Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Purpose. Show all posts
March 15, 2014 - Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
February 10, 2014 - Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 8:1-7, 9-13
Psalm 132:6-10
Mark 6:53-56
Jesus went around healing people by the thousands. If he was able to do that, why hold back at all? Even though we accept that illness and suffering are the result of original sin, that God does not make us suffer, yet he holds the cure to all our suffering and can end it at any moment. So why does he let us suffer? It might be our fault; it is our fault, but still, how could God, who loves us, look on and see our pain without granting healing?
Certainly God could by a certain miracle suddenly remove all bodily suffering in the world by healing everyone who is sick or injured, but what then? People will be injured or sickened the next hour after the miracle. If the greatest good that could be achieved in this life was a mere removal of suffering, then God would do that every hour of every day, but we are made for something more. We are made to live the life of the blessed forever.
Death is not the greatest evil. Suffering is not the greatest evil. The greatest evil is a separation of our souls from God. Just as we will gladly undergo painful surgery with the hope of lasting benefits or endure the pain of exercise with the hope of stronger bodies, we should not fear the suffering of this world but rather hope that it will prepare us for the next. Our own suffering often accomplishes the real purpose of living.
Why does God permit the suffering of this world? We know why. Why does a parent permit their child to be stabbed with needles or have a tooth pulled? Because allowing some suffering now prevents greater suffering later. This does not take away our need to serve those who are suffering. It does not mean that we can forget about the suffering in the world, especially the suffering created by our own choices. It means that suffering can be necessary and can result in good.
Suffering is always evil but suffering can lead to compassion, endurance, patience, and humility and these are great goods. If all Jesus wanted to do was stop all suffering, there was no need for him to become a man and dwell among us; God could have done that at any time, but since he knew that permitting suffering was necessary in a world with sin, he instead came down to suffer with us.
Psalm 132:6-10
Mark 6:53-56
Jesus went around healing people by the thousands. If he was able to do that, why hold back at all? Even though we accept that illness and suffering are the result of original sin, that God does not make us suffer, yet he holds the cure to all our suffering and can end it at any moment. So why does he let us suffer? It might be our fault; it is our fault, but still, how could God, who loves us, look on and see our pain without granting healing?
Certainly God could by a certain miracle suddenly remove all bodily suffering in the world by healing everyone who is sick or injured, but what then? People will be injured or sickened the next hour after the miracle. If the greatest good that could be achieved in this life was a mere removal of suffering, then God would do that every hour of every day, but we are made for something more. We are made to live the life of the blessed forever.
Death is not the greatest evil. Suffering is not the greatest evil. The greatest evil is a separation of our souls from God. Just as we will gladly undergo painful surgery with the hope of lasting benefits or endure the pain of exercise with the hope of stronger bodies, we should not fear the suffering of this world but rather hope that it will prepare us for the next. Our own suffering often accomplishes the real purpose of living.
Why does God permit the suffering of this world? We know why. Why does a parent permit their child to be stabbed with needles or have a tooth pulled? Because allowing some suffering now prevents greater suffering later. This does not take away our need to serve those who are suffering. It does not mean that we can forget about the suffering in the world, especially the suffering created by our own choices. It means that suffering can be necessary and can result in good.
Suffering is always evil but suffering can lead to compassion, endurance, patience, and humility and these are great goods. If all Jesus wanted to do was stop all suffering, there was no need for him to become a man and dwell among us; God could have done that at any time, but since he knew that permitting suffering was necessary in a world with sin, he instead came down to suffer with us.
February 9, 2014 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 58:7-10
Psalm 112:4-9
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” He also says, “You are the light of the world.” Jesus is telling us that we are different. If the flavor of salt was the same as the flavor of the food, it would be useless. No one sprinkles some potatoes on their potatoes or adds a dash of rice to the rice, for flavoring. Salt must be different than what it is flavoring. If a light is not brighter than what is around it, it does not deserve to be called a light. Light is not a remarkable thing in the daytime, but at night the smallest light becomes immensely powerful. Nobody takes note of the flashing blue light on the DVD player at noon, but when you are trying to sleep it might as well be a 1000 watt light bulb. Each, both salt and light, is important and useful because it is different from its environment.
What are we to flavor? The earth. What are we to light up? The world. When Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, he is telling us that we have to be different from the world. The flavor of the world is selfishness, greed, lust, laziness. This world is boring. This world is dull. This world lacks flavor. Light is a sign of goodness, and there is some light in this world. There are people who do good things naturally. We, however, must do better. If we are going to light up the world, we have to be significantly brighter than the world around us.
Perhaps someone does not believe that the world is lacking in flavor, that it is very dim. We have some guinea pigs at our disposal. There are people who spend their days trying everything that the world has to offer, trying to find something with real flavor. These people are the rich and famous, the celebrities. Some of them spend their whole lives trying to find flavor, being consumed in the search. Some of them realize that everything this world has to offer is bland in the end, so they go looking for something different than the world, and often end up believing in nonsense. Immense wealth and a lot of free time should add up to people who are happier, but it almost never does.
Some here today do not need to look so far outside themselves. They have arrived here after tasting the whole world and finding it insipid. Others have arrived here without tasting much of the world at all, but simply believing what their eyes tell them: there is no satisfaction in this world. We are here today because we want something different. And if we want something different and the something different is not out there in the world, we are going to have to be something different. We are here today because we want to be salt; we want to be light!
We have a problem though: we are children of this earth; we are of this world. If something is going to change the flavor of the world, it must come from outside of the world. If there is energy bright enough to make sunshine seem dim, it too must come from outside the world. Jesus came into this world from outside. He continues to send the Holy Spirit to us from outside of the world. Jesus is different; the Holy Spirit is different. Here we have real difference! This is where our flavor and light is going to come from: the teachings of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The world praises wealth, sex, and freedom. These three values express everything the world has to offer. There is nothing intrinsically evil about these. Wealth, sex, and freedom are all gifts from God to humanity, but without some salt they will be very dull. The teachings of Jesus point us to the proper flavoring: poverty, chastity, and obedience. The world is without flavor because it loves wealth without poverty, sex without chastity, and freedom without obedience. The world tells us that we are the fools because we refuse to have an unlimited love for what the world values. We refuse to love money itself; instead we appreciate being able to buy bread for the hungry, homes for the homeless, and clothing for the naked. We refuse to love sexual pleasure itself; instead we wonder that God has given to men and women the ability to participate in his creation. We refuse to love freedom itself; instead we love the opportunity that freedom gives us to live in accordance with the truth.
A little salt goes a long way. A little light in the darkness can seem very bright. The saints very rarely did great things, as the world sees great things. Very few saints were kings or queens or popes. St. Francis just chose to live in the woods and beg for his food. Mother Theresa just chose to care for dying people. Neither of them put up an advertising campaign to spread the word about their magnificence. The whole world knows about them because they were different, and seeing something different was very shocking to the world. The difference caused some people to hate them. It caused other people to give up their lives and follow them. When we see light in a dark place we can choose either to shield our eyes or to celebrate that light has finally been found.
“You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.” How amazing that Jesus entrusted us with this role. Very few of us Christians ever end up being very different from the world, which is sad, because that means that most of us live very dull lives. Nevertheless there are little differences in our lives that add some flavor. When we come to Mass every Sunday, we are a little different. When we pray before we eat, especially in public, we add a little excitement to the world. When we choose to live our lives according to a moral code that is incomprehensible to the world and sometimes even difficult for us to understand, we are a little more interesting. Still, the possibility remains for anyone who would like to do something with their life: you could always try being different, being salt in a bland world, being light in a dark place.
Psalm 112:4-9
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” He also says, “You are the light of the world.” Jesus is telling us that we are different. If the flavor of salt was the same as the flavor of the food, it would be useless. No one sprinkles some potatoes on their potatoes or adds a dash of rice to the rice, for flavoring. Salt must be different than what it is flavoring. If a light is not brighter than what is around it, it does not deserve to be called a light. Light is not a remarkable thing in the daytime, but at night the smallest light becomes immensely powerful. Nobody takes note of the flashing blue light on the DVD player at noon, but when you are trying to sleep it might as well be a 1000 watt light bulb. Each, both salt and light, is important and useful because it is different from its environment.
What are we to flavor? The earth. What are we to light up? The world. When Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world, he is telling us that we have to be different from the world. The flavor of the world is selfishness, greed, lust, laziness. This world is boring. This world is dull. This world lacks flavor. Light is a sign of goodness, and there is some light in this world. There are people who do good things naturally. We, however, must do better. If we are going to light up the world, we have to be significantly brighter than the world around us.
Perhaps someone does not believe that the world is lacking in flavor, that it is very dim. We have some guinea pigs at our disposal. There are people who spend their days trying everything that the world has to offer, trying to find something with real flavor. These people are the rich and famous, the celebrities. Some of them spend their whole lives trying to find flavor, being consumed in the search. Some of them realize that everything this world has to offer is bland in the end, so they go looking for something different than the world, and often end up believing in nonsense. Immense wealth and a lot of free time should add up to people who are happier, but it almost never does.
Some here today do not need to look so far outside themselves. They have arrived here after tasting the whole world and finding it insipid. Others have arrived here without tasting much of the world at all, but simply believing what their eyes tell them: there is no satisfaction in this world. We are here today because we want something different. And if we want something different and the something different is not out there in the world, we are going to have to be something different. We are here today because we want to be salt; we want to be light!
