Fiction and Faith

Understanding why God’s ways are above our ways

09/24/2023

Is 55:6-9 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near. Let the scoundrel forsake his way, and the wicked his thoughts; let him turn to the LORD for mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Little Danny rushed home from Sunday school, grabbed his daddy by the leg and yelled, “That story of Moses and all those people crossing the Red Sea was great!” His father looked down at him, smiled, and asked Danny to tell him all about it. Danny said excitedly: “Well, Moses was a big strong man and he beat up Pharaoh. Then while Pharaoh was down, Moses got all the people together and they ran towards the Red Sea.

The Egyptian army was getting closer and closer. So Moses got on his walkie-talkie and told the Israeli Air Force to fly over and bomb the Egyptians. While that was happening, the Israeli Navy built a pontoon bridge so the people could cross over. Once Moses and the people were safely on the other side, the Israeli Army fired artillery and blew up the bridge while the Egyptians were trying to cross, and the Egyptians were all drowned in the sea.”

His daddy was surprised and asked, “Now, is that the way your teacher taught you the story?” Danny admitted, “Well, no, not exactly. But you would never believe the story she did tell us!” In other words, truth is stranger than fiction, and sometimes it takes a little natural fiction to fully grasp the supernatural truth of our faith.

In the first reading today, God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.” That is, just like little Danny had to bring Moses’ miraculous crossing of the Red Sea down to his dad’s level of comprehension – as a military victory – so God has to be brought down to us and born as a Baby in Bethlehem. A little natural fiction helps us grasp supernatural faith: he looks like a Baby but he's really the God-Man.

This weekend we celebrate Catechetical Sunday, and we will recognize and honor our catechists. And what do catechists do? They do exactly what Danny did with his dad: bring God’s ways down from heaven to earth so we can begin to understand them. I am so grateful to all our catechists and the vital ministry they perform. Fr. Bala and I could not be effective pastors without them. At the end of this homily, I’ll call them up to be blessed.

My friends, did you know that the seven sacraments also serve a catechetical function? What do I mean? Well, each sacrament brings God’s heavenly ways down to earth and adapts and adjusts them to our human level of comprehension. For example, in Baptism we see a baby having water poured on its head and crying at the top of its lungs. We see and understand that.

But what really happens for the eyes of faith is that little baby becomes a child of God. St. Francis of Assisi said that if we could see the soul of a newly baptized infant we would be sorely tempted to bow down and worship it. Why? It bears a striking resemblance to its oldest Brother, Jesus Christ. The natural fiction of being washed by water and crying helps us catch the supernatural truth of faith: being born again as a child of God.

Or, take the Eucharist and the Mass. To the eyes of faith that simple bread and wine on the altar are truly transformed by the words of a priest into Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, stands on the altar here at I.C. no less present as he is seated on his glorious throne in heaven.

But God shields us from looking directly at his glory because it would be a million times more dangerous than looking directly into the sun. As Jack Nicholson said to Tom Cruise in the movie, “A Few Good Men,” “You can’t handle the truth.” We need the natural fiction of bread and wine to see how in Communion Jesus wants to stand on the altar of our hearts even more than on the altar at I.C. or in heaven.

Or, just consider the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. Most of us have a minimal understanding of marriage, or as C. S. Lewis once put it, we think of marriage as little more than “four bare legs in a bed.” But if you asked St. Paul about marriage, he would reply that every husband is an icon of Christ, and every wife is an image of the Church, the Bride of Christ.

That is why we don’t believe in divorce and why annulments are so hard to get. Why is the bar for marriage so high? Well, because the love of human spouses should reflect the love between the Church and Jesus, who died for us. No, not just died, but was crucified for us. And not just crucified for us, but crucified by us! Can you see how God’s ways are sky high above our ways? We need the natural fiction of human love to scratch the surface of our supernatural faith in divine love.

Folks, have you ever wondered by God uses simple, unassuming sacraments – water, wine, bread, oil, male, female – rather than little shock-and-awe like the Israeli Army – to teach us about himself? I am not really sure either. But let me suggest two answers, from two men a lot smarter than me. First, listen to Etienne Gilson:

“Supernatural truth reaches us, so to speak, like the water of a river which passes over a series of waterfalls, from God, who is its source, to the angels who receive it first according to the order of the angelic hierarchy; then from angels to men, reaching first the apostles and prophets, then spreading out into the multitude of those who receive it by faith” (The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, 12-13). That is, it is impossible to climb up a waterfall and experience God directly, so we must settle for the sacraments to experience him today.

