18 OC Avoid the trap of vanity by building up treasure in heaven.

Friends
Peace be with you.
I knew a priest who worked for many years in a parish far away from here. At first, he lived with two other priests in a terrible rectory that doubled as apartments for parish staff and some local college students. The building began its life as a fraternity house before the church bought it and converted it into apartments. It had a terrible old heating system and was plagued with bats and mice and other critters. Eventually, he got to know some of the more affluent alumni and convinced them to purchase some land and build him a condo to his own suiting. The idea was that he would retire at age 70 and remain living in the rectory as the Pastor Emeritus to raise funds for the parish. The new pastor could live in the parish-owned apartment until he raised his own money to live somewhere else. However, very much like in the parable Jesus spoke in the Gospel, my priest friend developed a very fast moving cancer and died less than a year later, shortly before he would have turned 70 and retired.
So, don’t save for retirement. It’s a sin to have a 401k or an IRA. And don’t get me started on life insurance or nursing home insurance. Just give any excess money you have at the end of the month to the church. (pause for the hope of laughter) Okay. Okay. I’m just kidding. Actually, it’s important to have a plan for your retirement, even if we know it could go very differently than we expect. The point of the parable is not the sin of savings but something much more meaningful.
Let’s look at the gospel through the lens of the first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes. The author calls himself Qoheleth, a Hebew word that means “the reader” or “the one who addresses an assembly”. So, Qoheleth is the one who reads to us the message he received from God. The message repeatedly describes actions as leading to vanity. You may remember from Deacon Robert’s homily last weekend that vanity is one of the 7 deadly sins. When I think of vanity, I tend to think of a supermodel staring into a mirror smiling at how attractive she or he is. But, Qoheleth the reader realizes that it’s larger than that. He begins by trying to learn everything he can, to exhaust all knowledge. But he realizes that this is vanity and a “chase after the wind” another phrase Qoheleth repeatedly uses to mean something that’s impossible. No one can learn everything or know everything
       So, since he can’t get all knowledge, he turns to pleasure and tries to be the happiest person in the world. He sees pleasure in the acquisition of things or, to echo what the man says in Jesus’ parable  he want to be able to sit back some day and think, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ He buys palaces, vinyars, pools for watering his orchards, herds, flocks, ane even people. He had every kind of treasure he could want but the search for more and more wealth made him miserable. Again, it’s vanity and a search after wind. After all, even the richest person in the world will someday die or get sick and the pleasure they feel in their things will be taken away. And, if he bases his pleasure on the fact that his name will be forever remembered because of the farm he owns or the palace he built, he realized that the names and stories of our ancestors only last as long as people remember them and they eventually pass away.
Qoheleth lands on a quandary similar to the one Jesus has at the end of the gospel: how do we build up for ourselves treasure in heaven? According to Qoheleth, we stop  making it all about ourselves and our success and doing it our way and focus entirely on God and God’s will and seeing everything as a gift to be used by God. Which then changed the way we look at how we use our gifts, especially the gifts that are more than we can utilize today. It is our responsibility to first ask what God would want us to do before we ask what we want to do. Does God want us to allow concerns about our inheritance to rip apart our family? I think not. Does God want us to store up more money than would be necessary for a comfortable life in such a way as to impress others with all our stuff? Again, I think not.
        The next pastor after my friend passed initially moved into my friend’s house but quickly decided he didn’t like it. He couldn’t invite his Associate Pastor or any seminarians to live with so he sold that house and bought an older, larger one closer to the church that could accommodate multiple people. I think he wanted to build up treasure in heaven. He could see that spending time with God and people was the most important treasure of all.
       So how can we avoid the traps of vanity to build up treasure in heaven?

16 OC Don’t let worry ruin your labor.

Friends
Peace be with you.
Yes, it’s Martha and Mary Sunday. That Sunday when we, the slackers of the world, turn to the worker and say, “According to Jesus, I have chosen the better part!” Much of the time, the message that is driven home in homilies is about the contemplative life being more important than the active, charitable life. You can just feel the smugness of the Trappist monks and priests and Trappistine nuns sitting their chapel at prayer as you drive past New Melleray Abbey and Our Lady of the Mississippi. I’m only kidding of course. Still, hearing Jesus say, “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken of her” sure seems to imply the superiority of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet in quiet contemplation over Poor Martha slaving away in the kitchen all day. I mean, she’s been trying to put together a nice meal for Jesus and his followers and, when she asks for help, she gets rebuked for being “worried about many things”. Maybe if the apostles would have been worried about many things, they wouldn’t have found themselves in the middle of nowhere trying to feed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish.
But, if we pull back and little from this simplistic explanation of the supremacy of the contemplative versus the charitable, this simple message gets muddled. Let’s look, for instance, at the first reading from the Book of Genesis. In it, we hear of Abraham seeing three men standing in the heat of the desert. He takes them for travelers. He could have gone back into his tent to keep Sarah, his wife, safe from these strangers and taken some time, to pray with her. But, instead, he kicks into a high gear of hospitality. He asks them to stay, bathes their feet with his precious water, and finds a shady tree for them to rest. Then, he organizes everyone in his party to prepare a feast for these three men who turn out to be angels. Although, it’s only after they leave him that he realizes he’s entertained angels. Before the leave, they inform him that he will be given the gift he’s been continually promised by God; to have an heir, a truly humourous suggestion given the advanced age of both Abraham and Sarah. It seems pregnancy is the reward for Abraham’s charitable hospitality. He’s not admonished for being “worried about many things”. Is God being sexist by rewarding a man for a hard days work but chastising a woman for the same work? No, I really don’t think that’s what’s going on.
I think part of what is happening has to do with worrying Martha turns her concerns for a nice meal into worry. And it appears she’s worried about many things, not just the quality of the meal she’d like to provide. And Mary allows her worries to become a barrier to hospitality. Jesus is suddenly having to arbitrate a disagreement between siblings. One wonders what would have happened if Martha had gone to her sister and asked her for help instead of tattling to Jessus.
But, I think both stories focus our minds and hearts on the importance of relationships over labor. Work is important, but only if it makes us more connected to others and we should seek to be in loving service to those around us while we work. If we use work as an excuse not to spend time with our spouse or kids and allow the concerns of work to spill over to our home life, we will quickly find that we are missing the better part. If we allow work to take precedence over Mas or our personal prayer, we may find that we are constantly anxious and worried about many things instead of finding consolation in the one great commandment to love God and neighbor. That is the better part that we must not allow to be taken away.

Pentecost - C

Friends

Peace be with you.

I would guess that one of the more rewarding and yet challenging components of being a parent is being equated with the actions of your children. If you have more active children, you may think that people believe you’re letting your children have too much screen time and they’re acting out because they don’t get out enough. Or you may think they’re saying that your kids spend too much time outdoors and have become feral like a child raised by apes. Or, God forbid, if you child breaks the law, you may think people say that you should have punished them more as a child, to teach them respect for the law. Or you may be worried that people think you should stand up for your kid and not just accept that the police are always right. I think it’s even more difficult when your kid domes thing good, especially if it was something you really struggled to do. You may be worried that people will think you really pushed your kid to succeed and were a slavedriver even if you didn’t have to push him or her because they loved what they were doing and pushed themselves. Or you may think they’re going to say you pushed them hard so you can correct your failures through your kid’s successes. Let’s face, the people in our heads are the worst!

This weekend, we celebrate Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church. Some people ven call this the Birthday of the Church, since all ministry is empowered by the Holy Spirit and we can do nothing good without her. In our readings today, we hear two separate accounts of the Pentecost event. Unlike last week during the Ascension, when we heard the same author, St. Luke, tell the same story twice in two different books, we have the story of Pentecots told from two, very different perspectives. The Gospel writer, St. John, tends to remember more the preaching and teaching and less the miraculous side of Jesus. So, in St. John’s story, Jesus appears through a locked door without any fanfare and shows off his body to show that it was truly a resurrection. Then, he breathes on his disciples to empower them to forgive sin. It appears that all of this took place on the night of the Resurrection, Easter night.

In contrast, St. Luke, who tends to favor the miraculous because of his goal to show the movement of the church from Jew to Gentile, says the Holy Spirit was given fifty days after Passover, on Pentecost. The differences in dates is just one difference between these two accounts. In Luke, Jesus ascended 10 days before Pentecots and was, therefore, not present for Pentecost, Further, the Holy Spirit sounded like a mighty wind and was accompanied by tongues of fire, which empowers the Apostles to be able to spread the message of the mighty acts of God to everyone around by giving the Apostles the ability to speak in such a way that the many people with different languages could understand them. If Pentecost is the undoing of the Old Testament event of the Tower of Babel, it’s not by making us all speak one language. It’s done by making the gospel heard by all people in their native language.

