Me and Melchizedek

Praying for our priests

Hebrews 7:1-3

Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings and blessed him. And Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace. Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

             Do you know who is the first priest mentioned in the Bible?  It is a mysterious and mesmerizing figure named “Melchizedek.”  In fact, I was so captivated by him that I wrote my master’s thesis paper in seminary about him, and the title of it was: “Who the Heck is Melchizedek?”  My thesis director was not impressed.  Surprisingly, Melchizedek appears at the beginning, middle and close to the end of the Bible: in Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and today in Hebrews 7.  Scripture scholars hotly debate his true identity and they have yet to reach a consensus.  But the one thing scholars cannot do is ignore him.  Why?  Because in those three places – Genesis, Psalms and Hebrews – Melchizedek comes in contact with Father Abraham, King David and finally Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Any serious student the Scriptures has to answer the question, “Who the heck is Melchizedek?”

             Let me tell you what Melchizedek means to me.  Hebrews says, “Without father, mother or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.”  I learned two things from that passage: (1) priesthood is a higher calling than family life, and may even require you to sacrifice family life in order to be a priest.  So, for me, celibacy makes sense in light of Melchizedek.  And (2) priesthood is a full-time job, not a 9 to 5 gig where you punch the time clock.  Indeed, a man who is ordained will be a priest even in heaven.  You see, there will not be marriage in heaven (Mt. 22), but there will be priesthood in heaven.  And I can’t wait!  We priests will still get a paycheck but we won’t have any work, since there won’t be any sinners in heaven!  And that’s why I wear my Roman collar almost all the time and everywhere I go.  Why?  Because Hebrews says, “You are a priest forever” – at a Razorback football game, at a local restaurant, while drinking beer, and everywhere else.  When I was ordained, my mom told me, “Son, always wear your collar.  It’ll keep you out of trouble.”  What did she know that I didn’t know??  My mom knew the answer to the question, “Who the heck is Melchizedek?”

            May I ask you a favor?  Would you please pray for us priests?  I know you already do, but don’t slow down!  I have a dear friend who prays her rosary for me while she’s at Adoration.  My mom worries about this priest; Mother Mary worries about all priests.  Pope Francis always concludes his talks to people with the plea: “Please pray for me!”  Why pray for priests?  Because Melchizedek has set the priestly bar pretty high for us, indeed, as high as heaven!  But we priests remain fully and feebly human, at the end of the day, we’re just knuckle-draggers, like the rest of men, in need of salvation as much as anyone else, maybe more so.  This is why Archbishop Fulton Sheen titled his autobiography, “Treasure in Clay."  The treasure is Jesus; the clay is the priest.

            Who the heck is Melchizedek?  He is the first priest mentioned in the Bible, and he’s also the model for all priests.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

A Jesus Job

What would Jesus do?

 Gospel MK 2:23-28

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

                I'm sure you've heard the phrase "What would Jesus do?" It can be a very helpful rule of thumb in making daily decisions as a Christian, but it can also be a little misleading. It is true that we should be "imitators of Christ" as Thomas a Kempis wrote, but that doesn't mean we can do everything Jesus did, nor should we.

Maybe this analogy will help. One day Scott Hahn was out for a jog and saw a man mowing his lawn. He was being pestered by his small son, who was pushing his toy mower, constantly getting in dad's way. Scott Hahn decided to circle the block to see how dad would solve the dilemma. When he came back around, he saw that dad now had junior in one arm, and was pushing the mower with the other arm.  Junior, however was beaming because he had both hands on the real mower and, with eyes wide open and a huge smile, believed he was really mowing the grass. Don't you wish junior would feel like that when he's 13 years old and mowing the grass??  So, while we can be imitators of Christ, that doesn't mean we do exactly the same thing he does, nor can we.

