1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 89:20-22, 27-28
Mark 2:23-28
“God does not see as a human sees.” How does a human see? Well light comes from the light source such as a lamp or the sun and it bounces off an object. The nature of the object changes what kind of light and how much light bounces off. Then the light enters the human eye, causing chemical changes on the retina. This is how a human sees, but not God.
God knows everything perfectly. He does not see a thing as much as he simply knows all about it. No atom in the universe loses an electron without God being aware. So the first difference between the human sight and divine sight is that human sight is limited to those objects which we see light bouncing off of whereas God's sight is unlimited.
But there are other differences too. Even when we are looking at something and can see it perfectly, our brains cannot always process the information. This is what causes optical illusions. An optical illusion can be looked at with the best light and still fool us. One line seems longer than another but when we bring out the ruler we find that it is not. God's sight is different in this way too because he always understands perfectly everything he knows.
And even when we are able to see something and understand what it is we see, we might fail to catch the significance. If you see a ring on the fourth finger of a person's left hand you know that they are married, but if we went to a different culture we would probably miss their equivalent symbols. A small mark or a piece of jewelry or a color of clothing might signify something very important to those who understand.
God, of course, understands all these things. God can see into the human heart. We have trouble seeing into our own hearts, let alone the heart of another, but God can see clearly our thoughts and motivations, our fears and our dreams. The truth in my heart might be hidden so that not even I know it, but God does. So when God tells me what will make me happy, what I should do and what I should avoid, I can be sure that he knows me better than I do.
Daily Homilies
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Truth. Show all posts
January 19, 2014 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 49:3, 5-6
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
John 1:29-34
We have just been singing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.” The psalmist is speaking to God. When we speak to God, it is never to inform him; it is always to remind ourselves. So when we sing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will” we are reminding ourselves of what our relationship with God is.
“Here I am Lord.” God already knows where we are. We are the ones needing the reminder. Here we are on earth, in the exact situation that our current time and place finds us. We could imagine a thousand people, each in their own unique situation, calling out, “Here I am Lord.” A person in the depths of grief can say, “Here I am Lord.” A person on top of Mount Everest can shout, “Here I am Lord.” A person made weak by illness can whisper, “Here I am Lord.” A person caught in addiction with no visible way out can call out, “Here I am Lord.”
This is often how we begin prayer, by telling the Lord where we are, as a child tells their father how things are going. God knows where we are. Not just our location but every fact about us, even what we ourselves do not know. This phrase, “Here I am Lord” is a reminder that no matter where we are, we can call out to God. There is no one in the world, no matter their situation, no matter their struggles, no matter their triumphs, who cannot stop and say, “Here I am Lord.”
We should attain the habit of this prayer. Ten times a day we should stop and turn to the Lord and say, “Here I am Lord.” This part of the prayer is all about the present. The past does not matter: how I got here, whose fault or success it was, is beside the point. I am here, and here is not too far away to speak to the Lord, so “Here I am Lord.”
The past matters only inasmuch as it has created the situation we are in. What we have done and what we have suffered has put us here today. Here. Exactly where each one of us is. Our here and now includes certain responsibilities, certain commitments, certain disabilities, certain liabilities. God knows that. He knows exactly where we are. We are the ones who might lie to ourselves. So we stop and say, “Here I am Lord.” Yet this was only half of the prayer that we sang. “Here I am Lord,” but now what? “I come to do your will.” This is to say that, no matter where we are, we can choose to do what is right.
Sometimes people believe that in their current situation it is impossible to do what is right, but it is always possible to cast aside everything and follow God. There is always a road from where we are to where we should be. When people are in difficult situations, so many lies reach out and claim that they can deal with it. In this culture of death, many of these solutions (Abortion, Suicide, Euthanasia, Terrorism) involve death, but killing can never undo the reality of where we are right now.
Abortion is a lie. Some people think that the morality of abortion depends on how the woman got pregnant. If a woman is pregnant, and it is unfair, then she should have an abortion, people say. But abortion cannot change reality. This is the lie. Abortion claims to fix something, but if a mother kills her child she is still the mother of that child. Nothing can undo reality.
No matter what the difficult situation, we are tempted away from God’s will. One person believe that their sins are too serious for God to ever accept them again. Another thinks that God’s will is too idealistic and impractical. These are lies; we can always turn back to God. Another is in a situation that is just unfair, and they cannot believe that they are required to accept it, but what else can we do with reality except to accept it? No matter where we are, we always have complete freedom to begin to do God’s will. No matter how we got where we are, we cannot change the reality into something else, but we can move forward from this point in the direction of God.
We have to give up our own will. If we today give up every one of our plans for life, if we today give up every expectation, every anticipation, every ambition, every entitlement, every sense of our fair share, it is possible to do God’s will, to be completely happy. How many people are prevented from following God because of a daydream! How many times must we remind ourselves? God loves us. He knows what is best for us. Therefore, his plan is specially designed to get us what is best for us. What more could we want?
Just as Israel had to give up the idea of being the only nation favored by God. They are hoping to be restored as the favored nation, but God says, “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Paul had to give up a promising career as a Pharisee to become an apostle (and what is an apostle but a wandering beggar? It seems impressive now, because of where God’s will took him. At the time it was about as low as a person could go.). John the Baptist had to give up the following he could have had as he pointed the way to Jesus and away from himself.
So too we must give up whatever is tying us down here, even if it seems like the most important thing. We must give up anything that prevents us from doing the will of God: whether an object or a goal or plans or simply our pride. No matter how much time, effort, and money we have invested in this obstacle, not even if we have made it the center and meaning of our lives, if it prevents us from following God, we must cast it aside. And when we give it up, and travel down the way of God’s will, and arrive at heaven, if we should, by some chance turn and look at that precious thing that lies cast aside on the road, we will laugh at ourselves for ever thinking it of any value at all in comparison to God’s love and what he has prepared for us.
Psalm 40:2, 4, 7-10
1 Corinthians 1:1-3
John 1:29-34
We have just been singing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.” The psalmist is speaking to God. When we speak to God, it is never to inform him; it is always to remind ourselves. So when we sing, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will” we are reminding ourselves of what our relationship with God is.
“Here I am Lord.” God already knows where we are. We are the ones needing the reminder. Here we are on earth, in the exact situation that our current time and place finds us. We could imagine a thousand people, each in their own unique situation, calling out, “Here I am Lord.” A person in the depths of grief can say, “Here I am Lord.” A person on top of Mount Everest can shout, “Here I am Lord.” A person made weak by illness can whisper, “Here I am Lord.” A person caught in addiction with no visible way out can call out, “Here I am Lord.”
This is often how we begin prayer, by telling the Lord where we are, as a child tells their father how things are going. God knows where we are. Not just our location but every fact about us, even what we ourselves do not know. This phrase, “Here I am Lord” is a reminder that no matter where we are, we can call out to God. There is no one in the world, no matter their situation, no matter their struggles, no matter their triumphs, who cannot stop and say, “Here I am Lord.”
We should attain the habit of this prayer. Ten times a day we should stop and turn to the Lord and say, “Here I am Lord.” This part of the prayer is all about the present. The past does not matter: how I got here, whose fault or success it was, is beside the point. I am here, and here is not too far away to speak to the Lord, so “Here I am Lord.”
The past matters only inasmuch as it has created the situation we are in. What we have done and what we have suffered has put us here today. Here. Exactly where each one of us is. Our here and now includes certain responsibilities, certain commitments, certain disabilities, certain liabilities. God knows that. He knows exactly where we are. We are the ones who might lie to ourselves. So we stop and say, “Here I am Lord.” Yet this was only half of the prayer that we sang. “Here I am Lord,” but now what? “I come to do your will.” This is to say that, no matter where we are, we can choose to do what is right.
Sometimes people believe that in their current situation it is impossible to do what is right, but it is always possible to cast aside everything and follow God. There is always a road from where we are to where we should be. When people are in difficult situations, so many lies reach out and claim that they can deal with it. In this culture of death, many of these solutions (Abortion, Suicide, Euthanasia, Terrorism) involve death, but killing can never undo the reality of where we are right now.
Abortion is a lie. Some people think that the morality of abortion depends on how the woman got pregnant. If a woman is pregnant, and it is unfair, then she should have an abortion, people say. But abortion cannot change reality. This is the lie. Abortion claims to fix something, but if a mother kills her child she is still the mother of that child. Nothing can undo reality.
No matter what the difficult situation, we are tempted away from God’s will. One person believe that their sins are too serious for God to ever accept them again. Another thinks that God’s will is too idealistic and impractical. These are lies; we can always turn back to God. Another is in a situation that is just unfair, and they cannot believe that they are required to accept it, but what else can we do with reality except to accept it? No matter where we are, we always have complete freedom to begin to do God’s will. No matter how we got where we are, we cannot change the reality into something else, but we can move forward from this point in the direction of God.
We have to give up our own will. If we today give up every one of our plans for life, if we today give up every expectation, every anticipation, every ambition, every entitlement, every sense of our fair share, it is possible to do God’s will, to be completely happy. How many people are prevented from following God because of a daydream! How many times must we remind ourselves? God loves us. He knows what is best for us. Therefore, his plan is specially designed to get us what is best for us. What more could we want?
Just as Israel had to give up the idea of being the only nation favored by God. They are hoping to be restored as the favored nation, but God says, “It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Paul had to give up a promising career as a Pharisee to become an apostle (and what is an apostle but a wandering beggar? It seems impressive now, because of where God’s will took him. At the time it was about as low as a person could go.). John the Baptist had to give up the following he could have had as he pointed the way to Jesus and away from himself.
So too we must give up whatever is tying us down here, even if it seems like the most important thing. We must give up anything that prevents us from doing the will of God: whether an object or a goal or plans or simply our pride. No matter how much time, effort, and money we have invested in this obstacle, not even if we have made it the center and meaning of our lives, if it prevents us from following God, we must cast it aside. And when we give it up, and travel down the way of God’s will, and arrive at heaven, if we should, by some chance turn and look at that precious thing that lies cast aside on the road, we will laugh at ourselves for ever thinking it of any value at all in comparison to God’s love and what he has prepared for us.
January 26, 2013 - Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
2 Timothy 1:1-8 or Titus 1:1-5
Psalm 96:1-3, 7-8, 10
Mark 3:20-21
We are told that “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.’” The original words in Greek here can mean relatives, but it literally means “his own”. Jesus’ own people, his mother and brothers.
Now we know that Jesus did not have any brothers, strictly speaking. The word brothers refers either to his step-brothers from a previous marriage of Joseph or to his cousins who were sometimes called brothers in that culture. We also know that Mary, Jesus’ mother, did not really think that he was out of his mind. She knows that he is God. While she did not understand everything that he did, she did trust him completely. I think that when Jesus’ brothers decided to go, she simply went along because she would never turn down an opportunity to see Jesus.