But C. S. Lewis said one day we will climb that waterfall. He wrote: “What would it be to taste at the fountainhead that stream of which even these lower reaches prove so intoxicating? Yet that, I believe, is what lies before us. The whole man is to drink joy from the fountain of joy” (The Weight of Glory). In the meantime, tomorrow is a Monday morning and we have to get back to work. So for now, we still need catechists and sacraments to help us experience God.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Maximizing Mary

Finding the proper role of Mary in Christianity

09/19/2023

Lk 7:11-17 Jesus journeyed to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him. As he drew near to the gate of the city, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” He stepped forward and touched the coffin; at this the bearers halted, and he said, “Young man, I tell you, arise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has visited his people.” This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.

One of the great fault lines between Protestants and Catholics is the role and reverence we give to Mary. On the whole Protestants tend to minimize her place in Christian faith while Catholics are eager to maximize Mary. Heck, we even name churches in her honor like the Church of the Immaculate Conception.

Protestants feel that too much attention to Mary diminishes the importance of Jesus. Catholics, on the other hand, believe that the more attention we lavish on Mary the more we glorify Jesus and showcase the greatness of his grace. In other words, if you want to see everything Jesus’ grace can accomplish, look at Mary, don’t look at me.

The Bible also demonstrates a maximal devotion to Mary, but it is subtle and so you have to sort of read between the verses. Our gospel from Luke 7:11-17 is a perfect example of love for our Blessed Mother, even though it never mentions Mary. On the surface it seems that Jesus simply raises a dead man back to life and gives him back to his grieving mother.

But I believe much more is going on below the surface. Still waters run deep. I am convinced that Jesus saw a premonition of his own death, and more so, he beheld the sorrow of his blessed mother in this scene on the outskirts of Nain. Four striking details make this premonition plausible.

First, the young man who had died was an only son, just like Jesus. (2) The mother was a widow just like Mary was because Joseph had died by the time Jesus became an adult. (3) The dead man is being accompanied outside a city with a large crowd of people, just like Jesus would be taken outside of Jerusalem and crucified. And (4) Jesus always asks for a show of faith before healing someone, but not in this case.

Without any prompting whatsoever, we read, “When the Lord saw her, he was moved with pity for her, and said to her ‘Do not weep’.” And Jesus raised the man from the dead and gave him back to his mother, who I am sure was quite beside herself with incredulous joy. What prompted Jesus to perform this unsolicited miracle? Simple: love for his mother, Mary, whom he knew would soon be suffering and sorrowing like this widow of Nain.

St. Luke wants to highlight the tenderness of Jesus’ humanity; how much he loved his mother and demonstrated that filial affection for Mary in this encounter with another grieving mother. But I think Luke is also inserting this passage in his gospel to invite his readers (you and me) to do the same: love Mary like our Lord does.

The heart of Christian discipleship can be summarized in the old Latin maxim, “imitatio Christi” the imitation of Christ. We maximize Mary because Jesus does so first. He even seems to break one of his personal rules: always ask for faith first. Remember how hard he was on the Syrophonecian woman who had to beg Jesus that even dogs eat their master’s scraps in Mt 15:22-28? In other words, when it comes to our Lord’s filial love for his mother, all bets are off. You never know what Jesus might do.

Of course, we all can think of Jesus’ first reluctant miracle in Jn 2 at the wedding at Cana where he changed the water into wine. It is doubtful – at least there is no scriptural evidence – Jesus would have performed that miracle had Mary not interceded. John, like Luke, is trying to emphasize how influential Mary is in Jesus’ life and ministry, and inviting us, Jesus’ disciples, to do the same, that is, maximize Mary in our Christianity.

