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Time is an Ingredient

Back in the seminary, about half my class came straight from minor seminary and about half from various professions. We had police officers, teachers, lawyers, pilots. One fellow was an engineer. At one point, we were preparing a birthday party for one of our classmates. There was no Costco in Rome, so we put the engineer in charge of baking the cake. Big mistake. The directions said to put the batter in a pan and bake at 350º for 45 minutes or so. Being an engineer, he did some quick calculations and determined that he could save some time if he put it in at 525º for 25 minutes. The results were predictable. It was charred on the outside and gooey raw on the inside. What he didn’t realize is that time is an ingredient.

This is a little bit about what Jesus is teaching about the Kingdom in the parable of the wheat and the weeds. The weed in question here is most likely darnel or cockle, a noxious weed that closely resembles wheat and is plentiful in Israel. The difference between darnel and real wheat is evident only when the plants mature and the ears appear.

In the parable, the workers first reaction is to question the quality of the seed. As Deacon John taught us last week, that is not the issue. This is the work of an enemy. As difficult as it seems, given that the roots of the weeds are intertwined with the wheat, it is better to wait until the harvest to separate them. Time is an ingredient in the fulfillment of the Kingdom. 

It’s the same with us in our own spiritual lives.  So often in our prayer life we want to cut corners and save some time. The results will be as predictable as that cake or the ripping of the wheat with the weeds. The truth is that each of us has our gifts and our crosses. Sometimes we want to shed our cross, but in doing so, our gifts would be cast aside as well. Time is an ingredient and God’s timing is so much better than our own.       

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Growing and Sowing the Word (and some fishing pics)

[Greetings, Church Fans! I had a great time out in fish camp in an undisclosed location in western Alaska. There are a couple of pics at the end to give you an idea of how we get our protein here in the Great Land.]

       One nice thing about parables is that they lend themselves to multiple levels of interpretation and thus one can derive many different levels of meaning. So it is with the Parable of the Sower.

Lesson #1: The seed is the Word and how fruitful it is depends on the ground on which it falls. If it falls on the path it gets eaten up. If it falls on Rocky ground it doesn’t last. If it falls in thorns it gets choked off. But if it falls on good soil it yields 30, 60 or 100 fold. As disciples, if we want to be fruitful, we have till the soil of our souls to be able to receive the Word so that it can grow in our hearts. 

Lesson #2: That tilling the soil of our hearts takes time. When I look at my own life, I know that I can identify my own heart with each of the different types of soil. There were times that I was the path. There were also times where I was a flash in the pan Catholic. There were times when the cares of the world choked off the Word. But eventually, I was ready to receive God’s Word and let it do its thing. 

Lesson #3: The Sower’s primary job is to spread the Word. Period. I’m amazed at how prodigal the Sower is in the sowing. He just goes about throwing seed everywhere without seeming to pay any attention to where it lands. I don’t know about you, but when I plan a garden, every seed or start gets its own special place in the garden. Not so with the Word of God. We must also see ourselves as Sower’s of the Word, but the lesson here is very clear. Our job is not to worry about success, but simply to spread the Word in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces and wherever else we happen to be. We are not to be concerned with what happens after that. But we must sow the Word so that it can find good soil to grow.

     As we each write the parable of our life, the Parable of Sower is a good reminder for each of us that we are both soil and Sower, but in the end it is God who makes it grow.

         – Fr. Leo

And now… the fishing pics

Probably one of the biggest red (sockeye) salmon out there. 15.2 pounds (7 kg).
Joy the Dog is ready for adventure. “Dog is my copilot?”

Dave and Barb at the stream. The weather was pretty wet.
Independence Day at Fish Camp.
Quiet respite by the lake. My little airplane rests in the background.
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Dying to Self, Living in Christ

     One of my favorite actors is Anthony Hopkins. The man can take on any role most convincingly. It is he who quipped, “I make my living by pretending to be other people.” Believe it or not, my favorite role of his is not Hannibal Lecter, but as St. Paul in the 1981 miniseries, Peter and Paul. 

