2014/03/09 - First Sunday of Lent - "Different"

So – how’s your Lent going?  Have you figured out what you’re going to do to make this 40 days different than any other 40 days of the year?  

 

You know, it seems that a lot of people might not remember – or maybe were never told – why we fast and stuff during Lent… so let’s make sure all of us are on the same page.

Why do we do it?  Well – we’re Christians – and by definition, that means we are disciples of Jesus Christ.  To be a disciple of somebody means to take on the discipline of that person- in other words – our goal is to be like Jesus.  Think about that – if you were a disciple of Peyton Manning, you would look at everything he does… you’d want to do what he does…do the exercises he does... eat what he eats.  So, if we’re gonna be like Jesus – what exercise did he do?  He went on a forty day retreat in the desert.  What did HE eat?  Well, in today’s Gospel, he ate – well – NOTHING!  So if we really wanna be like him, we try to do the same!

 

Fortunately, the Church doesn’t ask us to give up food for 40 days – although some people really DO do it.  For the rest of us, the Church wants us to make this 40 days a time of fasting, but they don’t ask us to put our health at risk.  So what do we do?  Well, if you want the LEAST we can do, the Bishops outlined that for us.  We’re supposed to Fast and Give up meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent.  That’s the minimum… the least we can do.  But most people go beyond that – and we SHOULD go beyond that unless our health could be jeopardized.  Most people give up something like sweets, cokes, alcohol… I remember one person who said they gave up Cake for Lent… so all they ate was pie.  Doesn’t quite seem to have understood what we’re trying to do.  See – all these little things that we give up are supposed to make every day of Lent different than the other days of the year.  For example, one of the things I’m trying this year is to reduce the amount of sugar I put in my tea and coffee.  It’s silly, I know – but every time I scoop sugar now, I remember – this is Lent – I’m offering this small sacrifice up to God so He can change me.

What good does it do?  Well – look what happened to Jesus in the desert.  He was tempted – but more importantly, he RESISTED temptation… did you notice how he did it?  With scripture.  Every word he spoke was from the Bible.  How do you think he learned that?  He had been forming himself his whole life.  He wasn't born KNOWING all of scripture... The bible tells us that he grew in wisdom... Which means he had to learn things. I can picture him and Mary sitting by the fireplace reading from the Torah – the Jewish Bible – and her drilling him on memorizing scriptures.  It was that persistent formation over time that gave Jesus the knowledge and the words to beat the Devil at his own game of words. 

So it is for us – we have to form ourselves.  We have to practice little ways of self-sacrifice so that when the real sacrifice comes, it just comes naturally to us to be selfless.  So – are you forming yourself?

 

Put it this way:  how is your faith life compared to a year ago?  5 years ago?  10 years?  I’d bet that more than one of us sitting here today might think – you know, I honestly don’t think my faith has grown a lick since I was confirmed.  

Why do you think that would be?  Because we stopped forming ourselves.  The moment we stop learning is when our faith starts dying.

 

So – let me make a suggestion – use this time in Lent to do something POSITIVE – you can still give  up your sweets – but in addition, do something to increase your understanding of your Faith.

Anybody here remember me talking about this book?  Anybody remember me saying how I’ve read it three times now and each time I am more PUMPED UP!?  I honestly believe that this book could be the game-changer for our parishes.  Matthew Kelly gives some very great insights and makes great suggestions on how every one of us – yes – EVERY one of us, can make just a small tweak in our lives to start making great strides towards Holiness.   If we could get everyone to read it – and especially if we could get everyone to start implementing the suggestions… we would change the world… REALLY!  I’m dead serious – if we all lived what this book suggests – we will have to build a bigger church.  No – I’m not kidding –and I’m not exaggerating.

 

I won’t ask for a show of hands – but I wonder how many people HAVE actually read the book?  If not, what is your excuse today?  Money?  I’ve got free copies for you at the door.  Time?  Yes – that’s a challenge for everybody… but…We all need to do SOMETHING during Lent – which means we might have to give up something.  How about giving up 30 minutes of TV or a half-hour of Facebook or your Xbox… THEN we can give God that time to change us through this book.  I really am sold on this book – and I BEG you to read it.  We also have book study groups meeting 4 times per week – see the information on the paper at the church entrance.

 

Finally – I want to talk to all of the youth – everybody age 5 through High School…show me your hands…  How many of you would like for me to give you $5?  

