Excuse the Mess!

How easy it is to forget the important things in life.   In the story of Martha and Mary we are reminded that some things are more important than the to do list.  Martha was running around hectic trying to get everything done that she felt needed to be done for her guests.  Mary though was sitting at the feet of Christ paying attention to Him.   I need to be reminded of this.  I am kind of anal when it comes to having a clean house and when we do have guests I am often the Martha.   Cleaning, washing, doing dishes I should have already finished, anxious and stressed.  I am missing the important thing, the guest.

Growing up my mother had a philosophy that went something like “house work can always be done, my kids will only be with me a short time.”   The house often wasn’t clean.   The laundry sometimes piled up well above the laundry basket.  The thing was we knew we were loved.  Mom spent as much time as we would let her with us.   We played, we laughed, we cried.  We did it as a family.   It’s a philosophy that all of us could learn from, especially when it comes to relationships.

Just the other day our friend Jennifer came over.   I was in the middle of a game online with three other people and while she stood talking to Julie, I kept playing.   I justified it because I was not alone in the game and three other people out there in cyber land were counting on me to finish this mission.  In reality I was missing an opportunity to sit at the feet of Christ.   To encounter Him in my friend who is made in His image.   To just be present, to treat her with dignity, and show her that she was more important to me than any game.  As rarely as we have guests in our home you’d think I would learn this lesson already.

Even more so, we have to remind ourselves to make time as well for that relationship with Jesus Christ in prayer and devotions.   Too often we fill our schedules up and then look for an hour here or a minute there to fit Him in.   When in reality we should simply empty our schedule and put Him in there first.   To make time for daily mass if possible, scripture study, Liturgy of the Hours, a rosary, or even just some silent time in which we listen for His voice speaking to us in the whisper of our hearts.   Are we making time for Him?  A relationship does not function if the two people never discourse.   Try it for a few days and you’ll find that even though you’re taking time to sit at Jesus feet, everything else seems to get done as well.  

His servant and yours,

Brian

“He must increase, I must decrease.”

A Reflection on the Mass Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 17, 2016. Genesis 18:1-10a; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:24-28; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke 10:38-42

Why do good things happen to bad people?

A Reflection on the Readings for June 28, 2016.  The Memorial of St. Irenaeus.

Amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12
Psalm 5
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 8:23-27

I used to hang out with this friend of mine after work.  We'd sit around having a few drinks.   He'd then bring out his drugs, consume them go on what he called a relaxing trip after work.  We'd then sit and talk about God.   Strange isn't it?  There we were doing things that He would find unpleasant, things which did not draw us closer to Him and yet our hearts still longed for Him.   My friend would talk about how rough his life was and ask why would God do that to him?  Why wasn't life a bed of roses?  Why did 'bad people' get good things, and good people get bad things>  Yet, there we were turning our backs on His grace and preventing Him from being a part of our life fully.   We were like a man drowning in the ocean, beating the hands and face of the Life Guard who tried to pull us out to safety.. and then complaining that no one was helping.

The readings today remind us that God has been sending the message of salvation since the beginning of time itself.   He has been showing us through Prophets, Judges, Kings, and Saints exactly the life we need to live to open those channels of grace.   The life we need to live to be restored to the image of God that we were created to be.  That doesn't mean a bed of roses.  In fact, Jesus gave us the ultimate example of living that life to it's fullest.. and it was far from comfort.   It was  a life filled with grace, a life that changed the world around it, healed the sick, fed the hungry, and sought God's will above all things.  We fall below that threshold so often don't we?   Too often we, like the Israelites, could be called a stiff necked people.  We continually do those things we know God has shown us to be bad for our spiritual health.

