PENTECOST (June 5, 2022)

Today we celebrate one of the “big three” solemnities in the liturgical year: Pentecost.  Pentecost stands tall along with Jesus’ birth and resurrection.  It is not as “popular” as the other two because our society has not made it a day for giving/receiving gifts or dyeing eggs.  You never hear how many more shopping days ‘till Pentecost. Pentecost is 100% spiritual; zero material payback.

As we read further into the acts of the apostles, we find the holy spirit becomes less a spectacular experience and more a guide and problem-solver in the day to day life of the believing community. 

The main difference between the disciples before and after the Pentecost experience is not the flames dancing on their heads or wondrous communication skills or that wind-blown look.  Pentecost is fundamentally a story about the disciples’ courage, overriding their fear of being arrested, and their fear of those who might angrily – even murderously -- protest their proclaiming the message.  They no longer fear Jewish leaders or Jewish followers. 

Courage is a language that the world scarcely speaks. We do recognize it when we hear a story of it or we see it.

Jesus’ followers were so filled with the Spirit of God that they felt moved to do just what Jesus did:  speak life and love into our world. They also left as their heritage a community that would begin to shoulder the burden and the joy of carrying the message of love.

Today, fear is palpable. There are reports of terrorist attacks, rising crime, jobs going out, the undocumented coming in, guns everywhere, losing our civil liberties and the cost of keeping them, plane travel, anthrax, the cost of gas, staying in the war, pulling out of the war, global warming, medications that kill, the rising cost of medical care -- to name just a handful.

Fear is the meat and potatoes of the media, but it is directly opposed to the spirit of Pentecost.  Our courage is based on a radical trust in and reliance on God’s grace; that is, his presence in our lives.

We choose either to allow ourselves to live in fear or to live in faith; that is, have a radical trust in our Father – just as Jesus did. We can courageously approach life one day at a time.  Spirit-driven courage makes our approach to living a challenge, not a dread. We can step up and face a world full of fearsome things and also recognize, primarily, the wind and the fire of God in our souls because it is already there, waiting.

We are tempted at times like Christmas, Easter and Pentecost to think in terms of commemorating historical events that happened long ago and to someone else. We are not called to page through salvation history like a memory book.  Just as in the Eucharist when we invite the living Christ to enter us, so on this feast of Pentecost we pray to the Holy Spirit to enliven us, to embolden us, to encourage us.

We do not simply recall a reported event on this day. Holy memory, anamnesis, recalls the past only to make it live again within our community of faith. The Holy Spirit moves through this worship space this day. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are desperately needed in our world: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The message is in need of messengers. Paul makes it perfectly clear that the greatest gift, the overarching gift of the Holy Spirit, is love. The others, when we stop to think about them, are manifestations of love, shoots off the vine.

The difference between the disciples of the first Pentecost and this one is the balance of our courage.

Red is the color of excitement – from red convertibles and red roses and valentines to red fire apparatus. Red is the color of the badge of courage. Red is the color of Pentecost.

Come, Holy Spirit – enkindle in our hearts the fire of your love and the courage to use our already, God-given gifts. 

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 22, 2022)

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 22, 2022)         

Every living organism must constantly change. If our bodies do not constantly change air and nutrition, we die.  Death is the cessation of our ability to change. The need to adapt emotionally and spiritually is equally necessary for life.

Mega-change in the first century is what the first reading is about. It shows us when and where this mega-change began. The time was about 50 A.D. The place was Antioch. Antioch was 300 miles north of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place where Stephen, the first deacon, was martyred.  Following Stephen’s martyrdom. Persecution broke out against the other followers of Jesus.  

Many Christians fled north to Antioch, the capital of the Roman province of Syria. It would be the place from which Paul and Barnabas, the earliest missionaries, would set out on their first 2 missionary journeys.

So, the Antioch community was formed, and the people of that area, non-Jews, were becoming “Christians” - a term that was coined in Antioch. These “gentile-Christians” saw no need to follow the practices of the Jewish Christians down south in Jerusalem.

Some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem visited Antioch; they were amazed to find Antioch Christians not following Jewish practices. They said that the Gentile-Christians were not “real Christians” because they were not following the law Moses had given to the Jews. Big trouble in the Christian community!!!

The Gentile-Christians in Antioch became upset. They thought Christians should separate themselves from Judaism. They held that a continued connection weakened Christianity.  Christianity should stand on its own feet.

Two extremes. Remember: many followers of Jesus were still a sect within Judaism. The question - how does one enter this new sect - was a real one!

To resolve the problem, Paul and Barnabas decided to go south to Jerusalem. It is significant that they recognized Jerusalem as authoritative.  

So, the first ecumenical council of the church was held, the council of Jerusalem. It is the oldest example of what Vatican II was. The insights of the church fathers were excellent; their solution was not an either/or, but a both / and.  They recognized the need for change and yet maintained continuity with Jewish tradition. They compromised.

They decided that the new Christians would be both baptized as Jesus directed and follow only 3 of the 700+ prescriptions of the Mosaic Law. The same 3 that non-Jews living in Israel were bound to follow. The major change was that the new converts would not have to follow the law of Moses, and males would not have to be circumcised, the sign of the covenant. In short, all would not have to become Jews before becoming Christians.

The council fathers did not insist on tradition [“but, we always did it this way”], but stated: “It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to saddle you with any burden beyond these essentials: you are to abstain…”

• From food sacrificed to idols, thus avoiding even indirect contact with false worship from pagan, second-hand animals;

• From blood from the meat of strangled animals; strangled animals still had blood within them. Blood was identified with life, life belonged to God alone;

• From [fornication] . . .” [fornication] is the translation of the Greek “porneia” which meant marrying too close cousins. “Incest” might be a better translation in this context.

These three involved the things that would prevent Jewish and gentile Christians from sitting at table together.               

As we know, the compromise solution was not the final solution. The Christians in 72 A.D. were excommunicated from the Jewish religion. The two dietary laws prescribed here were dropped.  Only incest remained banned – for good reason. 

Curiously, the first-century leaders recognized the need for insistence on the inclusion of the holy spirit in their deliberations, the spirit is the one Jesus said would help them in the future - and it worked. 

How might the Holy Spirit invite us to compromise today, that is, to be flexible on detail but firm on principle?

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (May 26/May 29, 2022)

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD (May 26/May 29, 2022)

Luke alone among the Gospel writers, describes the Ascension of Our Lord, which we celebrate today. At the end of his first book, his Gospel, he places the ascension on Easter Sunday night. At the beginning of his second book, the Acts of the Apostles, Luke places it 40 days later. A scripture scholar answered the obvious question: “When was it, really?” “It probably was Easter Sunday night, but the day was so jam-packed, that Luke decided to spread the events out over 40 days in his acts. We don’t know the time for sure, but we see, once again that we cannot look at scripture as history as we know history.

