God Becomes a Baby

Understanding the meaning of the Incarnation at Christmas

12/25/2018

Luke 2:1-14 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,  because there was no room for them in the inn.

When I was at the University of Dallas, I read a curious book called Cur Deus Homo, written in 1095 by the medieval theologian St. Anselm. That title asks a question in Latin and means, “Why did God become man?” But with all due respect to St. Anselm, I think he asked the wrong question. The much more baffling question to me is, “Why did God become a baby?” God could have come from heaven a fully grown man, kind of like how God created the very first man, Adam, fully formed in manhood, in the prime of life, full of vim and vigor. Jesus could have come as Arnold Schwarzenegger with muscles bulging and guns blazing, ready to save the world. But instead he chose to make his grand entrance into the world not enfolded in majestic clouds and commanding armies of angels, but surrounded by swaddling clothes, barely able to move a muscle. The question that St. Anselm should have tackled is why did God become a baby? That is the question we should all ask ourselves at Christmas because that’s exactly what God did. Now, why?

I would like to suggest to you three reasons why God became a baby, and perhaps they will shed a little more light on the meaning and mystery of Christmas, like the light from that little star guided the three kings to the Christ Child, a baby. I love those billboards that say: “Wise men still seek him” because only the wise know to seek a God who would become a baby. Here are the three reasons God did that: (1) a baby is harmless, (2) a baby is edible, and (3) a baby needs love.

First of all, a baby is harmless, and indeed it is very vulnerable and cannot survive without constant attention and care. That is why everyone instantly drops their own defenses around a baby. Have you noticed what perfect fools people make of themselves in order to try to catch a baby’s attention? Just watch what shenanigans people do when they try to take a baby’s picture and make it smile or laugh. I see this all the time at baptisms when I hold the baby and watch people make bizarre noises, wave and jump around like idiots. I wish I had a camera to take a picture of the people.

Why is this? Well, when we meet an adult for the first time, we ask ourselves: “Is this person a friend or a foe?” “Are you going to help me or harm me?” We sort of size them up in our minds. On the other hand, when we approach a baby, we never ask those questions because we know instinctively a baby is harmless and we want to assure it that we are harmless, too; indeed, we act like complete clowns to win the baby’s trust. I have seen CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, generals of the army, presidents of nations, all reduced to clowns for the entertainment of a baby, especially when it’s their own grandchild. No matter how big you think you are, a baby can bring you back down to earth. That’s one reason God became a baby; it is harmless and it help us be harmless too.

Secondly, a baby is edible. Now, before you call me a cannibal, answer this question: when you see a really chubby baby, have you not wanted to bite his or her chubby legs or arms? If we’re honest, we know we have felt that urge to munch loving on a baby. God became a baby precisely as a kind of prophesy of his ultimate purpose, namely, to feed us with himself, indeed, with his own Body and Blood. Do you know the word “Bethlehem” literally means “house of bread”? This Baby would become the Bread of Life we hear about in John 6, and would feed all the world with himself. What was Jesus first baby bed? It was a manger full of straw and hay to feed the animals. God became a baby in Bethlehem and was laid in a manger to foreshadow the fact that he would become the spiritual food of the Eucharist, and we can all munch lovingly on Jesus. Every time we come to church for Mass, we walk into a new Bethlehem, a house of bread. God became a baby to teach us how he would feed us.

And thirdly, a baby needs love. Isn’t it amazing how we love all babies, regardless of their race or religion, their color or creed, their nationality or names? We have no prejudicial preferences for a brown baby or a white baby or a black baby. Every baby is beautiful and each one is easy to love. If God had become immediately a full-grown man, we would come to him loaded with questions and complaints and criticisms against him, which is what happened during Jesus’ public ministry. It’s easy to be angry at an adult. But who blows up at a baby? Unless, of course, they are crying in church during my homily. Blaise Pascal the French philosopher, famously said: “There is a God-shaped hole in every human heart, and only God can fill it.” I believe there is likewise a human-shaped hole in God’s heart that only our human love can fill. All babies need love, even the divine Baby, Jesus, and becoming a baby made it easier for us to love him.

Maybe I should not be so quick to question St. Anselm, who was after all a bishop, a saint and a doctor of the church. But the baffling fact that God became a baby cries out for an explanation more than a hungry baby cries out for his mother’s milk! Jesus did nothing by accident, not his conception, not his crucifixion, not his crowning in glory. Therefore, he also had a reason in becoming a baby. It happens to be his same reason for doing everything else, namely, to show his love for us, and to help us love him. Few things capture that mutual love between God and man better than a baby.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Donuts for Dinner

Praying for parents to pass along the faith

10/22/2018

1 Samuel 1:24-28 In those days, Hannah brought Samuel with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and presented him at the temple of the LORD in Shiloh. After the boy's father had sacrificed the young bull, Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said: "Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD." She left Samuel there.

Parents are not only the first teachers in the ways of faith, they are irreplaceable teachers. Why is that? Put simply, parents know better than their children what’s good for them. If it were left up to children, they would eat powdered donuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This holds true not only for food but also for faith. Parents must educate their offspring in faith by what they say and do. And the doing is the decisive part because the faith is caught as much as it is taught. The Catholic faith is caught like you catch a cold, by closeness and contact with a person of great faith.

Back in August of this year, Pope Francis visited Ireland and one day met with newly-weds and engaged couples in the Cathedral in Dublin. He said: “The first and most important place for passing on the faith is the home, through the quiet daily example of parents who love our Lord and trust in his word.” More specifically, he added this: “Pray together as a family; speak of good and holy things; let our Mother Mary into family life. Celebrate the feasts of the Christian people. Live in deep solidarity with those who suffer and are at the edges of society.” He teased as well: “Even mothers-in-law have wisdom.” When parents abdicate their first function as teachers, children eat donuts for dinner and junk food for faith.

We hear about two women who were exemplary teachers of faith and their extraordinary children who caught that faith from them. Hannah consecrates Samuel to the Lord by sending him to the seminary with Eli. Samuel had learned much from his mother but now his spiritual education would require great wisdom. In the gospel Mary’s Magnificat proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and obedience to God’s will, that would be the first lesson of faith she would impart to Jesus. Our Lord would remember that lesson in the Garden of Gethsemane when he accepted God’s will and set aside his own, just like his mother did in Nazareth when an angel appeared and asked her to accept God’s will.  Like mother, like son.  The faith is taught and it is caught. Both Samuel and Jesus had not only been taught the faith by words, they had caught that faith by works, the holy example of wonderful women of faith. Samuel and Jesus did not eat donuts for dinner or junk food for faith.

