Treasures and Grocery Stores

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    I saw something on the internet that read, “You can’t truly refer to yourself as an adult until you catch yourself getting really angry when the grocery store changes their layout.”  I chuckled when I read this, because, if true, it means I’m adult.  I can’t stand when the thing I went to buy at Meijer’s has changed aisles! 
    We treasure funny things, don’t we?  I think we’d all admit that grocery store layouts are not the highest on our list of things we value, but it’s certainly on the list.  We have other things we treasure, like family and friends, which have no monetary value.  And then we actually do treasure…treasure, something of value.  A man recently buried $1 million in treasure across the State of Michigan after his jewelry store went out of business due to COVID-19.  The treasure is buried from Detroit to the UP, and for $49, you get clues to help you find it. 
    To what extent do we treasure or value our faith?  Obviously, if you’re here, you do treasure it to a certain extent.  And I would echo that sentiment for those watching on Facebook live.  There are concerns, very valid concerns, being expressed that people won’t come back to Mass in the same numbers as before the pandemic.  Now, to be clear, many of our parishioners have very valid reasons for not attending Mass.  It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that a super-majority, around 66%, or our parishioners are in the very vulnerable age group where COVID-19 is more likely to be fatal.  And I would encourage those people to stay home.  But people with lowers risks are starting to go to restaurants, and beaches, in larger and larger numbers, and yet not going to church.  And that reveals precisely what they treasure more.
    When we started to open up to Mass, there were a few people who were even crying they were so happy to be back to Mass.  And even those who weren’t crying expressed their joy to be able to worship God in church, which is infinitely better than watching it stream online. 
    But not that long ago, we pared down our Mass schedule, due to a diminishing crowd, and I had parishioners, some very faithful, who left because I dropped their Christmas Mass, or because the weekend Masses that parishioners chose was not convenient for them (this doesn't include those who have commitments at the time of our new Mass schedule).  I know change is hard, and I can promise you that I have been required to make more changes here than I ever would have wanted to.  But, especially across the US, there is this growing phenomenon of Catholics treasuring their convenience more than their own parish, or even their faith.  People have used, are using, and will use, the excuse that their pastor isn’t doing what they want as the “reason” that they will no longer be Catholic.  And that concerns me, both as your pastor, and as a priest who preaches the Gospel.
    Because both our parish and our diocese are in for some changes over the next few years.  By June 2024, 4 years from this past June, we hope to ordain 10 seminarians as priests.  By that same time, we could have 24 priests currently working in the Diocese who could take senior priest status (“retire”) at or beyond the age of 65, with 4 of those coming from Genesee County. Three of those four in Genesee County are over the age of 65 right now.  We will not be able to have the current configuration of priests that we have now for much longer in the future.  Most priests in the near future will be serving at least 2 sites, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that some churches will close.  Priests will still do all we can to provide the sacraments and pastoral care to the faithful, but it may not be at the time people prefer, or at a time that is as convenient as it has been in the past.  To be clear and transparent, I am not aware of any plans for any parish, including St. Pius X, across the Diocese of Lansing; so don’t go saying that we’re closing.  But even I can work out that the math of priests retiring versus priests being ordained is not going to allow the status quo to continue.
    I don’t say this to depress us, but to remind all of us that, as we go through these changes, we have to hold on to the treasure of our faith.  If our preferred Mass time is our great treasure, or our convenience is our great treasure, then we will fall away when difficult times come.  COVID-19 has made us re-evaluate what our great treasure is in our lives.  I saw this when I went to Woodhaven on 15 July, to see residents gather outside, socially distant, to receive the Eucharist for the first time since March.  It was beautiful to see the treasure that they had in the faith and the Eucharist, and how much it meant to them. 
    We are also looking at times across our country which remind me of what I learned about in school of the time of the French Revolution, where many faithful Catholic priests, consecrated men and women, and laity were executed at the guillotine because they would not swear allegiance to the new secular religion of France.  As our statues of saints are toppled, our churches are set ablaze, and our religion is mocked and ostracized, we will have to decide what we treasure more: our faith or our quiet life, or even simply our life period. 
    My hope is that we remain faithful, no matter what the cost, to the treasure that we found in Christ and in the one Church He founded.  We pray for the grace of perseverance not to abandon our parish or our faith because we have fewer Mass times, or they’re not when we want Mass to be.  There are many things we desire and want, like a grocery store that keeps the same layout.  But is Christ truly the one we treasure above all else?

Does the Word Look Good?

