A Dog Story

Understanding how only Jesus can promise us eternal life

11/26/2024

LK 21:5-11 While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?” He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them! When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”

Since I became a dog person I noticed everyone likes to tell stories about their dog. But sooner or later everyone tells a dog story that they deeply wish they did not have to share, namely, when they put their dog to sleep. It is heart-breaking. So after hearing enough of these sad stories, Apollo and I have decided that he is not going to grow old and one day be put to sleep.

We were going for a walk one day – actually, he was taking me for a walk – and I said to him, “Hey, Apollo, let’s make a deal. How about you always stay young, and healthy, and handsome?” And he looked back at me and barked: “Deal!” So I have now placed a large portrait of Apollo in the basement and that picture is daily growing older while the Apollo that you and I see remains youthful and vivacious. That’s a not-so-subtle reference to Oscar Wilde’s classic book “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

But both Apollo and I realize that such deals are only wishful thinking. Like that old saying goes: “The only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes.” In other words, everyone dies, indeed, everything eventually ends. If you prefer a philosophical description of how everything ends, rather than the literary one by Oscar Wilde, I highly recommend you read the rather dense but brilliant book by Etienne Gilson called “The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy.”

Listen carefully to what Gilson wrote: “This created universe, of which St. Augustine said that it unceasingly leans over towards the abyss of nothingness, is saved at each moment from collapse into nothingness by the continuous giving of being which, of itself, it could neither give nor preserve” (pp. 71-72).

That is, the only One who never ends is God. And it is because he holds us in his hands and makes possible our next breath that we continue to exist. Put differently, God is the only One who can say to us, “Let’s make a deal and say that you will never die.” There really is a portrait of us that stays young and vivacious forever, and that is the face of Jesus Christ. And one day, we will look like him.

In the gospel today the apostles are admiring the adornments of the Jerusalem Temple, a little like I admire Apollo. But Jesus warns them that one day the great and mighty Jerusalem Temple will lie in ruins, like people share their stories about putting their dog to sleep. By the way, I apologize for comparing the Jerusalem Temple to my dog Apollo, but that’s the only analogy I could think of at 4:30 in the morning! But the Greek god Apollo had his own temple at Delphi, so maybe the comparison is not entirely unwarranted.

But then Jesus adds that some will come saying they will save them from calamity. He states: “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them.” In a sense, Jesus is saying that all things eventually end. But there is only One who exists eternally, namely, God, and Jesus his eternal Son.

In other words, like Etienne Gilson said, Jesus is the one who “saves us from collapse into nothingness by the continuous giving of being." And like Oscar Wilde suggested: the face of Jesus is the portrait of us that never wrinkles, or ages, or dies. No one else can offer us a deal like that.

My friends we are fast approaching the end of another calendar year of the Catholic Church. As you know, the Church year begins on the first Sunday of Advent, and ends at the end of the 34th week in Ordinary Time. We are currently at Tuesday of the 34th week in Ordinary.

The reason for this repetitious cycle of years is to remind us that even time itself will one day come to an end. The clock of the cosmos will stop ticking, just like the Jerusalem Temple, and Apollo, and you, and me. Like the viral program, Mr. Smith, said to Neo in the movie “Matrix,” “The end is inevitable, Mr. Anderson.”

But even as the clock of the liturgical calendar winds down – and you and I do too – Jesus comes to make us a deal, namely, the deal that we live forever. Many others may come to offer us that deal, saying, “I am he!” but we should not follow them. Why not? Because Jesus is the only One who can save us at each moment from collapse into nothingness by the continuous giving of a being (called grace) which of ourselves we can neither give nor preserve.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Two Catherines

Honoring a saint and my goddaughter

11/25/2024

Matthew 10:28-33 Jesus said to his Apostles: "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."

I am the godfather to many children who are now grown adults. And today, the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria, is the patronal feasts of one of them, namely, Catherine Hartnedy, now married to handsome Mr. Regin Reginio. Today I want to give a brief homiletic shout-out to my goddaughter Catherine and her patroness, St. Catherine.

Catherine (my goddaughter) was married on October 5 at St. Edward’s Church in Little Rock. And as usual, I missed it because I had a wedding here in Fort Smith. Even though I cannot always be present in the lives of my godchildren, their patron saints are never absent, and their powerful presence is of no small consequence.

St. Catherine lived from 287 to 305 in Alexandria, Egypt. At the tender age of only 18 she gladly gave her life for Christ, being martyred at the hands of Emperor Maxentius. She was so astute intellectually that she became a brilliant scholar and converted to Christianity at the age of 14. She subsequently converted hundreds of other people to Christianity by her learning and life. Indeed, over 1,000 years later St. Joan of Arc would look to St. Catherine as her model for behavior as a Christian woman.

Now, some of the stories surrounding the brief life of St. Catherine start to sound like the stuff of legend. But as my church history professor told us in seminary many times: “If it isn’t true, it should be.” For example, when Emperor Maxentius began to persecute Christians, intrepid Catherine went to rebuke the emperor for his cruelty. That was not the first or last time a courageous Catholic woman would go toe-to-toe with a tyrant. Sometimes that happens in our own homes.

The hapless emperor then threw Catherine into prison and sent 50 of his sharpest philosophers and theologians to engage the saintly teenager in debate. But she bested all of them with her beauty and her brilliance. As a matter of fact, several of her interlocutors were so moved by her arguments that they converted to Christianity and were promptly put to death.

By the way, my goddaughter Catherine was one of Ben Keatings best friends in Little Rock. They both belonged to a group of intensely committed Catholics who wanted to learn and live their faith more robustly. I have no doubt Catherine was very influential in Ben’s decision to pursue the priesthood. Both Catherines used their beauty and their brilliance to help men draw closer to Christ.

Foiled at his attempts to ruin Catherine’s faith, the emperor next devised various tortures and used pain as his new argument against Catherine and Christianity. All to no avail. Finally, he used a spiked wheel to put Catherine to death. Incidentally, if you visit St. Edward’s Church in Little Rock, where my goddaughter was married last month, in the high back altar you will see a stunning statue of St. Catherine.

And can you guess what she is holding in both her hands? That’s right: the instrument of her martyrdom: a large, spiked wheel that is actually slightly broken where it crushed Catherine’s body. Even the wheel was ashamed of what it was called to do to Catherine’s innocent and virgin body.

In the gospel today Jesus teaches his disciples: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” And later our Lord adds: “Everyone who acknowledges me before others, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.” Those two sentences from the lips of our Savior perfectly summarize the life of St. Catherine.

She displayed a fearless faith even in the face of death, and she used her beauty and brilliance to bring other people closer to Christ. And I pray one day that will likewise be the legend surrounding my goddaughter Catherine Reginio. Because, you know, “if it isn’t true, it should be.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Duct Tape City

Understanding why Jesus cried over Jerusalem

11/21/2024

LK 19:41-44 As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace– but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

I was assigned as pastor of Immaculate Conception on December 1, 2013. And when I arrived I remember thinking, “Man, Fort Smith is like going back to 1985!” The buildings were older, and some were dilapidated; many people drove older cars some with duct tape in place of windows, and even some people’s clothes and hairstyles dated back to the 80’s. But over the last 11 years, I have learned that is not all bad. How so?

Well, the citizens of Fort Smith do not focus on the externals but on the internals, not on the superficial but on the supernatural, not on the material but on the immaterial or the spiritual. In a word, it is a city that has not lost its soul. That is, just like the human body is infused with a soul that we can either nourish or neglect, so too the body politic is endowed with a spiritual principle that we can either nourish or neglect.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean about this city held together with duct tape. Fort Smith had two Catholic high schools: St. Scholastica and St. Anne’s, but sadly both are closed. Still, it is shocking that such a small town could support two institutions of secondary education. We have three Catholic churches, and two Catholic elementary schools all within a one-mile radius.

