Deuteronomy 7.6-11
Psalm 103.1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8, 10 Resp. 17
1 John 4.7-16
Matthew 11.25-30
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) (A)
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14-16
Psalm 147.12-13, 14-15, 19-20 Resp. 12a
1 Corinthians 10.16-17
Lauda Sion
John 6.51-58
Manna is a kind of food that appeared on the ground each morning from the time that the Israelites left Egypt until the day that they ate the fruit of the promised land. Manna was free food: the only work was going out each morning to gather it up. Manna was abundant food: it fed 2 million people for forty years. Later generations of Israelites looked back on the time in the desert as a blessed time, depending entirely on providence for survival.
There were three lessons concerning manna. First, no one was to gather more than they needed. Each person was allotted one omer of manna a day, a little less than a gallon. When they went out to gather the manna, some people gathered a lot and others gathered a little, but everyone ended up with one omer per person. Whether this is the result of a miracle or if it means that those with too much shared with those who did not have enough, the lesson for us is the same: we should not take more of this world’s resources than we need. If we have too much, we should share with those who do not have enough to satisfy their needs.
The second lesson of the manna is that it must not be kept overnight. The Israelites had to trust that the manna would be out on the ground again the next morning. Those who tried to keep the manna overnight found that in the morning it was full of worms and smelled terrible. From this rule we should learn not to hoard the riches of this world. True, we are not wandering in the desert with manna appearing on the ground each day. It is very reasonable to save money: to save enough in case of a surprise car repair, to save enough in case you lose your job, but do not hoard money.
Some people collect money and property as if they only wanted to see how much they could have, as if they were competing in a game with the other rich people of this world. I do not refer only to millionaires and billionaires. Consider the very idea of collecting something. It is so acceptable in this culture to say, “I collect hippopotami”, but we Christians should look in horror at the idea of spending time and money, whether on ceramic doodads or unnecessary power tools. We are travelers in this world; pack lightly!
The third lesson of the manna is that on Friday the Israelites gathered enough for two days so that they would not go out on the Sabbath. This is a lesson we ought to take to heart. There is so little respect today for resting on the Lord’s Day. Six days a week have been given us to work; we must rest on the seventh day.
But how should we rest on Sundays? The usual forms of rest in our culture (ball games, shopping, and restaurants) involve someone else serving us. Should we sit home then and watch TV? A proper understanding of Sunday rest begins with what we all must do on Sundays: go to Mass. The point of Sunday is to worship God. Anything else we do is peripheral.
There is an old joke about a man who asked his pastor whether it was okay to smoke while he prayed. His pastor said, “Absolutely not! When you pray you should be completely devoted to prayer.” So the man went to another priest, but he changed his question, “Would it be okay to pray while I smoke?”
We Christians do not begin with a rule, because every rule has loopholes. We begin with the Holy Spirit. Our Sundays should be about praising God. Mass is not something to be fit in around a busy schedule. Mass comes first, everything else can be planned afterward. Those who work on Sunday should insist on having time to go to Mass, and they should take another day to praise God by resting.
Together, the three lessons of the manna teach us that we were not made for survival. The point of our lives cannot be getting through to tomorrow at any cost. We certainly were not made to succeed as the world sees success, with piles of money and stuff. Survival is secondary to praising God. As Moses puts it, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
The lessons of the manna were so important, so foundational to the Jewish religion that Moses took one omer of manna and placed it in the Ark of the Covenant, a box covered in gold. The Ark was placed at the center of worship. The Jewish Temple was merely a house for the Ark, and the Ark was a container for the manna. So really, the manna was at the center of Jewish worship, this special bread which God had given to his people.
Do you see where I am going with this? This temple, this church, is really just a house for that box right there. That box is the Ark of the Covenant, which is also called the tabernacle. Within the tabernacle, we place a portion of the bread. It is not ordinary bread that we put in the tabernacle. Indeed, it is not really bread at all. The bread is a symbol, which is to say, we see bread, we taste bread, but the meaning of the bread is something more. What is the something more? It is Jesus Christ, his Body, his Blood, his Soul, and his Divinity.
The bread is a sacrament, which is to say, it does not only symbolize this, but it in reality is Jesus Christ: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. When we receive the symbol of bread, we actually receive Jesus Christ. When we see bread and kneel down in worship, we are actually worshipping Jesus Christ. This is a mystery. It is not clear to us how something can have the accidents of bread, the sight, the smell, the taste of bread, the atoms and molecules of bread, but in reality be the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is not clear to us, but that is not important. Jesus did not give us this sacrament and say, “Take and understand; this is my body.” No, he said “Take and eat; this is my body.”
We must believe that the bread is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Body. We must believe that the wine is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Blood. This belief is not a nice addition to our faith. We place the Eucharist at the very center of our worship, because it defines who we are.
Faith in the Eucharist is where we must begin. All other work in the Church is pointless unless we begin with the Eucharist. It is pointless to protest abortion unless the Eucharist is at the center of our work. It is pointless to give food to the hungry unless this food given to us by God is satisfying our hunger. We as a Church are not a gathering of people who like doing good things. We are a gathering of people around the Eucharist. The good things come later.
Christianity without the Eucharist would be like Judaism without manna, just a lot of laws. From the Eucharist we receive our mission from God and the spiritual energy to complete that mission. If we receive the Eucharist with faith in the mystery, and we receive it acknowledging that we want to serve God above all else, confessing every sin we have committed, rejecting any plans to commit sin in the future, then we will be transformed.
Jesus Christ came to earth to give his life for us and to us. He gave his life for us on the Cross. He gives his life to us in the Eucharist. When we receive the Eucharist, we hold the life of God in our hands. We eat the life of God. We become what we eat. Eventually we do not live anymore ourselves, but Christ lives in us. That is what the Eucharist is about.
Psalm 147.12-13, 14-15, 19-20 Resp. 12a
1 Corinthians 10.16-17
Lauda Sion
John 6.51-58
Manna is a kind of food that appeared on the ground each morning from the time that the Israelites left Egypt until the day that they ate the fruit of the promised land. Manna was free food: the only work was going out each morning to gather it up. Manna was abundant food: it fed 2 million people for forty years. Later generations of Israelites looked back on the time in the desert as a blessed time, depending entirely on providence for survival.
There were three lessons concerning manna. First, no one was to gather more than they needed. Each person was allotted one omer of manna a day, a little less than a gallon. When they went out to gather the manna, some people gathered a lot and others gathered a little, but everyone ended up with one omer per person. Whether this is the result of a miracle or if it means that those with too much shared with those who did not have enough, the lesson for us is the same: we should not take more of this world’s resources than we need. If we have too much, we should share with those who do not have enough to satisfy their needs.
The second lesson of the manna is that it must not be kept overnight. The Israelites had to trust that the manna would be out on the ground again the next morning. Those who tried to keep the manna overnight found that in the morning it was full of worms and smelled terrible. From this rule we should learn not to hoard the riches of this world. True, we are not wandering in the desert with manna appearing on the ground each day. It is very reasonable to save money: to save enough in case of a surprise car repair, to save enough in case you lose your job, but do not hoard money.
Some people collect money and property as if they only wanted to see how much they could have, as if they were competing in a game with the other rich people of this world. I do not refer only to millionaires and billionaires. Consider the very idea of collecting something. It is so acceptable in this culture to say, “I collect hippopotami”, but we Christians should look in horror at the idea of spending time and money, whether on ceramic doodads or unnecessary power tools. We are travelers in this world; pack lightly!
The third lesson of the manna is that on Friday the Israelites gathered enough for two days so that they would not go out on the Sabbath. This is a lesson we ought to take to heart. There is so little respect today for resting on the Lord’s Day. Six days a week have been given us to work; we must rest on the seventh day.
But how should we rest on Sundays? The usual forms of rest in our culture (ball games, shopping, and restaurants) involve someone else serving us. Should we sit home then and watch TV? A proper understanding of Sunday rest begins with what we all must do on Sundays: go to Mass. The point of Sunday is to worship God. Anything else we do is peripheral.
There is an old joke about a man who asked his pastor whether it was okay to smoke while he prayed. His pastor said, “Absolutely not! When you pray you should be completely devoted to prayer.” So the man went to another priest, but he changed his question, “Would it be okay to pray while I smoke?”
We Christians do not begin with a rule, because every rule has loopholes. We begin with the Holy Spirit. Our Sundays should be about praising God. Mass is not something to be fit in around a busy schedule. Mass comes first, everything else can be planned afterward. Those who work on Sunday should insist on having time to go to Mass, and they should take another day to praise God by resting.
