Battling the Liar

Dedication of St. Michael the Archangel
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  I tend to quote country songs a lot, and given that country songs have been described as “three chords and the truth,” it’s not surprising that they can draw one closer to God and His truth.  One such song that connected with our celebration of St. Michael the Archangel today is by a country artist who recently gained Genesee County connections: Jelly Roll.  
    The song he sang is called “Liar” and to me it speaks about the voice of the one against whom St. Michael fights: the devil.  Jelly Roll sings about how he let the devil “drive around my mind” and “played me like a fool.”  Some of the lies that the devil tells are: “Drink another whiskey / Pop another pill / Money makes you happy / Heaven isn’t real / You won’t find nobody to love / Because your heart’s too broke.”  But he recognizes those lines for the lies that they are, trying to keep him down in the suggestions in his head, in the dreams he has at night, promising to be his friend, but the devil’s just “blowin’ smoke” because he’s “nothing but a liar.”  

Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome

    The work of St. Michael is precisely to foil the lies of the devil.  He fights for Christ, who is the Truth, and works to cast Satan and the fallen angels away from us, who can sometimes be so susceptible to the lies of the prince of this world.  The tempter often has cunning lies that seem like they’re the truth, preying especially on our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our wounds.  He did the same thing with our first parents, Adam and Eve, when he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, telling her that she wouldn’t die if she ate the forbidden fruit, but that she would be like God on her own terms.  On the one hand, it may be hard to believe that Eve would buy into that lie.  She had perfect earthly happiness, communion with God and with nature around her, and lacked for nothing.  Why would she give into the lies of the ancient serpent?
    Why do we?  We may not have perfect earthly happiness, or perfect communion with the natural world which gives us fruit without effort, but we have God Himself who enters into us!  God not only walks with us in the cool of the evening, as He did with Adam and Eve, He humbles Himself to enter into us the Most Holy Eucharist, to fill us spiritually with His presence.  And yet, how often do we turn away from God, disobey His commands, and listen to the lies that the devil feeds us?
    Maybe it’s not excessive drinking, or drugs.  Maybe it is for some of us.  But I am willing to bet that each of us has had moments where money became our God and we thought if we just had enough of it we would be truly happy.  Or maybe we doubted whether there’s anything beyond this world, if all the rules that we follow and the ascetical practices we do will amount to anything, or if death will be the end.  Or maybe we have bought into the lie that no one could ever love us because we’re so broken that we’re not worthy of love.
    When we have those lies in our head, we should turn to St. Michael the Archangel, or our guardian angel, or our patron saints and ask them to bring the light of Christ to cast out the darkness of temptation and sin.  Pope St. Gregory the Great, while preaching a homily, said that St. Michael’s name in Hebrew means, “Who is like God,” and, “Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his power.”  Whereas Lucifer, the light bearer angel, sought in his pride to contend with God, St. Michael allows God to be God and work His power through whomever God chooses.  
    And that can be a lesson for us when fighting evil.  From time to time, we might even be tempted to think that we are powerful enough to fight the devil and his fallen angels on our own terms.  But that is pride, and leads to our downfall.  Yes, we have a higher dignity than the angels, since Christ became man.  But angels are more powerful than we are, and we should not seek to fight them on their own terms.  Rather, rely on God’s helpers, whether angels or saints, and especially the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, to allow God’s grace to cast down any evil spirits who seek the ruin of our souls.  Follow the example of Michael and not try to grasp at power, but allow God’s power to work through them and through us.
    There are many lies that the devil tries to get us to believe.  Some of those lies we may have recognized in Jelly Roll’s song.  Some of the lies the devil tells differ from those, but are no less powerful.  But Christ is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, and if we wish to come to the Father, we must hold fast to the truth, name the lie that the devil tells us as false, and run towards St. Michael and the saints to help us stay connected to the truth.  May St. Michael and all the holy angels defend us always and keep us united to God–the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

If I Only Had a Heart

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  In the movie version of the classic book, The Wizard of Oz, one of the main characters is the Tin Man.  Dorothy and the Scarecrow meet him on their way to see the Wizard of Oz.  The Tin Man seems perfectly normal (for a man made out of metal), but he reveals to Dorothy that the tinsmith neglected to give him a heart.  Dorothy invites the Tin Man to come with her so that the Wizard can give him a heart, in addition to giving the Scarecrow a brain, and return Dorothy home.
    Spoiler alert: as the Wizard is giving the Tin Man his heart, he says, “Hearts will never be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”  And for those who have had their heart broken, there seems to be some logic in his quip.  Anyone who has gone through a break-up finds the cliché phrase, “’Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,” very unsatisfying.  At the time of the heartbreak, it seems like it would have been much better to not get into a situation which could cause such pain, pain which cannot be healed by any medicine.  Indeed, there can be a sometime-attraction to the character of Spock from “Star Trek,” who, though he has emotions, does not seem to be affected by them, but exhibits a remarkable kind of stoicism. 
    And yet today’s celebration, transferred from this past Friday, is precisely the celebration of not only a broken heart, but also a pierced heart!  A twice-pierced heart, in fact, pierced once by the lack of love from the beloved, and pierced twice by the lance of the soldier, making blood and water flow out.  But that broken, pierced, Sacred Heart is the riches of God, and the expression of the breadth, length, height and depth of God’s love for us, the hope and consolation of all the saints.
    We often associate a broken heart with one that has been betrayed.  Just think of what Michael Corleone in “The Godfather II” says to Fredo, his brother, when Michael finds out Fredo has betrayed him: “You broke my heart, Fredo.”  And certainly we have betrayed God.  Every time we sin we betray Jesus; we become a Judas.  We are supposed to be the friend of God, and yet we do what we know will hurt our Divine Friend.  And so the Lord’s Sacred Heart breaks, is pierced.  Indeed, with every sin that we commit, we put our hand on the very lance that was thrust into the body of Jesus.  We not only look upon Him whom we have pierced, we are the ones who pierce. 
    But the Sacred Heart is also pierced because, in the end, the love of God cannot help but overflow and burst out, not to call for vengeance, but to shower upon us mercy.  Pope St. Gregory the Great writes in his “Moral Reflections on Job,” “The blood of Jesus calls out more eloquently than Abel’s, for the blood of Abel asked for the death of Cain, the fratricide, while the blood of the Lord has asked for, and obtained, life for his persecutors.”  Even though we deserve the just punishment for our sins, which, as the Apostle writes, is death, God calls down upon us not death, but life, when His Blood and water flow upon us through the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist.  Christ would certainly prefer that we not betray Him, and yet, as many times as we do, He allows His Sacred Heart to be pierced to forgive us that betrayal and restore us to holiness.
    What a love that is so generous!  What a love that breaks open because of the expanse of love that cannot be contained!  What a love that recreates the beloved from the wound the beloved caused! 
    It is, in the end, better to have a heart that can break, than to have no heart at all.  It may indeed be unpractical that hearts break, but it is better that they do, because only hearts that love can be broken, including the Sacred Heart of our Incarnate Lord.  One cannot lose in love, even when a beloved breaks our heart, because God is love, and in God is our victory.  Love is not a loss, but a creative force.  We do not have to set ourselves up to be betrayed, or to be an emotional punching bag, and sometimes we can only love from afar.  But love, as with God who is Love, is a good in itself. 
    It can be hard to love when a heart has been broken.  It may seem easier to close ourselves off to love when our love has been betrayed.  But the Sacred Heart of Jesus invites us to love even when it hurts, even when our hearts are broken, even when our hearts are pierced.  May our hearts always be open to receive and share the transformative love of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.