The saying goes: “Hindsight is 20/20.” We cannot see the future as well as we can the past. Abraham here is going on trust alone as God Himself passes through the animals which have been torn asunder. (Click the Link/Image to read more)

2017-06-28
Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr
Lectionary: 373
GN 15:1-12, 17-18
PS 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
MT 7:15-20

The saying goes: “Hindsight is 20/20.”  We cannot see the future as well as we can the past.   Abraham here is going on trust alone as God Himself passes through the animals which have been torn asunder.   The symbolism of this primitive ritual is rife with imagery but I think most telling is that God is the only one involved in the Covenant at this point.   It is not because Abraham has performed anything other than believing.   It is his faith that is credited to him as righteousness.   The covenant is a free gift given to mankind by a God who loved them so much that He would rather be torn asunder, like the sacrificed animals, before going back on His word.   That is because God is the truth.   He cannot go back on His word any more than light itself can be darkness or warmth can be cold.

Abraham’s faith was on God’s words but without the ability to see the future.   Unlike God, who is outside of time itself, we cannot see tomorrow or the next day.   We can only guess and hope that the things we imagine will come to fruition.   That doesn’t mean that we can simply go through life not working for those things which we want to achieve.   We must become the change we want to see in the world.  Like Abraham, we must not only rest in God’s presence as God does the work but also set out on the journey as God directs.   It is in the journey that we come to know not only ourselves but see glimpses of God in creation in each other.

How then do we know who to listen to?   Who has the right “message”?   Which person has the Gospel that is the truth?  By their words and their works.   Many will tell you that you do not need to “do anything” to be a Christian.   Jesus reminds us time and again that yes, we are saved by Grace and Grace alone, but we must work!  “Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot, therefore, rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved. However, according to the Lord's words "Thus you will know them by their fruits."  (CCC 2005)

That is how we know those who speak the truth, by how they exhibit it in their lives.   That doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, though we should be striving to be better day by day.  What it does mean is how we respond to our failures.   Do we respond by being despondent and depressed?  Or coming to Christ in the Sacraments and offering our lives back to Him again and again?   Conversion can mean a mountain top moment.   You know, those moments when your life turns inside out and change happens because of some spiritual awakening from God’s grace.   The thing is Conversion is not just a one-time thing, but something we must do every single second of every single day.

I saw someone who was offended the other day when someone: said “I’ll pray for your conversion.”  I would be happy if each of you would pray for mine, continually.    I don’t want to stop being more like Christ, because I have not arrived.   I need to grow each and every day, using the means of grace that He established through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the authority He set upon His Church.   It is precisely because I cannot see that future, and often have not learned enough from the past, that I need prayers.   It is only through His grace that I can ever give the kind of fruit that I need to give in order that others will know me as one of His.

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

What is the least I can do?

A Reflection on the readings for Friday of the thirteenth week of Ordinary Time, July 1, 2016.

Amos 8:4-6, 9-12
Psalm 119:2, 10, 20, 30, 40, 131
The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 9:9-13


I almost did not write a blog today.  You see, my summer assignment was to write three days a week and every Sunday.   Then I read the readings today after reading Stu and Robert's blog and was convicted by them to look inward and ask myself why I am just doing the bare minimum.  Other weeks I have written all five week days.   This week I just felt down, worn... out of energy.   I had just mowed my yard and was laying back in the recliner when my alarm went off to remind me that we had Eucharist Benediction at 7 tonight.   So I went.  I am glad I did...

"If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude."
- St. Angela of Foligno

You see Amos was talking to the people about something that we ourselves are very guilty of thousands of years later.   The people saw God as a burden, the Sabbath as a loss of money.  They were just punching their card and looking good to the people all the while bemoaning the day of rest that God provided them.  Then they left the temple, left the Sabbath and fixed their scales and cheated others to make up for the money they had lost by keeping their oath.  How often we do that today?  "How late can I show up to Mass? Do I have to hear the readings? Or just be their for communion?"   "When can I leave?  Do I have to wait for the song to be over?  The blessing?  Or just for the priest to leave the room?"  "Do I have to go this Thursday?  Is it a holy day of obligation?"  "What can't I do on Sunday?  Should I eat out or stay home?"  Always looking for the least we have to do, instead of realizing the gift we have been given.   Instead of asking "How long can I be there before? What time do the doors open?"  "Can I stay for a few minutes after to spend time with Jesus?"



God warned them that this sort of life of just doing the minimum led to a loss... it would lead to a day when the word of God would be gone from their presence.  A day when creation would realize how horrible a thing had been performed.   That day was on Calvary just around two thousand years ago.  As the Word of God hung on a cross and pronounced it was finished, creation itself groaned and mourned.  The sky darkened as if by night, the ground quaked and shook, the temple veil itself tore from the top to the bottom.  A man standing at the foot of the cross was converted instantly as He saw the Word's demise before his gentile eyes.   "Surely this man was innocent."  What would that be like?  That sense of emptiness?  That sense of longing?   That moment in which we realize that something is wrong, that something is missing from our lives?

"Our hearts are restless, till they rest in thee."  - St. Augustine 

That is exactly what we experience when we sin mortally.   When the Word is no longer visible to us, when the universe itself goes awry and we are unable to find happiness.   The Word comes again to us in the Sacrament of Penance to make us whole, to complete us.  He is resurrected!    He wants you to be resurrected too!   That thing you are missing, that happiness and joy you are seeking.. is found right here, in the Eucharist.. in the Holy Sacraments of the Catholic Church.   Don't just punch your card.. find time for this relationship with the Son.   He wants to be a part of your life and you, you have been seeking Him from the moment of your conception.  It's time to put Him in your schedule first.. then add the rest of the things in your day around Him.   That's when we find joy.. that's when we find love...

So do they know you by that?   The Sacred Scriptures remind us that they will know we are Christians by our love for one another.  A saying attributed to Gandhi goes "I like your Christ.. but I do not like your Christians."   That's because what they see when they look at us alone is creation groaning... our soul darkened and shadow.. our very being quaking and the veil of our soul ripping as it cries out to the world the emptiness it feels when God is taken from it's presence..... Are you ready for Him to come in and fill you so completely that your heart overflows with joy?  It's the year of Mercy.. and Reconciliation is just a moment away.

