All The Good

March 10, 2019 –– 1st Sunday of Lent

Deuteronomy 26:4–10 / Psalm 91 / Romans 10:8–13 / Luke 4:1–13

All The Good

How did you get here today?

You might describe your vehicle and the exact route from your home to the church.

You might think through all the steps you took to dress and get ready for church today. (I am always amazed at parents who get here on time with several small children!).

We could expand our perspective to include the many and various influences which motivate us to be in church. Some of us are fortunate enough to have had faithful parents who nurtured us in the Faith, and our presence in church is a continuous flow from childhood. Some have been raised in the church and then took a conspicuous detour, but now the connection has been restored. Some were raised in what be called a “neutral” environment––not religious, but not antagonistic––and along the way “faith happened.” Still others have come from broken, abusive, and hostile backgrounds, but the love of Jesus broke through and now church is “home.”

Regardless of how we came to be here, belonging to Christ and his Church is a grace story of God’s goodness. And to begin to comprehend the extent of that, we have to go far beyond our personal stories. What God is doing in each of us individually is just a small part of what God is doing and has been doing for thousands of years of human history.

One facet is in our first reading: my father was a wandering Aramean…. Long before you and I were a projected thought (other than in the eternal mind of God), the Lord was calling and building a people who distinctively belonged to him. Hundreds––thousands––of years ago God was doing something special in the life of a man who we know as Abraham, and what God was doing in Abraham would have long-term effect stretching all the way to today into your life and mine.

Yet the stories of God’s people include some awful things. The first reading recalls affliction and toil and oppression. That is why God’s grace and goodness are so incredible. The story of God’s goodness is light breaking into darkness and hope rising out of oppression and death. Over and over there is a reality expressed by the Psalm’s antiphon: Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble. This is affirmed in something Jesus told his first disciples: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John16:33).

We see one way that Jesus overcame the world in today’s Gospel. In his Temptation Jesus faced the most basic human desires which can be twisted in a way that puts our desires above God and blocks his grace. Jesus would not bow to the traps of power, pride, and even physical hunger. As the book of Hebrews says: tempted in all points as we are, but without sin. Even in our temptations we see that in Jesus we have a Savior. Lent is all about learning to trust a loving Father.  That’s what Jesus did in the desert in his own personal “Lent.”

So, how did you get here today? The undergirding and overwhelming answer is that the goodness of the Lord has brought you to this place. It is not merely the fact of your physical presence in church (although that is good). It is Goodness that provides comfortable homes and ample food and clothing. It is Goodness that we have convenient vehicles to take us where we go.

Even more, the disposition of your heart that moved you to be here today is God’s goodness at work. Goodness is the awareness you have of God when you are moved to pray and serve and give. Goodness is the awareness of God that comes when you are tempted and know you need to turn away. Goodness is even the awareness of God that is there when you have disobeyed and you sense that inner voice to turn and put things right. Wherever we go, we’re the child of a wandering Aramean who learned to trust God.

This is because we can go anywhere in life except outside of God’s embrace. At its core, Christian Faith is embracing the reality that God is here and he has done everything for us to make things right through his Son’s entrance into our world. Did you pay attention to the second reading?

What does Scripture say? The word is near you, in  your mouth and in your heart––that is, the word of faith that we preach––for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

The message that was birthed at Christmas continues into the struggles of Lent: God is with us. As we leave this place today, God is with us. As we go into the coming week with all of its demands––even stresses and fears, God is with us. Wherever we go, God is with us.

And because God is with us, we are immersed in goodness. Sometimes it is so obvious. Sometimes we have to look for it. But we are here today because of God’s goodness, and that Goodness with follow us into a future that is beyond our imagination.

A Hard Teaching From Jesus

February 24, 2019 –– 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Samuel 26:2, 7–9,12–13, 222–23 / Psalm 103 / 1 Corinthians 15:45–49 / Luke 6:27–38

A Hard Teaching From Jesus

Does Jesus actually mean what he says? Jesus said some hard things. In saying love your enemies and bless those who curse you and offer the other cheek we certainly have words coming from Jesus that go against the grain. Did Jesus intend this to be taken literally or was he speaking in hyperbole to get effect?

There are those who understand these words literally as a basis for total pacifism. I traveled this road earlier in my spiritual journey, but I do not think Jesus is negating the use of force for social order in the world at large. The Church does not teach unqualified pacifism. There is an argument that Jesus was using figurative language here, but if Jesus was using figurative language we still need to know what he meant. He surely meant something! One problem with taking Jesus figuratively is that Jesus is not taken seriously at all.

