There is beauty and a depth to the Sacred Scripture that is often missed by those who read it casually. For many, it is because they read it as if it were dictated by God as a set of rules (click the link to read more)

Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 362
2 COR 3:15—4:1, 3-6
PS 85:9AB AND 10, 11-12, 13-14
MT 5:20-26

There is beauty and a depth to the Sacred Scripture that is often missed by those who read it casually.  For many, it is because they read it as if it were dictated by God as a set of rules, instead of inspired by God and recorded by those who were learning who God was with their own limited human faculties.  Some see the God of the Old Testament as being angry, violent, and rigid; while at the same time believing the God of the New Testament as being different: loving, kind, generous, and forgiving.   God doesn’t change.   The Sacred Scriptures grow in understanding, just as those who lived out their relationship with God grew in understanding.   The problem is our own minds often veil us from the true Spiritual realities of what it means to be in a relationship with God.  Sometimes the very use of words themselves often limits the reality of who God is and what He asks of us.

Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians describes it as a veil over the mind that prevents us from seeing clearly through to the purpose of the law.   When one reads the Old Testament on a superficial level, on a level that does not use Christ as the key to understanding it, they can confuse it with simply a list of dos and don’ts.   That was one of the major mistakes of the Pharisees and is still a common error today.   The law was not given to us to simply give us 613 rules to follow that God might separate us based on our ability to conform to them.   It was given to change us on the inside.   To make us into the kind of people who could live out the two great commandments as Christ simplified the law: Love God and your neighbor.

That is the line of thought that Jesus gives us in this section of the Sermon on the Mount.   It’s not enough to simply follow the “rules.”   We have to work on the things that make us break those rules.   Not simply to not murder, but to root out the evil thoughts and anger that make us want to do such things.   We can’t simply actively avoid committing adultery.  We must also stop thinking thoughts of lust and the viewing of pornography. We must always avoid desiring someone in a way that removes their human dignity and turns them into an object for our own pleasure.    Why?   Because these thoughts and actions offend the purity of God.  How can we claim to be in a relationship with Him if we do not act in a way that allows us to draw close to Him?  If our actions push Him away from us and hurt Him constantly?   Our relationship with God is still growing in understanding.  We still have a long way to go on human dignity when it comes to our relationship with the LGBT community, the refugee, the alien, and those who cannot speak or protect themselves.   The key though will always be Christ and internal change, not just outside rules and regulations.   That’s what the Church is for.  To help guide us through this world and give us guidelines that help us not just do external works, but to change who we are… that we might become more like Christ and more fully who God created us to be.

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14

t's easy to get in a rut. Our lives go on with the same patterns and we find ourselves doing the same things over and over. For some of us, that's a Godsend (click the link to read more)

It's easy to get in a rut.   Our lives go on with the same patterns and we find ourselves doing the same things over and over.  For some of us, that's a Godsend.  I thrive on patterns.   Having a schedule of what is coming up next is of great comfort to me.   Even going through a drive through the restaurant is only bearable to me if I already know what everyone wants in the car before I get to the order stage.   The danger though, to having a set pattern, is that sometimes we lose meaning in our actions.   We forget to put our hearts into it and we just end up going through the motions.  Our prayers become rote and our prayer life becomes a simple checklist of the things we need to do today, rather than being the encounter with a God who loves us that it is intended to be.   God reminds us in the first reading today not to grow slack in zeal, but be fervent in spirit.  Rejoice and be filled with joy!

On the feast of the Visitation, we are reminded that we see Mary as one of the best examples of living a life of Christ that we have.   Here we have this young woman who is having an experience that is earth shattering.   She has just found out that not only is she pregnant, but that she is going to be the one who will bear the Messiah into the world.   An unwed Virgin, she knows that in the near future not only could she face rejection by her spouse and family, but that she could face a trial and even an execution.  It would be easy for her to draw in on herself.   To forget everyone else and to lose her joy, replaced with the fear of the unknown.   Instead, she instantly goes off to see her family in the country.   In her time of need, she instead goes to help her cousin Elisabeth during her pregnancy and serves her for three months.  

