Fr. Leo's Benevolent Blog!

A friend checked out this humble blog last week and commented on how she enjoyed reading the homilies. I mentioned to her, “You know, you can listen to it too.”

“What?” she said.

“Yeah,” I replied, “Just click on the play button on the audio file. Right under the title of each post. It’s that little black triangle right there. ”

“Oh, my goodness! Well, will you look at that! Who’d have thought.”

       I enjoy bumper sticker theology and pithy church sign sayings. Sometimes they incorporate different eras of pop culture. Who would not be moved by: “The fact that there is a ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and a ‘Highway to Hell’ tells you a lot about anticipated traffic patterns.” They may be exhortative.  What self-righteous church goer would not be knocked off their pedestal by: “Acting perfectly in Church is like dressing up for an X-ray.”  They may also take an eschatological bent. This one for passing motorists: “Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you want to meet him now.”  Some of them are just darn good theology.  My favorite is one reminiscent of one of Pope Francis’ early talks: “The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a rest home for saints.” 

     In the next few weeks, you will note a decided shift of emphasis in the readings.  As we near the end of Ordinary Time, the Church invites us to get our spiritual house in order so that we may be prepared for the glorious second coming of Christ at the end of the age.

       Fall is a great time to get rid of clutter in one’s life.  And the staff will tell you that I hate clutter.  Clutter is one of the great evils that plagues the Church.

       How does physical clutter start?

       Like all insidious vices, it starts with an immediate need. “I have need of this item, so I will put it here, in this place, so that I may have ready access to it.”  Or perhaps: “I have need of this now so I will put it here.  I will put it back when I no longer need it.”

       But the item does not get put back.  And there it remains.  Soon other items gather near it as if by force of gravity. Eventually, the space that it occupies is no longer recognizable or useful for its original purpose, and it has taken on a life of its own.

       Let me tell you a story.

       May 5, 1996, was a momentous day in the life of St. Patrick Parish.  Do you know what happened here then?

       – We dedicated the new church building.

       It was a glorious day. All the priests of the Archdiocese were here, several bishops, and every member of the parish.

       About an hour or two beforehand, the Pastor, Fr. Steven Moore, realized that there was no table on which to set the programs for the liturgy. 

       He turned to his young associate, Fr. Leo Walsh, and said, “Leo, run over to the rectory and get one of the sofa tables.  We’ll use that to put the programs on.  We can put it back when we are done.”

       So off the young associate dutifully ran and grabbed the sofa table, a nice piece about a foot wide and four feet long.  We put it in the middle of the Gathering Area and it worked great.

       But the next week, we had no table on which to put the bulletins, so the table remained so that we could use it for that.

       One week turned into two, and two into three.  Months went by and the table remained.

       In due time the young associate was reassigned, but he returned every few years and sure enough every time he looked in the Gathering Area, that sofa table was still there with various items laid upon it. 

       Years went by, and in God’s good providence, the young Associate returned, but this time as Pastor of St. Patrick Parish.  Upon his arrival, he gazed into the gathering area, and sure enough, that trusty sofa table stood resolutely in the Gathering area, now covered with hymnals and bulletins and children’s activity sheets and whatnot and surrounded by many other tables and racks of various shapes and sizes…

       And the little sofa table was happy. 

       And there it remains to this day…

       This, my dear friends in Christ in St. Patrick’s Parish, is how clutter happens.

Spiritual clutter follows the same dynamic. Fall is a great time to clean up one’s spiritual house. 

       The first step is to remove any and all obstacles that come between us and Christ.  I’m talking about sins.

       In my 25 years of priesthood and 55 years of life, I have never seen anyone who purposefully set out to sin mortally.  Usually, it begins with one, small seemingly harmless venial sin, but that leads to another and to another and another…eventually, disaster looms. 

       The current sloppy weather, gives us another good example.  Think about this the next time you are driving and you notice a little speck of mud on your windshield.  Now a single speck is not that big of a deal, but soon there is another here, and then another…here a speck, there a speck, everywhere a speck, speck…

       Eventually, you cannot see the road in front of you and if you don’t take corrective action, disaster looms. 

       So it is with spiritual clutter. 

       When we stand honestly before Almighty God, we have to admit that wherever we are on the moral spectrum, we all are in need of conversion, repentance, and reconciliation.  I’ll go more into each of these in the weeks to come, but for now a short introduction.

    Conversion is the initial moment when we turn back to God.  The Greek word for this turning back is “metanoia.”  It’s a navigational term.  When they were traveling across the desert, sometimes they would get off the right path. So they had to “turn back” to get back on track.  Conversion is that initial turning back to the Lord.  When we realize that things are out of whack and we need to get back on the right path in life.  We see that when Zaccheus changes course to intercept Jesus on the road in Jericho.

    When our heart turns back to the Lord, repentance for sin is the next logical step. We realize that some of our actions or inactions have harmed our relationship with God, self or others.  We need to set those aright.

       Zaccheus does this in a big way.  (“Half of what I own I give to the poor and if I have extorted anyone in the past, I pay them back fourfold.)  