St. John Paul the II point out how this Psalm (Psalm 5) of supplication, like so may others in this book contrasts the person who prays with those who do evil.  Because of God's unwavering love and constant care and assistance, we can turn to him in confidence amid the turmoil, sin, and temptation that surround our daily lives.  United to God, the faithful are always secure; through prayer the people of God express their trust in his mercy.  It please God to shower his blessings upon his people and protect them with his unsurpassable goodness.  (Cf. St. John Paul II, General Audience, May 30, 2001) - Note from the Didache Bible (Pg 614, note 5)

When fear overwhelmed the disciples, they shouted out for Jesus to deliver them.   Jesus stood up and rebuked the waves and winds, and there was calm.   It's funny isn't it?   Jesus didn't take them out of the boat to dry land.   He didn't remove the water from the situation.   He didn't take them into the vacuum of space to where the wind itself could never move.   No, he instead brought calm to them.   They were still in the boat, still on the water, still at the mercy of the elements; their location had not changed.. but their peace was restored.  The storm was calmed around them, but everything that created the storm in the first place was still there.  Spiritually I think that's a powerful lesson for us... What God offers us is not necessarily a new location, or change of venue..... He offers to calm the storm... that doesn't mean that stress will miraculously disappear.. but if you let Him, His grace will give you the ability to be peaceful and filled with joy in the same location, the same situation.   That's what Jesus offers us every day.  Peace, joy and love with the grace of God.

The Israelites received an almost ominous threat.  That's because we read into it our human emotions, we anthropomorphize God to try and understand him further.   God said to them through Amos:

So now I will deal with you in my own way, O Israel!
and since I will deal thus with you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel.

God was letting them know of His grace, to see His mercy and justice.  He did indeed deal with them in His own way... through the incarnation.  Just like the disciples we are coming face to face with God himself, in the person of Christ.  When we come to the altar for communion we again come face to face with Christ in the Eucharist and should be reminded that God is right there in front of us... and we should not be terrified... rather we should be bolstered by our faith.. because God has chosen to deal with us in His own way.. love and mercy itself!   Are you ready for Jesus to calm the storm around you?  To rest in His arms in communion?  To draw closer to Him in Reconciliation?  To find peace, joy, and happiness right where you are at this very moment?  He might not remove the bed of roses, but simply open your eyes to the beauty and grace present through the pleasure of their sight and smell.

We are members of the body of Christ, the Church is the boat that keeps us afloat.  As long as we keep Christ in the boat, it's smooth sailing.. we just need to have faith.  Again today the question is asked, "What manner of man is this?"  As you gaze upon the Eucharist, can you hear Him saying, "Who do you say that I AM?"


His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Mission Impossible.

In tomorrow's readings we see Paul trying to follow the will of God.  He has recruited Timothy, a man who is both Jew and Greek to accompany him.  The message of the Gospel would be that much easier to spread to a new culture when you have "one of their own" with you.  Yet, he seems to be confounded at every turn.  They try to go into Asia but are prevented, into Bithynia and it is not God's will.   I imagine that is frustrating.  Here he is doing exactly what he has been called to do, and yet the Holy Spirit prevents them from going into these areas.  Imagine the frustration.   The doubt.  Then that night he has a vision of a Macedonian speaking to him and asking him to come into their country to help.  As soon as the vision was revealed they set out to seek passage into Macedonia to do God's will.

How often do we do the same thing in our lives?   Many of us are 100% sure of our calling, of what God wants us to do.. and that's a noble and good thing.  However, our calling is to do the will of God and that requires discernment.  It requires taking time to ask God exactly what he wants from us.  To follow his lead.  How can we ever know what his lead is if we don't spend time listening?  That's something our culture doesn't like, isn't it?  We have portable phones, music players, streaming devices... ear pieces that allow us to stand in a room with others and listen to some event thousands of miles away.   If we just look around at a restaurant instead of staring down at our cell phones people think we are weird or odd.  We are even encouraged to have music playing in the background of our homes so that when we arrive it isn't silent.. but rather welcoming and warm.

