Stirring the Flame

Today is the memorial of Saint Justin the Martyr.  A man who lived in the early church, back in the time when the Roman's were having Christians fight to death in the Colosseum.  A time of persecution and hate.  Justin after his conversion began to argue for the Christian faith.  Not argue like we argue today, but to logically and systematically debate with others to show them the truth.  He won over many souls, and failed to do so with others.  Eventually a man, jealous that Justin had beaten him with his logic, reported him to the government and he was martyred for his faith.  We still to this day learn the methods of apologetics, that is not saying we are sorry, but rather giving a defense for our faith.  "Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope." (1 Peter 3:15)

In the first reading for today we have a glimpse into the mindset of Saint Paul.  Paul is being persecuted and in prison, likely to die for his faith.  He reminds Timothy to stir into flame that gift which God has given him, that is the Holy Spirit.  It reminds me of those early movies in which cave men carried their embers with them from site to site.   Someone was in charge of that.  It wasn't a new fire that they were creating, but rather they carried the hot coals wrapped in protective sheets from place to place.  Rebuilding the fire over and over.. slowly coaxing it back to life with the proper fuel.  If they put on the wrong stuff, it would put out the fire.  If however, they used the fuel that it needed.. and slowly breathed into the embers, it would roar to life and produce fire.

I lived in a run down house in Virginia.  In the basement was this old, rusted out wood stove.  When I first moved in there I put in a gas stove, mostly because of all the work it took to keep a wood fire going.  Eventually, due to bad money management and silly circumstances, I couldn't afford the propane anymore to heat the house (not that it ever really heated it well.)  That winter I collected wood and stored it in the shed.  When I would get in from work I'd have to build a new fire.  Every day I'd come in from the cold and the fire would be out.   It took me most of that winter to learn to bank down the fire, to conserve the hot coals during the day.  Then when I got home I'd slowly build it back up.  A little tinder.   Some soft dry wood.  Eventually some heavy, hard woods to burn through the night.  It took time to learn how to stir that flame, to get it going without putting it out.   It took even more time to learn to be able to keep that flame going during the day.   It was so easy to forget to turn down the draft, close the vents and have just enough coal left to keep it going for the many hours I was gone into the world.

Paul reminds us exactly how to do this with that ember burning in our souls.   At Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit.  The Bible reminds us that the Spirit descended in tongues of flames, transformed the burning bush, and left Moses transformed and glowing that he even had to cover his face.   It is through love and self-control that we fan those flames.  When we sin, when we give in to our desires at any cost, that's when we begin to smother that light, to push that flame out of existence.  It is through saying no to those things which are bad for us, even when we want them so badly, that we slowly feed the fire.   A fire that does not harm us, but warms us and glows within us.. eventually glowing so brightly that others see it in us... drawing us to Sainthood.  The power of love and self-control.   How society wants us to go the other way.   To give in to desire, regardless of the consequence.   To simply do what you want, and let others do whatever they want.. but Christianity calls self-control a power!  How much harder is it to say no than to simply give in?  To be in control of yourself?

When we look back to the example left us by Saint Justin we see him reaching out to the world and spreading the Gospel.  We can look back at his description of Christian worship in the first hundred years of Christianity and be astounded that he describes the Catholic Mass.  For two thousand years we have been worshiping God exactly as the Apostles taught us to do so.  The Church has been teaching us that entire time that we must love God and one another, but also that we must have self control.   This has been handed on for generation after generation.  How then are we challenged to be apologists in the world?  How can we exercise that power of love and self-control?

First and foremost by living a Sacramental life.  Making frequent reception of the Sacraments a priority.  Not something we fit into our schedule once it's full of all the other things, but rather something that goes in first and our schedule fits around.  In receiving Christ in the Eucharist, encountering Him in the Confessional and adoring Him in Adoration; we are strengthened by love itself.   We come face to face with our own sinfulness and are challenged to do more, to do better.   Then we must take that Sacramental presence out into the world and become that presence to those in need.  The world is thirsty, it's seeking help.  It needs us.  That doesn't mean you have to go out and preach on the street corner, though there is nothing wrong with that.   What it does mean is that you have to fan those embers, feed them with love and good works, avoiding that which is ungodly and sinful.

This morning I was wondering how I might fan those flames.   How can I help the Holy Spirit grow in me by opening myself more fully to Him?  I stood in the grocery line waiting to pay.  A few people ahead of me stood a woman who was buying some groceries.  As they rang her up she ran her card.  Once, twice... three times.   It was denied.   "I just put money in here, what am I going to do?"  She was on the verge of tears.  I've been there.  I've had to have them hold the groceries till I could go home or to the bank to get cash, or even put back things to afford them.  I've been without food, and more importantly I know that feeling of draining you get when you realize everyone is looking and hearing.   Is it pride?  Sure some.  It's not a feeling though that I envy or want for anyone else.  Out of my mouth I heard the words: "How much is it?"   I didn't even mean to say it, it just came out. She said $19 something.   I said I got it.  I went up and paid for it.  The look on her face was worth more than $20.   She began to cry.  She said you don't know what this means and ran from the building with her two small bags of food.

