Trying to Take Over the World

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Growing up as a child, one of my favorite TV shows was “Animaniacs,” which was a Warner Brothers cartoon that was spun off of Looney Tunes.  And one of the regular vignettes in the show was “Pinky and the Brain,” which followed two lab rats and their exploits after the lab was closed.  The Brain, as you might expect, had a super-developed intellect.  Pinky was a bit of a dummy.  And at the beginning of each vignette, Pinky would ask, “Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”  And Brain would answer, “The same thing we do every night, Pinky–try to take over the world!”
    As Catholics, our goal is to take over the world.  But when we say that, we don’t mean it like Brain.  We’re not trying to subjugate the world to our political views or our personality or military might.  We’re trying to make the entire world Catholic, to be in relationship with Jesus Christ and find salvation through Him, which is the only way anybody can be saved.  
    Now, this language fell out of favor after the Second Vatican Council.  And certainly, we have to stay away from a sense of military or forceful takeover or subjugation.  But, it should not make us uncomfortable to say that God wants the entire world to be Catholic.  We can say this because Jesus Christ founded one Church, one community of believers who follow Him and live according to the way of life that truly gives us happiness because it is the way God created the world and us to best live.
    But this approach didn’t come out of nowhere.  This idea starts in the Garden of Eden.  God created humanity, Adam and Eve, to be in union with Him, and be His people.  And while Adam and Eve both sinned and ruptured our union with God, God sought to return us to Him.  And to do this, He chose a particular people, the Jewish people, to reclaim the world for Himself, as the world had often chosen to go astray and make other things gods and worship them, and then change the way God wanted us to interact with each other.  
    God reclaiming the world started small, with families.  Noah and his family; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons.  But God didn’t just choose these families so that the family reunion could be a little larger.  He chose them to bring others into relationship with God.  And eventually those families wanted an earthly king, first Saul and then David.  And God chooses David to spread the effects of Israel and to eliminate the enemies of Israel, who are false gods, demons, who fight against God.  And David finds a lot of success, expanding the kingdom of Israel to its largest borders in its history.  But, David’s son, Solomon, starts letting the enemies behind the gates because he takes foreign wives for himself.  The influence of the foreign gods, foreign ways of life, most often represented by foreign worship, starts to creep into God’s family.  And people become more disconnected from God, which is why the prophets constantly call back God’s people to God.  
    And this is where our first reading from Isaiah comes in.  Isaiah reminds the people that God didn’t call Israel simply for its own sake.  God called Israel to be a witness of holiness that would not only keep God’s people happy as God created them, but would also draw non-Jews, Gentiles, to Himself so that they, too, could find holiness and happiness, which only comes from God since He created us for Himself.  And just like foreign, sinful influence found itself expressed through wrong worship, so right relationship with God would find expression through right worship, through all peoples worshipping God in His home on earth, the Temple. 
    And through Christ, as St. Paul teaches, Jew and Gentile were united so that all people could find happiness in God and worship God as He wanted, which really means allowing God to determine how we live our lives.  Through Christ, all people could be reconciled, or be in right relationship, with God, though God never abandons his special call to Israel.  
    If Christ has revealed the truth about how we are to live and how He wants to be worshipped; and if Christ has created a Church that accurately conveys how to live and how to worship; and if that Church subsists in the Catholic Church, then we can say, without any hubris, that God wants the entire world to be Catholic.  Not because of anything we have done, but because of what Christ has done, which opens up to us the fullness of being in relationship with God.
    Where people took things too far in the past consists in a mentality that we were the best because of what we had done, and if others wanted to be part of the best, they could lower themselves and join us.  The Pharisees had basically this same approach.  Christ, instead, taught that God wanted us to reach out to those outside–sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles–so that they, too, could be part of God’s family and find true happiness by living in the way God created us to live.  
    But God still wants all His people, all the ones He has created in His image and likeness, to live in the fullness of the truth of the world as God created it and to be truly happy.  And that’s our role: to bring others into the fullness of that relationship with God that only exists in the Catholic Church.  We’re not the best because of what we have done.  We help people be the best because we have maintained the direct connection to Christ and what He has revealed, especially through His Death and Resurrection.  
    We, like Brain, are trying to take over the world.  But, unlike Brain, we’re not doing it for our own power trip or ego, but as servants of others and in service to the truth, Who is Christ.  We’re doing it because God wants all people united in the truth and charity, which expresses itself through right worship.  

