God's economy

Monday, October 31, 2016

From today’s Gospel (Monday of the 31^st week in Ordinary Time):

Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Luke 14:13-14)

God’s economy is overwhelming in our favor. The slightest good deed or work of charity is going to be richly rewarded in the Kingdom to come, even, as the Lord says, giving a cup of cold water to someone who is thirsty. (Matthew 10:42). And elsewhere it says that almsgiving atones for sin. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1434;)  These are not grand heroic acts. They are simple and, hopefully, ordinary things that occur in our lives, ordinary things which carry tremendous rewards with them.

God’s economy is also overwhelmingly in favor of the poor and the needy. Why do I say this? Well, by encouraging those who have to extend their charity and mercy and love to those who do not have, God is, in His own way, seeking to provide for the needs of the poorest of the poor and the neediest of the needy. He has constructed his economy in such a way that everyone benefits in one way or another.

Keep that in mind when you find yourself doing little things to help others. Take joy in your ability to give, to help and to care for others. Pray for an increased sensitivity to the needs of the poor—some of whom may very well be living near to you or even in your own home and family.

My friends, we miss so many opportunities to be charitable. I recall something Thomas Merton once said (and I don’t remember where), that by entering the monastery he would encounter 100,000 ways to be charitable and if he were lucky, he might grab on to one or two of them. How about us? Can we manage, with God’s grace, to grab onto an opportunity that may come our way in the very near future?

God bless you.

On obscurity and inadequacy

Friday, October 28, 2016

The Feast of Saints Simon and Jude

Both of these saints relatively obscure, and according to legend, they were martyred on the same day. This is probably why they were linked together in the calendar. And so we know nothing about what they actually accomplished in their lives except for the fact that they gained enough attention that they were finally put to death by the enemies of the new faith.

Note this: As I said, the important thing was not what they accomplished, or any notoriety, fame, tales of success, or how they even managed to spread the Gospel. The important thing is that they saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is the only thing that matters to us. The same fact might be true of your own life, of your own time here in space and time. What matters is that you are destined for heaven, and that any good you do for others becomes part of the treasure you have stored up for yourself in heaven.

We might also consider that in this violent and hate-filled world, even those of us who consider ourselves to be in “safe” circumstances might actually one day be called to martyrdom. Never forget that new martyrs to the faith are being created on a daily basis in some parts of the world, right here in 2016. We need pray for the grace and the miraculous strength and determination that so often is evident in the lives of the martyrs we know about in our history. May that grace be ours when it is needed.

The Gospel for the Mass today is about how Jesus, after a night of prayer to His Father, chose the twelve apostles out of a group of his followers. I think the most interesting part of this Gospel passage (Luke 6:12-16) is what it says about the 12^th apostle to be chosen: “Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.”

The seed for the death of Jesus is sown at the beginning of His ministry as He names the twelve apostles.

We might think that after a night of prayer, Jesus would have been more successful at naming 12 men who would be faithful to him right up to the end. We might also wonder whether or not Jesus knew what He was doing when he chose the ill-fated Judas. These are matters for speculation which we will only have answered on the other side of the grave.

But notice this: in every great and important work done in the Kingdom and in the Church, there is some flaw, some imperfection, some unwitting mistake or some inadequacy. I hope that if you think about these things, you might learn to have more patience with your own less-than-perfect attempts at doing good, helpful, insightful or creative works.

God bless you!

Please help me pray

Thursday, October 27, 2016

There are so many people I want to pray for that if I tried to name them all by name I would never get to the end of the list—and, of course, that doesn’t include groups of people I want to pray for, such as refugees, people in war-torn nations, victims of bullying and other kinds of abuse, children without enough to eat, expectant mothers, alcoholics and any who suffer from any kind of addiction, health care professionals, lonely people, destitute people, depressed people, those who are searching for work, slaves (remember that there are more slaves in the world—and that includes this country—than at any other time in history, we are told), all the countless people needing conversion, forgiveness and reconciliation, people of other faiths including non-Christian faiths, atheists, those so hurt by the Church that they have given up on faith and on God, those considering religious vocations, the students at the college here, victims of bigotry and racism, perpetrators of bigotry and racism, parents who have lost children, clergy of all faiths, educators, children without recourse to education, and many other categories too numerous to name.

And when I pray for these people, I never give way to that type of pride which would cause me to presume to tell God what do to about all these things; I simply carry them in my mind and in my heart and hold them up to prayer. It is also important never to imagine that I myself am in a superior condition or state of mind just because I am praying for these people. This, by the way, is a common temptation, so beware of it when you go to pray.

Anyway, there is so, so much to pray for, and I must confess that sometimes I am neglectful and sometimes I am so preoccupied with my own needs (which are petty compared to the needs of most of the people in the world) that I get things way out of perspective.

I am grateful that I am a monk, because if nothing else, that means that I am in church several times a day praying the psalms, and the psalms hold up in prayer every human condition and emotion and need, and so by praying the Divine Office (also known as the “Liturgy of the Hours,”) I am in my own small way praying for many who possibly cannot pray for themselves.

Anyway, there is so much to pray for, and as I have said, sometimes I drop the ball. So I am asking you to help me by praying for all these people and groups, and by all means, add a few categories of your own.  

Thank you.

God bless you!

Random thoughts

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Some Random Thoughts today from earlier homilies I have given.

