Include God in the Little Things

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    What do our hearts desire most?  Of course, sitting here, we probably would naturally say God.  But if we give time to that which is most important, how much time do we spend thinking about God?  I’m willing to guess that in an average weekday, your mind might focus on: what do I have going on today?; what am I going to make or have for lunch or dinner?; where do the kids need to be?; how much is gas?; what did President Trump say or tweet now?; when will the weekend be here?; does the grass need mowing?; am I going to get the parasite if I eat at Taco Bell?; why does Canada let it get so smoky?  I could go on.  But in any of those, were our thoughts directed toward God or not?  How much time did we spend thinking about God?  What does that say about God’s place in our life?
    All of those things are normal things to think about.  In some cases, you have a responsibility to think about those things.  You can’t ignore the need to feed your family and use an excuse that you were spending the day in prayer.  You can’t tell your bank that you didn’t have time to pay the mortgage because you were too busy giving God the time He should have.  So how do we both take care of our responsibilities and live in a world in which we have to make plans, but also make God the most important thing in our life: the treasure in the field or the pearls of great price?
    We make God the most important by getting in the habit of including God in all of those questions and considerations that happen in our daily life.  I’m not saying that we need to wait to hear a message from the heavens on what we should eat, but include God in the consideration: “God, what would be a good thing to have tonight for dinner?”  Or, “God, please help me remember all the practices I have to get my kids to and not forget them when practices end.”  Or, “God, I’ve got a lot going on today and this week.  Please help me to be patient when I am stressed out, and give me enough time to care for my family and my home.”  Or even, “God, please get me to the weekend before I snap!”  
    It seems like such a simple thing, but it’s a great way to show the importance that we give to God and include Him in our life.  God doesn’t feel needy for our friendship.  He is the source of all wisdom and wants to share that wisdom with us, as he promised Solomon.  God’s desire for us to include Him stems from His knowledge of how we operate the best and how we can not just survive by thrive and be saints.  Including God shows Him how much we want Him to be a part of our lives.
    I often use marriage as an analogy, and that works well here, too.  Imagine you never talk to your spouse about what you will cook for dinner, or when you will mow the lawn, or who will get the kids to and from practice, or how work went, or all those other daily things of life.  Your marriage probably wouldn’t be so great.  If your spouse only knows about the major things going on in life, but you tell the smaller things to someone else, you have inserted another person into your relationship who holds more importance to you than your spouse.  It doesn’t mean you can’t share that same information with anyone else, but there should be a priority in who knows what happens in your life, and your spouse shouldn’t be the last to know.
    [My dear parents, as you have Jack baptized today, you are committing to helping him develop his relationship with God.  In baptism, he will become a child of God, in addition to being your child.  And your role will be to help him to know how to love God and keep God as the most important part of his life.  This means teaching him to pray, that is, to speak to and listen to God on a daily basis, as well as learning what we believe and how we Catholics live.  But you are not alone.  You will have the assistance of Jack’s godmother, your family and friends, and your parish community to help you.  By your life and the choices you make, you will show Jack and his siblings whether God is important, and whether we live according to His will or our own.  This also requires communication with God to make sure that you are living up to the commitment you make today through baptism.]
    We all have a lot going on.  Whether we’re a young child, an adult, or a senior citizen, life can get busy and we can face numerous questions and choices throughout our day.  Don’t answer those questions alone; don’t make choices based solely on your wisdom.  Turn to God for His guidance; ask Him even about the little things in life.  God desires your good, and will show you the best way forward.  And even if He doesn’t seem to answer every little question, He loves that you involve Him and will give you ways of knowing His will.  Train your hearts to desire God above all else.  Practice speaking and listening to Him even about the small matters of life.  If you do, you will be prepared for the kingdom of heaven and eternal happiness with God.

Waiting...

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Modern society does not make waiting easier, though, for many, myself included, it already seems difficult enough.  If I order something on Amazon, not only can I track the package to see when they will deliver it, they even sometimes will show me where the driver is in the city.  On election night, too, it frustrated me that the results of States couldn’t be called immediately.  I wanted to know the results immediately, or shortly after, the polls closed.  But I had to wait.
    Unlike Amazon deliveries, and more like the recent elections, we don’t know when the end is coming.  We know Christ will return.  We know, as Daniel prophesied, that “those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.”  But we don’t know when.  Many have tried to read certain passages of Scripture and match them to current events to determine when Christ would return, but Christ Himself assures us, “‘of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’”  So what are we supposed to do?
    Well, we wait (thanks, Captain Obvious!).  But how do we wait?  We wait in joyful hope, but we wait as those awaiting the imminent return of the Master, waiting in such a way that we’re not caught off-guard.  What do I mean?  Don’t live in such a way that you think you have more time, because you never know.
    We do have a very young parish.  I would guess that the average age of parishioners is somewhere around 40-45.  And one of the downfalls of being young is thinking that we have more time.  Those who are more senior know that their days are limited, and the end is likely closer than the beginning.  So they tend to make decisions differently than those who think they have a long time.
    I think about when I was younger.  I know I’ve told this story before, but when I was old enough to be left at home, but still under the age of eighteen, my parents would often give me some sort of chore to do before they returned home, like washing the dishes, or sweeping the floor.  There were a few times where I neglected to do those chores earlier, and then remembered that I had not done what they had asked me to do as the car started down the driveway.  In case you’re wondering, that’s not the way we should approach the return of Christ.
    Living as disciples should be something that pervades all our life.  It’s not a part-time job, or a chore to accomplish at the last minute, or a hobby.  It’s a relationship with Christ, that should define who we are, much like marriage defines a man or a woman who is married.  The couple who treats their relationship like a part-time job, or a chore, or even an enjoyable hobby, does not stay together for long.  Instead, their marriage affects their work, their choices, their vacation plans, and all of what they do.  It may not be explicit, but it at least implicitly modifies all their life.  
    And if that is how we live as Catholics, then whenever the end comes, it will not catch us off-guard.  When Christ returns in glory, and He raises all the dead for the universal judgement, we will find it the consummation of the way we have lived our lives, rather than a shock and awe event.  It will be like the husband who has served overseas in the military for years, who finally gets to see his wife when he returns home.  They will hardly be able to contain their joy at reuniting after those long days, months, and years.  Their days, months, and years of remaining faithful to each other; of not living like a single person, though they were separated from their spouse; of not going out to the bars at times because the temptation to stray would prove too strong; of choosing to send and email home rather than playing cards with the guys would all prove worth it, because they remained faithful, even when it was difficult.
    Emilio, as we welcome you today into the Catholic Church, you are not done.  Yes, you don’t have to meet with Amanda each week to help discern if you are ready to join us.  Yes, you will have access to the entire sacramental life of the Church from this day on, and not only be joined to us through Holy Baptism.  But you are beginning a new part of life where Christ desires and deserves your fidelity.  Your relationship with Him should guide how you work, how you invest, your friendships and relationships, your actives, your vacations, and all of life, just like the same should be true for all those here who are already Catholics.  But, because you are joining with us, you have all the aides that Christ has provided through His Holy Church to make sure that you are living for Him, and stand ready for His return.  We rejoice with you today, but we also recommit ourselves as we help you live like a Catholic each day until the return of Christ.
    Because we know neither the day nor the hour.  We don’t know when St. Michael will begin the final battle, when the trumpet will sound, when the angels will gather the elect from the four corners of the world.  But we do know that, if we are doing our best to stay faithful to the relationship we have with Christ, then, as the Protestant hymn says, “what a day of rejoicing that will be!”

