Shortcuts

Embracing the cross as we follow Jesus

02/28/2018

Matthew 20:17-28 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee approached Jesus with her sons and did him homage, wishing to ask him for something. He said to her, "What do you wish?" She answered him, "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom." Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can." He replied, "My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." When the ten heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus summoned them and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and the great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Have you ever been tempted to take a shortcut? I know I have, and I gave in to that temptation. But I have learned that most (if not all) shortcuts end up being long-cuts, that is, they hurt you instead of help you. When I was training for a marathon several years ago, I ran with a group and we had a coach who hated shortcuts. When we were on a long training run of ten or twelve miles, we would see a shortcut through a park or someone’s backyard, but he would say, “You are just cheating yourself.” And he was right: in the actual marathon, at mile twenty, we were dying; we wished we had not taken that shortcut because it only ended up hurting us not helping us. Do you know how many books CEO’s and executives read on average? They typically devour one book a week, or basically four to five books a months, which translates to roughly fifty two books a year. But the average American Joe reads about two or three books in an entire year. The reason most people never become leaders in business (or other areas of life) is because they look for shortcuts to study.

What is the difference between a good homily and a boring homily? Shortcuts. By now you have probably heard hundreds of homilies, some of them had you on the edge of your pew, while others had you snoring in six seconds. You can easily tell when a sermon is well prepared and when someone took a shortcut and just copied something from the internet. The same holds true in virtually every area of human endeavor: a delicious meal requires three scoops of love which takes time and effort, a meaning friendship demands patience and perseverance, and cannot be rushed, outstanding athletes (like Roger Federer) become legends because they said no to anabolic steroids. There are no shortcuts to success.

The temptation to take a shortcut is nothing new, the apostles are trying to find a shortcut as they try to follow Jesus. Two apostles, James and John (urged by their mother), try to find a shortcut to spiritual success. They ask to sit at Jesus right and left in heaven. They want the glory without the grunt work of discipleship. Now, notice who the other ten grow angry with James and John, not because these two brothers were looking for a shortcut, but because they had found it first. The other ten thought: “Hey, we want that shortcut too!” But Jesus sits them down and explains like my marathon coach explained to us: “You are only cheating yourself.” There are no shortcuts to success in the spiritual life: you must drink from the cup of suffering. If there is one thing that sort of sets a true Christians apart it is his or her refusal to take a shortcut around the cross. There are no shortcuts to salvation.

I am so proud of each of you for coming to Trinity Junior High. This school is not easy, and it is not supposed to be easy. As I have said, that is the worst complaint I could hear about our school: it is easy to attend Trinity. You have to go to mass every Wednesday, you wear these weird uniforms, you pray in Latin, you have loads of homework. As you go through your three years here, I hope you begin to catch on that we are not just teaching science, computer programming, history and AP Spanish, important as all those things are. We are teaching you that true success – in every area of life – has no shortcuts, and that is why you will not find any shortcuts here at Trinity. It is true you could go somewhere else where things might be easier. But I would tell you the same thing my marathon coach told me: “You are only cheating yourself.”

At Trinity, we want to teach you how to read up to fifty-two books a year, and even enjoy it while you do. We want to prepare you to be tomorrow’s leaders, not tomorrow’s followers.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

A Revolution of Tenderness

Seeking to show mercy rather than vengeance or justice

02/26/2018

Luke 6:36-38 Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

How do you react when someone hurts you, which someone will sooner or later? For instance, when a coworker sabotages the project you have worked on for weeks, or a spouse cheats on you and divorces you, or a sibling belittles your best efforts, or you get pulled over for speeding while another car going much faster gets away? These injustices happen frequently, and most people react in one of three possible ways. They either seek vengeance, or they want justice, or they show mercy. Let me describe each one, and you try to see in which way you tend to respond to unfair treatment.

First, some want vengeance, which is retribution taken to an extreme or to excess. If a neighbor runs over your yard in their car, you destroy their car. If another girl wears a prettier dress to the prom, you try to catch her dress on fire. This first level of response is the “code of the mafia” where, if you kill one member of my family, I will kill your whole family.

The second level of response to unfair treatment is to seek justice, or as it said in the 18th century B.C. Code of Hammurabi, “an eye for an eye.” Now, that may sound extreme to us, but that rule, often called the “lex talionis” (the law of equal retribution), was intended to limit vengeance. Instead of people going to extremes to feel their wrong had been redressed (like the mafia does), the lex talionis required that the injured party take “only” an eye for an eye, and not any more than that. This second level of retribution required you to show equity or proportion in your response to a wrong.

The third level of reaction to unfairness (and this is the highest level) is to show mercy. That is, you do not seek vengeance, nor even very reasonable justice, but you go beyond both and respond with clemency, forgiveness, mercy. John Henry Newman gave a classic definition of a gentleman (and he argued this was the purpose of a university to form gentlemen) when he wrote: “It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never inflicts pain” (The Idea of a University, Dis. VIII, Ch. 10). In other words, even though someone else has inflicted pain on you, you should not retaliate in like manner, rather, you should show mercy.

Jesus gives the ultimate motivation and ground for mercy saying in Luke 6:36: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Mercy, therefore, is a God-like quality because it requires super human effort and super human humility. It is much easier and much more emotionally satisfying to stick it to someone who hurts you, or to give them what they deserve; they had it coming, after all! But if someone wants to call himself or herself a Christian, they must go beyond vengeance and even beyond justice and reach the height of holiness in human relationships, in a word, they must be merciful.

Examples abound where someone feels slighted and how they might be merciful. A very subtle form of vengeance is holding a grudge against someone who says or does something hurtful. We feel we are somehow punishing them by withholding our friendship and forgiveness, but we only hurt our own hearts. Vengeance and justice, instead of mercy, are only too common in divorce situations. One spouse feels deeply wronged and wants the ex-spouse to feel a similar pain, and it is especially tragic when children get caught in the crossfire. These feelings are found even in the church where one person or group feels they are treated poorly while another group gets special treatment. Mercy may also be a challenging virtue for modern Americans to grasp because we put such a high value on justice – which is a good thing in itself – that we almost feel like mercy is being “unjust.” Could this be one reason we still have the death penalty in our country: it is simply a matter of justice, an eye for an eye, a life for a life. That may be a matter of justice, but that is not a matter of mercy.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, is calling all Christians to a “revolution of tenderness” (Evangelii gaudium, 72), which is another name for mercy. We can either follow the code of the mafia, or we can choose the code of mercy.  We know which code Jesus followed, and so did his Father.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Laugh or Cry

Facing death by peering through the eyes of faith

02/25/2018

Mark 9:2-10 Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.

