28 OT B : Give!

Friends

Peace be with you. 

Generally around this time of year, priests give a sacrificial giving homily. I haven’t done one since coming to St. Patrick’s so you’ll have to forgive me if this sounds a little clunky. Some priests, in fact, feel so uncomfortable about talking about money that they ask a lay person to do it. In a previous assignment, the pastor would give the lay presenter talking points but they’d have to make them a part of  their own story. One of the talking points was to talk about a time you received something unexpectedly after giving something. People would universally talk about a time they were down to their last twenty dollars and they saw a poor person and gave it to them only to get paid a hundred dollars by a person who owed them money or to find some forgotten cash in a pocket. My concern was that people may get the wrong message about why it’s important to give. 

Our gospel for today tells a story that has provided a lot of discussion for me throughout the years. The question people ask me is if I think this is the last interaction Jesus had with this rich young man. Some are convinced it is not, that he went away but eventually came back willing to give up all that he had to follow Jesus. It may even be that, the reason that the man’s name is not mentioned but his youthfulness is is because he was known to the community Mark is writing to but that he is older at the time. This is, therefore, seen as a moment of youthful indiscretion. However, I’m not convinced. Maybe I’m just a pessimist but I think the reason the man’s name was not mentioned was because he walked away and is now seen as unmentionable by the community. Imagine being the person who walked up to Jesus and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life and was told that he was already doing it, just follow the commandments. But, that’s not a good enough answer so you ask if you can do more and, when you were told what you could do in order to do more, it’s too hard so you just give up. You abandon Jesus as he is surrounded by people who HAVE given up everything to follow him. Remember, this is the time when it’s easy to follow Jesus. I don’t get why people would think the man would come back when people are screaming “crucify him, crucify him” and he’s being nailed to a cross.

We stand in the footsteps of those apostles who have given up everything in order to follow Jesus. Some of this has to do with giving our time and talents to help serve the fish fries or sit for an hour in the reservation chapel at adoration or help teach Catechesis of the Good Shepherd or volunteer in some other way. But the parish also has financial needs and I would ask you to prayerfully consider how much you can give. As a parish, we have worked to live within the means we have while we do the improvements to our campus like repairing cracked and broken sidewalks and driveways and adding to our parking lots. We have made sure that when things wear out, we replace them with high quality materials that we can afford. I’m exploring the possibility of putting solar panels on the parish hall anticipating that energy prices will continue to rise and we will benefit from the affordability and reliability of the products that are out there. However, as you have undoubtedly experienced, inflation has affected us in things like garbage bags, toilet tissue and other staples. And we need to continue to work to pay our great staff salaries that are a living wage. So, I ask that you look at your financial situation and consider if you are able to increase your overall tithing. You can give electronically or in person, that’s up to you. Also, please consider talking to the Catholic Foundation to include this parish in your will. If, when you die, you want to contribute to St. Patrick’s parish endowment fund, it will ensure that you leave a legacy that will help this parish pay bills long after you have passed. 

Jesus challenges us to give today. We can’t do so expecting that we’ll receive more money afterwards. What we will receive has to do with being unburdened with the distraction of chasing after more and more money and, instead, being rewarded with the freedom of being able to focus on Christ.

26 OT B: Don’t harm the little one’s faith

Friends

Peace be with you.

This past week, while driving in Nebraska, I turned on a podcast about the origins of Angel Studios. In case you don’t know, Angel Studios is a crowd funded television and movie studio that gave us the Chosen, Sound of Freedom, Cabrini, and other morally positive content that the mainstream studios don’t seem to want to produce. I’ve recently joined their streaming service, called the Angel Guild, because I wanted to watch the Story of Possum Trot. I learned from this podcast that the founders are three brothers who developed the Angel App a few years ago, a streaming service that sanitized major Hollywood blockbuster movies of any racy content. They were sued by those same studios for copyright infringement and lost a lot of money because of it. But, in the process, they learned that there was a sizable market of people that wanted movies and television shows that promoted the life of faith and that there were plenty of content creators who were being blocked by the mainstream studios from telling their stories. All of that appealed to me. In the middle of the story, however, they dropped a bomb on me that, frankly, I should have seen coming because the names they choose for their projects always involve the word angel. These brothers are Mormon, or Latter Day Saints as they prefer to be called. At that point in the podcast, I started to question whether I should participate in Angel Studios.

I’ve spent a lot of time this past week reflecting on the Ninth Chapter of Mark’s Gospel. The passage we just heard comes from the end of that Chapter. The beginning tells the story of the Transfiguration, which is why I spent so much time reflecting on this chapter. The spiritual direction program in which I’m starting to participate is called the Institute of the Transfiguration. At the beginning retreat past weekend, which is the reason I was gone by the way, we spent an hour a piece praying over each of the three passages that describe the transfiguration. Then, starting on Monday, I kept praying in my holy hours until I got to this passage at the end of Chapter 9. Something kind of interesting jumped out at me when I got there. You see, as Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down the mountain, they encountered the apostles who weren’t called up the Mount of Transfiguration arguing with some Scribes about a man whose son was possessed by a demon that mimicked symptoms of a seizure. They’re arguing because no one seems able to cure the boy. Jesus heals him and, when his own followers ask why they couldn’t, he replies that this demon could only be exercised with prayer. Now, just a few verses later, the Apostle John tells Jesus that there is some guy driving out demons in His name but he isn’t a follower of Jesus. What is he really asking? A few moments before, Jesus’ followers tried to drive a demon in His name and they couldn’t do it because it had to be driven out in prayer and, now, some dude who isn’t even a follower is driving out demons in Jesus’ name. You’d think Jesus would be as outraged as John obviously is but, instead, he says that they shouldn’t prevent him because you generally don’t talk poorly about someone in whose name you are doing mighty deeds. If he isn’t against them, he must be for them. So I guess it’s okay to be affiliated with three Mormon brothers if they are working with us and not against us, right?

Remember also that, last week, Jesus encouraged his followers that, if they wanted to be great, they had to become the least and he placed a child in front of them and said, ““Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” This week, he offers the more negative side of this same argument when he says that, if you harm a little child, it would be better to go jump off a cliff with a rock around your neck. Even as important as protecting little children is, the point that Jesus is driving home is more about the age of people’s faith. He’s really talking to the apostles, and therefore to us, and telling us that we’ve got to be the adults who help people with a less developed faith to grow in it, which may involve having to remove aspects of ourselves that get in the way.