I think today in America parents really struggle to find their footing in faith education. In other words, I don’t frequently see parents passing on the faith by their own word and example. I visit many homes that are filled with fancy furniture and the fastest wifi, but few signs and symbols of faith, almost as if the family feared to be identified as Catholic or as Christian. Other parents abandon their first function as faith educators by expecting Catholic schools to do all the work. You teach them the faith, Fr. John! As good as Catholic schools are, we cannot replace parents, nor should we. Some parents hope the grandparents will form their children in faith. You tell them about Jesus, mom and dad! Still other parents fear forcing faith on their children and want them to freely choose their own faith after they grow up. They don’t want to prejudice children with the faith of the parents, as if faith were a parental prejudice, like racism. But when parents drop the ball in being first teachers in the faith, their children end up eating junk food, just like if parents did not insist their children eat their vegetables the children would devour donuts for dinner.

You know, I smile when I see moms and dads dress up their toddlers in outfits from their favorite sports teams: cute little Arkansas Razorbacks, or small St. Louis Cardinal fans,  or tiny Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. And yet, they feel no fear to share that parental prejudice with their children. Faith is not a parental prejudice, but rather the greatest gift you can give your children. When parents fail in their first function as teachers, their children will eat donuts for dinner and junk food for faith.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Virgin’s Children

Seeing the value of the perpetual virginity of Mary

12/20/2018

Luke 1:26-38 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"

I believe that nothing highlights the sharp contrast between Catholics and Protestants more than the Blessed Virgin Mary. In particular, Mary’s perpetual virginity stands at the crux of the controversy and conflict. That is, no Christian really argues that Mary was a virgin prior to conceiving Jesus, and today’s scripture from Isaiah 7 and Luke 1 provide ample evidence for that. Rather it’s Mary’s virginity after the birth of Jesus that raises the hairs on the back of Protestant necks and brings out their Bibles. Protestants point to passages like Luke 2:7 stating Jesus is Mary’s “firstborn son” so she must have had a “second born” and a “third born.”  Or, the famous passage in Mark 6:3 that name four “brothers of Jesus” – James, Joses, Jude and Simon.

But Catholics are quick to counter that “firstborn son” does not denote birth order or suggest subsequent siblings as much as designate a privilege of being first born which conveyed legal standing in Jewish society, regardless of siblings. Jesus would still be “firstborn” even if he had no brothers or sisters. Furthermore, Catholics consider Jesus’ brothers and sisters to be “cousins” rather than literally Jesus’ younger siblings. Hebrew uses the same word “brother” to signify cousins, a little like how I might call Fr. Stephen my “brother priest” even though we do not have the same mother (he’s a brother from another mother). All this controversy and consternation is caused over the perpetual virginity of Mother Mary, and I spilled some ink on it myself this morning.

But I would suggest to you we will only discover the telling point of the problem when we ask “why” do Catholics and Protestants disagree so vehemently over Mary’s virginity? Some might ask, “So what if Mary remained a virgin or not?” Or, “What difference does her virginity make in Sacred Scripture or in salvation history?” Here both Catholics and Protestants would agree whole-heartedly on the answer: it makes all the difference in the world! Why? At the bottom of the perpetual virginity of Mary lies the question about the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice. Was Jesus’ sacrifice alone enough to save us? In other words, for Protestants once Mary gave birth to Jesus, her role in salvation history is finished and she needs to get out of the limelight and put the whole spotlight on Jesus. Protestants fear that insisting on Mary’s perpetual virginity distracts our attention away from Jesus, and diminishes his singular work of salvation. Mary sort of “competes” with Jesus for our attention and affection, kind of like how Fr. Stephen competes with me for your attention (I’ve been counting how many cards he gets for Christmas).

But Catholics would counter that Mary’s virginity does not compete with Christ’s saving work; indeed, Mary’s virginity is the very proof of his saving work, and her perpetual virginity is Jesus crowning achievement, his masterpiece, his piece de resistance. Emphasizing Mary’s place in salvation history only highlights how great and sufficient Jesus’ saving work really was and is. Mary is like a full moon, completely reflecting the light from the sun, her Son and Savior, whereas all other Christians are like a half moon or a sliver or a new moon that’s completely dark. The sufficiency of Christ’s salvation, therefore, can be seen most clearly and most completely in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her perpetual virginity is not competition but only confirmation.

May I share why Mary’s perpetual virginity means so much to me personally? Because, oddly enough, the fact that Mary had no other children besides Jesus makes me feel like I don’t have to compete for her attention. She obviously does not have to worry about Jesus, her firstborn and only Child (he’s a good kid), so she has time to worry about me (a very troubled kid). I am convinced that’s why on the Cross, Jesus pointed Mary to his beloved disciple (who remained unnamed) and said, “Woman, behold your son.” Jesus was commanding his mother to take notice of little old me, and little old you (Jesus’ beloved disciples), and to take care of us as a mother because she did not have other natural children to fret or fear for.

It’s funny how when I pray the rosary daily things pop into my mind that I had forgotten to do, and I believe that’s Mary helping me remember. When I pray the rosary in traffic I stay calm and don’t yell at drivers because Mary holds my hand and tells me to be more like Jesus. Mary can be that close to me because I do not have any competitors for her affection from any other natural children. As a result, she has all the time in the world for her supernatural children. And that’s why the perpetual virginity of Mary matters to me, and maybe why it should matter to you.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Billion Graves

Opening the book of our biography and finding two genealogies

12/17/2018

Matthew 1:1-17 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king…Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

There has been a veritable explosion of interest in investigating genealogies lately. I recently came across a list of 25 websites that help people to explore their past. You’ve probably heard of “ancestry.com” and “23 and Me,” which several priest-friends have used. But you might also peruse “Archives.com,” or “Billiongraves.com” or “FamilySearch.org,” or “Findingmypast.com.” If you are Jewish, check out “JewishGen.com,” or if your forefathers served in the military since the Revolutionary War, go to “Fold3.com.” But the very first decision you make even before going to a website is whether to check out your father’s line or your mother’s line. In other words, every one of us has two genealogies: a paternal one and a maternal one, and each one leads you to learn about half of your past. But only together do they tell the whole story about your identity.

One day Susie asked her mother, “Where do people come from?” Her mother replied, “well, Adam and Eve had babies, and when they grew up they had babies, and so on until us.” A few days later Susie asked her father, “Where do babies come from?” He answered: “People have descended from monkeys.” Very disturbed Susie rushed back to her mom and asked why their two answers were so different. Her mom smiled and said: “Well, dear, I was telling you about my side of the family and your father was telling you about his side.” In other words, we all have two genealogies, a paternal one and a maternal one, and one may be a little more flattering than the other.