The natural human response to the very sober subject of death is either to laugh or to cry. Death does not tolerate any reasonable reaction and so we try to brush it off lightly as if it were nothing, the butt of a joke, or we are overwhelmed by it and weep without hope. The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, urged his dying father: “Do not go gentle into that good night…rage, rage against the dying of the light.” We can easily imagine Dylan Thomas saying those words with tears welling up in his eyes. St. Augustine said that “this created universe unceasingly leans over toward the abyss of nothingness” (cf. The Spirit of Mediaeval Philosophy, 72). Augustine was trying to describe the frailty and finality of all creation as contingent, everything always borders on extinction. Have you ever stood on a high mountain cliff and peered over the edge and felt vertigo? The prospect of death produces a similar “spiritual vertigo” in anyone who peers into its dark depths. We fear we will fall into death’s cold embrace.

On the other hand, we may try to make light of death by attempting to laugh at it. Consider this joke. Lenny went on vacation for a month and asked Bobby to watch over his house. About a week later, Lenny called home and asked: “How’s my cat?” Bobby hesitated and sadly told Lenny that his cat had died. “What?!” Lenny cried. “You shouldn’t have broken the news to me like that! You should have done it slowly. The first time I called, you should have told me the cat was on the roof. The second time I called you should have told me there was no way to get her down. The third time I called, you should have told me that you tried to get her off the roof, but she fell down and died,” explained Lenny. Bobby apologized and went about his day. About a week later, Lenny called and casually asked, “How’s my grandma?” There was a long pause and then Bobby answered, “Well, she’s on the roof.” Sometimes we weep and sometimes we laugh when we face death, but the one thing we never do is treat it casually as if it were nothing. Death demands a dramatic response from us.

For people of faith, however, especially for us Christians, laughing and crying are not the only ways to deal with death. This unique Christian response to the specter of death was the underlying message of Jesus’ Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. Jesus invites his three closest apostles, Peter, James and John, to witness his glory atop a mountain. There, standing between Elijah and Moses – who, by the way, represented the Prophets and the Law, and therefore, those two embodied all of the Old Testament wisdom and holiness – standing between them, Jesus gives the apostles (as well as Moses and Elijah) a glimpse of his resurrected body after he would be raised from the dead.

But the apostles’ minds could not conceive “what rising from the dead meant.” Why? Well, because they had only learned what the Old Testament – that is, Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets – had to teach about death, and that, by and large, was that death was simply the end of life (save for the exceptional cases of Enoch in Gn. 5:24 and Elijah in 2 Kgs. 2:11). About all the comfort the Old Testament could offer anyone who faced the death of a loved one was to say, “Well, your grandma is on the roof.” The Old Testament, sublime and holy as it was, did not have an answer for the riddle of death, and that was what Jesus was conversing about with Moses and Elijah; he was telling them something they did not know. The Transfiguration, therefore, was like a preview of the coming attraction of the Resurrection, a glimpse of the glory after death. And that allowed the apostles to look off the edge of Mount Tabor, and not feel any spiritual vertigo, because if they fell, they would be caught by the arms of Jesus, not the cold embrace of death. The newness of Christianity consists precisely in giving a definitive answer to the dilemma of death.

In this regard, let me say a word about the incredible value of Catholic schools. Everyone knows, of course, that in Catholic schools we can talk about God and pray to him, students wear uniforms and have tons of homework, and in some schools there are still nuns and sisters who teach us about faith in God and also instill a little fear of God. Or, maybe they instill a lot of fear of sister. But there is something else besides God and prayer that Catholic schools teach, and bear in mind this is something we find missing from other schools. Catholic schools give their students an answer to the great dilemma of death. In Catholic schools, where the light of faith shines through every crucifix in a classroom, every rosary left behind in a pew, every pair of hands folded in prayer, students do not fear to “lean unceasingly over the abyss of nothingness” because what peers back at them is the loving gaze of Jesus, whose eyes are still reflecting the light from the dazzling white robes he wore at the Transfiguration.

Catholic school students do not cry hopelessly and they do not laugh lightly in the face of death; but rather, armed with their formidable faith, they simply look at death and wink. In a sense, non-Catholic schools are limited like the wisdom of the Old Testament with regard to dealing with death: death is simply the end; there is nothing beyond the grave. The Transfiguration, on the other hand, points to precisely what is unique and indispensable about Catholic schools because it opens up unimaginable vistas far beyond the grave. I do not mean to criticize or cause controversy, but it is a fact that both the Old Testament and other schools can only teach students how to make the most of this life; whereas Catholic schools help students make the most of this life and the next.

Sooner or later the cold hand of death will touch all of our lives: the death of a father like for Dylan Thomas; the death of a cat or a grandmother like for Lenny; or when we contemplate our own death when we “lean unceasingly over the abyss of nothingness.” If you look at death through the eyes of faith, however, you will see not the end of life, but only the beginning.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Word-Seeds

Planting the seeds of our words in hearts to bear much fruit

02/23/2018

Matthew 5:20-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny."

Seeds are fascinating little things. Sometimes they annoy us when we think we are eating seedless grapes, but other times they bless us abundantly when we plant them in the ground. What happens, for instance, when we put a small apple seed into the ground and water it regularly? A miracle happens: it slowly sprouts and eventually grows into a big tree apple tree that produces delicious fruit. One seed grows into an apple tree and produces apples that many people can enjoy. When you gaze at a ripe, red and shiny apple it is hard to imagine how that came from a little apple seed, but so it did.

Parents and teachers are also gardeners who plant seeds, but their seeds are not apple seeds but rather words of wisdom. They plant those word-seeds of wisdom in the soil of our hearts, and after a long time – after we grow up – those word-seeds produce the great fruit of goodness and love and wisdom in us. I sometimes reminisce over the past forty years of my life and I feel deep gratitude for my parents and teachers who planted those word-seeds in my heart and helped me to bear good fruit as a priest today. Sometimes I remember very specific words they said to me, and I try to live by them. I am pretty sure that I would not bear any good fruit today if those “spiritual gardeners” had not done their job so many years ago, patiently planting those word-seeds. Words, like seeds, seem small and powerless - gone in a breath - but they can produce tremendous fruit.

Jesus tells the people that not all word-seeds are good and produce good fruit, there are some word-seeds that are bad and produce rotten fruit. He says that calling someone a name like “Fool” is a bad word-seed. And when you plant that seed in someone’s heart it can hurt them very badly. Furthermore, we will be punished for planting those word-seeds in people’s hearts. He explains: “Whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” So, be careful what seeds you plant in people’s hearts.

