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How’s Your Wedding Garment?

     I’m fascinated by science and space exploration.

   I have taken great interest that in preparation for the colonization of the Moon and the eventual mission to Mars. Did you know that NASA and Space X had recently put several cows into orbit.  It was the herd shot round the world. 

     Don’t laugh, the steaks have never been higher! 

They burned up on reentry.  So it was not well done; it fact it was an udder disaster. 

   I’m going to get some searing comments about that one. 

Anyhoo, I like a good steak. Even more, I enjoy a good meal around a fancy table with friends and everybody having a good time.  I’m very blessed to have a nice set of China donated by a woman named Helen and an equally nice set of silver to go with it.   

   I encourage you to break out the good China and crystal at least once a week, maybe for Sunday dinner and cook up an outrageously elaborate meal and share it with those in your bubble.

   There are lot of reasons for doing this. 

   1.  It’s fun.

   2.  It brings elegance and class into an increasingly drab world.

   3.  It’s a good way to give thanks to God for his generosity.

     This aspect of gratitude is a lot of what Our Lord is getting at in the Parable of the Royal Wedding Feast. Like all parables, this one lends itself to multiple levels of interpretation. For our purposes here, I’m going to concentrate on the image of the wedding garment.

     You can imagine how elaborate a royal wedding feast could be. That is the image that Jesus wants in people’s minds when he is talking about the heavenly banquet. The King sends out the invitation. The call to discipleship is universal. 

It’s not about being worthy, it’s about being called. Remember, the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a rest home for saints.

     The troubling part of the parable is the casting out of the fellow without the wedding garment. It’s very interesting.  Jesus knew the human condition better than just about anybody.  And he knew his disciples were not immune from the same tendency. In a word…don’t get smug!  Don’t get complacent just because you’ve been invited to the feast.

   So, what’s the deal with the wedding garment? Apparently in those days, especially at royal functions, as a courtesy to elevate the dignity of the guests and to make sure the decorum of the gathering was maintained, the host would give each guest a garment to be worn. Kind of like the swag bags you get when you sign up for a golf tournament or other festive event that has all kinds of things like jackets, ball caps and whatnot. The host wanted you to look good for the occasion.

   This would have been the case at the wedding feast. The implication here is that this particular fellow was given the wedding garment when he arrived, but had removed it at some point, thus insulting the king. 

   The implications for us are profound. In a very real sense we have each been given a wedding garment. It is the white garment placed on us at our baptism. Very much like the one the servers and I wear at Mass.  We are wearing them, of course, on your behalf.  But if you wanted to, I suppose you could wear one every time you come church. Wouldn’t that be something to see? 

   But like this fellow who removed his wedding garment, when we sin or when we even fail to identify ourselves as disciples of Jesus by our actions or inactions, in effect we remove the baptismal garment given to us by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords when he invited us to this Eucharistic feast. 

   Think about your baptismal garment. What does it look like now?  Is it worn or stained?  Is it moth-eaten or musty for lack of use?  Does it need a good mending or washing in the sacrament of reconciliation to make it presentable at feast?  The point is that in the abundance of God’s love and mercy, we have each been invited to the feast.

   But we must ask ourselves. Have we been good stewards of this great gift of faith? Have we cherished our baptism and worn our baptismal garment in gratitude and steadfast faith? If so, then as Paul says, we can do all things in him who strengthens us. If not, then maybe it’s time to get into the confessional.

   Let me close by reminding us all of the words that were said to us at our baptism when we were clothed in white garment symbolizing that our sins are always washed clean in the blood of the Lamb.

My dear friends in Christ,

you have become a new creation,

and have clothed yourself in Christ.

See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity.

With your family and friends to help you by word and example,

bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.

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Our Little Part of the Vineyard

Hey, Church Fans! Boy are we having fun in the parish this week. Below is the text for this weekend. As always you can get video of the homily in a day or two at our YouTube channel by clicking here. Just fast forward to the homily.

       Have you ever had this happen to you? I was walking through the break room and stepped on a grape. What happened? It let out a little wine. On a more practical note, I was telling my sister about how you could take left over wine and put it in the ice cube trays to use later to chill your white wine. She looked at me kind of puzzled and said, “What the heck is ‘left over wine?’”

Wine has been around for millennia. Vineyards are special places. They always have been. But it takes a lot of work and a lot of patience to make. Did you know it takes three years for a newly planted vine to produce its first grape? In the meantime, you had to keep the birds and other varmints from eating the fruit. Then there is the harvest, then the crush.  Once you bottle it, it has to ferment for weeks and then age from 6 months to five years depending on what kind of wine you are making.    Vineyards and other types of agricultural images would have been something very familiar to the people of Jesus’ day.