                Today's gospel provides another example of something that's just "a Jesus job."  It's the Sabbath and Jesus allows his disciples to do more work on the Sabbath than is allowed by picking head of grain to eat. Now, the Pharisses are correct that such an action violated the Sabbath rule of rest. But Jesus says, "The Son of Man (meaning himself) is lord even of the Sabbath." In other words, Jesus is asserting that he is equal to his Father, who originally made the Sabbath statute, and so he can make an exception to the rule. However, Jesus was not advocating that his apostles have that authority. You see, some actions belong uniquely and solely to Christ and he cannot abdicate them, while we, for our part, cannot imitate them. Some things are just "a Jesus job," not ours.

                It is crucial that every Christian catches this distinction every time we ask, "What would Jesus do?" Just because we imitate Christ doesn't mean we are Christ, and enjoy all his authority. For instance we sometimes hear of "cafeteria Catholics," who pick and choose what they like in Catholicism, as if we were the one establishing the "First Church of Father John." That is not what WWJD means. Other people suffer the "Messiah Complex" feeling they alone can save others, and know what's best for others. Know any meddling mother-in-laws like that? What's our biggest excuse for not praying more? We say, "I'm too busy; too busy saving the world." Sorry to break this to you, but Jesus already did that, and that is just "a Jesus job," not ours.  WWJD means we should imitate Christ, but it does NOT mean we ARE Christ, and hijack prerogatives that are purely his. And that, by the way, should open our eyes really wide and put a huge smile on our face.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Listen Up

Listening with love to others

1 Samuel 3:3B-10

Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was. The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.” Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” “I did not call you, “ Eli said. “Go back to sleep.” So he went back to sleep. Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli. “Here I am, “ he said. “You called  me.” But Eli answered, “I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet. The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time. Getting up and going to Eli, he said, “Here I am. You called me.” Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the LORD came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

             Which do you think is harder: speaking or listening?  Now, most people would say speaking is harder, especially if you have to get up in front of a large group of people; that absolutely terrifies some people.  While listening, on the other hand, is easy because you just have to sit there like a bump on a log.  Right?  But I disagree.  I am convinced that it’s much harder to listen than to speak.  For instance, there are several people here who’ve already fallen asleep listening to this sermon, because it’s just too hard to listen any longer!  One day a Sunday school teacher asked her students who were about to go over to church: “Why should we be quiet in church?”  Little Johnny answered: “Because people are sleeping.”  So, good night, sleep tight.

             But sometimes even when we do try to listen attentively, we don’t catch what the other person is saying.  When I was a small boy I remember watching T.V. with my dad.  Whenever a commercial would come on, he would shake his head in disgust and say in our Indian language, “Aleh kalipikiah.”  That means, “They are just playing with people”; they are not telling you the whole truth about that product.  In other words, listen carefully and don’t always believe everything you hear.  By the way, that’s also why the volume mysteriously goes up on your T.V. during commercials – have you noticed? – they know it’s hard to listen, and so they basically yell at you to keep your attention.  Now, this is rather embarrassing, but last week I received a letter from a young man I had counseled years ago in another parish.  He wrote: “Father John, I’ve finally been able to forgive you for the way you treated me.  I was at a point in my life when I needed some compassion and care, but you just corrected me rudely and walked away.”  You see, he needed me to listen to him rather than speak to him, but I took the easy way out.  I wrote back to him and apologized for not listening with love.  But that’s the life of a priest: people sleep when we wish they would listen, and they listen when we wish they would sleep!  You see, listening is always harder than speaking.

             In the first reading today, someone else struggles to listen well, little Samuel.  Three times he hears God calling his name and three times Samuel runs to the wrong person, he runs to Eli.  Finally, Eli realizes God is calling Samuel, so he advises him: “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for you servant is listening’.”  Like my father taught me how to listen well by his phrase, “Aleh kalipikiah,” (don’t believe everything you hear) so Eli taught Samuel how to listen well, how to hear God speaking.  He taught him to “listen up” – literally to listen upward to heaven, from where God was speaking.  You see, it’s always hard to listen well, but it’s hardest of all when we try to listen to God, whom we can’t even see.  We have to listen up.

