To Turtle or not to Turtle?

A Reflection on the readings for Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time: July 12th, 2016

Isaiah 7:1-9
Psalm 48
The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 11:20-24


When we are surrounded by evil our fearful instinct is often to close in on ourselves.  After the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, all of the gas stations closed and even the man I worked for sent us home out of fear that other things would happen.  Here the Israelites in the first reading were surrounded by their worst and strongest enemies and they trembled and quaked.  Just recently our country has experienced another set of crimes and people have reacted with fear, telling their kids to stop going around cops out of fear of both the cops and those who would hurt them.  Drawing in like a turtle to protect our own seems to be the default for humanity.

The Psalm reminds us though that if God is the one building the city then there is no need to fear.   That when He is with us we are protected by His strong right arm.  When we trust in God we don't close in on our selves, we might proceed with caution but we proceed with confidence in knowing that man can never do anything to our immortal soul.  We reach out with love to both those who are hurting enough to harm the ones they fear are the enemy, and those who are completely innocent and caught in the middle of a struggle they did not start.  It requires though that God be the one in control.

In this message there is a sense that we as a nation must return to God.  We have removed prayer from our schools.  Taken down any religious imagery that might 'offend' someone.  Relegated religion to the inner corners of the Sanctuaries behind closed doors and told God He is a thing that only need be addressed on Sunday.  In doing so we have made love, the primary focus of the Christian ideal, something that also hides behind those doors.  It is in returning to God that we as a nation can bring that love back out of those doors and into the very hearts of those who need it the most.

Change, though, begins in me.  The Scriptures tell us that if the builders labor to build the temple, then in vain do it's builders labor.  After coming back from this silent retreat, even knowing the things I know, I've been trying to rebuild myself into the man I felt God calling me to be on the retreat.   I got very frustrated yesterday when I realized that I was failing to do just that.  It's because I need Him to do it with me.  I do have to work on it, I have to try.. but over all I must do it in conjunction with Him, not by myself, and not Him alone.   Not because He needs me to do anything, but because that is how He chose to do things... with us and through us.  So we start with that, man building with God, building himself into the man God has made Him to be.  Then out into the world we go living the life He has designed us for that others might also be drawn to Him.

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." 

Hot Sands

Around ten years ago I had an experience that completely changed my life.  It began though around nine months before that.  My wife and I embarked on a journey of learning, though she had quite a bit more knowledge than I at that time.  The three other ladies in the house had to learn how to prepare for this as well.  Things had to be cleaned, locks had to be installed (or reinstalled.)  Various damaging things that could harm the imminent birth of our child had to be moved, secured or disposed of.  Life was changing and we had to work hard and discipline ourselves to prepare for those changes.

My wife had to change her diet, so we changed with her.  Things we normally might have eaten would have to be given up so that the child would be nourished with the proper vitamins and nutrients.  We worked hard on making sure that things didn't happen that would injure her, including avoiding high stress activities and anything that might jossle or jar her stomach in a negative way.  For nine months we prepared for that birth, for nine months we had to think and ponder what it might be like.  I was supposed to be infertile.  The doctors had told me this for years.  My wife and I had resigned ourselves to God's will in this matter.  We had not given up hope, but we didn't have a great deal of confidence that anything would come of it.

Then one day she took a pregnancy test and our world was changed.  It was filled with worry and yet joy.  Would she be healthy?  Would she have special needs?  Would she make it?  Would it be a he or she?  All things we waited till birth to discover.  Then that November I got to experience second hand what childbirth is like.  I've heard it said that a kidney stone is worse than childbirth.  If my wife's ability to give birth to children is the norm?  Then I'd say a kidney stone is a LOT worse than childbirth.  She gives birth like most people walk across hot sand.  If you move your feet fast enough it doesn't hurt too much.  The doctor came in and said "Ok, it's time."  And then? It was over.  There was this child of mine staring at me with my own face in miniature.  I watched as the nurses cleaned her and gave her some shot to boost her immune system and as the drop of blood dripped from her thigh she began to cry in pain.  I wanted to protect her but I knew it was best for her, so I stood and waited for them to hand her to us.  I knew right then I would do anything for this child, anything, even if it meant my own death.