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    The way that the Prophet Isaiah describes the Word of God in our first reading, it sounds like something everybody would want.  It’s like rain and snow that water the ground, which provides grain for the farmer, which provides bread for the hungry.  That sounds like a pretty good deal!  So why, in the Gospel, does Jesus describe people who, when given the Word of God, do not understand it, or give it up only for a short time, or abandon the Word of God during persecution and tribulation, or even let worldly cares and riches choke it out? 
    We can have this idea that if something is truly good, then we would automatically, or naturally, want it.  Or, the alternative side of that same approach, if we want something, then it must be good.  In fact, St. Augustine says that we wouldn’t choose something if we didn’t think it was good for us.  But if we take a step back, we know that we don’t always choose things that are truly good for us, and the things that are good for us don’t always seem attractive.  Take food: hopefully, if given the choice between an apple and a Snickers bar, we would choose the apple.  But let’s be honest: the Snicker bar looks better and sounds like a more enjoyable treat.  Only when we recognize the value of health and well-being can we recognize that, for at least a majority of occasions, we should choose the apple over the candy. 
    While cliché, there is truth to the phrase, “The Word of God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.”  The Word of God only looks good if we have correct vision and understanding of what is truly good.  It looks bad if our vision is off, if we have a wrong idea of what is good.  The Letter to the Hebrews says, “the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit…and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.”  As a two-edged sword, the Word of God cuts both ways.  A sword can be something that defends, but it can also be something that attacks.
    The Word of God is meant to challenge us, because, given our fallen nature, we don’t always appreciate what is good.  Adam and Eve were told that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not for them, though they could have every other fruit from every other tree in the garden, including the tree of immortality.  But, at least for that moment of the Fall, their vision, their desire, went askew.  They thought that something contrary to God’s will was good for them, and did not trust that what God had revealed was always good for them, even when He told them that the couldn’t have something.  Parents experience this with their children.  The child wants something that is not good for them, like candy for dinner.  The child doesn’t believe them, and may even try to get away with it once or more.  But then the stomach ache comes, or the cavities come, or any other amount of health problems comes. 
    What God has revealed to us, through the Scriptures and through the teaching of the Church, is good.  But we only recognize it as good if we are viewing the world with the eyes of God.  If we are viewing the world through the eyes of sin, then it can seem bad.
    We might not understand the Word of God, and so, we can be tempted by Satan to think that it’s not good (the seed sown on the path).  We might enjoy hearing the Word of God, but we don’t let it take hold in our lives, and then when we have to choose between a good from the perspective of God and a good from the perspective of fallen humanity or the world, we abandon the Word (the seed sown on rocky ground).  We might hear the Word of God, enjoy it, and even let it start to take root in our lives, but then when other desires of the world pop up in our lives, we see those as good, and those choke out the Word of God (the seed among thorns). 
    Let’s be honest: the call to follow Christ, who is the Eternal Word of God, currently does not always go along easily with our culture.  Certainly, there are parts of our faith, of our life in Christ, that the culture readily accepts: the rejection of racism; care for the poor and the immigrant; treating others as we would want to be treated.  But there are also parts of the Word of God that are contrary to the values of today’s culture, and are often mocked: the respect for human life from natural conception until natural death; marriage is only between one man and one woman for life; sex is only for marriage; the dignity of workers and not using them as pawns to simply raise more money.  And so often Catholics, those who claim to follow Christ in the one Church He established, simply skim past the parts of the Bible or the teachings of the Church with which they don’t agree.  But, as St. Augustine wrote, “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.”  If you only choose the parts of Jesus’ teaching that you agree with, then you’re choosing the Snickers bar over the apple.  It may feel good now, but it could have bad effects later.  Belief in the Word of God leads to eternal life; belief in the self leads to eternal disappointment.

    We’ve heard this Gospel passage countless times before.  But each time we hear it, it’s a good opportunity to ask ourselves: what kind of ground does the Word of God find in me?  Am I open to the Word of God as truly good?  Or have I decided that I know better than the Word of God, that sometime else looks better?  God wants to refresh us with His Word, so that we can be fruitful.  May we accept the Word of God into our hearts and bear fruit “‘a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.’”

