Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/101815.cfm

Throughout Sacred Scripture, we can find numerous examples of God telling His Church how to live a life of holiness. We should always give thanks to God that whenever He gives us these commands and instructions He always gives us examples that we can live by. Sometimes it's the example of Christ’s life, other times it's example of someone from a Bible story, and other times it's the lives of the saints.

Today's readings remind us that to be a great leader means that we must give of ourselves to those we lead. This requires self-sacrifice. The Prophet Isaiah talks about the coming of the Messiah and that He will give “His life as an offering for sin”. The Gospel also gives a clear foreshadowing of Christ’s Passion and Crucifixion and warns the Twelve that they too will share in His “cup” and in His “baptism”. This leads to Jesus’ final point which is, “whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all”.

Christ is of course the prime example of what it means to live a life of self-sacrifice. And, as I already mentioned, God also give us the example of lives of many saints who gave their lives as a sacrifice for God and for others. I would like to talk about a couple of those saints.

Gianna Beretta was born near Milan, Italy in 1922. She grew up in the Catholic faith and later attended medical school. She graduated with a doctorate in medicine in 1949. She opened a clinic and soon became well known as a superb doctor and pediatrician. She was also well known for helping organize retreats and talks in local parishes and for reaching out to local youth. She married a man named Pietro Molla in 1955 and their new family began to grow from there. Three children were born to them over the next four years, but after that she sadly lost two babies before they were born.

In 1961 she was pregnant again and after two months she began experiencing pain. It was discovered that she had a tumor in her uterus. Such a tumor can result in complications which can be a risk for both the mother and the child. Gianna had a few options. One would be to have a hysterectomy and remove the uterus along with the tumor. This would of course lead to the death of her unborn child. Such a choice would be morally acceptable since the operation would be directed at saving the mother's life and not at ending her child's life. Gianna elected not to do this, but instead had surgery to remove the tumor while allowing the child to remain in the womb. Such a procedure was risky for both child and mother, but Gianna insisted that the surgeons do whatever was necessary to preserve the child's life. The surgery was successful and on Good Friday, April 20, 1962, Gianna Emanuela was born by c-section. Dr. Gianna's life began to deteriorate quickly after that. She developed an infection that medicine of that day was not able to combat. She died seven days later. Little Gianna Emanuela grew up to become a doctor like her mother and was present at her mother's beatification in 1994. St. Gianna is remembered today as a wife, mother, doctor, and a pro-life witness. She died making sure that her daughter would have life.

Another saint who is a great example of self-sacrifice is St. Maria Goretti. Another Italian saint, Maria was born in 1890. Her father died when she was just ten years old, but she continued to help her mother with the farm they lived on and helping with the care of her younger siblings. Mass and the Sacrament of Reconciliation were of great importance to her, and she went to both on a regular basis even though the church was a two-hour walk away.

The Goretti family lived next to another family called the Serenellis who also worked as tenant farmers on the same farm. A son of that family was named Alessandro. During his teenage years he read a lot of violent and impure articles in newspapers. When Alessandro was twenty and Maria was only eleven, he began making advances towards her. Maria never gave in though, knowing that what he was suggesting should wait until marriage.

One day in July of 1902, everyone was working in the fields while Maria watched over her sleeping baby sister. Alessandro sneaked back to the house and grabbed a knife. No one else was at the house, so he grabbed Maria and tried to force his way with her. She was more afraid of Alessandro's salvation, then her own safety. She said, “No! No! No! What are you doing? Do not touch me! It is a sin – you will go to Hell!” Alessandro began stabbing her with the knife, at least fourteen times. Her cries for help could not be heard because of farm equipment being used in the field, but her baby sister awoke and began to cry. Alessandro hid himself as adults realized something was wrong and ran to the house. Doctors tried to save her, but couldn't and she died twenty hours later. On her deathbed she forgave Alessandro and prayed that he would repent. Her chief concern was for Alessandro even then. Alessandro was arrested and sentenced to thirty years in prison. He spent the first eight without remorse or regret for what he had done. One day he had a dream in which Maria appeared to him in a field of flowers as she held out white lilies to him. He finally repented begged God's forgiveness. On Christmas Eve, 1937, Alessandro visited Maria's Mother and begged her forgiveness. She said she could hardly refuse since her daughter had been so willing to forgive as well. They then attended Midnight Mass together. Maria's Mother was present at Maria's canonization in 1950.

St. Maria sacrificed herself rather than to succumb to impurity. She sacrificed herself to save Alessandro from impurity as well. St. Gianna sacrificed herself so that her daughter could live. Both of these modern day saints teach us what it means to sacrifice oneself for the love of God. They followed in the footsteps of Christ and have shared in His baptism. They were servants on earth, but are now great in Heaven. May their prayers and examples lead us to Heaven as well.

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100415.cfm

We all have many different traditions in our lives. Some of them involve family traditions, especially around birthdays and holidays. Even meals at those celebrations can have traditions connected to them. There are community traditions connected around events and celebrations. Even parishes have certain traditions that are unique to them. As a priest, I have learned that there are a great number of different traditions at each parish that I have been involved with. I have also learned that it is important for me to understand those traditions and respect them. I shouldn't come barging in and change everything just because I think I know how to do things best. In fact, I've gained a great deal of knowledge and wisdom simply by observing various parish traditions over the years.

People in general seem to like traditions. We like that we can look forward each year to a certain way of doing things. We can't help but think of all the memories of the past and we hope and pray that we can repeat the positive memories and avoid the negative ones. In an otherwise constantly changing world, is good to have those reliable traditions to fall back on.

Unfortunately, even traditions eventually come to an end. When I was growing up, my family had a tradition of getting together with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins for Christmas and Easter. Now that my cousins are married and have children of their own, making my aunts and uncles grandparents themselves, the old family traditions have changed and have been replaced by new ones. Some of you may have experienced similar changes in family traditions.

Community traditions end and change as well. As a community grows or shrinks and as other dynamics of the community change over time, traditions may gradually change to adjust to the community. The same can be said of parish communities too. We have all been going through quite a bit of transition over the last two and a half months as we have been clustering. Already we have had to change a few traditions in our parishes, but my hope is that the majority of our traditions remain the same. My point is that traditions can and do sometimes change.

God is of course the one thing in the entire universe that never changes. The Earth is always changing. Even rocks can erode over time and be shifted around. The universe is still expanding, meaning that the stars we see at night will look very different a million years from now. But God is constant. His love and mercy never change. Because God is Himself so unchanging, He also made certain things which He intended to be true from the beginning of time until the end.

Jesus speaks specifically about one of those truths in the Gospel for today. He is talking about what we call the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. “From the beginning of creation”, Jesus tells us, “God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” He refers to the very same passage that we heard in the first reading from Genesis. He is saying that from the very beginning, the Sacrament of Marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman. He is also talking about the permanence of marriage. Both of these statements fly in the face of what our society has been telling us. Many think it is okay to get married outside of the Church; many think that you can get a divorce and remarry as often as you like; many have come to believe that same sex marriages are good and the way of the future. But these readings show that God clearly has a interest in marriage (otherwise He never would have said anything about this topic), that it should be in a Church so that God can bless it, that it is meant to be a union that is for ever, and that it is meant to be between a man and a woman. Some things change in the world, but this teaching has not. It has been from the beginning.

Another truth that has not changed with the passage of time is the truth of respecting life. Sacred Scripture has a lot to say about respecting human life, and so the Catholic Church has long promoted respect for all human life from conception until natural death. October is respect life month and many people around the country are involved with 40 Days for Life and are praying outside of abortion clinics. When we say “respect life” in a Catholic Church, I get the impression that most people think of working to end abortions, but I would encourage us to keep in mind that we are called in other ways to respect human life as well. For instance, euthanasia is considered moral wrong, and the Catechism argues against the use of capital punishment. We are also called to respect the dignity of the human person. That means helping the poor and disenfranchised; helping the jobless to have jobs and workers to be given proper rights. It means visiting the sick and imprisoned. We don't have to all physically do each of these things, but we do need to support them and not try to stop our neighbors from doing their part either.