We have a first-class Catholic hospital that continues to grow by leaps and bounds. And people are constantly relocating here as a peaceful place to raise their families. Why? Because 1985 was far more family-friendly than our present day and age. And here at I.C. we still have midnight Mass at midnight, and the church is packed. Those are some signs of a city with a soul.

The gospel today begins with this tragic line: “As Jesus drew near Jerusalem he saw the city and wept over it.” Why did our Lord weep? Well, in a sense, it was a city that had lost its soul. Remember how Jesus wept when Lazarus had died? His friend’s body had lost its soul at death, and so too the body politic of Jerusalem was soulless, and in that sense, lifeless.

And Jesus does not weep over trifles, but only when he see the greatest tragedies. Therefore, Jesus accuses it saying: “If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” In other words, Jerusalem, like many modern cities, was caught up in the external, the superficial, the material, and ignored the internal, the supernatural, and the spiritual.

The city no longer had spiritual eyes to see its Savior when he arrived to offer salvation. Like Dwayne Johnson, the Rock, said in the movie “Skyscraper,” “If you can’t fix it with duct tape, you’re not using enough duct tape.” A city held together by duct tape at least still has its soul.

As Christian, though, we know that no earthly city will save us, not even one still living in 1985. All cities, like the human body, have a life-span: birth, growth, decay, and death. In 1989 in his farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan described America as “the shining city on a hill.” Well, even this shining city will see its last day and like the 40th president also bid farewell to the world.

There is only one shining city that endures forever, and it is not found on a hill but in heaven, the eternal City, the new Jerusalem described in Rv 21:2. In the penultimate chapter, John wrote: “I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

In other words, that new Jerusalem is the shining city in which we should be eager to claim our citizenship, and seek to build up as an outpost on earth. In the meantime we should be pleased to live in a city held together with duct tape. Why? Because hopefully Jesus is not weeping over us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Drill Baby Drill

Exploring the meaning of being “a descendant of Abraham”

11/19/2024

LK 19:1-10 At that time Jesus came to Jericho and intended to pass through the town. Now a man there named Zacchaeus, who was a thief tax collector and also a wealthy man, was seeking to see who Jesus was; but he could not see him because of the crowd, for he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” And he came down quickly and received him with joy. When they saw this, they began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

Jesus pays Zacchaeus a great compliment in today’s gospel – calling him “a descendant of Abraham” – that I would like to drill down into a little further. As our friends in the oil and gas industry like to say, “Drill, baby, drill!” But first we should note that Zacchaeus is not only a wealthy tax-collector, he is a greedy man, or as the crowd said, “a sinner.”

That was the ostensible reputation of tax-collectors: greedy Jews who worked for the occupying Romans. But when diminutive Zacchaeus meets Jesus, he has a profound conversion. That is, he exchanges his greed for generosity, adjuring to Jesus: “Behold half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over.”

In other words, Zacchaeus understands that following Jesus is his greatest treasure, and his worldly wealth suddenly didn’t seem so important to him. As St. Paul puts it in Phil 3:7, “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ.” A couple of verses later, he would call it "rubbish."

Seeing Zacchaeus sincerity, Jesus says to him, “Today salvation has come to this house because this man, too, is a descendant of Abraham.” In other words, Jesus declares that what it takes to be a true “descendant of Abraham” is to have the faith of Abraham, which ultimately means to have faith in Jesus.

You see, the true Jew is not one who stubbornly follows his ancestors’ traditions, and stays staunchly Jewish. But rather he sees that his ancestors, especially Abraham, were awaiting the Messiah, and the Messiah had come in Jesus. The best Jew, therefore, becomes a Christian.

A few weeks ago I visited a family for dinner and they asked me if I had watched the series called “The Chosen.” And I said “no.” If everyone is watching it, then I’m not. So they invited me to watch a clip of a scene where Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth. As we know, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah, and then dramatically declares: “Today this passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

The rabbi of the synagogue takes offense and asks indignantly: “Do you mean to say you are greater than the law of Moses?” Jesus stares at him steadily, and answers coolly: “I am the law of Moses.” In other words, the time has come to stop being a Jew and to start being a Christian. Why?

Because faith in Christ is precisely what the Jewish patriarchs like Abraham and Moses were pointing to. That fullness of Abrahamic faith is what Jesus meant when he called Zacchaeus “a descendant of Abraham.” Our Lord did not mean Zacchaeus was a good Jew; he meant he was a good Christian.

St. Paul will pick up on this point in his combative letter to the Galatians. In the third verse from the end, Gal 6:16, Paul writes: “Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule [being a Christian], and to the Israel of God.” Did you catch that curious connection? The Apostle to the Gentiles argues that the Church is the true Israel, and therefore, the old Israel is obsolete. The authentic Israeli, therefore, is the Christian.

Let’s drill a little further. Have you heard the Old Testament referred to as “The Hebrew Scriptures”? Modern Scripture scholars who use that title feel that the name “The Old Testament” sounds pejorative, as if those forty-six books were second class and somehow inferior to the New Testament.

But that is exactly the correct reading of the whole Bible. How so? Well, the old has prepared the way for the new and now the Old Testament stands waiting upon the New Testament, like a handmaid waiting upon her queen. That is what Jesus meant when he called Zacchaeus "a descendant of Abraham", and when he declared defiantly, “I am the law of Moses.”

Here is one last drill bit, another way to illustrate this crucial point. Have you heard of the Crusades? They were military expeditions launched from Christian countries in Europe to win back the Holy Land. Incidentally, I attended the University of Dallas, and we were called the Crusaders. Anyway, from 1095 t0 1291, a series of crusades were undertaken to wrest control of the Holy Land back from the Muslims who had over run it.

Why did we do that? Because we believed that the Holy Land of Israel really belonged to the Christians, just like we believe the Old Testament really belongs to the Christians, and we believe the title “Israel” really belongs to the Christians, and we believe being “a descendant of Abraham” really belongs to the Christians. I am not suggesting we put on armor, strap on our swords, mount our steeds and fight the Crusades all over again. I just hope we can appreciate why the medieval Christians did.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Sky Is Falling

Preparing for the end of the world in different ways

11/17/2024

Mk 13:24-32 Jesus said to his disciples: "In those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. "And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the gates.  Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Have you heard the story about Chicken Little? It originated as a European folktale about the adventure of a little chicken. In Europe he's called Henny Penny, but we Americans like to call him "Chicken Little." One day, an acorn fell on Chicken Little's head, and he mistakenly believed that the sky was falling, that the world was about to come to an end.

He decided he must warn the king, and headed off for the royal palace. Along the way, he shouts, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Now, various animals join his crusade with funny names: Cocky Locky, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, and Ducky Lucky. And a very handsome dog named Apollo Wallo.

Before they reach the king, though, they meet sinister Foxy Loxy. He listens to their story, and invites them to his lair to discuss matters further. But when they enter his house, Foxy Loxy tries to kill the animals. But brave Apollo Wallo saves them and shuts Foxy Loxy in his own lair. I just made up that ending.

In the real story the fox eats the other animals. The point of this parable is to highlight how gullible people can be believing stories like "the sky is falling.” Gullible people are quick to jump on the bandwagon of the parade of poultry.

In the gospel today Jesus sounds a lot like Chicken Little shouting “the sky is falling,” when he says: "The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken." But then he also adds this crucial caveat: "But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

In other words, Jesus is predicting the sky will fall one day, but we do not know when. So, his point is always be prepared. In a sense, always live like the sky is falling so will always be ready when it does. Chicken Little was right but for the wrong reasons.