       Also,  I am comforted by the insight from the Book of Wisdom that reminds us that we typically don’t get hit full-force by all of our sins at once, but rather that God will “rebuke offenders little by little.” (Wis 12:2). The Holy Spirit is very kind to us.  There is only one who has taken all of our sins upon Himself at once. For the rest of us, the Holy Spirit only gives us what we can handle at any given time.  So don’t get to distraught if after about three months of getting back into regular confession that a big nasty sin from your past will come to mind.  It is actually a sign of spiritual maturity.  That is the Holy Spirit saying, “Okay, now that you have progressed to this point in your spiritual life, let’s get this one reconciled too.”

     Reconciliation is the process by which are restored to communion with Christ and His Church.  This involves a good examination of conscience, sacramental confession, absolution, and satisfaction of one’s penance.

       Again, we see how Christ restores Zaccheus to the community of Israel.  “Today, salvation has come to this house.  For this one too is a child of Abraham.”  Zaccheus is restored and reconciled to the community of believers by Christ, and so are we.

     Yes, fall is a great time to get rid of the physical clutter in one’s life. In her wisdom, the Church invites us to get rid of the spiritual clutter as well.  Christ will most definitely come in glory at the end of the age.  Let us get our spiritual house in order.  The Church is a hospital for sinners, it is not a rest home for saints.  Let us be moved to conversion, repentance and reconciliation so that we may be prepared as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

       You don’t see many real lepers these days.  Treatment with sulfite-based medications in the 60’s, and now antibiotics such as dapsone, rifampicin, and clofazimine allow for the cure of Hansen’s disease, as leprosy is more properly known. Today, the disease and the stigma that accompanied it are almost completely unknown…almost. 

     Believe it or not, the United States still has a leper colony located at Kalaupapa on the Island of Moloka’i in Hawaii. Of the 8000 people that were forcibly sent there beginning in 1865, six of the 16 surviving patients still remain.  The youngest is 79 year-old Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa.  Boogie was diagnosed with Hansen’s disease at the age of 18.  He was taken from his family, and sent to Kalaupapa in 1959.  While other former residents have gone to live on the mainland or elsewhere, Boogie and five of his fellow patients have chosen to stay.  Kalaupapa is the only real home they have known. 

     I met Boogie a few years ago when I went to Kalaupapa at the invitation of Bishop Larry Silva of Honolulu.  In the course of our visit, I stopped by the only library and bookstore of the town.  Boogie was standing by the counter greeting people as they came by. He was a very jovial fellow. Still, the disease had not left him untouched.  He was bald as an egg, his hands were affected by the disease, and one of his feet was in a modified boot. He had a voice of pure gravel that emerged from a radiant smile.  When he saw me, his eyes lit up and he said, “Hey are you a priest?!”

     “You bet!” I replied. 

     “Say, could I get a blessing from you?” 

     “Sure,” I said.  Then I said the priestly blessing over him, planting my hand firmly on his bowed forehead as I finished.  He dutifully made the Sign of the Cross and then vigorously shook my hand. “No loss of strength there,” I thought, as my knuckles cried out for mercy. 

     “Hey, thanks a lot, Father!” he said.  “Thanks for coming.”

     When I think back on my encounter with Boogie, I am struck by his final words of gratitude more than anything else.  Here is a man who by the standards of the world, has every right to be bitter and resentful.  Instead, he radiated a spirit of joy and gratitude.  Other residents shared with us that one of the things we needed to tell people was the essential role that the Church played in their lives on Kalaupapa. It could have been a dismal place, but instead their faith gave them dignity and hope. They chose to be grateful.

     There is a lesson to be learned here. The intentional disciple is intentionally grateful. The grateful heart cannot be bitter or resentful, even in what might otherwise be the worst of circumstances.  Such is the power of the Gospel.

So how to you get there?

       Gratitude just doesn’t happen

Rather, it has its origins in a more seminal virtue, namely

       HUMILITY.

You don’t get to be grateful without first being humble.

So, what is humility anyway?

        I have found that humility is simply this:  to know yourself without illusion before Almighty God.

       That means acknowledging without apology, everything about you that is right and true and beautiful and just.

       At the same time, it also means acknowledging all that is broken and self-centered and sinful, without sugar-coating it.

       Thus understood, we can begin to understand the primary temptation against authentic humility.

       The first temptation is to downplay our gifts with pointless and dishonest self-denigration or a misdirected interior sense of worthlessness.  Few people have spoken more eloquently about this than Marianne Williamson in her book, Return to Love (Harper and Collins, 1992).  She says:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of

God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.”

Amazing insight, isn’t it? Marianne Williamson. A Return to Love.

       The second temptation is like the first, namely a kind of smug presumption on the mercy of God characterized by a lack of honesty about the seriousness and the impact of our sins on others.  We might say things to ourselves like, “Well, I’m only human.” or “It really wasn’t all that bad.” or “Well, nobody really got hurt.”

       How does this temptation work?  A short story helps illustrate this dynamic.

       The devil was speaking with his demons about how they might be able to misdirect more souls from grace.  The first demon spoke up and said, “I know, Boss, let’s try to convince people that there is no heaven!  That way they will lose all sense of hope and turn away from virtue.”