But what about these brothers? Anyone with a sibling who causes trouble can understand their minds. They are concerned for Jesus, that he will hurt himself or get himself killed. They are also concerned for the family’s reputation. They are going to go find him and “seize him” as the Gospel says, take hold of him, get him under control.
When they arrive they find something very different than what they were evidently expecting. They do not find crowds of people laughing at Jesus. They do not find a small contingent of equally crazy people following him around. They find crowds of sane people listening. They hear his teaching: rather than the crazed rambling they expected. It is beautiful to listen to. They find that one of their brothers, James, has become an apostle of Jesus.
When we look at the world around us, we too might be convinced that God is crazy. There is too much violence and too much suffering. The wicked go unpunished. We might have a temptation to go to God and take hold of him and tell him how he ought to be running the universe. Then we look around and see the whole world, a delicate balance of physical laws and living creatures and free people and realize that we must trust God, simply. We can have faith in him; we do not need to be afraid.
Psalm 96:1-3, 7-8, 10
Mark 3:20-21
We are told that “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.’” The original words in Greek here can mean relatives, but it literally means “his own”. Jesus’ own people, his mother and brothers.
Now we know that Jesus did not have any brothers, strictly speaking. The word brothers refers either to his step-brothers from a previous marriage of Joseph or to his cousins who were sometimes called brothers in that culture. We also know that Mary, Jesus’ mother, did not really think that he was out of his mind. She knows that he is God. While she did not understand everything that he did, she did trust him completely. I think that when Jesus’ brothers decided to go, she simply went along because she would never turn down an opportunity to see Jesus.
But what about these brothers? Anyone with a sibling who causes trouble can understand their minds. They are concerned for Jesus, that he will hurt himself or get himself killed. They are also concerned for the family’s reputation. They are going to go find him and “seize him” as the Gospel says, take hold of him, get him under control.
When they arrive they find something very different than what they were evidently expecting. They do not find crowds of people laughing at Jesus. They do not find a small contingent of equally crazy people following him around. They find crowds of sane people listening. They hear his teaching: rather than the crazed rambling they expected. It is beautiful to listen to. They find that one of their brothers, James, has become an apostle of Jesus.
When we look at the world around us, we too might be convinced that God is crazy. There is too much violence and too much suffering. The wicked go unpunished. We might have a temptation to go to God and take hold of him and tell him how he ought to be running the universe. Then we look around and see the whole world, a delicate balance of physical laws and living creatures and free people and realize that we must trust God, simply. We can have faith in him; we do not need to be afraid.
January 21, 2013 - Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time
Hebrews 5:1-10
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 2:18-22
I can imagine someone with new wine, looking for a place to put it. I cannot imagine someone with a new piece of cloth looking for a cloak that needs patching. Jesus has something new: the truth, the fullness of truth. It is new to us, although it is older than the universe. It is always new because it is eternal. Jesus not only has something new, he is something new. He is the new wine. He is the new cloth. He cannot change himself to fit the world. He must change the world to fit him.
There is a sense in which we are old, worn out. There is no better sign of youth than joy. A young person without joy seems old. An old person with joy seems young again. We are old because we lack joy. Jesus comes and he cannot just be more of the same. His joy is perfect. It is a bit much for us old grouches.
Now we can see a metaphor that Jesus might have used in the 21st century: nobody hates new things like old people. As much as the oldest grouch in the world hates the idea of Twitter, someone without joy hates the idea of a Savior. If we want to imagine how the Pharisees felt about Jesus, we should watch Andy Rooney talk about Facebook.
When Jesus came, and he is new, he insisted that his disciples rejoice while he was with them. No fasting for his disciples, at least not yet. Not until there could be a joyful fast. Indeed, this is the mark of a Christian: a joyful fast, joyful suffering, joyful life. A martyr is not someone who died for Christ; all sorts of people have died for all sorts of stupid things. A martyr is someone who died joyfully.
Whether you are 8 or 80, if you are going to be a Christian, you must be young, you must be filled with joy. Not a fake joy, not an imaginary joy, but a real joy given to us as the first fruit of the Holy Spirit, as the first commandment of God’s will for us in Christ: “Rejoice always.” Only then will we be new wineskins able to hold this new wine.
Psalm 110:1-4
Mark 2:18-22
I can imagine someone with new wine, looking for a place to put it. I cannot imagine someone with a new piece of cloth looking for a cloak that needs patching. Jesus has something new: the truth, the fullness of truth. It is new to us, although it is older than the universe. It is always new because it is eternal. Jesus not only has something new, he is something new. He is the new wine. He is the new cloth. He cannot change himself to fit the world. He must change the world to fit him.
There is a sense in which we are old, worn out. There is no better sign of youth than joy. A young person without joy seems old. An old person with joy seems young again. We are old because we lack joy. Jesus comes and he cannot just be more of the same. His joy is perfect. It is a bit much for us old grouches.
Now we can see a metaphor that Jesus might have used in the 21st century: nobody hates new things like old people. As much as the oldest grouch in the world hates the idea of Twitter, someone without joy hates the idea of a Savior. If we want to imagine how the Pharisees felt about Jesus, we should watch Andy Rooney talk about Facebook.
When Jesus came, and he is new, he insisted that his disciples rejoice while he was with them. No fasting for his disciples, at least not yet. Not until there could be a joyful fast. Indeed, this is the mark of a Christian: a joyful fast, joyful suffering, joyful life. A martyr is not someone who died for Christ; all sorts of people have died for all sorts of stupid things. A martyr is someone who died joyfully.
Whether you are 8 or 80, if you are going to be a Christian, you must be young, you must be filled with joy. Not a fake joy, not an imaginary joy, but a real joy given to us as the first fruit of the Holy Spirit, as the first commandment of God’s will for us in Christ: “Rejoice always.” Only then will we be new wineskins able to hold this new wine.
January 8, 2013 - Second Day after Epiphany
1 John 4:7-10
Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8
Mark 6:34-44
God is love. There is nothing we can do that is so divine as to love. No physical achievement nor any intellectual accomplishment compares to love. A human being should not be valued by what they can do nor by how intelligent they are, but by how much love they have. Indeed, since love is this: not that we love God but that he loves us, a human ought to be valued according to how much God loves them.
Every person is loveable. This is proven because God loves them, no matter how young or old, whether weak or disabled. That is the truth, and we live the truth inasmuch as we love these loveable people. We live a lie when we do not love them even though they are loveable. Sin is a lie. In order to sin, we must pretend that someone is not loveable. If we spent our whole lives in love with everyone and above all in love with God, we would never sin. God created us to be in love. That is the natural state of a human being.
The world loves love. The world is filled with love stories and love songs. The story of Piramus and Thisbe whispering their love for each other is very ancient, and how many other love stories and love songs have been forgotten? So why is there any conflict between God and the world? If God is love and the world loves love, why does the world not love God and every person he loves? If the commandment of God were to stop loving, then the world could say that love is too important. But instead God tells the world to increase its love.
We are afraid to love so much because to love everyone, all the time, would be exhausting. It is more than we can accomplish. But this is love: not that we have loved but that he has loved us. The love comes from him. Even when we love someone else, we are simply letting some of God’s love for them flow through us. What a privilege that he allows us to participate in his love! We become divine as we let love flow freely through us to others. We must not be afraid of the burden of loving others. It only seems like a burden while we fight it. God is the love with which we love if we let him love through us.
Psalm 72:1-4, 7-8
Mark 6:34-44
God is love. There is nothing we can do that is so divine as to love. No physical achievement nor any intellectual accomplishment compares to love. A human being should not be valued by what they can do nor by how intelligent they are, but by how much love they have. Indeed, since love is this: not that we love God but that he loves us, a human ought to be valued according to how much God loves them.
Every person is loveable. This is proven because God loves them, no matter how young or old, whether weak or disabled. That is the truth, and we live the truth inasmuch as we love these loveable people. We live a lie when we do not love them even though they are loveable. Sin is a lie. In order to sin, we must pretend that someone is not loveable. If we spent our whole lives in love with everyone and above all in love with God, we would never sin. God created us to be in love. That is the natural state of a human being.
The world loves love. The world is filled with love stories and love songs. The story of Piramus and Thisbe whispering their love for each other is very ancient, and how many other love stories and love songs have been forgotten? So why is there any conflict between God and the world? If God is love and the world loves love, why does the world not love God and every person he loves? If the commandment of God were to stop loving, then the world could say that love is too important. But instead God tells the world to increase its love.
We are afraid to love so much because to love everyone, all the time, would be exhausting. It is more than we can accomplish. But this is love: not that we have loved but that he has loved us. The love comes from him. Even when we love someone else, we are simply letting some of God’s love for them flow through us. What a privilege that he allows us to participate in his love! We become divine as we let love flow freely through us to others. We must not be afraid of the burden of loving others. It only seems like a burden while we fight it. God is the love with which we love if we let him love through us.
December 6, 2012 - Thursday of the First Week of Advent
Isaiah 26:1-6
Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
Matthew 7:21, 24-27
We could just nod along with our Lord’s analogy today, taking the general idea, not searching for the wisdom that our Lord wants to give us, but how much better it is to look deeper and understand the meaning of the image that our Lord gives us!
Both men in the analogy today see the storm coming. Both men are philosophers. The storm is inevitable, wherever you build your house. The wind, the waves, and the rain are on their way. Both men know this, which is why they are building their houses. We live in a stormy world. Jesus does not say that if we do as he says then the storms will not come. Christians do not suffer less in this world than other people. Christians have the same storms in their lives as anyone else does, but we have rock solid foundation that will stand up to the storm.
Both men in the analogy today build their houses against the storm. I have never built a house, but I can easily imagine that it is a complicated and arduous task. It is not the work of a single day. This fact stresses the foolishness of the fool; he has expended great effort and cost to no purpose. They both see the great destroyer, death, approaching, so they build. What house can be built against death? Many can be built but only one will stand. Every philosophy has tried to build something which cannot be conquered by death, whether meaning or pleasures or knowledge. Only the fullness of truth, however, will stand up to the storm when it comes. Every effort which is founded on partial truths and shifting opinions will show itself weak in the end.
It will be insufficient, when the storm arrives, to have built a great house unless it sits on the true foundation. It will be insufficient, when the waves come crashing, to fight them with whatever seemed right to me at the time. God has come to Earth and revealed what is required to stand, revealed a truth that can serve as a rock-solid foundation. Any effort on our part, even one combining all our skill, intelligence, being, strength, and every good intention, will be as useless as no effort, unless it is founded on the truth as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
Matthew 7:21, 24-27
We could just nod along with our Lord’s analogy today, taking the general idea, not searching for the wisdom that our Lord wants to give us, but how much better it is to look deeper and understand the meaning of the image that our Lord gives us!
