Two-Edged Axe

Learning and living the Acts of the Apostles

01/25/2021

Acts 22:3-16 Paul addressed the people in these words: “On that journey as I drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from the sky suddenly shone around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I replied, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting.’ A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him. Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice; for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’”

I am almost finished with a new bible study on the Acts of the Apostles, called “Axe of the Apostles.” The word “Acts” in the title is spelled “Axe.” Why? Well, because the title is kinda catchy and hopefully grabs your attention. But that is not the main reason. Axe carries a twofold meaning because axes are tools we use to chop with, and we chop two different things. On the one hand, the axes are the apostles themselves, principally, Peter and Paul. These two mighty men are the great axes the Holy Spirit used to clear the ground and chop down the trees of indifference and idolatry in the first century, so the foundations of the Church could be laid. Before you build a house, you must clear the ground.

Thus we see Peter the axe at work in the first 12 chapters of Acts, and then the Holy Spirit wields the axe of St. Paul from chapters 13 to 28. Acts 28 culminates with Paul preaching in Rome, the imperial capital. St. John the Baptist had prophesied in Mt. 3:10, “Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees.” In other words, the Roman Empire would be one of the trees cut down by the Axes of the Apostles so the Roman Catholic Church could be built.

On the other hand, the axe must also be laid in our hearts, to cut out the sins that grow there, like a thick forest. The Holy Spirit wields the axe not only outward to convert others, but also inward to chop the sins that sprout in us. Indeed, I am convinced this is the aim of the axe first and foremost. We see how the Holy Spirit first had to chop down Paul’s pride and arrogance in the first reading from Acts 22:3-16. Paul is recounting the story of his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus when he was knocked off his high horse.

What was the first step of his conversion? Ananias explained: “Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling up on his name” (Acts 22:16). Before Paul could lay the axe at the root of the tree of the Roman Empire, the axe had to be laid at the towering tree of his own pride, what Paul would later call “kicking against the goad” in Acts 26:14. That is why the title of this new bible study is called “Axe of the Apostles.” The Apostles Peter and Paul are the axes used by the Holy Spirit to clear the ground and convert others, but they have also personally felt how the axe is laid to the root of their own trees of sin and obstinance. This axe, therefore, cuts both ways. It is a two-edged axe.

I hope you can already see the practical application of this title “Axe of the Apostles” to our own lives. After all, you and I are also called to be apostles today like Peter and Paul were in the first century. But as we wield this axe of the apostles, don’t forget that it cuts both ways. How easy it is to chop away at the sins and struggles of other people. We see so clearly the faults and failings of the Democrats and Republicans, the liberals and the conservatives, the neighbor next door and the person in the pew in front of us. We are convinced their conversion, their change of heart, will be a great step in building the Kingdom. C. S. Lewis wrote a great essay in this regard called “The Trouble with X.” He said other people’s sins are like “halitosis,” or bad breath. We are disgusted by their halitosis, while we are oblivious to our own.

The primary and principal use of the axe of the apostles, therefore, is to turn its sharp edge toward ourselves. Like Ananias said to Paul, we, too, must “be baptized, have our sins washed away, and call on the name of the Lord.” And nowhere do we feel the cutting edge of this axe more sharply than in sacramental confession. Every time we go to confession, the Holy Spirit lays the axe at the root of the trees of our own sins, so that the ground of our souls can be cleared for the Kingdom of God.

On this feast of the conversion of St. Paul, we praise God for one of the two great axes of the apostles. As we meditate and marvel at his conversion, let us ask the Holy Spirit to lay the axe at the root of our own trees, so we may be his apostles today. Remember: it is a two-edged axe.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Carrot or Stick

Finding motivation in our spiritual life

01/24/2021

Mark 1:14-20 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.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

What motivates you more: the carrot or the stick; the fear of punishment or the hope of reward? An eleven year-old Jewish boy was failing math. His parents tried everything from tutors to hypnosis; but to no avail. Finally, a family friend suggested they enroll their son in a Catholic school. After the first day, the boy’s parents were surprised when he walked in after school with a focused and firm expression on his face. He went right to his room and quietly closed the door. For nearly two hours he toiled away – with math books strewn about his desk and the floor. He emerged only to eat, and after quickly cleaning his plate, went straight back to his room, and worked until bedtime.

This pattern of behavior continued day after day, until it was time for the first quarter’s report card. The boy walked in with it unopened, laid it on the dinner table, and went straight to his room. Cautiously, his mother opened it and, to her amazement, she saw a large letter “A” under the subject of Math. Overjoyed, she and her husband rushed into their son’s room, and the father asked: “What did it? Was it the nuns? Was it the one-to-one tutoring? Was it the textbooks? The teachers?” The boy answered: “No, none of that. On that first day, when I walked in the front door and saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they meant business.” That’s why all children should attend Catholic schools: “we mean business.”

This age old question about how to motivate people plagues not only parents and professors but also God. Throughout the Scriptures God also resorts to the carrot and the stick. The Old Testament was time for the stick. In the first reading from Jonah, how does God motivate the Ninevites to convert from their wicked ways? Jonah prophesies: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed.” Did the stick of destruction moves people? You bet it did because we read: “The people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.” Like the little Jewish boy in his math class who saw “the guy nailed to the plus sign,” and fear forced him to study, so the people were motivated by the stick that God might destroy them.

With the dawn of the New Testament, however, God shifts gears and uses the carrot approach instead. We see an exquisite example of this when Jesus calls his first disciples. Our Lord invites them to follow him, saying, “Come after me, and I will make your fishers of men.” What was their reaction? “They abandoned their nets and followed him.” In other words, the apostles were motivated to leave their former lives by the carrot of becoming “fishers of men.” They were eager to reap the reward.

Have you noticed how both the carrot and the stick motivate us throughout our lives? Think back on the presidential election last November. Both parties tried to make it seem like the country would collapse if the other candidate was elected. The “stick of fear” caused record turn out of Democrats and Republicans. Sometimes we go on a retreat and we bite the carrot of faith and friendships motivating us to go to daily Mass, read the bible, volunteer in a soup kitchen. But that religious fervor fades after a few weeks. Before a serious surgery we pray devoutly and take God very seriously because we don’t want to die. The stick of death moves us all to pray, for “there are no atheists in foxholes.”

But I would suggest to you that both the carrot and the stick are ultimately adolescent approaches to motivation, especially in the spiritual life. Teenagers respond to rewards and punishments. Instead, our motivation should be love: love of God and love of neighbor. Love moves the more mature. In other words, the reason we go to Mass is not because of fear of the stick of a mortal sin (though missing Mass is); rather, we go to Mass because we love God and don’t want to miss the chance to tell him so.

The reason pray is not because we fear the “stick of guilt” when we don’t pray, or others are watching and we desire the “carrot of their admiration.” No. We pray even when no one is watching because we love God and want to spend time with him. We don’t give in the church collection so we get the “carrot of a tax-deduction.” We give because we love the Church and want to support her life and mission, and build the Kingdom of God.

Some wives tell their husbands: “I don’t want you to say you love me because I complain that you never say it. I want you to say you love me because you WANT to say it.” There’s a lot of truth in that old adage: men use love in order to get sex, while women use sex in order to get love. But that is still an adolescent approach. Mature love does not depend on the hope of a reward or the fear of a punishment, but on love alone.