Jesus is addressing his disciples here, and he is at least speaking to the way his followers should respond in their personal relationships. How do we handle it when others do bad things to us? Jesus' answer can be summed up in one word: love. We use this word “love” in a multitude of ways. No, we do not love our enemies with the same kind of love as our nearest and dearest family and friends, but we can choose to seek any person's good.

In this context, the admonition to love our enemy stands in direct contrast to the desire for personal retaliation. We inherently want to “get back” at those who harm or even threaten us. This was Abishai’s counsel to David––to “get” Saul while he could: let me nail him to the ground… God has always been concerned with retaliation among his people. In the Old Testament God gave laws limiting retaliation. When he told Israel An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, it was a divine limitation on the vengeance that says “if you break one of my teeth, I’ll smash all of yours!”

As if to emphasize that he expects people committed to his kingdom to respond differently than others, Jesus contrasts the behavior of “sinners" (this word is used in the context of those not concerned with what God wants). Jesus says that any person can love the people who love back. Most will lend if they expect to be repaid. But to love people who hurt you, and to give to people who not only are not able to repay but who may not seem to deserve it anyway, and to forgive without getting nasty about it, is to show that we really believe what Jesus says. When we choose to respond in love and forgiveness, and to give even when it hurts us, we are saying that nothing in this life is more important than showing Jesus’ kind of love.

Maybe your neighbor has a cat that seems always to be messing up your flower bed. How you respond to the neighbor is the issue Jesus is addressing. Did someone mistreat you maybe five weeks or five months or even five years ago and you can’t let it go?

The big issue here is whether anything in this life is more important to us than seeking to obey and be like Jesus. The desire to retaliate or the tendency to withdraw and sulk is part of everyone of us. Jesus isn't denying that; he wants to correct it and heal our souls.

There is a story from the gas shortage back in the early 70’s that deserves classic status. It happened in California where the population is dense and the lines were long. As one man sat waiting and waiting, a woman pulled in and cut in a small space in front of him. He was angry and got out of his car and walked up to the window of the woman's car. She locked her doors and just smiled at him. So he went back to his car and took off the gas cap which had a lock on it. He put it on her car, locked the gas cap, and drove off.

We instinctively think: the woman got what she deserved. But what if God gave us what we deserve? Maybe we think it's easy for God to forgive. We can feel so strongly whatever injustice has been done to us. But if we think it is easy for God to forgive we need to get alone and think about Jesus on the cross.

I know this is hard. It’s easy to think, "But that's not normal!" and I admit, "That's right!" But that is what the Christian life is all about––anyone can be "normal" according the world's definition. It doesn't take the love of Jesus to hit back or hold a grudge; it takes grace not to. And that's what Christianity is––being people who understand the need for God's grace, and being open to grace for ourselves so that we become channels of grace to others.

As Christians, our standard is God himself. Our calling is to respond to our enemies the way God responds to his. Paul tells the Romans: God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [v10--God's enemies], Christ died for us (5:8). Jesus says this in the Gospel reading: ...the Most High / is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. We cannot lower the standard that Jesus sets and be faithful; what we can do is ask for the grace to live this way and repent of our failures every week if that’s what it takes. This is how to be faithful.

If you are holding a grudge today, if you are withholding forgiveness, I ask you to decide right now to pray to let it go. If you have withdrawn from a person because of something he said or did, let it go. If he didn't mean to hurt you, why let it stand in the way? If someone did mean to hurt you, then forgive him and leave it with God. Don’t let someone else's sin ruin your life as well!

As we learn to absorb the personal blows that come our way, we learn more and more what it means to know and follow Jesus. When we give ourselves to Jesus, it affects everything we are and do. 

A Call For Change

February 3, 2019 –– 4th Sunday in  Ordinary Time

Jeremiah 1:4–5, 17–19 /  Psalm 71 / 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 / Luke 4:21–30

A Call For Change

Change is hard. We are mostly creatures of habit. We get accustomed to traditional expectations, familiar friends, and particular routines in our own lives.

Perhaps change is the very hardest when it is something that threatens the essence of the way we see ourselves It’s really hard when we realize that the highest values we hold have lost their place in the world at large. That's one way to see this incident of Jesus in his hometown.

We know things about Jesus that his hometown did not know. We have the whole story in the Gospels. We have almost 2000 years of Christian Tradition. We know to expect the life and words of Jesus to be different and challenging because he was and is the Son of God.

