Knucklehead not Knight

Sharing the stories of our faith-life

01/25/2022

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.’ My companions saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. I asked, ‘What shall I do, sir?’ The Lord answered me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about everything appointed for you to do.’ Since I could see nothing because of the brightness of that light, I was led by hand by my companions and entered Damascus.”

What people remember about us are the stories that we tell about our lives. A perfect case in point is the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who will soon be canonized a saint. Although a brilliant theologian who earned two doctorate degrees, one from Louvain and another in Rome, authored 73 books, and taught for years at the Catholic University of America, what I remember about him are the stories he told about his life.

I will never forget his traumatic experience as an eight year old altar server. He was serving Mass for Bishop Spalding in the Cathedral of Peoria, Illinois, and he dropped the wine cruet which shattered. Sheen remembered: “There is no atomic explosion that equals in decibels the sound of a glass cruet hitting a marble flood in a cathedral in front of a bishop.” Instead of berating the little boy, Bishop Spalding spoke these kind and even prophetic words: “Young man, when you get big you will go to Louvain University, and someday you will be just as I am.” By that, he meant a bishop.

Little Fulton was ready for a scolding from Spalding, but instead he received a word of kindness and encouragement. I am convinced that same kindness would echo through Sheen’s life and ministry like the sound of that shattered wine cruet echoed off the cathedral walls. People would remember Sheen’s stories and Sheen’s kindness.

Today, January 25, is the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Like Fulton Sheen, Paul, too, was a brilliant theologian, as he says in the first reading: “At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God.” Indeed, in Acts 17, Paul would marshal all his rhetorical skills and philosophical training to convince the Greeks at Athens about Jesus, but he had very minimal success.

Instead, what did Paul decide to do? He told the story of his conversion, first in Acts 22 and again in Acts 26. Why? Well, because in the end people really don’t remember all our doctorates or higher learning or philosophical arguments; they remember our stories. Paul learned that the best way to evangelize the world was with a good story.

My friends, sometimes we worry about how to share the Catholic faith. And parents and grandparents especially fear that the next generation will lose the faith, and some of those fears may be well-founded. As a result, we sometimes think the best way to evangelize is to memorize Scripture passages, or study the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or get a doctorate in theology from Louvain. To be sure, all those things are indeed helpful. But do you know what your children and grandchildren will finally remember about you? You guessed it: the stories you tell.

And by the way, do you know the best kinds of stories to tell about yourself? It’s the embarrassing ones, where you look like the knucklehead not the knight in shining armor. That is why we find that self-effacing story about Fulton Sheen dropping the cruet so endearing and captivating, and why people were far more moved and impressed by Paul’s story of being knocked off his high horse and humbled by blindness and needing others to lead him and teach him.

If you want to share the faith and be an effective evangelizer, think back to your childhood and youth, and cue up the stories that deeply touched and transformed your life, especially the embarrassing ones. Why? Because in such stories Jesus shines as the star, not us. St. John the Baptist said humbly: “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). After all, that is what people will remember about us anyway. And that is what they should remember.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

I Read Your Book

Learning about others and ourselves through writing

01/24/2022

Mk 3:22-30 The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said of Jesus, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables, “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him. But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder his house. Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

If you really want to get to know someone read their book. During my week in Maryland giving the retreat at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary, I got to know Msgr. McLean Cummings, the seminary spiritual director. Before I left he gave me a copy of his small book, called “Three Questions from Your Uncle.” He wrote it to his twenty nieces and nephews about why they should be Catholic. Interestingly, though, the book not only gave me a doorway into the Catholic faith, it also opened a window into Msgr. Cummings’ heart. I glimpsed in every page I read what he loved, what he cared about, what he lived for, and even what he would die for: his faith. His book told me as much about him as it did about the subject he was discussing.

During one of our lunch conversations, Msgr. Cummings told me that Abraham Lincoln studied the geometry of Euclid and read Euclid’s books on “demonstration.” In other words, what made Lincoln such a formidable adversary in any argument, and even partly inspired him to write the elegant Gettysburg Address, was the pithiness and precision of a Euclidean “demonstration.” Lincoln dedicated days of his life reading Euclid’s books on geometry: to know the man and the math.