Sesame Street Readings

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

    As a young child I remember a segment of “Sesame Street” that was called “One of these things.”  The point was to identify things that didn’t belong together before the jingle ended.  It speaks to the effectiveness of the jingle that, all these years later, I can still sing the tune and the words in my head without much effort.
    We might think, as we heard the three main readings today, that one of these things is not like the other, and one of these things just doesn’t belong.  Our first reading and Gospel focus on whether or not the people stay committed to God, while the second reading has a slightly different focus, to say the least.  And frankly, when the lectionary was revised after the Second Vatican Council, the principle was that the first reading and the Gospel would be related, while the second reading, usually from an epistle of St. Paul, would be more of a continuous reading, a lectio continua, from the non-Gospel New Testament works.
    But they do all belong together.  And it’s my job to help you see how that applies, even with this longer second reading that probably does not fall well on the ears of modern couples.  The first unifying aspect to all three readings is that all three describe realities that, at one time or another, would be difficult to accept.  In the first reading, Joshua has led the people into the Promised Land after Moses died.  They were finally occupying the lands, but remnants of pagan nations who worshiped false gods still remained to be cast out.  Joshua knew, from his experience since the Exodus, that this people did not always remain faithful to God, and would often abandon God when things got difficult.  So he encourages them to stay with God.  
    In the Gospel, Jesus having taught the people that they have to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have eternal life, most of the disciples abandon Him.  They struggle to understand this drastic teaching, which Jesus never waters down or modifies to sound easier, and so they leave.  Finally, Jesus turns to the Twelve, His closest friends, and asks them if they will stay with Him or abandon Him.
    In the second reading, probably most people in the time of St. Paul did not find it strange that St. Paul encouraged wives to be subordinate to their husbands, but it probably was striking that husbands were to love their wives “as Christ loved the church.”  And even if it all strikes us differently, St. Paul teaches that this isn’t simply something that is determined by cultural norms, but is “in reference to Christ and the church.”  
    Secondly, all of the readings remind us of who we should be when it comes to God.  We are the people God chose as His own, who works wonders and signs for us, and brings us from slavery to sin into the promised land of freedom of grace.  But He is God, and we are not.  We don’t get to decide which of the teachings that God revealed we maintain, and which of the teachings God revealed we jettison because it’s hard or seems odd.  We all are the bride, and Christ is our head, to whom we need to be subordinate.  When God reveals the way we are to live, just like He revealed the Ten Commandments to the Chosen People, which included Joshua; just like when He revealed the teaching on the Eucharist, that it truly is His Flesh and Blood which give us eternal life; just like when He revealed that we are to “be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ,” and that wives are to “be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord,” and husbands are to “love your wives as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her,”; we cannot simply pick and choose.  God’s word is life, and a rejection of some of His teaching is a rejection of some of the fullness of life that God wants for us.
    Having said that, God allows us our freedom.  Not long after the people pledged to serve God in the Promised Land, they abandoned Him and served other gods.  They found it didn’t work out so well, as other nations invaded and oppressed them, but God allowed them to exercise their free will, even as He constantly called them back to Himself.  In the Gospel, Jesus didn’t run after the people and given them a secondary teaching on the Eucharist to help them understand it in different ways.  He gave them the teaching they needed, and they either abandoned Him (most disciples) or stayed with Him (the Apostles and a few others).  Jesus told them how they could have eternal life within them, and they had to choose whether they wanted it or not.  And even with marriage, God does not force His way upon couples.  Couples can do the power struggle thing where each tries to be the most important, or tries to make everything about him or herself, probably resulting in an unhappy marriage or even divorce.  Or they can accept Christ’s teaching that they need to live for the other, and not be so concerned about their own will and their own desires, and find a happier marriage.  God reveals what will make us happy and give us new life, but we are free to accept or reject that.
    Sometimes things don’t seem related.  Or we like the Jesus who says, “‘I am the bread of life,’” but don’t want to hear that we can’t worship other gods, or that marriage has a particular meaning and way of being lived out that brings about grace.  But it’s the same God who reveals all ways in which we are to follow Him, as He lovingly lets us choose to follow Him, or to choose other gods who bring upon us slavery, error, and unhappiness.  As for me, I know that God has the words of eternal life, so there is no where else to go.  As for me, I will serve the Lord.

The Extended Plan

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  In college seminary on an occasional Friday night my brother seminarians and I would pull out the game of Risk, especially if we knew we had a lot of time and didn’t have to get up early the next morning.  I was never particularly good at Risk.  I would hold my own for a little while, but usually tried stretching my armies too much, which made them vulnerable to attack, and then other armies would come and wipe them out.  I usually liked starting with Australia, but then when I tried to attack different parts of Asia, it wouldn’t work our well for me.  

St. Paul

    St. Paul in the epistle today outlines in a very general sense the plan of God for his re-conquest of humanity.  In our first parents, Adam and Eve, humanity had been taken captive by the devil and his lies.  But God, not wanting us to stay prisoners to sin and death, developed a plan to win us back.  St. Paul highlights Abraham and Moses (whom he references by mentioning the law), culminating in the Incarnation of the Lord.  
    The Apostle writes that God called Abraham and promised prosperity for his seed, which, if only reading the Old Testament, one would think applies to Isaac, but in fact, St. Paul argues, applies to Christ, at least in the fullness of God’s revelation.  Now, he acknowledges another covenant, that of the Law, made through the mediator, Moses.  But St. Paul writes that the second covenant does not annul the first, the law does not cancel out the promise, because the promise is greater than the law.  But all of it is fulfilled in Christ, who fulfills God’s promise and fulfills even the law, so that we might no longer be under the reign of sin, but be heirs of the promise made to Abraham through our union with Christ, the son of Abraham in Christ’s human nature.  
    We see, then, that God sometimes takes a very long view of things, at least from our finite, temporal reality.  Since God is present in all times at once, it’s not a long view, but an eternal present.  We know this in salvation: Abraham is commonly thought to have lived around the year 2,000 BC.  The law came some four hundred and so years after that.  And Christ came around 2,000 years after Abraham.  But God, not infringing upon our free will, yet guiding history towards its climax in the Incarnation, sought to bring salvation to the creatures He had made in His image and likeness.  
    But God doesn’t only work that way with salvation history on the macro scale.  He also at times works that way in our lives.  Now, we don’t have 2,000 years to wait, but we can be patient with the time that God does allow things to work out in our lives, adjusting and compensating for our free will.  For most married couples, we ask them to have a period of nine or so months between their engagement and their wedding date.  I know that for couples, this seems like a never-ending time.  But this allows them to continue to deepen their relationship, and continue to learn how to sacrifice their own wills for the good of the other.  
    Or think about the nine months that a mother carries an infant in her womb.  Especially in that last trimester, I’ve known many moms who feel like the child is never going to leave her body.  But that period of waiting allows the child to develop, little by little, so that, at the appropriate time, the child can experience its life outside of the womb.
    For me, as a seminarian, I thought I was never going to make it to ordination.  I have 8 years of seminary, and that was the short way (if I would have gone to a secular college, then into seminary, I would have had four years of college, at least, and then two years of philosophy, and then four years of theology, so at least 10 years, if not more).  But my time in seminary proved invaluable in teaching me more about prayer, about how the Lord works, about growing in virtue, about what the Church teaches, about how to celebrate the sacraments, about the promise of celibacy made at diaconate ordination, etc.  I didn’t always enjoy seminary, but I believe the length helped me to grow in love with the Lord, to get to know Him and His Church better, and to discern if I could live a celibate life.
    But the “extended plan,” if you will, is not just about vocation.  It also applies in our hopes for our professional or social lives, travel plans, etc.  God works with us through our daily lives, even the small choices we make, to try to bring about our salvation with our cooperation.  He puts us in some situations that we think we will never make it through, and He saves us from some situations that we think we might want, but which would draw us farther away from Him.  We’re not always grateful for those times, but they do give us the opportunity to be the people God wants us to be for our own happiness and salvation.
    As country songs are three chords and the truth, there’s a good country song that references this reality: “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks.  In the song, the artist references a girl with whom he was smitten in high school, that he begged God would allow them to get married and spend a lifetime together.  But God didn’t answer his prayers the way he wanted.  And years later, at a football game with the woman he did marry, as he sees that high school crush again, he realizes that he wouldn’t have been happy marrying his originally-desired woman.  And so he thanks God for unanswered prayers, and sings that “just because He may not answer, doesn’t mean He don’t care,” because “some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”  
    We can find it difficult to be patient with God’s plans, especially when we don’t think they’re for our good.  But God always works for our salvation, and sometimes works out that plan over weeks, months, years, centuries, and even millennia.  His strategy is always the best, and I pray that we can all trust in the loving, merciful, and providential will of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

The Holy Spirit Wants...