A Multiplication for the Gentiles

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Mosaic of the Multiplication, Tabgha

   In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  When I hear about the multiplication of the loaves, the miraculous feeding, my mind immediately turns to John, chapter 6.  And that miracle of multiplying 5 loaves and 3 fish finds itself in all four Gospel accounts: Matthew, chapter 14; Mark, chapter 6; Luke, chapter 9; and John, chapter 6.  But today’s Gospel passage is different.  Our Lord doesn’t feed 5,000; He feeds 4,000 people.  And whereas the larger miracle has twelve baskets of leftovers remaining, today’s miracle has seven baskets left over.  Liberal scripture scholars would first of all dismiss the miracle as an example of Christ calling people to share, and then might simply say that Mark (and Matthew, who also includes this second multiplication story) wanted to demonstrate again how important it is to share.
    But, for us who believe in miracles, who take the text as it is written, not according to our own preconceived notions, is there more?  Why would Sts. Mark and Matthew include two stories about miraculously multiplying food, with different details for each miracle?
    One scholar notes that the location has everything to do with the different miracles and the different amount of leftovers.  In the multiplication story for the 5,000, our Lord performs the miracle in Jewish territory.  In the multiplication of the 4,000, our Lord performs the miracle in Gentile, non-Jewish territory.  With the 5,000, there are twelve wicker baskets leftover, which, when connected to Judaism, reminds one of the twelve tribes of Israel.  With the 4,000, there are seven baskets leftover, which, after some study, connects to the seven Canaanite, or Gentile, kingdoms.  So, as the analysis goes, St. Mark recorded both miracles to show that Christ’s Church was meant to include both Jew and Gentile, as shown by the location of the miracle and the amount of bread left over.
    Ok.  So a pretty neat connection with how Christ did two miracles to demonstrate that His Church was meant to include all peoples, Jews and Gentiles.  It wasn’t just filler that Mark and Matthew added to take up more space.  But how does that affect me?  How is that supposed to change my life?
    I think it’s a good opportunity to think about how we evangelize.  Or maybe better put: with whom do we share the message of salvation: Jews (representing my fellow Catholics) or Gentiles (representing non-Catholics)?  
    Let’s be honest, it’s easier to talk with fellow Catholics (generally speaking) about the faith because we start from the same basic starting point.  We share cultural phrases and celebrations.  We’re generally on the same page, even if there are some teachings that tend to divide some Catholics from other Catholics.  So it can feel comfortable just to stay in the Catholic lane and determine that God has called me to strengthen the faith of fellow Catholics, and maybe even venture out to those who have stopped practicing their faith, what we traditionally called the lapsed.
    And we might even find some Scriptural basis for this, as we read in Galatians, chapter 2, “the one who worked in Peter for an apostolate to the circumcised worked also in me for the Gentiles.”  So we might feel like we don’t really need to go to non-Catholics for evangelization.  That’s for other people.  
    But while it may seem easier, or feel more comfortable, if Christ went both to Jews and Gentiles, then that is our mission, as well.  And even St. Peter went to Gentiles, as he went to the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and baptized his entire household after he saw that they had accepted the faith and saw the work of the Holy Spirit among them.  And St. Paul, though the Apostle to the Gentiles, would most often start at the local synagogue as he proclaimed Jesus as the Christ.  Both…and, not either…or.
    And the harvest is abundant.  There are many people in our daily lives who are not Catholic and have had no connection to the Catholic Church.  And if we believe that the Catholic Church reveals the fullness of truth that God has revealed, the truth we need for salvation, then how can we not share the Gospel with others?  I’m not talking about being the annoying person who goes up to everybody all the time and says, “Have you thought about being Catholic?”  Or, even worse, “Can I tell you how not to go to Hell?”  Those approaches tend to turn people away.  
    But, if we’re living our life as faithful Catholics, and then we take opportunities when the situation arises to talk about Christmas Mass, or why we have a black cross on our forehead, or why we don’t eat meat on Fridays, that can help people start looking into the Catholic Church.  Or sometimes it just means praying with someone who is going through a difficult time, and showing them that we care by our attention and by praying with them.  While some may not be open to hearing the teachings of the faith, very few are not open to people praying with them, especially if they or their loved ones are struggling.
    Christ had two miracles of multiplication in order to show that He intended the Gospel for the Jews and for the Gentiles.  Each day we have opportunities to interact with fallen-away or lukewarm Catholics and non-Catholics.  Do we take the opportunity to share the Gospel with them?  Are we committed to sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ?  Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.

