Return in Kind For the Gifts You Have Received

This week in our parish we are continuing the theme of stewardship.  We began last week when our lay volunteers spoke to you at the end of mass giving you a quick insight to what is going on at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and what they do as individuals.  This week Fr. Nick has asked that he and I continue this conversation – reflection in more depth.

I believe there are three things or better yet three virtues that make a good steward, one) humility, two) charity, and three) perseverance.

In today’s Gospel the tax collector who went up to the Temple to pray knew that he was not worthy to do so.  He recognized a truth\s about himself; he was a sinner who needed God, in particular His mercy.  When God calls us to ministry, to become stewards we must always do so with reverence and awe, realizing that of ourselves we are not worthy to be his stewards.  In another place in Scripture it says, “Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?  So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” (Lk 17:9-10)

God calls us all to a vocation and He also calls us to ministry, not just Sunday mass, as important and vital and life giving that – that it is.  God gives us a job in the Church; it can be from simply praying for everyone to setting up for the Parish Festival.  When He calls us in that ministry we must remember, the ministry belongs to God, it belongs to the Church and I am blessed as an unprofitable servant to be given this task.  The call and the task is all about God’s grace lest I become proud and boastful.

Charity is involved because we have to respond in kind.  God has responded to us in love.  We were dead in our sins or put in a more modern way, "we were dead men walking."  God’s great love was to fill us with life and grace through His Son Jesus Christ.  All of us have been given this gift.  He is right there on the Cross reminding us of the cost of that gift, and He also gives us the gift of resurrection because Jesus is no longer dead.  Since we have received both gifts we also are no longer dead men walking, rather people filled with the Spirit and on fire.

What then will I give; will it just be sixty minutes on a Sunday?  Driving here and back home doesn’t count just like it doesn’t count as time at your job.  So, is one hour a week enough repayment for that (pointing to the Cross)?  No, it is not, God requires the best of us and He requires us all the time.  Granted you are not ministerial priests or deacons or religious and you do not have as much time as we, but nevertheless God calls you.  He knows the busyness of your lives and your responsibilities, they are tremendous and for the Church to ask for more might even sound unfair, but it is not just the Church – meaning our Parish, but God Himself who asks.  God calls us to do more in our community.   In some ways Fr. Nick and I should not even have to ask.  You may think that is bold of me or a little to New Yorkish, but it’s true, God is the one who has been stirring your hearts and it comes from His love.  Are you listening and are you responding?

Finally, perseverance.  This is possibly the greatest if not the most difficult virtues to obtain and perfect.  Now once again, your ministry may be as simple as praying for the Parish if you can do no more, but its not just praying one or two times, but praying for our Church as much as you can and as often as you can, to build up a ministry of prayer.  For those who can do more physically to get involved in a ministry but then to not just show up once, but quite often blessing us with you presence, gifts, and talents, and most of all your friendship.  AMEN!  FJ

The Word of God Cannot be Chained!

In today’s 2nd reading from St. Paul to Timothy, Paul writes, “But the word of God is not chained.” He is referring to his imprisonment, even though the authorities, whomever they may be, can keep him in chains, they can never imprison the Word of God or keep it in chains, it is impossible. The Truth is personified in the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. The Word can never be held down, chained up, or put away, rather the Word pierces every human being, and it pierces us like a two edged sword, cutting in two directions, both in and out. Yet, when we refer to the Word, a term we hear often, to what or whom are we actually referring and once understood, what are we supposed to do with that Word?

When we refer to the Word of God we can be referring to 3 different things or all of them at once or in some combination. When we refer to the Word of God we are recalling to mind the Word Himself, (the Logos), Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1) A little later in the same chapter John the Evangelist tells us, “And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…” (Jn 1:14) First and foremost the Word is a person. It is with the Word, Jesus with whom we are in relationship. The second way we refer to the Word is the Word we read, and that is the Word of God as well, but in this reference it refers to Sacred Scripture, the Bible. As Christians we believe that in the Scriptures it is God Himself, through human authors influenced (not put under a spell), who speaks to us. The Scriptures are used for many purposes, be it at mass for the readings, be it at home for prayer and study, be it by theologians for scholarship, and on and on. A third way we refer to the Word is the Word we hear. When we listen to someone else read it as we did in mass today it takes on a different aspect, yes it is the same Word but when we truly listen the Word of God comes alive in our audible understanding of it.