My friends, we will only achieve the height of spiritual manhood and womanhood (cf. Eph. 4:13) when we leave behind the adolescent motivation of even the carrot of heaven or the stick of hell. Only then do we discover something called “perfect contrition,” that is, the desire to do good moved by love alone. The Catechism teaches: “When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called ‘perfect’” (no. 1452). In other words, we love God more than we desire heaven or dread hell. We will probably always feel mixed motives in all we do – both the carrot of reward and the stick of punishment. And that is okay. But the best motivation is love alone. And that is what the “Guy on the plus sign” is really trying to teach us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Crazy Catholics

Walking lock-step in the footsteps of Jesus

01/23/2021

Mark 3:20-21 Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

You have to be a little crazy to want to be Catholic. Why is that? Well, that is one of the surest signs you are walking in the footsteps of Jesus. In the gospel today, I think I have found my new "life verse," that is, the single Scripture passage that sheds light on my life and shows there is a “method to my madness.” In other words, it puts purpose and peace into the path I walk as a Catholic Christian. In Mark 3:20-21, Jesus is so busy with his ministry as the Messiah, he does not even have time to eat. How does his own family react to his lifestyle? We read: “When he relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’.” They thought Christ was crazy. Therefore, when people today think we Catholics are crazy, we see that the apple has not fallen far from the tree. The disciple has become like the Master.

Let me list a number of ways Catholics seem crazy to the society in which we life, which prompts people to exclaim: “He is out of his mind.” For instance, when a man pursues a priestly vocation and embraces “celibacy for the kingdom of God,” people think he is out of his mind. Jesus suggested this state of life in Mt. 19:12, saying: “Some of renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Priests are out of step with the world around us, but we are in lock-step with our Lord. And many say we are mad.

Crazy Catholics believe that the Eucharist is truly Jesus’ Body and Blood. What we receive at Mass is not a sign or symbol or a mere representation of Jesus, but the real Presence of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Christ declared clearly and categorically in Jn. 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will life forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” That is why it is so hard for Catholics not to receive Communion during the pandemic being stuck at home. They are hungry for the Bread of Life. They are crazy like Christ and want to come to Mass.

Another teaching that demonstrates the daring it takes to be Catholic is marriage. Catholics truly believe that marriage is for life and between one man and one woman. Today, more and more people believe that is madness. But we are only listening to and living out what Jesus taught in Mark 10:9, saying about marriage: “Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In other words, marriage is made by God, not by human beings, and the world will declare: “They are out of their minds.”

When Catholics clutch out rosaries and pay attention to the pope, we are seen as superstitious and stupid, unenlightened and dimwitted. But we are only doing what Jesus commanded from the Cross. In Jn. 19:27, our Lord looked at the beloved disciple (who represented all beloved disciples down the ages), and said, “Behold your mother.” When we pray the rosary, we behold our Mother Mary as Christ commanded from the Cross.

And our trust and devotion to the pope is only and off-shoot of our trust and devotion to the words of Christ in Mt. 16:18. Our Lord said to the first pope: “And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” But people say that Catholics are “out of our minds” in our love for Mother Mary and the successor of St. Peter. And that is okay.

One last example, although we could multiply examples until the cows come home, namely, confessing our sins to a priest, instead of “going straight to Jesus.” But what did Jesus himself say about forgiving sins? Christ said something crazy in Jn. 20:23. When the Risen Jesus appears to his apostles, he breathes the Holy Spirit into them and states simply: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” What an audacious act to absolve another person’s sins! It is either the height of madness or the depth of humility because we priests know we are merely instruments in the hands of the eternal Priest, Jesus Christ. People look at Catholics lined up for confession on Saturday afternoon and shake their heads in disbelief, and say, “They are out of their minds.”

You know, it is nice when you can get along with your neighbors, but when you are a Catholic, that never lasts too long. Sooner or later they will see what we do and hear how we live, and say, “He is out of his mind.” That is when you should smile and remember Mk. 3:21, because people said the same about our Savior.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Unborn Angels

Learning to prepare for birth from unborn babies

01/22/2021

Luke 1:39-56 Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

Today is truly a tragic day in the history of this country and in the history of the world. It was on January 22, 1973 (48 years ago) that the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Roe v. Wade that a woman has a right to abort her unborn baby. According to the Guttenmacher Institute, there have been approximately 50 million babies aborted since 1973. But besides the human death toll, I am convinced we have become a schizophrenic society, meaning we are of "two minds" regarding the baby in the womb.

On the one hand we rejoice at pregnancy and go to all kinds of pains and troubles to protect and promote the new life in the womb. New mom’s look for their baby bump, and we have big gender reveal parties. On the other hand, we fight tooth and nail to insist on a woman’s right to do whatever she wants to that new life as if she were clipping off a toenail. As a nation we are mentally going mad. No sane society would allow abortions.

But instead of bemoaning the bad news of abortion, I would rather celebrate the good news of prolife, that is, let’s take a minute to talk about the miracle of new life in the womb. And I want to go a step further by comparing our life in the womb to our life in the world. In other words, just like there are three trimesters of gestation and growth in the womb before birth, so there are roughly three trimesters of growth and development before we are born into eternal life. Indeed, the day that the saints died is called in Latin their “dies natalis,” their "birthday" into real life after their gestation in the womb of this world.

At the end of the first trimester, the baby in his mother’s womb is about 12 weeks old. The nerves and muscles begin to work together. Your baby can make a fist. The external sex organs show if your baby is a boy or a girl. Eyelids close to protect the developing eyes. Your baby is about 3 inches long and weighs almost an ounce. The corresponding first trimester of life in the womb of this world is between birth to 18 years old and are no longer “minors” but become “majors.” We too learn to make a fist, sometimes in defiance at our parents. Our sexual identity as a boy or a girl is in full flower. And our developing eyes are ready to see the world as we go off to college or work, or seminary, which comes from the word “semen” or “seed.”

The second trimester lasts from 13 to 28 weeks for the unborn baby, and corresponds to our life in the womb of this world from age 18 to 65 or when we retire from our careers. At about 24 weeks of pregnancy, taste buds form on your baby’s tongue. Footprints and fingerprints are clearly discernable and feet and hands. Hair begins to grow on your baby’s head. They enjoy a regular sleep cycle. The unborn baby weights about 1 ½ pounds and is 12 inches long.

Doesn’t something similar happen during our days in the womb of this world from 18 to retirement? We develop our taste-buds in life. We like certain things (the Razorbacks and Cardinals), and we dislike other things (the Yankees and Alabama). We leave our own footprints and fingerprints on the history of this world and on other people. We have hair (most of us) and we sleep soundly all night. The second trimester is the prime of life.

The third trimester of pregnancy lasts from 29 weeks to about 40 weeks. This correlates to our life in the womb of this world to the years between retirement and our passing. During pregnancy, at about 37 weeks the baby is getting bigger and has less space to move around. His or her movements are less forceful and less frequent. Your baby’s head may turn downward into a birth position. The little boy or girl weighs 6 to 9 pounds and is anywhere between 19 to 21 inches long.

Similarly, as we age and retire our movements become slower and less frequent. We have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years that sometimes restricts our movements, and soon we will leave it all behind. Our heads are often turned downward in prayer as we prepare for our "dies natalis," the day of our birth into eternal life, the day we depart the womb of this world.

Today we pray for the legal protection of unborn children, for an end to abortion, and the taking of innocent human life. We pray our great nation will be restored to sanity and stop suffering from schizophrenia and not think a baby in the womb is equivalent to a toenail. Finally, we pray these little unborn angels will teach us how to prepare for our own birth into eternal life, for we, like them, must also leave the womb of this world.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

A Walking Miracle

Seeing human sexuality as our gift to God

01/20/2021

Matthew 10:28-33 Jesus said to the Twelve: "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father."

