Solemnity of Christ the King (11-20-16)

Throughout this month, I have been saying that for a number of reasons this month presents us with a wonderful opportunity to move into a very reflective frame of mind. The change of the seasons, the colder weather, the shorter days, the celebrations of All Saints, All Souls and Thanksgiving all come together and call us to take a closer look at our relationships with the world, with those who have gone before us, with each other and with God.  Today’s Solemnity of Christ the King indeed provides us with a most fitting opportunity to bring our “November reflections” to a fitting conclusion.  As we ponder our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and King of the Universe we can focus on His purpose and ours.  Jesus was sent by God the Father to open the gates of Heaven so that we might spend eternity in Heaven with them. Indeed, we and all those who have gone before us are or will be defined by where we are on the path to Heaven. The souls in hell are those who have refused to accept the love the grace and the mercy of God and in so doing have rejected Heaven. You might argue that you don’t believe in hell because why would a loving God create it and why would He send anyone there?  The answer is that He didn’t and He doesn’t.  As far as the existence of hell I certainly believe in it and I can tell you why. It’s because you can see it on earth. Just look around. We don’t have to wait until we die to choose to get there. The saints (the Church Triumphant) are those souls who are in Heaven. The souls in Purgatory (the Church Suffering) are all those souls who are experiencing a purification in order to be prepared for Heaven and who depend upon our prayers to get them there. And, finally there are all of us (the Church Militant) who are striving to conform our hearts, minds and souls to the Lord so that we might share eternity in Heaven with Him.  As we prepare to begin the beginning of another liturgical year on this Christ the King Sunday, we once again ask the question, “So, how do we get to Heaven?”   Well, the short answer is that we can’t and that there is nothing that we can do to get us there.  Have a good day!  Just kidding; sort of.  But it is the truth; we can’t do anything to get us into heaven, at least not by ourselves, and you might say that that is bad news. But there is good news. And the Good News is that we are not alone.  God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, to us to make it possible for us to get to Heaven. Through, the sacraments (especially baptism) and through faith in Him the gates of Heaven are opened for us. 

It's What It's All About (11-13-16)

“By patient endurance you will save your lives.”  That’s the strategy Jesus gives us for life on the penultimate Sunday of the Church’s year. He makes it clear that we will face wars, insurrection, death, destruction, persecution, etc., etc. and through it all, the way to secure our lives is through perseverance. It’s how to win the prize. It’s how to win.  It’s how to be successful.  It’s how to save our souls. It’s what Jesus did when He came to earth. It’s what He did throughout His public ministry. It’s what He did while He was being scourged at the pillar and while He struggled on the way of the Cross. Finally, it’s what He did on the Cross. He persevered and thus saved His life and our lives too. It is the hope and the example He gives to us. It means that we might witness the crashing down of our places of worship, our societal value structure, of our very way of life. It means that we will be persecuted for our faith, that there will be times that we will have to stand alone for our faith, that those closest to us may be the ones ridiculing us. It means that we may have to endure every hardship we can imagine and even those we cannot.  And that we do so in order to remain true to Him and to ourselves. That’s what patient endurance is, it’s always remaining who we are and preserving ourselves because of it. That’s what Jesus did on the Cross; He saved us through His perseverance. He gave us the secret.  It means being ready to accept martyrdom if being true calls for it. Patient endurance-it’s what it’s all about.

Don't be a "Sad You See" (11/6/16)

