Tear Down the Wall

When I was fresh out of college money was pretty hard to come by.  To try to make ends meet five of us moved into this one trailer and pooled our monies to make things happen.  It was an interesting thing.  On the surface one would have called us a community.   All of us professed to be Christians and attended church a few times a year.  We even talked from time to time about the Bible and listened to religious radio on lunch breaks when we could.  The thing was, we shared a home.. but you wouldn't say we were sharing much else.  One of us even had a shelf that contained their stuff.  I remember once when the brother of one of the guys living there drank something off the 'shelf'.   All of us gasped!  That's the 'shelf'!  You're in trouble!  Sure enough, when that roommate came home the first thing out of their mouth was, "Where is my stuff!"

That's a far cry from the ideal isn't it?  In the first reading for today's daily Mass we can see what the early Christians considered the ideal community.  Everything they had was in common!  They shared it all.  There were no shelves, no 'hey that's my shirt', everyone sold any money they had and the community leaders distributed it evenly so that none were lacking in need.  It's easy for me to look back at that living arrangement and pick it apart and say hey, we didn't meet that ideal at all did we?  Yet, if I'm honest, looking at any household today we can often find similar situations.  Someone upset because someone else wore their shirt.   Someone mad because their phone is dead because someone was playing on it when it was supposed to be charging... someone upset because the last thing of ice cream is gone and they didn't get any.   Pretty standard for any family isn't it?

The interesting thing about this reading from the history of the early church is that it's talking about an example for them to look up to.  Barnabas, the son of encouragement, lived in such a way that they felt we should all learn from him.  He sold what he had and brought it to the Apostles to distribute as they saw a need.  As a man who greatly admires Saint Francis of Assisi this truly touches my heart.  How many of us are willing to do that?  We complain every time we turn on the radio and someone is asking for money.  You can see the eyes roll and hear the sighs at times when a priest gets up during the year for the Diocesan Stewardship Appeal.  "There they are asking for money again."   "Why is it everytime I come to church they want more cash?"  "Don't they have enough?" Or better yet, "Why don't they sell everything in the Vatican and give it away to the poor!"  (Ask me about this last one sometime, my answer may shock you.)

Imagine though, another situation... if every one of us who professed to be Christian... gave like we should?  If we opened up our bank accounts and gave 1%, 2%, 10%... 100%?  What if instead of trying to pretend we own the money we earn.. we rather acknowledge that it was all a gift from God?  Then we put our money, our time, our talent, all of it... where our mouths were.   If every person in our Parish gave 10%?  I imagine we'd never have to ask for money.   Rather, we'd see a need and meet it.   This year we saw a need, $6,700 dollars... and we met it.   It took some time, but through some sacrificial fasting, prayer and almsgiving we are going to be able to build a well.  That's beautiful!  That's marvelous!  That's the way it should be!

Yet, there is something more that must be faced.  Lent is not a time to simply change for a season, and go back to who you were before.. No Lent is a time of metanoia, transformation, changing from bad habits to good... Lent is over, but the giving should just be starting!  That's why we as a Parish are looking at raising even more money, giving throughout the year and not just during the penitential season leading up to Lent.  Maybe we'll build a house?  Feed a village?  We are still discussing this as a pastoral council.

The Gospel reading talks about the wind.   The word there for Spirit and Wind is the same word! The breath.... the wind... the Spirit... the word has the connotation of presence.. of life.   When someone is unconscious you put a mirror under their nose to see if they are breathing.. with breath is life.  That's a powerful thought.  Jesus is there in the tabernacle.. breathing.. waiting for you.  Where he is.. life is.   Where he goes.. life goes... Where he is rejected? Life is rejected.  In the Eucharist is all of the life force in the universe.. the ultimate wind.. the ultimate Spirit... God himself. So you are given that gift.. that life.   You receive into you the breath of God.. something that cannot be contained but is greater than yourself.   Are you going out into the world with it?  Are you breathing life?

