Third Sunday of Advent

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121414.cfm

This year, for the Sundays of Advent, I am focusing on a theme that connects the readings and the Sunday themes together. “Turn back to the Lord and prepare His way. Let us rejoice, for the Lord is coming among us.” We have already talked about turning back to God from sin and about preparing for His coming in the last two Sundays. Today's readings and the overall theme is about rejoicing!

The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called “Gaudete Sunday”. Gaudete is the Latin word for rejoice. We mark this particular Sunday by lighting the pink or rose colored candle on the Advent Wreath. The reason behind this change from violet to rose and from penance and preparation to rejoicing is because at this point we are already halfway through Advent. We are closer than ever to the birth of Christ at Christmas. The Church is basically asking us to take a break in the midst of all these preparations for Christmas and remind ourselves that we are to rejoice because Christmas is coming soon.

I think it is worth taking a moment to reflect on something here: what does it mean to “rejoice”? Also, what does it mean to be joyful? People typically consider “rejoicing” and “joy” and “joyfulness” as synonyms with “glad” and “happy” and “happiness”. When we consider the definitions of those words in the dictionary they are, of course, synonyms. But I would argue that words like “rejoice” and “joyful” have a much deeper and more meaningful definition than the other words, especially considering their use with in Sacred Scripture and in the prayers at Mass. There are many things in this world that we can say make us happy or joyful. Maybe it's a thing we enjoy or perhaps seeing family that we only see during Thanksgiving or Christmas. It might be a special event in our lives or even the simple pleasure of taking time to relax after a long day. We could use any of those words I've been talking about to describe our feelings associated with these events. In normal, everyday use they are all interchangeable. However, when we get into Scripture passages and liturgical prayers that talk about our relationship with Jesus and the Father and about entering into Heaven the feelings described are much deeper and more significant than being happy that our favorite television show is on tonight. When the Prophet Isaiah says that he rejoices “heartily in the Lord” he is talking about a greater joy than we can experience for any earthly thing. When prayers talk about the joys of Heaven and salvation, we are talking about a feeling of elation that we can only have with a close and personal relationship with God. This joy can only come from God and nowhere else.

The problem is, we have allowed our words to become watered down. Words that are meant to convey an intense meaning have been simplified by association with words that are much less intense. For example, the word “love” is used to describe many feelings and relationships, from the love of spouses and between parents and their children, to the “puppy-love” that a young couple might have, to the love of a favorite dessert. It can be hard to know sometimes what type of love a person is really talking about. Similarly, we have confused our happiness for material things with the joy of Heaven. This goes well beyond a simple confusion of words. Our society has gotten so fixated on a perpetual pursuit of happiness, of always trying to be happy with earthly and material things, that we have forgotten about the pursuit of a higher good and of a higher joy that can only be found with God and in Heaven. We are being called to find that higher joy.

When we look at the readings for today, we can see more clearly how we are being called to rejoice. The Prophet Isaiah talks about being anointed to fulfill a special task. “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners.” This special task is to go out and announce a special blessing from God, particularly to those who need it most. You may recall that Jesus makes reference to this same passage later on in His ministry. He tells the people gathered in a synagogue in His hometown that the passage is being fulfilled, in their hearing. In other words, He is fulfilling it. He is announcing glad tidings by proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God; He heals the brokenhearted and brings liberty to captives. So when Isaiah says that He rejoices heartily in the Lord, it is because he knows that the Messiah is on His way. The Church puts this reading on this day to remind us to rejoice as well.

In St. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, we hear more about the need to rejoice. “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” We are told to rejoice always: not just on this particular Sunday, not just during the Advent and Christmas Seasons, not just when good things are happening for us. In other words, we are not to despair or loose hope, but to hold on to what is good. We do this, the Apostle explains, “for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. We want to be ready for when Christ will come again. We also know that Christ, in His mercy, will preserve us from what is evil.

Finally, in our Gospel, the focus is not so much on rejoicing, as it is for the reason we should rejoice. St. John the Baptist takes over for Isaiah as the last of the prophets and announces the coming of one whom the prophets have foretold. The Baptist baptizes with water, this one promises to bring something even more important. John's words are announcing something wonderful about to happen.

Let us rejoice, my brothers and sisters. Christ will soon be here.

Second Sunday of Advent

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/120714.cfm

Last week, as you may recall, I introduced the following theme for the four Sundays of Advent this year: “Turn back to the Lord and prepare His way. Let us rejoice, for the Lord is coming among us.” I then went on to talk about how we must turn away from our life of sin and put our whole focus on Jesus Christ as He comes to us in the upcoming Christmas Season. Today, I would like to talk about preparing for the coming of Christ. 

 

I'm sure we are all familiar with the idea of preparing for something big that is coming up. From all the preparations for the Thanksgiving feasts last week to the preparations that have already begun for many people for the Christmas celebrations that will take place in less than three weeks, we are in a time of the year in which many Americans spend a great deal of time preparing. But what are we really preparing for?

 

We live in a society that is both secular and consumerist. That is, the focus of so many in our society is not focused on God or religion, but on consuming and acquiring as many material objects as possible. This society would have us believe that we are already in the Christmas season and that all these preparations we are making at this time of year are meant to build up to one big celebration on Christmas Day. The Season of Christmas would seem to end at the stroke of Midnight on December 26^th. Some may pay lip service to our Christian beliefs by saying pious sounding words here and there like, “Jesus is the reason for the season”. However, it becomes obvious that their focus is not on the pure joy of the birth of the Savior, but rather on the vain pursuit of happiness through material goods. It's all about finding happiness on earth.

Our Catholic Christian faith gives us something much more meaningful to prepare for during this busy time of year. The Christmas Season doesn't begin until the 25^th and then goes on until the Baptism of the Lord on January 11^th. The Church, in her wisdom, gives us these four weeks of Advent to prepare our hearts and minds and souls for the coming joyful season. The idea is for us to spend four weeks preparing and then spend a little over two weeks celebrating. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't listen to Christmas music or do any Christmas decorating during Advent. I for one enjoy listing to some Christmas carols this time of year. However, if we spend our entire four weeks of Advent prematurely celebrating before our Lord's birthday, it's no wonder so many people promptly stop celebrating after Christmas Day: they're too tired and rundown to continue the celebration. The Church offers us a much more spiritually healthy way of entering this season. Let us prepare the way of the Lord, so that we may celebrate His birth properly.

God intended from early on to have a time of preparation and even sent a man before His Son to teach us to prepare properly. Even the prophets spoke of this time of preparation and the one who would go before our Lord. We see this played out in our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah. We hear the famous line, “A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” Isaiah is speaking about the return of Israel to Jerusalem from exile. This will require preparation for a long journey through desert and wasteland. He is also foreshadowing the coming of the Messiah, the Anointed One, who will come to save us all. He will bring us closer to God and to His holy throne in Heaven. But first, the prophet explains, there will come one who will announce the Messiah's coming. In this instance, “preparing the way of the Lord” is not talking about a physical journey that we have to make, but a spiritual journey that will make us ready to meet the Messiah when He comes.

Fast forward to the Gospel. The beginning of the Gospel of Mark introduces us to a rather wild and somewhat unsavory character who is called John the Baptist. St. Mark the evangelist is making the very bold statement that St. John the Baptist is fulfilling what was written in the passage we just hear from Isaiah. “A voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'” John is described as being in the desert as well, proclaiming a baptism of repentance. He is also quoted as saying, “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” We have ourselves a very clear message to prepare and make ready for the coming of the long awaited Messiah.