This week Jesus is challenged by the Sadducees, who did not believe in eternal life, so they were “sad, you see!” You see, if we don’t believe in God, if we don’t believe in His message, if we don’t believe in the Resurrection, if we are not living out our discipleship in a day in/day out fashion we can really be nothing else but, well, sad; whether we know it or believe it or not.  Doing what God wants us to do is how we find peace.  Disciples will give priority to those tasks which are of God and will proceed to do those things in a resolutely determined way. In doing so, he/she will experience a sense of accomplishment and peace because he/she will discover that the things that are supposed to be getting done are getting done.  All these things, the poor Sadducees were not doing. Their goal was not the cross, they did not believe in Jesus, they did not believe in the Resurrection, and they were not faithful to the moment in which they found themselves.  Here they were in the presence of Christ and what did they do?  They asked a stupid, inane question.  Now of course none of us would ever do that, right? None of us would ever come into Church and have a question or a concern that has nothing to do with our path to the Cross, now would we?  But in any event, we always should give our questions and concerns that test. Are they keeping us on the path, or are they taking us off?  And we should make sure that our questions, comments and remarks do not cause others in any way to veer off their paths. We all should be helping each other to live in a way that keeps us focused on our path to Jesus and we should not allow anyone else to pull us off our paths either.  No one can rob us of our peace unless we let them do so. Do not let the small stuff hinder us, and remember like the book says, it is almost all small stuff.  If we let the small silly stuff get us off track, then we are going to hear the same answer that Jesus gave to the poor Sadducees.  They were trying to trap Him, they were trying to get Him off His path, but one of their many problems was that their agenda was different than His. Jesus says to them, “God is a God of the living and not of the dead.”  In other words, “If you are not in moving towards me, you are not really living. If you want to live, then come and follow Me down the path.”  He is saying that for us to be truly alive we need to be disciples of Him who follow Him to the Cross. Remember, the path to the Cross is the path to life. When we step off that path we are not living. So, let’s stay on the path and let’s not be a “Sad You See.”

Out on a Limb (10-30-16)

The more I think about Zacchaeus, the more I am convinced that Zacchaeus is us.  I know that I’ve also said similar things about the Pharisees and Sadducees- whenever an evangelist tells us that Jesus was talking to them, we need to understand that He is also talking to us. I believe that the same is true with Zacchaeus. We should see ourselves as Zacchaeus and apply all the words that Jesus says to, and everything He does for Zacchaeus to us.  Indeed Jesus does want to have dinner with us-at the eternal banquet in Heaven. And we are so much like Zacchaeus.  We all have our baggage; we all have something-our sins, our history, and the unfriendly crowds-that we allow to hold us back. But there will come a time when Jesus will be passing through; there will be opportunities for grace like the one experienced by Zacchaeus in which we will realize that Jesus has been there all along, waiting to share His life with us.  What would we do right now, if Jesus told us He wanted to have dinner at our house, how would we prepare?  Would we do what Zacchaeus did, would we make a spectacle of ourselves would we put ourselves on a limb, for Jesus sake?  Would we beg forgiveness, would we make up for our sins four times over, would we give the Lord a tithe of our possessions? How will we prepare for our eternal banquet with Jesus? Whatever it might be we can be sure of this: there is something that we have to do for Jesus in order to fully experience that wonderful transformation, that new birth that Zacchaeus experienced in today’s Gospel.  We have to do what Zacchaeus did.  We have to put ourselves out on a limb. And we can be sure that if we do just that, He will not leave us hanging there, He will welcome us with open arms.

Holier Than Thou (10/23/16)

Well folks, I’m afraid that today’s Gospel reminds me of another conversation that I had with my Dad (actually, with my Mom too).  I can remember that when I got old enough to do so (whenever that was and whatever that means), I found myself making judgments about people in our parish congregation.  You see, a little bit of real and/or perceived knowledge in the hands of a self-righteous individual with a strong sense of right and wrong can be very dangerous- for others, yes; and for him or herself as well.  Much to my chagrin, I would be punished for saying things about people which were clearly (at least in my mind) known to be true.  Sometimes I would say things to my parents like, “Can you believe that Mr. and Mrs. So and So did this or said that the other day, but there they were in Church looking all holy and everything anyway?”  That kind of talk certainly did not do well with them and I pretty much always paid the price for it.  But they also taught me a lot about, things like how it’s wrong to judge, and that I should only worry about keeping myself on the right path and not whether or not someone else was in the right path in my opinion. My Mom and Dad said things to me like, “Do you think those people are looking at us and saying the same things about us as you are saying about them?,” and“Well I guess that means that Church is only for the good people, and that bad people should not go to Church at all?”  After a while and after many questions and statements like that, I finally got the point that I was neither quite as righteous nor as smart as I thought I was.  Now, I know that it’s tempting for us to fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others, especially when we think that we are of a higher stature than someone else. But, please try to remember what Jesus said. He said, “You must be perfected as your Father is perfect.”  Therefore the next time we feel a temptation to compare ourselves to someone else, let’s be sure that we don’t compare ourselves to other people, but to God.