Did you know that Jesus was also the “Word” of God? Indeed, God only speaks one Word, and that Word is his Son, Jesus Christ.  You might say that Jesus is the ultimate “Word-Seed” because after he died on the Cross, what did the people do with his body? They buried it in the ground, like a seed. And three days later a miracle happened, just like it does with all seeds, that is, the world beheld the Resurrection, the first sprouts of what would eventually grow into the great Tree of the Church, that spiritual Tree that would bear the innumerable fruit of billions and billions of Christians. You are and I are the fruit of the Word-Seed of Jesus being buried in the ground and producing fruit that will last forever. One small seed can produce great and beautiful fruit.

Try to think about every word you speak being like a tiny seed. And remember two things about these word-seeds. First, like Jesus taught, there are “good word-seeds” (like what your parents and teachers say to you), but there are also “bad word-seeds” (like when you call someone else a “fool”) that hurt others and which will be punished. Second, when we speak those word-seeds, they are planted in the soil of other people’s hearts and those seeds will bear fruit in them. So, be sure to speak and plant only good word-seeds that others really need to hear.

By the way, do you ever talk to yourself, especially when you think no one is around? When we speak word-seeds out of ear-shot of others, when we are our only audience, we are still planting those seeds into someone’s heart? Can you guess whose heart those word-seeds are planted in? We plant them in our own hearts, and those word-seeds we plant will bear fruit of one kind or another. Seeds are such small things, but they can make such a big difference.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Mixed Motives

Doing the right thing motivated only by love

02/21/2018

Luke 11:29-32 While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.  Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Most people need motivation to do most things. And basically, we can say that motivation comes in two forms: as the carrot and as the stick. What is the carrot? That is positive motivation where you are rewarded for doing well. The reward of getting an “A” on a test motivates you to study hard, or maybe so you can show off later when your friends make a “B.” That is positive motivation. Dr. Hollenbeck offers you a free sonic drink or a free dress day and you are ready to go jump off a bridge into the Arkansas River. That is positive motivation, a reward for doing the right thing.

There is also a stick, which is negative motivation. You are punished with in-school suspension if you misbehave badly. Or, for even more serious infractions, you might be suspended from school (that is not a vacation!). God forbid that you are ever expelled all together, that would be like an “academic death penalty” to lose all the blessings of attending Trinity Junior High. That stick, the fear of punishment, motivates some of you to behave better.

You can see in the sanctuary of the chapel today Michaelangelo’s stunning depiction of the “Last Judgment” from the Sistine Chapel. I will bring this back again later and explain to you some intriguing details, like why one guy is holding his own skin and his own face is not on the skin, and why another figure has a snake wrapped around his body and biting him where the sun does not shine. Bear in mind the Sistine Chapel is arguably one of the holiest places in Christendom, save only the Holy Land itself. So, none of these details are meant to be a joke but rather they are deadly serious.

Are you aware of what is the most significant event that occurs in the Sistine Chapel? That small room, not much bigger than this Trinity Chapel (although the ceiling is much higher), is where the next pope is elected. When a pope dies all the cardinals of the Catholic Church gather in the Sistine Chapel to elect the next pope from among their own number. One of those cardinals will be the next pope. They carry their ballot with the name of whom they vote for to that altar sitting below the Last Judgment, and on that paper is written in Latin: “Eligio in Summum Pontificem,” in English, “I elect as Supreme Pontiff” (pontiff is another name for pope). But each Cardinal also utters this prayer: “Testor Christum Dominum qui me judicaturus est me eligere quem secundum Deum judice eligi debere et quod idem in accessu præstabo,” in English, “I call as my witness Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected.” They place their ballot on a chalice while looking at the scene of the Last Judgment, where some lucky souls go to heaven, while others poor souls are cast into hell; heaven and hell are the ultimate carrot and stick. Maybe even cardinals need a little motivation to elect the right pope.

The Scriptures also speak about motivation. Jonah went to Nineveh and preached about the “stick” (the negative motivation of punishment), saying: “Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed.” And the motivation worked well because people changed their evil ways and straightened up. Jesus is frustrated with people wanting a carrot to motivate them to follow him, they want a “sign,” a miracle, some delicious carrot to become disciples. But our Lord says: “This generation is an evil generation, it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” What was the sign of Jonah? Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale and then be saved, so Jesus would spend three days and nights in the tomb and then rise from the dead. Jesus death and resurrection would be their sign: his unflinching love for them. But unfortunately, that was not enough motivation for them to change. Most people need motivation to do most things, like a carrot or a stick.

Have you noticed, though, how some people do not need the motivation of a carrot or the stick to do some things? They only need love, like Jesus. Some people play basketball not for a carrot of victory or from fear of the stick of Coach Meares yelling at them, but because they love the game of basketball. Some students study hard not because of the carrot of a college scholarship or the stick of their friends doing better and making fun of them, but because they love learning. Some people cheer for their favorite sports team not because of the carrot of a national championship or the fear of another losing season but because they love their team. Some people go to Mass not for the carrot of hearing a certain priest preach, or out of a fear of the stick of committing a mortal sin by missing Mass, but because they love receiving Holy Communion. Some men become priests not because of the carrot of people’s respect and admiration or because of the stick of maybe not finding a girlfriend, but because they love God and his people. Most people need motivation to do most things, but some people need only love.

When you catch that distinction and that difference, you get a glimpse into why God does everything that he does: not for a reward and not to avoid punishment, but for pure love. And when we act like that as well, not worrying about the carrot or the stick, we become a little more like God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Friend of the Poor

Providing sensible succor to the needy

02/19/2018

Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

There has been a proliferation of panhandlers in Fort Smith lately, people standing on street corners holding signs asking for help. I do not know about you, but seeing someone in that situation causes real qualms of conscience for me and paralyzing moral confusion about my responsibility and the best response.

Here’s a sample of the thoughts that race through my mind as I drive up to an intersection where a panhandler is waiting. “Oh, look, the lady has a small child with her; surely it is a good thing to help a destitute mother and child. Well, what if it takes too long to roll down my window and reach the person; I don’t want to slow down traffic and have people honking at me. Maybe I will slip off my Roman collar so he will not notice I am a priest who is driving by ignoring him. Oh, I know, I will pretend to be on the phone and absorbed in conversation and I do not have the time to help. You know the only reason people stand there is because someone stops to help them: if no one helped them, this problem would just go away. Why do I even have to worry about all this, I am just going to the store for some deodorant and hair spray! Maybe I will donate the money I would have spent on hairspray – I don’t need as much hair spray as I used to.” In other words, I know I need to help the poor (especially if I call myself a Christian), but what is the most sensible way to succor them?