Here’s another example. After General George S. Patton defeated the Germans in Tunisia, North Africa, he triumphantly growled: “Rommel, you magnificent son-of-a-gun (Patton used more colorful language), I read your book!” That is, Patton really got into the mind and heart of his enemy, General Rommel, through reading his book, and he defeated him on the battlefield because he could anticipate his moves. If you want know someone, read their book.

Our Scripture readings today talk about the spirit that lead King David to victory, and the Spirit that guided the life of Jesus. In both cases, though, if you want to know who these two great men were, just read their books. The Old Testament book of Psalm is traditionally ascribed to the pen of King David, But even if he did not write all 150 psalms, he surely wrote most of them, and undoubtedly wrote Ps 51, and there we discover his spirit – David’s loves, his passions, his plans, his hopes and dreams, and even his sins. If you want to know King David, read his book.

As you know, Jesus himself never wrote a book, except for a few lines he scribbled in the sand in Jn 8:6, when the Pharisees brought to him the woman caught in adultery. But in another sense, Jesus, who is the Word of God, is present in every page and paragraph of the whole Bible because it was his Holy Spirit who was its principal author. That is why Jesus is so upset at the scribes in the gospel today who accuse him of being filled with an evil spirit.

Jesus fires back at them some of his most serious invective, saying: “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” In other words, to speak against the Holy Spirit is to speak against the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit. That is, if you want to get to know Jesus, then read his book, the Bible. That is exactly why St. Jerome would famously warn: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” You don’t know Jesus unless you read his book.

Recently, one of our parishioners, Jerry Adams, gave me a copy of his autobiography called, “The Story Never Ends.” It was hilarious, and Jerry is an entertaining story teller. In one episode he has to give a speech at a hotel operated by Hugh Hefner – you may have heard of him. As Jerry is running late he gets on an elevator to the 7th floor with several Playboy Bunnys, and the elevator is packed with people. One of the Bunnys says to Jerry: “We’re sorry sir, if we’re crowding you.” Jerry, who was never at a loss for a quick come-back, turned several shades of red, and never said a word. But that episode revealed something special about Jerry, as did every page in his beautiful book.

Have you ever thought about writing a book? Another parishioner I knew wrote a book of her devotionals and prayer life, a sort of spiritual journal. It, too, revealed her heart and hopes. Maybe you could write a small book for your nieces and nephews like Msgr. Cummings about why it is important to you to be a Catholic, and why they should take their faith seriously too. And by the way, don’t use the excuse, “I don’t know how to write a book.” Just look at all the stuff people write on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. What is that but a chronicle of a person’s hearts and hopes, disappointments and desires, successes and failures? Just compile all those pearl of wisdom and come up with a catchy title.

Most importantly, whatever you write, even if it is only scribbling in the sand, it will inevitably say something about you, and hopefully it will reveal that you are a person of faith, hope and love. And I would love to be able to say one day about you: “You magnificent son-of-a-gun, I read your book!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Arranging Letters

Learning to love like Jesus in the Bible

01/23/2022

Lk 4:14-21 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Last week I did something I have never done before: I was part of an engagement (don’t worry, not mine). Last Thursday Will Smith, a Baptist boy from Fort Smith, proposed to Jordan Dart, a Catholic girl from I.C. here in Fort Smith. However, the difficulty was they were both in California while both their families were in Fort Smith. So, after the engagement that afternoon, they did a zoom call that evening and Will asked me as Jordan’s pastor to participate in the zoom call. My only question to Jordan during the call was: “Well, what did you say when Will asked you to marry him?” Jordan smiled and replied, “I said, ‘Oh, I’ll think about it.’”

Earlier that morning Will had called me to share the plans for his proposal and even to ask my advice about how he could be a good husband. Imagine that: a Baptist boy calling a Catholic priest – and a celibate one to boot – for advice on spousal love! I said, “Well, there’s no better advice for Christian couples than what St. Paul said in Ep 5:25, ‘Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and handed himself over for her’.” I went on: “And if you want to see a perfect example of Christ-like love, just look at the Cross.”

In other words, a husband must be willing to die for his wife, even if his wife is the one trying to kill him. That is, when you don’t know where to look for advice on love, look to the Bible, and that is what I did. Why? Well, because the Bible tells the story of God’s love, which is the highest form that human love can ever reach. And that is the kind of love that Will and Jordan are aiming for in their marriage. The Bible is a love story: God’s love story and hopefully our love story.