       St. Paul is a very intense, and very intriguing character. Unlikely as it was at the time, it is no surprise that Christ chose him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. This is a guy who could think and pray outside and inside the box and then act decisively on the fruits of his deliberations. He fully embraced what Christ meant in today’s gospel when he completely reordered his life after meeting the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus. In short, he received Christ totally and completely. He “lost” his previous life and found new life in Christ.  Pretty cool.

       In his letter to the Romans that we read today, he helps us understand this teaching of Jesus. For Paul, baptism is the portal through which the Christian dies to his former life and begins to live anew in Christ. “Are you not aware,” he says, “that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

Whether we do this at our baptism as adults or embrace it later if we were baptized as infants, for each Christian there is that moment when we must each decide in our heart of hearts whether our life will be in Christ or in the world. This “fundamental option” as it is sometimes called, will make all the difference. 

       How, because Paul does not stop there. It is not enough to leave the old life behind. There is so much more. Dying with Christ in baptism leads one the Resurrection in Christ.

       Now, there is a temptation to think of the Resurrection as some distant, far off, eschatological reality. That’s only partially true. St. Paul had a very good sense that to be a Christian was to be a person of the resurrection from the moment of your baptism. “Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin, and living for God in Christ Jesus.” For St. Paul and for all of us, heaven begins now.

Pedro Arrupe, the late Master General of the Jesuits said it well.  He said,

“Nothing is more practical than finding God,

That is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings,

What you will do with your evenings,

How you spend your weekends,

What you read,

Who you know,

What breaks your heart,

And what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

              ― Pedro Arrupe

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“Be Not Afraid!”

When Pope St. John Paul II stood on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after being elected the first non-Italian pope in six centuries, his first words to the Church and to the world were, “Be not afraid.”

     These were no small words from a man whose entire ministry had been carried out under the oppression of a communist regime. We all know how that story played out. The Church in Poland is still there, and the communist regime is not.

In truth, as the largest organization in the world, the Catholic Church has often lived in tension with civil authorities who see it, erroneously, as a threat to their base of power. In the present age, like any corporate citizen, the Church reserves the right to speak in the public forum regarding matters that affect the dignity of person and the common good.  Nevertheless, since the pontificate of John Paul I, the Church has made it clear that it does not desire, nor does it see as constructive, to assume the trappings of civil governance. Nevertheless, where the Church is seen as a threat, it is often persecuted, sometime with deadly force. The sad and volatile situation in Nicaragua and China bears witness to this fact. Even in our own American society, where the Church advocates for the dignity of the human person and the protection of human life from conception to natural death, we see a deliberate attempt to marginalize religion in general, and the Catholic Church in particular, in order to remove our voice from the public square. Looking at current trends, the late Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago quipped, “I expect to die in my bed. I expect my successor to die in prison. I expect his successor to die a martyr in the public square.”

Are such trends cause for concern? On one level, yes. As a Church, as an Archdiocese, as a parish and as individual Catholics we can do much to mitigate this trend by proactively and constructively engaging the society in which we live. The Church has a face. As individual Catholics, we should actively engaged in our neighborhoods. We need to know our neighbors and they need to know us. As a parish, we need to proactively and constructively engage the community around us. For example, there are two community councils within our parish boundaries. We need to have a regular and effective voice at both of them.  Similarly, we need to engage the neighborhoods around us so that they see us as a vital part of life on this side of town.  In short, as a parish, we need to become so much a part of the local community that they cannot imagine life without us. 

Still, if things get out of hand, as they have from time to time throughout history, there is no cause for fear. Our Lord said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church.  He did not say that they wouldn’t try really hard!

There is nothing in the present age that we have not seen several times throughout the centuries. They are all gone.  The Church remains. If we are true to Christ and to His Church, there is nothing we cannot overcome. There is no one we need fear to fear, because there is no limit to God’s love for us.

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An Abundant Harvest

Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there.  Thanks to all who have sent me a Father’s Day card.

