What does it mean to be among the wheat?

It's hard to trust when things are difficult.  As a child I was blessed with a good home.  We had more than we needed and parents who loved us.  Spanking and other forms of punishment were rare but respect was held in high esteem.  When things got rough we were always told "It'll get better."  It did.   It was hard to see that though during the rough times.   When mom and dad were both hurt and unable to work it seemed like we would never get our heads above the water.   It took a lot of effort to trust both them, and to trust God, that things would work out for good in the end.

I had a long conversation with a friend that reminded me of how hopeless things can seem.  Just turning on the news or watching one of the political conventions can truly make things seem as if they are going to Hell in a hand basket.  War, famine, terrorism, Mass killings, climate change deniers and climate change fear mongers.... where does one find hope?   Many years ago I spent all of my time sitting on the computer researching the 'end of the world.'   I was consumed with it.  I kept my mind so fixated on the negative things happening trying to tie them to this or that, that I never took time to truly fix my mind on God... on trust...  One is hopeless when they have no good to cling to.

When we read the Sacred Scriptures we see an overarching promise: God will provide!  He looks out for those who are poor and helpless.   He takes care of us in our time of need.   He cares for us more than we can fathom and He has promised that we will be among the wheat at the end of time when the harvest comes.  His Word has been planted in our hearts and we have become heirs to the promise that was given to David, a promise of an immortal Kingdom that will last forever.   Jesus in the Gospel, in explaining this parable to the disciples, gives them insight into something that should give us joy!  It should make us exuberant and our souls exulting with Hope in the promise of God himself!

What though does it mean to be wheat?  The children of the Devil are the false wheat it says, and the children of God the true wheat... How then can we tell the difference?   That's the thing about false wheat (Darnel), it's very hard to tell until it's ripe.  You see when wheat begins to ripen the grain begins to become too heavy for the shaft to support... so it begins to bow down.   Darnel doesn't do this... it remains upright.  The difference between real wheat and false wheat is that real wheat bows down.  It doesn't remain too proud, too egoistic, to self consumed to kneel in humility.  Are we being wheat then?  Are we kneeling before God and obeying His teachings as received by the Apostles?  Or are we doing things our own way?  Refusing to bend or submit?  Will you be the wheat or the chaff?

Today we are reminded of Saint Anne and Joachim, the mother and father of Mary, the grandparents of Jesus.   It is a day we should pray for our parents, for our grandparents, and for the humility to be like their daughter Mary.   May we learn to be like her in all things, the Immaculate Disciple who gave a complete and resounding Yes to God's plan in humility and love.   In all things she replied "Do whatever He tells you."  So call your parents, call your grandparents, call your children today and wish them love, wish them happiness, and pray for them that they too may have the grace to be His servant too.


His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the readings for daily Mass for Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne: July 26, 2016.   Jeremiah 14:17-22, Psalm 79, The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 13:36-43

She died in her sleep...

My daughter knows that if she asks me for something to eat I will give it to her.  It did not matter if it was two in the morning or the afternoon, if she was hungry I fed her.   I explained to my wife that one of my father's relatives had a daughter who asked for another piece of cake very late in the night and her mother refused to let her have it.   She sent her to bed without that piece of cake.  That daughter died in her sleep.  To this day I will feed a child, regardless of what time it is, if they tell me they are hungry. 

Think of the boldness of those of us who proclaim that God is our Father.   In the prayer that Jesus taught us we say simply, "Give us this day our daily bread."   Recently when meditating on this I pictured myself as a child with my hands out, simply asking God for a piece of bread.  The image in my mind reminded me of the stance we take when going up to receive communion in hand. We place our hands forward as a throne, like children, like beggars.  In asking simply God rewards greatly, giving us not just bread, but the body soul and divinity of Christ.  He gives us more than we ask for, far better than we deserve.

As Christians we are called to live out our lives in the image of Him who we have been created in.  That is, we are to emulate God in our actions, in our thoughts, and our words.  That's a challenging thing when you think of the image of God as Father, as the one who is being asked for sustenance, peace, and tranquility.  He provides freely, generously, and more powerfully than we ourselves even expect.  Forgiving our sins, meeting both our physical and spiritual needs, while also helping us to move forward and grow into the person we are created to be.  We can find the source of that image in Christ himself. 

That's our challenge then isn't it?  To be childlike in our faith in that we trust God to reach out to us and give us what we need, but also to be the image of the invisible God to those who are hurting, frustrated, and lacking in their lives.  We ourselves receive Christ in the Eucharist, then we must go out into the world and share it with those who have not.  By giving food and drink to the widow, the orphan, the refugee... the moment they ask, and even more than they ask for.   Also, in giving spiritually to all in need.  This is what it means to love.  To treat people as a whole, not as a part.  To interact with them more than on a superficial level, but on a level that unites us as one body.. That's what happens when we encounter Christ at the Mass... are we allowing that to happen when we encounter Christ in His most distressing disguises? 