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus returns to Nazareth, his hometown. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath (that is Saturday) and reads from Isaiah the prophet. But more importantly, after the reading, Jesus declares: “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Now, that was not only a surprising thing for Jesus to say, but also a highly scandalous thing for the Jews to hear. Why? Well, Jesus was asserting that the age-old prophesy of Isaiah 61 was being fulfilled in him. In a word, Jesus was claiming to be the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah.

Indeed, it was so scandalous to the people that, if you read a little further to verses 28-29 of Luke 4, the people want to throw him over the brow of the hill upon which Nazareth was built. Even though the Bible is God’s love story, and Jesus is God’s love on two legs, we often find it hard to accept such unconditional love and imitate it. And that is why Christ’s love was exactly like St. Paul described it: “Christ loved the church, and handed himself over for her.” And his Bride tried to kill him! Where the citizens of Nazareth failed, the citizens of Jerusalem three years later would succeed in putting the Lord of love to death on a Cross. The Bible – like we read in Isaiah 61 and Luke 4 – is a love story: God’s love story and hopefully our love story. But it is not always an easy or fun story.

Folks, for our meager and mortal human love to reach the lofty heights of God’s heavenly love is not only hard, it is impossible without God’s grace. I saw this meme lately that illustrates the challenge of living up to God’s love. A grandfather was walking through his yard when he heard his granddaughter repeating the alphabet in a tone of voice that sounded like a prayer. He asked her what she was doing. The little girl explained: ‘I’m praying, but I can’t think of exactly the right words, so I’m just saying all the letters of the alphabet, and God will put them together for me, because he knows what I am thinking.”

Isn’t that a perfect picture of our prayer-life, indeed, of our whole life? We don’t know exactly how to pray ,and we don’t know exactly how to live, and we certainly are clueless about exactly how to love. About the best we can do is to put the letters of our love-life out there, and let God arrange them according to his plans and purposes. In other words, if you are at the beginning of your love-life, like Will and Jordan, or in the thick of things, juggling kids and jobs and basketball games, or perhaps standing in the rubble of a ruined marriage that has ended in divorce, or maybe celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary, the plain truth is that none of us have loved perfectly or purely. That is, we don’t know how to arrange the letters of our love-lives to match Jesus’ love for his Church as described in Ep 5:25. So, maybe like that smart little girl we can just put the letters out there and let God arrange them. We can ask for his mercy on our mistakes and maybe show that mercy to others whose mistakes have hurt us.

This weekend is called “Sunday of the Word of God,” and the Church invites us to devote a little extra time and attention to the Sacred Scriptures. That is why we enthroned the Book of the Gospels between two burning candles after we proclaimed it. One way to do that is to see how the Bible is a love story: both God’s love story and the story of our love for him. And don’t worry if you cannot understand how God has arranged all the letters of the Bible, God knows how to arrange them just right to help us love more like Him. So, that husbands and wives will love each other, “even as Christ loved the church, and handed himself over for her.” Even if the wife is the one trying to kill the husband.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

On My Couch

Learning to speak the five languages of love

01/19/2022

Mk 3:1-6 Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.

Many years ago in a former parish, my secretary suggested that I read a book that permanently changed my thinking about human relationships. More importantly, it changed how I relate to others. It was called “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. Have you heard of it? If you are looking for an excellent book on how to improve your family, your friendships, and even your faith life, I highly recommend this book. Basically, Chapman, a Baptist pastor, explains that people, especially in romantic relationships, relate in five "ways" or by speaking five “languages.”

These languages are not Greek, Russian, French, Spanish or Italian. Rather, they are “acts of service,” “gift-giving,” “physical touch,” “quality time,” and “words of affirmation.” These expressions of love are like languages, and we have to learn to speak them to those we love, and vice versa, we need others who love us to speak them these languages to us. I cannot tell you how many couples I have counseled where one or another of these love languages was at the root of their problems.