So as we come to this story about Jesus in Nazareth, we have inside knowledge. The hometown people of Nazareth did not know what we now know. These are people who would have had well-defined expectations. As first-century Jews, they expected the Messiah to come some day and turn their fortunes around. Coming out of that was  a bit of prejudice. God's promises were for them (and them alone)..

Do you see the collision? There is Jesus with his mission from the Father as it came with the fresh life of the Holy Spirit. Here are people with their own expectations of what God is going to do, how he's going to do it, and who he will do it for.

Jesus read from Isaiah. It was a Scripture that triggered the hopes the people would have had. Jesus said he was the one to fulfill this prophecy. At first it seems they might believe him. They had never heard Scripture read like that before. And no wonder––can you imagine what it must have been to hear the Living Word read the written Word?  But the doubt trickles in. "Isn't this Joseph's son?” they asked. Again, they didn’t know what we know. Jesus was not “Joseph’s son” in the way they assumed.

It's here we see something else about Jesus. He doesn't coddle unbelief. He is like an Old Testament prophet. Jeremiah described some of this in the first reading. We might think that Jesus would have responded with understanding. He could have said, "I know it must be hard for you to believe this, but,…" Instead Jesus responds in a way that he does again and again: he says something else to push the offense.

He told them two Old Testament stories that they knew very well. In the two stories, the one common theme is that God's grace came to the outsider instead of an Israelite. It was a Gentile woman and a Gentile man that received the prophet's blessing. Jesus was telling them that their attitudes were causing a repeat performance; he was bringing good news to those who could truly receive it––people like Gentile sinners. If they were not open to that, they were acting like those who persecuted the prophets of old.

We need to recognize that it is easy for us to be like the townspeople in Nazareth––expecting God to fulfill all our hopes while at the same time trying to keep our own boundaries and prejudices. This cuts us off from people God loves––people God wants to love through us.

We come to church each week, I hope, because we want to identify with God's good news. Jesus' words to the people of Nazareth tell us it is not good news if we can't get beyond our own expectations.

Jesus brings all people to a point of decision. He pushed the issue with his hometown people. He will push issues in our lives. And the big issue is simply this: are we going to be like Jesus, or like the people of Nazareth? How tightly do we hold to our own boundaries and insist on our own way?

This kind of change does not come easily, but change is what Jesus is after for all of us. He does not intend to leave any of us the way we are. We all need to be in that process of change that turns sinners into saints. Our calling is to be like Jesus and not like the people at Nazareth.

God is always asking us to change our minds about things that pad our self-interest. God is asking us to change our minds about who is worthy of our attention and our love. It may mean changing our expectations of what it means to be the Church. It will surely mean going against the prejudices that are accepted by the popular culture around us.

Our culture has many wrong ideas, but there is one that needs to be front and center before us right now. As the attempted justification of late-term abortions swirls around, we need to know and proclaim (and vote): it is never okay.

We are called to invite the Spirit that lived in Jesus to extend God's kingdom through what we believe and say and do. That is the way sinners are changed into saints.

Which Voice?

January 27, 2019 –– 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nehemiah 8:2–4a, 5–6, 8–10 / Psalm 19 / 1 Corinthians 12:12–30 / Luke 1:1–4, 4:14–21

Which Voice?

We are inundated with voices.

Voices:

––in the programs we watch on TV….

––in the words of songs we hear….

––in the opinions we listen to and read in social media….

––in the expressed thoughts of our inner circle of family and friends….

––in the billboards on our roads….

––in the signs on our office bulletin boards….

––in the values that are assumed by our general society…. voices.

We often have voices ricocheting within our own heads. These voices often accuse us. They can make us feel conflicted with one voice saying yes and another saying no, and both at the same time.

Which voice gets our attention? Which voice gets our assent? How do we know which voice to trust? How do we know which voice is right?

Some say go with one’s feelings––that if if it feels right it must be right. That doesn’t work so well. We live in varied social settings and not everyone “feels” the same way about everything. Whose feelings get affirmed and whose feelings get squelched? On what basis? What standard of discernment and judgment?

Some say, okay, we’ll listen to what the majority thinks. But to be honest, think how many times throughout history the majority has been wrong!

Differing a bit from “majority” is “popular.” Here we might consider the numerous entertainers (actors, musicians, and sports figures) who think that their notoriety gives them the right to speak to issues for which they are unqualified to speak. Would you want a crucial interpretation about your medical exam from a pop-musician or someone whose only claim to fame is her good looks that landed her a talkshow spot? Yet those people get a platform when they speak about crucial moral issues of our day––and only because they are popular for something that matters very little!