Jesus uses body parts as examples but, in today’s world, the question we may want to ask ourselves is does our need to be right or our impatience or our skepticism of the other affect our ability to reach out in charity to the stranger who may just be beginning a life of faith and, if so, how can we cut it out?

23 OT B Jesus goes on sabbatical and still gets graded!

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

I had four internships in my years of seminary, three that took place in parishes in the Archdiocese of Dubuque and one at a hospital in Des Moines. I found them all to be times when I felt like I was being affirmed on my journey to priesthood. Yet, there were also times when I felt like I was being challenged and totally unworthy of being a priest. Most of the time, this happened at the end of my time when I would sit down with the director of seminarians and the internship director to reflect on my growing edges that need to be softened. A particularly hard evaluation took place at one of the parishes in which I didn’t get along well with the pastor and expected a very poor evaluation. Yet, when I opened up the form on which the pastor had written his evaluation, I was kind of shocked to read glowing reviews. He said things like “Dennis preaches well. Dennis sings well. People feel like they can talk to and relate to Dennis well.” He honestly even wrote “Dennis does all things well.” There wasn't a single negative comment on the sheet. I thought to myself, "I'm not perfect! This isn't right. Where's the negative feedback?" I felt cheated. 

That was kind-of my reaction to today's gospel. We're used to criticism being heaved at Jesus from all sides. He gets criticism from the Pharisees, Sadducees, disciples, and crowds. It's very rare that people say, "He does all things well." What’s surprising is where he is when he gets these rave reviews. The area called the Decapolis incorporates, as the Greek name suggests, ten towns. Think “deca” as in decade, ten years, or decathlon, ten sporting events. And the last part, polis, is the Greek word for town, which is why Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Annapolis end with it. The fact that the word derives from Greek tells you that these probably aren’t predominately Jewish towns in nature. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, which, from archaeology, we know had a large synagogue capable of fitting almost the whole town in it, so it was predominantly Jewish. When Jesus preached in that synagogue, he couldn’t heal anyone because of the hardness of their heart and they got so upset at him because of that, that they almost threw him off a cliff to kill him. Yet, now that he’s on a kind of sabbatical in this diverse town with Jews and Gentiles alike, he finds such tremendous faith that, right from the start, he heals a deaf man. Now this man will be able to hear him preach. He even tries to tell the people who are present for the healing not to speak about him but it says, the more he ordered them not to, the more they proclaimed it. They say,  “He does all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” This is the evaluation he gets from strangers while his friends and family try to kill him. 

At a recent conference, they talked about negative self-talk. That’s that inner monologue we have that says we’re not good enough. Garth Brooks described it as “a tape of my failures playing inside my head”, which I think is really good description. Negative self talk says we can’t do something even before we try usually because we tried before and failed. Negative self-talk says our heart is bad because we make mistakes. Negative self-talk says that person doesn't like me because I’m not likable or lovable. Negative self-talk hears about original sin and says we can never be free of it, that we can never walk as free children of God. Negative self-talk says God may care for people in general but He doesn’t care about me in particular. Negative self talk sees only the bad things that happen and says we deserve them. Negative self talk is a self-defeating prophecy. It’s a false sense of humility that, ultimately, stifles the spirit inviting us to throw into the deep or go places to spread the gospel because we aren’t worthy. But you are worthy, not because of how talented you are or because you do all things well but entirely because Jesus does all things well and wants to open your ears to hear his word and your mouth to proclaim his praise to the ends of the world. 

How does negative self talk stop you from seeing Jesus do all things well for you and proclaiming that to the world?

22 OT B Finding what was here all along

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

The other day, after showing a video in the Fireplace Room on the first floor of the rectory, I picked up my Roku streaming device and started walking it back up to my apartment to put it away. Before I hit the first step to go upstairs, I thought to myself that I needed to grab the remote control for it. So I retraced my steps back to the TV but it wasn’t there. I had gone into the kitchenette to put away my plate so I must have put it there. But It wasn’t there. I walked to the place where I was sitting for the video to see if it was sitting on the table but it wasn’t there. I started to get frazzled wondering how you misplace something in such a small space, a feeling I have often by the way, and then looked down at my hands and realized I had been carrying the remote control the whole time. 

This past week, we celebrated the Memorial of one of the most influential theologians in church history: St. Augustine. One of his most quoted sayings comes from a book called The Confessions. It says…

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! 

You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you…”

St. Augustine was admitting that, in his search for God, he was a bit like me looking for that remote control that was in my hand. God was nearer to him than he could have ever imagined but he was looking everywhere else for him. Moses, in talking to the Israelites in the first reading, says that the whole point of the law is to remind the people how near God is to them, how close to them that they are to Him. Their neighbors will see how they prosper because they know what God wants. It’s like the people of the Old Testament will be the best baseball or football team because their coach worked directly with them and showed them how best to live a holy life. That’s the role of the law, to show the people how to live such a just life that they begin to live a life like God would live if he were incarnate. Which is what makes it so uncomfortable when he did become incarnate and, instead of worrying about living the way God wants them to live, they have taken a law that was intended for a specific group of people in a specific situation and applied it to everyone in every situation. The priests were meant to wash their hands before they served in the temple and that somehow became a demand for everyone to wash their hands before they eat anything. The point obviously isn’t that you shouldn’t wash your hands before you eat, which is a good hygienic thing to do, but that a rule broadened by their ancestors to apply to everyone is being treated as just as important as God’s laws. But God’s laws show how close God is to His people and how much He cares for them. 

Thankfully, Jesus simplified this relationship so that it’s not based on obedience to the law but on the grace of being called his brother and sister through baptism. That’s why St. James, in the second reading for Mass today, says that “(The Father) willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind firstfruits of his creatures.” We share a unique relationship with the Father through Jesus, the first fruit of all creation, by being reborn in baptism. God is so close to us that he is inside of us. Personally, this is hard for me to understand because why would God want to hang out with a guy who is so often unaware that he is here. I get annoyed if I go visit a friend and they ignore me. I eventually find a reason to leave. Why would God want to keep hanging out with this guy who is so often oblivious or even offensive to him to be around? Yet He does. 