Somehow we got this notion that silence is bad.  That being alone with our own thoughts.. that sitting in meditation waiting for God to speak to us is old fashioned and a waste of time.  Yet, that's when God speaks to us the most.. in the silence.. when we stop using him as some sort of heavenly ATM and instead realize that He is a loving father with whom we have a relationship to maintain.   That means not just talking to Him, but spending time listening.  How then can we prepare for our mission if we never listen for that mission?  The Eucharist is the key.  It is the entire foundation of our Catholic faith.  Receiving Him, adoring Him, spending time with Him, listening to Him... that's what it takes to find out exactly what he wants from us.

The world wants us instead to blare our music, listen to our television shows, and constantly be bombarded with external information.  It's almost as if we are scared to take a moment to find out who we are.. and who He is.   Jesus warned us of this though.  In tomorrow's Gospel he talks about how the world hates him.. and as such, will hate us.   If people watched your day, would they see Him?   Or would they see just another person?  If they looked at your browser list would it look like everyone else's?  If they looked at your Netflix history would they be impressed?  He talks of persecution and he says the reason for it is "because they did not know the one who sent me."

Do you know Him?  Are you listening?   Each day is an opportunity for that, and opportunity to be more like Christ and less like the world.  That's what Church is all about.. it's about unity, growing together in faith, being the Body of Christ... the Sacraments draw us closer, and allow us to receive Him.. to be filled with His grace and His love.   Don't shun them... and take a moment today, and every day, to sit in silence and listen for His voice to find out what His plan is for you.  The fullness of God has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.  He gave us the Holy Spirit, a Church, and the Sacraments to lead us to an informed conscience and a holy formation.... It is time for us to avail ourselves of that tremendous grace and follow where he leads.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Who do you say that I am?

Tomorrow is the last Sunday in the liturgical year.  Soon we will begin the season of Advent, leading up to Christmas.  We will begin to think about the ways we can bring Christ into the world, and how we can celebrate his birth from day to day.  This Sunday though, we will be celebrating Jesus Christ as our King, the King of the universe.  I've spent a great deal of time thinking about these readings, and wondering.. what will I write about?  I keep being drawn to a specific phrase: "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?"

I wonder what I would say if Jesus had said this to me?  Our parents taught us about Jesus first in most cases.  For some though, it was a teacher, a friend, a catechist, a priest.  In every case our faith has been handed on by someone else.  Someone told us about Jesus.  They told us he was the King of the universe.  They told us that we needed him in our lives.  That's a beautiful thing.  That is how the Church has operated since it's foundation in the first century. It can't end there though.

"Do you say this on your own?"  It is so important that we don't just know Jesus intellectually.  We must know him intimately.   He is indeed the King of the Universe.  He is indeed our Master and our Teacher.  He's also our brother and our friend.  We need to learn to know who he is.  Unlike the Blue's Brothers, we don't just want the facts.  We want a relationship.  We need to spend time with Jesus.  In the Sacraments.   In our friends and family.  In the poor. Jesus reminds us in the last part of tomorrow's gospel: "For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." 

How can we hear God's voice if we don't listen for it?  Society encourages us to fill everything with sound, everything with self.  Portable music devices, internet coverage from seashore to seashore, if you want something there is an app for that.  We can hear the top songs.  Watch the top shows.  Videos from the top Youtubers are that touch of a button. What we need though is to spend some time just listening to Christ.   If we are constantly talking or listening, we never give him room to speak.  That I think is our challenge this day as we wonder if we truly have accepted, honored and realized the truth of what it means for Christ to be our King.

My wife and I just watched the movie Bruce Almighty together, again. Toward the end of the movie Jim Carey drops to his knees in the middle of a highway in a rain storm.   He realizes that he doesn't know how to take care of things.  That even with unlimited power he is just making a mess of things.  He cries out to God and says "I surrender to your will."  Of course, in typical comedic fashion, he is then hit by a truck.  That leads us though to this amazing scene where he finally realizes how much he loves the lady of his life.  So much so that he doesn't pray to get her back, but rather that she will be happy, no matter what that means.