     I like to give new life to old things. When we first got the parish house, there was an old, dilapidated greenhouse out back. It was made from a lot of those old single-pane windows that the U.S. Army gave away back in 1978 when the renovated the barracks on Ft. Rich. It looked to be about that old. The previous owners had been using it to store wood. Many of the panes were broken and the roof panels had holes. But the guts are good, so I decided to revive it. Why? Because I also like to grow tomatoes, and you can only grow tomatoes in Alaska in a greenhouse. I seem to be fairly good at it. 

       The project is taking longer than I had hoped, mainly because I can’t find a contractor willing to pour the footer and slab I need. Too small a project I guess. Nevertheless, by summer’s end, I am determined that it will be complete. I may have to get creative.

       This may seem like a lot of work just for a few dozen tomatoes, and it is. But to me, it’s worth it. There’s just something special about planting the seeds, watching them grow, and harvesting the fruits in due time.

       I think that is a lot like what is going on in today’s gospel as Jesus gives the Twelve a pep talk before sending them out. They have been with him for a while.  Now it is time to send them on a little mission so they can grow in their faith and confidence as his disciples. Notice he gives them authority and sends them out to do exactly what he has been doing: proclaiming the Kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons. Cool.

       As a parish family, we are called to do the same thing. Within the believing community, we plant the seeds of faith, we help each other discern the gifts that we have been given, we call those gifts forth, train to give competence, give authority to use those gifts in the various parish ministries that serve the parish and the community around us, and then we have a big party every Sunday and at the end of the year to give thanks to God and to each other for the gifts of time, talent, and treasure that have helped our little part of the Kingdom to bear fruit.

       From time to time, we also call forth young men and women to serve the Church as holy priests, deacons and consecrated religious. It is essential that we do so to fulfill our mission.

       I’d like to concentrate on the way that we call young men to the Holy Priesthood for a moment, because this is the most pressing need at present.

       Where do vocations to the priesthood come from? What are the conditions in which the seeds of a vocation can thrive and grow? 

       1. Prayer. As individuals and as a parish family we need to pray for vocations. 

       They did a study a few years ago on the parishes that seemed to be hotbeds of vocations to see what they had in common.  Their findings were interesting. Demographics did not matter. It did not matter whether the parish was wealthy or poor, culturally or ethnically homogenous or diverse, urban or rural. 

       The only common denominator in parishes that produced lots of vocations to the priesthood was…

       …regular Eucharistic adoration.  

       2.  So, we need to pray for vocations, and we need to encourage vocations…but where?  How?   

       a.  At home – especially fathers

       Mom and Dad, you want your sons to be happy. You want what’s best for them. Dad’s, you have a special role in that. 

       If Christ is calling them to priesthood, what a blessing if you support that.

       Let me tell you what I mean. When I was 24, I had been working as a program manager for Junior Achievement, but in the background I had been discerning a vocation to the priesthood. There was no small amount of inner turmoil and self-doubt.

       One of my main concerns was how to tell my dad.

You want your dad to be proud of you.  I wasn’t sure how he would react.  So I scripted out every argument in my head:

       “If he says, this, I will counter with that. If he says that, I will counter with this.”  Eventually, I had it all worked out in my head.  All I needed was the right opportunity.

       I did not have to wait long.  A week or two later, my dad calls me up and said, “Hey, your mother is out of town this week, why don’t you come on by for dinner.”

       Thank you, Holy Spirit.

       We had a great dinner grilling steaks and eating huge football-sized baked potatoes.

       Then he says, “Hey, why don’t we have some brandy and cigars out in the living room.”

       Hey, cool!  We never got to have cigars in the living room when Mom was home. So, there we sat chatting away with our brandy and cigars, with a big fire going in the fireplace.

       So I said to myself, “Self!  No time like the present.”

       But before I could say anything, my dad looks at me and says, “Leo, you’ve been working that job at JA for some a couple of years now, and we both know that’s not what you are going to be doing forever. So I ask you, what are you thinking of doing with your life?”

       Gee, thank you Holy Spirit.

       I paused for a moment and then said to him, “Well, Dad, to be honest, I think I want to become a priest.”

       He paused for a moment, had a sip of brandy and took a puff off his cigar, looked me right in the eye, and then said,

       “Well…be a good one.”