One of the greatest gifts God has given us is our human body. And one of the greatest gifts we can give to God is what we do with our body, that is, how we use our body; hopefully using it to give glory to God. That is one of the surprising discoveries during junior high school. We wake up one morning and find we have an amazing body: it is strong, it is fast, it is smart, it is beautiful, it is capable of almost anything. I can usually tell when I am giving Communion at Mass to a 7th grader because I am usually looking down. But if I give Communion to a 9th grader, I am usually looking up! Your bodies burst forth in blossom, and is one of God’s greatest gifts to you.

Yesterday, I met with a young couple who wanted to get married. I tried to explain to them what a gift their bodies are, especially the woman’s body. I said to the young lady: “Your body is a walking miracle, because inside you is the cradle of life. Another human being will be born into this world through you.” She elbowed her fiancé and smiled really big. The conception of another person is not just something that a man and woman do alone, but you also need the participation of God. Why? Well, God provides the invisible human soul. A human being is both body and soul.

That is why we treat human sexuality with such great respect, and even with reverence and awe because we are drawing close to something holy. We encounter God in sex. When Moses approached the burning bush in Exodus 3, God commanded him to remove his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. Whenever a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, consummate their marriage (when they have sex), they are walking on holy ground. And when we respect and revere our sexuality we make our bodies a gift we give to God. We use our bodies to glorify God.

Now, I want to touch on a topic that is very touchy – both literally and figuratively touchy – the topic is how we touch each other sexually. Specifically, I want to address love, care and respect for LGBTQ persons. Part of the surprising abilities and capabilities of your bodies that you find between 7th and 9th grades is your sexuality, and your sexual attraction to other persons. You discover the wild world of boyfriends and girlfriends! And you will notice that things get complicated very fast. That is why my niece, Sophia, who’s at the University of Georgia, decided not to have a boyfriend during college, so she can focus on her studies and not waste time on boys! She’s a very smart girl.

Sometimes, students experience same-sex attraction, or other sexual attractions, and that is all part of figuring out how God made you and how your body is one of God’s greatest gifts to you. And let me say categorically and very clearly that we are called to love everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. Each and every person who has walked the face of the earth, from Adam and Eve, to the last man and woman are created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, the only right response to them is to love them, unconditionally love them.

But even though our bodies are one of God’s greatest gifts to us, what we do with that body is our great gift back to God. One of the sublime and even sacred activities of the human body is sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife. Why is that so special? Because they are walking on holy ground like Moses was, where God works in creating another human being in his image and likeness. It is only in this way that a woman’s body – like that couple I counseled yesterday – can be “a walking miracle,” and her womb can be “the cradle of life.” That is why we respect and love and do not discriminate against LGBTQ persons; and yet, we nevertheless believe those expressions of sexuality are not God’s plan or purpose for human happiness.

Today is the feast of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes. He had a remarkably resilient and strong body. In the 3rd century, Roman soldiers tried to kill him by tying him to a tree and shooting him full of arrows, but he was so strong he didn’t die! Later he was clubbed to death. It is said that St. Sebastian suffered "two martyrdoms": one being shot with arrows, and the second being clubbed to death. He is the patron saint of athletes who also want to have strong and even indestructible bodies. But the real reason he is a saint is because he saw his body as one of God’s greatest gifts to him, and he offered his body back to God as his gift to God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Gods and Men

Taking a seat in the school of the sacraments

01/19/2021

Mark 2:23-28 As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

I used to think calling Jesus by the title “Son of God” was more exalted than using the phrase “Son of Man,” like we hear in the gospel today. Did you ever think that too? “Son of God” sounds a lot better than “Son of Man.” But if you study the Old Testament carefully, especially the prophecy of Daniel 7, you discover that “Son of Man” was one of the most distinctive designations of the future Messiah. In Daniel 7:14, we read: “[The Son of Man] received dominion, splendor, and kingship; all nations, peoples and tongues will serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away.” In other words, the Son of Man will be given a kingdom that is universal (world-wide) and everlasting, eternal.

So, when Jesus says in the gospel today, “That is why the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath,” he is not trying to be humble or diminish his divinity. On the contrary, that title is one of the most ringing and loudest affirmations of Jesus’ divinity and being the Messiah. That is why when the Jews heard Jesus call himself the “Son of Man” they felt scandalized, whereas when we Catholics hear it, we feel sleepy. Whenever you hear Jesus refer to himself as the “Son of Man,” keep Daniel 7:14 in the back of your mind and it will make more sense.

But there is another layer of meaning for the term “Son of Man,” and it is a more practical one. C. S. Lewis wrote in his popular book, Mere Christianity, these celebrated lines: “The Son of God became a son of man so that the sons of men could become the sons of God.” That is, Jesus did not become a human being, the Son of Man, for his benefit, but for ours. Why? So that by becoming like us, he could slowly teach us how to become more like him. I am convinced that this is the deeper and ultimate purpose of the seven sacraments. It is a divine gift-exchange: Jesus becomes more like us so we can become more like him. The sacraments are a school where we learn how to go from being the sons of men to becoming the sons of God. Every sacrament is a carefully crafted lesson to teach us how to be more God-like.

Let’s consider a few examples. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John, in order to show us how to be baptized by water and the Holy Spirit. Hence, at every sacramental baptism since Christ’s, God has declared about each of us: “This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was Transfigured on Mt. Tabor and filled with light to show us how the sacrament of Confirmation fills us with the light of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples and taught them to eat his Body and drink his Blood so they might live forever like “gods.” And so we come to Mass and do what he did and become more like him. Jesus was anointed at Bethany with costly perfumed oil the week before his death and burial, and gave us an example of how to prepare for our own death. Last week I anointed a young man who was brain-dead by putting oil on his forehead and hands, like Mary anointed Jesus’ body at Bethany before he died.

Jesus attended a wedding at Cana in Galilee and changed water into wine, indeed into the best wine, to show us how he wants to be present at our weddings when we receive the sacrament of Matrimony. When we marry in the church, Jesus changes the water of our human love into the wine of his divine love; another instance of the sons of men learning how to become the sons of God. Every sacrament, therefore, is deliberately and divinely designed to do what C. S. Lewis expressed so eloquently: “The Son of God became the Son of Man so the sons of men could become the sons of God.”

Yesterday, I was talking to my dad and he said something very simple but it also carried a powerful spiritual punch. He asked: “When will we be able to go back to Mass in church?” You see, my parents have not stepped foot in their parish church since last March, and my father was longing to go back to the school of the sacraments. He was tired of the virtual school, watching Mass on T.V., and he prefers in-person instruction. In other words, he wants to continue his classes and keep learning how the Son of God became a Son of Man so that the sons of men could become sons of God. Thanks, dad, for teaching me that.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Roses and Romeo

Learning the meaning of being a Christian

01/17/2021

John 1:35-42 John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” — which translated means Teacher —, “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” — which is translated Christ. Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas” — Which is translated Peter.

Many years ago I belonged to an early morning running group. We trained together for a marathon, which meant we logged a lot of miles, but we also learned a lot about each other. I loved to give quirky nicknames to the runners as I got to know them. For example, one friend was an orthopedic surgeon, who described how he often used saws and hammers in order to repair and heal damaged joints and bones. So, I started calling him, “Chainsaw.” By the way, I received an email from Chainsaw last week and he signed it “CS,” short for Chainsaw.

A lady runner shared how she struggled to settle on a name for her child while she was pregnant. She was convinced that if her child was born without a name, he would be illegitimate. She was really feeling desperate while she was being wheeled into the delivery room because she still didn’t have a name. So she actually grabbed a phonebook, propped it on her big belly, and frantically flipped pages hoping to find a good name for her poor baby. So, naturally, I nicknamed my friend, “Phonebook.” For some reason people don’t want to run with me anymore.