We are also called to take care of our common home. As you may know, Pope Francis released his latest Encyclical, called Laudato Si, this last May. The opening words in Latin are, “Laudato si, mi Signore”, which means, “Praise be to you, my Lord”. These words were taken from St. Francis of Assisi's famous prayer, “The Canticle of the Sun”. The Feast of St. Francis is October 4^th. As this encyclical clearly shows, our Holy Father not only shares a name with the famous saint, but also a deep desire to care for the Earth that God has given to us. We are asked to look at how can we avoid wasting our natural resources and avoid putting harmful chemicals into it.

Again, none of what I have talked about is anything new. It isn't a change from out of the blue. God has been asking this of us from the beginning. Yes it can be a challenge, but God is asking us to meet this challenge with faith in Him and with a love for others.

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092715.cfm

The readings for today remind us that God bestows His blessings upon His people as He wills, not according to how we think it should be. It is human nature to think that whatever group we are a part of must be the right group. A part of that feeling many times includes the often erroneous assumption that “God favors my group.” When we have that mindset we are not too different from Joshua in the First Reading who comes to Moses and tries to get him to silence two men. These men were supposed to be at a gathering, but were not. God still decides to give them the gift of prophesy, however, and they begin prophesying. These men didn't follow what they were told. Why should God still bless them? That is God's decision, Moses explains.

We also hear the Apostle John come to Jesus and report that a man who was not a disciple of Jesus casting out demons in Jesus' name. Again, John seems to be caught up in that assumption that God only blesses my group. This man doesn't follow our group. He hasn't been through the same experiences and trials that I have. He can't just come in and preach and cast out demons like the rest of us. That's not fair! Jesus, stop him! But Jesus tells him not to prevent him. “Whoever is not against us is for us”, He says. Even though he is not a part of our group, God has still chosen to give him special gifts and the ability to cast out demons. We shouldn't prevent him; he is still doing God's work.

To use a sports metaphor, God isn't interested in “cheering” on one team over another. I recently watched a video of a commencement speech given by legendary University of Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz. During his speech, he talked about a time when Notre Dame would be playing the University of Miami. The media was talking the big game up as being “The Catholics versus the convicts”. He said he didn't think that was fair because not everyone on Notre Dame's team was Catholic. Anyway, Coach Holtz comes into a lecture hall before the game and a priest gets up to give an invocation. The priest told the coach that he was a Catholic priest and the chaplain for the Miami football team. He said, “We came all the way up here to beat you, but I want you to know that God doesn't care who wins this game”. After Father was done, Coach got up and said, “I agree with you, Father. God doesn't care who wins this game, but I promise you His mother does”.

We would all like to be able to say that God is rooting for our team and wants our team to win. That is true whether we are talking about actual sports teams, or groups that we are a part of, or even our own religion. The priest in that story was correct, God doesn't care if one team does better than another. One could say that it is as if we are all on the same team. Another way to say it is that there are separate teams, but those teams are so similar, that the differences are rather small.

In 2008, a movie came out called “Leatherheads”. George Clooney plays an NFL pro-football player in 1925 named Dodge Connelly. Dodge plays for the Duluth “Bulldogs” which is based off of the real life Duluth “Eskimos” who played in Duluth, MN in the 1920's. During the 20's, professional football had very few followers. Dodge wants to turn the NFL into a well respected business. Besides the flimsy looking pads and leather helmets the players wore that look like they couldn't stop a fly let alone a 200 pound linebacker, another big difference between football then and football today is that there were fewer rules about how the game was played. Thus, the players utilized some very clever trick plays to try to pull one over on the opposing team. They hide the ball under their jersey, they toss the ball back and forth to prevent anyone from tackling the ball carrier, and use whatever tricks they can think of to move the ball.

During the big game of the movie, Duluth and Chicago are tied. It's a rainy day and the field is a complete mud bath. The players are so covered in mud that no one can recognize the color of the jerseys. The only way to tell the teams apart is to look at the direction they're running in. Dodge sees that Chicago is about to score and win the game so he comes up with a new trick. At the end of a play, he punches out a Chicago player and then lines up with Chicago for the next play. They carry off the knocked out player and send out another Duluth player. Still pretending to be a Chicago player, Dodge gets the ball and runs it in for a touchdown. Everyone thinks Chicago won until it is revealed that a Duluth player had the ball.

Such a trick play would never work in today's game, but it makes for an exciting part of the movie. My point in bringing it up is that there are many different Christian denominations out there. Even looking at a local phone book will show there are many just in the Twin Ports area. The readings today are a good reminder that even though one could say there are many different teams out, we still have a lot in common with each other and a lot to learn from each other as well.

A few years ago, I had a neat discussion with some youth and young adults. Some were Catholic while others were of various protestant denominations. The topic came up about the relationship between all these Christian denominations. Someone asked me what I thought was necessary for ecumenism: that is, Christians coming together to work in unity. I told them that I believe it will take mutual respect. First of all we need to respect the similarities between all Christians. The biggest similarity being that we believe in Jesus Christ our savior. For centuries, Catholics and protestants seemed to focus more on the differences rather than on the similarities, but we really have a lot in common. Second, I believe we need to have a healthy respect for the differences we have as well. If we don't we risk trying to force everyone into the same mold. When we respect the differences and the similarities, we have a chance to learn from each other and to help each other towards Heaven. That is what Christ wants for us. And that should be our goal as well.

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092015.cfm

I don't think it is a big secret that I love it when we have children here in the Church. I think deep down, people in general love having children around. Yes, there can be those times when it is not so enjoyable. No one likes to see a child upset; sometimes a baby's cry can be a bit distracting. Sometimes I'm asked, “Father, do you get distracted when a child is crying or making noise?” The answer is, “Yes, I do get distracted. But I can also get distracted by a fly buzzing in my ear or hearing an emergency vehicle going down the highway”. Distractions happen sometimes. Despite those annoyances or discomforts we may have experienced at times, I believe they are offset greatly by the more positive experiences we have with children in our midst. I'm talking about the joy we have in hearing a child's laughter or seeing a child's smile as they wave hello. There is nothing like listening to a child sing his or her favorite song, whether it from the radio or from church, even if it is slightly off-key. There are many different things that children say and do that in turn make us smile and laugh.

All children have a wonderful innocence about them that makes all this possible. We adults live in a world of cynicism and doubt in which everything is questioned and criticized. It brings us back to joy when we can see that childhood innocence at work once more. One of my favorite TV shows has been NCIS. One of the main characters in the show is named Leroy Jethro Gibbs. This character is known for being rough, but in several episodes, the other characters are amazed to see how well he gets along with children. One character pointed this out and Gibbs replies, “You know why I get along with children so well? It's because when they lie they don't have the guile to get away with it.” In his own gruff manner, Gibbs is talking about a child's innocence. An adult can learn to maintain a lie and to keep the truth a secret. But that takes time. A child is too innocent to keep it up.

There was a writer in the early 20th Century named G. K. Chesterton. He was a great Catholic theologian and philosopher. In one of his books, titled “Orthodoxy”, he talks about how we humans have lost our ability to be amazed at the world around us. We simply take everything for granted. A small child, on the other hand, is easily amazed at the most simple and mundane things. He gives the example of the opening of a door. Such an action holds very little consequence to us, but to a small child the opening of a door is the most amazing thing in the world at that moment. As we get older, we loose that sense of wonder. Chesterton's point is that we need to return to that sense of wonder and innocence. Even within our faith, we need that innocence and that wonder of what Christ is doing for all of us.