For the last four years, the first graders at Resurrection school in Evansville were given $5 by their teacher.  Their instructions were to “go make a difference”.  You may have seen the news over the last month just what a difference they made this year… it was incredible and inspiring.  Each child picked their own needy person or project and the results were AWESOME!

 

SO – our Grace Co-Op decided to do the same thing here!  YES – I am seriously offering to give $5 to anybody age 5 through high school.  Your job will be to find a worthy cause for the money before Easter.  At Resurrection school, the kids got their whole family involved did AMAZING things… in fact, they ended up raising like $4000 this year.  Now – it’s NOT about seeing how much money we can get.  The main purpose is to learn what God can teach us when we help someone else.

At the door, we have a table with pictures and news articles about the four years that Resurrection has done this – so you can get some ideas.  If you want to get in on this and get $5, Each youth should sign a contract.  The contract is simple – it says that you promise not to keep the money – and you promise to fill out a survey to tell your story about what you did with the money.  When you have filled out the contract, bring it to me, and I’ll give you the $5.

Then – on May 10th, after the Saturday night Mass, we will have a potluck meal and we’ll ask a few of the youth to share their stories.  I’m thinking that is going to be an awesome and inspiring evening.

 

So – sum it up.  We all need to do something special to make this Lenten time different than the rest of the year.  Yes – we still should give up something – but I also encourage you to do something positive each day.  Read a book, help someone, pray… you figure it out.  As we do what we promise to do – God will change us – he will make us different… then WE can go out into the world and make a difference.

2014/02/23 - Jaw-Dropping Forgiveness

Ask yourself this question… Do I listen to anybody? Do I let ANYbody tell ME what to do?

Fr. Eugene and I can stand up here and talk for 10 minutes about what we as Christians SHOULD be doing… but I often wonder how many people actually DO what we say? WE are human, so I guess it’s OK to ignore us… but I gotta wonder…Do any of us actually DO what Jesus tells us?

See – these words that Jesus used in today’s Gospel were not just nice suggestions… these were outlining the very fabric of the moral law in the Kingdom of God. “Take no revenge”…” cherish no grudge against any of your people.” “Love your enemy.” “Love your enemy”?! “Offer no resistance to one who is Evil?” Do we really HEAR Jesus?? Does ANYBODY actually LIVE like that?

I used to like to watch Walker, Texas Ranger. It was a show starring Chuck Norris – a martial arts expert. You could count on a plot that went something like this… some bad guy did something really evil, then Walker and his detectives tracked him down, and in the finale, he would always use his Martial Arts to do a turn-around-jumping-kick-in-the-face. I found myself anticipating that moment – feeling the surge of adrenaline…, pumping my fist in the air at the moment the BAD GUY GOT JUST WHAT HE DESERVED!!! And he DID deserve it, you know… these bad guys were the evilest, vilest demons to walk the face of the earth….KICK HIM AGAIN!!! BREAK HIS JAW!

But one day – who knows, maybe it was todays’ first reading… for the first time I actually HEARD what the Bible teaches: “Take no revenge”…” cherish no grudge against any of your people.” “Love your enemy.” “Offer no resistance to one who is Evil?” .”

I realized that this simple TV show – just one of the thousands that fill the airwaves every day – was teaching me that REVENGE is the answer. I loved that taste of revenge. I could see where it could almost be addictive… so I vowed to stop watching that show.

It’s a small thing, perhaps – but I wonder – how many people actually let JESUS tell us which shows to watch or not watch? How many of us take seriously the command to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”? These are not sentimental thoughts meant to make us feel holy… they are part of the prescription for Holiness. Anytime we harbor anger and unforgiveness, we are putting ourselves at risk. “Acid corrodes the container that holds it. That’s what happens when we hold onto bitterness.”

Jesus tells us the way to avoid that problem – and we pray it every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer… “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Do ANY of us really LIVE those words?

Lancaster County, PA – October 2006 – the world was shocked when a gunman entered the small Amish schoolhouse and shot ten young girls before taking his own life. By the end of the day, 5 girls were dead and 5 were struggling for their lives.

Imagine if these girls were our daughters and sisters and parishioners and classmates… How would we react? How would the WORLD tell us to react to this kind of evil?

