[Howdy, Church fans! Well, we are all recovered from the trip to the Holy Land. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Deacon John is preaching this week, but I will be covering St. Elizabeth’s this evening before I blast off the the Canon Law convention in Cleveland. If you want to catch the livestream of that, you can go to their Facebook page by clicking here; https://www.facebook.com/SaintElizabethAnnSetonParishAnchorage
In the meantime, here’s my thoughts on today’s gospel with an added bonus at the end.
It was not an easy thing to be a leper in Jesus’ day. Unlike today, where the use of sulfates has pretty much eradicated the effects, and the stigma, of the disease, to be a leper in the first century was to be completely outcast from society. Not only were you physically disfigured and rather smelly, you were ritually unclean as well. This meant that you could not worship with the believing community. Indeed, you were seen as cursed because of some sin of yours or a recent ancestor.
Two grateful lepers are offered for our consideration in this week’s scripture readings, both are Gentiles. The first is Naaman the Syrian. You may recall that he was a general of the army of the King of Aram. At first, he was disappointed that Elisha did not do some outrageous ritual. Instead, he just had him bath in the Jordan seven times. But at the advice of his servant, he did and was cleansed. His gratitude knew no bounds.
The ten lepers that approach Jesus, also in Samaria. Jesus is even less dramatic than Elisha. He simply has them show themselves to the priests to verify that they are now ritually pure and the curse lifted. They go off to do what he says and are healed on the way. So why the big deal about the Samaritan leper who comes back to give thanks? If you look at it on the face of it, the other nine, apparently Jews, were obedient and presumably did go and show themselves to the priests, just as Jesus instructed them. The Samaritan does not follow instructions. Instead, he returns to give thanks.
The lesson here is that gratitude is the higher virtue. Once they were cured, they could all move about freely anywhere they wanted. They could have gone to the priests first or they could have returned and given thanks first. Only the Samaritan gets it right. As Christians, when we realize what we have been given, and what we have been forgiven, our first response should always be grateful. It is in the warmth of this gratitude that all our other acts of charity and duty take on luster of grace.
BONUS!
As many of you know, I fly a little airplane around the Alaskan wilderness to many secret fishing holes and a few cabins that people let me use in their kindness. It is a float equipped Citabria 7GCBC with a 160 horse-Lycoming I0-360. It is great for getting me wherever I want to go. Here are some pics of the past summer. Enjoy.
Dog is my copilot.Undisclosed fishing hole, #1Undisclosed fishing hole, #2A boy and his airplane.Knik GlacierMt. Saint Augustine as seen from Bruin Bay.
[Do you really have to hate your mother and father to follow Jesus?}
This week marks something of a milestone in space exploration as NASA is continuing to ramp up for a return to the moon.
I find this of great interest. One of my earliest childhood memories was crowding around the television in our basement watching the first lunar landing and seeing Neil Armstrong exit the landing craft and become the first human being to walk on the moon.
Space and things astronomical have always fascinated me. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited the first images from the Hubble space telescope as it was launched into low earth orbit in 1990. With great precision, the engineers pointed this amazing contraption into the heavens. Then they hit the button and awaited the first images to be beamed back to earth…
…The images were blurry. The telescope would not focus properly.
After no small amount of analysis, it was found that the problem was due to a simple error in math. One engineering team had been designing using the metric system and another had been using the imperial system. Fortunately, the problem was corrected three years later by a crew from the Space Shuttle and now even thirty years later, we can enjoy vivid, high-resolution images of galaxies and nebulae and all kinds of cool things that are out there in the great expanse of space.
I think of this embarrassing, and very expensive episode with the Hubble Telescope where the greatest minds of our time got it wrong, and I am reminded of a plaque that hung in the office of the Superintendent at the jobsite on Adak in the Aleutian Islands where I worked construction in the summers during college. It read:
In short, if you want to do the job right, you better know what you are getting yourself into beforehand.