Something beautiful happens when you bestow a name on someone. A bond of connection is created that conveys love and care, and even our hopes and dreams for that person’s future. Parents feel this connection to their children and so take great pains to pick the right name. Even after the parents have passed away, their name is present along with the parents’ love. It usually falls to the first grandchild to name the grandparents. I’ve heard names like “Nana” and “Pops,” or “Gigi,” and “Poppy,” or “Mawmaw” and “Pawpaw,” and sometimes “Cici” and Mac.” Those names do more than identify an individual; each name carries a piece of the heart of the person who bestowed that name. My running friends probably did not love the names I gave them, but I also gave them a piece of my heart, which they still carry today.

In the gospel John takes extra time to explain the meaning of names, precisely because names are so profound. First, two disciples call Jesus “Rabbi,” which John explains means “Teacher.” Immediately that name created a close connection between the two disciples and the Lord. Jesus teaches, disciples learn. Later Andrew uses the term “Messiah” for Jesus, which John tells us “is translated Christ” or “anointed one.” A clear and close connection is created between Andrew and his Savior. Then it is Jesus’ turn to give Simon a new name. We read: “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas’ – which is translated Peter,” which we all know means “Rock.” Consequently, Peter would always hold a piece of Jesus’ heart in his hands, even when he denied him three times. That bond of love was not broken even when the Rock crumbled.

My friends, do you know that we have received another name that far surpasses any other name we may be called, “John” or “Peter,” and even “Gigi and “Poppy”? It is the name of “Christian.” Think about that for a moment. Jesus Christ has bestowed his own name on us, like a husband gives his last name to his wife. One word – a name – both declares and demonstrates how the two have become one flesh. The name “Christian,” therefore, means we are one with Christ; indeed, we are called to be another Christ.

But do we live up to the high ideals of being a Christian? That is, are we Christians in fact as well as in name? Recently, we have had three great opportunities to be worthy of the name of Christian. First, how did we react to the storming of the U.S. Capitol building two weeks ago: was it with anger and recriminations, adding fuel to the fire, or with peace and prayer for all involved? In other words, did we pray for the protestors as well as for the police? That’s what the name “Christian” means. Second, how about last November during the presidential elections: did we demonize the Democrats or rail against the Republicans? Or, could we acknowledge that there are values and virtues on both sides of the political aisle? To see the good everywhere and in everyone is what the name “Christian” means.

And third, the pandemic has also put our Christian name to the test. Can we wear the uncomfortable mask for the sake of the vulnerable among us, or do we flaunt our individual freedom to do as we please? Will we take the vaccine even after the Vatican has approved it, or do we feel we are holier than the pope? That is what the name Christian means, because Jesus has given us a piece of his own heart.

In Shakespeare’s play, “Romeo and Juliet,” Juliet protests that names mean nothing. Juliet is a “Capulet” and Romeo is a “Montague,” two fiercely feuding families. Juliet famously urges Romeo: “Tis but thy name that is my enemy…O, be some other name! What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would still smell as sweet” (Act II, Scene ii). Names may mean nothing for roses and Romeo, but not someone who is called a “Christian.” It is the name of “Christian” that gives us the sweet smell of salvation.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

New Year, New You

Making prayer a part of our daily life

01/13/2021

Mark 1:29-39 On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them. When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him. Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

Have you made your New Year’s resolution yet? Everyone would like the year 2021 to be a lot better than the year 2020. So, a solid and serious resolution might help that cause. I read in Good Housekeeping the other day some unusual suggestions for New Year’s resolutions. It was called “New Year, New You.” Rather the routine resolutions of diet and exercise, they suggested these good goals.

One, build a better budget, by making a vow to save more money. Now, that would have been a really great resolution if they had added, “Give more money to your church.” Secondly, they said, “Cook one new recipe each week.” Instead of cutting back on food, eat more food, but a variety that is more healthy. Third, they advised, read more books. I highly recommend three books by my favorite priest-author, called “Oh, for the Love of God,” “Oh, for Heaven’s Sake,” and “Oh, Lord Have Mercy.” Great reading.

Those are all great recommendations, but I was disappointed they did not include "increasing your prayer" life as a New Year’s resolution. Maybe they thought such a suggestion would offend their readers who are atheists. But if New Year’s resolutions are really designed to make you happy and whole, then they will all fall short without renewing our relationship with God. Why? Well, what makes human life meaningful and fulfilling is living for a higher purpose, and that higher purpose is doing God’s will rather than my own will.

We will not be able to perceive God’s will, however, without prayer. A great prayer, therefore, might be: “God, what do you think my New Year’s resolution should be?” Serious and sustained prayer helps us to know God’s will for our lives, which may or may not include building a new budget, cooking a new recipe each week, or reading more books, even mine. Prayer will make 2021 a new year and a new you.

In the gospel today Jesus’ life is also soaked through with serious prayer. Our Lord did not make prayer a New Year’s resolution, because it was always a seamless part of his spirituality, indeed, it was his very Spirit, the Holy Spirit. Mark tells us how Jesus practiced prayer: “Rising very early before dawn he left and went to a deserted place where he prayed.” Prayer was not Jesus’ New Year’s resolution, it was his New Day resolution.

Every day was like a new year for Jesus, where he recommitted himself to fulfilling God’s will in his life. In prayer Jesus received his “marching orders” for the day; hence he told his apostles “for this purpose I have come.” Prayer lifted our Lord’s human mind and heart to live for a higher purpose, that is, for a heavenly purpose, God’s will. In our Lord’s life we see the third petition of the Our Father in full flower: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

My friends, today is only January 13, and it is not too late for a New Year’s resolution. May I suggest this year you make serious prayer a seamless part of your life? Here are a few things I do, and maybe they will help you. Every day I try to pray the rosary. When I pray I do not sit in a chair or kneel in a kneeler, but I walk. That way I pray and get some exercise at the same time. Prayer penetrates my exercise routine.

Every time I get in my car to drive somewhere – the hospital, the grocery store, to your house for dinner – I say one Hail Mary for a safe journey. A trip across town comes under the purview of prayer. Every day at noon the church staff stops what we are doing to pray the Angelus. We lift up people, parishioners, in prayer. Prayer becomes a part of our workday. When the sirens blare from an ambulance, a fire engine or a police car, I whisper a Hail Mary for the first responders and whoever they are hurrying to help. Slowly prayer becomes a seamless part of our daily life until there is nothing we do that is not inspired by prayer.

I wonder if the protestors who had stormed the capitol building had started their protest with a prayer, perhaps it would have remained peaceful. If you cannot start something with a prayer you should probably not start it at all. Prayer helps us to live for a higher purpose, for God’s will. And only in that way, will this be a new year and a new you.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Tough Transitions

Practicing a peaceful transition of power

01/11/2021

Mark 1:14-20 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.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Then they left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.

There is an unwritten rule imbedded in the universe that says sooner or later we must say good-bye and leave our legacy to others. That is, there must be a transition of power, and that transition is always tough. I anticipate with great fear and trembling the day I am transferred to another parish and another priest takes my place here at Immaculate Conception. I hope I am fortunate enough to go “feet first” out of these church doors like good old Msgr. Galvin got to in 1996. But even in death I will hate to leave this parish and her people. I love all of you, and most of you love me.

I saw this transition of power in the movie “The Rundown” between Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Dwayne Johnson, two muscle-bound actors who barely fit on the big screen. In one brief scene the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) is walking into a bar and Schwarzeneggar is walking out. It is a short cameo of maybe 5 seconds, and Arnold winks at the Rock and says, “Good luck.” Clearly he was handing over the reins of being the BMOC (big man on cinema) to the Rock. Schwarzeneggar saw that he was entering the twilight of his career and decided to leave his legacy to someone else. It was a peaceful transition of power in that movie, but Arnold is still making blockbuster movies. Transitions of power are always tough.