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A Reflection on the Daily Mass Readings for Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary time: July 13, 2016.   Isaiah 10:5-7, 13b-16; Psalm 94; A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew 11:25-27

Are you ready to give an account?

In tomorrow's Gospel we see the king giving to each of his servants a gold coin.  Each of them receives one coin and is expected to do his best with it.  One gains ten coins in interest, and he is rewarded with being put in charge of ten cities.  Another gains five coins, and he is put in charge of five cities. Then comes along another servant who hid the coin in a place where no one could take it, and brought it back later.   He didn't even invest it in the bank.  The king was furious with him and took the one talent and gave it to the one who already had ten. 

What are we to make of this?  In Mathew's Gospel the gold coin is called a talent.  We can see that a little better when we think about talent's and abilities.  To some are given few talents, to some many.  Some of us are teachers.  Some of us are administrators.   Some of us are musicians.  Some can sing.  Some are good with numbers.  Some good with cleaning.  God gives to each person many abilities and 'talents.'  He reminds us that all of them are to be used for His glory, for His kingdom.  We will be asked to give an account of how we used those talents. 

We aren't asked to provide the same amount of fruit, or even the same kind of fruit.. but we are asked to bear fruit.  God has given each of us gifts.  Through our baptism we are given the Holy Spirit.  The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  We are challenged to go out with these talents, with these fruits and to spread them into the world.  We are called to be joyful.  How do we increase that talent?  By bringing joy to others.  We are called to be kind.   We increase that by being kind to others and teaching them to be kind in return.  Each of the fruits requires us to go out, using the natural talents we have been given, to spread the fruits of the spirit into our world. 

For each of us that looks different.  For parents it means educating your children, loving them, being patient with them, teaching them what Catholic life really looks like.   For grand parents, it means being there for your grand children and helping them to learn how to live out their baptismal calling.  For teachers, it means being patient and kind in your classroom and fostering an environment where the fruits begin to flourish.  No matter what we do; farmer, electrician, doctor, lawyer, homemaker, dentist, accountant, etc... we are to use those skills that God has endowed us with to help bring about His kingdom right here.

As we approach the end of the liturgical season and head into the season of Advent, we are reminded by the readings that we should be ready.   These readings talk about the great event at the end of time where God will ask us to give an accounting for what we have been given.  To those who much has given, much is required.  "With great power, comes great responsibility."  Such simple words from a comic book character, but they ring true to us as Christians.  Do you think of the power you've been given?  God himself has come to reside in you.  Are you sharing him with others?  Or hiding him in a handkerchief?  Don't be afraid of losing your joy.  Don't be afraid that someone might steal it.  Rather, realize that with the gifts of the spirit, the only way to keep them... is to continually give them away. 

So let's go for it.  Find someone today to share one of these fruits with.  Use your natural, God given talents to do so.   Share some love.  Some joy.  Some kindness.  Watch that fruit blossom and grow, that at the end of our temporal lives we can hear him say "You have been faithful in this very small matter, well done my good and faithful servant."

In Christ,
His servant and yours,
Brian

Where are you? More importantly.. where am I?

So what stage or degree of faith should you or I have? Should we seek the "highest" stage? Should we all hope to reach the point of a totally sacrificial faith? No doubt, we all tend to see that as an ideal. But dare anyone tell you where you should be at a given stage of your faith journey? To insist that you reach complete maturity now is like grabbing a budding flower by the stem and trying to yank it upward into full bloom. Such an effort would be violent and destructive. And it ignores the truth that there is a season for everything.

I've been reading some of my home work tonight as we relax and get ready for bed for an upcoming class in Ministry Formation. The article, How God Invites us to Grow, talks about 6 different stages of faith. I'll attempt to paraphrase those below here.

Stage 1: Imaginative Faith

This is where faith starts, as a young child we often have fancy notions of God being the old grandfather up in the cloud. Flying around the world like Santa Clause. Showering down gifts from on high, bowling in the clouds to make thunder, etc.

Stage 2: Literal Faith

This is where many of us get to and get stuck, or even consider to be all there is to faith. It's where we take all the stories as literal history stories and we never get to the moral foundation of them.. the story of love behind them. It is where we stick to what we know, literal stories, and almost avoid any other truth that can come from them. We see the story of Adam and Eve not as a story that teaches us moral value, but of a God who punishes evil and good, who doles out good and evil, almost a karmic God.

Stage 3: Group faith

This is where we do what we do, not because of any reason other than that's how we've always done it. My grandfather used to grab our heads and push them down during prayer, because that's how we prayed. To this day, I still bow my head during prayer... because that's how we did it. Many of those who start in one faith and live it their entire life, often never find out why they do something.. they just continue to do it. I remember a story about an a family where the daughter always cut the end off the ham... she had no idea why, so one day at Christmas she called home and said Mom why do you cut the end off the ham? Expecting an answer that it kept it moister, or did something with juices, her mother said I dunno, mom always did. So they get together and go see the grandmother.. who opens the oven and says, cause I have a little oven and if I don't cut the end off it won't fit in there.