Some scholars say that the Gospel account is about a personal giving of the Holy Spirit while the story from Acts tells about a second, communal giving of the Spirit. And, while that’s entirely possible, I prefer to think of this as the same story told from two different perspectives. For St. John, Sunday itself has been transformed because of the Resurrection of Jesus in such a way that every Sunday is Easter and Jesus is always present there because we eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist. Further, the fire and sound of driving wind in St. Luke are merely the breath of God empowering the Holy Spriit. And, even though it appears as though the mission of the Gospel to spread God’s mercy to all nations seems different than St. .Luke’s message to spread the mighty works of God, the truth is that God’s forgiveness is the mightiest act of God and, indeed, the basis for all the mighty acts the church will be called to perform.



It seems to me that we tend to focus on Pentecost on the Gifts of the Spirit, which is important. In fact, it’s important to do so every day of our lives, not just Pentecost and certainly not just during confirmation class. But, it’s important for us to remember why we need the gifts in the first place; to give glory to God. The gifts we are given by the Holy Spirit are given to show forth the glory of God. So, yes, we need to pray for the gifts of the spirit but not so that we can have superpowers like Captain Marvel or Superman, but so that others will see the mighty acts of God and long to encounter God’s mercy and forginess as well. May the Holy Spirit always empower us in this endeavor.

4 EC Listening to Jesus and not the naysayers

Friends
Peace be with you.
For some reason, as I read over the first reading, I couldn’t help but think of a high school friend of mine that, for the sake of the story, I’m going to John. As you may be aware, it’s typical for people to gain some weight during the first year of college.  People refer to it as the Freshman fifteen. After college and before his wedding, John decided he was going to work on some of the weight he had gained during college. He started exercising and eating less food and food that was healthier. John had lost fifteen of the forty pounds he was hoping to lose. He was feeling good about his progress and decided to go to a party with some of my high school friends. In the middle of it, John and another friend got into a bit of a verbal altercation which ended with the other friend calling John fat. I remember thinking how unfair it was for the one friend, who had gained more weight in college than John and was doing nothing about it. John knew there was no use in arguing with this person and let the whole thing drop but I could really tell it bothered him.
       In the first reading, St. Paul and St. Barnabas are in Antioch of Pisidia. Now, this shouldn’t be confused with Antioch of Syria, where the term “Christian” was first used to describe the followers of Jesus. This is farther North and East of there. And this is the administrative center of the Roman Empire for the province of Galatia, meaning it would have been a fairly important town. St. Paul and St. Barnabas arrive in town and go immediately to the synagogue. In the first part of this chapter, they describe St. Paul’s preaching the first week that they’re there. He uses the Old Testament to show Jesus as being prefigured in the Exodus and King David. Then he uses a quote from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah to invite the people in the synagogue to faith in Christ. All of that happens in verses fifteen to forty two of this chapter of Acts, the verses that are left out of this reading.
       Instead, we focus on what happens a week later when St. Paul and St. Barnabas again gather and, this time, a larger crowd filled with both Jews and Gentiles has gathered in the synagogue. It’s a clear indication that the Holy Spirit is working, the other being that these two saints get a jeering section. It’s hard to know if the Jewish leaders who went to the “women of prominence who were worshippers and leading men of the city” to these great evangelizers kicked out of their territory were more afraid that St. Paul and St. Barnabas were making salvation seem too easy or if they were just jealous because of the success. What we know is that didn’t allow the persecution to stop them but, instead, shook the dust from their feet and went on to the next place in joy and the Holy Spirit.
       If you’re anything like me, it’s hard not to get frustrated by unfounded criticism. It’s hard not to question if something is worth it when someone is lobbing all kinds of criticism toward you. The question we have to ask ourself is if what we are doing is of God or not. If we are following God’s voice, if we are listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd, we should shake the dust of the naysayers criticism off our feet and continue on our way. If someone can’t handle your growth in holiness, it’s probably because they’re not making the progress they wish they could or they’ve given up on making progress in holiness. As it said in the Responsorial Psalm, “We are his people, the sheep of his flock.”

Palm Sunday C He brings together those who were apart

Friends
Peace be with you.
In the midst of the chaos of the Passion, there is this very fascinating turn-of-events that may, very understandably, be missed. “Herod and Pilate became friends that very day, even though they had been enemies formerly.” Now, you may wonder why, in this midst of this very long, very detailed story about the condemnation, torture, and death of the central person within Christianity, I would choose to focus at all on the two civil leaders mentioned in this passage. Isn’t it interesting, however, what it takes for these two powerful leaders to become friends: the common struggle against a crowd braying for the death of an innocent. Their power hungry attitudes set them against one another but it will be a common enemy that will unite them and make them friends.
In a past assignment involving several parishes in different towns, I was dumbstruck as to how to get the people in the parishes to get past differences in order to work together to build up the body of Christ. They seemed to be only concerned with being Christian if it helped their town and hurt the towns (and parishes) close by. After all, if we close a parish next door, maybe some of those people will come to our parish and they won’t be able to close us. There was even a point where I found myself wondering if I were to do things to make myself hated by the people in the parishes, if they would come together out of hatred for me.
The “why” of unity is just as important as unity itself. If we are working together to bring criminals back to God, to reconcile sinners around a campfire, and helping people deal with the reality of death, we are reconciling as Christ would. But, if we are united in mutual hatred of a common enemy, we may find that we are, in fact, crucifying our Lord more than we are the Lord himself.

8 OC Listen before you speak

Friends
Peace be with you.
When I was growing up, my Mom had a plaque in her bedroom wall which read “speak less than thou knowest”. A little alter, I heard it expressed in slightly more pessimistic language as “It’s better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt”. This quote, erroneously attributed to both Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, illustrates well the biblical principle of today’s first reading from the Book of Sirach. It’s regrettable that we miss out on the first three verses of Chapter 27 of this reading because I find them integral to understanding the wisdom that Joshua Ben Sirach is trying to impart to us. He starts, in Chapter 27, by talking about how sin is a peg between the fitted stones of buying and selling. Presumably, he is talking about bargaining or haggling, the negotiating that happens between a buyer and a seller. The seller wants to make his product appear worth top dollar even when it’s well-worn. And the buyer wants to make herself appear destitute and in need of extreme charity. In that negotiation lies the rub between the fitted stone of one who has the product and one who wants or needs it. And that rub is deception and lies and manipulation. So, according to Sirah, what is the escape hatch to turning a blind eye to the injustice associated with buying and selling? The fear of the Lord.
Now, before I continue, let me take a minute to talk about the fear of the Lord. A couple of years ago, the Archbishop told the priests of this diocese that there was going to be a new translation of the Rite of Confirmation but he wasn’t real excited about it. His principle complains that that they maintained this phrase “Fear of the Lord”. He thought it would be better understood if it was translated “awe” or “respect” of the Lord because “fear is never a good thing. I can see his point. One of the most used phrases in the Bible is “Do not be afraid.” And the concept of the fear of God is used by atheists to mischaracterize religion as a manipulation of people through fear of a non existent old bearded man in the clouds. Yet, fear is also a reaction to something or someone that is not of our control. Yes, it is a a survival instinct when we encounter the unknown but it is also a natural reaction we have around someone or something far more powerful than we are. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis put it this way in describing the Lion, Aslan, who is the Christ-figure, “He’ll be coming and going. One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you musn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.” In another place, Lewis describes the lion as “not safe, but good”. The fear of the Lord is merely the recognition that God is neither tame nor safe nor manipulable nor power hungry but is, simply, good. The greatest good in fact, and one to keep in our heart even while engaged in buying and selling.
This is all context to the first reading which advised against judging a person by what she or he says. Often, we say that talk is cheap and actions are what count but Sirach is going to remind us that words also count for something. In particular, pay attention to how a person speaks when they are under duress or under pressure. According to Sirach, that’s when the true test of a person cares about. I can think of times when I wish I would have had the fear of the Lord more in my heart than worrying about being in control of a situation or trying to fill the tense-silence of a situation with sarcastic humor. I look back and wish I have through before uttering a harsh word or laughing with someone who was making a joke at another’s expense. In those cases, I don't feel like I was producing the good fruit both Sirach and Jesus call us to produce. As we enter the season of Lent this Wednesday, it may be a good time to evaluate the T.V. shows, videos, radio programs, books, podcasts, and other audio and visual media that are forming the way we speak and think. Are they helping to nourish a healthy sense of the Fear of the Lord? Or have they turned God into a safe, tame, far-off deity instead of a powerfully good God who wants us to become the best version of ourselves possible?And might a little silence help us in that process?

