Proven by Testing

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Aerial picture of the house that exploded

    On Monday, 22 November 2021 just before 9:30 p.m., I was preparing to got to bed in my old rectory at St. Pius X parish.  All of the sudden I saw a large flame down the road, felt the house shake, and heard a loud boom.  The house not even a block away from the rectory had exploded from (we later learned) a natural gas leak from a faultily-installed appliance.  
    As a chaplain with the Michigan State Police, much of my training has been for emergency situations.  But, up to that point, I had never been on my own in the case of a real emergency.  I always had Troopers who would take the lead, and I would try to assist them with what they said I needed to do.  
    After I saw, felt, and heard the house explode, I said, “Lord, have mercy!”, called 911 to give any information I had, and then rushed to get my State Police jacket on, find my flashlight, and run to see what had happened.  As the fire engines from Flint Fire Department started to arrive on scene, I then started directing traffic so that emergency vehicles could get access to the scene.
    Often, we don’t know what we will do unless we are tested.  If we are wise, we make plans for disasters, or maybe we just daydream about scenarios where we are the hero, but until that situation arises in our life, it’s just theory.  When life throws a situation at us where we need to react, we find out if our planning or our daydreaming was just wishful thinking, or if we really could respond in a heroic way to a life-changing event.
    The same is true in our faith life.  In order to find out our true physical strength, we have to test our muscles and put them under pressure.  In order to find out our true spiritual strength, and what virtues we have, by the grace of God, cultivated in our life, we have to be in situations where we can choose virtue or we can choose vice.  It doesn’t matter if we think we are a saint and we would never choose evil.  Only when we are in a situation when we can choose either to do good or to do evil do we really learn how much we value following God’s way rather than our own, or the way of the world.  
    Take, for example, being put into a situation where we have done something wrong, maybe even something small, but someone notices and asks us if we are responsible.  Maybe we even have friends around us to add to the situation with some peer pressure.  When asked if we did something wrong, would we tell the truth, or would we lie?  The lie may seem easier, and may, whether for a short or even a long time, keep us out of trouble.  But we know that lying is wrong, a sin against God who is truth.  So what do we do?  It is so easy to fold under the pressure, and give in to what we think will be easier and cause less punishment for us.  Maybe we even convince ourselves that it’s not that bad, or that we can do so much more good if we are allowed to lie in just this one case.  But, of course, if we start to lie now, we are more likely to lie later.  And a basic principle of morality is that you cannot do evil to achieve a good: it makes the whole scenario evil.
    In the upcoming forty days of Lent, we will test our spiritual muscles out again.  Our acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving (or the lack thereof) will tell us exactly what kind of fruit our life of grace has borne thus far.  When faced with a spiritual struggle, our true mettle comes out, what we are made of, and we learn where we need to grow in following Christ.  God reveals to us our shortcomings, not to beat us up with them, but to help us to know the ways in which we need to open ourselves to His grace to be better followers of Christ.  God gives us this special time to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel so that we can rejoice even more in the new life that Christ won by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and live that new life ourselves.
    Our catechumens who will be sent today by us to the Rite of Election, will also be tested in these weeks of Lent.  In the scrutinies, the Church will ask them to review their own life and put behind them all that does not conform to Christ.  They will reflect on how much their thirst for the new life Christ gives; on the areas of their life in which they are blind to sin; on the death that sin has caused in their lives.  But it won’t end there, just as Good Friday is not the end of the story.
    Because God wants to help us through these trials.  We cannot grow in holiness on our own.  Without God’s grace, we have no chance to live a holy life.  So as we grow in awareness through our trials, don’t be afraid to call upon God and ask for the help that we each need to live the new life of Christ.
    Until we are tested, we don’t really know how we would react.  May these upcoming Lenten days test us, show us our shortcomings, and open us to the grace and mercy of God who strengthens us to follow Christ on his pilgrimage through the desert.  May we allow God’s grace to make us bear good fruit as we remove the splinters of sin from our lives. 

The Conversion Process

Fifth Sunday of Lent-3rd Scrutiny

For the past two weeks at this Mass, we have had the readings from Year A.  We do this because of the scrutinies, the rites by which we ask God to cast out from our Elect any evil which is in them, and to prepare them for the Easter Sacraments–Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.  In one sense, Bilal, our Elect, these readings have been specifically for you.  