Together, the three lessons of the manna teach us that we were not made for survival. The point of our lives cannot be getting through to tomorrow at any cost. We certainly were not made to succeed as the world sees success, with piles of money and stuff. Survival is secondary to praising God. As Moses puts it, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
The lessons of the manna were so important, so foundational to the Jewish religion that Moses took one omer of manna and placed it in the Ark of the Covenant, a box covered in gold. The Ark was placed at the center of worship. The Jewish Temple was merely a house for the Ark, and the Ark was a container for the manna. So really, the manna was at the center of Jewish worship, this special bread which God had given to his people.
Do you see where I am going with this? This temple, this church, is really just a house for that box right there. That box is the Ark of the Covenant, which is also called the tabernacle. Within the tabernacle, we place a portion of the bread. It is not ordinary bread that we put in the tabernacle. Indeed, it is not really bread at all. The bread is a symbol, which is to say, we see bread, we taste bread, but the meaning of the bread is something more. What is the something more? It is Jesus Christ, his Body, his Blood, his Soul, and his Divinity.
The bread is a sacrament, which is to say, it does not only symbolize this, but it in reality is Jesus Christ: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. When we receive the symbol of bread, we actually receive Jesus Christ. When we see bread and kneel down in worship, we are actually worshipping Jesus Christ. This is a mystery. It is not clear to us how something can have the accidents of bread, the sight, the smell, the taste of bread, the atoms and molecules of bread, but in reality be the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is not clear to us, but that is not important. Jesus did not give us this sacrament and say, “Take and understand; this is my body.” No, he said “Take and eat; this is my body.”
We must believe that the bread is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Body. We must believe that the wine is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Blood. This belief is not a nice addition to our faith. We place the Eucharist at the very center of our worship, because it defines who we are.
Faith in the Eucharist is where we must begin. All other work in the Church is pointless unless we begin with the Eucharist. It is pointless to protest abortion unless the Eucharist is at the center of our work. It is pointless to give food to the hungry unless this food given to us by God is satisfying our hunger. We as a Church are not a gathering of people who like doing good things. We are a gathering of people around the Eucharist. The good things come later.
Christianity without the Eucharist would be like Judaism without manna, just a lot of laws. From the Eucharist we receive our mission from God and the spiritual energy to complete that mission. If we receive the Eucharist with faith in the mystery, and we receive it acknowledging that we want to serve God above all else, confessing every sin we have committed, rejecting any plans to commit sin in the future, then we will be transformed.
Jesus Christ came to earth to give his life for us and to us. He gave his life for us on the Cross. He gives his life to us in the Eucharist. When we receive the Eucharist, we hold the life of God in our hands. We eat the life of God. We become what we eat. Eventually we do not live anymore ourselves, but Christ lives in us. That is what the Eucharist is about.
January 30, 2014 - Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
2 Samuel 7:18-19, 24-29
Psalm 132:1-5, 11-14
Mark 4:21-25
Why does God not reveal his will for us? If God desires something from us, why not tell us? Certainly there are people in the world who choose not to do the will of God, but there are also people who would gladly do the will of God if they were sure of it. Should we sell everything we have and live in poverty? I would this afternoon if Jesus told me to, as he did the rich young man, if I knew for certain that that and not something else was the will of God for me. The spiritual life can seem like a journey in a fog, barely able to see a few feet ahead.
David plans to build God a temple, but then God, through the prophet Nathan, refuses. David discovers that what he thought was the path he should take was not right at all. But God also makes great promises concerning the future, and David has occasion to remember all that God has done so far. God brought David up from being a shepherd to be the king. He knows that he can trust God because he has been able to trust him up to this point. He does not know what to do now except continue being faithful to the trust that God has placed in him to rule over the people of Israel.
If we do not know what the next step in life should be, we can always be faithful to our responsibilities, we can always help others, we can always pray, we can always improve in any of the thousand ways that we could improve. If we want more to be revealed we have to take the steps we can see now. To those who have, more will be given. This is not because God is hiding something from us. As Jesus says, he wants to reveal it. But there is no point in revealing what we are not yet ready to receive. If we do not take the little steps that are clear, we are not ready for the next big steps. What is hidden will be revealed in the right moment.
Psalm 132:1-5, 11-14
Mark 4:21-25
Why does God not reveal his will for us? If God desires something from us, why not tell us? Certainly there are people in the world who choose not to do the will of God, but there are also people who would gladly do the will of God if they were sure of it. Should we sell everything we have and live in poverty? I would this afternoon if Jesus told me to, as he did the rich young man, if I knew for certain that that and not something else was the will of God for me. The spiritual life can seem like a journey in a fog, barely able to see a few feet ahead.
David plans to build God a temple, but then God, through the prophet Nathan, refuses. David discovers that what he thought was the path he should take was not right at all. But God also makes great promises concerning the future, and David has occasion to remember all that God has done so far. God brought David up from being a shepherd to be the king. He knows that he can trust God because he has been able to trust him up to this point. He does not know what to do now except continue being faithful to the trust that God has placed in him to rule over the people of Israel.
If we do not know what the next step in life should be, we can always be faithful to our responsibilities, we can always help others, we can always pray, we can always improve in any of the thousand ways that we could improve. If we want more to be revealed we have to take the steps we can see now. To those who have, more will be given. This is not because God is hiding something from us. As Jesus says, he wants to reveal it. But there is no point in revealing what we are not yet ready to receive. If we do not take the little steps that are clear, we are not ready for the next big steps. What is hidden will be revealed in the right moment.
March 12, 2013 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12
Psalm 46: 2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 5:1-16
Ezekiel sees the river of God’s mercy, flowing out of the temple, into the world. At first Ezekiel is trying to measure God’s mercy: 1000 cubits by ankle-deep, 1000 cubits by knee-deep, 1000 cubits by waist deep. Finally, Ezekiel can no longer measure God’s mercy. He can only swim in it.
Wherever this river goes, every living creature shall live. This seems sort of redundant, a tautology, but Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” Life is not just an on-off switch: on the one hand, a person can live, or on the other hand, a person can live abundantly. The trees bear fruit every month, and their leaves never fade. The trees are being watered by God’s mercy. Because of this water, their fruit is good for food and their leaves are good for medicine. These are amazing trees, or, rather, this water is amazing water. They are alive, and other living trees seem dead. We must discern: are we alive? We walk and talk, but are we alive? The wages of sin are death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Are we earning death or accepting life?
If we want to be alive, if we want the water of God’s mercy, we have to be merciful. Being merciful means sharing the burden. Mercy comes after justice. It does not remove justice. Mercy does not allow injustice. Justice creates a burden and then mercy shares it. If someone is bad at their job, justice fires them, then mercy finds them a job they can do. If a person commits murder, justice sentences them to prison, then mercy visits them there. A beautiful image of mercy is a mother, who, seeing that her son’s room is a mess, tells him that he cannot go out to play until it is clean, and then helps him clean the room.
I meet many people in my work who are in difficult situations, and often it is amazing how many poor choices they have made that have led to their situation. We could judge them: "We have worked hard; have they?" But, thanks be to God, we have no call to judge the vast majority of the world. When we see someone suffering under a burden, all we have to do is share in it. When we choose to be merciful, we share in their poverty and allow them to share in our riches. That way, God, who has already shared in our poverty, will allow us to share in his riches.
Psalm 46: 2-3, 5-6, 8-9
John 5:1-16
Ezekiel sees the river of God’s mercy, flowing out of the temple, into the world. At first Ezekiel is trying to measure God’s mercy: 1000 cubits by ankle-deep, 1000 cubits by knee-deep, 1000 cubits by waist deep. Finally, Ezekiel can no longer measure God’s mercy. He can only swim in it.
Wherever this river goes, every living creature shall live. This seems sort of redundant, a tautology, but Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” Life is not just an on-off switch: on the one hand, a person can live, or on the other hand, a person can live abundantly. The trees bear fruit every month, and their leaves never fade. The trees are being watered by God’s mercy. Because of this water, their fruit is good for food and their leaves are good for medicine. These are amazing trees, or, rather, this water is amazing water. They are alive, and other living trees seem dead. We must discern: are we alive? We walk and talk, but are we alive? The wages of sin are death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Are we earning death or accepting life?
If we want to be alive, if we want the water of God’s mercy, we have to be merciful. Being merciful means sharing the burden. Mercy comes after justice. It does not remove justice. Mercy does not allow injustice. Justice creates a burden and then mercy shares it. If someone is bad at their job, justice fires them, then mercy finds them a job they can do. If a person commits murder, justice sentences them to prison, then mercy visits them there. A beautiful image of mercy is a mother, who, seeing that her son’s room is a mess, tells him that he cannot go out to play until it is clean, and then helps him clean the room.