 

We know that we must prepare, but the question remains, how do we make proper preparations? How do we, “Prepare the way of the Lord?” We covered a part of if last week in talking about turning back to the Lord, seeking forgiveness and leaving sin behind. That is certainly a part of preparing.

 

Part of our preparation is also looking at how we spend these 24-plus days before Christmas. As I mentioned before, this can be a very busy and very overwhelming time of year. But if we can take a few moments as individuals and as families to make this a time of preparation, I firmly believe it will make a world of difference for us all. Prayer can be a big part of this, whether you take an extra minute or two to say a few extra “Our Fathers” or “Hail Marys” each day or pray through one of the booklets that we have available in the vestibule or some other type of devotion. Families can purchase or make their own Advent wreaths and can pray together as we journey through Advent. I highly encourage all of us to make prayer a part of our Advent. Even if it is just a quiet moment, perhaps at the end or the beginning of the day, to just ask God to help us prepare and be truly ready for the coming of Christ, I think we will be well on our way in this Advent journey. Come, let us prepare for His coming!

First Sunday of Advent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/113014.cfm 

I have found that it is very easy to get into the habit of looking only at the readings and prayers for each Mass only as they come up. So, for instance, we only pay attention to the 1^st Sunday of Advent this week and we don’t even consider the 2^nd Sunday until we get to that Sunday and so on. Obviously there is some wisdom in taking the readings just one Sunday at a time. If I tried to cover multiple Sundays in one homily, people would get confused or overwhelmed with so much information. However, I do believe that it is a good practice to once in awhile take a step back so we can see the big picture of where we are going over several Sundays in a liturgical season.

Today we start a new liturgical year as we begin the Season of Advent. As I was preparing for this homily, I took a look ahead at what the readings for rest of Advent would be. I found that I could summarize the readings for the four Sundays of Advent in just two sentences: “Turn back to the Lord and prepare His way. Let us rejoice, for the Lord is coming among us.” This Advent, I would like to make this summary the common theme for my homilies. My hope is that this will help all of us see how our journey though the season of Advent will lead us to the joyful celebration of Christmas.

I want to look at that first sentence of that summary again: “Turn back to the Lord and prepare His way.” What I am trying to say with this statement is that in order to truly prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, we must turn our focus back to God. Our sins and various temptations have pulled us away from having our complete focus on God. I'm not saying that this all happened at once in the blink of an eye. It happens slowly and gradually as we commit various sins (mostly minor venial sins) and they build up in number. Each sin turns us farther away from the Lord and takes us farther away from Him.

I think I have mentioned in a previous homily, that it is very tempting to blame God as the one who has moved when we become aware that we have separated from God. We wonder why it is that God moved away. Was it something we said or did? The more likely scenario is that we were the ones who moved: much like a small child who lets go of his mother's hand in a department store to go check out a shiny new toy. When he turns back, he is scared to see that Mom is gone. It wasn't that she abandoned him; they just got separated for a bit. She is still close by and they will be reunited very soon.

Our readings today call each of us to admit that we have allowed ourselves to turn away from God. Now we must turn back towards Him and be ready for Him when He comes. Our first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah starts off this theme with crying out to God for help. The prophet says, “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.” In a way it is kind of like the child, realizing that he is lost, beginning to call out loud for his mother to come and find him. In light of our relationship with Jesus Christ, this reading is really about the member of the Church, realizing that they are in sin, beginning to call out to our Father in Heaven to come and rescue us. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you.” Lord God, come to us with all your might so that we may be freed from slavery to sin and come ever closer to you. We acknowledge that we need to turn back to God and we acknowledge we need His help as well.

For many centuries, Advent was known as the “Little Lent”. Advent was seen simply as a shorter version of Lent in which there was a focus on fasting and penance. Today, Advent has taken on more of a tone of a time for preparation and anticipation for the coming feast day. Yet, one can still find a penitential tone in this season. The Advent wreath, the altar decorations, and the vestments warn by priests and deacons all have the liturgical color of violet. Violet is considered a penitential color as it reminds us of the purple cloak that the Roman soldiers put on Jesus in order to mock Him during His Passion. We seek penance for our sins because Jesus suffered so much because of them. The season of Advent, therefore, is a wonderful opportunity to examine our life and our conscience and to seek reconciliation with God so that we may fully celebrate the joy of Christmas.

Our Gospel for today reminds us of why we must not delay in turning back towards God. “Be watchful! Be alert!” Jesus tells us all. Now is the time for us to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Now is not the time for us to be like that child who was so easily distracted by a shiny new toy in the store. Now is the time to be watchful and alert as we become aware of how our own sinful ways have separated us from our God.

Sin wounds our relationship with God and now we must heal those wounds. What better way than in the Sacrament of Reconciliation? I've said it before and I'll say it again, come to this Sacrament. Most of the time I'm just sitting in the confessional in the back of Church praying because there is no people coming to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I want people to come. I want all of you to make it so that I have to figure out some other time for me to do my prayers on Saturday evening and Sunday morning because I'm so busy offering God's mercy through the Sacrament.

We cannot be watching for the coming of the Lord unless we turn back towards Him. That means we need to do penance for what we have done and seek reconciliation with God. Then we will be ready.

November 23: Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/112314.cfm

We all know, I’m sure, those feelings that accompany being chosen for something that we are excited about. It all begins well before the actual moment of being chosen: the nervousness mixed with excitement when we try out or apply or interview for something; the anticipation of waiting to find out if we were picked or not; and then finally there is either the joy and jubilation of finding out that we have been chosen or the disappointment and frustration of not being picked. We experience this roller coaster of emotions when we are picking teams for a game at school or applying for a job or a new position at work. I remember most vividly times in high school and college when I tried out for plays and for solos in choir; my stomach practically tied up in knots as I waited to find out if I got the part.

 

We desire these things, and so we look with great anticipation to being chosen. We care so deeply about achieving these great temporary honors here on Earth; do we pay the same amount of attention to our spiritual growth and whether we have been found worthy of entry into the Heavenly Kingdom?

Today, the Church celebrates the last Sunday in Ordinary Time, called The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The readings for this day often have the theme of referring to Jesus as a king or a good shepherd, always as a great and merciful ruler. Today's Gospel also has the added theme of looking ahead to what theologians often refer to as the “end times”. This is the time in which we believe that the Second Coming of Christ will happen when we will all enter into the Kingdom of God. Often, this whole scenario is thought of as the end of the world. Thanks to Hollywood, we have painted in our minds an image of great destruction, and suffering, and wailing and gnashing of teeth associated with “end times” and “end of the world”. But that is just one interpretation of what the end of the world will be like (and a very pessimistic one at that). When we say that this will be the end of the world, we are simply saying that it will be the end of our time here on this earth, and the beginning of our time in the Kingdom of God. My point is we don't have to fear.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus explains to His disciples and all of us that at the Second Coming there will be a Judgment Day. This image that Christ provides of a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats is meant to help us better understand that Christ Himself will also separate those who have followed the commandments and shown love and compassion to others, from those who did not. This is a little different than what I was talking about in my examples from before. We are not being picked for our talents or abilities like when we try out for a sport or apply for a job. This is the final judgment and God is going to be looking at how we lived our lives. The main focus of the examination of our lives, as Christ explains, will be on how we treated those who Christ calls, “the least”. The least are those who are in need, those who must go without, those who are marginalized in society. This Gospel reading gives pretty clear instructions about how we are to help those least brothers and sisters. We are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned. Now, this is not to say that we have to do each of these things on a regular basis. We don’t have to ask each other, have you visited a prison this week or found someone naked and given them clothes. Nor does this mean that these are the only things that Christ expects us to do as Christians. Rather, this passage is simply a reiteration of the two greatest commandments that we heard at Mass about a month ago: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, [and] your neighbor as yourself.” Being a Christian, being a follower of Christ means to love those around us. By loving others, we also show love to God.