That is essentially what Jesus is doing as he speaks with his disciples in this week’s gospel from Luke 14. If you are going be his disciple, you’ve got to know what you are getting yourself into.
Our Holy Father said this morning that these are very difficult words. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem. A great crowd is following him, many simply because he is a superstar. Jesus stops and tells them in no uncertain terms that discipleship is not for the faint of heart.
First, your relationship with Christ, must come before your family. This is not to say that you have to disown your family. But it does make sense. They say that “blood is thicker than water.” The question here could be WHOSE blood? When it comes to a case of facts, we have to admit that the blood of our family heritage that brought us to life in this passing world always gives way to the blood of Christ who has given us eternal life. The primary relationship HAS to be Christ for even our relationships with our family to be rightly ordered.
Second, being a follower of Christ will involves SACRIFICE. For Jesus to say, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” would have made absolutely no sense to his listeners. Crucifixion was a brutal Roman means of execution. In our own day, it is as if he had said, “Whoever does not sit in his own electric chair cannot be my disciple.” Or “whoever does not lie on his own lethal injection table cannot be my disciple.”
What are we to make of this? If we listen to what he says elsewhere, we cannot escape the conclusion that if Christ is truly the center of our lives; if we try to be his disciples; even if we do this poorly, there are those who will find it very annoying. And finding it annoying they would like to see us removed from the public square.
This can happen on many levels.
In its most benign sense, it may mean that we will be snubbed and ignored in matters of public discourse. And this is certainly true. In the wake of the Enlightenment, truth is in the eye of the beholder.
It was Descartes who famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” In so doing he made himself the center of the universe around which everything else revolved.
How small is the intellectual leap from seeing truth as an objective reality to a subjective one. Unthinkable a few generations ago, now the airwaves and screens are full of those who hold sincerely that my truth is as real as your truth. This bodes ill for those of us Christians for whom the truth is not a something, but a someone – Jesus the Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Furthermore, it is a sad testimony that in the secular West, a person is free to embrace just about any religion…except Christianity. Among Christians, we Catholics are the most suspect.
In its most extreme sense, this desire to remove us from society takes on the form of brutal, repressive persecution of the Church, even to the point of death. Earlier this month, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, forcibly closed seven Catholic radio stations and placed the Cardinal Archbishop of Managua under house arrest on charges of sedition and treason. Cardinal Alvarez’s alleged crime was that he supported student protesters who had demonstrated against the policies and practices of the regime. Namely, that all opposition candidates in the recent election had all been arrested and incarcerated before the last election.
We say to ourselves, “Oh that could never happen here!” Personally, given the momentum of history, I am not so optimistic. But neither am I worried if it does. Persecution is part of discipleship. The seeds of faith have always been watered by the blood of martyrs. Why should we think it will be any different in our own time?
In light of this, Jesus’ comment that “Anyone who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple” is almost an afterthought. Still it bears reflection. They say that you spend the first third of your life wanting stuff, the second third of your life accumulating stuff and the last third of your life trying to get rid of stuff. Nevertheless, at some point each one of us must ask the question: “Do I own my possessions? Or do my possessions own me? The answer to that question will tell us much about ourselves and where we are on the spectrum of discipleship. In the end we know that we are stewards, not owners. We leave everything behind in this world. In the meantime, we are each given gifts of time, talent and treasure. The key is to use these gifts in a way that is pleasing to the Giver, and to return them to the Lord with increase.
The words of Jesus today are very hard in one sense, but they are very liberating in another. When we stop to think about it, Jesus is not asking us to do anything he has not already done himself. Furthermore, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of God’s love alive in the world; the same Spirit that animated the life of Christ, descended upon Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost; the same Spirit that animates the life of every Christian; through this Holy Spirit, Our Lord has given us the means to live our Catholic faith in the midst of the world courageously and joyfully.
We stand in the truth in love in the world and for the world. In so doing, we transform the world and help it to become what God has created it to be.
