Lex Orendi, Lex Credendi?

For tomorrow's daily mass the readings continue to examine the Epistle of Saint James.  He continues to encourage us to work for God's kingdom and to avoid things of the world, things of the ego and of the flesh. He uses some pretty strong words, indeed.   He compares worldly things to adultery!  Why would he do that?   Because this thing we live as Christians is a relationship.  We, the Church, are the Bride of Christ. Greed, pride, and disordered attachments to worldly things are the very cause of our conflicts, arguments, even wars.  When we do these sorts of things we are breaking our relationship with Christ, we are 'cheating' on Him with something worth much less, with something inanimate.  It's a rejection of the one we should love completely and instead replacing it with something that doesn't fit.

You know those kid games?  The ones where you have all these different shapes and you have to fit the correct game piece into the right hole?  Well, each of us is created with a God shaped hole in our heart.  We can force something into it, for a time.. and it might even kind of fit.. but eventually it rubs us and chafes us.. because it's not the right shape, not the right size.  Only when we take a God shaped object and put it in a God shaped hole does our life become complete.. anything less... is adultery.. it's cheating.. it's avoiding the rules of the game and jamming something that shouldn't fit in there to try and fill up that hallow, empty place.

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

― Augustine of Hippo, Confessions

James reminds us of that saying: lex orendi, lex credendi.   That is: how we worship is how we believe.  If we worship as if God is the most important thing in our lives then that will help us form our belief, and vice versa.  If you worship like God is a thorn in your side, something that chafes and makes life harder?   So will you begin to believe.  I pray the liturgy of the hours every day.  I pray about an hour in the morning, fifteen minutes midday, and an hour a night.  Sometimes it's tedious and my mind wants me to think: I could be doing other things!  My favorite show is on!  The yard needs mowing!  I could be running or riding my bike!  So many excuses flow in that make me want to skip it.   If I continue to do that though, I am choosing the wrong shape to fit in my God shaped hole.   If I act like God is just something to fit in my schedule, well then I'm gonna start feeling that way.. treating him that way... Instead if I realize it's a gift to pray for the Church... a gift to spend time with the creator of the Universe praying the words He has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.. If I instead treat it like the most precious thing in my life instead of something to just fit in, and I put God at the center of my day and then put everything else in my calendar, well that's when I am living out our relationship to it's fullest.

Jesus reminds us of that with a simple phrase: “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.”  A child is so trusting, aren't they?  Yesterday I got to see my twin nieces.  It doesn't matter how long it's been they run up to me, hug me and ask me to lift them up.  They play with me and of course want to see my phone.    They trust me.  There is joy in their eyes and hearts, a joy at seeing one that they love.  It reminds me of that poster in our lobby at the Church, the one for Food for the Poor, which reminds us of Matthew 25.   When did I see you thirsty?  Whatever you did for the least of these.   When did I see you hungry?  Whatever you did for the least of these.  When did I see naked?  Whatever you did for the least of these.  We are all made in the image of God... every person out there; especially the downtrodden, the widow, the orphan, the refugee, the immigrant, the poor; are not only God's children but to be seen as Christ in the world.  We are challenged to not only receive Christ in the Eucharist, but to go forth and look into the world with his eyes... we should look on those in need of our help with that same joy that my nieces exude when they see someone they love.

When we leave Mass it's not enough to just go home and wait for tomorrow, it's not enough to simply go about our day not thinking about Christ.   We are challenged instead to go forth and live our faith.  That Latin phrase has another part: Lex credendi, lex orendi, lex vivendi.  As we worship, so we believe, so we live.  The way we act in our worship, leads us to believe certain things, and believing certain things leads us to live a certain way.  If we worship in the Mass in a way that shows we believe Jesus is present in the Eucharist, our belief will grow to reflect that.  As our belief grows our lives will change.  We will go forth into the world attempting to feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty, comfort the widow and the orphan, find home and safety for all in peril, house and protect the refugee, and share Christ with every person we meet.   Both readings reflect a simple truth.. all of this requires humility.   It is in being a servant that we emulate Christ the most.  Are you ready to be a servant?  What better heart can Christ fill than the one that reflects His own?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Let Him Ask Again

There are so many things we try to do to get good health.  One doctor tells you to eat high fat, another high protein, another no fat, low protein.  One high carb, another low carb.  This one tells you to use aromatherapy.   Another to take this pill and that.  Yet another tells you to avoid pills and simply stick needles into certain places of your body.  All of them claim to have the answer.  It becomes quite confusing to the average person to try and figure out exactly what they should do and eat, what they should put in their bodies, what they should avoid... Yet we find people going to great lengths, eating extreme diets, concocting various potions and chemicals, all in the search of adding a few years to their life.