The most telling part though is the exchange we have recorded in Sacred Scripture.   How does Mary respond to her situation?  Her soul exalts the Lord inside of her.  Her voice proclaims her joy and excitement at God's plan and blessing for allowing life to grow inside of her.   She declares that the Almighty has done great things for her, and from her outpouring of spirit we have the beautiful Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat.   Do we respond that way to God's plan in our lives?  Often, instead of joy and feeling blessed, we complain.   We worry about what God is doing.  Pointing fingers at others, we forget that God is involved, too.   Mary reminds us constantly to trust in God and to serve others.   To always, as she pointed out at the wedding of Cana, "Do whatever He tells you."   That's why we Catholics take that simple statement from the Sacred Scriptures to heart, the one so many miss when they say Mary wasn't special or was just "another person":  "From this day all generations will call me blessed."  Today I think our lesson is not only to be more like Mary in our walk but to also realize that we are blessed.  That God has great plans for us, plans to prosper us and bring hope.  Are we trusting?

His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14

A reading for the Feast of the Visitation: May 31st, 2017

I had seen childbirth on television growing up. My mother was training to be a nurse and dinner was (Click the link to read more)

I had seen childbirth on television growing up.  My mother was training to be a nurse and dinner was often interspersed with videos of surgeries, deliveries, and many other things that didn’t go well with spaghetti sauce or hot dogs.  It was an interesting time for me to see things that I had no desire to see again, nor any inclination to have seen in the first place!   Seeing those things though didn’t even prepare me for the actuality of surgery and child-birthing.  I remember my wife laying on the table straining to push a camel through the eye of a needle.   She had been in labor for a what seemed an eternity when the nurse told her to push, two pushes later my daughter was on the table getting her first shot.  It was messy.   It was painful.   It was gross.   It was one of the most beautiful things I had seen.

The book of the Revelation of John describes a woman in the twelfth chapter who is straining to give birth.   Catholics have long viewed that woman as a two-fold image.   One, being the image of the Blessed Virgin who we take to be our own spiritual mother.   The other, the image of the Church as she struggles in the world to push forth and deliver children in the image of their God.  The Church has definitely struggled in forming its stock.   From the abuses of Indulgences to the child abuse scandals, we have seen what happens to all organizations when bad people pretend to be good.   There are men and women who have infiltrated all aspects of all organizations, especially those dealing with the lives of children, who betray our trust and harm the psychological and spiritual health of those whom they are supposed to be helping.   Not just religious people mind you, but coaches, teachers, doctors, lawyers, and blue collar workers.  The rich and the poor alike.

What do we do then?   We struggle.   We go through the pain of growth, of birth.  We start with changing ourselves.  Challenging our own prejudices, sins and vices.   Through prayer, we begin to grow closer to God and the Church.   Studying Sacred Scripture teaches us God’s will for humanity and His plan to redeem all of us.   We make a mess.   We experience pain.   We see the grossness of our fallen humanity, riddled with its concupiscence and inordinate desires.  Then we allow God to bring us into the light of the World, into the body of Christ.  Not just once.  Daily.   In each moment.  In each second.  Donald Trump actually said something I agree with on many levels.   He said that “No child in America should go to bed scared or in fear.”  Yes, but don’t stop there.  No child, born or unborn, should ever have to be scared for their lives.  That includes those of our ‘enemies’ politically, culturally, and even socially.  All life is sacred.  It’s time we work to give birth to that into the world, regardless of the cost to our own desires, wants, and needs.   Jesus reminds us today that being a Christian isn’t going to be easy, it’s gonna require sacrifice.  Just like childbirth though… our grief, our pain, our struggle… will be turned into joy.

His servant and yours,

Brian Mullins

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. - Psalm 19:14

A reflection on the readings for the Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest: May 26th, 2017

In the Hands of Mercy and Grace

In tomorrow's reading we see Paul continuing to prepare his followers for his departure.  For a time he has been teaching them, working alongside them, joining them for dinner and fellowship.  It's time though for him to move on.   Time for him to follow Christ where he leads, and in this case it leads him to uproot his life and journey back to Jerusalem for Pentecost. He doesn't leave them empty handed though.  "And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." (Acts 20:32)  Grace.   Paul leaves those he loves, those he has come to know, in the hands of God and God's grace.

Grace is the means by which we have faith.  Grace is the help God gives us to respond to our vocation of becoming his adopted sons. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. (CCC 2021) Grace is the very means of our salvation, it is the prime mover in the process of our justification.  It is the very Word of God itself which indeed will "build you up."   The Catholic Church has from its very beginning venerated those sacred writings that constitute a portion of the Deposit of faith.  They are not all we have though.   It is not just Sacred Scripture but Sacred Tradition that complete that deposit.  What the Apostles were given was not handed on in the form of a book, but rather was given to their disciples in an oral fashion. Later a portion of that Tradition was written down.  That's what we know today as Sacred Scripture.