Each Gospel passage (and the other readings as well that point to it) has hit home a theme of conversion, which is the process which has led you here.  On the third Sunday of Lent, we heard about the woman at the well, the woman who came to know Jesus more deeply as Jesus conversed with her.  He went from “a Jew,” to “Sir,” to “the Prophet,” to “the Messiah.”  And all of that happened because of a conversation with Jesus at a well.  Jesus was thirsting, not so much for the water, but for her.

On the fourth Sunday of Lent, we heard about the man born blind.  The man cannot see, and yet recognizes that Jesus is not an ordinary person.  Never before, he tells the Pharisees, has a man cured a man who was blind from birth.  And yet that is what Jesus did.  Because Jesus opens the eyes of the man, the man believes in Jesus, while the Pharisees, whose eyes were opened but hearts were closed, remain blind in their unbelief.

Today, the fifth Sunday of Lent, we hear about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  Martha, the woman who was so concerned with serving Jesus that she forget to actually spend time with him, now is the sister who has faith that Jesus can do anything, that Jesus is Himself the Resurrection and the life.  And, sure enough, even though Lazarus was in the tomb for four days, deader than dead, Jesus brought Lazarus back to life.  

These readings were not chosen on accident.  Holy Mother Church, reflecting on her newborn children, sprung to life from the waters of baptism, saw in these three Gospel passages a message so important for you, our Elect, that she bid them to be read every year, even when it would interrupt the usual cycle of readings.

And She did this because in these three Gospel passages is the format for conversion: conversation with Jesus; Jesus opening our eyes; Jesus raising us to new life.  In your own life, Bilal, Jesus has spoken to you, to you heart.  And you sought to know more about him.  I can remember the day when you asked me about the Catholic Church, and what we believe, and we sat and talked on the pew in the narthex.  Jesus Himself spoke with you, maybe not about your past, but about your future, and about who He is.  

Through the Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults, which we have been celebrating with you for months, Jesus has also opened your eyes to see how He is who He says He is: God.  In fact, ever since Bishop Boyea chose you for the Easter Sacraments at the Rite of Election which you celebrated the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, you have been in the period that the Church calls “Purification and Enlightenment.”  In these last weeks of your preparation, Jesus has been opening your eyes to believe in Him more deeply, so that you are ready to follow Him always.

And today, as we hear about Jesus raising Lazarus to new life, you are being prepared to die with Christ and be buried with Him in the waters of baptism, so that you can rise with Him to new life.  You are almost at that point where Christ calls you out of the tomb into the radiance of new life with Him.

But these are also for us, because conversion is a process that is never done.  Each one of us, though we come as Christ’s faithful, have not always been so faithful.  There are parts of each of our lives that do not belong to Christ fully, and need conversion.  And so, Jesus continues to talk with us about those parts of our life.  He talks with us about our sinfulness, like the Samaritan woman, and the ways that our life is not configured to Him, not to condemn us, but to draw us to the freedom that only Jesus can give.

We, though we have been enlightened by Christ, still have some areas of blindness in our lives.  Each person here has things that we do not see, for a variety of reason, which we will not see unless we ask Jesus to open our eyes.  Some of these are failings that we have had since birth; others are failings that we have developed along the way.  But Christ wants to illuminate our vision so that we can see our failings, turn away from them, and turn back to Jesus.  

Though many of us have been through the waters of new birth in baptism, we all make deals with death.  We blockade ourselves into the tomb by our sins, which cause spiritual death.  We often want new life, but we sometimes don’t want it enough to accept it from Jesus.  The tomb may be musty, it may be dark, it may be a place of death, but sometimes we are comfortable with it, because death has become second nature to us, and we are surrounded by a culture of death.  But, Jesus wants to raise us to new life, and sometimes it’s someone else who begs the Lord to give us that new life.  

