Monday of the Fifteenth week in Ordinary Time

The readings today are a powerful reminder that as Christians we cannot be people who sit on the fence.   We have to throw all our chips on the table.    There are too many out there who want to believe that all they have to do is claim the title, "I am a Christian," without claiming the cross that comes with it.  The Psalm itself is clear in its meaning and expectation from God:

“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”

We have to be a people different than those who do not know Christ.   He reminds us in His teachings in the Gospel today that we are expected to choose Christ first and foremost.  It means I have to pick up my cross and do as he did.    Being Christian is not just a statement.  It is not just a one-time confession and a mountaintop experience.   It is a constant state of conversion in which we move closer to God, become more like His Son, and through the grace of the Sacraments be transformed into little Christs. 

What should that look like?   Justice.   The Prophet said:

Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes;
cease doing evil; learn to do good.
Make justice your aim: redress the wronged,
hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow.

One would think we had learned our lesson by now.   We still are learning.   Slowly.   That's what it takes to be a Saint though.  I have to become a worker for justice.  One who defends those without a voice.   One who finds what is wrong, and fixes it.    A person who looks for those who have none, and tries to help them.  Being Catholic isn't just a Sunday thing, it's a life thing.  It means continually learning to love as Jesus loved.   Loving every single person, and trying to make the world more like the Kingdom we pray to come every day at Mass. 


A reflection on the Readings for Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.

Change is hard for people.   They don't like it when things change.  So many times I have heard someone declare "That's it!  I'm going to church somewhere else."   Or the even more dramatic "I'm not going to come here till he is gone!"   That second one is often an excuse never to go there again.   Even when that person is gone, they don't come back.   The question is:  Why do we go to Church? 

We don't go to Mass for ourselves.   That's a very unpopular statement.  It isn't about getting something out of it, but about giving something back.  We go to Mass to worship Jesus Christ.   It is for Him and what He has done, is doing, and will do in the future, that we gather together and sing His praises.   So all of those statements:

"I don't like the music."
"The Pastor isn't nice."
"I can't understand that guy when he speaks."
"I just don't feel good when I am there."
"They changed the way we do this, and I think I'm leaving."

They all start with the wrong thing.  These statements all begin with self, I.   They forget that it's not about me.   It's about Him.   All of those things can be annoying to ourselves.   Sure, it's nice to have someone you understand and get along with in charge.   It's nice to get a recharge of our spiritual cup, which happens more often than not.   It is beautiful when the music is well performed and uplifting.  All of those things are good things, but they are not what it's about.

Is God's grace enough?  Saint Paul desired to rid himself of some nagging issue that he had with his body.   Some think maybe his eyesight was going or he was in chronic pain.   Regardless of what it was, it stayed there and annoyed him.   Those thorns in our Church homes?   What if they are there to sanctify us?   "Your grace is enough for me."   Why are you there?  Jesus?  Or yourself?  Is Jesus not enough?

The key to all of this is found in today's Psalm reading.   Humility.  Being able to not make it about you, and to remind yourself that God is in charge.  This community is our Parish home.   It is where he wants us.  There is no Church shopping in Catholicism.  You don't look for someone who agrees with you or with different beliefs, because we have one set of beliefs and One Church.    Are we humble enough to get out of the way and say: "This is my home, these are my spiritual family"?  Lord give us all a spirit of humility, which we might be able to look at the world the way you do.

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year 2.

It is interesting to me that the readings for today are about famine and feasts.   For the last five days, I have consumed no food whatsoever.   Instead, I have been taking the money that I would have spent to buy food for me and putting it to the side.   When this week is over, I will send that money to a diocese in Africa where the children are starving and in great need.

I've learned a lot about myself and my relationship with food.   I think it's an American thing.   I was indeed reminded of that when Father Rogatus mentioned the massive serving sizes at the restaurant where some people took him for dinner.   At just one of our American style buffets, you'll find more food than many villages have for the entire population in a month.  That should remind us that we are not only blessed, but we are using our wealth in a way that is both unsustainable and uncharitable.

Matthew in the Gospel is an example of this.   To the Jewish people, he was the lowest of the low.  He made his money by taking from his people and giving to Rome.   They saw the tax collectors as horrible sinners, unreformable!   To their astonishment, he was one of the first to convert and became one of the twelve.    We have to keep in mind that even the outsider, maybe even more often the outsider, will often be the most important convert.

It reminds us that even though we aren't perfect, we are called to be Saints.   That shouldn't leave us feeling hopeless, as if the Saints of the Church put us to shame, but hope-filled!   We are called to do like Matthew and go forth and follow Christ, sitting down at the table with all of our brothers and sisters, sinners and Saints alike but not staying in our sin. Instead, we are called to lift ourselves up out of the muck of the world, reaching out for God's grace to become what he created us to be.

We can start in the smallest of ways.   We often see fasting as just a "Lent thing."   It should preferably be a part of our lives.   That doesn't mean you have to do water fasting like mine.   I would encourage you though to give up something, even if its just one coffee or one donut, and use the money there to feed some of our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate.  That way all of us can be at the table, and not just those who were lucky enough to be born in an affluent country.    It only takes a pebble to start an avalanche.   One dollar doesn't mean much to us here, but for many, that's precisely what they need to get food for just one day.

A reflection on the readings for July 6th, 2018, Friday of the Thirtenth Week in Ordinary Time