The Church then revealed to us more of this sacred deposit of information by continuing to write down more and more, until we have what we know today as the Catechism.  Isn't it interesting that many Christian denominations reject all of the other things outside of scripture?  Even when scripture itself declares that it is the Church that is the "pillar and foundation of truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)  John even informs us that he only wrote down some of what Jesus did "so that we might come to believe." (John 20:31)  Then he goes on to say that if anyone attempted to write down everything Jesus said or did, "the whole world could not contain those books."  (John 21:25) Yet, we try to put God in a box.. and limit His grace.  The thing is, either we believe the words of Scripture, or we don't.   If we choose to agree with only those things in the Sacred Scripture that we agree with and ignore those we don't?  Well it isn't God we are believing in, it's simply ourselves.

So what has the Church then given us?  An outpouring of grace.  The keys were given to Saint Peter who then gave them to his successor and so forth, until we have the modern day Roman Catholic church.   Does it look exactly like the first century church?  No.   It has been influenced by men over the centuries, but it still has that divine rudder, that steers man who leads it.   In fact, if you read the writings of Justin Martyr you can see the echoes of the Mass as we know it today, sometimes even verbatim.  Here is where we believe that the Holy Spirit has preserved our Church that the 'gates of hell may not prevail against it.' (Matthew 16:18)  That even though men are involved and make mistakes, and boy have we made them, the Holy Spirit will protect His Church and continue to guide us.

How then do you and I get access to this grace?  It's freely given in the Sacraments.  These are the Ordinary means by which we receive the grace of God.   The Church in it's infinite wisdom has seen that when you are properly disposed to receive God's grace, when you are truly repentant of your sins, and you come to the Church asking God to forgive you and change you; then through the very words of Christ himself amazing things will happen!  Bread will become flesh, wine will become blood, and sinners will become Saints.  Don't get me wrong.. the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for Saints.   Every man and woman who walk through those doors has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  The thing is though, with God all things are possible... even a sinner like me can be used by him to be transformed and to help go forth to transform the world.

How though?   By discerning our vocation, by discerning God's call, by asking Him first and foremost what He wants of us.   We do that again, through Grace.

The Holy Spirit is "the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part of the Body." He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God's Word "which is able to build you up"; by Baptism, through which he forms Christ's Body; by the sacraments, which give growth and healing to Christ's members; by "the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts"; by the virtues, which make us act according to what is good; finally, by the many special graces (called "charisms"), by which he makes the faithful "fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church."  (CCC 798)

Just like Christ himself, who is both fully God and fully man, the Church is both divine and human.  We make mistakes, and we should be willing and ready to call ourselves on it.   Yet, the moral teachings, the dogmas of the Church, have never been wrong.  They call out to us of a divine origin, of a Sacred Deposit, of a treasury and storehouse filled with mercy, love, and justice.   The Chair of Peter has that key, and he has declared it open in this year of mercy.   Why not step forward and let that Grace wash over you?  Let God fulfill that prayer that Jesus prayed over his disciples in you today, Let him consecrate you in Truth!  Jesus is that truth, the Eternal Word of God.   He'll never force you into a relationship though.. he'll never make you do anything you don't with your own free will choose to do.. so make that choice today.. to step forward and say, "God I am ready for a true relationship with you, guide me through your Church, through your Sacraments, and through your Word, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, Eternal in the Heavens."  

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

What you see, isn't always what you get....

Many years ago I watched this movie about hackers in which one of the young men quoted the bible: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."  I loved that movie quote.  The thing is, I never would have thought all those years ago that I would have used that very quote today to describe my spiritual journey before becoming Catholic.  I did experience God during that journey.  I experienced his presence, his Scriptures, and even glimpses into his body as kind and loving men and women tried to help me grow closer to Him.  I also experienced the opposite.  Periods in which people would funnel their own hate and bias into scripture and through scripture.  When people would demand you stop asking questions or reading anything outside of scripture.

I think the perfect example would have to be my understanding of the book of Revelation.  For many, many years I thought of revelation as a line by line commentary on current events.  I watched the news to find things that lined up with people in the scripture, events that might have some kind of connection to the Antichrist, the Beast, the Dragon etc.  I honestly lived in fear of those times to come.  Would I be ready?  Would my family make it?  Is there any time left?  Will I be able to stand up to the upcoming 'tribulation' period? I believed our God was going to come and snatch up the Christians and leave the rest of the world behind to suffer in anguish for not choosing him fast enough.  Not very kind of God, and not very lovely to imagine in my mind.