We get two different parables about vineyards this week, one from Isaiah and one from Our Lord. The vineyard is the People of God, the stewards are those who were given care of it. The message is a rather harsh one. Those to whom God entrusted his vineyard were not doing their job.

       It’s a rather sobering lesson and no small challenge for us who have been entrusted with this little part of the vineyard of South Anchorage we call St. Elizabeth Parish, especially when we remember that there will be an accounting of our stewardship at the end of this life.

       It is at once an honor and a challenge.  On the other hand, it’s pretty humbling. In the Catholic understanding of parish life, you and I, the St. Elizabeth Parish Family, are given the care of souls of every man, woman and child who live in South Anchorage, all the way down to Whittier.

       God has given us this part of the vineyard. Our job as a parish is to become so much a part of the scene around here that they cannot imagine life without us. The call from the Lord is challenging. The grace to carry it out is eternal.

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That’s Not Fair! 

Hello, Church fans! Okay, okay, I have been very bad about posting consistently. But hey, the life of a priest is great and rewarding…and sometimes it gets a bit busy around here on Sundays during the time I set aside to do this. If you ever want to see a vid of the homily, simply go to our parish YouTube page by clicking here. The whole Mass is posted almost immediately, the homily vid comes out on Monday when our resident technomancer comes in the office. Anyhoo, thanks for stopping by. Enjoy.

     I’m at that stage in life where my nieces and nephews now have nieces and nephews, as well as their own kids. As you may experience when you visit our amazing school, (and you should, even if you don’t have kids in it!), children go through certain phases of development regarding fairness. By fifteen to nineteen months children will notice unequal sharing.  By age three they understand the rules of fairness and will be very vocal in protesting when such norms are broken…yet they still hoard their toys.  From age four to seven, they will strongly object when they get less than someone else.  This is when you will hear the shouted phrase: “THAT’S NOT FAIR!”  Ironically, at this stage they still delight when they get more than another. However, by eight years old, they understand and concepts of fairness and sharing and put them into practice.  Finally, by age 10, they will begin to practice true altruism and charity.  While this happens incidentally in the rest of the world, such behavior is taught and reinforced daily in our parish school where we “provide an excellent Catholic education in a Christ-like environment.” 

     In thinking of such things, it is important to make an important distinction between ‘justice’ and ‘mercy.’  Justice in the classic sense is to “give to each as he or she deserves.” Justice involves rights and responsibilities. For example, the life and dignity of the human person is something owed to everyone in justice. The founding fathers of our country enshrined such dignity when they states, “We hold such to truths be self evident…that all are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights…”  Justice also involves the reparation of and restoration of rights when they have been violated. This is why we have criminal and civil justice systems.

     Mercy is something special. Mercy acknowledges the demands of justice, but goes beyond them to achieve a greater good than justice could accomplish alone. There is no greater example of this than the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. The price for sin is death. This is the demand of justice, and it needed and continues to need to be paid. The mercy of God is shown in that it is not you or I who pay this price, but Christ who pays it for us. As the saying goes, “Jesus paid a debt he didn’t owe because we owe a debt we cannot pay.”

     I don’t know about you, but I know what my sins are.  I know what I deserve in justice. But in his love, God does not inflict that upon me. This is mercy.  I don’t get what I deserve. 

That’s not fair.  Thank God it’s not. 

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When You, I Feel, Because…

[Hello, Church fans! It’s been a busy last part of the summer. but it looks like I am back in the blog saddle again. Here is the text of this week’s missive.]

   It is one of the most uncomfortable situations there is.  Someone, maybe even a spouse, relative or close friend, does something that is very hurtful. The worst part is that they may not even realize it. What do you do? 

   One option is that you can sit there and stew in your resentment. The only problem is that resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Resentment turns into bitterness and bitterness turns into anger. Anger can turn into separation and separation can end relationships. So, option one is not a good one, unless you want to be bitter, angry and lonely for the rest of eternity.

   Another option is to get passive aggressive and get back at them by doing or not doing something to make their life a little more difficult. The problem here is that escalation makes for a conflicted situation which is just miserable. Passive aggression is never a good option…ever.

   A more perfect option is the one that Our Lord proposes in today’s gospel: If your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother (Mt. 18:15).  This seems simple enough, but there are better ways to do this than others.

   Here is one way that works almost every time. Use the following formula: “When you…I feel…because…”  For example, “Honey, when you leave your dishes in the sink, I feel irritated because I need to use the sink and I can’t until I have I clean all of your mess out of the sink first.”