       The devil replied, “No, that will not work.  There will always be people who believe in heaven, try as we might we cannot snuff out hope completely. What else have you got?

       The second demon spoke up, “I know, Boss, how about we try to convince them that there is no hell?  That way they will think there are no consequences for their actions, and we can steal a few souls that way.”

       The devil replied, “Better, but still not enough. Sinful actions have immediate and eternal consequences. Some will still repent.  We need to do better.  What else have you got?”

       The third demon thought for a moment and then said,
“I know, Boss, let’s convince them that there is a heaven and there is a hell…but not yet!” 

       “Ahhh…” the devil replied, “Now we are getting somewhere.”

       If we are truly honest with ourselves, we come to realize that our sins really are that bad, they do have consequences and yes people get hurt.  There is an immediacy to our need for confession and reconciliation.  St. Paul tells us as much when he says, “if one part of the body is hurting, all the other parts feels its effects.”  (1Cor 12:26) There is no such thing as a private sin.

       But when we come honestly, humbly before Our Lord, the  miracle of faith is this: Christ looks at each of us and says, “Yes, I know everything about you that is right and true and beautiful and just, because I put that there when I created you.

And yes, I know all of your sins…ALL of them.  (Yes, even that one.) because it was for them that I died on the Cross, Rejoice. You are forgiven.  You are free.” 

My dear friends in Christ, when we understand what we have been given, when we understand what we have be FORgiven, what response is appropriate?  What response is even possible, save gratitude? 

       Meister Ekhard, the great medieval mystic once said, “If you only prayer that you can muster is ‘Thank You,’ it is enough. 

       Did you know that the word Eucharist come from the Greek word, “ευχαριστία” which means “Thanksgiving?” 

Therefore, in this sacred assembly, let us give thanks to the Lord Our God, for it is so very right and just. It is here that we are gathered; it is here that we proclaim the Word; it is there that we break the bread; and it is from here that we are sent into the world to proclaim the Good News with grateful hearts, founded on an authentic humility.

       The grateful heart cannot be contained. You were not made for mediocrity. Our parish is not made for mediocrity. You were made to be a great saint! Please, please, please.  Do not settle for anything less.

Hello, blogosphere! I did not preach to the parish this weekend, but I did start a column in the parish bulletin. I think I’ll put these in as well. Let me know what you think.

---

First, read this.

Reading 1HAB 1:2-3; 2:2-4

How long, O LORD?  I cry for help
 but you do not listen!
 I cry out to you, “Violence!”
 but you do not intervene.
 Why do you let me see ruin;
 why must I look at misery?
 Destruction and violence are before me;
 there is strife, and clamorous discord.
 Then the LORD answered me and said:
 Write down the vision clearly upon the tablets,
 so that one can read it readily.
 For the vision still has its time,
 presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint;
 if it delays, wait for it,
 it will surely come, it will not be late.
 The rash one has no integrity;
 but the just one, because of his faith, shall live.

---

Take a good look a the reading from Habakkuk in this week’s scriptures.  Now, think about your own prayer life, how often have you used these or similar words: “How long, O LORD?  I cry for help, but you do not listen!”

     These words of Habakkuk are in the scriptures because at some time or another, every disciple has experienced shouting, pleading, and sometimes ranting at a Silent God.

     There are many reasons for this I suppose. One might be that too often we pray “MY will be done!” instead of “THY will be done.”  But I think this is not so common.

    Rather, I think it is because in our insta-gram, fast food, give-it-to-me-now, culture we are not very good at waiting. We want it right done right, we want it courteously, and we want it NOW!  For reasons we often do not fully understand, waiting irritates us.

    And yet, as Christians, waiting is an essential element of the faith. We await the coming of Christ in glory at the end of the age. As we here in the Embolism at the end of the Lord’s Prayer: “…as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.”

     There is a great difference between waiting with great irritation and waiting in joyful hope. Often times there are many things in the background that we are unaware of that the need to happen before the good stuff can happen. For example, I’m told that the cone of certain pine trees will lay dormant for decades and will not germinate until a wildfire burns the husk and activates the seed. It may be urban (or more precisely “arborial”) myth, but the point is well taken. 

     In the same way, I have found that so much of prayer is simply waiting on God.  And I have learned that if I am willing to wait long enough, insight always comes…always.

     Finally, it is important to remember that God has three way of answering prayers: a) “Yes.” b) Not Yet”, and c) “I have something better in mind for you.”

Today I will talk about  – Wealth, Poverty the Middle Class and the Kingdom of God

Jesus spoke in parables for a reason

       They can be interpreted on many levels

       Literally – real weath and real poverty

       Spiritually – rich in faith, poor in spirit

       Analogically – rich man as the pharisees, Lazarus as the people of Israel

       Today I will be looking at the parable in the literal sense.

       Also, when someone remains unnamed in a parable, the listener is invited to see themselves in that role.

