Getting to Know You

In the readings for tomorrow's daily Mass, the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas,  we continue our survey of the second book of Samuel.   In this particular reading we see King David's response to God's promise to him.  God has just promised him an everlasting kingdom, that David's throne will last forever.  David wanted to build a house for God, but instead God built an eternal home for David!  We see David as the quintessential king of the Jewish earthly Kingdom.  Scripture claims that David was a man after God's own heart. (Acts 13:22)  This particular pericope shows us exactly why.  David's response is not to gloat, his response is not to cheer and brag;  no, David responds with great humility.  He wonders in a prayer of thanksgiving who he is, or who his family is that God has even allowed them to come this far, let alone make such a generous and merciful offer to him.   He prays for his people.  He submits himself to God's will completely, proclaiming God's words to be truth and life.

David realizes as the Church proclaims today that God's word is truth.   It can be trusted.   It does not return to him void, but it accomplishes the task for which it was sent. (Isaiah 55:11, CCC 215)   That's because God himself is truth.  He doesn't just have that characteristic, but he is the source of all truth.  (CCC 2465)  That is why we as Catholics do not believe in relativism.  We believe that truth itself is static, it does not change.  That's because truth exists outside of ourselves.  If it only existed inside of us, as some sort of intellectual endeavor, then every person is right.   That would mean believe that Hitler, Bundy, Stalin, etc. were all right in their actions.  Their belief that people should be murdered was truth... it just wasn't our truth.  "You do you, and I'll do me" the kids say.  "We will agree to disagree."  "Your truth is yours, but I believe...."  That is a dangerous slope.  One I do not wish to tread down.

Jesus gives us another way.  He tells us in the Gospel that the light of God cannot be hidden under a basket, but that God's word must be placed like a city on a hill, for all the world to see.  God's truth is not something that is hidden, it's not some Gnostic truth that can only be found with the right words, right rituals, or right amount of intelligence.  Rather, God's truth is evident through reason, logic, and rational thought.  Nature itself calls out to the existence of God and to the basic truths of our universe.  God has given us a Natural Law, one that calls out to not only his existence, but to an order.... It calls out to a static truth, a source of truth outside the human experience, a truth that says some things are just wrong... period.. no matter who does them, no matter what they believe... It says that in essence, it doesn't matter what your opinion or my opinion is.. the truth is not affected by opinion.. but exists in and of itself.

Saint Thomas Aquinas saw this miraculous nature of the universe and spent a great deal of his life studying and writing about it.   His genius has formed the philosophical nature of our faith as we have come to know it today, and has been a major influence on mankind.  He was indeed a light for God, shining throughout time to lead people to the truth.  He worked tirelessly to explore proof of God through scientific and philosophical means, and indeed wrote many documents proving just that. As a Protestant I believed in Scripture Alone... oh, how sad that must make the Father when he has given us such beautiful insight into his nature throughout the ages.  Two thousands years of writing completely ignored, reason and logic out the window, a church pushed to the side out of ignorance.. yes, a city on a hill that Luther tried to put a basket over.

You see, the Catholic church sees dogma as a light along the path of faith, a light to illuminate our path and make our footing secure. (CCC 89) God shines his light into the darkness and nothing is hidden from it.  There is a catch though.  In order for us to be the light of the world, we must come into a closer union with Christ.  It is a shame when the love of Christ is hidden behind a lukewarm spirituality.  His heart must ache terribly at all the grace that is refused by his children out of their own free will.  We must find a way to express that light, to bring that heart out into the world.  It finds its fullest expression in mercy, peace and love.

Those were the qualities of King David that God saw as a heart after his own.  A merciful, peaceful, loving King.  You and I are baptized as Priest, Prophet and King.  Jesus Christ is the epitome of that role.  Thomas Aquinas saw him as the ultimate end, the meaning to all things.  If you want to understand peace?  Look at Christ on the cross.  You want to understand joy?  Look at Christ on the cross.  You want to understand the beatitudes?  Look at Christ on the cross.  You want to understand patience?  Look at Christ on the cross.  You want to understand mercy?  You guessed it, Christ on the cross... Obedience.. humility... despising earthly things... detachment.. all found in this one man, this one figure, this one God.  

Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire that which he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.  (Collatio 6 super Credo in Deum)

Aquinas saw the glory of who God was.  He wrote volumes upon volumes about the mystery of God.  In the end though, he came to realize that God was so much more than we can describe with mere words.  God is so immense, so beyond understanding that Saint Thomas declared before his death when asked to continue writing he simply stated "I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me."  At that point Thomas had gone beyond the point of trying to capture God in mere words, and sought only Christ himself.  He desired only one thing for all his labor, Jesus.

We have much to learn.  Knowledge is indeed important.  St. Jerome said "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." (CCC 133) We need to spend time with the written word of God in order to understand who God truly is.  Reading the writings of Saint Thomas and the early Church Father's is a worthwhile endeavor, something we should all strive for.   The wealth of information there is something beyond value, something that should never been hidden or taken lightly.  However, the goal is not knowledge.. it's relationship.  The goal is Christ himself.  It's not getting ot know an equation, but a person.   It's not memorizing a text, but having a conversation. 

Jesus taught his disciples in parables.  Those parables were not intended to be hidden and coveted as a knowledge that only a select few were given.  Rather, they were to become the teaching of his Church.  His Church is here to lead us, to guide us, to teach us... but more especially to bring us into relationship with the God of the universe.  That's what the Sacraments are all about.  That's what the Eucharist is all about.   Book learnin' can only take us so far.. we must spend time with Him.. we must receive Him.. we must listen directly to Him.  That is why the Sacred Scriptures declare that the Church is the pillar and source of truth (1 Timothy 3:15), and the Church in turn declares that the Eucharist is the source in summit of our faith(CCC 1324), because in the end this is about a marriage... between God and man.  You have been invited to that great wedding feast, as both a guest, and as a member of the bride..... In the end, it's all about Christ!  Do you know your husband?  Do you know your Lord?  It's time to get whatever is standing in the way out of the way, to look up at Him during the Mass and say "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief."  (Mark 9:24)

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Where's the bread?

Refugee Holy Familyby Angel Valdez

The readings for today could not be more apropos for so grand a Saint as Saint John Neumann.  To be a Saint means to have embodied what it is to live the Christian life faithfully and in imitation of Christ.  This Saint did so in a powerful way that should inspire each of us to live more fully the calling we have received and taken up in our Baptism.  We are indeed the body of Christ.  We should be reaching out to the poor, the down trodden, the alien, the refugee. Have we forgotten that in our affluent society?  Mayhaps even all of us are taken with a bit of this 'afluenza' that is so conveniently tossed around as a medical condition these days?

In the first reading we see this powerful line: Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.   How poetic and difficult this one line is to hear.  Jesus challenged us to love not just our friends, not just our family, not just those who are good to us.. but even those who are our enemies, those we cannot stand, those who turn our stomach into a wrestling ring for our dinner.  Yet, if we do not know love.. we do not know God. 

Then we see an image of Christ's love in the Gospel, the feeding of five thousand.  Christ asks his disciples to give them food to eat, and they remind of that old Wendy's commercial, "Where's the beef?"  “Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?”  "Where are we gonna get that kind of bread Master?"  Here they are with God himself and still haven't figured it out.  Jesus, the Word, has already equipped them with everything they need to feed this crowd.   They've seen him cast out demons, heal the sick, bring the dead to life, calm the storms.  He has proven himself the master of all, from the body to nature itself.  Then he says something as simple as 'feed my flock' and they wonder how it can be done.  Jesus of course already knew the answer, and his command over the very laws of nature itself is demonstrated for the glory of God in the multiplication of loaves... taking what would normally only feed a few souls and feeding thousands with more left over than that which he started with.

When Saint John Neumann came to America to be ordained a priest, the church he was assigned over had no steeple or floor.   That did not deter him.  Even though his Parish stretched across an amazing distance, from Western New York to Lake Ontario, he travelled on foot to visit the coal miners, the sick, the immigrant.  When he found that a great deal of his congregation spoke Gaelic, and remember this is a time of severe persecution for the Irish immigrant, he learned the language himself that he might hear their confessions.  He who had been given the Bread of Life, took it directly to the people, celebrating Mass with them even at times on their own kitchen tables.