For me, there are two challenging questions in Easter-time scripture readings. The curious thing is that on both occasions the question, “where,” was asked by a follower: where have they put him? Where are you going?”

As we know, often, in Scripture, a question is answered with another question. In both these instances, the where-questions are responded to with why-questions.

The first re-framed, where-question in Luke’s Gospel is on Easter: to Mary of Magdala and the other women to their question of “where have they put him?” Why do you look for the living among the dead? Jesus is not a body to be anointed with spices. Jesus is very alive and quite well.

The second re-framed question, “Where are you going” [from Peter in John’s Gospel] is answered in today’s Gospel with another why-question: Why do you stand here looking up to heaven? You are looking in the wrong place. Jesus is Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” 

We know from our experience that “why questions” are the toughest of all questions. The liturgy provides Easter season to ponder the answers to those two questions.

The question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” is an important one for us in our day. We know Jesus is alive. Some church leaders who claim to speak in his name appear not to be living, but dead. Personally, I read, listen to spiritual persons, and pray to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. I am not left an orphan, as Jesus promised. I try not to seek the living among the dead.

There is a separate challenge in the second question, the one we heard in our Gospel, “Why do you stand here looking up to heaven? To intentionally mix a metaphor, we are not to stand here sitting on our thumbs. We are called to do something, to be alive as a follower of Jesus, to become the person we are called to become.

Luke tells us today that right after Jesus left them, they went to the Jerusalem temple and spoke the praises of God. In his second book, the Acts of the Apostles, he testifies that they did the actions recorded and witnessed Jesus – truthfully.

There was not distance but closeness to Jesus after the Ascension. The gift of presence is part of the blessing that Jesus gave to his disciples and to us as he left.  He fulfills his blessing to be with us here in Eucharist, in our community, among our friends and families. 

We re-enflesh Jesus in Eucharist and become Christ for others to help shape our world into the body of Christ. Our challenge is to bring our life-giving enthusiasm to our home and family, parish, and friends. We are his body, made visible, audible, and tangible. We bring Christ to others, and we see Christ in them. We are the church, the body of Christ.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 15, 2022)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 15, 2022)                                      

The time of the Gospel was the Last Supper, specifically, immediately after Judas had left the table to betray Jesus when he would go to the garden of Gethsemane. The end was near.  Jesus had tried so hard to teach his disciples his message of love. This is his final effort with words, the next-to-last words of a man close to death.

Jesus says, “I will give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” 

The apostles still did not “get it.” Jesus spread the message of love and deeds of love that his father had chosen to deliver through him. The way that we humans learn to love is through a human person. The way that we learn to love deeply is to learn from a perfectly loving human: Jesus. Jesus was not only human; he was the archetype of humanity.

Now he was near the time of his death. Why did Jesus have to die the way that he did? How could our loving father decree that his beloved son would have to suffer so tortuously?  The image of God as Father, “Abba,” does not suggest a vindictive, vengeful God who has to settle a score with Adam and Eve and their sinful descendants. 

As we heard in last Sunday’s first reading, Jesus had to die because the leaders of his chosen people were jealous.  As they said, “It is expedient that one man must die.” Their fear and anger prevailed. Their precious-to-them status quo had to remain, and be maintained at any cost.

Why did Jesus call what he said “a new” commandment? The message of love had been proclaimed long before, in the third book of the Bible, Leviticus. What Jesus was adding that was new was that our loving God first loved us; he showed his love in the person of Jesus, who was love enfleshed.  Being the archetype of humanity included his archetypical loving.

Jesus showed in word and example, in confrontations with others, in the sickness and the death of others, in being rejected by those he came to serve, the loving message of his father.  His father and Jesus continue to love us. And he loved us first. We cannot love back without the love with which he embraces us. He loves us because that is his very nature. He cannot not love us.

He tells us that being loved will enable us to love everyone. That folks we do not know, who are not his disciples will see us, will be drawn to us, and through us, will be led to Jesus. This loving kingdom of God begins now – our future will not be some notion of “pie in the sky when you die.”   

John tells us in his first letter, “We love because he first loved us.” That was surely one of John’s most revelatory, divinely inspired insights.

Jesus left the upper room for the garden of Gethsemane where Judas would betray him with a kiss, so ironically a symbol of love.  Jesus will play out the unfair hand he was dealt.  He will pray on the cross for those who failed, pleading their ignorance. And us.  We do the best we can with what we’ve got.  We “do” lovingly, forgivingly.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 8, 2022)

Conflict is at the heart of a good story. In literature, on the stage, on the screen, the green-eyed monster of jealousy has provided many a tale of conflict. Lovers, business partners, politicians become involved in intrigue, revenge through jealousy that is said to be the one that no one of us easily admits.  

Fear and anger are at the root of jealousy: fear of a possible, personal loss; anger at a perceived threat to something we consider our own and worth protecting – be it a relationship, a possession, our reputation.

We do not seem to identify jealousy with the same frequency as the early church did.  The biblical writers used “jealously” more frequently. They seem to have thought through an individual situation of fear/anger one level deeper than we to give a name to this reality.

We recall in Matthew’s Gospel during Jesus’ trial scene: “He [Pilate] knew, of course, that it was out of jealousy that they handed him [Jesus] over.” Pilate defines the Jewish motivation as “jealousy” – in this, the Greatest Story ever told.

In today’s first reading, Paul and Barnabas were well received at Antioch and returned the following Sabbath to speak again in the synagogue. Paul and Barnabas remind the Jewish congregation that no less a prophet than Isaiah spoke of the ideal Israel as a light to the nations; that is, the non-Jews, the Gentiles. The leaders were fearful about the apostles’ reminder of Isaiah’s statement that they would like to forget. The two, in speaking of salvation for the Gentiles, became a perceived threat to the Jewish leaders’ conviction of having sole ownership of being God’s chosen people.  

The basic ingredients for jealousy were there: they were fearful that they would have to accept this correction from Isaiah and correct their own teaching.  Also, they might well lose their status/authority as teachers. We heard: “When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said.”

Jealousy trumped rationality: “I’ve made up my mind; don’t confuse me with the facts.”  This is jealousy at the institutional level of religion. The Jewish leadership, “filled with jealousy”, had to nip this threat in the bud, so they rabble-roused the congregation, and the apostles were expelled from the area.

The Book of Revelation, the second reading speaks about the multitude of heaven, “which no one could count from every nation, race, people and tongue.” That newer phrase has translated the older version that used the symbolic number 144,000. That number appears twice in scripture, once to count the saved of Israel and once to count the followers of “the lamb,” Jesus. So, 144 thousand is symbolic shorthand for both Israel and the Gentiles. It indicates the direct opposite of an exclusive elite.  It holds the door open for all, just as Jesus showed in his day.

It is a shame that divisions within and between religions and churches exist.  Divisions set up “either / or dualism.”  Dualism then sets us up for jealousy. “Both / and” precludes jealousy. Religions seem to have always showed a bent toward being exclusive just as nations have had a bent toward nationalism and isolationism. Triumphalism seems to be a perennial temptation.