To this day, that is the best gift I have ever received from my father.

       b. We encourage vocations at home, we also need to encourage vocations as a parish family.

       The early Church did not have a shortage of vocations crisis. Why?  Because it was the parish that called them forth from the congregation. 

       Your vocation was not primarily some inner prompting from the Holy Spirit. It came from the people around you.

       The community gathered, prayed, and then discerned who among them had the gifts necessary and then called them forth for ministry. 

       It’s interesting to note that the premise of John Chrysostom’s great treatise on the Holy Priesthood is that he and his friend Bartholomeus are hiding, because they have been called by the local church to be priests. The tract takes the form of a Greek dialogue where John is convincing his friend that he needs to come out of hiding and embrace his vocation. 

       I makes me wonder…what would happen if we did something similar here…

       We are not at that point, but I will say that if you see a young man in the parish who you think has the gifts, take him aside and say to him, “You know, I see the gifts in you that would make a good priest. Have you thought about it?  Please do. I’m going to be praying for you.

       I guarantee you, if you can see it, they have been thinking about it. 

       And it might not be who you would expect at first glance.

       We all have a role to play. We all have gifts to offer to further the spread of the Gospel and the salvation of souls here in 99504.  As a parish family, one of the best things we do is plant the seeds of faith, water them with our prayers and faith.  It’s up to the Holy Trinity to take it from there.

       We plant the seeds, the Father gives the growth, the Son gives the commission, the Spirit gives power of God’s love. This is how we yield an abundant harvest.            

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Ask Fr. Leo – Do all Dogs Go to Heaven?

Some of the simplest questions can lead to the most profound theological investigations.  Below are a few of them that I have received over the last few months.

Dear Fr. Leo, 

Will I see my dog in heaven? – M

Dear M.,

          Roy Rogers once famously quipped, “If dogs don’t go to heaven, when I die, I want to go where they went!” Not a bad thought, but to help answer this question, I like to invoke the theological principle: “Lex orandi, lex credendi.”  Literally, “the law of praying is the law of believing,” or more colloquially, “As the Church prays, so she believes.”  To this end, I would direct your attention to the Eucharistic Prayer IV. It’s one of my favorites, but it doesn’t get a lot of use, unfortunately. The beauty of the fourth Eucharistic Prayer is its sweeping catechesis of salvation history, from the first moments of creation, through the people of Israel, to the coming of the Christ, to His passion, death and resurrection, to the foundation of the Church at Pentecost, all the way up to the final judgment at the end of the age when as we read in the Book of Revelation, there will be “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Rev. 21:1) In Latin, the Eucharistic Prayer IV refers to our entry into the Kingdom of Heaven with Mary and all the saints, “There, with the whole of creation, (ubi cum univérsa creatúra) freed from the corruption of sin and death, may we glorify you…”  I’m not sure about you, but for me, the whole of creation includes all of creation, not just some of it. This would necessarily include dogs and all other creatures. 

          There is also an argument to made from the famous maxim of St. Thomas Aquinas: “That which is received, is received according to the mode of the one who receives it. (Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur.) Thomas presupposes a hierarchy of being with the Holy Trinity at the top, then created beings such as the Blessed Mother, the angelic beings, human beings, animals, plants, rocks, and so forth.  Since the Kingdom of Heaven is primarily about relationships, namely communion, then any given creature’s participation in that Kingdom could be contingent on its ability to relate to other beings. The Trinity, of course, is relationship itself. Then follows the rest of us according to our nature in the order I just described. We human beings relate to God and to one another according to our nature. Likewise, anyone who has spent any time with dogs knows that they are too are social beings, albeit they relate to others according to their canine nature.  So, you could make a case for dogs in heaven based on their ability to enter into relationship according to their nature. The presence of cats in heaven, based on this same criteria, is still a matter of theological speculation.

Dear Fr. Leo,

          How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?  – L

Dear L:

          That depends. Do you mean with the four-piece jazz ensemble or with the full Big Band orchestra? 