Having lived in a foreign country for some time, moving in their culture and speaking their language, I have a great admiration for anyone who emigrates to the United States. English is not an easy language to learn! Other languages have rules. We have rules, but break them with impunity. Here is a poem I found about that very thing. Sadly, I do not know who to credit it to. Please help me out if you can. Whoever wrote it deserves credit.
English is a Funny Language
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!
Yes, English is a strange language. Once in high school in my AP English course, the teacher, a very kind man who was always looking for ways to expand our vocabularies noticed that one of our classmates was very expansive in her preferences. “Goodness, Laurie,” he said to her. “You certainly have very catholic tastes!” At this, the class broke out in laughter. “What have I said?” he asked innocently.
She laughed and said, “Dr. Jenkins…I’m Jewish!” He blushed a bit and explained that ‘catholic’ in the sense that he had used it simply meant “universal” or “all encompassing.”
As I mentioned last week, it is this sense of universality and expansiveness that led J.K. Chesterton to once describe the Church as “Here comes everybody!”
This is a very different from the early days in salvation history. As we read in the Old Testament, when things started out, it was a very exclusive relationship between God and his Chosen People.
However, as time passed we see the prophets proclaiming, as Isaiah does in today’s first reading, how starting with Israel, the Lord will eventually gather all the nations to himself. Again, it’s all about relationship.
Jesus is very clear, however, that there is no preference for seniority in the Kingdom of God. Thus, “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” It doesn’t matter when you arrive at the reunion. Once you walk through the door, we are all family.
That being said, it’s helpful to assess from time to time how ‘catholic’ we really are in how we live our lives. Namely, does our Catholic Faith inform every part of our lives or just certain parts of it?
At home do we stop what we are doing everyday and gather for prayer, besides just before meals?
At work, do our coworkers know that we are Catholic by the values that we bring to the workplace.
In society, This is an election year. How much does Catholic Social Teaching inform how we vote on the candidates and the issues?
May our faith and our lives always be truly “Catholic”, not just in name, but in fact, and in action.
Hey, Church fans! Had a great time last week flying a couple of kids around to see the local glaciers. This week, we hear Jesus say, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What’s he getting at? Check it out.
Are You Involved or Committed? XIX Sunday in Ordinary Time
Yesterday, I had had breakfast with a friend at a local iconic establishment.
We both ordered bacon and eggs.
As our food arrived, he looked at me and said, “You know, that’s the difference between being involved and being committed.
“How do you figure?” I asked.
“Well,” he said, “Look at your breakfast.”
“Yeah,” I said, “Bacon and eggs.”
“Yep, bacon and eggs,” he said. “Think about it. The chicken is involved…the pig is committed!”
He’s right, you know.
It raises a good question for each of us in light of Jesus’ words in the gospel today.
When it comes to being a disciple of Jesus in St. Patrick’s
Are you involved
Or are you committed?
One thing I like about St. Patrick’s is that we never do anything halfway.
We go all in. We sing every verse and we don’t leave Mass early, even when the donuts are right outside the door!
We do this for a reason. First know hat one should never be in a hurry to leave the House of God.
Second, we remember with sadness that Judas was the first one to leave Mass early…
We are here to praise God, to share our stories, to share communion and fellowship with God and one another, and to be sent back into the world to proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
But at certain point each one of us has to decided, “I am merely involved, or am I committed?”
How you answer that question will make all the difference.
This is what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”
If our “treasure”, i.e., that which is most valuable to us is our relationship with God and others, those relationships will take priority over everything else. That is when we become committed. That’s when we organize our time and our resources to building up those relationships.
I’ve said it before, “Show me your calendar and your bank statement and I will tell you what your priorities are.”
But such a commitment isn’t easy and it doesn’t come overnight. Such stewardship of our time and resources takes time, practice, vigilance.
There are lots of things that compete for our attention. Very few of these are bad in and of themselves. Indeed, if I was the evil one, I would fill your life with so many good things that you would not have time for the essential relationships that give life joy and meaning.
