Come Holy Spirit

Often times a sin we all confess is pride.  We judge others according to how we do things, or we judge others according to where we think they should be at, or how they should act, or even how they should agree with us.  All of us know this weakness.  Think of it this way, however, if God made everyone just like me this world would be a boring place indeed.

All of us are the same in and that we share a human nature, but everyone’s personalities are just a little different.  One is more of an extrovert, while another is more of an introvert.  One is a little more assertive, another a little more passive.  One is more of a perfectionist, another more of a free spirit, leaving dirty drinking glasses on the coffee table instead of bringing them back to the sink.  One is more happy go lucky, another a little more serious.  One likes to joke, another is a little more bland.   The differences between us are easy to recognize, the hard part is accepting them, and not just accepting them but realizing every single person’s personality is a manifestation of the Divine.

The Holy Spirit molds and shapes who we are for the greater glory of God.  There are distinct reasons, reasons that are eternal in their value of why we are the way we are.  When the Holy Spirit descended on Mary and the Apostles in the Upper on that faithful Pentecost Day God did not make them identical, He gave them similar gifts, but He worked with the gifts He had already given them when He shaped them in the wombs of their mothers.

To some He have the gift of teaching, to others to preach, others to contemplate-pray, to others to help the poor, to others a discerning heart with ability to prophesy, interpret signs, to others to govern and guide, and on and on and on.

No one’s gifts should be looked at as less important, God never works in vain.  From the highest ranking person in the world to the person working for minimum wage, each of their gifts has an eternal value.

Sometimes we sell ourselves short, thinking – what are my gifts, what are they worth?  They are worth a whole lot.  You may be the difference in one or many people’s lives.  It may be you that helps bring someone out of despair, it may be you who brings someone back to God, it may be you that inspires someone to greatness, you may inspire a future pope, ok, let’s keep it simple, maybe a future priest.

The greatest thing about God is that He never wants to stop showering us with gifts.  They did not end at Pentecost; those gifts are still being poured out on us now.  The questions for us are, do we want those gifts, do we even ask for them?  Let that be our prayer for this week, Lord in your mercy and for your glory bless me with the continued gifts of the Holy Spirit so that I may do your work on earth and also to be reminded of how much we are all loved by you.  Amen.

Fr. John

Teach Us O'Lord

Sometimes people will ask me, “Father is that God’s commandment or man’s?”  When someone asks this type of question there is either a moral dilemma they are struggling with or sometimes a doctrinal statement and \ or dogma.

With the Healthcare mandate looming and now in the Supreme Court many voices have been heard either defending it or denouncing it.  It has led to many people asking, “Doesn’t a person have a right over their own body, contraceptives really can’t be sinful, and when does human life really begin?”  There are Catholics asking these questions, some of who have already made up their minds.

So, the crux of the argument is, when the Church says abortion is a sinful act – one that is gravely evil, objectively speaking (subjectively the person’s culpability and responsibility can only be judged by God) and that contraceptive use is also evil are not laws made up by men.  Quite the contrary, the laws themselves are from God, which we can deduce and recognize through reason and grace.  These laws are derived from the Divine Law, i.e. God and Scripture, as well as through nature, i.e. The natural law.  In order to keep this simple let us take one example and see how they relate to Scripture and Natural Law.

When two married people come together in the act of sexual union, two things exist or are naturally present, one) the unitive, i.e. two people coming together for happiness, two) for the procreative, i.e. that a possibility exists that new life will arise from the union, if either one of these is missing then the act is not whole, holy.  One may ask, “Who decides that?”  Think for a moment what happens naturally, if anything prevents it then the “naturalness” is removed.  If a non-married couple engages in sexual union they are establishing a covenant in the wrong order.  Words always come first, either vows or oaths, and then the thing exists or is consummated through the act natural to its nature.  No one is a doctor without taking an oath first, the same for a police officer, lawyer, and soldier.  If they told you, I am a cop, but you know I never took my oath, but acted like a cop, you would think me mad or better yet, if I told you I was a priest and never took my vows.  The same applies for marriage, no oath – no marriage.  Yet, many have decided to rewrite the rules concerning marriage.

We can talk about this for days, but the bottom line is that people think they are their own masters, e.g. I decided what is best for me, the Church or institutional religion cannot tell me what to do.  These same persons usually label themselves Christian.  Here is the Divine answer from Divine Law.  St. Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)  If I am not my own who do I belong to?  We belong to Jesus, and He clearly defines marriage and what it entails.  Our arguments are not necessarily with the institution, but with Christ Himself.  Let’s be honest, people are afraid to argue with Jesus, even the most cynical atheists, because just in case they are wrong through their own self righteousness (atheists or believers) their disagreements are directed towards the institution and not Christ, a way out – at least subconsciously.