How many times in the movies have we seen people take upon themselves these massive quests to find a cure, or to save the one they love.  Indiana Jones risked his life navigating the maze of death to get the holy grail that he might save his father who had been shot with a bullet.  He was willing to risk his life for just the chance that he might save his dad.  In other movies we see people seeking rare flowers in the heights of the trees in the jungle, seeking out estranged guru's hidden from sight in order to find the secret to their condition, or even like Eddie Murphy, climbing the highest peaks of some strange country to find a temple to retrieve a scroll that will save many lives.

We do that still in our own lives sometimes don't we?  We look for the right herbal treatment, or the right natural remedy.  We ask doctors for medicine to cover up our symptoms that we might live a semi-normal life.  If someone told you today that you should load up your family and head to some other continent because the cure for cancer was in a plant in the middle of the desert, would you pack up that loved one and head out?  Many of us would.  If my daughter were dying and I were told I had to climb the highest mountain to pick a blooming rose on the 3rd of december at midnight, I'd likely be willing to do it...

The thing is though, it's Divine Mercy Sunday.  It's a reminder to us that God's mercy is infinite, it's an ocean waiting to be poured out on us.. all we have to do is accept it.  When I was a Protestant I did find God's grace.   God's grace is available to all people.   I'd feel the Holy Spirit at a prayer service, while listening to some preacher on the radio, while praying with some friends at work... yes, his grace was there.   It was though like I was searching in the desert looking for those moments.  Looking up to the dry, blistering sky I would occasionally find relief from the arid world around me. A drop here.. a drop there... just a moment of relief...

Then I found the Church... I found Him.. I found that river of life that Jesus told the woman at the well about.  Instead of a drop here or there... there was enough of God's grace to pour over me, around me, and through me... all of it right there in the Eucharist.  How much of that grace has God offered to the world and the world refused?  In the Divine Mercy Chaplet we pray about the fount of life, unfathomable divine mercy.. An ocean of mercy so deep it can never be sounded.  An ocean of mercy that is beyond comprehension, God himself, descending into a piece of bread... something defenseless... to allow me to receive Him into my body... to place that Mercy into me.. to consume it.. to let it flood through my body and change me.. to help me to grow into Him.. to be more like my savior and my Lord..

We seek concoctions, potions, spells and incantations to cure things which are temporal....... To ease the symptoms of a much less serious illness than that of apathy, that of spiritual sloth.  Do we realize how important Mass is?  How important it is to receive Jesus Christ; body, soul and divinity; into our own body to help us become what he intended us to be?  It's not enough to just receive that Mercy.. it's not enough to just tap into this ocean and consume enough for our own needs... No.. you see, you are a conduit.. The Eucharist fills you up, just like a cup... if you are full?  There's no more room.  God didn't design us to be just a cup.. He designed us to be little Christ's.... to pour ourselves out, like Christ did on the cross.. to take this living water and turn it into a transforming flood to mold the world into the image of His kingdom.

Are you ready for that?  To go out into the world and give away what you have been given?  To hand the mercy and forgiveness you have experienced through God's abundant grace and love to those who need it most?   The widow, the orphan, the poor, the downtrodden, the oppressed.. and yes, to your enemies.. to those you like the least.. to those who are most unlike yourself... That's what God is calling you to.  He is coming before you in the Eucharist and saying to you, as he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”  Now it's up to us.. to say back to Him... to look up at the Mercy of God himself, to look up at Jesus in the Eucharist, and to say with Mary, the Mother of God, and all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, "My Lord and my God!”

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

You Can Ring My Bell?

Photo by Jeremy Wheaton

Today was a very somber day for me.  I watched some news reports today coming in from Washington D.C.   The March for life was still going despite the impending winter storm.   People were still sharing the witness of their faith.  They were going to make a difference.  They were doing something.  Raising awareness.   Showing that they disapproved of what we have become as a country, of what we have allowed since that day in 1973 when Abortion became a legal reality.

As I stood at the bell in front of our church I wondered, what can I do?  Here I am a man with a crippled body.  A spine made of titanium that no longer bends.  I am unable to work.  I am in constant pain.  I can't make the trip to D.C and then be able to do anything.  Even if I could, the march itself would definitely take it's toll on me.   It would be worth it, I am sure.  I stood there watching the snow drift down like Mardis Gras confetti, grimacing from time to time as this stupid kidney stone twinged.  Donna's voice called out the beginning of the prayers of the rosary and we responded.  Between each prayer I would ring the bell. 