Today we hear the genealogy of Jesus according to St. Matthew. Believe it or not, it is one of my favorite passages of Scripture and I love it when it comes up at Mass. But did you know there is a second genealogy of Jesus in the gospel of Luke chapter 3? If you read the two genealogies side by side, you quickly discover they are different – different people are mentioned! One likely explanation for the divergence is that Matthew provides the ancestry of Jesus tracing the lineage of Joseph, while Luke focuses instead on the ancestry of Mary. Matthew, following Joseph’s genealogy, goes back to King David and finally Abraham and shows Jesus belong to the Chosen People, while Luke’s ancestry attempts to take Mary’s genealogy all the back to Adam and Eve, and even to God. In every genealogy, therefore (and Jesus’ genealogy is no exception), there always exist two ancestral lines, a paternal one and a maternal one. And to understand the whole story of our identity (especially Jesus’ identity) we must explore both. Otherwise, we will remain a mystery to ourselves; our biography will be a closed book.

My friends, I would suggest to you that Christians also have two genealogies, but not merely that of our natural mother and father. Rather, we have both a physical ancestry but also a spiritual one. We enjoy a natural pedigree but also a supernatural one thanks to the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist. Let me explain briefly. By baptism we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit and adopted into the Family of God, the Father, the Son and the Spirit, and the Church as our Mother. Our spiritual genealogy, therefore, includes the saints and sinners who belonged to the Church by baptism up and down the centuries. They are truly our brothers and sisters. What’s more, our family by spiritual baptism is more real than our family by physical regeneration because the first will last into eternity, but the second endures only on earth.

You’ve heard the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” to describe how we are a lot like our parents. That expression can also help describe our two genealogies. On the natural side we come from Adam and Eve, who ate from the forbidden fruit (the apple) of the tree in Eden, and so we are sinners, like them. That is our natural pedigree, that we are sinners. But Jesus and Mary teach us how to reach for the fruit of another tree – the tree of the Cross – and the fruit (the apple) of that Tree is the Body and Blood of Christ, which we eat at the Mass. We might say the “apple” of the Tree of the Cross is Christ himself and when we take a bite from it, we become saints. That is our spiritual pedigree, that we are called to be saints. Just like Jesus has two genealogies – one showing he is the son of Abraham (and human) and the other showing he is the Son of God (and divine) – so every Christian has two genealogies, one showing we are human and sinful, and the other suggesting we are divine and saintly.

The next time you are curious about your genealogy, don’t just go to “billiongraves.com” and search there for who you are, but also pick up the Bible and search there. Don’t just read the first half of the book of your biography; the second half is the more interesting part.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Cross and Christmas

Learning to hear the harmony between happiness and holiness

12/16/2018

Luke 3:10-18 The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?” He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him, “Teacher, what should we do?” He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.” Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?” He told them, “Do not practice extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages.”

Do you know what makes me happy? Christmas presents make me happy! I bet they make you pretty happy too. This year, though, I am experiencing a whole new happiness because not only am I receiving gifts, but much more because I am also giving gifts. Now, of course, every year I have given gifts to my immediate family and the church staff. But this year I am taking gift giving to a whole new level, and what I’m discovering is that new level is a higher level of happiness, indeed, I feel the joy of Jesus.

For me Christmas started all the way back in November when I began to save all my stipends from baptisms, funerals and weddings.  I had to build up my war chest for the battle of Black Friday. Then, I made a list of everyone I would give a gift to and checked it twice to see who was naughty or nice, for example, Dc. Greg is no longer on my list. I called spouses of staff members to see what they would like so the gift was appropriate. St. Thomas Aquinas taught that “a gift is given in the mode of the recipient.” In other words, it should be what they would like, not necessarily something I would like. And I am trying to purchase as many presents locally as possible. Patronizing our local businesses gives two gifts: to the business owner and to our beloved family and friends.

This year, therefore, Christmas has taken on a curious character for me. I don’t care so much about getting gifts as I am excited about giving gifts; I am no longer seeing this season through the eyes of a child but peering through those of an adult; I am exchanging the natural joy of John for the supernatural joy of Jesus, I am abandoning the attitude of a human being, whose nature knows only to receive, and adopting the attitude of the Divine Being, whose nature only knows to give. In short, when we give gifts at Christmas happiness and holiness become surprisingly one. Usually, if we’re happy we don’t feel very holy (the saints don’t have much fun we think), and if we shoot for holiness, well there goes the happiness. Christmas, however, is that special combination when happiness unites harmoniously with holiness just as Jesus’ human nature joined seamlessly with his divine nature. The rest of the year Christmas and giving will feel like the cross, but on December 25th, the cross and sacrifice feels like Christmas.

In the gospel today, we see more people getting into the spirit of giving gifts rather than caring about receiving them. As the people hear John the Baptist preaching, they start asking, “What should we do? What should we do?” Notice their attitude is not “What are we going to get for Christmas?” but rather “What can I do to give something this Christmas?” John suggests giving extra food and clothing to the poor, that tax collectors not be corrupt and ask only what is allotted, and soldiers should not practice extortion, falsely accuse others and be satisfied with their wages. John is making it crystal clear that to prepare for that first Christmas, for the coming of the One who is pure gift, the people themselves must go from being getters into givers. Those who obeyed John could hear that hidden harmony between happiness and holiness, where giving is more joyous than getting, where the Cross feels like Christmas.

May I share with you three principles that guide my gift-giving not only at Christmas but all year long? First of all, I try to give something that helps someone and does not harm them. I don’t know about you, but I have such a hard time knowing what to do with all the pan-handlers in town, the people holding signs on street corners asking for money. I hesitate to give them cash – even though that would be easy to do – because they may spend it on alcohol or drugs. So, I have decided to give more money in our church poor box or to the St. Anne Society. That way, I know that money will help and not harm. My gift-giving tries to fulfill the Hippocratic Oath doctors take, namely, “Do no harm.”

My second suggestion would be to be careful about the consumerist mentality when we receive and give so many gifts. All the buying is good for business, certainly, but it can also be bad for our spirit. Have you heard about “hoarders”? Those are people who accumulate material things feeling they will find happiness in their hoard of stuff. But a lot of hoarded stuff just suffocates the human spirit. A friend of mine told me his remedy for hoarding: when he receives a new sweater, he gives an old sweater away. If he gets a new pair of shoes, he gives an older pair of shoes away. He has found that hidden harmony between happiness and holiness, giving and getting, where the cross feel likes Christmas.

And finally, remember the best gift is our faith. I am afraid that Christmas can become so commercialized and secularized that religion is drained from our daily routine. We tend to forget the reason for the season is Jesus. We think more about Santa than about the Savior. To counteract that trend, some families have small Advent wreathes on their dining room table, others keep their trees up and lights on for the twelve days of Christmas, and some do not exchange gifts until Epiphany, when the three kings arrive and give their gifts. And you can catch all the after-Christmas sales too! If we forget Christ in Christmas, we stop hearing that harmony between happiness and holiness, giving and getting, and sadly, Christmas may start to feel like the cross.