Both men in the analogy today see the storm coming. Both men are philosophers. The storm is inevitable, wherever you build your house. The wind, the waves, and the rain are on their way. Both men know this, which is why they are building their houses. We live in a stormy world. Jesus does not say that if we do as he says then the storms will not come. Christians do not suffer less in this world than other people. Christians have the same storms in their lives as anyone else does, but we have rock solid foundation that will stand up to the storm.
Both men in the analogy today build their houses against the storm. I have never built a house, but I can easily imagine that it is a complicated and arduous task. It is not the work of a single day. This fact stresses the foolishness of the fool; he has expended great effort and cost to no purpose. They both see the great destroyer, death, approaching, so they build. What house can be built against death? Many can be built but only one will stand. Every philosophy has tried to build something which cannot be conquered by death, whether meaning or pleasures or knowledge. Only the fullness of truth, however, will stand up to the storm when it comes. Every effort which is founded on partial truths and shifting opinions will show itself weak in the end.
It will be insufficient, when the storm arrives, to have built a great house unless it sits on the true foundation. It will be insufficient, when the waves come crashing, to fight them with whatever seemed right to me at the time. God has come to Earth and revealed what is required to stand, revealed a truth that can serve as a rock-solid foundation. Any effort on our part, even one combining all our skill, intelligence, being, strength, and every good intention, will be as useless as no effort, unless it is founded on the truth as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
October 21, 2012 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45
Jesus is once again reflecting in the Gospel today the reality of objective truth, that there is just this truth about who is going to sit in his right and who is going to sit on his left and he cannot just change that. This is a struggle that we have: objective truth. There is something that is good and something that is bad, and it is difficult for us to do what is good and is difficult for us to not do what is bad. What are we supposed to do about that? Our first inclination is that God should change the truth. He should change what is good and change what is bad so it fits us better, but we know that will not work because we know that what is good is good. Even things like loving each other, helping each other, serving each other: these are difficult too. It is not just that we have some disagreement with God about what morality should be. We actually have difficulty following the morality that we ourselves know to be right, so that even if we know that such and such a thing is objectively good, we cannot do it. Who would argue that we should not serve the poor? Yet how difficult it is to serve the poor, to forget ourselves, to stop being consumed by this culture of consumerism!
The solution to this problem we have where we know what is good but we do not want to do it, is provided for us in the Psalm today. As we repeated over and over, “Lord let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.” This is a beautiful refrain. It sums up everything we need to know about our relationship with God. We have God's relationship with us; we have our relationship to God. The situation is what it is. The truth is the truth and cannot be changed, and we are not very good at following it. God loves us, and he wants us to be with him forever in heaven, so, for his part, he is going to be merciful. “Lord let your mercy be on us.” God is going to do that. I am not going to preach to God here today about being merciful, so we will just let him do that.
The second part is about us, “as we place our trust in you.” That has been the problem since the beginning: trusting in God. All the way back in the beginning, that is what the problem with the fruit was about. God said not to eat it, but Adam and Eve did not trust this command of God. They did not understand the command, so they decided not to obey. What they could have done is just trust. Eve hears that snake talking and decides to trust it instead. Anybody other than God we will trust. We will trust the people on the TV. We will trust politicians. We will trust whatever we happen to be thinking at any given moment. Anybody but God, we will trust. There is something wrong with that. We know there is. Somehow the one being we cannot trust, is the one who loves us perfectly.
If you are looking for someone to trust, what more should you look for than God? He is all-powerful, which means that no one will ever be able to stop him from fulfilling his promises. He is all knowing, which means that he never makes a mistake; he never does anything accidentally; he knows what he is doing; he knows the consequences, now and 2 trillion years from now; he knows what he is doing. Last of all, he loves us. He loves us so much that he died for us, as our first reading says in that interesting prophecy about the coming of Christ, “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity, if he gives his life as an offering for sin” which, when that prophecy was given, who could have imagined how that would be fulfilled? That Jesus Christ would come and live and die for us.
Now, finally we have the proof that we can really trust God. That was the only thing that maybe was left. We know that God can do what he says is going to do, and we know that God knows the right way to do things. Those are both part of the essence of being God, but that last question remains, whose side is he really on? That question was in Eve’s mind, as she was looking at that tree. She remembered that God said not to eat it, but then she wondered, “Whose side is he on? Maybe he is just trying to keep me from becoming as smart and powerful as him?”
That the problem that is faced by James and John in the Gospel today. I am amazed by this question. They go to Jesus and ask him to trust them. They say, “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” This is a loaded question. They cannot even say what it is yet, but they ask Jesus to trust them, and blindly promise to do whatever they ask. Jesus is not going to fall for that. It actually should be the other way around. God should come up to us and say to us, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” He does say that. God comes up to us, and he says, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” We are afraid. We do not want to trust that question. We think, “What if he asks something bad?” Of course, he will not. He is God. He knows what he is talking about. “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” What if he asks us to do something that is bad for us? Whose side is he really on? He died for us. He is on our side. He is not going to use of us. He is not going to have us do something bad for us and then throw us away. He loves us, and not just in a group, not just collectively: he loves us individually, every single one of us. When someone who loves you like that comes up to you and says, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you”, your answer has to be yes. Not just because were afraid of him; not just because he is God so I better do it; but because we know that whatever he asks of us is going to be better than anything we could ever imagine for ourselves. When James and John ask to sit beside Jesus in the kingdom, they are really asking for love and respect. Jesus denied their request and then gave them everything they ever wanted.
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45
Jesus is once again reflecting in the Gospel today the reality of objective truth, that there is just this truth about who is going to sit in his right and who is going to sit on his left and he cannot just change that. This is a struggle that we have: objective truth. There is something that is good and something that is bad, and it is difficult for us to do what is good and is difficult for us to not do what is bad. What are we supposed to do about that? Our first inclination is that God should change the truth. He should change what is good and change what is bad so it fits us better, but we know that will not work because we know that what is good is good. Even things like loving each other, helping each other, serving each other: these are difficult too. It is not just that we have some disagreement with God about what morality should be. We actually have difficulty following the morality that we ourselves know to be right, so that even if we know that such and such a thing is objectively good, we cannot do it. Who would argue that we should not serve the poor? Yet how difficult it is to serve the poor, to forget ourselves, to stop being consumed by this culture of consumerism!
The solution to this problem we have where we know what is good but we do not want to do it, is provided for us in the Psalm today. As we repeated over and over, “Lord let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.” This is a beautiful refrain. It sums up everything we need to know about our relationship with God. We have God's relationship with us; we have our relationship to God. The situation is what it is. The truth is the truth and cannot be changed, and we are not very good at following it. God loves us, and he wants us to be with him forever in heaven, so, for his part, he is going to be merciful. “Lord let your mercy be on us.” God is going to do that. I am not going to preach to God here today about being merciful, so we will just let him do that.
The second part is about us, “as we place our trust in you.” That has been the problem since the beginning: trusting in God. All the way back in the beginning, that is what the problem with the fruit was about. God said not to eat it, but Adam and Eve did not trust this command of God. They did not understand the command, so they decided not to obey. What they could have done is just trust. Eve hears that snake talking and decides to trust it instead. Anybody other than God we will trust. We will trust the people on the TV. We will trust politicians. We will trust whatever we happen to be thinking at any given moment. Anybody but God, we will trust. There is something wrong with that. We know there is. Somehow the one being we cannot trust, is the one who loves us perfectly.
If you are looking for someone to trust, what more should you look for than God? He is all-powerful, which means that no one will ever be able to stop him from fulfilling his promises. He is all knowing, which means that he never makes a mistake; he never does anything accidentally; he knows what he is doing; he knows the consequences, now and 2 trillion years from now; he knows what he is doing. Last of all, he loves us. He loves us so much that he died for us, as our first reading says in that interesting prophecy about the coming of Christ, “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity, if he gives his life as an offering for sin” which, when that prophecy was given, who could have imagined how that would be fulfilled? That Jesus Christ would come and live and die for us.
Now, finally we have the proof that we can really trust God. That was the only thing that maybe was left. We know that God can do what he says is going to do, and we know that God knows the right way to do things. Those are both part of the essence of being God, but that last question remains, whose side is he really on? That question was in Eve’s mind, as she was looking at that tree. She remembered that God said not to eat it, but then she wondered, “Whose side is he on? Maybe he is just trying to keep me from becoming as smart and powerful as him?”
That the problem that is faced by James and John in the Gospel today. I am amazed by this question. They go to Jesus and ask him to trust them. They say, “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” This is a loaded question. They cannot even say what it is yet, but they ask Jesus to trust them, and blindly promise to do whatever they ask. Jesus is not going to fall for that. It actually should be the other way around. God should come up to us and say to us, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” He does say that. God comes up to us, and he says, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” We are afraid. We do not want to trust that question. We think, “What if he asks something bad?” Of course, he will not. He is God. He knows what he is talking about. “I want you to do whatever I ask of you.” What if he asks us to do something that is bad for us? Whose side is he really on? He died for us. He is on our side. He is not going to use of us. He is not going to have us do something bad for us and then throw us away. He loves us, and not just in a group, not just collectively: he loves us individually, every single one of us. When someone who loves you like that comes up to you and says, “I want you to do whatever I ask of you”, your answer has to be yes. Not just because were afraid of him; not just because he is God so I better do it; but because we know that whatever he asks of us is going to be better than anything we could ever imagine for ourselves. When James and John ask to sit beside Jesus in the kingdom, they are really asking for love and respect. Jesus denied their request and then gave them everything they ever wanted.
October 7, 2012 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm 128:1-6
Hebrews 2:9-11
Mark 10:2-16
So the election is in less than a month. Let me begin by saying what I am not going to say: I am not going to tell you who to vote for. When I was ordained, the bishop handed me the book of the Gospels and he said, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, practice what you teach.” That is why I am called to do, and nowhere in the Gospels does it specify who you should vote for. I suppose in order for me to say that, there would have to be somebody on the ballot who perfectly exemplified the Gospel like Jesus or Mary. If they were running, I would endorse them. I am also not going to talk about a specific issue, like what the capital gains tax rate should be. First of all, because I have no idea. Secondly, because it does not say anywhere in the Gospel what it should be. It does say to pay your taxes, and it says to take care of the poor, but it is for the experts to determine how to apply these principles into specific laws.
But then, in this Gospel today, there is an issue. It is right here, and those of you who know how this works, know that it is not as if we choose the readings each week and read whatever we feel like. It says right here: the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B, which happens to be this Sunday in this year. It is a cycle, and we flip to this page, and it is time to read this reading. It is not as if we wanted to talk about marriage this weekend, but God in his wisdom, in the cycle given to us by the Church, has given this to us, and I would be remiss if I read this reading without talking about marriage. I would be failing in my mandate, if we did not talk about it.