          This was actually a question asked by the Scholastics in the Middle Ages, primarily as a rhetorical exercise, but it does lead to some fun things. The question as stated is a bit cumbersome because it fails to consider the nature of angelic beings. Unlike human beings, who have a physical body and a spiritual soul, angels are purely spiritual beings. They don’t have a physical body. As such, they don’t take up any physical space.  So, the answer to the question could just as easily be “All of them.” or “None of them.” 

          But let’s take things one step further. If angels don’t have a physical body, but humans do, what are the implications for us in God’s plan of salvation? There is an attractive myth out there in popular literature that when we humans die, if we have lived a good life, we become angels. That’s a nice thought, but that’s not how it works.

          As human beings, we have a body and a soul. In God’s plan of salvation, we don’t metamorphose into something that we are not. Rather, we become fully what God has created us to be, body and soul.  We become perfectly human.

          What’s the process by which this takes place?  The resurrection of body at the end of the age. We know this because of the resurrection of Christ. Remember, Christ was fully human as well as fully divine. He didn’t simply shed his human nature and its physical body when his mission of salvation on earth was done.  Rather, God raised up his mortal body.  The Risen Christ is humanity perfected. That is what awaits us if we remain in communion with him. As St. Augustine said, “The joy of God, is the human person fully alive.”  For us humans, that means “the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come.”

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God is my copilot?! I think not!

Happy Trinity Sunday, as Dcn. Mick and Deacons John reminded us, this is the third of four major celebrations, the Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi. 

As many of you may have realized, I gave the staff the last week off. Then I decided, heck, why don’t I give myself the week off too!  So, I did.  Joy and I loaded up in the little airplane and flew across the Inlet to my little cabin at Alexander Creek to spend a few days. 

Joy is good little flyer.  She did not like the airplane at first but now that she is familiar with how it works, she doesn’t mind at all.  In fact, I’ve even begun to train her on how to keep us on course in the straight and level. That way I can take a little nap. She’s quite good at it. Indeed, DOG is my copilot!

Speaking of traveling, did you catch what is going on between Moses and the Lord.

       Is it me, or does Moses’ request seem a bit odd? He asks, “If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company.”

       At first glance, it seems like a fair request. Who wouldn’t want God as a traveling companion, whether you are journeying through the desert or journeying through life?   Why wouldn’t you want God as your copilot?

But think about it for a minute.  What’s wrong with this picture…

       Wouldn’t it be better to for one to want to go along in God’s company?!

       I’m reminded of what Abraham Lincoln said once when someone in the crowd said that it was good that God was on their side. Mr. Lincoln looked at the man and replied, “Rather, my dear friend, let us hope that we are on God’s side.” 

There is wisdom in Mr. Lincoln’s response.

       Like the Israelites, we can become a stiff-necked people. They are wandering the desert, headed this way and that, and they want God to come along in their company. They’ve got it backwards.   

       Yet we sometimes do the same thing. How often we go about our lives, doing our own thing, making our own decisions and expecting God to simply come along for the ride and perhaps bless this wonderful mess we have made for ourselves.

       How easy it is to pray, “MY will be done,” instead of “THY will be done.” 

       We need to let God be in charge. God knows what is best for us. 

       Rather, let us pray, “Lord, help me to want what you want for me.”

Simply put: If God is your copilot, you are in the wrong seat! 

       It is not a bad thing to want God to come along in our company, but how much better that we should go along in God’s company!

Because THAT is the invitation that is offered to us. Nothing less than to share in the very life of God.

       Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, the sacred notion that our God is a Trinity of persons in perfect, co-eternal communion. The Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, and that co-eternal relationship between the two of them, the Holy Spirit, so powerful that it radiates out like the warmth of a great fire. Our God is perfectly united being. Our God is relationship itself.

       Like any other relationship, we can be invited to share in it. God is very jovial and invites us to come along in his company.

It happens at our baptism.  We are called and invited by name to share in the very relationship that is God.

It happens at our confirmation, when we are invited to

share in the fullness of that relationship, with all of its gifts, and fruits and charisms.