Solemnity of Pentecost

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]. When it comes to the different Persons of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit is the one with whom most Catholics are probably least familiar.  We learn much about the Father through the Old Testament and from Jesus, who is the revelation of the Father.  Christ, while revealing the Father, also helps us to know Him better through the Gospels.  But then He ascends into heaven, and leaves us the Holy Spirit, who works in the Church.
    For our part, we are probably used to invoking the Holy Spirit when we have an instinct to do something or not do something.  And certainly, the Holy Spirit guides our actions, whether sought out or avoided.  But sometimes it’s also simply our instincts pushing us towards or away from something.  And do you ever notice that every group seems to claim the support of the Holy Spirit?  Both those who advocate teachings contrary to the faith, like women’s ordination, as well as those who hold to the faith revealed to us by Christ will argue from the authority of the Holy Spirit that their course of action is what God wants.  
    Some see in the Gospel according to John, as John and Peter run to the empty tomb at the instigation of Mary Magdalene, a distinction between the hierarchical nature of the Church (represented by Peter, our first pope) and the charismatic nature of the Church (represented by John, the one loved by the Lord).  John (charism) arrives at the tomb first, but waits for Peter (hierarchy) to go in.  Throughout the history of the Church, these two groups have oscillated back and forth for more influence.  The Second Vatican Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, states, “The Church, which the Spirit guides in the way of all truth and which He unifies in communion and in works of ministry, He both equips and directs with hierarchical and charismatic gifts.”  In other words, both the hierarchical and the charismatic are gifts of the Holy Spirit, all given for the salvation of souls.
    I mention this because the Holy Spirit is often invoked by some for pushing the Church to new realities, while others invoke the Holy Spirit as the one who brings order to chaos.  In reality, both are right: the Holy Spirit pushes us beyond our comfort zone, but also orders and unifies all of creation.  We see this in the Upper Room scene at Pentecost.  On the one hand, the Holy Spirit took those who probably knew only Aramaic, Hebrew, and possibly common Greek, to those who proclaimed the Gospel so that everyone present, from many different parts of the Roman Empire, could understand the proclamation of the Gospel in their own tongues.  The Holy Spirit pushed the disciples out of the comfort of the Upper Room, and eventually to lands as far as India to the east, down to North Africa and Egypt, over to Rome, and lands in-between.  It helped the Apostles discern that non-Jews could become members of the nascent Church without becoming Jewish and being circumcised.  
    On the other hand, the message that the disciples proclaimed was the one Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one message of salvation.  As the disciples traveled far and wide, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church expanded its influence, and began to rid the world of the worship of demons in the pagan religions.  The Holy Spirit united all those who wanted to follow the Lord to be united in faith and morals, as discerned by the Apostles and their successors.  
    Even before that, the Holy Spirit is the one who spoke through the prophets, who were often a bit…eccentric.  The prophets were often the outcasts of society, because they called society from its rejection of God back to fidelity.  The Holy Spirit inspired King David to dance with abandon before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought into Jerusalem, which dancing David’s wife Michal mocked because it made David look too much like the common people.
    But the Holy Spirit also took the primordial chaos and ordered it into light and darkness, land and sea, different forms of animals, and was given to our first parents to give them the breath of life.  The Holy Spirit guided sacred authors to compose literary works to communicate God’s saving will, and guided the bishops to choose which works were, in fact inspired by the Holy Spirit, and which were simply the works of man that also told stories that involved God.  
    In our own lives, too, the Holy Spirit often pushes us beyond our comfort zone.  He fills us to continue the proclamation of salvation through Christ.  He sometimes puts us in situations we never expected, sometimes even dangerous situations.  But, as our Advocate, He pleads our cause and gives us words to respond to our attackers, as He did for St. Stephen.  
    But as He pushes us to new realities, He does so with the continuity of what has come before.  The Holy Spirit deepens our understanding of what God desires for His people, but without contradicting what came before.  For example: the Holy Spirit has revealed that the Church is meant to be led by the Pope, the Vicar of Christ and successor of St. Peter.  That is a truth that can never be rejected, without rejecting what the Holy Spirit has revealed.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit can guide the Pope to understand how to exercise that power in new ways.  The Holy Spirit has revealed that marriage is between one man and one woman for life.  That can never change.  But the Holy Spirit can give us new guidance on how to share that truth with those who have gone through a divorce, or those who struggle with same-sex attraction.  
    [Joshua and Halley: the Holy Spirit has led you here to this day when you will receive the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation.  You have come by different paths, but have come to this union of faith in what the Holy Spirit has revealed through the Church and her sacred teaching office.  The Holy Spirit will give you new ways to proclaim that one faith, and to witness to the life of Christ from this point on, and into the future, especially as you prepare for Holy Matrimony.  Be open to the Holy Spirit pushing you to spread the faith, but also stay faithful to that faith as revealed to us by God through His Church, which is still one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.]
    If we feel that the Holy Spirit is only keeping us in our “safe spaces,” then we are probably missing out on one aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit.  If we feel that the Holy Spirit is going against what has been taught infallibly before, then it’s not the Holy Spirit to whom we are listening.  Each of us will have different ways that the Holy Spirit operates in us.  No matter what, may we be open to the Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son is God, for ever and ever.  Amen. 

What Heaven Requires

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

    There are definitely a few extended family members of mine that think, quite incorrectly, that just because I am a priest and they are related to me, they will automatically go to heaven.  Sometimes people joke about that, but I’m pretty sure some of my extended family members are quite serious.
    There are also probably large amounts of people who think that, as long as you’re not Hitler or Stalin, then you can go to heaven, too.  We presume Hell is only for those who are the worst of the worst, and that you have to do something horribly evil even to be considered for Hell.  In contrast to that, Jesus says in today’s Gospel that “many…will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” to go through the narrow gate.  It’s not even enough to have dined with Jesus and listen to His teaching.  There is something more that is required. 
    We honestly don’t know much about what exactly it will take for us to go to heaven.  Jesus didn’t give us a list to check off or leave blank, and if we get everything done, and don’t do any of the things on the naughty list, then we’ll get in.  We do know that the ordinary way of preparing to go to heaven is through baptism.  But even that is simply a beginning to our salvation, not the end.  We also know that part of our judgment is how we treated Jesus by the way we treated the least of His brothers and sisters (see Matthew 25, and the parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus).  But even in those accounts, there is surprise: surprise by those who cared for Jesus when He was in need; surprise by those who didn’t care for Jesus when He was is need; surprise by the Rich Man who enjoyed a pleasant life on earth, but then ended up in Hell. 
    I think part of our issue is that we often view heaven like becoming an Eagle Scout: if I get all the right merit badges by the time I die, then God has to give me the reward.  Instead, I believe the Lord, in today’s Gospel, is inviting us to view our path to heaven in a similar way to a marriage.
    After all, a good, happy, and holy marriage is not about doing this and not doing that.  Certainly there are things you should do, and things you shouldn’t do.  Do remember your anniversary and your spouse’s birthday; don’t have an affair.  Do things that your spouse will appreciate; don’t verbally or physically abuse your spouse.  Do things that make your spouse’s life easier and more enjoyable; don’t treat your spouse like you would treat a maid or butler.  And the list goes on. 
    But, the loving husband (the image that comes easiest to me as a guy; but ladies, just flip it around for yourselves as a loving wife) isn’t checking-off the boxes of things that need to be done.  He anticipates his beloved’s needs and wants, and does his best to fulfill them.  He prioritizes his wife above everything other than God, and shows that priority by the way he works, the way he takes time off, the words he says to her, the things he does for her, the way he loves their children, etc.  The couple who has been happily married for 50 years didn’t get there by only having a great wedding and celebration, or only doing the things that were the bare minimum for the relationship.  The happily married couple was always looking for new ways to grow in their love for each other and express it in word and deed.
    Is that how we view our relationship with God?  Because heaven is simply being with God forever, and God will not force us to be with Him if we don’t want to be.  If we’re not in love with God, then we may find the teaching that skipping Mass without a good reason (and no, sports is not a good reason) could lead you to Hell very difficult.  But if we love God, we work the rest of our day, even our recreation, around Him, because we want to spend time with Him.  If we’re not in love with God, then following the Church’s teaching to not use artificial contraception is going to seem “out of touch.”  But if we love God, we see that the sexual act has a meaning given to it by God, and when we go against that meaning, we do not express love in the way God wants us to express it. 
    The key that Jesus gives us today, it seems to me, on how to get to heaven is precisely about if we showed our love for Him by following Him.  It wasn’t simply about being the Chosen People; people “from the east and the west and from the north and the south” would be entering the kingdom of God because they fell in love with God and made Him the most important part of their life.  I think Jesus would say to us that it’s not simply about being a baptized Catholic, or going through the motions of what our faith requires (hearing the teachings of Jesus, getting the right sacraments, and making sure to avoid the big sins).  It’s about being in love with Him and letting that love be manifest by the choices we make in our home, in our office, in our recreation, in our voting, and in every aspect of our life.  Listen to the words of the Letter to the Hebrews: “Make straight paths for your feet.”  Set out for heaven, not as a task to be accomplished with certain actions to be avoided, but as the final destination of a heart transformed by the love of God which seeks to grow ever more deeply in love with the One who first loved us.

Being Transfigured

  [The parts in Italics were used only at the Extraordinary Form Mass]

Second Sunday of/in Lent
    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]. When I talk about going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I talk about how visiting the Holy Land makes it so that you never read the Gospel the same way, because you see in your mind the places where these things happened.  This is certainly true for the Transfiguration.  I remember the first time I went to the Holy Land, as a seminarian.  We stayed with the Franciscan friars at the top of Mt. Tabor.  To get up there, there are shuttles you have to take for large groups; the big travel busses can’t handle the snake-back roads.  While waiting for the shuttle, I decided I was going to climb up the mountain, and hopefully save some time.  So, with my Birkenstock sandals on, on a warm, May day, I started walking up the side of Mt. Tabor.  It was not as easy as I thought, with all the thorns and bushes.  Sometimes the stones were a little loose, and I lost my footing.  But I made it to the top, quite sweaty and hot, probably a little dehydrated, but proud at my accomplishment.

    I had another experience at Mt. Tabor, as I went inside the church.  There is a beautiful mosaic of the transfiguration in the apse of the church, and as I was praying, the sun shone just perfectly so that it hit the image of Jesus, and illumined Him.  I remember thinking that this must have been something like the apostles saw when our Lord was transfigured.  Combining those two days, it’s even more amazing when Christ was transfigured, as He and the apostles would also have likely been hot and sweaty, and yet Christ’s clothes became as white as light.
    That’s all well and good to understand some very realistic background, but what, we may ask, does the Transfiguration have to do with us?  How does the Transfiguration change my life?  Well, as with so many aspects of our Lord’s life, what He showed us is what He desires to happen to us.  We are supposed to be transfigured as well.  We are supposed to go from earthly dirty, sweaty, and tired, to clean, bright, and glorified.
    That process started for us in baptism.  At our baptism, the voice of the Father may not have been heard, but He said that we are His beloved.  We became configured to Christ for the first time (but hopefully, not the last!).  And from that moment on, we were destined for glory, the glory that Christ shone forth as a foretaste at the Transfiguration.  We call this divinization, or deification.
    God wants us to be like Him.  We cannot be the same nature of God (as we are limited and He is infinite), but He wants us to be transformed so that we are images of Him.  This is the whole idea of the Christian life.  From baptism until death, we are called to become more and more like Christ, the new Adam, and less and less like the first Adam.  St. Paul will talk about this using the terms “old man” and “new man.”  
    How does this happen?  Some of it happens through the sacraments.  I already mentioned baptism, but the Sacrament of Penance helps us be more like God through having our fallen actions (sins) washed away by the Blood of Christ.  Confirmation empowers us to act like Christ in public.  The Eucharist is meant to transform us from the inside out, so that as we receive Christ in the Eucharist, we become more like Him in what we do because we have Him inside us.    Marriage helps us to live for the other, as Christ did for His Bride, the Church.  Holy Orders allows one to act in the name and person of Christ the Head.  Anointing of the Sick strengthens us in illness to trust in God, even in difficult circumstances.  So when we receive the sacraments, it’s not meant to be coming up to receive some thing, like a prize for the just, but is meant to be a way of receiving God so that we can become more like God.  Which is why those in mortal sin have to go to confession first, because, among other reasons, you cannot become like God if you have separated yourself from Him.  Each time we receive sacramental grace, God wants us to utilize that grace to act more like Him in daily life.  
    Also, askesis, asceticism, is meant to help us be more like God.  We say no to things that we don’t need to rely more on the One whom we really need: God.  Especially in Lent, it can be easy to see penitential practices we do as something that we’re required to do, but only extrinsic practices.  Instead, in the Catholic spiritual tradition, our penitential practices are the practical ways that we say no to our fallen nature, and yes to Christ’s divine nature.  Do we see our Lenten penances that way?  Did we choose penances that will help us transform into the people God wants us to be, people more like Himself?  Or is it just “I gave up chocolate or beer for Lent because I would like to lose weight, but I’m going to go right back to it, and maybe even more, once Easter comes.”  It is so easy to pick a penance, and not get to the deeper reality of that penance, or what the penance is supposed to do.  
    Daily prayer is also a great means of divinization or deification.  Our Lord was always in contact with His heavenly Father, and would take specific time away from His preaching and miracles to be alone in prayer.  Is prayer just something that we check off to get it done for the day?  Or do we see it as our privileged time of speaking to and listening to the Father, so that He can change us to be more like Christ?      [Lastly, St. Paul in today’s epistle talks about how even the gift of our sexuality is meant to be transfigured by Christ.  Specifically, he talks about how to find a spouse in a Christian manner, not a pagan manner.  The Christian seeks someone whom they can help go to heaven, not just someone who looks good and satisfies bodily desires and lust.  In Christian marriage, personal happiness is not the goal; the holiness and happiness of the other is the goal.  Again, this is different from a pagan or secular point of view, which views the other as a means to the end of personal pleasure.  The way that we utilize our God-given gift of sexuality changes because of our relationship with Christ, whether we are single, married, in consecrated life, or ordained.  God wants to divinize all of us, not just parts of us.]
    Life is tiring, sweaty, and sometimes a hot mess.  We may always feel like we’re climbing, but never reaching the top of the mountain.  But if we allow God’s grace to be active in us; if we are open to the sacramental graces that we receive on such a regular basis; if we do penances that help us die to our old, fallen self; if we take time to really speak our heart to God and listen for what His heart says to us, then we will arrive at the top of the mountain, and find that God has transfigured us as well, to be a reflection of the glory of His Son, [who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is Lord, for ever and ever.  Amen.] 

From the Natural to the Supernatural

 Second Sunday after Epiphany

Sanctuary of the Church in Cana

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  It is no accident that our Lord’s first miracle–or sign, as St. John calls it–is at a wedding.  When we talk about vocations, we often think of the call to priesthood or religious life, and those are certainly beautiful vocations that show forth for us the beauty of the heavenly life, even while here on earth.  But holy matrimony is also a beautiful vocation, and our Lord not only blessed a wedding with His presence, but also made sure that the bride and the groom were not embarrassed by running out of wine.  
    The idea of a marriage permeates the Old Testament.  We start salvation history with Adam and Eve, the first husband and wife.  The prophets use the image of a husband and wife to describe God and His relationship with Israel.  The prophet Ezekiel in particular talks about choosing Israel, though she was left to die on the side of the road, and making her His own.  But, Ezekiel points out, Israel was unfaithful, and sought other lovers who had not cared for her.  Hosea, too, is called to take a wife, but his wife is a harlot, which God uses to show Israel’s infidelity to Him.  But, God takes Israel back, despite her infidelity, and continues to love her.  The Song of Songs, Jewish romantic poetry, also talks about the love between a woman and a man, and the Church Fathers see in this book the love between God and His People.  
    I preached at Christmas of how, in Christ, divinity was wedded to humanity, never to be divorced, and eternity was wedded to time.  So as we continue to unpack the mystery of Christmas and Epiphany, it is fitting that we look to the wedding at Cana.
    And what we see is that Christ makes every wedding better.  Symbolically, we see this in the water that becomes wine.  Christ takes what is natural (water) and raises it to the level of the supernatural (wine).  This is certainly true of marriage.  Marriage is a natural institution.  Many people who are not Catholic, or not even baptized, get married, and as long as there are no impediments to marriage, the Church sees these marriages as valid.  But marriages between the baptized are raised to a supernatural level and become sacraments–efficacious signs of God’s grace, based in the Paschal Mystery, which call for and cause grace.  And because of the supernatural dignity of marriages between the baptized, they need to happen in a church building, as the place where God dwells in a particular way with us.  In fact, when a Catholic does not get married in a church, according to the rites of the Church (unless the bishop gives permission), that marriage does not take place, and a couple would be living in the state of fornication, until they remedied their situation in the Church.
    Most of you are married or will become married at some point.  Yours is not a second-rate vocation, but a beautiful, sacramental call to witness the love that Christ has for His Church.  You not only receive God’s grace to live in a marriage that is faithful, lifelong, for each other’s good, and open to children, but by living in such a way, actually become a conduit of God’s grace to the world, in a similar way as water that communicates God’s grace in the sacrament of baptism.  By living as husband and wife according to God’s plan, God’s grace can flow through you.  This is the beauty of marriage, the wine that was transformed from the water of natural marriage.
    Living the vocation of marriage is not always easy.  And that is why the presence of Christ, not only at the wedding but throughout the entire marriage, is so necessary.  It’s not enough to invite Jesus, his Blessed Mother, and disciples to the wedding.  They want to be a part of your entire married life.  So each day, invite them by prayer to be a part of your married life.  Whenever possible, pray together as a couple.      I know a priest who told a story about his mom and his dad.  This priest said that, when the door to mom and dad’s bedroom was closed at night, no one was to enter, and, as one of many children, he later could guess why this rule existed.  But when he was a young child, he broke the rule once, and peeked in to see mom and dad after he was supposed to be in bed.  When he looked in through the crack in the door, he saw his parents, kneeling together at the side of the bed, praying the rosary together.  What a beautiful witness of inviting our Lord and Lady to the marriage!  But whatever the prayer, whether a full rosary, or a decade, or maybe simply some brief prayers from memory or from the heart, it is a way to help you be the vehicle of God’s grace that marriage is meant to be.
    But both for married and non-married people, Christ wants to make life better for all, and does so through those who are united to Christ in baptism.  When we are living to the call of our baptism, we fulfill what St. Paul talked about in the epistle.  When we are living as Christians, we are called to hate that which is evil, and cling to that which is good.  We are called to love each other with mutual affection, and honor each other.  We serve the Lord through rejoicing in hope, being patient in trials, and persevering in prayer.  When we follow the Lord, we are able to increase the natural joys with the supernatural joy of Christ.  When we follow the Lord, we are able to weep with those who are sad, but help them to see that God’s plan, even if not clear, and even when it includes the allowance of suffering, leads to a glory that cannot be compared with any earthly happiness.  We, too, are called to continue that presence of Christ, and help change the natural into the supernatural.  Maybe we won’t change water into wine (a gift that many of us would like to have, I’m sure), but will do greater signs than changing the substance of a liquid, by convincing sinners to be saints, and storming heaven with those who want the salvation that Christ offers.
    Christ is not satisfied with the natural good that we experience.  He draws us through passing things to the things that endure forever.  He lifts up, perfects, and transforms what is naturally good to make it supernaturally good.  And that is no truer than in the Eucharist, the bread that becomes the Body of Christ and the wine that becomes the Blood of Christ.  Through our worthy reception, may we be drawn into that to which marriage points, the eternal union of the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

A Cosmic Wedding

 Nativity of the Lord–During the Day/Third Mass (EF)
    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]  When it comes to weddings, priests have different opinions.  Some priests are not the biggest fans, especially of late, because all sorts of wedding ideas (most of which are foreign to the Catholic Rite of Marriage) have sprung up which (usually) the bride wants, or, from time to time, the parents (again, usually) of the bride can be very…involved in weddings.  While those things are still true, I find that I love weddings.  I love the joy of a couple coming together to commit themselves to each other and to God, the celebratory nature of a wedding, and the smiles that weddings bring to families and friends.
 

   Today as we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate a cosmic wedding, unlike any other wedding that came before, or any that would come after.  The music for the wedding is heavenly.  And the parents involved are anything but a problem.  As we come together for Christmas, we celebrate the wedding of heaven and earth, and the wedding of time and eternity.  Both are joined so as to never be separated again, and both are reasons for joy, celebration, and smiles.
    In Christ, heaven is forever wedded to earth.  Especially at Christmas, we often focus primarily on the human nature of Jesus, because that was something new that happened at the first Christmas.  At the first Christmas, we learned (eventually) that God and humanity could be joined together, and the God who was wholly clouded in mystery could now be seen face to face on earth.  We think about the shepherds who came to see Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child.  We think about the cave (or manger) where Christ was born, the animals that were gathered round Him, and what was happening on earth.  
    But our readings today also help focus us on the eternal.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews, traditionally St. Paul, talks about our Lord as the one through whom the entire universe was made, and the refulgence of the glory of God.  St. Paul emphasizes Christ’s divine nature and his superiority even to the angels.  And St. John begins his gospel account with the eternal nature of the Word, the Logos, who was with God in the beginning, and is God Himself.  While what we looked upon at Christmas is a little baby, what we actually saw was both God who is fragile and God who is omnipotent; the tiny child and the Lord of Hosts.

   Both natures, human and divine, are married in Christ, and, like marriage itself, what God has joined cannot be divided.  In the words of St. Athanasius, the great Doctor of the Church from Alexandria, God became man so that man might become God.  God took on our fallen human nature, so that we, in Christ, could be raised to the glory of the divine nature of God, not by substance but by adoption.  The glory of this day is that we have a savior who is going to save us from sin and death, and the darkness of the world is fading, even as the dark days of winter start to grow lighter.
    But in Christ, we also have the wedding of time and eternity.  In the Incarnation, we can see God, and know when He is (in Jesus) in one place, and not another.  He humbles Himself and subjects Himself to time and limits.  But the same God is outside time, seeing all time at once, and remaining the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”  And because of Christ, that connection remains forever, again, never divorced as a union founded in God.
    And that is precisely what is happening in this Mass, as well.  Each Mass is a little Easter, but we might also say that it is a little Christmas, inasmuch as divinity is united to humanity, and eternity is joined to time.  As I say the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, and as the Holy Spirit descends upon the bread and wine and transforms it into the Body and Blood of Christ, heaven comes down to earth, and is united in the Eucharistic species.  Christ, once more, is born for us, and is both fragile in our hands and on our tongues, without losing any of His power and authority.  As we enter into this Mass, we keep one foot in time (because we cannot leave this world and enter the next on our own), but we also put one foot into eternity, because we participate in the eternal offering of Christ at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  
    The beauty and otherworldly-ness of the Mass is on purpose.  We are not supposed to feel like we are at our home on the couch.  The music is not supposed to be of this world.  The smoke of the incense and the sound of the bells, and the unique words and language that are used are all meant to remind us that we stand at the antechamber of heaven, with the veil separating the two pulled back ever so slightly so that both can meet.  What we engage in at this Mass, and every Mass, is the wedding feast of the Lamb of God, where heaven and earth, eternity and time are joined together for the praise of God and for our benefit.  That is what you get to participate in (not merely watch, but actively engage in) when you come to Mass and join in the prayers, whether audibly or silently.  That is what you miss out on when you don’t come to Mass: the biggest wedding of the year, made accessible each day for anyone invited to the wedding.
    This wedding of heaven and earth and time and eternity make it possible for us to love the things of heaven, because we are drawn to them through the things of earth.  Through Christ’s humanity we are able to love His divinity.  Through what we experience with our senses, we encounter a world that is beyond anything we could ever see, hear, smell, touch, or taste.  As we worship with our voices on earth, we are joined by the voices of all the angels and saints in heaven.  That is a wedding worth attending!  That is the truest experience of joy, celebration, and smiles!!  [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.]
   

"Mawwiadge"

 Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
 

The "Impressive Clergyman"

   As a child of the ‘80s, every time I hear the word marriage, I think of the scene from “The Princess Bride” where the “Impressive Clergyman” (that’s the name given him in the credits) is uniting Princess Buttercup to Prince Humperdinck in marriage.  It’s one of the great scenes in a movie that is filled with them.
    But marriage is quite a serious business.  It’s serious business because it’s so beautiful, and we take extra care with those things that are so precious.  I may not care about the paper plate, or even the usual dinner plate that I use for eating, but I take really good care of the fine china that I use.  
    At an Orthodox wedding that I attended at the end of August in Traverse City, the Orthodox priest said that God was creating something new at the wedding, as the couple began their married life together.  Our Catholic understanding of marriage and the Orthodox understanding of marriage are slightly different, but I thought that was a beautiful image of what happens at a wedding: the two become one; something new, a family is created that never existed before.  God, in His love, creates, just as He created in the Garden of Eden.  
    This new creation is meant to be an unbreakable bond, as were Adam and Eve.  They were the perfect helpers for each other.  No other could be a perfect helper: only the woman for the man, and the man for the woman.  And that is part of why Catholic cannot accept homosexual so-called marriage, as Pope Francis recently reaffirmed.  In Adam and Eve we see the original plan for marriage, which is itself a creation by God.  And since God created it, no other, not even a government, can change what God created.  
    This also goes to the indissolubility of the marriage, that was noted even in the Book of Genesis, and reaffirmed by Jesus Himself in our Gospel today.  Because God has created something that is new, because the two are no longer two, but one flesh, no human being can separate that which God has joined.  And so Jesus teaches that if a man were to divorce his wife, or the wife to divorce her husband, and either of them were to remarry, they would be committing adultery.  
    This seems harsh.  I am willing to bet that we all, in our families, have couples who have divorced.  Sometimes we see that the marriage is very unhappy, and sometimes one or both spouses can even be abusive towards each other, in words and, sadly, sometimes even with physical violence.  Certainly, we would say, God does not want the couple to remain together and risk emotional and physical pain, and sometimes even death.
    In those circumstances where a couple cannot (and sometimes should not) remain together, the Church offers the option of separation, where the couple remains married, but has no common life together.  Or, the Church offers the possibility, where appropriate, of a Declaration of Invalidity, and annulment, that looks at the marriage to see if one of the necessary parts of marriage was absent from the beginning, even if it looked like it was there at the time.
    But this also reminds us of the importance of preparing for marriage.  When a society, as a basic part of its culture, helps men and women understand how to love for each other, care for each other, support each other, and promote each other’s dignity, marriage prep is, we might say, something in the water.  But in our current times, that’s not the case.  The scourge of pornography affects men and women across the board, and instills in those who use it the idea that the other simply exists for use and sexual gratification.  Our digital age, too, does not help people develop true friendships, but makes each person easily jettisoned the minute they challenge an opinion we have as we unfriend and unfollow that person.  And even our consumerist mentality creeps into marriage, as we throw away things that don’t work, rather than working on fixing them.
    All this makes a proper understanding and catechesis in marriage all the more necessary for Catholics.  Our diocese is trying to do more with marriage prep, in order to make sure that people understand what they are getting into when they say, “I do.”  We can no longer take it for granted that Catholics understand the Catholic view of marriage.
    But, we also need to support marriages after the wedding.  Weddings have become like baptisms: a big ceremony and celebration, and then you don’t see the person again in church.  Part of that is our (the church’s) fault for not providing more for couples after the wedding.  I know Deacon Mark wants to be active in marriage enrichment, and I would also like to be able to offer times when couples can come together for a date night which also gives them tools to improve their marriage, even if there’s nothing wrong with it.
    Marriage is so important, because it’s the bedrock of any society.  Marriage is so important for Catholics because it is meant to be an icon of the love between Christ and His Church.  It is a new creation of God that needs to be cared for and nurtured, just like the rest of God’s creation.  Let’s commit ourselves today to praying for married couples, and assisting them, to the best of our ability, to live that beautiful vocation as Christ desires.

Beginning, Continuing, and Strengthening

 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  One of the great devotions that has grown in the Church over the past 50 or so years is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.  Pope St. John Paul II certainly aided in its dissemination through making the Sunday in the Octave of Easter also Divine Mercy Sunday.  St. Augustine, many centuries before St. Faustina, had noted that the water and blood that poured forth from Christ’s side represented baptism and the Eucharist, respectively, which, St. Augustine said, were a symbol for the entire Church.

    Baptism is where we get our start in the Church.  I have recently had the pleasure and honor of baptizing four babies whose parents attend this Mass.  Since I arrived in Flint, I haven’t baptized four babies in two months.  And I know there are more babies on the way!  That is a great blessing for our parish and for the families!!
    But baptism, while celebrated once in a lifetime, is a sacrament that we are meant to live out each day.  St. Paul tells us that we were baptized into our Lord’s death, so that we can also rise with Him to new life.  But then he goes on to say that our old self was crucified so that our sinful body might be done away with, so that we are no longer in slavery to sin.  I don’t know about you, but my old self, my concupiscence, my desire to disobey God, which remains even after baptism, is not something that went away when I was baptized.  It is something that has to be dealt with each and every day.  It has to be crucified each and every day.
    Because while baptism is once, the fruits of baptism are meant for each day.  Each day God gives us the necessary grace to avoid mortal sin.  Each day He gives us the grace to be more and more a child of God, not only in name but in deed.  Each day God wants to deepen our participation in the life of the Church.  But we have to respond.  God does not force His grace on us.  God does not make us be His children.  God does not coerce us to participate in the life of the Church.
    So often in the Church today, the baptism is about the day itself and the celebration: in the best light in the sacramental celebration; in the worst light in the baptism party afterwards.  But then, how much effort is put forth after that day?  The responsibility that Catholic parents take upon themselves at baptism to form their children in the faith is a lifetime commitment.  The same can be said for marriage, which should always come before children.  Imagine (and I have dealt with broken marriages where this has happened) that all you cared about was the wedding day (and perhaps the wedding night), and then you stopped putting in any effort to your marriage.  You’ll probably be seeing me again, but not for a baptism, but for some counseling or worse!
    Baptism is not a get-out-of-hell-free card that we will just pull out at our judgment, any more than a marriage license means we never need to work on our relationship again.  It is the beginning of a new life, not the end of all effort to live the faith.
    But our Lord also knows that we need strength to live out that call to die daily to our selves and live for Him.  And so He gave us the Eucharist as our food for the pilgrimage to heaven.  The crowd who had been following Jesus was tired.  They needed something to continue following Him.  So He fed them with bread and fish.  So our Lord feeds us, not with fish, and not with bread, but with His own Body and Blood.  This supernatural nourishment gives us the ability to live for Christ and daily die to our old self.  The Eucharist fills us even more with necessary grace, and increases sacramental and saving grace within us.  
    But the Eucharist also gives us strength as we do those daily ascetical works that also help us live for the Lord more.  The pious practices that we do are not earning our salvation, as no one can earn it, but is showing that we want God more and our old self less.  Abstaining from meat on Fridays, or fasting, or the extra prayers that we say, or time spent in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or the Rosary or Chaplet of Divine mercy are all meant to help us grow closer to God and remind our bodies that this earth is not all there is to live for, that our appetites do not need to rule us.  
    Our Lord invites us today to reflect on how we are living out our baptismal call, day-by-day.  Are we trying to cooperate with God’s grace to put the sinful old man to death?  Or are we living a life that is focused on Christ?  Do we work to end hate, in thought and/or word, or do we let our tongues and our passions rule us?  Do we lack custody of the eyes, heart, and body, or do we practice the virtue of chastity?  Again, we can’t do it by ourselves; that’s the error of Pelagianism.   We need God’s grace and God’s strength to be able to do anything.  But with our worthy reception of the Eucharist, all things are possible for us in Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever.  Amen. 

Familiarity with Jesus

 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time-St. Pius X
    Apparently phrases that I have heard used and have used myself are now a bit dated.  I was shopping with a friend at Home Depot, and we couldn’t find everything we needed.  But he had found one of the things he needed.  So he was wondering out loud if he should buy the part at Home Depot, or put it back and hope that the next hardware shop had it.  I said, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” and he looked at me like I was speaking in a foreign language.  At the same time, a Vietnam vet was walking by and said that he hadn’t heard that phrase in a long time.  Perhaps it is a bit old.  

    We’ve probably all heard the cliché phrase, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”  And that’s what we see going on in the Gospel today.  Jesus is teaching in the synagogue in his home town, and people are shocked at the authority with which He is speaking.  And they write Him off, because he’s just a local boy, the son of Mary.  
    Now this isn’t like other local boys.  In my home town, people know what I was like before I was a priest.  I wasn’t bad, in fact, I tended to behave myself quite well, as you might have guessed.  But one could understand how the neighbors might sometimes not give a local boy his due, as they know his faults and failings.  But Jesus didn’t have faults or failings.  They couldn’t point to some scandal as the excuse why they shouldn’t listen to Him.  But still, they lacked faith, and so Jesus was not able to do many miracles there, which probably only added to the sense that He wasn’t all that special.
    In our first reading, God warns the prophet Ezekiel that, though God will send Ezekiel with a message he needs to speak, the Israelites will not listen, because their hearts are obstinate.  They do not want to hear what God has to say.  But, God does promise that they will know that a prophet has been among them, even though they won’t listen.
    I think we often have this perception that if there are holy people around us, people whom God is sending, then we will listen to them and believe.  But the entire Bible is proof that, more often than not, people do not listen to God’s messengers.  They find some excuse not to listen.  It could be that they are too close to the messenger, or that their hearts are stubborn and hard, or that it’s not the message that they think God wants to send to them.  And so they close their ears and hearts to the Word of God, which is actually what will bring lasting happiness.  
    We can sometimes do this when we read the Bible.  We read the parts that we like, that are what we want to hear, but then we reject the parts that are hard, or that we don’t think sound right.  We all love hearing that God loves us.  We love hearing about Jesus forgiving the woman caught in adultery, or healing the lepers, or curing the man born blind.  But then when we get to the part about only marrying once or else a person commits adultery; or the part about turning away from sin and being faithful to the Gospel; or the part where Jesus says the way is narrow that leads to salvation, and few find it; or the part where Jesus establishes His Church with the apostles exercising authority over it, we do all sorts of mental gymnastics to excuse why we don’t have to listen to that part or why it doesn’t mean what it clearly says.  St. Augustine once wrote, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe in, but yourself.”  And faith in self does not lead to salvation or heaven.
    Even more than we do it in the Bible, we do it with the way God continues to speak authoritatively in His Church.  We like it when Pope Francis talks about loving, caring for the poor, and not judging, but when he talks about marriage being only between one man and one woman for life, or that the diaconate, priesthood, and episcopate are reserved for men, we write him off.  The same could be said when the Church teaches about how artificial contraception is wrong, or that people are the gender that they are born with, or that abortion is wrong and we should not support those who support abortion.  We decide that we know better than the Mystical Body of Christ.  And yet, the Church, when speaking on faith or morals, does speak with the voice and the authority of God, since Jesus Himself said to His Apostles, “‘He who hears you, hears me.  And he who rejects you, rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects Him who sent me.’”
    Does this mean that we should not be familiar with Jesus, because we’ll hold Him in contempt?  I would suggest the opposite.  The more we draw closer to Jesus, the more we hear God speaking through Him, and the more that we come to love His word, even when it’s difficult.  As we come to know Jesus better, we understand the wisdom that He shares with us, even when it goes against our culture or our mindset.  Be open to the word that God speaks through His Word and His Church.  Do not rebel against God’s prophets!

