The End Comes First

Keeping our end as heaven to find our way on earth

08/25/2017

Matthew 22:34-40 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

              Back in 1989, Stephen Covey published a ground-breaking book on leadership called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In fact, we even teach these habits to our students here at Immaculate Conception School, in a program called “Leader in Me.” Most of Covey’s habits are just principles of common sense, which sadly are not very common these days!

             The second of these seven habits is both profound but also practical. It states: “Begin with the end in mind.” That means before you start something, think about the end result first. Before you start your first day of medical school as a dentist, for instance, you think about those three-day weekends you’ll enjoy (dentists traditionally don’t work on Fridays). Before you go into the seminary to be a priest, you look forward to working only one day a week on Sundays, we have six-day weekends. Dentists have nothing on us priests! When I sit down for supper at parishioner’s home, they remind me, “Fr. John, we have cheesecake for dessert,” and I make sure to leave lots of room! The end of the meal changes how I begin the meal. Before you go on your first date, ask yourself, “Is this the girl I might marry someday?” When we think about the end, we know best how to begin.

                In the gospel today, Jesus uses this second habit to answer a Pharisee’s question. One of the Pharisees, a scholar of the law, asks Jesus: “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” It was not an innocent question; it was a trap. But Jesus eludes the trap and answers him with Covey’s second habit, “begin with the end in mind.” Jesus says: “You shall love the Lord, you God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” But then Jesus adds, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, the end goal is to love God (the greatest commandment), and that is what you should keep in mind as you love your neighbor; just like I keep that cheesecake in mind as I eat my Caesar salad. The Pharisees had forgotten this habit of highly effective people (that’s why they were not very effective leaders): they tried to love God while despising the people. And in the end they loved neither God nor neighbor. When we think about the end, we will know best how to begin.

              My friends, do you begin with the end in mind? And may I suggest to you that your “end” needs to be heaven, not just earth? Some people begin their first day at work dreaming about retiring early. But should early retirement really be the end? Not at all. Heaven should be the end. That’s why I tell people who work for the Church: the pay is poor, but the retirement plan is out of this world, that is, it’s in heaven! The end comes first. That’s why parents send their kids to Catholic schools: not just so they go to Harvard, but so they go to Heaven! The end comes first. That’s the job of married couples. The fundamental task of a husband and wife is to make sure their spouse gets to heaven. If he or she isn’t in heaven yet, your job isn’t finished. The end comes first. And that’s why we become priests: because we believe that these silly sacrifices we make on earth will be richly rewarded in heaven. The end comes first.

              Can you see how different your whole life becomes when you begin with the end in mind? But you have to remember that your end is heaven. Why? Well, so that the light from heaven can illuminate your path on earth. When we think about the end, we’ll know best how to begin.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Name Calling

Waiting patiently until God bestows our heavenly name

08/24/2017

John 1:45-51 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth? "Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"  Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

             People go through several names in the course of their life. When we are born, for instance, our parents choose a name for us. The traditional Catholic practice was to use the saint’s name for the feast day when you were born, but sadly that’s rarely done now. Today pick names like “Thor” and “Artemis.” But some people also have a nickname at home. My name is “John,” but at home my parents called me “Jolly.” When we are Confirmed, we take a saint’s name, someone whose virtues we would like to emulate. One friend even legally changed his name at Confirmation. Some people’s names were changed when they went through Ellis Island and came to America.

              People still write my last name with an “h,” that is, “Anthony.” But I correct them saying, “It’s ‘Antony,’ like the Emperor Mark Antony, but no Cleopatra.” And the first rule I learned upon arriving in Fort Smith was to learn maiden names. Why? Well, because virtually everyone in Fort Smith is related, and you don’t know who someone is until you know their maiden name. When you become the pope – or a monk at Subiaco, or a nun at St. Scholastica – you can take a new name. When Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the Successor of St. Peter, he took the name “Pope Francis.” In the course of our lives we go through a lot of names.

               Remembering that people use multiple names can be helpful when you read the Bible. Today’s gospel mentions “Nathanael.” That was his Hebrew name.  Do you know what his Roman, or Latin, name was? It was “Bartholomew.” Many characters in the Bible were called various names. For example, “Simon,” is also “Peter.” “Levi” is the same as “Matthew.” “Jacob” is the same person as “Israel.” Today is the feast day of St. Bartholomew, and that’s why the gospel reading has to do with Jesus meeting Nathanael. Bartholomew and Nathanael are the same person, just like Pope Francis and Jorge Mario Bergoglio are the same person. Throughout the course our life – indeed, throughout the course of the Bible! – people are called by different names.

               My friends, may I suggest to you that you will not know your real name until you get to heaven? Why not? Well, because that’s where God will bestow upon you your real, true and eternal name. Matthew Kelly, the popular Christian speaker and author (the guy with the great Australian accent), often says, “become the best version of yourself.” Well, I am convinced that we won’t become that “best version of our selves” until we get to heaven, because that’s when we’ll become our fullest and final selves. That’s when God will give us our name.

              C. S. Lewis collected his favorite excerpts from the writings of George MacDonald, his mentor, into one book. In one excerpt, MacDonald touches this heavenly name, saying, “The giving of the white stone with the new name is the communication of what God thinks about the man to the man…It is only when the man has become his name that God gives him the stone with the name upon it, for then first can he understand what his name signifies” (Lewis, George MacDonald, An Anthology – 365 Readings, no. 15). In other words, just like you have to be careful talking to a woman in Fort Smith until you know her maiden name, so you should take care how you talk to anyone until you know their heavenly name. People are still becoming the best version of themselves, you don’t know them fully yet - they don’t even know themselves fully yet - you don’t know their real name yet.  Be patient with one another.

   

              We go through a lot of names in the course of our life – John, Jolly, Anthony, Mark Antony, etc. But it is not until we get to the end of our life that we will receive our real names - the name God gives us - and only then will we know who we really are.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

God over the Girl

Daring to be different and going against the crowd

08/23/2017

Matthew 20:1-16 Jesus told his disciples this parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.' So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise. Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.' When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.' When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage. And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.' He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?”

            Do you know why I decided to become a priest? Yes, I wanted to help people spiritually, and yes I felt God was calling me, and yes I get to eat free in Mexican restaurants. But there was another reason, and in some ways it was a deeper reason. That was because I wanted to be different, I didn’t want to just go with the crowd. So when I saw priests wearing their cool Roman collar, I thought: not many people get to do that! I’ll be different by being a priest. By the way, I started thinking about this way back in 8th grade, and at that time I had a huge crush on this beautiful little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was gorgeous. I had to make a choice to pursue her or pursue the priesthood. Do you know which one I chose?