But it is very difficult. Just last Sunday someone told me that they have two nephews who are both gay, and “God doesn't make trash.” That is so true. He does not. Every single person is a child of God. Everyone is loved by God, and therefore has a right to our love. If it seems as if anything the Catholic Church has ever said suggests that we think that people are trash, then we are saying it wrong or people are hearing it wrong somehow. Hatred of people is not the truth.
Nevertheless, we have to be faithful to the truth. There are some obvious truths. I am not talking about political opinions. I mean obvious, factual, indisputable truths: male and female go together in a way that male and male do not. This is indisputable. If anyone disagrees, they are lying to themselves. I am not saying yet where to go with that; I am just saying that we should begin with the truth, because if we do not begin with the truth, where are we going to end up? Another indisputable truth is that the foundation of marriage is sex. That is not all marriage is, but I am not married to my best friend; I am not married to someone I like to go on vacation with. What makes people married is that act that only a man and a woman can do, and the children that come from it.
We start with these two truths, and we come to the indisputable truth that marriage is for male and female. As Jesus says in the Gospel today, “In the beginning God made them male and female.” So, on some level the ballot question that is before you this November is asking whether to two plus two equals four. We have to say yes. Whether marriage is between a male and female is not a matter of opinion. It is obvious, biological fact.
Still, something stops us, because even though two plus two equals four, when I see a person made in the image of God, who am I to tell them what to do? Why complicate the Gospel that we preach with this question? I know that two plus two equals four, but they think it is five, and if they want to, then they can, right? I think that this is where a lot of people are right now. Even though the truth is obvious, there is a desire to simply say, “Well, whatever!” When I think of the time and energy and money we have spent on this question, particularly this year, I realize that it could have just been spent on telling people that Jesus loves them, which people like to hear.
But this is what Jesus is saying in the Gospel today. You cannot just say something is okay even if it is wrong. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. We have to stay with the truth. When asked a fundamental question about truth, we have to acknowledge the truth. Jesus says today that when Moses was writing the law, he set up some rules for divorce. Why did he do that? Jesus says that it was because of the hardness of their hearts, because Moses knew that the people would not accept a law that simply forbid divorce, so he wrote some laws about divorce, such as a man cannot just abandon the woman and have her starve to death, which is what would have happened in that culture; he has to provide for her in certain ways. There is a certain wisdom to these laws, but now Jesus has come and it is time for the truth. The truth is that there is no divorce, and that is a hard truth. What God has joined together no human being should separate. It is more complicated. We have to know first what God has joined together, the question of annulments, but if we do not start with the truth, where are we going to end up? In this election year, I do not care who you vote for. That is for you to decide. There are complications about this person and that person, what they support, what they support. But when you get to that last question, and it says, “Is Marriage a relationship between a man and a woman?”, you have to answer yes. What can you put there other than the truth?
Psalm 128:1-6
Hebrews 2:9-11
Mark 10:2-16
So the election is in less than a month. Let me begin by saying what I am not going to say: I am not going to tell you who to vote for. When I was ordained, the bishop handed me the book of the Gospels and he said, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, practice what you teach.” That is why I am called to do, and nowhere in the Gospels does it specify who you should vote for. I suppose in order for me to say that, there would have to be somebody on the ballot who perfectly exemplified the Gospel like Jesus or Mary. If they were running, I would endorse them. I am also not going to talk about a specific issue, like what the capital gains tax rate should be. First of all, because I have no idea. Secondly, because it does not say anywhere in the Gospel what it should be. It does say to pay your taxes, and it says to take care of the poor, but it is for the experts to determine how to apply these principles into specific laws.
But then, in this Gospel today, there is an issue. It is right here, and those of you who know how this works, know that it is not as if we choose the readings each week and read whatever we feel like. It says right here: the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B, which happens to be this Sunday in this year. It is a cycle, and we flip to this page, and it is time to read this reading. It is not as if we wanted to talk about marriage this weekend, but God in his wisdom, in the cycle given to us by the Church, has given this to us, and I would be remiss if I read this reading without talking about marriage. I would be failing in my mandate, if we did not talk about it.
But it is very difficult. Just last Sunday someone told me that they have two nephews who are both gay, and “God doesn't make trash.” That is so true. He does not. Every single person is a child of God. Everyone is loved by God, and therefore has a right to our love. If it seems as if anything the Catholic Church has ever said suggests that we think that people are trash, then we are saying it wrong or people are hearing it wrong somehow. Hatred of people is not the truth.
Nevertheless, we have to be faithful to the truth. There are some obvious truths. I am not talking about political opinions. I mean obvious, factual, indisputable truths: male and female go together in a way that male and male do not. This is indisputable. If anyone disagrees, they are lying to themselves. I am not saying yet where to go with that; I am just saying that we should begin with the truth, because if we do not begin with the truth, where are we going to end up? Another indisputable truth is that the foundation of marriage is sex. That is not all marriage is, but I am not married to my best friend; I am not married to someone I like to go on vacation with. What makes people married is that act that only a man and a woman can do, and the children that come from it.
We start with these two truths, and we come to the indisputable truth that marriage is for male and female. As Jesus says in the Gospel today, “In the beginning God made them male and female.” So, on some level the ballot question that is before you this November is asking whether to two plus two equals four. We have to say yes. Whether marriage is between a male and female is not a matter of opinion. It is obvious, biological fact.
Still, something stops us, because even though two plus two equals four, when I see a person made in the image of God, who am I to tell them what to do? Why complicate the Gospel that we preach with this question? I know that two plus two equals four, but they think it is five, and if they want to, then they can, right? I think that this is where a lot of people are right now. Even though the truth is obvious, there is a desire to simply say, “Well, whatever!” When I think of the time and energy and money we have spent on this question, particularly this year, I realize that it could have just been spent on telling people that Jesus loves them, which people like to hear.
But this is what Jesus is saying in the Gospel today. You cannot just say something is okay even if it is wrong. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. We have to stay with the truth. When asked a fundamental question about truth, we have to acknowledge the truth. Jesus says today that when Moses was writing the law, he set up some rules for divorce. Why did he do that? Jesus says that it was because of the hardness of their hearts, because Moses knew that the people would not accept a law that simply forbid divorce, so he wrote some laws about divorce, such as a man cannot just abandon the woman and have her starve to death, which is what would have happened in that culture; he has to provide for her in certain ways. There is a certain wisdom to these laws, but now Jesus has come and it is time for the truth. The truth is that there is no divorce, and that is a hard truth. What God has joined together no human being should separate. It is more complicated. We have to know first what God has joined together, the question of annulments, but if we do not start with the truth, where are we going to end up? In this election year, I do not care who you vote for. That is for you to decide. There are complications about this person and that person, what they support, what they support. But when you get to that last question, and it says, “Is Marriage a relationship between a man and a woman?”, you have to answer yes. What can you put there other than the truth?
September 2, 2012 - Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8
Psalm 15:2-5
James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Jesus told the crowd, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person, but the things that come out from within are what defile.” We may want to question Jesus as his disciples did. We might begin questioning him about bacteria and parasites, or, if we take his words more spiritually, then we should ask about bad entertainment full of violence and sex. It is absolutely necessary for a Christian to keep custody of their eyes and ears. Those who try to follow Christ and then watch a lot of popular entertainment deceive themselves.
What are we to think then? Was our Lord so naïve? Not at all! Jesus is not concerning himself now with questions of basic hygiene, nor even whether anything that we put into our bodies or minds is good or bad for us. The word he uses here that is translated as “defile” is a very technical word for the Jews, referencing uncleanness. Certain illnesses made a person unclean. Shrimp and pork were unclean. We should not confuse “unclean” with either sinful or dirty. We should think more about our feeling if we were served spider for dinner. There is no logical reason why a spider is a worse animal to eat than a pig, but I do not want it. I could not eat it. It is unclean to me.
The laws on uncleanness are developed very early in the Old Testament, and they built on cultural ideas of what is disgusting or not that existed long before the law. God used disgust, which is natural to us humans, to teach his people about good and bad. The laws of the Old Testament seem to be handed on to Moses directly from the Lord, but they are not perfect expressions of God’s will. Jesus admits as much when he explains why the law about divorce no longer applies. In the Mosaic law, a man must give his wife a bill of divorce. This was because men did in reality divorce their wives, and it was better that there be some structure for the sake of the woman rather than just leaving her abandoned without the freedom to seek a new husband. If there is going to be divorce, then the men ought to give their wives bills of divorce, but as Jesus teaches, there really should not be divorce at all.
So there is truth, but then there are also deeper truths. The law is true, but Jesus revealed deeper truths that make some parts of the law inapplicable today. Throughout the early books of the Bible, there is constant reference to what is clean and what is unclean. Some of it makes sense to us, why a sick person or a moldy shirt would be unclean, and some of it does not, why a woman after giving birth is unclean for one week if it is a boy and two weeks if it is a girl. But then, as the Old Testament progresses, over the next thousand years, we begin to see references to a “clean heart”, which begins to spiritualize the concept. People are invited to look within themselves and see whether they find anything disgusting in their hearts. So the law is indeed “wise and intelligent” as Moses says in the first reading. It is indeed just and worthy of being observed carefully. It takes account of where the people are and leads them to a new level of understanding over many generations. How could anyone find fault with a law when they are judging it by the standards that developed over time because of that very law?
Jesus completes this development in the Gospel today. True cleanliness does not come from handwashing before every meal. True cleanliness is a soul completely dedicated to God. If Jesus were here now, giving us his teaching in our 21st century context, he might say it this way, “What do you find disgusting? That man over there, who hasn’t showered this month, who’s picking his nose as he digs through the dumpster behind McDonald’s looking for half-eaten food? Do you want to know what’s really disgusting? Evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”
So St. James says in the second reading today. He says that religion which is pure and undefiled means caring for the weak and keeping yourself unstained by the world. This is a great distance from a purity that was concerned with keeping different fabrics separated and a consideration of cleanliness that involved ritual washing of hands and not eating pork. According to St. James, the uncleanest thing, the most repulsive act, is to hear the words of the Gospel and fail to put them into practice. What is more disgusting than a dead and rotting thing? And the more precious it was, the more repulsive it is to see it dead and rotting. What is more precious than the Christian faith? Without constant exercise, it becomes dead and decayed and disgusting.
We want to keep our faith alive. Have you ever seen someone in whom the faith is so alive and active that they amaze you? How much more should the words of Moses apply to us Christians today. He says that the Lord God was close to the Hebrews, but he is closer to us: he dwells within our hearts. Moses says that the other nations should look at Israel and say “This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.” How much more should other people look at us and say, “Those Christians are so loving and so alive! I want what they have!”
Since unclean means repulsive, clean means the opposite: attractive. If our religion were undefiled, it would be so attractive that the whole world would join. People leave the Church because they see uncleanness in it, and people join the Church because they see something attractive. We are very limited in our ability to eliminate all the uncleanness in the Church, all the hypocrisy and evil doing, but we are unlimited in our ability to become something clean of all that, something attractive. How many people joined the Church just because they saw Blessed Theresa of Calcutta? How many people joined the Church just because they saw St. Francis of Assisi? Or even just heard stories about him 800 years later? A person like that is far more convincing than any argument or slogan. What would happen if we, you and I, decided today to live undefiled lives, to become Saints? We would change the world.