In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance. - St. Thomas Aquinas

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

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."

Time to put away Childish things.

When we read sacred scripture, especially the writings of and about St. Paul the Apostle, we see such a transformative experience.  Here the man who once persecuted the Christians himself, pulling them into the streets and out of their homes, looking to kill them and destroy them; is coming to the end of his own race.  God has revealed to him via the Holy Spirit that imprisonment and hardships are what await him in the future and that he is running out of time to do the things he has been doing.  How much does one's life have to change in order to go from wanting to spill the blood of the Christians to preaching to everyone he comes across in order to make sure they have the same offer of salvation that he had?

In my teenage years, especially during college, I fell into that branch of Christianity which basically says once you are saved, you can do whatever you want; and I did.   I partied, I drank, I had relationships that were inappropriate.  I still believed very much in Jesus Christ, but I put all of it on God... none of the relationship on me.  That's really the key isn't it?  Relationship can never be one way.  It involves someone else.  Why then do some of us pretend that Jesus is the one who has all the work to do and that all we have to do is skate by?  He never said that.  He never acted that way.   Paul here in this first reading shows us too that even with a direct encounter on the road to Damascus he didn't stop and just quit being a religious man.. but rather went out to "bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace." 

I think as we journey toward Pentecost we should be thinking about our own Baptism, our own moments of conversion.  The Apostles received the Holy Spirit on that day and were emboldened to journey out into the world to preach the Gospel as well.   All of them, including Paul, considered "life of no importance" to them. Rather, all they considered of importance was spreading the Gospel to as many people as they could, to bring about God's will, God's Kingdom, right here on earth. You and I received that same Spirit and that same Mandate when we became Christian.   It's no longer enough to live as a young man, putting all of a relationship on someone else, expecting all the perks of being the family but none of the responsibility. "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me."   

You and I are no longer children.  That's what it means to be an adult.. to stop simply existing off of someone else, and begin to take our own place in society.   To start taking on responsibility for our actions and to stand accountable for our failures.  St. James wrote it so eloquently in his letter: Faith without works is dead.  You show me your faith without your works.. and I will show you my faith through my works.   Are we ready for that?  To stop letting our hormones and emotions control our lives and instead to work for God's version of justice, for God's version of mercy?  You see our world has taken justice and mercy and made it about I, about our own egos... what the world owes me...   My rights, my entitlements.   Rather God challenges us to reach out into the world and worry about the other.  The broken, the poor, the widow, the orphan.   The refugee.  The downtrodden.  The oppressed.  The illegal alien.  God's mercy demands that we worry about them, not I.   It involves agape love, self sacrificial giving.  

I'm not there.  I worry too much about me.   Respect.  I tend to demand it.   I want it.  I get upset when I don't get it.  God challenges me instead to become meek, merciful and to leap for joy when men treat me wrongly.  How do I get there?  There is only one road, one path to Heaven.   Only one food which can prepare us for this transformative journey, a food that when eaten does not get consumed, but rather transforms the person who receives it.   That is the Eucharist.  Receive it often, receive it reverently, and receive it disposed towards God's grace.. and watch as he transforms you from a child... into the image of Christ you were created to be.    That's what discernment is about.   If there is anything I've learned from my Diaconate classmates this past year is that growing up requires sacrifice, it requires effort, and above all it requires trusting in God's grace.  Are you ready to make that leap?   

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

Let Him Ask Again

There are so many things we try to do to get good health.  One doctor tells you to eat high fat, another high protein, another no fat, low protein.  One high carb, another low carb.  This one tells you to use aromatherapy.   Another to take this pill and that.  Yet another tells you to avoid pills and simply stick needles into certain places of your body.  All of them claim to have the answer.  It becomes quite confusing to the average person to try and figure out exactly what they should do and eat, what they should put in their bodies, what they should avoid... Yet we find people going to great lengths, eating extreme diets, concocting various potions and chemicals, all in the search of adding a few years to their life.

How many times in the movies have we seen people take upon themselves these massive quests to find a cure, or to save the one they love.  Indiana Jones risked his life navigating the maze of death to get the holy grail that he might save his father who had been shot with a bullet.  He was willing to risk his life for just the chance that he might save his dad.  In other movies we see people seeking rare flowers in the heights of the trees in the jungle, seeking out estranged guru's hidden from sight in order to find the secret to their condition, or even like Eddie Murphy, climbing the highest peaks of some strange country to find a temple to retrieve a scroll that will save many lives.

We do that still in our own lives sometimes don't we?  We look for the right herbal treatment, or the right natural remedy.  We ask doctors for medicine to cover up our symptoms that we might live a semi-normal life.  If someone told you today that you should load up your family and head to some other continent because the cure for cancer was in a plant in the middle of the desert, would you pack up that loved one and head out?  Many of us would.  If my daughter were dying and I were told I had to climb the highest mountain to pick a blooming rose on the 3rd of december at midnight, I'd likely be willing to do it...

The thing is though, it's Divine Mercy Sunday.  It's a reminder to us that God's mercy is infinite, it's an ocean waiting to be poured out on us.. all we have to do is accept it.  When I was a Protestant I did find God's grace.   God's grace is available to all people.   I'd feel the Holy Spirit at a prayer service, while listening to some preacher on the radio, while praying with some friends at work... yes, his grace was there.   It was though like I was searching in the desert looking for those moments.  Looking up to the dry, blistering sky I would occasionally find relief from the arid world around me. A drop here.. a drop there... just a moment of relief...

Then I found the Church... I found Him.. I found that river of life that Jesus told the woman at the well about.  Instead of a drop here or there... there was enough of God's grace to pour over me, around me, and through me... all of it right there in the Eucharist.  How much of that grace has God offered to the world and the world refused?  In the Divine Mercy Chaplet we pray about the fount of life, unfathomable divine mercy.. An ocean of mercy so deep it can never be sounded.  An ocean of mercy that is beyond comprehension, God himself, descending into a piece of bread... something defenseless... to allow me to receive Him into my body... to place that Mercy into me.. to consume it.. to let it flood through my body and change me.. to help me to grow into Him.. to be more like my savior and my Lord..