Persistence, Persistence, Persistence (10-16-16)

There is at least one thing we can say for sure about the widow in today’s Gospel parable. She was persistent.  Of course, it is clear that through His parable He is teaching us that He wants us to persevere and persist in prayer. He does not want us ever to think that we are bothering Him. He wants us to resolve to never give up in bringing our prayers of petition to Him. In fact, and I know I have said this before (just last week perhaps!) that the scriptures teach us that the only fatal mistake that we can make in the spiritual life is to give up. I firmly believe that if we persevere in trying to live a life of faith according to the will of God, we will get to Heaven. That is the task before us and part of that task is being persistent in our prayer.  Jesus is also teaching us in this parable that He listens to our prayer, that He responds to them, and that He allows Himself to be changed by them.  This to me is a very important point because there are those who argue that our prayers do not change what God is going to do; they just change us. I do very much agree that we are changed by our prayers and that the more we pray sincerely, the more our minds and hearts are conformed to God’s holy will, but I do not believe it ends there. I believe that one of the points that Jesus is making in this parable is that if even the unjust judge in the parable allows himself to be changed by the persistent widow, how much more will a loving God allow Himself to be changed by the prayers of His beloved children? Those who disagree with me will say something like, God is eternal, He knows all things, and He knows the future. Therefore, our prayer doesn’t change Him; it only changes us.”  My response would be something like this, “Well then, how do you explain this parable? Is Jesus only kidding?  Further, while I cannot explain how or whyan all knowing, omnipotent Lord could ever allow Himself to be changed, by mere humans, I also don’t understand why or how Jesus allows a piece of bread to become Him, but I believe it.”  Therefore my friends, pray without ceasing, and trust that our loving God, if it is best for our salvation, will allow Himself to be changed by the prayers we pray.

Do We Realize His Gifts? (10-09-16)

In our Gospel reading today Luke tells us of the ten lepers who were cleansed by Jesus, but he describes only one of them as “realizing” that he was healed, the one of course who returned to Jesus to thank Him.  We might ask how is it possible for someone who is healed of leprosy not to know that they were healed, but it seems to me that Luke is saying that the other nine failed to do just that. And why does he characterize them that way?  Because they failed to say “thank you!”  Now, I’m not sure about you, but this truly gives me a reason to pause. Luke is pretty much saying that if the other nine realized that they had been healed that they would have also rushed to thank Jesus as a pretty much automatic response. Jesus takes us even a bit further. He says “Were not all ten made whole? Where are the other nine?” It sounds to me as if He is actually wondering if the others were healed at all. Before we go any further let’s consider that, in fact, it is quite possible, even most likely that there is an abundance of gifts that the Lord has sent us of which we are absolutely unaware. But then, that leads me to the next question-if we are unaware of a gift, if we do not realize that it has been given to us, have we received it at all? If Jesus heals us but we are not aware of the healing, are we truly healed?  And how can we determine if we truly are aware of and have fully received a gift, a blessing or a healing? I would daresay the best way to make this judgment is whether or not we, like the one leper, run to the Lord in thanksgiving. No other response makes any sense. If we are not constantly giving thanks to the Lord for the many blessings that He continually bestows upon us, we can rest assured that there are many, many gifts that He has sent our way that we have not realized and therefore not fully received. Let us ask the Lord to help us to fully realize the many gifts that He constantly sends our way so that we might offer Him fitting glory, praise and thanks. Remember this: Jesus is always looking for a relationship with us, and many times the gift He gives to us is meant to be the beginning of a new relationship with Him, the beginning of a new and wonderful chapter in our life of faith. If we fail to recognize, to realize His gift, the story stops right there. If we come back to say, “thank you,” it is very likely that a new story has just begun.

