tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37729256221803136922024-03-13T12:29:50.031-07:00Widow and Hammer"So now, brothers and sisters, let us set an example for our kinsmen, since their lives depend on us, and the sanctuary and the temple and the altar rests upon us." (Judith 8:24) <br> <br> " The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the holy place, but the holy place for the sake of the people." (2 Maccabees 5:19)Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-16093102673006026622014-02-01T20:01:00.000-08:002014-02-01T20:01:21.039-08:00What Does It Mean to Pray?What is prayer? It feels like everyone has the same question. We know that prayer is something we should do, but no one feels very good at it, or even that we’re doing it right. We have this idea of prayer, on our knees with hands clasped as we think thoughts towards God. It’s how we’re taught to pray as children, and we don’t know how to go beyond that. It’s unsatisfying. <br />
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It’s frustrating. We’re told that prayer can be amazing, that it’s essential to a well-balanced life. But nothing we do even comes close, let alone the ecstasy that saints used to have. We’re told that some people used to pray for hours, and I can’t even last five minutes without thinking that it’s stupid sometimes.<br />
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We need a new model. One of the best things I was ever told was that prayer is supposed to be relational, not a duty. We don’t pray because we have to, we pray to reach out to someone. If prayer should be a relationship, we should look at how we talk to our friends and our family, the people we already have relationships with. Maybe that means we give a second look at texting.<br />
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I was talking with a friend, and she described to me how her brother ALWAYS has to be texting his girlfriend. They text back and forth constantly about the dumbest things. They also live four hours apart, so it’s not hard to see that they care about each other a lot, and want to be present with each other throughout the day. Its a lot like how I want to be with God.<br />
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I’ve talked with teachers, and it’s ridiculous what kids text to each other, even in the same room. It’s literally things as simple as “Hey, look at me and make a face.” When we text, we don’t worry about making each message important, or intentional. We just say whatever we’re thinking about, wanting to connect with that other person.<br />
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We should do the same with God. There’s no right way to pray. It’s not a test. We should pray like we talk, because prayer should be the way we communicate with the person we care about. It’s ok if we “pray-text” God throughout the day. Surprisingly enough, it’s a very old way of praying. Back in the day they called it “ejaculations.” People used to memorize short snippets of prayers and say them throughout the day, making God a part of their lives.<br />
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It’s a similar to “offering things up to God.” Our parents did this a lot growing up; whenever something bad happened, or they had to do something they didn’t like, they were told to “offer it up to God.” The idea was that Christ suffered, and when we suffer we join in His suffering. Just like when athletes complain to each other about hard workouts, or sick people commiserate about their illnesses, sharing our suffering helps us feel closer to each other.<br />
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So if we don’t know how to pray, we should look at how we talk. What brings us closer to our best friends? Is it long talks at night? Long, carefully considered emails? Or do you feel close to friends just playing games or reading books together? Whatever draws us closer to our friends is what will draw us closer to God. Prayer is how we talk with God; we don’t need to make it any more complicated than that.<br />
Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-13776835318052074552014-01-23T12:12:00.000-08:002014-01-31T14:04:11.489-08:00My Thoughts on the March for LifeFirst of all, go right now and read <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/opinion/hale-progressives-pro-life/index.html">Chris Hale’s excellent article on CNN</a> about why progressives should be “pro-life.” It’s a great piece for anyone who thinks being anti-abortion is for only conservatives.<br />
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That being said, I think we should reflect on what the March for Life is really accomplishing. It’s a great event; tens of thousands of Catholics from all over the US march from the Mall to the Supreme Court every year. It’s awesome to be in the middle of the largest anti-abortion protest in the world. It’s also incredibly “safe.”<br />
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Forty years ago the March started spontaneously, as people marched in reaction to Roe vs. Wade. Twenty years ago in the 90s there were still anti-protestors harassing the Marchers. But today the March is a fixture of Catholic High School calendars. Over half of the people attending are under 18, and you can count the groups by their matching caps and scarves. It’s adorable. Some are there to protest, but it’s not hard to see many of them enjoying an exciting field trip. Everything is organized, scheduled, arranged, and sanitized. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/march-for-life-2014-102461.html">If some wonder why there isn’t more coverage for the March</a>, it’s because nothing was ever changed by a high school field trip.<br />
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It’s impossible to be at the March and not hear the comparison between abortion and slavery. But abortion is not slavery. Both are/were deeply polarizing issues, and both inspired massive movements to outlaw them. But slavery was a <i>deliberate attempt</i> to monetize a class of people slaveholders considered equivalent to animals. It was systemic, calculated, and brutal.<br />
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But abortions are not motivated by gain, but <i>fear</i>. Pregnant mothers don’t want abortions because they get something out of it, but because they are afraid of what the child will bring into their lives. We march every year to ban abortion out of a sense of disbelief that such a moral outrage can be tolerated. We never stop to think that the people fighting us do so out of desperation. As Cardinal O’Malley said <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-emperors-new-pope-on-march-eve.html?m=1">last year in a fantastic homily</a>, “The pro-life movement has to be about saving women.”<br />
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So much of the March is pro-birth, not pro-life. We look around at the posters and the signs, and see things like: “Defend Life!,” “I’m worth waiting for!,” “Defund Planned Parenthood!,” and hundreds of pictures of aborted children. But we never see one picture of a toddler, one picture of a young mother and her baby (Mary and Jesus don’t count), or one picture of a child in foster care. The March is against abortion, but not one group advocates for mothers.<br />
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We don’t need to scare women with pictures of dead babies or thousands of chanting protestors. They’re scared enough already. If we make their choice about fear, we make it shameful, and we force people to make decisions with as little outside support as possible. <br />
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We need to stop punishing those considering abortion; things like vaginal ultrasounds and mass closing abortion centers only serve to make vulnerable women more afraid and insecure. When we’re desperate, we cling to whatever promise of safety we can reach. Trying to take that away, or making it less accessible, only makes us hold on tighter. <i>We can’t make someone “Choose Life!” through fear. </i><br />
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We need more support for adoption centers and foster homes. Whether federally funded or as nonprofits, we need to put our money where our mouth is. At the March we are told over and over about the billions of babies who die due to abortions. If we banned abortion outright, there is no way we could handle the influx of children needing homes, assuming the parent chose not raise their child. <br />
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If the parent (mother or father!) does decide to keep their child, we need to guarantee they have enough support to raise him or her until they are old enough to go to school. It is incredibly hard to find work and raise a baby single handedly. If we do not make daycare affordable and accessible, then the parent needs enough money or a place to live until they find a sustainable solution. We cannot demand a child be born and then ignore it. We are responsible for a child’s wellbeing if we demand that they be born.<br />
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So much of our fear over raising children is about money. If we demand that unborn children be born and raised, then we should ensure a parent can find work they can raise a child on. No one can raise a child alone on minimum wage, yet that is exactly what we expect of mothers without education or experience.<br />
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The March for Life is a great event. But it has become safe, repetitive, and ignorant about the consequences should it succeed. Next year I want to see at least one group marching with posters of mothers with young children, demanding we be “pro-life.”<br />
Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-21532317577852251572014-01-20T19:41:00.001-08:002014-01-20T19:42:02.576-08:00Second Sunday in Ordinary Time<a href="http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011914.cfm">http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011914.cfm </a><br />
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What does it mean to be a prophet? What do we do when God calls to us in our lives?<br />
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In 1955 Flannery O’Connor wrote her second and final novel, The Violent Bear It All Away. It describes the young man Tarwater fighting against his calling to be a prophet. For the entire novel the boy literally runs away, and he is determined to do the exact opposite of his duty. Instead of burying his great-uncle he burns the house down with him in it; instead of baptizing his “idiot” cousin he drowns him. But even in the act of drowning Tarwater says the words of baptism, and by the end of the book we discover the great-uncle safely buried despite Tarwater’s arson. He finally realizes he cannot escape his calling and gives in:<br />
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He felt his hunger no longer as a pain but as a tide. He felt it rising through the centuries, and he knew that it rose in a line of men whose lives were chosen to sustain it, who would wander in the world, strangers from that violent country where the silence is never broken except to shout the truth. He felt it building from the blood of Abel to his own, rising and engulfing him.</i><br />