We seek concoctions, potions, spells and incantations to cure things which are temporal....... To ease the symptoms of a much less serious illness than that of apathy, that of spiritual sloth.  Do we realize how important Mass is?  How important it is to receive Jesus Christ; body, soul and divinity; into our own body to help us become what he intended us to be?  It's not enough to just receive that Mercy.. it's not enough to just tap into this ocean and consume enough for our own needs... No.. you see, you are a conduit.. The Eucharist fills you up, just like a cup... if you are full?  There's no more room.  God didn't design us to be just a cup.. He designed us to be little Christ's.... to pour ourselves out, like Christ did on the cross.. to take this living water and turn it into a transforming flood to mold the world into the image of His kingdom.

Are you ready for that?  To go out into the world and give away what you have been given?  To hand the mercy and forgiveness you have experienced through God's abundant grace and love to those who need it most?   The widow, the orphan, the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed.. and yes, to your enemies.. to those you like the least.. to those who are most unlike yourself... That's what God is calling you to.  He is coming before you in the Eucharist and saying to you, as he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”  Now it's up to us.. to say back to Him... to look up at the Mercy of God himself, to look up at Jesus in the Eucharist, and to say with Mary, the Mother of God, and all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, "My Lord and my God!”

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

I'm not ready.

It's the end of Lent.  Today marks the start of the Holy Triduum.  At the Catholic Mass we relive these events that led up to the crucifixion of Christ so that we remember them always.  Tonight is the night that we spend with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, trying to stay awake as we pray with him.  It's also the night where we gather together in the Sanctuary and we watch as our Priest takes off his robes down to just his alb and begins to wash the feet of parishioners from all walks of life, both male and female. There is so much richness, so much treasure, so many pearls of great price to be learned from watching these events unfold before us and hearing the accompanying scriptures pronounced and sung.

It takes me back to my first Easter as a Catholic.  There I was trying to stay awake in the Garden.  I watched as many others walked out within just a few minutes of placing Christ in repose for adoration.  I had uncharitable thoughts.  "What you don't have time to spend more than a minute with Christ?"  "Why are you leaving so soon?" "Lord why can't they stay awake."  It was almost as if I were the Pharisee standing in the temple saying "Thank God I am not like this sinner."  Then the Eucharist caught my attention.  It was as if the Lord was speaking directly to me. "Can you not stay awake with me one hour?" My Lord reminded me that it was not they who were asleep.. but me... I was watching everyone else, but not watching Christ in the Eucharist.. not spending time in prayer with him.  I'll never forget that humbling lesson.

That's part of what is so amazing about being Catholic.  We don't just have a personal relationship with Christ, though we have that.   We also have a communal relationship with him, and better yet, we have a tangible, tactile relationship with him as well.  We believe that when the Priest says the words of consecration, the words that Christ himself gave us, that bread is transformed... that wine is changed... it's not just bread and wine anymore, it's substance has changed.  It is truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and savior.  Think of that for a minute!  He not only comes down to see us, to be with us, to remind us of his presence in a substantial way; but he also allows us to receive him into our bodies to change us.. to mold us.. to bring us into that divine life that he promised.  We don't have to wait for the time after time itself ends for us, but we can experience Heaven right here and right now.

The book of Revelation used to scare me.   I used to spend hour after hour trying to pick out the right people in the news, the right signs, the right 'end of time' events... I was consumed with trying to find out when Armageddon was coming.  Then I read a book called The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn.  That book promoted an idea that was not new, one that the early church fathers held as well, that the book of Revelation was a vision of Heavenly worship.. Oh my how that changed my view of the Church and the Eucharist.. I began to see the flaming lamp stands around the altar, the Priest standing in persona Christi, the angels and saints gathering around and offering their prayers up as incense.. the prayers of the saints on earth... Oh yes, I began to see that God truly was present.. that Revelation was a glimpse of Heaven kissing earth.. A glimpse of the Holy Mass.

So tonight, tomorrow, Sunday... whatever Mass you are attending.. and not just during Easter, but for the rest of your lives.. Lift up your eyes to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar and say with Peter, "“Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”  That's what this is all about.. about the Eucharist.. about Christ himself... about His perpetual sacrifice, his todah to bring us into communion with the Father again.. to bring us into a communion with God that is so amazingly beautiful, but so challenging that in John chapter 6 we see many of his disciples stop following him when offered it.  This is not easy.. Are you ready? To sit with him in the garden?  To walk with him towards Calvary?  To pick up your own cross and head to your own Easter?   Not alone I am not.  I am not ready Lord.. but thanks be to Adonai that he has sent his only son to me in the Sacraments of the Holy Catholic church to help me have to grace to take one step in front of another.

Lord give me the grace to strip myself of all my outer coverings and walls, to expose myself to those who need their feet washed.. the widow, the orphan, the alien... may I be given supernatural humility to put myself to the side and provide for what they need.  May I be a servant leader like you... you who are so humble that you will come down as the most defenseless thing ever.. a piece of bread.. to provide me with everything I need, both physically and spiritually.. May I too pour myself out, may I place myself in the hands of those who are hurting and be a sacrament of your love for them as well.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

An Abomination in the Temple

Tomorrow is the memorial of the Presentation of Mary. This legend, which we have no way of knowing whether it is true or not, is only found in a apocryphal text called the Protoevangelium of James. While there is no requirement that we believe in it, it still teaches some very important truths. That is why it has been celebrated in Christian churches for nearly 1500 years. Documents show that it was celebrated at least as early as the 6^th century. In the story, Mary is dedicated to the temple at the age of three. A pure offering. Immaculate Mary was offered to God to serve him for life. That is not all we can learn from this story, but even if it was it would make it worth while! That it is important for us to work towards becoming Saint, and that we must also dedicate our entire lives to serving the Lord.