It happens most especially here in the Eucharist, as we gather, share the Word, break the bread, and commune with God and one another before we are sent into the world to tell the good news.

It happens in the confessional, when we acknowledge that we have sinned against the relationship with God and with others, either injuring or severing the bond of Holy Communion.  Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit, power of God’s love, is more powerful than any sin we may have committed, and we are healed.

It happens when our body lies in sickness, or infirm with age, when the Holy Spirit is there to help us in our need, to strengthen us in mind, body and spirit.  It happens when we are called by God to Holy Orders or consecrated life when we are called to share in the love of the Trinity, and give our life in singular devotion to Christ and his Church.

It happens in Holy Matrimony when we are called to share our lives with another in perfect imitation of the love of Christ for his spouse, and thus build up the Church and transform the world. 

This is the life and the love into which we have been invited to share. To LIVE a life with purpose and meaning, invited into and proclaiming to all we meet, by what we say,

       but more importantly, by what we do, the LOVE of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is at once too much and never enough. It is infinitely ancient and eternally new. 

This is the life to which the Christian is called.  This is the love into which we are welcomed.  It is all that we could ask for and more than we can imagine.  It is beyond our greatest desires and more powerful than our worst mistakes. 

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believe sin him might not perish, but have eternal life. (Jn 3:16)

This is the invitation of grace, to share in the very life of and love God and to partake of the very mystery of such a perfect communion

from now unto eternity.

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Emmaus Revisited – Third Sunday of Easter

[Hey, Church fans! Until Microsoft fixes their stupid video editing program, there will be no embedded more videos. You can catch the vid of the homily off the Livestream at https://www.facebook.com/stpatsak/. The text is below.]

       Sometimes, we don’t pick up on the subtle cues and can miss what is going on right in front of us.  Here’s a good example:

     I did a lot of downhill skiing as a kid.  Every Saturday morning, Dad would load all of us eight kids in the in rig and we would head up to Arctic Valley. Mom would always stand on the porch and wave to us as we drove away for a day of fun on the slopes. I always thought it was sad that she never got to come along with us. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I finally figured out what was really going on. Dad was giving her a break by getting us all out of the house! Who’d have thought?

       I get the impression that a similar thing was going on with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. I’m not saying that they were not bright, just that they were preoccupied. So much so that they didn’t really pick up on what was really going on for some time.

       We can forgive them for this. Their entire world had just been rocked.  All their hopes and dreams had died on the Cross with Jesus. They just wanted to get away. Emmaus was about a two and a half hour walk from Jerusalem.  Can you imagine their conversation along the way?  Then this strange guy shows up and walks with them. 

       I’ve written before on an old blog post about how this whole experience between Jesus and the two disciples on is a really good description of the Mass. You can see that at: https://frleowalsh.com/recognizing-jesus-emmaus-the-eucharist-and-covid-19/

Think about it. What happens at Mass?

       We gather.

       We share our stories.

       We break the bread.

       And we are sent.

In liturgy speak, these are called the        Gathering/Introductory Rites.

       The Liturgy of the Word

       The Liturgy of the Eucharist, and

       The Dismissal or Sending Forth.

Let’s take a look at each of these:

Step I:  We gather.  The Introductory Rites

       Those who have been to one of my slow Masses can readily answer the question: When does Mass begin?  The answer is simple: When the second person shows up! Why? Because Jesus said: “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.”

       The Second Vatican Council in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (Par. 7) is very clear. “When the people gather” Christ is present. 

       Here, on the Road to Emmaus, the two disciples are gathered. Of course, Jesus would be there with them.

Step II:  We share our stories. The Liturgy of the Word.

       I can’t help but think that the conversation with Jesus on the road had to be one of the most intense Liturgies of the Word in the history of Salvation.

       Here you have the Incarnate Word of God, explaining the word of God in the Sacred Scriptures. 

       Yeah, our hearts would be burning too.

       And I hope yours is today.

Again, the Council is very clear. “In the proclamation of the Word” Jesus is present.

Step III: We break the bread – The Liturgy of the Eucharist

       Luke tells us, “He took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.”