How Long, O Lord? (10-2-16)

The first verses of our first reading from the book of Habakkuk take us right into age old questions such as “Why do bad things happen to good people?,”  and “If there is a God, why does He allow evil to exist?”.  These questions are age old precisely because there is no answer other than the answer that comes from our faith.  One thing we can be sure of, however, is that the scriptures do not run away from these questions, they do not pretend that they are not there.  Rather, they delve right into them as does Habakkuk today, as does the entire book of Job, etc. etc.  The fear that I have is that people who are forced into dealing with these questions in an experiential way will make the only fatal mistake that can be made with regard to living the life of faith.  That is, they will give up.  At some point in their struggle they will conclude that there cannot be a God, and they will give up the chance to meet Him, perhaps when they, unbeknownst to them, were just about to meet Him.  One of my favorite scripture stories (and I know I say this quite often) is the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel.  Jacob wrestled with the angel all night long because he guessed that there must be a blessing on the other side of the struggle, so he did not give up. In the end, you might say the angel gave up. He knocked Jacob’s hip out of its socket and gave Jacob a blessing. For the rest of his life Jacob walked differently, and not just because his hip was displaced.  He had found God and finally fully believed in him.  His journey parallels our own. It might seem as if we also are in a lifelong struggle with the Lord, but our hope must be that it all ends in a blessing.  It is my firm conviction that any one who promises him or herself that they will all always pursue the truth and never give up in doing so will eventually find God in His time and will walk differently because of it.  So please, never give up!  And so you might say, “How can I persevere when I see evil and violence all around me?  How can there be a God in the midst of all this darkness and evil?”  My best response to you is this:  How in a world of darkness and evil is there any good at all?  Why do you do good deeds? Why do others do good?  Why have people done good for you?  The point of course is this. If the existence of evil leads us to question the existence of God, then shouldn’t the existence of good lead us to conclude that, at least perhaps, God is? And so, good people, go on with your struggle and never give up. The Lord’s blessing awaits you.

The Lesson of Lazarus (9-25-16)

Largely because of my father, from whom I learned many lessons, I eventually learned what I call the “Lesson of Lazarus.”  It came about pretty much when I was in sixth or seventh grade.  At that time my school work came rather easily for me and I rarely had to study or ever had difficulty with my homework.  However, one of my younger brothers was not so lucky.  Studies did not come easily for him and he very often pleaded with me for help with his homework.  Sadly, I almost never willingly gave him help, and if I did help him it was pretty much because my dad intervened and forced me to do so. On one of those nights we were in his room and it was quite loud. He was very upset that I was once again refusing to help him and I was very emphatically letting him know that I had better things to do with my time than to assist him. At that rather untimely moment my father stepped into the room.  To me he said “Boy get to your room!” and to my brother he said, “Come with me.”  I quickly scurried to my room but soon realized, because the back stairway was very close to my door, that my father and my brother had gone to the kitchen downstairs.  They were down there for a while and eventually I heard my brother laughing!  This made me a bit distraught so I went down the steps to see what was going on and when I got into the kitchen I could not believe my eyes.  My brother and father were sharing a bowl of ice cream!  I was shocked. I blurted out words to the effect that this was not fair, that really my brother was the one who caused the trouble and that I had not done anything wrong.  Well now I’d thought that I’d really done myself in and that I was going to get it.   But my father simply told me to sit down and said, “Sooner or later you are going to have to realize that life is not so much about the bad things that you didn’t do; it’s about the good things you did do.  Now back to bed and have a good night.”  To me, that is the “Lesson of Lazarus.”  We need to realize that in this parable, the rich man was not condemned for anything he did that was wrong.  He did nothing to Lazarus.  Actually that was the problem. He did nothing for Lazarus either. He ignored him completely and this was the reason for his eternal punishment.  Lazarus teaches us that at the time of our judgment, the Lord is going to be more concerned about the good we did not do than the wrong we did do.

You Really Can't Take it With You...Or Can You? (9-18-16)