Perhaps the only instance of peacefully leaving a legacy to another happened in the gospel today, between John the Baptist and Jesus. We read in the gospel of Mark: “After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God.” But this transition was more than merely passing the baton from one prophet to another. It was the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Indeed, it was the transitions from the “old creation” into the “new creation.” St. Paul said in 2 Cor. 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.”

But that transition from John to Jesus was not entirely peaceful. John was imprisoned and later beheaded. In other words, John had to go out “feet first” in order for Jesus to take center stage as the Messiah. Transitions, it seems, are always tough, even between the Best Man (John) and the Bridegroom (Jesus). Still, John the Baptist would ultimately say: “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn. 2:29), which sounds a lot like Arnold winking and saying to the Rock, “Good luck.”

Folks, I think it is pretty easy to see examples of how tough transitions of power can be. The most glaring example is that of the 45th president of the United States. Can you guess who that is? Regardless of any irregularities in voting, it is clear who won both the popular vote and more than 270 electoral votes. The time has come for a peaceful transition of power, to leave the legacy of leader of the free world to another; to wink and smile like Arnold Schwarzeneggar to Dwayne Johnson and say, “Good luck.” Or, even better, to humbly step aside and support your successor like John the Baptist and say, “He must increase and I must decrease.” That would be the honorable thing to do; that would be the Christian thing to do, but transitions are always tough.

Of course, we don’t have to throw stones at the White House for failing to relinquish power; in this respect, we all live in glass houses. Who wants to leave a parish in the hands of another priest? Not me! Who gladly gives up being principal of a school so someone else can steer the ship? Who wants to sell their house and move into an assisted living facility? Who wants to hand over their car keys because they can’t drive faster than 40 miles per house on the freeway? Who wants to leave this world in the hands of the next generation, who we know will just screw everything up? We all feel the frustration of Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, who wrote this about death, the final transition: “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Transitions are tough for all of us.

As we approach the Eucharist, Jesus the Bridegroom, prepared for by John the Baptist, his best man, may we too whisper: “He must increase and I must decrease.” Maybe that will help us to make our own transitions of power more peaceful.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

B.Y.O.B.

Learning to crack the code of Scripture

01/08/2021

1 John 5:5-13 Beloved: Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and Blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, and the Spirit is truth. So there are three who testify, the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, and the three are of one accord. If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

Have you heard of the enigma machine? The word “enigma” means mystery or puzzle or riddle, and the “enigma machine” was a device that took normal communication and scrambled it into a secret code so no one else could understand it. It made language a mystery. Sometimes, when my whole family is together on a facetime call – parents, brother and sister, nieces and nephews – and we want to say something my nieces and nephews cannot catch, we speak in Malayalam. Our Indian language is our modern “enigma machine,” a secret code language that hides what we say from others.

By the way, if you want a movie example of the enigma machine in action, you should watch The Imitation Game. It is based on a true story about the British scientist Alan Turing, who cracked the code of the enigma machine used by the Germans in World War II. The Germans thought no one could decipher their enigma machine, but they were wrong. Nevertheless, the enigma machine was a very useful tool to communicate through code language, making language a mystery.

I would suggest to you that the Bible is a sort of sacred enigma machine. That is, the sacred authors did not always “say what they mean and mean what they say” in writing the 73 books of the Bible. Rather, they used a very specific code language, namely, the language of faith. Those without the deciphering technique called “faith” can read the Bible but they will miss the hidden and real message. And Jesus specifically sent the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and their successors, the pope and bishops, to crack the code of the Bible when we read it.

One of the masters of of the enigma machine was St. Paul, who wrote 13 New Testament letters. St. Peter recognizes this, and therefore, at the end of his second letter in 2 Peter 3:16, says: “In [Paul’s letters] there are some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other scriptures.” That is, Paul sort of wrote his letters in Malayalam (not literally) so he could hide his real meaning and message behind code language. But we can crack the code of the enigma machine called the Bible with the help of faith and the guidance of the Church.

In the first reading today St. John also speaks in veiled language. He writes cryptically: “So there are three who testify the Spirit, the water, and the Blood and they are of one accord.” John’s hidden meaning may not be immediately clear to just anyone who picks up the Bible and turns to 1 John 5 and starts reading. But because you and I are people of faith and have the help of the Church guided by the Holy Spirit, we can crack the code, and solve the riddle. We know “the Spirit, the water, and the Blood” refer to the sacraments of initiation. The water symbolizes being washed in baptism, the Holy Spirit is received in the sacrament of confirmation, and the Blood is poured out for us at Mass, in the Eucharist. To those without faith the Bible might as well be written in Malayalam!

My friends, there is a war going on, and I do not mean World War II, with the Allied and Axis powers. There is a spiritual war going, and there always has been since the days of Adam and Eve in Genesis. We have an Evil Enemy who is trying to defeat and destroy us and it is not the Republicans or the Democrats. It’s the devil. In this war God communicates to us through an enigma machine called the Bible, filled with the war strategy on how we will win. And the devil cannot crack the code because he does not have faith. It all sounds like Malayalam to him.

That’s why we, too, need to study the Scriptures because as St. Peter said, it may not make sense to us either. By the way, I am finishing up a Bible study on the Acts of the Apostles, which I hope to record and make available soon. In other words, my Scriptural Malayalam is getting better! I highly encourage you to buy a Bible and read it daily and study it assiduously. Otherwise, you will miss the vital communications needed to win this war. The most important part of every Bible study is BYOB. Can you crack that code?

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Peace Ya’ll

Lowering our masks and feeling loved

01/06/2021

Mark 6:45-52 After the five thousand had eaten and were satisfied, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side toward Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd.  And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray.  When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore. Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. They had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” He got into the boat with them and the wind died down. They were completely astounded. They had not understood the incident of the loaves. On the contrary, their hearts were hardened.

Did you receive any cool Christmas presents this past year? Two of my favorite gifts were masks, even though I have a ton of them already. One had a Trinity “T” and a Buffalo on it, and the other was black embroidered with the Latin words, “Pax Vobiscum.” All our Trinity Latin scholars know that means “Peace Ya’ll” (it’s plural). As we all know, we have to wear masks at Mass to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. But wearing masks at Mass can come in handy for another reason. Why? Well, because you can yawn really big during a long and boring homily without the priest seeing you.

Did you know sometimes we can wear masks without wearing actual masks? That is sometimes called a “poker face.” In the game of poker, if you get a really good hand – like four Aces – you should not jump up and down for joy. You should hide your excitement and disguise your feelings with a poker face. When you play it cool, as if you had a mediocre hand, you can get others to bet their money and then take their money. But some people wear the mask of a poker face all the time. They try to hide their feelings and even their true selves behind a mask. They do not let other people see who they really are, even when they are not playing poker. Deep down we are afraid people will not like who we really are, so we hide ourselves behind a mask, we don a poker face.

In the gospel today, we see Jesus slowly taking off the mask of manhood so the disciples could glimpse his Godhood. Jesus was not worried others would reject him (like we worry), but rather that people would be overwhelmed by his divinity. Jesus walks on water during a storm at sea – he slowly lowered his mask that covered his Godliness - and what happened? Exactly what Jesus thought: the disciples were terrified. They believed they were seeing a ghost. Jesus should have been wearing my Christmas mask that said, “Peace Ya’ll!”

Our Lord actually said: “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!” Jesus sort of wore a human mask to hide his true divine Self not because he was afraid and be rejected but because we would be afraid and feel overwhelmed to see him Face to face. I suspect that is also why Jesus comes to us in the Scriptures and in the sacraments somewhat disguised behind a mask of material things – bread and wine, oil and water – so we are not too terrified. In every sacrament Jesus wears a mask telling us, “Peace Ya’ll.”