Christ also talks about the innocence of childhood. He responds to an argument that the Twelve have on their way to Capernaum about who is the greatest. The answer from Christ is simple yet amazing: “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” To help drive His point home, Jesus uses the example of a child. “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me”. When was the last time any one of us was told to act more like a child? Yet this is precisely what Christ is telling us here. We need to be innocent, free of guile, open to the wonders and amazement of the world around us. It is then that we can become more like Christ and be the servant of all.

So obviously the goal is to return to that innocence that we all started out with and to grow in our relationship with God. But what happens if we don't do that? What happens if we choose to ignore these words and simply focus on who is the greatest and who is the most powerful or influential and simply doing what we want to do? The readings today talk about that as well.

We continue hearing this week from the letter of St. James. Today the Apostle talks about the difference between those who seek innocence and purity and those who seek their own selfish wants and desires. When we seek that childhood innocence that I have been talking about and seek the “wisdom from above” we find what is pure, peaceable, gentle, and compliant according to James. We find peace, righteousness and sincerity. The more we strive for these good things, the more good things will be produced. However, if we instead seek only what we want and not what is from above, we find something different. “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice”. Sin and disorder begets more sin and disorder. He goes on to talk about how it is our passions, specifically our disordered passions, that lead to killing and war and conflicts.

This leads us to the conflict that we hear about in the First Reading. The Book of Wisdom talks about how the “wicked one” plots to do many cruel things to the one who claims to come from God (even to putting him to a shameful death). He even suggests putting the just one to the test to see if God will rescue him from their clutches.

One does not have to be a Biblical scholar to see that this passage foreshadows what will happen in Christ's Passion. Our Gospel reading for today includes a prediction from Christ about His upcoming Passion. “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him”.

Why this cruelty? Why this strong desire to silence those who come with the blessings of God? It is because those evil men do not have the innocence and purity that Jesus is talking about. They are ruled by jealousy and selfish ambition. They are more interested in what they want, than in what God may want for them.

Let us not seek our own selfish gains, brothers and sisters. But let us strive for what is good, pure and holy. Let us seek for that childhood innocence once more, so that we can receive Christ in our lives.

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090615.cfm

Imagine if you suddenly no longer had the ability to hear or the ability to speak clearly. Yet despite this limiting handicap, you were still expected to make a significant contribution to society. Failure to do so will mean chastisement and separation from the rest of the community. If we could imagine what that might be like, then we can step into the world of the poor man who was brought before Jesus in the Gospel today. This poor man lacks the sense of hearing and is also described as having a speech impediment, suggesting that he still had the ability to speak, but it was difficult to understand him. This would have made communication with others difficult, to say the least, and would no doubt have made him the victim of ridicule and mockery.

I remember participating in a seminar on group dynamics once. A group of four of us was given a task to do as a team. We were told that we would have to build something, but of the four of us, the first was given an instruction sheet with a picture of what we were to make, but he couldn’t show anyone else the picture and could not help with making the object. He could only read the instructions and describe what he saw. The second person was not allowed to talk, the third couldn’t use his hands, and the forth had to keep his eyes closed throughout the activity. Once we were assigned what we could and could not do (I was the one who had to keep my eyes shut), the instructions were read. We had to construct a small table out of only computer paper and duct tape. It had to have a flat top and it had to be tall and wide enough for the roll of duct tape to pass between the legs. All people in the group had to participate as they were able. I remember thinking at first that the task seemed pretty easy, but then I quickly realized how hard it would be for me to participate with my eyes closed. I could certainly feel my way around to figure out what the others had done, and I would ask questions to get feedback from those who could talk, but I was more likely to knock things over with my hand then to be actually helping with the goal.

One of the other group members had a better idea for me. The roll of duct tape was handed to me and I was told to start tearing off three inch long strips of tape. This was pretty easy for me to do. The one who couldn’t talk rolled some paper into tubes to make table legs and used the tape to keep them rolled and to actually construct the table.

We were eventually able to finish the task. It took team work, as well as patience with each other. We also had to be clear in our communication. We couldn’t just say, “Hand me that thing over there” or “Make it short, but not too long”. We had to be specific: “Hand me the tape”, “Make the strips about 3 inches in length.” Finally, we also had to trust each other. Any one of us could have made doing this task more difficult or led the others astray or start criticizing the less than perfect work we were doing, but we trusted that we were working for a common goal.

So what does this have to do with what is happening in the Gospel today? Sometimes we not unlike that man in the Gospel, our own limitations make it hard to get certain things done. Sometimes we need to trust that others are going to help us get thing done, like I did in that team building exercise. Sometimes the help comes from Christ, just as it did for the man in the Gospel.

If we look back at our first reading, we can see that the Prophet Isaiah was already talking about how the Messiah would heal those who were blind, deaf, lame, and mute, hundreds of years before Christ was born. The Prophet tells us that we need not fear, for our own God is coming with vindication and recompense to save us. He uses beautiful imagery as he describes the eyes of the blind being opened, the ears of the deaf able to hear, the lame leaping like a stag, and the mute able to sing. This is a very powerful image that I’m sure stuck in the heads of the Jewish people who learned it. When Jesus performed the miracle in today’s Gospel, the crowd has no problem recognizing that He is fulfilling what the Prophet Isaiah had said. We are told, “They were exceedingly astonished and they said, “He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” What these readings should teach us is that Christ is meant to come and heal and save us.

This Gospel reading also has a very strong connection with our baptism and our baptismal calling. The Rite of Baptism that we celebrate in the Catholic Church has many distinct parts and various blessings within the overall celebration. One of these blessings is called the “Ephphetha Rite”, named after that unique word that Jesus says during the miracle which means, “Be opened!” During an infant baptism, the priest or deacon touch the ears and mouth of the child with his thumb while saying, “The Lord Jesus made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to proclaim His faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen.” So that prayer is asking that God bless the child so that he or she will hear the Word of God and proclaim Christ’s faith to all people. That same prayer was said over all of us so that we can hear and proclaim as well.

Despite the fact that we received that blessing, many of us are still afraid to listen to God and to help spread the faith and Good News with our mouth. The readings today should be a reminder to all of us that we need the blessings and the help of Christ in order to get past our fears and be willing to do the work our Baptism sends us on. As brothers and sisters in Christ we can also encourage each other in this calling.

My point is simple: we are not perfect and we have our limitations. However, Christ is able to give us the blessings we need to fulfill the calling He has given us from Baptism; to tell others about Him. Let us not fear, but trust in His help.

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083015.cfm

What comes from God, is holy. That is the basic “gist” of the theme for today's readings. We are being invited to trust that what comes from God is holy, and therefore is what's best for us. We should not replace something that is holy with something inferior. 

 

In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy we are told, “Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe”. And further along we are told, “In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, which I enjoin upon you, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.” As I said before, what comes from God is holy. The statutes and decrees come from God and we are to observe them. But we mustn't replace them either. Sometimes we are tempted to subtract things that we do not agree with personally or add things that we think are better. We are being told not to do that. We'll get to why that's the case in a moment.

The second reading comes from the Letter of James and continues on the this theme of what is holy. “All good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights,” we are told. “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls.” We are invited to accept the Word of God into our hearts. It is holy and perfect. We could not want for anything better.