Of course it is a cliché, and we probably all get tired of clichés, but the fact is that many of them are true, as is this one.  The monetary wealth that we make and strive for on this earth cannot be taken with us, so it begs at least two questions.  First, what are we going to do with our money and second, what are we working for?  There is no contest that says that at the end of earthly lives, the one with the most toys is the winner.  Actually one of the lessons that can be taken from today’s Gospel, is that it is pointless to focus our lives on attaining earthly wealth that means absolutely nothing when our earthly life ends.  Sadly, we all know too many stories of families (and maybe our family is one of them) who have been torn apart by the wealth left behind by a deceased relative.  But Jesus teaches us a very useful and interesting lesson with, of all characters: the unjust steward.  He, because of his wrongful behavior, finds himself in a bit of a difficult situation from which he needs to escape.  Does this sound like anyone we know?  How about ourselves? We, like this poor fellow, have done wrong and are going to have to make a case for ourselves before God, Himself, are we not?  So what’s our plan, or are we even aware that we are in a tight spot? Jesus says that at least the unjust steward realized his situation and put together a strategy to save himself.  So what about us?  Jesus says that we actually can use the wealth we have amassed on earth to help to ourselves into heaven.  That’s rather amazing news, isn’t it?  Our wealth does not have to be in vain and it can bear fruit eternally!  Only thing is…we have it give it away.  We need to develop a preferential option for the poor, we need to take care of those less fortunate than ourselves.  That’s how we are able to keep what we have earned and gain treasure that lasts forever.  There is an epitaph found on an English grave that says the following: “What I kept I lost. What I spent I had.  What I gave I have.” Again, this might be “cliché-ish,” but it very true.  What we give away with a generous heart, we never lose.  It also answers those two questions, about what we should do with our wealth and what we are working for.  Our wealth, our gifts, our time and talents can never have a more meaningful purpose than to be used for those who are in need, and our ultimate purpose is to work towards getting our souls to heaven.  Maybe that unjust steward wasn’t so bad after all.

On the Outside, Looking In (9-11-16)

Notice what Jesus does in today’s Gospel. In response to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes, He tells the parables the Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, and Lost Son (aka the Prodigal Son).  And what were they grumbling about?  Well, they were upset that Jesus was welcoming sinners and eating with them.  (I guess that in those days all the tax collectors and sinners wore some kind of identifying insignia, since it seems as though everyone knew who they were.)  Any way, Jesus initially compares the “tax collectors sinners” to sheep and coins which are found after a period of time of being lost.  He says that just after a lost sheep is found, the shepherd rejoices, and just after someone finds money that was lost he/she rejoices as well.  He says basically that He is like the one who has found the lost sheep or the lost coin. He simply must rejoice; tax collectors and sinners are returning to Him. Many who once were lost are now found.  But then He turns up the heat significantly with the story of the Lost Son.  Here, He basically tells the Pharisees and scribes (and remember the Pharisees and scribes are us!) that not only is He going to rejoice in the returning home of lost sinners as the father in this parable rejoices once the prodigal son returned home, He tells them that they will condemn themselves if they don’t join in the celebration as well.  Please pay close attention to the conversation between the father and the elder son at the close of the parable.   The father basically says that both he (who represents the scribes, Pharisees and us) and his brother (who represents the tax collectors and sinners), are his beloved sons. He also implies that they have both sinned; they both have rejected His love. (How do you think the Pharisees and scribes liked to hear that?) Finally, He says that they both are invited to join him at the banquet. At the end of the story the older brother, like the Pharisees, the scribes, and us, have a decision to make. Is he going to acknowledge that he, like his brother, is also sinful and in need of his father’s mercy and join the banquet or not? And what are we going to do? Are we going to do what we need to do to join the eternal banquet, or are we going to find ourselves as did the older brother at the end of the story-on the outside, looking in?

So, How Are You Getting Into Heaven? 9/04/16

Now that we have arrived at Labor Day weekend something is very clear: summer vacations are pretty much over maybe we can take a moment to look back and reflect on them a little bit.  Hopefully they were beneficial to us; hopefully we did get some rest.  I suppose that if we ask ourselves to try to make a list of things that we remember about our vacations we would not get very far before we realized that a significant item on that list would be the time and effort we put into planning them.  Indeed, if we did not plan them, they most likely would not have happened. Planning, saving money and preparation are essential if we are going to be able to get away or go just about anywhere for that matter. And some of us do make very excellent planners, at least when it comes to vacations, as we try to maximize every moment of our time away. Of course, this is all well and good, and having a good vacation is indeed good for us. But Jesus asks us a rather sobering question in this week’s Gospel.  He does, of course, assume, that we all want to get to heaven, and I am sure that He understands as the country song says that “Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to go there now,” but He does want to provoke us to think.  He wants us to think about how we plan out so much of our lives and how we are going to achieve our various goals, and go on this or that trip, etc., etc., and then to ask ourselves how much planning we are putting into getting into Heaven.  It is our ultimate goal, isn’t it?  It is our hoped for final destination, isn’t it? We don’t just think that we are going to show up at Heaven’s door one day and just walk right in, do we?  Hopefully we will not forget about that one last hurdle we have to get through (you know, it’s called our judgment day) before we can gain admittance. So what kind of planning and preparation are we undertaking for this trip? Summer vacations are over; it is indeed something to think about, is it not?