In the first reading we see more of the story of the Maccabean revolt. Antiochus has failed to beat down the rebellion and they have fortified the city from his attacks. Here he lies on his death bed, filled with sorrow. He realizes he has defiled the temple for no reason. He has done the exact opposite of what we see in the Presentation. Instead of serving God in his temple, he has defiled the temple. He has put the things he wants in there, not what God wants. Instead of serving God at his altar, he served his own altars, and in the end it caused ruin, anguish, and he began to die from his own grief.

What does that have to do with the story in the Gospel? Here we see the Sadducees testing Jesus again. How do you tell the Sadducees from the Pharisees? Well the Pharisees believe in life after death. The Sadducees do not believe in life after death. That's why they are sad, you see? I know, I know.. I groaned too the first time I heard that joke. Here the Sadducees asked Jesus what happens when a woman, who had been married seven different times, and widowed every time... finally dies and goes to this life after death. They weren't asking because they really wanted to know. After all, they didn't believe in life after death. Rather, they thought that had come up with a situation where Jesus would sound so silly trying to explain it that people would stop listening to them. Jesus, being wise and knowledgeable, of course answers with a very beautiful answer.

Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called ‘Lord’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”

To understand that answer though, it helps to understand the nature of Sacramental Marriage. We as Catholics believe that marriage is a Sacrament. The Catechism of our church says that a Sacrament is “ an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is 'dispensed' to us.” A Sacrament then is not just a visible sign or public statement. In the case of marriage it's not just a contract to be broken, but an actual channel of grace by which God helps us to experience life with Him. That is how we see marriage. That in Sacramental Marriage, God is intimately involved and he gives us the grace to grow as husbands and wives towards perfected love. The kind of love you find in the trinity itself.

We also see marriage as being for two distinct purposes. Unity and procreation. Not just one or the other. Marriage is to draw people closer, to grow in love towards divine love, agape love. It is also for creating new progeny to continue the human race. That is the purpose of intercourse in the mind of the church. To grow in love. To grow life. To co-create with God in this world. What a channel of grace indeed! What then does that have to do with Jesus answer? Jesus answers that in this world we marry. In the world to come we do not. Why would we? After all if marriage is for unity (growth in love) and procreation (continuing the human race), it would not serve much of a purpose in the age to come. We will be perfected there, right? We will love everyone with perfect love. We don't need to grow in that grace in Heaven, we will love our enemies as much as we love our spouse, and even more! Imagine that. Think of the person you love the most right now. Imagine loving them even more. Then think of the person you dislike the most, the person you can't stand to be around... and imagine loving them even more than you love the person you love the most. Yes, in Heaven we won't need that grace, because we will be in the presence of Grace itself.

Why do I bring up these topics? As we approach the Feast of Christ the King, at the end of the liturgical year, we are reminded that one of these days Christ himself will return. As Catholics we should be thinking of that every day. As such, we also should remember that we are the temple of God. Mary has given us the example, of how we should dedicate our lives, and our temple to God. Antiochus reminds us that the wages of sin are death and despair. That when we corrupt our temple, our hearts, our minds.... we find anguish and sorrow. Then Jesus taught us that we should be living here in a way that brings about the kingdom of God, then he gives us a glimpse of what the Kingdom of God looks like. As Catholics, our Sacramental life allows us to experience grace that helps us to grow into that Kingdom. “What we will be we do not yet know.” What we do know is that we don't have to wait till the end of our own time, our own life, to grow into that. We should be growing now.

Society teaches us the opposite. Society has placed abominations on the altar, just like Antiochus. They have taken the Sacraments and reduced them to simple sheets of paper. It has taken the sexual act out of the Sacramental context and turned it into just an action two people do when they like each other, or just want to have fun. They have taken life and reduced it to just a clump of cells. It's so important to see that God is life. He's not 'like' life. He doesn't just provide life.. but he is life. In Heaven we have life for ever, because we are in the presence of life itself. Here we have the opportunity to do the same, by bringing God into our lives in a Sacramental way.

Abortion is something people don't like to talk about. We say things like “I think it's wrong, but who am I to say that someone else can't do it.” We have no problem telling a heroin addict that it's wrong to shoot up. We have no problem telling an alcoholic that he needs to stop drinking. Yet, we balk at stopping someone from offering up a life as a sacrifice to a foreign god. We as a world need to get back to understanding that life is sacred. That it is Sacramental. That we are God's temple. That when we create life we are joining with God, serving God, bringing his Kingdom here. When we destroy life, we are opposing God.. just like Antiochus. We are desecrating his altar, desecrating his temple.

That applies to all the things we do every day. Are you creating life in your actions? Creating love? Building God's kingdom? Or building your own kingdom? Offering sacrifices at your own altar to serve your own wants and needs no matter what the cost?

His servant and yours,

Brian

What Makes for Peace?

In tomorrow's Gospel we see Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem.  "If this day you only knew what makes for peace..."  Oh, how we still today are seeking that answer.  It was right in front of them though.  Jesus Christ is the Kingdom of God.  It was right in front of them and they failed to see it.  Don't we still do that today?  All of us know that peace is to be had by just turning to Christ.  By accepting him into our lives, turning over our burdens, and simply walking as he walked; we will find peace and joy.  Why is it so hard for us humans to turn over that control?

Jesus then goes on to talk about the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  This prophetic statement came to pass in the year 70 A.D.  At that point the temple was destroyed.   The temple was the center of religious life.  It was there that they believed God was.  Today we have this notion that God is everywhere, and so he is.  To the Jews though, he lived in the temple.  You came to him in the temple.  You sacrificed to him in the temple.  For the temple to be destroyed would have been a sign that God no longer rested with the people of Israel.  How confounding that must have been?  To think that God was no longer with you anymore, it was a devastating blow to an already long suffering nation of people.

The real answer lied in who Jesus was though.  They did not realize him to be God among them.  Sure, some thought he was the messiah.  The messiah they wanted though was a military leader, like Mattathias of Maccabees.   They wanted a man who was zealous for the temple, and so Jesus was.  They wanted a holy man who kept the law, and so he was.  They wanted him to raise up an army and destroy their enemies.   In their eyes, he wasn't doing that.  Here he cries for them.  He cries out of love for them and of sorrow for the coming destruction.  He cries because they don't have peace.