       Does this sound slightly familiar?  It should. It is right out of the Third Eucharistic Prayer. (Actually, it is the source of these words in the Third Eucharistic Prayer.)

       The reference to the Eucharist at the table in Emmaus is unmistakable. This becomes even more evident when one learns that the early Church used the words “fractio panis” or the “breaking of the bread” as a codeword for the Eucharist.

       Again, the Council is unequivocal in their language, “(Christ) is present in the sacrifice of the Mass, not only in the person of His minister… but especially under the Eucharistic species” of bread and wine.

       As we know, the Eucharist is the source and summit of all what the Church is and does. Everything that we are and do leads to the Eucharist and everything that we are and do flows from the Eucharist.

       No wonder they recognized him “in the breaking of the bread.”

       Which makes me wonder…do we? 

       More importantly, what about others who wander in our church?   What is going on in their hearts and minds?

       Can they recognize him in our midst as we gather? In the way we treat each other?

       In the way we treat them?

       Are they welcomed? Do they feel like they may have a place here?

Are our hearts burning within us as the scriptures are proclaimed and explained?

       If not, then how can we expect their hearts to be burning within them?

       Finally, is he recognizable in the breaking of bread?

       And can they recognize him, the Risen Christ, as we do so? 

       I pray that it is so.

       At one time or another at Mass and in life, I think we are all like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Sometimes we get so wrapped up with our own situation that we miss what’s really going on.

       I pray that we are a parish family whose hearts are so on fire with the love of God that those encounter us

       Whether within these walls

              Or in our schools or in our neighborhoods

              Or in our places work, or in the public square

                      or in our homes…

       I pray that they would recognize him

The two disciples show us that what we experience here cannot, must not be contained within these walls.

       The dismissal is one of the most essential parts of the Mass,

       That’s why it is so short:

       “The Lord be with you.

       And with your spirit.

              May almighty God bless you…NOW GO! 

Grab a donut and go into that part of the world where God needs you most right now!

       Proclaim the Good News of the resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins.

       May your every word and action echo those of those two disciples, saying in ways small or profound,  

       ‘WE HAVE SEEN THE LORD!!!

       And how he was made known to you

              In the breaking of the bread.    

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Gaudete Sunday – He Who is to Come

Hey, it’s Gaudete Sunday, where we take a break from the penance of the season and put on the ROSE (not pink) vestments.

    It reminds me of that fellow who was chatting with his neighbor.  He was saying that he was worried that he was getting forgetful, so he was taking a memory course.

    “That’s very interesting,” his friend says, “What kind of course is it?”

    “It’s associative,” he replies. “If I want to remember something I associate it with something else. That way I don’t forget it.”

    “That’s very interesting,” his neighbor says, “What’s the course called?”

    He stops for a moment and says, “I knew you were going to ask me that. Hold on, it’s like a flower, long stem, thorns, and a bud on the end.”

    “You mean a rose?”

    “Yeah…hey, Rose! What’s the name of that course I’m taking?”

    You laugh, but I’ve got my 40th high school class reunion coming up this summer…right in the middle of fishing season!

    But reunions are a great way to get reconnected with old classmates. 

    How many times has this happened to you?  It’s a few years out of school, and you run into someone from high school. You recognize each other. But the conversation goes like this…

    “So…it’s great to see you!  How are you doing? Yeah, I’m great.  Are you living around here?  Great….great…yeah, me too….yeah, great.

    And you keep stalling because you just can’t remember their name!!!

    It looks like John the Baptist is having a senior moment . In Chapter 3, at the Baptism of Jesus, there is the voice from the cloud that said, “This is my beloved Son…”  Now, here in Chapter 11, he doesn’t even seem to know who Jesus is. “Are you ‘he who is to come?’”  What’s up with that?

     Our clue, of course, is in Jesus’ reply to John’s messengers. The blind regaining their sight, the lame walking, lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, the dead being raised, the poor having the good news proclaimed to them…all these are definitive signs of the Messiah.  Jesus could simply answer them, “Yep, I’m the guy.”  Instead, he lets his actions do the talking.

