There are certain places that always remain special. For many of us, it is the house we grew up in, or our hometown, our home parish, our high school, the place where you got baptized, engaged or ordained; church, chapel, or meditative place.
I imagine Mt. Tabor was like that for Peter, James and John. The vision of Christ transfigured in glory, conversing with Moses and Elijah, must have been pretty special for them, especially in light of what they experienced immediately afterwards once they went up to Jerusalem.
In ancient times, a mountaintop was the place to go to encounter the Divine. It’s seems a bit redundant that the Incarnate Word of God would have to do so, since he was already divine, but Jesus took Peter, James, and John up there for their sakes, not his. From that point forward, they are headed to Jerusalem where he will be mocked, scourged, and crucified. So, he gives them a glimpse of his present and future glory to strengthen their faith when these things happened.
I think all of us have had similar experiences in our relationship with God and others. There are those moments of insight in prayer and in friendships, when you see things as they are with great clarity. Later, life gets messy, confusing, and sometimes scary. Thinking back on that moment of insight gets us through those moments because we know they are not the ultimate reality. That’s what Jesus did for the disciples and that is what he continues to do for us, especially in the Eucharist where we get a foretaste and promise of the ultimate reality of the Kingdom. It is our Mt. Tabor that gets us through the messiness that life often dishes out.
It is good for us to be here…to gather, to share our sacred stories, to break the bread, and to be sent into a world in desperate need of clarity and hope.
Merry Christmas, Day 14! We get 15 days of Christmas this year and I am using them all! I just got my Christmas cards out on Wednesday.
There’s a meme that says if there were three wise women instead of wise men, they would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts. There is more, but you get the idea.
Let’s talk a little bit about these gifts of the Magi. As the meme points out, they are not all that practical. Yet, emphasizing them, Matthew is making the point that this little baby Jesus really is the Messiah.
In the Isaiah 60;1-6 we see the nations coming to worship in Jerusalem, bringing gifts of gold and frankincense. This was for a very good reason. The long-awaited Messiah was to be a great priest-king who would reestablish true worship and the Kingdom of Israel. Gold represents the tribute that would be given a king. Frankincense is the proper gift to a priest who would offer it as a pleasing fragrance to God on the altar of incense.
Thus, it makes perfect sense that the Magi, representing the nations, would bring gold and frankincense to the new Messiah, as befitted a priest-king.
But the Magi bring something else—myrrh, an aromatic balm typically used in the preparation of bodies for burial. That seems a bit out of sorts until you realize that the gift of myrrh is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ passion and death. What Matthew is saying is that Jesus is indeed the expected priest-king Messiah, but it is by his passion and death that he will win the victory and establish the Kingdom.
The gifts are symbolic, not practical. They are also a good reminder to us not to get wrapped in our own expectations of what we expect Jesus to be and pay closer attention to who Jesus really is. Seeing Jesus for who he really is allows us to give a more authentic witness of him to the world.
[Here’s some thoughts along with a couple of fun pictures from the Christmas pageant last weekend.]
I hate needless distractions.
**SQUIRREL!!!**
But alas, that is exactly what happens when St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians is read as we celebrate the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All too often we forget about the first part of the reading and get distracted by the part about “wives, be subordinate to your husbands, etc.” All too often it turns into “Husbands, elbow your wives and wink. Wives, glare at your husbands. Children, look on in exasperation at your parents.”
We need to be more noble than that.
If we learn one thing from Our Lord, it is that whether it be in the Church at home, in the Church at the parish, in the Church at the archdiocese, or in the Church universal, any authority exercised in the Church must be exercised in a spirit of loving service to the other. Otherwise, we are no better than secular society where authority is often wielded like a club to beat others into submission. Our Lord says very plainly, “But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant.” (Mt. 20:25)
St. Paul shows us how. “Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another…” (Col 3:12)
They say that charity begins at home. Nowhere is this more true than in the Christian family. If we want our families to be holy families in imitation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we need to take a good look at how they lived.
A good reminder is the statue of the Holy Family in our parish church. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, prayer, faithfulness to God and to each other…this is what makes every Christian family a holy family.
If I ever found a religious order (and I just might!), they will not be mendicants, like the Franciscans or the Dominicans, they will be hunter/gatherers. They will hunt and fish and trap and grow big gardens and go berry picking and such so that they can be connected to this land and its people. The habit will also be something special. Based on the Dominican habit, the cowl and hood will be the camouflage that is appropriate for the season. The Capa Magna will also be camo, but be made of fleece lined Gor-tex. In addition to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they will have to take a vow of joy.
Our Holy Father, whose 87th birthday is today, has hit the nail on the head when he affirms that joy is a hallmark of those who embrace the gospel. Those who open themselves to the grace of God and seek to do his will cannot help but radiate a holy joy. How fitting that the Church asks us to reflect on holy joy on the Third Sunday of Advent, known as “Gaudete Sunday”, which is Latin for “rejoice” or “be joyful.”