Then I read an amazing book by Scott Hahn, the Lamb's Supper.   I took time to digest the information in that book and to examine it in light of the writings of the first and second century Christians. In a sense, I began to grow up.  I still believe the book of revelation can have things to teach us about the current times.  I also think that it could give us a glimpse into the future, sure.  What I believe first and foremost though is that it is a book written with a preterist perspective that gives us a firm and sincere glimpse into what worship looks like in Heaven.  Not just in Heaven, but a glimpse into the metaphysical reality of what the Mass truly is.  That's an astounding thought isn't it?  This is a written account of what happens at Mass as we all gather together and Heaven kisses earth.

With that in mind let's again read the second reading for this coming Sunday:

I, John, looked and heard the voices of many angels who surrounded the throne and the living creatures and the elders. They were countless in number, and they cried out in a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing.” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea,
everything in the universe, cry out: “To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor, glory and might, forever and ever.” The four living creatures answered, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Think about that for a moment... when you go to Mass and the Eucharist is elevated before you.. when the Priest lifts up the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ before you... that is happening right before your eyes.  The countless numbers of those who have gone on before us are gathered around the Lamb who was slain and calling out to Him.  All of those men and women who you have loved who have died in Christ are now next to you in the pew blessing God with their lips, exalting Him with their souls.   How about you?  Are you joining them in this blessing with your heart?  Are you participating as fully as you are capable with the faculties he has given you?  Do you sing the hymns with the angelic choirs?  Pray with the priest during the collect? Or are you just checking your watch to see if it's time to go?  Glaring around at others judging them instead of focusing on Christ present in a unique and substantial way right before your very eyes?

Just like with Peter, Christ is asking you a simple question when you come forward to Communion.  When the minister raises up the Host and says "The Body of Christ," imagine Christ speaking to you....

"Do you love me?"

How do you respond?  It's interesting that in that encounter Jesus asks Peter three times do you love me, but we lose a hint of it in English.  He asks him do you agape me?  That is do you love me so much you are willing to sacrifice yourself for me?  Do you love me that much?  Peter says I phileo you lord... "I love you like a friend."   Oh how that must hurt.  Jesus asks Peter if he loves him completely, more than life itself.. and Peter responds you know you're my bro man.   So Jesus asks again? Do you agape me?  Again Peter responds you're my bro.. we're friends man.  Then Jesus sighs and asks again... "Do you love me like a friend Peter?"  The Scriptures record that Peter was distressed as he responded "Yeah, that's right.. I love you like a friend."

Then Jesus says to him, there will come a time when you are ready to agape me Peter.. a time when you will grow into the man I have created you to be.. I love you completely Peter, and I accept you where you are.. but I love you too much to leave you there.   When you found out I was dead?  You went back to your old ways, your old life... but that is not what I ask of you... I ask metanoia, change.. So go forth, and take care of my flock.. because you are no longer a child.  "Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”  Jesus was speaking of the death Peter was to experience...  Peter was eventually crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

Jesus is asking you the same thing when you come forward to receive the Sacraments.  "Do you love me?"  Think of that when you say Amen this time... are you saying "You're my bro"?  Or are you saying "I love you completely, sacrificially, I will give anything for you."  There is a saying that goes around anytime someone wants to justify whatever their 'pet sin' is.  I hear this so often "Jesus loves me just the way I am."  I agree... but he loves you too much to leave you that way.  He has created you for so much more.. He has created you to be perfect, as the Father is perfect.   That is what "charity" means.. it means loving as God loves... loving so fully that you are changed.. you are molded.. you are formed into the image of God that you were made in.   Are you ready for that?  I think all of us, every time we come forward to receive our Lord and Savior, should be asking ourselves.. have I put away childish things?  It's time for us to grow up.  It's time for us to listen to that final command from the Lord when he says "Then follow me."

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Seeing with New Eyes, Again

Recently in our bible study I was made aware of a quote from Origen which said “We should reverence every word of the Scriptures, the same way we reverence every particle of the consecrated host.”  Such a powerful statement that reminds me how often we are superficial in our reading of the Sacred Word.   Often we forget to look at it anew with eyes attuned to our current life and tend to look back on it with our previous understanding.  The thing is, Sacred Scripture speaks to us when and where we are.  The message that we receive today might not be the one we received last year, and again in ten years our new experiences and understandings will change how and why God is speaking to us then and there.