That's what you and I are called to do, in the means of our own vocations.  You see, love is not love without another.  One can say they love themselves, but that is truly ego.  Love is love when it is given.  That is why we believe God to be a trinity... because God is love.  Yet, even though the Father and the Son loved one another, so much so that it became another person, that love was not held on to for just themselves.   No, it poured out.. it overflowed... it came out into the universe, creating and building... for us.  A love that to this day calls out to us and seeks us, asking us to become one with it.  God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him.  God wants us to be partakers of his divine essence, to live for eternity with Him, to become like Him.   We have received that promise thorugh Baptism, been strengthened through Confirmation, and renew our covenant and relationship with him through the Sacraments.   That's not all though. It doesn't end there.

Jesus said, “Give them some food yourselves.”   He multiplied the bread, but he expected the Disciples to provide it.  He multiplies our love, but he expects us to provide it.   Just like Saint John, we must journey out into the world and start providing the bread.   We must reach out with what we have been given, and share it with those who do not have it.  This is on both a physical and spiritual level.  We not only need to share the Word, reaching out to those who do not know Christ, and inviting them into a relationship with him; but we also have to share those blessings we have been given with the world. 

It's so easy to forget that there are those out there who do not have.  In a time of celebration, in a time that is often excessive and gluttonous, there is often a feeling of comfort and joy; and there should be.  We cannot forget the people who have no such comfort.  Christmas of all times is a reminder of refugees, of people fleeing a repressive regime, of a man and woman with a new born child, who are journeying into a country not their own.  Have we forgotten them?  We must ask ourselves, are we looking for the Holy Family?  Do we continue to seek Christ as he seeks a safe place to live?  Remember, at the end of time we will not be judged on degrees, certificates, or eloquence of speech, for not even Moses had that.  What we will be judged on is: when I was naked, did you cloth me?  When I was hungry did you feed me?  When I was thirsty did you give me drink?  When I was in prison did you visit me?

At the end of Mass we are given a sending, a message from the Church to it's body... It is not a time to go home and go back to a normal worldly life.  It is a calling from Christ to go forth, and glorify God with your life.  It is a calling for you to reach out to the alien, the widow and the orfan.  It is Christ saying, "Give them some food yourselves."   He will take your meager offering and turn it into a feast worthy of a King.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

The Bears Win!

Today's readings are quite intense.  Since we are less than a day away from Advent it would be expected that the intensity grows, and so it does!  We see all these strong apocalyptic images of great beasts rising up and devouring, and then falling away to the next beast.  What are these images about?  Apocalyptic literature is always kind of scary and many people spend the majority of their lives trying to find out who these people are, not just in the past but some try to interpret them as in the present.  The point of the literature, though it can be prophetic and often was, is to point to righteousness and faith being the key to redemption.  They almost always end with the judgement seat of God and the end of time.

The lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) represent strength and characteristics of kingdoms to come and go.   Just as you and I would be scared if a bear walked into our living room, let alone a bear with three large tusks; so too was the imagery intended to convey a message.  That message is that these kingdoms that are coming and going are very powerful, savage and cruel.  They all fall though.  This scene in Daniel ends with the coronation of the Son of Man coming on the clouds.  Jesus is in charge.  These kingdoms, despite their power and guile, will all fall away.. the only Kingdom that reigns forever is that of the Messiah, of the Christ.  This is the promise of the Davidic throne, this is the promise to us through Christ, the only begotten Son of God. 

Then we see this interesting parable that talks about figs, and signs of the times.  Just like in the apocalyptic literature we see symbols of what is going on in the world politically at the time, we see Jesus teaching us to keep our eyes and ears open.  He talks about the fact that we see the buds of the fig trees ready to burst forth and that shows us that summer is almost here, so too should we keep our minds open for the coming of Christ.  He also taught us though, that only the Father will know that day.  So what does he mean?  He means to be vigilant.  To be ready.