Moses, in the first reading, reminded his people and us of how important it is to listen. I talk too much to God. He’s here with me always. I just need to listen t Him better. Don’t we all? Don’t we all need to stop looking for that remote control in our hand and just listen to Him who is closer to us than we are to ourselves? Isn’t that the whole point of adoration?

21 Ot B: f they can't accept that he came down, how are they going to believe when he goes up

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

In college, some friends asked me if I would remain a Christian if they found the body of Jesus. I hadn’t thought about it but I told them I would. After all, they’re constantly doing archaeology in the Holy Land. There’s a chance they’ll find a tomb or a burial box purported to be the burial box of Jesus, right? I remember going to my spiritual director, Fr. Doug Wathier, and telling him about his conversation and kind of being proud that, even if they found the remains of Jesus, I would stay a Christian. I remember asking him if it would affect his faith and being shocked that he was quite adamant that it would. He said that, if Jesus hadn’t been raised bodily, there’s no reason for us to believe. Further, if Jesus still died after the resurrection and wasn’t taken up body and soul into heaven, then it wasn’t really a resurrection but merely a resuscitation. People are resuscitated every day using CPR and defibrillators. There’s nothing really miraculous about getting the heart to start pumping blood again. Even people who seem to be dead but who are more in a comatose state who awake after days or weeks because of ventilators and other modern medicine isn’t an example of a miracle in the same way that Jesus, who really died and never died again, is.

As we conclude the Bread of Life Discourse from John chapter six, we hear that the people who came to Jesus because he gave them free bread and fish start to walk away from him when he explains that the bread they ate wasn’t just simply food, but was food from heaven and that, unless they eat the Eucharist, they cannot have hope for eternal life. The reaction that the crowd has is, once again, to question the reality of eternal life. Who can accept that they have to eat the Eucharist to have eternal life, they ask. Jesus’ response is, basically, if you’re not going to believe that he became incarnate, how are you going to believe that he resurrected? Think about it like this, these people could see his flesh and touch his body. The incarnation of Jesus wasn’t an issue for them. I think that’s partly why the flesh is of no avail for them, because he’s right there. It’s a challenge for us but not for them. If they can’t believe that the bread they are eating, the true food they are eating, is his flesh when they can see that he has flesh and blood, then how are they or anyone else going to believe in the resurrection when no one will see him any longer? For some of them it’s just a step too far so they walk away. Actually, not just some of them but the text says that many of them walked away and returned to their former lives. For the first time in the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to the twelve apostles at this point, and asks if they’re going to abandon him too. In a typical way, it is Simon Peter who makes the strong statement of faith, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 

In every generation, there’s a tendency to water down the gospel, to make Christian teachings more in line with society or more palatable with other religions or religious movements. And, while sometimes we can use connections to other religions as a bridge to true the religion, like St. Paul did at the Areopagus in the Acts of the Apostles or Pope Francis was trying to do with the Pachamama statue a few years ago, we have to be careful not to water down the faith in the process. Joshua, in the first reading, made it clear to the people of the Old Testament that we have to choose to follow the one true God and not the false gods of our neighbors, especially the false gods that we or others create to make the gospel more palatable to a skeptical generation. Jesus was willing to let people walk away in freedom back to their old lives. 

The beginning of our second reading told us that we need to be subordinate to one another out of reverence to Christ before going on to talk about the type of subordination particular to married life. In a previous homily, I talked about how the word subordinate would be better translated as submissive, or under the mission. We all need to be under Christ’s mission, which demands an informed faith. There’s a reason the remains of Jesus have never been found. It’s because they’re not here. The only place you will find the body of Christ is in our tabernacles because it is our food for the journey, his real presence in this bread from heaven. If we can’t believe Jesus has come down in the true bread we eat, how are we going to follow him to heaven?

20 OT B: God’s wisdom is more knowledgeable than the world portrays it

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

One of the more notorious biases the world has against Christians is that we are stupid…or at least not as curious or demanding of proof as they are. Think about Ned Flanders from the Simpsons or the way the guys from Monty Python portray belief in their sketches and in the movie The Life of Brian or the way the new atheists like Neil Degrasse Tyson or Christopher Hitchens will bend over backwards to use science in a way that seems to disprove the never notion of God, as though belief in science is diametrically opposed to belief in God. I hear it on college campuses, sadly more on our historically Catholic campusesthan on state campuses, that the church is an outmoded institution imposing rules and laws that are long disproved on largely ignorant individuals because faith is out of step with more modern, secular, intelligent people. I’ll sometimes even hear people say that they can’t wait until religion is a thing of the past because people will outgrow the need for it as more questions are answered that disprove the need for religious, hocus pocus answers. And, while I take consolation that these tend to be attitudes of people who have good lives and that these same attitudes stand like the Great and Wonderful Oz unveiled for the sham that he is whenever the person encounters any kind of struggle in life such as illness or age, it doesn’t mean that the depiction of Christianity as blind followers is accurate, let alone that it will be the fallback place these folks come to when they need help. 

The challenge with faith is when it becomes too intellectual, too abstract, too much of the leap of faith as the philosopher Soren Kierkegard called it. It makes perfect sense to me that Soren Kierkegard is the gate between philosophers who generally believed in the existence of God and existentialist philosophers who generally didn’t. If faith is like the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where you have to take a step into what appears to be a bottomless pit onto the hidden walkway below, I can understand why more people don’t believe.

Faith is more relational than a leap of faith, specifically having a relationship with Jesus Christ who is the intermediary between God and human beings. Mary, who is often called Sedes Sapientia or Seat of Wisdom, can help us in this because she knows her son better than anyone else so she can pray for and with us to get to know her Son but Jesus wants to reveal himself to us. He does it most preeminently in the Eucharist. That’s why this parish has such a strong tradition of adoring the Blessed Sacrament and why Fr. Ivan, Fr. Greg, and I have consistently encouraged people to take time at least once a week to spend an hour with the Lord in our chapel. When Fr. Ivan started this, he was almost alone in this town in terms of weekly adoration and now I believe every Catholic church in town sets aside at least some time every week to adore the Lord. In adoration, we can take the time to reflect upon what happens at Mass, upon Jesus taking simple bread and wine and fulfilling his promise in John’s bread of life discourse “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” You see, God didn’t just leave us a pit to fall into as proof that we believe. He left us food to keep nourishing our faith and to keep us in relationship with him. He also made us into his body, the Church, so that we can be in relationship with others and see the presence of Christ in them. But that means we have to be living a Christ-like life so that others can see him in our life too, which is a challenge. We have the sacrament of reconciliation for when we make mistakes but we need to be working to live a Christ-like life and not just trying to constantly clean up the mess when we don’t. 