As I said before, we all get excited when we think we may be chosen for a special honor or a special opportunity to do something we want to be a part of. When we want something like that, we put a lot of time and effort into being able to achieve it. We should also put the same effort into being counted among the sheep at the right hand of Christ at the Last Judgment. That means paying attention to how we can serve God and how we can show compassion to the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters who are around us.

It is important for us to realize that Christ has already chosen us in a certain sense to something very special. Christ is our Good Shepherd, as the Prophet Ezekiel reminds us in the first reading, and we are the flock that He pastures. We know from the Scriptures that we do not choose Christ, but rather Christ chooses us. We have been chosen to be a part of Christ’s flock. That means, as Ezekiel explains, that He will take care us: feeding us, protecting us, and seeking out the lost. The prophet also mentions a judgment among the sheep and separation between the rams and the goats. Again, a reminder that there will be a judgment, but Christ is also looking after His flock and that means we will have His help. Christ will help us in our striving to love and serve each other.

As Christians, we believe that Christ will come again, to rule as king. Let us look forward to that glorious day, and prepare for our own entry into that kingdom.

November 16: Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111614.cfm

We have all been given gifts. As I have mentioned before in an earlier homily, gifts are freely given and we are free to do with them as we see fit. However, a very good question we can all ask ourselves and reflect on is, how do we spend or invest our own gifts? Do we hold on to our gifts and use them only for ourselves, or do we seek to share the gifts with others or use them in some way so that others can enjoy them and benefit from them as well? I think we can all agree that both choices are well within the rights of the one who received the gift, but the one is much more selfish while the other is more selfless. One of those choices glorifies ourselves, while the other has the great potential to glorify God.

As a seminarian I spent one summer at a spirituality program at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Part of my time there was learning about different way to minister to the people of God. One day we got to visit Boys Town outside of Omaha. Some of you may know that Boys Town was started in 1917 by a Roman Catholic priest named Father Edward Flanagan. Looking for a way to help homeless boys in the area, Fr. Flanagan started a boarding house. Eventually he was able to purchase some farm land outside the city, which became known as the Village of Boys Town. There, “Flanagan's boys” had a safe place to live and could receive an education. They were also taught and shown a great example of Christian faith. Fr. Flanagan is quoted as saying that “All boys need to learn how to pray, how they pray is up to them”. He died in 1948, but his ministry lives on today as children of every race and religion are helped to live normal, healthy, faith filled lives in modern society. During my visit to Boys Town, the priest who was in charge there at the time explained how each of the children are given a weekly allowance; I think it was just $10. They are free to spend their allowance however they please, but they are required to tithe each week at Sunday Church services. That is, they must give 10%, or $1, back to the Church. Father explained that this was to help teach the children that in whatever they have received, they must give back to God in thanksgiving for those gifts. Just as the children of Boys Town learn to use their gifts to help others and to give thanks to God; just as Fr. Flanagan used his gifts for leadership and education and working with youth to help homeless boys; so also we as Baptized Christians are called to use our gifts in the right way: for the benefit of others and for the greater Glory of God.

 

The readings give us several more examples of what it means to use our gifts with other people in mind. First we heard from the Book of Proverbs. This is a very beautiful reading, as I'm sure you noticed, describing the virtues of a praiseworthy wife and mother. I won't go through the whole list again, but there are some highlights that I think are good to reflect on. It starts out describing how she does good for her husband and her family. It describes how she goes about doing her work of providing clothes for her family. She doesn't just do it because she has to or because it is her job, but it says that she does it with love: with loving hands specifically. The reading goes on to explain how her love and her virtues do not end with her family, but reaching out to those in need in the community as well. “She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.” She does all this, we are told, because she fears the Lord. While charm and beauty are wonderful traits to have, they are fleeting and last only for awhile, but fear of the Lord, that is to be praised! This woman fears the Lord because she loves Him, and it is that love that prompts her to use the gifts God has given her (including, but not limited to, being good at spinning wool, making clothing, and simply being kind). These gifts, again, are not used to benefit only herself, but to help her husband, her family, and those in need around her. Through all that, she also gives greater glory to God.

In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us the Parable of the Talents. Here, talents are a type of coin or currency used at the time, but the parable has long been used as symbolic of how we are to use our God given talents. I was talking with priest friend of mine not too long ago about this passage and he was telling me that whenever this parable comes up he always feels sorry for the last guy in the parable: the one who is given only one coin, which he buries in the ground. I had to agree that I felt sorry for him as well. Each of the men were given the coins according to their abilities, we are told. The fact that the man got only one talent tells us the master didn't think very highly of the man's financial abilities. He didn't expect very much from him and so entrusted very little to him. He seems to set the man up for failure by giving him so little to work with. So the man is quite aware, I'm sure, that his master doesn't think much of his abilities and very likely he is also aware that his financial abilities were lacking. Combine this with his knowledge that his master is a demanding person, as he explains, and it is really not that surprising that he buries his talent out of fear. He allowed his fear to get the best of him and it dictated to him what he was to do with his one talent. Instead of using it to benefit his master and the other servants, and perhaps even benefiting others in the community where he would have tried to invest his talent, he chooses to only hide it.

The lesson for all of us is to not let our own fears get the best of us. I don't know how often I've heard from people who tell me, “Father, I would love to teach religion, but I just don't know the faith well enough.” Or, “I would love to help with music but I'm not a good singer”. I often want to tell people they are being a bit hard on themselves. Don't let fear drive you to burying your talents in the ground or keeping them to yourself. Don't worry if you're virtuous enough or good enough like the woman in Proverbs. We are called to use our talents; we are not called to use them necessarily perfectly. Let us do what we can for the benefit of others and to glorify the Father.

November 9: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110914.cfm

 

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica. This is a feast day that we don't get to celebrate very often on a Sunday: only once every six years or so. It can be a bit confusing as well: what exactly are we celebrating and why is it important enough to replace the usual pattern of Sundays in Ordinary Time? Well, I'm glad you asked!

On November 9 of the year 324 a church was dedicated on a hill in Rome, Italy called the Lateran Hill. The church was originally called the Church of the Most Holy Savior, but eventually it took on the name of St. John the Baptist. Today's feast day celebrates that dedication of what is now called the Lateran Basilica, or sometimes called the Basilica of St. John Lateran. If you're wondering what a Basilica is, it's an honorary title given to a church that holds an important or special place within the Universal Church.

The reason this church is important enough to be called a basilica and the reason this feast day is celebrated throughout the world today, is because the Lateran Basilica is called the Pope's own church. The Basilica is actually the Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Rome. So the Pope's Cathedra or chair, is actually located in that Basilica. That makes it the pope's church just as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary in Duluth is Bishop Sirba's own church. Many people assume that St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is the Pope's church since it's in Vatican City where the Pope lives. However, the popes have not always lived at the Vatican. For almost a thousand years, the popes lived at the Lateran Palace, which was located next to the present day Basilica. Since the Lateran Basilica is the pope's church and since the pope is the leader of the Catholic Church around the world, the Lateran Basilica is also knows as the Mother Church of the entire world.