6 OC Only God can fill the hole inside our heart

Friends
Peace be with you.
If Today’s gospel sounds similar to but not the same as the Beatitudes you are used to hear, there’s a reason for that. It’s because these beatitudes come from the Sermon on the Plain from the Gospel of Luke and not the Sermon on the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew. The difference is that St. Matthew’s version contains eight Beatitudes (statements that begin with “Blessed are the…”) while St. Luke has four Beatitudes and four woes. I appreciated the explanation offered by St. Bonaventure as to the difference. He said that possibly the Lord offered the fuller eight beatitudes earlier on the top of the mountain and then, later, offered the four as a kind of summary/reminder to a congregation mixed with those present for the earlier sermon and some new people who needed to be caught up. Yet, I think the summary is even more challenging because it not only focuses on the positive side of who is blessed but makes explicit four contrasting “woes” that a Christian is to avoid.
Still, let’s be honest. How many of us would say that we have, as a goal, to be poor? Don’t raise your hands but think about how absurd of a question that is. How many plan on starving in order to be holy? How many want to weep, not just shed a tear but have a full out, uncontrollably mournful experience of weeping? And how many people want to be persecuted? The answer to these question is, of course, no one. And we can probably all think of people who are poor or hungry, or weeping or persecuted who are far from holy. So, why does Jesus seem to set these up as the ideal of Christian life?
Each of these beatitudes describes what ancient philosophers would have called and “evil”. An evil in the ancient world was a place where there should be something good but, instead, there is nothing. Think of a hole in the ground that needs to be filled. Someone who is poor needs money. Someone who is starving needs food. Someone who is mourning needs to be comforted. Someone who is being persecuted needs to have rights. Yet, Jesus says that people who have filled the holes these are the ones to be pitied. Is he off his rocker? Or, as some scripture scholars suggest whenever we have a passage of scripture that seems to hard to fulfill, is he exaggerating in order to make a point? I don’t think so.
The passage that immediately precedes this one is the calling of the twelve apostles. Jesus looked at his growing number of followers and chose 12 men who had been with him since his baptism to be leaders in this community. They wouldn’t have known at the time that Jesus was really beginning the first diocese with himself as the bishop, the 12 as priests, the 120 disciples as his deacons, and the people as...well...the people. What they did know, however was that there was danger in following Jesus. Not only did you have to neglect your family and your job in your commitment to follow Jesus but you, in effect, became an enemy of the state and synagogue. Romans would view you as being an insurrectionist and the Jewish leadership would see you as following a rogue rabbi. So, these men, now filled with fear and trepidation, are being told what to expect. Don’t expect to be rich, well fed, happy, or esteemed. In fact, if you do expect that treatment, you aren’t following Christ. Instead, expect to be poor, hungry, mournful, and hated because of the fidelity you feel to Christ.
Jesus ultimate message, then, is not that there is an innate value to these characteristics, otherwise anorexia and anarchy would be the pinnacle of holiness. Intead, he is saying that those who are satisfied with what they ave are where they are already have what they need. There is no hole inside them that needs to be filled. But we who do feel the hole inside of us have, basically, two choices. We can fill it with the stuff of this world or we can let God fill it in his time with his grace. After all, our world loves to try and offer things that fill the holes in our life. These four blesseds and woes are pretty good for our time. The world wants us always to have the newest technology, clothing, home furnishings, and other things. They want to fill us up with junk food or drugs and alcohol to make us happy. They have given us social media that addicts us to having our every be liked and esteemed as though we are all St. Augustine or St. Thomas Aquinas.
At our core, as Christians, we know that culture can only fill these holes in our life with trash that ultimately leaves us feeling even more empty. We recognize that emptiness we feel are an opportunity to connect with the biggest hole in history, the cross: This evil torture device on which hung the savior of the world is the ultimately filled by the Word Made Flesh, Jesus Christ, who alone satisfies our hungers and leads us out of mourning to the comfort of eternal life. Then the hole in our heart becomes a grace that drives us to be like Christ, an emptiness that we treasure because it points us to where our true hearts will one day be filled.

Second Sunday of Advent: 2018 God uses the lowly to humble the proud

Friends

Peace be with you.

Tomorrow/today is a very important day for the church in Mexico and all of Latin America really. It is the feast day of St. Juan Diego who was a simple peasant under Spanish rule and who, while walking to Mass, found himself visited by a woman dressed like an Aztec princess who identified herself as “ever-perfect holy Mary, who has the honor to be the mother of the true God." When St. Juan Diego recounted this story to his bishop, the Bishop was understandably skeptical. He told St. Juan Diego he needed to ponder over what he was telling him to decide if he thought it was legitimate or not. The next day, Mary appeared to Juan again and sent him to the Bishop with a gift that knocked the cleric to his knees: fresh roses that wouldn’t have grown this time of year in their climate and her image fixed on Juan’s cactus-based coat in such that way that does not seem to have been painted and has lasted five hundred years despite being made with materials that typically last 10-15.

Why would Mary appear to Juan Diego? Why appear in Mexico? Why not come slightly farther north to a country that would eventually be a world superpower and convert the colonies from the beginning? Imagine how much different things would be if she had just waited a little while and been Our Lady of Philadelphia or New York or even our Lady of Bellevue/Springbrook. Yet, that is often not the way things work.

It is within this context that we hear of Jesus’ cousin, St. John the Baptist. St. Luke, situates the beginning of John’s ministry both in time and in contrast. In other words, he lists the names of these leaders so that the hearer will know what year it takes place and will have a reminder of the corruption of those leaders as well. It’s sort of like the opposite of what happened at President George H.W. Bush’s funeral this week when everyone kept looking back on his years as president as though they were the best years ever. Luke is using these names to remind people of the murder and corruption these men did. He does this so he can contrast St. John the Baptist, who is speaking truth to power. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that St. John the Baptist was a political revolutionary or a competitor with Caesar and Pilate and all those folks. I’m saying the exact opposite of that. The truth he spoke was about the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophecy spoken in our first reading about God leveling mountains and filling valleys to prepare for his coming. St. John the Baptist called on people to be prepared for the coming of the Lord

At the time of St. Juan Diego, Spanish Franciscan missionaries had been working to convert the people of Mexico for 20 years with very little success. Because of this one revelation, approximately 90 million Latin American people would be converted in the next 10 years, a feat only possible through the action of God. And that happened, not through the most powerful of subjects or to the most powerful country in the world but to a peasant less in dignity by most of European people in a country that has always struggled to provide adequate resources for its citizenry. Why would God do such a thing?



To remind us that human power pales in comparison to the power of God, that human wisdom seems like foolishness compared to the wisdom of God, and the good things we prize on earth seem pathetic compared to the great things God wants for us. In this world where powerful people seem to constantly want all of our attention in order to have a greater control of our lives, we remind ourselves that God’s plan is always better human plans. We just need to be humbly open to the way God appears in our lives.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time -B

Friends

Peace be with you.

I’m going to go out on a limb and admit something that may be kind of hard to hear: I am wounded. Now, I’m not going to sit up here and admit anything untoward. This is not a Jimmy Swaggart “I have sinned” moment for me. But, I will admit to you that I have had experiences in past assignments that really made me question whether I wanted to be assigned to a parish ever again and, even, whether I could continue to be a priest. By the grace of God, that last part passed and I settled back into my plan to be an active priest for fifty years, retire for one year, and then die. But, those hard experiences are wounds that I know I bring into this assignment.

I’m not sharing this for your pity. I would guess we all have wounds from past bad experiences if we took the time to think about it. The strangest thing for me is that I can remember a time in my own life when I would have never thought I would stand in front of you and admit that weakness. When I was in seminary, I used to look at the priests knew and think that he should just make a darn decision and everyone in the parish would respect what he would say. And then, for the 10 years that I was an associate pastor, I would get very frustrated when the pastors with whom I worked would do something with which I disagreed or something that went against church teaching, especially if they were doing so because they felt like their parishioners wanted it done that way and they didn’t want to have to take the time to explain why they should do it the right way, let alone having to take a tough stance against people who simply do not understand the whole point of the gospel. I look back on that associate pastor and realize how easy leadership looks when you’re not the one who is the leader.

And I wonder if St. James and St. John ever had these same feelings. During their lives, they, along with Simon Peter, form an inner circle of Jesus’ apostles who are present for the transfiguration and other miracles when Jesus dismisses everyone but them. They are given the nickname “Sons of Thunder” in fact because they take action and, as we heard in the gospel, ask for favors before others can. They ask to be the leaders when Jesus leaves. He is, after all, starting to talk about leaving so let’s figure out the order of succession. I mean, let’s admit it. No one wants Jude bumbling around trying to find lost things all day as their leader. And I’ve got to believe everyone was at least a little ill-at-ease around Judas by this point. Why not get a little order around here?

