Oh Deer......

Recently on a silent retreat we were encouraged to meditate on thankfulness as we sat on this beautiful outlook, overlooking the great Mississippi river.   The previous afternoon during our one hour of fellowship I was telling my friends about the frog I had been meditating on the morning before.   They told me about humming birds, eagles, deer, rabbits, and butterflies.   How wonderful the diversity of life in this place! As I sat there watching the golden rays of the sun crest the morning sky, a butterfly passed by.   A red tailed hawk flew overhead and a rabbit scampered on the trail below.   The breeze was picking up and I was in awe of the beauty of the moment.  Then I thought, this moment would be perfect if a deer would just walk out of the forest right now.

How frustrating that must be for our Heavenly Father.   To be in a relationship with a stiff necked people who are never happy with what He offers them.  Here I was meditating on being thankful for the moment and even in that moment had notes for God on how to make it better, instead of just being content and happy with the beauty and grace I was already receiving.  There are times when I am just in an ill mood.  My wife tells me when I am in that mood she can do nothing right, nothing seems to calm me down.   How horrible that must be for her!  To not be the cause of my angst and yet be the one to receive the annoyances and ire. God gets even worse from us.

In the Gospel for today Jesus has brought to the people the glorious and wonderous news that God is offering forgiveness to all people!   Eternal life!  He offers it with a simple message, love God and your neighbor.  It's not a new message, but the same message God gave to Moses in the desert.   Simply live what you already know to be true and you can live forever in Heaven with God!  "You know what would make this message even better Jesus?   If you were to do a miracle here for us to prove it."  It was their deer.   Instead of realizing the beauty of what was right before them, God himself incarnated in the person of Christ, they wanted more.

He comes to us every day in the Sacraments offering that same salvation and He challenges us to live the message we already know to be true in our hearts.  As Moses said last week in the readings, It is not in some far off land or in the skies that someone must go and get it for us, it's right here in our hearts and on our lips.   Love.  Saint Camillus De Lellis, our Saint for the today, reminds us how to live that out.   By greeting Christ in His most distressing of disguises.   That whatever we do to the least of these, the poor, the sick, the widow, the orphan, the angry young man with a gun, the police officer shot in the line of duty, the family left behind... whatever we do for these, we do for Christ.   Are you ready to encounter Christ?   In the face of the sick and dying?   The old and the young?  The refugee?  The Muslim?  The Jew?  The Atheist?  We need to stop asking God to give us a sign to push us out into the world to do good, and just do good.    He's already given you a sign that goes beyond anything else you could ask for... He rose from the dead that you too might have eternal life.   Now go spread the good news!

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A Reflection on the readings for Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: July 18, 2016.  Micah 6:1-4, 6-8; Psalm 50; A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 12:38-42

Have you lost focus?

Several years ago my wife found some discounted tickets from Rockford to Arizona for a price we could not pass up.  So our family packed our things and flew the miles to the warm desert state to visit family and experience the world.  It was one thing to see the desert, the cacti, and the grand canyon in pictures.  It was another to experience the true majesty of God's creation in person.   To walk in the sand and heat, to see the sites and even to rest in the shade.   One day during the trip we went swimming at a pool.  Laying there in the shade I watched as the kids laughed and giggled.  Moira was almost two years old.   Her sister was watching her by the steps in the shallow end and her mother had gone to the bathroom.  At some point I dozed off.  I woke to a strange sound.  I don't know if it was Julie yelling or the bubbles in the pool, but when I jerked up I saw that Moira was no where to be seen and her sisters were over by the deep end.

It turned out Moira was under the water.  We got to her before she could drown, but to this day she still has a fear of getting water in her eyes.  I'll never forget those few moments of panic though.  Those moments when I thought my daughter was gone.  The fear of thinking my center, the person we were living for, the child we had been so intimately connected with for two years was possibly gone from our lives.  I can't imagine what that must be like for a parent.   To lose their child first.   It shouldn't be that way, right?  We all expect our kids to out live us, to be there until after we ourselves have passed.  Too many parents experience that right now in their lives, and my heart goes out to them.

In the readings for today, it is even more poignant that these widows had lost not just their child, but their only sons.  In a world where women have no rights, where they must be cared for by their husbands and their children in their old age, this was her center... her focus.. her only hope.   This child would be the one who would make an income for the family, provide them a home, give his mother a life.  Instead her hope was gone.  Her husband was already gone, any other sons as well, and here the last of the lineage was dead before her.  How angry these things make us, don't they?   So much so we blame God for them.  Why God?  Why do good things happen to good people?  Why pain? Why suffering?   Why death?  The widow of Zarephath had the same response.  "Have you come to me to call attention to my guilt and to kill my son?"

