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!