I meet many people in my work who are in difficult situations, and often it is amazing how many poor choices they have made that have led to their situation. We could judge them: "We have worked hard; have they?" But, thanks be to God, we have no call to judge the vast majority of the world. When we see someone suffering under a burden, all we have to do is share in it. When we choose to be merciful, we share in their poverty and allow them to share in our riches. That way, God, who has already shared in our poverty, will allow us to share in his riches.
January 23, 2013 - Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 7:1-3, 15-17
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 3:1-6
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 3:1-6
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
September 16, 2012 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 50:5-9
Psalm 116:1-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35
Zombies are very, very scary. I think zombies might be the scariest of all the monsters. Zombies are so scary because they seem like they are alive but then you realize that they are not. St. James is talking about zombies today. Zombie Christians. They seem like they have the new life of Christ. They sing the songs and say all the right words, but then you suddenly realize that their faith is dead. They are here among us. In truth, we are all of us in danger of becoming a zombie at any moment.
In the movies, zombies walk down the street moaning, “Braaaaaiiiiins!” That is not so distant from somebody wandering through life calling out “Muuuuhnneeey!” or “Viiiideo Gaaaaaaames!” or any of the other obsessions that people have in this world that make them oblivious to the needs of people around them. What good does it do anyone to believe that Jesus suffered and died for us if they spend every moment of their own life in self-indulgence? The Resurrection cannot be simply a bit of trivia in the mind of a Christian. When Jesus rose from the dead, that was an invitation for each one of us to rise from our dreary and dead purposeless lives to a new life where we forget ourselves and love other people. That is what it means to be alive in Christ.
How can we be fully alive? Jesus says, “Deny yourself.” Self-denial means learning to say “no” to ourself. The world does not understand why we should deny ourself anything. They think they feel most alive when they are without restriction. This is obviously false. If I eat without restriction until I weigh 1000 pounds, I am not fully alive. If I drink without restriction until I cannot control my actions, I am not fully alive. If I watch TV without restriction until I cannot go to sleep at night, I am not fully alive.
Is this what we say when we see someone in the throes of addiction: “Look how alive they are?” No, they look like a zombie. True freedom does not come when we throw away every restriction. True freedom comes when we cast off every chain holding us back, every time-wasting, money-wasting, effort-wasting, life-wasting chain holding us back. Addictions to food, pornography, the internet, television, alcohol, and drugs do not make a person free. When morality tells us that such and such a thing is wrong, it is simply saying that this thing will kill us or at least prevent us from being fully alive.
Time is the measure of life. Every day that we wake up, until the last, we have 24 hours to spend. To waste time, to kill time is to be a zombie. Some time we have to spend on ourselves: sleeping, eating, working, etc. This time is simply being used to sustain life. Every hour we spend on ourselves is in support of what we will do with the rest of the time. We put all this effort into keeping ourselves alive and educated and rested, so what are we going to do? If we deny our desire to simply kill the time, what will we do with it? What action could be so great that it is worth all the effort that we have to put into ourself? Anything less than love is an insufficient answer. If a person needs 23 hours a day to stay alive just so that each day they can love for 1 hour, they are fully alive. If a person needs 12 hours a day to stay alive and is just bored for the other 12 hours, they are a zombie. If we never get around to serving others, we are like plants that never flower.
Jesus says, “Take up your cross.” Sometimes, when people talk about this verse, they speak of our cross as our suffering. Anything from arthritis to disabilities to other people can be called “my cross”. This is a half-truth. The central mystery of the cross is not that Jesus suffered and died, but that he suffered and died for us. A cross is not whatever difficulties we happen to have in life. Everyone has difficulties; we have no choice about that. We take up the daily cross when we give our lives out of love for someone. Indeed any suffering we experience in life can be a cross, but only if we embrace it and offer it.
When we help someone, we, if only for a moment, deny our own importance and acknowledge their importance. When we help someone, we are giving our life, if only a small portion of it, for them. Perhaps this seems exaggerated to say that I gave my life to someone, but what is life other than a series of minutes? To give a few minutes to help someone is to give a little bit of your life for them. This is how we can imitate Jesus who gave his life for us.
The last part of what Jesus says is “Follow me.” To follow someone simply means to be with them wherever they go. Our way of being with God is prayer. As we converse with God, chains will bind our heart to him. Then, no matter where the world goes, we will stay close to him. As wonderful as spending our life helping others is, as indispensable as that is, it is not the highest use of our time. The greatest use of our life is spending time with God in prayer.
So this is what it means to be fully alive. We do not want to become zombies. We come to Mass and think ourselves as Christians, but the way of living that Jesus is calling us to is not exactly how we live. It is attractive, the idea of living in such a real way, but is it possible? That is what we have the Saints for. They are proof for us that it is possible to be fully alive. Of course we are going to sin, of course we are going to fail, of course we will be selfish and waste time. That is what Confession is for. But as long as we never give up but keep beginning again to live for others and follow God, there is a spark of life in us that someday, in this world or the next, will burst into flame. Why wait? Why not begin living the new life of Christ right now?
Psalm 116:1-6, 8-9
James 2:14-18
Mark 8:27-35
Zombies are very, very scary. I think zombies might be the scariest of all the monsters. Zombies are so scary because they seem like they are alive but then you realize that they are not. St. James is talking about zombies today. Zombie Christians. They seem like they have the new life of Christ. They sing the songs and say all the right words, but then you suddenly realize that their faith is dead. They are here among us. In truth, we are all of us in danger of becoming a zombie at any moment.
In the movies, zombies walk down the street moaning, “Braaaaaiiiiins!” That is not so distant from somebody wandering through life calling out “Muuuuhnneeey!” or “Viiiideo Gaaaaaaames!” or any of the other obsessions that people have in this world that make them oblivious to the needs of people around them. What good does it do anyone to believe that Jesus suffered and died for us if they spend every moment of their own life in self-indulgence? The Resurrection cannot be simply a bit of trivia in the mind of a Christian. When Jesus rose from the dead, that was an invitation for each one of us to rise from our dreary and dead purposeless lives to a new life where we forget ourselves and love other people. That is what it means to be alive in Christ.
How can we be fully alive? Jesus says, “Deny yourself.” Self-denial means learning to say “no” to ourself. The world does not understand why we should deny ourself anything. They think they feel most alive when they are without restriction. This is obviously false. If I eat without restriction until I weigh 1000 pounds, I am not fully alive. If I drink without restriction until I cannot control my actions, I am not fully alive. If I watch TV without restriction until I cannot go to sleep at night, I am not fully alive.
Is this what we say when we see someone in the throes of addiction: “Look how alive they are?” No, they look like a zombie. True freedom does not come when we throw away every restriction. True freedom comes when we cast off every chain holding us back, every time-wasting, money-wasting, effort-wasting, life-wasting chain holding us back. Addictions to food, pornography, the internet, television, alcohol, and drugs do not make a person free. When morality tells us that such and such a thing is wrong, it is simply saying that this thing will kill us or at least prevent us from being fully alive.
Time is the measure of life. Every day that we wake up, until the last, we have 24 hours to spend. To waste time, to kill time is to be a zombie. Some time we have to spend on ourselves: sleeping, eating, working, etc. This time is simply being used to sustain life. Every hour we spend on ourselves is in support of what we will do with the rest of the time. We put all this effort into keeping ourselves alive and educated and rested, so what are we going to do? If we deny our desire to simply kill the time, what will we do with it? What action could be so great that it is worth all the effort that we have to put into ourself? Anything less than love is an insufficient answer. If a person needs 23 hours a day to stay alive just so that each day they can love for 1 hour, they are fully alive. If a person needs 12 hours a day to stay alive and is just bored for the other 12 hours, they are a zombie. If we never get around to serving others, we are like plants that never flower.
Jesus says, “Take up your cross.” Sometimes, when people talk about this verse, they speak of our cross as our suffering. Anything from arthritis to disabilities to other people can be called “my cross”. This is a half-truth. The central mystery of the cross is not that Jesus suffered and died, but that he suffered and died for us. A cross is not whatever difficulties we happen to have in life. Everyone has difficulties; we have no choice about that. We take up the daily cross when we give our lives out of love for someone. Indeed any suffering we experience in life can be a cross, but only if we embrace it and offer it.