That's how we fan the flames.  By giving in and letting Him speak through us.   By being a living Sacrament that shows the Living God.   By speaking, acting, loving in the way that Christ would to a world so much in need of that touch.    Are you ready to stir that flame?   To learn how to keep it burning even when we go out into the world?  Do you realize how precious and absolutely necessary it is to protect and guard it to keep it from going out?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Visions of Sugar Plums Dancing in My Head

We have a tendency as people to draw in on ourselves, to leave the outside world to wallow in it's own miseries while we protect our own.  One of the churches I went to growing up had that sort of notion built into their theology of what they felt a Christian should do.  One year the Pastor decided he was going to take his family to see the Smithsonian and visit the capital.  He came back preaching a message of Hellfire and brimstone, declaring the world lost. He had apparently gotten out of his car to see two men holding hands walking down the street, quickly packed his kids up and drove back to our small coal town.  From that day on he never left the area as far as I know.

That is part of the problem with us as a people, not just a church.  We become very closed minded.  Our comfort zones take over and we begin to close out anything that begins to draw us out.  That leads to those thoughts that make us start to quantify what it means to be one of 'us'.   "We eat meat.  Drink beer.  Speak English. Carry Guns. If you don't like it get out." says one seemingly popular meme on Facebook.  For centuries the popular idea of church was to draw in on ourselves.   The Catholics had their own little village around the Parish, the Protestants theirs around their church, etc.   The kids didn't play together.  The parents didn't talk unless it was work related and they were forced to.  All stemming from prejudice, from hate, from injustice.

The vision we have recorded in Isaiah as the author begins to close out this magnificent volume of poetry, prose, and theological insight is a world in which none of these things exist.  A world in which their is no pain, no sorrow, no death, no more crying and distress.   I heard many a preacher expound on this end of time place in which the lame would run on legs that work, the deaf would hear, the blind see, and all sorrows be relegated to a past that we no longer even remember.  What a vision that is, what a dream, what a thing to come.....

The thing is, it's not just a place to come.  What Isaiah is describing is the Kingdom of God.  What Isaiah is describing is what Jesus was proclaiming when he opened that scroll and declared that scripture was fulfilled in their hearing.  What does that Kingdom look like?  One of the confirmation students asked a question about it, something along the lines of "How are we not going to be bored in heaven?"  They had seen the artwork, heard the descriptions, and for them.. it sounded boring... eating the same meal every day.. talking to the same people.. never on their phones, never watching TV... they couldn't understand it.  I told them one of my favorite parables (forgive me if you've already heard it.)

Back in ancient times the stable was directly under the house.  A man had two cows that he kept for milk in his basement.  They had never seen the outside.  They couldn't remember anything other than now.. other than the basement, the water and the hay.  One night the farmer who owned the house through a grand party.  They had live music, dancing, food and fun.  People joined around the tables having a great time.  Laughing, giggling, sharing, drinking, and laughing again.  It went way into the night.  After many hours of all of these strange sounds, scents, and goings on.. one cow looked at the other and said, "What is going on up there?"  The other replied, "I don't know.. but that must be some really good hay!"  They could only describe it from their own experience.. they had a small glimpse of what was to come.. a minute experience of what would happen if they went up to that party... but they described it in the only way they know how.. from their experience.

That is what Heaven is like.  We can't tell you exactly what it is going to be like, but we can describe it as best as we can with words.. even that will be inadequate.   A feast, a party.. communion... those are all good starts.  So I asked our students to talk about things they liked to do.. how does that make you feel?   We came up with a list of adjectives to describe those things and categorized them into two columns: good and bad.

Good	Bad
Happy	Sad
Comfort	Pain
Light	Darkness
Peace	Fear
Tranquil	Anxious

God is good.  To be with God means to be good.  To be away with him means to experience bad.  All of those things in the good column... that's what being in Heaven is like.  You know those moments when you're out watching the sunrise and you just get lost in the moment?  For that moment you aren't worried about the bills, or the decisions your kids are making, or that rattling in the front end of your car... your content.. you just are.. comfortable.. peaceful.. tranquil.. For some it's that sunrise, for others it's catching that big fish, or listening to their wife sleep peacefully at night.  It might be that first kiss, or the last one.  Dinner with a friend or a night in at home... it looks different for each of us.  What we do know though, is that God is involved in those moments... all good things come from him.  