Part of the way we do this is by learning about God from other Christians, especially Christians who are deeply prayerful individuals. There are many profoundly intellectual people who are also deeply prayerful like St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Bishop Robert Barron, St. John Paul II, or Sister Bethany Madonna of the Sisters of life. These people remind us that faith needn’t be a leap for the foolish but accepting an invitation to get to know God in his transcendent simplicity. How do we keep seeking to get to know the God who knows us so well?

19 OT B: Jesus’ takes us to his Father

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

If I were to walk up to you and say to you “I am the Big Mac of Burger King”, what would be your reaction be to me? Or if I were to say, I am sort of the Labron James of football, what would you say? Just put up with one more; what would be your reaction be to me if I were to say I’m sort of the Sears Tower of St. Louis? Would you question overall if I’m feeling okay or would you question when I worked at Burger King, or do I have the talent to play football, or have I ever been to St. Louis? The reason I’m asking this is because, as we continue to move through the Bread of Life Discourse from the sixth chapter of John’s gospel, there is this really interesting question that I kind of find baffling. It’s coming from this group of Jews who received from the feeding of the five thousand. Last week, they falsely attributed the miraculous gift of manna from the Old Testament to being a gift from Moses instead of what it was, a gift from God. So Jesus set that straight. Jesus identified himself as that manna from heaven, which is where our passage begins this week. The part that confuses me is, when Jesus said to this group of his fellow Jews, that he was the bread from heaven, they didn’t ask how he was bread. Instead, they couldn’t believe that he came down from heaven. So they’re fine that he identified himself as bread? I guess it’s possible that this was just their first point. Like, if I said, “I’m the Sears Tower of St. Louis”, you may say, first of all, the Sears Tower is in Chicago not St. Louis. But I’d hope you’d want to know what in the heck I meant identifying myself as the Sears Tower. I’d hope there’d be a follow up question. 

I feel like they’re really saying that Jesus can’t be from heaven because they don’t like the idea of someone coming to earth from there. I’m sure part of this has to do with the emphasis on God’s transcendence that our Jewish brothers and sisters emphasize to this day. The Jewish people recognize better than anyone else that we are not God and God is not us: that he is completely different. This means that we can’t control God or manipulate God as though we are in charge. But I can’t help but think that they also had a problem with a carpenter’s son believing that he came down from heaven. If God was going to become incarnate in their minds, it wouldn’t be through Joseph and Mary. My guess is that they would expect a messiah to either appear out of nowhere without a father or mother or to at least be born to one of the high priestly families. But certainly no messiah is coming from a family with calluses on their hands. 

That’s the amazing thing about God. If God didn’t want us on this earth, he doesn’t need to kill us in the desert, as it appears the prophet Elijah wants in the first reading. If God wants us gone, you know what he has to do? Stop wanting us. That’s all it takes. If God stops wanting us for a second, we don’t exist. You exist because God wants you to exist. I exist because God willed me into existence. God knows everything about us. He wants us to get to know everything about him. How does he do that? Is it by leaving an instruction manual? Sort of, but we made the Bible under his inspiration. He mostly does this by inviting us into a relationship with himself.

He invites us to get to know him in a sacramental relationship. What does that mean? To preserve the transcendence of God, the “otherness of God”, he gives us things like bread, oil, water, wine, and people to bridge the gap between him and us. As we know, the Eucharist looks and tastes like bread and wine and, if we are Catholic and in a state of grace, we are allowed to consume it but we know that it’s really his body, blood, soul and divinity. It’s the bread that came down from heaven that is meant to be a connection between the transcendent God and we fallible humans. It’s a sacrament because it’s intimately connected to Jesus who, himself, transcended heaven and earth by being fully God and fully human.

I can understand why this group of Jews was confused that Jesus said he was from heaven but you’d think they’d be just as baffled at the idea that he called himself bread. Maybe they could understand something our generation can’t: that God himself came to his people in the manna in the desert. What makes it hard for our generation to see the God who wills us into being, willing himself into our life by becoming the Bread of Life in the Eucharist? Imagine how that could change if more people spent an hour every day, or at least every week, adoring the Lord in adoration…

18 OT B The Eucharist transforms us from the futility of our minds to new life in Christ

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

If you have ever seen the movie “The Lord of the Rings'', you may remember that, after the wizard Gandalf gave custody of the Ring of Power to Frodo, he disappeared. Frodo lived in the house of his Uncle Bilbo, named Bagend, for seventeen years until Gandalf reappeared. At this point, Gandalf reveals that, while Frodo was growing up, keeping the ring secret and safe, and living his best hobbit life, Gandalf had been searching for information about it. He reveals that forces of the evil wizard Sauron are searching for the ring and, since he cannot take the ring himself, Gandalf sends Frodo and Sam on a journey with it. Yet, rather than accompanying them, he disappeared again off on what turns out to be a futile journey seeking help from his friend and mentor, Saruman, who has become a servant of, Sauron. When Frodo makes it to Rivendell and sees the face of his friend Gandalf for the first time since he left home, his first disappointed question is where Gandalf has been and why he didn’t meet them. Frodo has no idea of the torture his friend has undergone.  

Have you ever had an experience where you realize someone has been working for you without your knowledge? I feel like this often happens with kids, or at least it did for me. I was never as grateful for the work of preparing a meal my Mom and Dad did for me daily as a kid as when I started working at Loras College. My Mom did all the food prep, though Dad sometimes had to put the food in the oven when Mom was working late. She’d set the table and then the two of them would wash the dishes after the meal so they could have a little time together while the kids went out to watch TV or do homework. Now, I’ll acknowledge we were spoiled but I think this kind of things happens a lot. From changing furnace filters and light bulbs to encouraging kids to get involved in sports and the arts and working so that the family has money to do all of this, parents have to do things that the kids won’t appreciate until they are much older. 