It's easy to do that isn't it.  Elijah in response did what we are all called to do.  He got on his knees and he prayed for the boy.  He gave his heart into it, groaning and begging God to make a change.   To restore hope, joy, peace.   He stood in the gap for the widow, bringing back her life to her.   Her focus was restored with the life of her son.   She knew then that Elijah was indeed a man of God because he spoke the "Word of the Lord."   That's a key to remember as well.  Our "yes must be yes and our no, no."   Our word must be truth, we must speak the Gospel as it is, not deviating or trying to make it our own.. it's not ours to change.  God has given it to us in His plan, His way.   We hand it on in the same manner.

Then comes the scene in the Gospel where Jesus performs a similar, but more astounding, miracle.  Unlike Elijah, He does not ask for permission to take the son into His arms, but rather puts His hand on the son of His own desire.   He informs them not to weep and then instead of needing to pray for God's intercession, He simply speaks "I tell you arise!" and it comes about.  The people realize at that moment that history has just changed.  This man is more than just a prophet, this is a man who speaks with authority.  "God has visited his people!"  This widow has been restored, given back her hope, her focus, the thing that makes life worth living.  

I imagine that is similar to what I felt when I saw Moira's head surface, spitting out water and gasping for air.  Relief, concern, but above all hope.   Peace.  That is what Jesus is offering to us today.  Every day we lose focus.   We lose some hope.   The world tears at us and Satan prowls around seeking to destroy us.  The news is depressing, kids reject their parents and their faith, and even the music is filled with drugs, violence, and degrading imagery.   We can encounter Him the same way the widow did, in person, directly, through the Sacraments.   In Reconciliation and in the Eucharist, we come face to face with Jesus who declares to us "Do not weep."   He then can restore to us that which was our focus, that which was lost.   He places himself in our hearts that we might be complete again, that we might have hope for eternal life, that we can know we are cared for and taken care of.   We are no longer on our own, He is with us.

Then He challenges us to go out into the world with Him.   To reach out to all of those others who have been widowed by their existence.   All of those who have lost hope, who have no one to care for them, who need food, drink, friendship.   To take that Sacramental presence we receive and become life givers, hope bringers, messengers of peace and joy.   It's only when we become little 'Christ's'  that we can even hope to manage that.   Not to go alone, but to bring Him into every interaction, every thought, every deed.  Mathew 25 tells us exactly how to do that.

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?  And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?  And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’

So are you ready for that?  To feed the hungry, cloth the naked, welcome the refugee among you, give water to the thirsty, visit the sick and prisoner?    The world is filled with people who are imprisoned by their own vices, their own sinful natures.   It's our job as Church to go out and give them a reason for our hope.  To meet them where they are, and love them so much we never leave them there.   Instead we journey with them toward eternity, seeking to eat the wedding feast of the lamb with them by our side.   Make a friend, be a friend, and bring that friend to Christ.  We have work to do Church!

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

There's healing in the air tonight

This morning at daily Mass, Father Don Ahles mentioned an article by Norman Wirzba in which he mused on the thought that we might be able to now “declare the end of ‘Christian America.’”  The article speaks of the fact that we in America often portray ourselves as Christians through our speech, through our prayers, and through our presence at this or that local.  Yet, when we look at the actions, at the deeds of these Christians, we find that they don’t line up with the Christian line of thought presented in the Gospels.  

Although voters may speak piously and rather vaguely about Christian values and ideals, polls and election results communicate clearly this is a nation consumed by fear, anger and suspicion – none of which are Christian virtues.

Especially during this part of our political timeline we begin to see people who claim to be Catholic or Christian, yet they do play on those things.  The mudslinging begins.  This one can’t be trusted.  This one isn’t really ‘American.’  This one lied.  On and on it goes.  The thing is, we don’t seem very loving at all when we talk about politics.  We talk about how that we do need to vote, but then we turn lose these insults against the candidate we don’t like, and laud the one we do.. even though often we seem to be supporting those people who are truly against our faith entirely.  I think tomorrow's Gospel reading kind of sets the stage for the next line that caught my eye in his article.

[...]From a scriptural point of view, it is all rubbish. What matters is not what you say but how you live. And from a Christian point of view, nothing matters more than living a life that is inspired by God’s love for everyone.

A life inspired by God’s love for everyone.  Scripture affirms that one of the ways we should be recognized is by our love.  You know the song?  They will know we are Christian by our love?  What does God’s love look like?  Jesus has some pretty strong words to say about that.  Forgiveness.   That’s what God’s love looks like, first and foremost.  Jesus says to Peter that we must forgive not just seven times, but seventy seven fold (70X7 times.)  In the world of Biblical numerology seventy times seven does not represent a literal 490 times.. though that in and of itself would be impressive… rather it represents an infinite number.. forgiveness without limit.