So, these are the theological points about the Word of God and you can memorize all of that and compartmentalize it and maybe even use it one day as a master theologian. All of which would be good, but more importantly for us is that we remember the Word of God cannot be put in chains, even though we may sometimes put the Word of God on a shelf and only call on Him when in need just like the ten lepers from today’s Gospel. They called out to the Lord in pity as it says because of their disease, Jesus cured them all, but only one kept the Word alive in His heart, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

The lesson from both St. Paul and today’s Gospel is not to put the Word of God on a shelf or attempt to put it in chains. It won’t work because it will come back to cut us, what I mean here is that the Word of God will convict us in our complacency.

We are to keep the Word of God alive in our daily lives and this is done by reading Scripture at home as often as possible, to listen to the Word of God as we are doing now at mass every Sunday, and most of all to be in a relationship with the Word Himself all the time, not just for sixty minutes on Sunday or 15 minutes on a Monday reading a passage from the Bible, but always in union with Christ, just like the Samaritan who returned glorifying Jesus, so that we too will hear from Jesus as did the Samaritan, “Then he said to him, "Stand up and go your faith has saved you.”  Amen!

FJ

Get Up and Move!

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”  When we hear this statement we sometimes get a mental lapse, i.e. we assume Jesus is speaking figuratively because it’s impossible to make a tree uproot itself and then plant it only in water.  Jesus was speaking literally, in the sense that great faith does move mountains.  It is doubt that keeps the tree where it is as well as the mountains.

In our lives we have all kinds of trees and mountains we want moved or rather to be gone.  These can range from any type of suffering, be it the suffering one experiences in a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, it could be a sin we have been struggling with, be it pride, impatience, greed, lust, abusing drink, food, or other substances not meant for the human body.  Every person wants to be free of these, be it suffering of any kind or the struggle with sin.  Jesus says, “you can be, just have faith.”

The problem lies in the fact that my natural instinct tells me it is impossible to move trees and mountains, therefore the slightest doubt weakens my faith and the trees and mountains remain.

What then must we do to have faith that will move mountains?

1)   We must pray and pray all the time

i.               We get to know someone by talking to them, intimacy begins with conversation, am I in conversation with Jesus all the time.

ii.             People confuse praying all the time with being a hermit or monk, yes they pray often and have opportunity for prayer, but when Jesus asked us to pray always, he asked us ALL, not just his monks and hermits.  We must be practical with our time and prayer

2)   We must humble ourselves

i.               Humility is the hardest of all virtues.  Accepting the will of God is very difficult; especially when I must accept His calling home of one my family.  When my dad died it was not easy to accept that God called him home and that he would no longer be with me as he once was.  I am sure many of you can relate to this, since many if not all have experienced intimate loss.

ii.             Humility requires that I not only accept it but to see it as a good.  Either God works out everything for the good for those who love Him or He does not, that choice is for each of us to decide.

iii.          Humility also requires that I confess my sins and if necessary, over and over, and over, and over, and over again!

3)   Finally we must love without measure or condition. 

i.               God demands that I not only love those who love me but even those who hurt me, be it physically, emotionally and even spiritually.  I must forgive and love them.  I must be willing to let everything go just as Christ did when He carried the cross for me and allowed me to put nails through His hands and feet.

ii.             Love has no value if I only love those who love me.

iii.          When we recall to mind some of the saints in the Church, such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of the Little Flower we can see love personified, come to life actually.  Love moved mountains for Francis and Therese, this is quite obvious both from reading into their personal lives but also the blessings that came even after their deaths, be it miracles through their intercession and the blessings in their communities.

When we think that we “CAN’T” it is really because we “WON’T.”   To have great faith as Jesus demands takes hard work, not just some head belief, but it takes prayer, humility, and a love that knows no limits. 

Struggles are real, be they struggles with suffering or sin.  But we are not a defeated people.  God has given us the means to live lives of joy and happiness, so if there is a tree or a mountain in your way, just tell it to move and it will.  And why will it move?  Because Jesus said it would!

Amen!  FJ