the Father and the Son. 
    So with marriage: to truly be an icon of the Trinity, the couple must be open to that love creating a new person.  That doesn’t mean that Catholics have to have as many kids as possible.  But it does mean that, if couples are truly loving, they responsibly cooperate with the procreation of new life in accord with how God has made the male and female body and do not turn to artificial means either to achieve or to restrict procreation.  Openness to life is part and parcel of Catholic marriage because we do not believe in a “binity,” only Father and Son, but a Trinity, a communion of Three Divine Persons.  As with marriage as an icon, the family of the icon is not a one-to-one correlation.  You can’t stop being open to life after you’ve had one kid because there’s only Three Divine Persons.  And even senior couples who marry, or couples who find that they cannot conceive, can still be open to life (even though their bodies cannot express that openness), by not keeping their love to themselves, but allowing it to overflow either by adopting or fostering children, or by acts of charity in the parish or community. 
    When one considers that marriage and family are icons of the Trinity, living reminders of who God is in Himself, it is not a surprise that the Church works so hard to encourage couples and families to live that vocation out in particular ways, to better communicate what they are imaging.  We do not understand the Trinity in itself, and we never will.  But thanks be to God for families who remind us of who God is, a communion of love!

Celebrating Pentecost 2020 Like the First One

Solemnity of Pentecost

    Welcome back to Mass (albeit, in smaller numbers than usual and celebrated a little differently than usual)!  It’s providential that at our first weekend back we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost.  Remember that the disciples were in the Upper Room, and had been waiting there since the Ascension, when Jesus told them to wait for the promised gift of the Spirit.  That would have been nine days earlier.  They probably weren’t keeping social distancing, but maybe they didn’t have anyone to cut their hair, either.  But they used that extended period of waiting to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, even as they were sad at not being able to be close to the physical presence of Jesus.  I know many of you, and I hope all of you, have used this time away from the Mass to grow closer to Jesus through personal prayer, or watching the Mass on TV or online.  You’ve been waiting to return to that closeness with the glorified Body of Jesus in the Eucharist.  Have you been praying the Rosary more, or reading Scripture more?  What ways have you exercised new spiritual muscles during this 2+ month period of fasting from attending Mass?
    What also makes this providential is that at Pentecost, having prayed for the Spirit, and then having received it, the disciples went out and proclaimed the Good News that Jesus was risen from the dead, and that He has given new life to all those who follow Him: a new way of life on this earth, and eternal life in heaven.  They spoke, as we hear in the Acts of the Apostles, in different languages so that everyone could understand them.  And I hope that the same thing will happen to you as you leave this “Upper Room.”  Has you have received the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation, and as you will soon be nourished with the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, you will have everything you need to be like the disciples and tell others about Jesus. 
    This is the point where Catholics get a little nervous, I know.  Some may feel like they’re ill-equipped to evangelize, to spread the Gospel.  And certainly, as St. Paul says in his first Letter to the Corinthians, there are different gifts.  We are not all given the same gifts for building up the Church.  But at the same time, as St. Paul says in the Letter to the Romans, the Holy Spirit “comes to the aid of our weakness.”  We did not receive a Spirit of fear, but of power from the Lord, to accomplish the work He wants us to. 
    But you might still feel like you don’t know what to do.  Is the Holy Spirit going to make you talk in different languages?  Perhaps He will, like He did for the disciples at the first Pentecost.  But, perhaps for you speaking in different languages is speaking in a way that another person understands, even if you’re both speaking in English.  At the core of spreading the Gospel is telling people why Jesus makes a difference in your life.  Of course, this presumes that He does.  Maybe a honest reflection means that we’re in need of more convincing of this in our own life.  But, we probably all have stories about how Jesus helped us in life, or got us through a rough patch, or changed the way we interacted with people, used our money, or engaged in our work.  If you don’t have a short story of how Jesus has impacted your life, then today go home and think about it. 
    The story may be a powerful one, like this one: When my sister, Amanda, was hit in a bad car accident, she later told me that while she was waiting for the ambulance to arrive, as the van was pinned on her right arm, but still conscious, she was praying Hail Marys to try and keep her calm.  That’s definitely a witness to the different Jesus and Mary can make in life.  Amanda still had scarring, and had a number of surgeries and a long rehab, but her faith helped her to pull through.
    The story may be an everyday account.  The other day, when returning from a death notification with the State Police, I decided to try out Smoothie King.  It was only Tuesday, and the week had already been difficult, for reasons that don’t really matter here.  In any case, I ordered a small, but then when I got to the window, I was offered a medium that, with my coupon, was about the same price as the small.  I said ok, and they asked me to pull ahead while they made my order.  A few minutes later they came out with two smoothies.  They told me that they had made both the small and the medium, and figured they would give me both.  That was a sign, albeit small, of Jesus’ love, something I really needed at that point in my day. 
    Evangelization is partly telling the story of Jesus, and I bet you know the highlights better than you think, and partly telling the story of Jesus in our life, which only you can tell.  Sometimes the Spirit drives us to be a priest, to serve the people of God, in different towns across a diocese, or maybe even as a missionary in a far-off land.  Sometimes the Spirit gives us the gift to be a spouse and a parent, and to tell our story to other family members, or co-workers, or maybe even people we don’t know in our communities.  But we’ve had 10 Sundays to pray and prepare for being here today.  Let’s not waste the Body and Blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit that we received in Baptism and Confirmation, that same Spirit that was given at Pentecost, but rather use these great vehicles of grace to tell the world about Jesus: that He is alive, that is the key to our happiness, and the difference He has made in our life.