You and I don't always have peace either.  We believe in Jesus.   We see him as the Messiah, just as they did.  We see him as the one to fight our battles, to help us keep the law, to be a man of faith, to raise up an army of angels to defend us in battle; all good images.  I think sometimes we see him as the Messiah we want though.. not the one that He truly is.  We limit God to a box.  We take the part of the gospels we want, and reject the parts we don't.   We adhere to the tenants of our faith that make sense to us, and those that confuse us we simply ignore.  "Oh that one, yeah that one I don't agree with, so I just ignore it."  If we truly 'recognized the time of our visitation' would we do such things?  If we truly believed with our entire heart, soul and spirit; would we compromise our faith?

So what do we do?  Once again, the answer lies in the Sacraments.   Let us flee to him as often as we can.   Go to him on your knees and confess your faults.  Receive him in the Eucharist.  Unlike normal bread that you consume, this super substantial bread consumes you.  Let him change you, make you more like him.  Spend time with him in prayer and adoration.  Then, last but definitely not least, share him with others.  Take him out with you into the world and give him to others.  Share your peace.  Only in sharing it can you ever hope to keep it.

As we see these stories in the news of Syrian refugees, being wrested too and fro, rejected and kicked out; we have a unique opportunity to ask ourselves... are we truly at peace?  Is the answer to reject everyone who is not one of us?  Are we to allow fear and fear mongering to convince us that all of these men, women and children are the devil? Or do we need to give it more thought?  The Bible says that what we do for the least of these... we do for Christ, our Lord.  When you look at these refugees, the good, the bad, the young, the old... ask yourself.. am I looking for Christ in them?  Or only worried about my own comfort and safety? 

I am afraid.  I don't know the answer.   I do know this... when I saw that image of the young Syrian child on the sea shore, laying dead in the waves... I too wept.  I wonder if my eyes have been closed for too long, or if I truly realize that Christ is among us.  As we approach the end of the liturgical year, culminating in the feast of Christ the King... we must begin to ask ourselves.. is Christ truly our King?  Do we see him among us?  Or only in those we want to see him in?  Are we ready to give ourselves over completely to Him? 


So I just leave you with Christ's words as he says: "If this day you only knew what makes for peace-but now it's hidden from your eyes."  Let us open our eyes. 



His servant and yours,
In Christ,
Brian

We are unprofitable servants

In tomorrow's readings for the Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, we see an interesting statement from Jesus.  How different things are today in our society, or at least they appear to be.  In the early times of humanity slavery was prevalent and a part of life.  How difficult a life it must have been for the slave to come in from the field and instead of getting to sit down after a long day at work, he must first prepare a meal for his master.  The servant of course did his job, and the parable asks the question "Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?"  An interesting thought isn't it.

Two things I think that I take from this interesting and challenging parable.  First and foremost, I think that we take for granted those around us.  How often we blow up when things don't go the way they should be.  The kitchen sink is full of dishes and we are quick to remind those around us that it should have been done.  The toilet paper is on the counter, just a mere 15 inches from the spool, and someone didn't go ahead and put it on? Someone unloaded the groceries into the cabinet but put the crackers in the wrong cabinet.  Oh, how we will let them know too, won't we? 

Do we though take time to notice when they do the things they are by nature supposed to do?  It's often only when they haven't done their job that we mention anything.  Why didn't you take out the trash?  Why haven't you picked up your room?  Why weren't you outside when I got here to pick you up?  Do we then also thank them when they do those things?  I think most of the time we forget to say a word, and I think that also causes strains on our relationships.   It seems like it's always negative.. never positive.  We need to make sure we say "Thank you for taking out the trash."  "I really appreciate it that you were on time today."  "Wow you're room looks nice, thanks for picking it up."  Are we treating our family like family? Or like we are their master and they our slaves?

The other thing though, in a more spiritual sense, is that the parable teaches us something very powerful about our relationship with God.  Saint Paul calls himself "a slave for Christ Jesus."  Often times we don't like that word.  The thing is though as Catholics we do indeed belong to our God.  We have obligations to Him, not to earn anything.. not to merit heaven, not to 'rack up' points.. but rather, because we are in a relationship.  God has come to be with us and he has said, "Look if you want to be in a relationship with me, this is how you need to act.. and this is how I will act."  "I will be your God and you will be my people." 

Too many think we Catholics think we are earning our way to heaven.  I think some Catholics even think that way.  The thing is salvation is by grace, and grace alone.  We don't earn it. We don't have to get more good points than bad points.  No, we believe that Jesus did everything necessary for us to get to Heaven on the cross.  It doesn't end there though.  It's up to us to continue and apply that to our lives.  We are His people now.  We do what we do because it's how we are supposed to act. We are His people, and as the Scripture proclaims, "They will know you are my disciples if you love one another."  Grace is free. We must take it though, and use it.. apply it.. spread it into the world. Not because we will be rewarded for doing what we should be doing.. .no, much like the slave, we shouldn't expect thanks for doing it.. it's just what we should be doing by our nature...

I think though that this parable also challenges us to go beyond just that "which we ought to do."  Too many think of our faith in simple terms of "what is the least I can do to get to Heaven."  Rather, we don't want to be unprofitable servants who have just done what "we are obliged to do."  No, we want to go above and beyond.  We want to do not just the bare minimum, but to do the most we can.  It's not about the part we have to give, it's about giving it all.  It's about giving your very life, every ounce of energy, every thought, every word, every penny, every single second of your time for the Kingdom of God.  It's about getting to the point where we aren't looking for a reward at the end, but we are just giving it all because we love God, and we love our neighbor.  It's about running that race, one day at a time.. in hopes that we can cross the finish line..   It's not a bar to hit, not a minimum to achieve.. it's a relationship.. with a person named Jesus.

How do you want to cross the line into Heaven?  Do you want to come across the line and Jesus look at you and say "You are an unprofitable servant.  You have only done what you were obliged to do."  Or do you want him to say, "Well done my good and faithful servant," and again, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. "


I don't know about you... but I've got some work to do. Are you with me?

