Like and Oil and Water, so are the days of our lives.

I moved out of my parents home into a house they had generously given me when I was just shy of eighteen. I remember making many, many mistakes.   One that comes to mind this morning involved being in a hurry to get back to whatever I was doing but trying to cook at the same time.   I decided to deep fry some 'tater-tots' so I could have a quick snack.   In my hurry to get back to the computer, or tv, or whatever it was... I forgot to take off that little plastic cover you put on top to keep the oil from getting stuff in it.  A few minutes later I smelt smoke.  Running into the kitchen I saw fire literally licking the ceiling tile!   I grabbed the thing off the oven and put it on the floor so the fire couldn't touch the roof.   Then I grabbed a glass of water off the nearby counter and threw it in it.   As flames engulfed my face and hair began to dissipate like the morning dew, I realized the truth of the saying oil and water do not mix.

I believe that to be the crux of the message from Jesus in the gospel today.   Some would use this verse to allow anger and hatred to rule in their lives.  To claim that anyone who stands in their way is simply doing so because they are a 'good Christian.'  Jesus is not giving us permission to be hateful.   He is not saying that we can ignore the rest of the Gospel and lose our joy, our kindness and our love.   No, rather He is giving us a dire warning.   That good and evil do not mix.   That often the response to our Christian walk and the message we bear will be an explosion.   That like the oil that splattered on my legs going straight through the skin, people will often blow up and respond with anger and division.   We are to love them anyway... to care for them... even at the cost of our own lives, our own desires.

In today's world were people soften the message of Christ, the cross becomes a thing of the past.   That's not what Jesus demands of us.  These three readings grouped together remind us of the price of discipleship.   That our goal is not one of flowers and rainbows, gentle currents and soft beds, but the discomfort of Calvary.   We are challenged to live our faith with joy amidst persecution, love amidst hate, a friendly demeanor when all others are bearing down upon us.  The early Church realized that Christianity was a call to martyrdom, a call to give up our lives if need be, without rejected the faith.   In all of this they realized that God's mercy was beyond anything we could fathom, but that the call was not lessened by that, but strengthened in the example set forth by the incarnation of God himself and the Way of the Cross.

With Christian martyrs in the recent news, displaced Christians being persecuted and martyred in many nations, and some making the claim that "in this century [we are[ witnessing more shedding of Christian blood than any of the previous twenty"; our eyes turn toward the past and the future.. but we must need live in the present.  You and I in the comfort of America likely will not be called to give our lives for our faith, though it is not out of the realm of possibilities.    The challenge for us at the current moment is: to die to our own selves.   To live our lives in a way that shows us to be servants of Christ.   To look for Him in every encounter with others and ask How can I feed them?  How can I give them drink?  How can I clothe them?  That means both physically and spiritually.   To ever be prepared to give "an account for the hope that is in us." (1 Peter 3:15)  Is there anything standing the way of that?   Anything stopping me from serving the widow, the orphan, the refugee?   The victim and the bully?  Until we become detached from those things which stand in the way of complete abandonment to Christ and His calling, Paul reminds us that we "have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood."  

What is preventing you from being the person you were created to be?  Fix that first.  Work on your relationship with God first and everything else will fall into place.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time:  August 14th, 2016.  Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 12:1-4; The Holy Gospel according to Luke 12:49-53

But you don't count......

The other day I was having a conversation with someone about being Holy.   My friend Jamie loaned me a book about this topic (How to Be Holy: First Steps to Becoming a Saint, Peter Kreeft) and it has been heavily on my mind.  While we were talking a few other people joined in.   We were talking about struggling with sin.  At one point someone turned to me and said, "Yeah but you don't count."   As if being in formation for the Diaconate or being a very active Catholic in my religion made my struggles with sin and temptation less of an issue.   I think we have that image of Christ sometimes.  As if He was made in a way that made it easier for Him to be perfect, easier for Him to be Holy.

Ezekiel in his prophetic utterance this morning gave the people of Israel a glimpse of two futures.  One in which the city itself would fall into exile with the royal prince being cast out, and another in which the royal Son would be given the same treatment.   Jesus picked up his baggage and carried it out of the city.   Up onto a hill where the darkness settled in.  Some would dismiss this as a solar eclipse, mere coincidence.  I would chalk it up to creation itself mourning that which we did not see.  Like the prince of Jerusalem, Jesus was veiled to His people.  They could not see Him for their own sin, their own failures.   In a way, they said to Him as well, "You don't count."  

In Jesus parable again I see that theme.   The first servant goes to the judge and He offers him mercy.   The servant goes out into the world, a man who should be filled with joy at his fortune.   Instead, his greed kicks back in.   He wants to get back to where he was before.   Instead of sharing the mercy he has received, he finds someone who owes him money and begins to choke him.  He has him thrown into prison in anger.  When word got out the Master was furious and demanded an account of him.   It was as if the servant was saying "I am important enough for grace" but my fellow servant, well they don't count.  Them.  The other.  They... those guys over there... they don't count.