Today’s gospel follows closely after last week’s, the feeding of the five thousand. Between now and then, Jesus got into a boat and sailed from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other where the town of Capernaum lies. It’s sort of his homebase with Peter and Andrew’s family located there. Shortly thereafter, some of the people who have received the bread and fish get into boats and follow them to the other side. When they arrive, they awkwardly ask when he got there. I can’t help but wonder if they were asking if he’s been there long enough to multiply more bread and fish. Jesus knows that they are not there because of a conversion of faith but because they think he’s a traveling cafeteria. The apex of this beginning of the Bread of Life discourse is when the crowd says that, like the sign Moses provided in the First Reading, Jesus should provide bread from heaven. The problem is they give Moses the credit they should be giving to God. Moses is God’s servant, not God himself. Like me, Moses has a position of leadership granted to him, for a time, from God. But God provides the bread, not Moses. Jesus also reveals that he was there with Moses when the manna was distributed in an answer that had to be absolutely baffling to his hearers. He was and is the bread from heaven. He is the gift God gave from heaven that we always have when we gather as the church at Mass. He has been working with the Father in the Spirit for the salvation of the world from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus and all the way to our times, even if we aren’t always aware of it. We can be like children unaware of how hard our heavenly Father has worked for us through his Son in the Spirit, can’t we? 

As we begin several weeks of reflecting on the Eucharist, it’s good first to ask if we are aware that the one who comes to us under the appearance of bread and wine has, is, and will continue to be working for our salvation?

14 OT B I am the thorn in my flesh

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

After confirmation, I started teaching 5th grade Faith Formation on Sunday mornings. My parents always preferred Saturday afternoon Mass but I figured that, since I was going to be at church on Sunday morning anyway, I would just start going to Mass by myself then. Faith Formation took place from 9:00-9:55 between the 8:00 and 10:00 Mass so, most of the time, I would go to 10:00 Mass by myself. At this point in my life, I was pretty seriously discerning what would develop into my vocation to priesthood. I remember going over to Mass after Faith Formation and reading the readings for a couple of minutes and then deciding what I would preach about if I were the priest. I can remember being disappointed if the priest didn’t preach about what I would have preached about, which was the majority of the time. Sometimes, I would look at the readings and pick out what I thought was a pretty clear theme in them only to find that the priest was doing a special appeal or that he didn’t seem to be preaching on the central point at all. For me, it was part of what spurred on my vocation because I thought that I could do better. However, as I look back at that, I wonder how many people do something similar, not because they are discerning priesthood, the diaconate, or religious life but simply because they feel like what they are hearing isn’t helping them grow in faith. 

I was really struck this week by St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. It’s really important for us to listen to every sentence that St. Paul says in this passage. First, he admits that he’s been given an abundance of revelations. I’m sure St. Paul would say being born a Jew was among these because he came to know the Father of Jesus Christ intimately and how much the Father cares for him by giving him the law. However, I’m sure the pinnacle of these revelations happened when Jesus himself appeared to St. Paul to convert him to become one of his followers. Yet, despite how close the relationship that St. Paul had to Jesus, he was given what he described as a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, given to him to keep him from being too elated, not in the sense of excited but in the sensd of puffed up or proud. St. Paul said he asked three times for it to be removed, a number symbolizing fullness or completeness, but God revealed, not a cure, but that “My grace is sufficient for you.” So, St. Paul says that, rather than boast of the revelations that he has been given or the gifts that he has been given, he boasts of what he initially called the thorn in his flesh, his failures, hardships, persecutions, constraints and other weaknesses so that when he is weak, Christ will be able to work through him in strength.

Thorns in the flesh are hard to just accept, however. For St. Paul, commentators think this was a person that made his ministry difficult. What thorns in the flesh do you have? Another way of asking this question is who makes it hard for you to practice your faith? Perhaps it is me or other church leaders, especially with how we have dealt with the clergy sexual abuse crisis or other scandals in the church. Maybe it’s a judgemental church goer that has a particular spirituality and seems intent on imposing it on you. Or maybe it’s lackadaisical family members who have abandoned their faith but who seem to be leading a better life than we who are practicing. You may struggle to believe parts of Sacred Scripture or some of the teachings of the church that don’t seem to make sense, like how the story of creation in the Bible isn’t completely contradicted by evolution and our understanding of a heliocentric universe. 

Personally, I am my own worst thorn in the side. I know that faith comes from spending time with Jesus but I am pretty good about sleeping in and missing my half hour of sitting with the Lord in the morning. I know I don’t really grow in faith or intelligence when I turn on the TV but I do it all too often instead of going to my comfy chair at night to sit and read one of the journals sitting next to it. I could go on but I think you get the point. 

As I look back on that kid critiquing my priest’s homily, I wish I would have been able to realize how arrogant I was being and how it wasn’t helping my growth in faith. It may have, in some ways, helped me want to become a priest but it was for the wrong reasons. I’m not saying you can’t critique homilies, don’t get me wrong. That’s not my point. Some of them are, undoubtedly, more a thorn in the flesh than a gift. But, if we put too much blame on other people for not helping our faith we may be missing the fact that our own actions are often hurting us much worse than the worst homily we’ve ever heard. How can we stop being our own thorns in the flesh?

10 OT B - Satan divides, Jesus unites.

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Dead Poets Society”, you may remember a scene in which Mr. Keating, played by the incredible actor Robin Williams, talks to how students about how we tend to view Shakespeare’s plays as though they were written to be very one dimensional, very serious, and very boring. He asks what it would be like if Marlon Brando or John Wayne did Shakespeare as he perfectly imitates their voices as only he could do. Then he performs a comedic scene from Shakespeare while the boys in his class laugh along to each joke. It was one of those moments that teachers dream about when an entire class gets it. 

I suspect sometimes we have the same problem with Sacred Scripture. We tend to think that the Word of God is meant to be entirely serious and entirely boring. However, I suspect that there are two uses of sarcasm in today’s Gospel and, even though we probably aren’t going to laugh out loud at either one, I think it’s good to understand them. The first has to do with who it was that thought Jesus was possessed by demons. I have no doubt that some members of Jesus’ family thought he was demon possessed. We only know of one relative, James the lesser, who was one of his followers. What do you think the rest of his family thought of him? As a person who is fairly religious, I can tell you that some members of my family think I’m crazy. Especially if they have walked away from practicing the faith, they can’t understand why I would be a priest in this time of abuse. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to say to your cousin that you believe you’re the messiah, although in Jesus’ case his cousin was John the Baptist so maybe that’s a bad example. We know that, when Jesus went to Nazareth, the people there tried to throw him off a cliff to kill him. Some of them were his family members. I think the joke happens when, instead of naming the relatives who thought Jesus was possessed, St. Mark says Mary and Jesus’ brothers are the ones who show up. They aren’t the trouble makers. They’re the ones who do the will of God. It’s the old switcheroo. 