"Conduct Your Affairs with Humility" 8-28-16

This command, which is given to us by the author of the book of Sirach, truly and succinctly sums up the message of today’s readings.  Therefore, it is good for us to reflect what humility is, what it is not, and how it calls us to live.  Obviously, the virtue of humility calls us to make sure that we do not do anything that cultivates within ourselves an attitude or even a pattern of behavior that somehow we are better or superior to any one. We need to be careful here, because we may have a tendency to conclude rather hastily that we indeed are not displaying any kind of arrogance or condescension. I say this because one of the few indisputable facts that I believe I have correctly discerned in my fifty-six years of life is that we human beings seem to have an amazing ability (no matter what we tell ourselves) to compare ourselves favorably with others, especially in the sphere of morality.  (How is that for modeling humility?)  Neither, however, does humility mean that we should see ourselves as lesser than others. That is another pitfall into which we can fall. We are all equal in the eyes of God. Of course, practicing humility means that we do not brag about any talents or special abilities that we might have, it means that we understand that they are gifts from God.  On the other hand humility does not mean that we display a false modesty or that we deny the gifts that God has given us.  Humility demands that we recognize all that we have for what they are-gifts from God to be used for the benefit of His Kingdom. Whatever gifts we have-and we all have gifts; (no one is off the hook!)-are to be recognized acknowledged and developed by us and generously used for the betterment of others. Humility is responsible stewardship. We are not to boast about our gifts or hide them under a bushel basket. Humility is the ability to see the world and everyone and everything in it as God does -with complete and utter clarity- and then to conduct our affairs accordingly.

The Narrow, but Wide Open Gate 8-21-16

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?” is the question that Jesus is asked in today’s Gospel. However if we listen very closely we realize that He never answers it. Instead, He does what He often does- He capitalizes on the opportunity presented by the question to teach his disciples, and us, a lesson.  Basically, Jesus is saying to us today that asking how many or how few will be saved is not a relevant question because that number is largely determined by us.  The real question, as He puts it, is whether or not we will be strong enough to enter it? And what does He mean by that? Basically, He is saying that on any given day there are many, many choices that we have the opportunity to make, there are many “gates” that we have the opportunity to enter, but there is only one gate that leads to eternal life. Of course, we know that in another place, He teaches that He himself is that gate which leads to life.  The problem is that these other gates, which we might correctly refer to as temptations, are rather wide in comparison to the narrow gate that leads to eternal life.  They also might tend to be little more glossy, more brightly decorated, and seem to have lots more people going through them and are easier to go through because of their girth and glitter.  The narrow gate is not advertised as well as the others, does not seem so attractive, requires us to go through in single file and does not allow for a whole lot of baggage, if any at all to go through with us.  But it (He) is the only gate that leads to eternal life.  We have to be strong enough to reject the wide gates that are presented to us each day of our lives. This indeed is very difficult to do. But Jesus is saying to us that if we are strong enough to reject the temptations of the world, we will eventually find the narrow gate that will lead us to life. That indeed is Him.  The gate is narrow but it is open wide open-open to any one who makes the choices and sacrifices that are necessary to go through it.  The question is not whether there are few or many that will be saved but are we strong enough to choose the narrow, but wide open gate.