We as Christians are challenged to be Holy.  Not just me, not just the priests and religious, not just the holy rollers or bible thumpers... every single one of us is called to be a Saint.   To be like Jesus, to follow in His footsteps.   His footsteps are the way of the Cross.   That means shouldering our own crosses and marching out to our own deaths.   Now most of us aren't going to be martyrs.   Many of us are going to die in our sleep, in some way that isn't glamorous or extraordinary.   That doesn't mean "you don't count."   It means that God is asking us to die spiritually.. to our egos... to ourselves... to live our lives in a way that says to every single person we encounter "You matter."   To everyone of them, regardless of their station, religion, legal status, political party, sexual orientation, lifestyle, or what have you.   To say to them "As God has shown me mercy, so I show it to you."  Are you offering His love to others?  Or simply holding inside?

You count.  You matter.  You are Holy and loved by God.   Stop letting the enemy convince you otherwise.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for daily Mass on Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time, August 11, 2016.    Ezekiel 12:1-12; Psalm 78; The Holy Gospel according to Matthew 18:21-19:1

Spinning out of control

The past few days have been hectic for me, but I am sure they have been even more stressful for my wife and the kids.   School is starting soon.  That means band camp, volleyball practice, school shopping, and all the various other things that go on to prepare for that.  On top of that, the internet has been acting funky and the cable guy/gal was scheduled to be here today.  That meant I needed a clean house.   I still have this phobia of letting people in without it clean.  So for a few days they've been doing laundry, washing counters and mopping floors.  I was a foreman when working and even to this day I feel the need to tell people what to do, to be in control.

It's hard to relinquish control, isn't it?   To give up everything to God to allow Him to be the one in charge?  How often I think that I know better.   If I were to do this, I'd do it this way.  This moment would be perfect if.... my spouse my be better if.... prayer time would go better if... The thing is, every moment, every person, every thing in our life... is a gift from God.  It is a seed that He has given us.  A seed to be nourished, planted, germinated.... to grow.   In order for that to happen it must be sown... it must be given over to God.  It must be allowed to change, to grow, to die to itself and be transformed.   That means letting go of control... to stop grasping and holding on to what was, and letting God give us what is to be.   Something better.. something we might not be able to see.

Saint Lawrence was an amazing example of a man who was able to do this.   He sold everything that was left after seeing the Pope martyred and then went to be grilled alive.   While they were cooking him over open coals he said something to the effect of "turn me over this side is done."    The modern mine would call this a waste, a tragedy.  A loss.   It was a seed.  A seed that must be prepared to die that something more beautiful could grow out of it.  Saint Lawrence's death while sad and tragic, was the leading cause of the conversion of the entire city of Rome.  Out of his death came life.  Just like a seed in the ground dies but then grows into something beautiful... we must die to our plans, and grow into Gods.

So that is the challenge I believe in today's readings.   To ask ourselves, Where am I holding back?   What am I holding on to?  What has God given me that I am not ready to let go back to Him?  It's easy to give him that which is going wrong isn't it?   To say God this is horrible in my life, I'm giving it to you.. offering it up!  What about the good things?   God my relationship is perfect with this person... but if it's not your will, then your will be done.     That's a bit harder.... To give him myself?  My memory?  My intellect? My will to do with as He pleases?  That I work on.. but to give over control of my family?   My heart?  To be willing to suffer and die... or God forbid.. to watch others suffer and die?  Am I ready to do that and still praise God?  As I watch a dear friend going through the loss of her mother, I wonder... how would I react?  Lord, help me to be the man you've created me to be.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the readings for The Feast of Saint Lawrence: August 10th, 2016.    Corinthians 9:6-10; Psalm 112;  The Holy Gospel according to Saint John 12:24-26

I just walked on by....

It doesn’t make much sense when we think of sheep as an economic value to leave ninety nine of them in the wilderness to go out and search for one single lost item.   Fiscally it would be reckless to do so.  You leave ninety nine of them without protection in order to go find a single one.   The return on the investment would be astronomically minuscule if the other 99 were gone when the shepherd returned.   In the ways of man, with our concentration on self comfort, wealth, power and honor… it makes zero sense.   In the economy of salvation though… it makes perfect sense.

Christ proclaimed this mystery when He said that He came as a physician, not to heal those who were already well, but the sick who were in need of Him.   There are many people out there who have that holier than though attitude.  The notion that we are the saved ones and them?  They? The ones over there?   They are the sick.  If that is so, then Christ is not after us.  After all how can He offer us Salvation if we don’t feel we are the ones who need it?   That’s why the Church looks the way it is now.   The world tries to hold us to a standard of perfection.  Those Christians have to be perfect, but those who aren’t religious?  They can do whatever.  The Church is not a museum for the perfect, but a hospital for the sinner.