Recall the recently proclaimed account in the Acts of the Apostles when the apostles are brought before the angry Sanhedrin. Gamaliel, a highly respected member said that if Jesus were a phony, the movement would die. He gave two historical examples of failure. We applauded his wisdom. His argument prevailed – but only for a time. 

For your thoughtful consideration: in the big picture and the current swirl of condemnations, would it not be wise not to rush to judgment as the Jewish Gamaliel pleaded for Jesus?  Jesus said long before Gamaliel when asked what to do with weeds growing together with and resembling wheat: Wait! Wait until time and growth prove what is good. Be patient.

God, the light of the world, shines as love, on everyone. Light has no borders that it cannot cross. The light of love and truth will always, eventually shine through. At a time when fears and angers spawn jealousy, let us not do anything foolish. Two Jewish rabbis from two thousand years ago advised us well. One is still very much around.

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 1, 2022)

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 1, 2022)                     

A Scripture teacher, Neal Flanagan, taught us that the term “charcoal fire” appears in two places in John’s Gospel. The two charcoal fires form brackets, and bookends, to the story of Peter’s poignant experience with Jesus before his Ascension. I did some further checking and discovered that those are the only times that the word “charcoal” occurs throughout both the Old and New Testaments!

That got me started on further study. “Charcoal fire” appears for the first time in Chapter 18 of John’s Gospel. Jesus had been arrested. Peter was in the courtyard during Jesus’ questioning.  It was at night. Some were gathered around the charcoal fire, warming themselves. Three times Peter was identified as a companion of Jesus; three times he denied it.

John’s gospel is filled with symbolism.  “Night,” in John, indicates darkness of the light of knowing – as shown earlier in Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who spoke with Jesus “at night” before his conversion, as shown later in Mary Magdalene who came to the tomb “before dawn” in the predawn darkness. 

Peter, when asked if he was with Jesus, replied, “I do not know the man.” Darkness!  Jesus would say a few hours later from the cross, “Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing. John uses “at night, before dawn” to indicate a state of not knowing, being in the dark.

John’s Gospel has an epilogue, Chapter 21. We heard a wonderful passage from it today. The time is dawn – the beginning of the light of day. The setting is the Lake of Geneserath, a sparkling emerald jewel of a lake, lying below the mountains of Galilee where Jesus multiplied bread and fish. Bread and fish appeared there again that morning. 

Jesus is by the shore, standing, grilling fish, and perhaps toasting bread over a charcoal fire.  Peter and his seven companions have experienced catching nothing without Jesus’ presence. “I am going fishing . . .We will go with you,” said Peter and the seven earlier.  Do you hear ego in the “I” and “we?” There is no mention of Jesus. Interesting! When Jesus became present to them on the beach, an enormous catch was made.  Jesus’ absence, no fish; Jesus’ presence, fish.

Breakfast with Jesus grilling on a charcoal fire must have been awkward for the apostles. Also, Jesus looked somewhat the same and somewhat different. Remember, in his resurrected body, he was mistaken as the gardener by Mary and as a stranger by two disciples on the Emmaus road.

After breakfast, Jesus speaks to Peter, who has been haunted since his denial.  He does not ask Peter for an apology, a pledge of allegiance, or a testimony of faith.  He already knows Peter’s sorrow and repentance. Jesus simply asks, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Love is Jesus’ only question. John Shea and Richard Rohr offer helpful reflections. Although it is often ignored, we humans have a spiritual core.  The ancients placed it in our gut. If we are the salt of the earth or light in darkness, it is there; if not, we have “lost our flavor” or put our light “under a bushel basket.”

John had recognized him with the eyes of love while they were still offshore in the boat.

Jesus calls Peter and each of us to this spiritual center where we may have an elevated form of consciousness.  It takes long-term, continual effort to sustain this consciousness.  Why?  Because our egos like to be in charge and crowd out our spiritual consciousness.  Remember, Peter who, at first, would not let Jesus wash his feet.  Remember Peter when he denied he knew Jesus because his own safety was in jeopardy.  That was ego, not Jesus-consciousness.

How is our ego dislodged?  Loving deeply!  Loving another mysteriously supplants our selfish ego.  We know that from our life experiences. Such it is with Jesus and ourselves.

Jesus used that fact when he asked Peter the triple “do you love me?”  If we have love in our spiritual center, replacing ego, then we have salt; we have light in our gut.

It is likely that Jesus saw a large ego in Peter and knew that if Peter could supplant his ego with a clear love of Jesus the Christ in his heart/gut, he would be an outstanding leader.  He would be able to feed Jesus’ lambs and feed his sheep. When Jesus saw that Peter acknowledged him, he could and did say for the second time:  “Follow me.”

We are faced with the same question. Will we love and allow Jesus the Christ to transform our gut from being egoistic to “Living Jesus”?  That is the major question of Eastertide.

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (April 24, 2022)

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (April 24, 2022)                                                            

The readings this weekend offer so many points to break open that no one homily could include them all -- without a lunch break, that is!

Our Gospel comes from near the end of the first of two distinct endings to John’s Gospel.  It celebrates Jesus’ appearance to the apostles as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit – the Pentecost experience. John does not place Pentecost 50 days after Easter. For him, both the Resurrection and Pentecost happen on Easter Sunday, one before dawn and the other, in the evening.

The Apostles were huddled behind locked doors “for fear of the Jews.” There they were, immobilized with fear, terrified that they might be next. They were also guilt-ridden for having abandoned Jesus so miserably.

Jesus came through the locked door and stood before them. We might expect Jesus -- who was betrayed by Judas, denied three times by Peter and abandoned by all except John -- to lambast the men he had called “friends” at the Last Supper.  Some friends! His greeting was “Shalom”. He repeated it – perhaps because of the startled looks on his Apostles’ faces when he did not fulminate at them.

He allays their fears with his gift of peace – shalom. He did not remind them of their misdeeds. His one word evaporated their fear and dissipated their guilt.  Shalom “made it all better.”

Today’s gospel reminds us of Jesus’ prayer to his father on the cross, “Father, forgive them…” The Jewish and Roman authorities that condemned him to death…the throngs that had been amazed at his miracles…wonder-filled at his teaching-with-authority…sated with bread and fish in their empty stomachs …people who had strewn palms in his path when he entered Jerusalem – and screamed “crucify him…We’ll take Barabbas by the end of the week.

It is not by chance that the worldwide Catholic Church recognizes Jesus’ magnificent forgiveness in today’s remembrance called Divine Mercy Sunday.  Pope John-Paul II initiated it in 2000 at the urging of Sr. Faustina Kowalski. Private revelations usually do not move me, but celebrating the extravagant abundance of compassion by Jesus in this Gospel seems appropriate on this day. 