For example, the woman might complain that the husband is lazy, never does anything around the house, she is always the one to fold the laundry, empty the dish washer, take the kids to school. Can you guess which is her love language? It is “acts of service.” That “language” is how she needs to “hear” her husband’s love. The man, for his part, might argue: his wife always complains about his working too long, she criticizes how he dresses, she never pays him a compliment, she only points out his mistakes. Which love language did the husband need to hear? It was “words of affirmation.” His wife needed to become fluent in his love language, but she never spoke a word of it. After years of never hearing your spouse speak your specific love language, the couple ends up on my couch in my office, or ends up divorced.

In the gospel today Jesus and the Pharisees could use a little “marriage counseling,” and I would have recommended the Pharisees read “The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman. Of course, Jesus himself is love incarnate, love on two legs, so he is fluent in the five love languages and all the many dialects of love, too. He made us, so he knows how to love us. Today it seems Jesus is doing some “gift-giving” by healing a man’s withered hand.

And how to do the Pharisees react? Their hearts were hardened because they only looked to criticize our Lord, and ultimately to find a way to kill him. Even though Jesus can speak all love languages – indeed, he is fluent in all forms of human speech – perhaps his primary love language is gift-giving. Thus we read in Jn 10:10, where Jesus declares: “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” If I were trying to help Jesus and the Pharisees get along a little better, I would suggest the Pharisees learn the language of “gift-giving.”

That is, instead of trying to kill him, they should try to find ways to save and preserve our Lord’s life. But the real power and beauty of Jesus’ love language of gift-giving is that no matter what the Pharisees did they could not stop our Lord from speaking his love language. Even when they tried to kill him on the Cross, they failed miserably because then Jesus became a gift for the whole world, indeed, for all humanity and for all time. Jesus literally became the “Gift that keeps on giving.”

Folks, even though Chapman wrote that book to help romantic relationships,” as I said, I believe it’s helpful in all human interactions. For example, as I try to interact with the staff here at the church, I pay close attention to each person’s love language. Some are touched by a gift, others by a word of affirmation (a compliment on their dress or performance), another by an act of service (assisting them with a task), still others by quality time spent with them (visiting and asking about their family), but physical touch (like a hug) is sadly really hard during the pandemic. So, those people really suffer.

By the way, do you know the fastest way to figure out what someone’s love language is? Pay attention to what they complain about the most. Why? Well people complain because they have a deep need that is not being met. They have a “language” their heart speaks that those around them don’t know, and they feel alone, like a stranger in a foreign land. So, learn to meet that need by becoming fluent in their love language. That way, you will not end up on my couch in my office, or end up somewhere worse.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

In Good Hands

My experience with the seminarians of the Mount

01/18/2022

Mk 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.”

Well, you will be relieved to know that the old cassock still fits. Surely that is what you were wondering all last week. But seriously, thank you for all your prayers for the seminarians and for me. Our Blessed Lord and our Lady heard you, and they had mercy on me and the words I shared. Several men told me after the retreat they appreciated it, and the seminary spiritual director, Msgr. Cummings, said it was a great way to prepare for the new semester, which starts this week.

Please say a special prayer for the men in their “third year of theology.” Why? Well, at the end of this semester they will be ordained as “transitional deacons,” the penultimate step to priesthood. So, this retreat was especially important to them as it was their required “canonical retreat” leading up to ordination. By the way, I learned this later, that the retreat was actually live-streamed on the seminary Youtube channel. You can search for Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, on Youtube, if you want to hear the meditations, and see for yourself how the cassock still fits.

Since you can hear the meditations online, I won’t say anything about that. Instead, let me say a few things about being back at my old seminary "alma mater." Incidentally, the Latin words “alma mater” literally mean “soul mother,” as if this place is like a spiritual mother to me. Of course, a flood of feelings – more like a tsunami – hit me as I drove back on campus. I could not repress a board smile as I gazed on the grounds where we played flag football, and the seminarians roundly beat the college students. I was pleased to hear they carry on the same tradition and still beat the college kids.

The old seminary building was constructed in 1808 and it is still housing and forming men for the priesthood. By the way, that was 100 years before Immaculate Conception Church was built in 1901, for a little historical context. I feel blessed to have been one of the hundreds of thousands who learned to wear their cassock there.