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The call of God is compelling. It is impossible to ignore, as anyone who has heard that little voice in the back of their head knows. Tarwater describes it as a hunger, and nothing he eats satisfies him. He feels no peace, no solace until he gives into his call and acts. The mark of a prophet then, is the undeniable call of God that compels them to act.<br />
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Their compulsion is impossible for us to ignore. Isaiah prophesied the eventual triumph of Israel, not just its reclamation but its crowning, and his words sustained the scattered Israelites in their exile. John the Baptist retreated to the wilderness, but people burdened with sin flocked to him for hope. Paul converted the world to Christ with his words and his example. <br />
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Why are we pulled to these people? Their words still pull us 2000 years away, and their successors strike at our hearts. The mark of a prophet is also the hunger they plant in us. We all know the feeling, when God speaks to us from the Mass, or a book, or a homily, or a friend in conversation. A prophet is not just a man in the wilderness, but one who speaks God’s truth from compulsion. The mark of that truth is its undeniability. The words will compel us to act, compel us to change; to repent and be born again into that strange country, the kingdom of Heaven.<br />
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What, then, can we do with the prophets’ words? When they compel us to act, to change, and the call scares us in its compulsion? We are told “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Our fear is honest and justified, because what we are called to is radical. We are called by the prophets, compelled by God, to minister to the poor, heal the sick, to take care of widows and children, and visit the imprisoned. We are called to prioritize the weak and vulnerable in the world over the rich and powerful, and it is terrifying. While we admire those who do so, we know it is risky. To serve them instead of the powerful is to spend our time and money on those who can’t reward us, can’t compensate us. It dooms us to a life on the edges, away from safety. The poor can’t give you fame, or help you save for your children’s college.<br />
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The prophets themselves model how we should act, and they point to Christ. Isaiah says in the reading today:<br />
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<i>“And I am made glorious in the sight of the Lord, and my God is now my strength!” </i><br />
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It is terrifying to hear the voice of God. It is scary to hear His whisper in our lives, calling us in the quiet moments when we are undistracted by TV or socializing. But we are called. We are called to respond “Yes!,” and the call does not go away because we ignore it. It is compelling in our deepest hearts and secret thoughts. <br />
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And if we say “yes,” God will sustain us. That is His promise to the prophets, to Christ, and to us. If we choose to walk with Him we will not be alone. He will give us strength for the journey, and He will help us to do such amazing things! <br />
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“It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”</i><br />
Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-27788266096857709782012-11-12T05:33:00.000-08:002012-11-12T05:33:26.543-08:00What is Love? Baby don't hurt me.What is love? Baby don’t hurt me.<br />
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Love is such a ubiquitous word, especially for English speakers. We love pie (or cake), we love our friends, our girlfriends, we love our country and we love getting off work early. We love our God. But even though we use the same word for different things, we don’t think that the love we have for pie is the same kind of love we have for God or girlfriends (though I may love pecan pie more many girlfriends…)<br />
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Because we have one word that covers so many things, it’s hard to know what people mean when they use it. When they use love as a philosophy and say things like: “We should just <i>love</i> other people,” the question should be “what kind of love?”<br />
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Jesus <i>did</i> said “love thy neighbor,” but he had a very specific idea in mind. He taught that there are two commandments based on love: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind,” and “love thy neighbor like thyself.” The second commandment is like the first, because the first says that love is giving everything to God, our entire selves. If we give that kind of love to our neighbor, it makes sense that we would love our neighbor like ourselves. They have part of us with them. <br />
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Love means gifting ourselves to others. It’s not a desire, or an appreciation, or tolerance. To love like Jesus tells us to is to share openly and be vulnerable; it means investing ourselves in others in ways that they may use to hurt us later. That is why there is an ethic to love.<br />
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In the parable of the good Samaritan, love implies a duty, a call to action. We are called to relationship, and to ignore a stranger in need is to ignore a brother or ignore yourself. Being called to love means that the people we meet have the capacity to receive that love; it means acknowledging the humanity in one other, the spark of God we share between us.<br />
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Love also entails a responsibility. When we sin and fall short of God, we harm ourselves. We are who we should be when we are at our best, and that best is when we follow God. This is why Jesus tells the apostles that when a brother sins against you, show him his fault between the two of you. If that does not work, bring a friend, and if that still doesn’t work then bring him before the elders of the church. If none of these succeed in correcting your brother, then expel him from the community. We have a responsibility to convert the world because the Christian life is the truest and leads to the person God intends for us to be. When our brothers and sisters in Christ fall short, love impels us to correct them. The tough love we are commanded to show other Christians is only tough because salvation is so serious. If they profess to want it, they should not be accepted as they are, but as they should be.<br />
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When people use “love” they usually mean “tolerate” or “accept.” They mean that we shouldn’t judge other people, or impose our own beliefs. Many people use “love” as a way to remain impartial or take no sides, but that kind of love means loving other people no more than cake or pie. I accept them as they are, without requiring change.<br />
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But a love that means relationship, where people hold parts of our heart, soul, and mind requires more than that. That intimacy requires duty, responsibility. We can hurt each other too easily. This is what marriage is: a promise before God and the Church to hold in trust and commitment the gift of self our spouse is making. This is why sex outside of marriage is so damaging, because we love and give ourselves to each other with abandon, and that gift is so often betrayed. <br />
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Love is a holy thing. It should be treated as such, with all the respect, awe, responsibility, cherishment, and grace it deserves. It is hard to be in relationship with all people, but love demands we be open to that. It is hard to demand people change when we say we love them, but if we demand the best from ourselves we cannot do less for others. It is hard to honor the love between us correctly, and we hurt each other too much. <br />
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But this is the love that Jesus models for us, the love that loved perfectly but suffered, that accepts our wounds against him and loves us still. Love in the world is raw and tender, but it is the greatest gift we are given.<br />
Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-80960608880097086792012-10-08T11:31:00.000-07:002012-10-08T11:31:11.698-07:00Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary TimeJesus is the redemption and glorification of the original promise.<br />
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In the first reading we see the creation of man and woman, the first husband and wife. Out of all of creation there is no one who is a suitable partner for man but woman, and together they are more than just partners, they are one flesh. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife.” The original promise of marriage, the mystery of the union, is the promise of finding what is lacking in each other and binding the incomplete halves together so tightly that one would think no more of separating from their spouse than they would their body. <br />
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We’ve lost that in time since. By the time of Moses, Paradise had fallen and divorce was already necessary because of sin. With sin, the original promise of Eden is lost and impossible to find. But Jesus is our redemption and our salvation. Because “for a time he became little lower than the angels” and gave himself for our sins, Jesus has made perfection possible again. The grace that lives inside of us because of Christ Jesus makes the impossible possible.<br />
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This is the redemption of the promise that Christ makes possible again, that we do not need divorce because of Christ’s grace. But Christ has also transformed everything under the law and made it better. He said “I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it,” and he has done no less with marriage. We see this in the Church; no longer are we just man and woman, but we are also brothers and sisters in Christ. The consecrated religious do not find a suitable partner among men and women, but give their hearts and lives to God and the Church. What is lacking in ourselves we have found in Christ, and we leave our mothers and fathers to cling to the Rock our savior. <br />
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The Psalmist tells us “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table.” Christ is the fruitful vine, and the converts we bring into the church are our children. This is how Paul addresses the churches in his letters, and how the new spiritual family is born. Priests minister to their congregations like a father to sons and daughters, and all of us lay people disciple each other. <br />
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We are no longer bound by ordinary flesh and blood. The body Christ gave for the world has superseded the rib that Adam sacrificed for Eve. In Heaven there will be no giving and taking in marriage, because everything that we lack we will find in God. On earth Christ has redeemed ordinary marriage because of his grace, but the consecrated religious show us the marriage of Heaven, the redemption and glorification of the original promise in Paradise. <br />
Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-88437127444479665472012-07-20T22:33:00.000-07:002012-07-20T22:34:04.023-07:00Fictional Violence vs. Real Life TragedyHow do we enjoy <i>The Dark Knight Rises</i> after the shooting in Aurora?<br />
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It’s an open question. I don’t have an answer, only gut reactions from watching the movie less than a day after <a href="(http://gawker.com/5927726/12-shot-dead-50-wounded-during-dark-knight-rises-showing-in-colorado)">12 people were killed and 50 wounded by a psycho</a>. Last night, James Holmes turned the premiere of <i>TDKR</i> into a massacre when he walked into a theatre and started shooting during one of the movie’s many gunfire scenes. At first, people outside couldn’t distinguish between the real gunfire and the movie; some inside thought the gun sounded like “popping balloons.” <br />
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For me, I couldn’t enjoy it. <i>TDKR</i> is a technically great movie; the plot is engaging, the acting incredible, and the world building extraordinary. But it is also an incredibly dark film, and the violence not only explicit but casual. Because of the extreme realism, each death is visceral and painful. With Aurora still fresh in my mind, it was too real.<br />
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I watched the theatre hallway during the shooting scenes. I was jumped once a few years ago, and now I’m paranoid enough that I can all too easily picture random acts of violence. Between the realism, Aurora, and my own experience, watching <i>TDKR</i> was an extremely uncomfortable experience.<br />
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I’m not saying that there isn’t a place for a movie like this. I’m not even saying it’s too violent. But I am saying that watching the movie after a real life tragedy felt more than a little tone-deaf, and I couldn’t put an appropriate distance between what was fiction and what could be only too real. I didn’t need Bain as a symbol of evil; I already had that in Holmes.<br />
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I’m open to other interpretations. It may be that in a few years I would enjoy the film for what it is, a great work of fiction. Maybe I just need the time to inure me to what the fictional deaths would be in reality. Maybe <i>TDKR</i> is a peacetime movie, and it’s good that many people have little enough experience with violence that the movie doesn’t bother them. But right now I can’t do it.<br />
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Does anyone else have other thoughts? <br />Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-51266486724363126842012-07-01T08:18:00.000-07:002012-07-01T08:18:04.582-07:00Private Charity vs. Social SharingI think that we Christians have the wrong idea about what charity is supposed to be. <br />
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Take “Obamacare;” one of the main reasons given for opposing it, is that it puts a legal mandate on charity. We believe that we should take care of the poor and the sick, but many people feel that this is something that should be done freely on a personal level. We can’t, or shouldn’t, mandate people through taxes to take care of others. <br />
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This makes a lot of sense. We are born with free will, and charity should be freely given. But it sets up a false dichotomy that hurts us as Christians: it says that there are rich, and there are poor, and those who have should give to those who do not have. This is not Christianity.<br />
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In today’s second reading, Paul tells us: <br />
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“Brothers and sisters:<br />
As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you, may you excel in this gracious act also.<br />
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For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. <i>Not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs, that there may be equality</i>.<br />
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As it is written:<br />
Whoever had much did not have more,<br />
and whoever had little did not have less.”<br />
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As Christians, we strive not just for the relief of the poor, but for equality with them. Private charity, where we give to the poor from our abundance, does not embrace equality but sustains injustice, because we give a little but keep a lot. Private charity relies on the dichotomy between rich and poor, but justice seeks to abolish it.<br />
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There are many things wrong with Obamacare. How much it will cost is unclear, it includes the unjust HHS Mandate, and it gives tacit support to abortion providers. And we should fight those things. But it is, in its idea, a profoundly Christian attempt to bring justice to charity. It seeks to make all citizens equal, who will all share health care in their abundance, and share health care in their need. Charity should not be the rich burdened by the poor, but an exchange of giving and receiving among brethren. Whether it’s realized or not, our current system burdens the “rich,” because we still provide care to the poor through emergency rooms and free clinics. Sharing health care like Obamacare intends seeks to ease the burden by having everyone share the cost. <br />
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The pinnacle of Christianity is not charity. It is solidarity, where barriers are broken down between believers. The Acts of the Apostles describe early believers holding “all things in common.” What Jesus taught was not charity, but social sharing. Our God is the God of life, and of justice, and we should embrace those things that embrace both life and justice. <br />Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-46597080731453059762011-07-31T08:11:00.000-07:002011-07-31T08:12:40.487-07:00Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/073111.shtml<br /><br />Jesus satisfies!<br /><br />This is the message to take away from Scripture today. When we speak to other people about the wonder of Christ, we usually start with salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Which is good, but it’s very theological and can sometimes sound empty if we forget why we salvation is good, why we want to be forgiven. It’s because Jesus satisfies us completely, in a way that nothing else does.<br /><br />Like the first reading says, we are thirsty, and we come to the water. We are poor, but receive grain and eat. We pay no price, but eat rich food and drink wine and milk. These are metaphors, but they tell us that what is lacking in us in found in Jesus Christ. The best reason for getting to know Jesus, is that life is better with Him.<br /><br />The second reading is powerful, and deserves to be read multiple times. Because what will separate us from the love of Christ? Not anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or death, or life, or present things, or future things; none of these can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that is a powerful statement.<br /><br />When we struggle with temptation, what is it that we believe in that moment? We know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and this is a love that satisfies, which gives us everything we need. Do we believe that? Or when we are tempted, do we believe that temptation is more powerful? This is the lie we tell ourselves, to convince ourselves to fail. Because Christ’s love is powerful and allows to conquer overwhelmingly the things which stand in our way.<br /><br />Do we remember all that times that Jesus satisfies us? It is easy to forget, when there is always a new problem or a new worry. But let us take time right now to remember the good things that God has brought us, and how He has always been with us. Because God is good all the time, and all the time He will satisfy us if we will take and eat.<br /><br />When Jesus feeds the five thousand, He is given five loaves and two fish. But He blesses that food, and when all is finished there is twelve baskets of food left over. What we have to give, is not enough for God’s work in the world; but with Jesus, everything we have is taken and multiplied until not only is there enough, but there is more than enough to satisfy. <br /><br />When Jesus fed the five thousand, there were twelve baskets of food left over. What should be done with those twelve baskets? God satisfies us with more than we need, so the next logical thing is to bring the extra to those who are still unsatisfied. We have been given more of God’s love than we can hold, and so we must share it!<br /><br />This is the good news, that we can be satisfied! And not by spending enough money, or dieting enough, or having enough sex or attention; we will be satisfied by the love of Jesus, if we only take and eat of it.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-14896718979214165962011-07-25T17:29:00.000-07:002011-07-25T17:31:00.343-07:00Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/072411.shtml<br /><br />“Lord, I love your commands.”<br /><br />That’s really the trick, isn’t it? If the story of Solomon teaches us anything, it’s that it’s not enough to know what is right. We can be as wise and as understanding as God, but if we don’t want to do what’s right we won’t. We will end up resenting the right thing to do, and hate ourselves. With good reason; I wouldn’t like someone either who forced themselves to do one thing, while being jealous of everyone else doing another and having way more fun doing it.<br /><br />It’s not enough to do good because it is good. Actions alone do not merit Heaven, we have to change our desires as well. To be holy is to be free to do whatever you want, because everything you want is good to do. When our hearts conform to God’s will, we will be satisfied.<br /><br />God encourages us in this, and “all things work for good for those who love God.” But learning to love God is the hard part, because God’s commands are often opposite to what we learn is satisfying. For those who want to be chaste, they may want to follow God but they also want be sexually active like the people around them. For those who want to be merciful, it’s hard when what you really want is to get revenge.<br /><br />This is why Jesus describes the kingdom of Heaven in different ways, because each way gives a new meaning as to why we want it.<br /><br />First, the kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure. We may or may not be looking for it, but when we find it we know it is better than anything else we have. And it is worth giving up everything to have it.<br /><br />Second, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant. The kingdom is also looking for us, and God will do everything to bring us to Him. While the kingdom is a treasure without equal, to God, so are we.<br /><br />Third, the kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net. The people who are not worthy of it will not inherit it. It is a prize, and so, so good, but it will not be forced upon us. We who do not choose it will not receive it.<br /><br />Why would we love God’s commands? Because in the kingdom of Heaven means free love, in the true sense of that phrase. Hate and sin bind us, bind us in jealousy, discontent, anger, despair, and every other chain. But God’s commands are not weights around our feet, but the sturdy bones of the Body of Christ. They hold us steady when we try to follow God, and when we are weak we lean on them. God’s commands are the first step on our road away from sin, and we love because they lead us to God. And when we know God, we love them because the commands are good.<br /><br />It’s hard to describe the kingdom without sounding cutesy. When we are building the kingdom of Heaven on earth, we are loving others and they love us. What we want most of all is to be loved, just for who we are. When we are in the kingdom, we tear down the walls in ourselves and between us and others that keeps us from that love. But that openness does not come natural to us, and so God’s commands are our first teachers in love.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-24348159946003589422011-07-25T17:28:00.000-07:002011-07-25T17:29:53.069-07:00Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/071711.shtml<br /><br />What is our hope?<br /><br />In this week’s Gospel, Jesus lays out the kingdom of Heaven in clear black and white. He tells us that there are children of the kingdom, and children of the evil one; the children of the evil one are those who cause others to sin and all evildoers. These are the ones who will be condemned to hell.<br /><br />The readings last week and this week emphasize that there are only two choices in life; we are either of God or against Him. If we do not listen to the message of salvation and act on it, we will suffer for our evil because our God is a God of justice.<br /><br />It’s not a comforting image of God. If this is all we had, God would not be our hope but our fear. And while Scripture says that “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” it is <span style="font-style:italic;">just</span> the beginning. Read these words of the First Reading again:<br /><br />“But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you. And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”<br /><br />Who of us could hope to be spared, if everyone who sins and causes others to sin will be condemned? But our God is NOT just the God of justice, but also of mercy; “You, O Lord, are good and forgiving,/ abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.” His strength is not that of the tyrant, who must punish all trespassers because he is fearful of rebellion. The strength of our God is complete in its confidence, and is strong enough not to fear sinners, but to love and pity them. This is what we hear in the Psalm, and they are not just empty words. <br /><br />Sometimes, it is easy to think that God judges us like the worst kind of gym teacher. We think that God sets impossible standards, and then punishes us when we fall short. But God isn’t like that, God is like the yeast that makes bread rise. Alone, the bread remains flat and when it bakes it will be hard. But with yeast, the bread rises and becomes soft and fluffy. Yeast makes bread better; God makes us better, lifts us when we cannot lift ourselves.<br /><br />We are not as we should be. We are weak, and sometimes we deny God because we want to be better liked. Sometimes we sin because it’s harder not to. Sometimes we hate goodness, and we hurt ourselves or others simply because it is bad. But God, in infinite power, does not immediately punish us but comes to the aid of our weakness. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and is there even when we would reject Him. God does not give up on us.<br /><br />The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. Though it may start out small and weak within us, it can grow larger than we can imagine, and we can a shelter for all those looking for Christ. <br /><br />Our hope is the strength of God, because the God of justice taught us the just must be kind. His strength, though it starts out small within us, can grow until we have the strength to follow Him. His strength gives us power against sin, and courage against despair. Our hope is the strength of God, that is strong enough to show mercy.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-71290307958335888422011-07-09T18:04:00.000-07:002011-07-09T18:08:17.133-07:00Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/071011.shtml<br /><br />“My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”<br /><br />It’s important to know that the readings in each liturgical season fit together as a whole. Now that we are in Ordinary Time, each week’s Sunday reading will build upon the next. Last week the readings showed us that life with Christ is different than life without Him: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But they didn’t explain what that meant, not really. This week, the readings show us that living with Christ means <span style="font-style:italic;">listening</span> to the Word of God, because that is part of what changes us.<br /><br />The first reading explains why the Word of God is so important: “My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” We have been given Scripture, and read Scripture at Mass, for our salvation. God’s word is <span style="font-style:italic;">effective</span>, and understanding it changes us. When we soak in God’s word, and allow it to change us, we become amazing. Scripture describes the change using farming language.<br /><br />The Psalm shows us symbolically how we are transformed by God’s word. Our paths overflow with a rich harvest, the fields are garmented with flocks, and the valleys are blanketed with grain. We are MORE with Christ than we are on our own, and God’s Word is the rain that helps us to grow into what we were always meant to be.<br /><br />Last week we recognized that life isn’t easy. Much of this is because we are still being transformed with Christ. We are sinners, and we are still fighting for our salvation. This is why Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us; because Heaven is coming. Heaven is coming and we must be ready for it!<br /><br />The readings today should be listened to closely, and though they don’t apply solely to Mass, we should think about how we listen to Scripture in that context. When Jesus talks about those who hear God’s Word in the parable of the sower, how do we listen to the readings? Do our eyes glaze over? Do we listen intently but forget the message after Mass? Do we try to live out the Scripture during the week between Masses? We should never forget that Mass is not a duty, but a respite from our work in the world. Mass is where we take strength from the Eucharist, the Word, and the fellowship of the Lord for our life with Christ. Our duty isn’t over at the end of Mass, but just beginning!<br /><br />We at Mass are the seeds of the sower. It is not enough to hear God’s word, but to engage with it. If we listen, but do not understand, the devil will keep our heart from transforming with Christ. If we listen with excitement, but have no “roots” to develop our faith, we will not last, and will fall short of salvation. If we hear God’s Word, but let anxiety and the world paralyze us, then we will bear no fruit and lose salvation.<br /><br />But, if we soak up God’s word, if we hear it and understand it, then we are the seeds which fall on good soil. Then God’s Word will be effective, accomplishing God’s purpose within us. We will carry the Word out into the world, and transform the world with us. Christ’s “yoke” becomes easier when we let God’s Word transform us, and guide our lives. This is the first step to living in Christ. <br /><br />Let us work on being good seeds falling on good soil, to make effective God’s work upon us. Then we shall be amazing, and be fruitful for the Lord a hundred, or sixty, or thirtyfold.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-21963193964684368632011-07-09T13:05:00.000-07:002011-07-09T18:09:04.250-07:00Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary TimeLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/070311.shtml<br /><br />“For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”<br /><br />Life isn’t easy. This isn’t a surprise to anyone, not if you’ve ever played sports, or been hurt by someone you love. It’s not easy when we lose our jobs and can’t find work, and it’s not easy when we’re sick and can’t do anything about it. There doesn’t even have to be anything terribly wrong in life for it to be hard; we suffer when we’re lonely, when we don’t know what to do, or make a mistake that hurts someone else. And every day we stumble in sin.<br /><br />Life isn’t easy for people with addictions, who struggle every day to master themselves. Life isn’t easy for those who are trying to stay chaste. And in a thousand different ways we can keep going with a laundry list of things that make life hard, and we are all Christians. So when Jesus says “my yoke is easy, and my burden light,” it is one of the most frustrating things we can hear. What does it mean?<br /><br />It means we are different if Christ is in our lives, and we live by the Spirit. Even though the Spirit of God lives in us, we still cling to the life of the flesh. And Paul doesn’t mean physical flesh, but everything the world embraces. When celebrities encourage us to act like them, that is life according to flesh; when we think success means wealth, or fame, or recognition, that is life according to the flesh. When we try to do things without God, that is life according the flesh.<br /><br />We have been given the Spirit of God inside of us. We believe that all things are possible with Christ who strengthens us. This is not something the people who are successful in the world can teach us. This is something that people who are weak, the “little ones” who relied on Christ can teach us.<br /><br />We are not strong enough. We are not strong enough to overcome addiction, to take care of our families, to serve God without God. <br /><br />Sometimes it feels like a cliché to talk about relying on God. But it’s amazing; when we start praying more, not just once a day but throughout our day; when we start asking Jesus for help things do become easier. Sadness lightens up a little bit, and we can endure.<br /><br />But this is when we put ourselves under <span style="font-style:italic;">His</span> yoke. When we try to do things outside of what God wants for us, things feel more like we are swimming upstream. Following God means <span style="font-style:italic;">following</span> God, and sometimes that means going where we are afraid to go. Sometimes we are afraid to tithe, to follow God’s call to marriage or the religious life. Sometimes we are afraid to forgive people who have hurt us, and sometimes we are afraid to reach out to someone who needs our help. <br /><br />Make no mistake, following God isn’t always easy, and there are plenty of saints who have suffered. But knowing Jesus means not being alone; it means having someone who loves you to suffer with you, and support you. Trust in God and the things you need will come.<br /><br />Faith is hard, because we struggle so much with giving up control. But for all of us who struggle and are overburdened, giving up control is exactly what we need to do. Fighting against God will wear us out and leave us unsatisfied. But in Jesus Christ there is rest, and balm in Gilead. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-57369071033345046462011-06-26T10:04:00.000-07:002011-06-26T10:05:42.565-07:00Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of ChristLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/062611.shtml<br /><br />“Brothers and sisters:<br />The cup of blessing that we bless,<br />is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?<br />The bread that we break,<br />is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”<br /><br />The Eucharist is one of the strangest things Catholics have to explain to their non-Catholic brothers and sisters. Trying to explain that at the moment of consecration, the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, even though our senses tell us otherwise, is difficult. When I try, the person I am explaining it to usually develops a glossy stare, and I can tell they are trying to figure out how to accuse me of idolatry, in a polite way.<br /><br />We believe in Transubstantiation. At the time of the consecration, when the priest is repeating the words Jesus said at the Last Supper, we believe Jesus causes the bread and wine to be transformed into His body and blood. Some non-Catholic Christians who believe in the Real Presence believe in Consubstantiation, where it is the congregation’s faith linked with Jesus that causes the host to change.<br /><br />When the bread and wine is transformed into the body and blood of Christ, we believe it is the substance of the bread and wine that changes. To focus on the bread, we believe that the bread has the accidents of bread (everything our senses tell us), but also the substance, the breadness of bread. It is the substance that is changed into the body and blood of Christ. We believe that though we can’t tell anything has changed, the bread and wine have become the LITERAL body and blood of Christ.<br /><br />This is not an easy thing to understand or believe. It requires faith. But Jesus told us, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” Jesus could have chosen different words to say, but He has given us Himself in this way specifically.<br /><br />I think part of the reason why we have the Eucharist is <span style="font-style:italic;">because</span> it is hard to accept. Though it’s not included in today’s reading, Scripture tells us what happened after Jesus spoke to his disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood: “As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” Then Jesus turns to Peter, and asks him if he will also leave. Peter responds: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”<br /><br />For forty years God kept the Israelites wandering in the desert “so as to test you by affliction and find out whether or not it was your intention to keep his commandments.” God tests us in the same way with the Eucharist. This is a sign of the mystery of our faith, something we cannot explain and find it hard to believe. Our faith is tested by the hardness of this thing we have to accept. <br /><br />The Eucharist is a Sacrament, a sign and symbol of God’s love in the world. It is grace we are privileged to receive. But it is also something we have to accept with faith. If we cannot accept it, we are called to struggle with our unbelief, researching and discovering the truth to the extent we are able. If it is a stumbling block, we should struggle to understand it until acceptance comes to us as a gift. But if we cannot accept it, we must accept it on faith. <br /><br />We trust the One who gave His life for us, and trust His Church which is led by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. On this Solemnity, we should meditate on the gift which He has given us in faith and trust.<br /><br />The link below is a good place to start for questions about the Eucharist.<br />http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9307iron.aspGreghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-61608635156330456382011-06-24T11:39:00.000-07:002011-06-24T11:41:05.697-07:00Solemnity of the Most Holy TrinityLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/061911.shtml<br /><br />“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”<br /><br />Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and we are called to meditate on that mystery. We believe in 1 God in 3 Persons, where there is only One God, but God has a Son; we believe also in the Holy Spirit “which proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified.”<br /><br />It’s heady stuff; what the Trinity means has been a subject of study ever since the Resurrection, and will be so until the end of the world. But at its most basic, it means love. Love does not exist in a vacuum, love does not exist between one person and themselves. But God is Love, and so much so that He must exist as the Trinity.<br /><br />God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one Being, and have always existed, none before the other. “I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, begot and not made, one being with the Father.” We believe that even though Jesus is the Son of God, there was no time when Jesus was not. One of the hardest things to understand is that the Trinity has always existed as the Trinity, always One, always 3 Persons. <br /><br />What is the Holy Spirit? My favorite description of the Holy Spirit is that the love between God the Father and Jesus the Son is so real and powerful and alive that it exists as the Holy Spirit. Because it is God, this Love is God as well. <br /><br />“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” If God is Love, and the Trinity is fundamentally about Love, and the Holy Spirit is a Love so real it is God, how strongly are we loved! Everyone knows the verse John 3:16, but its familiarity blinds us sometimes to scale of love involved. God sacrificed His Son to save the world, the Son whom He loves so much that the Love between them is God. <br /><br />If love could be approximated in terms of size, God does not love us with buckets of love, or mountains of love. He doesn’t love us with continents, or worlds, or galaxies of love. He loves us with more than universes of love, He loves us with God’s amount of Love, and that amount is incomprehensible. <br /><br />The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us to think about who God is. We get busy worrying about our lives and the lives around us, and we forget who it is we worship. We worship God, the Trinity of Love. God does not just love the world, but each of us individually, to the point that He knows the hairs on our heads. He loves us with a God’s Love, and today we remember that and what that means.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-61561982206636536332011-06-14T19:04:00.000-07:002011-06-14T19:05:14.325-07:00Pentecost SundayLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/061211b.shtml<br /><br />“And we were all given to drink of one Spirit.”<br /><br />How inscrutable are the mysteries of Christ sometimes. The Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary are the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Assumption of Mary, and the Crowning of Mary in Heaven. What all these Mysteries have in common, at least in part, is how hard they are to imagine and understand. With the Resurrection, we cannot see into the cave behind the stone; does Jesus rise with a wrenching gasp, or is there some more gradual transformation? Does He lie dead one moment, and the next is upright and living? It is inscrutable what happens.<br /><br />Pentecost is similar. In both the first reading and the Gospel, the disciples were in a room alone. On Pentecost they received the Holy Spirit as tongues of fire, and suddenly they could speak in different languages, and proclaimed the Gospel without fear. Some days I’m not sure which is the bigger miracle, to suddenly speak a language unknown to them before, or suddenly be able to speak the Gospel without fear. <br /><br />But the Spirit is powerful. This is the Spirit that drove the apostles to every corner of their world, that converted thousands on the strength of their witness, that drew converts from every walk of life, nation, tongue, and race. This is the strength of the Spirit, that it unifies what for so long the devil scattered in disarray. <br /><br />So much of the New Testament is a redemption of the Old. Jesus is the new Adam, who removes sin where the other brings sin into the world. Mary is the new Eve, who says “Yes” to God where Eve disobeyed. Clothing in Genesis becomes a mark of shame for Adam and Eve who have just fallen, but in Revelations the righteous are given pure white garments. Pentecost is the redemption of language, unifying God’s people where once it scattered them.<br /><br />Remember the story of Babel. Humans in their pride tried to build a temple that would reach to Heaven; in their arrogance God broke their common tongue, making the people unable to understand each other because they now spoke different languages. But at Pentecost, God gave the apostles different languages to unite the people with the Gospel. God redeems our broken unity with the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul tells us, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.”<br /><br />God has brought us together through the Holy Spirit. This is the Spirit of Truth, by which we cling with confidence to the teachings of the Church. This the Spirit of Fire, which burns our tongues like Isaiah until we witness to Christ. This is the Spirit of Consolation, which consoles us in the darkness.<br /><br />This is the Spirit of Peace. Today is Pentecost, a day marked for celebration because today God shared the Holy Spirit with us, and we had the courage to share it with each other. Let us not be shy about sharing the Spirit, about witnessing to each other and speaking Christ to nonbelievers. We have been given to drink of one Spirit, the Spirit of courage and fire! <br /><br />So often our faith is something private, something we keep to ourselves. This is false, and a great evil. The Spirit is meant to be shared, and of all things is meant to bring us closer together. Let us remember the unity of the Spirit, that we have all been given a share, and are all one body because of it.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-51034682214378101182011-06-04T16:59:00.001-07:002011-06-04T17:00:10.274-07:00Solemnity of the Ascension of the LordLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/060511a.shtml<br /><br />“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”<br /><br />The Easter season is about the triumph of grace over sin, when Jesus put even death under His feet. He did as He promised, and rose from the dead. All we believe that He can do for us, comes from the power He displayed. <br /><br />The Ascension, then, is almost like a victory lap. Jesus rises from the dead, spends a little time with His disciples, and then returns to Heaven by rising into the air. He has won, and He goes to take His rightful place. But it is hard to talk about the Ascension without thinking about His return. Like the apostles, we want to know when the Kingdom will be established. And to be honest, we just want Him with us again.<br /><br />A few weeks ago, a lot of people became convinced Jesus was returning to the world May 21st. Billboards were bought proclaiming the judgment day, retirement savings were spent warning unbelievers to repentance, and ultimately, nothing happened. Most Christians rightly looked at the movement with skepticism, knowing that Jesus told us “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” The pastor who started the “Judgment Day Movement” was absolutely a false prophet. But the attitude of his followers came so close to being so right.<br /><br />Look at what Jesus exhorts us to do before his Ascension. He tells them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, to make disciples of all nations. Even though He is just leaving, He wants the apostles to have a sense of urgency that they must work now, and quickly. Because He is coming back, and soon, soon, soon.<br /><br />This is what the followers of the false prophet knew, and knew it with a fear that drove them to action, drove them to empty themselves of money so that people could be made aware. They knew that He was coming, and some people wouldn’t be ready. It is our duty as believers to spread the truth of the Gospel as widely and quickly as possible, because when Jesus comes back, some will fail judgment. And we will wonder if it is our fault.<br /><br />This is what Jesus has charged us with, our Great Commission as believers. We have been given the Truth, and Jesus Christ dwells within us. It is not just for our salvation, but for the salvation of as many as we can bring personally to Christ. Sometimes we make the mistake of identifying ourselves as the church we belong to, thinking that because we are Christian we are doing great things because our church does great things. And our support is important, but also important is: what are we personally doing?<br /><br />“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” We should take as our lesson from the Judgment Day people that we haven’t a moment to waste. We know Jesus has risen, we know He will come again. We don’t know when, but let us work busily for the kingdom, that we and all we meet might be saved on the last day, and all the nations of the world might be peoples of God, shouting with cries of gladness when He comes again!<br /><br />“Marana tha, come Lord Jesus!”Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-17219591521618576562011-05-28T18:13:00.000-07:002011-05-28T18:14:15.581-07:00Sixth Sunday in EasterLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/052911.shtml<br /><br />“Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare<br />What he has done for me.<br />Blessed by God who refused me not<br />My prayer or his kindness!”<br /><br />Do people know we are Christians? There is a question that was popular a few years ago, and cuts to the heart of the matter: “If we were accused of being Christians, would there be enough evidence to convict us?” For the most part, I’m scared there wouldn’t.<br /><br />Christ came to make disciples, not establish churches. When we gather on Sundays, it is to worship God with each other, and remember who we are. It is not a fulfillment of our duty as Christians, but respite. Church is when we renew ourselves for what’s outside these walls.<br /><br />The Scriptures today are about being visible witnesses to Christ. In the first reading, Philip proclaims the Christ to the city Samaria, and the crowds were converted because of his words and the signs he was doing. When we look at our lives, would people be converted by our words and actions? Do we talk about Jesus, or is it a secret we keep until Sunday? Are we acting as the hands and feet of Christ, ministering to the poor and vulnerable? How do we know we are Christians?<br /><br />Why are we Christians? The second reading warns us to always be ready to explain why you hope Christ will come again, why you hope for salvation. Can we explain it? What is it that drives us to believe something so foolish, that we cannot touch or see? <br /><br />It is not easy to be a follower of Christ. There is a lot expected of us. But because we believe, we ARE followers of Christ. We are duty bound to follow His commandments, and if we do so we will suffer. But it is ok if we suffer, because Christ has given us the Holy Spirit, the Advocate to be with us. We will not suffer alone. And if we follow Christ’s commandments, and love Jesus, we will be loved by Him and the Father in return. We live for love and hope in the mercy of God.<br /><br />Why are we Christians? Why do we pray? So often we take for granted our faith and the habits we accumulate, but it is not enough to be comfortable. We should have a reason for our faith, and if we don’t, we need to pray about why we call ourselves Christians. And if we call ourselves Christians, we need to pray about how we know we are Christians.<br /><br />There is a song I remember from when I was a kid:<br /><br />“They will know we are Christians by our love, by our love, they will know we are Christians by our love.”Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-26098567697266996142011-05-28T18:12:00.000-07:002011-05-28T18:13:14.520-07:00Fifth Sunday in EasterLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/052211.shtml<br /><br />We are all called to the priesthood.<br /><br />In different Christian churches, we hear the call to ministry differently. Many Christian churches rightfully emphasize what they call The Great Commission, where Jesus commands the disciples to go make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). Even though this was spoken just to the disciples, they understand that it was a command to all believers.<br /><br />In the Catholic Church, we tend to focus on ministry as being the sole area of priests. We understand that there are nuns, and monks, and missionaries that preach the gospel in foreign nations, but for some reason we think that ministry is a special calling that is only for a few in the church. And this couldn’t be more wrong.<br /><br />In the second reading, Peter tells us we are “’a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” In Catholicism, it is our Baptism and Confirmation that anoints us to the priesthood, and every man and woman in the Church is ordained to ministry.<br /><br />Catholics believe in both the common priesthood of all believers, and the ministerial priesthood of bishops and priests. Below is a quote from the Catechism explaining the difference:<br /><br />1547 “The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, ‘each in its own proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ.’ While being ‘ordered one to another,’ they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace—a life of faith, hope, and charity, a life according to the Spirit—, the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians. The ministerial priesthood is means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church. For this reason it is transmitted by its own sacrament, the sacrament of Holy Orders.”<br /><br />We are all called to live the life of Christ, and continue his work in the world. That is what it means to be priests. What we commonly call priests are those who are called to minister to their fellow priests. These priests are supposed to take care of the Church as it goes about its mission, and administer the sacraments Christ left to keep His Church renewed in His Grace. <span style="font-weight:bold;">No one is higher than the other</span>.<br /><br />We are called. We are a spiritual house built upon the cornerstone. As we minister to the world, we should not let our hearts be troubled, because Christ is with us. We will be good priests if we follow the word He has left us, and listen to His voice in our hearts.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-13460887005699825062011-05-15T07:53:00.000-07:002011-05-15T07:54:11.069-07:00Fourth Sunday of EasterLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/051511.shtml<br /><br />“For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”<br /><br />Grace is more powerful than sin. In the first reading, Peter stands with the rest of the Apostles, and addresses the people of Jerusalem. The same people who cheered for the crucifixion of Christ just a short time ago, he stands in front of. To these people he says, “Repent and be baptized, everyone one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Not even killing God is too big for forgiveness.<br /><br />This is what the Easter season is about, the power of the resurrection. Everyone is called to share in it, to take into their life the Life of Jesus. When the Lord is our shepherd, our cup overflows, “Even though I walk in the dark valley / I fear no evil; for you are at my side.” His Life is neverending, and when we share in that we have more than is sufficient to meet every test. Sunday is a feast day, and the Easter season is a celebration: the time of renewal is at hand and we have won!<br /><br />Not that victory is easy. The world is relentless is trying to convince that we have in fact lost, that God is not the way, the truth, and the life or that we aren’t worthy of forgiveness. These are lies. Jesus bore our sins on the cross that we might live for righteousness, that with His grace we might be like God. Let no one take that away from us.<br /><br />The parable of the sheep and the sheepfold and the gate is confusing. It is easy to see how the Pharisees did not understand. But if Jesus is the gate through which the sheep enter and are saved, then who are the shepherds who lead them out? The shepherds are the ministers of the Church, who come in the name of Jesus to help guide sinners to salvation.<br /><br />We should be wary of who tries to lead us out. We have been saved by a shepherd who knows us and calls us by name. We will hear a lot of voices in our lives calling our names, trying to get us to follow them. It is very easy to be distracted from Jesus. But we have been given a shepherd, and it is our responsibility to listen to His voice in our hearts and in our lives. We must try hard to know the shepherd, because it is not always easy to know if He is speaking to us. But He is always there, gently calling us to Himself.<br /><br />We have been given guides to help know Him; his word in Scripture, the Church and the Tradition that has been passed down. The lives of His saints stand as models for us, and above all the life of His Son. If anyone tries to take us away from these things, reject them. “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”<br /><br />Let us embrace the Life given to us this Easter season, and show the world the overflowing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-484486830668782312011-04-17T08:15:00.000-07:002011-04-17T08:16:39.768-07:00Palm Sunday of the Lord's PassionLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/041711.shtml<br /><br />“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”<br /><br />Palm Sunday is the most bittersweet Sunday. There is so much potential for glory: Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the crowd shouting “Hosanna,” and all the people spread their cloaks on the ground and palm branches before Him. Yet even at the height of His earthly glory, the people still do not understand who He is. They say: “This is Jesus the prophet,” when they should be saying: “This is God who walks among us.”<br /><br />This is the darkest Sunday, when we re-enact the Lord’s Passion at Mass. No other time in Scripture has sin been so deliberate as when the crowd condemns Jesus. They shouted: “Let him be crucified!” and “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” For something to be a sin, it has to be deliberately done and with knowledge of what is being done. When the Passion is re-enacted, and we say those words along with the crowd 2,000 years ago, we show our participation in the crucifixion of Jesus. The tragedy we celebrate today is not one we are isolated from; it was sin that caused Jesus to be crucified, and we all share in the guilt because we all have sinned.<br /><br />How alone must Jesus have been. Last week we read that the disciples were fearful to return to Jerusalem because they knew their lives would be in danger. But today we don’t see that, and in fact the disciples fall asleep when Jesus is at his most troubled. Maybe they were fooled by the glory shown to Jesus when He entered the holy city. But Jesus knows exactly what He is riding towards as He enters the city, He knows the betrayals of Judas and the rest of His disciples are coming, the pain and suffering He will have to endure. For three years God gave Him disciples to walk with Him and share in His ministry; but at the end, when everything is at its hardest, God strips everything away from Jesus, down to the very clothes He is wearing. All this so that what was prophesied in Scripture might come to pass.<br /><br />Even Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” I’ve heard people teach on that moment, that Jesus is quoting one of the Psalms, and while that Psalm starts out with the speaker in despair, it ends with the glory of God. And that’s true. But at the same time, Jesus is the one who has just been scourged, beaten, humiliated, tired, betrayed, abandoned, crucified, and left to die. Though He may not be despairing, and trust God with all His heart and soul, it can still be a cry of pain and hurt. It may be, “I know this had to happen, but did it have to be this bad?”<br /><br />Who hasn’t felt the same? Even for us who believe, it is hard to deal with pain. When we suffer we feel alone even if we know that God is with us. Sometimes that is cold comfort. Even Jesus was afraid to suffer, and in the garden prayed that if His suffering could be spared then let it be so. But God’s will be done. Always. And God’s will is greater than we can imagine. As low as suffering and pain can bring us, even to death on a cross, God’s will can raise us up even higher.<br /><br />Palm Sunday is bittersweet. Bitter, because it brings the suffering and death of Jesus. But sweet, because through this God’s will is shown to be greater than sin and death, and because Jesus bore His suffering perfectly, with faith in the Lord, God bestowed upon him the “name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”<br /><br />Palm Sunday shows us that Christ can sympathize with our pain, because He has suffered. It shows us that God does NOT abandon us, even in our darkest hour. It shows us that God will carry us through, and raise us even from the dead. At the end of the race there is the glory of God, and we should not lose heart nor hope. Palm Sunday is here, but Easter is coming.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-24763094619983922011-04-10T09:03:00.000-07:002011-04-10T09:04:33.897-07:00Fifth Sunday of LentLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/041011.shtml<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”<br />Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”<br />Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” <br />Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”<br />“She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”</span><br /><br />I love the story of Lazarus. I love the power of God displayed in its might, I love the faith of Martha. I love that Lazarus comes out of the tomb still wrapped in the clothes of the dead, and it is the community who unties him. It’s a powerful story, and we should always read it with awe at the love and power of God.<br /><br />It’s tempting to take for granted that Jesus literally raised Lazarus from the dead. It’s tempting to focus on the metaphor of Jesus raising the sinner to new life; that we are all Lazarus being called from the tomb, still wrapped in the decaying stench of sin. And while that is true, it’s important to focus on what Jesus did, that He said He would bring Lazarus back to life and did so. “I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.”<br /><br />I think we are often like Martha in this story. We believe in God, but we believe safely. She tells Jesus that if He had been there, He could have healed Lazarus and prevented his death. But she is faithful, and accepts that what has happened, happened. When Jesus tells her that Lazarus will rise, she agrees with the safe Sunday school answer. But Jesus says no, that He is the resurrection and the life, and even now Lazarus could rise from the dead because of His power. So this is the choice before Martha: to believe in Jesus, but safely, never asking too much so as not to be disappointed; or to say “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”<br /><br />It’s such a powerful statement. Jesus is not just claiming to her that He is a good teacher, or a miraculous healer, but claiming all His majesty in front of her. It is a difficult thing to accept. We want just enough God in our lives, just enough God to help us do well in school, or comfort us when we are grieving, or help us find our lost keys. But God is so much bigger than that, and loves us so hard it’s terrifying. Martha, like us, has to look Jesus in the eyes and say “Yes, I believe.” <br /><br />The very last lines of the Gospel read: “Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him.” The key word is many. Not all. Not all who saw Jesus raise a person from the dead began to believe in Him. It is a fearful thing to understand the living God is here, and it takes courage to believe in Him. This week, as we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, let’s pray for God to increase our faith. Let’s pray that we will fully trust God not just with little things but with everything. Let’s risk our faith and open ourselves for disappointment. God is big, and powerful, and mighty to save; let us pray to THAT God, and put no limits of what He can do.<br /><br />“Yes Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-39386651161276529652011-04-03T09:24:00.000-07:002011-04-03T09:25:08.296-07:00Fourth Sunday of LentLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/040311.shtml<br /><br />“If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”<br /><br />What do we see? Throughout the readings today is the whether or not we can <span style="font-style:italic;">see</span>, and what is visible. In the Gospel, a man born blind is cured; in the first reading, it is not the man who most looks like a king who is chosen. We are reminded today that God sees with eyes that are better than our own, and if we want to see the truth we have to stop trusting ourselves, and trust God instead.<br /><br />In the first reading, Samuel has to anoint the next king of Israel from among Jesse’s sons. His first thought is for Eliab, who looked the part. But God rejects him, and has Samuel anoint David instead, who we are told is handsome, and makes a splendid appearance. The difference between the two, though both look great, is that man sees the appearance, but God looks into the heart. Eliab was not fit to rule, though he looked like he should. But David, this was the one whose heart God judged fit for His kingdom.<br /><br />Who do we judge as righteous because of what we see, or judge as sinful? The first reading reminds us not to judge people for ourselves, but to leave that up to God. We are so quick to judge people as saints, or sluts, greedy or selfless. We cannot see the hearts of people, so we should not be too quick to judge in either goodness or evil. <br /><br />How then, shall we know who is a child of God? In the Gospel, the Pharisees know the law of Moses, and condemn Jesus as a sinner because He broke the law in their eyes. But they are blind, even though they say “they see,” because they don’t notice the Son of God right before their eyes, they are so concerned with judging Him. But the blind man, he knows that God does not listen to sinners. He doesn’t know Jesus from Adam, but knows that Jesus came, and “that I was blind and now I see.” <br /><br />Paul tells us that we should live as children of light, for “light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth,” but that the works of darkness are fruitless. Like the blind man, Jesus comes to us in our unbelief and darkness. But He brings us into the light, wakes us from the dead, and though we did not know Him before we can now say “I was blind and now I see.” And because we can say that, we know where Jesus comes from. We know He is from God, is God, because of the light He brings into our lives that multiplies itself in goodness, and righteousness, and truth.<br /><br />Test everything by the light. Expose everything to the light of day. Let no secrets be whispered behind another’s back, or temptations struggled with alone in the dark. We know that we can see not because of our own efforts, but because Christ healed us. We should therefore bring everything into the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. Our sins can be transformed into strengths if we share them with each other in the light of faith.<br /><br /> Lent is the time! We have been healed, from darkness to light, and this season we remind ourselves keep darkness away from us. Because as we prepare ourselves, Jesus is making His way towards Jerusalem, towards the cross. Today Jesus tells His disciples “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” The death of Jesus is coming, coming, and for three days the night will reign. But soon, after comes the Resurrection, and light of Christ will remain in the world until the end because we will keep in there for Him.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-58787684465929061362011-03-27T07:55:00.000-07:002011-03-27T07:56:11.894-07:00Third Sunday of LentLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/032711.shtml<br /><br />How do we keep faith in the desert?<br /><br />When we struggle, we need encouragement. We need people to tell us we are doing a good job, that what we are doing is worth doing. When we are depressed, we need people to tell us that we are loved, that we are good people. When we are hurt, we need people to tell us things get better, that it won’t always be like this. We need support.<br /><br />In the desert we need water. The desert is a dry place, and the sun beats down relentlessly. Water is what refreshes us, renews us, and lets us keep going even though the harsh surroundings keep tempting us to stop, stop. Water runs through each of the three readings today, and it is important to see how water is used because it speaks to our own experience of being thirsty and in need.<br /><br />In the first reading, the people of God are wandering in the desert and they are tired. They are also thirsty, and even though they were led through the Red Sea on dry ground, even though God sent plagues to convince Pharaoh to release them out of Egypt, they worry that God will abandon them. Because of this, God sends Moses with the elders of Israel to give them water out of the rock. He gives them a sign of encouragement, and renews their faith in him with life-giving water.<br /><br />In the Gospel reading, Jesus offers to give the Samaritan woman living water. After she drinks this, he promises she will never be thirsty again. She thinks he means that she will never be physically thirsty, and is confused. But then He reveals Himself as the Messiah, and she spreads the good news of his arrival to the rest of the town. Jesus stays with them two days, and afterwards the Samaritans told the woman: <span style="font-style:italic;">“We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” </span><br /><br />There is a parallel here between water and hearing the Word of God, and the living water and knowing God. We can go to church and hear the Word, and leave renewed and invigorated. We can go on retreats, or have deep conversations with believers and feel inspired by the mystery of God. We can read books, or see movies, or hear incredible speakers and be moved in faith but unless we come to know God personally we will always be like the Israelites who demand sign after sign because they are never satisfied.<br /><br />When we have the living water, God is enough. We don’t have to look for signs from other people because “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Church, music, movies, people, retreats, and conversations will never be satisfying unless we haven drunk of the living waters. We often think it is enough to believe like the Israelites or as the Samaritans did at first, basing our faith on the faith of others and relying on their faith to carry us through. We hear conviction in the voices of those who testify and believe because they tell us to. But we are called to hear for ourselves, and know personally the savior of the world, who died for us while we were still sinners. <br /><br />How do we keep faith in the desert? During Lent, we try to surround ourselves with holy things like the Mass, rosaries, prayer, and fasting. And these are good. But we should not just drink and be renewed, but drink of the living water and never thirst again. In the scarcity of Lent let us draw closer to Jesus, and know Him intimately in a way that leaves open all our vulnerabilities. Because we hope in the glory of God, and hope does not disappoint.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-36434994112848491052011-03-20T08:15:00.001-07:002011-03-20T08:15:57.879-07:00Second Sunday in LentLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/032011.shtml<br /><br />The desert is a hard place. There isn’t the plenty we are used to, and it’s uncomfortable. Where before we could just take what we need, in the desert we need to go without. We suffer, and deprive ourselves. The desert is also lonely; while other people may be suffering as well, to suffer is an intensely personal thing. No one feels what we feel, and our pain is entirely unique. The desert can be beautiful in its starkness and severity, but no one wants to live there. And yet, during Lent we put ourselves here on purpose.<br /><br />Christians have been removing themselves to the desert for a long time, and in the early centuries of the Church it was a popular spot for monks. But the desert doesn’t make loving God easier. What the desert does is remove from us the things we surround ourselves with that make us comfortable, which makes us not need God because we have these things. In the desert, these things are gone. But we are still left with the choice, to choose God or not. We can find things in the desert to distract us, and hide our heads in the sand if we want to. But it’s harder to hide from ourselves in the desert, and when we turn away from God here we know exactly what it is that we are doing.<br /><br />The readings today are about the glory God brings to us if we can choose Him through all the suffering. Paul tells us to “bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.” Even in the desert God is here, and His strength is the Rock of Ages, the waters of everlasting life. God has saved us and called us to a holy life; He will preserve us in that life if we call on Him, and to survive in the desert we have to. Only God is strong enough for what He wants from us.<br /><br />Abraham is the best example of God preserving His servant through suffering. Abraham wandered in the wilderness most of his life, all because of the promise God gave to him. We don’t know how much Abraham struggled with what God asked of him, but we do know that Scripture tells us “Abram went as the Lord directed him.” Because that is the important part, more than our pain, or feelings, or insecurities, or temptations; are we, or are we not going as the Lord directs us?<br /><br />The Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop is one of the few times where God reveals the glory of Jesus in a visible way. The disciples see Jesus robed in white talking with Elijah and Moses, who represent in the Old Testament the Prophets and the Law. When the disciples see Jesus talking with them, they see that Jesus is equal with these two legendary figures. But then God says “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” The disciples then know that Jesus is greater than the Law of the Old Testament, and all the Prophets. In Him is their fulfillment, and the glory He shows on the mountaintop is with Him always, if only they had eyes to see.<br /><br />It is hard to suffer for the kingdom. God only tells the world publicly two times that He is well pleased with Jesus. The rest of the time, Jesus must continue to struggle on in faith. That is what we must do; we must continue to struggle on in faith through the desert, and trust God, because He is trustworthy. When Abraham was done with his wandering, God did indeed make of him a mighty nation, and preserved him through all of his trials. Jesus brought to fulfillment all the He had been destined for and conquered sin; He rose in glory because He trusted God and persevered until the end. Our crown of salvation waits for us too, to make it to the end and not give up.<br /><br />I like the words from the psalm today: “Our soul waits for the Lord,/ Who is our help and our shield./ May your kindness, O Lord, be upon us/ who have put our hope in you.” We have removed ourselves from the things in life that can keep us from God, and in our severity we have put our trust in God. We believe that God is trustworthy, and will bring us through this suffering to the glory of salvation He has promised us. Amen.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3772925622180313692.post-46351785274050743192011-03-12T10:16:00.000-08:002011-03-12T10:17:58.186-08:00First Sunday in LentLink to Mass Readings: http://www.usccb.org/nab/031311.shtml<br /><br />“For, just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.”<br /><br />This is the thought of the Church as we journey through Lent: all people are sinners, and have been so from Adam and Eve through to us this day, this moment. Before Jesus, there was no escape from sin, because even when we had the Law and knew what was right, we still sinned. But with Jesus there came grace, and with grace freedom from sin; because though I cannot stop from sinning, Jesus within me can.<br /><br />The readings today make that contrast. Adam and Eve were perfect, but disobeyed God, and through their disobedience came the punishment of original sin for all people. But Jesus was perfect and withstood every temptation, yet was punished anyway. He in His obedience bore the punishment for all sin, and because of that we can be forgiven our sins. Sin requires punishment, and because of Jesus we do not have the justice we deserve, but the grace we have not earned.<br /><br />This is what we meditate on during Lent, that we are sinners, but one righteous man paid the price for our sins. We sacrifice in honor of that memory, we sacrifice to be more like Him, and we sacrifice to remember more clearly the gift that we have been given. The last few weeks the readings have all been about the choice between God and destruction, but there is so much stuff that distracts us from that choice. We worry about jobs, about girlfriends or boyfriends, we worry about being liked or respected, we busy ourselves with catching the latest tv show or new song on the radio. But we give these things up not to enjoy suffering, but to place ourselves in the desert with Jesus to remember the choice we are given, the one that Moses put before the Israelites: to choose either the blessing or the curse.<br /><br />Enjoy the suffering. Embrace it as a gift, because it is a small thing we do in memory the sacrifice we will celebrate in 40 days. The desert is hard, and hot, and we become lean and frustrated as we have to do without all the comfort we are used to. But in the desert we cannot hide from things, and all the hard things about ourselves and the blemishes on our souls must be seen in the harsh sun. The Psalm today embraces what Lent is about, and if we did nothing else, it would be worth praying each of these 40 days. Because what we want, is to be changed during Lent, and overthrown until we are worthy to stand before Jesus on Good Friday and remember what He has done for us.<br /><br /><strong>Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.</strong><br />Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;<br />in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.<br />Thoroughly wash me from my guilt<br />and of my sin cleanse me.<br /><br />For I acknowledge my offense,<br />and my sin is before me always:<br />“Against you only have I sinned,<br />and done what is evil in your sight.”<br /><br />A clean heart create for me, O God,<br />and a steadfast spirit renew within me.<br />Cast me not out from your presence,<br />and your Holy Spirit take not from me.<br /><br />Give me back the joy of your salvation,<br />and a willing spirit sustain in me.<br />O Lord, open my lips,<br />and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12311520448966509107noreply@blogger.com0