Don't Take It For Granted

Solemnity of the Epiphany of our Lord

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.].  One of the great country music singers (in my humble opinion) is Merle Haggard.  One of those hits was a song called “You Take Me For Granted,” and was a number one hit on the country charts.  The song talks about being taken for granted in a relationship, doing everything he can to make her happy, all the while she doesn’t seem to care (sounds like a country song, doesn’t it?). 
    One of the things that we may take for granted is being a part of God’s people.  Because the Church has been around for 2,000 years, we are used to a truly Catholic Church, a church that welcomes anyone to join her ranks, regardless of race or ethnicity.  But what we take for granted was quite novel in the beginning of the Church, and one of the ways that Catholicism started to peel away from Judaism early on.
    Because the Old Testament is clear that God chose a certain people.  God chose Abraham, and then promised to be his God and to make of Abraham a great nation through his son, Isaac.  And then Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob (also named Israel) had twelve sons, who became a nation great in numbers.  From that point on you could talk about a Chosen People, a People God had made His own.  And it was God’s original intent that, through this Chosen People the nations would see the glory of the Lord and be joined to them, and so salvation for all those God had created would come.
    From this Chosen People God raised up a Savior, Jesus Christ, a son of Abraham and Son of God.  And most of His ministry was among the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  There are a few foreigners who receive healings and miracles from the Lord (the Samaritan woman, the centurion, and the Syro-Phoenecian woman to name a few), but mostly Christ ministered among the Jews.  The first proclamation of the Gospel after the Ascension was to Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, and thousands were baptized.
    But then Peter had a vision from God, where he was instructed to eat unclean animals, which Peter says he had never done, and God said not to call unclean what He had made clean.  Then messengers from Cornelius, a non-Jew (Gentile is the word) came and asked Peter to go to Cornelius’ house, and, upon arriving, Cornelius and his household showed signs of the Holy Spirit at work among them, so Peter baptized them, thus opening Christianity up to those who were not already part of the Chosen People.  The Apostles met in Jerusalem to confer about this, with the newest Apostle, Paul, who had also been spreading the Gospel among the Gentiles, and they agreed not to make Gentile become Jewish in order to call themselves a follow of Christ.