His servant and yours,
Brian

Stooped Shoulders

Today in the Gospel Reading from the Gospel of Saint Luke we see this beautiful healing take place.  This elderly woman with some condition that made it to where she could not even stand up straight, who had been crippled for eighteen long years, was chosen by God to be healed not just spiritually but physically as well.   What happens though when Jesus releases this poor woman from her suffering?   You would think every person would be cheering and shouting praises to God... but there are even then naysayers (thank God we don't have those anymore right? ;) ) 

Jesus, you know you're not supposed to be working on the Sabbath.. and here you have healed this woman.  They weren't just upset.. they were indignant!  The dictionary says that indignant means anger or annoyance at what was perceived as unfair treatment, offensive, or insulting. They were upset, not that he cured her, but that he cured her on the Lord's Day!  Think about that for a minute!  The rules say not to work.. but he just went ahead and did it.  He rebukes them and 'humiliates' them, because he calls out their hard hearts.  Here this woman is for almost two decades unable to even stand up, and they are upset not because she is cured, but because he went outside their 'box' of what they felt he should do.

What does that mean to me?  As a man who spent a few years unable to stand up straight, unable to walk for days at a time, and still lives in constant pain;  it speaks very much to my heart.   It reminds me though that there is a truth to something here that cannot be overlooked.   We as Christians do not just take a fundamentalist approach to the scripture, we look deeper.   We look for a spiritual truth inside there.  The thing I find when I address it spiritually is that it is often not the person who needs the physical healing, that is the one stooped over in bondage to the devil. 

I think the message here from Jesus is that the people who were really "crippled" were the ones who were indignant at the healing.  She was physically bound, sure.  Jesus never just addressed the physical though.  All of his healings were to call out to the spiritual needs of those who witnessed them.  What was her response to being healed?  She immediately glorified God!  Her spirit was standing upright and erect long before her body ever did!   The leader of the synagogue though?  He began to grumble, you didn't follow the discipline, you didn't stick to the law.. he never praised God, he never talked about how good it was she was healed, he just got angry!  He was still stooped over in bondage.  Bondage to the law, bondage to sin. 

I think that speaks to us in many ways.   How often are we in bondage to sin?  How often do we let our own ego, our own pride, get in the way of God's plan?  In what ways am I stooped down, letting my own 'plans' get in the way of me seeing what God wants for me?  Am I standing up and glorifying God when someone else gets a blessing or am I grumbling and indignant in the background? As I watch my friend Paul Ortman confined to bed, with one leg broken, and his body already in worse condition than I have ever been from Polio, I see a man who is standing up straight before God.  His joy and his gratefulness has not diminished.  His good attitude shows that he still trusts, even if he's not happy with his current situation.  Are we there?  Would we be standing up spiritual praising God from a hospital bed or wheelchair?  Or would we be stooped over, grumbling?

As from the first reading, we are reminded.. our natural state is not to be stooped, but to be standing tall glorifying God.  As Saint Paul said, "For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption,
through which we cry, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

Call out to Abba today, call out to your spiritual Dad and say God, my dad, my father... lift me up.. Help me to remove whatever is keeping me stooped over, so that I might stand with joy and glorify you with my words and actions today!

In Christ,
His Servant, and yours,

Brian

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.”

Will you let me be your servant?

This morning I had the wonderful privilege of leading a communion service for our parish.  About 6:30 as the kids were getting ready for school, I was in the living room preparing for my role.   Between helping find hair brushes and signing papers for school I read vocally and re-read the readings for the day.   I prayed that God would provide me with a lector for the day (since our normal lector for Friday's was on a mission of mercy, and of course God provided.)   Around 6:45 I began to pick out the hymn we would sing (which is also normally done by the same gentleman and brother who is the lector on Fridays.)

So much to the joy of my children just before 7:00 they were serenaded (notice how that word reminds you of a grenade?) with my wondrous rendition of "will you let me be your servant."    Now I'm one of those guys  that gets music lyrics completely wrong. From Like a Cheestick (like a g6) to Rock the Catbox (casbah), I've gotten them wrong for years.   So I wasn't surprised at all this morning when I sang the wrong lyrics to this song, to which my eldest of course corrected me.


"Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you, pray that I may have the strength to..."

From behind a closed door in the back of the house a disembodied voice bellowed "It's grace!"  "What?"  "I said it's grace!"   "What!?"  The door opens and she says "I said it's grace, not strength.. the lyrics are 'pray that I may have the grace'.  The door closes.

Isn't it funny how sometimes God corrects us through others?  How that something so simple as her just being herself was a moment of 'ah ha' to me?   There is such a huge difference in me having the strength, and me asking for the grace to let you be my servant too.  It reminded me immediately of the scene where Jesus says he's going to wash Peters feet and impetuous Peter declares Lord no!  You will never wash MY feet. Jesus then tells him If I do not wash your feet, you will have no part of me.   Then here I was this morning crying out with Peter, Lord then wash not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!

All too often we forget to humble ourselves enough to accept God's grace.  He offers to do something for us and we turn our back on it, lifting ourselves up and saying I don't need that!   Our pride gets in the way.  It's when we try to do things on our own strength that we find ourselves falling back into those same old sins.  You know when you say "I've got this beat, I haven't done XXXXX in weeks, I have finally mastered myself."  that we fall.   When we rather turn to God and say "I'm not strong enough to do this on my own.   I need you.  Please heavenly Father, send me strength, send me grace, send me help;"  that is when we find ourselves able to resist and live a Christ like life.

We often hear that saying that God will not give us more than we can handle.  I'm not sure I agree with that.  Sometimes I think God allows us just a bit more so that we can break, so that we can say "God I'm not strong enough for this.. help me carry my Cross.."  So today I ask, and pray;  will you let me be your servant?

How can church Doctrine help me grow closer to God?

How Can Accepting the Doctrine of the Church help you come closer to God?

As a convert to the Catholic faith, the organic nature of the development of doctrine is something that I have experienced first hand.  During my formative years I began to do what is most common in the Protestant denominations; that is I began to church shop.  Many protestants are taught that the bible is the sole authority of their faith, and that they should continue looking for a church until they find one that teaches the bible and only the bible.  The problem then becomes whose version of interpretation is the correct one? Who is the authority who has the final say in interpretation? The Holy Spirit of course is the answer, but in the physical world we also have to have someone speaking via the Holy Spirit to make decisions in matters of  faith.