After the death of Jesus, St. James intimately felt what it was like to drink the cup of Jesus. He would go as far as Spain in his evangelization, successfully converting many to the faith, before returning to Jerusalem, where the Son of Herod the Great, also named Herod, would personally martyr him. He truly was baptized into the same baptism of Christ’s death and rose with Christ to the glory of eternal life.

St. John is called upon by Jesus from the cross to become like a son to Mary, his own Mother. He and Mary eventually leave Jerusalem where he takes care of her until she is taken up body and soul into heaven. Then, he leaves to the town of Ephesis and eventually is exiled to the Island prison of Patmos where he writes the fourth gospel. As the only Apostle to die from “natural causes” he is like the lone survivor left to write down the story of Jesus’ from his perspective. And what is the perspective of this younger son of thunder? What is he most known for? Love. It is said that, towards the end of his life, St. John would constantly repeat the beautifully brief homily “Little children, love one another.” Love heals our wounds. Love transforms the way we view our enemies into friends. Love drives out the fear of an unplanned pregnancy. Love tells us that not every fight is worth fighting but that some are.

I think this is what Jesus is trying to get across to all the disciples at the end of this gospel passage and what I’m taking from it as well. I want to lead like Jesus lead, which wasn’t by global takeover or arrogant declaration. He led by becoming a servant of all. He led by serving the least among us. He led by dying and giving us his body and blood for our salvation. If only we can have that kind of fearless attitude of servant leadership. May it be so. Amen.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B

Friends

Peace be with you. I’d like to do something a little different today. Instead of focusing on the gospel and finding a moral teaching from it, I’d like to explore that first reading from the 17th Chapter of the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Ezekial, in part because there is something beautiful that profoundly informs our understanding of God’s action in Jesus’ Christ. And, let me just admit from the get go that I am going beyond the three verses that we heard to incorporate the entire chapter because, as you’ll see, what we heard is kind of like hearing the punchline of a joke without hearing the entire thing.

But, before I get too particular, let me give a little historical context to the book. The book of Ezekiel was written during one of the most transformational experiences that the Jewish people experienced in history; the Babylonian exile. Oftentimes, we think of the Holocaust or the Jewish experience of slavery in Egypt as being central to Jewish history. And, while both of those experiences certainly are important, no less important is the time when King Jehoiakim allied with the country that formerly enslaved Israel, Egypt, instead of trusting that God would protect his people from a war mongering Babylonian leader named King Nebuchadnezzar. Because of this, the Jewish people lost the Temple, lost the Ark of the Covenant with the 10 commandments inside, and of course, lost the close relationship they had cultivated with God. Ezekiel was a priest during this time when there is no temple for the people to offer sacrifice. Instead, as he himself explained in the first few chapters of this book, God fed him a scroll and charged him to preach 25 “oracles”, one for each year he served as a priest.

This particular oracle starts with a proverb about an eagle plucking the top of a cedar tree and planting it beside the flowing waters of a river, an advantageous place for plants to survive in the desert. It should be noted that, because the palace of David in Jerusalem was built of Cedar, the people would have understood that Ezekiel is really talking about the Davidic descendant of the time, King Jehoiakim, as the top of the Cedar tree. However, another eagle comes to take the vine that resulted from the transplanted cedar tree and plant it in a fertile field. The proverb concludes by asking if it will survive as well in the field as it did located next to the sure water source of the river. The Lord explains that the second eagle represents Israel’s attempt to make the agreement with Egypt, which was unsuccessful and lead to King Jehoiakim’s death. In my opinion, we’re missing a pretty powerful explanation of the teaching of the first reading by skipping verse 20, “I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon to judge him there because he broke faith with me.” In other words, it was God’s plan all along to force his people into exile but, by aligning with Egypt, they were really fighting against God. God isn’t being vengeful here. It sounds like it but, in reality, he’s explaining to them that they had wandered away from the Lord and that, like the Father of the Prodigal Son, God let his people wander away. But, he was even providing for their basic needs, by planting them next to a river, in the hopes that they would return to him. That’s why in our passage for today God says that he will take the top of the Cedar Tree and plant it on a high mountain.

Now, let’s stop here for a second and think about to whom this is referring. Remember for a second that the Cedar Tree refers to a descendant of King David. It certainly could have meant King Zedekiah, the leader who would have been in charge while Ezekiel was writing this. The problem is that everyone agrees King Zedekiah was corrupt. He was too comfortable with Babylon’s idolatry and too comfortable being away from Jerusalem. This is one of those times where we disagree with our Jewish brothers and sisters and believe this points to a God who walked with them and, by the way, continues to walk with us, into a nation of sin so that he could rescue some of us from that sin. Jesus, therefore, becomes the low tree that is brought high for the mighty and powerful to marvel at. He is the one who makes the withered tree bloom.

Haven’t we all, at one time or another, found ourselves feeling in exile? Maybe God used to feel very close to us and, now, we feel more his absence than his presence. Maybe we don’t take the time we wish we would each day to pray. Or maybe we never have had that close feeling of the God who is our shelter and our strength. Ezekiel is reminding us that it’s never too late. God is searching for you. He sent his Son, Jesus, to show us his love and feeds us each Sunday with his body and blood. All we have to do is ask and God can come to let us know how much he loves us. What makes it difficult to complete trust complete in God?

3EA: Holding on to the certainty of the resurrection amidst the conversations and debates of our lives

Friends

Peace be with you. 

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to celebrate the 50th Anniversary Mass of my Aunt and Uncle in Perry, Iowa. It was an honor to do that, not only because of the milestone of being with great people who have faithfully lived the sacrament of matrimony for fifty years but because the church my Aunt and Uncle attend, St. Patrick’s Church in Perry, is the same one my Grandma and Grandpa Schott attended and my Great Grandma and Grampa Haberer attended. There have been untold numbers of family baptisms, confirmations, first communions, confessions, and weddings in this sacred space. I generally don’t get nervous about celebrating Mass anymore but I was shaking at this one. Still there was something comforting as well. I told the congregation that, on top of the family members present, it felt like I was praying with generations and generations of family there.

Today’s gospel tells the well-known story of the encounter of two of the disciples with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Even though it’s probably one of the most recounted resurrection stories in the New Testament, there’s something about it that makes it very unusual. In most accounts of the resurrection, the particular gospel writer seems to go to great lengths to mention details that prove Jesus’ “bodiliness”. For instance, in the Gospel of Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary fall down and hold on to the feet of Jesus. And, right after this story of the Road to Emmaus, Luke tells of Jesus appearing to the disciples and eating fish with them. One of the main reasons for these “bodily” details was to prove the reality of the resurrection. Jesus did not come back as an angel or a ghost or a purely spiritual presence. Nor was the resurrection simply a result of nostalgic story-telling, sort of like if someone yesterday had shared a memory about Grandma and Grandpa volunteering at their parish. I may feel closer to them through knowledge of their actions but hearing the story doesn’t make them bodily present in such a way that I can touch them or eat and drink with them. The only way that the gospel stories of Jesus resurrection make any sense is if, as St. Peter said in the first reading, Jesus was not “abandoned to the depths of the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption.”

That’s, in some way, what makes the story of the Road to Emmaus so strange. On Easter Sunday, two of Jesus’s disciples are walking back to a relatively unknown suburb of Jerusalem called Emmaus, probably after observing the Passover sacrifice and Sabbath rest. They approach an unknown stranger walking in the same direction and, as hospitality would have demanded, they invite him to walk with them. It says that their eyes are prevented from recognizing him. But why? Possibly because of grief and feelings of disappointment, as is evidenced by their statement that “we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel…” They go on, as would have been typical of the time, to completely discount the stories of the women who were witnesses of the angel and the empty tomb in a kind of first-century way of “mansplaining” away what their hearts, minds and eyes were foolishly unable or unwilling to see.

The story reaches its confusing climax as the disciples reach their house, invite in this stranger and ask him to act as a rabbi blessing their meal. Using the same verbs that he used to describe the feeding of the 5000 and the last supper, Luke recounts that Jesus “took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him but he vanished from their sight.” Wait, what? Just when they could have fallen on the ground in prostration and grabbed onto his feet or just at the point that the Lord could have eaten the bread that was in his hands and given the it to his disciples to eat, he disappears. Why didn’t the Lord wait just a few seconds for something more bodily to happen then simply lifting some blessed pita bread off the table as proof that he was really resurrected?