We have a problem though: we are children of this earth; we are of this world. If something is going to change the flavor of the world, it must come from outside of the world. If there is energy bright enough to make sunshine seem dim, it too must come from outside the world. Jesus came into this world from outside. He continues to send the Holy Spirit to us from outside of the world. Jesus is different; the Holy Spirit is different. Here we have real difference! This is where our flavor and light is going to come from: the teachings of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The world praises wealth, sex, and freedom. These three values express everything the world has to offer. There is nothing intrinsically evil about these. Wealth, sex, and freedom are all gifts from God to humanity, but without some salt they will be very dull. The teachings of Jesus point us to the proper flavoring: poverty, chastity, and obedience. The world is without flavor because it loves wealth without poverty, sex without chastity, and freedom without obedience. The world tells us that we are the fools because we refuse to have an unlimited love for what the world values. We refuse to love money itself; instead we appreciate being able to buy bread for the hungry, homes for the homeless, and clothing for the naked. We refuse to love sexual pleasure itself; instead we wonder that God has given to men and women the ability to participate in his creation. We refuse to love freedom itself; instead we love the opportunity that freedom gives us to live in accordance with the truth.
A little salt goes a long way. A little light in the darkness can seem very bright. The saints very rarely did great things, as the world sees great things. Very few saints were kings or queens or popes. St. Francis just chose to live in the woods and beg for his food. Mother Theresa just chose to care for dying people. Neither of them put up an advertising campaign to spread the word about their magnificence. The whole world knows about them because they were different, and seeing something different was very shocking to the world. The difference caused some people to hate them. It caused other people to give up their lives and follow them. When we see light in a dark place we can choose either to shield our eyes or to celebrate that light has finally been found.
“You are the salt of the earth.” “You are the light of the world.” How amazing that Jesus entrusted us with this role. Very few of us Christians ever end up being very different from the world, which is sad, because that means that most of us live very dull lives. Nevertheless there are little differences in our lives that add some flavor. When we come to Mass every Sunday, we are a little different. When we pray before we eat, especially in public, we add a little excitement to the world. When we choose to live our lives according to a moral code that is incomprehensible to the world and sometimes even difficult for us to understand, we are a little more interesting. Still, the possibility remains for anyone who would like to do something with their life: you could always try being different, being salt in a bland world, being light in a dark place.
January 15, 2014 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10
Mark 1:29-39
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
February 23, 2013 - Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
November 14, 2012 - Wednesday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Titus 3:1-7
Psalm 23:1-6
Luke 17:11-19
The words of Jesus in the Gospel today seem unfair. He tells the ten to go show themselves to the priests. Nine of them obey him, because as Jews they knew what that meant. They started walking to Jerusalem. One of them turns back, because he never would have been able to go into the temple anyway. As a Samaritan, he was certainly not welcome to show himself to a priest and go through the ritual cleansing. So he returns to Jesus.
Before, he stood at a distance. Now, he falls at his feet. Of course, Jesus is the true priest. The Samaritan has obeyed the command of Jesus because he has shown himself to the priest. But why does Jesus seem to complain about the other nine? He sent them on a mission, and they did not come back. For all we know they did exactly what he said. He is not criticizing them. He is criticizing the law. Nowhere in the law does it say that the lepers should thank God for their cleansing. It says that they should be sprinkled with bird blood, but it does not say that they should be grateful. It says to sleep outside for a week, but it does not say to be grateful.
Paul says in one place that he was blameless with respect to the Law, but here he says that “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating ourselves and hating one another.” So, it is possible to follow the law to the T, and still be all that. God gave the Law, and it is good. Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. The point of the commandments was lost by those who followed them. The point of all that sacrifice was to thank God. The Samaritan, not knowing what he worships, is more free to give the natural human reaction and thank God for the healing.
There is talk right now of returning to meatless Fridays every Friday of the year. When they got rid of it 40 years ago, it was mostly because people had forgotten why they were doing it. It had lost its meaning. There a dozen very good reasons for returning to the tradition. If we do restart the practice, and I hope we do, it should be for those reasons and not just some rule we follow.
Psalm 23:1-6
Luke 17:11-19
The words of Jesus in the Gospel today seem unfair. He tells the ten to go show themselves to the priests. Nine of them obey him, because as Jews they knew what that meant. They started walking to Jerusalem. One of them turns back, because he never would have been able to go into the temple anyway. As a Samaritan, he was certainly not welcome to show himself to a priest and go through the ritual cleansing. So he returns to Jesus.
Before, he stood at a distance. Now, he falls at his feet. Of course, Jesus is the true priest. The Samaritan has obeyed the command of Jesus because he has shown himself to the priest. But why does Jesus seem to complain about the other nine? He sent them on a mission, and they did not come back. For all we know they did exactly what he said. He is not criticizing them. He is criticizing the law. Nowhere in the law does it say that the lepers should thank God for their cleansing. It says that they should be sprinkled with bird blood, but it does not say that they should be grateful. It says to sleep outside for a week, but it does not say to be grateful.
Paul says in one place that he was blameless with respect to the Law, but here he says that “we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating ourselves and hating one another.” So, it is possible to follow the law to the T, and still be all that. God gave the Law, and it is good. Jesus did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it. The point of the commandments was lost by those who followed them. The point of all that sacrifice was to thank God. The Samaritan, not knowing what he worships, is more free to give the natural human reaction and thank God for the healing.
There is talk right now of returning to meatless Fridays every Friday of the year. When they got rid of it 40 years ago, it was mostly because people had forgotten why they were doing it. It had lost its meaning. There a dozen very good reasons for returning to the tradition. If we do restart the practice, and I hope we do, it should be for those reasons and not just some rule we follow.
September 27, 2012 - Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Luke 9:7-9
In the traditional teaching of the seven deadly sins, there is included, under the sin of sloth, the sin of curiosity. This is somewhat surprising for us; our culture is always trying to encourage curiosity in children. Growing up, I was always told to be curious. However, we can understand the sin of curiosity, because it is rampant in our culture. Curiosity means seeking out information that has no purpose. It is a temptation to waste time. In surfing the Internet or watching television or reading magazines, even when what we are looking at or learning or reading is not bad in itself, it can be a complete waste of time. Why do we want to have our minds filled with trivia and useless knowledge about celebrities or various lists or the same redundant facts about the presidential election?
In our first reading today, Qoheleth is making the point that so many things in this world are useless, even knowledge can be useless. Jesus says that the purpose of our lives is love. Anything that is not contributing to that purpose, ought not be done. This is not to say that learning in the many subjects has no place, but we should be aware that when we are tempted to learn more about something, this can be bad temptation. If we are wasting time, if we are not working for the purpose of our lives, we are just filling our minds with clutter. After we have seen every bit of news, which all happened before, and filled our eyes and ears and minds, will we be any better at loving?
In the gospel today King Herod shows another sign of curiosity: its inability to commit. The devil uses curiosity to prevent us from doing anything useful. Sometimes curiosity comes as a vague desire to learn more. The gospel today says that Herod was trying to see Jesus. Of course this is ridiculous. Jesus was a public preacher. Herod could have easily seen him any time he wanted to. Instead he sort of, kind of wanted to see Jesus. This half-hearted desire replaces any real effort to learn. A person who feels curious about some subject feels as if they have already learned what they needed to. Curiosity keeps us from what is really important, distracting us. The opposite of curiosity is study, where we carefully pick a subject and then work to learn about it.
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Luke 9:7-9
In the traditional teaching of the seven deadly sins, there is included, under the sin of sloth, the sin of curiosity. This is somewhat surprising for us; our culture is always trying to encourage curiosity in children. Growing up, I was always told to be curious. However, we can understand the sin of curiosity, because it is rampant in our culture. Curiosity means seeking out information that has no purpose. It is a temptation to waste time. In surfing the Internet or watching television or reading magazines, even when what we are looking at or learning or reading is not bad in itself, it can be a complete waste of time. Why do we want to have our minds filled with trivia and useless knowledge about celebrities or various lists or the same redundant facts about the presidential election?
In our first reading today, Qoheleth is making the point that so many things in this world are useless, even knowledge can be useless. Jesus says that the purpose of our lives is love. Anything that is not contributing to that purpose, ought not be done. This is not to say that learning in the many subjects has no place, but we should be aware that when we are tempted to learn more about something, this can be bad temptation. If we are wasting time, if we are not working for the purpose of our lives, we are just filling our minds with clutter. After we have seen every bit of news, which all happened before, and filled our eyes and ears and minds, will we be any better at loving?
In the gospel today King Herod shows another sign of curiosity: its inability to commit. The devil uses curiosity to prevent us from doing anything useful. Sometimes curiosity comes as a vague desire to learn more. The gospel today says that Herod was trying to see Jesus. Of course this is ridiculous. Jesus was a public preacher. Herod could have easily seen him any time he wanted to. Instead he sort of, kind of wanted to see Jesus. This half-hearted desire replaces any real effort to learn. A person who feels curious about some subject feels as if they have already learned what they needed to. Curiosity keeps us from what is really important, distracting us. The opposite of curiosity is study, where we carefully pick a subject and then work to learn about it.
