Take a stand!

When I was in college, I worked as a computer lab assistant.   It was my job to be there to make sure that anyone who needed to use a computer not only got the chance to do so but also to answer questions and make sure it was a peaceful experience for all.  One day a young girl was with what seemed to be her boyfriend using one of the terminals at the door.   He was abusive with his words.

"You're so stupid."

"I'm trying," she said.

"I've shown you a hundred times, you are just too dumb to do it, and I'm tired of it."

"I said I was sorry."

She was on the verge of tears, and he kept getting louder and more abusive.  After a few minutes, I had had enough.   The sad part was it took me a few minutes.   I should have come to her defense at the start of it.  Instead, I had to work up the courage to stand up and confront this guy.   The moment he saw me moving towards them he began to talk to the room.

"We are students in the psychology department.   This has been an experiment to see how people would react to someone being abusive to a female in public."   They went on to have us fill out questionnaires and such for their project. 

While this was just an experiment, it was a moment in which I learned something about myself and others.   No one came to her defense.   It took time before even me, a 6'5", 300 lb guy to stand up and do something about it.   I've always wished that I could go back and stand up for her, stand up for all the people in this world who have no voice.

On this the feast day of the nativity of Saint John the Baptist we are reminded that it is not too late to stand up for our faith.  He stood up to the king, Herod, and spoke the truth even to the expense of his own life.   Now, sure, you and I are probably not going to be martyrs.  It is very rare these days in the country we live in to be asked to die for our faith. 

So what then can we do?   We can die to ourselves.   Die to that person who is inside you wanting to remain in the comfort of your room.   Suppress that human tendency not to want to get involved and instead let Jesus work through us to make a change in this world, here and now.  Die to self, let God send His grace to others in you.   That's what the dismissal at Mass is all about.   "Go forth and glorify the Lord with your lives."   To that, we respond: "Thanks be to God."   That's not us saying "Thank God this is finally over."   It is rather us acknowledging that God has come to reside in us as Temples of the Holy Spirit and has given us the chance to be co-workers in the vineyard.

Are you ready to die to your wants and needs?   That for least among us; the widow, the orphan, the unborn, the immigrant, the homeless; we may bring the love and protection that God has to offer?   Speak for those who have no voice, speak with the voice of the Lord.  Our brothers and sisters are out in the world, and we have the opportunity to find them and bring them to the dinner table with us.  Are you standing up?   Or stay in your comfort zone?

A reflection on the readings for the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist.

God is mercy, God is love... but God is also Justice.

I was going to save the following homily for a future date.   The more I tried to write the more it felt as if I were making a sermon out of it, instead of giving the message God was trying to speak to me in the readings.  So here it is. 

My grandfather Jim had this beautiful farm in the mountains.  When he first got the land, it was nothing but weeds, rocks, and briars.  Over the years he slowly tamed that land.  There were big piles of stones in the forest that my brother and I used to climb on.  All of those rocks he had moved by hand out of the fields to prepare them.  It was such a beautiful place too.   Acres of manicured grass in the middle of the forests of Virginia.  An apple orchard, a grape arbor, a garden filled with vegetables, not to mention all the animals.  He would take us for a tour every time we came by.   Letting us hold the baby chickens, ducks, geese, and doves.  There was even this spectacular overlook that he had made with a firepit and some chairs.   You could sit and watch the sunset over the lake hundreds of feet below.  It was a beautiful place, a peaceful place. 

A few years ago my grandfather passed away, and my grandmother was placed in a home.  The executor of the estate sold the land to someone outside of the family, and things began to change.   We were no longer allowed to visit.  It wasn’t in the family anymore.  I could see it from my dad's house, less than a mile from his back porch.   There was a real sense of loss.  A sense of sadness that it was no longer ours.  It was now someone else’s.  I watched as other people walked those paths and climbed those rocks.  There was a pain in my heart that I can’t really describe in words.  Not jealousy.   Just longing.  I think that’s how the people must have felt in hearing this parable from Jesus.  Fear that they might go through something like that.  That they might long for something, they could never touch again. 

This parable could bring that same fear out in us, and maybe it should.   We too are now responsible for the vineyard of the Lord.  Just like my grandfather worked long, hard hours clearing the land to make it a beautiful place; we are supposed to be using the gifts we have been given to produce fruit.  Each of us is a unique person with our own set of talents.  We are supposed to use them to make this world a better place, to show God’s love for everyone in it.  How many times have we, like the people in the parable, been sent someone made in the image of Christ and treated them poorly?