Just like John told the people how to prepare for the first Christmas, so I want to help you prepare for the 2,018th Christmas. Try to give gifts that (1) do no harm, (2) avoid hoarding, and (3) remember faith should be your first gift. That way, you will enjoy Christmas all year long, even on Good Friday.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Devil in Desire

Subordinating our will to the will of God to find happiness

12/14/2018

Matthew 11:16-19 Jesus said to the crowds: "To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, 'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is vindicated by her works."

Few things in this world make my heart skip a beat more than celebrating the feast of a great Carmelite saint, like today’s feast in honor or St. John of the Cross. You may recall I spent three months living with the Carmelites discerning a religious vocation before coming to Immaculate Conception. But ironically, St. John would warn us about things that make our hearts skip a beat, that is, inordinate desires, or any desire we feel that is not subordinate to God’s will. Surprisingly, even a desire to become a Carmelite could be an inordinate desire, a desire to take a detour from God’s will for us. In other words, for John of the Cross, the decisive part of our lives that must be aligned with God’s will is not only our actions, but also our desires driving those actions: our passions, our wants, our inclinations, what makes us jump out of bed in the morning, what makes our hearts skip a beat.

In his spiritual classic called Ascent of Mount Carmel, the mystical doctor wrote these celebrated lines: “To reach satisfaction in everything, desire satisfaction in nothing. To come to possession of everything, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. To come to the knowledge of everything, desire the knowledge of nothing.” Doesn’t hearing those lines make your heart skip a beat? But notice John in not criticizing satisfaction, possessions, being all, or knowledge but rather the inordinate desire for these things. That is, when these desires have not been subordinated to God’s will they remain inordinate desires. You may have heard the expression, “the devil is in the details.” Well, St. John would paraphrase that to say: “the devil is in the desire.” Only when we desire nothing can we finally feel the freedom to desire what God wants, even the desire to be a Carmelite must first become nothing.

The “nada doctrine” (“nada” means “nothing” in Spanish) can shed some light on today’s perplexing Scripture passage about Jesus and John the Baptist. Jesus declares: “For John came neither eating or drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man (Jesus) came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners’.” Even though on the surface both John and Jesus’ actions look wildly dissimilar, the deeper common denominator can be found in their desire. For both men, it was neither fasting nor in feasting that was first and foremost but rather their desire to do God’s will. If the devil is in the desire, then there was no room for the devil in the hearts of John or Jesus. In other words, all their inordinate desires had become perfectly subordinate desires purely pursuing the will of God. As St. John of the Cross would say: both Jesus and John desired satisfaction in nothing and thereby they found satisfaction in everything.

My friends, I believe dominating our desires not only helps us to do God’s will, but is the short-cut to human happiness. Dominating our desires not only dismisses the devil, it also opens up new vistas of peace, joy, and above all, love. I am convinced that inordinate desires lurks at the root of all human unhappiness. Why do some marriages fail and end in divorce? Because one spouse or the other could not or would not dominate some unhealthy desire. Why do some priests become alcoholics? Because we do not dominate our desire for another martini – guilty as charged. Why does the race for riches in gambling ruin families and fortunes? Because people do not dominate their desire for wealth. Why is the ambition for power – regardless of whether in church or state – cause people to cut corners and compromise their convictions? Because their desire for power is out of control. Why do people struggle to lose weight and suffer from all kinds of eating disorders? Because their desire for food goes unchecked. But notice again in each of these examples, the devil is not in the divorce, the devil is not in the martini, the devil is not in the casino, the devil is not in the White House or in the Vatican, the devil is not in the hamburger. Rather, the devil is always in the desire for these things. And once you dominate the inordinate desires for these otherwise natural and neutral things, you find peace, joy, and above all, love.

You know, my heart still skips a beat on this great feast of St. John of the Cross. Strange as it sounds, maybe I have become a better Carmelite by not becoming a Carmelite and giving in that desire. Why? Well, because the devil is in the desire.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Early Bird

Seeing how humanity passes through law, grace and glory

12/13/2018

Matthew 11:11-15 Jesus said to the crowds: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force. All the prophets and the law prophesied up to the time of John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah, the one who is to come. Whoever has ears ought to hear."

Recently I was giving a talk in RCIA class on church history, and I offered the class two views our history. The first view was the 30,000 foot view so you could see the whole history from a panoramic perspective, everything at once. The second view was back down on earth with all the dates and details. Scott Hahn once described these two perspectives as “the bird’s eye view and the worm’s eye view.” I always prefer the bird’s eye perspective.

Today, I would like to take you up to 30,000 feet and catch the bird’s eye view of the whole history of humanity. What we see from that altitude is there are basically three stages of human history taken as a whole. The first stage is that of the law, which was embodied in the Old Testament and enjoyed by the Jews. The second stage is that of grace, which is embodied in the New Testament and alive and well in the Church. But the third stage is that of glory, which will be manifested in heaven, in the saints in glory. The whole of human history passes through these three stages of law, grace, and glory.

It might be helpful to compare these stages to the development of a flowering plant. A friend recently gave me an amaryllis plant for Christmas. The first stage is the bulb or seed which lies dormant, the second stage is the growth and maturation of the stem and leaves, and the third and final stage is the glorious bloom, which often occurs conveniently around Christmas. The life cycle of human history is a lot like the life cycle of an amaryllis flower. The age of law corresponds to the period of the seed, the age of grace is like the period of growth of the stem and leaves, and the age of glory is like the full bursting bloom of the flower. That’s the bird’s eye view of human history and all bird’s love to look at pretty flowers.

If we keep these three stages of history in mind, we can make more sense of what Jesus says somewhat cryptically in the gospel today. Our Lord asserts: “Among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets, the age of the law, and he was the first to announce the Messiah and introduce the New Testament or the age of grace. But just like the stem and leaves of the amaryllis plant are greater than the bulb-seed, so those who belong to the Kingdom of heaven by the grace of baptism are greater than John the Baptist. John was born of a woman and experienced a natural birth, but those born by water and the Holy Spirit experience a supernatural birth and have the hope of eternal life. In the person of John the Baptist, therefore, we can catch both the bird’s eye view of the transition from one age to another of all humanity, as well as the worm’s eye view of the details of one human life.

But these three stages of human history have a very personal and practical application as well for us, as we swoop down from the bird’s eye view and see the worm’s eye view of each of our individual lives. That is, there is a temptation to get stuck in one stage and not move on to the next. I say this was all due respect but I might suggest that our Jewish brothers and sisters are stuck in the stage of the law of the Old Testament. And no doubt the law is good and holy, but it would be tragic to get stuck there and not move on, just like it would be a shame for the amaryllis never to be better than a bulb-seed. But sometimes we can get stuck in the second stage of grace, the age of the church on earth, and feel like “this is good enough.” Sometimes we try to create a heaven on earth and forget about the heaven of eternity. It seems that death can be so overwhelming for some people that they recoil from it and refuse to see the glory on the other side, and they do not let their loved ones go. They hang on too tightly to the stage of grace. That would be like settling for the amaryllis stem and leaves and never enjoying the full and glorious bloom of the fabulous flower itself. And a third difficulty is getting stuck in the age of glory in heaven, or put differently, skipping the age of grace on earth. I once heard it said: “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.” In other words, just like we should not get stuck in one stage but move along, so we should not skip a stage either, and somehow think we can get to the splendor of glory without the struggles of grace.

We must move, both individually as persons, and corporately as all humanity, from law, to grace, to glory. Keep both perspectives in mind. And by the way, now you know why the early bird always gets the worm.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Parade of Faith

Offering Jesus the gifts of faith and friendship

12/10/2018

Luke 5:17-26 One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "As for you, your sins are forgiven." Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?" Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, "What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'?  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"– he said to the one who was paralyzed, "I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."

Yesterday we conducted our annual pilgrimage of Our Lady of Guadalupe and as usual it was both exhausting and exhilarating for me. It’s never fun to walk 4.9 miles in the freezing cold, praying the rosary with numb fingers and singing with a scratchy voice. Teams of four took turns carrying a life-sized statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary while walking behind a police escort – always better to have the police in front of you than behind you. And we watched Aztec dancers performing to the drumbeat rapping out an ancient rhythm. Along the way, the procession of nearly 300 Hispanic people carrying both a Mexican flag and an American flag was seen by lots of surprised Fort Smith residents. Maybe some of them thought we were protesting the president’s border wall, but it was really a parade of faith.

The highlight for me was when we stopped briefly before a parishioner’s home. The family brought out a table on which we placed the Our Lady of Guadalupe statue. Then the father carried out his son – who must have been in his 30’s – and who was completely paralyzed and wrapped in a blanket like a burrito. Clearly the young man had a severely debilitating disease. The father held the young man’s head close enough that he could kiss the statue. As I stood nearby I prayed with all my heart for a miracle of healing, but it didn’t happen. When the father carried his crippled son inside, I hugged the mother who had tears in her eyes. But I could tell her faith had not flinched. Not for a second did she doubt the power of Mary’s intercession, or the love and mercy of Jesus. To be sure, this was a parade of faith, not the protest of a fence.

We see something very similar occur in the gospel today, a veritable parade of faith. Four men carry a paralyzed man and break through a roof, and lower him before Jesus, a lot like how yesterday the father brought his paralyzed son before Mary. What I find most fascinating is what Jesus says first, before the miracle. We read: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said ‘As for you, your sins are forgiven.’” Notice Jesus did not make a move to heal the man until he observed the Pharisees lack of faith and sense their doubt about his divine power. The healing miracle wasn’t so much for the man as it was for the Pharisees and their lack of faith. In other words, the main thing Jesus wants the people to experience with him is sincere faith and genuine friendship, and not just to use him as a miracle-worker. We all want friends who love us for who we are, not just for what we can do for them. It seems Jesus was also both exhausted and exhilarated by a parade of faith.

I think Christmas is a time to be especially careful why we come to Christ. Do we come with faith or just for a miracle? One mother told me recently her 18 year old son announced that he was an atheist, and no longer believed in God. Later he asked her for a new phone for Christmas. The mother answered: “If you don’t believe in God, then you don’t believe in the real meaning of Christmas – the birthday of the Son of God – so you do not get any gifts.” The son got mad and stomped away, and couldn’t understand why he shouldn’t get any Christmas presents. The experiences of that Hispanic couple of the paralyzed man on the pilgrimage and this young 18 year old atheist were the same: they did not get what they asked for from Jesus. But that Hispanic couple gave Jesus a great gift: the gift of their faith and their friendship. Faith and friendship have little to do with what we get and a lot to do with what we can give.  And that is also the real meaning of Christmas.

How many people all over the world are celebrating Christmas this year without any awareness of Christ? We all love to watch Christmas parades, but they are usually not parades of faith.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Imagine I.C.

Seeing the Immaculate Conception through God’s eyes

12/08/2018

Luke 1:26-38 The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end."

You may have seen that we have created a new slogan for our elementary school. It reads: “Imagine I.C.” and I really like it and think it’s rather catchy. If we asked our students what comes to mind when they hear the words, “Imagine I.C.” their imaginations could conjure up all kinds of things. Some may immediately think of the grand, stately columns that greet and welcome students every morning when they enter the main doors, like the colonnade in front of St. Peter’s Basilica embracing all the world. We have a fabulous façade for an elementary entrance. Some may think of Ms. Anabel who prepares hot and healthy lunches every day and gives a little extra for those students with heartier appetites. Some think of the loads of homework every evening, but then later they breeze through junior high and high school thanks to the strong study skills they mastered here in these halls. They may think of Fr. John or Fr. Stephen. But on second thought, since Fr. Stephen plays the piano and serenades them at lunch, joins them for Gaga ball at recess, and directs traffic on Tuesday morning drop-off, they are probably not thinking about Fr. John.

They may not think about me, but I think about them when I “imagine I.C.” Yesterday, we had our school Advent confessions. I felt so pleased and proud of our students as they made very heart-felt and humble confessions. I am doubly proud because I know that confession is very hard and often embarrassing, which is why so few adults take advantage of the graces of this sacrament. But not I.C. students, and my heart burst with pride. When I see the slogan, “Imagine I.C.” my mind imagines our students growing in grace, like Jesus was described in Luke 2:40: “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” Those splendid students are what I see when I “Imagine I.C.”

Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. If we were to ask God to glance at our new school slogan and ask him what he thinks of when he tries to “Imagine I.C.”, he would answer, “I think of the woman whom I made, the Immaculate Conception, herself.” In fact, only the imagination of the Immortal God could have conceived how he would fulfill the plan of salvation promised all the way back in Genesis and finally perfected in a poor girl from Nazareth. Only when God imagined the Immaculate Conception did he finally tie together all the several strands of salvation history scattered about in the Old Testament and provide a perfect portal for his Son to enter this world while staying unstained by its sins. So, when the angel says in the gospel, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God,” he is not whistling Dixie; he’s dead serious: she was the fruit of his imagination. In other words, Mary was the bodily fulfillment of what happens when the Divine Mind begins to “Imagine I.C.” When I imagine I.C. I think of students who make a good confession, but when God imagines I.C. he sees a young girl who never even had to go to confession, and she is who we celebrate on December 8th: the first fruit that fell from the tree of the divine imagination.