Yes, Bilal, these readings are for you, as our Elect, but they’re for all of us here.  Conversion does not end with baptism, or confirmation, or the Eucharist.  Conversion is a life-long process, of dying to sin and rising with Christ to new life.  Your first period of conversion is almost complete.  Your baptism is less than two weeks away.  Then you will join with us in continuing the conversion to which Jesus invites us each and every day, week, month, and year.

Encountering God

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I am a planner.  And so, after I was confirmed in eighth grade, I started to think about what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I was thinking about that because I was about to enter high school, and I wanted to make sure that I did well in the classes in that general field, so I could get into a good college so that I could get the job I wanted.  Because I was in a Catholic school, and had been since kindergarten, I knew that if I was going to be happy in my job, it had to be what God wanted me to do.  So I started to pray every day, asking God what He wanted me to do with my life.  I heard no answer, and was a bit frustrated that God was not answering me when I wanted.

So, once I started going to Lansing Catholic High School, I started to go to Mass on weekdays in addition to Sunday, figuring that I would force God to answer me.  One day, at Mass, the priest was a little late, and a nun, that didn’t really know that well, told me that when I became a priest, I should never be late.  In addition, friends of mine kept suggesting that I should be a priest or wondering if that’s what I wanted to do.  Though I was sure I wanted to be married, have kids, and maybe enter a profession in law, I decided to look into the priesthood, and asked priests I knew what it was like to be a priest.

I started, at that moment, to fall in love, not with a girl, but with the church.  The more I knew about her, even with her imperfections, the more I knew I wanted to serve her and dedicate my entire life to her.  I petitioned Bishop Mengeling to enter college seminary after I graduated from high school.  My love for the church continued to grow, and I continued to want to serve God’s people, especially through the sacramental life of the Church, as I progressed through seminary.  It wasn’t always easy, and there were times that I considered leaving, especially my senior year of college seminary, where I was sure the beautiful Catholic girl in my astronomy class was a sign from God that I should get married.  But the Lord helped me to see that I would be truly happy by being a priest.

I tell that story because we should all have a story to tell when it comes to our relationship with God.  It’s not just for priests or religious brothers or sisters.  Maybe it’s not a vocation story, like mine, but hopefully we all have a story of a time that God interacted with us in our lives.  Today we hear about Isaiah’s encounter with God the Father and Simon Peter’s encounter with Jesus.  Those are certainly powerful stories, with major moments that God breaks through in their lives.  But it doesn’t always happen that way.  In my own life, I have rarely had “mountaintop experiences,” and, while they do happen, for many people there are no major moments, but, rather, they see how God led them through different aspects of their life.

Mary, who was confirmed Saturday evening at Mass, has her story of what led her to the Catholic faith.  Damian, Deanna, and Jake, our catechumens, will be sent to the Rite of Election this weekend.  They have their own stories of what led them to the Catholic faith and their relationship with God.  I invite you to think about your own life of faith.  Where has God interacted with you?  Again, it may not be a big moment, but hopefully you can think of a way that God has guided you in a way you understood.  If you don’t, I encourage you to spend time in prayer with God, read the Gospels, maybe go to the Men’s or Women’s Conference in the next year, go on a retreat like Cursillo or another retreat that the Diocese of Lansing offers.  That will help you to think back on a way that God has led you, or maybe will give you your first experience of God interacting with you in your life in a way you recognize.

God calls us and interacts with us throughout our life.  May we look for the ways that God encounters us and we encounter God, and, as we find them, listen to the voice of Jesus who tells us, as he told Simon Peter, “‘Be not afraid.’”

Jump In! The Water's Great!!

First Sunday of Lent

            For many young children, and this was certainly true in my own life, there’s nothing quite as fun and as scary as water.  Right now we’d all probably love it to be a little warmer, so let’s think about a pool or a lake in the hot summer sun.  The adults are all in, splashing around, swimming, maybe diving if it’s safe.  And the little kid is waiting on the shore or on the patio, wondering if it really is ok to jump in.  All the adults say it’s fine, that you’ll naturally float.  And yet, it’s hard to trust that water.

            Water for the ancients was a sign of chaos and death.  In the beginning of the Book of Genesis, God separates the land from the water and orders the earth.  But the waters were still chaotic.  Imagine an early mariner trying to navigate the seas, when storms seem to pop up from nowhere, and currents take you places you do not want to go.  Even those who wanted to enjoy the water for recreation had to beware of the undertow and strong waves that could do real damage.