Some people have told me that when they enter the Catholic church they feel a presence.. like someone is there.. even when the Sanctuary is empty as far as they know.   That's Him.  That's the breath, the wind.. the Spirit..  That is Christ's presence in the tabernacle.. it is tangible, you know he's there.. I have never experienced that in any other church.  Yes, I've found beautiful prayer spaces.  I've enjoyed uplifting concerts.  I've prayed with men and women of many faiths and denominations.... I've never been in any of those churches empty and felt the presence I feel when being before the Eucharist.  That brings me to one other thought... When people meet you, when they pray with you, when they visit you or you visit them... when you converse, when you share, when you break bread together... do they feel His presence in you?  Are people aware of the breath of Christ, the Holy Spirit, in your life?  When you go from Mass at the end, when you are dismissed by the priest or Deacon.. they say "The Mass is ended, go forth glorifying the Lord with your lives."   That's not a dismissal to go back to your old way of life.. it's a challenge to go forth into the world as a living tabernacle, a temple of God... when people are in your presence they should know He is there too... it should change you... and they should know by your actions, words and deeds that you are a Catholic and a disciple of Christ.

So, the question becomes: "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Misericordia

Tonight I attended a Spanish Mass at our Parish.  Both to work on my Spanish listening skills and to
attempt to build some friendships and familiarity with a part of the Parish that I often do not get to see.  I have several friends who come to daily Mass or who are involved in other ministries whose native tongue is Spanish and it was good to see them and spend time with them in worship.  I did feel a little out of place though.

Why?  Probably ego?  Pride? Unfamiliarity?   It was good for me though, that is for sure.  I kept hearing this one word though, one I recognized from my studies and from preparing before hand.  "Misericordia."  Mercy.  Kindness.  I heard it in the antiphon of the Psalm.  I heard it in the singing.  I heard it in the readings.  I heard it Father Dorado's homily. (Most of which I was lost in, but I did understand parts of it!)

At the end a friend of mine, Ignatio, grabbed my hand and welcomed me.  Made sure to encourage me and talked about his experience of going to daily Mass in English.  He talked about how he at first did not understand much, but now after a few years, really has begun to understand it well enough to feel comfortable.  Here was a man willing to put his ego to the side.  A man willing to go where he was uncomfortable, where he didn't know many, but persisted through those feelings in order to learn enough of a language to help those of us who did not know his own to be able to experience one another in the body of Christ.

There are those out there who will tell you, "You are not an American if you don't speak English."  "I refuse to learn another language!"  "Why the hell should I have to press 1 to get English? This is America!"  To that I say rubbish.  Today's gospel calls out to us to put ourselves to the side and to instead humble ourselves to be servants.  Servants don't make those they are serving learn their language, rather they humble themselves and put forth the effort to learn the language themselves. "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all." 

Think about this for just a moment.  The God of the universe is so far beyond us that it would be like comparing a human to a worm.  This God of ours humbled himself so much that he condescended into one of us, becoming one of us in every way, except sin.  He learnt our language.   He took on our ways.  He didn't expect us to suddenly learn to speak God's tongue.  How much more so should we be willing to approach our brothers as if they were Christ himself?  Learning a language is the least we can do.   Learning who they are, where they are from, their name;  those are other steps we should take.  Their customs, their cultures, their families.  They are part of us.  We are one body.  There aren't 500,000 bodies of Christ.. only one. 

So go out into the world.  Serve your brothers and sisters.  Learn to speak to them.  More importantly learn to listen and understand them.  Try to learn their names.  Their families.  Their interests.   Let them know how important they are to you.  How much you love them.   Don't expect anything in return.  Just offer yourself for them, as Christ offered himself to us.  Then we can cry out together, with our brothers and sisters, in all tongues: "Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you."

In Christ,

His servant and yours,

Brian

The Heavens Proclaim the Glory of God

My wife and I have made it a habit lately to jog in the late evenings after all of our obligations and such begin to wind down.  Tonight as I meditate on the readings for tomorrow's Mass, it reminds me of the jog/walk we just completed.   I was in just too much pain to run tonight, so I ended up walking most of the time we were out there. It helped me though to think quite a bit about many of the things I've been mulling over, and more especially to spend some time just walking along talking to my sacramental partner.