My friends, they taught us something in the seminary that I want to teach you today: every Christian must have some devotion to Mary. For example, you can wear the scapular, or pray the rosary, or do a nine-day novena, or visit Marian shrines like Lourdes, Fatima, or Guadalupe. But one thing no Christian should do is minimize or ignore Mary in our Christian walk with the Lord. The evangelists Luke and John did not ignore Mary, and most importantly, Jesus did not either. Mary is Jesus’ first and best disciple, and she can help us become better disciples, too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Mary’s Tears

Learning how mother’s tears can be sad and joyful

09/15/2023

Lk 2:33-35 Jesus' 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 am a huge movie buff, and it is by far my favorite pastime. Of all the millions of movies I have watched over the years the hardest one was “The Passion of the Christ” directed by Mel Gibson. Have you ever watched it? It is unbelievably brutal, gory, and inhumane in how it depicts how violently and mercilessly the Roman soldiers tortured Jesus.

And the climax of their cruelty was not so much the crucifixion but the scourging at the pillar. If you saw that scene, you would never forget it. Besides just whipping him with coarse chords, some chords had metal barbs on the tips of them so that they would stick into the flesh of Christ, and rip off chunks of Jesus’ skin and muscle.

While I was watching that scene, I could tell tears were starting to well up in my eyes. How could they do that to Jesus, I thought in outrage. But I decided to tough it out, and would not let the tears roll down my face. If Jesus could be that tough for me, then I could be tough for him, too. And believe it or not, I did pretty good.

But then the camera panned the people who were the bystanders and on-lookers at the scourging. And finally the camera came to rest on Mary, and showed her sorrowful face filled with unspeakable agony watching what people were doing to her Son. And at that moment I totally lost it, and started sobbing like a baby. You know, it’s one thing to see Jesus suffer because I would sort of “take it like a man.” But to see Mary suffer was more than I could handle. And in some ways perhaps it was harder for Jesus to see his mom weeping than it was to endure the scourging.

Today’s gospel is taken from Luke 2, where Simeon prophesies that Mary would suffer, and in some mysterious way, she would be intimately associated with Jesus’ saving suffering. Simeon says to Mary, “And you yourself a sword will pierce.” I cannot help but think Mary felt the tip of that sword thrust into her heart as she stood there watching her Son’s scourging.

And the sword went all the way through her heart at the crucifixion when her Son died on the Cross. Again, in some ways maybe seeing Mary weeping at the foot of the cross felt more painful than the nails in his hands and his feet, and the lance in his side. There are few things in the world harder than watching your mother weeping.

Boys and girls, have you ever made your mother cry? Now, that is not always a bad thing. Sometimes women cry for joy. If you bring home a bouquet of flowers for your mom, I bet you would see tears of joy. If you finally made an A on a Latin test, I bet she might start crying. If you clean your room for a change, her eyes would definitely fill up with tears. Most women weep for joy the day a man proposes to marry them.

But most of the time our moms weep because we disappoint them by our bad behavior, or hurt them with our thoughtless and unkind words, or wound their hearts when we ignore them or forget special days, like their birthdays and anniversaries. And that should break our hearts, whenever we see our moms weep, and we were the cause of their grief.

But on very rare occasions – perhaps only once in a lifetime – our moms cry tears of both joy and sorrow. I think that is what happened to my mom when I told her I wanted to be a priest when I was a junior in high school She was happy, of course, because it is a great blessing to have a priest in the family. And mom would not have to compete with a daughter-in-law. So there was joy.

But she also felt sadness because being a priest meant I would not get married – and maybe feel lonely – and also that meant I would not give her grandchildren. In other words, those motherly tears of joy and sorrow flow when a son or daughter does God’s will more than their parents’ will or even more than their own will.

I think those were exactly the same kind of tears that Mary cried at Jesus’ scourging and his death on the cross. Her Son, Jesus, did his heavenly Father’s will more than his earthly mother’s will or even his own will according to his human nature. Those kinds of tears on a mother’s face are very hard to see, but they can also be a great blessing to see.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Days of Infamy

Learning not to lose sign of our shared humanity.

09/11/2023

Lk 6:6-11 On a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, "Come up and stand before us." And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?" Looking around at them all, he then said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did so and his hand was restored. But they became enraged and discussed together what they might do to Jesus.

Certain days have marked the history and conscience of the United States in singular and unforgettable ways. One such day was Dec. 7, 1941, when the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and drew the United States into World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared the following day, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.”

Today we recall another one of those days of infamy, namely, September 11, 2001, when Islamist extremists coordinated four suicide terrorist attacks against the United States. Everyone at Mass this morning can remember vividly where we were when we heard the stunning news and saw the shocking images on T.V. December 7 and September 11 will never be erased from our collective American memories as days of infamy.