Psalm 15:2-5
James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Jesus told the crowd, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person, but the things that come out from within are what defile.” We may want to question Jesus as his disciples did. We might begin questioning him about bacteria and parasites, or, if we take his words more spiritually, then we should ask about bad entertainment full of violence and sex. It is absolutely necessary for a Christian to keep custody of their eyes and ears. Those who try to follow Christ and then watch a lot of popular entertainment deceive themselves.
What are we to think then? Was our Lord so naïve? Not at all! Jesus is not concerning himself now with questions of basic hygiene, nor even whether anything that we put into our bodies or minds is good or bad for us. The word he uses here that is translated as “defile” is a very technical word for the Jews, referencing uncleanness. Certain illnesses made a person unclean. Shrimp and pork were unclean. We should not confuse “unclean” with either sinful or dirty. We should think more about our feeling if we were served spider for dinner. There is no logical reason why a spider is a worse animal to eat than a pig, but I do not want it. I could not eat it. It is unclean to me.
The laws on uncleanness are developed very early in the Old Testament, and they built on cultural ideas of what is disgusting or not that existed long before the law. God used disgust, which is natural to us humans, to teach his people about good and bad. The laws of the Old Testament seem to be handed on to Moses directly from the Lord, but they are not perfect expressions of God’s will. Jesus admits as much when he explains why the law about divorce no longer applies. In the Mosaic law, a man must give his wife a bill of divorce. This was because men did in reality divorce their wives, and it was better that there be some structure for the sake of the woman rather than just leaving her abandoned without the freedom to seek a new husband. If there is going to be divorce, then the men ought to give their wives bills of divorce, but as Jesus teaches, there really should not be divorce at all.
So there is truth, but then there are also deeper truths. The law is true, but Jesus revealed deeper truths that make some parts of the law inapplicable today. Throughout the early books of the Bible, there is constant reference to what is clean and what is unclean. Some of it makes sense to us, why a sick person or a moldy shirt would be unclean, and some of it does not, why a woman after giving birth is unclean for one week if it is a boy and two weeks if it is a girl. But then, as the Old Testament progresses, over the next thousand years, we begin to see references to a “clean heart”, which begins to spiritualize the concept. People are invited to look within themselves and see whether they find anything disgusting in their hearts. So the law is indeed “wise and intelligent” as Moses says in the first reading. It is indeed just and worthy of being observed carefully. It takes account of where the people are and leads them to a new level of understanding over many generations. How could anyone find fault with a law when they are judging it by the standards that developed over time because of that very law?
Jesus completes this development in the Gospel today. True cleanliness does not come from handwashing before every meal. True cleanliness is a soul completely dedicated to God. If Jesus were here now, giving us his teaching in our 21st century context, he might say it this way, “What do you find disgusting? That man over there, who hasn’t showered this month, who’s picking his nose as he digs through the dumpster behind McDonald’s looking for half-eaten food? Do you want to know what’s really disgusting? Evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.”
So St. James says in the second reading today. He says that religion which is pure and undefiled means caring for the weak and keeping yourself unstained by the world. This is a great distance from a purity that was concerned with keeping different fabrics separated and a consideration of cleanliness that involved ritual washing of hands and not eating pork. According to St. James, the uncleanest thing, the most repulsive act, is to hear the words of the Gospel and fail to put them into practice. What is more disgusting than a dead and rotting thing? And the more precious it was, the more repulsive it is to see it dead and rotting. What is more precious than the Christian faith? Without constant exercise, it becomes dead and decayed and disgusting.
We want to keep our faith alive. Have you ever seen someone in whom the faith is so alive and active that they amaze you? How much more should the words of Moses apply to us Christians today. He says that the Lord God was close to the Hebrews, but he is closer to us: he dwells within our hearts. Moses says that the other nations should look at Israel and say “This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.” How much more should other people look at us and say, “Those Christians are so loving and so alive! I want what they have!”
Since unclean means repulsive, clean means the opposite: attractive. If our religion were undefiled, it would be so attractive that the whole world would join. People leave the Church because they see uncleanness in it, and people join the Church because they see something attractive. We are very limited in our ability to eliminate all the uncleanness in the Church, all the hypocrisy and evil doing, but we are unlimited in our ability to become something clean of all that, something attractive. How many people joined the Church just because they saw Blessed Theresa of Calcutta? How many people joined the Church just because they saw St. Francis of Assisi? Or even just heard stories about him 800 years later? A person like that is far more convincing than any argument or slogan. What would happen if we, you and I, decided today to live undefiled lives, to become Saints? We would change the world.
August 28, 2012 - Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, 14-17
Psalm 96:10-13
Matthew 23:23-26
I do not know whether the first reading was cut just to make it short, or if there was some concern about people misunderstanding its contents, but the whole middle of the reading is missing, and we cannot understand the rest without the middle. St. Paul is talking about the Antichrist. He says that the Thessalonians should not be disturbed by rumors about the coming of Christ because the Antichrist has not shown up yet, and he has to come first. St. Paul says that the Antichrist will come, and then Jesus Christ will come and defeat him. There is no question about who will win in the end, but it has to look first like the Antichrist is winning.
Why? Because, St. Paul says, the Antichrist will come and lie to the world and all the people who do not love the truth will believe the lies. These people do not love the truth because the truth says that what they do with their lives is wrong, and they would rather keep approving of what is wrong that admit to what is true. So they choose lies that permit them to do what they want rather than be limited to the truth. We know what that is all about. People would rather approve of homosexuality than admit the obvious truth that a man and a woman are meant for each other in a way that a man and a man are not. People would rather approve of greed than admit the obvious truth that poor people are not just another thing to use in the pursuit of money.
But the Thessalonians have believed the truth so they will be made holy by the Holy Spirit so that they can be saved. To this end, God has called them through the preaching of the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What about you then? Has God called you through the preaching of the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? If so, then you have to drop the lies, believe the truth, change your life, and be saved. This is the reasonable response. On the one hand, we have the glory of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we have whatever sin it is that is holding us down. We have to pick. If we pick the truth, the Holy Spirit will give us the power to live it.
Psalm 96:10-13
Matthew 23:23-26
I do not know whether the first reading was cut just to make it short, or if there was some concern about people misunderstanding its contents, but the whole middle of the reading is missing, and we cannot understand the rest without the middle. St. Paul is talking about the Antichrist. He says that the Thessalonians should not be disturbed by rumors about the coming of Christ because the Antichrist has not shown up yet, and he has to come first. St. Paul says that the Antichrist will come, and then Jesus Christ will come and defeat him. There is no question about who will win in the end, but it has to look first like the Antichrist is winning.
Why? Because, St. Paul says, the Antichrist will come and lie to the world and all the people who do not love the truth will believe the lies. These people do not love the truth because the truth says that what they do with their lives is wrong, and they would rather keep approving of what is wrong that admit to what is true. So they choose lies that permit them to do what they want rather than be limited to the truth. We know what that is all about. People would rather approve of homosexuality than admit the obvious truth that a man and a woman are meant for each other in a way that a man and a man are not. People would rather approve of greed than admit the obvious truth that poor people are not just another thing to use in the pursuit of money.
But the Thessalonians have believed the truth so they will be made holy by the Holy Spirit so that they can be saved. To this end, God has called them through the preaching of the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What about you then? Has God called you through the preaching of the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? If so, then you have to drop the lies, believe the truth, change your life, and be saved. This is the reasonable response. On the one hand, we have the glory of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we have whatever sin it is that is holding us down. We have to pick. If we pick the truth, the Holy Spirit will give us the power to live it.
August 3, 2012 - Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 26:1-9
Psalm 69:5, 8-10, 14
Matthew 13:54-58
We have had particular reason lately to sympathize with Jeremiah and the other prophets who were condemned for their unpopular messages. In every age the prophetic word is despised. We love but we are accused of hate. We condemn no one, yet we are condemned as judgmental. We courageously say the obvious but unpopular truth, but are called phobic and fearful.
But we understand that it is no different than in the time of Jeremiah. He warned the people to follow the Lord lest their city be destroyed. They are angry that he would speak of their city being destroyed, as if his very point were not to prevent that from happening. He tries to save Jerusalem and is called the destroyer of the city. So too Jesus returns home. He teaches the people with wisdom and mighty signs of power, proving that he is not just the son of a carpenter, but the people take offense at him because the son of a carpenter should not be working miracles all over the country.
Evil tends to be all mixed up. Sometimes the devil accuses us of that very thing which we know we are guilty of and has power over us because he knows our sins, but often, it seems, the accusation is such mixed up nonsense that it would seem to have no power except that all the people agree that the nonsense is reason.
So a certain wicked man accused Blessed Theresa of Calcutta of not caring for the poor because she did not run for political office, he accused her of not caring for the dying because she did not provide medical care in the slums of Calcutta, he accused her of not respecting the people because she often baptized them. She did nothing he wanted her to do. She merely carried the dying poor from the gutters and streets to a home where she bathed their wounds and talked to them and brought them into fellowship with the Church, making them her brothers and sisters, from untouchable to children of God.
So too the Church is accused of hating women because she is opposed to drugs and surgeries that by their nature reveal a hatred of the female body. And she is accused of hating sex because we believe that sex is so important that it must begin with a solemn public ceremony binding the pair until death. The nonsense is repeated again and again, and people believe it.
Psalm 69:5, 8-10, 14
Matthew 13:54-58
We have had particular reason lately to sympathize with Jeremiah and the other prophets who were condemned for their unpopular messages. In every age the prophetic word is despised. We love but we are accused of hate. We condemn no one, yet we are condemned as judgmental. We courageously say the obvious but unpopular truth, but are called phobic and fearful.
But we understand that it is no different than in the time of Jeremiah. He warned the people to follow the Lord lest their city be destroyed. They are angry that he would speak of their city being destroyed, as if his very point were not to prevent that from happening. He tries to save Jerusalem and is called the destroyer of the city. So too Jesus returns home. He teaches the people with wisdom and mighty signs of power, proving that he is not just the son of a carpenter, but the people take offense at him because the son of a carpenter should not be working miracles all over the country.
Evil tends to be all mixed up. Sometimes the devil accuses us of that very thing which we know we are guilty of and has power over us because he knows our sins, but often, it seems, the accusation is such mixed up nonsense that it would seem to have no power except that all the people agree that the nonsense is reason.
So a certain wicked man accused Blessed Theresa of Calcutta of not caring for the poor because she did not run for political office, he accused her of not caring for the dying because she did not provide medical care in the slums of Calcutta, he accused her of not respecting the people because she often baptized them. She did nothing he wanted her to do. She merely carried the dying poor from the gutters and streets to a home where she bathed their wounds and talked to them and brought them into fellowship with the Church, making them her brothers and sisters, from untouchable to children of God.