It we are not careful our lives can become like our garages, filled with so much cool stuff that we can no longer use it for the reason it was built.
We need to pay attention. We need to be vigilant. We need to be like “servants who await our master’s return.” We need to examine our priorities every day to make sure we are focused on who and what really matters.
As individuals and as a parish family, we have all been given so much. Thus, much will be demanded of us. At the end of the age, when we stand together as a parish before the Lord, he will ask us what we did to build up the Kingdom here in 99504.
Now is a good time to examine where our heart is. Now is a good time to look at our calendar and our bank statement. Is our relationship with Christ, with our parish family, with the Church our first priority? If not, where do we need to make adjustments? There is no guarantee of tomorrow. The Master could return at any moment. Now is the time to decide if we are involved or committed.
[Hello, Church fans! Wow! Did Deacon Mick hit it out of the park this weekend. Probably one of his top five homilies of all time and certainly worth sharing with the blogosphere. Here it is. My musings on the same readings are below. ]
Deacon Mick Fornelli – “Your money or your life?!”
Way back when, as I was filling out the application to be a seminarian for the Archdiocese, I came across the last question which read: “If you were not applying to become a priest, what do you see yourself doing in five years?” I have a business degree from a big, fancy university. So I paused for a moment and then wrote down: “Working on my third million!”
The way I would do it is simple. I would open up a Self Storage facility. These things are essentially a license to print money. There is a very good reason for this—People have too much stuff!
They say that we spend the first third of our live wanting stuff, the second third accumulating stuff, and the last third trying to get rid of stuff. Coming to the end of what is likely the second third of my life, I can relate. If you have a storage unit, or have ever had a storage unit, you know what I am talking about.
When I was in college and up through the time I was ordained at 29, I had a simple rule. “If it didn’t fit in the pickup, it didn’t go.” But eventually, stuff started to fill up the corners of the garage, and then the center, and well…. All I can say is thank the Lord for Craigslist and Marketplace. Now I can get rid of stuff.
The point of the parable about the foolish rich man with the big barns is pretty clear to us. Stuff is nice. Stuff is useful. But in the long run, stuff doesn’t matter in the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of Heaven is built on relationships. Thus, the only stuff we take with us from this life are the relationships that we build up in this life with Christ, and with one another. This is what we mean by “the communion of saints.”
Relationships are not rocket science. If you want a relationship to grow, you give it time and attention. So, spend time in prayer, giving your attention to the Lord. Spend time with your parish family in liturgy and fellowship. Spend time with your friends, giving them your love and attention. This is the stuff of the Kingdom. This is our treasure in heaven.
[Greetings, Blog fans! Hey, FB go their software figured out and so now I can download videos again. Here’s the vid and the text. Blessed Independence Day. God bless you and God bless America.]
I’ve heard some complaints that the supply of dad jokes in the homilies has diminished somewhat. To remedy this sad situation, here are three dad jokes to help you celebrate Independence Day…
Did you hear the one about the Liberty Bell? – Yep, it cracks me up!
What did one flag say to the other flag? – Nothing. It just waved.
Why are there no “Knock Knock” jokes about American Independence? – Because freedom rings!
In ancient and medieval times, the king and his court were always on the move, riding from town to town and village to village. There were very practical reasons for this. First, it was important that people physically saw him so that they would remember that they had a king. Secondly, it was a practical way for the king to be available to render justice and to resolve legal disputes. But before he came to a place, he would send a herald. The herald had a twofold mission. First, to proclaim that the king is coming, and second, to instruct the people on how to properly receive their sovereign and to get the town ready for his arrival. To make sure the herald was credible, he was dressed in the finest raiment of the court. His announcement was preceded with great pomp, perhaps even the blowing of trumpets to get the people’s attention. There could be no doubt that the message was real and the king was actually coming. Once that was done, he would enlist the local authorities and townspeople to clean up the town and get it decorated. Finally, he would instruct them on the proper protocol on how to receive the king and how to address the nobles of the court that accompanied him. It was a big deal.