Jesus gave us the two great commandments. Surely contained within love is forgiveness, and mercy. Today’s celebration of divine mercy highlights a most important aspect of love that is often overlooked, or not even recognized as being, perhaps, the most important and most difficult aspect of love: forgiveness.  Disagreements inevitably do happen. There is a solution.

We, the Church, must finally recognize that forgiveness is to love what grease is to gears. In the long run, if there is no forgiveness the relationship of love grinds to a screeching halt. 

The apostles’ experience of forgiveness in today's Gospel keeps us rooted in Jesus who forgave his apostles without condition and forgives us the same way. With his loving forgiveness and its effect on us, he sends forth his disciples and us to preach and to practice what we preach.

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (April 17, 2022)

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord (April 17, 2022)                                                                 

We heard at the beginning of the Gospel the words: “When it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. The pre-dawn hour is intentionally mentioned in this Gospel where the symbol of darkness indicates the absence of the “light of the world.”

This pivotal celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is repeated every Sunday as a reverberation, a spiritual aftershock, a “little Easter,” a fifty-one-fold making present of this day’s celebration.

From the very beginning, God has been in relationship with us, his people: calling us forward from darkness into light, preparing us for the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. We celebrate today God’s covenant, faithfulness, and everlasting love.

In our personal story, our first breath erupted in a cry as we emerged from the darkness of our mother’s womb.   

Darkness can be darker than the total absence of light. We know that darkness, too. The darkness of hatred that ravages our world as terrorism, the darkness of the violence that stalks our streets and invades our homes, the darkness of the loneliness that comes from the death of one close to us, the darkness of the loneliness of the loss of a relationship.

Jesus came as the final chapter in the history of salvation.  He proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” We commemorate that truth today in the presence of the paschal candle. Last evening at the Easter vigil service, the unlit Easter candle represented Jesus’ body - wounds and all. Outside, near the doors, a live flame leaped from dead wood to become a small blaze, symbolic of Jesus’ gigantic leap from death to life. Then, this candle was lit from it, the paschal candle re-presents Jesus in his new, resurrected life, the “life” of a candle is its flame. Two thousand years ago, Jesus moved from the darkness of the tomb that had become his second womb to his resurrected life, the light to the world.  

Ritually, this single, towering Christ-candle, carried by the deacon led those present into church.  The participants’ candles were lit from the Christ-candle. Light/life was symbolically passed from the flame of the Christ-candle to the candles each held to symbolize the dispelling of the darkness of our hearts and minds. A wave of lights slowly crept across the worship space. Now, the paschal candle, tall and majestic, alive with light stands as a symbol for all. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world.”

When Jesus walked among us, he also said: “You are the light of the world.” We who have thrown in our lot with Jesus, who have accepted him into our lives as our basic relationship, now have a share in his resurrected life.  

Between now and the time of our meeting him face to face when we pass, we continue his life of light here, we share with others both the light of his warming compassion and the light of his wisdom.     

Our candles are to shine in the darkness of our world. We are carrying the light of Christ within us, the spirit of Christ to all whose lives we touch when we visit the sick, telephone the hurting, stop for a visit to the discouraged, go to a viewing and comfort a family, speak out for the oppressed, respond to the needs of the poor.

Jesus’ story draws us in with the celebration of light and challenges us with new life. May each of us accept his gift and follow him each day to the end, walking together as the people of resurrection.   

To that we can say Alleluia. He is risen! Alleluia. So are we!

MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (April 14, 2022)

MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER (April 14, 2022)

Holy Thursday is the first day of the sacred Triduum. Today, we begin to celebrate three magnificent holy days. We celebrate the paschal mystery which is the abbreviation for Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection - his dying and rising. 

Our Gospel is from St. John, the “different” Gospel. As we know, Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels are called the synoptic gospels because they follow the same general outline of Jesus’ life. While all three tell of Jesus’ gift of Eucharist on this night, john alone tells of Jesus’ washing feet. John saw the washing as so important that he featured the washing rather than the bread and wine of the Seder meal that the Synoptics emphasized.

How do foot washing and the Eucharist relate to that pregnant phrase, “paschal mystery”? What do bathing water, bread, and wine have to do with death and rising? And how does all this relate to you and me?

Each of us, in our normal development, begins life as a helpless infant. As far as we know when we are very young, we are the center-of-all; a parent answers our cries promptly. What we want and what we need, we get. We also know that that state of center-of-all becomes increasingly curtailed as we grow, but the tendency to enjoy being waited on continues. We do not get up from a table to help the waitress or waiter, do we?

At this last supper with his disciples before his death, Jesus the teacher had two final lessons for his disciples and for us:

First, John tells us that Jesus got down and became a foot-washing servant.  Jesus taught them and us that our tendency to enjoy being served must die in order to be servants for others. The movement from being served to serving involves a death within us and a rising to new insight. When we stop and reflect on this teaching, we see that serving is what parents do for children.  Years later, it is what we children do for our parents. It is what friends do for friends. 

Also, Jesus dramatically modeled for his disciples and all of us as future leaders the mysterious paradox that to lead, we must serve. For Christians, service is the name for leadership. Leaders, in the tradition of Jesus come to serve, not to be served. Mother Theresa of Calcutta became a shining model who led by example. 

The second lesson is from the Seder, celebrating the Jews’ liberation from the Egyptian captivity. It was the Seder that brought Jesus to the upper room and what became the last supper. Jesus said earlier that unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But, if it dies, it can rise and be made bread. He also said that he was the vine, and his followers were branches who drew spiritual life from him, the vine.  Wheat dies to become bread; grapes die to become wine.

At the Seder, Jesus took bread and wine and carried their death and rising to a higher level still. He took a piece of matzo-bread and said: this is I and gave himself to his disciples in the form of bread. Later, at the time of the third cup of wine – called the “blessing cup” – he took the cup, said the blessing, and then identified himself with the wine: this is me, and distributed the cup to his followers. The bread and the wine become himself and are consumed by his followers. He nourishes and enriches us with his mystical, physical presence. At a level unforeseen by nutritionists who say we are what we eat, we Christians may say, “We become who we eat.” 

The paschal mystery of dying and rising is what we celebrate most especially during these days of the sacred Triduum:

·        Jesus, in his washing of feet both teaches and models the dying of our will to be served and the rising to the intention of serving one another in love. 

·        Jesus, in his giving himself as bread that is broken and as wine that is poured out nourishes us by his word-presence and physical presence. Jesus, in that moment of intimacy, gifts us with what is the greatest of gifts:  the gift of oneself to another.

This is love.

This is what we celebrate.

This is who we celebrate.

This is who we become.

This is what and who we have to offer to others after we are sent forth from Eucharist.

PALM SUNDAY, April 10, 2022

PALM/PASSION SUNDAY (April 10, 2022)

The Passion of Jesus is certainly an account of the last day of his earthly life. It is also something that was demonstrated every day of his earthly life.

·        A passion for justice.

·        A passion of divine justice.

·        A passion for doing what is right and good.