When we help someone, we, if only for a moment, deny our own importance and acknowledge their importance. When we help someone, we are giving our life, if only a small portion of it, for them. Perhaps this seems exaggerated to say that I gave my life to someone, but what is life other than a series of minutes? To give a few minutes to help someone is to give a little bit of your life for them. This is how we can imitate Jesus who gave his life for us.
The last part of what Jesus says is “Follow me.” To follow someone simply means to be with them wherever they go. Our way of being with God is prayer. As we converse with God, chains will bind our heart to him. Then, no matter where the world goes, we will stay close to him. As wonderful as spending our life helping others is, as indispensable as that is, it is not the highest use of our time. The greatest use of our life is spending time with God in prayer.
So this is what it means to be fully alive. We do not want to become zombies. We come to Mass and think ourselves as Christians, but the way of living that Jesus is calling us to is not exactly how we live. It is attractive, the idea of living in such a real way, but is it possible? That is what we have the Saints for. They are proof for us that it is possible to be fully alive. Of course we are going to sin, of course we are going to fail, of course we will be selfish and waste time. That is what Confession is for. But as long as we never give up but keep beginning again to live for others and follow God, there is a spark of life in us that someday, in this world or the next, will burst into flame. Why wait? Why not begin living the new life of Christ right now?
September 8, 2012 - Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Micah 5:1-4 or Romans 8:28-30
Psalm 13:6
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23
I count 59 people in that genealogy; maybe that is off one way or the other, but it is quite a few people. They are mostly just names to us, but behind every name there is a person. If you have read the Old Testament a few times you know a little about many of them and a lot about a few of them, but even these, like Abraham or David, lived long lives of which we only know a few stories. They all are gathered here in the reading today because they form the ancestors of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, according to his human nature.
His most immediate ancestor, the woman from whom he took flesh and blood to form his body, is Mary, the Mother of God. Today we celebrate her birthday, which is a good day to remember that she too lived an entire life of which we only know a few events and a few facts. She probably had a favorite food and a favorite color and a few art projects that Jesus made for her when he was little. She lived for many years after Pentecost. As she became an old woman, did she continue to participate in daily life or simply contemplate the mysteries she had been part of? Today she is the Queen of Heaven, higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, but on this day a little over 2000 years ago, she was a baby, the daughter of poor parents. As far as the Emperors of Rome and China and India were concerned, she was nobody at all.
There are a lot of nobodies in this world. Indeed, the nobodies far outnumber the somebodies. But really, nobody is a nobody. Each person has their own story and desires, hopes and dreams. More importantly, each person is loved by God and has the potential to be loved by us. Every human life, from the perspective of eternity, is either a tragedy or a triumph. Every human being is important in the only sense that really matters: every human being is important to God.
“Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” God knew us before he created us, and we are destined to become great, maybe not as this world judges us, but God will make us perfect and then he will glorify us, and that is the only greatness worth having.
Psalm 13:6
Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23
I count 59 people in that genealogy; maybe that is off one way or the other, but it is quite a few people. They are mostly just names to us, but behind every name there is a person. If you have read the Old Testament a few times you know a little about many of them and a lot about a few of them, but even these, like Abraham or David, lived long lives of which we only know a few stories. They all are gathered here in the reading today because they form the ancestors of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, according to his human nature.
His most immediate ancestor, the woman from whom he took flesh and blood to form his body, is Mary, the Mother of God. Today we celebrate her birthday, which is a good day to remember that she too lived an entire life of which we only know a few events and a few facts. She probably had a favorite food and a favorite color and a few art projects that Jesus made for her when he was little. She lived for many years after Pentecost. As she became an old woman, did she continue to participate in daily life or simply contemplate the mysteries she had been part of? Today she is the Queen of Heaven, higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim, but on this day a little over 2000 years ago, she was a baby, the daughter of poor parents. As far as the Emperors of Rome and China and India were concerned, she was nobody at all.
There are a lot of nobodies in this world. Indeed, the nobodies far outnumber the somebodies. But really, nobody is a nobody. Each person has their own story and desires, hopes and dreams. More importantly, each person is loved by God and has the potential to be loved by us. Every human life, from the perspective of eternity, is either a tragedy or a triumph. Every human being is important in the only sense that really matters: every human being is important to God.
“Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” God knew us before he created us, and we are destined to become great, maybe not as this world judges us, but God will make us perfect and then he will glorify us, and that is the only greatness worth having.
June 29, 2011 - Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles (Mass during the day)
Acts 12:1-11
Psalm 34:2-9
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Matthew 16:13-19
“Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of the underworld shall not prevail against it.” The gates of the underworld shall not prevail against the Church. What does it mean for a gate to prevail? It means that the gate is able to stand up against attacks. What does it mean then that a gate will not prevail? It means that the gate will fall down after being attacked. The Church is on the attack, and the gate is going to fall.
Which gate? The gate of the underworld. The underworld, in Greek, Hades. The older English translations said the gates of Hell, but that is not quite correct. Jesus uses the word Hades in the Gospels to refer to a place where the souls of the dead gather, rather than a place of punishment, which he calls Gehenna or simply Outside or The Darkness. After Jesus died on the Cross, he went to Hades and led all of the good Old Testament people to heaven: Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Moses and many others.
Which brings up an important point: a gate can be attacked from two sides. Sometimes a gate is attacked by invaders trying to get in, and sometimes a gate is attacked by prisoners trying to get out. It seems that the second applies in this case. We are not trying to conquer the land of the dead; we want to leave.
For we are in the land of the dead right now. We are, of course, biologically alive, but spiritually we are mostly dead. We want to leave the land of the dead and get into the land of the living, the kingdom of life, the Kingdom of God. The Church is, even now, engaged in a fierce battle to destroy the gate of death. Those of us who stand on this side of the gate can see those who have broken through, who are now fully alive.
Today we celebrate two such conquering heroes: St. Peter and St. Paul. Both of these men broke through the gate and hordes of Christians followed after them to life. We know that they were fully alive because when they were threatened with death neither was afraid. They both ended their lives as glorious witnesses of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Let us not shrink back from our own assault on the gates of the underworld. The fight is brutal, but we already know who will prevail.
Psalm 34:2-9
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18
Matthew 16:13-19
“Upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of the underworld shall not prevail against it.” The gates of the underworld shall not prevail against the Church. What does it mean for a gate to prevail? It means that the gate is able to stand up against attacks. What does it mean then that a gate will not prevail? It means that the gate will fall down after being attacked. The Church is on the attack, and the gate is going to fall.
Which gate? The gate of the underworld. The underworld, in Greek, Hades. The older English translations said the gates of Hell, but that is not quite correct. Jesus uses the word Hades in the Gospels to refer to a place where the souls of the dead gather, rather than a place of punishment, which he calls Gehenna or simply Outside or The Darkness. After Jesus died on the Cross, he went to Hades and led all of the good Old Testament people to heaven: Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Moses and many others.
Which brings up an important point: a gate can be attacked from two sides. Sometimes a gate is attacked by invaders trying to get in, and sometimes a gate is attacked by prisoners trying to get out. It seems that the second applies in this case. We are not trying to conquer the land of the dead; we want to leave.
For we are in the land of the dead right now. We are, of course, biologically alive, but spiritually we are mostly dead. We want to leave the land of the dead and get into the land of the living, the kingdom of life, the Kingdom of God. The Church is, even now, engaged in a fierce battle to destroy the gate of death. Those of us who stand on this side of the gate can see those who have broken through, who are now fully alive.
Today we celebrate two such conquering heroes: St. Peter and St. Paul. Both of these men broke through the gate and hordes of Christians followed after them to life. We know that they were fully alive because when they were threatened with death neither was afraid. They both ended their lives as glorious witnesses of the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Let us not shrink back from our own assault on the gates of the underworld. The fight is brutal, but we already know who will prevail.
June 15, 2012 - Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Hosea 11:1, 3-4, 8-9
Isaiah 12:2-6
Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19
John 19:31-37
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
Isaiah 12:2-6
Ephesians 3:8-12, 14-19
John 19:31-37
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
June 10, 2012 - The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Exodus 24:3-8
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
We celebrate that Jesus Christ gave us his Body and Blood. This gift has two primary and contradictory qualities. On the one hand, it is the ultimate gift, the highest sign of love, the proof that Jesus was not willing to hold anything back. Though rich, he did not take from what he had and present us a gift. He gave us himself. He had already given us a planet to live on and a universe to look at. We demanded more, which is partially because we are ungrateful, and partially because God had made us for more, he had made us for himself, so no gift less than himself would satisfy us.