Let me share with you a rather long quotation from Archbishop Fulton Sheen. I will end with it because he expresses far more eloquently everything I have been stammering and struggling to say. He wrote: “There is, actually, only one person in all humanity of whom God has one picture and in whom there is a perfect conformity between when he wanted her to be and what she is, and that is his own Mother. Most of us are a minus sign, in the sense that we do not fulfill the high hopes the heavenly Father has for us. But Mary is the equal sign. The ideal that God had of her, that she is, and in the flesh. The model and the copy are perfect; she is all that was foreseen, planned and dreamed. The melody of her life is played just as it was written. May was thought, conceived and planned as the equal sign between ideal and history, thought and reality, hope and realization” (Sheen, Mary, the Women the World Loves).

In other words, Mary is what God think when he tries to “Imagine I.C.” because she is the pure product of that immortal imagination. The Blessed Virgin Mary should be what we think of, too, when we “Imagine I.C.” because she should be the inspiration for our merely mortal imaginations. You should think about her even more than you think about Fr. Stephen.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Built to Last

Remembering our citizenship is in the City of God

12/06/2018

Matthew 7:21, 24-27 Jesus said to his disciples: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. "Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house.  And it collapsed and was completely ruined."

Today I would like to talk to you about two cities: one, the city of man, and the other, the city of God. Now, I am not the first to compare and contrast these two cities. St. Augustine already did that much more masterfully in his classic book, The City of God written in 426. Maybe this humble little homily will inspire you to read that blessed book.

The first city, the city of man, is often built along waterways, ocean-fronts or rivers. You may have noticed that Fort Smith lies along the Arkansas River. In fact, two great modern cities were built on swamps: Washington, D.C. and Mexico City. Washington, D.C. has a political reputation for being called “the swamp” because it was built on a tidal basin surrounded by three rivers: the Potomac, the Anacostia, and Tiber Creek. The phrase “to drain the swamp” has the implication of attempting to construct the city on new and different foundations, more solid ones.

Another great modern city that sits on a swamp, actually a lake, is Mexico City. The original settlers, an indigenous people called “the Mexicas” believed in an ancient prophesy telling them where to build their capital city. The sign was an eagle, eating a snake, while perched atop a cactus. They saw that sign in the middle of Lake Texcoco, and they hauled in untold loads of dirt to fill in the lake, and built their capital there. That ancient prophetic image stands in the middle of the modern Mexican flag: an eagle, eating a snake, perched on a cactus. The city of man, therefore, is built along waterways, and sometimes even erected on a swamp.

The second city is the city of God, or the Church, and it is built on rock. When Jesus announced his plans to build his kingdom in Matthew 16, do you remember what he said it would be built on? He turned to St. Peter and declared: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the nether world will not prevail against it.” That is, Jesus, the divine city planner, would build his city on the person of St. Peter and the rock of his faith. An ancient adage in the Church teaches: “ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia,” which is Latin and means “where there is Peter, there is the Church” because he is the rock on which it is built. In the gospel today, when Jesus speaks of building a house on rock, he is using another image – “house” rather than “kingdom/city” – but in order to convey the same message, namely, the foundation should be the rock of faith, not the waterways and swamps of the city of man. That is the city that will last because of what it is built on, namely, rock.

My friends, we all take pride in our hometowns and our native city, whether it is Fort Smith or Fayetteville, or Faridabad (a city in India where my family lives). But do we take as much pride in the city of God, the Church? Put differently, how much of our time, treasure, and talent do we spend in building one city or the other? It used to be that the tallest structure in a city was the steeples of churches, but now it’s skyscrapers, which says something about which city we take more pride in. I am often in awe of the original Catholics who settled in Fort Smith and built this magnificent church in 1901. I often ask myself: How did they do that, lacking all the modern construction tools, equipment, and know-how? I think the simple answer is: they were far more interested in building the city of God than the city of man. They had an innate sense that modern human cities tend to be built on waterways, while the city of God, the Church, has been set solidly on rock, the person of St. Peter and his profession of faith. And it was pretty clear which one would last and which one would eventually collapse.

A friend of mine who is studying at the University of Notre Dame said that most civilizations have a four-hundred year life cycle, just like human beings have a life cycle (a life expectancy), so do human civilizations, which is four-hundred years. The first two hundred years they grow and expand, conquering other peoples and places, and transplanting their own traditions, like planting their flags on foreign lands. The second two hundred years, however, they experience decline and eventually extinction. That is the fate of the city of man because it is not built on the rock of faith, but on the watery ways of this world.

While we love our human cities, and support them, and enjoy them, let us not forget the city of God, of which we are also citizens. The life cycle of a city has everything to do with its foundations: whether it is built on water or on rock, whether it stands on fate or on faith.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Figuring out Faith

Learning to see faith as a friendship with Jesus

12/03/2018

Matthew 8:5-11 When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven."

One of the most frustrating of all human experiences has to be that of faith. Nevertheless, faith is something we better figure out because we cannot be saved without it. Ephesians 2:8 says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you, it is the gift of God.” So, what is this elusive but essential faith? My personal definition of faith is simply: “friendship with Jesus.” But this is more than like my friendship with 5,000 people on Facebook. Jesus is my best friend, and therefore my mind thinks like him, my behavior imitates him, my joy is found in him, and I like the same stuff he likes because he’s my friend. In other words, faith is a friendship with Jesus which fashions a whole world-view that includes both time and eternity, both earth and heaven, both my individual happiness and the communal happiness of all humanity. All that is wrapped up in my friendship with Jesus. Faith is frustrating but when you start to see it as friendship with Jesus, you start to figure it out.

Now, let me give you three examples of what faith is not. Faith is not found in an ethnic identity. This was the chief failing of the Jews, who believed they were the Chosen People who had the true faith while all other people would not be saved. And yet we know our culture is critical in passing on the faith. So, Fort Smith Catholics congregated in the German church of St. Boniface or at the Irish church of St. Patrick. Ethnicity helps pass on the faith but it is not faith itself. Secondly, a country does not create faith, which is what King Henry VIII attempted to do when he declared himself head of the Church of England. You can legislate many aspects of social life, but not faith. Just because we are Americans does not make us better Christians, even if we are better in basketball than everyone else. And thirdly, faith cannot be shared genetically, like you give your children the color of your eyes or of your skin, or your aptitude for academics. Do you know any parents who feel deeply frustrated that their children do not practice the same faith they did? In other words, faith is not found in a culture, or within the borders of a country, or in the genealogy of a family tree. Faith is a gift, the gift of friendship with Jesus that slowly changes my life and gradually transforms the whole world.

We see these same facets of faith in Jesus’ encounter with the Roman centurion today. The soldier asks Jesus to heal his suffering servant, but insists that Jesus just give the command, like a general, and his soldiers will carry out his orders without fail. To which Jesus is astonished and exclaims: “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the Kingdom of heaven.” Notice how Jesus explains that faith is not tied up with a particular country (Israel), or with a certain culture (faith stretches to east and west), or with a genealogy (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). But rather, faith is a gift of God, given freely to whomever he chooses, and it forges a friendship with Jesus that changes our whole world-view. That Roman centurion had started to think like Jesus, to behave like Jesus, and finally found his joy in Jesus, because he had a friendship with Jesus.

May I share with you my personal frustration with faith? If faith is so crucial to our sanity and our salvation, then why doesn’t God give everyone an equal share of faith? Clearly some Christians receive a greater “dose of the Ghost” as my Charismatic friends love to say. Why doesn’t everyone get an equal “dose of the Ghost”? I certainly don’t know the answer to that question, but maybe it’s a little like how no matter how many children you have each one is different. Even though each child comes from the same set of parents (with the same genetic material), they are decidedly different, each with his or her own strengths and weaknesses. But regardless of a child’s talents, you, as a parent, love each one unconditionally. I believe God loves each of us unconditionally, too, no matter how much faith each person has. Faith is God’s gift to us, just like life is God’s gift to us, and just like love is God’s gift to us, and just like my father’s famous chicken curry is God’s gift to us. No matter what gifts he gives his children, that does not change God’s unconditional love for us. But what we do with those gifts shows God how much we love him in return, especially what we do with the gift of faith.

Have you finished your Christmas wish list yet? If you haven’t done so already, maybe you should add “faith” to the items you would like to receive as a gift this year. The gift of faith is the gift of friendship with Jesus, and it maybe even better than a Red Ryder BB gun.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Shoes of the Fisherman

Celebrating five years as pastor of Immaculate Conception

12/02/2018

Jeremiah 33:14-16 The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land. In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: “The LORD our justice.”

On November 6, 2013, I received a littler from Bishop Taylor that profoundly changed my life for the better. May I read it to you? Don’t worry, it is short. The bishop wrote: “Welcome back! I am glad that your sabbatical with the Carmelite Friars in Texas was spiritually fruitful and doubly glad that the Lord is leading you back to the Diocese of Little Rock. By means of this letter I am happy to appoint you pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Fort Smith effective December 1, 2013.” In other words, today is my five year anniversary as your pastor. I remember feeling overwhelmed at the time, thinking: how will I ever live up to the expectations of pastoring one of the most prominent parishes in the diocese, which is standing at the head of Garrison Avenue as if spiritually watching over the city, and walking in the shoes of legendary pastors? Here are a few of those pastors.

There was Fr. Lawrence Smyth, who was so nervous to meet Pope Pius IX in the 1860’s that he forgot this parish was originally called St. Patrick’s and said he was pastor of Immaculate Conception! And that’s how the church’s name changed: true story. Msgr. Patrick Horan bravely built Immaculate Conception School in 1930, at the outbreak of the Great Depression.  When no one had any money, he was building a Catholic school. He rode his horse on Wildcat Mountain, which his family owned, and you may know the street that’s named for his family. There was Msgr. Tom Walsh, who expanded the rectory by building what was dubiously dubbed “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by later occupants. The pastor’s quarters now has wood-paneled walls and features a fireplace and a commanding view of the church and downtown. You feel more like pastor of a city, not just a church.

 

Of course, who can forget Msgr. William Galvin, who trained an army of associate priests over thirty years? Each one was “Galvinized” under the good monsignor’s gaze and learned the tricks of the trade to be a shepherd of souls and a fisher of men. Then the reverend rockstar arrived, Msgr. John O’Donnell, who packed the church not only on Christmas and Easter, but every Sunday. Listening to Msgr. O’Donnell preaching on Sunday, you felt like you were personally present for our Savior’s Sermon on the Mount. Only fools skipped Sunday Mass in those days. These pastors of I.C. cast their nets wide in the teaming waters of Fort Smith, hauling in a great catch of souls for the kingdom. And so to me, an immigrant from India, my feet felt pretty small as I slid them into those mighty shoes of the fishermen worn by the former pastors of this parish.

I feel very fortunate that I was appointed as pastor on December 1, which usually marks the beginning of Advent, a new liturgical year of the Church. That is, I became a new pastor at the dawn of a new year. Every Advent, therefore, we have a chance to hit the reset button on our spiritual life, our relationship with Jesus, much like we make New Year’s Resolutions on January 1st and make a fresh start each year. Let me offer you the three priorities I would like to work on as a pastor this coming year. Maybe they will give you some ideas on how to improve your own relationship with Jesus and with others. They all begin with the letter “p” so they are easy to remember: prayer, patience and presence.

First of all, prayer. Of course, we priests pray all the time, especially when we celebrate the sacraments, which should feel like peak experiences of prayer for all Christians. But an occupational hazard lurks for priests because prayer can become routine, or worse, it becomes a chore, a burden rather than a blessing. Sometimes I feel like little more than a sacramental machine. I know that when you ask for my prayers you make a serious and solemn request, something you don’t take lightly and neither should I. So, this coming year I will work hard to make my prayer life – both public and private – more heartfelt and intentional. Maybe you could try to make your own prayer life less routine and more real.

Second, patience. Let me apologize to all of you with whom I have lost my patience in the past five years. On several occasions I have been demanding and insisted that people work harder to meet my expectations. And I lost my patience and my cool. A priest in the seminary taught us that our people will forgive many failings of a priest, but they will never forgive a lack of kindness, a lack of patience. I will never forget Fr. Jon McDougal’s sage advice in such circumstances, he said: “Most people are just doing the best they can.” And by the way, Fr. McDougal was also “Galvanized” so you can guess who taught him that lesson first. I will try to be more patient with you, and I beg you to please be more patient with me. Most people, including priests, are just doing the best they can.

And third, presence. I know I am not around and as present as you would like, nor is it as much as I would I like. You may know that besides being pastor of I.C., I am also the administrator of Trinity Junior High, the pastor of our mission church in Winslow, as well as a judge on the marriage tribunal in Little Rock. I once heard it said that when you earn a Ph.D. you know more and more about less and less. Well, I believe that when you go higher in leadership, it feels like you can do less and less about more and more. In other words, the higher up you climb the ladder of leadership, the more distant you feel from others. It’s harder to reach people because there are so many people to reach. Nonetheless, I would like to be more present to the people and groups I have not spent much time with in the past. I hope you won’t tire of my presence, like Benjamin Franklin warned: “Fish and visitors start to smell after three days.”

As we stand on the doorstep of a New Year, maybe we can work on prayer, patience, and presence to make this year better than the last. I hope to serve as pastor of Immaculate Conception as long as Msgr. Galvin did, which means I have another 25 years to go. I hope to leave here “feet first” like he did. When you carry these feet out of this church, I pray they will have been half as worthy as those of previous pastors who wore the shoes of the fisherman. And I hope my feet don’t smell like fish.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Fairy-tale Frogs

Allowing others to love us as we really are 

11/30/2018

Matthew 4:18-22 As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

It is very normal and natural to want others to think we are better than we really are. All men want to come across like the knight in shining armor or prince charming, while women want to appear as snow white or Cinderella. No one wants to be the fairy-tale frog the princess has to kiss in order to be loved and married. For instance, I tell engaged couples preparing for marriage that the worst thing that can happen to you on your wedding day is you marry a stranger, someone you do not really know. But the best thing that could happen is you look at each other and say, “I know you’re not the knight in shining armor, but I still want to marry you and spend my life with you.” How wonderful for someone to know me as the fairy-tale frog and still want to kiss me?

We have a wonderful parishioner that comes each week to clear the rectory. Do you know what we do the day before she comes? We straighten everything up and clean the rectory as much as possible. Does anyone else do that? We don’t want her to think we are frogs, but rather prince charming. Everyone wants to look better than they are, but deep inside we are all just frogs who need to be kissed and loved in spite of our failings and foolishness.

Today is the feast of St. Andrew, and there is not a lot that the gospels tell us about him. His claim to fame is being the brother of St. Peter. Also, he brings the boy who has the loaves and fishes to Jesus for the miracle of the multiplication. Additionally, Andrew introduces some Greeks who wanted an audience with Jesus. Because of this lacuna or gap in historical data about Andrew – he seems more like a frog than a prince of the church – a hagiography was written about him called Acts of Andrew. A hagiography is a kind of biography that blows a person’s good qualities way out of proportion to make him look better than he is. For example, in the Acts of Andrew, we read that while being crucified on an “x-shaped” cross, he was able to give a sermon for three days. We know that cannot be true because a three-day sermon would crucify the people, not the preacher. In other words, a hagiography tries to clean up a saint’s house before the housekeeper arrives. It tries to make every saint appear perfect, a prince charming. But Jesus came to kiss us and love us while we are still frogs, and the grace that comes from his kiss makes us good.

My friends, it is not at all easy to try to fight the tendency to think we are better than we really are. We all write hagiographies about our lives instead of true autobiographies. When we talk about ourselves we naturally and unthinkingly justify our actions. When there is a conflict we are clearly right and the other person is obviously wrong. It takes a great deal of humility and not hagiography to see we can be ugly frogs, too. In medical school doctors are trained to interpret how patients make themselves look better than they are. To the question how much alcohol do you drink? The doctors should double that answer. To the question, how much sex do you have in a week? The doctor should cut that answer in half. This is one reason it is so hard for people to go to confession. We kneel in humble acknowledgement of our sins and say in so many words, “I have behaved more like a frog than a prince.” Some priests mistakenly believe that putting on the priestly collar hides all their imperfections and we parade around like princes of the church, instead of seeing the silly sinners that we really are. We all hide our dirty laundry before the housekeeper comes.

Maybe today St. Andrew can help us stop worrying about appearing like prince charming or snow white and let other people see us and love us for who we really are. Jesus Christ, the only true Prince Charming, did not come to call the self-righteous but the sinner. Only his kiss will transform us from frogs to someone fabulous. But he cannot do that as long as we think our life is a hagiography.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Funeral Cold Cuts

Seeing the close connection between funerals and weddings

11/29/2018

Revelation 18:1-2, 9A I, John, saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth became illumined by his splendor. After this I heard what sounded like the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying: "Alleluia! Salvation, glory, and might belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her harlotry. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants." Then the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb."

This week I will officiate at two funeral Masses, but also preside at two wedding Masses. As far as earthly experiences go, nothing could be more polar opposite. At a funeral you shudder as you see the depths of human sorrow while at a wedding you soar to the heights of human happiness. A funeral is especially tragic and confounding when it is a young person whose brief life is snuffed out unexpectedly leaving everyone questioning if God is really in charge. For me, weddings are spiritually more special when a couple can share not only their love but also their faith. That is, when both bride and groom are Catholic and can receive Holy Communion. God feels really close in those wedding Masses because absolutely nothing separates the couple: they become “one” in every respect. In other words, what could be more different than a funeral and a wedding? In the first, God seems so absent, and in the second he seems so present.

But I would suggest to you that funerals and weddings are much more closely connected than we might imagine. Indeed, I would go so far as to say weddings and funerals are not only closely connected, they converge, and become one like the two sides of a coin. Think about it this way: what happens at a funeral? The deceased person steps outside of time and into eternity. But what will we experience in eternity? Well, I believe we will attend an eternal wedding banquet. And at that wedding we won’t be an invited guest like the best man or the maid of honor, we will actually be the Bride, that is, the Church, the corporate Bride of Christ. In other words, every funeral we experience merely the earthly side of the coin of Christianity, but the other side of the coin is the eternal wedding banquet of Jesus and his Bride, the Church.

There’s a little line in Shakespeare’s popular play “Hamlet” that has always intrigued me. Hamlet rues the fact that his mother got married so soon after his father died. His father was actually murdered, we discover. And Hamlet says: “The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” Talk about heaping insult upon injury! To save money, they used some of the cold cuts from the funeral reception for the wedding feast! Quite inadvertently, however, Hamlet stumbled upon that close connection, indeed that convergence, between funerals and weddings. When you use the cold cuts from a funeral reception for a wedding banquet, you can almost catch how funeral and weddings are two sides of the same coin of Christianity. One side is earthly and sad, but the other side is heavenly and joyous.

Today we read something in scripture that should be far more intriguing than Shakespeare. We read in Revelation: “Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Have you heard that line, slightly paraphrased, at some point in the Mass? The priest says those words, almost exactly, right before we receive Holy Communion: “Behold the Lamb of God…blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” In other words, every Mass is the foretaste of the heavenly wedding of Jesus and the Church. And by the way, Communion means when the Holy Couple of Christ and His Church consummate their marriage. You do know what “consummate” means, right?

But every Mass is also a re-presentation of the Lord’s death on Calvary. Oh, of course, we don’t kill Jesus again, but we do re-enact his passion and death at every Mass. Right in the middle of Mass, we all say, “When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.” In other words, if you are spiritually awake and aware at the Mass, then you will experience a close connection, indeed a convergence, of a funeral and a wedding. The Mass contains the two sides of the coin of Christianity, both the sorrow of death of Christ and the happiness of a marriage of the Lamb.

And we might even look at the Holy Communion Host like Hamlet ruefully regarded the cold cuts of his father’s funeral and his mother’s wedding. “The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.” Holy Communion is the “coin” of Christianity – heck it is even shaped like a little coin – that contains the two great mysteries of human existence namely, death and marriage. At every Mass, therefore, when you come up to receive Holy Communion, your faith should allow you to taste a little of both.

Praised be Jesus Christ!