When Julie and I first got married I had no idea what a Sacrament was. Growing up in the mountains of Virginia I had never heard that word used inside of any of the Ecclesial Communities I had the privilege to attend. (click the link to read more)

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 356

TB 6:10-11; 7:1BCDE, 9-17; 8:4-9A

PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

MK 12:28-34

When Julie and I first got married I had no idea what a Sacrament was.   Growing up in the mountains of Virginia I had never heard that word used inside of any of the Ecclesial Communities I had the privilege to attend.    A marriage had always seemed like more of a contract to me than what I now know to be Holy Matrimony.   Scott Hahn once said, “A covenant differs from a contract almost as much as marriage differs from prostitution.”  That’s a bold statement.  It’s one I have come to agree with over the years though.  In a contract people exchange goods or services.  “I’ll give you 10 dollars, you give me that clock.”   A covenant is an exchange of people.  “I’ll give you me and you give me you.”  Nothing is held back.  Everything I am belongs to her and everything she is belongs to me.   All of this means very little unless God is involved.

That’s the beautiful thing about the example set forth by Tobiah and Sarah!   Even on their wedding night they stopped before consummating the marriage and went before God together in prayer.  When I first read that book during my conversion process I was astounded at the fact I had never really involved God in that particular area of my life.  The bedroom had always been a physical release between two people.  Yet, in the covenant with God He phrased it “I will be your God and you will be my people.”  All of me.   Every aspect.   Not just the parts that I want to share, but my entire life.   Praying at all times without ceasing.   Julie and I had some frank discussions after that.   Then we did something that many people react interestingly to when they find out about it.   We began to live as brother and sister.   We stopped being intimate with one another during our annulment process until we knew for sure that our previous marriages were not sacramental and that this one was.  We waited for the Church's approval, for God’s approval, before continuing to love each other in that way.

So many walk away from Church over sexual sin.   Be it that they have taken a vow of chastity and have decided they want to be intimate with someone, or that they want to have relations that the Church and natural law declare disordered; they decide that because they ‘love’ someone they should be able to love how they see fit.   Jesus reminds us today of something very important.   In the Gospel He says the greatest command is to love God.  Yes, love your neighbor is close to it and second, but the greatest is the very first one.  That means we put Him first even in our marriage, even the sacred act of the sacramental bond.   Saint Pope John Paul the Second wrote in the Encyclical Dives in Misericordia that “openness to Christ, who as the Redeemer of the world fully reveals man himself, can only be achieved through an ever more mature reference to the Father and His love.”   That is, the only way for us to truly know ourselves and be able to offer ourselves to another person in true love is the know the Father through knowing Christ.  That means putting Him first in all things, that we can then offer a gift of love to our spouses that flows from the love of God whose love for our spouse is beyond even the greatest love we have ourselves have to give.    That’s what I should want for my wife, that my love for her begin to resemble God’s love for her… the best love, because she deserves better than what I have to offer on my own.

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

In season or out of season?

This morning at Mass the Gospel reminds us that even Jesus sometimes is in a bad mood.  As he walked in the morning hours, hungry and irritable, he came upon that poor fig tree.   It hadn't produced any figs.  Granted it wasn't the 'season' for figs, but that didn't stop Jesus from cursing the tree. This tree was acting like every other tree in the world.. just doing what all the other ones were doing.  Deacon Bill calls this story a parable in action.   Just like the stories that Jesus often tells to teach us spiritual messages, this action of his and it's results is in and of itself a lesson to be learned. All too often we want to wait till the time is ready by our standards, we want to be in control.   "I'll have kids when we can afford it."  "You know I'll get cleaned up when things get easier."  "I'll stop smoking after this audit is complete."  "I just need a few more drinks to get me through this month."  Jesus shows us a simple truth, God expects us to be ready "in season and out of season."   He wants us always producing fruit, regardless of what is going on around us... regardless of if we feel like it.  He wants us to be different.. not following the flow of things of the world, but of the things of Heaven.

There is a tree in my front yard that reminds me of this parable.   A few years ago a friend of mine lost her son to a drug overdose.  I noticed that afternoon that the tree was only getting leaves on half of it's branches.  Today it stands much the same with half of it looking pathetic, and half of it healthy and green.  The bark on the side that does not bloom is riddled with holes and falling off, and on the other side strong and firm.  It was as if that tree lost part of itself.  I wrote a poem about that, how that losing someone can be like that... like losing half of your self.. losing your way.  That tree is still plugging away trying, even if it doesn't feel like it.. even if seems like the world is against it, some disease eating away at it trying to sap it's strength.. it still struggles to find breath, digging in it's roots until it finds the nourishment it has to keep going.

CCC 1832 The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."

You and I are called to be like that.   Regardless of the pain and suffering we might endure.   Even if the entire world turns against us, father against son, mother against daughter, friend against friend; we are called to continue to produce fruit.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We are to bloom where we are planted and to produce those fruits.   Peter reminds us in the first reading that the greatest of all these fruits is love, because love produces all of the others.  He challenges us to let our love for another be intense.   Another translation says let your love be fervent.  That is hot, burning and glowing!  Visible.  Apparent.  On the surface not just under it.