Part of it is connected to chapter 3 of the Old Testament Book of Genesis. When Adam and Eve ate from the three of knowledge, it says that their eyes were opened and they recognized, in shame, that they were naked. Jesus is the reversal of the shame of Adam as he humbly accepted even death on the cross. The disciples’ eyes are opened to the reversal of this shame in the breaking of the bread. Yet, I’m also convinced that the messiness of this story points to a credibility of the witness. If there was a larger agenda driving each of these stories in such a way that they are not reliable, then it would have eliminated contradictory details like this. Instead, they remain, pointing to the reliability of the description of the event. The resurrection stories are not P.R. tales of fancy. They are actual stories of encounter with the risen Jesus, as it said in the second reading, “revealed in the final time for you who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory…”

I’d also like to highlight another possible reason why Jesus disappeared at the exact moment that his disciples recognized him, one that may drop this into the lap of we, his modern disciples. One way of thinking about it is that God refuses to be addictive. Faith, hope, and love, the three theological virtues infused in our being by God, may make us feel like “our hearts are burning within us” but they pale in comparison to the euphoria of drugs, alcohol, money, and power. When we have an experience of God, especially in the blessed sacrament, it can feel very fleeting and transitory and probably even of uncertain origin. We may recognize, in reflecting on the experience, that our hearts were burning within us, but that experience too will pass. The wisdom of this experience is in the sharing. The disciples had to share this experience with others. They ran 8 miles in the middle of the night to share their real experience of the risen Lord with the other disciples. They became his witnesses. Today’s world needs witnesses to the hope of the resurrection, not just from the professional church ministers but from all who respond “Amen” to their encounter with Christ in the breaking of the bread. How is God calling you to be his witness if your daily life?

The bodily resurrection of Jesus

Friends

Peace be with you. We have experienced the triumphant return of the word “Alleluia!” In today’s celebration. It’s been missing for the entirety of Lent as a way of preparing us for this celebration. Alleluia is derived from two Hebrew words; “hallel” meaning to praise, and “YaH”, which is the beginning of the name of God in the Old Testament revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. So, we may ask, what makes this day so special that we celebrate using an ancient foreign language? I was taught in seminary that the most solemn celebrations are those in which we are least likely to change. This makes sense when you consider that this celebration marks the central mystery for Christians, the holiest of holy days. Jesus is risen! He is truly risen.

However, recently, I was reading an article on the BBC website that said that a quarter of all British Christians do not believe in the resurrection at all. It went onto to say that almost forty percent of all Christians believe that the resurrection was a purely spiritual reality and didn’t involve his body. Now, I know that this was a survey of the British people, who tend to be less religious than Americans, but I would guess that Americans wouldn’t be entirely different than our British brothers and sisters, especially considering the fact that the account we just heard, both from the Gospel of Matthew and the Acts of the Apostles seems to take great pains in trying to explain why it was a physical, bodily resurrection.

St. Matthew explains this using an internal and an external dynamic. Internally, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary arrive at the tomb at dawn. Suddenly, there is an angel whose appearance causes an earthquake which, as one of my commentaries said, symbolizes that the bodily resurrection has repercussions that shake the very foundation of the world. Still, when the women peer into the tomb, they find it empty, with the only assurance of the resurrection being the word of an angel. Their reaction seems comical and contradictory. St. Matthew says, “…they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed,” How can you be afraid and joyful at the same time? Well, I know I was fearful yet overjoyed on June 22, 2002 as I walked from the rectory to the Cathedral for my ordination. I was fearful because I wondered why the church would choose a sinner like me to be a priest and yet I was overjoyed because God looked at my weakness and still called me. I would imagine brides and grooms know what it’s like to feel fearful and yet overjoyed on their wedding day. And I know that parents feel this when their child takes his first few stumbling steps worrying that he will flat on his face but overjoyed at seeing the development to the next stage of life. For Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, an empty tomb and the word of an angel provoked a kind of internal faith that Jesus had been raised. For others, it would have provoked skepticism about someone stealing his body but for these women it was a moment of faith.

Yet, Jesus isn’t satisfied with a purely spiritual, internal experience of faith for his first witnesses. As they are walking along the trail, Jesus appears to them in such a way that they are able to fall down and hold on to his feet. They couldn’t have done that with a ghost or a spirit, let alone with the angel they had just met who, despite being able to scare the heck of out a group of Roman soldiers guarding Jesus’ tomb, is purely spiritual in nature and, thus, immaterial. Jesus is physical because he has had a physical, bodily resurrection. This is further corroborated in the first reading during the speech by St. Peter when he identified Jesus as, “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” Again, ghosts, spirits, and angels don’t need to eat and drink but those of us with a body do. For this reason, Psalm 23 talks about heaven like it is a great banquet with God as a host, the kind of banquet that will put even the best Easter dinner to shame.

Believe it or not, this eucharist is a foreshadowing of that great banquet in heaven and our participation in the paschal mystery, the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And, it’s good for us on this Easter Sunday to reflect on its internal and external ramifications for our life. Internally, are we praying daily to get into a relationship with God? At the chrism Mass this past Tuesday, the Archbishop reminded his priests of the importance of praying in front of the blessed sacrament to internalize what we eat and drink at Sunday. Pray to have the faith of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see common bread and wine as the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus. Read the readings before Mass to prepare and set aside all that distracts you. Yet, it also should have an outward expression of encountering Jesus. One of the best ways we do that is by coming to Mass weekly and participating with your fellow worshippers in the prayers at mass. Also, if you’re aware of a serious sin, to make use of the sacrament of reconciliation to physically prepare for Mass.



Both our internal and external preparation for Mass should send us out convicted to be Jesus’ witnesses to this world so badly in need of the hope given to us in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Today we proclaim a full-throated “Alleluia” as witnesses internally and externally to the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Alleluia! He is risen.

Good Friday ecumenical Service

John 19:28-29.
28. After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”
29 There was a vessel filled with common wine.* So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.

Friends, peace be with you. Thank you to Pastor Chuck for inviting me to participate in this Good Friday reflection on the last seven words of Christ. My name is Fr. Dennis Miller and I am the chaplain of Loras College and Clarke University.
The fifth word, on which I will reflect with you, is “I thirst”, which is a translation of the Greek word “dispao”, used 17 times in the New Testament, including the story of the woman at the well in the fourth chapter of this gospel, the gospel of John. I believe that is a deliberate connection done by the gospel writer and I will explain that fuller in just a moment.
The Hebrew, Old Testament word that is the equivalent is “same” or “sama”, used a total of 23 times beginning in Exodus 17 when, at Meribah and Massah, the Israelites clamored against the Lord and his servant, Moses, for water. They thirsted in the desert and God provided for them water from a rock, which Moses struck with his staff. When I looked at other connections to the Hebrew word “sama” I found that if you simply add a “d” to the end, making it “samad”, the word means “joined in worship” or “yoked”. Which sort of makes sense in the normal way we think of thirsting. We thirst for God together as members of the body of Christ. That’s why almost all Christians believe that the first thing one does in order to call yourself a Christian is to be baptized in water, a kind of spiritual refreshment. And, indeed, in the gospel of John chapter 2, Jesus recognized the thirst that people had at a wedding in Cana and fulfilled that thirst by turning water into wine. You may remember that there was a certain reluctance in Jesus to perform this miracle, possibly in part because, especially in the Gospel of John, Jesus does not want to be seen as just another magical miracle worker. He is something different in the core of his being. He is the one who can fulfill the thirsty soul, not one who will water his followers like cattle yoked together in worship.
We thirst for Christ, yes. But today we hear that Jesus thirsts. He expresses this same sentiment to the Samaritan Woman in John chapter 4 verse 7. “Give me a drink”. This simple request marks the beginning of a profound experience of conversion for this foreigner to the Jewish faith. Jesus thirsted, but not for her water. He thirsted for her faith. And today, from the cross, Jesus turns to us and says, “I thirst”. He thirsts for us to know him as the living water who is greater than the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets. He thirsts for us to turn to him with our hurts and sins and to seek his healing and forgiveness. He thirsts for us to come to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. He thirsts for us to come to know him as a brother and as a Messiah, as most high God and as a friend who knows us better than we know ourselves.
A reflection attributed to Saint Teresa of Calucutta reflected on this by saying, “God thirsts for you. Yes, that is the only way to even begin to describe God’s love for you: GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU. He thirsts to love you and to be loved by you – that is how precious you are to him. GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU. Come to him and he will fill your heart and heal your wounds. God will make you a new creation and give you peace, even in all your trials. GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU. You must never doubt God’s mercy, God’s acceptance of you, God’s desire to forgive, His longing to bless you and live his life in you. GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU. If you feel unimportant in the eyes of the world, that matters not at all. For God, there is no one any more important in the entire world than you. GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU. Open to HIM, come to HIM, thirst for HIM, give your life to the Lord and he will prove to you how important you are to his Heart. GOD THIRSTS FOR YOU.