May I draw three practical take-aways from this gospel passage bout the sky is falling? First, we heard a lot of rhetoric during the recent presidential election about how the two candidates represented "an existential threat to democracy." Essentially, each party acted like Chicken Little warning that if the other candidate won, he or she would usher in the end of American civilization. But one candidate has won, and we are all still here. If the other candidate had won, we would still be here.

My friends, our great nation will indeed come to an end, but not by the 2024 election. I will never forget that scene in the movie Top Gun: Maverick, when the Real Admiral warns Maverick: "The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction." Maverick turns and agrees: "Maybe so sir. But not today." So, too, the end is inevitable and one day our country will be extinct. But not today. In other words, don’t be so gullible and jump on the bandwagon of the poultry parade.

A second application of how the sky is falling touches each person individually. That is, one day our own personal world will end when we die. Someday Fr. John Antony's "sky will fall" and I will no longer see the sky, but will be laid "six feet under, pushing up daisies." But we sometimes pretend that we will live forever and never die. But that earthly immortality is an illusion, and a dangerous illusion.

On the other hand, the Church, a little like Chicken Little, urges us to pray for a happy death, that is, to die in the state of grace. In the past two weeks I've presided at the funerals of Dc. Bill Curry, Roger Wallace, and Lori Cravens. This coming week we will have the funerals for Rosemary Reith and Terry Upchurch. They all died a happy death when their sky fell, and we should pray for the same, because some day our sky will fall, too. So, just call me Chicken Little.

And the third application is to remember there is one place the sky will never fall, namely, the Church, which St. Augustine called "The City of God,” where the Son, Jesus, is always shining in the sky. One of my favorite Bible verses is Hb 13:14, which states, "Here we have no lasting city." That verse refers to all the earthly cities that we live in: Fort Smith, Van Buren, Muldrow, Pocola, etc. But that verse also implies that there is another city that will last forever, namely, the Kingdom of God, the Church.

But there is no shortage of Chicken Littles today claiming that the Church is doomed. I haven't seen it, but the recent movie called "Conclave" about the election of a pope by corrupt cardinals making the Church appear nothing more than a corporate boardroom where shady deals occur. But the reality is very different.

Jesus promised in Mt 16:18 that he would build his Church on the rock of St. Peter and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it, no matter what Chicken Little, or Hollywood says. That is why we belong to the Catholic Church: it is the one city where the sky will never fall. There's an old saying that "there are only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes."

But I would suggest that there is a third thing, namely, that Christ's Church will endure forever. My friends, make your citizenship in that Eternal City permanent. Then you can relax and no jump on the bandwagon when you see the poultry parade of Chicken Little, Cocky Locky, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey. Why? Because our sky is not falling, and it never will.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Disaster of Democracy

Seeing how the minority see through the eyes of faith

11/18/2024

LK 18:35-43 As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!” Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.

I have never been a fan of going with the crowd, or doing whatever the majority of my friends were doing. In fact, I think that was one major factor in my decision to pursue the priesthood. No one else was doing it! And when I was ordained back in 1996, I was the only one ordained that year. I got all the glory!

I sometimes wonder if I would have been as excited about going into seminary today when we have an abundance of young men discerning the call. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, and maybe even counter-cultural here in the U.S. where the majority picks the president, but I have always harbored a healthy suspicion of the majority report, and prefer to throw my lot in with the minority.

In the gospel today something similar occurs. The crowd does not see while the one blind man can see. When a blind man hears Jesus is passing by he begins to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” How did the crowd (the majority) react to the blind man’s prayer? We read: “The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent.”

Can you catch the irony of this scene? The blind man is the only one who sees clearly who Jesus is, while the crowd with supposedly 20/20 vision is completely blind to our Lord’s true identity. The minority report got it right, not the majority report.

I’ll never forget how Archbishop Fulton Sheen argued that God always works through the minority and never the majority. And he gave two stunning examples. First, in Number 13, Moses sends 12 scouts to do a reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land to get the lay of the land.

10 scouts return with a very discouraging report, saying the Philistines are like giants and would crush the Israelites. But 2 scouts – Joshua and Caleb – assure the people that with God on their side they can conquer the land easily. The majority report was mistaken and the minority report was spot on.

Sheen’s second example was from 1968. Pope Paul VI had set up a commission of 12 cardinals to examine the question of contraception. You might remember the 60’s was the time of the sexual revolution, sparked in no small part by the dawn of the contraceptive pill. 10 of the cardinals said that in exceptional cases contraception would be morally licit. But 2 cardinals disagreed and insisted that contraception was immoral in all circumstances.

Pope Saint Paul VI went with the minority report and issues his landmark papal encyclical called “Humanae Vitae” (On Human Life) teaching that Catholics, indeed anyone, who uses contraception commits a morally illicit act. Incidentally, one of the archbishops who helped on that commission was Karol Woytila from Poland, who later became Pope St. John Paul II. I will give you one guess which way he voted.

And even if a majority of Catholics today regularly use contraceptives, that does not mean it is morally acceptable. In my reckoning, that is exactly what we should expect, namely, the majority more often gets it wrong than right. The Church would be a disaster if she were a democracy.

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule? It is named for Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian sociologist and economist. Put simply, in large crowds of people, the Pareto principle states that 20% of the people will accomplish 80% of the work. Just look at our parish. At Mass on any given Sunday roughly 20-30% of our registered parishioners come to Mass, while almost 80% stay home.

On the financial side, about 20% of the parishioners give 80% of all the donations that we receive. Once again, like in the gospel about the blind man, it is the minority who see with eyes of faith who Jesus is and what it entails to follow him. The majority is simply stumbling along in the dark. Or as Jesus predicted in Mt 15:14, “If a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall in the ditch.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Need for Speed

Letting the liturgy teach us how to wait for Christmas

11/14/2024

LK 17:20-25  Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” Then he said to his disciples, “The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’ Do not go off, do not run in pursuit. For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”

Have you noticed that we have entered into a time of waiting and anticipation? It seems every year the Christmas shopping season creeps up earlier and earlier. "Black Friday” – the day after Thanksgiving – used to be the official start of the Christmas season. But already we see Christmas shopping commercials, people have decorated their homes with Christmas lights, and Mr. and Mrs. Santa have already bought and hidden presents.

But I believe the reason the season of waiting creeps up earlier and earlier is because we are a culture that doesn’t like to wait. We want instant gratification. The sooner the better, we say. Like Tom Cruise said in the movie “Top Gun” – “I feel the need, the need for speed.”

In the gospel today, Jesus instructs his disciples about the need (not for speed, but) to wait patiently and anticipate the coming of the Kingdom of God. But the Lord also teaches them that the coming of the Kingdom will not be flashy or awe-inspiring. Rather, it will be subtle, quiet, and in fact, the Kingdom was already in their midst.

So he says: “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” In other words, to notice the Kingdom requires the eyes of faith and a spirit of prayer. Only then will you see its presence and power.

One way we can effectively don these eyes of faith and enter more deeply into the spirit of prayer is to pay close attention to the lessons of the liturgy, or the Eucharist. In other words, the Scriptures and sacraments (especially Mass) are specifically geared to getting us ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

For example, we are in week 32 of 34 weeks until the end of the liturgical calendar. Just like there is a December 31 to mark the end of the secular calendar, so we have week 34 to mark the end of the liturgical calendar.