I would like to leave aside all the political, military, and economic implications of those days, and point out one major social change that occurred in their aftermath. We began to look at people differently, that is, we looked at them with suspicion, fear, and as a potential threat. Those who lived through and after World War II will remember how poorly we treated people from Japan and Germany. Msgr. Scott Friend tells the story of how his family is originally German – notice his blonde hair and blue eyes? – but they changed their last name from Freund to Friend so it would sound less German.

When I studied canon law in Washington, D.C. I grew my beard which back then was thick and black. My friends jokingly called me Hezbollah. But I got lots of second glances walking through airport security. My mom wouldn’t let me in the house until I shaved. These days of infamy made us look at people as not only different but maybe even as dangerous. That is, we lost sight of our shared humanity, that we are all, first and foremost, children of God.

In the gospel today we witness another instance of losing sight of our shared humanity. Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. The real difficulty for the scribes and Pharisees was not only that Jesus cured him on the Sabbath (that was bad enough).

But they also believed that sickness had a spiritual dimension, and was a curse from God. Have you ever felt God was cursing or punishing you when you got sick? But Jesus is trying to help them see below the surface of the sickness and see a child of God who is suffering. And he invited them to love that person, regardless of their external appearances or maladies.

Today on September 11, we can do a lot of things to remember what happened. We can pray for those who died, and their families carrying on without them. We can pray for peace in the world, and the safety of our soldiers like my nephew Isaac in his first deployment in Poland. We can pray for an end to terrorism and the extremist wings of religions that advocate death over life. Dan, our sacristan, told me we could have a “blue Mass” for first responders, like those heroic fire fighters and police who ran toward danger on Sept 11 rather than away from it.

In addition to all these wonderful things, I would suggest we do a little soul-searching, and an examination of conscience and how we look at other people. Do we sometimes conclude that those who are different from us are therefore dangerous? This past week there was a lady, who seemed homeless, hanging out all day and night in the little park across from the church.

She was talking to herself and even talked to me and the altar servers as we walked down the side of the church before Mass. Clearly, she had some mental or emotional struggles, and so we prayed for her. Every time I say a Hail Mary for someone who seems so different from me, it helps me to remember that they, too, are a child of God. And my first duty is to love them. This September 11, let us ask for the grace never to lose sight of our shared humanity as we remember this day of infamy.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Counting Pills

Loving everyone in the Church like Jesus does

09/10/2023

Mt 18:15-20 Jesus said to his disciples: "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Sometimes I join my parents for breakfast on Friday mornings when I am in Springdale. My father has a funny little routine at the end of his morning meal. He has to take a potpourri of pills for various health issues. But before he takes them, he makes sure to count them carefully so he takes the right number. Of course, my mom, a retired nurse, has already carefully sorted them into the pill dispenser labelled for each day of the week.

There are 12 pills my father takes of all colors, shapes, and sizes. First he counts them by four’s and makes sure there are 3 sets of four. Then he counts them by six’s and thus there are two sets of six’s. And finally he counts them by two’s so there are naturally six pairs of pills. But every time it always equals 12 total pills, so he knows he’s taking the right number.

One morning while watching this almost religious routine, I remarked: “Hey, dad, your 12 pills are like the 12 apostles! I bet that really big one that is hard to swallow is Judas!” And my father answered: “Yes, probably so. But Jesus loved Judas too.” I thought, “Wow, dad, you are exactly right: Jesus loved Judas too.” My father was not preaching to the choir, he was preaching to the preacher! It was a lesson I needed to hear, and I think we all do.

In the gospel today, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to love each other, even how to love Judas, as he did, and even chose him as an apostle. He tells them how to correct each other, called fraternal correction; how to pray for things in common; and finally how to gather in Jesus’ name for worship, called the Eucharist. Jesus concludes: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

Just like my father gathers his pills together in small groups, but loves them all (even the Judas pill), so Jesus loves each of us when we gather together in his name and celebrate the Eucharist. You see, all of Matthew chapter 18 is about the Church, and how we are called to live in a society of potential saints while still being sinners. And the advice Jesus gave 2,000 years ago is urgently needed today. Let me give you an example.