I know that a history lesson isn't everybody's favorite thing to listen to on a Sunday morning, but I hope it helps us all understand that this feast day isn't just some random celebration of a church most people have never been to or ever heard of. This particular church is a very important church, and so what we are really doing today is giving God thanks and praise for giving us the Church and allowing all of us to be a part of it.

Each of our readings today help teach us something about what we believe as Catholics about the Church. I would like to look first at our Second Reading for St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The Apostle tells the Corinthians, “You are God’s building.” He later adds, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” This is a wonderful reminder to us that the Church is not simply a structure made of bricks and mortar or wood and nails. Yes, we have a place of worship that we can call a church, but when we talk about “The Church” we are really talking about all the people around the world who make up the Church. By saying that we are God's building, St. Paul is saying that it is God who has established this Church which was founded by Jesus Christ. It was through our Baptism that we say that we became a part of the Church. It was also through this Sacrament that we became a dwelling place for the Spirit of God. We can truly say that the Holy Spirit is with each and every one of us. We believe that God dwells in a very special way in every Catholic Church building in the Eucharist that is present in the Tabernacle. But we also believe that God dwells within each member of the Church throughout the world, thanks to the graces given to us in the Sacraments. So the Church is made up of the faithful.

The prophet Ezekiel teaches us that the Church is also life giving. We heard in the First Reading about a great vision that the prophet has. He talks about how an angel takes him to the entrance of the Temple in Jerusalem. For the Jewish people, the Temple was the dwelling place of God here on Earth. Christian scholars today see this reference to the Temple as being very symbolic of the Church for today. Ezekiel didn't realize it at the time he wrote it because there was no such thing as the Church at the time, but God wanted to use this symbolism to help explain His plans for the Church. The prophet sees a river flowing from the entrance of the Temple towards the East. If you look on a map of Israel, you'll see that to the east of Jerusalem is the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is so salty, nothing can live in the water. In fact, even the land surrounding the sea and in between the sea and Jerusalem is quite barren. There are a few plants here there, but nothing like we are used to seeing in the Midwest. In his vision, however, Ezekiel can see this water flowing from the Temple and bringing life to that aired region: sea waters are made fresh, fish are in abundance, and fruit trees of every kind grow along the banks. These waters from the Temple are symbolic of the baptismal waters that flow from the Church. It is through the Sacrament of Baptism that we are made pure and are washed clean of our sins. We are also given new life in Christ Jesus.

The readings also teach us that the Church is holy and is the dwelling place of God. We hear in the Gospel that well known reading about Jesus being filled with righteous anger over those who are making the House of God into a marketplace. The Temple is meant to be a house of prayer for all people: a special place. Going back to St. Paul's letter, the Apostle says “the temple of God, which you are, is holy”. Just as the Temple in Jerusalem is the dwelling of God and a holy place, so also this Church building we are in is holy, so also we as the Church are made holy by God dwelling within us.

Let us give all thanks and praise to God this day for giving us His Holy Church, for making us a part of the Church, and for giving us new life through her Sacraments. Just as God dwells here in this Church, may we dwell with Him in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

All Soul's Day

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110214.cfm  (This homily is based off of the same readings suggested on the USCCB Website)

 

The famous comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, once did a stand-up piece in which he talked about human fears. He said that a survey done back in the 90's found that people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Number two! That means that for the average person, if you're at a funeral, you would rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy. I don't know what that says about me: I often have to meet with families at the time of a death and speak at the funeral!

I don't know whether those are the real top fears of people or if that was just part of Seinfeld's shtick, but we don't have to go through all the trouble of a survey poll to see that many people do have a fear of death. I think that it's fair to say that this fear comes from a fear of the unknown. We really know so very little about what happens after death. Christ tells us about Heaven and Hell several different times in the Gospels. We can also find references in other Scriptures to Purgatory where we our souls are purified to get us ready for Heaven. However, these references provide hardly any details of what we can expect. We know Heaven is eternal paradise and that Hell is eternal suffering, but we still don't know what that really means. What is eternal paradise? What is eternal suffering? Will we be able to recognize our loved ones in Heaven? What exactly are we going to say or do for all of eternity? It's no wonder so many people are afraid of death when we know so little about life after death.

When we read Scriptures, like those we just heard today, we can see that God's intention is not that any of us should fear death. On the contrary, God wants us to be at peace about death. This peace is gained not by knowing exactly what life after death is going to be like, but rather by having faith in God who seeks to bring all who have faith in Him to eternal life.

Our first reading from the Book of Wisdom speaks eloquently about the difference between those of the world who fear death as opposed to those who have faith in God. King Solomon, who is given credit for writing the Book of Wisdom, says that “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them”. To the foolish however, that is, those who have no faith, death is seen only as an affliction and utter destruction. In fact, notice that it is only the foolish who even refer to this “passing away” as death. For the just and those who believe, it simply means that they are with God and at peace. Solomon explains that even if there is suffering for a time in this life, blessings will follow in the hereafter. I think it is fair to say that those who are called “foolish” in this reading are the same people in this world who fear death the most. Not only does this reading teach us that God takes care of His faithful ones, but it also reminds us that if we have any fear of death then we must work to increase our own faith and trust in God.

In seminary, we were all expected to spend some time volunteering in some sort of ministry. One such ministry involved visiting people in nursing homes and hospitals. Often, this included working with hospice patients and their families and with families who had just lost a loved one. I can say today that this type of work scared me the most. It was a fear of my own mortality and a fear of not knowing how to help those people through the grieving process. I remember talking to my Mom about this fear of death. To try to help me she told me about an experience she had when she was just five years old. She told me about how her grandmother had come to live with her family. On school days, my mom would come home for lunch and see her grandmother. One day she came home to find her grandmother slouched in her chair, her arms hanging on the sides and her prayerbook lying on the floor. She had died there. Understandably, this frightened her a bit and she ran to her neighbor's to get help. But my Mom said that she learned something very important that day: that death can be peaceful. My Mom saw that her grandmother's face was peaceful in death. Her prayerbook had fallen from her hands: She had been praying when she died. Thanks to this and other accounts that people have told me about loved one's who have died in peace, I am less afraid of death and much more at peace, knowing that God cares for His people.

A big determining factor in how a person views death and the afterlife is the culture that he or she grows up in. In Mexico and other Latin American countries and communities, November 1^st and 2^nd are a time to celebrate Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. It is a time to remember family members who have died. This isn't about only remembering that funny thing that Grandpa said or those fun times we had with Mom. This isn't about mourning their passing either. This is about celebrating the lives of those family members and the festivities include doing some of the things they enjoyed doing in life. Lot's of food, music, dancing, and decorations featuring skeletons and skulls are a big part of the celebration. A big part of the Dia de los Muertos is that the dead are still an integral and active part of the family. It is on the Day of the Dead that they wake from their slumber and join in the festivities. Death is simply a part of life, but not the end.

Even with our Christian faith helping us to see that God takes care of the souls of the just, we may at times still feel some fear around death. We may fear losing a loved one for instance, or we may still fear what our own death will be like. I think that is still to be expected. The point is that despite those fears, it is our faith in God and our hope in eternal life that win the day.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel that He was sent to do the will of the Father, and that the will of the Father is that those who believe in Christ will have eternal life and will be raised on the last day. It is in that promise that we have our hope for eternal life. Fear not, for we are in the hands of God.