Boys and girls, do you wear a mask and hide your true self from others? Now, sometimes that can be good if you are playing the game of poker and hold all Aces in your hand. But it may not be good in the game of life, because we hide ourselves from others and then we fail to feel the love of others for us. Here is a profound truth you should ponder and remember: you cannot love what you do not know.

I had a priest-friend many years ago who committed suicide. Everyone was shocked and saddened because he was such a beloved priest. He was always ready to help others, and he gave me great advice that I still remember today. I love him and I miss him. I cried at his funeral Mass. He wrote a note before he died where he said: “I did not feel that anyone really loved me.” Even though tons of people loved him, including me, he had worn a mask and hidden himself behind it. He was afraid to remove the mask and let people see his true self and feel their love. By the way, even though he committed suicide (and that is a serious sin), I believe God is very merciful – God knows our weaknesses and failings – and that priest is in heaven today. In fact, I mention his name at the end of my rosary every day and ask for his prayers.

Boys and girls, when you return to school, you will still have to wear masks. Maybe you have a cool Trinity Buffaloes mask like me. But be careful not to wear a mask all your life. Sometimes we need to take off our masks, let other people get to know us, so then they can love us. Then we will know the real meaning of the words, “Pax Vobiscum.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Numbers Never Lie

Seeing the deeper meaning of scriptural numbers

01/05/2021

Mark 6:34-44 When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, “This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” He said to them in reply, “Give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Are we to buy two hundred days’ ages worth of food and give it to them to eat?” He asked them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out they said, “Five loaves and two fish.” So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate of the loaves were five thousand men.

There’s an old saying that “numbers never lie.” But not only do they never lie, they can also tell a lot of truth. Numbers mean more than their face value. When the inspired authors of the bible employ numbers, they not only convey historical facts – they don’t lie – they also suggest deep spiritual truths. For example, when Jesus selects 12 apostles to be his closest companions, he was not merely pulling a number off the top of his head; 12 was not just better than 11 or 13. In the book of Genesis the patriarch Jacob had 12 sons who became the heads of the 12 Tribes of Israel, the Chosen People.

When Jesus chooses 12 apostles he is constituting them as “his spiritual sons” and as the patriarchs of the new Israel, the true Chosen People. The number 12, therefore, in scripture means more than merely “one more than 11” or “one less than 13.” It unveils the plan of God for the salvation of the world. That is how “numbers never lie” in the bible; but even more, numbers nudge us to know what God did in the past and what he will do in the future.

With that in mind we can make more hay with the gospel today. First of all, bear in mind that there are two episodes of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. In Mark 6 Jesus feeds 5,000 and in Mark 8, our Lord will feed 4,000. In the first episode the number 5,000 is symbolic of the people of Israel, but the number 4,000 points to all the rest of humanity. This difference is also underscored by how many baskets are leftover. After feeding the 5,000 there are 12 baskets leftover, symbolizing the 12 Tribes of Israel, while after feeding the 4,000 there are 7 baskets leftover, which is the number of creation (God created in 7 days), and thus includes the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike. That is how numbers never lie, and tell a ton of truth, in the bible.

The five loaves is also a highly suggestive number. Notice how in the gospel the people are in a deserted place and hungry and they are fed with miraculous bread. That is exactly what happened in Exodus 16: the people had left slavery in Egypt, were wandering in the Sinai desert, were hungry and Moses obtained bread from heaven to feed the people. Mark wants us to see how Jesus is the New Moses. But the number 5 means that Moses fed the people with more than wheat bread, that is, the fed them with the word of God. How so?

The first five books of the bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy – are traditionally called the “Books of Moses.” And in Deuteronomy 8:3, we read: “It is not by bread alone that people live, but by all that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.” By the way, this is why I work hard on my daily homilies. I feel like I am feeding you spiritual food. Isn’t this why many Catholics go to Protestant churches? They say they are “fed spiritually” better there than in the Catholic Church because they hear better preaching and inspiring singing. The number 5, therefore, symbolizes the 5 books of Moses, the Word of God that feeds us, and our deeper hunger for spiritual nourishment.

May I mention one more symbolic number in today’s gospel account? Mark wrote: “The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties.” Now, the people really did sit down in that organized formation: the numbers don’t lie; they relate historical facts. But Mark also wants to evoke our memory of Exodus 18:21, where Moses appoints leaders over the people in a very specific way. Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, suggested to the old Moses: “Set them over the people as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.” Again, Mark wants us to notice how Jesus has come as the new Moses, the One who will feed us in the deserts of our life with miracle Bread from heaven. And in John 6 Jesus will make it crystal clear that the Bread he will feed us with is none other than his Body and Blood. That is, he will feed us with the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.

Incidentally, do you know that at Mass I love to look at the congregation, and just watch you (just like you watch me)? I see what the apostles saw in Mark 6: people sitting “in rows of hundreds and fifties” in their pews. Some are awake and some are asleep, some come late and others leave early, but they are all hungry. And the new Moses is here today, Jesus. And as it said in the gospel: “Jesus saw the vast crowd, and his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.” And then he fed them with Bread from heaven.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Shared Stories

Using our memories to reach God and others

01/04/2021

Matthew 4:12-17, 23-25 When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali, that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand." He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people. His fame spread to all of Syria, and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases and racked with pain, those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

A few weeks ago Fr. Daniel and I were talking about the recent trend to take down Civil War monuments. I said: “Did you notice the monument to Jefferson Davis on the highway between the rectory and the church?” He answered, “No.” Finally, something I can teach him. I explained: “It was erected in 1925 in honor of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865.” It only stands about two feet talk, so it is easy to miss or overlook. We had a good discussion about how we should not glorify the past, especially as it concerns the cancer of slavery. On the other hand, we should also not forget or erase the past as if it never happened. Why? When we mess with our memory, we also meddle with God’s grace in our life. Our memory is like a golden thread that connects us with God and all the great things he has done for us.

Pope Francis said recently in a homily: “It is vital to remember the good we have received. If we do not remember it, we become strangers to ourselves, ‘passers-by’ of existence.” He continued: “Memory is not something private; it is the path that unites us to God and to others.” Did you see the movie “The Notebook”? It is about an older lady who loses her memory. Every day, her husband visits her in a home and reads from “a notebook” that he has kept about this young couple. Then suddenly, for a few minutes, she remembers everything, that the story in the notebook is about her and him, and they dance. That movie touchingly illustrates how our memory connects us with God and others.

In the gospel today, Jesus begins his public ministry as the Messiah in Galilee, specifically in Zebulon and Naphtali. Now, these two towns may sound like obscure and insignificant places to us, but that is because we do not share the collective history of Israel, but we should. Zebulon and Naphtali is part of our past, too. We are like the lady in the movie The Notebook and when we hear the Bible read to us at Mass we begin to remember, and we feel a deep connection to God and others. So, let me play the role of the husband in the movie and remind you of our shared story.

In the year 733 B.C. the feared enemies of Israel, the Assyrians – they were like the terrorists of their day – decimated the Ten Tribes of the North, beginning with Zebulon and Naphtali. Because Zebulon and Naphtali were the first tribes to be cursed and destroyed, they would likewise be the first tribes to be blessed and restored, that is, to hear the Good News that the long-awaited Messiah had come. Indeed, Israel’s “Husband” had come to save her and betroth himself to her. Jesus began his ministry in Zebulon and Naphtali because while he did not want the people to glorify their past (especially their slavery to foreign powers) he also did not want them to forget their past, their shared story.