September 19, 2012 - Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
1 Corinthians 12.31-13:13
Psalm 33.2-3, 4-5, 12+22 Resp. 12
Luke 7.31-35
“If God really loves us, why didn’t he just put us in heaven right from the beginning?” I have heard this question so many times. The question is sincere, but such a misunderstanding of what heaven is. You might say to a small child, studying the alphabet, “If you work hard at this, someday you can take over our family business.” If that child then turned to you and said, “If you really loved me, you would put me in charge of the family business now”, what would you respond? It is not that they would do the work badly; they just would not do the work at all. It would make no sense to them. It is completely outside their framework of reality. What do people imagine that heaven is? A big free resort? No. Heaven is an activity. It makes no sense to speak of God putting us in heaven. The question is whether we are doing heaven.
Love, which is the activity of heaven, is something we practice here. Indeed, the purpose of life here on earth is to become an expert at love. “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. Since I have become a man, the childish ways have ceased.” I have become mature in my body and in my intellect. Everyone grows up in their body, but without good nutrition and exercise, the body never becomes what it should be. Most everyone grows up in their intellect, but without a good education, the mind never becomes what it should be. The spiritual component of a human, without a training in love becomes twisted and atrophies. Some people, in their spirituality, are still infants, untrained, weak, immature. The solution is love. Love is both the only sure sign of spiritual maturity and the cause of it. The purpose of life is to learn how to love. The only way to learn how to love is to start doing it. Like a toddler, taking its first steps, slowly learns to walk, so we, weakly and with many falls, learn to love. One day the toddler begins to run and nobody can stop them, and someday love will not be a laborious chore, and we will run and then fly, and that is what heaven is.
Psalm 33.2-3, 4-5, 12+22 Resp. 12
Luke 7.31-35
“If God really loves us, why didn’t he just put us in heaven right from the beginning?” I have heard this question so many times. The question is sincere, but such a misunderstanding of what heaven is. You might say to a small child, studying the alphabet, “If you work hard at this, someday you can take over our family business.” If that child then turned to you and said, “If you really loved me, you would put me in charge of the family business now”, what would you respond? It is not that they would do the work badly; they just would not do the work at all. It would make no sense to them. It is completely outside their framework of reality. What do people imagine that heaven is? A big free resort? No. Heaven is an activity. It makes no sense to speak of God putting us in heaven. The question is whether we are doing heaven.
Love, which is the activity of heaven, is something we practice here. Indeed, the purpose of life here on earth is to become an expert at love. “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. Since I have become a man, the childish ways have ceased.” I have become mature in my body and in my intellect. Everyone grows up in their body, but without good nutrition and exercise, the body never becomes what it should be. Most everyone grows up in their intellect, but without a good education, the mind never becomes what it should be. The spiritual component of a human, without a training in love becomes twisted and atrophies. Some people, in their spirituality, are still infants, untrained, weak, immature. The solution is love. Love is both the only sure sign of spiritual maturity and the cause of it. The purpose of life is to learn how to love. The only way to learn how to love is to start doing it. Like a toddler, taking its first steps, slowly learns to walk, so we, weakly and with many falls, learn to love. One day the toddler begins to run and nobody can stop them, and someday love will not be a laborious chore, and we will run and then fly, and that is what heaven is.
August 27, 2012 - Monday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
2 Thessalonians 1:1-5, 11-12
Psalm 96:1-5
Matthew 23:13-22
The religion of the scribes and Pharisees is so very small. They make distinctions between whether vowing by the temple is like crossing your fingers, but vowing by the gold in the temple is the real deal. How sad! Their religion is no longer about glorifying God or becoming like gods. They remember that Elijah could call down fire and rain from heaven, but they do not have any aspirations of doing the same thing themselves. They have become old, even the young. The excitement is completely gone. All that is left is making fine distinctions which never really mattered anyway.
Meanwhile, we see the youth and excitement of St. Paul, one of those Pharisees. He became a Christian and was inspired to go forth and preach the word of God. His hopes for the Thessalonians know no limit. He only asks that God powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose. He sees the faith flourishing and the love growing. Jesus has changed everything.
It is possible for our religion to become about nothing more than disagreeing about some teaching. It is possible to reduce the Gospel to apologetics, so that the point of Christianity is proving that we do not worship Mary. Or it is possible to reduce the Gospel to some social issue, as if the Resurrection were unimportant. There are all important in their own way, but far more important than anything else is that we become Saints. Whichever work is our portion to accomplish in this world, apologetics or social or political or anything else, has to take a backseat to the real point of it all. The reason to be a Christian is to glorify God and to be worthy of his calling. There must be no smallness about us. We are in a relationship with the Creator of the universe. He loves us and has plans for us to live forever glorifying his name and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are constantly in danger of falling back into old habits. If our religion is getting smaller all the time, reduced to the unimportant, let us try to remember what is important, the joy we had when we first began to follow God. The reign of God is waiting for us with infinite potential. What is so important to us that we let it get in the way of entering into the Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world?
Psalm 96:1-5
Matthew 23:13-22
The religion of the scribes and Pharisees is so very small. They make distinctions between whether vowing by the temple is like crossing your fingers, but vowing by the gold in the temple is the real deal. How sad! Their religion is no longer about glorifying God or becoming like gods. They remember that Elijah could call down fire and rain from heaven, but they do not have any aspirations of doing the same thing themselves. They have become old, even the young. The excitement is completely gone. All that is left is making fine distinctions which never really mattered anyway.
Meanwhile, we see the youth and excitement of St. Paul, one of those Pharisees. He became a Christian and was inspired to go forth and preach the word of God. His hopes for the Thessalonians know no limit. He only asks that God powerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose. He sees the faith flourishing and the love growing. Jesus has changed everything.
It is possible for our religion to become about nothing more than disagreeing about some teaching. It is possible to reduce the Gospel to apologetics, so that the point of Christianity is proving that we do not worship Mary. Or it is possible to reduce the Gospel to some social issue, as if the Resurrection were unimportant. There are all important in their own way, but far more important than anything else is that we become Saints. Whichever work is our portion to accomplish in this world, apologetics or social or political or anything else, has to take a backseat to the real point of it all. The reason to be a Christian is to glorify God and to be worthy of his calling. There must be no smallness about us. We are in a relationship with the Creator of the universe. He loves us and has plans for us to live forever glorifying his name and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are constantly in danger of falling back into old habits. If our religion is getting smaller all the time, reduced to the unimportant, let us try to remember what is important, the joy we had when we first began to follow God. The reign of God is waiting for us with infinite potential. What is so important to us that we let it get in the way of entering into the Kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world?
May 27, 2012 - Pentecost Sunday
Acts 2.1-11
Psalm 104:1+24, 31+34, 29-30 Resp. 30
1 Corinthians 12.3b-7, 12-13 or Galatians 5.16-25
John 20.19-23 or John 15.26-27; 16.12-15
In the first article of question one hundred and six of the first part of the second part of the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas takes up the question of what exactly the new law is, and concludes that it is the grace of the Holy Spirit. When I first learned this I found it very confusing because I did not understand how the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is to say the action of God in our lives, could be called the law.
In the old covenant there were 613 commandments which formed the law. There were 365 “thou shalt not”s, one for every day of the year, and 248 “thou shalt”s, one for every part of the human body, as they used to say. Today we celebrate the feast of the sending and reception of the Holy Spirit. This is the day that all that changed. If Jesus only came to give us some more commandments nothing would really be different. Christianity would just be a harder version of Judaism. But Jesus Christ did not come with more commandments for us. He came to give us the Holy Spirit.
In the gospel today Jesus uses two different names for the Holy Spirit. The first name he uses is translated here as “Advocate”, which is in the Greek “Paraclete”, which means attorney for the defense. In the ancient languages, “Satan” means prosecutor, accuser. So the image here is of a courtroom, and God is the judge, and Satan is for the prosecution, and the Holy Spirit is defending us. Before, the prosecutor had his way, because he could point to the law and he could point to us and say “you did that and you did not do that and you did this and you did not do that.” But now when Satan comes out with all his accusations, we have a lawyer, a good lawyer, a really good lawyer, like even better than Matlock. He will not deny that we are guilty of breaking the law, because we are, and he is the Spirit of Truth, but he will make the case that Jesus Christ died for us for the forgiveness of sins and that we have sought out that forgiveness.
This does not mean that we can do whatever we want and expect the Holy Spirit to get us off on a technicality. In our reading from Galatians today, St. Paul explains what it means that the Holy Spirit is the new law. Instead of just being commandments about what we should and should not do, the Holy Spirit is our guide, leading us on a mission. In the old framework of the law, each of those 613 commandments were like walls being put up. People were free to walk around within the walls as long as they did not try to cross over one of them.
This is the framework of the old law, but it is not how we should understand the new law, because the new law is not a lot of commandments, the new law is the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is the action of God in our lives. The new law is not about what we have to do or what we cannot do but rather what God is going to do and how we can cooperate with that. The old law set limits, but the new law give life a purpose.
St. Paul writes, “if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” If we are not under the law then we must be above the law. That usual meaning of that phrase “above the law”, someone ignoring the law and disobeying it, is not right. They are not above anything at all. They wallow in sin. They are enslaved to sin. Sin tells them what to do each morning, and sin lets them know when they can go to bed at night.
We, however, are above the law. Our law is the Holy Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we love our neighbor. If I love someone, I do not need a law that tells me not to kill them or steal from them. If I love God above all things, with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength, I do not need a law to tell me not to worship other gods. This ought to be our attitude toward every sin. If we looked at our lives as an opportunity to serve the Holy Spirit, an a long string of opportunities to know, love, and serve God, then what meaning does the law have? None.