The other humorous moment we probably don’t hear correctly is when Jesus asks “How can Satan drive out Satan?...if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him.” The Philosopher Rene Girard wrote in his book I See Satan Fall Like Lightening that Jesus is showing how divisive that Satan is. Look, for instance, at the first reading from Genesis Chapter 3. Satan’s actions cause division between Adam and Eve in that they each blame each other for eating the fruit. But, in some ways, the most depressing division happens right at the beginning of this passage when God asks “Where are you?” He can’t see them because they are hiding. Satan separates. He uses shame to make us hide from each other and from God.

The good news however is that, while Satan divides to conquer, Jesus unites us as his body. And, as Rene Girard said, Satan cannot stand. He has already lost, he’s just trying to convince other people to join the losing team, not out of solidarity but so others can be as miserable as he is. Jesus, on the other hand, wants to unite us to the very heart of his life, to his family. He invites us to be his Mother and his brothers and sisters. I’m comfortable being Jesus’ brother. I’ll spend time with Jesus in adoration. I’ll read the Bible to learn about his life. When I’m riding my bike or jogging, I’ll be conscious of the fact that he’s there with me. But how could he invite any of us to be…his mother? See why I think this is meant to have a little humor in it? But, when we act as a Godparent for a baby, committing to help that child grow in faith, aren’t we kind of like Mary? When we talk to others about our own faith and how God has made a saving impact on our life, aren’t we bringing Jesus into this world like Mary did?

If we are to be Jesus’ brothers and sisters and, yes, even his mother, how can we help unite people to his body and not divide them?

Corpus Christi - B I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church teaches, believes, and proclaims to be revealed by God

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

I had a short career as a wrestler in middle school. The coach at Miller Middle School in Marshalltown, Mr. Kearney, was known to help cultivate great wrestlers so, in sixth grade, I thought I’d give it a try. He taught us how to do single leg takedowns, half nelsons, cradles, wizzars, and other moves. We got to our first meet and I was a wrestling a guy who was a little heavier than I was with whom I would become good friends in high school. As the referee started the match, it was like everything Mr Kearney taught me went out of my head. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. My opponent wrapped his arms around my entire upper body and threw me to the ground in a bear hug. We’d studied all kinds of moves but I had no idea how to get out of this one. I was pinned within thirty seconds of the match starting. I remember walking away from that match and deciding that I was going to quit. It took me two days but I eventually walked into Mr. Kearney’s office in the gym and told him I was quitting the team. He didn’t try and talk me out of it and I suspect I know why. 

One of the aspects that impresses me about St. Mark’s description of the night of the Last Supper is that this has all been planned out. Jesus tells his disciples to go to someone who has a room for them to celebrate the Feast of Passover and they are to make preparations for everyone else. Then, Jesus takes a Seder meal, which has its own unique plan, and adds his own plan to change the blessing of the bread and wine into a re-enactable ritual in which they become his body, blood, soul, and divinity. I recently read a good description of what I mean by this in the journal Communio in an article entitled “Notes Toward the Definition of Memory”. It said that Jesus, by telling us to do this in memory of him, meant it was “…a re-presentation, which is possible because…the power of the living God does not fade away, but remains effective: ‘the chief function of (Old Testament religious practices) was to actualize the tradition. Israel celebrated in her seasonal festivals the great redemptive acts of the past both to renew the tradition and to participate in its power. God’s action is a permanent blessing. In this respect, the reenactment, by making the original event present again, is a renewal of God’s blessing, which was given in a way that is both definitive, ‘once-for-all,’ and remains infinitely fruitful and thus ever open to further fulfillments.” In other words, while the plan for that night was for Jesus to take the 12 apostles into the upper room and celebrate The Last Supper, the plan of the Last Supper was that it be something where it both happened in time and is, therefore, not repeatable, and to invite us into that once-for-all celebration whenever we gather for the Eucharist. Every Mass, therefore, is part of God’s plan for making us a part of the Body of Christ, the Church. 

A few weeks ago, at the Easter Vigil, I asked those who had already been baptized but were asking to be Confirmed and receive First Eucharist to repeat a Profession of Faith. It said, “I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church teaches, believes, and proclaims to be revealed by God.” I wonder if we all think about the fact that, when we are offered communion and the person says, “The Body of Christ” that this is really what is being asked of us. If we are receiving the Body of Christ, it means we want to be part of God’s plan, we want to be a part of the Body of Christ, the Church. It’s not just a question of believing in the real presence, though that is challenging enough. It’s a question of whether we believe that all life is sacred, from natural conception until natural death. Do we believe it’s important to forgive others, even those who aren’t particularly worthy of our forgiveness, because God has forgiven us? Do we believe that Mary was born without original sin and that she was taken up body and soul into heaven? 

My problem with wrestling was that my heart wasn’t in it and I didn’t think it ever would be. I didn’t believe I could ever care enough about it to really try. You may say I gave up too quickly and you may be right. But it wasn’t an important enough activity for me to figure out how to dive in head first and really try. I feel like this is how a lot of people treat Christianity. It’s something we do because it might get us into heaven. Or it’s something we do because we’ve always done it and we like the music. Or it’s something we do because we’re good people and the bad people are the ones who don’t go to church. At the risk of sounding unfairly judgmental, those seem like rather lukewarm reasons. It’s okay to struggle with church teachings because we find them challenging. In some ways, that’s better than giving up and pretending like we can dissent from church teachings but continue to be a part of the church. The challenge is, if part of coming to Mass has to do with being included into a plan that’s been unfolding since time began, what do we need to committ to believing so that we can, in good conscience, truly say, “Amen! I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church teaches, believes, and proclaims to be revealed by God.”

Trinity Sunday - B Having a relationship will all three persons of the one God

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

A few years ago, I was fascinated by the television show Lost. At the time, I was Associate Pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames and this undergrad named Jeff Dole, who’s now a priest, told me I needed to watch it because it had strong philosophical themes. There was some good and some not so good things about the show but what amazed me was that they waited until the middle of the second season to introduce a major character in the show. Since then, I’ve seen a few shows do this but this was the first time I watched a show that seemed to make the deliberate decision not to introduce all the major characters in the first few episodes. The Chosen is a more recent example of this. Each season we are introduced to more of Jesus’ followers including each of the 12 Apostles but that seems more natural to the way the Gospel tells the story. 

