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!