The Gospel puts things into perspective. The Pharisees think they have finally trapped Jesus as they try to call out His disciples for violating one of the many dietary laws that the Pharisees enforced. Namely, that a person should cleanse their hands before eating. This refers to a ritual cleansing that had more do do with making the person spiritually clean, as opposed to being hygienic. It should be noted as well that this rule about washing hands comes from the “tradition of the elders”. These were unwritten rules that were passed on orally but were given the same importance as the written laws of the Old Testament. So they weren't given by God, but were added by human beings. Jesus helps to explain why this matters. “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Now on one hand, Jesus is simply responding directly to what the Pharisees had said. Outside things don't defile a person: eating food without ritually washing one's hands is not going to bring about sin or defilement on ourselves. It is what comes from within that causes sin. As Jesus explains later on, it's what comes from a person's heart, like evil thoughts, murder, envy, greed, and the like that are the real problem. 

 

When we think about these words of Jesus a bit more, we can see that He is also talking about the very same thing that we have been talking about with Deuteronomy and the Letter of James. Everything that is outside of us, whether we are talking about all of creation, or the words of Scripture that God has given us, or the statutes and decrees and commandments that God gave us, has been made by God and is therefore good. There is nothing wrong with God's words or with what He made. What comes from within, however, that's another story. 

 

We all know that we have many different choices that we can make everyday. We can choose to do what God wants us to do, but we can also choose to do what we want to do. Doing what God wants is of course good and holy. Doing what we want, however, sometimes leads to things becoming twisted and distorted and might lead to sin. That is why the reading from Deuteronomy tells us not to add to or subtract from the commandments that have been given to us. God's word is already perfect and holy. If we try to add our own ideas of what will make it better or take away the parts we think are silly or unimportant, we are only adding what has come from us and getting farther from God.

Sin can be defined as a deliberate thought, word, deed, or omission against the law of God. When we sin we are basically taking something that God has given us and twisted it and deformed into something that we want for ourselves. We can look at the Seven Deadly Sins as examples of this. The sin of pride is at the root of all other sins. But there is such a thing as a healthy pride. We can take pride in our work, pride in our community, pride is our parish. It becomes a sin when we allow that good pride to become twisted and allow our own pride to get in the way. Greed is the disordered desire for pleasure and possessions. It's okay to want to feel good and have nice things, but we can't let ourselves be overly possessive. Sometimes we might feel jealous of another person's talents or possessions. This can encourage us to work harder to attain praiseworthy goals and to celebrate other people's success, but it can also turn into sadness and the desire to possess those things ourselves, which is envy.

We have probably all watched the news and felt righteous anger when we hear about crime and injustice around the world. This type of anger can encourage us to work for good in the world. But if it gets twisted into the sin of anger or wrath, it can lead to worse sins. With gluttony we overindulge in food and drink. We need food and water to survive, but we don't have to go overboard. We also need time to rest and to recharge our batteries after doing some hard work. But if we allow it to twist into laziness, we fall into sloth. Finally, lust is simply the twisting of love. If love is about putting someone else's needs before our own, then lust is using another person for our own wants and desires. 

 

Sin is about doing our own thing; we are basically adding to or subtracting from the law of God. Virtue, the opposite of sin, is about doing God's will. May God give us the virtues necessary to continue following His will and all His commandments.

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082315.cfm

Every so often, we reach a moment in our lives that requires us to make a stand and say what we believe. Those moments might fill some of us with fear or anxiety that others may look at us differently or change how they treat us. There is some truth to those fears. Saying what we believe can change how others look at us or think about us. It makes us vulnerable. Yet, if we give in to our fear and never admit to what we believe, what are we doing here in this Church? How can we say we are Christian, unless we at some point profess what we believe?

The readings give very powerful examples of how we are all called to profess what we believe. It starts with the Book of Joshua. The reading we just heard comes at the very end of that book. Joshua, the leader who took over after Moses died, has lead the people of Israel on a successful military campaign to reclaim the Promised Land. Each of the Twelve Tribes are free to find a section of land to settle on. They are no longer forced to wonder the desert as they did for forty years, but can finally build homes and raise crops and livestock. With this new found freedom is also a choice, as Joshua points out. Who are they going to serve? Who will they worship? They can choose to serve the various pagan gods that all the other people in that area choose to serve, or, they can choose to serve the Lord, God. Joshua tells them, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”. Joshua makes a stand and professes what he believes: that God is Lord of all. The rest respond by agreeing to serve the Lord as well.

The Gospel today brings us to the end of the Bread of Life Discourses. For the past several weeks we have heard Jesus explaining that He is the Bread of Life and that the way to eternal life is to eat His flesh and drink his blood. Today the disciples begin to complain about how hard this is to accept. Notice Jesus' response. Elsewhere in the Gospels, when the disciples have difficulty with something Jesus says, He responds by explaining to them what He means. This often includes explaining all the symbolisms within the parables. But here, He doesn't do that. He doesn't say, “Hey wait guys! I was only speaking symbolically.” Instead, He actually reiterates what He already said. “It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” In other words, He is saying that He has been speaking the truth: The bread of this world only feeds you in this world. What you need for eternal life is the Bread of Life. Jesus is that Bread of Life and so we must eat His flesh and drink His blood.

Now the disciples have a choice to make. Sadly, many of them leave: They can't accept what Jesus is saying. The Twelve Apostles, however, make a very strong profession of faith when Jesus turns to them. “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” We are called to make this same profession of faith whenever we come before this alter to receive the Most Holy Eucharist.

Have you ever thought about what the word AMEN really means? The simple definition of the word tells us that it means “I believe”. When we say it at the end of a prayer, we are saying that we believe the words that we just said. We also say it in response to the priest or deacon or extraordinary minister saying “The Body of Christ” or “The Blood of Christ”. I have every so often run into well meaning Catholics who, instead of saying “AMEN”, proclaim the words “I believe” when they receive communion. As I said, they mean well. I think their reasoning is that “I believe” holds more meaning to them. Plus, both responses mean the same thing. But when you take a moment and consider what it is that you are saying “AMEN” to, you realize that it means so much than “I believe”. It is much more accurate to say that it means, “I believe with all my heart and soul that this truly is the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ who died for me.” The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. Shouldn't our response match that?

Our faith tradition is full of Eucharistic miracles and stories about the power of the Eucharist. I would like to share one of them with you. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, famous for teaching the faith on his TV shows, was once asked by an interviewer who was his greatest inspiration. People thought it might be the Pope or another bishop or priest, but instead he said it was a Chinese girl.

Not long after the communists took over China, soldiers came to a little village, arrested the Catholic Priest in town, and locked him in the rectory. The priest could only watch from his window as the soldiers entered the church, breaking things. They even broke into the Tabernacle and threw out the ciborium, scattering the Eucharist across the floor. The priest knew there were exactly 32 hosts in the Tabernacle. The soldiers left, but failed to notice a little girl who had been praying in the back of the church and saw everything.

That night, the priest could see a small shadow moving towards the church. It was the little girl who had managed to sneak past the guards. She entered the church and spent an hour of adoration before the Eucharist on the floor. After the hour, she bent down and picked up one of the hosts with her tongue and consumed it (because lay people weren't allowed to touch the Eucharist with their fingers). The priest watched her do this each night for 31 nights. On the 32^nd night, she came and prayed and consumed the last host. As she was leaving, she made a noise that woke the sleeping guard. He chased her down and killed her.

Archbishop Sheen said that after first hearing that story, he was inspired to spend at least an hour of adoration before the Eucharist everyday. That is how powerful and important the Eucharist truly is. We are called to profess our belief in the Eucharist. May our AMEN not be just another throwaway line that we say just to fit in, but let it mean that you truly believe it and would lay down your life to prove it.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080915.cfm

I've noticed that the giving or serving of food to another can be a great show of love and caring for that person. Whether it is the preparing and serving of a meal or the offer of a coffee or a pop or some sort of sweet during a friendly visit, the food and/or beverage is being offered as a form of hospitality. When we welcome someone into our home, we want them to feel welcomed. We want them to feel some relaxation from their work and toil of the day. Just as a hospital is meant to help a sick or injured person get relief from their illness or injury, hospitality is meant to give people relief from stress and worries. So the simple gesture of offering food shows a level of love and caring.