·        A passion for challenging others to promote the same.

In his Treatise on the Love of God (Book 10, Chapter 16), St. Francis de Sales identifies three levels of such passion.

We can correct, censure, and reprimand others. This is perhaps the easiest because it does not necessarily require those who are passionate about righteousness to actually perform acts of justice. This form of zeal, obviously, can be very attractive because the focus is on what others are not doing. On the other hand, it can become a classic case of "do as I say, not as I do" because it does not require us to live in a just manner ourselves.

We can be passionate "by doing acts of great virtue in order to give good examples by suggesting remedies for evil, encouraging others to apply them, and doing the good opposed to the evil that we wish to eradicate.” “This holds for all of us," remarks de Sales, "but few of us are anxious to do so." Sure: it requires work and integrity on our part. We can't simply talk the talk; we must also walk the walk.

"Finally, the most excellent exercise of passion consists in suffering and enduring many things in order to prevent or avert evil. Almost no one wants to exercise this passion." This passion is willing to risk everything for what is righteous and just, even life itself.

"Our Lord's passion appeared principally in his death on the cross to destroy death and the sins of humanity," wrote St. Francis de Sales. To imitate Jesus' zeal for justice is "a perfection of courage and unbelievable fervor of spirit."

Jesus certainly challenged the injustice of others. Jesus was willing to promote justice through his own good example. Most important, Jesus was willing to go the distance in his passion for justice, even at the cost of his own life.

Passion Sunday - for that matter, every day - begs the question: How far are we willing to go in our passion for justice?

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (April 3, 2022)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT (April 3, 2022)                       

I think it was Aesop who told the wonderful story of the blind men and the elephant in which various blind men had different perceptions of an elephant, depending upon their limited experience of touching one part.

Today’s Gospel is like that for those who hear this story. Some hear it as a test by the Pharisees so that they can condemn Jesus. Some hear it as Jesus’ statement on capital punishment. Some, sensitive to women’s issues, hear it as “the case of the missing man.”

This story sounds like it belongs more in Luke’s Gospel than in John’s. It stresses the compassion of Jesus - a main theme of Luke.

The episode is popularly named the woman caught in adultery. Not accurate.  Obviously, a caught woman implies a caught man. We don’t hear a word about him. According to Dt 22: 23f, both the man and the woman were to be stoned to death if a married woman was caught in adultery. Why was only the woman brought before Jesus? So much for equality in enforcing the law.

Perhaps that double standard helps explain why Jesus’ response to her accusers was so effective. They were willing to condemn her but backed off when faced with their own double standard.

The question was supposed to put Jesus in a serious dilemma. Jesus must either: on the one horn, uphold Moses, or he would put himself above Moses. Also, his reputation for compassion would erode. Or, on the other horn, uphold Rome’s prohibition of Jewish-sponsored capital punishment and thereby lose his reputation as a faithful Jew.

This Gospel is a striking example of Jesus’ non-dualistic thinking. Although Jesus showed a few examples of dualistic thinking [either/or], he clearly moved beyond the persistent practice of the Jewish leaders of his day and of so many people of our day. In this Gospel, Jesus was offered two options, but he created a third option. He neither condemned the woman nor ignored her sin. He brought her to fresh, non-dualistic thinking. Non-dualistic thinking can be stated positively, “tertigenic thinking,” bringing forth a third option – a form of “thinking outside the box.”

Jesus, by his refusing to condemn the woman and refusing to ignore her sin leaves open the possibility to accept him, a forgiving person, as mentor, not the self-righteous Pharisees. She could thereby enter a new path: personal relationship with our Lord. He maintained the delicate balance of forgiving the sinner while not condoning the sin: “From now on, do not commit sin.”

What did Jesus do in the sand? Perhaps, he detailed the sins of the accusers [St. Jerome] – or, perhaps, quoted older scripture about compassion: “It is mercy I demand, not sacrifice,” or, perhaps, cited the verses from Deuteronomy so the leaders would recognize their own faults…or just doodled and used the silence to prod the consciences of the accusers. We simply don’t know.

Jesus consistently opposed violence: he teaches us: “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, blessed are the peacemakers, be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” Here, he challenges those who are ready to kill the woman. Upon being arrested himself, he will order Peter to put away his sword.

Today, our prior knowledge of Jesus being the compassionate face of God provides us with the “big picture.” That makes the narrow-minded, dualistic judgment of the Jewish leaders appear sadly incomplete. This understanding of Jesus’ compassion overarches a test by Jewish leaders, a statement on capital punishment, and the women’s issue.

Let’s let the word, “compassion,” ring in our ears and in our hearts this Lenten season.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (March 27, 2022)

Chapter 15 is the "lost and found department" of Luke's Gospel.  We hear the stories of the woman who lost her coin, the shepherd who lost his sheep, and now the father who lost his son.  All three rejoiced at their find. All three are a response to the Pharisees’ and Scribes’ complaints that Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners, outcasts.

 No more striking account of God’s understanding and love for the sinner is to be found in the scriptures than in Luke’s story of the forgiving father.

 Perhaps as we mature, we see these two sons not so much as individuals, but as archetypes, those forces, extremely deep within us, that impel us.  With the younger son, it is the will to independence.  The younger son says, treat me like the heir that I am: “Father, give me my share of the inheritance that is coming to me.” He wasted it and was penniless – becoming a hired hand who could not even eat the food for the pigs he was tending and yearned to be a hired hand who ate well in his father’s house. 

 He presumed that the consequence of his sin was the loss of sonship. His memorized apology was based more on his own hunger and hard times than on having insulted his father. Perhaps, we identify more with this son in our younger years. Jesus saw this son’s identity in the sinners and tax collectors.

 At first hearing, the elder son resonates with us because of a second archetype deep within us: self-righteousness. As we mature spiritually, we see that the elder son’s attitude is impelled not by love for his father but by: “look at all that I have done for you; I deserve better than this.” However, God does not keep score in His love as we tend to do when we are immature.

 Did you notice that the father physically left what he was doing and went out to meet each son?  He spotted the younger son down the road. He went to meet him. He did not let him finish his prepared, self-serving apology. He called for a robe and a ring and sandals and preparation for a wonderful banquet of joy. All these gifts clearly imply a relationship of a restored son, not a newly hired hand.

 When the elder son was pouting and grousing outside his home, the father also went out to meet him. He did not “chew him out.” He spoke lovingly to him. His movement toward each son was divine grace.

 The younger son must have been overwhelmed with his father’s loving forgiveness and finding that he did not have to crawl back, but simply come back to a place he did not even dream of occupying.  

 We do not know what happened with the elder son, who represents the scribes and Pharisees that accused Jesus. The hardness of heart involves deep pride with heels dug in - an “I’ll do it my way” mindset. These folks, so often, do not change their ways. The story does not reveal its outcome. At this point, Jesus’ story just stops; it does not have an ending.