That's what Isaiah is trying to describe to us.  We have to avoid that notion though that we should bottle up in a room and wait.  Too many Christians are only waiting for the Kingdom to arrive at the end of time.  They are hiding in the room fearful of the world, that it might taint them.. that they might be infected by the sin of others...   Jesus came though to bust us out of our rooms.. to send us to the proclaim the message to the ends of the earth.  The disciples themselves gathered with Mary the mother of God and locked themselves in a room for prayer.   The Holy Spirit descended on them in a dramatic and miraculous way and the doors were thrown up!  They marched out in the town square declaring the kerygma to the all who would hear, and hear they did!  That's our challenge as authentic, intentional disciples. Not to try and hide in our church, but to get out into the world and bring about change... challenging the morals, measures of judgement, values, philosophies, metaphysics, epistemology of the people to become more adherent to those of God. (Evangelii Nuntiandi §17-24)

We don't have to wait till the end of time to experience that.  I think that's part of the frustration of Jesus in the Gospel as he talks about how everyone demands a sign.. everyone wants more from him than the message.. they don't want to do it themselves, they just want Jesus to take care of it.   He just came from the Samaritans.. the 'other'... the 'they'... guess what?  They didn't need a sign.  They didn't need a miracle.   They just came out on the witness of a woman, a woman who was of ill repute... and they came to believe in Christ.  He didn't move a mountain.. he didn't change the world first for them.. they became disciples out of their love for the Scriptures, the message proclaimed, and for Christ himself.  Are we like them? Or like those in his own home town who wanted to throw him off the cliff?  Do we truly believe what we are given?  Are we going out into the world proclaiming and changing the world to be more like the Kingdom of God?  Or telling God to do it himself?  Church is not behind a closed door.  It's not just on Sunday, or just when you are at daily Mass... we are the Church and it's our job to bring God's presence into the world, into our policies, into our politics, into our judicial judgements, into the very fabric of who we are, to all ends of the earth. 

Sure, God could and will at the end of time, do it himself... but he's offered you something far more greater and noble.. the opportunity to create with him.. the opportunity to be a witness to truth, justice, and joy.  Are you doing that?  That's what Lent is about.. it's about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, the refugee, the immigrant, the widow, the orphan.. it's reaching out to those on the margins, those hurt by the Church, those hurt by their own actions, in the streets and the hedgerows and saying, "God loves you."   It's not just sitting in the room to receive the message yourself, but taking that message out with you to the ones who aren't there.. bringing them closer to Christ.  Remember it's not just enough to feed them, clothe them, shelter them... without at some point bringing Jesus to them... It's not going to be easy.. Jesus himself was rejected in his home town.. and many only came out to see him perform, like some street magician...  but He has sent us a Holy Spirit.. someone to help us, guide us, and give us the strength and courage to bring this message to others.  Through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving let us grow closer to Christ.. so that we can bring Him, His message, His Kingdom... to the very world itself.. that we might experience those good things.. those things which Isaiah spoke about in some way here and now, and that not only us.. but everyone else might see those things.. and say.. I want that too! 

How appropriate that we also talked about Baptism in the early church.  How that catechumens fasted for three days, then spent the entire night in prayer separated from the rest of the Church. They were bathed and put on pure white robes.  Then as the sun rose in the east, the church doors would burst open and here would come these newly cleaned, pristinely dressed, new Christians through the door into the Church where the others had waited all night.. to receive Jesus for the first time.. Think of that imagery for a moment.. you've been waiting all night in anticipation.. you're in the dark.. and the doors burst open, and in through the arch comes the bright rays of a newly risen sun... and in the midst of that glorious vision you see these beautiful people glowing in their freshness.   That's supposed to be you!  Is that what people see when you come into the world?  Happiness?  Joy?  Freshness?  Goodness?  Are you wearing your baptismal robe like a sign of beauty and peace?  Or are you hiding it under the grime of the world.  

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease."

An Evangelist to the End!

Fishers of Men by Kim Freitas

It's Advent!  How exciting! How beautiful!  Do you feel the change in the air?  We should.  This beautiful season is to remind us of what it felt like to be present for the promise of the Christ, the Messiah, Emmanuel!  The Jewish people still in captivity after such a long time, not only bound by the government of Rome but also still warring with sin in their flesh; were waiting for the promised deliverance, the prophet greater than Moses, for Jesus Christ himself.   Mary had been promised to deliver a child by the angel Gabriel and here we approach the date of his birth. 

We don't just celebrate a birthday on a birthday you know.   We don't just celebrate a past event, though that is part of it.  We celebrate the person!  We celebrate their past, their present, and their future.  We talk about what they were like as a child, maybe even pulling out some of those embarrassing baby photos to show the new members of our clan.  We tell jokes and stories.  We ask them how they are and spend time appreciating them!  We wish them many more happy years, and give them gifts.  Oh how wonderful a birthday is!  A day to remember a person, and a sad parting at the end when they must go back to their life and you to yours. 