When I was in college, one of my biggest joys was going to the mail room on campus and seeing that I had received a package. More often than not, the package was from home and that usually meant a care package from Mom! Maybe some homemade cookies, or some candies, or even some snacks for my dorm room. Sometimes, even if Mom was just forwarding mail from home or sending me something that I had forgotten on a recent trip home, I would still find candy in the bottom of the box. It was a small gesture, but I appreciated the love that was behind it. It doesn't take long at college to figure out why they are called “care” packages.

Our Christian faith believes very strongly in the love and care that God has for His people. We can see this quite clearly in Sacred Scripture. The words of our Catholic liturgies also talk about the love of God and how we His people are giving thanks for that love. After all, as you may recall, the word Eucharist means “Thanksgiving”. We give thanks every time we come before this altar.

As a part of this love and care that God has for all of us, He of course gives us what we need in order to be with Him in His Kingdom. I'm not talking about a simple “care package” that only tides us over for a little bit of time. I'm talking about providing us with what we need to reach Heaven.

Today's Gospel reading continues with the Bread of Life Discourses, in which Jesus declares Himself to be the Bread of Life that has come down from Heaven. We Catholics see this section of St. John's Gospel to be about the Most Holy Eucharist. In fact, much of our theology of the Eucharist is taken from these discourses.

The Eucharist is very much connected with food. This Sacrament was started at a meal, the Last Supper. It is bread and wine that are brought forward to become the Body and Blood, and still has the appearance of bread and wine. So it is not surprising that the Eucharist is often compared to food that is needed for survival. Just as earthly food is needed so that we can work and play and have the strength we need do our part in this world, so the Eucharist is necessary to strengthen our soul so that we can focus on getting to Heaven. When a person is at the point of death, their last Communion is often referred to as Viaticum. Viaticum is a Latin term that translates to “Food for the Journey”. As the body is dying, the soul is receiving the help it needs to make that final part of the trip. Even before we are on our death bed, however, the Eucharist is still a necessary part of our journey.

The First Reading today is about the prophet Elijah. At this point in his story, Elijah is pretty much at his wit's end. He has been working hard for God, and as a result he has also made a few enemies along the way. One of those enemies is a queen named Jezebel who wants him killed. So he goes into the desert to hide, and has decided that it would be better to die of starvation and dehydration than to continue living with this torment. God has other pans though, and sends an angel to bring him food and water. “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you”. After eating and drinking, Elijah walks forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb. Whenever there is a mountain in Scripture, it means there is going to be a very intense and close interaction with God. It is at Mount Horeb that Elijah is encouraged by God and is shown how powerful and incredible God really is.

God wants to give us the food we need for our own journey through the Eucharist. But He doesn't do it in quite the same way that He does it for Elijah. He doesn't just give us the food and then expects us to be well on our way. He does something more special than that.

I was recently listening to the radio and I heard a program with a Dominican Friar who pointed out something neat about the prayers in the Roman Missal for today. In a little while, the offerings of bread and wine will be brought to the altar and I will say this prayer over them: “Be pleased, O Lord, to accept the offerings of your Church, for in your mercy you have given them to be offered and by your power you transform them into the mystery of our salvation.” What this is saying is that God has given us the bread and wine that we will use at this Mass. Yes, it was human hands that made the bread and wine itself, but it was only through the mercy of God that the wheat and the grapes were grown and harvested and eventually made into those things. So God gave us the food, but now we turn around and offer it back to Him in thanksgiving for these and all that God has given us. Then, through God's power, He transforms these gifts into the Eucharist, which we receive and once again give praise and thanks to God for this. I hope that you see that there is a constant back and forth between God and His Church. He gives us something, we offer it back in thanks, He transforms it, we receive it and then give praise to God as we come closer to Him through this very intimate interaction. All of this so that we might come ever closer to God in Heaven.

God has shown us great love and care in giving us the Eucharist. Let us receive it so that we might enter more fully into His mystery and one day enter into His Kingdom.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080215.cfm

We learn from a very early age that we all have five basic senses. One could argue that there are other senses that we have that allow us to take in the world around us (for example we have a sense of balance and a sense of direction). However, it is the five basic senses of touch, smell, hearing, sight, and taste that I want to focus on right now. We are dependent on those senses for understanding everything that is happening around us and what is happening to us. Even if one of those senses of an individual is blocked or disabled in some way, the other senses of that individual are often heightened to make up for the loss of the one. I'm sure we have all noticed how small children learn about many things simply by using as many of their senses as they can. It is fascinating to watch a baby or a toddler explore his or her world. They are constantly touching things and feeling with their hands and face. They listen and smell and watch and everything they can get their hands on will eventually end up in their mouth, whether it is edible or not.

When you think about it, our celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments utilize these different senses to help us enter more fully into worship. We smell the incense burning, the smoke of the candles, and the perfume of the Sacred Chrism at Confirmations and Baptisms. We hear the organ and other music, as well as the various prayers. This includes the words of absolution after we confess our sins to a priest. We see the colors of the vestments and altar cloths change throughout the seasons. We see the expanse of flowers and decorations at Christmas and Easter, and we see the stark simplicity of the altar at Advent and Lent. We watch as a couple make their vows and exchange rings, as water is poured on a baby's head, and as the priest offers the holy sacrifice of the Mass. We might not remember it, but we felt the water pour on our heads at Baptism and the Chrism on our heads at Confirmation. We feel each other's hands as we make the sign of peace and as we greet and say good bye. When it comes to the Eucharist, we can feel the Body and Blood touch our lips, and we taste them as well.

Despite all these sensory things going on in our liturgies, our senses are only able to tell us so much. There is the spiritual side to all of this as well. The Eucharist is a great example of this. We see, touch and taste what looks, feels, and tastes like unleavened bread and ordinary wine, yet our faith tells us that we are receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is so much more than ordinary food. It has been given to us from Heaven, by God.

Our first reading comes from the Book of Exodus. The Israelites have passed through the Red Sea, narrowly escaping Pharaoh's army. They are now in the desert on the Sinai Peninsula and without food. They will complain about water in the next chapter, but for now their concern is food. So they complain to Moses and his brother Aaron (their civil and spiritual leaders) that they would have rather have died in Egypt with full bellies than to die of starvation in the desert. God responds by giving quail in the evening and manna in morning. He even adds a test for the people to see if they are paying attention: each day they are only to collect as much as they need for each household. For forty years, God provided this manna of the Israelites until they finally made it into the Promised Land.

For the Jewish people, the manna was and still is a sign of God's loving providence. It shows that God was looking out for the people and was providing them with all that they needed. For us Christians we also recognize it as a sign of God's providence, but we also see it as a foreshadowing of an even bigger event that will take place several thousand years later in the New Testament. I am talking about the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Today's Gospel reading from the Gospel of John is also a foreshadowing of the Eucharist. Last week we heard about the multiplication of the loaves and fish. The people there were very excited about this miracle and have now followed Jesus hoping to see more. Jesus tells them that they should be looking for something much more important than a next meal. The people then ask for a sign from Jesus so that they will believe in Him. They witnessed the miracle with the loaves and fish, but they want to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence or a fluke. They want to see Jesus do one more sign or miracle before they make their last leap of faith and continue to follow Him. The people reference the same sign that we just read about from Exodus. “He gave them bread from heaven to eat”. Jesus then explains that this bread from heaven was given to the Israelites by God, and brings life to the world. He then says the line that will be our refrain for the next several weeks: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst”. Jesus is the bread of life; the bread of life is the Eucharist; the Eucharist is Jesus.