    That major change (Gentiles being able to become the people of God), however, was prefigured in what we celebrate today: the visit of the magi to the Holy Family.  The magi were non-Jews, Gentiles, likely from Persia or there about, and yet they were led to Christ as the newborn King of the Jews.  The Persians probably did not care much about the Jews.  They certainly had not cared about King Herod.  But something draws them to worship this newborn King, and offer Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Joseph and Mary, probably taken aback, do not, however restrict them, but accept their gifts with appreciation.  Who knows?  Maybe Mary kept the myrrh and was going to use it for our Lord’s burial.
    We probably take for granted that we can be welcomed into the Church, even though we are not Jews.  But we shouldn’t.  We should give thanks that salvation was opened up to all nations by the new sign of the covenant, Baptism, which is also celebrated today in the Epiphany.  God did not need to open to salvation to those outside the people He had chosen as His own, but He lovingly did.  We do not have a right to be saved, and yet God extends His salvation to us because of His great love for us.  In the magi, all of the pagan nations that surrounded Israel were represented, and Christ’s mission to all peoples began, even as a small seed that wouldn’t bloom for some 30 years.
    The mission of the Church is to continue to bring into God’s People, the Church, all nations and peoples, so that they can be in a saving relationship with God.  Can God save people who are not baptized?  Certainly, He can if He wants.  But the only way we know we can start that process of salvation is through Baptism, and so our mission is to welcome others who are seeking the King of the Jews.  Often times, they are led by means that may be foreign to us, just as a good Jew would have never attempted to practice astrology, the means that the magi used to find Christ.  But it doesn’t mean that we should reject their searching, anymore than Mary and Joseph rejected the magi.
    In fact, our mission as Catholics, no matter what our vocation, is to draw people to Christ, and to help them see how Christ is already working in their life.  We call this prevenient grace, the grace that comes before.  No one ever seeks Christ on his or her own; Christ always manifests Himself in shadowed ways that draw the person to see the light of Christ’s life.  That person could be a Protestant or Evangelical who sees a need for someone to authentically interpret the Scriptures.  That person could be a Jew, who starts to recognize the ways in which our Lord fulfilled the prophecies connected with the Messiah.  That person could be a Muslim who is drawn to not only be a slave of God, but a beloved son or daughter in the Son of God.  That person could be an agnostic, hoping that there is a God, but not knowing if He can be found.  That person could be an atheist, who asserts that there is no God, but yet knows that our universe cannot explain itself.  All of those people need us to draw them closer to Christ.  We become like the star for the magi, leading them to worship the true God in His fullness.
    We can often take for granted how great our faith is, and what a treasure we have in the Church.  But God’s choice, His election of us, is pure gift, something that we could never earn, and to which we were not entitled, because we were not part of His Chosen People.  But God desires all to be save, and He asks us to cooperate in that work of salvation, by drawing others to Him.  Be a star to those around you, and lead them to Christ[, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever.  Amen].

Don't Forget the Holy Spirit!

Sixth Sunday of Easter

No one likes to be ignored.  But if there’s one Person of the Blessed Trinity that we often ignore, it’s the Holy Spirit.  We tend to always remember the Father in our prayers, especially the Our Father, or sometimes we’ll just refer to Him as God.  Jesus, as the one who took flesh and was our means of being reconnected to the Father is usually at the front of our minds as well.  But the Holy Spirit tends to get left out.  How many prayers do we being with some form of: Dear Holy Spirit…?  Probably not many, if any, while we are very comfortable with beginning prayers with: Dear God… or Heavenly Father… or Lord Jesus.  

It’s important, then, that in these last few Sundays of our Easter Season, the Church really focuses in on the Holy Spirit.  Of course, every Mass we begin with the Holy Spirit, and He’s mentioned in the Gloria, and our opening prayers always say “in the unity of the Holy Spirit.”  But the readings in these weeks also remind us that the Holy Spirit is God and guides the Church in a special way since the Ascension of Jesus.

Our first reading reminds us of the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding what we are to believe as Catholics and how we are to live as Catholics.  Having discussed whether or not the Gentiles (the non-Jews) had to be circumcised and follow Judaic laws, and with the testimony of St. Peter, St. James sends a message to the Jews who had become Christians about what is required for Gentiles to become Christians.  And he writes specifically, that it was “‘“the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us not to place on you any burden beyond these necessities, namely, to abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, from meats of strangled animals, and from unlawful marriage.”’”  It was not simply a group of old men getting together and thinking of the most pragmatic thing to do.  It was the Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, who guided the apostles to decide that Gentiles did not have to become Jewish and follow those laws to become Christians.  In other words, every time you eat a cheese burger or bacon (which Jews cannot do because it’s contrary to kosher laws), you should thank the Holy Spirit.