My wife and I have been married for ten years today.  For all of those years she has stood by my side, even when pain and illness made it impossible for me to stand as well.  She watched and cared for me as I had my back surgery and through the long, tedious recovery.  When I had my knee operated on, through many kidney stones, and days in which the pain was so horrible that I did not even move from the couch.  All through this she showed a fervent love, a love that bloomed and produced fruit regardless of how I treated her back.  There have been times when it wasn't smooth sailing.  Every couple argues at some point, every couple disagrees.  The thing is I don't remember those times as much.   When I think back I remember that kindness, the laughter, the smiles, the patience, and the trust.

1642 Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony." Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb: How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.

I think that's why Jesus reminds us today that sometimes we've got to turn over the tables that get in the way.  Every relationship has rocky moments.  For some, that means walking away.  I've heard hundreds of people say "we just fell out of love."  That does happen.   It happens when you let the tables get in the way, when you let the money changes fill up your temple, when you let the roots starve your growth until you produce none of the fruit.  Love isn't just a sappy feeling that makes you have butterflies in the stomach.  It's a choice. An action.  It's deciding each and every day to stand by someone, even when they aren't pleasant.  It is being willing to fight for the beauty that is the person you are and the vocation you are called to.  You are the temple of God.  You and your spouse are one, joined together by a Sacrament that transcends this visible world.  Are you willing to fight for it?  To dig in your roots and continue to bloom even when it seems like the bark is falling off and the ground is filled with rocks?  Are you ready to look into your heart and life and ask where are these money changes and tables that stand in the way of my relationship with God and my spouse?  That's what it takes to produce fruit.  I haven't always been the perfect husband, and there are many days that I am not a pleasant man to be around... but I do know this.. I want to turn over those tables, to drive out those things which inhibit me from producing fruit, and to grow day by day into the man and husband that God is calling me to be.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

The Irony of it All.

A man named Pilate posed the question "What is truth?" nearly 2000 years ago.    The irony of asking that question while standing before Truth itself is still echoing in our society today.  Mankind tends to think of himself as the source of truth instead of seeing it as a static and concrete reality that exists outside of ourselves.  Isn't it just like us to think of ourselves as the center of the universe?  I think we often use that concept to allow our egos to justify our own actions.   The youth of today have this saying, "I'll do me, and you do you."   That is, if your truth does on impinge upon my truth, we can get along.   Truth is more than that though.   Truth cannot just be generated by current societal norms and practices.  If it did, then if whatever we believe to be true is "true".   That means that Stalin was right in what he did, so was Hitler.  That makes rape OK, as long as you think it's OK.    No, all of us understand on some level that truth has to exist outside of ourselves, that some things are evil no matter who thinks they are OK.

In the first reading today we see St. James continuing his exhortation on morality.  He gives us this statement: But above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your “Yes” mean “Yes” and your “No” mean “No,” that you may not incur condemnation.  Some see this as a simple statement that means don't make promises you can't keep, and that's there in a small way, after all James was just writing previously about not making plans for tomorrow without realizing that it's only if God wills it that you do so.   It's more than that though.   It's not a lowering of our promises, as with most of the Gospel it isn't setting the bar even lower than the Law of Moses did, it's raising it.  It all revolves around that ironic image of Jesus as the incarnation of Truth.

By virtue of our Baptism we are infused with the Holy Spirit who guides us to all truth.  We are made in the image of the living God, even more so after He condescended to become man.  That makes Jesus the image which we strive to emulate.  When James says make your Yes, yes, and your no, no.. it means that every single word we speak must be taken as seriously as any oath.   We as Christians are expected to speak Truth, to live Truth, making every action, every idle word count.  No, this is not a leeway to never worry about keeping your word, or to never take anything you say seriously.. but rather a challenge to take every single yes or no we say as seriously as if God were saying them.   When we break our word, when we lie, we sully that image... We are the temple of God, His Spirit has come to rest in us.   Lying, speaking a non-Truth, is profaning that Temple.

This is not a new problem. While our society is on a rampage at the moment trying to redefine truth as fluid, ignoring reality itself to define everything from marriage to DNA as circumspect, even in the time of Moses they could not live out the reality of what God had planned for us.   Jesus reminds the men asking him questions that it was not because God wanted it that way, but because of the hardness of our own hearts that concessions were made in the Dueteronomistic laws. It's funny though, these men sat in front of Jesus asking questions, and yet they did not want answers.  Here they were questioning God himself but rather than seeking Truth, they were seeking to trap him.  Herod had already put John to death for daring to question his marriage.  Jesus answer was just as harsh for Herod as Johns had been, in that both Herod and his wife had rejected their spouses, divorced them, that they might enter into an incestuous relationship together.