I got to thinking about Lamech, the son of Cain.  Cain was seen as a hard man, but Lamech was the epitome of anger and abuse.  He claims to have killed a man just for wounding him, a young man too out of anger.  Lamech made the audacious claim that if the death of Cain would be avenged seven times, then the death of Lamech would be seventy and sevenfold.  In his world forgiveness was never given.  Anger was returned for anger.  Hate for hate. Death for a wound.  Not only did he return what was given, he multiplied it.  How in contrast that is to God’s love?  How far has he gone from God to be in such a world that does not forgive, but amplifies the hate and evil that is present.

Jesus on the other hand, offers us a world where all is forgiven.  That not only does God forgive perfectly, but we are challenged to do the same. That’s what love looks like.  It means offering your love to everyone regardless of what they do to you.  We’ve come a long way away from that message haven’t we?  We’ve begun to look less like Christians in this country, and more like followers of Lamech.  Our television shows become more catty, more snarky, more materialistic.  Just recently a movie was released in which the ‘hero’ was a man of violence, a man who harmed others, who was almost as much devil as he was avenger.   It sold out.  Record sells even.  Who are we following?  Our actions speak of that.  Our shows, our radio, our movies.. all show what we truly believe.

Then comes something that is very near to my heart though, something that fits right in with that unlimited forgiveness of God… the author goes on to say:

What about the refugees and immigrants who are being refused at our borders and made to feel unwelcome in our land, or the homeless (many of them ill) who do not have a home and proper protection from the elements, or the prison inmates (many of them African-American) who are treated like the garbage of society? [..]God is asking the nations about their public policy, not their verbal piety, because the true test of Christianity has only ever been the test of love.

There is the crux of the matter isn’t it?  To forgive as God forgives we have to forgive these people too.  We seem to be holding grudges against the ‘least of these.’  Some of those grudges from people they may not even know.  They’re muslim right?  Lesbian?  Gay? They are drug dealers and prostitutes.  They are vagabonds who don’t bother to work for themselves.  They.. they.. they.. we like to have an other to hate don’t we?  Yet, Christ told us to forgive not just those people we like, those we are comfortable with.. but even the enemy.. the other.. the they.   Are you ready to do that?  Our nation may not be a Christian nation.. to be honest, it may never have been a truly Christian one… but you and I challenged to be Christian regardless of what our nation is.   Are you ready to forgive?  To offer God’s mercy and grace to everyone? Not just those we choose to be worthy?  Are we ready to love like God loves?  That’s what we must learn to do if we want to keep using the word Christian to describe ourselves.. to lift up our own life… to sacrifice ourselves.. to go to our own Cross..  for everyone, not just those we want to choose, but those God puts before us, period.

His servant and yours,

Brian

“He must increase, I must decrease.”

Do we gather figs of thistles?

In tomorrow's Gospel we see this amazingly detailed parable that speaks of a vineyard that has been leased to tenants.  It's easy for us to digest it just as the Pharisees did by placing each of the people mentioned in context of who Jesus was and who he was speaking of.  God the owner, Jerusalem the vineyard, the wicked tenants the leaders of Jerusalem, the servants that were sent the prophets, and of course the son being Jesus himself.   That's easy enough for us to see two thousand years later with all of our Scripture, our writings of the Church and magisterium.   Apparently according to scripture the Pharisees themselves could easily see that meaning as well.  Scripture records: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables,
they knew that he was speaking about them.

What about applying it to our lives though?  God has given us a Church.  He has declared that the gates of hell would not prevail against it.   If we then place ourselves into this parable we see God is again the owner of course, the householder.  The Church is the vineyard, surrounded by the hedge of protection, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus of course would still be the son, sent to remind us to be faithful to the teachings of God.

We are the tenants in the vineyard of the Lord.   He will be sending people to gather the fruit.  Peace, love, joy... these are fruits.. they are spread by following those corporal works of mercy.  Giving food to the hungry. Clothing the naked.  Giving drink to the thirsty.  These are the fruits of God's vineyard.  He sends us not prophets, but homeless men and women, refugees and orphans, sinners and saints...these are his servants.   They have come to collect the fruit that you and I are supposed to be producing.  Are we like the tenants and refusing to give them that which God has prepared for them?  Are we sharing the grace he has prepared for them in the hedged safety of the Church?  Or are we holding them all for ourselves?  The Owner of our vineyard will be returning at the end of time and not asking how much you know, or how many degrees you had, or how many of a specific prayer you said.. no he will be asking when I was thirsty, did you give me drink?  When I was naked did you cloth me?  When I was suffering did you comfort me?