If you died today, what would you want us to do here at your funeral? Would you want us to talk about the cookies you baked, and to read sentimental Hallmark poems that claim you are already in heaven, just as you see in virtually every funeral portrayed on television and in movies, or would you want us to pray that you be cleansed of your sins and carried home to heaven on the wings of angels as we offer God the only sacrifice which can cleanse you--the body and blood of Jesus Christ? 

And finally, children of God, know that all the trials and all the sufferings and yes, even all the failures of your life have one and only one purpose and meaning in the world: that, united with the sufferings of your God, they will lead you back to Him, and they will lead you to heaven.

What you come to believe and to understand, what you regard as real, has a tremendous effect on the way you live your life, on your attitudes and opinions and how you deal with the controversial issues of life and the difficulties and threats that are a part of human existence. 

The person of faith, the person who has learned true humility, the person who clings to Jesus and seeks God's way doesn't question this, doesn't demand that God work things out according to human expectations. No. When we are in touch with the gift of faith that God has planted within us, rather we bow before the mystery. 

If you have faith, thank God for it today. When you have faith, life is so much richer. When you have faith, life is so much less threatening. When you have faith, even the tragic and the unjust things that happen are easier to bear. When you have faith, the question "Why me," as painful as it is, presses towards an answer that brings comfort and hope.   

Think of Peter walking on the water towards Jesus. As long as he kept his eyes on Jesus he was fine. As soon as he became distracted by the wind and the waves, his fears got the better of him and he began to sink.  When we keep our eyes and our hearts and our minds fixed on Jesus, we can walk above the things in life that threaten to engulf us. When we cry out to God, “Save me, O God, for my foes are stronger than I,”  (Ps 18:18) then we are given strength which comes from God’s grace, strength which He plants deep within us. And even if we get overwhelmed at times like Peter did when crossing the water, if we call out to the Lord Save me, O God for the waters have risen up to my neck, (Ps 69:1) it is not too late. He will lift us up again. He will bring us to safety.

We don’t always have freedom over the circumstance of our lives. But we always have the freedom to choose what to do in those circumstances.

Some of us have lost our freedom because we have chosen to let some sin take over our lives.

He was sent to proclaim liberty to captives and release to prisoners---to those shut in prisons that others have built for them, or perhaps in prisons of their own making; those who have lost their personal freedom because of some sin or vice or unfortunate circumstance; those who are suffering because of their own misdeeds; those who feel trapped, stifled, inhibited, shut away, alienated; those who feel cut off from the life of faith; those who are lonely, abandoned, miserable.   

Seeds sown and grown

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

from today’s Gospel (Tuesday of the 30^th week in Ordinary Time):

This is what the Kingdom of God is like: The tiny mustard seed is planted and grows into a large bush and birds come to dwell in its branches. (Luke 13:19) (my paraphrase)

That tiny seed was once planted and we were conceived, and again and again in our lives, seeds were planted and some of them have grown to be great and wonderful things. Take, for example, the “seed” of Baptism. Without that you wouldn’t be where you are and reading these words. And I wouldn’t be writing them as well. In addition to the seed of Baptism, seeds of faith were sown in us, and look where that faith has led us, while God Father, Son and Spirit have poured upon us water and nourishment and have witnessed its growth, all the while tending to it and nurturing it, preserving it from attacks of the enemy, forgiving it when it has strayed—always, always forgiving it, never giving up on it, never turning His back on us, leading us, guiding us, helping us to bear fruit in little ways as well as big ways perhaps, giving us the graces we have needed to give witness to the Christ within us, this Christ Who existed before the beginning of time until He became flesh and lived among us in time and in space while He taught, worked wonders, suffered, died and rose from the dead, and who prayed that we might see the glory He had before the foundation of the world; all this grown from that one tiny seed which existed in time at the beginning of our existence.

That is what the Kingdom of God is like.

To be certain, the enemy (I refuse to capitalize it) has sown weeds among the seeds and the weeds have choked off some of the nourishment we were meant to have, and the weeds continue to grow in you and in me along with the growth of the Kingdom of God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit sometimes uproot the weeds when we ask, but leave others for reasons that we cannot begin to understand at this time in our lives, but the Son has promised us that the time will come when the weeds and the wheat within us will be separated and the weeds will ultimately be destroyed.

In our lives as well, we sow seeds—little seeds, something as small as a smile given to a sad man or woman—and never forget how St. Mother Theresa spoke so often about the power of a single smile—do you practice yours regularly? And perhaps the words we have spoken or written or sung have sown seeds in others, others we know nothing about but whom we will meet and celebrate with in the Kingdom of Heaven. And never forget that each and every day, each and every hour, perhaps, you continue to have the opportunity to sow seeds that may grow up to be wonderful things. (And remember especially all those who have sown seeds in us.) And of course, we must be careful not to do the enemy’s work and sow weeds in others, and we must lament the times we have done things like that (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.) I especially like the words of the Psalm 19:13b “from hidden faults acquit me” because they remind me that I may have unwittingly sown weeds instead of seeds.

Please pardon the run-on sentences, but this has been the seed the Spirit has given me this day. May God in His great love bring it to completion. Amen.

God bless you!

Seeing Dung on the Taj Mahal

Monday, October 24, 2016

The reflection today is based on the Gospel for the day (Monday of the 30^th Week in Ordinary Time).

Jesus is teaching in the synagogue. There was a woman there who was bent over and crippled and has been for 18 years of misery. Jesus calls to her and sets her free. He lays His hands on her and she stands up for the first time in 18 years and begins praising God. The leader of the synagogue gets all bent out of shape about this because Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath. He makes a totally ridiculous statement: “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured.” AS IF miraculous cures are commonplace in that synagogue!

So I ask you this: What kind of mentality is it that would experience something wonderful being done and not be moved to wonder and awe, to gratitude and praise? Who is it that would scorn a wonderful work of God being done for the sake of an extremist interpretation of one of the commandments?

What kind mentality is it that would always seek to find fault with any good in the universe? I recall something a friend of mine once said about a critical relative: “She’s the type of person who would stand in front of the Taj Mahal and point out that there was some bird dung on the roof!”

That’s a slightly humorous description of the mentality I’m speaking about. It is all the worse, I believe, when people use their own interpretations of religion as an excuse for denying the good that is in front of their eyes, and condemning what others may see as an act of Providence.

God is total Goodness, Love, Beauty and Truth. The entire world has come into existence as an expression of these things, and our entire lives are saturated with that love and all it entails. And yet so often we are miserable because of something petty and inappropriate. You yourself are an expressions of the goodness, love, beauty and truth of God—even with your failures, even with your weaknesses, even with the things that have had you crippled for years, perhaps, and yes, I will so far as to say: even with your sins. God’s love overcomes all of that. The sacraments of the Church are also expressions of God’s action in our lives. As I get older, I find it more and more difficult to understand those who erect barriers to people’s recourse to the healing love of the sacraments. This may offend you, perhaps, but I am taking a risk and being honest with you here.

As always, in these reflections take whatever in them may speak to you and leave the rest aside. But most especially, pray you can catch yourself when you are prone to complain about a speck on the wall of a room that is filled with beauty, will you?

God bless you!

Psalm 51: repentance AND mercy

Friday, October 21, 2016

Psalm study today: Psalm 51, a psalm of repentance and a psalm of mercy.

Psalm 51 is known as a psalm of repentence. It is the psalm David wrote after the prophet Nathan had confronted him about the great sin of adultery he had commited with Bathsheba and the sin of conspiring to have Bathsheba’s husband killed on the battlefield because he had gotten Bathsheba pregnant. It’s a pretty sleazy story, of the caliber of a daily soap opera. You can review by reading II Samuel, chapter 11.

Nathan confronted David and by means of a parable (chapter 12), he opened David’s eyes to the horror and ugliness of the sin he had committed. Perhaps we can relate to that when at times, we think of something we had done in the past and with new eyes realize how wrong it had been and why, and we writhe in psychic misery because there is nothing we could possibly do to mend what we had broken.

David expresses this grief in his poetry:

My transgressions truly I know them;

my sin is always before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned;

what is evil in your sight I have done.

So you are just in your sentence,

without reproach in your judgment. (vv 5-6)

What I would like to emphasize today, however, is not the experience of confession and repentance, but rather on the great wealth of the power of God’s mercy. Even in his anguish, David relies on his great faith that God is merciful, and his psalm of lament actually begins by calling upon that mercy:

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your merciful love;

according to your great compassion,

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me completely from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin. (vv 3-4)

Some might see this as arrogant. At the instance when he becomes aware of how great a sinner he is, David goes to God and calls upon himself God’s blessings. There is no immediate apology here (That comes in the verses we have already cited). Instead, David invokes what he knows is God’s to give:

·         his mercy

·         his merciful love

·         his compassion

·         his ability to blot out sins (even when in our memories we ourselves cannot do the same)

·         his ability to wash completely (notice that there is no limit to God’s power)

·         his ability to cleanse

We, too, should ask for an increase of faith; faith that the expanse of the mercy of God is far beyond anything we could logically or practically consider. Is it true, perhaps, that some times we want to confine the power of God’s mercy within limits that make more sense to us? Do we, at times, think that God’s mercy will not make up for a particular sin or transgression of ours?

These are good verses to memorize and to use frequently in our prayer, and again to realize that they are all contained in the Jesus Prayer when we, like David, pray: have mercy on me, a sinner.

God bless you.

Conflict in the midst of peace?

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Usually, when I prepare to write a reflection, the first thing I do is take a look at the readings for the day’s Mass to see if I would find some inspiration. Today I didn’t find inspiration but rather confusion and dismay.

Luke 12:51 Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided two against three; . . . .

Not one the more user-friendly parts of the Gospel, to be sure, and, in fact, it contradicts other things we have come to understand, such as the title for Jesus as ”King of Peace.”

But what we have to understand is that the “peace” that Jesus comes to bring is not worldly or political peace, but rather true peace of heart and soul, which can only be obtained by following Jesus and by adhering to His Gospel. And that is where all the conflict and division comes in.

Even at the time of His birth, a wave of violence spread through the land as Herod ordered the murder of children in an attempt to protect himself from this new “King” the Magi told him about. At the time of his purification, the Blessed Mother was told by the prophet Simeon that he would be a “sign of contradiction” and that a sword would pierce her own heart. (Luke 2:34-35) And then look at the divisions and conflicts taking place during His earthly ministry, as sides were taken between believers and non-believers, between those inspired to follow Him on the one hand and the religious leaders and their followers on the other who grew to hate him and conspired to put him to death despite all the wondrous deeds he was doing in their midst.

The violence and division continued throughout history. Conflicts and wars of religion among those who claimed to follow Him abounded, particularly in the years of the so-called Protestant Reformation. Those divisions still continue in our own time between certain sects of Christians and the Catholic Church, and also the present of deep divisions and animosities even within the Catholic Church itself.

In addition to that, many of us have known division within our own families because of questions of religion and of following Jesus’ teachings. I know in particular that more than a couple of us monks have members of our families who do not understand or appreciate what it is that we are doing with our lives. And you, too, perhaps: are there tensions within your own families or are you among the few fortunate ones whose entire family professes the same faith and attempts to live it in all areas of their lives?

Yes, Jesus does bring conflict and division. And I would also like to point out that often there are conflicts and divisions within ourselves, because no matter how strong our faith may be, there is always within is this strain of concupiscence that is the result of original sin which produces within us an ever-dwelling tendency to pull away or resist the next step that the Lord is laying out for us in our personal spiritual journeys.

Don’t be dismayed at this, like I was when I originally read today’s Gospel passage. This is simply a description of the way things are, the way things have been, and the way things will continue to be until that day when Christ finally comes to us again in all His glory and power and might.

And in the meantime, once again, I encourage you to take consolation in the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. That is one of the only places where you can find abiding peace.

You might look here for further commentary on this difficult passage: http://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/12-51.htm

God bless you and bring you through the trials in your life!

Random thoughts from old homilies

I continue making my way through my collection of Random Thoughts

Division within

Where is the place within your own life where the division causes you the most suffering? Can you hold that up to God this day and ask pray the words of this holy antiphon: Bid our sad divisions cease and be for ME my King of peace?   

Donne, John

I love this little prayer, buried in a poem by John Donne: “Father, come and recreate me, that new-fashioned, I may rise up from death, before I'm dead.” 

Easter Exhortation

"Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, re-discover that sense of quality and excellence in your life that has nothing at all to do with your material or social status.  Re-discover the beauty of gentleness.  Learn to hear and appreciate silence, and learn to listen to the voice of the spirit inside of you that seeks what is truly good for you, but that speaks only in a gentle whisper.  Re-claim the sense of awe and mystery and reverence in your life that has been taken away from you.  Respect yourself so that others can respect you.  Forgive yourself so that your peace of soul can spill out into your home, into your workplace.  Play and laugh often, in ways that bring you joy without degrading your spirit.  Ask for the wisdom and the courage to make choices that give you must have if your soul is to have the time it needs to breathe clean air.  These were the things you are meant to have.  These are the things that the enemy of your soul plots to keep away from you, so that he can feed you on the toxic poison of sin and death.  And these are the things that Christ died to re-claim for you.

It is the miracle that keeps us working together despite our differences.   It is the miracle that causes married couples to discover the deepest meaning of their commitment to each other--not during the honeymoon, but long after the honeymoon is over.  It is the miracle that causes a mother to love her two-year-old after he's been wining and yelling for three hours.  It is the miracle that causes us to pray for one another, and to extend the handshake of peace even when we are not all of one mind and one heart.  It is the miracle that has held the Church together through 2,000 years--years not of harmony, but years of conflict and of grace found in the midst of conflict.

Examination of conscience

consider bringing to the sacrament the following:

·         These are the areas of my life where I know I have sinned.

·         These are the areas where I just can't seem to get my act together.

·         These are areas where I am very ambivalent, or deceptive, or where I know I am fooling myself.

·         This is where my selfishness gets the better of me.

·         This is where I act mainly out of rivalry and conceit.     

When we take the time and the care to look out over the vineyard of our souls, do we find fruit, or do we find destruction? Do we find growth and life and beauty, or do we see weeds and ruin and withered branches?

God bless you! 

Gifts from Saint Luke

Today is the Feast of Saint Luke. St. Luke is the author of the Gospel of St. Luke and also the Acts of the Apostles. He is the one who has given us the story of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Birth of the Lord and the angels singing “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.” We pray from St. Luke’s Gospel every single day in the Liturgy of the Hours (used in monasteries, convents, by priests and religious and also by a growing number of lay people across the world). Luke has given us the three Gospel Canticles inspired by the Holy Spirit.

1) The Magnificat, proclaimed by the Blessed Mother when she met Elizabeth who was carrying John the Baptist at the time. (Luke 1:46-55)

My soul glorifies the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked upon his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

2) The Benedictus, proclaimed by Zechariah after his mouth was opened at the birth of John the Baptist. In the Benedictus, Zechariah actually speaks to his new-born son: (Luke 1:68-60)

                You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

3) The Ninc Dimittis, proclaimed by Simeon when the Christ child was presented in the Temple. (Luke 2:29-32).

Lord, now let your servant go in peace,

for you have fulfilled your word.

For my eyes have seen the salvation

or your people Israel,

displayed for all to see,

a light for the Gentiles

and the glory of your people Israel.

Note that as Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon were proclaiming these Canticles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were holding an infant: Zechariah was holding John the Baptist, while Mary and Simeon were holding the Christ Child.

You are in their company when you pray these canticles. You become part of the scene. In the Church’s liturgy, you are invited to become part of the scene, not as an outsider, but as a person blessed to be a witness, to hear and to speak and to pray along with them.

Think on this, if you will: God continually invites us to be included; we don’t have to earn the invitation, and nothing that we have ever done will nullify the invitation. It is a gift of grace and love, recorded for us by Saint Luke, for whom we give thanks on this day.

God bless you!

Consumerism as an addiction

Monday, October 17, 2016

“though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”  Luke 12:15

From the Gospel for Monday of the 29^th week in Ordinary Time.

This is the translation (The revised New American Bible) currently used at Masses in the United States. Other translations may resonated differently with us. Consider the following:

·         A man may be wealthy, but his possessions to not guarantee him life. (New American Bible)

·         One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. (RSV)

We become so attached to things, and things get so attached to us, that it is sometimes difficult for us to get out from underneath them to consider who we really are and what really matters to us. Think of losing something when the loss with totally unhinge you: your car keys, for example. Or your wallet or passport. Or your cellphone or computer. Or that one cherished object. We are so attached, aren’t we?

Of course, I excuse my attachment to my cellphone and computer because without them I could not function in the practical world. But is that only an excuse? Who will I be when I am old and feeble and helpless and no longer have need of those things? Who will I be when I stand before almighty God after my death?

Here in the United States, it is not only the owning of possessions which has devalued us so much. Here the acquisition of more possessions; i.e. consumerism has become a suffocating addiction which is especially strong as we approach the month of December, otherwise known as the Christmas Shopping Season (which is some places has already begun). I was horrified to learn that a good number of corporation-owned franchises have announced that they are going to be open all of Thanksgiving Day (the 4^th Thursday in November). This means that their employees, many of whom work for wages so low that they qualify for Food Stamps, have had their Thanksgiving family celebrations taken away from them this year and probably all the years in the future. And, in addition to that, I suspect that countless numbers of consumers are going to cheapen their own celebrations by heading out to the stores to grab the bargains that will be offered to entice them to consider the holiday as just another shopping day.

People have a chance to get more stuff more quickly and thereby lose that part of their lives which is actually the most important to them---the part of their lives which can’t be touched, counted, wrapped with a bow or horded. They get more stuff but the quality of their lives has once again been diminished.

I was happy to see that there has been a pushback. An equal number of corporate-owned business have announced that they are deliberately not going to be open on Thanksgiving Day. Their workers are rejoicing; nonetheless, the damage has already been done to those who are slaves of the consumerist addiction and will be heading to the stores that are open.

Today’s Gospel passage speaks of the foolish rich man who decides to build bigger barns for his increasing possessions and riches, but whose life is going to end that very day. And we are reminded to store up “what matters to God.” (v. 21)

What if you knew you were going to meet the Lord tonight? Would you still go shopping today? Or would there be something else you might do? Why not go and do it today?

God bless you!

Discouragement is not part of God's plan

Friday, October 14, 2016

A final set of random thoughts for the week.

Conversion

Things you hear over and over and over again, that only reach a certain superficial level within your being, until the right day, the right time, the right moment, when all of a sudden they break right through and enter your heart or soul or spirit in a way that they never did before. And all of a sudden, your live changes, right there before your very eyes, because what you have heard now becomes not just a bunch of words that pass through you like water through a sieve, but rather, they become a part of you, and you will never be the same again because of them

Conversion is a process, not a one-time born-again experience.  

Creation

Do you ever think of God in those terms? God the craftsman? God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, who in love play and cavort and create out of loving joy?

God looking upon you and me and taking delight in what he sees, and even if there be something he sees that is cause for distress or concern, He works it out so that we can be delivered from the oppression and restored to the original state of blessedness and playfulness and love. And if you ever doubt that this God , Who has arranged all these things, cannot or will not arrange things for your own deliverance and salvation, then again, look at the sky and the trees and the sea, even in this our damaged earth, and remember What God did out of love and playfulness and creativity and remember that he has promised that at the end of time He will fashion “a new heavens and a new earth,” and restore what was lost. 

Creative love of God

We get glimpses and tastes of that love, we mortals, during the time that we live here together on earth. Love energy which is so powerful, so vibrant, so wonderful that it could do nothing other than create. And in creating, it never exhausts itself, but rather grows and becomes more vibrant and more beautiful and deeper rather than depleted. Love-energy is inherently creative: it brings light, it establishes order, it creates beauty, it walks on the wings of the wind as Spirit-breath and gives life. It gave life to you and to me. And it continues to make us live, despite all that we do to hasten our deaths.

Death and rebirth

How many times have we been called to accept death so that we can find new life? The death of our childhood if we are to experience the joys and responsibilities of adulthood. The death of ignorance if we are to grow in knowledge. The death of bad habits if we want to live in true freedom. The death of our own ideas and illusions, if we want to live with peace of heart. The death of pride if we want to live with the freedom that only is available to the humble. The death of self-will if we want to live joyfully with what is rather than continually be tormented that things are not what we think they should be.  The death of selfishness that is required for those who would wish to experience the joy of giving.  And in all these things, it is only by embracing death that we are able to live in a new and more wonderful world that the Lord invites us to experience in THIS LIFE as a preparation for the life of the world to come. 

Disappointment

God never disappoints. even when it seems that our prayers are not being answered, He is still there caring for us, and what we need to do is look more closely at what has happened--especially when the circumstance is not of our own choosing or goes against our own wisdom--then more than ever we need to calm our spirits and silence the petulant child inside who pouts and gets angry because she hasn’t gotten her way. No. What we need to do is to take a deep breath and calm the spirit, and then look inside at what has happened--carefully and prayerfully--because the hand of God is within the disappointment

You are upset because you didn't get what you wanted when and how you wanted it? See the hand of Jesus gently diverting your energy to something better.  

Discouragement

If there is some sinful situation thing in your life that you know has to change don't worry about how this will be done. That only blocks God's grace.  Give your struggle to Him in the confessional and open your soul to an experience of His life-saving power.   

In fact, scriptures continually demonstrate that the ONLY ones God uses to do His work and accomplish His purpose are those who are so ruthlessly aware of their own unworthiness. And so, realizing this, never let your own sins, weakness or failings cause you to think that God would have no use for you. 

Never, never, ever  yield to discouragement: because when you or I are at the lowest points in our lives, those places which are the emptiest, the most filled with sin and weakness and failure, when you and I are feeling the pain of our own woundedness more acutely than ever before, THOSE are precisely the times when the love of Jesus Christ dying on the Cross is most powerful. He died for us so that He could reach beneath the depths of our own situations, and gently raise us up in the palm of His hand.    

No one shall snatch them out of my hand.  Take consolation in that yourselves, if you are struggling, or if you are always concerned about your children and grandchildren who were once baptized but who are not following the voice of the Shepherd. Remember this, my friends: No one shall snatch them out of his hand.  

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.

Churches and Communities

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Random thoughts continue:

Churches

                We don't labor to build our churches and beautify our liturgy because we wish to erect monuments to our own glory.  We build them because we need places of safety, apart from the world, where we can be immersed in the beauty and the purity which we  long for, so that we can be cleansed and healed before being sent back into the world.   

Every time I enter a beautiful church I have an opportunity to make a journey: A journey into beauty. A cleansing. A restoration. A renewal. A rediscovery of the beauty of things that ordinary life often tends to disregard or devalue. You see that very often with people who walk into a church and have no ability to savor. So often they walk through, demonstrating that they also have no sense of the sacred, no openness to beauty, no ability to perceive that where they are is in some essential and mystical way so different than the malls they hurry through several times a week. This is so sad. They are so impoverished.

I think that's why it feels so good to come to church for Mass: Because the minute we walk through those doors, there is no need to hide the truth: We walk through the doors of this Church, every single time, carrying the grime, the guilt, the shame, the wounds of our own sins. And it is assumed that such is the case. But at the same time we realize that we have the opportunity to leave somehow changed. 

Colossians 3:12

“Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.” Holy and beloved. If we could only think of ourselves that way. If we could only think of others that way, especially those we find it most difficult to love. 

Community

                It might be important to note that Thomas only met the Risen Lord when he was together with his community

You are part of a flock. You were never meant to make your way alone. That is why regular worship and active membership in your faith community is essential to your existence. 

God sends people into your life to help accomplish his purpose in you. So stop thinking you have to do it all on your own. 

There are certain gifts from God that we cannot receive if we do not pray together. And there are also certain gifts of God that simply cannot touch us, that simply are not accessible to us if we are not part of the distribution system through which they are passed along from one to another. Parents who bring their children to church, who take an active role in their children's' religious education--those parents receive grace, and help and insight--and also learn more about their own inheritance, their own faith--for there is no better way to learn than to teach. Those who sing at worship have holy texts and words engraved on their souls, and carry those words with them throughout their lives. Those who practice holy Stewardship find themselves touched by graces that they never realized could be theirs back when the weekly offering was simply a token minimum. Those who serve in the ministries find out just how rich their inheritance is meant to be. Those who preach draw closer to the scriptures. Those who study draw closer to God and to one another. Those who distribute food and care to the needy realize just how rich they really are. Those who give of time, treasures, talents, find those things increased in their own lives. Those who begin to come to their church more frequently for prayer find that the times of prayer become the richest times of their lives.

Random Thoughts about Children

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Six thoughts about children (that came from homilies I have given over the years):

If you were caring for a beloved child who grew very sleepy, wouldn't you gently lay him down or cover her with a blanket, perhaps smooth his hair, or give her a light--oh so light--kiss on the forehead, and maybe even spend some time just standing there, watching over the child, lost in a moment of contemplation of beauty, of innocence, of caring, of love? In God's eyes, you are that child.

I saw a sign in a doctor's office this week that had a list of things a child was asking parents to do. One of the requests was this: Please stop and look at me while I am talking to you so that I know you are really listening to me and that what I am saying matters to you.  In other words, please contemplate me.

 

The pagan babies are not the poor children of third-world nations anymore. No The Pagan Babies are all around us, throughout the nation, baptized and affluent in many cases, but as regards the most important aspects of their lives, they are as impoverished and unequipped to face the trials and evils of the modern world as the undernourished naked children of the rain forest

The children of the godless are the poorest of the poor. The children of the immoral only know what they have seen. The children of the lazy, the pride, the arrogant, the unhappy, the critical, the stingy do not even know that there is an alternative way of living. The children of the joyless will spend a lifetime trying to find something they never knew existed. The children of those who do not actively and demonstratively search out for what is right or wrong move through life crippled by ignorance, and find no moral code except the code of the age, which was written not on a mountain top but rather in hell. 

Do you know what happens to children whose natural need to know about God is not fulfilled? Eventually they will find something to fill that need, something that sets them afire, that becomes a primary force in their lives, and unfortunately it will most likely be something that is a crock of nonsense, or evil.   

Do you want to bless your children more than you ever have before? Grow in your practice of prayer. Don't pray for your children or about your children--that too often turns into just more busy work. Forget the children for a time and fix your gaze upon the Lord and upon His word. Pray a rosary and offer it for your children as you meditate on the sacred mysteries.  

Some thoughts about the battle with temptation

More random thoughts, this time about temptation and the spiritual battle that we all must face.

Lord, free me from the desires that lead to darkness.

Jesus tempted by Satan and ministered to by the angels: The icon of my life.

By going through life blissfully ignoring the fact that we are being lured by Satan, we also blot out the reality that we are being ministered to by angels.

Sometimes I am so torn. Pulled in this direction and then in its opposite. At times my heart swells within me and I yearn to soar into the heavens and to that realm which transcends all human existence. Other times, I am rooted in earth, in things below, and the angel of Satan tries to throw me to the ground, and all my life is about is the darkness, the weakness, the woundedness.  

Can it be that only by feeding my soul can the hunger of the wounded beast be calmed?

Those things in my life that have brought me true joy, true peace, true love, these have been the matters of soul and spirit. Those parts of my life which have brought me fleeting moments of pleasure have passed by quickly and, for the most part, have left me feeling empty and alone and unfulfilled in the core of my being. 

Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, ask Him to help you use the pains and the trials in your life as opportunities to grow, to learn, so that you don't wallow in self-pity and anger that in the long run are more painful than the crosses Christ asks us to bear. 

Since you have been raised up in company with Christ, let your eyes and ears feast on what fills you with joy that lasts, rather than on what brings you pleasure that quickly fades away."

Surround yourself with beauty, because it will help heal what is not beautiful in your life. Look at things that direct you to God. Look at things that direct you to what is best in yourself.

God bless you!

Random Thoughts (Abandonment to Aliveness)

Monday, October 10, 2016

Here are some random thoughts from a collection I’m working on.

Abandonment

Because of my own sin, I have cut myself off from Him, and then I accuse Him of abandoning me.  

 

Abortion

Hell hates goodness. It sneers at it. It lashes out at it. It tears children from their mothers' wombs and then convinces the lawmakers to call it legal. Who knows how many potential Mother Theresa's we have lost, and how hell has rejoiced to see their light extinguished? 

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve's sin was that after they listened to the serpent, they made their decision without ever going back to God to get His side of the story.  

Adultery

The new valued more highly than a lifelong matrix of relationships and responsibilities.  

Addiction

“I am the Lord your God. Have no other gods before me.”   What happens to our lives when our chief sources of motivation, satisfaction and delight are things that are toxic to our souls? That is what addiction is about, and addiction is a spiritual sickness that needs to be treated by spiritual means.  

Aging

The time when our prowess has run its course, a time when our strength is on the wane, strength that was never really ours but only lent to us for a moment for the good of others, the time when we can feel the pain of not being able to do what once came to us so easily. The sages tell us that what we need to learn to do to prepare for such times is to exercise our strength without over-identifying with it. And then to let go. We are also warned by the sages that if we fail to learn this lesson, we risk becoming bitter old people, cursing life, cursing faith, because we placed all our self-worth in our own abilities rather than in who we are. 

Jesus tells Peter of the nature of his death: When you are older you will be tied fast and carried off against your will.  Many of us, as we grow older, begin to see this as a prediction of our own deaths, because to a great extent the process of again carries with it a gradual loss of freedom. Pray we remember that, when our time comes.  

Aliveness

When I give without strings, when I serve without seeking praise or recompense, when I let God use me and delight in watching his power at work, when I decrease and see Him increase, when my focus is on his goodness rather than on my own iniquity, when I listen to the other and not to my own mind’s infernal chatter, it is then that I am most alive, most energetic, most truly myself.

When I live out the words, “He who loses himself for my sake will save it--will discover who he is”--then I have learned that the most real way of living is to live in the truth of the challenge.   

Some more next time.

God bless you!

Don't mess with the Blessed Mother

Friday, October 07, 2016

The Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

I remember a time in high school when the class bully along with his “crew” had threatened to do me great harm after school whenever they saw me. For several days I managed to slip out the door as soon as the bell rang and run home from school by a secret route. Needless to say, I was living in constant fear, and as the school day was coming to an end, my anxiety was almost unbearable.

Finally, after several days of running and hiding, I gave up. That night, I said a rosary asking the Blessed Mother to help me. I prayed as fervently as I was able at that time in my development. The next day I went to school and lo and behold, the bully was absent! It turns out that he had come down with Scarlet Fever or something like that. It was an ailment that kept him out of school for two entire weeks. When finally, he returned to school, for some reason his vendetta had evaporated and he and his friends troubled me no more.

My motto from that day on was, “It’s not nice to mess with the Blessed Mother.”

I always remember this story on the day we honor Our Lady of the Rosary, October 7.

Perhaps you have stories of your own to tell about the power of the Rosary prayer in your own life. Reflect on these things today, and give thanks.

Inspired by yesterday’s Gospel Passage (“ask, seek, knock”), perhaps you might pray your rosary today for a special need or intention which you carry your heart but have neglected to ask for, or for a person who is suffering whom you might unite with the sufferings of Christ as you pray the Sorrowful Mysteries today. Today, I will pray for that bully, wherever he is.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend!

Don't give up asking: a quick exercise in prayer

Thursday, October 06, 2016

Today’s Gospel passage for Mass, Luke 11:5-13, contains some of the most encouraging words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, words that we need to be continually reminded of because we tend to forget, or to doubt, or to deny:

. . . ask and you will receive;

seek and you will find;

knock and the door will be opened to you.

So why not move away from the paper or the screen and close your eyes, and ask for those things which you have forgotten to ask for, those things which you have given up asking for, the things you don’t think you are worthy to ask for, or those things which you feel are barred to you forever. Take Jesus at his word: ask, seek, find. Please do it now . . .

. . . . .

Very good. Now if you took the time to do this little exercise, then you will have practiced lectio divina at its best. (lectio divina is a particular way of praying with the scriptures and is practiced regularly by monks and members of many other religious orders.)

Just a couple of suggestions for you now:

·         Some things take time, and we are impatient.

·         Some things are part of an on-going process and we have to observe it and see it through to its end;

·         Some things may take a lifetime to be realized.

·         Many of things we ask for are given to us, but often at a time or in a manner which we didn’t think of ourselves or which we would rather not have chosen. So pray also that you may have the wisdom to keep your eyes open that you may see the wonders of God’s work in your life, today especially, and always.

·         In all things, trust and patience are essential. If either of these is lacking, then pray for an increase and make that a part of your regular prayer as well.

God bless you today and always!

Two brief questions

Two brief questions to ponder and that will be all for today:

When you are in balance,

     what is different

          from when you are not?

When you are centered,

     what emerges that cannot be sensed

     in the midst of the whirlwind?

God bless you!

You are both good and not-so-good

We have been conditioned somehow to think of many things in terms of black and white, turning things into polar opposites. Another way of saying this is that we are often addicted to either/or thinking: something is either right or wrong, either good or bad, either saint or sinner, either holy or evil, either introvert or extrovert, either progressive or conservative, either lightness or darkness.

In truth, however, we are living in a world where things are gray, not black or white. We, too, are a mixture of both good and not-so-good (I don’t want to color it by saying “bad” or “evil”). We have strengths and weaknesses, we have victories and losses, we practice virtues and we fall in times of temptation, we are charitable and selfish, we are strong and weak, we have done things we are proud of and things that we are ashamed of.

And God loves us with all of this. And God is in all of this. And God works through all of this, all of the time.

God is also just and merciful, and this seeming contradiction is hard for us to reconcile at times. The most eloquent statement of the pair is one offered by Richard Rohr in his book, Things Hidden: Scripture and Spirituality which I have often recommended and which I recommend again, because I am re-reading it and finding great wealth in it.

Rohr puts it this way: “. . . every time God forgives or shows mercy, God is breaking God’s own rules and showing terrible inconsistency” (p. 20). How many times have we been called inconsistent and we want to stamp our feet in frustration because the one accusing us simply doesn’t get it, simply doesn’t get us. Because we are all inconsistent in one way or another.

So anyway, God, as I said, works with all of this and we do not have to pretend we are all good and holy people. That is the posture of the self-impressed (and self-deluded) hypocrite. That is the worldview of the Pharisee. That is the folly and pomposity of many of our religious leaders, which is why so many of us find Pope Francis to be so refreshing, and so many of our contemporary religious leaders find him so hard to take. (And when I hear of these things, all I can think of is the battlefield between Jesus and the Pharisees, do vividly depicted in the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of John).

Study the Bible and take consolation in the fact that so many of the characters and “heroes” in Scripture are also inconsistent mixtures of black and white. Rohr puts it this way, and I find this to be a very consoling passage:

In the Bible we see God using the very wounded lives of very ordinary people, who would never have passed the tests of later roman canonization processes. Moses, Deborah, Elijah and Paul were at least complicit in murdering; David was both and adulterer and a liar; there were rather neurotic prophets like Ezekiel, Obadiah and Jeremiah; an entire history of ridiculously evil kings and warriors—yet all these are the ones God works with. (p. 17)

And, my friends, God works with you and through you.

God bless you!

Most of the world is suffering today.

Monday, October 3, 2016

The Gospel passage for today’s Mass is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus deliberately makes the hero of the story, the one who cares for the victim of robbers, to be a member of a religious sect hated by the Jews. The enmity between the two sects is displayed elsewhere in the Gospel. Last week, we heard about how Jesus and his followers were blocked from entering a Samaritan town because they were Jews. So the ill-will went both ways.

We can think of many situations in our own troubled world where the same intense racial and/or religious bigotry is rampant, and more often than not at the root of violence and destruction. It seems as if this is a time in history when the demons of hatred are exercising an awful lot of power, which is why we should be praying the prayer to Saint Michael with special urgency and fervor these days:

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits
who prowl around  the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen!

Now, a couple of observations about the parable itself:

·         There have been stories in the news about Muslims protecting and caring for Christians, here and elsewhere, or about Christians caring for Muslims. This is a good example of the parable made contemporary.

·         Note especially that the parable contains examples of religious bigotry itself, as the Jewish officials leave the victim lying in the ditch.

·         How are you the victim? And who comes to care for you? God Himself is the good Samaritan, caring for and loving all the people on the earth, not merely those of a certain religion, race or sect.

·         Are we sometimes like those who passed by the suffering victim without doing anything to help.

·         Notice that the Samaritan cares for the victim and pays for his continued care out of his own pocket, and promises to return at a later date, perhaps to see how the wounded man is doing. Would we do that?

·         Notice the economics of the parable, and the trust between the Samaritan and the inn-keeper. Would such a financial arrangement even be possible in our day? Could we be that trusting?

Just a few observations for reflection today. Please continue to pray for peace in our world. Do you realize that here in 2016, most of the people in the world are in dire straits due to war, hatred, injustice and economic oppression? How lucky we are. And, as the Lord has told us, “to whom much is given, much will be expected.”

Let us pray for the grace to do our part.

God bless you!