Sure, we haven’t killed anyone.  We didn’t beat them or throw them out.   But what about with our words?   Have we ever beaten someone verbally?  Or killing their good name with slander?  Have we ever rejected someone who has asked for help?   Earlier we also said we can do wrong with our thoughts too.   Have we thought poorly of someone?   Been jealous or angry?  Annoyed that someone doesn’t do things the way we want or has some habit that just gets under our skin? I know at times I am guilty of all these things.  That parable doesn’t leave much hope.  It seems hard. 

How are we to make sense of it?   If God is mercy and love, how can he take away the vineyard?  He is mercy.  He is love, indeed.  So much so that here in a few minutes we are going to celebrate the gift that makes it possible for people so unworthy to stay working in the vineyard.  God has indeed sent His Son to us time and time again, in the Holy Eucharist.   Even though we continue to do exactly what they were guilty of, He gives us another chance. It’s as if he is saying “I am sending my son, surely they will treat him better this time.”  As the priest elevates the precious consecrated host in a few moments, realize that this right here is God saying to you “I want to see your fruit.” 

Again I say, God is mercy.  God is love.   But God is also justice.  Ronda Chervin once said “If you want to see the infinite love and mercy of God, look at Heaven.   If you want to see His Justice, look at Hell.”   Now, in this life, at this moment is the time to start producing a harvest. 

Monday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

2 PT 1:2-7,  PS 91:1-2, 14-15B, 15C-16, MK 12:1-12

Happy Corpus Christi!

I went on a four-day men's weekend a few years ago.   It was a compelling experience.   During that weekend I began to realize just how much my wife meant to me.  At the end of the weekend, they had a closing ceremony.  She was there.  One of the men walked up to me after saying "I knew that was your wife, you never took your eyes off of her."   He's right.  There was a longing there, a love that wasn't just affection, but a realization that she was indeed my better half.   I just wanted to speak to her, spend time with her, and even hold her again.  It wasn't just physical; it was a deep spiritual connection that went beyond what we see and into a deeper reality.

In our modern world marriage is seen as something to do with feelings.   You see men and women getting divorces with the excuse of "I didn't feel the same anymore.  I don't love him/her."   We've lost the notion of just what the word covenant is.  Instead, we see it as a simple contract.    A covenant is not a contract.    In a contract, people exchange one thing for another.   You mow my yard, and I give you cash.   I install a light fixture for you and you clean my garage.   That's a contract.  Marriage is not a contract, though we have civil ones that protect people from abuse.  Marriage is a covenant.

In a covenant, people exchange each other.   I give you all of me, and you give me all of you.   It's all in.  100%.   It's not a 50/50 negotiation that ends with the other getting half of all you own.   It's a real sharing of yourself with someone else.    Jesus in today's readings reminds us that we are in a covenant with God.   "I will be your God, and you will be my people."  (Exodus 6:7).     That was His promise of a Covenant to the people of Israel.  Jesus came and gave us a New Covenant, one whose sign is the Eucharist.   Thinking about that should leave us awestruck.   God is offering you all of Himself, down to even the last drop of blood.   So much so that you can partake of His divine life and live forever!   That should blow our minds!

There is more though!   I will be your God, and you will be my people.   A covenant is not one-sided.   God did indeed do all of the work on the cross.   However, communion demands a response.    St. Paul says in one of his letters: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? ". (1 Corinthians 10:16) Then again he says "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord."  (1 Corinthians 11:27).     A more modern translation might read: "The Eucharist is indeed the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, if you take it in grave sin you could go to hell." 

No one can earn their way to heaven.  Faith though is a covenant in which He is our God, and we are His people.   That means we act a certain way, walk the walk and talk the talk.  People of a covenant look different.   A married man should act like a married man.   He shouldn't be off flirting with other women.   People should know by his very actions, words, and deeds that he is married.   That moment when the minister says to you "The body and blood of Christ," you are being reminded of this reality.  "You are His people, are you acting like it?"   Can you honestly say Amen to that? 

On this Feast of Corpus Christi, the Church reminds us to take time and make sure that we realize what we are doing at the table of the Lord and to rectify those things in our lives that are drifting away.   That way at the end of our lives we can say with honesty at the foot of the throne of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do." (Exodus 24:7)