Sorry, But I Don't think that Jesus was a People Pleaser (8/14/16)

I think it is pretty safe to say especially after hearing today’s Gospel that Jesus was not and is not a people pleaser. He did not come to earth so that He might tend to all our whims and fancies and to make sure that we always feel that we are being catered to perfectly. You might say, of course Father, we know that, but I would say that at least sometimes we don’t live like we know that is the case. Are we not at least somewhat taken aback every time we hear Jesus say that He has not come to bring peace on the earth, but division? He does not even consider the possibility of trying to please everyone, or any one, for that matter, because and, part of me hates to say this, that is not His goal. And besides, He knows that pleasing everyone is impossible. Actually, isn’t it true, that even if we only try to please one person we soon find out that all we have done is to create a monster who expects us to tend to them in perpetuity? What we forget is that Jesus did not come to earth and become one of us because He was just pleased as punch with how things were with the world and with us. He came for exactly the opposite reason. He came because He was not okay with how things were on earth. He came because things had to change, we had to change, and because He was going to be the agent of that change. He did not come to preserve the status quo; He came to topple it. He came to be a leader; You might say He came to be a Pastor. If we are going to be good leaders, and we are called to be such, we cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed by the fear of rejection.  I know from experience, and I am not proud to say this that I sometimes fall into the trap of trying to please everyone, of trying to keep everyone happy. That is not what Jesus did and it is not a way to help people to grow closer to Christ. The fear of rejection leads so many leaders, and perhaps pastors especially, to compromise away from what could be to what is merely possible or to settle for how things already are, and you know what? People still complain. This might cause them;  it might cause us, to retreat from a position of leadership and to regret that we ever even tried.  We allow our fear of disappointing someone, of possibly offending some one of rendering us ineffective and irrelevant; afraid even to dream.  And that truly is tragic. What Jesus teaches all leaders and pastors is that we cannot focus on the few that we fear might leave but rather focus on the many that we might reach through our exercise of humble but bold leadership. I know one thing, and I need you folks to help me with this one, if you ever see me fall into the trap of becoming a timid people pleaser rather than a pastor who yearns to lead, then give me a warning, because if I do become like that, it is time for this pastor to be put out to pasture.

"And I am That No Less Than He" (8/7/16)

Our second reading for today, which reflects on the tremendous faith of Abraham (who is rightly called our Father in faith) reminds me of the song, “Sometimes by Step,” which was written and performed by the late Contemporary Christian Artist, Rich Mullins. It is indeed a wonderful song and is on youtube. The lyrics to the chorus and first verse are as follows:

Chorus:
Oh God, You are my God.  And I will ever praise You.  Oh God, You are my God.  And I will ever praise You.  I will seek You in the morning.  And I will learn to walk in Your ways. And step by step You'll lead me. And I will follow You all of my days.

First Verse:

Sometimes I think of Abraham.  How one star he saw had been lit for me.  He was a stranger in this land.  And I am that, no less than he.  And on this road to righteousness. Sometimes the climb can be so steep.  I may falter in my steps.  But never beyond Your reach(Chorus)

Imagine for a moment that you are Abraham, and that you are called by God (whom you had never heard of before) to leave everything that was familiar to you behind and to “go to a land that I will show you.”  How would you respond? Well, the fact of the matter is that in a very real way, we are all Abraham.  We are called to walk step by step with the Lord to a place that He will show us. And how do we do this? By faith- “the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Abraham realized that God is, even though he could not see Him, and answered His call, even though he did not hear Him. And, no less than he, we are called to do the same.

Vanity of Vanities or Hakuna Matata? (7/31/16)

This might seem a little strange to some of you but the readings for today make me think of Disney’s movie, “The Lion King.”   There is a particular scene in the original production that has always been a point of reflection for me ever since I first saw it.  I will try to recreate it for you, and hopefully a good number of you will remember it.  I’m sure you will remember in the movie when young Simba has to flee the kingdom of his father and run for his life into the jungle.  Eventually he meets up with his soon-to-be new friends, Timone and Pumbaa, and at least for a while has a rollicking good time.  He was almost able to forget about his father’s death and the terrible evil forces that were controlling his homeland. Almost; but not quite. Right in the middle of his time of “Hakuna Matata,” the messenger from his father’s Kingdom, (Zazu, I believe) finds him and tells him how bad things have become and calls him to come back and fulfill his rightful role as the Lion King. At this point we have the scene of the nearly full grown Simbalooking into the oasis, and seeing his father’s face as his own reflection.  Simba realizes in this solemn moment that as much as he would love to stay and continue to enjoy the “good life” with his fun-loving friends, the only real life for him was to fulfill the mission for which he was born. In fact the “good life” was not really life at all but only an illusion-like the illusion spoken about in today’s first reading and by Jesus in the Gospel about the folly of spending so much time building up treasure for oneself on earth only to come to life’s end without ever being able to use it. We need to try to make sure that we are not living by such foolish values, especially because it is so easy for us today to get caught up in the illusion of living the good life. Ironically it is the one who spends himself hoarding earthly treasure who ends up with nothing. By the same token the only way that we can be sure that we can keep all that we have been blessed with on earth through all eternity is to give it away before it’s too late.