As we do so, it is important not to confuse joy with mere happiness. Happiness is an emotion. Our secular society talks much about “the pursuit of happiness”, but this is an unfortunately misplaced desire. Happiness is an emotion. It is a symptom, the result of something else. No emotion lasts very long. If someone is always happy, we call them “manic” and refer them to a mental health professional.
Joy is different. It comes from a much deeper source. Much to the perplexity of secular society, the Christian can be joyful even in the midst of great trial, illness, or affliction. Many of the Roman officials were impressed and some converted by the joy they saw on the martyrs faces as they went to a most horrible death.
At its heart, joy springs from the state of blessedness (“beatitude”) when the will of God and the will of the human person are in perfect harmony. I had a religious sister exclaim to me once, “You know, Leo, you just can’t beat doing the will of God!”
So the first task of the Christian, and the source of our joy, is to discern the will of God, in general and in particular. To get insight into God’s plan for the salvation of the world, I highly recommend a reading of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, known as Gaudium et Spes. If you want to know what we are all about as the Church in the modern world, read this document.
Regarding ourselves, discerning the will of God takes time. We need to spend time in silence and prayer. We need to tune out all the noise that seeks to distract or misdirect us, so that we can hear the still small voice that will lead us to know God’s will and therein find the source of our joy.
[Here is the post with some bonus shots of the new puppy.]
As most of you are now aware, three weeks ago I went down to South Carolina to pick up a three-month-old Boykin Spaniel to accompany Joy and to go into the field as a top-notch bird dog. My sisters lobbied hard that since she would be a hunter, she should have a kick-butt warrior princess name. So, I figured, “Heck, she will be at St. Patrick’s, why not name for the greatest warrior queen in all of Irish lore?” So, she is Maeve, Warrior Queen of the Northern Skye.
Puppies are cute, cuddly, and full of energy. In the early stages they require constant vigilance as they learn to regulate their bodily functions. They also teach their humans the virtue of detachment from material things. Turn your back for a minute and your sock, your shoe, the dishtowel hanging from the dishwasher, your scarf, your hat… any and all of these may be attacked, devoured and obliterated in less time than it takes to say a Hail Mary.
These twin virtues of vigilance and detachment are essential to what Advent is all about. Advent is a preparatory season. For the first three weeks, we meditate on and prepare for the second coming of the Lord in glory. Then on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we shift gears a bit and meditate and prepare to commemorate his first coming in humility. We do not know when the Lord will come again. The temptation is to figure that since he has waited for a couple thousand years, he will probably wait a couple thousand more. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I don’t want to risk it. In the meantime, he comes in all kinds of little ways every day, not to mention how he comes to us in word and in sacrament every time the Eucharist and other sacraments are celebrated. We need to be watchful. We need to be vigilant. We need to pay attention.
Likewise, Advent is a time to get our spiritual and our physical houses in order. Part of that process is detachment from those things that get in the way. The first and most obvious spiritually are our sins. Advent is a time to get to confession. But there are other things we need to detach from too, things like attitudes, grudges, ambitions, disordered desire for material things. These clutter up our heart and mind. Get rid of them.
Advent is also a time to purge all the physical clutter in our lives. Is there a drawer, a closet, a room, a garage, a storage unit that is so cluttered you can’t use it? Get rid of that stuff! If you haven’t used it or worn it in the last two years, you never will. Get it out of your house and out of your life.
Here’ s a great way to do that. Every day of Advent, take 20 minutes a day to tidy up a particular space. You’ll be surprised at the progress you make.
In sum, Advent is about preparation, both spiritual and physical. The virtues of vigilance and detachment help us get there. Let us pray Our Lord will find us ready when he comes, however he comes.
The homily from the 8:30 AM Mass. There is a bit more than in the text.
The parish house is located on a little cul de sac with just five houses on it. I have great neighbors. We look out for each other’s houses when we are gone. Sometimes we have spontaneous dog parties on somebody’s lawn. It’s a great place to be. We all try to be good neighbors.
In a similar way, I’ve spoken from time to time about how we will know when we have succeeded as a parish in the Muldoon, Scenic View communities. When we have become so much a part of the community that they cannot imagine life without us, then we know that we are there.
Such a maxim comes directly from Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel. As he so often does, Jesus takes the question before him and carries it to the next level. This was typical of the style of rabbinical teaching. First, the student would ask a question to which everyone knew the answer. Any seven-year-old Jewish child could have told you. The commandment to love God with all your heart, and soul and strength comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. It is known as the Shema Israel and is one of the central refrains of the morning and evening offering.
But true to form, Jesus does not stop there. He combines it with another, somewhat obscure commandment from Leviticus 19:17-18. In doing so, he gives us what has become known to Christians as “The Great Commandment” where love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable.