There it is for all of you who wonder why we bother with Lent as Catholics.  Lent is the pregnancy.  It is that time when you prepare, when you discipline yourself, for that life changing event.  You get rid of those things that are harmful in preparation to nourish your new life.  As the reading for this morning says, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."  In Baptism we die with Christ and rise again a new person, filled with the Holy Spirit and the grace of God to go forth and change our lives.  Easter is a chance to renew that, to rekindle that romance, to draw closer to God and be more like Him.  Lent prepares us for that.  Just like with the new baby coming, anything that can hinder the growth of our new life, anything that might 'kill' or harm that new life, must be removed.

The thing is, it can't end with Lent.  Lent is not about giving up something meaningless in order to go right back to it afterward.  Lent is about preparing for that delivery of New Life that we receive in the Eucharist!  Just like you don't just ignore the baby after it's born, you can't ignore your new self either.  You have to feed it the right things, discipline it so that it can know right from wrong, nourish it, cherish it, and help it to grow into something beautiful.  That's what Easter reminds us to do.  We still have to keep those things out of our lives that we learned to remove during Lent, and continue to do those things that make us grow spiritually.  First and foremost of those is the Sacraments, but second and like to them are the corporeal works of Mercy.   Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, comforting the sick and mourning, visiting those who cannot get out or are imprisoned... yes these things make our new life grow.  They nourish us and enhance us.

It's not something we can forget.   That's why we in the Catholic church consider Sunday a mini-Easter... it's a reminder every week that we have to continue to feed our spirit with the nourishment of Christ in the Eucharist, in Confession, in prayer and in works.  Here you are with this new life cradled in your arms, and for those of you who are parents?  You have other lives to nourish and guide that they too might grow in their faith.  It's our responsibility to guide, nourish and cherish those lives.  When you gaze at them, when you gaze at your own spiritual walk, when you gaze at the Eucharist.... ask yourself, "Would I do anything for them?"  That's what Christ asks of us.  The walk of a Christian is not an easy one, not a thing that we simply do at Church and forget about later.. it's about looking at the people we like the least, the ones we have the most hatred for.. and trying to see Christ in them... because once we do.. the world changes.. our lives change.. and with God's grace and help?  Hatred can become love.  Injury? Pardon.  Doubt? Faith.  Despair? Hope. Anything is possible.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Life Flipped-Turned Upside Down

Tomorrow is the second Sunday of Advent.  In the Gospel we see John the Baptist coming out of the wilderness proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God.  He proclaims Isaiah's message that the world is about to be shaken. Things are going to change.  Valleys will be laid flat, and mountains shaken to their cores.  Winding roads will be made straight and the rough path made smooth.  All of these speak of major changes.  Of topographical divergence.  That is what the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit, do to a person.   Change.  Conversion.   The Greek word is Metanoia.  It means to alter course 180 degrees.. to turn things inside out... around.. back on themselves.    Baruch, in the first reading, also talks about this conversion.. this change.. this Metanoia.  

Then we see this letter from the Apostle Paul to the Philippians sandwiched in the middle.  Paul is the ultimate example of metanoia.   Paul who was the Pharisee of the Pharisees not only ceased persecuting the Christians that were such a danger to his way of life, but he joined them in faith and practice.   Here now we see him in prison awaiting word to whether or not he will be freed or executed.  Yet, he is full of joy.  Full of kind words, and prayer.. not for his own concern.. but for the Philippians themselves.   Wow!