             Now, sometimes, listening well can be humorous.  A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, “Grandma, guess what?  We learned how to make babies today.”  The grandmother, more than a little surprised (as you can imagine), tried to keep her cool.  “That’s interesting,” she said, “How do you make babies?”  “It’s simple,” replied the girl.  “You just change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ and add ‘es’.”  Baby...babies.  Now, you know how to answer your kids when they ask you, “How do you make babies?”  But you see, that was a smart granny: she knew it’s better to listen rather than to talk, otherwise, you might say too much!

             Do you know what I believe is the single greatest problem that married couples face?  I am convinced that it’s not lack of money, nor is it troubles with intimacy, nor is it who gets to operate the remote control.  The single greatest challenge is learning to listen with love.  Do you know why?  Because it’s HARD to listen; it’s always easier to speak.  And what do we do when our spouse doesn’t listen well?  We become like T.V. commercials and yell at the other person, figuring if we just said it louder they will listen better.  By the way, how’s that working out for you?  Yeah, not so good.  I am convinced that 99% of all marriage problems could be solved if both parties learned to listen to the other person with love.

             I believe this is also our single greatest obstacle in our relationship with God: we don’t know how to listen to him with love.  When we kneel down to pray, what do we do?  We immediately start talking.  We think: surely what I have to say is far more important and interesting than what God has to say!  But the great doctor of prayer, St. Teresa of Avila, taught that as you mature in prayer, you experience something called “the prayer of quiet,” where you speak less and less, and listen more and more.  Imagine for a moment being able to sit down with supper with anyone who’s ever lived.  I would like to have at my table Abraham Lincoln and Joan of Arc and Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron (I’m kinda sweet on Charlize Theron).  Now, at that supper, do you think you would do all the talking, or do you think you would shut up and listen to what they might say?  Well, that’s the prayer of quiet: when you realize whom you’re sitting in front of and that your company has far more interesting things to say than you do.  We should shut up and listen up.

             One of the most eloquent eulogies ever delivered was for Julius Caesar after he died given by his friend, Mark Antony.  (Of course, he was an “Antony”!)  He began with these immortal lines: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”  He asked them to “listen up,” and they did because they loved him.  That’s a “loan” we should be eager to make in all our relationships – to listen with love.  So, for those of you who stayed awake during this homily, thank you for lending me your ears.  You can have your ears back now, so you can lend them out later when you listen to your spouse, or when you listen to God, or when you listen to your child who, by the way, knows “how you make babies.”

             Praised be Jesus Christ!

Winning Friends

Wanting what Jesus wants

 Mark 1:29-31

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

             I always love it when the reading from Mark chapter one comes up because I get to tell my favorite Fulton Sheen joke.  The archbishop asked, “Do you know the real reason why Peter denied Jesus three times?  It was because we read in the gospel of Mark that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law.”  If you didn’t get that joke, it’s because you’re not married.

             But that gospel pericope raises some important questions.  For example, why did Jesus cure Peter’s mother-in-law?  Which leads to another question: why didn’t Jesus cure everyone in Galilee who was sick that year?  That, in turn, raises another, broader question about Jesus’ miracles in general.  Why didn’t Jesus just snap his divine fingers and feed all the hungry people in the world, and clothe all the naked people, and stop all the tsunamis and hurricanes before they caused untold death and destruction?  You know, it’s very interesting to investigate why Jesus did what he did, but I think it’s far more pertinent and perplexing to ponder why DIDN’T Jesus do so many other great things that he could have done?  At root, we’re asking: why did Jesus bother to do anything at all??