So too the Church is accused of hating women because she is opposed to drugs and surgeries that by their nature reveal a hatred of the female body. And she is accused of hating sex because we believe that sex is so important that it must begin with a solemn public ceremony binding the pair until death. The nonsense is repeated again and again, and people believe it.
July 5, 2012 - Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Amos 7:10-17
Psalm 19:8-11
Matthew 9:1-8
The prophet Amos in the first reading is speaking the word of the Lord, but the priest Amaziah doubts whether it is really the word of the Lord. The problem of Amaziah is one that we can sympathize with: the word of the Lord is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey, but how do we recognize it when it comes?
Because we know that evil people and misguided people are quick to say that their own ideas are the will of God. Politicians like to speak for God. So also many people with strong opinions like to claim that their own words are the words of the Lord. How was Amaziah supposed to know that Amos was a prophet and not just an annoying person?
I suppose that there was not really anyway to know, not until the words came true. When Israel was invaded and the city destroyed, then Amaziah knew that Amos was a prophet. Perhaps this is not the most convenient way to find out that a prophecy is true. It would be more helpful to believe the prophecy before the invasion, but that is not the point of prophecy. Prophecy does not exist as a form of fortune-telling.
When the prophecy came true, people remembered the prophecy and then they knew that God was always aware of what was going on. This is the first use of prophecy: to prove that God knows everything, even the future.
But even before the prophecy was fulfilled, anyone could look at the prophecy and see whether it was true. Amos said that the invasion would come because Israel was cruel and merciless. Amaziah should not have been so concerned with whether the invasion would come. He should have considered whether the charge was true. Had Israel in fact become cruel and merciless? This is the second use of prophecy: to convict us about the present reality.
Amos came to Israel to remind them that they did not become a nation by their own power. They were a people in covenant with God. Though the rest of the world sinned and got away with it, Israel could not exist if they were not in relationship with God. If we forget where we have come from, it is easier to act as if we were our own gods. This is the third use of prophecy: to remind us of the past and our own history.
Psalm 19:8-11
Matthew 9:1-8
The prophet Amos in the first reading is speaking the word of the Lord, but the priest Amaziah doubts whether it is really the word of the Lord. The problem of Amaziah is one that we can sympathize with: the word of the Lord is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey, but how do we recognize it when it comes?
Because we know that evil people and misguided people are quick to say that their own ideas are the will of God. Politicians like to speak for God. So also many people with strong opinions like to claim that their own words are the words of the Lord. How was Amaziah supposed to know that Amos was a prophet and not just an annoying person?
I suppose that there was not really anyway to know, not until the words came true. When Israel was invaded and the city destroyed, then Amaziah knew that Amos was a prophet. Perhaps this is not the most convenient way to find out that a prophecy is true. It would be more helpful to believe the prophecy before the invasion, but that is not the point of prophecy. Prophecy does not exist as a form of fortune-telling.
When the prophecy came true, people remembered the prophecy and then they knew that God was always aware of what was going on. This is the first use of prophecy: to prove that God knows everything, even the future.
But even before the prophecy was fulfilled, anyone could look at the prophecy and see whether it was true. Amos said that the invasion would come because Israel was cruel and merciless. Amaziah should not have been so concerned with whether the invasion would come. He should have considered whether the charge was true. Had Israel in fact become cruel and merciless? This is the second use of prophecy: to convict us about the present reality.
Amos came to Israel to remind them that they did not become a nation by their own power. They were a people in covenant with God. Though the rest of the world sinned and got away with it, Israel could not exist if they were not in relationship with God. If we forget where we have come from, it is easier to act as if we were our own gods. This is the third use of prophecy: to remind us of the past and our own history.
June 23, 2012 - Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
2 Chronicles 24:17-25
Psalm 89:4-5, 29-34
Matthew 6:24-34
Yesterday we read about how Athaliah, the evil queen, was killing her family so that she could hold on to power, but little baby Joash is hidden in the temple so that his grandmother cannot kill him. He grows up until age 7, then they crown him king and kill Athaliah. A happy ending? No, because King Joash was not a great king. Today we hear that King Joash, all grown up, repays the priest who saved him by killing his son. Killing innocent people is wicked, but killing the innocent son of someone who saved your life is beyond merely wicked.
What led King Joash to this atrocious action, killing Zechariah the priest? It was because Zechariah stood up and told the people that they were doing wrong by worshipping idols. People hate it when others people tell them that they are doing wrong. King Herod killed John the Baptist because he pointed out that sleeping with your brother’s wife is wrong. The clearest example of course is Jesus himself who was killed because his entire existence was an accusation to the sinners who saw how he lived, unless they were willing to be forgiven.
So should we be afraid to speak? We may not be killed, but we will be scorned. “How dare you judge me?” If we go around announcing what is right and wrong, we are making the world an unpleasant place. Our culture tells us that we ought to be quiet. And our culture is convincing. I do not want to be an unpleasant, offensive person.
Nevertheless, I must speak the truth. If 2 plus 2 is 4, then I cannot say that 2 plus 2 is 5. I do not need to announce this truth of math every moment of life, but if I see that the world believes that 2 plus 2 is 7, then I have an obligation to periodically announce the truth. I do not have the right to keep the truth to myself.
I believe that Zechariah was silent for a long time. Perhaps he said a little here and a little there, but the day came when he had no choice left but to stand on the balcony and tell the people that they were going the wrong way. We do not need to scream at every person we meet, but the time will come when we must stand up among the crowd and tell them the truth.
Psalm 89:4-5, 29-34
Matthew 6:24-34
Yesterday we read about how Athaliah, the evil queen, was killing her family so that she could hold on to power, but little baby Joash is hidden in the temple so that his grandmother cannot kill him. He grows up until age 7, then they crown him king and kill Athaliah. A happy ending? No, because King Joash was not a great king. Today we hear that King Joash, all grown up, repays the priest who saved him by killing his son. Killing innocent people is wicked, but killing the innocent son of someone who saved your life is beyond merely wicked.
What led King Joash to this atrocious action, killing Zechariah the priest? It was because Zechariah stood up and told the people that they were doing wrong by worshipping idols. People hate it when others people tell them that they are doing wrong. King Herod killed John the Baptist because he pointed out that sleeping with your brother’s wife is wrong. The clearest example of course is Jesus himself who was killed because his entire existence was an accusation to the sinners who saw how he lived, unless they were willing to be forgiven.
So should we be afraid to speak? We may not be killed, but we will be scorned. “How dare you judge me?” If we go around announcing what is right and wrong, we are making the world an unpleasant place. Our culture tells us that we ought to be quiet. And our culture is convincing. I do not want to be an unpleasant, offensive person.
Nevertheless, I must speak the truth. If 2 plus 2 is 4, then I cannot say that 2 plus 2 is 5. I do not need to announce this truth of math every moment of life, but if I see that the world believes that 2 plus 2 is 7, then I have an obligation to periodically announce the truth. I do not have the right to keep the truth to myself.
I believe that Zechariah was silent for a long time. Perhaps he said a little here and a little there, but the day came when he had no choice left but to stand on the balcony and tell the people that they were going the wrong way. We do not need to scream at every person we meet, but the time will come when we must stand up among the crowd and tell them the truth.
May 31, 2012 - Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Zephaniah 3:14-18 or Romans 12:9-16
Isaiah 12:2-6
Luke 1:39-56
Can you name all the people involved in today’s Gospel? We have, first of all, Mary, the Mother of God. Within her womb is Jesus, still only an embryo. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, whom she has come to visit, is present, along with John the Baptist, her son, who is still within her. The Holy Spirit is present, because Elizabeth is “filled with the Holy Spirit”. The Father is present, not only because, as God, he is always and everywhere present, but also because the Father is always present when the Son and the Holy Spirit are present.
So it is that there are six people in today’s Gospel: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Mary, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist. An external observer of the occasion would only see two women talking. So it is in our everyday life. We consider only the external, only what is seen. Unseen realities are no less real. Proof of this blindness is the fact that we consider a mother killing a child who has been born to be a worse crime than a mother killing a child who has not been born. We forget that existence is not dependent on our own perspective.
So in this moment, as we are gathered here today, we ought to consider who is actually present among us right now. We have gathered here in Jesus’ name, so we know, according to his promise, that he is present here among us. So too is the Holy Spirit, who is present in the soul of every confirmed Christian. So too is the Father, who is always present along with his Son and Holy Spirit. Also present here right now are all the saints and angels of heaven. They are with God, and God is here.
There are demons here too. Wherever sinful humanity is, the demons who would like to see us abandon God and go to Hell are present too. There is a spiritual battle going on in the invisible world. The existence of this battle is not dependent on whether we can see it. Just as all the people on the other side of the world go on living their lives even when we are not paying attention, so too this battle is fought every day as we live naively ignorant. Someday we will see things as they really are, and we will be amazed at what has been happening all around us.
Isaiah 12:2-6
Luke 1:39-56
Can you name all the people involved in today’s Gospel? We have, first of all, Mary, the Mother of God. Within her womb is Jesus, still only an embryo. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin, whom she has come to visit, is present, along with John the Baptist, her son, who is still within her. The Holy Spirit is present, because Elizabeth is “filled with the Holy Spirit”. The Father is present, not only because, as God, he is always and everywhere present, but also because the Father is always present when the Son and the Holy Spirit are present.
So it is that there are six people in today’s Gospel: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Mary, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist. An external observer of the occasion would only see two women talking. So it is in our everyday life. We consider only the external, only what is seen. Unseen realities are no less real. Proof of this blindness is the fact that we consider a mother killing a child who has been born to be a worse crime than a mother killing a child who has not been born. We forget that existence is not dependent on our own perspective.
So in this moment, as we are gathered here today, we ought to consider who is actually present among us right now. We have gathered here in Jesus’ name, so we know, according to his promise, that he is present here among us. So too is the Holy Spirit, who is present in the soul of every confirmed Christian. So too is the Father, who is always present along with his Son and Holy Spirit. Also present here right now are all the saints and angels of heaven. They are with God, and God is here.
There are demons here too. Wherever sinful humanity is, the demons who would like to see us abandon God and go to Hell are present too. There is a spiritual battle going on in the invisible world. The existence of this battle is not dependent on whether we can see it. Just as all the people on the other side of the world go on living their lives even when we are not paying attention, so too this battle is fought every day as we live naively ignorant. Someday we will see things as they really are, and we will be amazed at what has been happening all around us.