       From our earlier meditations, we know that wealth in and of itself is neither sinful, nor virtuous,

       Poverty in an of itself is neither sinful nor virtuous

Being somewhere in the middle class is neither sinful nor virtuous

       Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of King Wenceslaus, who ruled an empire,

       on Friday we will celebrate the feast of St. Francis

          who renounced all wealth and lived and died in abject poverty. 

       Both and many like them are celebrated as great saints.

       So, what’s key?

       If wealth or poverty is neither virtuous nor sinful,  what was the Rich Man’s sin? Was it that he did not feed Lazarus with the scraps from this table? Not really.  Was it that he did not bath his wounds so that he might be healed?  No so much…

       No, the Rich Man’s sin was that he did not even SEE Lazarus. He was blind to the reality of another man who was right on his doorstep. He had the means, but he did not have the vision.

       Wealth, in and of itself is neither virtuous nor sinful, but wealth at the service of the gospel can make all the difference! By the same token, poverty in and of itself is neither sinful nor virtuous, but poverty lived in service to the gospel can make all the difference. 

       It’s not being rich or poor or somewhere in between that matters…It’s what you do with it. None of us is without the means the to live the truth of the gospel, to proclaim it in lives of faithful service of the gospel

       But to do so, we see, pray, discern, and then to act as we are able. 

       I’m not sure what has been going on in this town since I left for Italy three years ago, but we have a marvelous gift in that it is virtually impossible to drive through town without seeing the poor. 

This believe it or not, is a marvelous gift.  What do I mean?

       Well, let me tell you about the first time I ever met Mother Teresa, now know as St. Teresa Kolkata

       (actually, it’s the only time I ever met Mother Teresa)

       It was while I was in the seminary in the mid-1990’s. The seminary was having an in-house silent day of reflection on the Compassion of Christ. There was a morning, an afternoon and an evening conference.

       At the afternoon conference, at the end of his talk the spiritual director the house said, “Gentlemen, the dress code for Vespers this evening is formal.  We have a very special guest coming.”

       Now we had all been on enough high school retreats by this time and so we laughed among ourselves and said, “Oh yes!  Jesus is coming!” 

       But then he continued and said, “Mother Teresa is in Rome.  We have invited to join us for evening prayer and she has accepted.”

       Not that was something different.  So we said among ourselves.  “Are you going to dress up? Do you think she is really coming?”

       Well, we did and she did.

She entered the room and we all stood up out of respect.

       Then she knelt down to pray.

       So we all knelt down to pray. 

And at the appropriate time during Vespers, the rector invited her to speak.

       Now the first thing you noticed about Mother Teresa was that she was only about 4 and a half feet tall.  Apparently height is neither virtuous nor sinful either. 

       The second thing is that she liked to talk and there was no one  in that room who was going to try to silence her. 

       We were all anticipating what great pearls of wisdom might come from the mouth of the saint.

       And this is what she said to us, “My young brothers, you who want to be priests, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength…and this is how I have done it…”

       And then for the next 45 minutes she just told us stories about things she had done and how God had opened her eyes to see the poverty on the streets of Kolkata, and she had found her vocation in serving Christ in the poorest of the poor. She did not do it to get noticed.  In fact in the middle of her talk she said: “You know, I would rather bathe a leper than talk to the press.”

       And as she continued, we all noticed that there was really nothing all that extraordinary to what she was doing, nothing any of us could not do. 

       No, the great wisdom of Mother Teresa is that she did very ordinary things, with an extraordinary love, and she did it without compromise. 

       Near the end she said to us, “People are always saying to me, Mother Teresa, I want to come to Kolkata to help you serve the poor.  And I always say to them, ‘Don’t come.  You find the poor in your own neighborhood and you serve Christ in them.’”

       If we have eyes to see, we do not have to look very hard to find the poor in our town.  How shall we serve Christ, by serving them?

       I encourage you to read my column in the bulletin this week.  In there I note with great interest how three private entities have pledged over $40 million over the next five years to address the problem of homeless in Anchorage.  That is quite a lot of resources. Time will tell if it will make a difference. 

       But what about you?  What about me?  What about all of us as the parish family of St. Patrick?  What shall we do…such as we are – wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between?

       We may not all be called to extraordinary things, (Although I am convinced some in this room are.)

       But we are all called to see, to pray, to discern, and then to act as we are able.

[The Story of the Boy and the Starfish.]

       Perhaps it is something as simple as washing feet at the Brother Francis Shelter, or to bring food for Clare House, or to donate clothes, or to fund a worthwhile project…

No, it’s not so much doing the extraordinary things that will get us to heaven, but rather doing very ordinary things with an extraordinary, uncompromising love.       

       And that, I assure you, makes all the difference. 

[Howdy, Blogosphere! This week Deacon Mick Fornelli gave one heck of a good homily at St. Pat’s. With his permission, I share it with you now.]

There are times, I think
we all have the inability to focus
so we do things to help bring the focus back.

Channel surfing is something we probably all do.
I know I do and it drives Michelle a little crazy.
We use the TV remote control to
run through all the 6-700 various cable & Internet channels
trying to focus or commit on one .