The Natural Law is that law that I can deduce through observing nature, e.g. people are born – people die.  When I observe marriage I know through common sense what it is and its purpose, e.g. unitive and creative and it only exists through a vow taking place first then the act of consummation – not the other way around.  The Divine Law which we receive from God, through Scripture also challenges me in and that I belong to Jesus and if I belong to Him I must at least try to observe His teachings.

Those teachings are preserved, guarded, and interpreted by those Jesus appointed to do so after His Ascension to the Father as we heard in today’s first reading.  The institution does not make up rules, but helps the entire Church to understand the Divine Law and the Natural Law.  Yet, for some reason we are becoming the very thing we are arguing against.  People will argue, “Who are the bishops or some pope to tell me what I can and cannot do?”  What happens is that people become their own pope; they become their own bishops – for we now make up the rules.  A gentle reminder, “Do you know that . . . you are not your own . . . you have been purchased at a price.”  Amen.

Fr. John

Friendship: Unbreakable and Eternal

Today’s Gospel is very dear to me; it is the Gospel I chose at my ordination.  The verse in which Jesus says, “I no longer call you slaves . . . I have called you friends” - think about how awesome that is!  The God of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and every other “omni” you can think of, and He calls us friends.  In some ways, it would be like you and me calling an ant or some tiny creature, friend.  We are so different than a tiny creature; to them we probably seem all powerful (unless it’s a yellow jacket buzzing around our heads.  But, you get the point.)  Nevertheless, we share things in common with a tiny creature: we live, we move, we breathe, we work and go about our business.  Not so much different than that between God and us. 

In that sameness, God’s love is so abundant He desires for us to experience it; not to be overwhelmed by it, but to come to know Him – face to face.  There are numerous places in Scripture about friendship and the two which stand out the most is that between Abraham and God and, from today’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples. 

Abraham, as you may know is one of my favorite characters in all of Scripture – a simple man, though very wise and very rich, yet he had an unshakeable faith.  It is a faith God recognizes and, more so, blesses him with.  You know the stories: God asks, Abraham does.  But it is the conversation between the two of them that is remarkable.  Before God decides to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, He first decides to visit Abraham thinking, “Why should I hide this thing from my servant Abraham?”  It is the conversation in which Abraham pleads with God, “Will you destroy the city if there are 50 righteous people, what about 40, what about 30, what about 20?” all the way down to 10.  It’s not the numbers that are significant, but rather the conversation.  That God would stand there face to face with Abraham and allow a negotiation to take place with a tiny creature is remarkable.  Something to surely reflect on, for this conversation between God and Abraham was not just for them, but it is for us as well.

These stories of friendship repeat in Scripture and in another place one can see the friendship between Jonathan and King David as something very special.  Jonathan pledges his life to David when he learns that Saul, his father, intends to kill David.  Jonathan joins his very soul to David, they become blood brothers.  Each looks out for the other as looking out for his own life.  Don’t we all need more friends like that?  And I hope and pray we all have at least one or even a few.

Finally, Jesus himself, God in the flesh, visible to his people, says, “I call you friends.”  It almost brings tears to my eyes, that Jesus says that to me.  I feel like St. Peter quite often, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  And Jesus always replies, “Come follow me.”

We are not just simply friends with God, but also with each other, for we are friends in Christ.  I leave you with one final quote from C.S. Lewis, another favorite of mine.  Here he speaks of us as friends: “Is any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of Christian friends by a good fire?”  I would reply, no there is not any pleasure as great as that, and we know this because we are here in our circle of fire which we call the mass.  God bless you my friends.

Fr. John

Image comes from The Return of the King (movie), that of Samwise carrying his friend Frodo up Mt. Doom because he can no longer make it on his own.  It speaks clearly of what friendship is, carrying one another.  It is what God did for Abraham, what Jonathan did for David, and what Christ did for us all.

Heart to Heart

This week our young children will be receiving first Holy Communion, a wonderful time for the children in and that they will receive Christ in the most intimate way, heart to heart – LITERALLY.  

That is the way I explain it to children due to the fact that they understand only in a very rudimentary way that the host completely turns into the Body of Christ and the wine into his blood.  They understand it but again, in a very simple way, probably understanding the Eucharist better than us adults.  Children speak from the heart and they understand things that way as well.

When a child is scared it usually calls out, “mommy”, sorry dads.  The child knows its mother is present and when it hears her voice it not only hears it with his or her ears, but in its very heart, the child and mother are joined heart to heart.  This is the type of friendship Jesus desires from all of us and in a very special way continues to flourish in an even more profound way in our children who will be receiving Jesus for the first time.

As a priest it is amazing to see their faces full of smiles and even full of awe, and a little nervousness, but I ask myself when I see that if I still receive Jesus that way – simply heart to heart . . . heart to heart?  A good question for us all.

Fr. John