Fifty eight times.  Fifty eight times the bell called out through the neighborhood.  Fifty eight times it echoed off the houses, the windows, the tomb stones, the trees.  I wonder if anyone heard it's lonely cry as it drifted through the snow.  Or did the snow muffle the anguished toll making everything seem light and fluffy as wintering precipitation is wont to do?  

Abortion.  We avoid that word don't we?  I want to do similar here with my blog to what Deacon Bill did at our communion service today.  I want to share some numbers.  I want to make people more aware of what is actually going on.. put it into perspective for those who think it's not a big deal.

There have been almost 59 million abortions in the United States alone since Roe vs. Wade.  That's nearly the population of California and Texas combined.

There have been 65,000 abortions in the U.S. this year alone, and remember it's January.  That means in two months the entire city of Rockford, IL would have been aborted.

There have been 2,329 abortions in the U.S. just today.  That means every two days there have been as many people killed as there are living in the town of Genoa, IL.  That means that every day more people die than at Pearl Harbor.  Every two days more people die than at 911.   That means that every minute there is an abortion in the U.S.  Worldwide that number is even more.  Worldwide there have been 1,157 abortions since I began writing this blog.  Worldwide that number is 1,402,387,111 abortions since 1980. 

Let's try to think about that.  Here is a visual that really struck me.  Let's for a minute compare it to counting sheep.  You decide you are going to count one sheep for every abortion since 1980.  You count really fast right?  You know it's going to take some time.

In 1 seconds, 10 sheep go by.
In a minute?  600.
In an hour? 36000.
All night, 12 hours? 430,000 sheep go by.
A week? 24x7? Counting every second, no sleep, just counting? 6 million sheep.
In a month? 25 million
After a year?  300 million.
So if you manage to keep going... never sleeping, never stopping, never resting.. one sheep a second.. counting and counting... In 3 years and 3 months.. you can count a billion.   You only need to go another year and a half to get to 1.4 billion.  The scary part?  You just spent over 5 years counting.. and in that time?  Another 10 million will have happened.

That blows me away.  What does that have to do with our readings for today?  In our readings we see Saul being in a very precarious position.  He goes into a cave to relieve himself.  Isn't that some tasty reading material?  While he's in his most vulnerable position, David who Saul has been trying to kill, sneaks up behind him and cuts off part of his cloak.  David's men then want to rush out and kill Saul before he can even get his armor back in place.  David instead goes out and shows Saul that he truly doesn't mean him harm... if he did?  He'd already have killed him.  Saul realizes that God had delivered him into David's grasp, completely vulnerable, unable to defend himself and professes:

Great is the generosity you showed me today,
when the LORD delivered me into your grasp
and you did not kill me.

Oh doesn't that sting?  Every day God delivers into our lives the opportunity to choose life.  He delivers into our grasp the most defenseless of people... the one who not only cannot defend himself but also cannot even speak for themselves... How do we choose to respond?  How does God want us to respond?  David knew that Saul had been anointed by God, chosen by God.   He refused to lay a hand on him.  He responded with generosity.  He responded with kindness.  He responded with love.  How much more so is the child designed by God in the womb chosen by God?  I hope that we can honestly say that the generous, kind, and loving thing is to choose life.  Not to blame the unborn for the sins of their fathers and mothers, but to realize they are a gift no matter how they got there.  They are innocent of any crime, unlike Saul who could cry "You are in the right rather than I; you have treated me generously, while I have done you harm."  If David, a foreshadow of Christ, chose to give life to his enemy; how much more so do you think Christ himself would ask us to choose to give life to the innocent?

Then we have the New Testament reading which shows us the calling of Jesus to the disciples.  The scripture reading says first "Jesus went up on the mountain."  This means an encounter with God.  Moses went up the mountain to meet God.  Elijah went up to the mountain to meet God.  Jesus goes up to the mountain to be with the Father.  Then he calls them.  God calls us just like the disciples.  When Jesus called them he chose them.  They weren't a mold.  They weren't all the same.  Some were quiet.  Some were crude and rough.  Some were educated.  Some were working men.  Some, the Sons of Thunder, were loud and boisterous!  They all had one thing in common.. they were chosen... they had a mission.

You and I are chosen too.  We are each different.  Some can do this, some that.  Some are apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,   for the equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.  All though are called to bring about God's will.  All are called to bring justice and righteousness to the less fortunate.  To protect the window, the orphan, the alien, the refugee... the one who cannot defend him/herself.  How much more so the unborn? You and I are called to protect them... but how?  Each of us has our own way, our own path.