That's the beauty of Christmas though, when we celebrate Christ's birthday it doesn't have to end there.  So here we are moving toward his birthday.  Some would say we should celebrate it every day of the year.. and you know they are right!  That's not what Christmas is about though.  It is not a day to stop and say ok, remember Christ today and forget him tomorrow.  No, it is a holiday to remind us to stop and say, have I been doing it!  Have I forgotten who Christ is?  Have I spent as much time with him as I should?  Let's tell those stories.  Let's talk to him, and listen to him, and appreciate him.  Then take him with us throughout the year.  We all need those reminders.  We need those days to remind us not to take things for granted. Not to forget.

Today is the feast of Saint Andrew the apostle.  There is a man who was a true evangelist.  A man who did not forget and took Christ with him.  The first reading from Saint Paul's letter to the Romans reminds us that faith comes from hearing.  How can they hear without someone to preach?  How can people preach unless they are sent?  The shepherd's in the field were one of the first to hear the good news.  They were told by the angels themselves!  The angel's were sent by God.  They announced who Jesus was, and pointed to him.  Jesus then sent Andrew.  Andrew announced the good news as well.  Andrew was so enamored with Christ, so filled with the Holy Spirit that it is said that when he was martyred in Patras they bound him to a cross.  They left him there for two days. For both days he preached to the crowds gathered.. using every last bit of his life to preach to them that Christ was the messiah, and the way, the truth and the life.

Then in today's Gospel according to Saint Matthew we hear the story of Andrew's calling.  Jesus called to Andrew and Peter and told them to stop casting their nets into the sea, that he would make them fishers of men.  Matthew tells us that immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.   They didn't wait till later.  They didn't pack up and say their goodbyes.  Rather they left, right then and there to do the will of God.  Come after me.   That was Jesus first words to them in this encounter.  Follow me.  As we journey through Advent and the Christmas season I think that is our challenge.  Just like the Shepherd's who heard the message came to find Christ in the manger, just as the Wise Men from the East saw his star and came to worship, just as Mary, the disciple par excellence, heard the message and gave an eternal yes to the father to bring Christ into the world... so too must we.

You and I, brothers and sisters, are called by our baptism to be apostles to Christ.  An apostle is one who has been called by the Lord, sent by the Lord, and has seen the risen Lord.   If you are Catholic you fit the bill.  You have been called through your baptism into the life of the Church.  Jesus has called you to this.  It was not you alone though it was your choice.  Jesus said no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws them.  You have been called. You have been sent.  Every time we go to Mass at the end of Mass we hear something to the effect of "The Mass is ended, go forth and glorify the Lord with your lives."  The Priest or Deacon is not just saying "Hey see you next Sunday."  No, it is a sending forth!  You are being sent into the world to deliver the Gospel!  The food you have just received from this table, you are going out into the world to share it with everyone else!  You have been sent.

Finally, the one that so many people miss, you have seen the risen Lord.  I said this to my confirmation class recently and all of them demanded to know when.  In the Eucharist!  We Catholics do not believe it is a mere symbol.  We believe that Jesus Christ is truly present, literally and entirely in the Eucharist.  He is not trapped there.  He is not only there... but he is very much there!  When the Priest lifts up the Eucharist in Mass we look upon the divine deity, Christ himself!  Wow!  Does that floor you?  It should.  You have been called!  You have been sent!  You have seen the risen Christ!  You are an apostle.  That means you too must go forth preaching to the world! Oh, indeed, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!  Be those feet!

Are you ready for this?  If you were crucified today would you spend your last two days of life, starving and in pain, to preach the message of Christ to anyone who would listen?  Are you preaching Christ in your daily life?  Do people know you are a disciple of Christ?  Does your life exhibit the truth of the Gospel?  Are you following Him?  That's what Advent is about.  It's time my friends, to examine our hearts.. our lives.. our consciences and ask ourselves.. have we forgotten?  Let us use this Advent wisely as we approach Christmas.  Let us remember that our lives are ordered towards Easter, but they begin with Christmas.  So let's journey through our liturgical year to remind us of Jesus past present and future.. and as disciples of Christ let us remember that the means we want our lives to look like his.  Use this time to look at your own past, present and future... You have been born in Baptism.  It doesn't end there.  You are being reborn daily, with your choices, with your actions... with your thoughts.  Are you letting Christ be born in your heart now? Or is there something in the way..   You will be reborn after this life.  Where will you spend your eternity?  Now is the time.  Get ready.  Be ready.  Stay ready.

His servant and yours,
Brian