Well, as shocking as the shooting was… what captured the attention of the world was how the Amish community reacted. Within hours after the shooting, some of the Amish community were speaking to the widow of the gunman and offering words of forgiveness and genuine concern for HER well-being. They visited the parents of the gunman to make it clear that they held no grudge. A large portion of the Amish community attended the funeral of the gunman, just one day after burying their own daughters. Could any of us do that? In the aftermath of the shooting, the world responded by donating millions of dollars to help them deal with the tragedy – and the Amish included the widow of the gunman and their children in the distribution to make sure they were cared for now that their father was gone.(1)

This is jaw-dropping forgiveness. I don’t know about you, but This is SO counter-cultural that it screams out to me that I’m not even CLOSE to forgiving the way Jesus tells us to…in fact, I’m so far from it that I might not even be able to consider myself to be Christian. You might think, “Yeah, Mike – but you’re a Deacon, obviously you’re Christian…” But when I compare myself to this kind of forgiveness, I fall way short of the target.

Jaw-dropping – that’s the impact this Christianity is SUPPOSED to have on the world. Christianity is SUPPOSED TO GET PEOPLE’S ATTENTION! When you or I are taken to court, Jesus tells us to give more than what was asked for. When we are forced to walk one mile, walk two – in doing so, we are pouring coals on the head of the person doing the injustice to us.

I remember as a kid going to school, the other kids would make up silly names to call me and my brother and sisters. I remember how it bothered me and I shared that with the wisest person I knew… my Mom. Her advice to me was to “Just ignore them. They’re only doing it to get a rise out of you – so the more you try to fight it, the more you’re going to encourage them.” To my surprise… it worked! Next time one of the bullies called me a name, it still stung, but I just stood there and stared blank-faced at them. After a few minutes of seeing that they weren’t going to get a reaction out of me, they got bored with that game and moved on.

You see – this command of Jesus is so simple: repaying evil with evil just escalates the war. As Christians, we’re taught to absorb the blows – to let it roll off as we turn our cheek. This teaching impacts every relationship in our lives – every day. An Amish father who lost a daughter in the schoolhouse offered his perspective: “For me, forgiveness means giving up my right to revenge.”(1) …Give up my right to revenge?! I can’t do that! I have every RIGHT to retaliate… to teach them a lesson… it’s payback time!!! I’m going to get a lawyer and milk them for all they’re worth!!

Let Jesus tell us what to do: “Take no revenge”…” cherish no grudge against any of your people.” “Love your enemy.” “Love your enemy”?! “Offer no resistance to one who is Evil?”

THIS is jaw-dropping Christianity. If more of us actually LIVED this way, we would CHANGE THE WORLD!!! St. Catherine of Sienna summed it up nicely: “If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.”

Footnotes:
1.  (Dr. Donald Kraybill, http://www.amishnews.com/amishforgiveness.html)
P.S.
Forgiveness does not mean that the Amish were saying that it’s OK to shoot innocent little girls. Forgiveness is different from pardon, which erases any punishment. Governors and presidents have the authority to erase punishment. The Amish were quick to say that, if Charles Carl Roberts IV had lived, they would have wanted him incarcerated, not out of revenge, but to protect other innocent children. Perpetrators can be forgiven by a victim but still held accountable for their actions. In other words, forgiveness and justice are two different things and should not be confused. (1)

2014/02/03 Why are we in the temple?

Lord, may the words of this Gospel be on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart.
We don't normally say that out loud, but i think it's important to remind ourselves why we do what we do.  We say those words silently as a reminder that …. We are about to read the words of Jesus himself, and we ask God to help us to remember the words in our mind – to keep them on our lips so we will speak those words to the people around us – and most of all – to allow the word to sink into our hearts – to change us.
We can always learn a bunch of stuff from the readings, but in order to learn, we have to be Seeking. If we just let the words of Jesus just float past us, we’re not likely to catch the meaning – nor are we likely to let those words change us… We need to let the words challenge us… to make us ask questions – and seek the answers.

Like – why did Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple that day?  Because they were following the Jewish law – the law which was written in the book of Leviticus.  (The law stated that after a woman gave birth, she was unclean – meaning – not allowed to enter the temple or touch sacred objects – for 40 days.). That tells us something about Joseph and Mary:  they took the law of God seriously.  They allowed the law of God to guide their actions- and this day, the Holy Spirit led them to take Jesus to the temple.

You might have noticed the connection between this day and the prophecy in the first reading:  Malachi tells us that ‘suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek’.  He predicted that God would come to the Temple… and it happened today!  God, in the person of Jesus, was returning to the temple on Mt. Zion – the place where God had chosen to dwell among the Israelites for centuries.  It really WAS a momentous occasion, but nobody really noticed…. Except an old man and an old woman.