To be above the law means to be too good to obey the law. To be above the law means that we do not have the slightest inclination to disobey it. To be above the law means that our lives are not framed by decisions like whether to commit perjury. We Christians are above the law; we live guided by the Holy Spirit rather than sinful desire. We love God and our neighbor. We are free to be good. We Christians are above the law, or, at least, we should be.
Because we know that this is in some way simply the ideal situation, the way it should be. Even with the gift of the Holy Spirit we are still inclined to break the old law; we wish to follow the Holy Spirit, but we end up doing what we did not want to do. As St. Paul says, the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition and we often do not do what we want. We do what we desire in the moment but not what we want for ourselves.
The Christian life is not really a question of what we have done or failed to do. What is important is what we are trying to do. If, every time we sin, we condemn our actions and go to Confession, then the one who loves us will find a way to get us to himself. If we commit ourselves right now to the new law who is the Holy Spirit, making the purposes of God the purpose of our life, following the Holy Spirit as a sure guide to all truth, then when we stand someday in that courtroom, before the judge who loves us, accused of all our sins, the Holy Spirit will come to our defense and get us into heaven.
Psalm 104:1+24, 31+34, 29-30 Resp. 30
1 Corinthians 12.3b-7, 12-13 or Galatians 5.16-25
John 20.19-23 or John 15.26-27; 16.12-15
In the first article of question one hundred and six of the first part of the second part of the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas takes up the question of what exactly the new law is, and concludes that it is the grace of the Holy Spirit. When I first learned this I found it very confusing because I did not understand how the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is to say the action of God in our lives, could be called the law.
In the old covenant there were 613 commandments which formed the law. There were 365 “thou shalt not”s, one for every day of the year, and 248 “thou shalt”s, one for every part of the human body, as they used to say. Today we celebrate the feast of the sending and reception of the Holy Spirit. This is the day that all that changed. If Jesus only came to give us some more commandments nothing would really be different. Christianity would just be a harder version of Judaism. But Jesus Christ did not come with more commandments for us. He came to give us the Holy Spirit.
In the gospel today Jesus uses two different names for the Holy Spirit. The first name he uses is translated here as “Advocate”, which is in the Greek “Paraclete”, which means attorney for the defense. In the ancient languages, “Satan” means prosecutor, accuser. So the image here is of a courtroom, and God is the judge, and Satan is for the prosecution, and the Holy Spirit is defending us. Before, the prosecutor had his way, because he could point to the law and he could point to us and say “you did that and you did not do that and you did this and you did not do that.” But now when Satan comes out with all his accusations, we have a lawyer, a good lawyer, a really good lawyer, like even better than Matlock. He will not deny that we are guilty of breaking the law, because we are, and he is the Spirit of Truth, but he will make the case that Jesus Christ died for us for the forgiveness of sins and that we have sought out that forgiveness.
This does not mean that we can do whatever we want and expect the Holy Spirit to get us off on a technicality. In our reading from Galatians today, St. Paul explains what it means that the Holy Spirit is the new law. Instead of just being commandments about what we should and should not do, the Holy Spirit is our guide, leading us on a mission. In the old framework of the law, each of those 613 commandments were like walls being put up. People were free to walk around within the walls as long as they did not try to cross over one of them.
This is the framework of the old law, but it is not how we should understand the new law, because the new law is not a lot of commandments, the new law is the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is the action of God in our lives. The new law is not about what we have to do or what we cannot do but rather what God is going to do and how we can cooperate with that. The old law set limits, but the new law give life a purpose.
St. Paul writes, “if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” If we are not under the law then we must be above the law. That usual meaning of that phrase “above the law”, someone ignoring the law and disobeying it, is not right. They are not above anything at all. They wallow in sin. They are enslaved to sin. Sin tells them what to do each morning, and sin lets them know when they can go to bed at night.
We, however, are above the law. Our law is the Holy Spirit, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we love our neighbor. If I love someone, I do not need a law that tells me not to kill them or steal from them. If I love God above all things, with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength, I do not need a law to tell me not to worship other gods. This ought to be our attitude toward every sin. If we looked at our lives as an opportunity to serve the Holy Spirit, an a long string of opportunities to know, love, and serve God, then what meaning does the law have? None.
To be above the law means to be too good to obey the law. To be above the law means that we do not have the slightest inclination to disobey it. To be above the law means that our lives are not framed by decisions like whether to commit perjury. We Christians are above the law; we live guided by the Holy Spirit rather than sinful desire. We love God and our neighbor. We are free to be good. We Christians are above the law, or, at least, we should be.
Because we know that this is in some way simply the ideal situation, the way it should be. Even with the gift of the Holy Spirit we are still inclined to break the old law; we wish to follow the Holy Spirit, but we end up doing what we did not want to do. As St. Paul says, the flesh and the Spirit are in opposition and we often do not do what we want. We do what we desire in the moment but not what we want for ourselves.
The Christian life is not really a question of what we have done or failed to do. What is important is what we are trying to do. If, every time we sin, we condemn our actions and go to Confession, then the one who loves us will find a way to get us to himself. If we commit ourselves right now to the new law who is the Holy Spirit, making the purposes of God the purpose of our life, following the Holy Spirit as a sure guide to all truth, then when we stand someday in that courtroom, before the judge who loves us, accused of all our sins, the Holy Spirit will come to our defense and get us into heaven.
May 1, 2012 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Today's Readings
We live in the time of fulfillment. That which is prophesied in the psalm today has been fulfilled in our sight. All the nations praise the Lord. In every nation on earth, there are people who turn to Jerusalem as the holy city. God’s salvation has spread throughout the world. Jesus Christ poured out his Blood, as he told the Apostles, “For you and for many.”
Who were the “many” whom he was speaking about? It is us. We form just a small part of that many. Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are not among my sheep”, but we are among his sheep. We are gladly numbered among the innumerable sheep who follow the good shepherd. Innumerable to us who are incapable of counting so many, but to God it is numerable. God not only knows the number of his sheep, he knows each one of the many individually.
Jesus assures us that no one can take us out of his hand because no one can take us out of the Father’s hand because no one is greater than the Father. He says that he and the Father are one. This is the clearest declaration of the truth behind the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. Perhaps without this statement, a case could be made that Jesus is somehow less than the Father, that he is the greatest creature but not actually God, but with this statement, Jesus makes himself equal to God, which is why the next verse after our Gospel today is “The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.”
So, if Jesus truly is God, as he said, and he has poured out his Blood for the many, as he said, and we, forming part of that many, part of his flock, cannot be taken out of his hand, as he said, the world begins to look different. There are still troubles, but who ever rejected a gold mine because of all the dirt mixed in? Life is hard, but so long as the gold is there, it is worth it.
Without Jesus our lives are meaningless as a sheep without a shepherd. Without Jesus, we wander around this life without any idea of why we keep going. What is the point? What is the purpose? But when we hear Jesus call our name, and we turn and follow him, joining his flock, we have a reason greater than ourselves, we have a treasure that Jesus calls eternal life.
We live in the time of fulfillment. That which is prophesied in the psalm today has been fulfilled in our sight. All the nations praise the Lord. In every nation on earth, there are people who turn to Jerusalem as the holy city. God’s salvation has spread throughout the world. Jesus Christ poured out his Blood, as he told the Apostles, “For you and for many.”
Who were the “many” whom he was speaking about? It is us. We form just a small part of that many. Jesus told the Pharisees, “you are not among my sheep”, but we are among his sheep. We are gladly numbered among the innumerable sheep who follow the good shepherd. Innumerable to us who are incapable of counting so many, but to God it is numerable. God not only knows the number of his sheep, he knows each one of the many individually.
Jesus assures us that no one can take us out of his hand because no one can take us out of the Father’s hand because no one is greater than the Father. He says that he and the Father are one. This is the clearest declaration of the truth behind the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. Perhaps without this statement, a case could be made that Jesus is somehow less than the Father, that he is the greatest creature but not actually God, but with this statement, Jesus makes himself equal to God, which is why the next verse after our Gospel today is “The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.”
So, if Jesus truly is God, as he said, and he has poured out his Blood for the many, as he said, and we, forming part of that many, part of his flock, cannot be taken out of his hand, as he said, the world begins to look different. There are still troubles, but who ever rejected a gold mine because of all the dirt mixed in? Life is hard, but so long as the gold is there, it is worth it.
Without Jesus our lives are meaningless as a sheep without a shepherd. Without Jesus, we wander around this life without any idea of why we keep going. What is the point? What is the purpose? But when we hear Jesus call our name, and we turn and follow him, joining his flock, we have a reason greater than ourselves, we have a treasure that Jesus calls eternal life.
March 3, 2012 - Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Today's Readings
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
So when Jesus says, “Be perfect”, what does he mean? I suppose he could mean, “be really not so bad after all” or “accept your imperfections as part of who you are”, but I actually think he meant “Be perfect.” My difficulty is that I fail utterly at being perfect, so what then?
Perhaps Jesus, knowing that I will fail to achieve this standard, sets it high anyway to tell me to be satisfied with nothing less. He wants me to be unusual, to do more than the others do. Not a little more, but a lot more. I am not to be satisfied until I am perfect, and, since I am never perfect, I am never allowed to be satisfied with my current level of love; I am never able to say, “I love enough.”