Last week I had a zoom call with a couple currently living in Belgium. The girl is from Fort Smith, but the boy is from Belgium, and they had lots of questions about Catholicism. Specifically, they wondered why the Church in Belgium seemed so liberal while the Church in Fort Smith seemed so conservative. We talked through several issues but my main advice was to check the Catechism of the Catholic Church, whenever they had a doubt or question.

That book is the benchmark for what Catholics believe, regardless of their country or culture. That is, Arkansans might think the Judas pill is the Church in Belgium (too progressive), whereas they might think the Judas pill is the Church in Arkansas (too traditional). But we have to love everyone in the Church, and swallow the Judas pill just like Jesus did and just like my dad does, too.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I worry about the Church and what is going on inside the Church, and who I think are the enemies outside trying to destroy the Church. When I do, I reread a passage from Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. It is a rather lengthy excerpt, but I think it will bring you a great deal of peace, like it does to me.

Lewis wrote: “Compared with the development of man on this planet, the diffusion of Christianity over the human race seems to go like a flash of lightning, for two thousand years is almost nothing in the history of the universe. (Never forget that we are all still ‘early Christians.’ The present wicked and wasteful divisions between us are, let us hope, a disease of infancy: we are still teething.” By the way, I love that image of a baby teething with its chew toy. Even in 2023, Christianity has only just begun to blossom.

Lewis continues, and this is the relevant part for us: “The outer world, no doubt, thinks just the opposite. It thinks we are dying of old age. But it has thought that very often before. Again and again, it has thought Christianity was dying, dying by persecutions from without and corruption from within, by the rise of Mohammedanism, the rise of the physical sciences, the rise of great anti-Christian revolutionary movements.” He is thinking here of Nazism and Communism.

“But every time the world has been disappointed. Its first disappointment was over the crucifixion. The Man [Jesus] came to life again. In a sense, that has been happening ever since. They keep on killing the thing [the Church] that he started: and each time, just as they are patting down the earth on its grave, they suddenly hear that is still alive and broken out in some new place” (pp. 221-22).

In other words, Jesus promised in Mt 16:18, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it.” And that was not an empty promise: Jesus will protect and provide for his Church because the Church is really his Bride.

And if you are still worried about the proliferation of Judas pills in the Church, remember what Pope St. John XXIII did. Every night after doing all he could for the Church, he prayed: “Lord, this is your Church. I am going to bed.” And then the pope got up the next morning and counted his pills.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Easy on the Eyes

Seeing who has authority to change the liturgy

09/09/2023

Lk 6:1-5 While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath, his disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?" Jesus said to them in reply, "Have you not read what David did when he and those who were with him were hungry? How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions?" Then he said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the sabbath."

On Fridays I go to visit my parents who now reside in Springdale. In the past two weeks I have read to my father from an online periodical called The Pillar, which gives in-depth news and analysis on the Catholic Church. The news lately has been about our home state of Kerala, India, and specifically about our home church called the Syro-Malabar Church, founded by St. Thomas the Apostle. Yeah, that St. Thomas. So Catholicism has been in India for 2,000 years.

The Pillar has published several articles covering a dispute in Kerala that has been brewing for months and years over which way the priest should face at Mass. Things have gotten so bad, people have protested in the streets, burned images of the cardinal in effigy, and the cathedral church has to be closed for everyone’s safety.

At root what is at issue is that for over 50 years the priest has faced the people during the whole Mass. But since 2021 the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malabar Church decided that all 35 dioceses in that church will have the priest facing the people at the beginning and end of Mass, but during the middle of Mass, the priest would face east, or away from the people. This half-and-half arrangement is what the bishops want.

But the priests and people want the priest to face the people throughout the whole Mass. How would you feel about which way the priest faces? Well, if your priest was as handsome as Fr. Mike Schmitz, you may demand he faces the people the whole Mass. He is easy on the eyes. But if he’s an old bald priest like me, you might think, yeah, it’s probably a good idea he faces east instead.

On the one hand we might feel, what’s the big deal? But on the other hand, we might think, hey don’t monkey with the Mass. Remember how hard it was for us back in 2011 when we started saying, “And with your spirit” instead of “And also with you” when the priest said, “The Lord be with you”? And we still can’t figure out if we should stand, sit, or kneel after we receive Holy Communion.