The Mount is sometimes called “the cradle of bishops” because 58 bishops have been born and bred at the Mount, two of whom were there during my years. And my eyes stretched heavenward up the sides of the eponymous mountain from which the seminary gets her name, St. Mary’s Mountain. Farther up the mountain is a beautiful grotto and shrine to our Blessed Mother, where I often went to pray as a seminarian. So, the nostalgia was as thick as the London fog as I stepped foot at the Mount after 26 years.

One of the really cool components of the retreat was the silence. It was a “silent retreat,” meaning the men were not allowed to talk. They were likewise forbidden to use their cell phones. They had to enter and leave the chapel in silence; they could only nod their heads in greeting in the hallways; they sat at separate tables at lunch and dinner and ate in silence. I was the only one who could talk, and it was my voice (with hopefully the words inspired by the Holy Spirit) that echoed through their quiet minds and still hearts.

The one time they could open their mouths and speak was at chapel, during Morning and Evening Prayer and at Mass. And how they sang: full-throated and whole-heartedly. All that had gone unsaid all day and night – the hopes and dreams, the fears and tears, the doubts and excitement – all poured out of their mouths at the Mass.

The words of the Liturgy – “And with your spirit,” “We lift up them up to the Lord,” “It is right and just,” and so forth – expressed all the unexpressed longings of their lives. And that is what the liturgy should do for us. Indeed, the words of the Mass utter the longings not only of the men and women on earth, but also of the angels in heaven. Earth and heaven worship as one. And the seminarians’ silence during the retreat helped them to hear that eternal harmony.

Finally, let me admit that it was every bit a “retreat” for me as it was for the seminarians. By that I mean that they inspired me by their lives, their dedication, their joy, their desire to serve the Lord and his people, and their singing. There are 158 inspiring young men at the Mount and it is the largest seminary in the United States. They gave me great peace and confidence that God continues to call men, like he called the first apostles and like he called me, to be fishers of men. I am proud to report, and you will be happy to know, the Church is in good hands.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Where and What

Returning and rediscovering our early loves

01/06/2022

Lk 4:14-22 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

Next week I will be returning to my old seminary to give their annual retreat. Would like to know where I am going and what I am going to talk about? I attended Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. I am the first seminarian from our diocese to ever go there, and I am the last seminarian who has ever gone there. Apparently, I did not turn out so good. The reason I chose to go there is because it was one of the three “conservative” or “traditional” seminaries back in those days. The other two were St. Charles Borromeo in Philadelphia and St. Joseph in Yonkers, New York.

But a friend of mine once said that seminaries have a 5 to 10 year "shelf-life." He meant that seminaries change, and what you might remember is probably not the way it is today. In fact, today’s seminarians are far more conservative than I was. In comparison to many of them I would be considered a “flaming liberal.” So, I am going to dust off my old cassock and wear it during the retreat. The cassock is the long black robe a priest used to wear, and some priests still wear today. I’m not sure what to expect when I return to my old seminary, except it probably will not be what I remember.

That is where I am going. Now, what I intend to share with the seminarians during the five days of retreat is to hang on to the Scriptures and the sacraments because they are the only two things in the Church (and in the world) that never change. Everything else in our faith has changed in the past two thousand years, and much will change in the coming millennia. But two things will never change: the 73 books of the Bible and the 7 sacraments.

From the very beginning we have had the Bible, as a sacred family heirloom. And all the saints and scholars up and down the ages have reflected on those 73 books and found our faith in those pages. And all the saints and scholars who have yet to appear on the stage of salvation history will also reflect on those 73 books and again find their faith there. However, brilliant their insights, they will always be based on the Bible. Everything else will fade away, but not the Sacred Scriptures.

The other thing that lasts are the seven sacraments: baptism, Eucharist, confirmation, confession, anointing of the sick, marriage and holy orders. From the beginning of the Church we have enjoyed the grace of the seven sacraments, and until the second coming of Christ, we will have the graces of the seven sacraments to sustain us. Everything else will change, and ultimately disappear, but not the sacraments. And that is what I am going to urge those seminarians to hang on to.

Sometimes seminarians – and all Catholics – can get caught up in the small things of our faith; things that will not last. There is an old joke: What is the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist. In other words, sometimes people who deal with the details of the liturgy (the Mass) can get so caught up in the nitty-gritty – Latin or English, Communion on the tongue or on the hand, should we hold hand during the Our Father, etc. – that we forget all these things have changed and will change again.