But the Holy Spirit did not stop guiding the Church with this decision.  Throughout the 2,000 year history of the Church, the Holy Spirit has continued to guide the successor of St. Peter, the Pope, and the successors of the apostles, the bishops, in making decisions about what we are to believe and how we are to live.  Some of those teachings are crystallized in the Creed.  But also in all the 21 Ecumenical Councils, from Nicaea I in AD 325 to Vatican II in the 1960s, and even in Papal pronouncements in between, the Holy Spirit has continued to teach the Church everything and remind the Church of what Jesus told us.  He has guided us on how many books to have in the Bible; who Jesus is; how many Sacraments were instituted by Jesus; Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Assumption; that only men can be ordained priests; that marriage is between one man and one woman for life; all these are part of Jesus’ words, which the Holy Spirit has helped us to understand and which the Holy Spirit has guided the Pope and the bishops to proclaim as being what is necessary to be believed if we wish to truly call ourselves Catholic.  The Holy Spirit and the successors of the apostles, the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem, work together to continue Jesus’ teachings into new times and new cultures.

But the work of the Holy Spirit is not limited to the Pope and bishops.  The Holy Spirit wants to give us life.  He helps us to understand what is right and wrong in our conscience.  We receive the Holy Spirit in baptism, and a new gift in the Sacrament of Confirmation, to help us as individuals know what is God’s will in our daily actions and in the major decisions of life: what vocation we should choose, how to use our gifts and talents in a job, how to educate and raise our family.  Of course, the Holy Spirit would never contradict Himself, and we as individuals do not have the gift of infallibility, as the bishops in union with the Pope, and even the Pope by himself on matters of faith and morals has.  So if our conscience is ever telling us to do something that is contrary to what the Church officially teaches as to what we need to believe or how we need to live, we should do some major research on what the Church teaches and why, because it is more likely to be right than what we think our conscience is saying.  But the Holy Spirit is in us, too, and wants to make our living of the Gospel a joy-filled experience.  The Holy Spirit wants to give us the power to say yes to God and no to our fallen nature and to evil.  And by virtue of our Baptism, all we need to do is ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us.  

It may not come as naturally, but may we also pray to the Holy Spirit, especially when we are making choices.  We can pray in our own words, in conversation with the Holy Spirit, or we can also use that wonderful prayer to the Holy Spirit that we said as a Diocese a few years ago, and which I will lead today.  Please join in if you remember: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faith, and enkindle in them the fire of your love.  Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.  O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that, by the same Holy Spirit, we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Catholic Diversity

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            If there is one value that modern-Americans hold dear, I think the virtue would certainly be diversity.  We don’t want to be the same.  We want variety.  After all, it’s the spice of life!  We want everyone to feel welcome.  In fact, we take diversity to an extreme by mandating that no one can say another person is wrong, or that his or her choices are bad.  Otherwise we lose diversity.  In some countries, like Canada, even simply calling certain actions and lifestyles bad can get one thrown in jail for “hate-speech,” and can get one branded as a bigot.

            So today’s readings probably seem strange to us.  Why all this attention on foreigners?  What’s the big deal?  Doesn’t God love everyone, no matter what?  Why does Isaiah make such a big deal about the Gentiles, that is, any non-Jew, ministering to the Lord, loving His Name, and becoming His servant?  Why does St. Paul say that he ministers to the Gentiles “in order to make my race jealous and thus save some of them”?  Why is Jesus so mean to the woman who simply wants her daughter freed from the torment of a demon?  Why this talk of, “‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’”? 