     Just this past week I got a good lesson in the old adage: “People will seldom remember what you say, but they will never forget what you did and how you made them feel.”  So it was with Jesus.  So it should be for us.

    In the second part of today’s gospel passage there is a line that just leaps out at me, “…among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

    Sometimes we might feel like we are the least in the Kingdom.  It amazes me that Jesus would say that even at times like that, folks like us are greater than John the Baptist was at that time. 

    Still, it makes sense when you think about it for awhile. The Church firmly believes that all old testament prophecies were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  John was the last and greatest prophet of the old covenant. He even preached its fulfillment in the person of Jesus and got to see Jesus with his own eyes. Even so, the new covenant of grace is of such a higher order that even the least of those of us who are baptized into Christ would be considered greater than John the Baptist.  Mind blown! 

    Gaudete Sunday is a day to rejoice. John saw the fulfillment of his hope in the person of Jesus and he leapt in the womb for joy. Advent calls us to rejoice that the fulfillment of our hope is near as we await the coming of the Lord in glory at the end of the age.

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John the Baptist and Advent

John the Baptist and Advent

[The painting the church joke.] 

     John the Baptist just fascinates the heck out of me.  He is at once terrifying and compelling. Like that scene in the movie you just don’t want to see, yet you cannot look away, even as you squish yourself deeper and deeper into your see and cover your eyes. Why is this so?

       Let’s put him into context.  John was the last and the greatest of the prophets. To understand him, it’s important to understand what prophets were all about. First of all, it’s important to remember that while prophets prophesied, their primary vocation was not to tell the future. Rather, they were seen literally as the mouthpiece of God. God spoke through them. The kings and rulers of Israel were anointed by God through the prophets. (See 1Samuel 16 , 1-13.) The prosperity of the kingdom depended on fidelity to the Covenant.  Therefore, eccentric as prophets were, they had complete access to the halls of power. The primary role was to be the conscience of the nation, the voice of God calling the leaders and the people to fidelity to the Lord.

       Sometimes the leaders of the people were not faithful. At this point the prophets would chastise the leaders to amend their ways or, they prophesied, God’s people would face dire punishments. These punishments were imposed so that the leaders would reform their lives and society and return to the Lord. When they did, the prophets would prophesy great benefits for the people and the return of a true, just, and righteous king. As much as the leaders and the people may or may not have wanted to hear what the prophet had to say, their faith in God compelled them to listen to what God was saying through him.

       Now let’s fast forward to the setting of today’s gospel passage. 

It was a tough time for the Jews in the days of Jesus. Palestine had been under Roman occupation for several generations. Now the people were once again looking forward to deliverance, and the coming of a new Messiah who would establish the Kingdom of Israel once again. 

       Enter John the Baptist.

As the last and greatest prophet, John is doing what prophets do. He is announcing the coming of the ultimate Messiah, exhorting the nation to fidelity to the Lord. Thus, he urges the people to get their lives in order in preparation for his coming, especially the religious leaders – “to make straight the way of the Lord.”

John’s message to them is a good message for us this Advent. What are some of the ways we can “prepare the way of the Lord” in our homes and our hearts. We do so in two ways, practically and spiritually.     

Practically, I always advocate the “Advent Purge.” Get rid of all the physical clutter in your dwelling. Are there good coats you have not used in a year or two? Donate them to the warm clothing drive. Are there things that have been taking up space in your garage for years? Give them away or get rid of them! At the very least, clean out the junk drawer in the kitchen!

Next, get rid of all the spiritual clutter in your life. Start first with a good confession. We have several confessors coming the third week of Advent who have no idea who you are. What a great opportunity to avail yourself of the sacrament.

After that, take a good inventory of your time. Are there things that are stealing your time so that you don’t have time as a family or as an individual to pray? If so, it’s time to make adjustments, no excuses.

       Make no mistake, the Lord is coming again in glory, maybe even before Christmas. The time is short. We need to be ready. Now is a good time for a good practical and spiritual inventory. Let us prepare our parish, our homes and our hearts so that Christ may find us ready to welcome him when he comes.