In the sending of the seventy-two that we hear proclaimed in today’s gospel, we see Jesus doing essentially the same thing. He is sending his heralds to prepare the towns and villages that he intended to visit. But how very different are the heralds of the Kingdom of God! They are sent as mendicants without fancy clothes, not even any sandals or spending money. They are totally dependent on God and on those who will receive them for food and lodging. There can be no doubt that the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is very different from any earthly kingdom. Its worth cannot be given a monetary value.
While the simplicity of the messengers’ life gives them a certain credibility, how much more so does the power of their message. Their message is accompanied by powerful works. In short, they are doing the very things that Jesus is doing. they cure the sick, they expel demons, they proclaim that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Who would not believe a message accompanied by such miracles. Even the seventy-two are amazed.
While the times have changed, the power of the message has not. Jesus still sends out messengers to proclaim the Kingdom in this time and in this place. The only difference is that now those messengers look a lot like me and like you. By our baptism, each one of us is called to be a herald of the Kingdom.
The character of that witness will differ for each one of us. Why? Because just like the early disciples, each one of us has a different experience of the Risen Christ in the life of the Church.
So here is a little tip on how to do that. So often when asked about Christ or the Church, we don’t know where to start? Do you start with the Nicene Creed? The Apostles Creed, the Catechism? The Liturgy? Dogma?
Well, you can, but before you do, remember these three things:
1. The first question people ask is seldom the one they want answered.
I’m fortunate to have learned this early on in ministry.
When I was Fr. Young Priest, people would come up to me and say something like, “Hey, Father, what does the Church teach about annulments?”
And I always answer, “That’s a very good question. Why do you ask?”
“Well, my sister is going through a divorce and she was wondering about her status in the Church.”
“Ahhh…” I reply, “Let’s talk about your sister…”
2. Unless you have a particular expertise in a particular ecclesiological field, do not feel like you have to articulate every theological article or defend every aspect of the history of the Church.
However, you are the world expert in one thing…your own faith. Tell them how you have experienced Christ in your life. Tell them of your significant moments of conversion and how you live your faith here in the midst of your parish family. Keep in mind that you may be the only Gospel this person will ever hear.
3. Take a genuine interest in your interlocutor’s life and desires. Ask lots of questions. And always…always be kind. People will seldom remember what you say. They will never forget how you made them feel.
In the end, we are the present-day heralds of the Kingdom of God. Jesus has sent us to every place and person he intends to visit. The credibility of our witness, and the power of our proclamation will rest on how well we have come to know Christ, so that we may make him known.
(Howdy, Church fans! Still working on the video thing due to Facebook’s new algorithm that makes it impossible to download videos. In the meantime, go to our parish FB page by clicking here and scrolling to the homily. Sorry for the extra work. Blame Zuckerburg.)
It’s providential that Corpus Christi falls on Father’s Day this year. So much of this feast bespeaks of God the Father’s love for us in providing for our physical and spiritual need in abundance.
I’ve said this before on a few occasions, and it true. There are two ways of approaching life, the universe and everything. (Extra points for those of you who can cite that reference.) One can do so with a spirituality of scarcity or with a spirituality of abundance. Which you decide will make all the difference in your life. It is good to reflect on today’s Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord (“Corpus Christi”) in this context.
First we have to acknowledge a couple of things. If one approaches life with a spirituality of scarcity, they will never have enough. No amount of wealth, fame, pleasure or power will satisfy. However, if one chooses to approach life from a spirituality of abundance, he or she will want for nothing. Our God is the God of abundance. This is true in the material and the spiritual.
The reality and the power of the Eucharist that we celebrate today is a good example of this. In our earlier catechesis on the Eucharist, you may recall that the Eucharist is at once a true sacrifice and a shared meal. Today, in the interest of time, I’m just going to concentrate on the sacrifice part.