And if we pay close attention to the readings and prayers of the Mass in these final weeks of the year, you will hear notes of the end of the world and the coming of Christ's Kingdom. After all, Jesus said to Pilate, "My Kingdom is not of this world.' In other words, one way the liturgy helps us prepare for Christmas is to lift our eyes from this world to the next, because one day this world will end.

Another way the liturgy teaches us how to wait patiently and anticipate the coming of Christ and his Kingdom is by telling us it's not Christmas yet! As much as we hate to wait and like Cruise we "feel the need, the need for speed,” the Church’s liturgy invites us to cool our jets and hold our horses. How so? Well, we first immerse ourselves in Advent for 4 weeks before we celebrate Christmas.

In fact, the modern culture gets the Christmas season exactly wrong. First comes Advent for 4 weeks, and after December 25 we celebrate Christmas for several weeks. But modern Americans celebrate Christmas – with lights, parties and gifts – before December 25, and then take down everything festive on December 26. But December 26 is exactly when the Christmas seasons finally begins! But for most Americans that’s when the Christmas season ends.

My friends, can you see how much we need the liturgy to teach us, like Jesus taught his apostles, that the Kingdom of God is among us, but we cannot perceive its power and presence without eyes of faith and a profound spirit of prayer? There will indeed be people saying, “There it is!” or “Here it is!” just like people say today, “Look, it’s Christmas time!”

But they will be gravely mistaken. What our culture celebrates as “Christmas” is only the shell of the true season, just the external trappings and fineries but no spiritual soul or supernatural substance. It is a season that has lost its true spirit. And only the liturgy can help us remember the real reason for the season, namely, Jesus. He is the Kingdom of God in person.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

An explanation for why I decided to become a priest

11/13/2024

I want to share with you the reason I decided to become a priest. I like to joke it was because I could not find a beautiful Catholic girl to marry me and have ten children. But becoming a priest not only sounds radical, but even a little ridiculous. Why would any healthy, red-blooded, virile young man choose a life of celibacy,  church service, and a salary slightly above the poverty line?

In other words, I want to present what St. John Henry Newman titled his autobiography, an “apologia pro vita sua,” meaning a defense of one’s life.  Just like he took pains to justify his conversion from an Anglican to a Roman Catholic, so I want to take a minute to explain why I chose celibacy over marriage, poverty over affluence, taking orders instead of taking charge, in a word, the priesthood.

My final decision to be ordained happened in three major steps, each step marked by a blinding insight. I will present them as three Acts of a play. The first step or insight – or Act I – occurred when I was just seven years old, and it was a traumatic experience. Incidentally, I believe many people find their life purpose in some trauma, trial, or tribulation. Tragedy can pry open our eyes to our purpose in life.

When I was seven, my family left India and moved to the United States. That may sound like a dream-come-true for many immigrants, but not for me. I felt like overnight I had lost everything: my friends, my food, my music, my language, my neighborhood, in short, everything I loved as a little boy. It was “the end of the world as I knew it” to paraphrase the rock band, R.E.M.

But hidden within every trauma or tragedy lies a golden seed

of grace. And in my case this golden grace was the awareness that in the end we lose everything that we love, that is, when we die. Think about it: each one of you will experience what I did as a seven year-old at the moment of death – “the end of the world as we know it.” But there is one Thing we will never lose even after death, namely, God.

In other words, that childhood trauma taught me a profound truth – perhaps it is the most profound truth of all – that all things are passing and eventually expire. Nothing is self-sustaining forever. And there is only One who is always self-sustaining, that is, God. It is like that bumper-sticker I saw once that said, “There is a God, and you ain’t him.” Only One is eternal: everything else – and everyone else – has an expiration date.

Okay, so how did this insight about the Eternal versus the expiring help me choose the priesthood? In high school I began asking myself what I wanted to do when I grew up. Have you ever asked yourself that question? But even as a teenager, I noticed two surprising things. First, when I did something for others, I felt a deeper joy than when I received something for myself.

For instance, one Christmas while in eighth grade, I made straight A’s on my report card (no small miracle). I did not really care about grades, and I did that as a gift for my parents (who cared far more). I will never forget the beaming smiles on my parents’ faces, and I can still feel that joy today. That same Christmas I received a bike as a present. It was the fastest bike on the street so I named it “Flash”. I felt happy when I received that bike, too, but that happiness is long gone.

Now, even though both giving and receiving made me happy, the former (giving) was not only quantitatively better, it was qualitatively better. That is, giving caused not only more happiness; it produced happiness on another level, namely, enduring happiness. And I was far more interested in enduring happiness (indeed, Eternal happiness) than happiness with an expiration date.

Another low-hanging fruit of truth I picked in high school was that if “giving is more blessed than receiving” (Acts 20:35), then what was the best way to give, or to help others? I discovered that there are two ways to help people. You can give people food, shelter, and clothing and thereby care for their physical or material needs.

Or, you can provide for their spiritual needs, like helping them know God, teaching them how to read the Bible, praying for others, making sacrifices for them, etc. Now, let me ask you: which of these two needs lasts longer? Obviously, the spiritual needs far outweigh the material needs. And who takes care of those eternal needs? Bingo: priests do.

By the way, did you catch how I decided to become a priest? I was more interested in the Eternal than in the expiring. And priests deal with Eternity not with the earthly. You see, my heart and head had been pre-programed – traumatized back when I was 7! – to ask precisely these questions. My classmates, who had no such experiences, went about life as normal kids do, like most of you, chasing girls and guns and gold.

In other words, when I first heard God’s call when I was seven I discovered the difference between what is eternal and what expires. Years later I was able to take my first step toward the priesthood when I applied that insight to what I should do with my life. That is, God had called me to be a priest long before I even knew there was such things as priests. End of Act I.

***

My second step toward priesthood – Act II – came with a second blinding insight that may seem obvious at first, namely, seeking God’s will rather than our own will. Why is this second step so important? Well, think about how we make major life decisions: choose a career path, decide who to marry, pick where to raise a family, etc.

We usually try to figure out what we really want. And once I know what I want, end of story. What else is there? I tell young people who might be thinking about the priesthood: The worst question you can ask yourself is, “Do I want to be a priest?” Rather, ask yourself, “Does God want me to be a priest?” Can you hear the difference between those two questions?

How differently we might approach questions about marriage, career, where to raise a family if our first question was always: “Does God want me to marry this person, pursue this career, live in this community?” Hispanics use this great phrase that keeps God’s will primary and paramount, saying: “Primero Dios”, meaning, “God’s will first.” Or, as we say in the South: “God willing and the creek don’t rise.”

Even with a little thought, we can see how often God’s will and our wills clash and conflict. For example, God wants us to get up when the alarm rings the first time, but we want to be lazy and sleep in. God wants me to have only two olives in my martini, but I want to have three martinis. God wants us to go to Mass every Sunday, but we would rather watch football on Sundays. Yeah, my will and God’s will are not the same; they’re not even close.

C. S. Lewis dramatically described this stark contrast of wills in his book The Great Divorce. He wrote: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God: ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it.” By the way, maybe that is why a baby is born with clenched fists – clutching tightly to his own will – while an old man, after a life-time of learning to let go, dies with his hands open.

What does all this have to do with being a priest? A few years before ordination I attended a retreat in Braintree, Massachusetts given by priests of Opus Dei. One elderly priest, who only gave one brief talk, made a passing remark that I have never forgotten. He explained that during seminary formation a young man tries to hear God’s voice calling him. At best, though, he is only guessing. Maybe he’s only hearing his own voice in his head.