That’s what the Sacraments are all about.  A moment of encounter in which the sick go into to see the physician.   In penance we go in with our symptoms and come out after a shot of medicine and a prescription of how to maintain that health.   In the Eucharist we go forth for a checkup in which Christ enters us himself.   It may sound silly but sometimes it reminds me of that movie Inner Space, where they shrink down and go into a persons body to try to get rid of whatever is ailing him.   Christ does that, He takes that work on the cross and applies it to us.   He comes into us again and again to help push out those things that aren’t quite right, those little things that keep us from being perfect.   It is He, who through a lifetime and beyond, who makes us perfect.. Who turns us into Saints.   We need Him.   He knows that.   So He makes it happen.

Today as I was venturing around Belvidere I walked through a pretty harsh neighborhood.   The water there looked as if it was coming straight out of a sewage pipe.  People were walking around in gang colors.  I passed by a ‘Relaxation Station’ that touted with bold words that if you took the full package the lady of your choice would ‘join you in the Jacuzzi’.  Another place warned that not only could you not wear saggy pants, but that ‘gang activity would not be tolerated on premises.’   I was nervous to say the least.  Then a man walked by in raggy clothes and torn pants.   His shirt open revealing sunken ribs and obvious signs he had not eaten or bathed in a long time.   He asked me for a dollar and I said ‘I don’t have any cash on me.’   That was the truth.   Yet Christ had just walked by me and I didn’t recognize Him.   I didn’t offer Him what I did have, a moment of compassion, a prayer, a conversation… I just kept walking.  One of the lost ones might have been going by and unlike the Savior, I didn’t go after Him but returned to the safety of the ninety nine.  

That’s why I need Him.   Because I am not there yet.  Forgive me.

His servant and yours,

Brian

“He must increase, I must decrease.”

A reflection on the daily readings for Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time: August 9th, 2016.   Ezekiel 2:8-3:4; Psalm 119; A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 18:1-5, 10, 12-14  

The party don't start till I walk in...

In many movies we see the youth getting away with throwing a party while the parents are gone.  The party gets out of control and the house is trashed.  The parents, who were supposed to be gone a set number of days or hours, for some reason come home early.  Somehow the kids get everything cleaned up as if by magic before they arrive.   In the movies this seems to work so well that the parents are none the wiser to what has happened in their home while they are away.  In real life?   Well, it doesn't ever seem to work out that way.   

In this day and age our lives are highly scheduled and our lives filled with digital communication.  Not only do our kids know when we are supposed to be home, but they often receive a text on the way or a phone call from the car.   With all of this information we humans tend to be less ready for the arrival, not more.  We get distracted by all the things that are bombarding us and instead of doing that which we know to do?  We end up 'shinied'.   Distracted.  Unable to focus on what needs to be finished.  The parents arrive and not only aren't the kids finished?  They haven't started.  In this case it's not just the kids, but the parents too.   We know someone is coming over and we meant to clean, but the show was on... or we should have gone to confession... but the game was on... We schedule to do things, but then we find other things to do and forget the schedule. 

The thing we lose about this Gospel parable in today's modern age is exactly how hard it is to be ready for the Master when he returns.   Jesus talks of a man coming back from a wedding to find his servant up and waiting.  The servant's just doing what he should be doing right?  It's what he is for.   He's not doing something extraordinary on the surface, he's just serving his Master by being ready for his return.   When will the master be back?   Now that's the hard part.   Weddings in first century Palestine were not like they are today.  They were an involved affair!   Taking several days, a week or more!   The servant couldn't possibly stay up the entire time, could he?  How diligent would he have to be to be ready and waiting for the Master's return?  Unlike us He wasn't going to receive a text or phone call during the week to say "I'll be back on Friday!" 

I believe that the readings for today are a call to Stewardship and preparedness.   They remind us of what Pope Francis was trying to teach us in Ladauto Si.  We have been given charge of a home, a place to keep up and take care of.   We aren't doing a very good job of that.  Not just creation, which I am a big proponent of, but also our selves and each other.  The Master has given us signs of his return, but informed us that no one, not even Jesus himself, knows the day of His return.. only the Father.   So we must be diligent.  We must be ready for Him at any time.   Like the servant in the parable, are we awake?  Do we take care of the world we are given?  Our own bodies that are temples of the Holy Spirit?   Others that we encounter during the day?  As my friend always says, "Get ready, be ready, stay ready."  

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the readings for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 7th, 2016.  Wisdom 18:6-9; Psalm 33; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke 12:32-48

What's for dinner?