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/102614.cfm

Sometimes in life, we might be presented with a task to complete or a problem to solve or to deal with. When we first look at that task or problem and begin to size it up and figure out what we need to do in order to finish the job we might feel a bit overwhelmed. We may think that it is going to take a great deal of work in order to finish. We might think we need to pull together a great number of resources of one type or another in order to finish what we plan to do. The whole thing might even strike us as being impossible to complete all on our own. But once we begin to do the work and try different things out we discover, either for ourselves or with the help of another person, that the solution is nothing all that new or difficult, but really quite simple and obvious once we know what to look for. The once complicated or impossible problem becomes a straightforward and manageable task.

I can remember how in elementary school, I struggled with how to solve long multiplication and division problems and complicated word problems that I would get as homework. The problems and should have been pretty straightforward and I should have been able to work through the process to the solution fairly quickly. As the math problems got more and more difficult, I would get more confused. I would add or subtract where I didn't need to or I would forget to carry a number. Word problems were a complete mess for me as I would attempt to do steps that were really unnecessary for that problem. With help from teachers and my parents I eventually realized that I was making the problems more difficult than they really were. I needed to slow down and that would help me not get confused and I was able to see that the solution was much simpler and easier than I thought at first. Once I did that I became much better at math in my high school years.

I used my struggle with arithmetic as an example, but I hope that we can all see it as symbolic of tasks and problems that we have in our day to day lives. In spite of so many complicated things in this world from complicated jobs to complicated instructions on electronics to complicated relationships, there are still some things that are actually quite simple.

A great example of this can be found in our Gospel reading for today. A scholar of the law asks Jesus, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?” For the Pharisees, all of the laws and commandments needed to be followed. The scholar isn't trying to say that one is greatest and the rest are not important. It was popular for the Pharisees to try to find ways to summarize the law and the faith in one or two sentences. So, the scholar is asking, “Is there a commandment that is so great that it summarizes all the rest of the commandments?” It's similar to if we asked an employer about a job description and he or she gave us a nice one or two sentence explanation of the job. The job itself might include other odd tasks and duties, but that short description gives an overall gist of what the job consists of.

Jesus not only summarizes the law of the Old Testament, but one could also argue that He summarizes the whole of Sacred Scripture. He does this by quoting two important laws that can be found in the Old Testament. “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind,” can be found in the Book of Deuteronomy. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” is from the Book of Leviticus. It's not that hard to see how all the laws depend on and are based off of these two commandments. When we look at the Ten Commandments and the other laws throughout the Old Testament, we can see that they are either based on honoring and loving the Lord, your God, or honoring and loving other people around you. So both of these make a very good summary of what God wants us to do.

Sometimes Catholics are criticized for having too many rules, and that these rules can get too difficult to follow. But this reading about “The Greatest Commandment” helps show that all those rules and precepts and encyclicals and Apostolic Exhortations that the Church has are really all based on those two commandments to love God and neighbor. Is just as simple as that: love. Going back to my original point, when we look at all the commandments of the Scriptures and all the rules found in the Catechism, we are essentially overwhelming ourselves thinking that we have all these rules that we have to follow. We worry about whether we will be good enough to enter into heaven and we might even despair of ever getting in. If we simply slow down and think about what those rules are really saying, we can see that it simply means that we must love.

When I first read this Gospel reading early this past week I first noticed that the message and overall theme was pretty straightforward. However, I struggled for most of the week trying to figure out how best to present this theme in a homily. This reading doesn't take a whole lot of explanation. Jesus tells us to love God and neighbor: now go out and do it. I kept thinking there has to be something more I need to talk about with this reading, but I realized I was making it too complicated. God wants us to love Him and each other. It's as simple as that. All the other stuff in the Church teaches us and guides us to that idea of love.

Back in 2013 when Pope Francis was elected as our current Pope, there was a flood of images posted on the Internet by Catholics talking about him. Some people were (and still are) of the impression that Pope Francis was changing the teachings of the Church. Many of those images responded to those claims and attempted to show how the Pope was following what had always been taught, just saying it in a new way. One of those postings showed picture of our two previous Popes and our current one. Under St. John Paul II it said, “This is what we believe”. Under Benedict XVI it said, “This is why we believe it”. Under Francis it said, “Now go do it”. Our faith has taught us how to love. Let's go do it.

Twenty-nineth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101914.cfm

          From early on in our lives, we gradually come to an understanding that something is ours, that we posses that object.  We have probably all seen at one time or another a toddler or young child who seems convinced that anything that they can reach or get their little fingers around is automatically and irrevocably theirs.  We have all heard a child make the solemn proclamation that something is, “Mine!”  As children get older they are taught not to be greedy or overly possessive and they learn about sharing and taking good care of their own things.  So we all learn what it means to possess something and also what it means to give back what is not ours to its rightful owners. 

          Our readings today talk about giving to God what is truly His; namely, we are to give Him our thanks, praise and love.  There are certainly many different ways that a person can give back to God in thanks and praise of what He has done.  We can offer our prayers.  We can devote our lives to serving in the Church in some way, whether it is as a volunteer who teaches or helps others or whether we devote our full time to serving in some way.  We can also give financially to the Church or to an organization within the Church as a way of giving thanks.  You'll see in the bulletin this week some information on the benefits of tithing and giving to the Church.  I hope those tips are helpful for you.  But though we have all these examples I just listed of how we can give thanks and praise to God and give back what is truly His, I want to challenge us not to think of these examples as a few things we can just check off our “to-do lists” so that we can “be good” with God.  We don't want to have an attitude of, “Well I come to Mass, I put a few dollars in the collection plate, say my prayers at bedtime, and I volunteered at a fish fry last spring; I've done my part with God, right?”  All these things are wonderful for us to do, but to truly give to God what belongs to God means so much more than doing a few things in the religion department here and there.  It's about how we live our life.

          Let's take a closer look at the readings.  Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah is talking about a man named Cyrus.  Cyrus was the king of Persia (in modern day Iran) about 500 years before Christ.  He was responsible for leading a revolt against the Babylonian Empire who had conquered Jerusalem and put all the Jewish people in exile.  Once he conquered Babylon, Cyrus allowed the Jewish to finally return to their homeland after 70 years of exile.  He even gave money to help with the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.  Not surprisingly, many former Jewish exiles thought of King Cyrus as a savior sent by God.  In this passage that we heard today, the Prophet Isaiah has written down words that God is speaking to the King.  “I have called you by your name,” He says, “though you knew me not”.  God is saying that it was all a part of His plan to have Cyrus become king and lead the people back home even though Cyrus was unaware of those plans.  It was God who made his revolt successful, all for Israel's sake.  The overall point of all this is that God is the one who is in charge.  “I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me,” Isaiah writes.  Even the great King Cyrus, who’s Persian Empire encompassed most of the Middle East and part of Europe, cannot take credit for everything.  He also has to give praise and thanks to God for making it all possible.

          In our second reading, we hear from the very beginning of St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians.  “We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers,” St. Paul starts out.  Again, God is the one being given the proper praise as is appropriate.  “Unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ”.  We see here a great example of  St. Paul's pastoral leadership at work.  He is talking to a young Church in modern day Greece, not long after visiting them and he tells them that he remembers their “work of faith”, and “labor of love”, and endurance in hope”.  He is encouraging them by reminding them of the virtues he sees at work in them.  But remember the words just before that, “We give thanks to God always for all of you”.  God is the one who get all the praise and thanks, because it was God alone who gave the Thessalonians that faith, hope, and love that is at work in them.  Again, God is the one who deserves all the glory. 