   The beauty of the “When you…I feel…because…” is that it focuses the attention on the behavior, not the person.  You love the person, it’s the behavior that is driving you nuts. 

   In my own experience, the “When you…I feel…because…” works at least 90% of the time. Most of the time, the other party is completely unaware that they have offended. More often than I care to admit, I have been on the receiving end of a “When you…I feel…because…” But in truth, I appreciate that the other party cares enough about me to let me know my offense. I shows me they value our relationship enough to work to resolve the conflict.

   Conflict is part of life. Whether it leads to deeper communion or greater separation depends entirely on how charitably we decide to deal with it.

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Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

   My parents did a lot of entertaining.  It seemed like at least once a week we would have one of my dad’s business colleagues or a hunting buddy and his wife.  It was fun! Only later in life did I realize that as often as not, Dad would not have informed Mom that he had invited them over until about 2:30 that afternoon. Yet somehow, she always managed to scramble and get everything ready. 

   There’s a bit of that dynamic going on in the miracle of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. The disciples are just trying to be practical when they ask him to dismiss the crowds so they can get something to eat. Instead, Jesus invites them all to dinner!

   Two takeaways from the encounter are the cooperation of the disciples to make the miracle happen and the scale of the miracle itself.

   Jesus never passes up an opportunity to reveal the nature of the Kingdom or of his Father. The first takeaway is that God wants us to be part of the miracle.  Jesus could have easily conjured up bread grass and fish from stones. Instead, he says, “You give them something to eat.” It does not matter to him that the disciples only had five loaves and two fish. What does matter is that they trust him enough to give him what they do have.  It’s the same for each of us. Our own resources are never going to be enough. That’s not what matters. Our job is not to work the miracle.  Our job is to bring the fish.

   The second takeaway is that our God is the God of Abundance. This is obvious from the fact that are leftovers.  Lots and lots of leftovers! Some biblical scholars surmise that it was enough to feed everyone again. The lesson here is clear. When it comes to the life of grace, God does not just give us a sufficiency, he gives us an abundance.

   These are couple good lessons for both of us.  Jesus could save the world without, but what fun would that be?  Rather, in his love, he invites us to offer what we have, no matter how little it might seem. Our job is to bring the fish give them to the Lord trusting that he can do far more with our offering than we could ever imagine. 

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He’s Got Your Back

    I’m comforted by the fact that every hair on my head is counted. However, I’m a little miffed that the Lord seems to be making his task easier by reducing the number of said hairs exponentially since my youth. I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective, really.  It’s not losing hair, it’s gaining face! 

    Anyhoo, there are three powerful messages in the gospel this week. The first one is evocative, the second is sobering, the third is comforting.

    When Jesus tells us to fear no one, what is he getting at? In a real way, he is exhorting his followers to embrace the prophetic character of their baptism. It helps to remember that a prophet’s first job was not foretell the future. Rather, it was to speak the truth, especially to those in authority. Some things, especially uncomfortably, shameful things, like to lie hidden in the dark background. The prophet’s job, yours and mine, is to bring them to light. But when we do, make sure to do it charitably. No one likes to have their dirty laundry on display. If you must admonish someone, take them off by themselves in hopes of changing their heart. 

    The second is sobering. Sometimes people don’t like their embarrassing bits coming to light. Take the professional baseball players who are being threatened with discipline because the league is asking them to promote something that their Christian faith cannot let them do in conscience. One team in an independent league forfeited a game because they could not find nine players who would comply.

    It is a simple fact of life that we Christians will not be left alone. If you even try to life the Gospel, even quietly, there will be those who find it very irritating. Eventually they will try to cancel you. Thus it has always been.  Thus it is always likely to be…so what?!

I have been given permission to tell the story of a former parishioner of mine from back when I was Fr. Youngpriest. She was a pharmacist who worked for one of the big chain stores here in town. Back in the early 2000’s she came into my office asking for a little spiriutal guidance. The new abortefecent drug RU-486, commonly known now as miefpristone or “the morning after pill” had just come out. As a practicing Catholic, she was very uncomfortable being asked to fill such prescriptions since it would make her a material and proximate cause of a procured abortion. She asked her employer if they could have someone else fill such subscriptions since she had a well-founded moral objection. They had refused. So, there she was in my office asking what she should do. We chatted a bit about the moral principles involved and what was reasonable for her and she left to discern.

A week later she came back in.

“Well,” I said, “What’s the story?”

She said, “I told them I could not do it in conscience.”

“And what did they say?”

“Oh,” she said, rather matter of factly, “They fired me.”

“I’m not really sure at the moment, but I can tell you that I have never been more at peace than I am now. God will take care of me.”

If the story ended there, it would be an incredible story of faith. But it does not end there. She had a bit of savings, and with that she bought an interest in a Christian women’s workout studio franchise. She loved the environment that integrated Christian spirituality into a holistic approach to fitness. And, it turns out she was very good at it. After about six months she opened up another, and then another. After a couple years she was back in my office.

She said, “You know, I could never have written this script. If you would have told me that I would own three workout studios, helping hundreds and hundreds of women live holier, healthier lives.” God has been so good to me.

    Christians have always faced some measure of persecution in one form or another. Jesus assures us that the God who knows everything knows this. If a sparrow can’t fall to the ground without his knowledge, then as Paul reminds us elsewhere, “What can separate us from the love of God?”  The question is whether we can trust God enough to preach the Gospel, even silently, knowing all the while that others will seek to remove us and shove us into the dark background.

    But do not be afraid. “The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.”

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The Most Holy Trinity – Problem to Be Solved or Mystery to be Lived.

   There is the story of how St. Augustine, perhaps one of the greatest minds in history and who essentially coined the term “Trinity”, was walking along the beach outside of Hippo one day contemplating this mystery.  Presently, he came across a young boy who, like all boys throughout history, had a little shovel and a pail. The boy had dug a hole in the sand. As St. Augustine watched, the boy would run to the ocean, fill up his bucket and dump it in the hole. After watching it for a bit, he would run back to the ocean and repeat the process. Eventually, Augustine said to him, “Little boy, what are you doing?”

   The boy looked up and replied, “It’s quite simple, I am putting the ocean in this little hole.”

   Shaking his head, the saint replied, “My son, the ocean is vast and wide. No one knows its boundary. You cannot hope to put that vastness into that little hole.”

   “Just so,” the boy replied, “you cannot hope to fit the mystery of the Trinity into your little brain.” And with that, he vanished from Augustine’s sight.

   While we cannot hope to understand the vastness of the mystery of God, in his kindness, God has revealed certain things that we can understand.

   If there is one thing that helps us, it is the understanding that this whole God thing is not primarily about knowing all the right answers but rather entering into the right relationships and appreciating them. Indeed, all our theology and catechesis is descriptive of those relationships. This is the difference between approaching the life of grace as a problem to be solved or a mystery to be lived. 

   Approaching life as a problem involves observation and analysis in the hopes of coming up with an answer to the meaning of life. This approach will always come up short because some things don’t lend themselves to analysis. 

   However, when we approach things as mystery to be lived, everything changes. When we talk about “mystery” in this sense of the word, I am referring to a reality that is larger than you of which you are a part and which is a part of you. Your family, such as it is, is the prime example. You don’t solve a family.  You are part of your family, and genetically, psychologically, spiritually your family is  apart of you.  So too with the Church. In a similar way, you are part of the Church and the Church is a part of you. So too with the mystery of the Trinity. By the graciousness of Almighty God, we are invited to share in the same loving relationship between the Father and the Son, also known as the Holy Spirit. Thus, through the indwelling of the Spirit, we are caught up and united with the very mystery of God, and God is united with each of us at the very level of our being.  This union of heart and soul is what we call “full communion.”  It is a great mystery to be lived, now and into eternity.

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The Lord, the Giver of Life

   Today we celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Birthdays are fun. but births themselves are simply miraculous. Anyone who has been there can tell you that perhaps the most profound moment of any birth is when the baby takes its first breath. The experience is indescribable. Perhaps it is because at that moment, we realize that where there is breath, there is life. In the same moment we realize that we are not the source of that life; we are merely its beneficiaries. 

       There is a story making the rounds on the nternet about an elderly Italian gentleman who was hospitalized after he had contracted COVID-19. He recovered but had to spend a day on a ventilator. As he left the hospital, he received a bill for €500. The old man began to cry. The embarrassed attendant assured him that financial assistance was available if he could not pay. The old man said, “Oh, I don’t cry because of the money. I can afford it easily. I cry because I have been breathing God’s air for free for the last 93 years.  I have never thanked him once. It takes €500 to use a ventilator in a hospital for one day. Do you know how much I owe God?”

       There are many different things we could meditate on this Pentecost, but given the times in which we live I would like to spend a little time on the Holy Spirit as the breath that gives life to the Church. 

       It helps to remember how we understand the Holy Spirit as the very love between the Father and the Son; the relationship between the lover and the beloved. It is this relationship of co-eternal, mutual love that is the life breath of the Church by inviting all of us into that relationship. It is the love of God that breathes life into the Church and animates its members. 