I struggle with my weight.  I've always been a large person and had a love/hate relationship with food.  I guess the main reason is that, like most mortals, I love the taste of those things which are bad for me.  That is why we try not to keep them in the house.  Then I find myself wandering through the kitchen looking for something to eat and not being able to find something that fits the bill.   I open the pantry, I stare into it, I close it.   I repeat that same procedure with the refrigerator, the freezer, and the cabinets.   Eventually, back to the pantry.  Soon we are picking up the phone and ordering something or going out to some restaurant.  It's not a good thing for my weight when I do that... I don't need a 'buffet' anything.

We take that for granted, don't we?  As we were driving to Ohio this past weekend we got stuck in the traffic for Lollapalooza and the baseball game.  For hours we were literally stopping and going, moving only a few feet every minute.  My daughter and I were being silly and waving at people we didn't know, pretending to be royalty travelling through our kingdom.  I noticed that on one of the subway platforms one of my subjects was digging through the trash for something to eat.  There I was, severely over weight, not realizing how good I really have it.  Here is a man, as important and loved by God as I am, digging through the waste for food.   I, who have plenty to eat, often ignore the buffet before me because it's not good enough.  This man, who digs through the trash for that which I throw away, is happy with anything he can find to eat.

The sad part is we do that with relationships as well.   Society tells us that sex is just something we do.   It tells our kids that masturbation not only feels good, but somehow is healthy for them.   It encourages porn as a way to spice up things.  Then it tells us that marriage is a thing of the past and that relationships were not meant to be permanent or even monogamous.   If it feels good do it!  That is the mantra of many these days. They look at the Church and it's buffet and simply pick and choose, or better yet walk away to another church that can give them that which seems to fill their sensual pleasures in a more pleasing way.  Crumbs.   But as it is written: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NABRE)

Even more wretched is that we do that with our relationship with God.   We would rather choose to sit in a chair and play a game than to go to Mass.  To spend Friday night at a Baseball game, rather than at Adoration.   We would rather not have the permanence of the Covenant but want all the benefits.  The music isn't good enough, the sermons are too boring, confession makes us feel uncomfortable, and that one guy breaths so loudly that you hear it over the microphone from the Choir.   So we walk away from the pantry and look for a new source to feed us.   We settle for crumbs, crumbs that sometimes are beautiful and fulfilling, but they are just a glimpse of the banquet that God has set for us.   He offers so much more than we can even pretend to understand.   He offers us a glimpse into reality, a reality so far and beyond the things we detect with our senses and into a realm that exists outside of time.   Eating crumbs is good, but why not go to the table and sit with the Master?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the daily Mass readings for Wednesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time: August 3rd 2016.   Jeremiah 31:1-7;  Responsorial from Jeremiah 31; A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew 15:21-28

Give them some yourselves....

I once worked with a young man who had some serious sin in his life.  If I am honest with you, I was a part of those sins from time to time.  His life had turned into one great big party that truly stemmed from a depression at the state of what had become his daily existence.   I once asked him why he didn't try to do better, why he didn't give up the drinking and the drugs, and go back to church.  His answer was one I will never forget: because I am chosen as I am.  Someone had spoken a prophecy over him as a young boy.  They said he would grow to serve the Lord.  He was informed that God didn't expect him to change, but to keep being the person he was.  So he didn't.

The person who spoke this 'prophecy' over him did it for his own good.   It was to encourage him to grow, to become closer to God.   I spoke to someone about it years later and they said yeah, I just wanted him to feel good about himself.   We see the result of that in both this young mans life, which to this day continues to spiral downward, and in the first reading of today's Mass.  Hananiah tickled the ears of those around him.   Instead of giving them a true prophecy of God he comforted them with platitudes and encouragements to make them feel better.   As my grandfather would have said, "He tickled their ears."  He told them what he felt would encourage them, make them feel better.. but it wasn't the truth.  It cost Hananiah his life.   God is that serious about sin.  Lies are never to our good.

God is truth.  There is no duplicity in Him.  There are no lies in Him.  A man once told me that all relationships require lies, that at some point you have to lie to get along.   I disagree.  I prefer what Father Simon said the other day on the radio.   "Speak the truth in love, but you can't love without speaking the truth."  (paraphrased)   You see tickling someone's ears.. telling them what they want to hear, instead of the truth... it doesn't make things better.  It encourages them to continue on down that road.  One cannot repeat the same action, the same way, with the same people, in the same environment, over and over.. and expect a different outcome.   God wants us as members of Christ's body to go out into the world armed with the truth, and to pass it on to others, always in love.