On the day of his ordination, however, he hears God’s voice with his own ears. How so? Well, the old priest said that the ordaining bishop solemnly states: “Relying on the help of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, we choose these, our brothers, for the Order of Priesthood.” In other words, when he uses that plural pronoun “we” (even though he’s a single man), he speaks not on his own behalf but as a successor of the Apostles. And the Apostles speak for Christ.

That is, a man is becoming a priest not because he thinks it’s a good idea, but because God thinks it’s a good idea. A young man has finally heard with his own ears what he had hoped and believed for years. God has chosen him for the “Order of Priesthood.” Primero Dios, indeed. From that marvelous moment onward, all doubts, fears, anxieties, uncertainties, insecurities, etc. are laid to rest in a priest’s heart because knows he is doing God’s will, and not his own will. End of Act II.

***

The third and last step of my discernment – Act III – came with the stunning insight called hindsight. Maybe you have heard the old adage “hindsight is twenty-twenty.” That is, after we go through an experience – say high school or college – and reflect back on it, we see with crystal clarity what we should have done at the time. I always wanted to play football in high school, but my parents said, “We don’t need any more medical bills.”

Stephen Covey, believed hindsight was one of his seven habits of highly effective people. He explained: “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you can better understand where you are now and so the steps you take are always in the right direction…if the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

In my third step I will take Covey’s ladder of life and lean it against two walls. That is, I will try to see myself as two different eighty year-old men. In one scenario, I will be a business man; in the other scenario, I will be a priest. After picturing myself as these two octogenarians, I will ask myself: “If you had the chance to live your life over again, John, is this is the way you would have lived it?”

Now, how will I know if my life ladder is leaning against the right 80-year-old wall? My heart will tell me. That is, either my eighty year-old heart will beat with peace and joy because I had lived my best life. Or, my heart will feel a twinge of regret or sadness because my life ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. I will wish I could live my life over and do something different. Think of Ebenezer Scrooge in the movie “A Christmas Carol.”

My first wall, therefore, will be Mr. John Antony the businessman. I picture a future Thanksgiving supper with my large family (10 kids!). Everyone saunters to the front yard after dinner to enjoy the evening. Meanwhile I sit on the front porch swing and I reach over to hold the hand of my wife of fifty years, Sandra Bullock. Hey, my wall, my bricks.

As Sandra and I swing slowly, I muse over my life. I recall how I changed college majors from philosophy to finance. I remember landing my first job in the corporate office of an international retailer. I climbed the company ladder and became CEO. I remember that blessed business trip to California and meeting Sandra at a restaurant.

Naturally, she fell head-over-heels in love with me. Images of marriage, children, vacations, new homes, graduations, walking daughters down the aisle, teaching grandchildren to fish, all flash before my eyes now moistening with tears. Then, suddenly I realize I am still swinging on the front porch with Sandra at my side.

Then I question my octogenarian self: “If you could live this life over again, John, is this what you would do?” And now I can feel in my heart what St. Augustine called “restlessness.” That is, in spite of how wonderful this life had been, I still feel sadness and regret. That is, I can tell the ladder of my life is leaning against the wrong wall.

Now I take my ladder and lean it against the wall of “Fr. John Antony”. Oh, why don’t we say “Monsignor”? Heck, why not “Bishop”? Let’s just make it “Archbishop”! My wall, my bricks. Now, I see myself as an 80-year-old archbishop serving as a chaplain for a monastery of Carmelite nuns. One warm afternoon I step outside to walk and pray the rosary, the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries.

But beautifully the rosary can also help me reflect on my own life. For example, I recall the luminous days of seminary studies full of philosophy and theology, studying saints and scholars of the past. I remember the joyful day of my ordination. And I affectionately recall the parishes I served, the babies I baptized, the couples I married, the first Communions I distributed.

How can I forget the sorrowful moments? Counseling struggling couples, comforting grieving families at a funeral, anointing the sick in the hospital or in hospice. And then of course, the glorious event of the call to become a bishop, a successor of the Apostles. St. Paul taught his protégé, St. Timothy: “This saying is sure: If anyone aspires to bishop, he desires a noble task” (1 Tm 3:1).

Then I ask this pious prelate: “If you had a chance to live your life over, John, is this the life you would choose?” Now if I have successfully slipped my feet into the shoes of this old archbishop, I can feel my heart responding with what St. Augustine called “rest”, that is, contentment, peace, joy rather than restlessness or regret. My life ladder is leaning against the right 80-year-old-wall.

I began this three Act play with the joke that I decided to become a priest because I could not find some beautiful girl to marry me and have ten kids. Well, in my imagination (and in my heart) I did meet a beautiful woman (Sandra Bullock), I married her, and we also had ten kids together. And what did I learn? I would still choose the priesthood. End of Act III.

Cracks in Christendom

Understanding Church history and our place in it

11/12/2024

John 17:20-26 Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: "Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them."

Have I ever shared with you Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s brilliant analysis of the 2,000 years of Church history? It summarizes and synthesizes the sprawling record of the Church’s life on earth so simply and elegantly I could never forget it. And I mention it today so we can better understand the life and ministry of St. Josaphat, the saint whose feast we celebrate today.

But more importantly, it may give us an insight into the work of the Holy Spirit in building up the Church, the Body of Christ for 2,000 years plus. But wait, there’s more! Once we see how the Holy Spirit worked in St. Josaphat at a particular juncture of our Christian family story, we can also perceive what the Holy Spirit is doing with each of us today.

Archbishop Sheen said that roughly every 500 years there was a major loss to the unity of the Church. First, though, imagine the Church having spread all over the world by the missionary zeal of the 12 apostles. For example, St. Thomas came all the way to my home country of India. St. Mark ventured into Africa. And St. Paul, according to Rm 15:24, had every intention to go to Spain.

In a true sense, the apostles’ evangelistic explosion fulfilled Jesus’ missionary mandate at the end of Matthew 28. And they lived Ps 19:4 to the core: ‘Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” By the year 100, when the last apostle died, therefore, Christianity had reached the four corners of the earth and stage of salvation history was set.

But then the devil set to work to undo the work of the Holy Spirit with the Bride of Christ. Like the poet John Donne wrote pointedly when he had marriage problems: “John Donne, Anne Done, Undone.” In the year 570 in the obscure dessert of Arabia Mohammed was born in Mecca.

His new religion would catch on like a California wildfire all across Africa and Arabia. And Christians were scorched by the conflagration and denied Christ in order to worship the god of Mohammed, Allah. If Rome is the center of Christendom, then the Christians to the south of Rome shattered the unity of the Church

By the year 1000 tensions between Rome and Constantinople to the East (modern-day Istanbul) had grown rife and to the breaking point. In the year 1054 the patriarch of Constantinople and the pope in Rome mutually excommunicated each other. And that break of the East gave birth to the Orthodox Churches. You may have seen bumper stickers with the three letters “OCA”. That stands for Orthodox Church of America, which came into existence in 104, when Christians to the east of Rome shattered the unity of Christ’s flock.

The year 1500 would see the arrival of the reformer Martin Luther, who launched the Protestant Reformation in Europe. Beginning in Germany, one European country after another started to question, to doubt, and then to reject the authority of the pope in Rome. That crack in unity led to a revision of understanding of Scriptures and sacraments are essential to salvation. And as you know, most of Europe lies to the north of Rome. And by the end of another 500 years, there was another crack in Christendom.

And at this 500 year juncture St. Josaphat arrives on the scene, born in 1580. He grew up in present day Ukraine and Poland, and his ardent desire was to repair the cracks in Christendom. Josaphat was convinced that Jesus’ desire was exactly expressed in the gospel we read from John 17.