       We have two wonderful images of this in today’s Scriptures. In the reading from Acts, we see the first manifestation of the Spirit as “noise, like a strong driving wind.”  I’ve mentioned before that in Hebrew, the word for ‘spirit’ is “ru’ach” (רוח). Literally it means wind, breath, or soul. Thus, at the birth of the Church at Pentecost, the noise like a strong driving wind makes sense. It is God breathing life into the Church.

       In a similar, in the passage from John’s gospel, we see the resurrected Christ breathing on the apostles and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It is more personal, but the image is the same. It is the breath of Divine Love, the Holy Spirit, that animates or “ensouls” the life of the Church.

       It is through the Holy Spirit that we receive the gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of the Lord.

       It is in our grateful acceptance of these gifts that we become aware of the charisms of the Holy Spirit given to certain individuals within the Church, including prophecy and healing, mercy, teaching, stewardship, perseverance, encouragement, hospitality, leadership, joy.       

Finally, it is in our exercise of these gifts that we each enjoy the fruits of the Holy Spirit: charity, generosity, joy, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, modesty, kindness, self-control, goodness, chastity, peace.

       St. Paul is right. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” (1Cor 12:4-7)

Perhaps it is a good time to pause, take a deep breath, actually and metaphorically, and thank God for the gifts that we have been given.

       The gift of life,

       The gift of faith

       The gifts, charisms and fruits of the Holy Spirit

              that are given to each of us for the building up of the Church and the world. 

Let us pray.

       Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created; and You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.   

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Why Ascension?

Hey there, Church fans! Happy Ascension! Here is the text for this week. Video will come later this afternoon. Pax et groovium.

While I am very rooted in the sacred Tradition of the Church, I’m not what many would call a “traditionalist.”  Still, I wince a little bit when we celebrate the Ascension, not on Ascension Thursday, but on the following Sunday. There are many good reasons for doing so. Foremost is that since it is on a Sunday, more people can celebrate this very important Solemnity in the Church. There’s a lot going on at the Ascension.

   First, why did Jesus ascend? Why didn’t he just stick around in his resurrected body up to the present day? Wouldn’t that make the resurrection a bit more credible? At first glance, I suppose that it would, but it would also severely limit the scope of his ministry and the ministry of the Church. Think about it. If the resurrected Jesus was walking the face of the earth today, where would you want to be right now?

   How much better that Christ has found a way to be truly and substantially present in all times and to all people through his Body, the Church. Remember, Christ did not leave us a book, he left us a Church. There is no separation between the head and the body. The same Spirit that animates the life of Christ animates the life of the Church. While this is true in the life of every Christian, it is especially true when we gather in the Sacred Assembly for the Eucharist. To commune with Our Lord, all who have gone before us in faith, and with one another is the most profound prayer there is.

       Finally, think about the implications for all humanity that Christ, who is truly human and truly divine, returns to the Father. There is no separation between the head and the body. Where Christ goes, we go. The relationship between God and humanity could not get any more intimate. No wonder Leo the Great exclaimed to the newly baptized in Rome, “Christian, remember your dignity!”  May we carry that dignity unstained into the world and into eternity. 

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The Sixty-Second Soul Saver

So, there you are on the elevator on the tenth floor of the building with a black cross smudged onto your forehead from the Ash Wednesday liturgy. The fellow getting on the elevator looks at you and says, “Catholic?”

    You reply, “Yep.”

    He says, “What’s it all about?”

    At six seconds per floor, you have about 60 seconds to tell him do exactly what St. Peter instructs you do in his letter from the readings this week. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope…” (1Pet3:16). 

    In marketing and sales, this is called the “Elevator Speech.”  It is a prepared, practiced sixty-second explanation of the basics of your organization, product or service.

    When it came the proclamation of the Good News of the resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins, the apostles excelled at the elevator speech. The Acts of the Apostles is full of these precise, succinct explanations of the basics of the faith known as “kerygmata.”  Almost every missionary in history had a similar speech in their back pocket. We each need to have our own “kerygmata” as well.  Your sixty-second soul saver. It should be polished, practiced and practical.

    Keep it simple. You don’t need to explain everything there is to know about the Catholic Faith.  You are already an expert on what matters most in that moment; namely, why it is that you are Catholic and how you have experienced the joy of the risen Christ in the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish family. 

    People can always dismiss a faceless institution. They can never dismiss the Christian facing them glowing with the joy of the Good News.

    You have sixty seconds – which, incidentally, is the length of this homily.