Tomorrow's readings are some of my favorites in scripture.  As we walked along tonight, a strong wind kept blowing through the trees.  The sky was cloudy and dark, almost ominous.  Occasionally we would hear the breaking of twig or rustling of a leaf as some woodland creature ran off in fright to our presence.   The river under the bridge reflected back the street lights in the distance, it's ripples creating a movement in time where there really was none.  The changing colors of the autumn in their many shades of monochrome night created a blanket of waving patterns, all shifting away anytime the eye tried to focus on them. The tall, uncut grass of the gentle sloping hill flowed back and forth like an ocean of it's own accord.

All of it called out to one simple truth, one fact that my mind has never been able to understand why others do not come to this conclusion as well, to the existence of God.  The first reading tells us that "Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made."  God created us in his image.  He gave us the gift of our senses, combined with our faculties, that give us such a powerful bond with all of creation.  We can see the beauty of all it's many faceted creatures.  Smell the scents and odors of our vastly complex universe.  Reason and grapple with concepts and words to try and express all of this in some way that is beyond a mere simple thought.

Just walking with my wife, though filled with pain and limping, I am still struck by just how fortunate I am to be gifted with someone as beautiful, intelligent, and caring as her.  Just looking at our lives, the circumstances that led us to become the people we are, the events that brought me to

move 600 miles away from the town where I had always been, and to have my life filled with these 5 ladies.... all of it tells me that there are no coincidences.  There is something more than us, something greater than us, a designer, a creator.

When I was in my teens I attended Magnet school at a local college to study some advanced mathematics and computer science skills.  While we were there we studied Chaos theory.  Many of you will remember Malcom from Jurassic Park, the slightly nerdy and awkward genius who talked about a 'butterfly' flapping it's wings in one part of the world, creates a monsoon in another.  That was the kind of math we were studying.   The one thing I learnt that summer was that even in things that seemed to be completely random, there were found mathematical patterns.  That everything in the universe was ordered, even 'random' chance itself.   The heavens themselves proclaim the glory of God! 

That brings us to the Gospel.   Here we see Jesus being condemned again by a Pharisee for not washing himself ritually before sitting down to a meal.  They felt there was an order that must be done before he could eat. Jesus reminded them that God made everything!  There was no need for ritual cleansing because he was already pure.  Then challenged them to clean themselves, spiritually.  Both inside and out.  We have many people out there today who teach a prosperity gospel, a gospel of health, a bed of roses so to speak.  They claim that if you 'speak it,' God must do it!  As if God were some ATM that you could control.  Then when suffering comes that way, they proclaim that you didn't do it right.  Your faith must be weak, or you must not really believe.  It can be shattering to those who believe this way to actually see someone they love suffering from some disease, or they themselves begin to go through a Dark Night of the Soul. 

Jesus reminded us that ritual is meaningless unless the inside of the soul is cleansed.  He challenges them to give alms to reverse the condition of their heart.  He told them already of their problem, they were filled with plunder and evil.   They were greedy, they wanted more.  He told them to give away to those who need, and it would fix them.   I think that's the message he has for us, all of us today.  Suffering is hard to see, especially if the inside of our heart is attached to things of this world.  It's only through detachment that we can begin to be free, to cling to the only attachment that matters, that is God himself.  Once we place him first and foremost things begin to fall into place.  It doesn't mean a bed of roses.  It doesn't mean that we'll be rich.  It doesn't mean that our relationships will not require a lot of work or effort.  It doesn't mean that some people aren't going to pass away from a disease or suffer a long time with one.  What it does mean is that we can look to God for our comfort during those times, and look out into creation itself when we struggle with doubt to find glimpses of Him shining back towards us.

In Christ,
Brian

Carrying the cross?

As I was walking back from the bus stop this morning, instead of praying the office of readings I decided I would do the Rosary.  This mornings mysteries were the Sorrowful Mysteries.  I began to walk along watching the squirrels running around preparing for winter, watching the parents running to school, the workers to work, the buses to their stops.  I watched as the geese flew over honking and as the leaves fell from the trees.

I began to meditate on the Carrying of the Cross.   Such a long walk it must have been to carry that cross.  As I began the mystery I did as always and said a prayer, one for the particular intent of my heart but in some way related to the mystery itself.  Then I began to pray.  As I did I began to think about the different ways we carry our crosses. But there was this notion that struck me, the cross wasn't carried in private.. it was a very public event.  So public indeed that even Simon of Cyrene was compelled into helping Jesus carry the cross.