I'm Not 25 Anymore

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Powers Catholic Soccer Team after
winning the State Championship

    Many of you will probably remember that, about 2 or 3 years ago (the time flies by so quickly), I broke my thumb while practicing soccer with our Powers JV soccer team.  We were doing 3 v 2 drills, and I had tripped a little, and was on the ground, but I didn’t want a sophomore or freshman to beat me, so I hyper-extended my thumb pushing myself up, and got a little chip fracture.  As George Strait sings in his 2008 hit song, “Troubadour,” “I still feel 25 / most of the time…”  But that day was a good reminder that there’s a big difference between being a teenager soccer player and a 30-something priest. 
    When it comes to our spiritual life, sometimes we’re as much deceiving ourselves as I was thinking that I could still hang with even a JV soccer team.  We think that spiritual progress–deepening our prayer life, combating certain sins, growing in virtue–is something that we have to muscle through by ourselves.  It’s the theory of holiness that we simply pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.  This mentality of doing it ourselves is ingrained in us from a young age.  It is, as we might say, a quintessentially American trait.  That American spirit to do it ourselves led us to declare our independence 244 years ago; it led us blaze pioneer trails across the Appalachian mountains; it pushed Lewis and Clark to find passage from St. Louis to Oregon; it rocketed us to the moon in the 1960s.  So when it comes to building and growing a nation, it’s not a bad thing, but when it comes to building our spiritual life, it’s not the way the spiritual order works. 
    Our readings talk to us of humility, and that virtue is nothing more than the recognition of the truth.  It’s not pretending that we’re not as good as we are, but it’s also not puffing ourselves up on our own, either.  Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah by entering Jerusalem on a donkey.  He does so, not to say that He’s not a king, but to demonstrate that His kingdom isn’t one of force, but that His kingdom is established in peace. 
    Jesus also said today that the wisdom of the spiritual life has been hidden from the wise and learned, but has been revealed to the little ones.  The wise and the learned don’t get it, because they are used to doing things on their terms, to working with the mindset of the world where a person has to do it all by him or herself.  But the little ones realize how little they can do on their own, and always turn to their parents to help them achieve their goals. 
    Jesus also invites all who labor and are burdened to come to Him, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Again, this is a clear demonstration that the spiritual life is not meant to be pursued on one’s own, but is to be striven for in partnership with the Lord.  A yoke is not meant for one ox, but for a team of oxen.  So the yoke that the Lord offers us, an easy and light burden, is meant for us to carry with Jesus, not apart from Him.
    So when we want to deepen our prayer life, look to Jesus to guide your prayer.  It could be a formal prayer (the Church certainly has a treasury of beautiful prayers that have been prayed over the centuries), or it could simply be talking with Jesus as one talks with a friend.  Maybe ask Jesus to help you add an extra 5 minutes to your daily prayer routine.  Or maybe try adoration from 7-7:45 a.m. on Fridays.
    When we’re trying to root out a sin from our life, whether it’s big or it’s small sins, a lot of times we think that if we only tried harder, then we’d get better results.  But often times sins can be so deeply ingrained in our lives that we don’t know how to get them out on our own.  It may be sin like gossip; it may be a sin like pornography; or maybe it’s a different sin altogether.  But the Lord doesn’t want us to try to rid the sin from our lives on our own.  His grace is effective at casting sin out of our life, just as light casts out darkness.  It may not happen all at once, but with the Lord’s help, we can find the freedom from the slavery that sin brings.  Invite Jesus to help you get rid of whatever sin is enslaving you right now.
    When we’re trying to grow in virtue, it’s much easier with the Lord.  A virtue is a stable disposition to act in the right way.  It comes through habitual actions of doing the right thing.  So we have to cooperate.  But the Lord’s grace can make it easier for us to do the right thing when we have the opportunity to do the wrong thing.  I know that patience has often been a difficult virtue for me, especially when traveling.  It seems like my plane is always delayed, or having mechanical problems, or the flight is cancelled due to bad weather.  And for years I would get so worked up and frustrated when my travel plans wouldn’t go as I had prepared or wanted.  Last November my vacation to Australia was delayed by a day because of weather; and then in January my trip to Dayton was delayed due to weather as I missed my connecting flight by mere minutes; and even my most recent trip to Nashville was delayed by a day due to weather.  But, in all those circumstances, I could see the Lord’s grace at work, supporting and sustaining my own efforts, to keep me calm and entrust myself to the Lord’s will.  I’m not perfectly patient, but I can see progress working with the Lord, rather than by myself.
    We’re often tempted to do things by ourselves, for a variety of reasons.  But to think that we can be fully successful by ourselves in the spiritual life, is about as realistic as thinking that I can keep up with high schoolers in soccer.  Don’t strive for holiness on your own.  Work with Jesus to be a saint; you won’t be disappointed.