While I was ringing that bell I thought this is it.  This is what I can do.  I can offer up my pain.  I can offer up my suffering.  I can write.  I can talk.  I can share.  It's what you can do too.  You can find a way to make a difference.  You can pray.  You can write letters to congress.  You can be present to an event.  You can tell someone about the numbers.  You can make sure that every person you know, every child whose life you are influencing knows that all life is precious.  That every person deserves dignity and respect from womb to tomb.  That's what it means to be a disciples of Christ.. it means going out into the world to bring God's Word into our environments.  It means making people aware of wrongs.  It means being a Son of Thunder when necessary, using our voice as loudly as necessary to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

Know That He is Near

A reflection on the readings for the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary time. 

Many years ago when I was a young man in college, the power had gone out in the entire neighborhood.  I decided to walk to my mothers house for dinner.  I knew that no matter what, she and my father would be prepared for the dark.  They'd have a fire or something going and be cooking somehow.  I don't remember why I chose to walk instead of drive, maybe I didn't have a car at the time.  That was often the case back then with only one car and two people working. 

I remember stepping out into the moonless night, with no lights on anywhere.  At first it was so dark I could see nothing.  I even recall putting my hands out in front of me as I walked, as if I were recently blinded and trying to find my way along with my fingers.  Stumbling through the dark I was completely unable to see.  Oh how dark things seemed.  I remember jumping at sounds in the woods, flinching at what I thought might be a snack or animal in the road.  I eventually began to adjust to the dim light of the stars and began to make out the true details of my surroundings.  By the time I actually got to my parents home my eyes had adjusted, and I could see decently in the dark.  How bright the candles seemed when they opened the door to me, even enough to be painful to my eyes. It was warm though, welcoming, even wanted!

To me, this is what Apocalyptic literature is like.  It seems dark at first.  Even a bit scary.  The end goal of it is not to scare you though.  It is not to place you in darkness, but to help you find a warm, welcoming light at the end. When I was a protestant years ago these readings made me a bit scared, even enough that I often scanned the news and the radio looking for 'signs', constantly worrying about the second coming and the 'rapture.'  I no longer worry about these things.  Why?  Because the second coming is not something to be scared of.  It's something to long for.  It's something to pray for, and be ready for every day.

I think that like the dark night I stepped out into, we too are walking in a dark night now.  Our eyes in this world are used to the amount of light that is here.  The sun, the moon, the stars... all of these are the light we have become accustomed to.  In my mind and heart, that is what Jesus is talking about when he says "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give it's light."  That at the second coming, when the brilliance of the Son of God is revealed, the rest of the light we are used to will be so dim that it will not even be of relevance.  Like that candle in my mom and dad's house, his light will be so bright that if I were to even think of stepping back into the star lit world it would be so dark my eyes would not longer even pick out the details.  I'd be stumbling in the dark again, holding my hands out before me for fear of falling.

The thing is though, we do not have to be fearful of that day, nor even to wait for that day to have our world illuminated.  While, yes, Jesus Christ will be coming again at the end of time, he's already here among us now.  We can draw closer to God daily, through the Sacraments, through His Church, and through each other.  This is a beautiful thing, but also like the scene above, has a truth that should be cautioned.  The closer you get to the light, the darker 'darkness' is.  The closer you draw to Jesus Christ in this life, the more your sin will seem.  Things that seem small now will stand out much, much more as you draw nearer to the source of all holiness.

When I was working in the construction field one of the first things I liked to do was hang the lights.  I'd even hang them before a ceiling was anywhere near in place.  Using temporary wiring I would try to have the entire building lit up brightly before even the floor was poured.  This was great for people working, giving them plenty of light to work with.  It also brought out every imperfection, even speck of dust, and every 'mess' that someone left.   A counter that might seem clean in a dimly lit room can turn out to have quite a bit of crud when you truly light it up.  So too our souls. 

The devil will try to use that against you.  The closer you get to God, the more Satan will try to convince you that you do not deserve it.  He will try to convince you that God would never forgive you.  That little speck of dust will look so immense when compared to the brightness of God himself.  Don't let him draw you away from God and His mercy.  God will forgive you!  Draw closer to the light.   Seek the Sacraments.  Seek His face.  So that you may be among those who "shall live forever" and not those who "shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace."  Keep walking in the darkness of this light, searching for the light of Christ.  This is our hope as Christians!  That we might find our Father's house, and the place He has prepared for us.  That when the end of our time comes, we might be welcomed into His abode and be prepared for the light that will wash over us.  A light so bright that everything behind us will seem dim and dark, as the Sacred Scriptures affirm:

And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:5

His servant and yours,
In Christ,
Brian