Today’s Gospel comes from the very end of St. Matthew’s Gospel in what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. It’s a fascinating passage for several reasons. First, it says that the disciples went to Galilee, the northern part of Israel. We know that Jesus appeared to them in the central part of Israel, in Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday and the week after so, presumably, this happens after that. We also know that forty days after Easter, Jesus ascended into heaven and the apostles were, again, in Jerusalem for that. So this must have taken place sometime after the week after Easter but before the Ascension. That’s what makes the beginning so confusing. They clearly have gone to Galilee, to a particular mountain, maybe the Mount of the Beatitudes, where they had encountered Jesus before, to meet him. But, St. Matthew started this passage by saying that the eleven disciples “…worshiped but they doubted.” So it’s not just Thomas who is the doubter. Even after Jesus ate with them and showed them his hands and his side, they doubted. What would make them do this?

On Thursdays, for Coffee Klatch, we’re watching a show on Formed.org, the Catholic streaming service you can access for free, called the Wild Goose. This past Thursday, Fr. Dave Pivonka, the shows’ main presenter, said something that seemed rather…heretical. He said that Jesus isn’t enough. He acknowledged that it sounded bad but he said he talked to some theologians and they agreed with him after he explained what he meant. Think about the number of times Jesus says something like this to the apostles. On Easter Sunday, the eleven apostles are locked in the upper room out of fear and Jesus comes and gives them the power to forgive sins. A week later, they’re still locked in the upper room out of fear and Jesus proves he’s real. He appears several other times and sends them out but, forty days later, they’re still gathered together fearfully in the upper room. What’s stopping them from spreading the gospel? It’s not until the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost that they go forth, able to speak the language of the people around them. Even though they’re given the great commission here somewhere in Galilee before Pentecost, it won’t be activated until the Holy Spirit comes upon them at Pentecost. 

It’s not that there’s something insufficient in Jesus himself but in our relationship with God if we don’t have a relationship with all three persons of the Trinity. It’s true to say that Jesus alone died on the cross and rose from the dead but this was part of God the Father’s plan to rescue us from sin and invite us into the life of grace. And we live in the life of grace, not because of our merits or even our intention, but entirely because of the Holy Spirit given to us in the Sacraments and in our personal prayer. We need that relationship with all three people, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to activate our faith and make us able to spread the gospel. 

Do we have a relationship with Our heavenly Father who loved us into being and sent his Son to forgive us so we can forgive each other? Do we have a relationship to Jesus, his Son, who gave his life for us and sent us his Holy Spirit to give us grace? Do we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit who inspires us with his gifts for building up the Body of Christ, the Church and makes us sons and daughters of the Father? Which of these three do we most need to get to know?

Ascension B: Jesus went up, We go forth.

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

Have you ever watched the show Beat Bobby Flay? In case you don’t know, Bobby Flay is a celebrity chef trained at the French Culinary Institute and, prior to working on the Food Network, was a chef at some of the fanciest restaurants in New York City. If you’ve never seen this show, Wikipedia summarizes it by saying, “In the first round, two guests, often a celebrity chef and a friend of (Bobby) Flay, introduce two contestants who cook for 20 minutes against each other using an ingredient chosen by (Bobby) Flay. The guests then determine who cooked the better dish and will face Flay in the second round. The winning contestant then chooses a dish for both the contestant and (Bobby) Flay to cook in the second round which lasts for 45 minutes. The winner of the second round is determined by three judges in a blind taste test.” Bobby Flay has a 61% success rate in beating the contestant, which makes me wonder if that’s because he’s really that good or if there may be another factor. 

Today we celebrate the Ascension, which took place forty days after Easter. The problem is that this is supposed to take place this past Thursday and today is supposed to be the Seventh Sunday in Easter. A number of years ago, the bishops of the United States heard from priests that many people were skipping the Holy Day of Obligation that was Ascension Thursday so they decided to move it to Sunday permanently and, essentially, get rid of the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The dioceses in Nebraska and a few others in the United States have defied this change but, for the most part, parishes in the United States celebrate Ascension Thursday Sunday, as I like to call it with a smart alec smirk on my face. What makes this day so important that we had to move it to preempt another Sunday?

If you look into the first reading and gospel, you could get a sense that the event isn’t even all that important. Look at the descriptions we have of it. St. Luke, in the first reading, simply said “...he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight…” That’s it? What did it sound like? What did the cloud look like? Was Jesus excited or sad or melancholic to leave? There are so many details missing from this and St. Mark doesn’t really fill in any of them in the Gospel. He’s even more vague. “So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.” How does St. Mark know he went to heaven? Did he have a vision of this or was it from something Jesus told him at some point during his earthly life? 

I think the reason they’re so vague is because, even though the Ascension of Jesus was an important event, the really important thing isn’t actually how he went up to heaven but what he left behind. St. Paul, in the second reading, connected the Ascension to the Incarnation. In other words, Jesus was in heaven as the second person of the Trinity from eternity before he was conceived in the womb of Mary, meaning he is just returning to where he was before he became human in the Ascension. This is, obviously, different from us, human beings, who only have existed on this earth in a time-bound way. Saint Paul says, of Jesus, that his return happens so that he “might fill all things.” 

He does this by empowering the church for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain three things: the unity of faith, knowledge of the Son of God, and maturity to the full stature of Jesus. You see, it’s hard to become the body of Christ when Jesus is still bodily present among us. It’s like those people trying to beat Bobby Flay. I’m sure they have great dishes that we’d all love to eat but they’re competing with a professionally trained, world renowned chef and they’re intimidated. Imagine trying to evangelize someone while Jesus was standing behind you. We’d just turn to him and say, “Why don’t you tell them about yourself.” He had to leave for us to be able to become his heart, hands, and voice in this world, to become his body.

How is Jesus calling you to build up the church to the unity of faith in Him?

