When I Call on God's Name

Holy Name of Jesus

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Recently, Vince Gill, the country music star, was honored with the Country Music Association Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 59th Annual CMA Awards.  Vince is known for his beautiful tenor voice, and numerous hits, including “Go Rest High On That Mountain.”
    But he also has another hit song entitled, “When I Call Your Name,” where the refrain sings: “Oh, the lonely sound of my voice calling / Is driving me insane. / And just like rain, the tears keep falling / But nobody answers when I call your name.”  As we celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus, it struck me that we have a God who, when we call upon His Name, listens and responds.  It’s almost the antithesis of Vince Gill’s sad, country song.
    Indeed, the phrase “nobody answers” reminded me of the story of Elijah in 1 Kings, chapter 18, where Elijah, on Mount Carmel, had challenged the prophets of Baal, the pagan god, to consume the sacrifice they had created without lighting the fire.  The prophets of Baal called out from morning to noon.  They hopped around the altar, and even slashed themselves and caused their own blood to flow.  But the sacred author notes, pithily, “but there was no sound, no one answering, no one listening.”  
    God listens to us every time we call upon Him, especially when we call out with the Holy Name of His Son, Jesus Christ.  Our Lord promised in the Upper Room on the night of the Last Supper: “‘Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in me.’”  God responds to His Name, like a loving parent responds when a child calls out.  We should not take this privilege lightly, and use God’s Holy Name in vain, but neither should we never call upon the Holy Name of God and miss out on opportunities where He wants to shower us with His love, grace, and gifts.
    Does this mean that when I go to Meijer, and buy a PowerBall ticket, as long as I pray in God’s Name for the numbers that I will win the jackpot?  Certainly not, not even if you plan to share a large chunk of money with St. Matthew parish (which you should, if you win the lottery, by the way).  God’s Name is not a magic word that forces God to do whatever we wish.  God always answers our prayers, but as another country song sings, “Sometimes the answer is no.”  
    Still, it can be tough when we have faith, when we call upon the name of the Lord, and we don’t get what we want.  It can feel like the lyrics, “nobody answers when I call your name.”  So what is going on?  Is our Lord not living up to His Word from the Last Supper discourse?
    If we are children of our loving Father, then we should only will what God wills.  The Savior spoke these words to the Apostles, His closest friends.  And while at that point, they weren’t all set on doing God’s will, and they would also struggle at times (St. Peter is a prime example of this), after they were filled with the Holy Spirit, they became more attentive to doing God’s will rather than their own.
    It is childish, not childlike to cry when God does not give us what we want every time we want it.  God calls us to childlike trust in Him, but not to childish temper tantrums if we do not get our way.  Ours should be the attitude of Job: “‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’”  When we put on that mindset, we can better accept and understand when God does not give us exactly what we want, even when what we want is something good, like the life of a child, or the cure of a parent, or even basic financial stability.  
    But we also need to accept that sometimes God answers our prayers when we call on His Name, but we are not ready to hear His affirmative answer.  There is the parable about the drowning man who was on his roof, due to a flood.  A rowboat comes by to pick him up, but the man says, “No, I’ve prayed to God; He will save me.”  A few minutes later a motorboat comes by to pick him up, but the man says, “No, I’ve prayed to God; He will save me.”  A few minutes later a helicopter comes and lowers a rope, and the troopers shout down that they can take the man to safety, but he says, “No, I’ve prayed to God; He will save me.”  The helicopter leaves, and the man drowns.  When the man appears before God, the man complains, “I had faith in you, and prayed to you for safety, but you let me drown!”  God replies, “I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and a helicopter.  What more could I have done?”  If we don’t have a familiarity with the way God works, we can miss out on how God answers our prayers.
    The Holy Name of Jesus is not only the name by which we are saved, it is the name that demonstrates the love of God.  When we call on the Holy Name with faith, we can be assured that God will listen to us, and that He will answer us, even if the answer is not always the one we want, in the way we want, or in the time we want.  
    Life can sometimes seem like a sad country song, where the house is empty, our loved ones have left us, and nobody answers when we call their name.  But for us, as disciples of Christ, “Our help is the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth”: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