Why was it that Simeon and Anna were in the temple that day?  Well, the story tells us – Simeon “came in the Spirit to the temple”.  In other words – the Holy Spirit prompted him to go that day because he had been told he would see the Messiah before he died.  He was there because he was seeking to see Jesus.  He allowed himself to be guided by the Spirit.
Anna was there because, it says, she never left the temple.  Sounds like she was there EVERY day.  Can you imagine going to church every day?...all day?  We don’t know much about her, other than the fact that she had been a widow for a long time – maybe for longer than 60 years.  It doesn’t TELL us why she was there, but anybody who spends all day, every day in the temple must have a close relationship with God.  She must have been seeking to be as close to God as possible.  And where better to be close to God than in his Holy Temple on his Holy Mountain.

That leads to the ultimate question…  why do WE come to the temple?  Why are we here today?  Perhaps many of us are here for the same reason as Mary and Joseph – to obey the law.  Somewhere along the line, it was instilled in us by our parents or grandparents that following the guidelines of the church is important – so we come to Mass every week.  We know deep down that obedience to God is what will bring us ultimate joy.

Or maybe some of us are here for the same reason as Simeon – we are seeking to see Jesus.  Perhaps WE were led by the Holy Spirit to come here today?  Hmmm… I’d go so far as to say that indeed every ONE of us was led by the Spirit to come here today.  You might think your wife twisted your arm or your Mom didn’t give you a choice… but in reality, the Spirit won’t hesitate to use other people to guide us where He wants us to be.  So – we let the Spirit guide us to come here today.

Or maybe we’re like Anna – we’re here because we have a relationship with God and we want nothing more than to be close to Him.

Why are WE here today?  We came to see Jesus.

Something else that makes me scratch my head… why is it that Simeon and Anna recognized Jesus for who he is that day, but nobody else in the temple did?
In fact, how is it that they knew who he was that day, but it wasn’t for another 30 years before the rest of the world came to know who he is?
There’s a simple answer, I think… they recognized him because… they were seeking Jesus.  They came to church that day because they knew they were going to see Jesus.

Here’s the point:  Jesus can’t be found by a group of people – that may sound like i am contradicting myself, but it's true. The general population looks right past him without even noticing.  No - Jesus reveals himself to one person at a time.  In other words, when we come to church, each of us individually must be seeking Jesus.  We're all responsible for our own relationship with Jesus, so when we come into church, we kneel down and say, "God, I've got all this stuff on my mind...my worries...my sins...Please help me to set all of that aside for the next hour and reveal yourself to me.  He IS here – will we see Him?

You may remember - We’re taught that Christ is present in the Mass four ways:  obviously, in the Eucharist, where he becomes present body, blood, soul, and divinity right there on our altar.  You might also remember that He is present in His words… as we read the Gospel.  But he’s also present in the priest – Fr. Eugene acts ‘in Persona Christi’ – which means, he asks in the person of Christ…in place of Christ.  Like I’ve said before, when the priest performs a Sacrament like the Eucharist – it is not the priest saying the words of consecration – but it is Jesus himself saying the words through the mouth of the Priest.  “This is My Body”.  Where is the fourth place that Jesus is present in the Mass?  In you.  He is present in the Body of Christ on earth – which is the Church.  The Church is you and me.  When we are baptized, we become temples of the Holy Spirit – and that spirit guides us to come together every Sunday to bring the body of Christ back together.  Look around…Jesus is present today in the temple… have you recognized him yet?

What are we supposed to do once we’ve come here and seen Jesus?  Look at what Simeon and Anna did.  Simeon gave witness to the greatness of God.  Anna – look at what it says – “she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. “

We should do likewise.  Just like Simeon, we hold him in our hands when we come forward and say ‘amen’.  We have SEEN the salvation that God has prepared for his people.  We should let that CHANGE us.  We should be like Anna and tell everybody we know about it: We have seen Jesus!

2014/01/12 Who Do You Think You are?

Pretend for a minute that you are not Christian – that you know nothing about Jesus – in fact – that you don’t know a thing about God.  You’ve never heard the scriptures.  You’ve never gone to church.  You’ve never experienced the Grace from prayer.

Now that you’re a blank slate, let me ask you – who are you?  Without your identity as a Christian….Who do you think you are?

For starters, if we had no belief in God – what would be the meaning of our existence?  Without God, all of creation would seem to us to be no more than a collection of chances.  You and I would be no more than a member of the animal kingdom – and like the other animals – the only meaning of our existence would be to find food, to procreate, and to look out only for ourselves.  The idea of Love would be nothing more than our own self-serving feelings of keeping ourselves happy.  Human beings would be nothing more than a glob of goo or a collection of cells than came to life randomly in some primordial soup. 