He wants us to be emboldened to do this.  So much so that in the Gospel Jesus reminds us that we are to be like Him in all things.   He asks us to feed others.  The disciples where looking out for the others.  They were concerned that they had not food and it was late.  Jesus, instead of sending them away, said "give them something yourselves."   Here they were, with Christ, the living bread of life; yet they had no idea what to do.  Mary, at the wedding of Cana, gave us the premier example.   "Do whatever he tells you."   You see, Jesus was about to feed the people the Truth.  Truth itself, incarnated in His own flesh.. the bread from Heaven.  He expects us to do the same.   He takes what little we offer, the meager small amounts, and He turns it into something divine.. a feast for the world.   That's why we proceed to the altar with bread at Mass... we offer something so paltry, so meager.. and it becomes Christ himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.   Then He gives it to us and if we allow it, transforms us into living Christ's... parts of His body.. to "go forth, glorifying the Lord by our lives."

Are you feeding others?  The answer is yes... but what are you feeding them?  Remember this from the Gospel... Jesus had just lost his friend, his cousin.  John had been killed and Jesus was just trying to take some time alone.   When he saw all the men, women and children gathering around He did not explode in anger and demand they be sent away.   The Apostle's likely had that in mind as well, that Jesus needed some time to grieve.. some time to recover.. but Jesus had pity on the crowds.   How do you respond when interrupted?   How do you respond to the presence of another in need when you yourself are in need?   Do you give them your bread?

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for daily Mass on Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary time: August 1st, 2016.   Jeremiah 28:1-17; Psalm 119; A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 14:13-21

The Junk on the Bottom

When I was a child I used to love going fishing with my dad.   I remember one particular trip in which we used a net to gather shad to use as 'live' bait.  My dad would stand on the front of the boat working patiently to get the net just right in his hand.  Then he'd throw it out in a graceful arc and it would land open in the water.  He'd try to teach us to do the same but I was never patient, always rushing and just ended up throwing a clump of string into the lake.  Then we would draw it back in.   Sometimes it would have shad in it.  At other times a piece of tree branch, some algae, slime, or even the occasional piece of garbage.  There is something about going out and doing something together with a parent that just builds memories.

To me this parable from Jesus reminds us of our own spiritual lives.  God loves us just as we are, and asks us to come as we are.   The thing is: He loves us too much to leave us there.   He wants us to grow.  To become more Holy.  To become Saints.  Our lives are often like a net.  Everything that we are dragged by leaves an impression, a memory.   What we listen to, what we see, what we read... all of this influences our mind, our memory.  It is indiscriminate on what it picks up.  A detail here, a smell there, a vision here.  We need to be vigilant in seeking out those things which are good for us, and avoiding that which is bad.  We spiritually have to search through our nets looking for that which is food, and discarding that which is not.

The other thing that I think is probably most important is to remember that we are not the Master.  We are but servants on the boat.  Like my dad on the boat when I was so young, we aren't even able to cast the net without His help.   It is Christ who teaches us how to sort through this mess called life.   He is the one who can see clearly from above, while we are stuck with our simple tunnel vision.  He teaches us through the Church, through the Sacred Scriptures, and through holy women and men how to live this life to it's fullest.  That's why it is so important to spend time with Him.  To learn from Him.  To get in the boat and ask questions.   To sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary and just rest with the King of Kings.

The Old Testament reading for today talks about a potter working with clay.  Clay is hard to work with when it's dry and cracked, but if you add enough water to it, it will become supple and giving.  Are you being clay?  Or stone?  Are you listening to the voice of the Lord and being pliant and bending to give way to His will?  Or are you struggling against it?   Fighting to keep your own way?  Enough water and it will feel like you are drowning.. the trials of this life often feel that way don't they?   Those trials are opportunities to be molded.. to grow... to push out those things which are standing in the way of being good clay.   Don't let the voice of the enemy convince you that you are part of the refuse, the junk caught in the net that needs to be thrown away.  You are called to be a Saint!  Don't think of that as something meant for someone else!  It's for YOU!  It's for me!  Let's do this together!

Being a Saint doesn't mean being perfect.. it doesn't mean never making a mistake or falling... what it does mean is being open to the molding of God and growing.. it means not staying as we are.. but growing towards Heaven.  It means trying! Will you try with me?  I want to go to Heaven and I want you to be there with me!  We are more complete together!  Remember when you start to feel like you aren't worthy, when you start to feel like you are part of the junk, that when my dad would see something that he wanted to throw back.. I often saw a treasure, something I could make into something.. something that my child like eyes saw as important and worth notice.   Have a child like faith in God, because He saw enough in you to send His only Son to die in your place, that you might be able to spend eternity with Him.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time: July 28th, 2016.  Jeremiah 18:1-6, Psalm 146, A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew 13:47-53

What does it mean to be among the wheat?