 As we spiritually mature, we finally “get it.” The story follows the Jewish leaders being upset with Jesus’ eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus tells three stories about lost and found and rejoicing, never rejecting at recovery. The climactic parable could easily be renamed, the greathearted father.  Jesus gives us a story of how we should forgive as our father forgives. We remember that when Jesus said, “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” it was in the context of the father’s forgiveness, not in our doing everything perfectly. Thinking that we have to do everything perfectly is a spiritual affliction currently known as “perfectionism.”  

 The church assigns to “Laetare” – rejoice-Sunday in Lent – this likely candidate for the most beloved parable, the story of great rejoicing. He presents for us the model of “the great-hearted father” during our season of self-examination.

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT (March 20, 2022)

I have great respect and admiration for those “working the program” in Alcoholics Anonymous.  One of the admirable aspects of AA is the wonderful aphorisms, helpful “sayings,” that they have. 

 One is: “It’s not my drinking that gets me stinking, it’s my stinking thinking that gets me drinking.” I’ll repeat . . . Stinking thinking, unproductive, self-hurtful thinking, can put an alcoholic on the slippery slope towards falling back into taking a drink. There is a close parallel in the spiritual life. Jesus gives two examples at the beginning of today’s Gospel where he reads the stinking thinking in his listener’s minds. 

 In the first instance, he perceives that the hearers thought that Pilate acted for a god who did not accept the Galileans’ sacrificial offerings and therefore sent him, Pilate, to kill them. In the second example, the falling of a tower and killing 18 was an action willfully done by God. In current, American parlance, Jesus’ answer to both situations was “no way! “

 The seekers in today’s Gospel are like us when we ask a theoretical question about someone else, but we are really asking for a very practical answer for ourselves.

 The point of this Gospel incident is that each of us has a clear mission to do God’s will. God does have expectations of us. When you and I fall short, God is in some divine way disappointed in us. 

 John Shea has good insights that I would like to share with you. He identifies parallel instances in the Gospels where Jesus makes the same point as the story of the fig tree: the story about the prodigal son who squanders his inheritance, the light that is put under the basket instead of on top of the lampstand, the salt that must be thrown out because it has lost its power. We can add Jesus’ words to the Jewish leaders: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will yield a rich harvest.”  [Mt. 21]

 The story of the fig tree is that it, too, is a story of someone who is not performing, not doing the will of the master. The will of God, without a doubt, is that we change and produce fruit that we help to bring about the kingdom of God on earth. The lord’s prayer, the prayer that Jesus himself taught, prays that the kingdom of our Father in Heaven come, that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christians may disagree on many things, but never that doing the will of God is paramount in Jesus’ teaching.

 Christian, stinking thinking can take different forms in addition to the stories that begin this section of Luke where bad things happen to presumably good people. It can take the form of some Catholic devotion that adherents think that saying certain prayers fulfills all of Christianity. It can take the form of a curable, mental disorder, like scrupulosity, where one is consumed with fear of committing mortal sin. It can take the form of there being a divine plan for everyone, so whatever bad thing happens must be in God’s divine plan. Where did that destructive idea come from? It has been around for a long time.

 The mind can hold only so much. If it is filled, is consumed with thoughts such as “any of the above,” the mind cannot grow. John Henry Neumann, the Anglican priest, converted to Catholicism said that what is true in nature is true of our minds: “Growth is the only evidence of life.”

 Life is not looking outside ourselves at “already done deals” to work backward into what can be seen as God’s will. It is in listening to the will of God in our time of prayer that we come to understand what God calls us to. It is in prayer that we can discern God’s will, what needs to be changed, and then begin to weed and cultivate the soil of the unproducing aspect of our situation without playing time-wasting, speculative, mind games. 

 That is metanoia. That is the work of Lent.

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT (March 13, 2022)

In the past, I have spoken about different aspects of the Transfiguration. This year I thought it might be helpful to speak to the message itself. What is the point of the Transfiguration?

 After the miraculous, dazzling brilliance and conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah, Peter, who seems always good for a blurt, said, “Let’s build three tents;” that is, let’s not just stand here; let’s do something.  Immediately, the group was enveloped in a cloud of divine presence, and the words here repeat the Father’s words at Jesus’ baptism. Jesus is named the beloved Son of the Father. But, there is an additional line here at the Transfiguration that is not found at the baptism. It is recorded in all three synoptic Gospels: “Listen to him.” The Father ignored Jesus’ blurt. He simply says, “Listen to him.”

 Then, Jesus was alone with the three apostles with the Father’s words still ringing in their ears. The Father had not said, “Look at him and the splendor of his luminous body.” The Father did not have a list of things for them to do.  The Father was not interested in housing.   He simply said, “Listen to him.”

 The crisp command, “Listen to him” is the climax of the transfiguration and the key to its meaning. When we stop to listen, we realize that “Listen to him” is the one and only directive we hear from the Father in the entire New Testament.  The Transfiguration was not for the personal gratification of Jesus and the apostles, but that we might learn the supreme importance of listening. As with Jesus, the life of glory will follow as day follows night.

 This command to listen was not a vague mandate, but it referred to Jesus’ recent teaching that his career would come agonizingly to an end. Instead of being crowned king of Israel, as many had hoped, he would “suffer greatly, be rejected, be killed and on the third day be raised.” They need to listen to the fact that the path to glory in following him would not likely come in this life.  Jesus taught that by his own words and his own example.

 This explains why Moses and Elijah were on the mountain.  Years ago, they too had been rejected by their fellow Israelites - just as Jesus.  The teaching of Jesus and his rejection was foreshadowed in their lives.  Now, they are glorified. John, the beloved disciple would spend his lifetime of ministry dedicated to writing what he had heard and seen so that we might be able to listen.

What should we serious Christians learn from this event?  First and primarily, we need to listen to Jesus’ words of love for us. Then, after listening to his message, we spread his and our love to our neighbors.

 We begin to listen, first, by being quiet.  We need to stop talking. Then, we need to be silently present to the events recorded about Jesus’ life.  We need to listen to the words Jesus spoke – and, more profoundly, be present to Jesus’ wordless presence within us. The truth of his life, of his words, of his simple presence, emerges within us and transforms us.

 Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. In this Eucharist, Jesus brings the power of Transfiguration to us in the transfiguration of bread and wine into himself. We welcome him. We are then sent forth to transfigure those whose lives we touch. A wonderful Lenten practice.

First Sunday in Lent (March 6, 2022)

Immediately after John baptized Jesus and the father called Jesus His “beloved Son” and the Holy Spirit filled him with Himself, Jesus was then “led by the Spirit into the desert.” This was just before Jesus began his public ministry. These temptations probably represent temptations Jesus had throughout his whole life, but the Gospel writers telescoped them into a one-time event.

 I have heard many homilies and read many commentaries about Jesus’ temptations. They do not contradict one another, but each writer seems to have a different emphasis on pride, selfishness, and the abuse of power. I thought that this year I would simply reflect on “temptation” in general.