Life would be meaningless.
Is that what we believe?  Is that who we THINK we are?

This is the problem that God had after he created Mankind.  He had just created people who knew nothing about him.  He knew that a person living without knowledge of where they came from would easily fall into living only for the moment... only to fulfill my OWN desires… because life would have no other meaning.  God knew this would happen, So, from the beginning, he had this great ‘Divine Plan’ to reveal himself to the world.

If you were God, how would you go about doing that?  Imagine: You’ve got a bunch of people sitting in darkness…in fact, they’ve never seen light… in fact, they don’t know what light is!!  Would it be a good idea to simply walk in and turn on the light?  No way – some would die from fear – all would cover their eyes or go blind  – most would run away.  No – God could not simply reveal himself to the world…. So like I said, he had this ‘Divine Plan’ of how to introduce himself to us.

And that’s what we’ve experienced over the last few weeks:  Three epiphanies (and epiphany is a revelation) :  the angels revealed to the shepherds who the baby was, the star and the scriptures revealed to the wise men who the newborn King was, and today, God himself opens the heavens and tells us who Jesus is.  Three epiphanies….meant to introduce us to the light a little bit at a time.

Why should we care?  Well – if we think that you are no more than a glob of goo, then maybe we DON’T care.  But, IF God DID create us, then there is so much more that follows from that truth…. It means He really DID make us in His image.  It means He really DID open the heavens so that we could live with Him in eternity.  It means He really DID come in human form to reveal himself to the world….so mankind could KNOW Him. 

But there’re more… he also reveals himself to each of us personally.  Maybe it hasn’t happened for you yet…. Like John in the Gospel, he had in his mind what would happen when the Messiah appeared… He would baptize everybody with Fire!!  So – he was confused when Jesus asked to be baptized by him.  John thought, “That’s not the way it’s supposed to happen!”  But Jesus uttered one phrase, which is kinda hard to understand…. “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  In other words… John… this is your part in helping to reveal God to the world.  Just do the task you’ve been given to do, and watch what happens.  And you know what happened… the heavens were opened and God revealed himself to John.

So it is with you and me.  We all play a part in helping to reveal God to the world.  Every day is filled with little epiphanies.  WE are part of God’s ‘Divine Plan’!!!  He planted his Church on the earth to continue to reveal himself to the world – and you and I are an integral part of that plan.  When we were baptized, he really DID send His Holy Spirit upon US and declared that “you are MY beloved! “

So does that change our answer…?  Who do you think you are?  If , after all of the epiphanies, we STILL believe we are just a glob of goo, then we may never really understand and believe that we ARE God’s beloved…. How do we know???

Just do the task you’ve been given to do, and watch what happens. 

2013/12/15 - Hoping beyond hope

We use a lot of words in Catholicism which – well – don’t really mean that much to us because they’re not part of our everyday language.  Today we’ve got the intersection of two of those words – ‘Advent’ and ‘Gaudete Sunday’.  The word Advent, as you probably remember from grade school, means ‘coming’ – specifically ‘the coming of something or someone important’.  ‘Gaudete’ means ‘rejoice’… so if you put it together, today we’re supposed to ‘rejoice because something big is about to happen’!!

Isaiah’s prophecy in that first reading is supposed to give us a better feel for what Advent and Gaudete mean…with imagery like the ‘Steppe flowering’ and the ‘desert blooming’.  I don’t know about you, but I only have a vague idea what a ‘Steppe’ is – and I don’t live in a desert, so this imagery doesn’t really speak to me.  So let’s look at some different images.

It’s hard to remember our fields and gardens just a couple of months ago – full of leaves and green grass – and vegetables and fruit being harvested by the bushel.   Now that the fields are covered in ice and even our hotbeds in the garden are struggling in the cold – it would be hard to imagine ANYthing green growing from that rock-hard soil.  But we KNOW it will.

Similarly, now that the sun is at its lowest, it’s hard to imagine being able to walk outside in shorts – or stay out working in the yard until 9 or 10 at night.  It’s hard to imagine the warmth and light returning to brighten our days and our spirits – but we know it will.

Isaiah’s prophecy – in fact, the whole theme of today’s liturgy is Hope.  He’s saying even the impossible – like blooming in the desert – even  THAT will be possible with God.  When things seem at their worst and most hopeless, Hope still remains…. And THAT is cause enough to Rejoice! 