One other voice that can compel us is the one that suggests ease and comfort. This likely is the one that undergirds all the others. It is so easy for us to listen to voices that demand little of us. Then we are free to go our way…. but the desire to go our own way is a spiritual cancer.

Here is my point: in contrast to all that is popular and easy, we need to take the time and effort to listen to God. In the first reading, God’s people had listened to wrong voices for so long that they had been conquered, taken away from their land for seventy years, and were now back in their land looking at desolation and a total rebuilding project. A copy of the Scripture had been found and it was read publicly––from daybreak till midday…. read[ing] plainly from the book of the law of God, [and] interpreting it…. and all the people listened attentively.

They had learned that the many and varied voices from the past had not given what they promised, had not made life easier and happier, and had, in fact, caused them to lose touch with God. Now they were ready to hear the Word of God.

This lesson has to be relearned again and again. This past week there has been a chorus of voices  starting and spreading from New York which are distorted, awful, and even evil. These voices have legally approved, attempted to justify, and actually exulted in the act of killing a human child up to the moment just before birth. There is social pressure to go along with what is presented as popular opinion. It is the easy route to put it out of our minds and let it go with passive resignation. Can we hear the voice of God through the prophet Jeremiah:

A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,

Rachel weeping for her children;

she refused to be consoled, because they were no more (Matt 2:18)?

God so wants his people to hear his voice that the Son of God himself came into our world so we could listen to the voice of God. In today’s Gospel, He stood up to read….where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings….

Today we still have a reading of the Scriptures before the congregation. The Church is the inheritor and the “conduit” of the Word of God. When we hear Scripture being read, we are hearing the voice of God. When we hear Scripture being preached faithfully, we are hearing an extension of the Apostolic Faith that has gone throughout the world changing lives and giving hope––Luke says his witness is so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings. We are part of that right now, because the Voice of God is among us.

Which voice are you really listening to?

Wedding Wine

January 20, 2019 –– 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 62:1–5 / Psalm 96 / 1 Corinthians 12:4–11 / John 2:1–11

Wedding Wine

Weddings carry a lot of weight in our society. Many prospective brides come to their plans with images that have simmered in their imaginations even before they became conscious of them. I have no idea what the financial outlay might be each year for the wedding industry, but I know it’s huge. Venues for the reception alone are easily in five figures for a single evening of celebration (and there is usually plenty of wine). All of this is symbolic of the hopes a newly married couple have for future happiness.

Marriage, at its best, offers some of greatest and deepest delights this world can give. Dashed marital dreams can inflict some of the deepest emotional pain. It is in this context that God speaks to his people through Isaiah after their hopes had seemingly been destroyed:

As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you;

and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.

The image of God being married to his people is woven throughout Scripture. In the New Testament the Church is the Bride of Christ.

It is no accident that the first miracle of Jesus was at a wedding. Neither is it happenstance that the specific act was turning water into wine. There is more about this written by the Church Fathers than one can easily read; one observation by Saint Augustine is that water naturally turns into wine all the time, but usually through a gradual and natural process. Out of this Bishop Barron notes: “God delights in taking what we can contribute––and then lifting all of it up to a higher pitch through his grace.” 

Then there are all the Eucharistic implications of Jesus providing “miraculous wine” so far beyond this one event so long ago. Jesus gives us miraculous wine so that all we are naturally can be transformed into the glory of God. 

We are invited to bring the water of our lives to the Bridegroom who is able to change us into choice wine. What if we had a bride’s expectation each time we came before the altar to receive Jesus?

Following Jesus in Baptism

[This is an edited repeat from several years ago, but some things need regular repetition.]

Sunday: January 13, 2019 –– The Baptism of the Lord

Isaiah 40:1–5; 9–11 / Psalm 104 / Titus 2:11–14; 3:4–7 / Luke 3:15–16, 21-22

Following Jesus in Baptism

Catholic identity is grounded in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. On this Sunday the Church celebrates The Baptism of the Lord. It's an event that is recorded in all four gospels, so we know it's important. But there's a question: Why was Jesus baptized?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, baptismal grace means forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, and birth into the new life by which a person becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit and incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ....  [CCC 1279].

Jesus didn't need any of those things! So, why was he baptized?

The baptism of Jesus is part of his mission, and his mission is clearly stated in the Scriptures: The angel told Joseph: he will save his people from their sins (Mtt 1:21).

How does Jesus save us? The Scriptures give more answers than I can include here. Today’s epistle reading is an extended treatise on salvation. More succinct verses tell us:

[God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2Cor 5:21).

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins (Eph 1:7).