Thy Will Be Done (7-24-16)

Many things about my father (may he rest in peace) used to drive me absolutely crazy.  One of those things was the way he prayed and forced us to pray.  Every night during May and October he would drag all eleven of us into the living room to pray the rosary, without ever really giving us a reason why.  It’s amazing how many of us would be asleep by the time we were finished.  And many, many times throughout the year he would force us to come together to pray for things that he thought we needed, but what really got the best of me was the way he would always begin the prayer.  He would always start out by saying, “Lord, if it be Your will, we ask that…,” and finish by saying, “...please give us what we need to accomplish Your will.”  To me that just did not make any sense.  Isn’t the whole point of prayer to ask God for what we want and need and not what He wants?  Why would we ask Him for His will to be done? Usually I didn’t say anything because I was a little bit afraid of him, but his manner of prayer did cause me to stew in frustration.  Then one day during the summer when I was about 12 years old I had enough and I had to say something.  He had called us together to pray for our crops (we were farmers).  He prayed as follows: “Lord, if it be your will, could you provide us with rain so that our corn might grow and sun so that our freshly cut hay might be dry for baling?”  To me that just did not make any sense.  He was asking for sun and rain at the same time for adjoining fields.  I got my nerve up and said, “Dad that does not make any sense!  You asked for it to rain and to be sunny at the very same time!” In response, he said something that I will never forget.  He said, “But son, that is exactly what we need.  We need rain for the corn and sun for the hay.  What would you have asked for?”  At that moment and to this day, I have no response and have learned a great lesson from his wisdom.  And you know what else?  When we pray the Our Father, we are basically praying in the same way that my father always prayed.  We are praying that God’s will may be done and that we may have what we need to accomplish His will.  My father was right again.  It’s still enough to drive me crazy...sometimes!

Do We Ever Really Listen? To Any One? (7-17-16)

Jesus said to Martha, “Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her.”  I am sure we can all relate to how Martha must have felt as she saw Mary relaxing with Jesus. We might think, at first glance, that Jesus’ response demonstrated a lack of appreciation for Martha’s legitimate efforts, but it would be good for us to look at this situation from Jesus’ perspective.  Martha indeed was presenting Him with a wonderful gift in preparing His meal for Him, but Mary was also presenting Him with a wonderful gift. She was listening to Him. Martha could have chosen to sit with Him and listen to Him as well, but she did not, and although Jesus was grateful to her, He was also grateful for the choice that Mary had made.  Imagine how Jesus must have felt after speaking to so many people so much of the time. He must have often wondered if any one ever really listened to Him or if any one ever truly understood what He was saying.  How often does it feel like, although we have to talk to a lot of people, we have truly been listened to?  And how do we feel when we have actually had the experience of truly being listened to?  I think that we would pretty much all agree that the experience of being listened to is one the most positive experiences that any one can ever have.  And so, here was Mary, listening to Jesus.  Of course, Jesus was not going to deny her of this opportunity. Nor was He going to deny Himself of the gift she was giving to Him. He probably needed to be listened to as much as He needed to have nourishment-and so do we, and so do the people we love, and the people who are around us.  Jesus needed someone to listen to Him, He needed Mary to listen to Him, He needs us to listen to Him and we need to listen to Him.  That is one of the main lessons of today’s Gospel: to listen to another human being is no small matter, it is a command of Jesus. To listen is to give a rare gift, to listen is to validate, to listen is to show someone that they matter, to listen is to show that we care, to listen is to heal, to listen is to love.

What will Happen to Me...Or What Will Happen to Him/Her? (7/10/16)

On April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King Jr. had the following words to say about the parable of the Good Samaritan:

“It is possible that these men (the priest and the levite) were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

Certainly, that is the point that Jesus is trying to make in today’s Gospel. Being “neighbor” is not something that someone else is or is not; it is something that Jesus commands us to do.