We can apply this to so many areas in our own lives… I have a couple of examples.

Remember LAST summer?  The summer of 2012?  In case you forgot, we had a pretty bad drought.  It was sad to see the yards dry up – the fields wither – the trees dropping their leaves - and the gardens turning brown.  It felt pretty hopeless – especially when the rain would get ALMOST here then suddenly dissipate or go around us.  Yet every time it happened, what did we do???  We would all look at the 10 day forecast to see ‘when is that next chance of rain coming’.  It got to the point that it was hard to imagine that it would EVER rain again… but we knew it would.  We knew that God would provide in his own time.  We dared to hope even when hope was lost.

You know – I hate drought about as much as I hate anything…..  I can’t imagine why God would allow such widespread death of His beautiful creation – not to mention the suffering it causes for His people.   But  - THIS summer, I realized that the drought was apparently the best thing that could happen to my orchard.  Normally, the bugs are so bad that I don’t get any peaches – and the apples all drop in June.  This summer – the year after a drought – we had a bumper crop!  Honestly, last year I was about ready to just cut down my orchard because they hadn’t borne anything worthwhile in like 7 years.  I couldn’t imagine that I’d ever see a bumper crop again… but it came.  I didn’t cut those trees down because I dared to hope even when hope was lost.

On a more serious note, THIS summer I experienced something that gave me a new appreciation for hopelessness.  My Mom went into the hospital and frankly, we didn’t think she was going to make it.  Seemed like thing kept going from bad to worse – and the family prepared for the worst.  I remember one weekend in particular that I had my bags packed, because I was sure I would be called to the hospital at any moment to be with my family as we said goodbye to the person we love the most.  I remember that weekend, the hole in my gut and my heart.  It was a hopelessness I had not felt before.  But, that same weekend, I actually had a dream that Mom walked to her car at the hospital so she could leave.  It was a dream – nothing more – so far beyond reality, in fact, that I never dreamed that would ever happen – but by the Grace of God – it happened.  After three months of rehab, Mom went home and we’ve been able to enjoy and appreciate her presence even more.  Thanksgiving had a whole new meaning for our family this year.

I can remember during those three months that I would pray to God for a miracle, but I didn’t really believe it would happen.

The lesson I learned – which is the lesson from our readings today –

When all hope seems lost, Hope will still spring up.  It is ingrained into us as Christians… WE ARE A PEOPLE OF HOPE!!!  When one rainstorm passes, we’ll always look to the next chance of rain.  When someone we love falls ill, we always have hope that God will heal them.  I’m not naïve enough to think that we won’t experience another drought – nor am I naïve enough to think that Mom’s health will last.  But I hope we’re all wise enough to recognize that God was present thru all of it.  The drought seemed hopeless, but God used it to bring a bumper crop this year.  Mom’s health seemed hopeless, but God used it to help US appreciate her even more while we’ve still got her and not take her for granted.  God doesn’t PREVENT suffering – but he prevents our suffering from being the worst it could be.  No matter how hopeless things seem, there is always cause for Hope.

We could apply that to our parish cluster…in fact our whole Catholic Church… as we are forced to face the reality of less priests.  Yeah – it sometimes feels hopeless – as we try to find the best way to reduce our number of Masses.  But even in this seemingly hopeless situation, we can be assured that God WILL act through this to bring us Joy.  Perhaps we’ll take our parishes less for granted?!  Perhaps God will use our situation to break some of the ways we’ve always done things so that our Liturgies are more alive than ever!!!?  He could use this to bring a bumper crop of people to know Him even better!

It’s hard to imagine – but we KNOW it could happen.  So - Rejoice – something BIG is about to happen!  We are people of hope… we dare to hope even when hope seems lost.

2013 November 24 - Christ the King

You know how at the end of a symphony, usually every instrument is playing loudly, and they build and build into a great CRESCENDO of sound just as the music comes to a climax at the end?   That is like today's feast... The Feast of Christ the King.  We end our church year this week with the recognition that all Jesus went thru on earth was a preparation for him to rule forever as King in heaven...and in our hearts.  Is that what we want though?  Do we really WANT Jesus to be our King?  Hang on to that question – we’ll come back to it. 