We should reverence every word of the Scriptures, the same way we reverence every particle of the consecrated host. -Origen

This particular reading for this Sunday is not one that I am unfamiliar with.  In fact, it’s one of the most important readings in the book of Genesis.  In these short paragraphs we see the promise that God has given to Abraham which will lead to the inclusion of the gentiles in God’s plan of salvation.  God leads Abraham out of his tent and tells him to look to the sky and count the stars, if he can.  “Just so[...] shall your descendants be.”  What a promise!  Oh how difficult it is to number the stars.  With the science of today we know that they are innumerable, a vast expanse of flickering bodies beyond any count that man can hope to endure in a single lifetime.  The thing is, there is something much more deep and powerful about this reading.

If you take just a moment to examine the text, it appears God asked Abraham to count the stars in the middle of the day.   Later in the next paragraph Scripture records “As the sun was about to set…”  Again in the third paragraph, “When the sun had set….”   Counting the number of the stars at night would be a daunting task.  Something difficult at best, but something a man might fancy he could begin to do if given enough time.   To count them in the day though?  You can’t even see them.  Maybe that was the point…  Abraham knew the stars were many.  He had seen with his own eyes throughout the previous night times of his long life, maybe even laying out in the hot desert air gazing up at the stars thinking about what life means and who God is.  Here he was asked to count something he couldn’t see, but knew was there.  Just like the promise… Abraham could not see his descendants, he couldn’t possibly count them.. but he knew they were going to be there.   That’s why the Scriptures record Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.  (Romans 4:3, Genesis 15:6)  Though his vision was limited by his own experience, by his own bondage to temporal time, he knew that God would provide those descendants, just as he knew the stars were truly there behind the azure blue of the day-lit sky.

I can’t help but imagine that Moses and Elijah too felt the same way when they hid in the cleft of the mountains.   They hid their face as God passed by, but surely they longed to see God face to face.  To gaze upon the beautiful countenance of their beloved.  Do we often think about that when we consider the transfiguration?   Only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought.  (CCC 2583)  How powerful a moment this must have been for Peter, James and John as they witnessed this moment.  The moment when the Law and the Prophets came face to face with the incarnate.   This moment of awe must have been both edifying and frightening.  Peter declares that he wants to build three tents here to remember this scene forever. Peter probably didn’t do it just out of awe, but maybe out of fear.   Jesus had been continually telling his Apostles about his mission.   Here Moses and Elijah appear and begin to speak about what is going to happen in Jerusalem to Jesus.  Peter in his fear, in his dread for what will happen to his friend, to his master, wants to stay here.  If we just stay here we will never have to see you die!  We can just stay here and be happy.  He couldn’t see.  The sun was in his eyes as he tried to count the stars, he couldn’t see God’s plan.

Isn’t that the way it truly is for all of us too?  God asks us to count the stars and we look up to find they aren’t visible.   Instead of simply trusting that they are there, we begin to make our own plans.  We try to make our own stars.   We wait a time until the stars we think we want begin to appear and we count those, instead of taking a moment to simply to trust God’s plan.  Like Peter we want to build a tent in a comfortable place.   Our intentions might even be good.   Peter did not say something insulting, in fact for most men it would be flattering.. to be honored and venerated in this place where the Sacred had touched the earth.   That wasn’t the plan though.   That was less than what God wanted to give him.  Often the stars we try to form with our own minds and lives are insufficient for the glory God wants to offer to us.

Paul reminds us of this in the reading from the epistle to the Philippians.   He talks of those people who make their god their stomachs, their minds occupied with earthly things. (Phil 3:19)  They are trying to make their own stars instead of counting the ones God has offered them.  Paul tells us this makes them enemies of the cross.  Yet, for those who cling to the Gospel given them by Paul and imitate him as he imitates Christ, for those who trust that the stars are there even when they can’t see them, Paul shares that we too shall experience a transfiguration:

But our citizenship is in heaven, 

and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He will change our lowly body

to conform with his glorified body 

by the power that enables him also 

to bring all things into subjection to himself.

 

Yet, for those who cling to the Gospel given them by Paul and imitate him as he imitates Christ, for those who trust that the stars are there even when they can’t see them, Paul shares that we too shall experience a transfiguration.

That’s our goal in life.   To be so conformed to Christ that we become little Christ’s.  Christ’s whole earthly life - his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being and speaking - is Revelation of the Father.   (CCC 516)  That is how we count our stars, that is how we too can show that we believe.  That is how it can be accounted to us as righteousness.. if we too through our words and deeds, our silence and sufferings, if our very manner of being and speaking points to Christ.   Then we too, with Moses and Elijah can stand proudly in the presence of our God and King, looking on him face to face.  No longer hiding in the rock, no longer fearful of destruction, but transformed into our glorified selves.  Are you ready to trust?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"I must decrease, he must increase."