It's hard to trust when things are difficult.  As a child I was blessed with a good home.  We had more than we needed and parents who loved us.  Spanking and other forms of punishment were rare but respect was held in high esteem.  When things got rough we were always told "It'll get better."  It did.   It was hard to see that though during the rough times.   When mom and dad were both hurt and unable to work it seemed like we would never get our heads above the water.   It took a lot of effort to trust both them, and to trust God, that things would work out for good in the end.

I had a long conversation with a friend that reminded me of how hopeless things can seem.  Just turning on the news or watching one of the political conventions can truly make things seem as if they are going to Hell in a hand basket.  War, famine, terrorism, Mass killings, climate change deniers and climate change fear mongers.... where does one find hope?   Many years ago I spent all of my time sitting on the computer researching the 'end of the world.'   I was consumed with it.  I kept my mind so fixated on the negative things happening trying to tie them to this or that, that I never took time to truly fix my mind on God... on trust...  One is hopeless when they have no good to cling to.

When we read the Sacred Scriptures we see an overarching promise: God will provide!  He looks out for those who are poor and helpless.   He takes care of us in our time of need.   He cares for us more than we can fathom and He has promised that we will be among the wheat at the end of time when the harvest comes.  His Word has been planted in our hearts and we have become heirs to the promise that was given to David, a promise of an immortal Kingdom that will last forever.   Jesus in the Gospel, in explaining this parable to the disciples, gives them insight into something that should give us joy!  It should make us exuberant and our souls exulting with Hope in the promise of God himself!

What though does it mean to be wheat?  The children of the Devil are the false wheat it says, and the children of God the true wheat... How then can we tell the difference?   That's the thing about false wheat (Darnel), it's very hard to tell until it's ripe.  You see when wheat begins to ripen the grain begins to become too heavy for the shaft to support... so it begins to bow down.   Darnel doesn't do this... it remains upright.  The difference between real wheat and false wheat is that real wheat bows down.  It doesn't remain too proud, too egoistic, to self consumed to kneel in humility.  Are we being wheat then?  Are we kneeling before God and obeying His teachings as received by the Apostles?  Or are we doing things our own way?  Refusing to bend or submit?  Will you be the wheat or the chaff?

Today we are reminded of Saint Anne and Joachim, the mother and father of Mary, the grandparents of Jesus.   It is a day we should pray for our parents, for our grandparents, and for the humility to be like their daughter Mary.   May we learn to be like her in all things, the Immaculate Disciple who gave a complete and resounding Yes to God's plan in humility and love.   In all things she replied "Do whatever He tells you."  So call your parents, call your grandparents, call your children today and wish them love, wish them happiness, and pray for them that they too may have the grace to be His servant too.


His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection on the readings for daily Mass for Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, the Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne: July 26, 2016.   Jeremiah 14:17-22, Psalm 79, The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 13:36-43

Perfectly Imperfect

People do change.   Their base personality and faculties define who they are, not their behavior.  Behavior is something we do, not who we are.  The man I was in my twenties is not the man I am now, nor am I the man I hope to be ten  years from now.   What is important is not who we were, but who are now and who we are becoming.   That's what being a disciple is about.  Changing from the fallen person we have become into the person we were created as and to be, with Christ giving us the premier example of how to do that.

The twelve themselves were imperfect men.  They argued.  They fell short at times in understanding what Jesus was saying.   They had petty rivalries and jealousies.   At the foot of the cross we don't see those who jump up to say they would die with Him, save for John.  Impetuous Peter denied Him three times and went on to be the first of all the Apostles.  The thing is they were all changed, they all experienced a radical about face in their lives by encountering Christ.  All but John were martyred for their faith.  John was tortured as well and they tried to kill him, but when they failed they exiled him to a remote island to lessen his influence.  All were imperfect, but all were created for a purpose.

You see their character never changed.  You and I were created to be the person that we are.  God gave us a personality, intellectual abilities, a mind to think to with, a heart to feel with, and a memory to help us learn.  All of this he handed us with free will.  God does not ask you to become a mirror image of someone else, but rather to live the walk of Christ as you are able, in the way you are able to do it.  That doesn't mean we all don't do the same action.. but that we do it to the best of our ability as who we are.  For some that means being in the choir.  For others a Lector.   For still others helping with kids in the back.  For one a mother or father, for another a single lay man or woman on a missionary journey.   For some it means going across the world to experience new thrills... and for another staying right where they were born for their entire lives to serve those in that community.   God has a purpose for each and every one of us, and designed us unique with that purpose in mind.