It makes sense. How can we love the God we cannot see if we do not love our neighbor who is right before our eyes? Conversely, how can we love our neighbor, if we first do not put our love and trust in Almighty God? Indeed, love of God, must find its expression in love of neighbor.
Fine, but how? If we understand, as Thomas Aquinas does, that love intends the good of the other, it begins to make sense. There is a little bit of a theological hurdle here. How do we love God in this sense? God is the ultimate and the highest good. God is self-sufficient and needs nothing from us. How can we intend the good for God, if he is Goodness itself? The quick answer is…we don’t. Instead, the root of loving of God lies in allowing ourselves to be loved by the One who is Love itself. It is our reception and our gratitude of God’s love that opens the door. Then, understanding even partially how much we are loved, we can begin to love our neighbor.
Loving our neighbor is not “rocket science.” We simply need to intend what is good for them. It starts at home. Then it extends to those who live around us by listening with a compassionate ear. Then it moves to doing the little things that make their lives better. Eventually, we find ourselves moving from simply avoiding doing the wrong deed, to moving to doing the correct deed, and eventually moving even farther into doing the loving deed.
There was a man who was working from home one afternoon. His wife had to run an errand and so she left their eight-year-old son with him. Since he had a project to work on, he needed a way to keep the boy occupied for at least an hour so he would not be interrupted. Seeing a newspaper on the coffee table, he held it up and noticed a full page advertisement with a picture of the world on it.
“Tell you what, sport,” he said to his kid, “How about we make a puzzle?” So he cut up the picture or the world into dozens of pieces and gave the son a roll of tape. He figured that should keep him occupied for at least an hour.
Ten minutes later his son comes back with the completed puzzle. The man was stupefied. “Son, I’m really proud of you. That’s great work. But I gotta know. How did you do it so quickly.”
“Easy, Pop!” the his replied. When you held up the paper I noticed that on the other side of the page, was a big picture of a boy. I just put the boy together right and the world took care of itself.”
There is wisdom here.
Our heart must be made aright by the love of God
Before peace can become a reality in our homes;
Our homes must be made aright by the love of God
Before peace can become a reality in our neighborhoods
Our neighborhoods must be made aright by the love of God,
Before peace can become a reality in our city, our state…our world.
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.”
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.
Hey, Church fans! Sorry for the long break. Two things at play. First, in the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” category, Microsoft in their wisdom has decided to take a very simple process of trimming a video and make it exceedingly difficult and time consuming. Second, I have been pretty busy on Sundays between Masses when these things usually get done.
That said, I’m not preaching this weekend, but here is my column for the week. You can always get them on the parish website: https://www.st.patsak.org or our parish Facebook page: stpatsak .
Primed and Ready.
When I was Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese, I was always fascinated by the story of the call of the first disciples as depicted in the second part of today’s gospel reading. On the one hand, you have to admire the faith of the first disciples leaving everything to follow Jesus. At the same time, it does seem a little quick. In the real world, successful business owners like Peter, Andrew, James, and John do not simply just get up and leave everything, no matter how attractive or compelling this Jesus was. Also, we can read of several others (the rich young man, for example) who received the same invitation as they did and yet did NOT leave everything to follow him. There has to be more to the story.
Our insight comes from the Gospel of John (1:35). Here we see that Peter, James, John and Andrew were not just quietly going about their business before Jesus showed up in their lives. Rather, reading John it becomes clear that they were very active in their faith. They were expecting the Messiah and were anticipating his manifestation. They were waiting for him.
Their faith made them ready. So when Jesus does show up, they could respond in faith. I suspect that they had already said “yes” in their hearts. Only this interior disposition would make possible such a whole—hearted response.
The lesson for us is clear. We all want to be like Peter, James, John and Andrew. The key is to prepare ourselves interiorly so that when, through the Holy Spirit, Christ does call us to some work for the Church, either big or small, we can respond with all our heart, soul, and strength. Daily prayer is an essential element of this spirituality of vigilance. Only then can we “await the joyful hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.”
Welcome Fr. Bill Hanrahan and Fr. Scott Garrett! Fr. Bill will be covering for me while I am out of town getting a little post-Christmas R&R. Fr. Scott will be sharing with us how we can support his mission to bring the gospel to the far western reaches of the Archdiocese. See you in February!
[Do you really have to hate your mother and father to follow Jesus?}
This week marks something of a milestone in space exploration as NASA is continuing to ramp up for a return to the moon.
I find this of great interest. One of my earliest childhood memories was crowding around the television in our basement watching the first lunar landing and seeing Neil Armstrong exit the landing craft and become the first human being to walk on the moon.