The command to be perfect stands on its own. Even if I am not perfect and have not been perfect and have no reasonable expectation of achieving perfection in the future, I am still commanded to be perfect. The command never goes away. The Pharisees loved to know the limits of commands, where they could stop obeying, but this command is unlimited. Some psychologists would say that this is unhealthy obsession with perfection, that I should learn to love myself just the way I am, but I cannot. I want to love myself just the way I could be.
On the other hand, Jesus might mean this not so much as a command as an offer. These sorts of phrases are always in advertisements. You know: “Live in Florida” or “Be beautiful.” The advertisement is saying, “It is possible to do these things if you take advantage of what I am offering you.” Then Jesus’ words would mean that if we love our neighbor and our enemy, we will become perfect. Love has the power to perfect us.
I know that I will never be as perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. No matter how perfect I ever become by the grace of God, God will be more perfect. Jesus does not compare our perfection to our Father’s perfection because that is reasonable goal for us, but because we should look at our Father who loves us and want to be just like him. God made the rocks to be rocks and the flowers to be flower, and God made the angels to be angels, but he made humans to be gods, sons and daughters of the Most High.
February 12, 2012 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
I am sure that there are people all over the world right now who are hearing a homily that suggests that Jesus was kind while the law was cruel. The Jews cast the lepers outside the community, while Jesus was willing to touch the leper. What nonsense all that is! Who made the law that said that lepers had to stay away from other people? The Lord did, the God of Israel, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament.
This is a good law. It does not say that the people should kill the lepers on first sight, but it also tries to prevent the spread of disease. Jesus does not touch the leper because the law was wrong. He touches the leper because Jesus is more powerful than leprosy.
In our readings today, we clearly see the difference between the law and grace. Our first reading is from the Old Testament, the covenant of the law, and the Gospel is from the New Testament, the covenant of grace. The readings deal with the same problem: leprosy, but in different ways. The law deals with it as the law deals with all things: by separating, cutting off, preventing the illness from spreading, pointing out and making clear where the evil was lest anyone else be infected. There is no cure, only clarification.
Jesus, who came to give us grace upon grace, does something else. He takes away the leprosy of the man. He rebukes it, and immediately it is cast out. He proves that he is more powerful than the law. Where the law is on defense, he is on the offense. He is able to make things better rather than simply prevent them from getting worse. The law is like a castle with outer and inner walls, trying to prevent the hordes from rushing in. Jesus is like a knight who rides out to defeat the spreading evil.
In a community without antibiotics, when someone catches leprosy, the best anyone can do is prevent the leprosy from spreading to another person. St. Damian Molokai went to live with the lepers and care for them. After 12 years, he caught leprosy himself and died 4 years later. St. Damian is an inspiration and a martyr, showing us God’s love, but he also is a proof of the correctness of the law.
That an individual could go and give up their life serving the very sick is a vocation and a sacrifice, but not everyone should go and become sick. Some people should stay back and do research into a cure, as we have today. Some people should stay back and raise their families. It does no one any good to have whole communities infected with a disease. If another disease comes along that is very contagious, some people should go and serve the sick in quarantine even at the cost of their own lives, but not everyone should go. There is nothing wrong with this law. It is wise and prudent, but grace is stronger. Until Jesus came, people were only able to stop the spread of disease, but he was able to cast out the disease itself.
So why are we learning today about epidemiology? What does leprosy have to do with Church? First disease is a human concern, and all that concerns humans concerns God. He loves us. Second, leprosy is a symbol of sin. Sin is like a disease. Sin is like leprosy. What leprosy does to the body, eating away at it, destroying it piece by piece, is what sin does to the soul. We can easily see leprosy working on the body, but it is more difficult to see how sin works on the soul.
And sin is contagious like a disease. If I am mean to you, you will be mean to someone else, and they will be mean to another person. If I steal from you, you will steal from someone else, and then they will steal from another person. Our entertainments are infected with sin. How can someone watch television anymore and hope to remain clean of lust and sarcasm and disrespect?
People act as if the moral law is unnecessary and oppressive and then wonder why the world is filled with selfishness and unhappiness. Sure, it would be wonderful if men could look at women dressed in any fashion whatsoever and see them as a whole person, but most men cannot, so women should dress modestly. It would be wonderful if people would care for the poor freely and generously, if every poor person were surrounded by people trying to assist them, but they do not, so we should pay taxes that go toward food and shelter for the poor.
The world is not perfect, so we need a little oppression. And not only the world, but we ourselves are filled with contradictory desires. Not everything we want to do is good. We need some laws that tell us not to do some things, even if we want to do them really badly. These laws serve to quarantine the evil that is within us. So long as we need this defense, we should not complain of being restrained.
But grace is greater than the law. Better than putting down the parts of our soul inclined to do wrong, is encouraging that desire within us to do right. God gives us the grace to do right, if we will choose that. As St. Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If we do what is right, we can stop not doing what is wrong.
And when what is good has begun to spread in our soul, we can be contagious too. St. Paul imitates Jesus Christ, and tells us that we should imitate him. So the good spreads from Jesus to Paul and from Paul to us. And not only Paul, but all the saints in the whole world. What if goodness started spreading like an epidemic?
This would not be possible without grace, but with God all things are possible. Being kind to people even when they are cruel to us would be impossible if it were not for grace. We could keep it up for a little while, but we would fail, but grace gives us unlimited energy. We will always have enough energy to do good, so long as we stay connected to God in prayer.
If life is without purpose, as most people imagine, just filled with whatever meaning we can invent, then the best we can do is have a law that prevents people from hurting each other. But life does have a meaning, life does have a purpose, every morning when we wake up, there is something that we should accomplish that day. If we do that with all our hearts, we do not have to worry about what we should not be doing.
I am sure that there are people all over the world right now who are hearing a homily that suggests that Jesus was kind while the law was cruel. The Jews cast the lepers outside the community, while Jesus was willing to touch the leper. What nonsense all that is! Who made the law that said that lepers had to stay away from other people? The Lord did, the God of Israel, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament.
This is a good law. It does not say that the people should kill the lepers on first sight, but it also tries to prevent the spread of disease. Jesus does not touch the leper because the law was wrong. He touches the leper because Jesus is more powerful than leprosy.
In our readings today, we clearly see the difference between the law and grace. Our first reading is from the Old Testament, the covenant of the law, and the Gospel is from the New Testament, the covenant of grace. The readings deal with the same problem: leprosy, but in different ways. The law deals with it as the law deals with all things: by separating, cutting off, preventing the illness from spreading, pointing out and making clear where the evil was lest anyone else be infected. There is no cure, only clarification.
Jesus, who came to give us grace upon grace, does something else. He takes away the leprosy of the man. He rebukes it, and immediately it is cast out. He proves that he is more powerful than the law. Where the law is on defense, he is on the offense. He is able to make things better rather than simply prevent them from getting worse. The law is like a castle with outer and inner walls, trying to prevent the hordes from rushing in. Jesus is like a knight who rides out to defeat the spreading evil.
In a community without antibiotics, when someone catches leprosy, the best anyone can do is prevent the leprosy from spreading to another person. St. Damian Molokai went to live with the lepers and care for them. After 12 years, he caught leprosy himself and died 4 years later. St. Damian is an inspiration and a martyr, showing us God’s love, but he also is a proof of the correctness of the law.
That an individual could go and give up their life serving the very sick is a vocation and a sacrifice, but not everyone should go and become sick. Some people should stay back and do research into a cure, as we have today. Some people should stay back and raise their families. It does no one any good to have whole communities infected with a disease. If another disease comes along that is very contagious, some people should go and serve the sick in quarantine even at the cost of their own lives, but not everyone should go. There is nothing wrong with this law. It is wise and prudent, but grace is stronger. Until Jesus came, people were only able to stop the spread of disease, but he was able to cast out the disease itself.
So why are we learning today about epidemiology? What does leprosy have to do with Church? First disease is a human concern, and all that concerns humans concerns God. He loves us. Second, leprosy is a symbol of sin. Sin is like a disease. Sin is like leprosy. What leprosy does to the body, eating away at it, destroying it piece by piece, is what sin does to the soul. We can easily see leprosy working on the body, but it is more difficult to see how sin works on the soul.
And sin is contagious like a disease. If I am mean to you, you will be mean to someone else, and they will be mean to another person. If I steal from you, you will steal from someone else, and then they will steal from another person. Our entertainments are infected with sin. How can someone watch television anymore and hope to remain clean of lust and sarcasm and disrespect?
People act as if the moral law is unnecessary and oppressive and then wonder why the world is filled with selfishness and unhappiness. Sure, it would be wonderful if men could look at women dressed in any fashion whatsoever and see them as a whole person, but most men cannot, so women should dress modestly. It would be wonderful if people would care for the poor freely and generously, if every poor person were surrounded by people trying to assist them, but they do not, so we should pay taxes that go toward food and shelter for the poor.
The world is not perfect, so we need a little oppression. And not only the world, but we ourselves are filled with contradictory desires. Not everything we want to do is good. We need some laws that tell us not to do some things, even if we want to do them really badly. These laws serve to quarantine the evil that is within us. So long as we need this defense, we should not complain of being restrained.
But grace is greater than the law. Better than putting down the parts of our soul inclined to do wrong, is encouraging that desire within us to do right. God gives us the grace to do right, if we will choose that. As St. Paul says, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If we do what is right, we can stop not doing what is wrong.
And when what is good has begun to spread in our soul, we can be contagious too. St. Paul imitates Jesus Christ, and tells us that we should imitate him. So the good spreads from Jesus to Paul and from Paul to us. And not only Paul, but all the saints in the whole world. What if goodness started spreading like an epidemic?