 Temptations are impulsive thoughts about strategies, ploys that are counter-productive to becoming who God calls us to be. An impulsive thought that may move us doing something good, we call “inspiration.” An impulsive thought that may lead us to do something evil, we call “temptation.” 

 Personally, I suspended the “devil” notion years ago. I surely do need God, but I do not need to conjure up a character to account for my own inclinations to do my own will. I do not need a “devil” to blame for my selfishness.  I am quite capable of coming up with less than virtuous ideas all by myself.  I do not need a snake to blame - as we read in the genesis myth. I do not outright deny the existence, just the need in my life. You make your own decision.

 Jesus always had his priorities straight and followed them. He did not sin, but he was human, so he had temptations as all humans have.

 We humans do not always have our priorities straight. We sin in choosing not to follow the appropriate order of priorities to which Jesus calls us. At times, we put ourselves ahead of God or someone in need. We sin.

 Today, we are looking at what inclines us to sin. A helpful way for me – and perhaps you – is to check first, our priorities and second, our temptations, our inclinations regarding those priorities, by looking at the people and things in our lives in the light of the time, talent and treasure we expend on those priorities.

 Temptation wears a thousand masks. It never asks, “Would you like to do something evil?” The serpent asks, “Would you like to be like God?  Then eat.” Temptations “sound” good. Paul and John call impulsive thoughts “spirits;” the “spirits” should be discerned to determine whether they are or not God’s will. To discern them, we first need to recognize them. Our current state of mind is expressed in our priorities.

 One way to recognize our priorities is to evaluate them according to the amount of time, talent, and treasure spent on each.  Use your imaginations, your wits, as to how. You might want to score your priorities on a scale of one to “whatever” and then score the time, talent, and treasure expended on each. Such pencil and paper devices can be very revealing.  It is a practice like this that I use during my annual retreat. I find that it helps me to concentrate and face the facts of what my priorities really are.  It also helps to expose the inclinations, temptations that I experience in my day-to-day spiritual life.

 Our inclination to possess things, our desire to control our lives can get out of hand and be hurtful to ourselves and others. Unlike New Year’s resolutions, Lent provides a protracted period of time to look thoughtfully at ourselves and see ourselves as we are and not as we would like to think we are.

 Lent is the season for conversion of mind and heart. If we want to grow spiritually, to go through ongoing conversion, we need to know ourselves as we really are.  An examen of first, our current priorities, and second, our impulsive thoughts makes for a productive start.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 27, 2022)

Today’s selections from the Book of Sirach and Luke’s Gospel suggest a powerful standard by which we can judge the heart and mind of another person: the subject and manner about which one speaks.

 Pretty obvious, isn’t it? Negative people tend to speak negatively. Jealous people speak resentfully. Judgmental people speak suspiciously. Their conversations tend to weigh others down.

 By contrast, positive people speak positively. Happy people speak graciously. Energized people speak enthusiastically. Their conversations tend to lift others up.

 If the eyes are the windows to the soul, conversation seems to be expressions of the heart. 

 Francis de Sales writes in his Introduction to the Devout Life: “Just as physicians learn about a person’s health or sickness by looking at the tongue, so our words are a true indication of the state of our souls.” (Part III, Chapter 26) This diagnosis has several aspects.

 First: how do we speak of God? “If you are truly in love with God you should often speak of God in familiar conversation with others…just as bees extract with their mouths nothing but honey, so your tongue should always be sweetened with its God…always with attention and reverence.” (Ibid)

 Second: how do we speak of others? “Be careful never to let an indecent word leave your lips, for even if you do not speak with an evil intention those who hear it may take it a different way.”  When one’s heart is filled with evil or rancor or intrigue, their tongues are no longer like the sweet ones of the bees but become “like a lot of wasps gathered together to feed on corruption.” (Part III, Chapter 27)

 Third: how balanced is our conversation? “It seems to me that we should avoid two extremes,” observes Francis de Sales.  “To be too reserved and to refuse to take part in conversation looks like lack of confidence in the others or some kind of disdain.  On the other hand, to be always babbling or joking without giving others time or chance to speak when they wish is a mark of shallowness and levity.” (Part III, Chapter 30)

 What do the content and tone of our words tell others about our hearts?

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 20, 2022)

Today’s gospel offers us the great challenge for a disciple of Jesus:

 “Love your enemies, do good to those who dislike you, bless those who speak ill of you, and pray for those who mistreat you.” “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

 We all know how difficult this is to do.

 We’ll never be able to do it without God’s grace, without learning to be very conscious that God is present with us each day, without asking God for the strength of his grace many times each day. The invitation of Jesus to love those who get in our face, who know how to push all our buttons, goes against our natural feelings of irritation and anger. Jesus seems to be asking too much.

 What Jesus is asking of us is to be all that grace enables us to be. By our baptism, we have been given a share in the life and love of God. Jesus has become our brother; we are children of our heavenly Father by grace. Divine life is in us and that life enables us to live as Jesus lived. Jesus is asking us to learn to live by the new life we have been given. Because of grace, we are able to be merciful as our Father is merciful. Jesus has shown us how to love those who irritate us, how to forgive those who injure us.

 St. Francis de Sales recommends several practices that can help us remember the strength of divine life within us.

 Begin the day with a short prayer of awareness: “My God, you are here loving me today; help me to remember You’re with me as we go through the day.” Then, talk with God about the grace I will need to deal with particular people in my life who can irritate me or have mistreated me. During the day, when I know I’m going to meet such a person, I ask God’s help that I may relate with that person in a way that is pleasing to God. Then, each evening, thank God for the times when grace gave me strength and ask pardon for the times I forgot to ask for God’s help and failed because I tried to do it on my own.

 The key is learning the discipline of remembering that I share divine life. When my prayer leads me to greater awareness of God’s loving presence each day, then I will more likely become dependent on the grace God makes available to me. Then the challenge that Jesus offers – to love my enemies – is not so impossible for me to try to meet. I can meet it because I trust in God who lives in me.

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (February 13, 2022)

What does it mean to “trust?” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines it thus: “Firm reliance on the integrity, ability or character of a person or thing.”

 Imagine a world without trust. Imagine a world in which nobody believed in the “integrity, ability or character” of others. Such a place could indeed be described as a living hell. Trust is the mortar that binds us together. Trust is what enables us to form families, friends, community and country. Trust is an integral part of what it means to be human.

 In stark contrast with the importance of trusting one another, Jeremiah warns: “Cursed are those who trust in human beings.” What are we to make of this?  Simply put, trusting one another is not enough to sustain us in life. Why?  Because, as we know all too well – and painfully – we humans, despite our best efforts, are not always trustworthy.  If our trust is limited to the human plane, we run the risk of being overwhelmed by the woes of pain, disappointment, heartache and cynicism.