And so he gave us himself. Using the sacramental signs of bread and wine, he gave us his body and blood. The gift was not imaginary or pretend. Using his power as creator of the universe, he declared that whenever one of his Apostles imitated his actions which they saw at the Last Supper, the ordinary bread and wine which was prayed over would become truly the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. So it is that today we are in the presence of a man chosen by a successor of the Apostles to continue this sacramental action. We have ordinary bread and ordinary wine, but soon it will not be bread and it will not be wine. It will look and taste and otherwise seem like bread and wine, but things will not be what they seem. They will be the greatest gift we have ever received: God himself: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
On the other hand, this gift is repulsive. It is the body and blood of a man. We do not eat human flesh! We will not drink human blood! Such things are repulsive to us. To treat a human being, a person like us, as if they were no more than a meal for us is the ultimate moral depravity. What do we Christians sound like to others? “Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you do not have life within you.” If we heard someone say that, without knowing that it was Jesus, we would be sure that it was the ravings of an insane person.
We must not pass over this element because, if we do, we risk a weak faith in something that we will not look at directly. Many people, because of this factor, consider the Eucharist to be a strange symbol. For them it is just bread and wine, nothing more. And it does not even symbolize the Body and Blood of Christ, because to imagine human flesh and blood would be absurd to them. The Eucharist just becomes a symbol of acceptance. To refuse the Eucharist to someone is an act of the highest offense, equivalent to spitting in their face. So anyone who limits Communion is bad, because it is a piece of bread that symbolizes love, so to refuse it must mean that they hate the other person. So a priest is called very pastoral when he tells everyone to come receive Communion. So there was that Protestant minister who gave communion to a dog. He said that the dog seemed to really want it.
The Eucharist is not a piece of bread that symbolizes love. It is human flesh that symbolizes love. To invite someone to Communion is not to say, “I think you’re pretty good too.” It is to ask, “Will you eat this human body and drink his blood with me?” If someone asked you that question, how would you respond? You would be horrified. So we are afraid to ask it. They will think we are monsters. Until they find out that it is just bread and wine. Then they will say, “Oh what you said was just pretend.” But why would we pretend such a thing? If the reality is horrific, how could it be good to pretend?
We are going to eat a man’s flesh and drink his blood. We gather daily and weekly to repeat this action. Jesus said to do it in memory of him, but what a way to remember somebody! The author of Hebrews says that Jesus was carrying his blood like a priest of the old covenant carried the blood of the bulls and goats. In the first reading, we see Moses sprinkle the blood of bulls and goats all over the people like a priest sprinkles water sometimes these days. It is easy to believe that the blood of Jesus is greater than the blood of cattle, but why sprinkle blood at all? Because blood is life. A cow or goat might be bought or sold, but its life is without price. We cannot beat death; we can only delay sometimes. From the moment of conception we are destined to die. Without life, nothing else matters for us. The blood of the sacrifice was the life. The Israelites painted it on their door frames and sprinkled the people with it; they poured it out at the base of the altar and put some on the priests’ ear, thumb, and big toe, but all this was only a symbol of the blood that was coming.
The Body and Blood we receive is alive. Jesus rose from the dead, so his Body and Blood are alive. When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, his life is in us. We are marked with his death and his life. We eat his Body and drink his Blood in memory of him, not merely a memory in the imagination but of participation. When we eat his body and drink his blood, we die on the Cross with him and rise with him. The Eucharist changes us and nothing else could change us in this way. Because we have eaten the Body and Blood, and this Body and Blood has become our Body and Blood, we can say that we have died on the Cross and risen.
To receive the Body of Christ is a privilege beyond any other but it is also a fearful mystery. We hold in our hands the Body and Blood of a man who is God, and we eat it because he told us to. Above all the Eucharist teaches us that our life comes from God. We cannot hold onto it forever, so we must constantly receive life from God. We cannot take the life from him and then go off on our own, the way the prodigal son did. We can never sever the connection between God and us and become independent, the way Adam tried to with the fruit. All food is life for us. That is the purpose of eating. But every other meal is a symbol of this meal by which we receive life directly from God.
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26
We celebrate that Jesus Christ gave us his Body and Blood. This gift has two primary and contradictory qualities. On the one hand, it is the ultimate gift, the highest sign of love, the proof that Jesus was not willing to hold anything back. Though rich, he did not take from what he had and present us a gift. He gave us himself. He had already given us a planet to live on and a universe to look at. We demanded more, which is partially because we are ungrateful, and partially because God had made us for more, he had made us for himself, so no gift less than himself would satisfy us.
And so he gave us himself. Using the sacramental signs of bread and wine, he gave us his body and blood. The gift was not imaginary or pretend. Using his power as creator of the universe, he declared that whenever one of his Apostles imitated his actions which they saw at the Last Supper, the ordinary bread and wine which was prayed over would become truly the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. So it is that today we are in the presence of a man chosen by a successor of the Apostles to continue this sacramental action. We have ordinary bread and ordinary wine, but soon it will not be bread and it will not be wine. It will look and taste and otherwise seem like bread and wine, but things will not be what they seem. They will be the greatest gift we have ever received: God himself: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.
On the other hand, this gift is repulsive. It is the body and blood of a man. We do not eat human flesh! We will not drink human blood! Such things are repulsive to us. To treat a human being, a person like us, as if they were no more than a meal for us is the ultimate moral depravity. What do we Christians sound like to others? “Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you do not have life within you.” If we heard someone say that, without knowing that it was Jesus, we would be sure that it was the ravings of an insane person.
We must not pass over this element because, if we do, we risk a weak faith in something that we will not look at directly. Many people, because of this factor, consider the Eucharist to be a strange symbol. For them it is just bread and wine, nothing more. And it does not even symbolize the Body and Blood of Christ, because to imagine human flesh and blood would be absurd to them. The Eucharist just becomes a symbol of acceptance. To refuse the Eucharist to someone is an act of the highest offense, equivalent to spitting in their face. So anyone who limits Communion is bad, because it is a piece of bread that symbolizes love, so to refuse it must mean that they hate the other person. So a priest is called very pastoral when he tells everyone to come receive Communion. So there was that Protestant minister who gave communion to a dog. He said that the dog seemed to really want it.
The Eucharist is not a piece of bread that symbolizes love. It is human flesh that symbolizes love. To invite someone to Communion is not to say, “I think you’re pretty good too.” It is to ask, “Will you eat this human body and drink his blood with me?” If someone asked you that question, how would you respond? You would be horrified. So we are afraid to ask it. They will think we are monsters. Until they find out that it is just bread and wine. Then they will say, “Oh what you said was just pretend.” But why would we pretend such a thing? If the reality is horrific, how could it be good to pretend?
We are going to eat a man’s flesh and drink his blood. We gather daily and weekly to repeat this action. Jesus said to do it in memory of him, but what a way to remember somebody! The author of Hebrews says that Jesus was carrying his blood like a priest of the old covenant carried the blood of the bulls and goats. In the first reading, we see Moses sprinkle the blood of bulls and goats all over the people like a priest sprinkles water sometimes these days. It is easy to believe that the blood of Jesus is greater than the blood of cattle, but why sprinkle blood at all? Because blood is life. A cow or goat might be bought or sold, but its life is without price. We cannot beat death; we can only delay sometimes. From the moment of conception we are destined to die. Without life, nothing else matters for us. The blood of the sacrifice was the life. The Israelites painted it on their door frames and sprinkled the people with it; they poured it out at the base of the altar and put some on the priests’ ear, thumb, and big toe, but all this was only a symbol of the blood that was coming.
The Body and Blood we receive is alive. Jesus rose from the dead, so his Body and Blood are alive. When we eat his flesh and drink his blood, his life is in us. We are marked with his death and his life. We eat his Body and drink his Blood in memory of him, not merely a memory in the imagination but of participation. When we eat his body and drink his blood, we die on the Cross with him and rise with him. The Eucharist changes us and nothing else could change us in this way. Because we have eaten the Body and Blood, and this Body and Blood has become our Body and Blood, we can say that we have died on the Cross and risen.
To receive the Body of Christ is a privilege beyond any other but it is also a fearful mystery. We hold in our hands the Body and Blood of a man who is God, and we eat it because he told us to. Above all the Eucharist teaches us that our life comes from God. We cannot hold onto it forever, so we must constantly receive life from God. We cannot take the life from him and then go off on our own, the way the prodigal son did. We can never sever the connection between God and us and become independent, the way Adam tried to with the fruit. All food is life for us. That is the purpose of eating. But every other meal is a symbol of this meal by which we receive life directly from God.