This would not be possible without grace, but with God all things are possible. Being kind to people even when they are cruel to us would be impossible if it were not for grace. We could keep it up for a little while, but we would fail, but grace gives us unlimited energy. We will always have enough energy to do good, so long as we stay connected to God in prayer.
If life is without purpose, as most people imagine, just filled with whatever meaning we can invent, then the best we can do is have a law that prevents people from hurting each other. But life does have a meaning, life does have a purpose, every morning when we wake up, there is something that we should accomplish that day. If we do that with all our hearts, we do not have to worry about what we should not be doing.
February 6, 2012 - Memorial of Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Today's Readings
Jesus went around healing people by the thousands. If he was able to do that, why hold back at all? Even though we accept that illness and suffering are the result of original sin, that God does not make us suffer, yet he holds the cure to all our suffering and can end it at any moment. So why does he let us suffer? It might be our fault; it is our fault, but still, how could God, who loves us, look on and see our pain without granting healing?
Certainly God could by a certain miracle suddenly remove all bodily suffering in the world by healing everyone who is sick or injured, but what then? People will be injured or sickened the next hour after the miracle. If the greatest good that could be achieved in this life was a mere removal of suffering, then God would do that every hour of every day, but we are made for something more. We are made to live the life of the blessed forever.
Death is not the greatest evil. Suffering is not the greatest evil. The greatest evil is a separation of our souls from God. Just as we will gladly undergo painful surgery with the hope of lasting benefits or endure the pain of exercise with the hope of stronger bodies, we should not fear the suffering of this world but rather hope that it will prepare us for the next. Our own suffering often accomplishes the real purpose of living.
Why does God permit the suffering of this world? We know why. Why does a parent permit their child to be stabbed with needles or have a tooth pulled? Because allowing some suffering now prevents greater suffering later. This does not take away our need to serve those who are suffering. It does not mean that we can forget about the suffering in the world, especially the suffering created by our own choices. It means that suffering can be necessary and can result in good.
Suffering is always evil but suffering can lead to compassion, endurance, patience, and humility and these are great goods. If all Jesus wanted to do was stop all suffering, there was no need for him to become a man and dwell among us; God could have done that at any time, but since he knew that permitting suffering was necessary in a world with sin, he instead came down to suffer with us.
Jesus went around healing people by the thousands. If he was able to do that, why hold back at all? Even though we accept that illness and suffering are the result of original sin, that God does not make us suffer, yet he holds the cure to all our suffering and can end it at any moment. So why does he let us suffer? It might be our fault; it is our fault, but still, how could God, who loves us, look on and see our pain without granting healing?
Certainly God could by a certain miracle suddenly remove all bodily suffering in the world by healing everyone who is sick or injured, but what then? People will be injured or sickened the next hour after the miracle. If the greatest good that could be achieved in this life was a mere removal of suffering, then God would do that every hour of every day, but we are made for something more. We are made to live the life of the blessed forever.
Death is not the greatest evil. Suffering is not the greatest evil. The greatest evil is a separation of our souls from God. Just as we will gladly undergo painful surgery with the hope of lasting benefits or endure the pain of exercise with the hope of stronger bodies, we should not fear the suffering of this world but rather hope that it will prepare us for the next. Our own suffering often accomplishes the real purpose of living.
Why does God permit the suffering of this world? We know why. Why does a parent permit their child to be stabbed with needles or have a tooth pulled? Because allowing some suffering now prevents greater suffering later. This does not take away our need to serve those who are suffering. It does not mean that we can forget about the suffering in the world, especially the suffering created by our own choices. It means that suffering can be necessary and can result in good.
Suffering is always evil but suffering can lead to compassion, endurance, patience, and humility and these are great goods. If all Jesus wanted to do was stop all suffering, there was no need for him to become a man and dwell among us; God could have done that at any time, but since he knew that permitting suffering was necessary in a world with sin, he instead came down to suffer with us.
January 26, 2012 - Memorial of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus, bishops
Today's Readings
God is not wasteful. He does not leave the door open when the heat is on, he does not light a lamp and then cover it up, and he does not give his Holy Spirit to those who will lay around and do nothing. Jesus' words here do not seem fair: “To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Should not those who are lacking something be given extra? However, it is completely fair because of the abundance of God's gift. If someone does not have, is because they have wasted what they were given. God gives us gifts in abundance; if we are lacking, it is because we are not using what we have been given.
As Jesus says here, “Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” Eminently logical and yet we do not do it. Do we use these ears given to us by God for his service, for listening to the word of God, for hearing the distress call of the poor, for listening to the lonely? God has given us these eyes to see his people in need, but what do we use them for? To watch TV? God has given us, every one of us, a mind and body to use for his glory. We are not our own. We do not exist to give ourselves pleasure, to entertain ourselves. We exist to love God and our neighbor. Why would God continue getting his gifts to someone who uses them for evil purposes or even simply for no purpose? He is rich but he is not wasteful.
Yet God is merciful. Even though we have wasted his gifts, and we have, for that is what sin is, wasting the gifts of God, even though we have wasted his gifts, we can change that in a moment, in this moment, right now. Today is the day of salvation! Now is the acceptable time! We can begin serving God, using his gifts to us, right now, and then we will see what God will give us. O the gifts that God has in mind to give us! The riches which he is longing to bestow on us! As soon as we use the gifts that he has given us, we will find that he has so much more to give us.
God is not wasteful. He does not leave the door open when the heat is on, he does not light a lamp and then cover it up, and he does not give his Holy Spirit to those who will lay around and do nothing. Jesus' words here do not seem fair: “To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Should not those who are lacking something be given extra? However, it is completely fair because of the abundance of God's gift. If someone does not have, is because they have wasted what they were given. God gives us gifts in abundance; if we are lacking, it is because we are not using what we have been given.
As Jesus says here, “Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” Eminently logical and yet we do not do it. Do we use these ears given to us by God for his service, for listening to the word of God, for hearing the distress call of the poor, for listening to the lonely? God has given us these eyes to see his people in need, but what do we use them for? To watch TV? God has given us, every one of us, a mind and body to use for his glory. We are not our own. We do not exist to give ourselves pleasure, to entertain ourselves. We exist to love God and our neighbor. Why would God continue getting his gifts to someone who uses them for evil purposes or even simply for no purpose? He is rich but he is not wasteful.
Yet God is merciful. Even though we have wasted his gifts, and we have, for that is what sin is, wasting the gifts of God, even though we have wasted his gifts, we can change that in a moment, in this moment, right now. Today is the day of salvation! Now is the acceptable time! We can begin serving God, using his gifts to us, right now, and then we will see what God will give us. O the gifts that God has in mind to give us! The riches which he is longing to bestow on us! As soon as we use the gifts that he has given us, we will find that he has so much more to give us.
January 15, 2012 - Second Sunday In Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.” That is not really a message that the world is ready to hear. The world says, “It is my body; it is my life; I will do what I want.” And St. Paul says, “You are not your own.” This is not merely true theologically speaking. It is a basic truth that anyone who is not a child should be aware of. We belong to others. Parents belong to their children; they are not their own. Children belong to their parents; they are not their own. A husband belongs to his wife; he is not his own. A wife belongs to her husband; she is not her own. We belong to our communities. When we view existence in terms of what we can get out of it, we have a very shallow, very immature sense of life.
I am concerned that we have so forgotten this basic principle that we are no longer able to think clearly. Birth control, frequent divorce, cheating on taxes, and excessively seeking entertainment are symptoms of individuals who have forgotten their responsibility to the civilization in which they live. It is hard for a self-centered person to understand why these things are wrong. We understand that it is wrong to hurt others, but it is also wrong to be self-centered, to live life as if we were each the center of our own universe.
In November there is going to be a vote here in Minnesota about whether marriage is between a man and a woman, and I am concerned that many people are not ready for that vote. I think that a lot of people, good people, people who want to do what is right, do not know why we are opposed to any other definition of marriage, and I cannot blame them. To understand why marriage is not simply a matter of personal freedom or a choice between consenting adults, it is necessary to first understand that we are not our own, and our culture does not understand that.
Our whole culture, our civilization and our country, are in a decline because we do not understand that. It is as if our ancestors built up a balance in a savings account and we have decided to live on that balance without making any new deposits. When someone tells us that our civilization needs our support, we are confused. We keep spending through capital that was put there by others, and someday that is going to run out.
This past week has been Vocations Awareness Week. We are aware that there is a shortage of priests and sisters, but there is also a shortage of married vocations. The shortage is not of this vocation or that vocation; the shortage is in our sense of vocation. Fifty years ago our president told the country, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If our president said that today someone would call it socialism. Yet that is exactly what it means to have a vocation. A vocation is not a job. A vocation is the decision to live your life for a reason. It is putting into practice what St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.”
As we have become richer in technology and leisure time, we have lost our sense of vocation. The more we have, the more concerned we become with what we do not have. In the first reading today, Samuel was sleeping in the Temple. He was not doing this because he thought it would be a good place for a nap. He was sleeping there because 3000 years ago people could not afford to waste a perfectly good roof. We might not consider ourselves rich, but until we are all reduced to living in this building, we do not know that kind of poverty.