With all of that in mind, what Jesus had to say about marriage is one of the most important things for us to remember in society today.  The family is the building block of any society.   Without it, society cannot continue.   People have to come together and raise children or society itself will of course die out.   Even more so, marriage is an image of the trinity itself.   The Father (parent), the Son (child), and the Holy Spirit (the love between them.)  For those of us called to live out the vocation of marriage, we are called to do so in emulation of God.   We of course will always do so imperfectly.   Man alone is incapable of living out the pure love of God, to be infinitely compassionate and merciful.  That's why we need the Holy Spirit in our lives.   Jesus quoted Genesis when he said that a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one.  Two shall become one.  Mathematically that's impossible right?  1+1=2. 1-1=0.   The only way for two to become one is by adding a third.  3-2=1.   Only when we add God to our relationship and make Him first can we ever hope to live out the Sacramental marriage.

One of my favorite sayings is "A person's heart should be so lost in God that anyone seeking a relationship with them must first find one with Him."   Another saying I heard recently is "If Catholics lived out a sacramental marriage, the world would change."   I think our challenge today is similar to that.  "If Catholics lived out the truth, making their yes, yes and their no, no in all things, the world will change."  Are you ready for that challenge?  Just like 2000 years ago as Pilot and the Pharisees stood before Truth itself, we today encounter the same Divine Person in the Sacraments.   When you prepare yourself to stand before Jesus in the Eucharist ask yourself, "Is there anything in my life that I am still holding on to because of the hardness of my own heart? Lord, help me let that go and cling only to you." 


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

Supreme Court Decision

It's been an interesting few days.  We've seen the supreme court decide for the entire nation an issue
of morality.  Forcing states (regardless of voters opinion in those states) to accept something they may or may not approve of.  For many that's a hard thing to swallow.  Tempers are high.  Families are fighting among one another. People are spitting on Priests.  In several celebratory parades people mocked Jesus Christ himself, and attacked Christians in effigy.

So how do we as Christians respond?  We live our vocation.  It is time for us to step up and be the men and women we claim to be.  Imperfect, broken, but forgiven.  We pray.   We love.  We remain chaste to our calling in life.   We call people to Christ by our actions as well as our words.   It is not a time for anger or berating.  Rather its a time for peace, joy and love.

The Supreme court decision does nothing to redefine what we morally believe to be the real, revealed truth of God.  So we raise our families.   We stay true to our spouses.   We live our lives as Catholics. That means a sacramental life.   It's time to start receiving those channels of grace and putting them to work.  When we do something wrong, it's time to get to confession.   When we are having a rough day, it's time to get to communion.  We need to start praying as families, as husbands and wives, as single men and women.   We need to sanctify the day to the Lord, hour by hour.  Take up a rosary, the Divine Office, or just speak to God!

Live your calling.  Live it with love, peace and joy.  Let people see that you are the person you claim to be.  Do not condone sin, but always treat it with the gloves of mercy and love.  Every single one of us is a sinner.  We all have things in our closet that we are not proud of.  We are forgiven, and so we forgive.  We pray for the other, as we would pray for ourselves.  Above all, we pray His will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven.

-Brian

Seeds? Words? Gardens?

Bear with me as I try to convey to you something that I do not know if I can put into words. Today as I was reading Sacred Scripture, a line of thought began to form in my mind. It begins with the concept of the logos, the Christ, the messiah. Jesus is the Word of God. That is something that almost all Christians agree on. It's also key in understanding the power of the tongue. First I want to talk about what the logos means to us, and what that means about Jesus.

We as Christians believe that when God spoke before time ever began, that the Word he spoke was Jesus himself. That the word that came out of his mouth, the word through which all things were created, was Christ. First off we see that when God speaks, he speaks a Word, and that Word is the messiah. It shows us how powerful that word is. All of creation, the universe, people, soul, spirit... all were created by a Word.

Next we see the concept that the Word is a seed. Jesus talked many times about the Word of God being a seed which is planted in the heart, in the garden of the World, which grows or not according to the condition of the soil. Here we see that the Word spoken by God has the power to multiply and grow, to create and uplift. The power of life and death, the power of all of God's creation is in a Word. The Word IS a seed.

Then I began to ponder the fact that we are made in the image of God. Being made in the image of God means that we should be aware that we also have power, spiritual power given to us by God's Holy Spirit. That means that when we speak, we also speak words. Now that seems very obvious on the surface. But let's look at what we said above, not only do the words we speak have power.. but they are seeds. When we speak we sow spiritual seeds in the garden of life. We have the power to plant spiritual food, or to grow weeds.

What does that mean for us? When we edify and uplift, when we build up and encourage... we are planting spiritual food, we are giving spiritual fruit... we are planting seeds of God's Kingdom. We are sharing the Word, through our word. We are spreading the Kingdom of God one seed at a time. At the same time, when we speak words that tear down or demean, words that harm and destroy, we plant weeds that choke and destroy the fruit we have planted. You see Jesus told us that the soil is very important to the growth of the seed. Did you know that God put man in charge of tilling and caring for the soil? Adam was given the job of protecting the garden of Eden, and we as descendents of Adam also have a duty to protect, till, and prepare the garden of our Spiritual world.. the Kingdom of God.

Are you building up God's kingdom? Are you spreading it one word at a time? Or are you planting weeds in your relationships? In your marriage? Is your home a garden of lovely flowers, tantalizing fruits, and gorgeous flowing rivers of kindness? Or is it filled with briars, burning sands, and empty river beds in decay?

His servant and yours;



Brian