I really do not know how each person should respond in the face of such apparent and urgent need, but here are a few observations that might help form your conscience to deal with such cases. First of all, Jesus’ description of his final return leaves little doubt that the poor are a priority for our Lord. He says rather bluntly: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, etc.” Loving the poor is identical with loving Jesus. There are also grave consequences for failing to love the poor, and fortunately, good consequences for caring for them. Our Lord concludes: “And these will go off to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life.” Nothing less than our eternal salvation rides on our decision to care and comfort the poor.

Secondly, Pope Francis has clearly made the poor a priority for his pontificate, and he has done so not only by his words, but also by his actions. His papal instinct is always to go first to the poor: he visits the poor countries first, he embraces poor people without hesitation, he even raises our awareness of our poor planet, that is suffering desertification, where fertile land becomes desert due to drought, deforestation or inappropriate agriculture. In many respect the pope is the conscience of the world (something we Catholics can rightly be proud of), and he should help shape our Catholic conscience, too.

Thirdly, maybe it is not possible for you to give money to the panhandlers (or you do not feel it is the right response), but in that case, perhaps you can donate to a local charity that does help the poor more effectively. I am always amazed at the generous outpouring of support for charitable fund raisers in our community. The Hope Campus is an especially powerful instrument helping the homeless because it consolidates various efforts and agencies under one roof (thereby eliminating duplication of services), and tries to move people out of homelessness and put them back on their feet.

Fourthly, sometimes I think the poor wish we would just stop and talk to them and hear their story. We all want someone to listen to our story. Instead of being a problem to be solved, the poor are persons to be loved. That panhandler also had a mother and father, perhaps brothers and sisters. He or she grew up with hopes and dreams and maybe wanted to be an astronaut or a fire fighter. Maybe they suffer mental or emotional disturbances that they had no control over or any opportunity to avert. I am so grateful to Dc. Greg and the St. Anne Society that help alleviate not only the material poverty but the deeper emotional poverty, too, by being a friend to the poor.

I am not sure if any of this helped you in your discernment as you drive around Fort Smith, and see the proliferation of panhandlers. Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you” (Mt. 26:11). So I guess we better figure out how to love the poor until he returns in glory.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Net Worth

Measuring our value in terms of love not money

02/18/2018

Mark 1:12-15 The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."

             Recently I was talking with a local financial adviser who asked me a question no one has ever asked me before, and I doubt anyone will ever ask me again. He asked: “What is your estimated net worth?” He explained that was a standard question put to potential clients. I had never pondered that question, and my first reaction was to add up all the gift cards I received at Christmas and answer that “My net worth is approximately $75.” However, his question intrigued me so much I decided to look up the net worth of a few famous people, who by the way, do not live off gift cards like me. The singer-entertainer Madonna’s net worth is $550 million, Bill Gates’ net worth is $88.3 billion, and Tom Brady’s net worth is $180 million, which might take the sting out of not winning the Super Bowl.

            But net worth can be calculated in other ways than in money and gift cards. That was the lesson that Ebenezer Scrooge learned in Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol. Who can forget the harrowing visits of three ghosts who carry Scrooge (while wearing his flimsy nightgown) into his past, his present, and finally his future? Scrooge slowly realizes that he has made money into his god. When he returns to his past, the old Scrooge witnesses how his former fiancée, Belle, tried to help the young Scrooge to see his growing attachment to money. She says sadly: “Another idol has displaced me…a golden one…I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, one by one, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you” (A Christmas Carol, 554). And it was precisely the purpose of the three ghostly visitors to restore Scrooge’s “nobler aspirations,” in a word, to teach him to measure his net worth not by the gold in his purse but by the love in his heart. By the end of the novel, Scrooge (still sporting his flimsy nightgown) can be seen prancing through the city streets graciously helping those in need, greedy now only for love. Scrooge exclaims, half crying, half laughing: “I don’t know what to do! I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school boy.  I am as giddy as a drunken man” (A Christmas Carol, 579-80) If my financial adviser friend had asked Scrooge what his net worth was, he might have answered that he was the richest man in the world, and his real wealth had little to do with how much money he had.

                Jesus also undergoes a harrowing visit from a spirit, only in his case, the spirit was not there to help but to harm, not to transform but to tempt. In a sense, you could say the evil spirit, Satan, was tempting our Lord to define his net worth by worldly standards rather than heavenly ones. The gospel of Mark only gives us the “cliffs notes” version of this duel in the desert, but Matthew provides the longer, play-by-play commentary. Matthew explains how Satan tries to trick Jesus with three temptations. First turn stones into bread; second, throw himself off the parapet of the temple and have angels catch him; and third, he takes him to a high mountain and offers him the wealth of the world if only he would bend his knee and worship Satan. As we all know, in the Scriptural story, the evil spirit’s traps only spring back on himself. Jesus already knew he was the richest man in the world because he was the Son of God, and he measured his net worth in terms of obedience to his Father’s will, in a word, by love.

               Every year for the forty days of Lent you and I, too, enter into a spiritual duel with the devil. The terms of our contest are no different than they were for Ebenezer and for Jesus: it is a question of defining net worth. In what do we find our peace and our purpose, our sense of self, or as they say in French, “notre raison d’etre” (our reason for being), why were we created? That is why our Lenten sacrifice should closely correspond to whatever we might place too exaggerated a value on. Perhaps we put too much emphasis on money, and hoard money like Scrooge. Maybe vanity is our vice and we spend hours exercising and staring in the mirror. It could be food or drink that dominates our lives and we are always dreaming about our next meal. Climbing the ladder of success can consume some people no matter what heights they reach. Sexual excesses grow to addictive proportions. And so on. Lent is the time to listen to the good spirits that help us prioritize our values so that love sits at the top, and it is the time to quell the voice of the evil spirit who offers us the world at the price of our souls. By the end of these forty days, like at the end of the A Christmas Carol,  we should be able to answer the question “What is your net worth?” a little differently than when we began.

               It is in this context that I want to invite you to consider your stewardship and financial support of our parish. You will receive a letter from me this week with a pledge card asking you prayerfully to consider how much you give to Immaculate Conception, and see, if possible, if you can increase that amount. Our parishioners already give so generously, I am a little embarrassed to even bring this up, and I want to thank you for your past gifts. But supporting our parish financially is an integral part of discipleship (following Jesus), and even more, it is a healthy part of spirituality, which is a matter of listening to the right spirits and not the wrong spirits. I would be derelict in my duty as your pastor if I failed to mention this. And I will do my part by throwing an extra gift card into the collection. The bulletin also has a brief summary of our annual budget so you can see how frugal we are with your gifts.