One of my first memorable experiences of this sort of process in action was in a church in rural southwest Virginia.  As the preacher began his sermon for the day, he began talking about another preacher from a different church and condemned him for smoking tobacco.  He talked about how it was bad for the body and that scripture had clearly shown that our body was a temple, and that smoking was desecrating that temple.  He kept preaching into a fevered pitch and paused just long enough to spit his ambeer into the cup.  This man of God had just been preaching about the sinful use of smoking tobacco while clearly chewing tobacco himself. I began to look for another church.

My next experience of this sort of doctrinal formation was in a Pentecostal style church where they were very animated and vibrant. They began to argue though shortly after I arrived about the necessity of one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, glossolalia. One of the more prominent ministers argued that one must indeed speak tongues in order to be saved.  The pastor began to refute that argument with scripture and indicated that while it was indeed a sign of being saved, there were other gifts of the spirit and that speaking in tongues was not required of every single person. A few weeks of arguing back and forth, during church service mind you, and they decided to go their separate ways. So one minister who disagreed with the preacher, along with all those who agreed with him, formed his own church just a few miles away.   Now we had two separate churches just a few miles apart that agreed in every issue but one, but both would point to the other and say that they were going to hell. I again began to look for another church.

After a while I settled down in a small church of the non-denominational variety, where they preached 'the bible' and studied it quite often together. The Pastor seemed to be a very nice fellow who gave a very good sermon, and they often had visiting singers and preachers who would get the congregation 'stirred'.  Everything here seemed to be right on the mark, they talked about hell, gave altar calls, shared scripture in snippets just like always.  In Sunday school they had us memorize the 23rd Psalm and various bible verses that we should be able to speak at a moments notice. Then one day before Christmas, the pastor began to preach against Santa, and instead of sharing the Christmas story and God's love for us.. it became a tirade about how Santa was truly from Satan.  Each holiday became just the same, the Easter Bunny next, then Halloween. Eventually it was that time again, I began to look for another church.

One day, shortly after I began to really research the Catholic church at the insistence of my wife, I stumbled upon a verse that I had read many, many times in the past. “Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat;  practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.'”  Here in Jesus own words was a verse telling me not to simply walk away and search for another church every time they did not agree with me. So I began to ask myself, which church is it that Jesus established? How can I know? What do they teach?

After many years of study and fighting the call of the Holy Spirit to become Catholic, I knew that it was here that I needed to be. It was only here that we had the seat of St. Peter, from whose authority the bishops and priests receive their anointing. It was here that we have the church with the power to bind and loosen.  It was here that we have the sacraments as Jesus himself initiated them. It was only in the Catholic church that I would find the fullness of faith, the teachings of the Apostles and of the Holy Spirit himself.

So how do those teachings help me to grow closer to God? For the last two thousands years men much smarter than myself have been studying, philosophizing, agreeing and disagreeing about various questions that I myself have seen others speaking about and arguing about.   Many of these have been put into documents, encyclicals, and into the Catechism of the church. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit many of those very questions that I have seen protestant churches splitting over, have already been answered and cemented as Dogma. Not only can I find the answers when there is a disagreement, but I can find the documents and biblical verses that back up those teachings as well. By following Catholic doctrine I have freed myself from a world where two men can split an entire congregation into two separate bodies; and joined myself to a church, that guided by the Holy Spirit, instead tries to keep the body of Christ as One Body.

The doctrines, teachings, and dogmas of the church also help me to find aspects of God that help me to further understand the mystery of his incarnation, of the trinity, and of the Sacraments. Through each of these wonderful teachings and writings on those teachings, I can further understand who God is, what God did for me, and how I can live to better please God.  I also have access to the treasure of the doctors of the church who have expounded in words much more eloquent than my own matters that sometimes seem very difficult to understand. As St. Peter said, “There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.”  By finding the church, guided by the Holy Spirit, lead by the seat of Peter himself, I have found the key to understanding those scriptures.  I have found the source which will allow me to further understand and further grow closer to God, to find answers to those questions and find hope and grace in the Sacraments. That hope and grace draws me closer and closer to God himself.

Those Guys Over There!

On the sabbath they entered the synagogue and took their seats.
Many Jews and worshipers who were converts to Judaism
followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them and urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God. 

On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered 
to hear the word of the Lord. 
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy 
and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. 

Today our priest, Father Don, gave a long talk about this very passage. I want to try and capture what I took away from that homily. The lesson there is one I hadn't really thought about, but as a person who does a lot of apologetics and witnessing on the internet, I find it's one that is so very pertinent to us on Facebook, Twitter, etc.


Notice that when Paul and Barnabas came to the town, they received them well. They were in their comfort zone. Paul and Barnabas were both Jews and they were bringing a message of hope about the Messiah! They accepted the message with open arms. They followed and worshiped with Paul and Barnabas and treated them with respect.


It was only on the next weekend, when they gathered to talk and the entire town gathered, that the Jews became jealous. Notice that the following verses (I've included the entire section below) indicate that it was because of the Gentiles that they were jealous. Not because the message was one they didn't appreciate, but because of inclusion. They were mad because not only was the message for the Jews, but for them! For those other ones over there, the unclean, the sinners, the ones who aren't part of the chosen ones.


How often do we fall into that very trap ourselves? Growing up I was not Catholic, but a baptist. Many of the churches I went to talked very uncharitably about the Catholic church, and well frankly, about any church that wasn't their church. Don't date that girl, her dad is one of those Jehovah's witnesses. Don't go to the boy scouts, they meet in the basement of the Methodist church! Oh you don't want to go to that church, they speak in tongues and fall out in the aisles! Or, don't go over to that church they don't speak in tongues or don't fall out the aisles (both from different people in the same non-denominational church.)  Jesus is white! No Jesus is black! No Jesus is a Jew! He loves everyone, no he hates everyone except this group! It's enough to make your head spin!