              That’s why I love Robert Frost’s famous poem called “The Road Not Taken.” He talks about this choice to pursue the familiar or to dare to be different. The great Poet Laureate wrote: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could / To where it bent in the undergrowth.” Then Frost concludes with these memorable lines: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence: / Two roads diverged in a wood and I - / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” In other words, I didn’t become a priest just to be holy, but because I wanted to be different, and so I chose the “road less traveled.” When you dare to be different, you sometimes choose God over the girl.

               In the gospel today, Jesus tells the parable of a landowner who also chose to be very different. But did you catch that difference? He hires workers to take care of his vineyard, some of whom he hires for the whole day, but others he hires at the end of the day and they only work one hour. Do you remember how he pays them? He pays those who worked one hour the same as those who worked the whole day. This shocked the workers, and probably shocked Jesus’ disciples, too. Why? Well, because it was completely unexpected and different; indeed, it seemed unfair to them because that’s not what everybody else does! But Jesus gives his explanation in one line, where the landowner says: “Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?” In other words, the landowner also took the “road less traveled by” and paid his workers very differently from other employers. Jesus is urging his disciples to think differently, to act differently, to choose differently from the rest of the world. Sometimes, that’s how you choose God over the girl.  That’s precisely what the disciples did in leaving everything behind and following Jesus.

                 Boys and girls, when you are in junior high school, you walk in the shoes of Robert Frost –and sort of walk into that poem – and you have to choose which path to pursue: the ways of the world, or to dare to do something different, the “road less traveled by.” For example, try an extracurricular activity you’ve never attempted before, like reading poetry, or like golf or tennis or drama or try a new instrument in band like euphonium! (I just like to say euphonium because most people don’t know what that is.) That’s why I love learning Latin – because it’s so different, so few people do that. If you see someone being bullied, or students using curse words, or drinking alcohol or misusing snapchat in immoral ways, dare to be different, don’t trod down the road everyone else travels.

                 Do you know what the word “FAD” really means? It means “For A Day.” Don’t choose fads that are here today and gone tomorrow. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said: “Dead fish float down stream; it takes live fish to fight against the current.” Don’t be a dead fish and just go along with what everyone else does but dare to be different, fight the current. Jesus said in the gospel: “Am I not free to do what I wish with my money?” By “money” Jesus is referring to everything we have, our whole lives. So choose wisely how you will spend your treasure, your time and your talent; choose differently from the rest of the world.

               I hope Dr. Hollenbeck will forgive me if I paraphrase our school motto in order to summarize this homily: “Be something different, do something different, leave something different from the world, all for the glory of God.” Who knows, you may even choose God over the girl.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Good Teacher

Appreciating the role of teachers, especially Jesus

08/21/2017

Matthew 19:16-22 A young man approached Jesus and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" He answered him, "Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He asked him, "Which ones?" And Jesus replied, "You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

             Teachers in our society sometimes sadly get short-shrift. What I mean is that they are not fully appreciated. One metric to measure someone’s importance to society – although by no means the only one – is what we pay them, and teacher salaries are notoriously low. I always remember that poignant scene from the movie, “A Man For All Seasons,” about St. Thomas More, the chancellor of England. An ambitious young man wants to be prominent and powerful like More, but More suggests he be a teacher. More says, “Why not be a teacher? You’d be a fine teacher, perhaps a great one.” Richard Rich replies somewhat condescendingly, “If I was who would know it?” More answers: “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public that.” More clearly believes that teaching is a noble profession but Rich does not. It’s pretty clear which man’s attitude about teaching is more prevalent in our modern society. We hear derogatory jokes about teachers and coaches like “well, those who can’t do, teach.”

               That’s why it may be hard for modern Americans to grasp adequately today’s gospel where a young man calls Jesus, “Teacher.” We might think of a student who brings a teacher an apple and asks a question. But that’s a far cry from reality. To be a teacher, a rabbi, in ancient Israel was closer to being a Jedi Master. In case you’re a little rusty on Star Wars, a Jedi master was not only a skillful teacher, but he was also a great warrior. He had not only “book learning” but also “street smarts.” And to change slightly Galileo’s famous dictum about the Bible, a teacher, a rabbi, “not only explains how the heavens go, but also how to go to heaven.” A teacher conveys much more than mere information; he teaches wisdom, and in Jesus’ case it was eternal wisdom.

                That’s why when the rich young man asks Jesus a question, Our Lord’s answer is another question: “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.” In other words, do you realize what Teacher you are speaking to? This is not any old school teacher, but the Teacher of angels and the Teacher of the ages. Obviously, Jesus did not have a small opinion about teachers; indeed, he believed teaching was a cornerstone of his identity and mission. Jesus invites that rich young man to abandon his ambition and his possessions – like More advised Richard – and follow Jesus in being a teacher, but the young man, like Richard, went away sad. He didn’t think much of being a teacher. After all, “who would know it?”

               My friends, do not underestimate the power and influence of being a teacher. The first teachers we all have are our own parents, and children are their students. Our moms and dads shape our minds and hearts, and our personalities. One friend said, “We are our parent’s unfinished homework.” We spend our lives learning the lessons that our parents should have taught us as children. Children are the products of the proficient or poor teaching of their parents.  In the seminary we were taught that the first role of priests is to teach the faith, preach the Word of God. Why? Well, because when someone knows the faith better they are better disposed to receive the grace of the sacraments. When people understand the Mass, they enter more deeply into the mystery, and only then are they transformed. Of course, we are all teachers by the example we give to the world. Friends talk about “people watching,” and in a sense they are “teacher watching,” watching and learning from the example we see in others, and others see in us. And finally seek Jesus as your Teacher, not merely to learn facts but to gain wisdom, and ultimately to enter into an apprenticeship under the tutelage of a Jedi Master, He who alone is the way, the truth and the life.

             “Why not be a teacher? You’d be a fine teacher, perhaps a great one.” “If I was, who would know it?” “You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public that.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Hidden Figures

Trying to see the prejudices hidden in our hearts

08/20/2017

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7 Thus says the LORD: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed. The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants— all who keep the sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

             The most pernicious problem with prejudice is that most people cannot see it; we are blind to own own biases. This hit home for me in a humorous way in the recent movie called “Hidden Figures.” Have you seen it? It’s powerful. The movie is about three African-American women working at NASA during the 1960’s space race and they are brilliant mathematicians. You’ll recall this was the period right after the 1957 crisis at Central High School in Little Rock and “desegregation,” when nine African-American students were escorted into the all-Caucasian school by the National Guard. Race relations in America and especially in the South were tense and at the breaking point. In the movie, the supervisor of the three African-American females was a lady named Vivian Mitchell, who self-righteously claimed she was free of prejudice, saying, “Despite what you may think, I have nothing against y’all [colored people].” To which Dorothy Vaughn, one of the African-American women replies, “I know you probably believe that.” Ouch! Mitchell, who perhaps for the first time, heard someone call her out on her racism. Everyone else, including those in the movie theater, could easily see her racism, but not her. That’s the problem with prejudice: it always remains a sort of “hidden figure” in our minds and hearts.

