God's Ways and Judgments: Surprise Surprise

I wonder how many times we have read, heard, and listened to homilies on the story of the Prodigal Son.  I would imagine that the number would be quite high indeed.  For us priests and deacons who preach sometimes these well known stories are actually tougher to preach than those Gospel readings that are more theological, obscure, or difficult to understand.  Anyway, I wanted to do something a little different today in regards to the Prodigal Son story.  I want to reflect on, “we may be in for a surprise in the next life.”

What do I mean by that?  When I was a seminarian our vice-Rector Brother Bill, actually a deacon, would often say, “We are going to be surprised by who we realize made it to heaven and who did not.”  That is exactly the message Jesus is trying to get across to the Pharisees and Scribes.

In the story, the Prodigal Son is the one who squanders his inheritance, the one who turns his back on God and the Law of Moses, he represents all the little folk, the sinner.  The Father represents God, and the other son – the older one represents the Pharisees and Scribes, the ones who are self-righteous..  If you notice when the Prodigal Son returns the older brother demands to know the reasoning and the justice behind the excellent treatment of a sinner compared to him who has always followed the law and been an obedient son.  Jesus was a radical at times, and it is clear that he is being such here.

There are two things that point to this, one) all that matters is love and forgiveness and two) God’s ways are not our ways.  The Prodigal Son returns to his father because he loves him, he realizes the errors \ sins he has committed and is truly sorry.  But the older brother doesn’t like this because he has followed the law meticulously and it’s just not fair.  How he is surprised!  He can’t believe it, he’s in shock really.

Jesus uses this story to “shock” the Pharisees into realizing that God judges differently than they do.  God sees the human heart, He alone can judge it.  We see the human heart only partially and our judgments are not perfect.  As Catholics and especially us priests we need to be careful in regards to how we judge.  I will often times hear or read, that a person has to do such and such or this and that before they can enter the kingdom of God and some hold to this is in a very strict and black and white sense.  Please do not misunderstand me as Catholics we have obligations but those obligations must spring from a desire of love and not just from duty, otherwise like the Pharisees and Scribes we will become the judge of our brothers and sisters or like the older son who believes he is entitled.

We are entitled to nothing.  I will leave you with two things, the words of my former Vice-rector Brother Bill, God rest his soul, “We are gonna be surprised to see who made and who didn’t,” and finally the words of Christ which teach us humility, “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 17:10)  If we are ever feeling like the older brother remember Jesus’ call to humility.  We are owed nothing by God.  If we do not humble ourselves then we will stand before Him with prideful hearts and it is so much better to stand before Jesus with a contrite and humbled heart.  Amen.

Prayer with Yahweh

In today’s first reading from Exodus God declares that He always desires to be remembered as Yahweh (“I Am who Am” or simply “I Am”).  God is existence itself, He is, “Is.”  We can go into endless theological conversation about God’s nature, eternity, His attributes, etc., but we will leave that for another day.  I think a simple reflection on this great reading is that God is willing to know us on a first name basis and to also be in face to face conversation with us.

Moses went towards God’s voice and the burning bush.  It was not Moses who sought God, but it was God who sought Moses, interesting indeed, that it is not we who call on God, but rather God who calls us.  In our sinful selves we do not have the ability to start the conversation, any and all movement towards God is always a free gift and always initiated by God, “for it is by grace that you have been saved, this is not of yourselves, but from God, so that no one may boast.” (See Eph. 2:8)  Simply put, God makes the first move.

The beauty of all the bible stories in which someone speaks with God is that God knows them by name, they speak face-to-face (meaning: in His presence, not the literal beatific vision), and conversation takes place.  You and I have this same conversation with God, we have it all the time.

Every single time we listen to the Scriptures read at mass or in our own personal reading of Scripture God speaks to us in His Word.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to listen to God from His holy Word.  It is the story of us, but also a story in which God reveals Himself to us, through signs and wonders, through song, through poetry, through prophecy and his prophets, through the saints, and most especially through His Son, Jesus.

We also enter into conversation with God in our prayer.  One of the three virtues of Lent is prayer, the other two being almsgiving and fasting.  Much of what I have reflected on here has been theological, but there is “the stuff” that makes prayer and that is what pours out of our hearts to God.

We pray when we are worried, scared, hurt, lost, struggling, guilty, but also when happy, joyful, and content.  Often time’s people will wonder, “Is it ok to ask God for healing or to take something away or to even be mad at God?”  Well, if you are at mad at God that means that there is relationship; if we were indifferent then we would not be in relationship with Him.  Sometimes life can be dark and the moments of darkness can be overwhelming, someone we love may be very ill, dying in fact, or we can be on the verge of despair and there is God, always there, listening and giving comfort.  The problem is that we sometimes think that our difficulties are too big or that God has abandoned us.  But He has not.  No matter what we are going through, if we respond to God’s grace in His call, then we can be assured of at least this, though it may not work out as I wished, but that my friend, in this case God Himself was always there, face to face, step by step, tear by tear, with me all the way.

FJ

2nd Sunday of Lent: The Light Never Goes Out!

This week’s Gospel on the Transfiguration of Christ calls to mind for me, one word, “encouragement.”  Though we believe that everything God made was very good, we nevertheless live in a very hard world, this place can at times be bitter, harsh, painful, scary and downright awful.  I don’t mean to paint a terrible picture, but you know that in life we deal with pain, suffering, and loss.  The greatest thing is that Jesus gives us the grace before hand, during and afterwards to get through anything.