In my mind the bone of contention has to do with who has authority over the liturgy to make changes. In the Catholic Church that authority has been given by Jesus to Peter and the apostles, and to their successors, the pope and the bishops. In fact, Pope Francis sent a papal delegate, Archbishop Vasil, to settle the dispute and encourage the priests and people to obey the change instituted by the bishops. But the priests and people did not budge. And the papal delegate returned to Rome empty-handed.

In the gospel today we see something similar: who has authority over the liturgy? Jesus allows his disciples to pick grain and eat it on the Sabbath, which was forbidden by Pharisaic law. But Jesus replies, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” And by “Sabbath” Jesus did not just mean Saturday, but everything you should or should not do on Saturday, including divine worship, or the liturgy.

And when Jesus instituted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on Holy Thursday, he gave the charge of how to celebrate Mass to the pope and bishops. So, what that means – if you can mentally connect the dots – when the Syro-Malabar priests and people defy their bishops (and Pope Francis), they are rejecting the ultimate authority of Christ. They are siding with the Pharisees in the gospel today.

My friends, may I ask your prayers for the Church in my home state of Kerala? Let us pray for the unity of the Church, and that this dispute does not end in division, like has happened too many times in the 2,000 year history of the Church. But we also need to pray for Pope Francis and the up-coming Synod on Synodality.

I worry that what is unfolding in Kerala might be a preview of coming attractions all over the world. Or maybe pray that all priests could be as handsome as Fr. Mike Schmitz, and then people would not care how we mess with the Mass. Because then the Mass would always be easy on the eyes.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Good Directions

Understanding how the Bible gives us directions

09/05/2023

Lk 4:31-37 Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!" Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, "What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out." And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

Have you heard the story of the late Dr. Billy Graham asking for directions? Dr. Graham himself tells the story early in his ministry when he arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Waiting to mail a letter in those days, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you will come to church tonight, I will tell you how you can get to heaven.”

The little boy thought about it for a moment and answered: “No, thank you, sir. I don’t think I will be there.” Dr. Graham asked, “Wouldn’t you like to know how to get to heaven?” The boy replied, “Oh, yes, but you don’t even know how to get to the post office!” The little boy doubted the good doctor would give him good directions.

When you start studying the Bible you can doubt whether the Word of God gives very good directions, too. When I was preparing my Bible study on the Acts of the Apostles, the Bible gave directions that totally confused me. I would read, for instance, “the apostles went up to Jerusalem,” or “the apostles went down to Samaria.” And in each instance I thought up and down meant going north or south, like on a map.

What I discovered, though, was that up and down meant literally going up (or ascending) and down (or descending) from Jerusalem, which sits on a mountain roughly 2,500 feet above sea level. Sometimes the directions the Bible gives are as confusing as those of Dr. Graham, at least like the little boy thought.

I mention this today because our gospel this morning begins with more bewildering biblical directions. We read in Lk 4:31, “Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee.” Now, if you recall, Jesus had just been in Nazareth earlier in Lk 4, which is located south of Capernaum. And so when Jesus “went down to Capernaum” he really went “north to Capernaum.” See how confusing that can be?

In other words, going up or down in the Bible has nothing to do with going north or south, but rather with going up to Jerusalem or going down and away from Jerusalem. Directions in the Bible are more theological than topographical. They indicate movement closer to or farther away from the Holy City of Jerusalem, and therefore, closer to or farther away from God. The directions the Bible gives will not get you to the post office, but they will help you get to heaven, which is the new Jerusalem.

My friends, we are all going somewhere – many of us are running headlong somewhere. And sooner or later we all need to stop and ask for directions. Most of the time we don’t worry about directions to heaven because we just want to get to the post office. When I go to visit my parents on Fridays, they will ask me to help them fix something.

Maybe they’ll ask for help with their computer, and I answer: “Sorry, mom and dad, I don’t know anything about technology, but Paul (my brother) can help you.” Or they might ask me about some plumbing issue or landscaping need, or how to refinance their home. I answer, “Sorry, mom and dad, I don’t know anything about that, but Paul can help you.”

And sometimes I wonder: Why don’t people ask me something about the Bible? I might actually know the answer to that question!” But most of the time we just want to know how to get to the post office and we’re not really worried about how to get to heaven. And that’s okay, because getting to the post office is important too.