          When we come to the Gospel, we see the Pharisees and Herodians trying to trap Jesus by posing the question about the census tax.  The Jewish people didn't like paying the census tax for a couple of reasons: by paying a tax to Rome it reminded them that they were being occupied by a foreign power, and the tax itself was given to a man who was calling himself a god, a sacrilege to the Jewish people.  The people didn't like it, but they still had to pay it.  These men are trying to trap Jesus by making Him choose sides on a big controversy.  If He says they should pay the tax, He will loose the esteem of the people who hate paying the tax.  If He says not to, then He will be arrested by the Romans as a revolutionary.  Christ sees right through the hypocrisy of course.  By having the men pull out one of the coins in question, He shows that even these so called “holy men” and leaders of the people have this hated coin and are ready to pay the tax.  So, “Pay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar”.  But then Jesus brings all of this to another level.  “Pay to God what belongs to God”.  In other words, you are willing to pay this tax and give back what belongs to Caesar, how much more should we be willing to give back to God what belongs to Him? 

          This lesson can be well applied to us in the Twenty-first Century.  We are so quick to lay claim to what is ours and guard it.  We are also willing to give what we must for our work, our favorite pastimes, and even our own taxes.  We claim it is something we have to do.  Shouldn't we be willing to give God what we “need” to give to Him?  Our reading show that this means giving nothing short of all the praise and glory to God who is our one true Lord.  Give to God what is His.

Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101214.cfm

          It can be a lot of fun to receive gifts, especially on a birthday and other special occasions.  But what good is a gift, if we are limited in how we are able to use it?  There are some restrictions that have a good reason for being there.  For instance, when my parents gave me a BB gun one Christmas I was given strict rules of where I could use it in order to protect those around me and myself.  Sometimes a gift of money or a gift card might include instructions to only use it for something fun or enjoyable rather than something boring or practical.  I’m not talking about those types of restrictions.  I don’t even know if anyone has ever experienced something like this, but what if we got a gift and we were only allowed to use it if the person who gave it could enjoy it too.  “Here’s a new car, but you can only use it to drive me back and forth to work.”  Or, “I’ll pay for your trip but you have to take me along with you and go where I want to go”.  Maybe the gift giver simply put ridiculous on the gift in some way that limits the enjoyment or even the usefulness of the gift.

          For us to say that a gift is truly given freely, then that gift ought to have no strings attached, except maybe for safety reasons as I mentioned before.  As soon as we limit what can be done with the gift, we really limit the freedom of the gift.  Likewise, we limit the freedom of the person receiving the gift. 

          When we hear the parable in the Gospel of Matthew today, we might be tempted to think that the king is putting harsh restrictions on his gifts.  He deems those who he originally invited to be unworthy and later throws out a man came without a wedding garment.  But if that is our thought (or if we think this is the way God handles His gifts), then we have misunderstood the gift. 

          The King in this parable is of course, God the Father.  The wedding feast is symbolic of the Kingdom of Heaven.  We might think that the wedding feast itself is the gift that God is offering.  Rather, the true gift that God offers us is that invitation to enter into Heaven and join in the Eternal Banquet.  Think of the invitation that the King sends out as grace.  Grace is the blessing that God gives us to help us live the life that He wants us to live.  It helps us to accept His will and leave sin behind.  We ourselves are not worthy of this gift.  Nothing we do makes us worthy of it.  However, it is only through grace that we have any hope of entering the Kingdom of Heaven.  God freely gives us that grace and we are free to accept it (letting it enter into our hearts and work miracles) or to turn it down, rejecting it.  Rejecting grace means we end up like those in the parable who are turned away for not being worthy or not having the proper wedding garment.  Accepting it means we have accepted that invitation and have hope of entering.  It’s no grantee mind you.  We are still called to live the Christian life and obey the commandments even after we accept God’s grace, but that grace is going to help us a lot!

          There are important things that we can take from this to apply to our daily lives.  First of all, God can’t force this grace on us.  We have to make a choice whether we are going to accept that grace or not.  This goes back to what I’ve been talking about with receiving a gift that is freely given.  God could force us to take His gift of grace (I mean, He created the universe out of nothing, He could find some way to force us to accept His grace) but then it would no longer be a free gift.  He wants us to be able to make our own choices.  More specifically, He wants us to be free to choose to love Him and to freely choose to accept His grace.  However, in order for us to have the freedom to choose to love and to choose to accept the grace and the invitation, that also means we are free to choose to not love Him, to not choose the grace, to reject the invitation.  In other words, we are also free to sin. 

Another important point that we learn from this is that God values our free-will.  “Free-will” simply means that we are free to choose.  God values our freedom so much that He is not willing to do anything that would sacrifice our freedom to choose.  Even though He could make it so that we could no longer sin, He still wants us to have that choice.  He can’t force evil out of us.

Some people try to argue that God should be able to make evil in the world go away.  They say they don’t understand why He doesn’t do that.  Some even try to argue against the existence of God by saying that if there really were an all loving God, then He would get rid of all evil in the world.  The problem with those arguments is that in order to do that, God would have to get rid out our free will as well.  God is not willing to do that.  He wants us to make the choice for ourselves.  Choose to love or choose to sin.  Choose the grace or reject it.  Choose to accept the invitation or choose to be locked out as the parable says. 

So it is time to make the choice:  accept that grace and come to the wedding banquet.

Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary

On Sunday, October 5, 2014 the Diocese of Duluth celebrated our 125th Anniversary as a diocese by celebrating our Patronal Feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary (normally celebrated on October 7) at all the Sunday liturgies.  The readings for that day were as follows:



Acts 1:12-14 http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/1
Psalm: Luke 1:46-55
Romans 8:28-30 http://www.usccb.org/bible/romans/8
Luke 1:26-38 http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/1

 

Imagine, if you will, a great naval battle of epic proportions. Not a modern day battle with destroyers and aircraft carriers and submarines, but with hundreds of galleys and other sailing and rowed ships. On one side of the battle was the much stronger armada of the Ottoman Turks. Thousands of warriors armed with scimitars and bows seeking to conquer Western Europe and convert the people to Islam. Their ships were powered by thousands of Christian slaves who were forced to row bellow deck on the ships. On the other side was a Holy League of Christian allies who had assembled with the blessing of Pope St. Pius V to stop this invasion. They also had fierce warriors: trained soldiers and knights, but they were a weaker force by comparison and severely outnumbered. But they one distinct advantage, for it can truthfully be said that their ships were powered by the prayers of Our Blessed Mother.

History books record this as The Battle of Lepanto, fought on October 7, 1571. Knowing that the Turks commanded a superior army and navy, St. Pius V sent out word to all the faithful in Europe to pray the Rosary and ask for Our Blessed Mother's intercession that the Christians might be victorious. One explanation I read said that on the Christian ships, Christian rowers held rosaries in their hands during the battle. As some descriptions of the battle say, the winds turned in the Christians' favor and they won the battle despite the odds. In thanksgiving for the victory, St. Pius V set up October 7^th as a feast day to honor Our Mother's intercession. At first it was called Our Lady of Victory. Eventually the feast day was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary and is still celebrated around the world every October 7^th.

The Battle of Lepanto marks the beginning of this particular feast day. Of course, we don't usually associate rosaries or the Blessed Virgin Mary with wars or bloody battles. We associate rosaries with prayer. Many of us have heard the story of St. Dominic who requested Our Lady's help in preaching the Gospels to so many people who did not understand. It is said that in response she gave him the rosary and told him to spread the devotion of praying it to the people. The idea of carrying a string of beads to keep track of the prayers can be traced back in further to early monks. They would wear a rope with 150 knots tied into it to keep track of the 150 Psalms that they would pray daily. Eventually the Psalms were shortened to 150 Our Fathers and eventually to 150 Hail Marys. When we pray the traditional rosary of the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries we still pray 150 Hail Marys.