All too often we tell people who have serious sins in their lives, oh that's your cross to bear.  We treat it as if those sins, performed in the dark away from us are not our concern, but something that they must learn to live with.  Yet, sin is not a private affair.  If you're hiding a sin from others, then it compounds the problem.  When you commit those sins in private willingly, you aren't carrying your cross.. no.. you're laying it down and walking away from it.


I'm not suggesting that every person out there should come out and begin to say to every person they meet "this is my sin."   I am suggesting though that we as Christians need other men (or women) to talk to. We need a support group to hold us accountable, and with that group we need to be 100% honest.  We need to let someone, a trusted friend, who isn't just going to be complacent and say "that's ok," know what we are struggling with.   We need to carry our cross together, and even at other times to get someone to help us bear that load, because sometimes we can't do it on our own. (I firmly believe that is the true power of the Cursillo movement, in the grouping.)

The Sacred Scriptures tell us that we are one body.  Now a body could function decently without one kidney.. but it isn't working at 100%.  Even more so, if it loses both one might still live, but how difficult does life become?  When one organ has cancer, it often doesn't stay just there.. no it spreads. We are less without you.  Period.  When you are sick? Infected with sin as it were... it makes the rest of the body suffer.  Together though, we can heal.

What does it mean to be Sacramental?

 To be a sacramental person is so far beyond anything that I think we can convey in words.   It is to be Christ himself present to the world, as his hands, eyes, feet and mouth.

As a convert, the very nature of our faith is so much beyond what I felt and knew growing up.  Though my basic beliefs have not changed much, many of them have been further defined in ways that I could hardly have imagined.  Fleshed out if you will.  Baptism for instance in the church I grew up in was not a sacrament, but a symbol of an inward change.  It was something we did, not something that “did” something to us.  Seeing baptism for what it truly is makes a great deal of difference in how we react to the world.

As in baptism we are buried to the world in the tomb with Christ, and we arise a new man; so too must we think of our daily life.  When approaching others we are to be priest, prophet and king; representatives of a holy Kingdom, of Christ himself.   Our priestly role is to be liturgically present to the church and participate fully in the Mass.  We are a part of the liturgy and with the Bishop, Priests, and Deacons; we the body of Christ offer ourselves up sacramentally as a living sacrifice to be united with Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  As prophet(s) we are to be ever willing and ready to speak the word of God, by internalizing it and living the spirit of the Gospels in front of and TO every person we meet. The true King, Christ himself came as a servant, so too must we as king be servants to other, ready to pour ourselves out as a living libation in the world.

Through the sacrament of Reconciliation we are able to heal the damage we have done to our relationship with God, but also we are able to restore ourselves to right community with the body of Christ.   The grace of Christ pours out into our hearts and through the actions of our penance we are able to make 'right', what we have put wrong.  When we live this sacrament out in the world we too should be channels of grace that pour out our forgiveness to others and want to draw them closer to Christ and his church.

Through the sacrament of Confirmation we can say a resounding Yes, just as Mary, the mother of God, gave her fiat; so too must we say to Christ “Let it be done to me according to thy word.”  As living members sealed by this Sacrament, we must also go into the world renewed with energy and joy, allowing Christ to be created in us so that we can then in turn bring him into the world.  A spiritual rebirth that begins with the humbling of ourselves to do his will.

I think to sum up, as I have gone longer than a single page, the sacramental character of our lives means that we as Catholic Christians should live in the world in the exact same way we live at the Altar.  All too often we see church as an action we do on Sunday, living one way in front of the priest, and another in the parking lot on the way back into our lives.  Until we begin to not just internalize the Sacraments but to live them out fully in our lives, so that the person we are is starting to look like the person that God created us to be, can we truly begin to be the body of Christ in a world that so very much needs us!  It is only by allowing grace to flow through our lives and to restore us to the fullness of humanity that God bestowed upon our first father and mother, and restored to us through the second Adam and second Eve, Jesus and Mary, that we can begin to truly live out what we pray in the Our Father, “Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”