It was in that kind of poverty that Samuel found his vocation. God called out, “Samuel!”and Samuel jumped up ready to serve. We see how ready he was since he did not even realize that it was God. He thought that it was Eli, and he did not just lie there and shout out “What?!” He got out of bed and went to Eli. Samuel was a servant, and he was ready to serve Eli, so when God called him to be a prophet, he was ready to serve God.
The question of vocation is before all of us at all times. Are we using our lives to benefit the world? But this question is particularly before the young people, people who are the stage in their lives where they are asking themselves, “What will I do with my life?” And although there are many possible answers to this question, at a most basic level there are only two answers: to live life for myself or to live life for others.
Because if our first concern is making ourselves happy as this world sees happiness then we will eventually become a lot of individuals doing our own thing. If our first concern is the public good and the good of our neighbors and the good of our families, then we will be a civilization. Selfishness is uncivilized.
And so that is merely the secular reason for vocation. As I said St. Paul's phrase does not only apply theologically, but it does also apply theologically. As Christians we are not our own because we have been purchased at a great cost: the life of Jesus Christ. How much more, then, does this apply to us, “You are not your own”! Those of us who are committed to a vocation should live that vocation not begrudgingly, not considering it an imposition on our time, but considering it our reason for living.
When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, Andrew and Philip follow Jesus. They go get their brothers, and then their brothers follow Jesus. They all followed Jesus for three years, and then spent the rest of their lives preaching the Gospel, until they were killed for it. They did not waste their lives.
Those of you who are not yet committed to a vocation should listen for the call of God. He is calling you to something, and it is not to serve yourself, to see how rich you can become, nor to wander without meaning. Your life will not be wasted if you live it for a purpose, and God knows what he wants you to do.
St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.” That is not really a message that the world is ready to hear. The world says, “It is my body; it is my life; I will do what I want.” And St. Paul says, “You are not your own.” This is not merely true theologically speaking. It is a basic truth that anyone who is not a child should be aware of. We belong to others. Parents belong to their children; they are not their own. Children belong to their parents; they are not their own. A husband belongs to his wife; he is not his own. A wife belongs to her husband; she is not her own. We belong to our communities. When we view existence in terms of what we can get out of it, we have a very shallow, very immature sense of life.
I am concerned that we have so forgotten this basic principle that we are no longer able to think clearly. Birth control, frequent divorce, cheating on taxes, and excessively seeking entertainment are symptoms of individuals who have forgotten their responsibility to the civilization in which they live. It is hard for a self-centered person to understand why these things are wrong. We understand that it is wrong to hurt others, but it is also wrong to be self-centered, to live life as if we were each the center of our own universe.
In November there is going to be a vote here in Minnesota about whether marriage is between a man and a woman, and I am concerned that many people are not ready for that vote. I think that a lot of people, good people, people who want to do what is right, do not know why we are opposed to any other definition of marriage, and I cannot blame them. To understand why marriage is not simply a matter of personal freedom or a choice between consenting adults, it is necessary to first understand that we are not our own, and our culture does not understand that.
Our whole culture, our civilization and our country, are in a decline because we do not understand that. It is as if our ancestors built up a balance in a savings account and we have decided to live on that balance without making any new deposits. When someone tells us that our civilization needs our support, we are confused. We keep spending through capital that was put there by others, and someday that is going to run out.
This past week has been Vocations Awareness Week. We are aware that there is a shortage of priests and sisters, but there is also a shortage of married vocations. The shortage is not of this vocation or that vocation; the shortage is in our sense of vocation. Fifty years ago our president told the country, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” If our president said that today someone would call it socialism. Yet that is exactly what it means to have a vocation. A vocation is not a job. A vocation is the decision to live your life for a reason. It is putting into practice what St. Paul says today, “You are not your own.”
As we have become richer in technology and leisure time, we have lost our sense of vocation. The more we have, the more concerned we become with what we do not have. In the first reading today, Samuel was sleeping in the Temple. He was not doing this because he thought it would be a good place for a nap. He was sleeping there because 3000 years ago people could not afford to waste a perfectly good roof. We might not consider ourselves rich, but until we are all reduced to living in this building, we do not know that kind of poverty.
It was in that kind of poverty that Samuel found his vocation. God called out, “Samuel!”and Samuel jumped up ready to serve. We see how ready he was since he did not even realize that it was God. He thought that it was Eli, and he did not just lie there and shout out “What?!” He got out of bed and went to Eli. Samuel was a servant, and he was ready to serve Eli, so when God called him to be a prophet, he was ready to serve God.
The question of vocation is before all of us at all times. Are we using our lives to benefit the world? But this question is particularly before the young people, people who are the stage in their lives where they are asking themselves, “What will I do with my life?” And although there are many possible answers to this question, at a most basic level there are only two answers: to live life for myself or to live life for others.
Because if our first concern is making ourselves happy as this world sees happiness then we will eventually become a lot of individuals doing our own thing. If our first concern is the public good and the good of our neighbors and the good of our families, then we will be a civilization. Selfishness is uncivilized.
And so that is merely the secular reason for vocation. As I said St. Paul's phrase does not only apply theologically, but it does also apply theologically. As Christians we are not our own because we have been purchased at a great cost: the life of Jesus Christ. How much more, then, does this apply to us, “You are not your own”! Those of us who are committed to a vocation should live that vocation not begrudgingly, not considering it an imposition on our time, but considering it our reason for living.
When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God”, Andrew and Philip follow Jesus. They go get their brothers, and then their brothers follow Jesus. They all followed Jesus for three years, and then spent the rest of their lives preaching the Gospel, until they were killed for it. They did not waste their lives.
Those of you who are not yet committed to a vocation should listen for the call of God. He is calling you to something, and it is not to serve yourself, to see how rich you can become, nor to wander without meaning. Your life will not be wasted if you live it for a purpose, and God knows what he wants you to do.
January 11, 2012 - Wednesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
Today's Readings
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
The Lord calls out “Samuel” and Samuel says “Here I am.” Jesus spends a day and a night healing the sick and casting out demons, and the next day he is up bright and early, headed for the next towns. Samuel lived to serve. If Eli called, Samuel was there. He does not drag himself out of bed or just shout across the temple, “What?!” He carries his intention through. Jesus came down from heaven to earth, not to sit around and watch tv or fritter away the hours lying in bed. He came for a reason, and every action he did was part of accomplishing his purpose.
We too have a purpose. God wants each of us to accomplish something. Just as he called Samuel to great things, so he is calling each and every one of us to great things. Do not pretend that you cannot hear the call of God! You can hear it. I can hear it. I know what God wants; I just fail to actually do it.
Are we going to live inconsistent lives? Make New Year Resolutions and then leave them by the wayside? It is not as if it is actually difficult to be a better person. It does not require effort to pass over unhealthy foods. Exercising more is not beyond our abilities. To go out of our way to love people is not a superhuman feat.
So what is wrong with us? It is as if we are people just waking up, groggy and unable to act. We should be like Samuel. We should be like Jesus. We should say, “Behold I come to do your will.” If we did not know, we would have an excuse, but since we do know God, and we know that we should follow him, we have no excuse.
The good part is that we can talk ourselves up, we can give ourselves a little motivational speech. The bad part is that it only lasts for a little while. So what should we do? Give up and surrender to mediocrity? No! Begin again over and over and over again. Do not make a new year resolution; make a new hour resolution, perhaps a new minute resolution. “With this minute I intend to do great things.” A journey of a thousand miles is simply two million individual steps. A life of dedication to the Lord, of great accomplishment in righteousness, is simply the summation of what we did with each minute.
November 1, 2011 - Solemnity of All Saints
Today's Readings
Today is All Saints Day. To better understand the meaning of this holiday, we need to know what a saint is. There are really two meanings of the word saint, two ways that we use this word, and they reflect the two meanings of this holiday. “Saint” means “those who belong to God”, so it partially means all the people in heaven, but it also means all the people in the Church, including us. We belong to God. So today we celebrate the achievements of all the saints in heaven, and we celebrate the possibility of all the saints on earth.
What is the achievement of the saints in heaven? They are happy. They are praising God forever. They are doing what humans were meant to do. If a saint from heaven appeared to us right here, we would think they were an angel or one of the ancient gods, but really they are just a human like you and me. Just some Joe or Sally who lived the way we live. On earth their appearance probably was not impressive, but now we would be embarrassed to stand in their presence. I know that some of the saints in heaven were homeless here on earth. Here they were, to be honest, filthy and smelly, repulsive. There they are now so beautiful that we would not be sure whether to stare in amazement or look away ashamed. This is the achievement of the saints in heaven. These are the people we celebrate today.
What is our possibility, we saints on earth? To be like those saints in heaven. A few years from now, not so many, probably less than we expect, we might be in heaven. We might be like the angels. But how do we turn this possibility into a reality? The answer is in the readings today. Revelation tells us that salvation belongs to our God and the Lamb, Jesus Christ. If we are going to get into heaven, it will not be by our own strength.
In Revelation we see all the saints in heaven praising God. If you want to grow up to be a basketball player or a violinist or anything else, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you want to grow up to be a saint, you have to practice praising God. We need to put in some real time here on earth praising God. We need to set aside time each day to praise God. We need to praise him while we are working. We need to periodically shut off the TV and praise God. No one is ever too busy to praise God.