Stage 4: Personal faith

Responsibility. At this stage we look up what we do.. we find out why.. we live our faith not because someone else told us too but because we understand why we bow, why we kneel, why we genuflect.. not only understand, but agree and do it out of our own choice.. our own faith. Owning your faith. Not being Catholic because your family was and you just always have been.. but realizing what being Catholic is.. and living it because it's right.

Stage 5: Mystical faith

Lots of people give this one a bad name. Mystical faith just means you've gone into communion with God. You're beyond just realizing that God lives in you.. but KNOWING he does. It's having an intimate relationship where you not only realize that, but that he lives in others. You then being to see them as brothers and sisters, regardless of faith, regardless of if they agree with you. It's going above just self and God.. and being beyond yourself.. which of course leads to

Stage 6: Sacrificial faith.

We know this is the ideal.. the faith where we give ourselves away. Where we no longer are concerned with status, personal gain, or even our own safety.. all we are worried about is doing the will of God. He has become our all in all, and as such serving his family has become greater than ourselves. Giving up our selves to serve Him and by it everyone else. As the Article says “One's commitment to the values of truth, justice, and love become all consuming.”

I spent about an hour talking with my wife after reading this article. We were discussing.. where are we? I know where I want to be.. I want to be there at that Sacrificial level... but I don't know that I am. I'd like to say that I'm on some levels getting towards a mystical faith.... some of the lines really spoke to me. “For most people this awareness of God's inner presence begins with a longing or a compelling desire to be one's whole self or to live one's life as meaningfully as possible.” That resonates with me on so many levels. As does the statement: "Recognition of the sisterhood and brotherhood of all people also intensifies one's commitment to the well-being of all humankind.” Am I there? I am not sure. Is my ego wanting me to be more than I am? Possibly.

I do know I am beyond group faith. I no longer follow any faith, without understanding why. I do not tell my kids you will do this because that's what we do! We do this because of this reason, this is what it means, and here is where we can find that information. They also will choose for themselves, to be Catholic or not when the time comes. For now I will teach them as much as I can about our faith.. not just what we do, but why we do it, and where those traditions come from.

So here I am. Discerning. Woefully inadequate, praying that God will lead me on down this path and turn me into the man he wants me to be, and not the man that I am. Hoping to be on the highest level, feeling I'm really on the lowest rung. With that I will leave you with the words quoted in the article of Thomas Merton, “When I have found my truest self, I will have found God.”

Lord help me to find my truest self, to become the self that you created me to be, that I may be in full and perfect communion with you.. praying at all times, walking in Your will and not my own.

In Christ,

Brian

Holy Week

Holy week is always a tremendous time spiritually for me. When we as Catholics go through our ceremonies of reading the gospel together, actively participating in carrying the cross, or even watching as some of our members get their feet washed by our priest; all tend to move me to really think about the Passion of our Lord and Savior. This year has been especially moving, I think because last year was so vibrant and moving that I missed parts of it (being the year I came into the church.)

What struck me as particularly moving, was a moment I haven't spent much time thinking about. As Father Don was preparing to wash the feet of these wonderful people in front of me, he took off his covering (outer robe.) and stood before us in just a stark white linen garment. It dawned one me that I didn't really think about the fact that Father Tim had done the same thing last year. Here they stood before me, just as Jesus was before his Apostles. Jesus had taken his robe off and was wearing a towel around his waist.

My mind began to wonder in awe... What must it have been like, to know that the Son of God was kneeling before you.. stripped of his outer garments? Like a servant. Bowing to wash the dirt and grime of this world, of soil that was foreign to them, soil that many still thought made them unclean. Here was the King of Glory, washing their feet. A menial task. Something meant for the servant, or for the help.

Do we realize the amount of humility it must have taken? For someone fully human, to bow themselves, knowing they had all the glory of Heaven.. but emptying themselves of it to wash a foot?  Then we see our priests, even our pope, kneeling and washing feet, and some of them kissing them in humility, every Easter. How often we criticize them for the smallest of faults! That one is angry! That one is lazy! That one, well he's just waiting for retirement.... But today.. regardless of faults.. they knelt and washed feet.

Have you allowed Jesus to wash your feet? Think about what that means. As he told Saint Peter, "If I do not wash  you, you have no part of me." Think long and hard on this next passage, it's powerful to think of during this time of reflection as we approach Easter Sunday.

When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.  Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him.  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

As the service finished  and Father Don walked to the front and began to put his robes back on I thought, someone should help him.. he has done so much for us today, kneeling through his pain, walking with visible pain up the steps to get to his robe.. Do we realize what he has done for us? He has reminded us of Christ... how much more powerful a gift can he give?

In Christ,
Brian