May 12, 2012 - Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 16:1-10
Psalm 100:1-3, 5
John 15:18-21
Not only in our Gospel reading today but in many other places, Jesus makes it clear that the world is going to hate his disciples. He is so adamant about this that we can be sure that if the world hates us we are doing well, and if the world loves us we are doing something wrong, but this benchmark requires some clarification. What kind of hatred exactly is a good sign? If we are obnoxious, the world will hate us too. The world hates many things; not all of them are good.
There are those who are always taking the “common sense position” which means the position that most people are going to take. They are not rooted in the truth, so they float wherever the prevailing winds take them. A disciple of Jesus Christ is not like this. We are attached to the truth. Anything which tries to pull us away from the truth will hate us because we will not go.
The hatred of the world is frustration and anger. The world tried to conquer but failed, so it throws a temper tantrum. What we want to inspire in the world is not just hatred at us because we are mean and selfish but confusion because we are not. Many people have made peace with the world because they were convinced that they could not be good or that there was no such thing as good. The true disciple of Jesus is a living contradiction to the world.
Mother Theresa is a perfect case study for this question. She was loved by the vast majority of people. She did not compromise the truth to make this happen. She freely preached against abortion and other evils. Still there were those who hated her. One man wrote a book filled with lies arguing that she was a terrible person. The world does not refer to the majority of people, nor even to any group of people rather than another. The world refers to the love of sin which lives in our own souls.
The people that a Christian should delight to be hated by are those who have embraced sin and made their attachment to sin public. Above all, each Christian should see a war within themselves. An excellent sign that we are doing well is when a part of us, the old self, hates the new life we are living, even though we are truly happy.
Psalm 100:1-3, 5
John 15:18-21
Not only in our Gospel reading today but in many other places, Jesus makes it clear that the world is going to hate his disciples. He is so adamant about this that we can be sure that if the world hates us we are doing well, and if the world loves us we are doing something wrong, but this benchmark requires some clarification. What kind of hatred exactly is a good sign? If we are obnoxious, the world will hate us too. The world hates many things; not all of them are good.
There are those who are always taking the “common sense position” which means the position that most people are going to take. They are not rooted in the truth, so they float wherever the prevailing winds take them. A disciple of Jesus Christ is not like this. We are attached to the truth. Anything which tries to pull us away from the truth will hate us because we will not go.
The hatred of the world is frustration and anger. The world tried to conquer but failed, so it throws a temper tantrum. What we want to inspire in the world is not just hatred at us because we are mean and selfish but confusion because we are not. Many people have made peace with the world because they were convinced that they could not be good or that there was no such thing as good. The true disciple of Jesus is a living contradiction to the world.
Mother Theresa is a perfect case study for this question. She was loved by the vast majority of people. She did not compromise the truth to make this happen. She freely preached against abortion and other evils. Still there were those who hated her. One man wrote a book filled with lies arguing that she was a terrible person. The world does not refer to the majority of people, nor even to any group of people rather than another. The world refers to the love of sin which lives in our own souls.
The people that a Christian should delight to be hated by are those who have embraced sin and made their attachment to sin public. Above all, each Christian should see a war within themselves. An excellent sign that we are doing well is when a part of us, the old self, hates the new life we are living, even though we are truly happy.
January 17, 2012 - Memorial of Saint Anthony, Abbott
Today's Readings
“God does not see as a human sees.” How does a human see? Well light comes from the light source such as a lamp or the son and it bounces off an object. The nature of the object changes what kind of light and how much light bounces off. Then the light enters the human eye, causing chemical changes on the retina. This is how a human sees, but not God.
God knows everything perfectly. He does not see a thing as much as he simply knows all about it. No atom in the universe loses the electron without God being aware. So the first difference between the human sight and divine sight is that human sight is limited to those objects which we see light bouncing off of whereas God's sight is unlimited.
But there are other differences too. Even when we are looking at something and can see it perfectly, our brains cannot always process the information. This is what causes optical illusions. An optical illusion can be looked at with the best light and still fool us. One line seems longer than another but when we bring out the ruler we find that it is not. God's sight is different in this way too because he always understands perfectly everything he knows.
And even when we are able to see something and understand what it is we see, we might fail to catch the significance. If you see a ring on the fourth finger of a person's left hand you know that they are married, but if you go to a different culture in Africa or Asia you would probably miss similar symbols. A small mark or a piece of jewelry or a color of clothing might signify something very important to those who understand. Indeed the whole point of the Sherlock Holmes stories is that he could see small details and guess their significance which everyone else missed.
God, of course, understands all these things. God, however, goes beyond Sherlock Holmes, for he can see into the human heart. We have trouble seeing into our own hearts, let alone the heart of another, but God can see clearly our thoughts and motivations, our fears and our dreams. The truth in my heart might be hidden so that even I do not know it, but God does. So when God tells me what will make me happy, what I should do and what I should avoid, I can be sure that he knows me better than I do.
“God does not see as a human sees.” How does a human see? Well light comes from the light source such as a lamp or the son and it bounces off an object. The nature of the object changes what kind of light and how much light bounces off. Then the light enters the human eye, causing chemical changes on the retina. This is how a human sees, but not God.
God knows everything perfectly. He does not see a thing as much as he simply knows all about it. No atom in the universe loses the electron without God being aware. So the first difference between the human sight and divine sight is that human sight is limited to those objects which we see light bouncing off of whereas God's sight is unlimited.
But there are other differences too. Even when we are looking at something and can see it perfectly, our brains cannot always process the information. This is what causes optical illusions. An optical illusion can be looked at with the best light and still fool us. One line seems longer than another but when we bring out the ruler we find that it is not. God's sight is different in this way too because he always understands perfectly everything he knows.
And even when we are able to see something and understand what it is we see, we might fail to catch the significance. If you see a ring on the fourth finger of a person's left hand you know that they are married, but if you go to a different culture in Africa or Asia you would probably miss similar symbols. A small mark or a piece of jewelry or a color of clothing might signify something very important to those who understand. Indeed the whole point of the Sherlock Holmes stories is that he could see small details and guess their significance which everyone else missed.
God, of course, understands all these things. God, however, goes beyond Sherlock Holmes, for he can see into the human heart. We have trouble seeing into our own hearts, let alone the heart of another, but God can see clearly our thoughts and motivations, our fears and our dreams. The truth in my heart might be hidden so that even I do not know it, but God does. So when God tells me what will make me happy, what I should do and what I should avoid, I can be sure that he knows me better than I do.
December 1st, 2011 - Thursday, 1st week of Advent
Today's Readings
We could just nod along with our Lord’s analogy today, taking the general idea, not searching for the wisdom that our Lord wants to give us, but how much better it is to look deeper and understand the meaning of the image that our Lord gives us!
Both men in the analogy today see the storm coming. Both men are philosophers. The storm is inevitable, wherever you build your house. The wind, the waves, and the rain are on their way. Both men know this, which is why they are building their houses. We live in a stormy world. Jesus does not say that if we do as he says then the storms will not come. Christians do not suffer less in this world than other people. Christians have the same storms in their lives as anyone else does, but we have rock solid foundation that will stand up to the storm.
Both men in the analogy today build their houses against the storm. I have never built a house, but I can easily imagine that it is a complicated and arduous task. It is not the work of a single day. This fact stresses the foolishness of the fool; he has expended great effort and cost to no purpose. They both see the great destroyer, death, approaching, so they build. What house can be built against death? Many can be built but only one will stand. Every philosophy has tried to build something which cannot be conquered by death, whether meaning or pleasures or knowledge. Only the fullness of truth, however, will stand up to the storm when it comes. Every effort which is founded on partial truths and shifting opinions will show itself weak in the end.
It will be insufficient, when the storm arrives, to have built a great house unless it sits on the true foundation. It will be insufficient, when the waves come crashing, to fight them with whatever seemed right to me at the time. God has come to Earth and revealed what is required to stand, revealed a truth that can serve as a rock-solid foundation. Any effort on our part, even one combining all our skill, intelligence, being, strength, and every good intention, will be as useless as no effort, unless it is founded on the truth as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
We could just nod along with our Lord’s analogy today, taking the general idea, not searching for the wisdom that our Lord wants to give us, but how much better it is to look deeper and understand the meaning of the image that our Lord gives us!
Both men in the analogy today see the storm coming. Both men are philosophers. The storm is inevitable, wherever you build your house. The wind, the waves, and the rain are on their way. Both men know this, which is why they are building their houses. We live in a stormy world. Jesus does not say that if we do as he says then the storms will not come. Christians do not suffer less in this world than other people. Christians have the same storms in their lives as anyone else does, but we have rock solid foundation that will stand up to the storm.
Both men in the analogy today build their houses against the storm. I have never built a house, but I can easily imagine that it is a complicated and arduous task. It is not the work of a single day. This fact stresses the foolishness of the fool; he has expended great effort and cost to no purpose. They both see the great destroyer, death, approaching, so they build. What house can be built against death? Many can be built but only one will stand. Every philosophy has tried to build something which cannot be conquered by death, whether meaning or pleasures or knowledge. Only the fullness of truth, however, will stand up to the storm when it comes. Every effort which is founded on partial truths and shifting opinions will show itself weak in the end.
It will be insufficient, when the storm arrives, to have built a great house unless it sits on the true foundation. It will be insufficient, when the waves come crashing, to fight them with whatever seemed right to me at the time. God has come to Earth and revealed what is required to stand, revealed a truth that can serve as a rock-solid foundation. Any effort on our part, even one combining all our skill, intelligence, being, strength, and every good intention, will be as useless as no effort, unless it is founded on the truth as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior.
July 11, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot
Today's Readings
Do Jesus' words today surprise you? “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” It just does not sound like the Jesus in all the pictures that I saw as a child. He always seems so peaceful. The pictures must have gotten things very wrong.
Do Jesus' words today surprise you? “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” It just does not sound like the Jesus in all the pictures that I saw as a child. He always seems so peaceful. The pictures must have gotten things very wrong.
It is worse than that. This does not even seem like the Jesus of the Gospels who says “Blessed are the peacemakers” and himself said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” In one place we see Jesus bringing peace, and in the other he says that he has not come to bring peace. There is no contradiction here. “Peace” has different meanings.
Peace, at the most basic level, is the absence of disagreement, but types of peace differ based on why people are not disagreeing. There is the “Let’s agree to disagree” kind of peace, based on tolerance. You do what you want, and I do what I want. So long as no one is actively, physically hurting another person, who are we to tell them what to do? In contrast to this peace, there is another peace: peace based on truth. With this peace, there is no fighting because everyone actually agrees and is working toward the same goal.
The first type of peace is the foundation of modern democratic society, perhaps the most peaceful civilization that has ever lived, yet in the midst of this peace there remains so much violence. The second type of peace is the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is telling us today that he has not come to establish the first kind of peace. He will not agree to disagree.