We do not praise God because he has low self-esteem. We do not praise him for his benefit but for our own. We praise God not out of flattery or fear but because it is the truth. He is great. He is wise. He is powerful. He is wonderful. He is mighty. We forget these things unless we say them. We begin to think that some human person, ourselves perhaps or a star, is the greatest, or, if get beyond this delusion, we begin to think that nothing in existence is really that great after all. If we are going to become saints we have to learn the truth: there is something wonderful in this universe and it is God.
The psalm gives us advice about how to get to heaven. It asks, “Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD or who may stand in his holy place?” This was the very question we had, but the answer is not so easy as I had hoped: “One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is useless.” I hear that and wonder whether there is any other way. If heaven is only for those who have never sinned, then we may as well give up now. We are in luck though, we sinners. Jesus Christ came to forgive all of our sins. He forgives our sins without lowering the standard. A clean heart and sinless hands and pure desires are still necessary, but he will bring us up to the standard and even higher.
That higher standard is set today in the Gospel. We have here the beatitudes, these beautiful blessings. Some people consider them to be a kind of commandment, but I think they ought to be thought of more as a ruler. In my house, where I grew up, there is a wall, between the kitchen and the laundry room, where we stood as children while our mother marked our heights. Those marks, now barely visible, show how we grew, inch by inch.
The beatitudes are like that wall. Periodically we ought to stand up next to the beatitudes and see how we are growing. Do I care less about money? Am I dissatisfied with this world? Am I meeker? Do I hunger and thirst for justice? Am I more merciful? Are my desires more pure? Am I making peace in the world? Have I been persecuted for my faith? Inch by inch, reaching heaven by inches, always growing, never shrinking back, and someday we will be a saint in heaven.
Beloved: Do you see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God? And so we are. We are his children now, but what we might yet be has not been revealed. We know a little, just glimpses, like in the book of Revelation today, but we cannot even imagine what it will really be like. We just know that it is going to be good. We just know that we want to be saints forever.
I want to be a saint forever, and I know that in your soul, each one of you, you do too. I know this because built into every human soul is a deep desire to be in heaven. Some people mistake it as boredom or inexplicable sadness. It is dissatisfaction with this world. It is the mourning that Jesus calls blessed, the feeling that surely there is something more than just this. In some people it becomes greed or gluttony or lust, but neither money nor food nor sex can satisfy this desire. God has made us for himself, and we are restless until we rest in him.
Today is All Saints Day. To better understand the meaning of this holiday, we need to know what a saint is. There are really two meanings of the word saint, two ways that we use this word, and they reflect the two meanings of this holiday. “Saint” means “those who belong to God”, so it partially means all the people in heaven, but it also means all the people in the Church, including us. We belong to God. So today we celebrate the achievements of all the saints in heaven, and we celebrate the possibility of all the saints on earth.
What is the achievement of the saints in heaven? They are happy. They are praising God forever. They are doing what humans were meant to do. If a saint from heaven appeared to us right here, we would think they were an angel or one of the ancient gods, but really they are just a human like you and me. Just some Joe or Sally who lived the way we live. On earth their appearance probably was not impressive, but now we would be embarrassed to stand in their presence. I know that some of the saints in heaven were homeless here on earth. Here they were, to be honest, filthy and smelly, repulsive. There they are now so beautiful that we would not be sure whether to stare in amazement or look away ashamed. This is the achievement of the saints in heaven. These are the people we celebrate today.
What is our possibility, we saints on earth? To be like those saints in heaven. A few years from now, not so many, probably less than we expect, we might be in heaven. We might be like the angels. But how do we turn this possibility into a reality? The answer is in the readings today. Revelation tells us that salvation belongs to our God and the Lamb, Jesus Christ. If we are going to get into heaven, it will not be by our own strength.
In Revelation we see all the saints in heaven praising God. If you want to grow up to be a basketball player or a violinist or anything else, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you want to grow up to be a saint, you have to practice praising God. We need to put in some real time here on earth praising God. We need to set aside time each day to praise God. We need to praise him while we are working. We need to periodically shut off the TV and praise God. No one is ever too busy to praise God.
We do not praise God because he has low self-esteem. We do not praise him for his benefit but for our own. We praise God not out of flattery or fear but because it is the truth. He is great. He is wise. He is powerful. He is wonderful. He is mighty. We forget these things unless we say them. We begin to think that some human person, ourselves perhaps or a star, is the greatest, or, if get beyond this delusion, we begin to think that nothing in existence is really that great after all. If we are going to become saints we have to learn the truth: there is something wonderful in this universe and it is God.
The psalm gives us advice about how to get to heaven. It asks, “Who can ascend the mountain of the LORD or who may stand in his holy place?” This was the very question we had, but the answer is not so easy as I had hoped: “One whose hands are sinless, whose heart is clean, who desires not what is useless.” I hear that and wonder whether there is any other way. If heaven is only for those who have never sinned, then we may as well give up now. We are in luck though, we sinners. Jesus Christ came to forgive all of our sins. He forgives our sins without lowering the standard. A clean heart and sinless hands and pure desires are still necessary, but he will bring us up to the standard and even higher.
That higher standard is set today in the Gospel. We have here the beatitudes, these beautiful blessings. Some people consider them to be a kind of commandment, but I think they ought to be thought of more as a ruler. In my house, where I grew up, there is a wall, between the kitchen and the laundry room, where we stood as children while our mother marked our heights. Those marks, now barely visible, show how we grew, inch by inch.
The beatitudes are like that wall. Periodically we ought to stand up next to the beatitudes and see how we are growing. Do I care less about money? Am I dissatisfied with this world? Am I meeker? Do I hunger and thirst for justice? Am I more merciful? Are my desires more pure? Am I making peace in the world? Have I been persecuted for my faith? Inch by inch, reaching heaven by inches, always growing, never shrinking back, and someday we will be a saint in heaven.
Beloved: Do you see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God? And so we are. We are his children now, but what we might yet be has not been revealed. We know a little, just glimpses, like in the book of Revelation today, but we cannot even imagine what it will really be like. We just know that it is going to be good. We just know that we want to be saints forever.
I want to be a saint forever, and I know that in your soul, each one of you, you do too. I know this because built into every human soul is a deep desire to be in heaven. Some people mistake it as boredom or inexplicable sadness. It is dissatisfaction with this world. It is the mourning that Jesus calls blessed, the feeling that surely there is something more than just this. In some people it becomes greed or gluttony or lust, but neither money nor food nor sex can satisfy this desire. God has made us for himself, and we are restless until we rest in him.
October 17, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr
Today's Readings
For most people, the main work of life is providing for themselves and their families. What happens when a person no longer needs a paycheck? Some people are born that way with a rich inheritance, and some people reach that point early in life because of the lottery or skills as a musicians or actor or in sports. Some people never reach that point, but we Americans expect to someday get there between social security and retirement accounts, so it is a question that most people in this country at least have to face at some point. What should a person do once they no longer need to earn a paycheck?
This is the question of the Gospel today. The man is called a rich man, and his harvest one year is finally enough to retire on, so he decides to “rest, eat, drink: be merry.” He decides to enjoy himself. This seems reasonable to us. Of course he would do this. We say, “Congratulations on your retirement. I hope you do enjoy yourself. Have fun.” God says, “You fool.”
The mistake that the man makes, and that we are susceptible to making in our culture, is believing that we have ever earned the right to “rest” in this world. Our rest comes in the next world. Without question, a person reaches a point where they cannot put in the same hours that they would have put in 20 years ago; they should rest if they need to, but no one can ever say to the world, “I have put in my hours, now it is my time to rest, eat, drink, and be merry.”
It is a splendid thing if someone no longer has to work at a job they never liked much anyway, that they no longer have to wake up at 5 in the morning and commute for an hour a day, and I am glad for those whose early success means that they are provided for in this life. These are good things. The question is, what does a person do with this newfound freedom? It might be 80 years, it might be 40, it might be 20; it might be 4 hours, like the man in the gospel today. The point is that we are never off the hook. If we are free of serving this world, that ought to make us free for serving God and our neighbors, not free for serving ourselves.
For most people, the main work of life is providing for themselves and their families. What happens when a person no longer needs a paycheck? Some people are born that way with a rich inheritance, and some people reach that point early in life because of the lottery or skills as a musicians or actor or in sports. Some people never reach that point, but we Americans expect to someday get there between social security and retirement accounts, so it is a question that most people in this country at least have to face at some point. What should a person do once they no longer need to earn a paycheck?
This is the question of the Gospel today. The man is called a rich man, and his harvest one year is finally enough to retire on, so he decides to “rest, eat, drink: be merry.” He decides to enjoy himself. This seems reasonable to us. Of course he would do this. We say, “Congratulations on your retirement. I hope you do enjoy yourself. Have fun.” God says, “You fool.”
The mistake that the man makes, and that we are susceptible to making in our culture, is believing that we have ever earned the right to “rest” in this world. Our rest comes in the next world. Without question, a person reaches a point where they cannot put in the same hours that they would have put in 20 years ago; they should rest if they need to, but no one can ever say to the world, “I have put in my hours, now it is my time to rest, eat, drink, and be merry.”
It is a splendid thing if someone no longer has to work at a job they never liked much anyway, that they no longer have to wake up at 5 in the morning and commute for an hour a day, and I am glad for those whose early success means that they are provided for in this life. These are good things. The question is, what does a person do with this newfound freedom? It might be 80 years, it might be 40, it might be 20; it might be 4 hours, like the man in the gospel today. The point is that we are never off the hook. If we are free of serving this world, that ought to make us free for serving God and our neighbors, not free for serving ourselves.
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