I was trying to learn more about figs earlier today, to see how this parable could apply to my life.  I grew up helping to tend bee hives occasionally.   I had heard quite a bit about bees and how they pollinate the food we eat, helping things to grow and reproduce.  I did not know that wasps also for some plants do the same thing.  Figs have a special kind of wasp that not only pollinates the fruit but also lays it's eggs there.  The queen crawls into the fig, lays her eggs, in the process pollinates the inside of the fruit, and then she dies.  She is consumed by the fig. 

That's a strange relationship.  The thing is, if you ask me about wasps I truly think of them as a terror.  Compared to bears, lions, eagles... a wasp is much scarier to me.  I don't know why.  Their little faces make me think of pure evil.  That to me is the lesson I take from this whole situation.  I think of the wasp as evil, as those things inside of me that get in the way of me letting God have complete control.  Just like the fig I often think these things are for my good.  I let them crawl around inside, not really asking what to do with them.  The fig teaches us a lesson though.  When we have those things inside we need to dissolve them.  We need to let the Jesus inside of us consume those things, drive them out... leaving nothing but the fruit inside. 

I think that's our lesson.  As the liturgical year ends, our minds begin to think of the end of time.  We don't know when that will come.  We don't know exactly what that will look like, or what it means for us to transition from life to eternity.  What we do know is that we need to be ready.  We need to let the Holy Spirit scatter the darkness in our hearts until nothing is left but the sweetness of His fruits.  As my dear friend Kenn often says, "Get ready, be ready, stay ready."  Don't wait till tomorrow, don't simply watch for signs of things to come.. but be ready regardless of what is happening.  Don't let your lamp go empty, keep the fuel handy at all times.

His servant and yours,
Brian

The Noble Heading to Another Country

In today's Gospel there is this interesting parable.  Last night when reflecting on the Gospel, I was drawn to the gold coins and what they represent.  Today though it struck me, that this was a very important key to that whole exchange.

While people were listening to Jesus speak, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the Kingdom of God would appear there immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went off to a distant country to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.

Why is this important to understanding the truth of the parable? I think it is in the key of who Jesus is, and not who they thought he was going to be.  As in the first reading, the Jewish people were well aware of the fact they were still under oppression from Roman rule.  They had been beaten down for many, many years.  Here they were expecting deliverance.  They wanted to see God fulfill that promise he made to David when he said, "And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever." 

How confusing it must have been for the people who thought that Israel would have a king forever.  Then not only did they lose their king, but they also lost Jerusalem itself.  It was destroyed completely and they were carted off into captivity.  Trying to make sense of that they began to develop the theology of the Messiah.  It was he they were waiting for.  It was he they thought Jesus to be, and they were right in thinking so.  The problem was they expected him to be a military leader.  Just like David of old, like the judges, someone to rise up against their enemies, and rebuild the kingdom.  King David's kingdom was a time of unrivaled prosperity.  Everyone had everything they needed, food, wealth, etc.   It was what they longed to be returned to. 

Here was Jesus approaching Jerusalem and the people around him thought the Kingdom of God was about to be manifest.  Even though Jesus had been telling them over and over that he would have to go into Jerusalem and die, they thought he was going to rise up as King and overthrow Israel's political enemies.  So Jesus tells us this parable.  What does it mean though?  Well, Jesus is the nobleman in the story.  Jesus is warning them that what they think is going to happen, is not exactly what is going to occur.  He has to go to another country, he has to journey back to where he came from, that is to Heaven, in order to become King.  

This parable is all about his crucifixion.   He is also telling us what we must do while he is gone.  That's where the gold coins come in, and that's where my blog from last night starts off.  (Are you ready to give an account?)   Are we ready to show Him when he returns as king what we have done with his gifts?   As we approach the end of the liturgical season we are reminded through our readings that one day will come the end of time.  That at that end of time we will be called forward to give an account of what we have done with the things God has given us.  As we approach this weekends Mass, let us prepare ourselves for an encounter with Christ the King. 

He has gone to prepare a place for us.  Are you ready?  Get ready.   Be ready.  Stay ready.