June 6, 2012 - Wednesday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
2 Timothy 1.1-3, 6-12
Psalm 123.1b-2ab, 2cdef Resp. 1b
Mark 12.18-27
St. Paul is teaching Timothy that being imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel is no shameful thing. It is not a sign that Jesus is failing to protect his own. Jesus does not promise us worldly success in this life. St. Paul is not worried about being imprisoned and not even concerned that he will die for the Gospel, for he is depending on the promise of Jesus that we shall be like angels in heaven.
Christianity is all about turning failure into victory, beginning with Jesus’ victory on the Cross. Up until our Savior came and revealed the mercy of God and what is waiting for us on the other side of death, a blessed person was someone who had enough of this world’s goods and not too much of its troubles. Now the blessed include martyrs who died horrific deaths and saints who suffered their entire lives.
Why is this life a life of suffering? Could not God have made this life more pleasant? We Americans generally have a pretty pleasant life, but people suffer throughout the whole world. And even our pleasant lives are interrupted by sickness or economic problems, which turn our lives upside down. And it cannot be said that the suffering of this life is given to those who are bad in order to convince them to convert. The evils of this world, if anything, are more prevalent among those who refuse to take advantage of their neighbors. We must admit that sometimes we suffer the consequences of our sins, but sometimes the suffering is without reason and, anyway, why do some people suffer the consequences and other people luckily avoid them?
The only way this all makes sense is if this world is not that important. It seems important because it is all we know, but 10 million years into eternal life, the few decades we spent here are not going to be all that important. What will matter is what we did with this opportunity. If we use this time to draw closer to God, no matter our circumstances, and if we use this time to preach the Gospel in whatever way God sends us to preach, and if we use this time to serve our brother and sisters and loving everyone, then, when this time is up, we will be ready to enter into what could be called our real life.
Psalm 123.1b-2ab, 2cdef Resp. 1b
Mark 12.18-27
St. Paul is teaching Timothy that being imprisoned for the sake of the Gospel is no shameful thing. It is not a sign that Jesus is failing to protect his own. Jesus does not promise us worldly success in this life. St. Paul is not worried about being imprisoned and not even concerned that he will die for the Gospel, for he is depending on the promise of Jesus that we shall be like angels in heaven.
Christianity is all about turning failure into victory, beginning with Jesus’ victory on the Cross. Up until our Savior came and revealed the mercy of God and what is waiting for us on the other side of death, a blessed person was someone who had enough of this world’s goods and not too much of its troubles. Now the blessed include martyrs who died horrific deaths and saints who suffered their entire lives.
Why is this life a life of suffering? Could not God have made this life more pleasant? We Americans generally have a pretty pleasant life, but people suffer throughout the whole world. And even our pleasant lives are interrupted by sickness or economic problems, which turn our lives upside down. And it cannot be said that the suffering of this life is given to those who are bad in order to convince them to convert. The evils of this world, if anything, are more prevalent among those who refuse to take advantage of their neighbors. We must admit that sometimes we suffer the consequences of our sins, but sometimes the suffering is without reason and, anyway, why do some people suffer the consequences and other people luckily avoid them?
The only way this all makes sense is if this world is not that important. It seems important because it is all we know, but 10 million years into eternal life, the few decades we spent here are not going to be all that important. What will matter is what we did with this opportunity. If we use this time to draw closer to God, no matter our circumstances, and if we use this time to preach the Gospel in whatever way God sends us to preach, and if we use this time to serve our brother and sisters and loving everyone, then, when this time is up, we will be ready to enter into what could be called our real life.
May 22, 2012 - Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Today's Readings
Being a Midwesterner through and through, I always look for the best deal on a menu. Even if I am not paying for dinner, I want to find a deal. Of course I could just order the first thing I see, and it will probably be fine, but what if I missed something better?
Being a Midwesterner through and through, I always look for the best deal on a menu. Even if I am not paying for dinner, I want to find a deal. Of course I could just order the first thing I see, and it will probably be fine, but what if I missed something better?
Each of us has been given one life to live: perhaps you are young and just looking over the menu, getting ready to order, or perhaps you are halfway through your chicken dinner and wondering whether you should have gotten a hamburger, or perhaps you are just deciding on dessert at the end of a full meal. Regardless, we all live with existential fear: am I getting the best deal? Am I missing out on something? Who am I? Who should I be?
Then St. Paul comes along and says something absolutely bonkers: “I consider life of no importance to me.” He does not merely mean that he is ready to die. He is speaking of “imprisonment and hardships” ahead. Something we can forget is that St. Paul did not know that he was St. Paul. He did not know that 2000 years later people in Rochester, Minnesota would be discussing this speech. More importantly, he did not care. Paul did not preach the Gospel for money or fame. He preached because the Lord Jesus told him to.
Life, as the world sees it, exists in the past and the future. What have I done? What will I do? This is where all the fear comes from. Have I done enough? Can I still do something great? Living in the present means waking up in the morning, looking around, and living as a person in our situation should. It means giving up ideas of what we ought to have, and also forgetting our failures except inasmuch as the consequences are part of our situation. There is nothing unfair, because there is nothing fair. There is just whatever is.
Imagine if you woke up each morning in a completely different life. One morning you are a rock star; the next morning you are a stay-at-home parent with 12 children. A Saint could live that way, just doing whatever is right in each situation. We kind of do live that way. Each morning we wake up, and our life is what it is. What our life is does not matter, so long as we follow Jesus Christ.
March 20, 2012 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent.
Today’s Readings
Ezekiel sees the river of God’s mercy, flowing out of the temple, into the world. At first Ezekiel is trying to measure God’s mercy: 1000 cubits by ankle-deep, 1000 cubits by knee-deep, 1000 cubits by waist deep. Finally, Ezekiel can no longer measure God’s mercy. He can only swim in it.
Wherever this river goes, every living creature shall live. This seems sort of redundant, a tautology, but Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” Life is not just an on-off switch: on the one hand, a person can live, or on the other hand, a person can live abundantly. The trees bear fruit every month, and their leaves never fade. The trees are being watered by God’s mercy. Because of this water, their fruit is good for food and their leaves are good for medicine. These are amazing trees, or, rather, this water is amazing water. They are alive, and other living trees seem dead. We must discern: are we alive? We walk and talk, but are we alive? The wages of sin are death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Are we earning death or accepting life?
If we want to be alive, if we want the water of God’s mercy, we have to be merciful. Being merciful means sharing the burden. Mercy comes after justice. It does not remove justice. Mercy does not allow injustice. Justice creates a burden and then mercy shares it. If someone is bad at their job, justice fires them, then mercy finds them a job they can do. If a person commits murder, justice sentences them to prison, then mercy visits them there. A beautiful image of mercy is a mother, who, seeing that her son’s room is a mess, tells him that he cannot go out to play until it is clean, and then helps him clean the room.
I meet many people in my work who are in difficult situations, and often it is amazing how many poor choices they have made that have led to their situation. We could judge them: "We have worked hard; have they?" But, thanks be to God, we have no call to judge the vast majority of the world. When we see someone suffering under a burden, all we have to do is share in it. When we choose to be merciful, we share in their poverty and allow them to share in our riches. That way, God, who has already shared in our poverty, will allow us to share in his riches.
Ezekiel sees the river of God’s mercy, flowing out of the temple, into the world. At first Ezekiel is trying to measure God’s mercy: 1000 cubits by ankle-deep, 1000 cubits by knee-deep, 1000 cubits by waist deep. Finally, Ezekiel can no longer measure God’s mercy. He can only swim in it.
Wherever this river goes, every living creature shall live. This seems sort of redundant, a tautology, but Jesus says “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” Life is not just an on-off switch: on the one hand, a person can live, or on the other hand, a person can live abundantly. The trees bear fruit every month, and their leaves never fade. The trees are being watered by God’s mercy. Because of this water, their fruit is good for food and their leaves are good for medicine. These are amazing trees, or, rather, this water is amazing water. They are alive, and other living trees seem dead. We must discern: are we alive? We walk and talk, but are we alive? The wages of sin are death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Are we earning death or accepting life?
If we want to be alive, if we want the water of God’s mercy, we have to be merciful. Being merciful means sharing the burden. Mercy comes after justice. It does not remove justice. Mercy does not allow injustice. Justice creates a burden and then mercy shares it. If someone is bad at their job, justice fires them, then mercy finds them a job they can do. If a person commits murder, justice sentences them to prison, then mercy visits them there. A beautiful image of mercy is a mother, who, seeing that her son’s room is a mess, tells him that he cannot go out to play until it is clean, and then helps him clean the room.