First Sunday of Lent - C: What can we not give up?

My Dear brothers and sister in Christ

Peace be with you. The question most associated with Lent is, of course, what did you give up? We tend to associate this time most closely with fasting. In my Ash Wednesday homily, I emphasized that the reason we fast during lent is not to lose weight but, rather, to make room for God in prayer and make room to be more loving to others. In the last few years, on Ash Wednesday I’ve noticed a few comments from my friends who no longer practice Catholicism but still remember what we do during lent saying that they are going to give up going to church or give up being a christian for lent. Now, of course, these statements aren’t meant to be taken seriously. Still, I think there’s something in them that our readings from today’s Mass are inviting us to reflect on.

The first reading and gospel both talk about an experience in the desert. The first reading described a creedal statement that the Israelites would have made when offering a portion of the first picking of their crops to God. Basically they say that God guided them into Egypt when they were near death and made them so abundant that the Egyptians were afraid of them and persecuted them. So he guided them through the dangers of the desert to the abundant land they were about to occupy. Basically, Moses is reminding them that, even though they may be afraid to give over the first picking because of the uncertainty of knowing that there will be other pickings and, thus, more food, when they trusted him before he didn’t let them down. Moses is inviting the people into an anamnesis, a way of remembering similar to the way Jesus invites us in each Eucharist to be part of the last supper. History comes alive and we share in the experience of those who came before us. We are invited to “Do this in anamnesis or memory of Jesus.”

The gospel, likewise, tells the familiar story of the Jesus in the desert. If you look at the organization of the temptations, you may notice that St. Luke organizes them differently than St. Mark and St. Matthew. For them, it goes bread, temple, world. For St. Luke, he starts with bread but then puts all the kingdoms of the world before they end in Jerusalem at the Temple. It’s clearly not a memory slip on the part of this evangelist. He is using the temptations in the desert to model the taunts of the soldiers while Jesus is hanging on the cross. Like the devil, they will invite Jesus to care for his own welfare, to make use his power over the government and to subvert the power of God. It’s particularly significant that St. Luke ends at the Temple in Jerusalem, so that Jerusalem becomes the place of culmination. One commentary I read had this beautiful explanation as to why St. Luke puts it last. “On that high place of the Temple, the devil takes the texts of the Torah to offer the dizzying suggestion that Jesus test his sonship against the promise of God to protect him. How clever? For what is the radical obedience of the servant except something very close to just such a blind leap? But Jesus does not succumb to this spiritual vertigo. He returns to the.. text of Deuteronomy ‘You will not test the Lord your God’: not only to rebuke the tempter but also to state the conviction of authentic faith.”

On Ash Wednesday, I said that the point of fasting is to make room in our busy lives for God, which is somewhat true. But, today we hear an even deeper, even more challenging part. Fasting reminds us of that which we cannot fast. We, Americans, aren’t accustomed to thinking in this way. We tend to be better collectors who, may, occasionally go through and throw things out or give them away to the poor but, for the most part, we collect more and more stuff. The desert experience of fasting in Lent, rather, challenges us to think in terms of who we cannot give up. Jesus is offered the love of pleasure in the offer of bread, the love of possessions in the offer of the world, and the love of glory on the parapet or peak of the temple. He turns them down with the same love that he showed from the cross when, he said, “Father into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

We show our devotion to God through daily personal prayer, through reaching out in love to the suffering and sorrowing, through gathering for the eucharist, and through celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation. In each of these, we approach God with humility, setting aside our own selfish desires, and humbly reminding ourselves that we worship God alone and we do not put him to the test.

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - C

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary - C

Clarke

Feeling overwhelmed by God

My Dear friends in Christ

Peace be with you. What kind of summer job have you had? When I was in college, I had a variety. One summer, I had two. I worked in the afternoon and early evening delivering medications to various nursing homes throughout Central Iowa. Very few things are more awkward than bumping into an attractive classmate who’s been visiting her elderly grandmother while you’re delivering four packages of adult diapers. My other job took place from 6:30 in the morning until 2:00 or 2:30 in the afternoon as a cook at a local greasy spoon restaurant. I had worked there in high school as a dishwasher and had learned how to cook in the cafeteria in college so I felt like I was prepared for this job. Well, I wasn’t. In a college cafeteria, you make a lot of one thing for people and they have little choice but to eat that. At a restaurant, even a little greasy spoon diner like this one, people ordered all kinds of things to be prepared in all kinds of ways and they wanted them as fast as possible. The first day, the owner told me that he’d come back and help if I ever fell behind...more like when I fell behind because he helped every day for the first severa weeks that I was there. In fact, I remember one day when I was behind but trying not to ask for help that I fell so far behind that the waitresses had to ask the owner to help. He came back and sternly asked why I hadn’t asked for help to which I apologized and said I wanted to work it out. He bailed me out and then, again, sternly asked me to just ask for help when I’m falling behind. Finally, at the end of July, there was one Monday when it all clicked for me. The orders came at a pace that I could handle them and I was getting the food out reasonably well. I only made three or four easily correctable mistakes. Mistakes are killer when you’re trying not to fall behind. I made it past the lunch rush and walked out to see the owner smiling at me. I had finally made it.

I couldn’t help but notice that in all three of today’s readings, the author is describing an encounter with God. In the first reading, Isaiah’s encounter is very much shrouded in the expectations of the people of the Old Testament. For them, an encounter with God was like playing with fire. We often associate fire with the devil but the word “Seraphim”, which the first reading used to describe the angel, comes from two Hebrew words meaning “the fiery ones” or “the burning ones”. God, who is never described, sits on a throne flanked by these burning, multi-winged entities who are chanting the same words we use in the midst of the eucharistic prayer “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.” Our Jewish brothers and sisters pray this prayer, called the qedosh, as part of several of their services. It emphasizes God’s otherness and transendence. One commentary I read noted a “chasm between God’s holiness and human sinfulness” which is emphasized in this reading. “It is the Lord who bridges this gap (by having the seraphim burn away the uncleanness of Isaiah’s lips) and God outfits the prophet with the moral integrity needed for his ministry.”

Likewise in the gospel, St. Luke tells a story that seems to merge stories from several other places in the gospels. Unlike Mark and Matthew who simply have Jesus call Peter, James, and John as they are fishing to come and follow him, St. Luke includes a story about a miraculous catch of fish that foreshadows the life he is calling them to be as fishers of people through the word of God. And, like Isaiah in the first reading, Peter realizes at one point that he is in the presence of God and has a moment of utter humility. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Yet, I think Paul has the harshest version of humility in the second reading from his letter to the Corinthians. Most Biblical scholars hear in this part of Paul’s letter an early creed that may have been part of the Christian gathering. But, Paul adds some things at the end about his calling. In our translation, Paul describes himself as “born abnormally.” Most of the commentaries that I read said that a better translation would be born “as if to an abortion” or “as if stillborn.” The commentators think that Paul’s opponents were using these types of phrases to make fun of the fact that Paul wasn’t very good looking, sort of the biblical equivalent of bullying. If it’s true, Paul finds a way to spin this phrase in a positive way by using it to describe how he was reborn when he moved from persecuting christians to being incredibly effective at preaching so they may believe.

There are times in our lives when we aren’t listening to the will of God and things aren’t going well for us. God has a way, like he did with St. Paul, of knocking us off our donkeys and inviting us to change the course of our lives. But, there are also times when we know we are doing the will of God and life is just hard. Areas of disagreement with a boyfriend or girlfriend or parts of our job or our education that suck are a couple of examples. We may be tempted, in those situations, to give up too easily when we feel overwhelmed. If so, hear the word of the Lord in these three readings: ask God to heal you and direct you like Isaiah did, do the best you can with the gifts God has given you like St. Peter did, and remind yourself that you’re using the gifts God has given you to the best of your ability like St. Paul did.