Our first reading makes more sense if you know some of the background:  You all know there were twelve tribes of Israel – but for a time the country of Israel actually used to be two separate kingdoms.  Israel was in the north – made of 11 tribes, but the tribe of Judah had split off and became a separate country.  David first became king of Judah or Judea for 6.5 years – and that’s when today’s story in the First Reading comes in.  The people of Israel just lost their king Saul, and they came to David saying – look, we are the same as you – we’re all children of Abraham – please, come be OUR king too!  So – David became the king that re-united the two kingdoms into one country of Israel.  The next 33 years were the Glory days of Israel, and ever since that time, they always looked forward to the day when a new king would come and re-build Israel back to its former glory. 

Now – David was a good King… but that was not how things normally turned out.  Any idea what it is like to live under the rule of a King?  Sometimes, it might get too romanticized, because living under a king could sometimes be the worst thing that could happen to you.  Just think of movies like Braveheart.  The King has the final say on EVERYTHING.  He holds your life in his hand.  If the King comes to your town and wants to stay at your house, you will just have to find another place to live for the night/week.  If the King wants to send your son off to war, you might have 1 minute to say your good-byes.  If the King thinks your daughter or wife is beautiful and wants her to come live in the castle, kiss her goodbye.  The King tells you what crops you’re allowed to grow, where you’re allowed to live, and how much taxes you owe.  If the King wants ANYthing that belongs to you, you will give it up or die trying to keep it.  When the King makes the rules, we are not free to live our own lives.  

No man should have that kind of power over us. 

The trouble with an earthly King is that He only has one person’s interest at heart… his own.  Anybody under his rule is merely a pawn to help him get what he wants.

No Man should have that kind of power over us. 

Even if we don’t live under the rule of a king, we still live in danger of being ruled by someone who doesn’t have our best interest at heart – our SELVES – our Egos.  We kid ourselves into believing that what we want IS the best thing… and everybody and everything is merely a pawn to help ME get what I want. It is good to be King!... or at least we think… until we ruin our lives through using people and things until all joy is driven away. 

 

All of us sooner or later come to realize that by letting my ego be my king is the wrong path... If we allow our desires to set the rules for our life, we end up in misery. No man should have that kind of power over us….not even our selves. 

So – we have a choice to make:  We can choose an earthly King which inevitably leads to abuse of power and we end up in a kind of slavery to His will.  OR - We can choose our EGO as our king and end up as a slave to our vices and addictions.  

On the other hand, we have a choice of another King who is not just a Man… He is God.  Christ the King.  Instead of having the final say on everything, he gives us the choice.  He never forces his will upon us!  He shows us the best path...in fact he already did that in How he lived his life and in showing us the path to the cross… and he gave us his supreme command to love one another... but the choice is still ours.   

Let’s look at two examples which reveal the extremes.  One man, we’ll call him Gestas, who thinks that the world is his for the taking… he has few friends, because he just uses them for his will.  He makes his own rules...and he says “I hate anybody who tells me what I can and can't do”... I’ve met this man… and he lives his life perpetually mad at the world...why?  …Because he doesn’t get his way.  He is the King who makes all the rules… but it ain’t working too well for him.  As he hung upon the cross, he only saw Jesus as a means to getting off the cross.  He didn’t see the need for repentance. 

The other extreme is the person who we’ll call Dismas.  He may have lived the same life as Gestas up to this moment, living just for himself, but as HE hung upon the cross, he saw in Jesus the path to freedom.  Freedom from vices and sin.  Freedom from guilt and shame.  He recognized that Jesus was different as a King because HE HAS OUR BEST INTEREST AT HEART.  So he begged Jesus, please, be MY king too!  He is often referred to as the Thief who Stole heaven – gaining salvation directly from Jesus at the last moment of his life.

You and I don’t have to wait to be hanging on a cross to make that decision though…  

We can choose today... In fact...we HAVE to choose.  We all have a king, because we all let somebody set the rules for how we live.  Who will be your king? 

One last thing – when we built our log home – there’s something about it that gives a good example for today’s homily.  You have your vertical walls with a beam going across, then there is the roof angling up like this (show with hands).  Right in the middle is a post that goes up to the peak of the roof – it is there to keep the roof from sagging and pushing the walls out.  I bring it up, because that post is called a King Post.  Without that post at the center of your house, the house will collapse. 

Same goes for our lives– if we don’t have Christ as our Kingpost – our lives cannot stand.  Ask Christ to be your King – put Christ at the center of your marriage, at the center of your career choices, at the center of every decision you make and every friendship.  Only with a King Post will anything be able to stand.