So far I have been looking at this Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary from a very academic point of view. I've mentioned the history of the feast day itself, I've mentioned a couple of versions of how the rosary came about as a Marian devotion. However, anyone who has ever had a love for the rosary and to Mary will tell you that the rosary is so much more than a bloody battle that took place over 400 years ago, or a rope full of knots, or a string of beads, or a story about a saint having visions of Mary.

The rosary is about trusting in Our Blessed Mother's prayers for us. It is about putting faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ who hears His mother's prayers and responds to them by blessing us and pouring out His graces upon us. It is about having a deeper relationship with Jesus through these special prayers to Mary. St. Padre Pio is quoted as saying that the Rosary is a powerful weapon against the evils of Satan. This is not another reference to a physical battle, but a great spiritual battle that takes place between Heaven and Hell, with all of us in midst of it all. So whenever we pray the rosary, whether it is with our ten fingers, or a rosary ring, or a piece of cord with knots in it, or a rosary with wooden beads, or the finest rosary made with gold and silver and gem stones, we are engaged in a spiritual battle, praying that God's love and forgiveness will shine through the cold darkness of evil.

Our readings teach us about our relationship with Our Blessed Mother. In the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles we hear about what the Apostles did right after seeing Jesus ascend into Heaven. They go back to Jerusalem and go to “the upper room” to pray. This reference to an “upper room” refers to the same upper room where Jesus gathered with the Twelve to celebrate the Passover meal. It will also be the place that tradition says they will receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost several days later. So in this room are the remaining Eleven Apostles as well as some other men and women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus. Notice that from the very early days of the Church, Our Mother is already there, praying with her children, with the Church. Mary is there because she loves the Church. She is there because she loves God and wants to respond to His will for her.

The Second reading, St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, tells us about how God calls people to be His servants. God has a plan for people and He calls certain people to have a special role in that plan and He blesses those who respond to that call and plan. What all this means is that Mary has been called to a specific purpose, and big part of her calling is to pray for the Church: for all of us.

The Gospel covers that special calling. Usually we have to wait for Advent or Christmas to hear this special reading of the Annunciation. The Archangel Gabriel gives the message to a teenage girl from Galilee that she will become the Mother of God. His first words to her are also the beginning of the Hail Mary Prayer that is the basis for the rosary. “Hail Mary, full of Grace! The Lord is with you!” We honor her for her willingness to say, “Yes!” with our words of praise, and by honoring her we also honor The Father who created her and called her.

Blessed Mother, hear our prayers. Present them to your Son, Jesus, and pray for us, your children who cling to you for protection. Hail Mary... AMEN!

The Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092814.cfm

 

We all have a reputation, an image that other people connect with us. Hopefully our reputation is accurate, that is, it matches who we really are and not just on a misunderstanding or a bad first impression. Whether we like it or not, it is very hard for a person to shake their reputation; it's hard to change a person's impression or opinion of us.

The other day I was watching a TV program about the notorious outlaw, Billy the Kid. A major premise of the program was that the historians wanted to separate all the legends associated with “The Kid” from the actual facts. Even in the late 1800's when there wasn't television or radio available to give up to the minute newscasts, Billy quickly developed a reputation for being a ruthless killer and horse rustler. The historians on the program tried to show there was more to the story than just that. They explained that Billy was an orphan. That fact, along with his boyish good looks secured him the nickname, “The Kid”. While still a teenager, Billy was hired as a ranch hand, his employer becoming a father figure for him. Lincoln County, New Mexico, where Billy lived, was immersed in a war between two factions, each fighting for a monopoly on cattle and commerce. Billy's employer was a leader for one the factions. One day he was gunned down by a group of men under the payroll of the other faction. These assassins included the local sheriff and a deputy. Billy and several other ranch hands vowed to avenge their former employer and eventually killed the corrupt sheriff and his deputy. From that moment on, Billy and his gang were on the run as wanted men.

Now, I want to be clear, I am in no way trying to justify or defend Billy the Kid's crimes. I agree with the history books that what he did was wrong. I do want to point out, however, that there is a big difference from simply saying that he was an outlaw who killed lawmen, as was his reputation in all the legends about him, to reading the facts that he was an orphan who was seeking justice for the wrongful death of a father figure who was killed by a corrupt sheriff and his deputy. To the newspapers of the day and other lawmen it didn't matter if the lawmen who were killed were crooked or if there was anything shady about them. It didn't matter that Billy had grown up without parents and had just lost someone very close to him. He had killed two lawmen. That was his reputation. That was what he was hunted down for.

Here on earth, once we have established our reputation it is very hard for us to shake free of that. It is possible to do it, but it takes a lot of work. The reason it is so hard to change one's reputation is perhaps because we human beings have a habit for remembering the strangest things about the people we meet. I find it all very strange. We can easily forget were we last put down our car keys or cell phone, but we can remember for the longest time a nice gesture that a person did for us. It seems even easier to remember the negative things, like when a person is rude to us or refuses to help when we really needed it. Our reputations follow us for a long time and stay the same even if we have changed a matured over time.

Fortunately for us, our reputation with God is much different. God knows us even better than we know ourselves. He knows whether we are trying to do His will or whether we are only looking to do things that make ourselves happy. He knows when we make a conversion in our hearts to repent of our past sins and to refocus on the Gospels. We don't have to worry about whether our reputation with God is accurate or not. In fact, we may even wish at times that God didn't know us quite as well as He does what with all the mistakes that we know we have made. Overall, however, the fact that God knows us that well is really a good thing. When we finally make the decision to leave sin behind and make a conversion of heart to the Gospel we don't have to spend a bunch of time convincing God that this is really who I am now, like when we try to convince our friends or family that we have changed somehow. No matter what our reputation was in past, God knows when we really mean to make that true conversion.

The readings today are really about making that conversion of heart, choosing to turn away from sin and follow the will of God. The first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel follows a similar theme that we heard from last week. You may recall last week that I talked about how we might be tempted to say that God's ways are unfair because His ways are not our ways. Part of that includes the fact that God is so willing to forgive us and accept us where we are at. Here again, Ezekiel speaks about how people say that God is unfair. But God points out that it is human ways that are unfair, not God's ways. He goes on to say that when we turn from a virtuous life to one of sin and we die, it is for those sins that we die, not because of some weird rule that God came up with. Likewise, when we turn from a sinful life to a virtuous life, it is because of those virtues that we gain eternal life, not because of a strange rule or because God plays favorites. The lesson here is that God doesn't judge us by our reputation or by our past. He looks at our life as a whole: are we striving to live that virtuous life; are we seeking forgiveness when we have sinned.

 

The Gospel continues along that same train of thought. Jesus gives a parable of two sons. One says he is going to do something but doesn't. The other says he won't but eventually does. The blessings go to the one who finally does the task that the father put before them. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter so much who said early on, I'm going to do this or do that. It doesn't matter who said from early on, I'm going to be a Christian or I'm going to be a priest or in a religious community or I'm just going to do my own thing, forget about the rest of you. What matters is who actually went through with it and chose to follow God's will (whatever that might be). Don't worry about the past. Just worry about doing God's will today.

The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092114.cfm

“It’s not fair!” That is a phrase that seems to be heard more and more these days. I’m sure that many parents can attest to having heard that phrase again and again from their kids. Children have probably been saying it for who knows how many generations. It is a very universal phrase as well, since it can be said for anything from catching a sibling or a friend cheating at a game to being told that it is time for bed (even when it’s their usual bedtime). Whatever the cause of this “unfairness”, anyone within listening range will be sure to hear how the “offended” child feels about it.