....all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death (Rom 6:3)

This last verse makes an explicit connection of baptism with our salvation; it portrays dying to sin and rising to new life. But again, why did Jesus himself need to be baptized?

Here is the “heart” of what we need to grasp: To save us, Jesus goes ahead of us and gives us a path to follow. Particularly, in his death he was taking upon himself our death. In his resurrection Jesus destroyed the power of death. When we follow Jesus, we too die to sin and thus have the hope of resurrection to eternal life.

This is the way we understand baptism. To take our sins upon himself and die our death, Jesus submitted to baptism to take the initial step of identifying with sinners so he could take the path to the cross to be our Savior. It was one more way the Son of God humbled himself to do for us what we could never do for ourselves..

Hear what the Church says in the Catechism: “Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, so that we too might walk in newness of life” (CCC #977). This is at the heart of the historic Christian understanding of salvation: God became like us so that we could become like him. He became humanized so we could become “Divinized” (see 2 Peter 1:4). Baptism is the first step in the process of becoming a saint––truly being like Jesus!

It is important to know, however, that Baptism is not an end in itself; it is the “gateway to life in the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments” (CCC #1214, emphasis added). It is sad that not all baptized people live up to their Baptism: “the grace of Baptism delivers no one from all the weakness of nature” (CCC #978). Here is the issue for us on this day that we honor the baptism of our Lord: Am I living out of my Baptism?  

Being baptized into Jesus Christ is our highest calling. Nothing is greater than being identified with Jesus Christ. The implications are eternal.

As I progressed in my journey into the Church––as I began to understood more of the tangible things that mark Catholic life––I was pulled into the power of the Sacraments. I began to think more about my own Baptism. I came to understand that entering the church and making the sign of the cross with holy water was connected to my Baptism.

I want to renew a challenge I have given previously: Try to remember that as you enter the church, dip your finger in water, and make the sign of the cross, you are renewing your Baptism. It helps us to focus if we say a prayer––something like: I belong to you, my Lord. I give myself to you fresh and new. Let the power of your baptismal waters keep me clean and make me totally yours.

Jesus Christ gave his life for our salvation. He suffered death for every one of us. He rose from the dead to open the door of eternal life for all humanity. He initiated it all by being baptized. Christian Baptism marks who we are.

Light in the Darkness

December 25, 2018  –– Christmas

Isaiah 9:1–6 / Psalm 96 / Titus 2:11–14 / Luke 2:1–14

Light in the Darkness

Generally speaking, humans do not like darkness. Many people complain of Seasonal Affective Disorder and are depressed when days are short or overcast for too long. Of course, “darkness” is relative (actually, “darkness" only exists according to the degree to which light is decreased). We have ways of making “relative darkness” cozy and beautiful––a small lamp or a fire in the hearth in an otherwise dark room, or a display of lights on the outside of our houses to illumine a winter night during the Christmas season.

Still, we do not do well with an absence of light…. either physically or spiritually. Have you ever been in total darkness? Years ago I visited Mammoth Cave and I still remember when our group was assembled at the lowest part of the tour and the lights were turned off for a brief time––total darkness.

The Bible begins with that image and the contrast of God’s activity: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light (Genesis 1:1–3). Throughout the rest of Scripture there is an ongoing theme of darkness and light.

A disobedience to God allowed darkness to have an inordinate place in the world. The darkness of unbelief and rebellion has besieged people for so long that we can assume it is as eternal as God himself. but the power of darkness has no chance of domination. John tells us in his first letter that God is light and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). In Peter’s first letter we hear that God is always and forever the one who [is calling] you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

This is the promise Isaiah was making to God’s people after they had detoured into darkness and lost hope: The people who walked in darkness have see a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. The promise was fulfilled in the little town of Bethlehem. Luke gives the details of the story: Mary and Joseph, a first-born in a manger, shepherds, and angels…. and the Good News: a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.

St Paul tells Titus what it means: The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways…. We reject godless ways when we turn away from any and every thing that extends the darkness of pain and despair and death. We see the reality of the grace of God whenever a bit of light shines on our path.

Christmas is the celebration that Jesus is that Light. God himself came to dwell among us and open the way to the fulness of Life . John opens his Gospel saying In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world…. [and] to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (John 1:5–12).

Like the Christmas lights that shine into these winter nights, we are immersed in a Light that darkness cannot overcome. This is why, on that night long ago, the angels illumined the sky and sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace those on whom his favor rests.

Through Jesus Christ, the favor of God rests on us. It is the gift of Light and Life.

Merry Christmas!