God has shown that when we have good in us it increases, when we have bad in us it increases as well.  Just like playing the guitar or the piano, if you don't use it.. eventually you begin to forget.  It becomes harder to play, the muscle memory begins to fade.  God gives us those gifts to serve with.  If we don't use them?  He will take them away and give them to another who will.  If you aren't producing fruit, he'll find another tenant for the vineyard who will.  The beautiful thing about the Church though is this, it's never too late.  As we journey through the desert of Lent we can begin by seeking forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation that we might become better tenants, and God will take whatever fruit we produce and multiply it.  Are you ready to be a good tenant?  One who receives those in need of the fruit?  One who receives the Son and cherishes him, lavishing him all he asks for and more?  If not, what stands in your way? That's what prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is for... to help break down those walls, disciplining ourselves that we might realize that God is what is important.. not food, not money, not wealth, power, pleasure, or honor. Then God can say with confidence "They will respect my Son," who will then lead us safely in tow to that country to which the householder had journeyed to prepare a place for us, eternal in the heavens.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Aliens!?

In tomorrow's first reading there is a challenging statement by the John the Evangelist: If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.   Love is often a challenge isn't it? God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ that it is the very nature of God.  The Catechism of the Catholic church phrases it like this: God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.  (CCC 221)  Doesn't it make your heart sing to know that God has trusted you with a secret?  A secret that he expects you to share with others and not keep to yourself? 

That's the funny thing about love.  It's kind of like water that we try to hold on to with just our hand.  Sure we might get a puddle to stay for a while, but eventually it's going to drain out in the cracks.  The thing about this water though is the more of it we give away.. the more of it we find.  It's only when we give it away that it becomes love.  Love is never about self.  It's always about other.  That is the gift of the trinity, the beauty of it... the image of an eternal sharing of love... that was so great and vast that it poured out into the universe to create us.  It still calls to us with every breath saying, "I love you." 

The Word became flesh so to be our model of holiness (CCC 459). Jesus in the Gospel reading begins to read from a scroll a prophet from Isaiah.  In it he declares an outpouring of God's grace and mercy, he declares that the passage has been fulfilled right in front of them.  That God has given us what we need to receive forgiveness, liberty and justice.  All of it, right there in Christ himself.  He is the very model of the Beatitudes himself, and challenges that all of the Law and the Prophets hinges on just one thing: Love one another as I have loved you.  Jesus modelled love.  He loved so strongly, so fully.. that he went to his death for us. Love is not just a word.. it's an action.

That brings us to the question: who is our brother?  Let us take the example of Christ himself and ask, what do we know about who he loved?  "God so loved the world."  Just as in the parable of the Good Samaritan, our brother is not just the one we choose.  Jesus did not go to the cross for just the Catholic or the Jew, he did not go for just the sinner or the saint, he did not go for just the believer or the atheist... he went for all.  He gave himself up for every single person, and that my friends is the challenge.. that is our brother.

The citizen and the immigrant.  The refugee and the comfortable.  The ignorant and the knowledgable.  Yes, our challenge is to love everyone.  Pope Francis released a new video just recently that expresses it better than I ever could.

How about you?  ¡Creo en el amor, tambien!  I believe in love, as well.  Now comes the hard part.  Do you live that love?  John reminds us that For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.  That means following the rules.  Obeying them.  They are a guard rail.  Not a wall.  You can go outside of them if you want, but that means not only that you are putting yourself in danger.. but that you are saying "I don't love you God."  It means loving that person who really gets on your nerves.   That one who doesn't necessarily loving you back.   It means reaching out to the widow, the orphan, and the alien.  We often forget that one don't we?  The widow and the orphan people are quick to pipe up and help.  We start talking about the Alien, the refugee, the immigrant, the illegal. Oh that changes things doesn't it?   God declared that we should be kind to the alien.  We should be generous to them.  We should take care of them and help them as well.  They deserve dignity and justice just as much as you and I do.

We have work to do.  Every day at Mass we pray, "thy will be done, thy kingdom come."  That doesn't mean that we sit back on our hands and wait.  Love is an action.  It means giving up yourself.  It means sacrificing yourself.  For them.  For the other.  It's not about "doing something for myself because someone has to."  That's ego.  No, it's doing something for the other.. even if they don't appreciate it.  Even if they don't say thanks.  Even if they recognize it or realize you've even done it. 

We are the body of Christ.  This week find something to do for someone else.  Something that they don't know that you even did.  Send a letter.  A gift.  Bring up a trash can.  Shovel some snow.  Not to be noticed.  Feed someone. Make a difference.  Not to be seen.  Just out of pure love. Then we can truly say that our right hand, didn't know what our left was doing. 

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease. "