Our life can become like that.
It’s called compartmentalization.
One channel is about family life.
Another is our job.
Another is our Church Life.
Another is our social life.
Another is our political life.

Every day maybe even every hour
we switch from one channel to another
and never connect them.
The truth is that ——- a Catholics, we are called
to focus on only one channel in our life
it’s the channel to be followers of Jesus
wherever we are and wherever we go.

Our first reading
from the Old Testament prophet Amos
gives us a snapshot
of some merchants/money changers in a synagogue service,
bored to death.

They’re waiting for the service and the sabbath
to be over so they can go back
to what they did best ——
and what they did best was cheating and shortchanging people.
This was their version of compartmentalization.
They separated their religious duties
from their business or work life
and separated both of these from their family life.
This example of the lack of living ones faith
is a constant subject of so many of Jesus’ homilies.
If we are going to be true followers of Jesus
then being a follower of Jesus should affect
how we raise our family, how we do our job,
how we vote, how we spend our leisure time.
There is no time-off from being an intentional disciple of Christ.

Unlike those merchants in the synagogue that Amos describes,
our faith should influence and impact everything we do.
In fact,
everything we do should be a way of serving the Lord.

In his Letter to Timothy in today’s second reading,
St. Paul writes that
we should pray for kings and all those in authority.
That is something we Christians should not forget.

We should hold up all our leaders in prayer,
even those for whom we did not vote
or even those we opposed.

The kings and leaders in St. Paul’s time
could be extremely brutal. Yet,
Paul says that we should still pray for them.
My friends, —— There is power in prayer.
Prayer can change the world.

Finally, we have the Gospel parable of the devious servant.
It’s unclear why
homilists find this parable so puzzling.

It’s relatively evident that
the Lord is praising the man’s ingenuity
and He says that the children of light
should be as thoughtful and resourceful
when it comes to the matter of salvation.

Jesus tells us
we need be just as clever
in planning for a secure future for ourselves,
and it’s not just for the few years we spend on-earth that
we have to provide ———— but more importantly
also for our time in eternity.
Our life in this world is temporary.
Eternity is forever.

So —— do we apply the same ingenuity
the same thought and planning
to our own spiritual life as we do to other areas of our life?
Many people put more effort
into taking care of their body
than they do in caring for their soul.

Some people who don’t think twice
about spending hour after hour at a gym to stay in shape
have difficulty spending an hour in church
or even 10 minutes a day in prayer.

Many people spend more time studying the stock market
and taking care of their portfolios
than they do deepening their faith.

Many people put much more thought and effort
into buying a car or the newest computer or the latest iPhone
then they do in seeking the will of the Lord in their life.
Many people spend more time
in planning their career here on earth
than their future in eternity.

I believe, the point of this parable is straightforward.
The manager used his position
and even the fact of his termination
to take care of his future.
Do we use events in our life
— both positive and negative —
that happen to us as a way of coming closer to the Lord?

My friends, what we do with our wealth,
our time; and our resources
says a great deal about our priorities,
and the seriousness of our fidelity to Christ.

Stop channel surfing!
The stock markets goes up and down.
Wealth can be taken away by a medical crisis.
Popularity comes and goes like the seasons.
Careers come to an end and the company continues without us.
The high fashion of one decade
is the joke of the next.

Neighborhoods change
and old landmarks are replaced.
Our bodies weaken and our appearance changes.

But our soul,
unlike every other investment we make,
lasts forever
and it’s our ticket to eternity.
The call of this parable is to
take as much care of the spiritual side of our life
as we do for the material side.

The call of this parable tells us to
avoid compartmentalization, to avoid channel surfing
by letting our commitment to our faith
and our love of Jesus Christ
shape everything we do.

Quite simply —- It calls us to focus on
and show the same ingenuity,
planning and effort in our spiritual life
as we do in our material life.

My brothers and sisters,
have absolutely no doubt
the best decision we will ever make
is the investment in and the care
we take of our immortal soul.

[Sad to say, through the miracle of technology, there is no audio file for his homily. But the text is below.]

               Today we are going to talk a bit about deliberation in discipleship.  Just as there are no anonymous Christians, it is impossible to be a disciple without being intentional. Discipleship takes planning and deliberation. There are no accidental Christians.  

               We Alaskans are pretty good about planning.  Many of us live here because we like to head out into the wilderness. But you and I both know that you don’t go into the wilderness without planning.

Sadly, we read all too often in the paper about people who did not prepare correctly with disastrous and sometimes fatal results.

               It’s no different being a disciple of Jesus Christ. That’s what he’s telling his disciples today in the gospel.  Essentially he is telling them, and us, that if we would follow him, we have to know what we are getting into.

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.

And he goes on.  You don’t start a construction project without first doing the math to see if you can afford it. You don’t go to war with a strong foe without a reasonable chance of success.  

               We do no go into the wilderness without planning and deliberation.  We don’t start building projects without planning and deliberation. We don’t go into battle without planning and deliberation.

Why then would you ever think that you could enter into the dessert of contemplation, that you could build a life centered on Jesus, or that you could do battle with devil without planning and deliberation?

There is no discipleship without deliberation. There are no accidental Christians.