            This idea of the danger of water was reaffirmed in the story of Noah and the Great Flood.  Water becomes the agent of God wiping out the evil of the earth, and from which Noah and his family are saved by the ark.  And this is why St. Peter sees baptism as prefigured in the story of the Great Flood: in baptism, the elect go down, under the water, symbolizing the death of Christ, and then they rise to new life as they are pulled up from the water.  Just like Noah, Christians are saved from the destruction of chaos, this time not by a boat, but by Jesus Christ.

            With all this talk about baptism, you might think we’re celebrating the Baptism of the Lord. Even our Gospel passage is situated immediately after Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist.  But that was over a month ago in January.  We’re still in Lent.  So why all this talk about baptism?

            This Lent is a microcosm of what happens to us after our baptism.  Just like with Jesus, as He was driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit after His baptism, so, too, after our baptism do we begin a time of wandering in the desert, guided by the Holy Spirit, waiting to come to the end of our penitential pilgrimage to the joys of the heavenly Kingdom. 

            After we are baptized, we have grace from God to follow him, which is why we often baptize children: because we know they need the grace so they can eventually make it out of the desert and into the oasis of heaven.  But let’s be honest, there are a number of times where, unlike Jesus, we fall to the temptations of Satan.  Still, our entire lives are trying to pass through the desert of a sinful world and make it to the oasis, the garden of heaven, after the example of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert.

            And, just like Jesus, who had angels ministering to him among the wild beasts, we, too have angels helping us on our way through this Valley of Tears.  Our post-baptismal time is not only a time of suffering and self-denial, but is also a time of joy as we celebrate happy occasions.  But, even with these happy occasions, the fact remains that we’re not at the destination yet, and that is the source of our sadness.  As St. Paul says, while we are in the body (here on earth), we are away from our eternal home (where our body will be free from all that limits us and drags us down). 

            So how do we make it through this desert?  How do we come to the oasis?  We progress in the desert as we progress in the spiritual life.  The more we say yes to God and no to sin, the further along we are.  Sometimes we’re like the Israelites, who were not far from the Promised Land, but who, because of sin, had to wander around a while because they lost their way by not trusting in God.  When we sin, we start walking away from God and away from heaven, and start walking to hell, which is exactly the place we don’t want to be. 

            So through our penitential practices, we’re trying to train the body to recognize the signs of approaching the Promised Land.  By denying ourselves good things, we train ourselves to recognize the One who is Goodness Himself, and from whom all things, which are good, get their goodness.  Through increased prayer, whether increasing the time with the Lord, or increasing the quality of time we spend with the Lord, we get directions for how to arrive quickly to that Promised Land and start receiving some of its goodness even here on earth.

            The good news is that Jesus has gone before us and blazed the trail for us through the desert.  If we follow His path, then we know we’ll arrive at the same place he did.  Of course, on that path is the cross, and some of us would rather avoid that.  But the only way to get to the resurrection is through the cross.  So if we want to share in the Paradise of Heaven, then we have to pass through the Desert of Suffering and unite it with Jesus’ own sufferings.  But, we’re not alone; we also have myriad of saints who can help us along the way, both by seeing where they went and how they arrived at heaven, as well as by their assistance through our prayers to them for their help in our own pilgrimage. 

            We, like the saints who help us, are called to help the catechumens as they prepare for baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist, and the candidates as they prepare to make their profession of faith, and are then confirmed and receive the Eucharist.  (At this Mass, we will send them to Bishop Boyea with our prayers as their desires for union with the Church are accepted by our local Good Shepherd).  In the back of the Church we have an opportunity to take a slip of paper with a name of a catechumen or candidate so that, as they prepare for full initiation, they know that we are supporting them as they prepare to join us on the straight and narrow road that baptism provides to the Kingdom. 

            Jesus Christ has shown us the way, because He is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.  During this Lenten season of penance, let’s remember and recommit ourselves to following His Way, so that we can pass through this desert, this Valley of Tears, and come to the Paradise promised to those who follow Him faithfully.