We Catholics believe in what is called Transubstantiation. The word means “to change substance” and it is the reason we can say that the Eucharist is truly Jesus even though it still looks, feels and tastes like bread and wine. The substance of a thing is what it actually is, as opposed to it's physical characteristics. As I said at the beginning we can tell what something is by our senses taking in it's physical characteristics. We can tell that something is a building or a tree or a person by looking, and touching, et cetera. During the Eucharistic prayer, the physical characteristics of the bread and wine on the altar stay the same, but the substance changes. It is no longer bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of Jesus. It is not longer just ordinary bread, but the Bread of Life that has come to bring life to the world.

Our senses can tell us a lot about the world, but we need our faith to understand the spiritual. God has given us a great spiritual gift in giving us Eucharist. Let us continue our worship in thanksgiving for that gift.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072615.cfm

When I was a child, it was always a special treat when I could go to a local arcade gallery and have some fun playing the games. My trips to the arcade weren't all that frequent, and I never got that good at any of the games, but I still had fun when I could go. When I got to the arcade, I would of course beg my mother for some money so that I could play. I can't remember how much my mom normally gave me, but I'm sure I asked for more on occasion. I doubt I was ever successful at getting more, but I'm sure I asked. Since this arcade didn't take regular quarters, I needed to take the money to a token machine to change it into arcade tokens. It was probably 25 cents per token. So if you put in $5, it would count out 20 tokens. I don't know where I got this idea from, but I remember being convinced that there was a secret way to trick the machine into giving you more tokens than you had paid for. For some reason I thought that if I put the money in the machine a special way (like at an angle), or if I hit the machine just right, or perhaps if I didn't touch it at all and stood back a bit, the machine might make an error in my favor and give me some extra tokens. I was hoping for some extra play time.

Looking back I realize now how silly I was. I obviously had no idea how this machine worked. The machine was designed to only give as many tokens as had been paid for. I could hold my breath and stand on one leg with my arms flapping like a bird for all it cared, it wasn't going to give me extra tokens. But I sure wanted them.

I think we can all relate to times when we knew that we had received enough of something, but it would be fun if we had more. I'm not talking about greed or gluttony where we are obsessed with getting more and more. I'm talking about those thoughts we have when we think it would be neat to have a little extra. Like when you are at a restaurant and you hope for a nice large portion of your favorite food, or you hope for a little extra ice-cream with your dessert. I love it when I travel by airplane and I ask for a coke and instead of only giving me that small glass they give me the whole can! It's a small thing, but I feel like I won the jackpot!

Our Readings for today talk about God's loving and giving nature. Not only does He give us what we need, but He also gives us much more than we expect. We see this first in the Second Book of Kings with the prophet Elisha. A man brings twenty barley loaves made from the first fruits of grain. This is made from the first barley grains that had been harvested for that season. Farmers would traditionally give the first fruits of their harvest as a sacrificial gift to God as a way of giving thanks for a successful harvest. When you think about it, it is a very humbling gesture, giving back to God what is truly His. After all, He is the one who gave us the plants and animals and food to eat. In the same way, the first born son was often consecrated to God by the parents as a way of acknowledging that the gift of birth and offspring is from God. This man is giving these loaves, made from the first fruits, to God by handing them over to the prophet. God then tells the prophet what to do with the loaves: “Give it to the people to eat”. We are talking about giving twenty small loaves (about the size of a dinner roll) to around a hundred people. Of course the servant objects, pointing out that this will be impossible. Elisha simply repeats the command and gives the prophecy, “They shall eat and there shall be some left over”. And the prophecy comes true.

Now, it is important for us to understand that the typical Jewish believer of Jesus' day knew the stories of the Old Testament like the back of their hand. So when we come to the Gospel for today and hear this story about an even larger crowd of over five thousand being fed with an even smaller amount of food of only five loaves and two fish, we can be assured that the Apostles and all those who were present there knew the story of Elisha and the barley loaves very well. As the people watched the miracle of the multiplication unfold before their eyes they would have noticed the connection with the Old Testament story very quickly. They would have quickly seen that Jesus was acting in much the same way as Elisha did hundreds of years before. We even see at the end of the Gospel that the people got so excited that they even tried to carry Jesus off to make Him king. They knew that God was doing something special for them, something well beyond a simple meal.

This story begins a section of St. John's Gospel called the “Bread of Life Discourse”. We will see next week that the people will be so excited about this miracle that they will follow Him, asking for another miracle and another meal. Jesus will be explaining for the next several weeks, that the people are not looking for regular bread, but the bread that gives eternal life: the Eucharist.

Even with just this Gospel story alone, we can see that Jesus is doing so much more than just giving a meal. Elisha is giving more than just a meal. In both cases, God could have simply given just enough food to get them to the next town where they could buy their own food. Or He could have produced just enough for them to be satisfied for that day. Instead, in both cases, He gives them what they need, plus a whole lot more. Twelve wicker baskets full of leftovers in the Gospel. That's a lot more than a couple extra tokens at an arcade. And that's just on the surface of these stories. Imagine what God can do for us spiritually, if we just ask.

Jesus gives Himself to us each and every day, but especially when ever we come to Him in the Church and in the Eucharist. When we receive Christ we receive not just what we want or need, but so much more. Let us come before Christ, ready to receive.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071915.cfm


We all are attracted to something, though it doesn't take long to notice that what we are attracted to varies greatly from person to person. As human persons, what we truly want is to be happy; we want to be filled with joy. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, that what we are often attracted to are the things that we perceive will bring us happiness.

Very often we think we will find happiness if we own that one thing. We listen to those infomercials on TV that promise us immense satisfaction if we call now and buy their product. Have you ever noticed that when they start out these advertisements, they always show some goof ball who clearly has no idea what he or she is doing? A voice comes on and asks, “Are you tired of having to struggle with your old garden hose?” (or whatever it is they're selling). The person is usually making a mess or causing themselves pain and frustration of epic proportions. In this case maybe the old garden hose is tangled and water is getting everywhere except where you need it. Then the voice comes back as says, “Then you need to try the new 'Water-matic Three-thousand'”, or some other snazzy sounding name. Whereas the old product shows the users being frustrated and grimacing as they struggle with their chores, the new product shows a new set of people who are smiling and are clearly enjoying using the new Water-matic Three-thousand, or whatever it is. The voice continues to describe why their product is so much better than anything you may have used before. The price is even kept at rock bottom low, plus the obligatory “$9.95 shipping and handling”. And what infomercial would be complete without hearing the words, “But wait, there's more! Call know and receive a handy book light with every order”.

The makers of those products and infomercials want us to believe that buying certain things will bring us the happiness that we want. They want us to be attracted to those things. Even our society tries to tell us that the more we have the more we will be happy. The truth is, certain things may bring us happiness for awhile, but there is no guarantee that it will last forever. No one ever said that life was fair, and we all know from experience that it isn't always happy either. There is something more important than material things that we should be attracted to.

We can also be attracted to people of course. TV shows and movies often give the impression that if we find the right friend or the right boyfriend or girlfriend, or the right spouse we will find all the happiness that we hope for in life. It is true that close family members and friends can bring us many wonderful hours of laughter, happiness and companionship throughout life. They offer support and consolation in difficult times as well. However, anyone who has been married could probably regale us with stories of times when marriage wasn't exactly the fairytale that some make it out to be. We believe that God blesses spouses in a special way on their wedding day, but even with those blessings there are still fights and anger and frustration. Attraction to another human being, whether in or out of marriage does not bring perfect joy.

The answer, as you probably all expected, is with God. Sacred Scripture shows us that our perfect joy can only be found in our relationship with God. It is He who we are attracted to. All other attractions that we find on earth, like material things and people, are only attractive to us because we think they will fulfill our desire to be happy. They only fulfill it for a limited amount of time, however. God can fulfill it for eternity.