               Yet, so often we try to do exactly that. We try to be disciples on the fly.  We try to ad lib our way through the life of virtue.  Here is one of my favorite prayers of an accidental Christian:

Dear Lord,
So far I’ve done all right.
I haven’t gossiped,
haven’t lost my temper,
haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.
I’m really glad about that.
But in a few minutes, God,
I’m going to get out of bed.
And from then on,
I’m going to need a lot more help.

This is a cute prayer, kind of funny, and it does emphasize how we need to depend on God, but it really doesn’t require anything of us. You and I both know that it’s not just about avoiding the wrong things. It’s about ordering our lives with Christ at the center so that the world may “see the good things we do and give glory to the Father.”

               So, if we are going to be intentional disciples, it will take planning and deliberation.  But where do you start?  Here are three easy steps: 

               Step 1 – Involves getting our priorities straight, especially when it comes to relationships. Does Jesus really want us to hate our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, even our very life?  I don’t think so. But he is saying without apology that if you put any other relationship, even your most cherished ones, before your relationship with Christ, then your priorities are out of order. We must put Christ in the center, because it is our relationship with Christ that gives context and meaning to all our other relationships and gives them life.

               Step 2 – Once we get our priorities rightly ordered, take inventory of how you are spending your time and your resources.  It’s very simple.  Show me your calendar, show me your checkbook or your Alaska Airlines Mileage Card statement and I will tell you what your priorities are.

               Step 3 –  Organize your physical space to make room for Jesus. Now, I don’t have a house to live in right now, but most of you do. Very likely you have a place to eat, a place to sleep, perhaps a place for the TV.  If you are lucky you may have a garage in which to put your car.  Is there a place in your house dedicated to prayer?

               These three simple steps can make all the difference in the movement from being a consumer of religious goods and services to an intentional disciple of Jesus Christ.

               1.  Examine the priorities of your relationships

               2.  Take an inventory of how you spend your time and resources

               3.  Organize your physical space to make room for Jesus.

It is especially important that we do so, because we know that sooner or later our faith will be tested and the cost of discipleship will become manifestly clear.

               We have a very clear example of this in the second reading.  What’s going on?  The letter is written by St. Paul in his later years to a wealthy Christian named Philemon. We know that Philemon was wealthy because he owned slaves.  One of these slaves was named Onesimus.  At some point earlier he had run away from Philemon and eventually sought out the Apostle Paul in Rome. At some point he became a Christian. Now, Paul is sending him back to Philemon with the very letter we read today, asking that he be received, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ.

               Philemon has a problem. By the laws of that day, (which thank God are not the laws of our own day), he has every right to punish Onesimus and re-enslave him. Yet, Paul is asking him to receive him as he would Paul himself. What can he do?  His faith is asking him to do one thing, but the socio-economic impact would be devastating. What about his other slaves? What would they think?  What about the neighbors?! He is being asked to reorganize his entire household according to a whole new way of thinking. What is he going to do?

               We do not know what Philemon eventually did.  There is no return letter or record what happened next.  But since this letter is included in the canon of Scripture, I like to think that he did the right thing. But one thing I do know is that like Philemon, we too are asked to reorganize our lives and our households around our relationship with Christ.

We need to

               1. Examine the priorities of our relationships

               2. Take an honest inventory of how we spend our time and our resources

               3. We need to organize our physical space to make room for Jesus.

It is not easy,and like Philemon, it may rock our world.

               But there is no greater call than to be a Christian. Perhaps not doing great and extraordinary things, but perhaps doing the ordinary things of life with an extraordinary love.

Our Lord makes it abundantly clear.

               There is no discipleship without planning and deliberation.

               There are no accidental Christians.

20^th Sunday C – Persecution and the Good News

        On a dry, hot, windy day, with the fire danger at its highest, I find it a bit unsettling that Our Lord should begin his discourse with “I have come to light a fire on the earth!”

        Talk about bad timing!

And talk about some tough, sobering readings this week.  We see Jeremiah, thrown into the muddy cistern for proclaiming the Word of God. The psalmist cries out “Lord, come to my aid!” The Letter to the Hebrews describes in vivid detail the sufferings of Christ for the Gospel and even Our Lord says that those who follow him will be subject to persecution even from those closest to them for the sake of the Gospel.

        I’m going to speak today about one of the more difficult aspects of Christian discipleship. It will be quite sobering, some of it may be a bit depressing; but don’t worry, as with Jeremiah, I will take us down into the cistern, but at the end I will draw up out again. 

        Why were Christians persecuted in ancient times?

        Because of the nature of their message, and the threat they represented to established internal power structures, they were rejected by the Jewish religious leadership of their day and eventually expelled from the Synagogue.

        But in the Roman Empire in general, they were more or less left alone until 64 AD.  What happened then? 

Well, it helps to remember that the Romans were very religious people.  They had a god and a religious observance for just about everything. If you went to the market or transacted other business, you made a short sacrifice to Mercury. If you wanted kids, you visited the Temple of Vesta, goddess of fertility.If the state went to war, which they seem to have done quite often, the sacrifice was to Mars. And everything in the Empire depended on keeping Jupiter happy. The security of the state depended on keeping the gods appeased. 