I meet many people in my work who are in difficult situations, and often it is amazing how many poor choices they have made that have led to their situation. We could judge them: "We have worked hard; have they?" But, thanks be to God, we have no call to judge the vast majority of the world. When we see someone suffering under a burden, all we have to do is share in it. When we choose to be merciful, we share in their poverty and allow them to share in our riches. That way, God, who has already shared in our poverty, will allow us to share in his riches.
July 23, 2011 - Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
Although we do not have animal sacrifices anymore, sacrifice remains a central concept of our religion; above all is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross. This sacrifice was once and for all, so it is no longer necessary to repeat the animal sacrifices. As the Hebrews were covered by the blood of bulls to form a covenant with the Lord, so now we stand covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. The animal blood was a symbol; all along it was symbolizing the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of animals cannot take away sins, but the blood of Jesus Christ can.
So it is that we come together each day and offer a sacrifice. We come here and are transported. Participating in the Mass brings us back to the foot of the Cross. That sacrifice was once and for all. It cannot be repeated and it does not need to be repeated. So we use the Mass as a time machine. The sacrifice of the Mass is not redoing the sacrifice of the Cross; it is a participation in the one sacrifice.
Why do we want to participate over and over again in the one sacrifice? If all we had in mind was the modern idea of sacrifice as giving up something, the sacrifice of the Mass would make no sense. If, however, we consider the original idea of sacrifice, it makes perfect sense. When the Israelites were sprinkled with blood, it symbolized their participation in the death of the animal. They deserved death because of their sins, so they constantly participated in the death of animals. We too deserve death because of our sins, so we participate in the death, not of an animal, but of Jesus Christ.
But the animals stayed dead, so if you participate in the death of animal, you stay dead spiritually, whereas Jesus Christ did not stay dead; he rose from the dead. If we participate in the death of Jesus Christ, we will rise with him. Every time we participate in Mass, we die with Jesus and rise with Jesus. This is why St. Paul could say “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” The Cross, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, alone has the power to change us, so it very wise of us to participate daily in this sacrifice.
Some people would say that we are wasting our time each day. The reality is the opposite. Life is filled with useless activity. We eat today, and we have to eat tomorrow. We clean house today, and we have to clean again tomorrow. We earn money and spend money. What does it all add up to? Nothing. Even the work of raising children, the continuation of the human species means nothing if we will be extinct in a million years. All the running around that the world does is running in circles. Here at the Cross, we are making eternal progress.
July 4, 2011 - Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
Today is Independence Day in America, and we Americans love our independence. It is such an American expression to say: “Everything I have, I’ve earned. Nobody’s ever given me anything.” This is, of course, complete nonsense. We have only to think of the many ways that our ancestors have prepared the place where we now stand: those who came to this country, those who cleared the forest that used to be here, those who built this town, our parents who gave us life, and all the teachers who educated us.
But now we are independent adults, so long as someone else grows our food and brings it to the store and makes our clothes and produces every other item that we could not get through life without. Day-to-day we get the idea somehow that we are getting by on our own efforts, but if we stop and think of how dependent we are it may surprise us. Consider what happens when the electricity goes out. What if it went out forever? Would we survive?
I do not favor jokes in homilies, and I especially dislike jokes where God is one of the characters, but there is a joke that is apropos here, an old one many of you have already heard, I am sure. Some scientists announced one day that they had discovered all the secrets of the universe, so they told God, “We don’t need you anymore.” God suggested that they have a contest, to see who could make the best animal. He said, “I made you out of dirt. Could you do that?” The scientist said, “Okay! We can even improve on your design.” So the scientists went outside and scooped up a bucket of dirt to bring to their laboratory, but God told them, “Stop! What are you doing? Get your own dirt.” Even if we could go to the jungles of the Amazon and live completely independently of all humanity, as some people do, we still would be dependent on the one who made the jungle and who made us.
Today is a wonderful day to remember our dependence on God and others. In our readings today, we see the three basic ways that we depend on God: from Jacob who depended on God to provide for him, to the woman who needed healing, to the girl who was raised from the dead. We depend on God for the necessities of life, for health, and for life itself. We enjoy these gifts from God every day, we should not wait until one of them is taken away to be thankful.
July 1, 2011 - Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Today's Readings
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
Today we celebrate the preeminent devotion, the greatest devotion of Christianity: the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Sacred Heart we celebrate the human body of our Savior. The heart deservedly stands as a symbol of the whole body. It is at the center of the body, and the heartbeat is evidence of the life of the body. In the Sacred Heart, we worship the actual organ in the body of our Savior, beating from the time of its formation in the womb of the Blessed Mother, beating while he preached forgiveness and healed the sick, stopped by the Cross, pierced by the lance, begun again at the Resurrection, and still, today, beating in the body seated at the right hand of the Father.
Further, devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is devotion to the love of Jesus, the twofold love of Jesus: the divine love and his human love. The Sacred Heart is truly symbolic of the love of God which created the world and which redeemed a fallen world, but it also expresses the fully human love which Jesus had for the crowds, for the suffering, for his disciples, particularly for the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” The Sacred Heart loved not only with the love of God, but also was the perfect human heart, loving in right relationship all things.
We are convicted by the Sacred Heart for our lack of love. If it were only a symbol of divine love, the love which created us, so stunning in its infinity, an infinity which is for all but no less infinitely for each, we are by definition incapable of such love, but, since it is also a symbol of Jesus’ human love, we are indicted when we see how much love a human heart is capable of. Consider how, in comparison, we love so little. How small is our love for our families, our friends, and our enemies! How little compassion do we have for the sick, the poor and the suffering!
The love, both human and divine, symbolized by the Sacred Heart is an unrequited love. Through all human history, God has loved humans with an everlasting love, but humans have ignored and insulted this love. There is no greater symbol of the human response to God’s love than the Sacred Heart pierced by a lance. Humans respond with violence against the very symbol of God’s love, as if, unable to repay the love, and refusing to be in debt, they try to destroy the love of God. Yet the lance, rather than destroy the Sacred Heart, only opens it further, pouring forth blood and water in the final symbol of the complete gift.
Jesus invites us today to learn from him, for he is meek and humble of heart. Let us take him up on this generous invitation. If we think that we know anything or have a certain amount of wisdom, but we have not yet learned about love, we are mistaken. We will be truly wise when we are masters of love: the love God has for us, the love we return to God, the love God has for everyone else, the love we have for those whom God loves. All this love is one Love. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.” We will not be masters of love until the beating of our hearts is in perfect sync with the Sacred Heart. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make our hearts like unto yours.
June 26, 2011 - Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Today's Readings
Manna is a kind of food that appeared on the ground each morning from the time that the Israelites left Egypt until the day that they ate the fruit of the promised land. Manna was free food: the only work was going out each morning to gather it up. Manna was abundant food: it fed 2 million people for forty years. Later generations of Israelites looked back on the time in the desert as a blessed time, depending entirely on providence for survival.
There were three lessons concerning manna. First, no one was to gather more than they needed. Each person was allotted one omer of manna a day, a little less than a gallon. When they went out to gather the manna, some people gathered a lot and others gathered a little, but everyone ended up with one omer per person. Whether this is the result of a miracle or if it means that those with too much shared with those who did not have enough, the lesson for us is the same: we should not take more of this world’s resources than we need. If we have too much, we should share with those who do not have enough to satisfy their needs.
The second lesson of the manna is that it must not be kept overnight. The Israelites had to trust that the manna would be out on the ground again the next morning. Those who tried to keep the manna overnight found that in the morning it was full of worms and smelled terrible. From this rule we should learn not to hoard the riches of this world. True, we are not wandering in the desert with manna appearing on the ground each day. It is very reasonable to save money: to save enough in case of a surprise car repair, to save enough in case you lose your job, but do not hoard money.
Some people collect money and property as if they only wanted to see how much they could have, as if they were competing in a game with the other rich people of this world. I do not refer only to millionaires and billionaires. Consider the very idea of collecting something. It is so acceptable in this culture to say, “I collect hippopotami”, but we Christians should look in horror at the idea of spending time and money, whether on ceramic doodads or unnecessary power tools. We are travelers in this world; pack lightly!
The third lesson of the manna is that on Friday the Israelites gathered enough for two days so that they would not go out on the Sabbath. This is a lesson we ought to take to heart. There is so little respect today for resting on the Lord’s Day. Six days a week have been given us to work; we must rest on the seventh day.