               If someone asked you, “What is the net worth of this church?” how would you answer them? Would you add the school endowment, our church savings, and our annual budget and then subtract our liabilities to come up with the answer? Or, would you instead count the Catholics in the pews on Sunday, and see how well they love God and their neighbor? “What is your net worth?” is a question that perhaps we should ask ourselves rather regularly.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Ashes to Ashes

Seeing how small symbols teach big truths

02/14/2018

2 Corinthians 5:20—6:2 Brothers and sisters: We are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Sometimes we use small symbols to teach big truths, because, to be entirely honest, the naked truth is too much for us to bear. Jack Nicholson defiantly declared to Tom Cruise in the movie, “A Few Good Men,” that “You cannot handle the truth!” And that is true because many truths are too much for the human mind to grasp, they are beyond human comprehension, and that is why we need small signs to help us in approaching these big realities.

You may be familiar with the playground poem called, “Ring around the Rosy.” But did you know that was originally intended to teach small children how to protect themselves again the Black Plague, or the Black Death? The Black Plague ravaged Europe and Asia in the 14th century, killing twenty to one hundred million people. For example it reduced the population of London by sixty percent. That would be like the population of Fort Smith going from 86,000 to 35,000.

The poem goes like this, as you will remember: “Ring around the rosy, pockets full of poseys, ashes, ashes, they all fall down.” What did that poem originally mean? The “rosy” referred to the rash that caused rosy colored cheeks in those who had just contracted the disease. People carried “poseys” in their pockets because in those days they believed that poseys were like a natural deterrent, an antidote, to the plague. When people died, they usually cremated the bodies – made them “ashes, ashes” – so as to halt the spread of the plague. And the phrase, “they all fall down” was a euphemistic way – a nice way – to describe how many people died, it seemed like “they all had fallen down dead.” Jack Nicholson was right: “You can’t handle the truth” because some truths, like death and highly infectious diseases, scare us too much. We would rather not think about them. But you can still teach people how to handle the truth, at least to start thinking about them, through small things, like poetry and poseys.

The Catholic Church also uses small symbols to teach big truths and we call that the “sacramental system” or the “sacramental economy.” In each sacrament a little sign or symbol points to a tremendous spiritual truth that if we really thought about them our minds would be blown. A little water poured over a baby’s head in baptism makes that human baby a child of God. A morsel of bread and a few drops of wine turn into Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Mass. A small smear of holy oil in the sacrament of Anointing rains down healing and wholeness on the infirm. A small gold ring on a finger speaks volumes of unbreakable love, not only between a man and a woman, but really points to Jesus’ love for us, his Church, his Bride. Small sacramental symbols teach big spiritual truths that are beyond the human mind to comprehend.

The blessed ashes of Ash Wednesday are another one of those small symbols that teach timeless truths. Now, the ashes are a sacramental (like holy water), and not one of the seven sacraments. Therefore, everyone can receive them, Catholics and non-Catholics alike. And the truth it teaches is similar to that playground poem: one day we will all die and return to ashes. That is a truth that not only small children but also big priests find hard to handle. Our mortality can be mind-blowing; it is no exaggeration to say that death is the ultimate “plague.” But Christians also carry around the antidote to that ultimate plague, not poseys in their pockets, but faith in their hearts and the grace of the sacraments in their souls, especially the Holy Eucharist. That is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls Holy Communion, “the medicine of immortality, and the antidote for death” (Catechism, 1405). Jesus said: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6:54).

As you come forward to receive the blessed ashes in a few moments, think about two things. Jack Nicholson said, “You can’t handle the truth!” and he was right about that. But Jesus said: “The truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32). And he was even more right about that. And that is why we need small sacramental symbols to teach us about big eternal truths.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Test of Faith

Mastering the skills of discipleship by undergoing testing

02/12/2018

James 1:1-11 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.

Life is a test, and most of the people I know do not like to take tests. Do you? But a test is a good indicator of whether or not you have mastered a certain skill. Anyone who has taken piano lessons knows that performing recitals are part of the learning process. If you cannot tickle the ivories in front of others, you have not made progress in becoming the next Beethoven. You do not possess piano playing skills. A priest friend of mine, Fr. Leo Patalinghug, had his cooking skills put to the test on the popular television show, “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” and he beat Bobby! Talk about a pressure cooker. No one can earn the salary of a professional – a certified public accountant, a medical doctor, an attorney – without undergoing rigorous testing. In other words, it is not until you have been placed in the crucible of a test that your real metal shows, and those who cannot stand the heat better get out of the kitchen. No one really enjoys being tested, but no one can really avoid being tested if they want to demonstrate mastery of certain skills.

What is true in the natural order of things also often proves true in the supernatural order, especially when it comes to faith and discipleship. St. James insists that our faith, too, must be tested if we want to master the basic skills of a Christian disciple. He writes: “Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, for you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” James suggests we not just grit our teeth and get the test over with as quickly as we can, but even that we find joy in it. St. James is optimistic about trials and tests because he knows faith that is merely lip-service (untested faith) is useless, which he goes on to elaborate extensively in the rest of the letter.

His entire letter serves as a healthy and helpful counter-point to St. Paul who emphasized the priority and primacy of faith – rightly so! – especially in his letters to the Romans and Galatians. Nonetheless, both James and Peter knew well that no one deserves the title of disciple of Jesus without carrying a cross, that is, without being tested. No one masters the skills of discipleship without a test of faith.

But there is at least one respect in which the supernatural order differs from the natural order of things. The hardest tests of faith do not come when things are hard, but rather when things are easy; our faith is not truly tested in times of persecution, but rather in periods of peace and prosperity. That may sound counter-intuitive, but think about it. Do you recall what happened in the days following the attacks of September 11? Churches, synagogues, mosques, were all packed with worshipers whose faith had been renewed precisely because of the horrendous attacks. We clutch our faith close to our breast in times of adversity. Most of the time, persecution is an easy test of faith to pass.

But I believe the real test of faith comes in times of peace and prosperity; that is when it is difficult to be a good disciple. Archbishop Fulton Sheen had the habit of making the Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament every day. He opined that the hardest time to make the Holy Hour was not when you are busy, but when you are on vacation. When you have all the time in the world, it feels hard to find any time for God. People often skip Mass on vacation. In peace and prosperity we meet the true test of faith, and we do not all pass so easily.