So, in 64 AD, Nero fiddles, and Rome burns. Somebody as angered the gods?  Who could it be? Well, they had this one religious group called Christians who refused to sacrifice to the gods. No wonder the gods were angry.  We have to bring these people to heal.

So ironically, the early Christians were first persecuted as atheists. 

But what about in modern times?  Surely, the world has moved beyond such things, yes?

        Sadly that is not the case at all.  If anything, there is more religious persecution now than there ever was in ancient Rome.  Christians seem to be getting the worst of it.  The last 25 years have seen a dramatic increase in numbers and intensity.

        According to a recent report ordered by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt of the United Kingdom, he persecution of Christians in parts of the world is at near “genocide” levels.  The report estimated that one in three people suffer from religious persecution.  It found that Christians were the most persecuted religious group. It warned that Christianity “is at risk of disappearing” in some parts of the world, pointing to figures which claimed Christians in Palestine represent less than 1.5% of the population, while in Iraq they had fallen from 1.5 million before 2003 to less than 120,000.

In 2016, the UN found that 825,000, or 40%, of Syria’s 2 Million Christians have fled the country. 

The Vatican Charity, “Aid to the Church in Need” released its “Religious Freedom Report” on Nov. 22, noting that 300 million Christians live in a country of persecution, subject to violence, arrest, and human rights violations.   

        According to the2019 World Watch List report by Open Doors, in the top 50 countries they tracked:

– 4,136: Christians were killed for faith-related reasons  

– 2,625: Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned  

– 1,266 churches or Christian buildings were attacked

Today, 11 countries are now considered at the “extreme” level for their persecution of Christians. Five years ago, North Korea was the only one.

During the past year

– 105 churches are attacked, burned or vandalized each month

– 11 Christians are killed every day for their faith

        Why are Christians persecuted so much more today than they were 25 years ago? One factor, is that in the middle East and elsewhere, with the breakdown of civil order and religious extremism on the rise, minority Christian populations are extremely vulnerable. This is particularly true in areas where political boundaries are drawn along religious lines.   

        It is a heroic thing to be a Christian in certain parts of the world today. 

        It makes one appreciate the religious liberty we enjoy, at least for now, in our own country.  Granted, there has always been an undercurrent of anti-Catholic bias in the United States.  But today, one can also notice a growing anti-Christian sentiment, and the exclusion of Christian principles from the public square,  as secular humanism seeks to establish itself, with increasing success, as the American civil religion.  Don’t believe me, read the Humanist Manifesto at https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/

        Jesus knew that his message of reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins would be opposed by those who will only see the world through the lens of power and influence.  It was true then and it is true now.

        The simple fact of the matter is that if we even try to live our Christian faith in peace; if we simply try to remain true to the teachings of the Church; if we merely proclaim the Gospel by the example of our lives, there are some who, thank God, will find it very attractive. But there are others who will find it very, very annoying, and they will do everything in their power to shut us up.

        It was true for Jeremiah. It was true for Christ. It was true for the early Christians.        It is true today. Sometimes the persecution is severe, as in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Sometimes it is more subtle, as it is here. But have no illusions. It is part and parcel of being a Christian

        If that were the end of the story, there would be no point to being a Christian.  And as St. Paul says to the Corinthians: “we would be the most pitiable of people.” (1 Cor 15:19)

        But you and I both know that it is not the end of the story.

        We are people of the resurrection. The suffering and death of Christ, and our own sufferings and death in this life, are a part of the Paschal mystery.  But it is the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and our own resurrection at the end of the age which makes all the difference.        By his passion death and resurrection Christ conquered sin and death, and reconciled all creation to the Father.

        The supreme paradox of the Good News is that it is precisely through suffering and trial that the Christian is transformed; the Church is transformed and purified; and the world is transformed, so that we can become what God has created us to be. 

We are people of the resurrection.  So much so that St. Paul could say:

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” (Rm. 8:18) 

So what must we do in the present age to be people of the resurrection in the face of an increasingly hostile world?  

I offer two things for your consideration.

        – First, we must support other Christians whenever and wherever we can – by our prayers and by our practical support. This might include the aforementioned Aid to the Church in Need, or the Good Friday Collection for Christians in the Holy Land.

        – Second, we must strive for personal holiness centered on the person of Jesus Christ. This is not easy. It takes prayer, it takes vigilance; it takes all of us supporting each of us, living our faith without compromise and engaging the world in charity for the transformation of hearts and the establishment of a just society.

        It is a heroic thing to be a Christian in the world today. But it is nothing we have not seen before; and it is something, no doubt, we will certainly see again.

I suspect the late Francis Cardinal George of Chicago knew this when he said:  

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history”

There is no greater call.

Alas, no text for this one. I’m slowly figuring this blog thing out. It’s quite fun. As a bonus, here is a shot of the mosaic that I refer to from the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome:

Don’t you just love Qoheleth in the Book of Ecclesiastes?
He’s at the end of his life and lamenting the futility of it all. So we get this great line:
“Vanity of Vanities! All things are vanity!