Jesus prayed at the Last Supper: “Holy Father, I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you Father are in me and I in you…” In other words, unity is one of the hallmarks of the true Church, and it is incumbent on every Christian to maintain that oneness with the visible sign of unity, namely, the pope in Rome.

And so the ministry and martyrdom of St. Josaphat was to bring the Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Poland back to Rome, and become Roman Catholics faithful to St. Peter and his successors. This is how the Holy Spirit was working through St. Josaphat to repair the cracks in Christendom.

So what does all this mean for you and me today? Well, for one thing we also stand at another 500 year juncture of Church history in 2024. Could we be witnessing a large-scale defection of the West from Rome? Do you hear Catholics questioning the pope, doubting his leadership, and maybe even wanting to break away?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The best predictor of the future is often the past. Can you see how the pattern of 500 years is about to repeat itself? In other words, our work today is the same as Josaphat’s work in 1580, namely, maintain the unity of the Church under the headship of the pope in Rome.

An ancient Latin maxim perfectly summarized this Christian perspective, “Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia,” meaning, “Where there is Peter, there is the Church.” And the opposite is also chillingly true: “Where Peter is not, the Church is not.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

A Local Call

Learning to associate with the poor and lowly

11/10/2024

Mk 12:38-44 or 12:41-44 In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds, "Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext recite lengthy prayers.  They will receive a very severe condemnation." He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, "Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."

I want to share with you a little joke I came across last week. It goes: The very well-heeled Mr. Smythe was one to visit many a church, leaving a donation at each. One day, he stopped at this very posh parish, and noticed a gold telephone on the desk. When he asked what it was, he was told it was a direct line to heaven.

Mr Smythe was fascinated and asked if he could use the phone. He was informed that indeed he could, but this phone call would require a donation of $50,000. So, he wrote the check and called heaven. A week later, Mr. Smythe was in another town and stopped in to visit a very poor parish (like Immaculate Conception).

And he noticed another gold telephone there on the desk as well. He inquired if this was another line to heaven, and was told that indeed it was. Again, he asked if he could use it and was told he was welcome to do so. But the attendant asked if he could leave a donation of 50 cents. Mr. Smythe was shocked, said, “50 cents?!” When I used the same telephone at another church, it cost me 50 thousand dollars!” The man explained: “Yes sir, we know. But from here’s it’s a local call.”

In the gospel today Jesus also teaches how the poor have a direct line to God because they are very close to him. Our Lord notices and applauds the generosity of a poor widow who gives from her need (probably 50 cents) and contrasts her with the wealthy who give from their surplus (probably $50,000). Who do you think Jesus was closer to? In other words, her prayers to heaven would have been like using that 50 cent gold phone because she was very close to Jesus’ heart, which is what heaven is. The prayers of the poor are always “a local call.”

But let me add an important distinction here to avoid any over-simplification or misunderstanding. I do not believe Jesus is condemning wealth and championing poverty absolutely. He is not saying all Christians must be poor. Rather, he is cautioning against excessive attachment to worldly goods that stifles or squelches our desire for spiritual goods.

After all St. Paul taught his protégé Timothy, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” The great Apostle did not say “money itself is the root of all evil,” but rather, “the love of money is evil.” Excessive love of money can turn the American dream into a Christian’s nightmare. If we mainly love money, prayer will always feel like a long-distance call to heaven.

Here are some practical ways we can be detached from material things and more attached to spiritual things. I have a priest-friend who, when he receives a gift of some sort – socks, shoes, shirts, golf clubs, etc. – always gives away something similar that he already owns. That way, he never has to do spring cleaning because he’s spring cleaning all year long!

Have you ever watched the television show called “Hoarders”? The show features people who are compulsive and cannot stop buying things and then fill their homes to the point that they can barely live in them. My priest-friend lives modestly and makes local calls to heaven when he prays. Hoarders, on the other hand, cannot even find their phones because they’re buried under their belongings.

A second way to develop this detachment is to read Pope Francis’ newest encyclical called “Dilexit Nos,” meaning “He loved us.” The pope speaks movingly about how we can overcome materialism and consumerism by living at the level of the heart instead of the pocketbook. He shared this personal story: “For the carnival, when we were children my grandmother would make a pastry using a very thin batter.

“When she dropped the strips of batter into the oil, they would expand, but then, when we bit into them, they were empty inside. In the dialect we spoke, these cookies were called ‘lies’…My grandmother explained why: ‘Like lies, they look big, but are empty inside; they are false, unreal” (DN, 7). In other words, the poor – which the pope was growing up – worry more about what’s on the inside (the heart), than what’s on the outside (clothes, cars, and computers). And when your heart is rich – even if you are dirt poor – prayer feels like a local call to heaven.

And a third way to practice detachment is when you are dating. Don’t always fall in love with the guy with the flashy car, or the million dollar smile or the sexy abs. Or as Taylor Swift put it: “The fella over there with the hella good hair.” Instead, look for the guy with character, with a conscience, and with Christian faith. It’s doesn’t matter if he’s rich or poor; what matters is the heart.

I tell young couples that I prepare for marriage: “The worst thing that can happen to you on your wedding day is you marry a stranger.” That is why so many celebrity weddings crash and burn after a few years. They marry money. On the other hand, the best thing that can happen on your wedding day is you look at each other and say: “Honey, I know you’re not the knight in shining armor. But I still want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

In other words, the smart thing is to marry someone who is poor. Why? Because then you know someone is marrying you for your love, and not for your money. And what’s more: you’ll be marrying someone who can help you make a local call to heaven because they probably only have about 50 cents.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Third Surprise

Focusing on our own salvation not other people’s

11/05/2024

LK 14:15-24 One of those at table with Jesus said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready.’ But one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. The servant went and reported this to his master. Then the master of the house in a rage commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’ The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.’”

Everything this time of year reminds us that things are coming to an end: celebrations like Halloween and All Saints, the World Series, and of course the colder weather and the colorful fall leaves. So it should not surprise us that the liturgy – the Eucharist – also speaks about the end of the world. For instance, we are in Week 31 of a total of 34 weeks, after which we begin a new liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent. And so the Scripture readings today also subtly turn out attention to the end times.

One thing we learn today is that things will not turn out as we would expect. I will never forget how Archbishop Fulton Sheen said when we get to heaven, there will be three surprises: “First, there will be people there whom we did not expect to see. Second, there will not be people there whom we did expect to see. And third, the biggest surprise, is that we ourselves might be there. In other words, salvation is not a slam-dunk proposition, “one and done.” St. Paul urged the Philippians, “Work out your salvation in fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12).

I remember sharing Sheen’s three surprises at Mass one Sunday while pastor of St. Joseph in Fayetteville. One man came up to me after Mass, a good friend and devout Baptist, who took umbrage with Sheen’s three surprises in heaven. He said rather upset: “John – he didn’t call me Father – I completely disagree there will be three surprises in heaven. It is very easy to determine who will be saved and who will not. And I have total assurance of my own salvation.” I didn’t argue with him, and simply said, “I guess one day we will find out who is right: you or Sheen. But my money is on Sheen.”

In the gospel today Jesus seems to take the side of Fulton Sheen in describing who will make it to heaven. He tells the parable of a man who invites many to “a great dinner.” But one after the other of the invited guests makes excuses not to come. Finally the host says to this servants, “Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people one in that my home may be filled. For I tell you none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.” In other words, Jesus agrees about the first two surprises in heaven: those we expected will not be there, and those we did not expect will be there.

My friends, look around at this church for a moment and ask yourself: which people here will make it to heaven and which persons will not make it? If you ask me, I would say: “Those who come late and leave early from Mass won’t be in heaven!” Just kidding. And maybe you think: surely Fr. John, and priests, nuns, and monks will make it, but who knows about the hoi polio, the rank-and-file, pew potatoes, the ordinary Catholics?