Only one King, who is NOT a MAN, has our best interest at heart.  Approach Jesus like the thief on the cross and beg him, “Jesus, please be MY king too!”

 

2013/11/03 Short Man in the Tree

GOSPEL

Luke 19:1–10

You may not realize it – but the story of Zacchaeus is our story – It’s a story about the Grace of God… but it’s also a story about: YOU and ME.

Everybody pick up a missalette and turn to the Gospel, because we’re going to try to put ourselves into this story.

It’s not so hard to do – "Now a man there named Zacchaeus" – you just - insert your name here.  …"who was a" – in this case, "a chief tax collector", which almost makes the next phrase redundant… "and also, a wealthy man".  Of course he was rich… tax collectors were all rich – especially the CHIEF tax collector.  In order to be theChief, he would have had to prove himself to be the friend of the Romans… he would have extorted money from a lot of people – and that’s WHY he was rich…. And that’s why the people looked down their noses at him…. Well, that’s not the ONLY reason they looked down on him – but also because he was …as the reading tells us… "short".

So – go ahead put yourself – a description of you - into that story.  “now a man there name Jerry – a woman named Brenda, who was a farmer – an accountant, a housewife, a coal miner, a therapist, a student…  how would you want to be described?  For Zacc, it describes him as wealthy and short…What is the main characteristic that describes who you are?  Wealthy?  Happy?  Cantankerous?  Party-animal?  Holy?  

Next comes the most important parts:  

Notice it says Zacchaeus was “seeking to see who Jesus was”.  Don’t let that line pass you by – it’s probably the most important line in the whole reading.  Zacc was looking for Jesus.  Here’s the second most important line… why couldn’t Zacc see Jesus?  “but he could not see Him because of the crowd”.  Why?  “because of the crowd”… important points which we need to consider more deeply.

If this story is really about you and me, first we gotta ask: – are WE seeking to see Jesus?  If we’re not seeking to see – we won’t see.  Like Zacc, if we don’t climb up that sycamore tree, all we’ll be able to see is peoples’ backsides.  Second question:what is it that is keeping us from seeing Jesus?  Is it the crowd, like it was forZacc?  Do the people around us block us from seeing Jesus?  Think about that – your friends and family and co-workers… Do they influence us to see the dark side of life instead of the bright side?  Do they apply peer pressure on us to avoid climbing the sycamore tree so we can see Jesus?  Do they keep dragging us down to their level so they don’t feel back about what THEY are doing?  

The other way we might be part of the story is a little more disturbing… are WE part of the crowd in the story?  Are we blocking other people from seeing Jesus?  How we act in public should scream out that we are Christian – but too often, our actions look so much like everyone else that we actually BLOCK the world’s view of Jesus.  Instead of helping others to see Jesus, we block their view with our language, our negativity, our selfishness, and our priorities.

Even here at church, we are here to help each other to CELEBRATE the liturgy –we come here in order to SEE Jesus in His Word, His Body and Blood, and in each other.  How I act impacts the people around me.  I’m not going to sing along – so the person next to me feels too self-conscious about singing – so they don’t sing – so nobody in that pew sings… so nobody in that SECTION sings… except the few people who are brave enough to climb out on a limb of that sycamore tree.  Instead of helping each other to SEE Jesus, we help put each other to sleep.  If anybody starts to climb that sycamore tree, we grab their leg and pull them back down.

A Third way that we might be in the story… maybe WE are the ones who are short.  We may not be physically short like Zacc, but We ALL have our ‘short-comings!’  We might be short on patience, short on compassion, short on integrity, or short on humility, or short on will-power.  

But regardless of how low we are - there’s one more line in the story we need to pay attention to:  “When he reached the place where Zacc was – he stopped and called him”.  You see that?  If we just make an effort to see Jesus – no matter where we are, no matter how short we are – if we climb up just a bit – Jesus will come to THAT place and call to us.  “Today – I must stay at your house!”  Sound too good to be true?

Actually, this should sound familiar – we say it every time we come to Mass:  “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.”  Every time we come to Mass, it’s like we’ve taken one step up the tree – and Jesus offers to comestay with us.  Our first response is to recognize that we’re not worthy… “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”.  None of us is worthy – and neither was Zacc.  But notice what he did next.

His response was to give away half of his possessions and to make up for anybody he ever cheated.  That’s huge – why would he give away all of that stuff?  Once Jesus has come under our roof, we have no choice but to change our lives – to set things straight – Jesus came to seek the lost…he came to seek you and me.  

That is Amazing Grace.