Listening

 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Jim Rolph

    Last Sunday I went to a family’s house for dinner, a family that I have visited before.  When I visit, the adult children in the family like to tease me and say how much more they like Fr. Jim Rolph, the chaplain at Powers Catholic.  So during dinner conversation last Sunday I was talking to someone else at the table, but one of the kids interjected and said something, but all I heard was “in Flint.”  At first I just let it pass and figured it wasn’t anything important, but then young man started laughing, and realizing it was connected to what I had missed, I said, “Wait; what did you say?”  He started laughing and said, “I wondered why you didn’t react.  I said, ‘After all, Fr. Jim is the best priest in the Flint area!’”  
    Sometimes our attention is divided, and we don’t hear what’s going on.  And because we don’t hear, we miss something that we would want to know.  It’s not such a big deal when a young man is poking fun and saying that a brother priest is better than you (for the record, Fr. Jim and I are good friends, and I respect him greatly!).  But if it’s not teasing, but the voice of God, it’s much more important to pay attention and listen.
    In our first reading, Moses prophesies that God will send another prophet, like Moses, to whom the people need to listen.  This prophet will have very important messages to communicate.  Of course, we know that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the prophets, and was a prophet Himself, since He spoke for God.  But He didn’t even speak like the other prophets, but spoke with authority, authority that came from Himself, since He is God.  The people listening to Jesus recognize this, and they recognize “a new teaching with authority.”  
    Part of this authority is that Jesus, unlike the other rabbis of His time, would not appeal to an earlier rabbi.  That was the way the interpretation of laws and teachings worked for the Jewish people.  If you were a rabbi, people wouldn’t necessarily believe what you were teaching or interpreting.  But if you could appeal to an earlier rabbi who was well-respected, then your teaching took on more authority.  And the closer you could get to Moses, the more authority you would have.  
    But Jesus did not appeal to any other rabbi.  He simply spoke as if it were true.  Think back to Matthew chapter 5.  Jesus keeps saying, “You have heard it said…but I say to you…”. He teaches as one who is authentically interpreting God’s will, authentically speaking for God, like Moses, but even more authoritative than even Moses.  And even unclean spirits respond to the words that Jesus speaks.  It’s not even a contest about who has authority; Jesus speaks and they have to obey, because He is the Creator, and they are mere creatures.
    It is with this same authority that the Church, when teaching on faith or morals, speaks.  Because the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and because Jesus has given His authority to the pope and bishops who lead His Church (remember that Jesus said to the apostles that whoever listens to them listens to Him), the Church can say that, to be in union with Jesus, you have to believe this, or you can’t believe that.  The Church can also say with the authority of Jesus that, in order to be living as a disciple, you should do this or you shouldn’t do that.  It’s not simply the opinion of some old men who wear pointy hats; it is Jesus Himself teaching.
    Our psalm today encourages us: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”  How often do our hearts harden when someone tells us something that we have to do, especially in the area of faith (what to believe) or morals (how to live).  It’s almost like an instantaneous reaction that someone tells us what to do and we automatically want to do the opposite.  That’s our fallen human intellect and will.  When the Church says we cannot support abortion, or we need to assist the poor, we have a responsibility as followers of Jesus to obey.  When the Church says that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Jesus, or that marriage is only between one man and one woman, to be loyal to Jesus we conform our lives to that teaching.  Sometimes it’s hard.  Sometimes it’s very hard, and may even seem counterintuitive, but God asks us to listen to His Son, who will never lead us astray if we follow Him.
    But besides the struggles to listen to Jesus as He speaks through His Church, it can also simply be hard to listen to Jesus.  Our age is filled with cacophony, which comes from the Greek meaning “bad sounds.”  We often surround ourselves with noise, and in doing so, drown out the God who likes to speak to us like He spoke to the Prophet Elijah: in the whisper in the silence.  Hardening our hearts can include not making time for God in daily prayer.  Maybe the only time you have is five minutes; maybe it’s turning off the radio in your car; maybe it’s coming to a daily Mass, or spending time in adoration.  But in order to hear God, we have to carve out time for Him, especially in silence, not only speaking to God, but listening to how God responds.  Sometimes silence can be scary, but God will, in His way, in His time, speak to us.  All we have to do is pay attention and listen.
    Don’t miss the conversation God wants to have with you.  Don’t miss out on how God teaches us to follow Him and to find true happiness.  Listen to the Church when it comes to faith and morals.  Make time for silence with God each week.  You will find the happiness for which you long.

No mo' FOMO

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

A little over a month ago, on one of the very few nice days that we had in May, I decided that I was out of shape (that reality had been true for some time), and I should do something to get in shape.  So I decided to do a 30-minute run around the exterior of the parking lot here at St. Pius X.  And then I decided to try to keep it up around every other day.  And then someone suggested that I run the CRIM, which I foolishly agreed to do.  So I’ve been running about every day or two, usually doing 5 miles, but once a week trying to get in a 7.5-mile run.

A few months ago, I would have told you that I would only run if I were being chased, or chasing after somebody.  And I can confirm that I never have a smile on my face while I run.  Yes, you do get the endorphins (the good feelings) after you’re done, but the fact that you get them after you’re done running should say something about running in general.  I can tell you that there have been no few amount of times where, during a run, I wonder what in the world I’m doing, and I just want to give up.  But I keep on pressing forward, at least until I attain my goal of running the CRIM.

Jesus in our Gospel tells us to keep going.  He tells us not to look back to what was before, but to continue following Him.  There will be all kinds of excuses about why we can’t follow Him, but He tells us to ignore those, and press on forward.

One of the plagues of today’s culture, especially among the youth, is FOMO–Fear Of Missing Out.  I can’t tell you the number of young adults that I have spoken with over my nine years as a priest who convey to me their fear about experiences that they really want to have, but which may pull them away from a current education, job, or even significant other.  There is a general lack of perseverance, of sticking with something for the long-haul, simply because it gets tough, or challenges appear.

Following Christ is not for sissies.  It gets tough, and there are many temptations to veer off course to something else, maybe not even something bad, that catches our eye.  As a priest, in my three parish assignments, there have been times–during my four years in East Lansing, during my two years in Adrian, and yes, even during my three years here–where I take my eye off Jesus ahead of me, and want to look back and wonder if I made the right decision.  At first, as I entered college seminary, I was more like Elisha, telling my mom and dad goodbye, and then just going for it.  But whenever a trial would present itself, and each parish has its own trials, there would be a little voice (like the one in cartoons that comes from a little red guy with horns, a tail, and a pitchfork) asking me to think about what life would have been like if I wouldn’t have  gone through the seminary and been ordained.  But the voice of the little angel on the shoulder with the halo and wings would respond with what Jesus said today: “‘No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.’”  And, by the grace of God, I have persevered and been filled with such joy by remaining faithful to how God has called me to be a saint.

But it’s not just for priests.  For married couples, too, there’s the temptation to cut bait and run.  To be clear, I’m not talking about physically or verbally abusive situations, where a person needs to leave the marriage for his or her own physical or mental health.  Marriage is tough; it takes perseverance.  For me as a priest, I had eight years for the seminary staff to prepare me to be a priest.  For married couples, it’s usually around 8 months, and it’s not daily preparations; it’s a day here, a weekend there, etc.  And yet it is no less demanding of a vocation, and the temptations to look back also present themselves.  But that’s why it’s so important, when discerning marriage while dating, to make sure that it’s a person with whom you feel God is calling you to spend the rest of your life.  

There will be challenges that married couples will need to face together.  Many of you here can speak to that better than I can.  Many of you here have celebrated 25, or 30, or 40 or even 50 years together as a married couple, and some of you are even working towards 55 or 60 years of marriage.  What I notice about successful marriages is that they both work at following Christ, and, more often than not, they don’t give in to that temptation to look behind them at what could have been.  That’s true if you marry when you’re 19 or 22 or 30, whether you have 3 children or 5 or 8.  Don’t look back at what could have been; face forward toward Christ and where He is calling you to be as a couple.

And for those not married or not considering a vocation to the priesthood, Jesus’ words are still applicable.  It is not helpful in our relationship with Christ to look back and think what could have been.  It’s not helpful to give in to FOMO, to the fear of missing out, and never make that commitment towards doing something great, no matter how hard it is.  That goes for the simple act of making it to Mass every Sunday and Holyday; that goes for choosing to avoid places where you know you’ll be tempted to wander away from God; that goes for choosing to serve others rather than serve yourself.  

In the life of a disciple, there will always be moments where we wonder what life would have been like if we would have chosen B instead of A, gone left instead of right, given in to temptation rather than following Christ and His plan for our life.  Don’t look back; don’t second-guess yourself.  Keep your determination to follow Christ and you’ll find the joy that comes from persevering and finishing the race that God has set before you.