We like James, John and Peter are quick when asked to drink of that cup to resound with an emphatic "Yes Lord!"   Do we truly count the cost of that? When your cup is drained to the dregs and all that is left is one drop of drink along with the dust and grime of daily life in some muddled mess that a seer might try to read for a glimpse of the future, are you ready to give that away?  Society teaches us to be selfish and to hold back that last part for ourselves... and while it's important to get away in prayer and to live our primary vocations as good parents, family, priests and servants; we are asked again by Christ are you ready to pour your life out like a libation?   To pour out every drop until you give your very life for another?  Not just the ones who are dear to you.. but the ones who challenge you?   The stranger?  The angry man at the office that gets on your nerves?  The one who breaths like Darth Vader while you're trying to listen to someone speak?  To the woman who talks bad about you?   To the widow? The orphan?   The homeless man on the street who smells of alcohol?   The refugee whose faith has been portrayed as one of a killer?  The guy who chews potato chips so loudly it sounds as if fire crackers are going off in your skull? Will you pour it out to them?   Christ did on the cross.  That is what He is asking you right now, when he says "Can you drink the cup that I shall drink?"

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease." 

A reflection the daily Mass readings for the Feast of Saint James: July 25th, 2016.   Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 126; The Holy Gospel According to Matthew 20:20-28

So soft and cute...

There is this overwhelmingly powerful scene in the Fellowship of the Rings in which Galadriel is tempted.  Galadriel is already a powerful figure with great magic and power.   The ring though would make her even stronger, so powerful in fact she could control the entire realm.  She has this amazing line in which she says "I will be great and terrible as the dawn!"  We have lost the meaning of that word.  We see terrible as something horrendous, horrible, ugly, or bad.  

terrible

[ter-uh-buh l]  exciting terror, awe, or great fear; dreadful

In Abraham's time this was the image of who God was.   He was the all powerful Lord, the creator, the judge and the king.   For Abraham to stand up for those people in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would have taken a great deal of courage.   We lose that sometimes when reading the old testament.  Here Abraham is facing God and saying, Hey can I change your mind?  What if only... over and over.  Not only asking God for a boon but also thinking he might be testing God's patience.  How scary should that be?

Christ on the cross stood in the gap for us as well.   Knowing that not a single righteous man could be found, Christ went in our place to suffer the punishment.   All of us deserve what Sodom and Gomorrah got.  "The wages of sin is death."   None of us can say we haven't sinned either.  So here we have Christ, fully God but also fully human... going to the cross in complete trust of God but still aware of His great power and the terrible visage, but also seeing the Father.   That was something most of that age were unable to bear, to think of God as Father, and even today there are religions in the world that will find it blasphemous to do so.  Christ gave us that gift while nailed and tortured in our place.

I think that's part of the message that God has given us in the Scriptures and through the words of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   To trust in God.  To see Him as Father.   To know He will only give us what is good.   Yet, to remind us that what we do is make a bold claim.  That we are approaching the all powerful, omniscient God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   That it is an audacious thing to step forward in His presence and say "God give me..."   We should never forget though, that we aren't just praying for 'bread', but also for the will of God.   So we are saying "God give me... but if you know something better... your will be done."   Never forget that last part.  Never forget who it is we approach, and what is at stake.  Abraham knew what was at stake as He prayed for the people, and his prayer was unanswered... Christ knew death was the cost and He suffered it to save us.... Do you realize what is at stake?  Are you ready to pick up your own cross? To stand in the gap for others in prayer?   It's a privilege that we should never take for granted.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection the readings for Mass on the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: July 24, 2016.  Genesis 18:20-32; Psalm 138; Colossians 2:12-14; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Luke 11:1-13

I wish you were more like....

One of the worst mistakes we can do in a serious relationship is to compare the one we love with the past.  "I wish you were more like your (brother/father/mother/sister/cousin)...."    "When we were dating you would..."   "All you ever want to do is sleep, when I first met you we always..."  It's even worse if you compare a spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend to someone you used to be in a relationship with!  It demeans.  It tears down.  It hurts.  It's a failure to encounter that person in the here and the now and a grave mistake indeed.

C.S. Lewis in his journal titled "A Grief Observed" wrote of an encounter with a person from his past.   After his wife's death he had become somewhat of a social recluse and an old friend called on him.   He was excited at the prospect of seeing him after all these years.   After a few hours with the fellow he found that his memory of him was not quite the person he really was.  In fact, after seeing some of the ticks and quirks of the persons personality he realized that he did indeed remember that person after all... but his memory tended to leave out details.. to tailor itself to Lewis's own likes and dislikes.   It was an astounding moment when he realized that his wife was more now than any memory that he could have of her.   He was failing to encounter her in the now, and instead remembering her in the past.   Even though she had died, she was still with him in ways that were even more complete and astounding.