But if you ever read Dante’s Divine Comedy, you will discover that hell is populated with not a few powerful Church prelates, and the heavenly hosts include numerous, humble and holy lay people, like Beatrice, a beautiful young girl. That is, heaven and hell will not be filled with “the usual suspects.”

Folks, today let me encourage you to not worry about the first and second surprises of heaven, who’s in and who’s out. Today, on election day, please refrain from demonizing the presidential candidates and suggesting that one will go to heaven and the other will not. Such judgments are way, way above our paygrade.

Instead, worry about the third surprise in heaven: that you might actually make it. There is no guarantee that you or I will get in. Remember what Jesus warned in Lk 12:48, “To whom much is given, more will be required.” And we Roman Catholics have been given so much: Mary, the saints, the fullness of the Scriptures, the graces of the sacraments, the rich tradition of prayer, the guidance of pope and bishops, inspiring nuns and monks, etc.

In other words, we are the ones who were sent the first class invitations to the Host’s great dinner in the gospel today, and we have no excuses to decline that generous offer. But when we do, that should certainly be a surprise.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Inviting Ourselves Over

Learning how to dine with the poor

11/04/2024

Lk 14:12-14 On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

After 28 years as a priest I don’t have many new experiences that I have not encountered before. But I did recently. I asked a parish family if I could come to their home for supper and to bless their house and just to spend some time together to get to know each other. I figured Jesus told Zacchaeus he was coming to his house for dinner so it was okay for me to invite myself over for supper too.

We had set the date several weeks in advance. But the morning of the dinner the mother texted me and said somewhat embarrassed: “Fr. John, I feel so bad to tell you this but can we reschedule dinner? My husband and I are in-between jobs and we feel we really cannot afford a nice meal for you tonight. When we get back on our feet financially, we will definitely have you over!”

Of course, you can imagine how I felt, about 2 inches tall for inviting myself over. Obviously, that’s something Jesus can do but I cannot copy! Still, I replied and said: “Please don’t worry about dinner. But may I still stop by to bless the house and say ‘Hi’ anyway?” She eagerly answered: “We would love that!” You know, we have parishioners here at Immaculate Conception across the whole economic spectrum – from the super rich to the super poor.

But when we come to Mass, we are all spiritually beggars for God’s grace. We all humbly kneel during Mass because we are all equally penniless before the One and only King of kings, Jesus Christ. as James Joyce famously said, “The Catholic Church: here comes everybody!” Our parish is a microcosm of humanity, and that is as it should be, because that is one meaning of "catholic."

In the gospel today Jesus talks about inviting people over for dinner – and he does not say invite yourself over for dinner! Notice how our Lord makes a point about inviting “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind” for supper. Now those folks would not typical make dinner guest list. In my home country of India, when someone dies in the family, we would have a big reception after the funeral.

But instead of family and friends, we would invite people in the neighborhood we knew were struggling financially or otherwise. When my uncle died many years ago, my family went to a leper colony and fed them lunch, and made a donation to Mother Teresa’s sisters who cared for the lepers. It was a small gesture to help the poor as Jesus prescribed in the gospel today by inviting them to a banquet.

My friends do you know your brothers and sisters in this parish? We have over 6,000 parishioners who attend our church. Sometimes we become part of a small group and that becomes our whole experience of church. And that belonging is a good thing because we need best friends in the faith. But that is no excuse to ignore everyone else. For example, we can get into a habit of always attending the same Mass. Maybe go to a different Mass on Sunday, and see who all belongs to your parish.

Did you know we have 6 Masses every weekend, and 2 are in Spanish? And by the way, there are more people packed into those 2 Spanish Masses than in all 4 English Masses combined. It’s a sight to behold. And the Spanish music ministry is amazing, with 5 different choirs taking turns singing on Sundays. They sing so loudly you can’t even hear all the babies crying!

And when you think about it, isn’t going to a Spanish Mass a beautiful way to fulfill Jesus’ command in the gospel today? How so? Well, think about going to a Spanish Mass – a spiritual banquet – and listen again to Jesus’ words: “When you hold a lunch or dinner do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors [kind of like going to an English Mass].”

Jesus continues: “Rather…invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, blessed will you be because of their inability to repay you [kind of like going to a Spanish Mass – although many of our Hispanics are very well off financially].” In other words, our experience of attending Mass can be a perfect way to put Jesus’ words into practice by dining with the poor. And maybe that is an instance where it is okay to invite yourself over for supper.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

An Unfair Test

Learning how to think about death in our culture

11/04/2024

Jn 6:37-40 Jesus said to the crowds: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.”

One of our greatest dilemmas as a society is dealing with death. This dilemma about death was depicted dramatically in the movie “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.” In the beginning of the movie a captain-in-training, named Savvik, has to navigate the Kobiashi-Maru. The would-be captain confronts a no-win situation to either rescue survivors from a disabled ship and thereby violate Klingon airspace, or leave the survivors to their fate, which is morally unacceptable.

She decides to rescue them. But suddenly she finds herself face-to-face with three Klingon warships, and is hopelessly outmatched and her ship is destroyed. Afterwards, in the debriefing, Admiral Kirk talks to her and she comments: “I don’t believe this was a fair test of my command abilities.” Kirk asks, “And why not?” She continues: “Because there was no way to win.”

Kirk answers: “A no-win situation is a possibility every commander must face. Has that never occurred to you?” She replies coldly, “No sir. It has not.” Kirk keeps going: “How we deal with death is as least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn’t you say?” She states again stoically, “As I indicated, Admiral, that thought had not occurred to me.” Finally, Kirk smiles and finishes with, “Well, now you have something new to think about. Carry on.” Of course, the great irony is Kirk will face his own no-win situation by the end of the movie when his best friend Spock dies to save Kirk and the ship.

But our society is very much like Savvik: we do not know how to deal with death, we think it is "an unfair test." When we are young we believe we will never grow older and die. Why do we sell so much age-defying cosmetics in our culture? And then when we are old we want to rush head-long into the arms of death. I have an elderly friend who suffers from many ailments and prays God will take her home soon.

I remember Archbishop Fulton Sheen saying once that funeral directors dress up the deceased in the casket so beautifully that they promise “happiness in every box.” People often say to me, “I hope I go quickly, and preferably in my sleep.” Why? Because death is our great inescapable dilemma and we need to heed Admiral Kirk’s words to Savvik: “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.”

Most of the year we can put death on the back-burner and ignore it. But on November 2, the Church invites us to bring death out of the closet and put it front and center. In other words, the Church, like Admiral Kirk, wants to give us “something new to think about.” Today we commemorate – not celebrate which is what we usually say – All Souls Day. And the main message both the Scriptures and the sacraments teach us is that death is not the end of life, but in some ways, truly the beginning.

The Book of Wisdom reminds us: “The souls of the just [who have died] are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” That is, the dead may not be in our arms, but they are embraced warmly and lovingly in God’s arms. And in the gospel Jesus assures us that he has come to offer us eternal life. Why? Because he says: “I shall raise him on the last day.” You see, Jesus has come not only to save our souls but also to save our bodies.

On the last day of resurrection, the final and eternal Easter Sunday, our bodies will be raised from the graves and glorified like Jesus’ Body was on that first Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago. In other words, only our faith can penetrate into the great mystery of death that our society struggles helplessly with. We tend to either exaggerate death and try to avoid it at all costs, or we run toward death and try to get it over with as quickly as we can.