In the Biblical pattern of sacrifice, you needed four things. You needed
a priest,
an altar,
an offering and
a reason.
Let’s look at each one of these.
The priest is the one who offers the sacrifice on your behalf. He is the mediator. As we look to the Paschal Mystery, we see that Christ himself is the Great High Priest, who, starting with his one perfect sacrifice on the altar of the Cross, continues to offer himself, and us, to the Father in a living and eternal sacrifice. The Eucharist is the means he gave us for our true and substantial participation in passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, now offered in an unbloody way on the altar in the church. This is how the reality of the Paschal Mystery as a real for us today as it was for the first disciples.
As I mentioned, Christ himself is the also offering, but we too bring our own offerings. Like Melchizedek of old, we bring bread and wine, but we also bring our gifts of time, talent and treasure, indeed, our very selves. Like the sacrifices of old, what is offered is immolated and transformed. The bread and wine become the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ.
Our time, talent, and treasure become the practical means for the apostolate to continue in the parish, and we ourselves are transformed more and more by grace into the image and likeness of our Creator and Redeemer.
It’s important to remember that we ourselves cannot work this miracle of transubstantiation and transformation. It is Christ who works the miracle. Our job is simply to bring the fish. Just like the apostles in today’s gospel, Christ cannot work the miracle if we don’t offer what we have, trusting that he knows what he’s doing.
Finally, one needs a reason. In biblical times the four main reasons for sacrifice were to establish covenants, to remember, to forgive sins and to give thanks. A quick review of the words of institution in the Eucharistic Prayer reveals what the Church has always held –that all previous sacrifices were fulfilled and brought to perfection in the one perfect sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
Finally, a word about abundance. The gospel passage for today is no mistake. It speaks of the abundance of God in providing for the needs of his people. How do we know this? There are leftovers—lots and lots of leftovers. So to with the grace given to us in the Eucharist. Here at the Lord’s Supper, we receive more than we need. Why? So that we may share this reality with others.
[Hey, Church fans! Deacon John was preaching this weekend. So, here is this week’s offering. I still haven’t figure out how to download videos from BookFace now that they have changed their OS. Hopefully, I’ll have one for next week.]
It’s not easy to describe God. St. Thomas Aquinas famously quipped that it is actually easier to talk about what God is not, rather than what God is. It reminds us of the young boy who was drawing a picture in his catechism class. His catechist asked him, “Hey, Mick, what are you drawing?”
“I’m drawing a picture of God,” little Mick replied.
The catechist smiled sympathetically and said, “Oh, little Mick, no one knows what God looks like.”
To which he replied, “They will when I’m done!”
We cannot know everything about God, but through his Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, we do know something about God.
In pondering the reality of God, especially the mystery of the Trinity, it is helpful to take an approach that looks at the Trinity not in terms of a problem to be solved, but rather as a mystery to be lived.
“Mystery” in this sense is understood as a reality that is larger than you, of which you are a part and which is a part of you. Mystery in this sense is not understood in terms of analysis, but rather in terms of relationship.
Take your family for example. It is a reality bigger than you, of which you are a part, and which genetically, sociologically, psychologically and spiritually is a part of you. You don’t solve your family. You are simply part of your family and your family is part of you.
Now let’s take the Church. It too is a reality bigger than you, and by baptism, confirmation, and especially the Eucharist, the Church is a part of you. No matter how far a person might wander, he or she never stops being Catholic.
Finally, let’s talk about God. If there is any reality that is bigger than us, it is God. Yet, by grace we are invited into the relationship between the Father and the Son, much like we can be invited into any relationship. For example, when one is befriended by a married couple, they invite you into the dynamic of their married relationship. In a very real sense, you become part of their marriage. Now, in terms of the Divine dynamic of love, this relationship between the Father and the Son is what has been revealed to us as the Holy Spirit. Just like with the married couple, we are invited into the very relationship and reality that is God. We are a part of that relationship and it is part of us. We can say with certainty that we are literally a part of God, and through indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God is a part of us. This is heady stuff, but it is not so daunting if we understand it in terms of relationship. You don’t solve a relationship. You are part of a relationship and it is a part of you, whether it is with family, with Church, and especially with God.