             I think Dale Carnegie can help us understand the mind of our Master.  One of the principles he propounded in his famous book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” was this.  He said, “if you give people what they want, they will give you what you want.”  For instance, if I give you a short sermon on Sunday, you’ll put more money in the collection plate.  See how that works?  So, Jesus gave us what we wanted: he healed the sick, and he fed the hungry, and he raised Lazarus from the dead.  But the real reason he did all that was to awaken in us a desire to give him what he wants.  And what does Jesus want?  Well, that’s not some great

mystery – he says it a thousand times in the gospels: he wants us to love each other.  That's all that Jesus wants.  You see, all our Lord's healings and miracles and teachings were to motivate us to want what he wants, namely, to love each other.  That’s the reason why Jesus did what he did – like heal Peter’s mother-in-law – but more importantly, that’s the reason why Jesus didn't do what he didn’t do, like all the other miracles.

            In the 11th century, St. Anselm of Canterbury, a great theologian, wrote a penetrating book called, “Cur Deus Homo?” (Why Did God Become Man?).  Well, the answer to that question is easy.  God became a man to give us what we want, so that one day, we would give him what he wants.  God became a man in order “to win friends and influence people.”

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Myth Busters

Flying to heaven with faith and reason

 Hebrews 2:6-7

              What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor, subjecting all things under his feet.

 Mark 1:23-25

               In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”  Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

             Sometimes, I find the Bible baffling, don’t you?  My Protestant friends would say that’s because I’m Catholic and don’t actually READ the Bible.  As they taught us in grade school: “reading improves comprehension.”  But my struggle with Scripture is a scientific skepticism, where I need everything empirically verified before I believe.  It seems you first have to sift through the chaff of mythology and magic before you get to the golden wheat of truth.  Take, for example, today’s gospel, where Jesus expels demons.  Did that really happen?  Or, what about the first reading from Hebrews talking about angels?  Aren’t those just stories to help children sleep at night?  The great Scripture scholar Rudolf Bultmann said we must first “demythologize” the Bible in order to read it right.  That is, get rid of the myth and magic and you'll understand the Bible better.

             I feel very much like Indian Jones (don’t all guys??) whose friend Marcus Brody warns him about searching for the Holy Grail.  Indy says, “What are you trying to do scare me, you sound like my mother.  I don’t believe in a lot of superstitions and hocus pocus.”  By the way, do you know where the phrase, “hocus pocus” comes from?  It’s making fun of the Latin words of the Consecration at Mass, which are, “Hic est enim Corpus Meum” (This is my Body).  If you say that really fast, it sounds like “hocus pocus.”  To Indiana Jones, the quintessential Americ

an man, taking things on faith feels foolish.  Indy was the original “myth buster.”

             On September 14, 1998, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote arguably one of his key encyclical letters, but which sadly, got little publicity, called “Fides et ratio” (Faith and reason).  Listen to this seminal starting sentence: “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of the truth.”  The imagery makes the implication clear: using only science (reason) to know the truth is like a bird trying to fly with only one wing.  Americans who seek the truth aided by science alone won’t get very far of the ground.  Marcus Brody (soundling a lot like JPII) wisely replies to Indy, “The search for the Grail is the search for the divine in all of us.  But if you want facts, Indy, I have none to give you.  At my age, I’m prepared to take a few things on faith.”  And that’s how you fly to the heavens: using two wings: faith and reason, science and spirituality, mythology and mathematics.  Otherwise, you’ll never get off the ground.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Morning Smiles

Loving the neighbor we see

1 John 4:19–5:1

Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

             Have you heard the saying, “Seeing is believing”?  It’s kind of a strange saying, isn’t it, because why do we need to believe in something sitting right before our eyes?  Belief is for things we cannot see.  And yet there is a sense in which that maxim is true, that is, seeing some things helps us believe in other things.  For instance, seeing the unfurled American flag waving in the wind makes many Americans believe in freedom, which we don’t see.  Seeing a baby’s smiles – their morning smiles are the best! – makes us believe in innocence, which we cannot see.  Seeing the rosary makes us believe in the tender love of Mother Mary, whom we cannot see; or maybe it just makes us fall sleep, but we sleep in her arms.  So, seeing is believing while we walk in this world, where we behold but the shadows of things whose true splendor is saved for heaven.  On earth, we must see in order to believe.