Consider the case of abortion. The peace of tolerance tells us to stop fighting abortion, to stop making it such a central political issue. The modern people would like to see a compromise, a peace treaty between the pro-life and pro-choice people. The peace of truth tells us that there can be no peace while 42 million children are murdered each year. Truth tells us to fight until there is peace. Jesus came not to bring the peace of tolerance but the sword of truth. The sword of truth is not a sword of violence. Violent resistance has its place, but we will never have real peace until everyone believes the truth.
June 19, 2011 - The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Today's Readings
The theory of relativity tells us that time and space are relative to speed, that all time and space are unified at the speed of light. When we look at a star that is 100 light years away, the light from that star has taken 100 years to travel to our eyes, but the light is not 100 years old. The photons of light did not experience any passage of time or space from the star to our eyes. As far the light beam is concerned, there is no distance between the star and our eyes. So if you could travel at the speed of light, and you traveled 100 light years away and came back to Earth, it would be the year 2211, but you would not be any older. You would experience the acceleration and the turning around and the deceleration back to earth, but the trip itself would seem to happen instantly. As soon as we can travel at close to the speed of light, it will be possible to travel into the future, although there is no way to return to the past.
Do you understand all of this? This is only a small part of modern physics; we have not even gotten into how gravity affects all of this, let alone quantum physics. I mention all of this to point out a simple truth: physics is hard. Physics is not just building toothpick bridges and shooting two-liter bottles into the air. Of course, the same could be said about every general field. Every subject, whether science or art, seems very approachable from a certain angle, but it is a mistake to think that the whole field is contained in that angle. A child once asked my sister, who was studying to be a nurse, “Why do you need to know chemistry? All a nurse does is take you to the room and say, ‘The doctor will be with you shortly.’” There is more to everything than what we see.
Every human art and every science is an attempt to understand the truth. No matter how much truth you have learned, there is always more truth to learn. Anyone can learn a little physics or a little nursing, but being a master of the subject requires years of study and a mind gifted for that particular field. Even then, the greatest master in the world of any subject knows that all their learning has only shown them how much they do not know. Every answered question leads to more questions.
Nevertheless, this does not in any way diminish what education has done. A great physicist has a vision of how enormous the field of physics really is, but they still can use all their knowledge to design GPS satellites. A great nurse has a vision of how complex people really are, both physically and psychologically, but they can still use their knowledge to care for the sick.
Although it is often thought to be one, theology is not an exception to this universal truth. Indeed, what is true of studying the laws of the universe and of studying the greatest creatures on Earth, is ever so much more true when studying the Creator. The theory of Relativity is true whether I understand it or not. The best practices of nursing are true whether I know them or not. Truth is not dependent on my own understanding. So also with truth about God.
So many people, when confronted with a theological idea consider themselves qualified to judge it. They say, “I don’t understand why…” or “It doesn’t make sense to me that…”, but often these words are covering up a presumption that what they do not understand cannot be true. They have not studied theology or even once read the whole Bible. In theology, as in every science, a person is not an expert just because they think that they are one.
There is a problem, however: how do we know who is a real expert? The other sciences and arts prove themselves by their fruits. Physicists can predict the motion of the stars, so we trust those who can design such equations. The recovery of sick people is correlated to best nursing practices, so we trust those who can design such practices. Theology produces it own fruits: the Saints. We belong to the Church of St. Paul, of St. Anthony, of St. Francis, of St. Ignatius, of St. Therese, of Blessed Mother Theresa. Other religions produce impressive people, but only Christianity produces Saints. An impressive person is as good as humanly possible. A Saint is better than that. There is a world of difference between Gandhi and Gertrude, between Buddha and Benedict, between Plato and Paul.
So when the Church teaches us something, our first reaction should not be to judge the teaching, but to understand how to submit to the teaching. Consider, for instance, the moral teaching that birth control is fundamentally incompatible with marriage. Many people do not understand the teaching; many married Catholics do not understand the teaching, but this is no reason to disobey it. The correct reaction to this teaching and every other teaching we do not understand is to trust the Church. Believe first and then learn what you can.
I say all this as a preface. Today is Trinity Sunday. Today we remember that God is one God and that God is three persons. This is a mystery. It is easy to repeat this formula: one God, three persons, but impossible to completely understand the mystery of the Trinity. Whether you know only that God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and that the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, or you are able to quote the five notions and four relations and speak of the difference between homoousia and homoiousia, the Trinity is equally incomprehensible. The mystery of the Trinity is more than anyone can understand. Not even the angels completely understand this mystery.
But this does not mean that the Trinity is whatever we want it to be or whatever we happen to think is best. The Trinity is something very definite, the most definite truth in the whole universe. The Trinity's existence in no way depends on our ability to understand the mystery. The simple teaching, revealed to us through Jesus Christ, handed on by the Church, is trustworthy. First we believe the teaching, which is far more important than understanding how such a thing is possible. Then we try to understand, using analogies: the Son is to the Father as the light from a star is to the light in a star, light from light, true God from true God.
The theory of relativity tells us that time and space are relative to speed, that all time and space are unified at the speed of light. When we look at a star that is 100 light years away, the light from that star has taken 100 years to travel to our eyes, but the light is not 100 years old. The photons of light did not experience any passage of time or space from the star to our eyes. As far the light beam is concerned, there is no distance between the star and our eyes. So if you could travel at the speed of light, and you traveled 100 light years away and came back to Earth, it would be the year 2211, but you would not be any older. You would experience the acceleration and the turning around and the deceleration back to earth, but the trip itself would seem to happen instantly. As soon as we can travel at close to the speed of light, it will be possible to travel into the future, although there is no way to return to the past.
Do you understand all of this? This is only a small part of modern physics; we have not even gotten into how gravity affects all of this, let alone quantum physics. I mention all of this to point out a simple truth: physics is hard. Physics is not just building toothpick bridges and shooting two-liter bottles into the air. Of course, the same could be said about every general field. Every subject, whether science or art, seems very approachable from a certain angle, but it is a mistake to think that the whole field is contained in that angle. A child once asked my sister, who was studying to be a nurse, “Why do you need to know chemistry? All a nurse does is take you to the room and say, ‘The doctor will be with you shortly.’” There is more to everything than what we see.
Every human art and every science is an attempt to understand the truth. No matter how much truth you have learned, there is always more truth to learn. Anyone can learn a little physics or a little nursing, but being a master of the subject requires years of study and a mind gifted for that particular field. Even then, the greatest master in the world of any subject knows that all their learning has only shown them how much they do not know. Every answered question leads to more questions.
Nevertheless, this does not in any way diminish what education has done. A great physicist has a vision of how enormous the field of physics really is, but they still can use all their knowledge to design GPS satellites. A great nurse has a vision of how complex people really are, both physically and psychologically, but they can still use their knowledge to care for the sick.
Although it is often thought to be one, theology is not an exception to this universal truth. Indeed, what is true of studying the laws of the universe and of studying the greatest creatures on Earth, is ever so much more true when studying the Creator. The theory of Relativity is true whether I understand it or not. The best practices of nursing are true whether I know them or not. Truth is not dependent on my own understanding. So also with truth about God.
So many people, when confronted with a theological idea consider themselves qualified to judge it. They say, “I don’t understand why…” or “It doesn’t make sense to me that…”, but often these words are covering up a presumption that what they do not understand cannot be true. They have not studied theology or even once read the whole Bible. In theology, as in every science, a person is not an expert just because they think that they are one.
There is a problem, however: how do we know who is a real expert? The other sciences and arts prove themselves by their fruits. Physicists can predict the motion of the stars, so we trust those who can design such equations. The recovery of sick people is correlated to best nursing practices, so we trust those who can design such practices. Theology produces it own fruits: the Saints. We belong to the Church of St. Paul, of St. Anthony, of St. Francis, of St. Ignatius, of St. Therese, of Blessed Mother Theresa. Other religions produce impressive people, but only Christianity produces Saints. An impressive person is as good as humanly possible. A Saint is better than that. There is a world of difference between Gandhi and Gertrude, between Buddha and Benedict, between Plato and Paul.
So when the Church teaches us something, our first reaction should not be to judge the teaching, but to understand how to submit to the teaching. Consider, for instance, the moral teaching that birth control is fundamentally incompatible with marriage. Many people do not understand the teaching; many married Catholics do not understand the teaching, but this is no reason to disobey it. The correct reaction to this teaching and every other teaching we do not understand is to trust the Church. Believe first and then learn what you can.
I say all this as a preface. Today is Trinity Sunday. Today we remember that God is one God and that God is three persons. This is a mystery. It is easy to repeat this formula: one God, three persons, but impossible to completely understand the mystery of the Trinity. Whether you know only that God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and that the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, or you are able to quote the five notions and four relations and speak of the difference between homoousia and homoiousia, the Trinity is equally incomprehensible. The mystery of the Trinity is more than anyone can understand. Not even the angels completely understand this mystery.
But this does not mean that the Trinity is whatever we want it to be or whatever we happen to think is best. The Trinity is something very definite, the most definite truth in the whole universe. The Trinity's existence in no way depends on our ability to understand the mystery. The simple teaching, revealed to us through Jesus Christ, handed on by the Church, is trustworthy. First we believe the teaching, which is far more important than understanding how such a thing is possible. Then we try to understand, using analogies: the Son is to the Father as the light from a star is to the light in a star, light from light, true God from true God.
January 17, 2011 - Memorial of Saint Anthony, abbot
I can imagine someone with new wine, looking for a place to put it. I cannot imagine someone with a new piece of cloth looking for a cloak to patch with it. The easy solution to the problem would be to wait for the wine to get old or find an old piece of cloth. Jesus does not take the easy solution.
Jesus has something new: the truth, the fullness of truth. It is new to us, although it is older than the universe. It is always new because it is eternal. Jesus not only has something new, he is something new. He is the new wine. He is the new cloth. He cannot change himself to fit the world. He must change the world to fit him.
There is a sense in which we are old, worn out. There is no better sign of youth than joy. A young person without joy seems old. An old person with joy seems young again. We are old because we lack joy. Jesus comes and he cannot just be more of the same. His joy is perfect. It is a bit much for us old grouches.
Now we can see a metaphor that Jesus might have used in the 21st century: nobody hates new things like old people. As much as the oldest grouch in the world hates the idea of Twitter, someone without joy hates the idea of a Savior. If we want to imagine how the Pharisees felt about Jesus, we should watch Andy Rooney talk about Facebook.
When Jesus came, and he is new, he insisted that his disciples rejoice while he was with them. No fasting for his disciples, at least not yet. Not until there could be a joyful fast. Indeed, this is the mark of a Christian: a joyful fast, joyful suffering, joyful life. A martyr is not someone who died for Christ; all sorts of people have died for all sorts of stupid things. A martyr is someone who died joyfully.
Whether you are 8 or 80, if you are going to be a Christian, you must be young, you must be filled with joy. Not a fake joy, not an imaginary joy, but a real joy given to us as the first fruit of the Holy Spirit, as the first commandment of God’s will for us in Christ: “Rejoice always.”
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