 Our ultimate trust must be found in God, the one is always trustworthy. Our ultimate trust must be found in God, the faithful friend who never deceives or betrays. Our fundamental trust allows us to not merely survive this life, but to thrive in it, especially when confronted by our own imperfections and those of others. St. Francis de Sales wrote: “If the whole world turns topsy-turvy, if all around is darkness and smoke and din, God is still with us.  If we believe that God lives in the darkness and on Mount Sinai which is full of smoke and surrounded with the roar of thunder and lightning, shall not all be well with us as long as we place our trust in God?” (Stopp, Selected Letters, p. 125)

 Cursed are we if expect others to fulfill all of our deepest wants, our deepest needs, our deepest desires and our deepest dreams without fail. Such expectations lead to bitterness, resentment and despair. Blessed are we if we take confidence and consolation in the God who is always trustworthy, even when we humans are not. Our trust in God will not shield us from life’s inevitable disappointments – those we receive, those we cause – but it will enable us to name them, to work through them and to ultimately move beyond them.

 Our trust in God enables us to celebrate the ways we are trustworthy. Likewise, our trust in God enables us to forgive one another when we are not.

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (February 6, 2022)

I saw an interesting tee shirt, that read: “Some fish to forget troubles; some fish to eat dinner. Me?  I like worms.” Jesus might have worn a tee that said: “Some people fish for fish.  Me? I fish for people.”

 Today, Jesus calls Peter, James and John to help him fish. Isn’t their reaction amazing?  These three, Jewish, commercial fishermen had the haul of fish of their lives --their biggest profit lay ahead. Jesus calls them to become people-fishers. They neither protest nor ask to first sell the fish. They immediately leave their nets.

 These three would become the inner circle of the Twelve. The trio that would be with him when he would raise Jairus’ daughter to life, when he would be transfigured on Mt. Tabor, when he would be on the mount of olives the night before he was killed.  Evidently, the men did show some fear because Jesus counsels them not to be afraid.  They courageously accept Jesus’ offer. What charisma Jesus must have had! Let the Jesus-adventure begin!

 The time had come in Jesus’ life to put out into the deep waters of Israel and the world and begin, like a fisherman, to lure people into the kingdom of his father. 

 Today, there are two movements that comprise evangelization - a big word for a simple idea, the process of bringing people to Jesus. One movement addresses the recognized fact that many who call themselves Catholic Christians are not really “hooked” by Jesus.  They are nominal or sometimes, Catholic Christians. Church leaders claim the first task of evangelization is converting the already baptized Catholics who have been lured away by other values or addictions.  

 Also, there are some baptized, church-going Catholics who are concerned with the “things” of religion: this devotion or that prayer.  Prayer-sayers are not what Jesus wants.  Jesus wants pray-ers, communicators with him directly.  Any practice in religion must be a means toward the end of a relationship with Jesus. No particular devotion hooked Peter, James, or John in today’s gospel.  They were lured and hooked on the person of Jesus.

 There are physical addictions that lure us from time for our Lord. Our people get hooked on drugs, food, alcohol, smoking. 

There are also cultural addictions that take the time needed for relationship with our Lord: sports [playing or watching], hobbies, shopping, TV-watching, texting, the internet, and more.  These can be addictive as well.

 The second movement of evangelization consists in introducing those not of our faith expression – or of no faith expression – to our faith in Jesus.

 God is love; Jesus is love enfleshed and calls us - as he called Peter, James, andJohn - into a personal relationship with himself and his father and the spirit. When he lures us with his love, we are moved to return his love with our love; we are hooked – as the great fisherman wants us to be.

 Anyone associated with the Oblates has heard the motto of St. Francis de Sales: Tenui nec Dimittam . . . I have held on, and I will not let go.   A loose translation in the light of this gospel loose translation could be: “I have been hooked on Jesus who loves me, and I will not get unhooked. “

 Like the wonderful relationship of love between humans, our relationship with our god grows and deepens. It is so real - it becomes visible to others.  Remember in the Acts of the Apostles: “See the Christians, see how they love one another.” It still happens today.  Our neighbors see something in us that they want. They seek. They inquire; they join the RCIA. That is how the second movement of evangelization happens.  It is how the call of Jesus to Peter, James, and John continues.

Let’s look in our spiritual mirrors. Do people see something of Jesus in you that Peter, James and John saw in the person of Jesus?  To the extent that they do, we know that we are growing spiritually; we know that the RCIA will flourish.  The work of Jesus will go on and spread. Jesus called it the “Kingdom of God.”

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (January 30, 2022)

Magicians are wonderful entertainers. Much of the “magic” that they do has to do with toying with our expectations.

Expectations are also an important part of religion. We have expectations of God, but we have to learn how to deal with our expectations being too high or too low. Today’s Gospel reading addresses faulty expectations.

Jesus was well received in his first talk with his fellow townspeople in Nazareth. He read the 61st chapter of the prophet Isaiah telling of the wonderful things that would happen for the afflicted when the messiah would arrive.

Then, Jesus told them that God’s loving care was not the Jews’ exclusive right. Their expectations of our loving God were flawed. He gave them two examples to prove his point:

• When the killer-famine came in the days of Elijah, God fed a poor widow from Sidon, a non-Jew in a foreign land; • When leprosy was rampant in the days of Elisha, God did not heal a Jew, but a Syrian army officer named Naaman.

Jesus was telling the hometown crowd what they needed to hear. They were worshiping a God they made too small. They claimed to worship the God of the universe but had reduced him to a tribal deity.

His hearers did two things. First, they did what we often do when we hear something that we do not want to hear. We react. “Isn’t this Joseph’s kid?” We know him; who does he think he is? Jesus saw their reaction and answered with an adage from Israel’s history that is still applicable today: “A prophet is not known in his own country.”

Second, they came close to doing what their ancestors had done to many a prophet. If they didn’t like the message, they killed the messenger. They pushed Jesus out of the synagogue, to the edge of a cliff. The account says he passed through the crowd; we do not know how. Was it that their hot blood cooled when they realized they were actually about to kill a longtime neighbor? Did they see Mary and remember what a kind person she was? Your guess is as good as mine.

God’s prophetic, corrective word may come to us in different forms:

• A Scripture verse or a homily that impacts us as if we are hearing it for the first time;

• A recuperation time gives us pause, and time to ask where we are going with our life, as in the case of Ignatius of Loyola;

• And, it can happen that someone confronts us as Jesus confronted his hearers - as in the intervention of a family for an addicted member.

If we are tempted to sit in judgment on the people of Nazareth, we forget that we are probably more like them than different. When we hear criticism, an expressed expectation, it may have merit. Let’s not react with a knee-jerk reaction. Prophets are the antidotes to the defense mechanism, denial. We tend to be blind in our own concerns. We can see a speck in another’s eye and miss a plank in our own eye.

Let us be wise enough to listen gently to a prophetic voice and, like Jesus, to speak courageously and gently in a prophetic manner, when, as leaders, we need to remind another of God’s expectation.