My friends, make every effort to strengthen your memories, especially your own shared story in your family. When I visit my parents, I love to listen to them talk about their past: their adventures as children, their marriage in New Delhi and starting a family, the daunting decision to depart India and start a new life in America, raising children and giving each of us a very bright future. They always add that none of that would have been possible without the help of God’s grace. That memory connects them to God and to my family and our many friends.

In a sense that recollection of a shared story is exactly what we do at every Mass. The Scriptures remind us of all the wonderful things God did for us in the Old Testament while we were waiting for the Messiah. And then the New Testament tells us what the Messiah did when he came. It is very much like the movie The Notebook: most Catholics come to Mass with collective amnesia about our shared story with God and how much he has done for us and how much he loves us. We are like that poor forgetful woman in the movie who has sadly lost her memory. When we hear the Bible, we think we are listening to a love story about someone else. But every now and then, it hits us what is really going on here. The story of Sacred Scripture is our story, our love story, with God. And while we remember it we dance with Jesus. And then we forget again, and go back to our daily lives as if nothing has happened.

Don’t lose your memory because it connects us with God and each other. And that is precisely why Jesus said at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of me.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Become the Way

Being a model for others to follow

01/03/2021

Matthew 2:1-12 When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage." When King Herod heard this, he was greatly troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Then Herod called the magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search diligently for the child. When you have found him, bring me word, that I too may go and do him homage." After their audience with the king they set out. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.

We have all had the experience of asking for directions or giving directions to others. On second thought, if you are a man maybe you have never asked for directions, because we men love to just drive around in circles till we get where we’re going. Now, there are two ways of helping others find their way when they are lost. You can either describe the way to them, saying, “go two miles and it will be on your right.” Or, you can “become the way” itself. What do I mean? Sometimes when I asked for directions, a person has said to me: “I tell you what, let me just take you there; just follow me.” Rather than explain the route to me, that person got in their car, drove ahead, and I followed behind. Instead of a map to follow, I had a model to follow because that person “became the way.”

In the gospel today, the Magi from the east need directions to find the newborn King of the Jews, and they find a map and a model. First they ask for directions from King Herod. Finally three men who stopped to ask directions! And that is why they are called the “Wise Men.” Do you remember which kind of directions Herod gave them? We read: “Then Herod called the Magi secretly and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ‘go and search diligently for the child.” Now, Bethlehem is about 6 miles from Jerusalem, but instead of personally taking them to Bethlehem, Herod “sent them to Bethlehem.” He gave them a map to follow.

The Magi, however, are also given directions by a star. Matthew records in his gospel: “The star they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.” The star was saying in effect, “Let me just take you there; follow me.” In other words, the star provided a model for the Magi to follow and that is exactly why “they were overjoyed at seeing the star.” I am overjoyed when someone shows me personally how to get I am going.

When we give others directions by modeling the way to live, we can hear the heartbeat of the Christian faith. I don’t mean giving others directions on how to get to Fort Smith (your GPS can do that), but rather giving people directions on how to get to heaven (you GPS cannot do that). For instance, this is the advice I give to parents who have trouble with their teens: don’t wage a war of words, but lead by example. That is don’t hand them a map and tell them what to do, but be a model of humility and holiness like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Don’t be like Herod, but be like the star.

The same goes for spouses. When there are marital problems, one spouse pulls out the roadmap of their relationship (their history) and shows the other person all the ways they he or she has “veered off course,” pointing out all the mistakes they have made. It is much harder, but eminently more effective, to model the kind of spouse a Christian should be. That is how you "become the way."

I have always learned a lot from the associate priests that I live with. Each one has modeled priestly zeal, joy and holiness in his own way. Recently, I have learned a lot from Fr. Daniel. Sometimes, I get up late in the morning and stumble downstairs looking for coffee, and I find him already praying in the chapel. I think: “Dang, I need to pray more!” He has the habit of walking on the treadmill or playing tennis daily, which makes me think: “Dang, I need to exercise more!” Or, Fr. Daniel writes his homilies a week in advance, while I get up at 4 a.m. and scribble something I hope makes sense before 7 a.m. Mass. And I think: “Dang, I need to plan my preaching better!” But notice how he gave me all those “directions” without ever whispering a word. Wise priests know they should model the life of Christ - practice what you preach - and thus, they “become the way.”

Every Christmas we celebrate how Jesus himself became the way for us. Think about it: Instead of staying at home in heaven and mailing us a map for how to get there, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity was born a Baby in Bethlehem so he could lead us home to heaven. In John 14:6, Jesus explained this explicitly to Thomas, saying: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the star that leads us home to heaven. Like someone once said to me: “I tell you what, let me just take you there. Follow me.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Amateur Arks

Finding shelter from the storm in Jesus and Mary

01/01/2021

Luke 2:16-21 The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

A friend sent me an entertaining email entitled, “I Learned Everything from Noah’s Ark.” Here are a few of the funnier ones. One life lesson from Noah’s ark was, “Don’t miss the boat.” A second suggested: “We are all in the same boat.” Hasn’t this pandemic proven that everyone on earth is in the same boat? A third lesson stated: “Stay physically fit. When you are 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.” A fourth lesson was, “When you are stressed, float a while.” Feels like we have all been floating since March! A fifth lesson mentioned: “Remember: the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic was built by professionals.” So, choose your ships wisely. And a last lesson made me smile: “No matter the storm, when you are with God, there is always a rainbow at the end.” As we come to shore after the stormy seas of the year 2020, may God send us a rainbow of hope and peace in the new year 2021.

But did you know Noah’s Ark is not the only ark mentioned in the Bible? There are actually three arks in Sacred Scriptures. Like the email reminded us, Genesis 6-8 talks about the Ark that Noah built. That’s the first ark. Later in Exodus 25 Moses will build an Ark to carry God’s presence in the midst of his people: the “Ark of the Covenant,” you know, the one Indiana Jones and the Raiders discovered. That was the second ark. The third ark was not made of wood and human hands like the first two, but made of flesh and fashioned by God’s hands, namely, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was immaculately conceived and full of grace. Where do we find Mary as the Ark in the Bible?

In Rev. 11:19 John sees the “Ark of the Covenant” in heaven, and in the very next verse (Rev. 12:1) he sees “a woman clothed with the sun.” John ties together these two images: the Ark and Mary and sees them as the same thing. Mary is the real “Ark of the Covenant” because she carried the Covenant himself, Jesus, in her womb. The Bible, therefore, presents three arks that are all created to provide shelter from the storm: Noah’s Ark protected his family from the storm of the Flood, Moses’ Ark which saved the people from the storms of the Sinai desert, and Mary’s Ark which saves us all from the spiritual storms of sin and death (the worst storms). These three Arks were built by amateurs but they were tougher than the Titanic built by professionals.

Every January 1st, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, which I believe is just another way of calling her the “Ark of the Covenant.” How so? In Luke 2:16 (our gospel today), we read: “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.” My hunch is that the shepherds are not only hurrying to Jesus, the newborn King, they are likewise rushing to Mary, the Ark that carried the Covenant. Why? Because they too lived in troubled times – politically, economically, religiously – and those poor shepherds sought shelter from their storms. Just like Noah’s family ran into the Ark as the rains fell, and the Chosen People huddled to hear God’s voice in the Ark while they wandered in the wilderness, so the shepherds speed to the safety of the Ark of the Covenant, to Mary and Jesus, to seek shelter from the storms of life. And they were saved.

My friends we are coming to the end of a seriously stormy year. We have weathered a pandemic that has killed over 1,800,000 so far and still counting; we have endured a bitter presidential election that has left our country a house divided; millions are out of work or out of money; and countless hundreds are hunkered down at home feeling alone and isolated. In troubled times like these, where do you find shelter from the storms of life? Sometimes we look for earthly escapes, like sex, drugs and rock and roll. But these imposters do not protect us nor do they provide peace; indeed, they do exactly the opposite.