My suggestion to you would be to put your own faith to the test daily, and do not wait for God to test you. It is always easier to test yourself. Pray on vacation, read a good spiritual book, go to confession, be more generous to church or charity, forgive someone against whom you hold a grudge, reduce your alcohol consumption, visit family or friends in the hospital or nursing home. When we put our own faith to the test, we almost begin to find joy in being tested, as St. James said. And joy in testing is one of the skills of discipleship.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Leftover Love

Seeing all things as gifts from God’s bounty

02/10/2018

Mark 8:1-10 In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They replied, “Seven.” He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also. They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets. There were about four thousand people.

I love leftovers. Do you? Let me tell you why I love leftovers. First of all, some food tastes better the second or third day you eat it, especially if it is my dad’s Indian chicken curry. The spies have had more time to marinate the chicken. Secondly, when I enjoy a meal of leftovers that means I did not have to go out to eat and therefore the church did not have to reimburse me for a meal expense. The pastor eating leftovers means the parishioners are saving money! And the third reason is to avoid wasting food. The next time you go out to eat at a restaurant, glance at the other tables and pay attention to the large portions of food that are ordered, and sadly, the equally large amounts that are thrown away. Many times those leftovers could have made a second meal, and sometimes it would have tasted better than the first meal.

In other words, to love leftovers, we have to change our attitude and approach to food altogether, and start seeing leftovers as a gift rather than as garbage. The moral and ethical roots of this change plunge deep into our relationship with God, who has given us everything, even our food as a gift to be cherished. Remember how the prayer called “Grace Before Meals” goes? We pray: “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts, which we are about to receive from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” If the meal you are about to devour is indeed a gift of God – from the bounty of his heavenly table – then take what you need, and guard the leftovers as a gift to be enjoyed later. When we love leftovers, we are showing love for God.

Jesus teaches his disciples to discern how to approach food, too, and really wants them to learn how to love leftovers. Our Lord’s tender heart is moved deeply when he sees the crowd hungry and asks his disciples what should be done. They are at a loss because they only have seven loaves of bread, hardly enough for each person to eat a crumb. But that is more than enough for Jesus. Our Lord multiplies those seven loaves – which may have been leftovers from a previous meal – and not only feeds four thousand people, but has seven baskets of loaves leftover. I am sure they did not throw those leftovers away like garbage, but rather they treated them as a great gift, indeed, they had received them straight “from God’s bounty through Christ our Lord.” When we love leftovers, we show love for the Lord.

Let me give you a few other examples of loving leftovers, and not just leftover food. A local construction company sends emails that often have attachments. At the bottom of the email, however, it says: “Please consider the environment before printing this email.” What a simple but healthy reminder not to create leftovers that we later treat like garbage rather than as a gift. The “Baby Bottle Campaign” for Heart to Heart Pregnancy Center is another good example of treating our leftover change with more respect and a touch of reverence. That leftover change can save a life and truly become a gift of God. A friend of mine has the habit of giving something away whenever he gets something new. If he buys a new shirt, he gives an old shirt away; if he gets a new book, he gives an old book away. That is why I hang out with him, so I do not have to buy shirts or books. And my parishioners do not have to reimburse me.

When we love leftovers of whatever shape or size, we do more than protect the environment. We begin to see all of creation as a gift of God, and we treat that gift with the respect and reverence it deserves. Our love of leftovers shows our love for God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Fashion Statement

Discerning what our clothes are saying about our Christianity

02/09/2018

1 Kings 11:29-32; 12:19 Jeroboam left Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. The two were alone in the area, and the prophet was wearing a new cloak. Ahijah took off his new cloak, tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself; the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will tear away the kingdom from Solomon’s grasp and will give you ten of the tribes. One tribe shall remain to him for the sake of David my servant, and of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.’” Israel went into rebellion against David’s house to this day.

Do you know what a fashion statement is? It is when you use your clothes to make a point, usually revealing something about yourself. One day an elderly man walked a long way to visit his son’s family. He arrived late at night and was exhausted. He knocked on the door and his son, a middle aged man, opened the door. Instead of greeting his father with a hug and a kiss, he was rude. When the older man asked if he could come inside, the younger man said it was too late, the family was in bed, and that the old man would have to sleep on the front porch. He told his twelve year old son to bring a sheet for the older man to wrap up in on the porch. But when the little boy returned, he had torn the sheet in two pieces. The middle aged father asked angrily why he did that, and the little boy answered: “Half is for grandpa, and the other half is for when you visit me someday.”

Now, that is a pretty dramatic illustration, and hopefully no one would actually do that to their elderly father. But we do sometimes feel that way in our hearts even if we do not verbalize it. That is the power of a fashion statement: to say with our clothes – or with cloth in this case – what we feel in our hearts but do not necessarily want to say out loud. Both the father and son said something about themselves.

The prophet Ahijah employs the example of a fashion statement to drive home God’s judgment on the people. We read: “Ahijah took off his new cloak and tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, ‘Take ten pieces for yourself…I will give you ten of the tribes.” God had decided that the sins of the people had grown so great that they needed to be punished by dividing the Kingdom of David. Jeroboam would be king in the north, with ten tribes, and henceforth that area would be called “Israel.” Rehoboam would reign in the south, over the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and thereafter that area would be called “Judah.” Incidentally, that is the historic moment at which the Chosen People were called “Jews,” a term derived from “Judah.” Ahijah used his new cloak torn into twelve pieces to make a memorable fashion statement: it symbolized the historical, political, moral and spiritual state of the people. That is quite a fashion statement.

Do your clothes say anything about you? I believe that no matter how little we care or pay attention to our clothes, they nevertheless say something about us: our values, our priorities, sometimes even our self-worth. Priests have the privilege of wearing the Roman collar, which is a symbol of spiritual authority which should be lived out in service. Every morning when I put on the collar and look at myself in the mirror, I feel both the blessing and the burden of my vocation. That black shirt and white collar say a lot about me without me every opening my mouth. Recently a church staff member brought a fashion magazine advertisement with a woman modeling a trendy outfit that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Frankly, it looked rather silly, but what was not silly was the enormous waste of money on such clothes. That outfit speaks volumes about the spiritual state of anyone who buys it. Catholic school children wear uniforms that are modest and inexpensive. We want to teach our students not to focus on fashion but rather on their studies! Pope Francis said in his encyclical on the environment: “A person who could afford to spend and consume more but regularly uses less heating and wears warmer clothes, shows the kind of convictions and attitudes which help to protect the environment” (Laudato si’, 211). Even nudists who wear nothing at all are saying something about themselves; not even nudists can escape making a fashion statement.

Whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, our clothes ineluctably say something about us. When you get dressed in the morning, look in the mirror and ask yourself: what statement is my fashion making about me today? Your fashion statement could even become a faith statement.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

One Size

Raising children and Christians according to their individual needs

02/08/2018

Mark 7:24-30 Jesus went to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” She replied and said to him, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

All parents love to talk about their children. As I listen to their stories, invariably parents observe – sometimes to their own surprise – that each child requires a different approach and attitude on the part of the parents in terms of child-rearing. In raising children, one size does not fit all. For instance, my brother and sister gave my parents a lot of grief while were growing up, but I was a perfect angel. Therefore, our parents had to be a lot tougher on them than on me. Experienced coaches often say the same thing: different players respond to different coaching techniques, one size does not fit all of them. One player you must coddle and compliment, while another you should criticize and correct. In this way, both types of players will reach their full potential as athletes. Business leaders share a similar struggle with their employees. They deal with Baby Boomers differently than they deal with Generation Xer’s and still differently than they work with Millennials. Lord help us when the Centennials become part of the workforce; we may have to force them to work! Anyone who mentors another human being, regardless of the field, knows well that one size does not fill all persons.

This need for different approaches to different disciples can shed some light on the interaction between Jesus and Greek, Syrophoenician woman in the gospel of Mark. She asks, like so many other people had also pleaded, for her daughter to be healed. But Jesus rather rudely replies: “For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Now, if you or I had heard that rebuff, we would have felt highly offended and stormed off. But how did this humble woman reply? She said softly: “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.” Jesus was very pleased with her reaction and immediately heals her daughter. Jesus, like any good parent or coach, knows that one size does not fill all people, and therefore the easy, familiar attitude he adopts with the Jews will have to change when he deals with the Gentiles. In all such cases, however, our Lord wants each person to reach their full potential in faith. Jesus is mentoring his disciples to grow in faith.

Have you ever felt that God was dealing with you differently than he treats other people? When we become sick, or go through a divorce, or lose a job, we are tempted to compare our lives with other people’s lives and feel a deep sense of injustice. Why should others have a happy marriage and not me? Why did his stocks soar so high while the bottom fell out of mine? Why do their children still go to church while my children do not even believe in God? Why did I get cancer even though I exercise and eat right, while my neighbor smokes and drinks and never gets sick? There are hundreds of other similar situations. From the point of view of the children there is clearly a different approach and treatment that looks very unfair. But from the point of view of the parents, there is a profound awareness that one size does not fit each child’s needs and circumstances. And what is also obvious to the parents is that a different approach in mentoring does not mean there is any lack of love. Indeed, perhaps parents love more tenderly the children they have to be the toughest on.

Maybe God gave us children not only so we could raise them right. But maybe he also intended for us to see how God raises us as his children. We raise our children so they will reach their full potential in life. God raises us so we will reach our full potential in faith, that is, so we reach our full potential in the next life.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Spice of Life

Fostering meaningful friendships to find flavor in life

02/07/2018

1 Kings 10:1-10 The queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomon's fame, came to test him with subtle questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very numerous retinue, and with camels bearing spices, a large amount of gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and questioned him on every subject in which she was interested. King Solomon explained everything she asked about, and there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her. Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

I am responsible for the discovery of America. Well, not exactly me personally, but my people from India. Do you remember the main motive for Christopher Columbus to leave Spain in search of the new world? He was actually searching for a shortcut to India, a faster way than the normal trade routes, to obtain Indian spices. The children’s nursery rhyme teaches: “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. / He had three ships and left from Spain / He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain…Day after day they looked for land; / They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand. / October 12 their dream came true, / You never saw a happier crew! / ‘Indians! Indians!’ Columbus cried; / His heart was filled with joyful pride. / But ‘India’ the land was not; / It was the Bahamas and it was hot. / The Arakawa natives were very nice; / They gave the sailors food and spice. / Columbus sailed on to find some gold / to bring back home as he’d been told.” Sometimes we think explorers are only looking for gold – and most of the time they are – but spices ranked right up there with gold as a precious commodity. And it still does today.

Do you enjoy eating spicy food? A priest friend of mine loves habanero chilies, which are very spicy hot, and he says: “A good chili burns you twice.” (I will give you a second to chew on that.) The spicy heat of a chili pepper is measured by the Scoville Scale, named for its creator, the American pharmacist, Wilbur Scoville, in 1912. The hottest chili peppers in the world have intimidating names: the Carolina Reaper, Pepper X, and Dragon’s Breath. Those chilies will burn you more than twice. Columbus may not have been searching for the Dragon’s Breath chili pepper, but he was looking for the spice of life.

King Solomon also loved good spices. The Queen of Sheba (roughly modern day Yemen) rewarded Solomon for his great wisdom by giving him a ton of spices. We read in 1 Kings 10: “Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty gold talents, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.” Maybe the queen hid a few Caroline Reapers in the mountain of spices she gave to the king. Solomon, no less than Columbus, was looking for the spice of life.

May I suggest to you, however, that the real spice of life is friendship? Friendship was the real spice that Columbus received from the Arakawa natives, and friendship was the real spice that Solomon received as a reward from the Queen of Sheba. Think about your friends. Are some friends too hot to handle, too spicy? Sometimes our friends “burn us twice” because they betray us, or lie to us, or spread rumors about us. We may discover they are like a Carolina Reaper chili pepper and we cannot handle their spice. But other friends (even though they are hot) may challenge us, make us think differently, help us to try a new activity and their friendship adds a delicious flavor to our life, like my priest friend loved habanero chilies. You may think sometimes that because a class or a sport or an instrument or a teacher is too hard – they are too spicy! – you want to give up on it. But I have learned that when I do something really hard that is when I have grown the most in life. And the hardest things in the world to work on are good friendships, the spice of life.

A good friendship is like a good chili: it always burns you twice, and probably more than twice. But discovering a great friend is also when you have discovered the spice of life.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Fifth Gospel

Making a personal pilgrimage through our geographical past

02/05/2018

 Mark 6:53-56 

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there. As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.

I was very blessed to have Archbishop J. Peter Sartain write the Foreword to my first book. He colorfully described the life of a priest, saying, “A priest’s life is a busy one. Especially if he is pastor of a parish, he finds himself shifting gears all day long. William Martin writes that begin a pastor is like being a stray dog at a whistler’s convention” (Oh, for the Love of God, 7). That means that if I am the stray dog, then each of you holds the whistle. One minute I am blessing someone’s rosary, the next minute I am running to the hospital, and the next minute, I am counseling and comforting someone who is hurting. But I have learned that someone else has a bigger whistle than my parishioners do, and that is the bishop. Over the course my priestly career the bishop’s whistle made me run to Texarkana, and then to Fayetteville, then to Washington, D.C. and finally to Fort Smith. I sure hope he stops blowing that darn whistle soon.