But how should we rest on Sundays? The usual forms of rest in our culture (ball games, shopping, and restaurants) involve someone else serving us. Should we sit home then and watch TV? A proper understanding of Sunday rest begins with what we all must do on Sundays: go to Mass. The point of Sunday is to worship God. Anything else we do is peripheral.
There is an old joke about a man who asked his pastor whether it was okay to smoke while he prayed. His pastor said, “Absolutely not! When you pray you should be completely devoted to prayer.” So the man went to another priest, but he changed his question, “Would it be okay to pray while I smoke?”
We Christians do not begin with a rule, because every rule has loopholes. We begin with the Holy Spirit. Our Sundays should be about praising God. Mass is not something to be fit in around a busy schedule. Mass comes first, everything else can be planned afterward. Those who work on Sunday should insist on having time to go to Mass, and they should take another day to praise God by resting.
Together, the three lessons of the manna teach us that we were not made for survival. The point of our lives cannot be getting through to tomorrow at any cost. We certainly were not made to succeed as the world sees success, with piles of money and stuff. Survival is secondary to praising God. As Moses puts it, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
The lessons of the manna were so important, so foundational to the Jewish religion that Moses took one omer of manna and placed it in the Ark of the Covenant, a box covered in gold. The Ark was placed at the center of worship. The Jewish Temple was merely a house for the Ark, and the Ark was a container for the manna. So really, the manna was at the center of Jewish worship, this special bread which God had given to his people.
Do you see where I am going with this? This temple, this church, is really just a house for that box right there. That box is the Ark of the Covenant, which is also called the tabernacle. Within the tabernacle, we place a portion of the bread. It is not ordinary bread that we put in the tabernacle. Indeed, it is not really bread at all. The bread is a symbol, which is to say, we see bread, we taste bread, but the meaning of the bread is something more. What is the something more? It is Jesus Christ, his Body, his Blood, his Soul, and his Divinity.
The bread is a sacrament, which is to say, it does not only symbolize this, but it in reality is Jesus Christ: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. When we receive the symbol of bread, we actually receive Jesus Christ. When we see bread and kneel down in worship, we are actually worshipping Jesus Christ. This is a mystery. It is not clear to us how something can have the accidents of bread, the sight, the smell, the taste of bread, the atoms and molecules of bread, but in reality be the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. It is not clear to us, but that is not important. Jesus did not give us this sacrament and say, “Take and understand; this is my body.” No, he said “Take and eat; this is my body.”
We must believe that the bread is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Body. We must believe that the wine is, as the Church tells us, as Jesus told the Church, actually his Blood. This belief is not a nice addition to our faith. We place the Eucharist at the very center of our worship, because it defines who we are.
Faith in the Eucharist is where we must begin. All other work in the Church is pointless unless we begin with the Eucharist. It is pointless to protest abortion unless the Eucharist is at the center of our work. It is pointless to give food to the hungry unless this food given to us by God is satisfying our hunger. We as a Church are not a gathering of people who like doing good things. We are a gathering of people around the Eucharist. The good things come later.
Christianity without the Eucharist would be like Judaism without manna, just a lot of laws. From the Eucharist we receive our mission from God and the spiritual energy to complete that mission. If we receive the Eucharist with faith in the mystery, and we receive it acknowledging that we want to serve God above all else, confessing every sin we have committed, rejecting any plans to commit sin in the future, then we will be transformed.
Jesus Christ came to earth to give his life for us and to us. He gave his life for us on the Cross. He gives his life to us in the Eucharist. When we receive the Eucharist, we hold the life of God in our hands. We eat the life of God. We become what we eat. Eventually we do not live anymore ourselves, but Christ lives in us. That is what the Eucharist is about.
June 18, 2011 - Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
"No one can serve two masters." Why not? Because no one is two people. Each of us is only one person. I think though, that we quickly see what Jesus missed: time. Time allows us to serve two masters, today I will serve one, tomorrow I will serve the other. Many people live their lives using this principle. Monday through Friday, 8 to 6, I serve one master. Each morning, 7 to 8, I serve God. The rest of the time I split between myself and my family.
But Jesus did not forget about time. Jesus created time. He knows all about time. He knows how we grumble about going to work, how we grumble about missing work, how we grumble about going to Mass. So he says that if we try to serve two masters, we will hate one and love the other. He knows that we will have to do all kinds of practical things and he has given us time to do them, but he is teaching us today that we will only love one master.
Which of your masters do you love: God, Mammon, or yourself? Whichever one we love, we will see the others as inconveniences. Is earning money preventing you from praying or is praying preventing you from earning money? A favorite meditation of this world is, "What if I won the lottery?" The people of this world like to consider what they would do if they had so much money. This question has the potential to reveal whether we serve Mammon or God.
A Christian should be able to say that if they won the lottery, nothing much would change. Sure, they could pay off loans. Perhaps buy a new house and car. But then what? Would their life, day to day, be any different? Does money have so much power over them that it defines what they do, who they are?
If you are supporting yourself with a job that you hate, which you would quit tomorrow if you could, you should really consider whether you could quit today. I am not referring to hard work. There is no virtue in replacing hard work with laziness. I mean that if you are doing something useless, without dignity, something which in no way is serving God or neighbor, who are you serving? God gave each of us one life, we should not undervalue that life and sell it for money. Your life is worth more than any possession, more than anything this culture presumes you should own.
"No one can serve two masters." Why not? Because no one is two people. Each of us is only one person. I think though, that we quickly see what Jesus missed: time. Time allows us to serve two masters, today I will serve one, tomorrow I will serve the other. Many people live their lives using this principle. Monday through Friday, 8 to 6, I serve one master. Each morning, 7 to 8, I serve God. The rest of the time I split between myself and my family.
But Jesus did not forget about time. Jesus created time. He knows all about time. He knows how we grumble about going to work, how we grumble about missing work, how we grumble about going to Mass. So he says that if we try to serve two masters, we will hate one and love the other. He knows that we will have to do all kinds of practical things and he has given us time to do them, but he is teaching us today that we will only love one master.
Which of your masters do you love: God, Mammon, or yourself? Whichever one we love, we will see the others as inconveniences. Is earning money preventing you from praying or is praying preventing you from earning money? A favorite meditation of this world is, "What if I won the lottery?" The people of this world like to consider what they would do if they had so much money. This question has the potential to reveal whether we serve Mammon or God.
A Christian should be able to say that if they won the lottery, nothing much would change. Sure, they could pay off loans. Perhaps buy a new house and car. But then what? Would their life, day to day, be any different? Does money have so much power over them that it defines what they do, who they are?
If you are supporting yourself with a job that you hate, which you would quit tomorrow if you could, you should really consider whether you could quit today. I am not referring to hard work. There is no virtue in replacing hard work with laziness. I mean that if you are doing something useless, without dignity, something which in no way is serving God or neighbor, who are you serving? God gave each of us one life, we should not undervalue that life and sell it for money. Your life is worth more than any possession, more than anything this culture presumes you should own.
January 19, 2011 - Wednesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
There is such a contrast today between Jesus, whose life “cannot be destroyed”, who would rather “save life than destroy it”, and the Pharisees who are taking counsel with the Herodians to put him to death. The Herodians were the servants of King Herod, a man whose life consisted of parties and submitting to the Roman conquerors. He and the Herodians are the natural enemies of the Pharisees who are trying to be faithful to the Jewish Law. The only characteristic that these two opposing groups have in common is extraordinary selfishness.
It is so strange to read that their first tactic was to “watch Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath”, like a store security guard watch potential shoplifters, as if Jesus might try to sneak in a healing without being noticed. These Pharisees have hardened their hearts. They refuse to be open to the teaching of Jesus. When he asks them a difficult question, they do not even try and answer.
If we want to understand their position, we could look to the answer given by another at a similar time: “there are six days for healing, come then.” Why did Jesus heal on the Sabbath when he could have simply healed on the next day? Jesus is teaching us not only that healing is permitted on the Sabbath, but that healing is the very thing to do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath should be spent doing good rather than evil, saving life rather than destroying it.
We who are followers of Jesus Christ ought to take this teaching to heart. Our Sabbath must not consist of resting and relaxing ourselves. Sunday is not a day for more selfish indulgence. We should follow Jesus and do good on Sunday, not evil. Sunday ought to be a day where we live life to its fullest, live life as we would if we needed nothing. In a perfect Christian culture, we would spend six days working when we needed and resting when we could, but on the first day of the week we would make provision for the poor and the sick and the lonely, we would go to Mass and pray, we would celebrate with family in a simple way, we would, in short, be completely unselfish. We do not live in this perfect culture, but what is preventing us from beginning?
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