But some day you may worry about getting to heaven, and then you can come talk to me. As Galileo famously said: “The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” And when the Bible talks about going to heaven, we find the phrase, “they went up to Jerusalem.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

World of Work

Learning to balance work and life

09/04/2023

Lk 4:16-30 Jesus 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. They also asked, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb, 'Physician, cure yourself,' and say, 'Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'" When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

I would like to say a word about the gospel, as well as Labor Day, since that is what we are celebrating today in the United States. What struck me in the gospel is both the joy with which the people receive Jesus, and then very shortly thereafter, the rejection they hand him. And I think this is typical for anyone who wants to take their faith in Jesus seriously, and walk closely with him.

There will be times when the world will sing your praises, and then there will be times the world is ready to crucify you. This passage that beautifully juxtaposes the acceptance and rejection of the Lord has something to offer us in our walk with him. When the acceptance and rejection come, don’t be surprised. I told you so.

Now a word about Labor Day. I think my dog Apollo is a very good example of Labor Day because he does not work for free. Whenever I ask him to do a trick, he sits and looks at me until I show him I have a treat to reward him with, and then he does the trick. No treat, no trick. My dog is a very good capitalist, he does not work for free. He expects a salary.

One good way to prepare your heart and mind for Labor Day is to read the encyclical by Pope St. John Paul II Laborem Exercens. It was written in 1981 and would be a good way to spend some time today on Labor Day to understand the meaning of human labor. The document in English is called On Human Labor. It is a very long encyclical and he has lots of insightful things to say, but I want to just point out two things that struck me.

First, he says that when we work, we work as human beings created in the image and likeness of God. Since we are created in God’s image and likeness, everything we do should be done as reflections of God. And he adds that this distinguishes us from the animals, with all due respect to Apollo.

When beavers build a dam, when bees make honey in a hive, they do not work like when you and I go to work. Why is what they do so different from what we do? Because we are created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore when we toil and labor, we do something radically different than what the animals do. Our work contributes not only to making our society a better place to live, but it makes us more in the image and likeness of God.

There is a beautiful passage in John 5:17, where Jesus says, “The Father is at work until now, and I am at work.” Jesus, the perfect image and likeness of God because he is the very Son of God, works. And that makes him God-like, like the eternal Father. When we work and do honest labor, we become more God-like, too. And that is very different from the animals who work.

The second point he made is that he said that work is for man and man is not for work. In other words, work is something that helps us to become more human. Work is for us, we are not made for work, just as if we were this slave labor. And so there has to be a dignity in work. You should not take advantage of your workers. You must pay them a just wage, a family wage.

And ultimately work is secondary in life. It is not what we should be living for. I discovered this in a beautiful way when I came to Fort Smith. I spent 9 years in Fayetteville and Springdale, and enjoyed my time there very much. The last ten years I have been in Fort Smith. Sometimes people ask me, “Fr. John, how do you like living in Fort Smith?” I always reply by saying, “I love it very much.”

There is a kind of general distinction that I draw between northwest Arkansas and Fort Smith, which is probably an exaggeration with broad strokes. You can say the world in NWA is a white collar world by-in-large. Whereas here in Fort Smith, in the River Valley, we are a more blue collar community. And that reflects two different kinds of work that is done.

Up in NWA, which has wonderful people and I enjoyed my time there, but sometimes they live to work. They never stop working and that is symptomatic of white collar jobs. And when I was up there I did the same thing. You don’t just work 9-to-5, and then l leave. White collar jobs never clock out.

When you are home with your family, you are thinking about work. When you are on vacation you wonder how you’ll deal with a troublesome employee when you get back. How can we make profits exceed expenses? You never stop working when you have a white collar job. That’s why John Paul had to remind us: man is not made for work, work is for us.

And that is a difference in Fort Smith because we go to work, but we clock in and then we clock out. When we go home, we don’t think about work anymore. We think about our family, and care less about work. That is blue collar life. In addition there is time and joy in going to church. There is life outside of work. Again, that’s what the pope meant when we said, work is made for man, and not man for work.