They take their eyes off the big picture – the basic structure of the sacrament of the Mass – the liturgy of the Word at the pulpit and the liturgy of the Eucharist at the altar. A lot has changed in the Mass in two thousand years, and a lot more will change in the next two thousand years, so hang on to what will not change. Fr. Benedict Groeschel said memorably: “It is good to die for your faith. Just don’t die for the pennies and nickels of the faith.” Some liturgists die for the pennies and nickels.

It is always spiritually invigorating to return to the seminary where you fell in love with Jesus and felt the first fire for your vocation. Maybe it's like married couples returning to the site of their honeymoon after many years of marriage. Why? Well, you might rediscover your early love. That is what I hope might happen for me when I return to Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary. Sometimes when you have been doing something for so many years, the daily grind and the hustle and bustle of it all, make you forget your early love.

In Rv 2:4 Jesus has a complaint against the Church of Ephesus, the first of the seven letters to the seven churches. He says they have forgotten their “early love.” Please pray for me next week as I return in my cassock and try to be conservative enough for these seminarians. Maybe I will rediscover my early love, and help them fall more in love with Jesus, too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Outsmarting the Old

Appreciating the feast of the Epiphany

01/02/2022

Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6 Brothers and sisters: You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation. It was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Today’s feast of the Epiphany in a sense explains the deepest difference between the Old and New Testaments. In other words, as much as the two Testaments share in common, there is also a ginormous gap between the two. Maybe it can be illustrated by a little humor. An Irish priest and a rabbi get into a car accident. They both get out of their cars and stumble over to the side of the road. The rabbi says: “Oy vey! What a wreck!” The priest asks: “Are you all right, rabbi?” The rabbi answers, holding his head with his hands: “Yes, just a bit shaken.”

The priest pulls out a flask of whiskey from his coat and offers it: “Here, drink some of this, it will help calm your nerves.” The rabbi takes the flask and drinks it down, and says: “Well, what are we going to tell the police?” The priest answers with a smile: “I don’t know what you’re aft’ to be tellin’ them. But I’ll be tellin’ them that I wasn’t the one drinking.”

Now, if we imagine the rabbi as representing the Old Testament and the priest in the place of the New Testament, we can see an example of how the New outsmarts the Old. But of course, there is a more serious and significant way the New Testament outsmarts the Old Testament, namely, in who is welcome into the People of God. Put simply, who can be saved? In the Old Testament, salvation was determined by ethnicity: do you have Jewish blood running through your veins?

In the New Testament, by contrast, salvation is determined by baptism and the Eucharist, that is, are you born again by water and have Jesus’ Blood running through your veins? And this is the meaning of the Epiphany: salvation is not based on ethnicity but on the Epiphany, symbolized by the Magi who came from all over the world. In other words, everyone is welcome to salvation, and not just the Jews. That difference definitively distinguishes the Old and New Testaments.

I am convinced that no one knew how the New outsmarted the Old better than St. Paul. Why’s that? Well, because St. Paul was formerly a Jewish rabbi who converted and became a Catholic priest, indeed a bishop (that is, an apostle). It should not surprise us, then, to hear him say in the second reading to the Ephesians – and if you listen carefully, you can hear both the rabbi and the priest talking in the background: “Brothers and sisters, you have heard of the stewardship of grace that was given to me for your benefit, namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

“It was not made known to people in other generations (that's the Old Testament), as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets (in the New Testament) by the Spirit.” And then comes the clincher: “That the Gentiles (all peoples) are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners (with the Jews) in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Did you catch all that? Basically, Paul means that salvation does not depend on ethnicity but on the Epiphany, where everyone is welcome to be saved. That is how the New outsmarts the Old, and how the new Paul outsmarted the old Saul.

My friends, do you know one of the main reasons I love I.C. Church? It is not just because we have a pretty church to worship in, or have a long, storied history stretching back to 1843, or that we own lots of buildings spread over some of the most prime property sitting at the crossroads of the city. While all that is impressive, it pales in comparison to the people that pile into the pews every Sunday. Just like the real gifts of the Magi were not gold, frankincense and myrrh, but rather the gift of themselves.