Holy Family 2015

My Dear brothers and sister in Christ

    

Peace be with you. As I was reading over the first reading from the First Book of Samuel, I couldn’t help but think about my niece and nephew named, appropriately enough, Hannah and Sam. Hannah is three years older than Sam and, at points, struggles to tolerate her younger brother. In the first reading, the namesakes of my niece and nephew aren’t siblings but mother and son. The mother, Hannah, is so excited to receive the gift of Samuel, her child, that she freely offers him to Eli, the priest, to be raised. I’m sure that there were many times during their growing up years that my niece would have gladly taken my nephew to their church to leave him there. Thank goodness even the worst knock-down, drag-out fight between siblings never ended with a hog-tied little boy sitting on my rectory steps. And that, as they’ve gotten older, my niece has found a way to not only get along with her little brother but to use him as a taxi service between buildings.

    

Both the first reading and the gospel give us a glimpse into a confusing and unique aspect of family life that I think is often overlooked but very important. What is it that would cause a mother who was barren to be willing to give the first child she ever received to God? As a person who has worked with young men who are considering priesthood, I know that often parents are the second hardest people to tell about a vocation. When I work with guys in college, they first have to convince themselves, and maybe their girlfriends, that God may in fact be calling them to priesthood before they tell their parents. Sometimes the parents are excited but many times the parents see nothing but loneliness and complications for their sons and a dearth of grandchildren for themselves. God even makes it complicated for Hannah in the scriptures because, when she goes to the temple to pray for a son, Eli, the very high priest to whom she would eventually hand over Samuel, accuses her of being drunk and tries to send her away. But, Hannah’s response shows both pluck and humility by saying that she hasn’t been pouring drinks down her throat but has been pouring out her troubles to God. She isn’t going to allow an inarticulate priest to distract her from praying to God for a son. She understands what Pope John Paul II referred to as the law of the gift. 

    

The law of the gift says that your being increases in the measure that you give it away. That’s why, immediately after giving Samuel to the priests, she prays one of the most beautiful prayers in Sacred Scripture. “My heart exults in the Lord, my horn is exalted by my God. I have swallowed up my enemies; I rejoice in your victory.” Her being is lifted up because she willingly gave away her son. You see, it’s when you give back what God has given you that you are exalted, that you are lifted up. We tend to think that happiness comes from being filled up by God. But it is precisely the opposite, when we empty ourselves of all the possessions and worries and cares that weigh us down, that we can be lifted up to share in the glory of God. 

    

The same is true in this confusing and frustrating gospel. In my heart, this is a great example of the Bible turning a common reaction in a completely different way because of the law of the gift. After Jesus’ Bar Mitzvah, he remains behind to converse and impress the unnamed high priests of his time. One wonders if young Annas and Caiaphas were present during the three days that Jesus learned and taught in the Temple. Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph’s walk back home to Nazareth is interrupted in a Home Alone moment of realizing that Jesus is not hanging out with his cousins. They hurry back to Jerusalem and search for three days only to find him still in the Temple. Imagine the anguish they must have felt at losing Jesus and all the thoughts that would have gone through their heads. Has he been kidnapped and sold into slavery in Egypt? Has he upset some resident in the big city of Jerusalem and gotten himself killed? Has he become a hawkeye fan? I’m sure these and a thousand other horrors crossed their minds as they searched everywhere in Jerusalem. You can just imagine the emotions they would have felt when they looked in the last place they thought, the temple, to find him. They ask him, “Why have you done this to us?”  and Jesus responds “Did you not know I must be in my father’s house.” Jesus’ response may seem like he is a typical smart mouthed teenager but, in truth, he is evidencing the very attitude of Hannah. He is offering up his very self in order to be glorified by God. And he will continue to do so as he goes home to go through the stages of development that every person has to go through as a teenager and young adult. What’s interesting is that Luke includes the detail that Mary kept these things in her heart. Her life will, therefore, be an exercise in learning the law of the gift in the hardest way possible. I have a feeling that Mary will think of finding Jesus in the Temple when Jesus is back at this temple being condemned by high priests and will remember the confusion, frustration, anger, and relief she felt when she will again wait for three days to see her son, this time resurrected from the dead. 

    

The law of the gift, then, is at the very heart of the gospel message and, therefore, at the heart of family life. The family is a place where the mission of each family member is discerned and prepared. After days of giving what we hope will be the perfect gift, now is the perfect time to refocus on what is the true gift each of us are seeking. Rather than getting lost in the consumerism of Christmas, find some way to give away yourself, not because we know that God will give us even better stuff if we give things away but because we know that God will be glorified if we humble ourselves. What is God calling you let go in order to glorify him?

Holy Family 2015 year C

My Dear brothers and sister in Christ

Peace be with you. As I was reading over the first reading from the First Book of Samuel, I couldn’t help but think about my niece and nephew named, appropriately enough, Hannah and Sam. Hannah is three years older than Sam and, at points, struggles to tolerate her younger brother. In the first reading, the namesakes of my niece and nephew aren’t siblings but mother and son. The mother, Hannah, is so excited to receive the gift of Samuel, her child, that she freely offers him to Eli, the priest, to be raised. I’m sure that there were many times during their growing up years that my niece would have gladly taken my nephew to their church to leave him there. Thank goodness even the worst knock-down, drag-out fight between siblings never ended with a hog-tied little boy sitting on my rectory steps. And that, as they’ve gotten older, my niece has found a way to not only get along with her little brother but to use him as a taxi service during her college years.

Both the first reading and the gospel give us a glimpse into a confusing and unique aspect of family life that I think is often overlooked but very important. What is it that would cause a mother who was barren to be willing to give the first child she ever received to God? As a person who has worked with young men who are considering priesthood, I know that often parents are the second hardest people to tell about a vocation. When I work with guys in college, they first have to convince themselves, and maybe their girlfriends, that God may in fact be calling them to priesthood before they tell their parents. Sometimes the parents are excited but many times the parents see nothing but loneliness and complications for their sons and a dearth of grandchildren for themselves. God even makes it complicated for Hannah in the scriptures because, when she goes to the temple to pray for a son, Eli, the very high priest to whom she would eventually hand over Samuel, accuses her of being drunk and tries to send her away. But, Hannah’s response shows both pluck and humility by saying that she hasn’t been pouring drinks down her throat but has been pouring out her troubles to God. She isn’t going to allow an inarticulate priest to distract her from praying to God for a son. She understands what Pope John Paul II referred to as the law of the gift.

The law of the gift says that your being increases in the measure that you give it away. That’s why, immediately after giving Samuel to the priests, she prays one of the most beautiful prayers in Sacred Scripture. “My heart exults in the Lord, my horn is exalted by my God. I have swallowed up my enemies; I rejoice in your victory.” Her being is lifted up because she willingly gave away her son. You see, it’s when you give back what God has given you that you are exalted, that you are lifted up. We tend to think that happiness comes from being filled up by God. But it is precisely the opposite, when we empty ourselves of all the possessions and worries and cares that weigh us down, that we can be lifted up to share in the glory of God.

The same is true in this confusing and frustrating gospel. In my heart, this is a great example of the Bible turning a common reaction in a completely different way because of the law of the gift. After Jesus’ Bar Mitzvah, he remains behind to converse and impress the unnamed high priests of his time. One wonders if young Annas and Caiaphas were present during the three days that Jesus learned and taught in the Temple. Meanwhile, Mary and Joseph’s walk back home to Nazareth is interrupted in a Home Alone moment of realizing that Jesus is not hanging out with his cousins. They hurry back to Jerusalem and search for three days only to find him still in the Temple. Imagine the anguish they must have felt at losing Jesus and all the thoughts that would have gone through their heads. Has he been kidnapped and sold into slavery in Egypt? Has he upset some resident in the big city of Jerusalem and gotten himself killed? Has he become a hawkeye fan? I’m sure these and a thousand other horrors crossed their minds as they searched everywhere in Jerusalem. You can just imagine the emotions they would have felt when they looked in the last place they thought, the temple, to find him. They ask him, “Why have you done this to us?” and Jesus responds “Did you not know I must be in my father’s house.” Jesus’ response may seem like he is a typical smart mouthed teenager but, in truth, he is evidencing the very attitude of Hannah. He is offering up his very self in order to be glorified by God. And he will continue to do so as he goes home to go through the stages of development that every person has to go through as a teenager and young adult. What’s interesting is that Luke includes the detail that Mary kept these things in her heart. Her life will, therefore, be an exercise in learning the law of the gift in the hardest way possible. I have a feeling that Mary will think of finding Jesus in the Temple when Jesus is back at this temple being condemned by high priests and will remember the confusion, frustration, anger, and relief she felt when she will again wait for three days to see her son, this time resurrected from the dead.



The law of the gift, then, is at the very heart of the gospel message and, therefore, at the heart of family life. The family is a place where the mission of each family member is discerned and prepared. After days of giving what we hope will be the perfect gift, now is the perfect time to refocus on what is the true gift each of us are seeking. Rather than getting lost in the consumerism of Christmas, find some way to give away yourself, not because we know that God will give us even better stuff if we give things away but because we know that God will be glorified if we humble ourselves. What is God calling you let go in order to glorify him?

Christmas 2015

My dear brothers and sister in Christ

Peace be with you. Merry Christmas. I’d like to thank Fr. Greg for letting me celebrate this Mass back in my home parish of St. Mary. I got a new assignment this summer, as the chaplain at Loras College and Clarke University. When the students left for Christmas break, my job also went on break so I’m thankful that I get to be with you all celebrating with all of you.

Do you ever find yourself daydreaming about a better future? I think this is a common reaction when someone is dissatisfied with their job or there is conflict with a spouse or a child or parents. It can especially be true when we expected a job or family to be different or better than what it is. I have some friends with a son born with Down’s Syndrome and many life complications who has had several surgeries in the little over one year since he has been born. Whenever I read about them running to the hospital in the middle of the night because he’s having seizures or because he doesn’t seem to be focusing or because he keeps throwing up, I can’t help but think that it doesn’t seem fair. This isn’t what they signed up for.

I imagine all of us, at one time or another, have felt like things aren’t the way we wished they were. In the first reading, the Prophet Isaiah gives encouragement to his people by telling them “No more shall people call you “Forsaken” or your land “Desolate,” but you call be called “My Delight” and your land “Espoused.” In other words, the Prophet is saying that people currently call the people of Israel a loser or a taker or abandoned and refer to their land as run-down or dilpidated or the ghetto. Right now, they aren’t in a good place. They feel abandoned by God. But, the Prophet tells them, God will not abandon them forever. The will eventually be called God’s favorite, blessed, or the luckiest person that anyone has ever met and his land will be called...married to God. You’d think that the Prophet would say that we will be called blessed and our land “beautiful, winning, or perhaps even winning so much that we will be sick of winning.” But that’s not what he says. Instead, Isaiah reminds people that if they get good things, it doesn’t make them somehow better than those around them. It should make them closer to God. It should engender thankfulness, not pride.

The Gospel of Matthew also presents a difficult situation: Joseph has the perfect wife and has set upon the perfect engagement. He lives in a developing part of the State of Israel, a rich suburb with low crime and great job-opportunities. Then, he finds out that all his plans are going to completely change. Mary is pregnant. As you may know, Joseph has the right to call Mary an adulterer, drag her into the town square, and have her stoned to death. But, instead of doing that, heaven intervenes to explain what’s happening. Instead of having the perfect family with 7-12 kids, which would have been the dream of every man and woman during the time of the Holy Family, they are going to have one child that will not even biologically be Joseph’s son. But, Joseph was necessary because he supplies the connection to King David, as evidenced by the list of names that ordinarily precedes this reading. Jesus will be a descendant of David because of Joseph. His name is Jesus because that name means “God saves”

One thing that always amazes me about my friends is that they never ask why their son was born with Down’s Syndrome or why he has all these physical difficulties. They complain about going to the hospital because they hate to see see the pain that their son has, not because they see the situation as some kind of divine punishment. They have been able to see a larger plan than their own in their son’s life. But that has been the fruit of a lot of prayer, a lot of support from their extended families, and a close connection to a church family. One challenge they faced with their church family was that they weren’t always the best at attending church and they worried about being judged for returning when life got difficult. But they found that church was not the home of perfect people but the refuge of sinners who want to get to know the true perfection of God. It is where God comes to meet his imperfect people. Our lives are not always perfect and we often find that the plans, hopes, and dreams we’ve had in our past is not the reality of the present. During this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis reminds us that we need to have mercy on ourselves when things don’t go the way we expect and recognize the grace of the unplanned detour which takes us closer to God.

Facing my fears and finding out that I should have never been afraid in the first place

Today I did a funeral for a four year old. I have been afraid of this scenario since I was first ordained a priest. I dreaded being a part of something so tragic. Throughout the week and especially at the vigil, I had to stop myself from picturing my own nieces and nephews laying in the tiny little casket so I wouldn't lose it.

But right before things got started this morning, I realized something that I should have realized 14 years ago: It was not about me. I had to keep two goals in mind, namely to acknowledge the tragedy of a lost child and to give the family hope because of a crucified child. That's all And most of that came from prayerfully reading the book the church provides for me. I only had to create 8-10 minutes of my own material and the Holy Spirit even helped with that.

In the end, what mattered was focusing on the family and their needs and their hurts. And that's not something to be afraid of. That's something to love.

Christ our priest, prophet, and King leading us to holiness.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. One of the things that marks a person who receives a sacrament is taking on the three munera or offices of Jesus, namely priest, prophet, and king. For example, after the actual baptism, the person conferring the sacrament takes sacred chrism and anoints the forehead of the baptized person while saying…

"The God of power and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people.He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life."

These three offices are a part of each sacrament. I’ll talk more about baptism later but let me use marriage as an example. The priestly element of a vocation is when someone acts as an intermediary between the person and God. In this regard, the priestly goal of a husband is to help his wife get to heaven and vice versa and, if they’re blessed with children, the priestly goal of parents is to raise their children in the faith by bringing them to Mass, teaching them to pray, and making sure they regularly celebrate their sacraments. A prophet proclaims God’s teachings and certainly parents are responsible for teaching their children about what is right and wrong but also a husband or a wife may have to instruct a spouse in God’s ways as well. Lastly, marriage shares in the kingly ministry of Jesus by working and providing and maintaining home and other property.

These three offices are especially emphasized in the ordination ritual because priests and bishops exercise them in a more public, unique way. I’ll speak to my experience as a priest. I remember, shortly before I was ordained, a seminary professor telling me that most priests begin thinking that the hardest part would be the priestly or sanctifying parts but would soon learn that actually the kingly part is the hardest. Most people appreciate and understand thinking of their priest as priest and a prophet. A priest stands in the place of Christ our high priest and continues the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ by celebrating the sacraments and especially the Mass. A priest acts as a prophet by challenging the people to turn away from their sinful ways and return to the Lord with their whole heart. In general, I have found that people appreciate the priestly and prophetic role of priesthood and that those who don’t are in error, asking me to follow them down the rabbit hole of heresy.

I will admit that my professor is, in general pretty accurate. The office of priest as King tends to be the one that causes me the most headaches and heartaches. Part of it has to do with understanding what it means. We don’t always have a good impression of the term “King.” As you’re aware, we don’t have royalty in this country because we threw them out at our foundation. And, when we try to compare the King to our president, we notice some pretty striking differences. For instance, a king isn’t chosen by the people like a president is and a King is supposed to avoid divisive party politics in favor of what’s best for his people. Personally, I like the connection with the office of king with the title of pastor or shepherd. As your pastor, it’s my responsibility to lead the sheep. Sometimes the sheep don’t want to go in a certain way and sometimes they resent when I make a decision they don’t agree with, especially when it’s something dealing with money. But it’s my job to always make sure that any given parish is making financial decisions more on the basis of what God wants than any selfish motivation they may have.

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with lepers and, I’ll admit, very little. During my preparation for this homily, I really felt like our hearts were focused on the second reading from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In it, St. Paul was articulating his priestly role in three powerful ways. He begins by stating that whatever we do, we should do it for the glory of God. When we’re watching TV, do we do it for the glory of God? When we go watch a movie, do we do it for the glory of God? When it’s late at night and we’re alone with our computers, are we acting in a way that gives glory to God? God has given us so much glory in creating us in his divine image and giving us his son to be our savior. We should give God glory in all parts of our life. Next, St. Paul says that we should please everyone in every way, not seeking our own benefit but that of the many. Fr. Robert Barron will talk about sin as a spiritual curvature of the spine in which the sinner is always concerned about his own needs and wants. If we put our focus on giving glory to God, it means focusing on the needs of others and trying to reach out to them in love and undoing the curvature of our sinful spiritual spines. Lastly, St. Paul tells us that, if we put our focus on giving glory to God and reaching out to others, we will be an example that will inspire others to holiness. In my opinion, this is the best form of evangelization! If we live our lives giving glory to God and caring for the needs of others, people will see our good deeds and come to faith through them.

We are just a few days away from beginning the Lenten season. In my opinion, lent is about exercising the priestly role of Christ in our daily life. Don’t get me wrong, we are encouraged to grow in the holiness of Christ the high priest and continue to speak out in a prophetic way during Lent. Nonetheless, I feel like we often know what we need to do to grow in holiness but we lack the commitment to actually do it. Lent is our opportunity to put our nose down and get the job done. As we enter into this great season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, let’s put our focus in giving glory to God by reaching out to those in need and being an example of holiness for others.