In Mark's Gospel today, we hear a continuation from last week's Gospel is which the Twelve Apostles are sent out two by two to preach repentance and drive out demons. Now they have returned and are amazed at what they were able to accomplish. Jesus knows what they need and invites them to go to deserted place to rest. He knows that after preaching and casting out demons they needed some time alone with God. It's not unlike how we are invited back to this place of prayer each week after spending time being a witness to Christ to all we meet. As they go to this little mini retreat, many others come as well and arrive before them. Why do all these people want to come to a deserted place? Why did the Twelve want to go off with Jesus in the boat? Why do we wish to spend our free time on a perfectly good weekend in church? Because we are attracted to God. We are drawn towards Him and want to be with Him. Even some of the people who come to Jesus in the Gospel today may have been complete strangers to Christ. He responds by having pity on them and begins to teach them.

St. Paul talks in His Letter to the Ephesians about how those who were once far off have now “become near because of the blood of Christ”. In other words, Christ has brought us together through His blood. It is through His blood that we are redeemed and so we desire to be with Christ, the Son of God. We are attracted to God.

It is all good and well for me to say that we should all keep our focus and attention on God. Deep down I think we all know this already. The difficulty is in the distractions. I'm talking about all those material things and the relationships that I was talking about before that we think will make us happy. All those who try to get us to pay more attention to those things (to focus on buying more stuff and to worry about relationships) are not unlike the shepherds that the Prophet Jeremiah warns us about in the first reading. These false shepherds try to lure people away from God for their own profit, just as many today try to lure us into buying products and relationship help all for their profit as well. But as Jeremiah says, one will come who will help us and give us what we truly need, like a good shepherd. Christ will lead us to the Father. There we will find our true joy.

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070515.cfm

          We all have difficulties and challenges that we must face during our lifetime.  The temptation for us is to look at these difficulties with a degree of annoyance, frustration, or even anger.  We use them as excuses to complain and to wallow in our self-pity about how hard we have it.  They can cause us to take our frustrations out on family and friends and those around us.  We might even blame God for causing these difficulties.  Sacred Scripture encourages us to look at these hardships in another light, however; to see them as opportunities to grow in holiness.  Sometimes God allows us to go through difficulties and even sufferings to help us get ready for something bigger that will happen later in our lives.  Maybe God just wants to get us ready for Heaven in some way.  Our Christian tradition often refers to this as redemptive suffering.  Granted, anyone who has suffered will tell you that it is hard to see any redemptive qualities when a person is in the midst of suffering.  But I hope that we can all realize that God can still work miracles even in the midst of our sufferings.

          Our second reading today gives us a passage from St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.  Paul explains that in order to keep him from becoming too prideful because of all the wondrous things that had happened to him, he was given what he calls “a thorn in the flesh…an angel of Satan”.  Now, scholars are still debating about what this “thorn in the flesh” was.  Some have argued that it was a literal physical pain.  Perhaps it was a chronic pain that would have made it hard to focus on what he needed to do.  Others say it was a spiritual affliction, pointing to the part about the angel of Satan beating him.  Satan would have loved to stop the Apostle’s mission to preach the Gospel to all the nations.  Some maintain that it was more of a psychological ailment, that Paul’s mind was causing the pain and/or the distractions that he was experiencing.  Still others say that it was combination of these three or that the thorn and the angel are all metaphorical and that some other outside source was causing these challenges to Paul.

          Paul says that he prayed to Jesus about this and asked Him three different times to take away this thorn.  Whatever the difficulty or suffering this thorn caused Paul, Jesus refuses to take it away.  He tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”.  Jesus is reminding Paul that he is only human and that this human nature is prone to weakness.  But that’s okay, Jesus is explaining.  He is offering Paul grace which is able to work through Paul’s human weakness and help him to complete what he needs to do.  St. Paul’s sufferings helped him to do the hard work he did in his life and ultimately helped him to grow in holiness and to enter into Heaven.

          Many times in life we experience some sort of struggle or difficulty, but later on we see how that experience got us ready for something bigger later on.  Training for a sport or a race is a great example of this.  You can't just do a couple of sprints up and down your driveway and hope to be ready to do Grandma's Marathon.  Sometime the training can be even more excruciating than the actual event.

                   The last time the Olympic Games were held, I heard an interesting story about Gold Medalist Swimmer, Michael Phelps and his coach, Bob Bowman.  Seeing that he had a terrific athlete on his hands, Bowman did everything he could to push Phelps to his limits.  He wanted to prepare Phelps for any struggles or challenges that he might have to face during a race in the pool.  Once when Phelps was at a national meet, he forgot his goggles before a race.  Bowman noticed what had happened, but instead of running the goggles out to Phelps, he decided to hold on to them and find out what he could do.  Phelps went ahead and swam without his goggles and won the race.  This later proved to be great training for him.  In the Games in Beijing, Phelps was swimming in a race when suddenly his goggles filled up with water.  Because he had experienced this before, however, he knew precisely what he needed to do to adjust to swimming blind.  Not only did he win the race, but he set a new world record.

          Just as a trainer or a coach will put an athlete through rigorous training to help him or her get ready for the big game or race, so also God will at times put us in situations that will challenge us in some way to help us grow in holiness and faith.  Maybe He gives us a small challenge to get us ready for a bigger challenge.  Perhaps He is challenging us to pray more and to understand what He does for us.

          The prophet Ezekiel talks today about how God called him to be a prophet.  God told him that he would be sent to the Israelites, that rebellious house.  He is warning the prophet that this mission, or assignment, will not be easy but a great challenge for the young man.  Like St. Paul a few centuries later, Ezekiel will have to learn to trust the God's grace is sufficient for him.  God is helping both the Apostle and the prophet to grow in holiness through these challenges.

          The Gospel continues on these same lines.  Jesus, as the Son of God, doesn't need any help in order to grow in holiness obviously, but the Father still sends Him into challenging situations.  Instead of helping Christ, however, these situations help us as we work at following the footsteps of Jesus.  Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings, yet we see in this Gospel that He can't convince people from His own hometown to listen to Him.  In fact we are told that He can't even perform any righteous deed there because of their lack of faith.

          We too are going to experience hardships, challenges, and difficulties, as I have been saying.  Like Jesus and Ezekiel, we may encounter people who don't want to listen to us.  The Church is experiencing this a lot lately with people not wanting to hear our stance on life, and human dignity, and marriage.  That might be our thorn in the flesh.  But know that despite these challenges, Christ is with us.  As He told Paul, His grace is sufficient.  Fear not, it will lead us to holiness.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062815.cfm

          Everything has an intended purpose.  Some things might have a wide variety of uses, but everything has at least one purpose that it was intended to be used for.  I’ve noticed that it can make for good, clean comedy when a character in a movie uses an object for something other than its intended purpose.  Maybe she uses a dinner fork to comb her hair as the other characters look on in surprise.  Or a crazy doctor uses a chainsaw for surgery with a large hammer for anesthesia. 

          These are all humorous examples of misusing things, but I’m sure we can all think of examples where using a tool or other object correctly is important for safety.  I remember being in middle school shop class and hearing multiple times each day to be safe and to use the correct tool in the correct way for the correct job.  Of course, these are all very important reminders for a room full of teenagers surrounded by electric tools.  However, I learned those lectures on being safe so well, that I actually became afraid to use many of the tools.  After hearing all the things that could possibly go wrong with a band saw or a spinning lathe, I had no desire to be near those things.  I had to slowly build up my confidence until I finally felt confident using them.