It reminds me these three men talking one day, and the one says, “What would you like people to say people to say at your funeral?”
[“LOOK! He’s moving!”]

Vanity of vanities All is vanity.
In one sense Qoheleth is right:
With ownership comes responsibility.
With responsibility comes work
Work takes time
And we only have so much time in this life.
When it is over, we must leave all our earthly possessions behind to others.
Think about it:
You never see a hearth with a U-Haul behind it.

But is it really as futile as Qoheleth says it is?
Is it really all just vanity and a chase after the wind?

I don’t think so Saint Paul doesn’t think so and neither does Our Lord.
The key, as St. Paul rightly points out is to
“Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”
We need to seek that which is of heaven,
Even while we are still living on this earth…
ESPECIALLY while we are still living
on this earth.
The urgency of this is made clear by Our Lord with the Parable of the Foolish Man with the Bountiful Harvest:
“Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Which begs the question: What matters to God?
What are these “things above” upon which we are to set our sights?
Put another way, while we are living on this earth, what are the things of heaven that are in front of our collective noses right here, right now?
What is it about the Kingdom of God that is literally within our reach?

I think I know: Let me share with your one of the best personal introductions I have ever heard.
It was given years ago by a speaker at a seminar to all the clergy and parish staff members
(definition of an expert, a guy from out of time with a briefcase.)
He started out by saying, “Let me tell you a little about myself:
– I am a disciple of Jesus Christ
– I am husband to my beautiful wife Sandra
– I am father to my children, Eddie, Carol and Bridget
– With my family I am a member of St. Gregory the Great Parish
– I am a best friend to Stephen, Larry, Carl, and a few others.
And only then did he tell us what his profession was.
As I listened to him, I thought to myself, “Self! This guy has got it right!”
He understands what really matters to God.
It’s surprisingly simple:
The Kingdom of God is all about relationships.

• So on the one hand, Qoheleth is right. We never really own anything in this life We are not owners; rather we are stewards of whatever material gifts Our Lord chooses to bless us with in this life. All those things we might accumulate We gladly leave it all behind. Because they really don’t matter to God. But on the other hand, we can leave this world incredibly rich! For what do we really take with us at the end of this life, if not the relationships we build with those around us?
  1. Our relationship with Christ
  2. Our relationship with others
     THESE are those things of heaven that are in front of our collective noses right here, right now.
     The Kingdom of God is built of relationships, and relationships are as close to us as the person sitting next to you right now.
     The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.
     Think about this in a few minutes when we get to the sign of peace.

There is an art to building relationships with God and others, but it is not rocket science.
If you want a relationship to grow,
You give it time and attention.
Time is a precious commodity.
You can fill it with the things you like
But how much better to fill it with the people you love!

Time and attention, these are the two essential ingredients of any relationship.

Do you want your relationship with Christ to grow? Give him your time and attention.
– Spend at least ten minutes a day in private prayer with Our Lord
And if you cannot find at least ten minutes a day in private prayer with Our Lord, your life is out of control and you need to make adjustments, no excuses.
– Spend time in prayer with each other at home

Spend time and pray and with other members of our parish family here at St. Patrick’s, either in a ministry, or especially in a small group. Associate with the people you want to be like. The old adage is true: Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are. If you want to get close to Christ, hang with people who also want to get close to Christ, It’s like a wagon wheel with Christ at the center and ourselves on the spokes: the closer we get to Christ, the closer we get to one another, the closer we get to one another, the closer we get to Christ.

Finally, our unity in relationship with Christ and one another finds its fulfillment, is celebrated, and renewed here in the Sacred Assembly in the Eucharist.
Here we are fed and renewed in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, participating fulling these Sacred Mysteries and entering into the most glorious of relationships known as “COMM-UNION.”

where are united literally at the level of our very being.
With God, and with one another
This finds its sacramental expression when we receive Holy Communion,
That it is known thus is no accident.

We raise our hands in prayer, and the Kingdom of God, which is relationships, is very much within our grasp.

Our union with Christ and with one each other in the Church gives a special context to our relationships with everyone else we encounter outside these walls.

Do you want your relationship with your spouse to grow?
– pray together
– establish a date night and stick to it religiously
– fight for your time together
Lavish time and attention on each other and the Kingdom of God, which is made of relationships, is within your grasp.

You want your relationship with your friends to grow?
– call them up and invite them to lunch or dinner
– go out and do stuff together
– make memories, enjoy each other’s company
And the Kingdom of God, which is made of relationships, is within your grasp.

Remember, in the Kingdom of God, it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know and who well you know them.
The Kingdom of God is built of relationships
And your relationships with Christ, his Church and others grow because you give them time and attention.
The closer we get to Christ, the close we get to one another, the close we get to one another, the closer we get to Christ, until we all meet in the Eucharist.
Let us then celebrate this Holy Communion, this most intimate relationship of life and love with Christ and one another
Living in this world, but not wedded to it
Heart to heart and hand to hand
knowing that the Kingdom of God, which is made of relationships, is very much within our grasp.