How well that fits in with my experience of this day.  Today my wife and I took part in a class on redemptive listening.   That is, learning to listen to other people in a way that truly gets our own thoughts and interests out of the way.  It means trying to be Christ to that person, to respect their dignity and help them feel loved.  How powerful, yet how difficult.  That though is what we must learn to do if we want to be more like Christ.  That's the true metanoia isn't it?  To consistently and intentionally be more like Christ, and less like ourselves.  That's what conversion is about.  It's not a one time event, though some people have major conversion stories.  It starts at one point.. but it moves towards the end of time.  We have a conversion.. we have more conversions... and we will have a conversion... It's a lifelong process of daily growing in our relationship with God and with each other. 

As we continue through Advent towards Christmas, that seems to me to be the goal.  To examine our hearts, minds, and lives.  To ask ourselves, am I growing towards Christ?  Am I more like him this Advent than I was last Advent?  Am I more like him today than I was yesterday?  How can I be more like him tomorrow?  It's up to us to change the landscape.  It's up to us to go into our environments, filed with this obstacle or that one.  When we go in alone they can be too much.  Just like a winding path that never seems to get you any closer to your goal, or a steep mountain that simply feels like you can never climb it, so too is the Kingdom of God impossible to bring about on your own.  It's when we bring the Architect, the creator of the universe, with us into our environment.. that he levels the mountain, smoothing the rough ways, and making crooked paths straight.  

By changing our environment, by bringing the God we receive in the Eucharist into the world, we bring others closer to the promise that God has made to his people.  "All flesh shall see the salvation of God, for God is leading us in joy by the light of his glory, with his mercy and justice for company."

As St. Paul said, "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."  Keep allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your life, drawing you deeper and deeper into conversion.  God will not allow his word to return to him void, but will accomplish the task he has sent it out to complete. 

His servant and yours,
Brian

The Penitent Man Shall Pass

One of the most memorable scenes for me in the movie Indiana Jones The Last Crusade was the one where Indiana began to figure out the first trap.  The tension had built to a climax as his father lay dying on the ground from a gunshot wound, the Nazi antagonists were waiting in the wings to kill

him, several of the corpses of those who had attempted this quest laying on the ground around him.  As the air begins to swirl again, Indiana began to mutter to himself over and over, "The penitent man shall pass."  It was only when he realized that a penitent man was one who was on his knees before God, that he dropped into a humble position, quickly dodging the nearly invisible saw blade, performed a back flip, and then snagged the whole apparatus with a very conveniently placed rope. 

As I meditated upon the readings for tomorrow (Oct 14th, 2015), that word impenitent jumped out at me reminding me of this heroic scene.  In both the first reading and the gospel we see people being reminded of the need for not just justice, but also for mercy.   That the core of Jesus message is to bring about a metanoia experience in which the person turns from their former ways and experiences true conversion.   True conversion brings about not just a spiritual, internal change, but an outward change expressed in and through good works.

Then Jesus hears from another voice crying out, but Lord your word cuts me to the quick, surely you don't mean me as well?  To which Jesus quickly affirms "Woe also to you[..]! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them."  Jesus makes sure to call out to all of those in his audience who aren't living an authentic life, one tempered in covenantal love.  He calls out to us to express our relationship with God in good works, in loving one another, in being merciful because we remember the mercy with which God has already showered each and everyone of us.

As I watch the news and read my different social media, I see so much going on in the world that shows not only a lack of justice but also a great lack of mercy.  We see refugees being expelled from their country, Christians being martyred and crucified, fleeing refugees being refused entry and even basic necessities out of the inconvenience that might cause any nation that chooses to accept them.  We see people proclaiming each and every immigrant to be a thug, a vandal, a radical adherent to a religion... guilty of some subterfuge or plotting to destroy the nation from within.

Maybe some of them are indeed that sort of person.  What though of the women?  The children?  The

young?  The widow and the orphan?  The broken and down trodden?  How do we justify the refusal to feed and clothe the least of these while also proclaiming to be Catholic? Then again do we have to look so far from home and into such an extreme to find the lack of justice?  What of the man on the corner who asks for money?  Have we not become so jaded that often we don't give him money, money that is only ours by the grace of God, because we fear what he might do with it?  Do we fret over the neighbor who parked his car in front of our drive? Or the team mate who did not pass the basketball but scored his own basket?  