6 E B: Remain...abide...life in God's love

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

I would guess that if I were to ask how many of you live in the house in which you grew up, it would be a very small number of people if any at all. I’m, of course, not talking about my little friends who are still growing up. In a metropolitan area, it’s not normal for people to hang onto a house from generation to generation, unlike where I used to live in more rural areas of the State of Iowa where it is more common. My Mom moved three years ago to a smaller house and it still kind of feels weird going to her new house. When she lived in the old house in which I was raised, it felt very comfortable. I had memories of repairing the cracked mortar of the bricks of the garage or wrestling with my older brothers in the living room or watching our dog do the zoomies after being outside in the winter. This new house is a nice house but it doesn’t have those memories for me. It feels a little sterile, in fact. 

Our gospel for today’s Mass is a continuation of the gospel from last week. In last week’s gospel, Jesus encouraged the disciples  to remain in his love five times. We only heard it once this week before he goes on to talk about what it means to remain in his love. What I didn’t include in my homily last week was a comment by Dr. Peter Kreeft that the word remain is somewhat inadequate when it comes to the original Greek word that is being translated. He says that when he hears the word remain, it means not to leave. But the word that is being translated there has more of a sense of “abide” or “live.” If I were told to remain in the house, it sounds rather sterile to me. But if I was told to abide in the house or live in the house, it’s the difference between someone welcoming me to their home and telling me to make myself at home, someone walking to a cupboard to get me a cup for water versus telling me which cupboard the cups are in and inviting me to get some ice and water from their fridge. 

It’s important we understand this to really understand how radical this gospel is. First, Jesus says that he loves us with the same love the Father has for him. That’s amazing to ponder. Spend ten minutes in front of the Blessed Sacrament in adoration internally repeating to yourself “You love me as much as the Father loves you.” It’s humbling. It’s baffling. It would be enough to overwhelm us but he goes on. Then spend another ten minutes saying “You want me to live in that love.” It’s true to say that he doesn’t want us to leave his love, he wants us to remain in it. But this is really where I think Dr. Kreeft has a good point. Jesus knows we will only truly live, truly thrive, if we live in his love. Our life will be joyful because we connect it to the one who died for the salvation of the world. If we abide in his love, his joy will be ours and his joy will be complete. And this joy is what he most wants for us and wants us to pass onto others. 

If we abide in his love, we will also want to live as he lived. We’ll want to model our life on the life of Jesus. That was the whole purpose of the commandments, to put forth how we could live a life like God on earth. If we don’t abide in Jesus’ love, they can appear to be arbitrary rules, man made even, that are a tool of repression. But if they come from someone who loves us and wants us to live in his joy, someone telling us that this is what makes his life joyful and that it can make our life meaningful too, we’re more apt to do it. It’s the difference between hearing healthy living tips from a friend whose life is anything but healthy versus hearing healthy living tips from a friend who genuinely seems to be living a healthy life. Both of them may care for us and want the best life for us but the healthy person is actually living a life that is making them healthy so we’re probably going to listen to them. 

But, if we want to live in Christ’s love, that means we have to love one another. If the fact that Jesus loves me with the same love that the Father has for him is overwhelming to me, that means that, if I’m going to live a life like his, I need to love others with that same kind of love, especially those hardest to love. In a world that prizes self love and getting what we’re due above all things, how can we love others with the same love Jesus has for us?

5 E B: inviting the uncomfortable

 Friends

Peace be with you. 

Have you ever made a friend that you were skeptical of how long your friendship would last? Sometimes, when I’m involved with training for the Police Department or Fire Department, they’ll match me up with someone who is deeply religious and possibly even deeply Christian because they think we’ll have things in common to talk about. Sometimes they’re right. But sometimes I can sort of tell the person comes from a anti-Catholic background and is immediately disappointed to have to work with a priest or I get uncomfortable wondering at what point the person is going to turn to me to ask me if I’ve ever been saved. 

I get the feeling that this was how the Apostles and disciples in Jerusalem felt when St. Paul showed up there in the first reading. We know there were at least two apostles, St. Peter and St. James, present in Jerusalem at that time. We also know they had many disciples to whom they were ministering. And we know that St. Paul had gone from holding cloaks at the stoning of St. Stephen to dragging out Christians from their homes to stand before tribunals. It says, right before his conversion, that St. Paul was breathing out murderous threats. He knows that by exposing Jews who had converted to Christianity to either the Jewish or Roman authorities, they will at least be beaten and could even be killed. That’s what makes St. Peter, St. James, and the Jerusalem disciples “afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple”. They thought he was a spy sent to infiltrate their organization. 

It makes perfect sense, then, that it takes Barnabbas, whose name means “son of consolation”, to console the fears of the church in Jerusalem that St. Paul’s conversion was legitimate and not a ruse to root them out. The other thing that happens, however, is that St. Paul bears fruit. He “spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord” to the point where some Greek speaking Jews “tried to kill him.” 

Notice that, despite this persecution and resistance they are getting from the world, the church is at peace. One commentary I read said, “The placement of the final summary that reports the condition of the church (as being at peace) is interesting. It suggests that there is a relationship between the peace the church enjoyed and the sense of security it must have felt knowing it no longer had to fear the passionate opposition of one of its chief persecutors.”

Another way of saying this, one that is closer to the parable in the gospel, is that the church is bearing the fruit of conversion and that brings it peace. A few weeks ago, we brought a bunch of people into the church; baptizing some, confirming some, and giving first Eucharist to all. It was a joyous time in so many ways, unless you start to think about all the people who have walked away from the church. It seems like a drop in a very leaky bucket. Many leave because they say all religions are human organizations. I appreciated what Dr. Peter Kreeft wrote about this. He said, “The church is not a human organization but a supernatural organism. It has two natures like Christ. It looks like a merely human organization, like a club or a state or a business, but that’s its disguise. Christ has many disguises. He hides both his divine nature and his human nature behind the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist.”

One thing that makes us very different than a human organization is that we were founded by Jesus. He is the vine that connects us to the father. That means we are organically connected to him like the arms and legs and torso are connected to the head of a body. We are called to bear fruit, especially among those who make us a little uncomfortable. We may too quickly write off the idea of inviting people to Mass with us because their personality makes us uncomfortable. We may think they wouldn’t fit in here or maybe even that they’d come off a little too strong of personality for our calm, quiet St. Patrick’s crowd. But, who knows, that could be the next St. Paul. Who is passionately searching for the truth in your life that Jesus is calling you to invite here to know the peace only Christ can give?