I’ve been very surprised by the number of times I hear adults use the phrase, “it’s not fair” and similar phrases. Sometimes something really is not fair. Those times, of course, it makes sense to say that it’s unfair. The problem I’ve been noticing is that more and more adults are using the phrase the way kids use it. What I mean is they use it to complain about things that they personally don’t like, whether or not they are truly unfair. The complaints can be about laws that the person doesn’t agree with all the way to disagreements on decisions made by the school board or coaches or teachers. Granted, people are free to speak about what they consider fair or unfair or what they agree or disagree about, but when we complain about something only because we don’t like it and we have no real reason for calling it unfair or unjust, then what are we doing?

When things do go wrong and perhaps strike us as being “unfair”, it can be very tempting to blame someone for causing that unfair situation. It is also very tempting to blame God for those situations. I think Christians in general know and believe that God would never cause an unfair or unjust event to happen to people, but He does allow things to happen that are difficult, challenging, and hard, for a just reason. When I say that it is for a just reason, I mean that God knows that it is for a good reason, even though we might not recognize it at the time. When God allows those difficult and challenging times to happen in our lives, it can be very easy to forget that He may have very well had His reasons for allowing that to happen. We call it “unfair” and we may even get angry with God because of it. My main point is, we don't always understand what God's plans are; we don't always understand His thoughts.

It is good for us to have readings such our first reading today to help remind us that God's plans for us and for the world are really on a whole different wavelength than we could ever hope to be on. The Prophet Isaiah is telling us to seek God while we can and ask Him for forgiveness, for He is merciful and forgiving. We are even reminded that the scoundrel and the wicked have nothing to fear from God. All are being called to come to God and ask for forgiveness. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.” God is telling us, “Don't worry I'm not going to be angry with you. Just come to me.” This is coming from a time when the law of the land was, a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. Whatever wrong was done was paid back in full to the criminal. This was practice by both human kings and lords as well as the mythical gods and goddess that some cultures believed. Isaiah is saying, however, that our God isn't like that at all. God only wishes to forgive those who come back to Him seeking forgiveness. He is more just than we could ever imagine.

So, we can see that it is never going to be easy for us to understand God's ways: at least not while we are still hear on Earth. We're not going to understand why God allows certain things to happen in our lives. We're not going to understand why God keeps forgiving us, even though we keep doing the same sin over and over and over again and having to say that same sin over and over and over again to the priest in the confessional. God's ways are not our ways.

Just as God is so willing to forgive all, so also He is willing to let many people into His Heavenly Kingdom, no matter when they come. The point of the parable in today's Gospel is that God will allow everyone who is worthy to enter into His Kingdom. It doesn't matter when they come or when they have their conversion or repentance, God will still accept them. God does this because He loves each and every one of us, because He created each of us. This is, once again, God's very unique way of doing things. This may cause some confusion for us: “Why is God doing it this way?” It may even cause us to argue with God: “Wait! It's not fair! You mean the drug dealer, the mass murderer, the terrorist who coverts just before their death gets the same reward as someone like me who has lived as a Christian most or all of their life? The answer is simply...

Yes!

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090714.cfm

It started out simply as a game at a youth group. It seemed like a good challenge for the teens and preteens who had gathered for a day long retreat. I was a seminarian at the time, helping out at a parish.

In this game, each teen had to team up with a partner. In each team, one person had to be blindfolded, the other person had to guide their partner to the other side of a large room using only their voice. So they couldn't grab the person's hand and drag them around. The teams couldn't just go in a straight line, however, as there were several obstacles that the blindfolded team member had to get around. As I recall, there was an orange cone that you had to go all the way around, a jump rope was laying across the floor that you had to jump over. I think they had to walk backwards at one point and maybe they had to do something with a ball. All very simple things to do that are so much harder once your eyes are covered. Of course, the teens were told it was also a race: first team to the other side of the room wins. There was an odd number of students, so there was one girl without a partner. One of the youth ministers agreed to be her partner, and she agreed to be blindfolded.

What happened during the game, was really quite amazing. As soon as everyone was ready, someone said, “Ready, set, go!” Immediately, all the students who were guides began yelling to their blindfolded partners to come as quickly as possible. This resulted in a scene reminiscent of a Three Stooges episode. The blindfolded students began bumping into each other, and tripping over each other and the obstacles (which meant they had to go back and start again) and even going completely in the wrong direction. There was so much yelling they couldn't tell whose voice was their partner's voice and naturally they got confused. The blindfolded students started yelling back, causing more confusion. Also, the guides' “directions” consisted mainly of commands like, “Come this way! No, this way! Now turn! No, the other way!”

Meanwhile, the team with the youth minister and the girl was taking another approach. The youth minister quickly saw that chaos was ensuing, so he came close to his partner and began speaking to her in a normal speaking voice, so she could clearly recognize his voice. Then he said her name and started giving her very clear and calm instructions. He'd say, “Okay, follow the sound of my voice and start walking forward.” Whenever she would get to one of the obstacles, he would have her stop and then explain to her what she needed to do. “Okay, we're at the cone now. You need to walk around it.” So he would actually guide her all the way across the room, giving her help through each obstacle and giving encouragement throughout. Not surprisingly, she was the first to get across the room.

This story isn't just an example of the old adage, “Slow and steady wins the race.” My hope is that it will be a reminder to all of us that we need to help each other from time to time. It might be something simple like holding a door open or helping carry something heavy. It might also require a bigger commitment, like helping a family member or friend with a disability or an illness. There are many ways to help someone else, but the help we offer needs to actually be effective, otherwise we are just yelling in a crowded room, hoping to be heard above the confusion.

In our readings for today, God wants us to help each other grow in holiness by encouraging each other to work on certain areas of our lives. Now, before we get started, I want be clear that God isn't giving us license to go around and tell everyone we know all the grievances we have against them or all the things they do that annoy us. We aren't supposed to go around with spyglasses and keep surveillance on each other. God is talking about lovingly helping those around us to turn away from sin and follow the Gospels more closely.

In the first reading today, Ezekiel is passing along God's instructions to him. As a prophet, God wants him to be a watchman for the people and to pass on warnings and instructions from God. If God tells him to dissuade people from their evil ways, then he needs to do it. If he doesn't and the person dies by his own guilt, God is going to hold him, Ezekiel, responsible. But if he does warn the sinful person and they don't listen, that person will still be punished, but Ezekiel will have done his job and be rewarded for it.

Now, not everyone is called to be a prophet, so we are not all held to the same accountability as Ezekiel was. That being said, we are still called to keep each other accountable. So if we notice our brother or sister sinning in some way, we ought to find an appropriate way to help them. For instance, if we notice someone is spreading gossip or false rumors about another person, instead of getting angry with them or embarrassing them in some way, perhaps we encourage them to talk about something more positive or politely remind them that spreading false rumors is bearing false witness against our neighbor.

Jesus tells us more in the Gospel for today. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” Notice it just starts out as very simple: one person to another. The goal is not to embarrass anyone or shame with guilt. If you brought in a large group right away to accuse one person, they're not going to take it very well. Instead, God says to start out with one on one. If that doesn't work, bring in one or two more, if that doesn't work, talk to the Church.

This is not about forcing each other to do these things as quickly as possible, like it's a race. It isn't about embarrassing anyone or making them feel awful. This is about guiding our brothers and sisters with love towards holiness. When we guide each other we are more likely to pray with each other. And when we pray together, there God will be in our midst.