Today on Labor Day we give God thanks for the gift of work and labor, honest effort. But let us not exaggerate it. Because ultimately, work is only here to help us become more like the Father.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

 

Wooing the World

Learning how to love God and being loved by him

09/03/2023

Jer 20:7-9 You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day. I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Whenever I prepare couples for marriage I like to ask them how the young man proposed to the young lady. Last week I heard a rather humorous proposal story. The young man works at ABF, at the new building on McClure. There is a small, scenic amphitheater on the same hill that his office building sits on, and he decided that would be the site where his destiny would be determined by her answer.

So, he told his girlfriend that there was an ABF office party one evening and he was required to attend. He wanted her to come along as his guest. By the way, here was no such office party. As they approached ABF, he said, “Hey, let me show you this beautiful little amphitheater over here.” She begrudgingly accepted after arguing, “Honey, it is 105 degree out here! And I am melting!” But he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

They arrived at the amphitheater, and with the sun setting in the west, their faces glistening with sweat, he got down on one knee, pulled out a stunning diamond ring from his pocket, and asked her to marry him. She answered, “Sure! Now, let’s get back inside!” I love to hear how guys take so much time and planning, use their energy and creativity to make just the right proposal. Would that husbands did that every time they interacted with their wives!

Today’s first reading from Jeremiah is one of my favorite Old Testament Scriptures. Why? Well, in a sense, Jeremiah is also reminiscing about his falling in love with God, and being wooed by the Almighty, and finally committing his life to his service. Jeremiah says: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” Maybe there are a few wives who look back to the day their husbands proposed and felt the same way: “You duped me into marrying you!”

But a few verses later, Jeremiah adds some of the most touching verses in the entire Bible: “I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak his name no more. But then it becomes like a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in.” You know, when spouses truly love each other, may feel like they were duped into love and marriage, but they also feel like they had no choice. Their love was too strong to resist.

I often think that must be how God feels about us: somehow he duped himself into loving humanity – you and me – and now he cannot stop loving us. God says: “You duped me, Fr. John, and I let myself be duped into loving you!” You see, in the end love conquers all, it even conquers God, because God is love. In other words, it is good to be duped by true love.

I am convinced that during our whole lives God is not trying to woo us, like he wooed Jeremiah, and trying to get us to fall in love with him, and love him so much, we want to marry him, and commit our lives to him completely. A couple of weeks ago before school started, I gave the I.C. School teachers a reflection about the true identity of Catholic schools. I said one of the hallmarks of Catholic schools is evangelization, converting people to Christ. In other words, education is the bait on the hook we use to catch fish and haul them into the boat of the Catholic Church, called the Bark of St. Peter.

But the reason the Catholic Church ultimately engages in the education of children is not just to teach the A-B-C’s, or the 1-2-3’s, but to teach people about Jesus and the Catholic faith. That is really the reason why the Catholic Church runs orphanages, and soup kitchens, and hospitals, and homeless shelters. We don’t just want to heal the body or merely educate the mind, but to save the soul.

Our ultimate aim is to make the whole world Catholic, and we use all kinds of bait to catch the fish, like that young man fooled his girlfriend with the fib of a work dinner party to get her to the amphitheater. We want the whole world to finally declare: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped!” You see, at the end of time, that is what the whole world will say, because loving the Lord and being loved by him is all that will finally matter.

Folks, what are some of the ways God has gotten your attention, wooing you, and maybe even duping you into falling in love with him? Often, the beauty of nature raises our minds and hearts to God and we fall in love with our Creator. The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

Maybe it is the birth of a child, and later grandchildren, who bring us back to God. How many parents come back to Mass seeing how excited their second grader gets to receive Holy Communion. Sometimes God has to use stronger medicine to heal the cancer of self-sufficiency, thinking we don’t need God: a divorce, a lost job, a cancer diagnosis, the death of a loved one. Sometimes the bodily illness is the cure for what really afflicts us in our spirit. The disease heals.

Last week on August 28, we celebrated the feast of St. Augustine, who summarized this divine wooing of humanity with two powerful sayings. You have probably heard these before, but they are worth repeating. First he said: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” And secondly, he wrote: “Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new. Late have I loved Thee.”

I believe we all figure out rather late in the game that the real meaning of life is all about falling in love with God, because he has first fallen in love with us. He dupes us into loving him, because in a sense, he has already been duped by us. I love to hear the stories of how young men propose, because it reminds me that is exactly what God is doing with us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!