             In the first reading today, St. John tells us there’s one very special thing that we see that makes us believe, not so much in freedom or innocence, but in God himself, namely, human beings.  St. John writes, “Whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”  In other words, St. John draws a clear connection between people and God, so that seeing one should make us believe in the other; more importantly, so that loving one should lead us love the other.  Now, there are a few people whom we see that don’t make us believe in God, in fact, they make us think of the opposite, like seeing Adolph Hitler, or Al Capone, or the Ole Miss football team.  Nevertheless, God said in Genesis, “Let us create man in our own image and likeness” (Gn. 1:26).  In other words, God made man his “signature shadow” in this world, so that seeing another person, we would believe in God.  This is what St. Irenaeus meant when he said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  On earth, we must see to believe; and we must see to love.

             In 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.  He said with courageous conviction: “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood.”  Man, that guy could preach!  Martin Luther King also had to “see” a dream in order to “believe” in brotherhood, and he invited all Americans to dream with him.  You all are at Mass today, so I assume you love God.  Right?  Good.  But do you love your neighbor, even if he’s African American, or an illegal immigrant, or your mother-in-law, or maybe you are the mother-in-law (!) or even an Ole Miss football player?  You cannot love the God you don’t see, while failing to love the brother or sister you do see.  On earth, we must see in order to believe; and we must see in order to love.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!

Fear Itself

Ordering our fears rightly

Mark 6:47-51

When it was evening, the boat was far out on the sea and he was alone on shore.  Then he saw that they were tossed about while rowing, for the wind was against them.  About the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea.  He meant to pass by them.  But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost  and cried out.  They had all seen him and were terrified.  But at once he spoke with them, “Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”  He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.  They were completely astounded.

                Is fear always a bad thing?  Some people think so, like those who boldly wear those baseball caps that read, “No Fear!”  Or Spencer Johnson who asked in his famous book Who Moved My Cheese? this rhetorical question, “What would you do if you had no fear?”  And yet, some fear is good to experience.  A friend of mine was having trouble getting his kids to brush their teeth before bed.  One day, he drove them into a rough neighborhood and introduced them to some people whose teeth had rotted because of drug use.  He told them that’s what happens when you don’t brush.  One of his kids grew up to be a dentist.  So, not all fear is bad.

                The problem with fear, however, is that we fear the wrong things.  We’re afraid of spiders and snakes and long sermons at daily Mass (!) but we don’t fear spiritual evils, like mortal sins, like gluttony and gossip and greed.  My favorite philosopher is Josef Pieper, who talks about an “ordo timoris,” a hierarchy of fears.  He writes, “The Christian asks what is really and ultimately terrible; and he is concerned not to fear things which are not really and ultimately terrible” (The Christian Idea of Man, 26).  So, some fear is good (like avoiding cavities), but spiritual fears are even better (like avoiding sleeping in Mass); fear sins more than snakes.

                In the gospel today, Jesus walks on water in the middle of the night in a storm and reprimands his timorous apostles saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid!”  So, was Jesus advocating having absolutely no fear?  Was he sporting a baseball cap that read, “No Fear”?  No, not at all.  He meant don’t fear physical dangers more than spiritual ones.  You see, the apostles’ “ordo timoris” was upside-down; they feared storms more than sins.  Remember when Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, fear the One who can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna” (Mt. 10:28)?  Fear sins more than storms.

                In his first Inaugural Address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  But he also wisely went on to clarify what kind of fear he meant, by adding, “They concern, thank God, only material things.”  In other words Roosevelt had his “ordo timoris” right-side-up; the country needed to fear spiritual difficulties more than material ones.  That speech was one crucial condition for the country to come out of the Great Depression, because Roosevelt reminded us what to fear.  If properly ordered fear lifted our country out of the Great Depression, what could properly ordered fear do for you?  Let me ask you again, is fear always a bad thing?

Praised be Jesus Christ!