But when I pray, I realize that Someone else has an even bigger whistle than the bishop, namely, God. When I look at my life writ large over forty-eight years, I see that my moving from place to place – from India to Arkansas – was orchestrated by God’s loving providence. In other words, what may seem accidental and arbitrary moving from place to place by forces out of my control was in actuality God’s whistle teaching and guiding and loving me. Just like a dog whistle is often imperceptible by human ears, so too, hearing God’s whistle requires ears trained by prayer and contemplation.  We usually do not see or hear what God is doing.

Jesus’ movements from place to place in the Holy Land can also appear accidental and arbitrary. He goes to Galilee, he travels to Capernaum, he visits Bethany, he ends up in Jerusalem, he dies on Golgotha. But there was nothing arbitrary about any of it. Scripture scholars often call the path that Jesus followed in the Holy Land the “Fifth Gospel.” Just like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the four gospels to help us understand who Jesus is as the Messiah, so the geography of Jesus’ journey also reveals who he is, his mission plan, and his keen sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Jesus was hearing God’s whistle directing him from place to place, and that’s why our Lord spent long hours at night or early morning in prayer, training his ears to hear that high pitch. People who make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and trace Jesus’ steps have read five gospels, not just four like the rest of us.

When I prepare a funeral homily, I meet with the family of the deceased and ask them to go through the life of their loved one not only chronologically, but also geographically. Where was the person born? Where did he or she grow up? Where did they attend college? Where did they land their first job? Where did they decided to raise their children, and finally where did they retire? It may seem all these moves were either carefully planned or they happened quite by accident. But I believe there’s another Agent at work in our geographical history, and that is God with his imperceptible whistle. When we prayerfully contemplate our own journey through life, making a sort of personal pilgrimage through our past, we begin to hear God’s whistle and we start to see how he has led us everywhere and taught us to be more like his Son. When you prayerfully retrace the steps of your own geographical past, you are reading your own fifth gospel.

As you run from place to place in your life, stop to look around and see what’s happening in your relationship with God. More importantly, learn to listen prayerfully to a certain high pitch whistling. You may find that you, too, are just “a stray dog at a whistle’s convention.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Ignorance Is Bliss

Accepting what we can know and what we cannot know

02/04/2018

1 Kings 3:4-13 Solomon went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the most renowned high place. Upon its altar Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." Solomon answered: "You have shown great favor to your servant, my father David, because he behaved faithfully toward you, with justice and an upright heart; and you have continued this great favor toward him, even today, seating a son of his on his throne. O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?" The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.

           Human beings have a strange desire to know some things, but at the same time we believe that ignorance is bliss. Modern science has an inexhaustible capacity to know how the universe works, and to unlock its hidden secrets. Stephen Hawking, the eminent astrophysicist wrote: “I believe we can and should try to understand the universe. We’ve already made remarkable progress in understanding the cosmos, particularly in the last few years (Universe in a Nutshell, 70). This relentless pursuit of scientific knowledge is definitely a good thing, and shows that we human beings were made to know the truth and we rightly rejoice when we find it, especially when we win the Nobel Prize for finding it.

           On the other hand, we also prefer not to know some other things. For instance, I really would rather not know what goes into making a hotdog. Everyone loves sausage until they work in a sausage factory. Some of us are on a diet. Some mornings we want to get on the scales and know our weight, but most mornings we don’t. Ignorance is bliss. After we reach a certain age, we celebrate our birthdays and no one asks how old you are. Not even the NSA (National Security Agency) knows how old my mother is. Sometimes we love the light of truth, sometimes we want to turn the light off.

           But wisdom is different from knowledge. Wisdom is not the impulse to drive down the information superhighway in a Lamborghini and indiscriminately accumulate more and more knowledge. Rather, wisdom weighs carefully what we can know and what we cannot know; it discerns prayerfully what we should know and what we should leave shrouded in mystery; it ponders devoutly what secrets of nature we should unlock and what secrets of life we should stand solemnly before and bow. Wisdom teaches us to slow down and stop when we encounter God. Knowledge answers the questions: who, what, where, how, and when, but wisdom alone can answer the question why.

             In a sense, the whole Bible is about learning how to manage knowledge and to seek wisdom. Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve’s original sin was eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gn. 2:16-17). They desired to know something that they should not know. The last book of the Bible is called “Revelation,” or in Greek, “Apocalypsis,” which literally means “unveiling” or “revealing,” “revelation.”  In other words, it won’t be until the end of time that we will know all things as we should know them – even the ingredients in hotdogs and a woman’s age.

            1 Kings 3 says that on his coronation day, Solomon asked for wisdom, saying: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart (wisdom) to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.” That is, help me not to make the same mistake as Adam and Eve made by reaching out to know good and evil. Instead Solomon asked for wisdom, which is knowledge bestowed as a gift, if God wills and when God wills. Some things we should not know until God reveals it to us, until he gives that knowledge to us as a gift. Knowledge comes from man, but wisdom comes from God.

             One of the hardest times to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom is when some tragedy befalls us. We want to know not only what happened, but also why it happened. When someone gets cancer unexpectedly, when a young person dies in an accident, when a couple separates or gets a divorce. When my nephew Noah died before completing his first year of college, it wasn’t enough to know what happened, but heart hurt to know why such a tragedy happened. Such times and such tragedies remind us the difference between knowledge and wisdom: knowledge comes from man, but wisdom – the answers to the “why” questions – comes only from God. And we must wait till he bestows that wisdom upon us as a gift; and it may not be until the end of time that he reveals it.

              When I was first ordained as a priest, I believed that I should know the answers to all theological and spiritual questions. What was the point, after all, of eight years of seminary studies if you didn’t learn the answers to tough questions? I felt like a failure if I had to admit my ignorance about Church doctrine. But after twenty-one years as a priest, I have learned that the answer, “I don’t know” is perfectly acceptable. That may be the only answer available to the tragedies that befall you; you must say, “I don’t know why.” And that answer is perfectly acceptable. Let us avoid the mistake of Adam and Eve, and pull back our hands from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead, let us be like Solomon and open our hands to allow God give us wisdom when he wishes; because knowledge comes from man, but wisdom comes from God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!