Drawn to Christ and Changed

Epiphany of the Lord

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  I remember my first time I traveled to Rome, when I was a seminarian in the fall of 2004.  My classmates and I had flown from St. Paul, Minnesota, and arrived in Rome in the morning.  We took a train to Termini (the main train station), and then took the Metro to a stop near the convent we had to stay at because our rooms were not ready yet at the study abroad house.  The convent was just on the other side of Bernini’s colonnade at the Basilica of St. Peter.  I remember walking up the Via della Conciliazione and being amazed at the magnitude and beauty of St. Peter’s.  I thought the US Congress building was large; St. Peter’s is so much larger!  And then I walked inside, and though so exhausted from jet lag that I would soon start falling asleep while standing during the Gospel at Mass inside St. Peter, its beauty forever changed me in recognizing just what man could do to honor God and the saints.
    In many ways the Solemnity of the Epiphany also follows a similar pattern, at least with the wise men.  They are drawn to a far-off land, perhaps a land they had never seen before.  But when they actually encounter the goal of their journey, the young King of the Jews, they are not the same.  The Gospel relates that an angel warned them not to return to their country by the same way because of King Herod, but encountering Christ also made them go back not just on a different road, but changed.  
    Hopefully this rings true for us as well.  Christ always draws us closer to Himself.  Whether we are baptized as an infant and grow up in the Catholic faith, or whether we joined the Church as an adult, Christ draws us to Himself.  He drew the Magi by a star, because that is how they would come.  When Christ calls us, He does it through means that, more often than not, appeal to our natural predispositions.  Maybe we’re hurting and we recognize in Christ a source of healing.  Maybe we’re looking for meaning and we recognize in Christ a way of life that will satisfy us.  Maybe we’re reaching out for something greater to whom we can pledge our life, and we recognize in Christ the God who is worthy of all our loyalty and dedication.  Whatever way it is, Christ calls us to Himself.  And He often does it through means that we can accept.
    But this draw also continues throughout our life.  Accepting Christ means a great deal, but it’s not a once-and-done encounter.  Each day, each week, each month, each year Christ wants to draw us closer.  Until we get to heaven, we can always grow closer to Christ.  And the closer we get, the easier and harder it is.  Easier, because we have a solid foundation and at least can intellectually know that God will truly satisfy every need in our life.  Harder, because we sometimes have to walk away from things that also delight us, however less, and sometimes it is hard to let go.  But no matter how much we accept, or how much we delay and hedge our bets, Christ always calls us closer to Himself.
    When we have encountered Christ, whether for the first time or for the myriad of times after that, the encounter should change us.  Change is easier to note when it comes to monumental moments in our life, like when we were baptized or confirmed.  Whether we felt it or not, the power of the sacrament changed us from a pagan to a Christian (baptism), or from a mere follower to a soldier of Christ and proclaimer of the Gospel (confirmation).  Ontologically, which means at the level our being, God changed us.
    But we don’t always experience that change in our day-to-day life.  Even when it comes to the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, which we receive at Mass, we don’t always recognize the change it has in us.  That can either be because it’s hard to notice little changes day by day, or because of lack of fruitfulness, which means that, while the Eucharist wants to change us, we’re putting up some sort of block because of our sins or our will that does not allow the change that God wants to affect in us.  God never forces His grace on us, so if we don’t want to accept the change that He wants in us, it will not happen.  
    But we can also experience God through means other than the sacraments, like daily prayer, reading Scripture, serving the poor, etc.  And sometimes we notice the change, but sometimes we don’t.  Sometimes we notice the change after months of our sacramental or devotional practices, like a virtue exhibited when earlier we would have given in to vice.  Patience is not a virtue at which I always excel.  I have noticed some growth though, and can appreciate it when I notice that earlier I would have chewed someone’s head off for some stupid thing, but now I’m more understanding.  I’m still growing, and wouldn’t call myself a paragon of patience, but I have noticed growth that has happened since I started working on being more patient.  

    Like the Magi, God draws us closer to Himself, not just once, but each day.  Like the Magi, God doesn’t want us to return to the same sinful habits and patterns, or even simply the same way of life that we lived before drawing closer to Him.  God leads us down a different road, even when it’s within the same vocation.  Follow Christ, the Morning Star each day, and allow your encounter with Him to change you, so that the glory of the Lord can shine upon you[: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen].