How We Build

Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Matthew Church

    [In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen].  When we think about this building, we think of the many parts that came together to make this such a beautiful church.  We have the brickwork, the plaster, the doorframes, the marble, the paint, and everything that fits together in just a particular way so as to make up this church building.  Those different materials and items had to be shaped and placed together particularly so that we could have a temple in which we worship God.  They didn’t simply exist and magically come together.  It took work.  But with the work accomplished, we can rightfully say that we are the most beautiful church in Genesee County, and one of the most beautiful in the Diocese of Lansing.
    St. Peter tells us in his first epistle that we are living stones, being built up into a spiritual house to offer acceptable sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ.  This building is important because it reminds us of what we are called to be.  We each have our different gifts and talents.  But when we are shaped and placed together, united in a single purpose, we form something beautiful that aids in the worship of God. 
    As we celebrate the Anniversary of the Dedication of this church, I wanted to share with you what the leadership team (me, Amanda Williams, Mike Wilson, and Jason Tower) discerned for how we will continue into the future as a parish; how we exist as the invisible temple that this visible temple makes present.  We, with the help of the Catholic Leadership Institute, worked hard over three one-day sessions in the fall, to make sure that we clearly understood and could articulate what makes St. Matthew Parish St. Matthew Parish, as well as how God calls us, not only statically, but dynamically, to continue His work of spreading the Gospel.  And I want to communicate with you our parish purpose, vision, values, and priorities, with the hope that we can each find ways to work together to be purposeful, guided by our vision and values, and working towards the priorities that we believe God has given to St. Matthew.
    The parish purpose and vision give us the “why” of St. Matthew.  Why do we exist as a parish?  What motivates us and moves us?  Our purpose, as discerned by my leadership team, “is to use beauty and truth to inspire and develop disciples to transform the secular order by the grace of God, for His glorification and the edification of man.”  That’s a mouthful, I know.  But basically, we focused on two of the transcendentals, beauty and truth, as a way that we form disciples.  And why are we trying to form disciples?  Because the world is not as it should be.  The world is not as God created it.  But we can work together, by His grace, to make it more like it should be, more according to the plan of God.  And this not only glorifies God, but also builds us up into the people God wants us to be.  You can see this purpose each week on the front page of our bulletin.  It’s meant to be a reminder to each of us of why we exist.
    As to our vision, the big view of what we want to be and accomplish, “We are a Roman Catholic parish in the heart of Flint that worships God with reverence, forms disciples, and serves the physical and spiritual needs of our neighbors in communion with the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”  Our purpose could be applied to any parish.  Our vision puts our purpose in our particular context of where we are (“in the heart of Flint”) and what we do (“worships God…forms disciples…serves the…needs of our neighbors”).  But what we do is not by our own imagining, as if we create the Church.  Our vision happens within the context of the one Church that Christ established, which, as Lumen gentium states, “subsists in the Catholic Church.” 
    That vision is made manifest in our values as a parish.  The leadership team discerned three values of St. Matthew Parish that are important to everything we do: reverence; faithfulness; and family/community.  By reverence, we mean that we “strive to promote the awe and respect that is owed to God.”  How do we do this?  By following the rubrics the Church sets out for the celebration of the sacred liturgy; by allowing time for sacred silence so that God can speak in our hearts; and by appropriate posture and dress, so that the way we carry ourselves and present ourselves in parish life manifests how we live in wonder and awe in God’s presence.
    By faithfulness, we mean that we “support fidelity to the Magisterium and the 2,000 year history of the Church.”  So many love to be only what is happening now.  We stay faithful to what the Church officially teaches, and how that has been revealed to us by God over the entire history of the Church, not just before or after the Second Vatican Council.  How do we do this?  By incorporating legitimate liturgical traditions; by promoting orthodoxy and refuting heresy; and by striving to imitate Christ in all that we do.  In this way we show that we are truly Catholic: welcoming all that is good, while preserving the world as salt from all that is bad.
    Lastly, by family/community, we mean the value we place on every human life from natural conception to natural death.  How do we do this?  By supporting families of all ages; by welcoming families into our parish by what we say, but also by what we do; and by helping families create a strong domestic church, a strong place in their homes where God is present. 
    Based on these values, then, we are currently prioritizing the support of the Domestic Church, the family; evangelization and apologetics so that we can share the faith with others; and community outreach, so that we may serve Christ in the least of his brothers, as He says in Matthew 25. 
    So what?  A lot of ink was spilled, but does it make a difference?  Again, if we are going to continue to be built into the spiritual temple of God, then we have to have an organizing plan.  We cannot simply exist and hope that we’ll all come together, anymore than the bricks, plaster, paint, marble, etc. just existed and then came together without any effort.  All that we do as a parish should fit within these paradigms, paradigms that we did not create so much as discern that God wants us to use.  When you’re donating your money; when you’re volunteering; when you’re asking for this or that activity or program; all of it should fit into one of these categories that I have outlined for you today.  And if we do that, we will continue to grow as a parish, and form a new generation of disciples who will carry out the Great Commission which was given to us by Jesus Christ [who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God, for ever and ever.  Amen].

Sweet, Juicy Fruit

 Fifth Sunday of Easter
    When I was young I had a bad encounter with chocolate (I ate too much), and so I tend not to eat very much chocolate candy.  I’ll do the occasional Snickers bar, but when it comes to Hershey’s chocolate bars or kisses, or other types of pure chocolate candies, I tend not to eat them.  What I do love is fruit.  Especially berries, but also grapes, apples, oranges, pears, kiwi, pineapple, mangoes, etc., I tend to satisfy my sweet tooth with fruit.

    So when Jesus starts talk about grapes today, He has my attention!  We’ve heard this Gospel numerous times before, and Deacon Dave even mentioned it last weekend when he mentioned Jesus saying to us, “‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’”  Often times we focus on remaining connected to Jesus, and that is certainly important.  As Jesus reminds us, we cannot do anything good without Him.  
    How do we stay connected?  We read the Word of God, the Bible; we pray daily; we go to confession regularly and worship God at Mass at least each Sunday and Holyday; we serve Jesus in our service of the poor.  Think about how much time we devote to all sorts of other things, but how much time do we devote to Jesus?  
    But, rather than talking about remaining connected to Jesus, today I want to focus on the result of staying close to Jesus.  What happens when the branches stay connected to the vine?  You get grapes!  Sweet, delicious grapes!  The grapes are the fruit that are produced by staying connected.  So Jesus promises us that if we remain in him, then we will bear much fruit.  If we don’t bear fruit, then we will be thrown into the fire, like a brach that no longer produces grapes.  
    How do we bear fruit?  So the word “Catholic” is thrown around as is being baptized means that a person doesn’t need to do anything else  Sometimes in my mind I start wondering if I ever saw the person at Mass, if the person read the Bible regularly and prayed daily.  I wonder how much the person cared for the poor and the marginalized.  It is easy, as St. John reminded us in the second reading, to love “in word or speech,” but bearing fruit means loving “in deed and truth.”  
    It some ways it used to be easier to be Catholic.  We had external markers that at least gave an appearance of our faith.  When Betty Baptist invited Charlie Catholic over for dinner on Friday night, Charlie made sure to say that he couldn’t have meat.  Many families spent part of Saturday morning not on the soccer field, but in the confessional.  And, to the extent possible, many Catholics avoided any sort of menial work on Sundays.
    Those externals don’t necessarily mean that you’re bearing fruit.  You can abstain from meat and not love Jesus; you can go to confession but not be truly sorry; you can avoid work on Sundays but not do it to grow closer to God.  But bearing fruit does mean that our life is different.  
    I know we don’t like to be different.  But being Catholic means being different, just as Jesus was different.  It means being patient with the person who cut in right before the construction zone starts.  It means not participating in the office gossip about the employee who doesn’t seem to get along or get the job done.  It means treating all people, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual-orientation with respect and dignity because all of us are created in the image and likeness of God.
    But being different also means that we avoid taking God’s Name in vain.  It means being here, at Mass, every Sunday, whether we feel like it or not, or whether we think we’re getting anything out of it or not, because our time during Mass is about worshipping God well more than it is about us “getting” something.  Being different means that we help women to choose life rather than abortion; that we conceive a child according to God’s plan rather than through artificial means like in vitro fertilization or surrogacy.  It means we give time, talent, and treasure to taking care of those who cannot care for themselves.  Those are all ways that we bear fruit, though there are, of course, more.
    Do we do it perfectly?  I know I don’t!  I try to be, but realize that I am not always a paragon of discipleship.  But when I fail, I turn back to the Lord, asking for His mercy in the Sacrament of Penance, and with true sorrow and a desire to sin no more with God’s help, I start again, to stay connected to Jesus and bear fruit.
    It’s easy to say, “I’m Catholic.”  You can say that without doing much of anything else.  But in order to bear fruit, as Jesus asks us to, we have to respond to the graces God gives us by remaining with Him on the vine.  And Catholics bearing fruit is exactly how this, and any parish, can grow, so that we, like the "church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria” that we heard about in our first reading, can be “built up and [walk] in the fear of the Lord, and…[grow] in numbers.” 

Food for the Journey

 Holy Thursday–Mass of the Lord’s Supper

    When many Catholics today talk about Last Rites, they think of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  But when the Church talks Last Rites, she talks about the Sacrament of Penance, the Apostolic Pardon, the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum, or Holy Communion for a person on the way to death (Viaticum is a smash-up of the words meaning “on the way with you).  We were taught in seminary that when a person is seriously ill, they are to be anointed.  When a person is certainly (barring a miracle) not getting better, the priest may anoint again, but certainly offers Viaticum (and Viaticum can also be offered by a deacon).  In the Church’s mind, the last sacrament a person should receive on earth is the Body of the Lord, Holy Communion with the Lord, because that is what we pray the person will experience after death, communion with the Lord in heaven.  
    We probably don’t often think about it this way, but the Eucharist is meant to be spiritual food for a people ready to move on somewhere.  We see that even in the prefigurement of the Eucharist in the Passover sacrifice.  The Jews were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb, spread its blood over the doorposts and lintel, and eat it.  They were to eat it “‘with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight.’”  The eating of the Passover lamb was to prepare the Chosen People for their pilgrimage from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.  
    So for us, the Church, the Eucharist is our food for the journey, not only the journey from this life to the next, but even our daily journey from the safety of the church into the war zone of the world, where we fight against spiritual powers inside of us and outside of us.  It is meant to strengthen us for our witness to the Gospel in our daily life.  And yet, how often do we see it as boring, as just another obligation.  Dorothy Day, the great, saintly woman of the Catholic Worker movement, related a scenario when she encountered one such person:
I was saddened last week when a former nun told me she was tired of going to Mass daily.  She had been doing that for fourteen years, and no longer felt it necessary.  So much routine.  One could only point out that breathing was routine, and eating was routine…We go to eat of this fruit of the tree of life because Jesus told us to….He took upon himself our humanity that we might share in his divinity.  We are nourished by his flesh that we may grow to be other Christs.

Indeed, as Jesus prepare to celebrate the Last Supper, the first thing He does is serve.  He washes the feet of His apostles.  So for us, after we receive the Eucharist, we are called to serve.  Jesus says, “‘I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.’”
    This is not to say that the Eucharist is merely a means to an end, the means by which we move on to the really important stuff, the activity of daily life.  In fact, it’s the other way around.  The Eucharist is the really important “stuff,” and the activity of daily life is the overflowing of the cup that is filled only with the Body and Blood of our Lord.  
    Jesus gave us the Eucharist because He knew we needed to be fed by God as part of our worship.  He knew that so few would be with Him on Golgotha, as He did what the Last Supper pointed to: give up His Body and Blood for the salvation of the world.  And from that most important act of the crucifixion, the transformation of the world became possible.  So it is only after we are worthily nourished by Eucharist that we are able to be the disciples that we are called to be, relating to others by word and deed how our connection to Jesus changes us.
    And then, there is a double movement that, after our daily activity of living as disciples, brings us back here, back to the Mass.  Having utilized the spiritual energy which we received the last time we went to Mass, we are drawn back for more, because we hunger more for God.  And yet, we also are drawn back to thank God for the power that we have seen exercised through us as we shared the fruits of the Eucharist we received in talking about Jesus, in loving like Jesus, in serving like Jesus.  “How shall I make a return to the Lord / for all the good he has done for me? / The cup of salvation I will take up, / and I will call upon the name of the Lord.”  We return because we hunger more; we return because we thank God for what the Eucharist made possible in our lives.
    As we begin these three holiest of days–Holy Thursday tonight, Good Friday tomorrow, Holy Saturday culminating in the Easter Vigil–there’s a lot going on.  If we are truly, fully entering into it, we’ll be physically, emotionally, and spiritually tired.  We will need sustenance.  Even though we won’t celebrate Mass again until Holy Saturday night, the Church will feed us with the Eucharist tomorrow from what was consecrated tonight.  And then we’ll have the chance to be fed once more on Holy Saturday evening as we will rejoice in the news the surpasses every joy.  Only those who are in need of Viaticum can receive the Eucharist at another time on Holy Saturday, because the Church knows they need Holy Communion to prepare them for the ultimate communion with God.  
    Tonight we are fed by the Lord, Who knows that we need Him to be His disciples.  May we never find the reception of Holy Communion routine, but find in it our strength to be the saints God has called us to be.

"Poder es servir, porque Dios es Amor"

Mass of the Lord’s Supper

“Poder es servir, porque Dios es amor.”  “Power is serving, because God is love.”  These are the words of the hymn, “Pan de Vida,” a hymn that many of us have likely sung at some point in our lives because of its popularity.  Power is serving, because God is love.

Often times we have a backwards view of power.  We consider power to be the ability to rule over others, to make others do things, to make changes.  But this is not the reality of power.  Like so many things in our lives, Jesus reminds us that the reality is backwards from the way we see it.  It is the poor in spirit who are blessed, the meek who inherit the earth, the pure of heart who see God, the peacemakers who are the children of God.  The last is the first.  The Master is the Servant.  This is not just another view from a wise sage.  It is the way the world really works.  Granted, on this side of eternity it doesn’t seem to go that way.  The blessed ones seem to be the rich, the greedy inherit the earth, those who have darkness and filth in their hearts seem to have “divine” moments of ecstasy, the warmongers who are favored.  The last is the loser.  The Master rules.  But what is more real?  Heaven, which is eternal, or earth, which even now is passing away?  Who is more real?  The Creator, who brought all things into existence out of nothing, or the creature, who without the Creator doesn’t even exist?

Power is serving, because God is love.  One of the major events that we celebrate tonight is the institution of the priesthood.  Jesus, unfettered by social construct (as we see so many times in the Gospels), utterly free in the choices He made, chose twelve uneducated men to follow Him more closely than all others, even than His Immaculate Mother.  He chose one of them, Peter, to lead the others, to speak for the others.  Jesus gave to Peter, and then, after His resurrection, to the others, power to bind things on earth that would be bound in heaven, and to loose things on earth that would be loosed in heaven.  Jesus gave them the authority to teach in His Name, such that, as Jesus said, “He who hears you, hears me.”  Jesus gave them power.  But this power was not to rule over, but to serve under.

At the heart of priestly service is the ministry of the Sacraments, especially another Sacrament that was instituted tonight, the Sacrament of Sacraments, the Eucharist.  At the heart of the power that priests receive is the ability to act in Jesus’ Name and to feed His sheep with the “bread from heaven, having all sweetness within it.”  Along with the other Sacraments, priests are to convey God’s grace, His presence, His love, to the People that God has made His own by the new and eternal covenant, the shedding of the blood of the truly unblemished Lamb. 

Jesus also gave His apostles, his first priests, the power to continue His teaching.  This, too, is a power which is serving, as Jesus knew that questions would remain about what Jesus would actually do and say given new circumstances and situations.  Did Jesus really mean “eat my flesh and drink my blood” literally?  Was Jesus serious when he said that sins don’t begin with our actions, but with the desires of our hearts?  Jesus knew that people would struggle with this, and would even disagree, and that there would need to be a way of sorting out the true from the false, the divine wisdom from the wisdom of the world, and so He gave His apostles authority to teach authoritatively, from the Author, what He Himself would teach.

Jesus called his apostles, his first priests, to wash each other’s feet, to serve them, by communicating God’s grace, God’s word, and God’s love.  But there has been, throughout the millennia, a confusion about the power.  Some have neglected the words of the Letter to the Hebrews which says that no one takes the honor of the priesthood upon himself, and have instead demanded that, as a matter of equality, they be given the right to be priests so that they can have more power.  But the Church does not have that power, but can only do what Jesus did.  Some priests have forgotten throughout the history of the Church that the power of the priesthood is not a power to rule over and control, but a power to serve.

In my own priesthood, I have tried to use the power the Christ has entrusted to me to serve you by being available to celebrate the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation, as well as by preaching the truth.  But I also admit that there have been times when I have fallen into the view of power which simply seeks to rule, and when I have not been truly a servant to you because my own sinfulness has gotten in the way.  For these times when I forgot that “power is serving because God is love,” I sincerely apologize and ask your forgiveness. 

Tonight, as we walk to St. Thomas in Eucharistic procession, we will be a powerful group.  Our numbers will not be simply a band of twelve moving to the Garden of Gethsemane, but will be much larger, moving with our Lord to the Garden of Adoration.  May our procession witness to the power of Christ over our own lives, and provide the power of service to others to know the God who is Love, and draw them in to a deeper relationship with Him.  “Power is serving because God is love.”

Sophomores

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

            I was talking to a high school student from Lansing Catholic a couple of weeks ago.  He was showing me his iPod and all the songs he had on it, and talking about how the songs he had were true music.  So, I showed him my iTunes library on my phone to compare.  As it turns out, according to him, I only had a few songs that were actually “music.”  The rest was just “noise,” apparently.  Now, sometimes high school students in any grade know it all.  But if there’s one class that epitomizes the attitude that they know it all  (because, after all, they’ve studied) it would certainly be a sophomore.  You see, in general, freshmen know that they don’t know anything and that they’re just starting out.  Juniors and have studied enough to realize that, while they know a lot in their particular area of interest, that they have only scratched the surface of available knowledge.  Sophomores, on the other hand, think they know it all, but haven’t learned enough to realize that they don’t: a particularly dangerous combination.  But that’s why we use the word sophomore to describe their class year: it comes from the Greek words sophia and moros, meaning wisdom and fool.  Sophomores are, again in general, wise fools.

            The Word of God in today’s readings talks about wisdom, and sets before us two types of wisdom: the wisdom of the wicked, and the wisdom from above.  Our first reading focuses on the wisdom of the wicked.  In their mind, the just one needs to be eliminated, or “taken care of,” as a wise guy might say.  The wicked consider a holy person obnoxious, and they are insulted by his correction of their faults.  They are ready to put the just one to the test and see if all this “God talk” adds up, and if God will really protect His so-called servant.  The wicked see a holy life as a threat and a danger to their way of life, and so they have to destroy it so that they can continue in their own way. 

            The wisdom from above, on the other hand, is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.”  It is a different way of looking at the world.  It does not waver in the face of threats, and is always sincere and true.  It seeks peace, not just an absence of conflict, but true justice for all.  It forgives wrongs and does not go looking for a fight.  Jesus also tells us in the Gospel that the wisdom from above turns the wisdom of the world on its head.  Whereas in the view of the world the truly great person is the one who is in charge of everything, in the wisdom from above, the great person is the one who is the servant of all. 

            If it were that easy to pick out the two types of wisdom, our world would probably be a better place.  But we are beset by weakness, but concupiscence, the desire for lesser goods, and the wisdom of the wicked often looks more enjoyable, more attractive.  When it comes to skipping class, or alcohol, or sex outside of marriage, the wisdom of the wicked seems much more appealing.  But wisdom from above gives true happiness, not just passing pleasure.

            If we are truly convinced that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, the Life, rather than just one way, or one truth, or one life, then we who have the wisdom from above should seek to share it with others.  If the Gospel truly is Good News, and true wisdom, than to keep it to ourselves not only does us harm, but also does those who need to hear that Good News and that wisdom harm.  That is one way that we serve others: by sharing with them the wisdom and joy that we have in Christ.  Have you asked a roommate or a friend, whom you know is Catholic but is not coming to Mass, to join you on Sundays for Mass, or for men’s or women’s group?  We are not called to condemn, but to invite.  We warn others about the dangers of the wisdom of the wicked, but we do not cajole others into joining us.  We simply extend an open hand of love and joy. 

            When those who are wise in wickedness are confronted—by a friend, a family member, or religion—it’s always portrayed as people just trying to rain on the parade.  We may be called obnoxious by our friends.  Laziness, drunkenness, and debauchery look like a ton of fun.  And they certainly are pleasurable.  But they do not lead to happiness.  They quickly fade, and often leave a path of destruction in this world.  Meanwhile, the just, those striving for holiness, often put up with a lot more suffering, a lot more pain, certainly less pleasure in the eyes of the world.  But, if God created the world, and He knows best how it works, and He is the best answer for the desire of every human heart, then following the wisdom from above makes sense, not just in this world, but also in the world to come.  A life of restraint and service is what makes for a great life, not a life of license and using others.  It’s upside down from our view.  But if we take it from God’s perspective, then it’s just the way God intended it. 

            We can stay sophomores in our faith; we can be wise fools.  God gives us that freedom.  We can pretend that we can do whatever we want now, and just make up for it in some possible future act of repentance that we may never make.  Or, we can be truly wise, and move beyond our sophomoric ways, and live by the wisdom that comes from above, that gives us and those around us true peace and joy.  And then, being truly wise, we will see the need to serve others by sharing with them the wisdom from above, so that they can find that peace and joy that we have by living a truly wise life.