Space and things astronomical have always fascinated me. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited the first images from the Hubble space telescope as it was launched into low earth orbit in 1990. With great precision, the engineers pointed this amazing contraption into the heavens. Then they hit the button and awaited the first images to be beamed back to earth…
…The images were blurry. The telescope would not focus properly.
After no small amount of analysis, it was found that the problem was due to a simple error in math. One engineering team had been designing using the metric system and another had been using the imperial system. Fortunately, the problem was corrected three years later by a crew from the Space Shuttle and now even thirty years later, we can enjoy vivid, high-resolution images of galaxies and nebulae and all kinds of cool things that are out there in the great expanse of space.
I think of this embarrassing, and very expensive episode with the Hubble Telescope where the greatest minds of our time got it wrong, and I am reminded of a plaque that hung in the office of the Superintendent at the jobsite on Adak in the Aleutian Islands where I worked construction in the summers during college. It read:
In short, if you want to do the job right, you better know what you are getting yourself into beforehand.
That is essentially what Jesus is doing as he speaks with his disciples in this week’s gospel from Luke 14. If you are going be his disciple, you’ve got to know what you are getting yourself into.
Our Holy Father said this morning that these are very difficult words. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem. A great crowd is following him, many simply because he is a superstar. Jesus stops and tells them in no uncertain terms that discipleship is not for the faint of heart.
First, your relationship with Christ, must come before your family. This is not to say that you have to disown your family. But it does make sense. They say that “blood is thicker than water.” The question here could be WHOSE blood? When it comes to a case of facts, we have to admit that the blood of our family heritage that brought us to life in this passing world always gives way to the blood of Christ who has given us eternal life. The primary relationship HAS to be Christ for even our relationships with our family to be rightly ordered.
Second, being a follower of Christ will involves SACRIFICE. For Jesus to say, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” would have made absolutely no sense to his listeners. Crucifixion was a brutal Roman means of execution. In our own day, it is as if he had said, “Whoever does not sit in his own electric chair cannot be my disciple.” Or “whoever does not lie on his own lethal injection table cannot be my disciple.”
What are we to make of this? If we listen to what he says elsewhere, we cannot escape the conclusion that if Christ is truly the center of our lives; if we try to be his disciples; even if we do this poorly, there are those who will find it very annoying. And finding it annoying they would like to see us removed from the public square.
This can happen on many levels.
In its most benign sense, it may mean that we will be snubbed and ignored in matters of public discourse. And this is certainly true. In the wake of the Enlightenment, truth is in the eye of the beholder.
It was Descartes who famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” In so doing he made himself the center of the universe around which everything else revolved.
How small is the intellectual leap from seeing truth as an objective reality to a subjective one. Unthinkable a few generations ago, now the airwaves and screens are full of those who hold sincerely that my truth is as real as your truth. This bodes ill for those of us Christians for whom the truth is not a something, but a someone – Jesus the Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
Furthermore, it is a sad testimony that in the secular West, a person is free to embrace just about any religion…except Christianity. Among Christians, we Catholics are the most suspect.
In its most extreme sense, this desire to remove us from society takes on the form of brutal, repressive persecution of the Church, even to the point of death. Earlier this month, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, forcibly closed seven Catholic radio stations and placed the Cardinal Archbishop of Managua under house arrest on charges of sedition and treason. Cardinal Alvarez’s alleged crime was that he supported student protesters who had demonstrated against the policies and practices of the regime. Namely, that all opposition candidates in the recent election had all been arrested and incarcerated before the last election.
We say to ourselves, “Oh that could never happen here!” Personally, given the momentum of history, I am not so optimistic. But neither am I worried if it does. Persecution is part of discipleship. The seeds of faith have always been watered by the blood of martyrs. Why should we think it will be any different in our own time?
In light of this, Jesus’ comment that “Anyone who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple” is almost an afterthought. Still it bears reflection. They say that you spend the first third of your life wanting stuff, the second third of your life accumulating stuff and the last third of your life trying to get rid of stuff. Nevertheless, at some point each one of us must ask the question: “Do I own my possessions? Or do my possessions own me? The answer to that question will tell us much about ourselves and where we are on the spectrum of discipleship. In the end we know that we are stewards, not owners. We leave everything behind in this world. In the meantime, we are each given gifts of time, talent and treasure. The key is to use these gifts in a way that is pleasing to the Giver, and to return them to the Lord with increase.
The words of Jesus today are very hard in one sense, but they are very liberating in another. When we stop to think about it, Jesus is not asking us to do anything he has not already done himself. Furthermore, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of God’s love alive in the world; the same Spirit that animated the life of Christ, descended upon Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost; the same Spirit that animates the life of every Christian; through this Holy Spirit, Our Lord has given us the means to live our Catholic faith in the midst of the world courageously and joyfully.
We stand in the truth in love in the world and for the world. In so doing, we transform the world and help it to become what God has created it to be.