Are you ready for that kind of prayer?  "Lord, I want other people to be happy, no matter what it costs me."  That's what making Jesus the King of our lives is about.  Jesus showed us by example with his Disciples.   He washed their feet.  Then he said, this is what you must do for one another.  Jesus, the King of the entire Universe... humbled himself to serve others.  We as His adopted brothers, as co-heirs to the Kingdom, as Disciples of Christ... we must do the same.

Find some time today to listen to God's voice.  Then, as Mary would tell you, "Do whatever he tells you."  Serve him.  Serve one another.  If every Christian began to do this, we could truly fulfill that first reading in which all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.

Feast of Saint's Simon and Jude

What does it mean to be chosen by God?  Tomorrow we celebrate the feast of two people who not only where chosen by Christ but also suffered martyrdom for their faith.  What can we learn from these readings?  How do they apply to us as Catholics today, 2000 years after they were recorded?

While looking at the first reading I wanted to ask myself, how does that apply to me?  The reading talks about the Apostles being the foundation of our faith.  That the church Jesus left us with was built on them as the base.  That's an important thing to us as Catholics.  We are an apostolic faith.  That is we believe in the teachings of the Apostles, as handed down through their successors, and recorded in the Scriptures.  So we hold to those teachings, we trust in them and we try to live as the Apostles did.  We listen to their testimony about who Jesus is and what that revelation means to us as humans.   We learn from them more about our relationship in this covenant of love that unites us with God as his people.

There is an important thing though to notice in that reading.  The Apostles are indeed the base, the foundation of our faith.. but Jesus is the Capstone.  It is Jesus himself that holds us together in our faith.  Without a capstone an arch, a building, a pyramid.. they all fall.    The capstone holds all the weight. It is the 'key' to the entire structure.  That shows us a very important thing.  We are not a people of the book, we are a people of God.  The book is part of the foundation, it was given to us by the Church, by the apostles.. but the key, the key to the Church, to understanding the book, to our faith in it's entirety is a person.   The person of Christ.  It is through him, through his support, through his guidance and his spirit that we are lead to not only understand our faith (and our book) but also to be able to follow it.  When we try to do things on our own, our flesh gets in the way.  That is why we keep falling into the same sin over and over.  We don't turn it over to God and let him take it away, we try to fight it on our own.  "I got this" we say.  It's only when we humble ourselves, humble our own egos, that we begin to say "I don't have this Lord. I am struggling.  I need you to help me."  We have to make him the Capstone of our lives, so that he holds us together.  Without him, we ourselves fall apart.

Just as the Gospel reading reminds us that Jesus personally called each and every one of his 12 Apostles, even Judas who would betray Him, he also calls each of us into a relationship.  He wants us to step out of our world, out of our comfort, and to build a temple for Him.  A temple of living stones,  all support and held together by Jesus Christ himself.  He has been calling us since the moment of our birth, are we ready to listen?  Are we ready to turn it all over to him? Or will we just sit where we are, afraid to respond?  It's ok.  You don't even have to move.  All you have to do is make Him the Capstone, and he will lead you out. 

The LORD will fight for you; you have only to keep still. - Exodus 14:14 NAB

"Be still and know that I am God," the Psalmist reminds us.    Elijah stayed still in the cave.  He listened for God and found him in the silence.  God has been reminding me over and over to be still, to listen for Him, and then do what He guides me to do.  So my challenge to you today, is to get in some quite time.. some 'still' time with God.  Find a quiet place, away from the sounds and influences of the world, and spend some time just listening for God's voice.   Find an adoration chapel, a Sanctuary to sit in with the reposed Christ, or even just a quiet corner in your home and say "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."  Then be Still.   Listen for His call.  Realize he has already called out to you, he has already chosen you, he is just waiting for you to realize how much you mean to him.

In Christ, His Servant and Yours,
Brian