The Christian attitude to death is all together different. Like Admiral Kirk said, “How we [Christians] deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.” And we believe that Jesus has dealt death a mortal blow. And therefore the Church invites us to pray for a happy death, that is, to die in the state of grace. To put it grammatically, Jesus’ resurrection has changed death from a period at the end of the sentence of life into a comma. And so maybe “now we have something new to think about. Carry on.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Indian Chief

Growing up to become saints

11/02/2024

Mt 5:1-12a When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven."

When you were small and someone asked you “What do you want to be when you grow up?” what did you answer? Maybe you said, “An astronaut,” or perhaps “a firefighter,” or maybe “a police officer.” My high school history teacher, Coach Long, always summarized our future job opportunities by saying, “Do you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief?” I guess since I am pastor of this parish, I grew up to become an Indian Chief.

Yesterday morning we had the funeral of Dc. Bill Curry. At the end of Mass his son Mike stood up to deliver a very moving eulogy. At one point he remarked, “As a kid I always wanted to grow up to be like my dad, but he set the bar too high. I could never be as good as him.” In other words, a very good answer to the question “What do you want to be when you grow up,” is the reply, “I want to be like my dad.”

But did you every think we could ask God what he wants us to be when we grow up? I think we can and we can also expect to get an answer. For example, I tell young men who are thinking about being a priest, “The worst question you can ask yourself is, ‘Do I want to be a priest?’ Rather, ask yourself, ‘Does God want me to be a priest?’” Can you hear the difference?

In other words, God made each of us for a purpose, as the Scottish runner Eric Liddell said in the movie “Chariot of Fire,” to his sister, “God made me fast, Jenny, and when I run I can feel his pleasure.” And when we fulfill God’s purpose for us - when we become what he wants us to be - we too can feel God’s pleasure.

But besides the specific vocation of being a priest – or in my case an Indian Chief – God calls everyone to become a saint. That is, everyone could answer the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with one word, “a saint”! At least that is what God wants us to be when we grow up.

And if you want to know what a saint looks like, we have a perfect portrait in the gospel in the Beatitudes. There Jesus teaches us a saint is “meek”, “poor in spirit,” “hungers and thirsts for righteousness,” “merciful,” “clean of heart,” “a peacemaker,” and “persecuted for righteousness.” In other words, besides aiming for becoming a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief, God wants us to become a saint when we grow up.

I once heard a theologian say this whole universe is one big saint-making machine. How so? Well, everything that happens to us in this world and in our lives is designed to contribute to our sanctity: maybe to make us more meek, or to become more clean of heart, or to hunger and thirst more for righteousness, or to learn to become peacemakers. And I am not talking about going to the Peacemaker Festival in Fort Smith.

That is, try to see all your joys and sorrows, your triumphs and tragedies, your accidents and accomplishments, your stumblings and sacrifices as all designed to help you grow in holiness. So that when you finally “grow up” you will become a saint. That growth in holiness is our principal purpose on earth, and when we live for that, we too will “feel God’s pleasure.”

Today on this feast of All Saints, we praise God for all those men and women who have already achieved the purpose of life, namely, to become a saint. They grew up to be what God wanted them to be. So, next time someone asks you, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” now you know the best answer is “a saint.” Why? Because “Indian Chief” is already taken.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Saved by Our Spouse

Seeing Christianity in light of spousal love

10/31/2024

LK 13:18-21 Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

Do you think that all people will be saved, that is, that in the end everyone will end up in heaven? And if you answer negatively – that is, some will go to hell – what will be the criteria to cause that condemnation? Do you feel only Roman Catholics will be saved and everyone else damned? Or, do you believe Christians in general will be saved while non-Christians will take the euphemistic "escalator down"?

Or perhaps it’s people who follow their conscience versus those who violate their own moral principles that end up in hell? Whether we agree or even like that rather sober language about heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, that was the frequent language of Jesus and the Church about what our Lord came to accomplish and the consequences of following him or abandoning him.

In short, that Christian faith revolves around being saved or not saved. As our Protestant friends like to persistently ask us Catholics: “Have you accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” Our eternal destiny hangs in the balance of the answer we give.

Without denying any of that, let me ask you another question. Don’t you sometimes wish there was another language for the faith that didn’t emphasize heaven and hell or salvation and damnation so much? To go a step further, do you think that most modern people today fear eternal consequences for the actions? Do you think your children or grandchildren worry about heaven or hell, about salvation or damnation?

Or don’t you rather think that all such talk sounds like spiritual scare tactics, or merely Medieval mumbo-jumbo, or maybe seems irrelevant and boring to people today?  Whether we like it or not, or agree with it or not, the general cultural consensus today is that the traditional language misses the boat and does not resonate with people’s lives today.

Well, I believe Pope St. John Paul II was acutely aware of that cultural criticism of Christianity. And so he developed an entirely new language to discuss and define Christian concepts that would excite and engage modern believers and even non-believers, namely, the love of human relationships, and specifically, marriage.

That is, without denying the doctrines of heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, John Paul cast Christianity in terms of love, and marriage to Jesus Christ. Think about it: what causes the greatest joy, produces the most anguish, is celebrated most exuberantly, and talked about incessantly more than marriage? Every human being hopes to enjoy a fairy-tale wedding and dreads the day they may be divorced.

No matter how confused we may be about marriage – like same-sex marriage, or divorce and remarriage, or polygamy, or cohabitation (aka shacking up), etc. – we all know intuitively that nothing matters more than marriage. Marriage and family life are the cell of society; and we know its breakdown will be our society’s downfall. No one doubts that, even while many doubt salvation and damnation.

So, Pope St. John Paul boldly proposed we should make marriage the matrix or language with which we talk about Christianity. For example, Baptism is the moment not only that original sin is washed away and we are forgiven, but also when we become part of the Church, the Bride of Christ. Hence the traditional baptismal gown was always 20 sizes too big for the baby. Why? It was supposed to resemble a bride’s wedding dress, which has a train making it 20 sizes too big for the bride.

Or take the intimidating sacrament of reconciliation or confession, if you can even remember the last time you went. Besides forgiving actual sins, which it certainly does, think of it in terms of husbands and wives needing to ask pardon for hurting each other. Every married couple without exception has said or done something to hurt their spouse. They have had to swallow their pride, and with humble hat-in-hand, said, “I’m sorry, honey. I promise never to do that again.” Suddenly, the dreaded sacrament of confession makes perfect sense when seen in the light of spousal love.

And what about the Eucharist, the Sacrament of sacraments? Well, we can talk about Holy Communion not only in terms of eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ in order to have eternal life, but also in marital terms. How so? When spouses consummate their marriage on their honeymoon night the two become one flesh. Every time we receive the Body of Christ, we become sacramentally “one flesh” with Jesus our Bridegroom.

At every Mass, we consummate our mystical marriage with Christ. And that is why we have to go to confession before going to Communion, because spouses should reconcile and be one in heart before they become one in body. We can debate and doubt salvation and damnation but no one with any common sense questions how spouses relate to each other. And the pope-saint says we should make marriage the language of faith.

Of course, John Paul is building on the foundation already laid by St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. He writes in our first reading today: “Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her.” Can you hear how St. Paul employs marriage as a great analogy for the work of Christ? Or as we say in the South, “Christ came a courtin’!”

And one way to understand Jesus’ words today in the gospel is also in light of marital love. He compares the Kingdom of God to a small mustard seed which, “When fully grown becomes a large bush and the birds of the sky dwell in its branches.” I am convinced that what John Paul II taught about marital love as an analogy of faith is only a small seed today. But one day it will blossom into a large bush, where everyone will come to Christ, as their beloved Spouse. Oh, and then they will be saved, too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!