            We have to remember that God didn’t call every nation to Himself at first.  He chose Israel, the Jews, as a nation “peculiarly his own” as Deuteronomy says, with the word that is so hard to pronounce.  Deuteronomy continues that it was not because the Jews were the largest, or the wisest, or the fiercest nation on earth that they were chosen.  Rather, it was because they were the smallest, the weakest nation on earth that God chose them.  Why?  Why choose the smallest to begin salvation history?  Why not choose other nations at the same time?  To be honest, we don’t know.  That is only known in the mind of God.  It is the mystery of divine election.  All we can do is have faith in a loving and omniscient God and know that His choice is always for the best.  And it doesn’t simply have to do with salvation.  Why did God allow you married couples to marry each other?  Why not someone else?  Why did God give you the children that He did, with all their gifts and talents and their shortcomings?  We don’t know.  We simply worship the God who is Love and pure Wisdom itself.

            But getting back to salvation, God reveals through Isaiah and St. Paul and Jesus that even though He chose a particular nation as His own, that nation was called to invite others into the special relationship with God, the covenant.  The Jews were not supposed to be elitists.  They were supposed to bring the blessings of a right relationship with God to the other nations so that they might be joined to this nation that God chose and also receive His blessings.  But the Jews, time and time again, did not even value their special relationship with God, and rather than inviting the other nations into their relationship with God, chose to turn to pagan gods, no-gods really, and make themselves one with the other nations.  And so, as St. Paul says, because of the disobedience of the Jews, the Gentiles are able to be grafted onto the tree of Israel through Jesus, who made the two one, and share in the joys of a right relationship with God, receiving the same mercy that God first showed to Israel. 

Jesus does this with the Canaanite woman.  He tests her faith to see if she has the faith which Israel is supposed to have.  We may not like the words, but those words, spoken from God Himself, are the exact words which allow the woman to say that “‘even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.’”  Even Gentiles should be receiving the overflow of love that God has poured upon Israel.  And, based upon her faith, the requirement of every action of God in a person’s life, including our own, the woman’s daughter is freed from possession.

We as a nation, “enlightened” as we are, celebrate diversity.  For too many it is the good upon which all other goods are based.  This is the extreme, and extreme which is not virtuous but actually vicious.  When we condemn those who speak out against people doing evil deeds because that’s just the way they are; we need their variety in order to be truly diverse, we pervert the idea of proper diversity, which only welcomes all that is good.  We welcome every person, but not everything that person might do.

On the other hand, we go the other extreme when we feel like it and try to judge when we have “enough” diversity.  Recently, Bishop Boyea joined with the other bishops of Michigan in  support of immigrants and undocumented persons.  While recognizing the legitimacy of a nation to protect its borders and keep out those who seek to do it harm, the reality of the situation is that there are thousands of people who have never known anything else but life in the United States, even though they or their parents may have arrived here illegally.  Most of these people are not drug dealers or criminals, but very helpful members of society who pay taxes and often take jobs than many other natural-born Americans choose not to take: the dirty jobs, if you will.  And yet there is a real push to deport all those who entered the country illegally to be deported, even if that means that it separates a family, or causes American citizens who are children to be sent back to their parents’ mother countries.  The bishops and I are not saying that we have all the answers.  But we do have to ensure that whatever our actions at a national and State level, they respect the dignity of the human person, the right of a family to be united, and the proper diversity that immigrants bring to our nation.  Any serious student of the history of the Catholic Church in American recognizes that we are a community of immigrants, some who came legally, others who came illegally, and who were not welcome on these shores by many of the Americans who came before us.  We were not the kind of “diversity” that the Americans of that day wanted. 

God’s love is poured upon His Chosen People, both Israel of old, and the new Israel, the Church, who has been grafted on to the olive tree of God.  But that love is meant to be poured out upon others so that they, too, will experience the joy, the love, the warmth of a right relationship to God through the Body of Christ, the Church.  Let us truly be Catholics, not just in name but in deed, so that, while not welcoming any action or deed that is morally wrong, we welcome every person to join with us in the properly diverse, that is, catholic, Church that is our family.