It's so easy to say, God's message is for me, for this type of person, for the ones I am comfortable around. But God's message is for everyone! Now will everyone get to heaven? No, I don't think they will, scripture is pretty clear on that. However, Christ owns the Catholic church, the Catholic church does not own Christ. Jesus decides who goes where and who is included, not us. We spend too much time judging and not enough time spreading light. As St. Theresa said, At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by 'I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.' Hungry not only for bread - but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing - but naked of human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a home of bricks - but homeless because of rejection.



In Christ,

Brian



Acts 13:14, 43-52


Paul and Barnabas continued on from Perga
and reached Antioch in Pisidia.
On the sabbath they entered the synagogue and took their seats.
Many Jews and worshipers who were converts to Judaism
followed Paul and Barnabas, who spoke to them
and urged them to remain faithful to the grace of God.

On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered
to hear the word of the Lord.
When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy
and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said.
Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said,
“It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first,
but since you reject it
and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life,
we now turn to the Gentiles.
For so the Lord has commanded us,
I have made you a light to the Gentiles,
that you may be an instrument of salvation
to the ends of the earth.”

The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this
and glorified the word of the Lord.
All who were destined for eternal life came to believe,
and the word of the Lord continued to spread
through the whole region.
The Jews, however, incited the women of prominence who were worshipers
and the leading men of the city,
stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas,
and expelled them from their territory.
So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them,
and went to Iconium.
The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

The Eyes of a Child

The other day I was attacked by a ninja in my own home. I'm pretty sure that Dustin Gurntz had something to do with it, because I've  been told he's definitely the ninja. I had left the house to get our youngest off the bus and in the interim our other daughter devised an ambush. She gathered a large sloppy snow ball, and hid inside the house with it. As we walked in I began to take off my coat and smoosh.. upside the head with a big, cold wetness. I glared... I laughed... I giggled... then I warned.  "When you least expect it, I'll get you back."

For a few days she flinched when I'd walk past her waiting for the snow ball, or the tickled attack. I never gave it to her, I simply waited. Then tonight, she fell asleep on the couch.  You all know where this is going right? I did what my father would have done, what all of us men for generations do, I got a big bucket, filled it with snow and dumped it on her in her sleep.

It was priceless! For about 20 seconds.. till I heard a earthshaking, crying scream. It was coming from to her left, it wasn't even her crying. She was shaken of course, but she wasn't as torn and demolished as the young 6 year old girl standing next to her who informed me it wasn't funny for me to make Sarah cry. My daughter, my youngest child, stared at me tears streaming down her face.. looking at me as if I were a stranger.  My world was shattered. I had scared her. She trusted me to always do good, and here I was... being probably the worst example my children could have.

Later I apologized to Sarah for dumping the snow on her and made her a promise. I would never, ever do it again. Haley laughed and said but he didn't promise either of us!  I agreed, and we all went towards the car to go get some food. Moira asked me to stay inside with her while she switched to her boots and that's when it happened. That's when God spoke through my little girl to me, with eyes looking at me with wisdom beyond their years, she informed me of my error.

"Daddy, you know you promised Sarah you would never do it again. That means you promised all of us. God is inside each of us, and you promised God that you would never, ever do it again." How many times have I sat in a room with a prayer group and reminded them to try and see God in each person they meet? Yet until this morning it had never dawned on me that when I promise someone.. I'm not just making a promise to them, but to God.. and thereby to every person made in God's image as well. Goodness doesn't just stop with the individual.. it's a communion... a community.  Did Jesus have this in mind when he said make your yes, yes and your no, no?

She looked at me with those piercing eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Then she looked down at her shoes, and when she looked back up it was happy go lucky Moira, as she danced out there in her snow boots informing me, "And I'm glad that God made feet!"

In that small moment, that instance I was taught something that Jesus told us 2000 years ago, but a lesson we learn again and again.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"  And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them,  and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me;  but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,  it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 

Mathew 18:1-6

..

How often we allow our studies to make us feel important and powerful.   We study theology, we study the bible, we study psychology and sociology.   We then think we have figured out God... but simple truths, they are seen by 6 year old's when a bucket of snow is dropped on their sister... a 6 year old who reminds us that it's not funny... In a society where our television shows ask us to tease one another and play jokes on each other... she reminds me that I am to be good always.   That when I sin against one of these... I am sinning against God himself.

It brings a whole new meaning to that simple phrase that David penned in his anguish, many years before the birth of Jesus, doesn't it?

Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right* spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,  O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance.  O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 

Psalm 51:1-15

The Least of These

President Obama famously declared in a speech a while back that whatever we are, we are no longer a Christian nation.  I would like to believe that isn't true.  The numbers say that we are mostly Christians in our population. The increase in secular thought, belief, and liberalism would say differently. Even our conservatism is much more liberal than it was in years past. That's not the point I want to talk about.

Included the presidents exact words, so that others

could see exactly what he said in context. 

Lately I've been seeing a lot of posts decrying our government from spending money elsewhere, when it is needed at home. How dare we send relief to some other country when our country has some problems of its own? Why spend money educating children in Africa when we could be increasing our own public schools.  Why subsidize third world countries when we are hurting here and need jobs? These are all powerful questions, questions that can't be answered lightly or in few words.

But there is a key here... if we ARE a Chrisitian nation.. then we truly believe that all people deserve help. "Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me."  If we are a Christian nation then our neighbor is not just the homeless man here, but the homeless man in South Africa as well. If we are a Christian nation, then the child who needs school supplies in  China is just as important as the one who needs school supplies here in our home town. If we are a Christian nation, then every man needs our help.. not one or the other.

Am I saying that we should help those abroad before we help those at home? No. What then am I saying, that we should help those who are here before we help those abroad? No. I am saying IF we are a Christian nation, we should help both!  

If President Obama is right, that we are no longer a Christian nation then none of this matters. We should only be concerned with our own national issues, and not worry about the world.. but if he is wrong... if we are still a Christian nation... then we should be concerned with all of humanity, and yes all of creation as well. We don't have room in a Christian mindset to say I will ignore the plight of someone I cannot see, and only concentrate on those I know personally... we cannot say stop taking care of those in need because we have needs here... instead we must realize that we all have a little to give, and a lot of places to give it.