That is why this year’s best New Year’s Resolution will be a sincere act of faith: to seek shelter from the storms that beset us in Mary and Jesus, the Ark and the Covenant. Just like in the days of Noah, and in the days of Moses, so too today, God has given us an “ark” to shelter us from the storm: a Woman clothed with the sun who brings forth a male Child to rule the nations. And remember: “No matter what the storm, when you are with God, there is always a rainbow waiting.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Hallowed Halls

Meeting our Maker in the church

12/29/2021

Luke 2:22-35 When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

I have been involved in a lot of construction projects in my 25 years as a priest. We renovated the stunning interior of St. Edward’s Church in Little Rock. We built the beautiful parish hall at St. Raphael in Springdale. We added the DeBriyn Center gymnasium and classrooms at St. Joseph’s in Fayetteville. And we saved St. Anne’s Convent in honor of the Sisters of Mercy here at Immaculate Conception in Fort Smith. I have learned that different projects garner different levels of support from parishioners. For example, about one third of the people will contribute to building a parish center or hall, about two thirds will donate to build a school, but almost all the people will give when it comes to constructing a church. Why? Well, because sooner or later in the course of our life, we all have to walk into a church: either as a baby to be baptized, or as a corpse in a coffin to be carried to our final resting place.

I like to say that in a church, we are hatched, matched and dispatched. Or, as St. Paul put it more poetically in Acts 17:28, “In him we live and move and have our being.” When we build a church, we literally put our money where our mouth is, because within these hallowed halls we experience life and death, love and laughter, joys and sorrows, happiness and holiness, earth and heaven. In short, a church is where we find the center and source of our faith, our encounter with the Eternal one, where we meet our Maker.

In the gospel today from Luke 2:22-35, Mary and Joseph take the Baby Jesus to the Temple, the center and source of Jewish faith life. They present Jesus to God and consecrate him to God because he is their firstborn Son. By the way, the term “firstborn” in this case does not suggest that Mary and Joseph had other children after Jesus. Firstborn refers to a privilege and a blessing, not to a spot in a sequence of siblings. Remember Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac. Esau was firstborn in the order of birth, but Jacob received the blessing of the firstborn son, a double portion of the father’s inheritance. Be careful not to confuse the two senses of the term “firstborn son.”

In the Temple the Holy Family meets Simeon who sees the Savior with his own eyes and now feels ready to die; his life is complete. He prophesies that Mary’s heart would be pierced by a sword, meaning that as her Son would suffer to save the world, she, too, would participate in that suffering. In other words, in the Jerusalem Temple, the Holy Family shared joys and sorrows, life and death, happiness and holiness, earth and heaven. And what did they do in response? They made a donation: they offered “the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons” because they were a poor family. They put their money where their mouth is to support the Temple, the center and source of their faith life.

December 29 is the feast of St. Thomas Becket, the holy archbishop of Canterbury. If you could like to read a moving account of his martyrdom on Dec. 29, 1170, I highly recommend T. S. Eliot’s play called “Murder in the Cathedral.” In the middle of the play is the homily that Archbishop Becket delivers on Christmas Day, 1170, four days before his murder in the same cathedral. In that homily, he asks rhetorically: “Is it an accident, do you think, that the day of the first martyr follows immediately the day of the Birth of Christ?” He is referring the feast of St. Stephen on December 26th. He answers his own question: “By no means. Just as we rejoice and mourn at once, in the Birth and Passion of our Lord; so, also, in a smaller figure, we both rejoice and mourn in the death of martyrs.”

In other words, in church we celebrate the death of martyrs like St. Stephen, which was also his birth into eternal life in heaven. In church, at the Mass, in the holy feast days, we touch the center and source of our faith, we begin to understand why we have been put on this planet, which is ultimately to encounter the Eternal One, and to live and die for Him. Four days after delivering that sermon, four assassins hired by King Henry II burst into Canterbury Cathedral and brutally murdered the archbishop. The holy archbishop bore witness that the church is where we live and die in the Lord.

As we celebrate the feast of another holy martyr who gave his life for the Baby born in Bethlehem, especially one who died in the church, we should ask ourselves what we come to church seeking. Whatever else you came looking for here, you will find the center and source of your faith life. Within these hallowed halls, you are hatched, matched and dispatched.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

War on Innocents

Seeing why Catholics can receive Covid vaccine

12/28/2020

Matthew 2:13-18 When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the Magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the Magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.

Yesterday, at the end of Mass at Our Lady of the Ozarks in Winslow, Dc. Mike Henry read Bishop Taylor’s letter regarding Catholic using the new vaccines protecting people against the coronavirus. When he read the line that the vaccines were produced from cells taken from aborted fetuses many years ago, someone in church gasped: “What?!” That statement came as a surprise to that parishioner, and maybe it does to you, too. The bishop had stated: “All the vaccines currently in use were developed with some connection to a past abortion.”

The bishop concluded with a summary of his entire statement: “In short, receiving one of the vaccines currently available is justified because (1) the connection to a past abortion is remote, (2) the need to protect others from COVID-19 is so great, and (3) there is currently no vaccine available which is completely free of these concerns.” Bishop Taylor emphasized: “I wish to be very clear here: receiving the vaccine is morally permissible.” Besides Bishop Taylor, the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, as well as the Vatican, have stated that Catholics in good conscience could receive the currently available vaccines, at least the ones produced by Pfizer and Moderna, but not the one produced by AztraZeneca.

Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents, the baby boys who were murdered by King Herod as he waged war on the newborn King of Kings. Therefore, with the intercession of the Holy Innocents, I would like to offer some observations about the vaccines and protecting the innocent babies in the womb today, threatened by abortion, specifically about taking the available vaccines.

Let me explain a little what the phrase “remote connection to a past abortion" means. The U.S. bishops clarified: “There are currently three vaccines that have been presented to us as having demonstrated their effectiveness…those from Pfizer, Moderna and AztraZeneca…Neither Pfizer nor Moderna used morally compromised cell lines in the design, development or production of the vaccine." Note, however, that "design, development and production" are not the only steps of the vaccine process that utilize cell lines; there is also a step called a "confirmatory test" to double check that the vaccine is working effectively.

The bishops continued: "A confirmatory test, however, employing the commonly used, but morally compromised HEK293 cell line was used on both vaccines.” The bishops sifted through those scientific steps and offered the following moral conclusion: “Thus while neither vaccine is completely free from any connection to morally compromised cells, in this case the connection is very remote from the initial evil of abortion.”

I know that is a lot of technical lingo to listen to at a 7 a.m. Mass, so let me break it down a bit. “Remote cooperation” means you act together with someone but do not intend or share in all their goals. For example, you might buy a hamburger or a chai latte from restaurants or coffee shops that are national chains, and whose corporations likely give some money to support Planned Parenthood. Buying that hamburger or sipping that chai latte is “remote cooperation” in the evil done by Planned Parenthood. You are not committing a mortal sin when you eat a quarter pounder with cheese (except maybe gluttony).

The closely connected web of the world in which we live means we need to educate ourselves, especially to form our conscience, on what is morally right and wrong, acceptable or reprehensible. That is, try to learn the difference today between “remote cooperation” and “proximate cooperation” in an evil act like abortion. Also, we Catholics believe Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to guide and lead the pope and bishops in troubled times like these. Faithful Catholics are not merely groping in the dark, but have the light of faith shining in the Church, to guide our steps on earth. We should listen to the teaching of the pope and bishops far more than we give credence to other voices in social media, or even theologians.

May the Holy Innocents intercede for us, so that as we wage war against the coronavirus, we do not wage war against the innocent babies in the womb!

Praised be Jesus Christ!