His servant and yours,

In Christ,

Brian

Know That He is Near

A reflection on the readings for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary time. 

Many years ago when I was a young man in college, the power had gone out in the entire neighborhood.  I decided to walk to my mothers house for dinner.  I knew that no matter what, she and my father would be prepared for the dark.  They'd have a fire or something going and be cooking somehow.  I don't remember why I chose to walk instead of drive, maybe I didn't have a car at the time.  That was often the case back then with only one car and two people working. 

I remember stepping out into the moonless night, with no lights on anywhere.  At first it was so dark I could see nothing.  I even recall putting my hands out in front of me as I walked, as if I were recently blinded and trying to find my way along with my fingers.  Stumbling through the dark I was completely unable to see.  Oh how dark things seemed.  I remember jumping at sounds in the woods, flinching at what I thought might be a snack or animal in the road.  I eventually began to adjust to the dim light of the stars and began to make out the true details of my surroundings.  By the time I actually got to my parents home my eyes had adjusted, and I could see decently in the dark.  How bright the candles seemed when they opened the door to me, even enough to be painful to my eyes. It was warm though, welcoming, even wanted!

To me, this is what Apocalyptic literature is like.  It seems dark at first.  Even a bit scary.  The end goal of it is not to scare you though.  It is not to place you in darkness, but to help you find a warm, welcoming light at the end. When I was a protestant years ago these readings made me a bit scared, even enough that I often scanned the news and the radio looking for 'signs', constantly worrying about the second coming and the 'rapture.'  I no longer worry about these things.  Why?  Because the second coming is not something to be scared of.  It's something to long for.  It's something to pray for, and be ready for every day.

I think that like the dark night I stepped out into, we too are walking in a dark night now.  Our eyes in this world are used to the amount of light that is here.  The sun, the moon, the stars... all of these are the light we have become accustomed to.  In my mind and heart, that is what Jesus is talking about when he says "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it's light."  That at the second coming, when the brilliance of the Son of God is revealed, the rest of the light we are used to will be so dim that it will not even be of relevance.  Like that candle in my mom and dad's house, his light will be so bright that if I were to even think of stepping back into the star lit world it would be so dark my eyes would not longer even pick out the details.  I'd be stumbling in the dark again, holding my hands out before me for fear of falling.

The thing is though, we do not have to be fearful of that day, nor even to wait for that day to have our world illuminated.  While, yes, Jesus Christ will be coming again at the end of time, he's already here among us now.  We can draw closer to God daily, through the Sacraments, through His Church, and through each other.  This is a beautiful thing, but also like the scene above, has a truth that should be cautioned.  The closer you get to the light, the darker 'darkness' is.  The closer you draw to Jesus Christ in this life, the more your sin will seem.  Things that seem small now will stand out much, much more as you draw nearer to the source of all holiness.

When I was working in the construction field one of the first things I liked to do was hang the lights.  I'd even hang them before a ceiling was anywhere near in place.  Using temporary wiring I would try to have the entire building lit up brightly before even the floor was poured.  This was great for people working, giving them plenty of light to work with.  It also brought out every imperfection, even speck of dust, and every 'mess' that someone left.   A counter that might seem clean in a dimly lit room can turn out to have quite a bit of crud when you truly light it up.  So too our souls. 

The devil will try to use that against you.  The closer you get to God, the more Satan will try to convince you that you do not deserve it.  He will try to convince you that God would never forgive you.  That little speck of dust will look so immense when compared to the brightness of God himself.  Don't let him draw you away from God and His mercy.  God will forgive you!  Draw closer to the light.   Seek the Sacraments.  Seek His face.  So that you may be among those who "shall live forever" and not those who "shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace."  Keep walking in the darkness of this light, searching for the light of Christ.  This is our hope as Christians!  That we might find our Father's house, and the place He has prepared for us.  That when the end of our time comes, we might be welcomed into His abode and be prepared for the light that will wash over us.  A light so bright that everything behind us will seem dim and dark, as the Sacred Scriptures affirm:

And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:5

His servant and yours,
In Christ,
Brian