There are too many missed opportunities out there to show God's mercy and justice to others.  We have a lot of work to do in this world.  We pray daily that His kingdom come and His will be done, but do we truly mean it?  After all, as Mother Teresa 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.”   I pray that we will open our hearts to God's mercy and justice, that we might hear "Well done my good and faithful servant," and not  “Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”

In Christ,
Brian

It is good that we are here!

Last night while I was out exercising with my 8 year old daughter I began meditating on the readings for today's Feast Day. To be fair, there are myriads of different messages and a vast plethora of

theological and typological things happening. So much so that you could really reflect on just about anything and find something deep in the imagery and events of those excepts from scripture. My daughter, however, in her youthful innocence said something (which I'll write about a little later) that triggered me to think about this statement of Peters.  "Rabbi, it is good that we are here!"'

  If we look back to earlier in this passage we find that Jesus has already informed them that some of them will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming on a cloud of glory. That sounds like a very positive thing indeed. Yet, it also infers that some of them will have died as well. Facing our own mortality is never easy. Then Jesus goes on to start describing what must happen in Jerusalem, that he must go down to die a heinous death. How horrible to hear your friend, your teacher, your brother; speak of their own death in such terms.

 Then as the Holy Spirit and the glory of God is revealed in Jesus at this moment, we see that the apostles were terrified! How terrifying indeed, for it proves that not only is Jesus the Messiah, but everything he said is going to come to pass! Peter blurts out something that is a good thing, but also shows our mortality. "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Why would Peter want to do this? Well it was a holy moment to be sure, and what had just happened was something amazing. I am sure he was awestruck. Also, his fear had something to do with it. Peter did not want to go back down the mountain. Going down the mountain meant facing Jesus death and betrayal. Going down the mountain meant leaving this glorious moment, where the true gory that Christ is due was revealed. Going down the mountain meant facing his own death, his own inner demons, as well.

 Why would I think of this as my daughter and I were jogging around the block? Something she said struck me as profound for her young age. We were talking about how when we jog around she really enjoys it, because she gets to see new things. She isn't always in the same spot. Then I mentioned that her mother and I had talked about going to different parks and recreational areas so that we can see new spots while we exercise. Then my daughter said the strangest thing, "Yeah but we don't want to go to Japan or China."

 I said, "Why not there? I am sure there are many beautiful gardens and things to see in those countries."

 She replied, "Because in some places there I can't say that I love Jesus! They might kill me!"

 I explained to her that while that was true in some parts, that there were many places in those countries were she would be free to talk about her love for Christ. I also explained that there were many people in those countries who also loved Jesus, and were willing to speak about it even if it meant being hurt.

 You see, just like my daughter, I'm often afraid to come down off the mountain. While some people are called to cloistered life in a monastery or nunnery, many of us are laypeople. It is our job to be the domestic church. To go out into the world and to spread the light of Christ as we go. Our environment doesn't change, rather we are to change our environment. In the second reading, Peter talks about his experience on the mountain top. "You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." Peter reminds us that by the virtue of our baptism, we have received the Holy Spirit, and we too are lights in the world. We are not supposed to place those lights under a basket, but on a hill for all to see.

 We must experience "metanoia," a fancy Greek word meaning a complete turning around of our lives(almost a turning upside down or inside out), until we too shine with the glory of Christ. We are not supposed to spend all of our time behind closed doors. Our religion does not end when we leave the Sanctuary. We receive Christ in the Eucharist, then we are charged to go forth and share the good news with the world. We must be transfigured, and conformed to Christ so fully in our lives, that the very places that we journey can become small reminders of the glory of Christ, and in our own way help bring God's Kingdom right here to the now.

 How about you? Are you ready to come down the mountain? Are you being transfigured by the Holy Spirit to shine your light into the darkness of the world? Are you ready to be the hands and feet of Christ?