          Our readings today bring up an important point for us to remember:  God made us to be imperishable; to have everlasting life.  Our purpose, from the very day of creation, has been to live with God for eternity in Heaven.  The Book of Wisdom is very clear on this.  “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him.”  We are made in the image and likeness of God, as we are told in the Book of Genesis.  That means that we have an intellect and a will and an imperishable soul.  We are also told that death was not an original part of God's plan for us.  “By the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who belong to his company experience it.”  Just to be clear, we are not talking about the physical death of the body that we all have to go through at some time.  The writer of the Book of Wisdom is not saying that we are supposed to have immortal bodies or that our own physical body isn't going to die at some point.  Rather, we are talking about a spiritual life versus a spiritual death. 

          As I said before, God wanted us to have everlasting life.  The devil, or Lucifer, was envious, as the Scripture tells us, however.  Lucifer mean light bearer, and he thought he was the prettiest angel and the greatest thing that God created.  But then he found out that God created us, and that He made us in His own image.  God was very pleased, but the devil was envious.  The devil and his angels fell from Heaven and death entered into the world.  He offers us many temptations and other gifts of pleasure to try to lure us away from our God given right to everlasting life. 

          One of the biggest temptations that the devil puts in our way is the lie that there is no such thing as everlasting life and that once we die then that's the end.  We might not hear this lie spoken in quite that way or quite that bluntly, but we can see it all that time in advertisements and TV shows.  They make it seem like we only have this one life and that we have to have the most fun before we die.  The focus is on death and that we should live out our lives having fun and not worrying about what comes later.  It's very popular right now to have a “bucket list”: it's supposed to be a list of all the things that a person wants to do before they “kick the bucket”.  If you have one of those lists, that's fine.  I'm happy for you.  But I think they're so morbid.  The focus is again on death.  What earthly riches and fading glory can I gain before I die?  Some of these bucket list things might be fun, but the happiness from that fun is going to pale in comparison to the joy that we will experience in everlasting life.  You want to know what's on my buck list?  I have one thing and that is to go to Heaven.  I want to live my life here on Earth so that I am worthy of life everlasting.  That should be our goal.

          Our Gospel today gives us a story to help us reflect on this very topic.  We hear the story of the curing of Jairus' daughter.  The story is interrupted briefly by the story of the woman with the hemorrhages.  The important thing for us to understand about Jairus and this unnamed woman is that both of them have run out of options.  They have tried everything else, and now they are coming before Jesus.  The woman, we are told, has been afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.  She has gone to many doctors for a cure and yet her symptoms have only grown worse and she continues to suffer.  For Jairus, we don't know how long his daughter may have suffered before this point, but now she is at the point of death.  Being a synagogue official, he no doubt could have afforded to have a doctor or two try to help his daughter.  On top of all that, as he is bringing Jesus back to his house, he is told of his daughter's death.  Despite these difficulties, both the woman and the man come before Christ as their last hope.

          A cynical look at these two stories might claim that they were there only because they had nothing left to loose.  On might say this is just one last desperate attempt at a cure.  Our Christian faith tells us differently, however.  They seek Christ because they have faith in Him.  They know that there is more to life than just completing a few goals here on earth and then you die.  They know that they have an everlasting soul that makes them imperishable.  Knowing this, they are able to hand themselves over to Christ completely.  The woman reaches through the crowd just to touch his clothes, knowing that will be enough.  Jairus pleads with Jesus to heal his daughter and still brings him to his house when he hears the bad news, knowing that he will make the difference. 

          Have faith, brothers and sisters.  Our purpose is not to just live for awhile and then die.  God has made us imperishable so that we may live for ever with Him.  That is our purpose.

Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062115.cfm

The readings today give very clear images of the immense power that is behind storms and water and wind. This is especially true when all three are combined when we experience a storm over a large body of water. Even though we live in the Midwest, a far distance from the closest ocean, I think it is safe to say that we know something of the power of wind and water. We have all witnessed, I'm sure, what happens when the wind picks up over that rather large lake at the bottom of the hill. We have seen the waves crashing on the rocks down at the canal and even felt the bite of the wind as it whips across the lake in the winter time. We have all heard or read stories about the shipwrecks on Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes and have heard Gorden Lightfoot sing of the tragedy of the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”. I've seen what happens when a storm comes up on a small lake, so I am glad I have not experienced that on the big lake.

It doesn't even have to be a storm for us to experience this raw power of water. In the summer of 2012, many people in this area were victims of flooding and saw first hand the damage that water can bring. Every few weeks the TV news channels show us a new natural disaster that has taken place in the world, usually involving water. Whether it is flooding, mudslides, or tsunamis, water is able to bring destruction just as easily as it brings life to plants and animals. We have even seen that when a tropical storm or hurricane makes landfall, sometimes the greatest threat isn't the storm itself but the massive storm surge that comes with it. Huge waves come crashing in, flooding communities, causing damage, and taking human lives.

When it comes to water and wind and storms and other natural forces, there is really only so much that we can do. We can damn up rivers and control the water level in certain bodies of water. We can construct buildings that can better withstand the forces of nature. We can even predict the weather more accurately than ever before so that we can warn communities of possible danger. However, when the storms come, the waves crash, the wind blows and all of nature seems to rear its ugly head, all we can really hope to do is to try to stay out of danger. Only God can set the limits of the water and control the winds and the storms. God alone has the power to create such things and the power to set them according to His will.

In the first reading from the Book of Job, God speaks to Job from a storm while describing the creation of the seas. Perhaps Job was watching a storm rage on the Mediterranean Sea as God described how He formed the mighty waters and put them in their place. At this point in the story of Job, God is proving to Job that He, the Lord, is the one who is all just and all knowing and all powerful.

God starts out his speech by speaking from a storm. Many times is the Old Testament (but not always) God is depicted as speaking from a storm cloud. Perhaps the Old Testament writers wanted to illustrate God's power. Not only is the storm strong and powerful, but God is so powerful that He can create a storm through which He is able to speak to the main character in the story; Job is this case.

God goes on to describe the creation of the sea. He uses the imagery of the birth of a child to talk about forming the sea. Just as a birth is a new creation and a gift from God, so also the waters were given to us by the power of God. They “burst forth from the womb”, were given clouds as garments and thick darkness as swaddling bands. But God didn't just create the waters to be its own little place of chaos on earth either. He gave it limits, as He goes on to explain to Job. The image is used of doors being put is place and barred and the sea being told to come no further. This is of course all figurative speech to talk about the formation of the sea and the land in creation. It also clearly shows that God is the one who is in charge.

The Gospel for today relates the well known story of the calming of the storm. This takes place on the Sea of Galilee. Now, they call it a sea in Israel, but it is what we would call a fresh water lake. It is nowhere near the size of Lake Superior, but it is still large: about 64 square miles in size. That is about the size Lake Vermilion, but without so many islands and bays. The lake is also surrounded by mountains and hills that give the surrounding land a bit of a bowl shape. This shape really seems to help storms come in and allow winds to churn up the water and produce bad conditions on the water. That seems to be what happens for the Apostles and Jesus on the boat that day.

It seems that Jesus wants to point out two important facts with what happens here. One is that God is all powerful and able to control the sea and the wind and the storm and that as the Son of God He has that power as well. The other fact is that because God is all powerful, we need to have faith. Faith is what allows us to stay connected with God. Faith is what allows us to trust that God will be there for us, even when the forces of nature seem unbearable. If the Apostles had truly understood who was with them in the boat, if they would have had faith in who He is, they would have know that He would not allow them to perish, even while He was asleep.

We too are called to have trust and faith in Jesus and in the Father. We know from the stories we just heard and from all that we have learned about God, that He will be there for us to protect us. We should not let fear overwhelm us, but instead allow ourselves to put our complete faith in Him. We do this by continuing to pray, to follow His commandments, and by worshiping Him alone. Let us have faith in our all powerful God!