If you look around you at your brothers and sisters in this church – and I know that's what you're doing instead of paying attention to the homily – you will see all kinds of faces: brown faces and white faces, yellow faces and red faces, freckled faces and happy faces, some sad faces and other angry faces, several sleep faces and some baby faces, wrinkled faces and handsome faces (that’s my face), and homely faces, hairy faces and clean-shaven faces, poor faces and rich faces.

In other words, every face has a place here thanks to God’s grace. Why? Because we are not an ethnic parish but rather an Epiphany parish. It is not the blood in that runs in our veins that unites us but the Blood of Christ that runs through our souls that makes us one. And that is why the priest gave a drink to the rabbi as an example of how the New outsmarts the Old. And at every Mass the priest stands at the altar, raises a cup of wine, and says symbolically: “I’ll drink to that!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Walking Miracles

Learning to appreciate the wonder of women

12/29/2021

Lk 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.

Today’s gospel begins with a line that can be easily misunderstood and therefore also misinterpreted and ultimately lead to a major moral mistake. Luke records how Mary fulfilled the Mosaic law of purity, saying: “When the days were completed for [her] purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…” That Mosaic law of purification stipulated that after childbirth a woman could not enter the Temple for one week (7 days). That means for that one-week period of time a woman was “impure,” or that she suffered from “ritual impurity.” You can read all about it in Leviticus 12.

Several years ago, though, I read a book by Louis Bouyer called “Woman in the Church,” that turned that interpretation on its head. Bouyer argued that in religious matters, we use the term “purify” not only to denote that which is profane and unholy, but also to indicate that which is profoundly holy and even divine. For example, when a priest cleans the chalice after Holy Communion, do you know what that “cleaning action” is technically called? He “purifies” the chalice. Even the white cloth he uses to supposedly “clean” the chalice is called a “purificator.”

Now, let me ask you a question: does the wine that has become the Blood of Jesus truly make that chalice “impure” or “dirty,“ or rather does that Precious Blood not make the chalice super-pure and unspeakably holy? Louis Bouyer’s point was that sometimes we “purify” something that is unholy, but other times we “purify” things that are beyond holy, that are divine, and the second sense is the case with women after childbirth. A woman’s blood after childbirth, analogous to the Blood of Christ touching a chalice, has made them super-pure, not impure. Bouyer’s interpretation helped me understand “ritual impurity” in a whole new light, quite different from the common conception, which is really a misconception.

Sometimes when I meet with a young couple for marriage preparation, I try to explain why the Church does not recommend the use of contraceptives. Instead, she urges the use of “NFP” or Natural Family Planning. I point to the woman’s tummy symbolically and say: “Every woman is a walking miracle because right here is the cradle of life. A new human being will enter the world through YOU.” And I put both my hands on my tummy. One young lady elbowed her fiancé and said: “Remember that: I’m a walking miracle!” The Church wants you to treat the woman as profoundly holy and so do not go near her sexually unless you are ready to welcome a new life. That is the gist of NFP: seeing the woman as super-holy, as a walking miracle.

But when it comes to contraception, who has to do all the work, shoulder all the sacrifice and suffering? Who takes the pill, the IUD, the Depo Provera, the patch, the vaginal ring, etc.? Ninety-nine percent of the forms of contraception attack the woman’s fertility, and in a sense, make it seem the modern version of “ritual impurity.” According to the modern estimation, therefore, that which makes a woman “impure,” “unequal” to a man, holds her back from living her fullest life, is precisely the “blood” of her potential pregnancy.

Can you see how contraceptives treat women exactly wrong? Contraceptives treat the blood of the woman’s period as if it caused impurity and imperfection, whereas NFP treats a woman’s blood like the Blood of our Lord in the chalice that a priest apparently (but not exactly) “purifies” at the end of Mass. Can you see how an easy “misunderstanding” can lead to a colossal “misinterpretation” and finally culminates in a cultural “misogyny” (hatred for women)?

In other words, the “ritual impurity” that Levitcus 12 prohibited calling a woman after childbirth “impure” has been taken up by our modern culture that calls a woman’s ability to have a baby “impure.” Indeed, we consider it unhealthy and so we give girls a “pill” to take, to restore them to “health.” You give someone a pill when they are sick. Contraception is only the modern version of “ritual impurity.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Praised be Jesus Christ!