             In the first reading today, the prophet Isaiah tries to help the people of Israel perceive their own prejudice. He writes: “The foreigners (foreigners!) who join themselves to the Lord ministering to him, loving the name of the Lord…I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer…for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (for all people).” Now, you have to understand how that prophesy would have been as harsh on the ears of the Jews as Vaughn’s words were to Mitchell in the movie. How so? Well, the Jews believed they were “the chosen people” which meant everyone else was effectively “the unchosen people” the hoi polio, the riff raff. But they didn’t see anything wrong with that. Why not? Well, they were blind to their own biases. The Jewish people may have innocently protested to the prophet Isaiah: “Despite what you may think, we have nothing against them, the unchosen people.” And Isaiah would have rejoined: “I know you probably believe that.” Prejudice was a “hidden figure” in the mentality of the Jews, even while it was obvious to Isaiah.

               In this context I would like to say a word about the protesting and counter-protesting that occurred in Charlottesville, NC last weekend. You no doubt saw the news about how groups of nationalists and white-supremacists and even Nazi-sympathizers organized a protest of the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. They were confronted by an equally vocal and angry group of counter-protestors, and their meeting exploded into fights and derogatory name-calling. One woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd of counter-protestors. A little later, a helicopter with two state troopers filming the event crashed and both state troopers died.

             I gotta tell you, I felt a knot in my stomach tightening as I watched the events unfold and read about them later that week in the news. I wondered: could this really be happening in 2017? After the bloodiest century in human history, with two world wars and millions of people exterminated by dictators in dozens of countries, has the human race learned nothing? Have we forgotten the fundamental fact that each person is created in the image and likeness of God and therefore unrepeatable and irreplaceable? But that’s precisely why prejudice is so pernicious: it blinds us to our biases; it makes us believe we are “the chosen people” – whether we are the Jews or we’re the Nazis – while some other person or party or population is “the unchosen people.” Our prejudice is a “hidden figure” in our minds and hearts. That blindness is what so sad and yet so serious about the events in Charlottesville.

                So, what do we do about our biases that we are blind to? Is there any way to heal our eyesight and see our prejudices? Let me suggest two things we can do. First, stop saying that you have no prejudices. We all do, including me. Yes, even Fr. John, sweet and saintly, pious and perfect Fr. John has prejudices. As soon as you think you’re free of them, Dorothy Vaughn will say to you: “I know you probably believe that.” In some way or another we all think we are part of some chosen people, while someone out there is the unchosen people.

               Secondly, don’t discount people who disagree with you as lunatics and losers. It’s funny how I’ve always learned the most from those who call me out and contradict me, usually they’ve uncovered my prejudices or biases. Here’s an idea: if you love CNN, watch more Fox News; if you’re a Fox fan, then tune in to CNN. But don’t watch it to criticize them, but to learn about yourself, your biases and your prejudices. Do you know what would have happened in Charlottesville if the protesters had asked the counter-protestors: What do you see in us that we miss? I’ll tell you what would have happened: a young lady and two state troopers would still be alive.

              It’s very easy to look back sixty years to 1957 and see people’s prejudices. We wonder how they could have been so blind?? In sixty years from now, in the year 2077, what will people look back and see in us as our prejudices? They will wonder: how could those people in 2017 have been so blind? We are blind to our biases because they’re always “hidden figures” in our minds.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Tools for Schools

Reaching into our toolboxes to succeed in school

08/18/2017

Joshua 24:1-13 Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people:  "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  In times past your fathers, down to Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, dwelt beyond the River and served other gods. But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River and led him through the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac. To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle, while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.

            Boys and girls, I am holding something in my hands called a “toolbox for school.” Can someone tell me what this is? It’s a kit for everything you will need in school. It contains pencils and erasers; you’ll find coloring pens and notepads, folders and glue and scissors. How many of you like the toolbox, or how many would rather go to the store to buy your own stuff? Now, which do you think your moms and dads like? They love the toolboxes! This toolbox will help you succeed in school.

            But boys and girls, because you also go to a Catholic school, we also want to give you a “Catholic tool box.” Do you know where that toolbox is? Believe it or not, you’re actually sitting inside that toolbox! What??? That’s right, this whole huge church is the toolbox that the Church gives you, not filled with pencils and erasers, but with spiritual tools to help you learn about God, and the Catholic faith. For example, when you came into the church, you touched one of those tools, the holy water, and you made the Sign of the Cross after you dipped your hand in it. Another great tool is the Bible which some of you will get to read from at Mass. Another beautiful tool, one of my favorites, is the stunning stained glass windows with images of the saints. All these tools – the holy water, the Bible, the saints – will help you succeed here at a Catholic school, and you need them just as much as your pens and folders and glue.

  

             Now, let me ask you a hard question. When will you finish school? Will you finish school after you graduate from high school? No. Will you complete your studies after you get done with college? No. Maybe it will be finally done after medical school or after law school? Nope. Will you ever be done with school? No, not in this life. In fact, your whole life is a school, called the “School of Hard Knocks,” and that means we are always learning, life-long learners, we are always students. And this church is also a toolbox for the school of life. Here we find seven great tools, called the seven sacraments, which will help you succeed in life.

             Can you find the seven tools called the sacraments in this church? You might have to look for symbols of them. For instance, baptism is found in the baptismal fount. Confirmation is symbolized by the holy oil called Sacred Chrism. Anointing of the Sick is also symbolized by the special, holy oil we use in that sacrament. Confession is in this box, where Fr. John gets to take a nap when no one sees him. And the two tricky ones are marriage and holy orders: where are their symbols? You have to look at where people sit: married people sit in the pews, and the priests, deacons and bishop (who receive Holy Orders) get to sit in the sanctuary. The cheeks in the seats tell you who receives marriage and who is ordained. These seven great tools of the sacraments will help you succeed in the school of life, because that’s the hardest school of all.

             We all need toolboxes to help us do well in school. And remember, when will you finally finish school? Never. You’ll only finish when you graduate and go to heaven.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Forget Me Not

Remembering our identities and God with the memoria

05/17/2017

Matthew 18:21–19:1 Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him ?As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt. At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.' Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan. When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, 'Pay back what you owe.' Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt.

             One of the saddest things I encounter in visiting the elderly is when someone suffers from dementia, especially the loss of memory. Sometimes they cannot even remember their own husband or wife, or their children. Did you see the movie “The Notebook”? It shows how losing your memory really leads to losing your identity. When the elderly woman heard her husband read the stories from the Notebook, the elderly women not only was able to connect to her past, but really connect to herself, her identity. In other words, not remembering your past is really an inability to know yourself. That’s why those fleeting minutes when she did remember her history and the couple danced together were so poignant and everyone cries in the movie, even priests!

               St. Augustine taught that the soul has three chief powers: the intellect, the will and the memory (in Latin, “memoria”), and the memory is the main faculty not only to our identity, but also to God. That’s why St. Augustine would write in his classic word, Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee” (Confessions, X). The reason we are restless is because of a faulty memory: we have forgotten who we are, as well as whose we are. Our memories are supposed to remind us that we come from God, and we will return to God, but we forget. In a sense, we all suffer from dementia.

               In the gospel today, Jesus tells a parable about forgiveness. Peter asks how often he should forgive and Jesus gives the example of a servant who is forgiven a large debt but then turns around and shows no mercy toward a fellow servant who owes him much less. But for me, the point of the parable is as much about forgetfulness as about forgiveness. What do I mean? The problem of the parable’s protagonist is that he forgets too quickly how he enjoyed mercy, and failing to remember that moment of grace, he turns around and condemns his fellow servant. The Spanish philosopher, George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The parable’s protagonist needed to watch the movie “The Notebook” and learn how forgetting the past really leads to forgetting himself, and ultimately, to forgetting God. He had experienced God’s forgiveness at the hands of his master, and he forgot it, and thereby he lost not only himself, but also God.

              My friends, today pray for God to strengthen your memoria. And I don’t just mean so you can remember people’s names better, or so you can perform better at work, or so you can out-smart your spouse when you argue because you remember things better than they do. Rather, ask God to help you burn into your memory experiences of his grace, the milestones of mercy you have enjoyed – like the protagonist in the parable had, or the elderly couple enjoyed while they danced. Our memoria is our link not only with ourselves, but also with God. At the very heart of the Mass, the priest ends the words of consecration by saying, “Do this in memory of me.” Why? Well, because the memory is a liturgical faculty, and without a strong memory, we cannot worship God.  That’s why the Mass is filled with remembering the great things God has done in the past, the “mirabilia Dei,” the marvels of God.

             “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in thee.” Our hearts are restless because we forget.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

High Seas of Junior High School

Embarking on the high adventure of a new school year

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land— Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as Zoar. The LORD then said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants.

            How many of you have ever been to a foreign country (raise your hands please)? Heck, some of you may feel like the United States is a foreign country. Whenever you travel to a new country, you always notice three things are different: the language people speak, the funny food they eat, and third the clothes they wear. I came to the United States when I was seven years old, and I immediately noticed these three things. People spoke differently; they didn’t speak English with the cool Indian accent I had or move their heads from side to side like I did. Secondly, people ate food without adding spicy curry – which is a lot better than Sriracha! And thirdly, people didn’t wear the traditional Indian sari dress, in which my mom always looked so beautiful, but women here wore high heels and miniskirts. Everything was startling and strange in this foreign land.

              I always think of that line from the book, Lord of the Rings, where Gandalf warns Frodo: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to” (The Fellowship of the Ring, 87). Stepping out my front door in New Delhi, India was dangerous business – I was embarking on the high adventure of my life – and I could courageously embrace it or I could cowardly run back home. I’ll give you one guess what I chose: that’s why I’m standing here today. Visiting a foreign country is dangerous business indeed; I wonder if I would have become a priest if I had remained in India.  How different my life would have been if I had stayed safely home.

             In the first reading today, God shows Moses a foreign land that he will give to the people of Israel. We read: “The Lord showed him all the land – Gilead, as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan, and the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms, and as far as the Zoar.” Deuteronomy continues: “The Lord then said to Moses: ‘This is the land I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that I would give to their descendants.” In other words, Moses led the people out of their familiar home in Egypt to a new land inhabited by people who spoke strange languages, ate funny tasting food, and dressed in different garb. You can almost hear God warning Moses: “It’s a dangerous business stepping out your front door.” But what did Moses do: stay inside where it was safe or embrace this new adventure? We know the answer of course: in fact, the whole rest of the Bible unfolds only because Moses stepped out his front door.  Moses chose adventure over apathy.

               Boys and girls, each of you may feel like me and Moses because you have also stepped out your front door and stepped onto the grounds of Trinity Junior High, and you may feel like you’ve stepped into a foreign country! Who are all these crazy people in junior high!? You may be feeling some fear and nervousness, too, as you face this dangerous business called Junior High, and even the returning 8th and 9th graders will face many new things this year. You may feel like running back home, but instead, I invite you to be courageous and embrace the high adventure of your life. I especially welcome students from public schools this year (there’s quite a few of you guys!), as well as those who are not Catholic. You are all now a part of our Trinity Family, and we love each of you.

At Trinity you will find strange food. We don’t have a lunch program, so some days you’ll order from different restaurants, and some days our Hispanic moms fix delicious Mexican food, almost as good as Indian curry! Almost. You’ll hear and learn new languages. This year at Mass, we will pray the Our Father in Latin. You’ll practice for the first 9 weeks in your classes, and then we’ll start saying it in Mass. It sounds like this: “Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, seb libera nos a malo. Amen.” By the end of this year, you’ll all be able to say that fluently. That will become our Trinity prayer because no one else will be able to say it! And of course we wear school uniforms. And you’ll see football jerseys, basketball and volleyball and tennis outfits, dance and cheerleading uniforms, that are almost as beautiful as an Indian sari! Almost. Junior high can feel like you’ve traveled to a foreign land.

              Boys and girls, all this feels new and novel, it may seem strange and startling, and you may feel like returning to the safe and familiar. Or, on the other hand, you can be courageous and set sail on the high seas called junior high school, which is another leg on the adventure that is your life. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper said: “A ship in harbor is safe; but that’s not what ships are built for.” Boys and girls, you were not created by God to stay safe in a harbor but to be out on the high seas of life, like Moses. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” You might even be swept off to Trinity Junior High!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Cringing Christians

Learning to give Mary due veneration

08/15/2017

1 Corinthians 15:20-27 Brothers and sisters: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for "he subjected everything under his feet."

            Today’s feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven makes many of our Protestant brothers and sisters cringe. Why is that? Well, they believe it confirms their suspicion that Catholics worship Mary, that they make her equal to Jesus, that they lavish love on her that only belongs to God. Well, that suspicion should make Catholics cringe, because it could not be farther from the truth. Catholics do not worship Mary, we venerate her, and that difference is decisive. Worship – in Latin that is called “latria” – is given only to God, while veneration – the Latin word for that is “dulia” – is given to super holy creatures, like the angels, the saints, and the Mother of God, Mary. In fact, we give Mary something called “hyperdulia” because she is “hyper-holy,” not because she is god, but because she is as good as a human being can get.

              Think about it this way: who do we pray to? Catholics always direct our prayers to God. God alone is the one who hears our prayers, and he alone is the one who answers our prayers. But we ask as many people to pray for us to God as possible. We do this all the time. For instance, this morning Senator John Boozman went in for surgery, and I sent a note to his family saying I was praying for them. His daughter, Lauren, became Catholic a few years ago and she had asked for my prayers. Haven’t you done something similar thousands of times? But we Catholics don’t just ask for the prayers of the people we can see; we also ask the prayers of those we cannot see, like Mother Mary, the saints and the angels, those who are already in heaven. Just because they are invisible doesn’t mean they are any less real; indeed, in a sense, they are more real and more fully alive in heaven than we are here on earth. So, we ask the heavenly hosts, and the Queen of heaven in particular, to pray for us to God. Mary receives hyperdulia, and she never receives latria, because latria would make Mary cringe and run the other way.

              The feast of the Assumption is the Fourth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary. Like all mysteries of our faith, the Assumption, too, is ultimately a mystery of God’s love. What do I mean? Well, in the case of the Assumption, we see how much Jesus, the Son of God, loves his mother, Mary. After Jesus, Mary is the only person to have her body glorified in heaven. So that means she can literally see Jesus face to face – because her face is in heaven! And when a mother ask a favor, especially face to face, it’s hard for a good son to say no. Believe me, I know! And that’s why God grants some of our prayers – not because we are so holy and lovable, but because Mary is. And if you don’t believe me, just ask the crowd who attended the wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus reluctantly performed his first miracle of changing water into wine, just because his mother asked. Some prayers are only granted because of Jesus’ love for his mother, and that’s why Catholics accord Mary the veneration called “hyperdulia.”

  

            When I pray my rosary today and get to the fourth glorious mystery, I will ask Mary to pray for Senator John Boozman. I will also ask her to pray for me, so I will love her like her Son, Jesus, does, and anything else should make me cringe.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Special Sauce

Living and dying for the uniqueness of each person

08/14/2017

John 15:12-16 Jesus said to his disciples: "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. I was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you."

           I’ll never forget one homily I heard in the eighth grade at a school Mass, preached by Fr. Tom Keller. I’m sorry to say I don’t remember too many grade school Mass homilies; I was usually counting the number of lights in the ceiling. Fr. Keller told the riveting story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, which I want to tell you, and I hope you will always remember it, too.

             Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan Friar born on January 8, 1894. At the age of 12, he had a vision of Mary that would permanently stamp his life. He recounted: “That night, I asked the Mother of God what would become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these two crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.” Kolbe received the first crown when he joined the Franciscan Friars in 1907, at the age of 13.

            Kolbe donned the second crown in 1941, when he was taken prisoner to the concentration camp of Auschwitz. The Nazis wanted to set an example of ten prisoners by starving them to death. One of the ten was a young husband and father, and when he was selected, he cried out, “My wife! My children!” Kolbe volunteered to take his place. Kolbe lived longer than the other nine and so was given a lethal injection of carbolic acid and died on August 14, 1941. On October 10, 1982, Pope St. John Paul II canonized St. Maximilian Kolbe, and in the audience that day at St. Peter’s Basilica was present that husband and father whose life was spared, along with his family.

            What impressed me so much about St. Maximilian Kolbe is that he saw in that Jewish prisoner what the Nazis were blind to: each person is created in the image of God. In other words, not only is it worth fighting for the right of other people to live, but it’s even worth dying for. That’s why St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of the pro-life movement. Every human person – even one that’s virtually invisible in the womb – is irreplaceable, unrepeatable, and, you might say, irresistible in the eyes of God because he loved us so much he sent his Son to die for us, and that’s exactly what St. Maximilian Kolbe did.

              One day a head-hunter approached my brother, Paul, and talked to him about taking a job at another company. He asked Paul a curious question, “So, what is your special sauce?” My brother didn’t know what he meant, so he replied, “Well, I really like Sriracha!” The head-hunter went on to explain: “Your special sauce is what you bring to this organization that no one else can.” That really helped my brother to think in a whole new way about his value as an employee to a company. He needed to identify his “special sauce.” That was the fundamental and fatal failure of the Nazis during World War II: they couldn’t see the special sauce of the Jewish people, and that was exactly what St. Maximilian Kolbe did see in that Jewish father and husband. Everyone has a special sauce.

              Today take a moment to think about the people in your life – family and friends, coworkers and classmates, fellow parishioners and fellow Americans. Can you see each person’s special sauce? In some people it will be easy to see (like in your children and grandchildren), while in others it will be harder. But the reason it’s hard to see another’s special sauce is because of our own selfishness, our professional jealousy, our wounded pride and ego, which blind us like it blinded the Nazis, who failed to see how special each Jewish person is. Rather, ask for the prayers of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who accepted the crown of purity and martyrdom, who believed people are so special, they’re not only worth living for, but also worth dying for.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Modern-day Minimalists

Understanding how less earth means more heaven

08/11/2017

Matthew 16:24-28 Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom."

           Have you heard of a new movement called “minimalism”? As the word “minimalism” suggest, it’s an attitude that believes “less is more.” Minimalists deliberately try to reduce clutter and complexity in their lives by not having a car, or by eliminating the internet, or living in a much smaller home. I recently heard of a priest in Vermont, Fr. Peter Williams, who built a home that was only 160 sq.ft. But Fr. Williams admitted that “you need a really big truck to pull the tiny house” (Catholic News Service, May 8, 2017). So, being a modern-day minimalist is not so easy.

             But there is something admirable about minimalism: when you reduce material things out of your life, you create more room for spiritual things. The transcendental philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Walden, 143). Put simply (which minimalists would appreciate), less is more.

Today (August 11) is the feast day of St. Clara, and she shows us that the spirit of minimalism is not really new at all, but rather something very old. Clara – sometimes pronounced Claire – was born in Assisi, on July 16, 1194. She came from a wealthy Italian family – meaning she had a lot of expensive stuff – but one day she heard St. Francis preach about the joys of poverty during Lent in the church of St. George. After the sermon, she asked him to help her to live more according to the gospel ideal of poverty. On Palm Sunday, in 1212, Clara left her home and met Francis at the chapel called the Portiuncula, and there Francis cut off her hair, and put a veil on her head, and she exchanged her rich robes for a simple gown. St. Clara was a minimalist before it was cool to be a minimalist!

              But Francis wasn’t really teaching Clara about minimalism, but rather about an evangelical counsel called “poverty.” Together with chastity and obedience, poverty makes up a kind of “holy trinity” of the saintly virtues of those who long to be completely conformed to Christ. They want to leave everything behind: pleasures, power and possessions. St. Francis taught Clara that less materially is more spiritually.

               Folks, we don’t need to become minimalists and get rid of our cars and computers. And not everyone is called to enter a convent like St. Clara. Nevertheless, we must all embrace the virtue of poverty and learn to live with less, and that’s especially hard in our consumerist and materialists culture that preaches: the more you possess the happier you will be. Here are a few tips you might try to embrace the spirit of poverty. Whenever you get something new, give something old away. If you get a new shirt, give an old shirt away to the poor; if you get a new book, give an old book away to someone else. Practice portion control when you eat meals. What you cannot eat, save for lunch the next day. By the way, someone told me recently that losing weight is 80% about what you eat, and only 20% about exercise. So, less exercise means more weight loss! Reduce your dependency on social media like checking Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and have a conversation with someone face to face instead. Incidentally, there is no app for that. Try to see fewer movies and don’t binge watch T.V. programs like “Game of Thrones.” Go for a walk in the woods instead. When there’s less clutter in your life there’s more room for Christianity, which is what St. Clara believed, and what she left behind.

              Listen to Thoreau’s words again: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see, if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover I had not lived.” Modern-day minimalists attempt to live more fully by living more simply. But no one lives as fully as the saints, who embrace the evangelical counsel of gospel poverty, for whom less of earth means more of heaven.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Sacraments of Dying

Looking forward to death under the aegis of Christ 

08/10/217

John 12:24-26 Jesus said to his disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me."

           What is your attitude toward death? Most of us would rather not think about it, and when we bother to, we either laugh or cry. I recently came across these comical comments about death that show its humorous side. Bill Cosby said: “I want to die before my wife, and the reason is this: if it’s true that when you die your soul goes up to judgment, I don’t want my wife up there ahead of me to tell them things.” James Duffecy quipped: “A dead atheist is someone who’s all dressed up with no place to go.” Garrison Keillor joked: “They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I’m going to miss mine by just a few days.” I sometimes joke with people about death by saying, “No one is getting out of here alive!”

           August 10 (today) is the feast of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr, and he also had a humorous approach to death. He was one of the seven deacons serving in Rome under Pope Sixtus II. In 258 the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered a cruel and complete persecution of the Church which included the pope and his deacons. St. Lawrence was martyred by being grilled alive over a fire. It is reported that he joked with his executioner saying, “I’m well cooked on this side, you can turn me over.” St. Lawrence saw the humorous side of death, but where did his ability to laugh at death come from, not from a joke but from Jesus, in knowing that he was dying in the Lord, in knowing that he was dying for the Lord, and that he would soon be with the Lord for eternity. This is what the Christian faith does: it completely changes our whole life – including our death – because we see life as under the aegis of Christ. That is, faith helps us realize we truly live in his kingdom (even while we’re on earth), under his rule and his protection. In Christ’s kingdom, nothing happens without his permission, not even death, and that’s why St. Lawrence could laugh in the face of death.

            Believe it or not, the Church actually teaches us to pray for a happy death. Did you know that? What a strange thing to pray for: what could possibly be “happy” about death? Isn’t death the worst thing in the world? To be sure it is terrible; it is heart-breaking to lose a loved one; it is “the consequence of sin” as St. Paul teaches in Romans 5:12. But if we gaze at death through the lens of faith, its frightening façade begins to fade and this great foe can even be seen as a gentle friend. It can go from a moment of eternal loss to a moment of eternal love, like Jesus’ death on the Cross.

           Have you heard of the “sacraments of the dying”? Just like there are three “sacraments of initiation” – baptism, confirmation and Communion – so there are three “sacraments of the dying”: confession, Communion and Anointing of the Sick. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards him and an entrance into everlasting life..[T]he Church for the last time speaks Christ's words of pardon and absolution over the dying Christian (confession), seals him for the last time with a strengthening anointing (Anointing of the Sick), and gives him Christ in viaticum as nourishment for the journey (Communion)” (Catechism, 1020). You know, sometimes people don’t tell a seriously sick person they are going to die; they whisper around the deathbed. They think they are being merciful, but I believe that is misguided. Why? That fails to see death through the eyes of faith, not as a foe but as a friend, as someone who obeys the orders of Christ the King. Don’t let death sort of sneak up on you, but rather face it head on, prepare for it, indeed, pray for a happy death!

            My friends, the best way to approach death is not as a comedian but as a Christian, and it will thereby lose its menacing and morbid make-up. It says in Revelation 14:15, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord, for their good deeds go with them.” A blessed and happy death is one we should all look forward to, one like St. Lawrence enjoyed.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Mother of Phenomenology

Being faithful to daily duties and persistent prayers

08/09/2017

Matthew 15: 21-28 At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not say a word in answer to her. His disciples came and asked him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us." He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me." He said in reply, "It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus said to her in reply, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

           Let me tell you the story of an extraordinary woman named Edith Stein. She is a shining example of being tested and tried by family and friends, by the Church and the state, and finally being killed for her faith, but never flinching. Sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t she? Edith was born in Poland on October 12, 1891 to devout Jewish parents, but she had become an atheist by the time she was a teenager. During World War I, she worked in an infectious disease hospital and developed a deep compassion for the sick and dying. That’s why when she studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg and her doctoral dissertation was titled, “On the Problem of Empathy.” Her thesis director was Edmund Husserl, who founded a whole new kind of philosophy called “phenomenology.” But because Edith was a woman, Husserl did not promote her to an academic chair, but advanced Martin Heidegger instead. Obviously, Husserl needed to study the phenomena of “sexism” a little more carefully. But Edith remained friends with both Husserl and Heidegger.

            In 1922 at the age of 31, Edith read the life of the Carmelite mystic, St. Teresa of Avila, and she converted to Catholicism. She wanted to be a Carmelite nun right away, but her friends dissuaded her – I feel her pain! Instead she began a career in teaching philosophy at Catholic institutions. As the Nazis rose to power in Germany and oppressed both Jews and Catholics, Edith wrote a letter to Pope Pius XI asking him to denounce the regime, he had been conspicuously quiet. She didn’t mince words when she wrote: “As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God for the past eleven years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans.” She continued: “For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany that mock any sense of justice and humanity, not to mention love of neighbor. For years the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews… But the responsibility must fall, after all, on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in the face of such happenings.”  Wow, what a woman.  Eventually, in 1937 the pope publicly decried the evils of Nazism.

            In 1933, Edith entered the Carmelite order and took the name of Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Even though she took refuge in a convent in the Netherlands, the Nazis finally found the Jewish refugees – including Carmelite nuns – and deported them to Auschwitz, where Sr. Teresa Benedicta was killed in a mass gas chamber on August 7, 1942. Even her death and canonization as a saint were controversial. Did Edith die for being a Jew or did she die for being a Christian? Whatever others thought, Edith wrote this to her prioress about her feelings: she asked permission to “allow her to offer herself to the heart of Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement for true peace.” Obviously, her faith fueled both her life and death. On October 11, 1998, Pope John Paul II canonized Edith as a saint. I admire Edith because she was tenacious in testing; every time she was knocked down, she got back up.  What a woman.

           In the gospel today we see another woman who is tested and still remains tenacious. She is a Canaanite woman who asks Jesus three times to cure her daughter and three times Jesus ignores her or rejects her outright. But she refuses to give up, and finally wins over our Lord’s love. What a strange episode, how unlike our Lord, and the only meaning I can make of it is Jesus was teaching her to be tenacious in testing; don’t give up fighting the good fight like Edith Stein, even to the death. God will eventually vindicate you.

           My friends, learn the lesson of tenacious testing from Edith Stein today. What do you do when things do not go your way, when your plans are frustrated, when your hopes and dreams are dashed, when your marriage fails, or illness assaults, or you’re persecuted for being a woman, or a Christian or a Carmelite nun (I mean, who persecutes poor Carmelite nuns??)? Instead of grumbling or groaning, rather than shaking a defiant fist against heaven, simply keep doing what you should be: your daily duties, your persistent prayers, be cheerful, courageous and courteous, like the Canaanite woman and the Carmelite nun. In the end God will vindicate you, if not in this life, then certainly in the next.

           By the way, Edmund Husserl is commonly referred to as the “father of phenomenology.” He might be surprised to learn that his assistant, whom he refused to promote to professor because she was a woman, is today seen as the “mother of phenomenology.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Hounds of the Lord

Praying for our precious religious orders

08/08/2017

Matthew 15:1-2, 10-14 Some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat a meal." He summoned the crowd and said to them, "Hear and understand. It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles the man; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one." Then his disciples approached and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?" He said in reply, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit."

           Sometimes people ask me an unusual question, but if you grew up Catholic, you’ll know exactly what they mean. They ask me: “Are you an order priest?” They are asking if I am a diocesan priest or if I belong to a religious order, like the Dominicans or the Franciscans or the Jesuits. I try to explain this fundamental difference between diocesan priests and order priests by comparing it to the military. A military has a standing army, with ranks of private and captain and general, but a military also has special forces like Navy Seals and Army Rangers and Marino Commandoes. Diocesan priests are like the standing army with ranks like deacon, priest and bishop, and the religious orders are like the special forces because they live in small groups called communities and have a special mission called a “charism.”  Men and women who join religious orders have an awesome vocation, and I am in awe of them.

           That always reminds me of that old joke about religious orders. What are the three things that even God does not know about the Church? (1) How many congregations of religious women there are, more than even God can count. (2) How much money the Franciscans have stashed away (they’re supposed to be poor). And (3) What the Jesuits really think, and what they will do next (they’re known for being very stable and predictable). Of course, that joke is only told by Dominicans.

            Every year on August 8 the Church celebrates the feast of the founder of one of those great “special forces” called the Dominicans because it was founded by St. Dominic. St. Dominic, on December 22, 1216, received the approval of Pope Honorious III, to start a religious order to preach the gospel particularly against heresies. At that time the Albigensians were running rampant in Southern France and convincing Catholics that the world was inherently evil. But Catholics believe what it says in Genesis 1:10: that God created the cosmos “and saw that it was good.” For 800 years, therefore, the Dominicans have preached the gospel against those who attack Catholicism. Dominicans will have two letters after their name – O. P. – which means “Order of Preachers.” Perhaps the greatest single Dominican to ever live was St. Thomas Aquinas, whose teachings in the Summa Theologica and other writings still shape the studies of seminarians who are preparing to become priests. I had a Dominican professor in the seminary who taught us Mariology – the study of the Blessed Virgin Mary – and warned us not to commit “Mariolotry,” that is, not to worship Mary. That’s what Dominicans do: they keep us Catholic. That’s their special charism, their “special sauce.”

            Today, I want you to pray for the Dominicans, but also for all religious orders. Why? Well, I am convinced that they have a singular and unrepeatable role in the life of the Church and in the life of Christians. The Second Vatican Council taught that these religious orders practice the highest virtues and aspire to the greatest levels of sanctity called “perfectae caritatis,” or perfect charity, or perfect love. They want to identify themselves as closely to Christ as possible by exercising the “evangelical (gospel) counsels” of “poverty, chastity and obedience.” Religious orders may have touched your life: you may have been taught by the Sisters of Mercy, or the Benedictines; you might have attended a Jesuit university like Boston College, or perhaps you worked in a soup kitchen with Franciscans, or helped the poorest of the poor with the Missionaries of Charity started by St. Teresa of Calcutta, or asked for the powerful prayers of cloistered Carmelite nuns. These are the special forces of the Catholic Church, and their special sauce adds great flavor to our faith. We simply could not be victorious in our struggle against Satan without their help.

            One of the nicknames the Dominicans have, and one they wear with particular pride, is “Hounds of the Lord.” Where does that name originate? You divide the name “Dominicans” into two Latin words, “Domini” and “canes,” which mean “Hounds of the Lord.” And like a good watchdog, the Dominicansm, the Hounds of the Lord, keep the House of the Lord safe from intruders.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Curb Your Hanger

Feeding others before feedings ourselves

08/07/2017

Matthew 14:13-21 When Jesus heard of the death of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. The crowds heard of this and followed him on foot from their towns. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." He said to them, "There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Five loaves and two fish are all we have here." Then he said, "Bring them here to me," and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up the fragments left over–twelve wicker baskets full. Those who ate were about five thousand men, not counting women and children.

           Most Americans have never experienced real hunger. If someone is hungry, it’s not due to a real lack of food, but more likely to ignorance of where to find it. Deacon Greg tells me there are nine free meals served in Fort Smith every day. Maybe you’ve experienced being “hangry,” when hunger makes you angry (the word “hangry” is a portmanteau of hungry and angry). Catholics voluntarily experience a little hunger while fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I always tell people this rule of thumb about fasting: “If it didn’t hurt a little, you didn’t do it right.” Nevertheless, all these hunger pains are a far cry from the dire need of those who truly cry out with hunger.

            The depths of real hunger came home to me in a particularly poignant scene in the recent movie, “The Lion.” It’s about a very poor family in India who survive by the two small boys going out to look for valuables in the trash which they then sell for food. But even more compelling is the scene where they sit down to a meager meal with their mother, who forgoes the food herself so there would be enough for her two boys. She overcame her “hanger” with love, and in a sense, her food was her fondness for her sons. We don’t feel so hangry when we sacrifice food for the sake of love.

In the gospel today, we hear the very familiar story of the multiplication of the loaves and fish. Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and feeds the “vast crowd” Matthew says, whom he later describes as “5,000 men, not counting women and children.” But equally enlightening as the miracle itself was what Jesus does not do. None of the gospels record Jesus eating himself. That is, Jesus, like the mother in the movie “The Lion,” was nourished by another kind of food, namely, fondness for his children, his disciples. Jesus’ joy came from feeding others. Jesus overcame feeling “hangry” by feeding others first.

            We will probably not experience severe hunger in our lives, but we may frequently feel the pangs of being “hangry,” where our hunger pains may cause us to become irritable and unfriendly toward others. Here are a few simple suggestions on how you can curb your hanger, that is, by thinking of feeding others before ourselves. When I was studying in Rome, I learned that you should always pout wine into other people’s glasses before you refill your own glass. Feed others first. Here in America children are taught not to take the last cookie, or the final French Fry, but to leave that for someone else. Feed others first. Personally, I leave the last bite of my dessert for Elijah (sometimes it’s not a very big bite!). Feed others first. By practicing these small habits, we learn that there is another kind of food, a more nourishing, spiritual food, called “love,” that fills not our stomachs but our hearts. Indeed, love is the most satisfying food of all.

            The best way to curb your hunger - as well as to curb your hanger - is not with diet supplements or protein shakes, but by feeding others first. Even more so, when you feed others first, you will feel the joy of Jesus, which is love.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Avatars

Learning we cannot love those we do not know

08/06/2017

Matthew 17:1-9 b Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them;  his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and do not be afraid." And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone.

  

           Do you know what an “avatar” is? Most Americans will recognize it as the title to a science-fiction movie. But perhaps you’ll also be familiar with the computer-generated avatars that we use every day. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines avatars like this: “an electronic image that represents and is manipulated by a computer user in a virtual space (as in a computer game or an online shopping site) and that interacts with other objects in the space.” A friend sends me text messages with little figures – a sort of “avatar” – that have her eyes and glasses and hairstyle, and other facial features. Have you seen those? I’m sorry to say this, but the avatar is a little more flattering-looking than the real person; but that’s precisely the point, isn’t it? Avatars are supposed to “enhance” us, make us appear better than we really are.

            In 2007, Brad Paisley, the country music star, released a hit song called “Online.” He sang about a middle aged, overweight man, who still lived in his parents’ basement. But a marvelous transformation occurs whenever he sits down at his computer and goes “online.” He sings: “Cause online I’m out in Hollywood / I’m 6’5 and I look dang good / I drive a Maserati / I’m a black belt in Karate / And I love a good glass of wine.” The refrain of the song says it all: “I’m so much cooler on line; I’m so much cooler online.” That’s the real allure of avatars: they make us look “cooler,” they hide our imperfections, they make us appear younger and richer and funnier. But all the while, the real “us” remains hidden in the basement of our parents’ home, and really in the basement of our hearts. No one knows the real me, they only know my avatar.

            When I prepare couples for marriage I give them this advice: “The worst thing that can happen to you on your wedding day is that you marry a stranger.  You may fall in love with an image – an avatar – that is merely a mask, and you don’t know the real person. Everyone wants to look like the “perfect 10” but we’re not. On the other hand, the best thing that can happen to you on your wedding day is that you look at each other and say: ‘Look, honey, I know you’re not the knight in shining armor, but I want to marry you anyway.’ How wonderful it would be for someone to know the real me – warts and weaknesses and weird habits and all – and still want to spend their life with me! Real love is always based on real knowledge of another person, and that’s only possible when we stop hiding behind our avatars.

            Today we celebrate the great Feast of the Transfiguration, which Pope St. John Paul II added as the fourth luminous mystery of the rosary. In a sense, you could say the Transfiguration is about Jesus sort of dropping his avatar for a brief moment so the apostles could see his glorious divinity. Now, let me add that Jesus’ human nature is not really an avatar because Jesus really IS a human being “tempted like us in all things but never sinned” as Hebrew 4:15 insists. But today Jesus wants the apostles to see his divine nature, his glory, his Godhead. Why? Well, because Jesus doesn’t want them to fall in love with a stranger, but rather, for them to know the real Jesus: God and yet man, eternal but also temporal, all-powerful and all-knowing but also “growing in wisdom, age and grace” (Luke 2:52). Jesus invited them into the depths of his heart – into his basement, you might say – so they could see the depths of the mystery of Christ.

              Romano Guardini, a particularly insightful theologian, wrote: “The greatest of all graces is to love the Lord with a heart fully conscious of what it is about; to love not only ‘our dear Savior’ in the impersonal sense which the phrase so often has, but Christ himself, corporeally and spiritually, as one loves an irreplaceable person to whom one is bound through thick and thin” (The Lord, 222). In other words, don’t just love Jesus’ avatar, the Jesus of pious paintings, but love the real Jesus. That’s what the Transfiguration teaches: true love is possible only where there is true knowledge of the person we say we love.

            My friends, what are the avatars that you hide behind? That is, what are the masks and mirages, disguises and deceptions that make others thing you’re “so much cooler” than you really am? Has the rise of social media – Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. – made it harder for us to love other people? It’s funny how easy it is to text someone, but sometimes I find awkward talking to face to face. Does that happen to you? We need the lesson of the Transfiguration and invite people into our basement, into our hearts, and see the real us; or else, they only love the avatar. Sometimes priests can hide behind the Roman collar, and it’s almost like an avatar of authority but also sadly of alienation. Many years ago, a priest friend of mine committed suicide, which stunned everyone who knew him. Even though everyone loved him, he left behind a note that said, “I didn’t think anyone loved me.” He needed the grace of the Transfiguration, and allow people to see him in his basement, in his heart of hearts, to see the person behind the priesthood. During World War II many Germans changed their names to sound more American: they hid behind a false name like an avatar. We use avatars so people think we’re “so much cooler” than we really are.

             Most of us are not 6’5, live in Hollywood, drive Maserati’s, hold a black belt in Karate, we may not even look “dang good.” But God made each of us precious and irreplaceable because he made us in his image and likeness; that’s what’s really hiding in our basement! And if someone doesn’t love you for that, maybe their love is not worth having.

Praised be Jesus Christ!