If Alaskans ever needed a biblical justification for their favorite summer pastime, they need look no farther than John 21:3, wherein Simon Peter says, “I am going fishing!” and the others reply, “We will come with you!” As the saying goes, if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he will sit in a boat and tell tall tales all day!
Most Alaskans don’t fish for a living. We do it to relax, enjoy companionship, and fill the freezer. But up until he met Jesus, Simon Peter was a commercial fisherman. Not fully appreciating the implications of the first two appearances of the resurrected Christ, it looks now like he is going back to the life he knew before…and with similar results!
But there is no going back. He may not realize it yet, but the Resurrection literally changes everything.
So much of this encounter with the Risen Christ is a reflection of previous moments with Jesus. Just like on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, they fished all night and caught nothing, but at the word of Jesus, their nets are full to breaking. Again, realizing that it is Jesus, Peter jumps out of the boat, just like he did when he went out on the water towards Jesus during the storm. (Only this time, he gets wet!). And just like when Jesus fed the 5000, the menu is fish and bread. There is no doubt in their minds that this is Jesus as they sit down to share a meal.
But then things take an interesting turn. There is a loose end that needs to be tied up. Jesus takes Simon Peter aside for a little chat. Notice that Jesus does not address him by the new name he gave his friend at Caesarea Philippi. Instead, he uses his original name: “Simon, son of John.” There is a good reason for this. Three times Peter had denied Jesus. This was a complete denial. In denying Christ, Peter gave up his heritage. He needs to be reconciled. Just so, three times Jesus asks him if he loves him, and three times Simon Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Thus, Peter’s three-fold denial is reconciled by his three-fold profession of love. He is restored. We know this because when they are finished, Peter receives the same invitation as in their first encounter. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
This encounter with the Risen Christ gives me hope. Unlike Peter, I can’t count the number of times I have denied Christ by my sins. But like Peter, I have come to know that as many times as I have denied him, if I turn back to him in love, Christ is willing to restore me to grace. It is an infinite love I cannot fathom, of which I am not worthy, but for which I am extremely grateful.
Howdy, Church fans! How do move from fear to peace? The resurrection makes all the difference. Check it out. The video is below. The text is below that.
One of the striking transitions in the scriptures is the way that Jesus greets his disciples. During his public ministry and even up to his passion and death, the first words out of Jesus’ mouth are typically, “Do not be afraid.” or some variation thereof.
However, after the Resurrection, his greeting changes. Now it is, “Peace be with you.”
What’s going on here, and how do we move from fear to peace?
First, let’s look at fear. Reasonable fear itself is not a bad thing and is often useful for survival. When we find ourselves between a sow bear and her cubs, it’s a good thing to be afraid and to remove oneself from the area. When the hackles go up and the ears go back on the bull moose in the front yard, fear is a good thing.
But this is very different from unreasonable fear, such as fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, or fear of appearing “too religious.” Such fear paralyzes us and keeps us from doing the loving thing. As such, it is can rightfully be said that the opposite of love is not hate; it is fear.
Peace drives out fear, especially the peace that Christ gives. The peace or “shalom” that Christ is talking about is the reality of when things are as they are intended to be. Before the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, things were not as they were intended. Sin had entered the world and held it in its grip. Fear was the result. However, after Christ reconciled all creation to the Father, the world was set aright. The effects of sin are still around, but sin no longer has mastery over the world. Christ has broken the bonds of sin, suffering and death. The possibilities are literally endless. Sin, suffering, and death are still part of the human reality, but they can’t rule our lives. Like Christ, we transcend the vagaries of the present age and rise above to new life in the Spirit. This is the peace that the world cannot give. This is the peace Christ.