“All reality is iconoclastic[..]The earthly beloved, even in this life, incessantly triumphs over your mere idea of her. And you want her to; you want her with all her resistances, all her faults, all her unexpectedness.... And this, not an image or memory, is what we are to love still, after she is dead.” - C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed 

I think that when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb she was doing much the same by living in the past.  That's part of grief after all.   The Resurrection that Jesus had spoken of so often was simply a thing she had relegated to the future.   Even the vision of the angels speaking to her from inside the tomb did not bring her out of her funk.  The Master himself stood behind her and he failed to recognize him.  She was looking for an image of the man, one she had in her mind... but the real Jesus was right there before her eyes.   It took her hearing her name called by God himself to recognize him.   It took an encounter with God, with Christ in His resurrected form to jar her out of herself, out of her own thoughts.. and into the present.

CCC 2158 God calls each one by name. Everyone's name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it.

We as fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and acquaintances must encounter Christ in the present.   To take time to look for him and listen for his voice to speak to us from the mouths of others.  As a parent I know just how difficult this can be.   To look for the image not only in the stranger but in those you live with every day.   This is the only way we can meet them exactly where they are and as who they are in order to journey with them through this life.   It takes stopping to listen for Christ to speak our name through the mouth of those created in His image.  Are we taking time to do this?

P.S.   Father Don Ahles' homily this morning touched on something that we should take note of, especially in light of what I wrote above.   Pope Francis has taken the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene and turned it into a Feast.  That means that everywhere around the world it must be celebrated by Catholics.    He wants us to sit up and take notice of who Mary Magdalene really is, not who history has attempted to portray her as.  A grave error has been done to her image in that she has been confused with other women in the bible.  She was a wealthy woman who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry.  The Eastern Church calls her the Apostle to the Apostles.  She was not the prostitute but rather the woman who was delivered from seven spirits.  She then was sent to tell the Apostles themselves the good news.  We should take note of that too and realize that sometimes our image of her is clouded too and we need to encounter who she truly was that we may encounter who Christ is and what His message is to us.

His servant and yours,
Brian

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflections on the Mass readings for the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene: July 22, 2016.   Song of Songs 3:1-4; Psalm 63; The Holy Gospel According to Saint John 20:1-2, 11-18

Lead me into the desert....

When I first got out on my own life was pretty good.   I was working a job at minimum wage.  I had my own place.  My own car.  I had a phone, internet, and food in the fridge.  Then I got a job making twenty five dollars a day driving a bus going to college.   The bills were getting paid.   I was eating well and had many friends.   The summer after I got my Associates degree I decided to get a job as an electrician.   I started making quite a bit more money.   I soon forgot how good life was at the start and began to live at this new level of 'wealth.'

It wasn't long until the bills weren't getting paid.  I had a lot more stuff for sure.   I ate more, partied more, had even more friends.   My relationships were getting more shallow though as I sought more and more enjoyment.  I was making more money than I had ever had.   I had a new car, well new to me.  I had plenty of books, a top of the line gaming computer, high speed internet, and on and on.   I was unhappy though.  Relationships started to fall apart.   Bills stopped being paid.  After a break up with a girl I thought was the 'one,' I took a job with a travelling electrical company and began to go on the road.  I went back to simplicity.   Life was starting to look pretty good again, and it kept getting better. 

The first reading reminds me of that journey.   The Israelites met God in the desert of all places.   In a land where they had to count on Him for food and drink.   They had a relationship and journeyed together.   Then He took them into a land of abundance and immediately they began to put more and more into their lives.  They turned from the one who would give them living water and instead tried to find that fulfillment in things. Just as I had done in my years as a young adult, and just as we tend to do today, we constantly look for that thing which will make us happy.  Sitting around day dreaming about what we would do if we won the lottery instead of looking for the gift that is already there... God himself in the Sacraments. 

The thing about the Gospel to me is that every person heard the same parable, every person encountered the same Jesus.  The Disciples, though, sat at His feet.   They didn't just encounter on a superficial level.   They wanted to be closer, to learn more.   They asked questions.  They journeyed with Him.   That's what relationships are about.  Time spent together.   That is why that little verse from Hosea is so powerful: "So I will allure her, I will lead her into the desert." (Hosea 2:16) This isn't God trying to pull you into the sparse desert to die.. it's a lover wanting to take you back to the simple times.. to where we met... to the beginning of our relationships.. to the way things used to be.  It's God calling to us to have an authentic encounter.  To remove all those things from our hearts that stand in the way of receiving the one thing that fits, the one thing that matters.   To get rid of all these empty, meaningless things... and encounter Him: in the Sacraments, in Sacred silence, and in His most distressing of disguises... the poor, the widow, the orphan, the sick, the prisoner, the refugee, the sinner and the saint. 

His servant and yours, 

Brian 

"He must increase, I must decrease."

A reflection on the daily Mass readings for Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: June 21, 2016.  Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Psalm 36; The Holy Gospel According to Saint Matthew 13:10-17