Jesus realized that it would be difficult for His Apostles when the time would come for his arrest, that like us, they too would be frightened, lose hope, and hide.  So, in order to give them light and the reminder of hope, he let them receive a piece of heaven as well as showing Himself to them in His glory.  That was the reason for the Transfiguration.

We might be asking, “Why can’t I receive a moment like that?”  Well, we do, maybe not identically, but Jesus shines light into our hearts to give us encouragement.  He does this through His Word from Scripture, His Word as it is preached both liturgically and our sharing of that Word with one another, through the Sacraments, and through prayer and fellowship.

Think of the moments in your life that were painful that were tough to get through, and lo and behold here you are having come through them.  When we are in the difficult moments, in our dark moments, it is difficult to see light.  When Jesus died and was buried the Apostles saw no light, they were defeated, much like we feel when a loved one dies, and we feel defeat in its fullest sense.  The Apostles slowly began to recall the Light, the Truth, as the women starting relaying the stories of the Risen Lord after they had returned from the empty tomb.  I am sure the Apostles remembered the Transfiguration, the miracles, and their time with Jesus, giving them hope that all was not lost.

Where are your right now in your life?  What are your struggles and what is your darkness?  Remember that no matter how difficult life becomes Jesus always gives us hope; do not forget all the blessings you have already received, the moments of transfiguration, when the Lord revealed Himself to you in whatever manner it was, let that be your light.  For it is a Light that never goes out!  Amen! FJ

The Lenten Virtues: Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

         

  

       

       As we have just begun the season of Lent a few days ago, on Ash Wednesday, we too like our Lord have now entered into the desert for forty days and nights.  Our Lord entered into the desert to prepare Himself for His public ministry.  It was a time in which He emptied Himself of things and needs of this world and opened Himself up to His heavenly Father.  He did what we all do when we want to prepare ourselves well for something that we care about deeply.  Just like the athlete trains his or her body to the ultimate point of physicality, like the actor who goes over his or her script hundreds of times until they become the character they play, or the good student who studies hours each and every day to procure an “A,” so too do we as Christians, we strive for the imperishable crown, to be shaped into Christ, and receive an “A” from our Heavenly Father in the life of virtue we all strive to live.

          But, virtue comes with practice and Lent is that time of practice.  However, in order to prepare ourselves we need to know how and what to practice.  I will let you know now what is we ought to practice.  There are three things that the early Church Fathers saw as pivotal in the shaping of our Christian lives, especially during the season of Lent, which is fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

          Let’s begin with fasting.  Why do we fast and how should we fast?  We fast not to lose weight, though I am sure I can stand to lose some if not more than some.  We fast in order to remind ourselves that we rely on God to get us through difficulty, and more importantly to be aware of God’s presence.  When we fast, you see, we feel hunger pangs; our stomachs let us know that we are hungry.  Whenever we feel those pangs they are to be gentle reminders, “Dear Lord I need you.”  This puts us into God’s care and in His presence, it helps empty us of everything else around us that may distract us, it is basically a form of practice, like a practice drill in football or soccer, which reminds the athlete of a particular move or game like situation, readying our minds and bodies.

          In terms of how we should fast, we follow the prescripts of the Church, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of fast and abstinence, meaning only one regular meal with two very small meals throughout day, and no meat.  Every Friday in Lent is also a day of fast, simply no meat.  We are also encouraged to take up some form of penance or the practice of a virtue, which is left up to the individual believer.  I would encourage adults to take up something meaningful, like working on patience, compassion, justice.  It’s nice to give up sugar, soda, cookies, but St. Paul encourages us to grow in our faith, “Get off the spiritual milk,” and become mature.

          Almsgiving, all of us can always give more and not simply out of abundance but out of our very need.  I am well aware that people are thinking, “Ok, here we go again, the priest asking us for more money.”  I hardly ever ask the Parishioners for more money or any money at all.  Yet, sometimes we need to be reminded of this, “giving,” not only to the parish but to the poor.  We resist this sometimes because we justify our not giving, for example, “I will not give to the poor because they should be working,” or “I don’t have enough to give,” or “I have given enough.”  I don’t know how much you give or if that poor person is legitimately poor or not, but Christ will not ask us if we knew those things, He will only ask, “Did you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, because you know that was me?”

          Finally, prayer our life line with God.  In the Church we have many forms of prayer, set prayers, petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, Divine Office, rosary, novenas, meditative and reflective prayer, Charismatic prayer, prayer off the cuff for lack of a better term, simply tons of different prayers and prayer styles.  I cannot impress upon you enough the importance prayer and any form which you use is good.  I do recommend along with your prayer in order to keep focus or follow a theme is to accompany your prayer with a good spiritual book or reading.  There are many good books out there, the bible being one of them.  But there are books such as “The Confessions” from St. Augustine, “Mere Christianity,” from C.S. Lewis, “Life is Worth Living,” by Bishop Fulton Sheen, “Walking the Little Way with St. Therese of Lisieux,” and many others.  Spiritual reading helps us to reflect deeply on our interior lives as well as motivating us towards prayer.

          Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, the three virtues of Lent.  To become Saints these virtues should be practiced because even though the Mass is the central point, the foundation of Christian faith, Mass only lasts one hour, there still remain 167 hours in the week, what are we doing in those 167 hours, all of which belong to the Lord?  Lent reminds us, that each moment, each hour, and every day is the Lord’s.  Let’s make this Lent a great one, one in which we truly pray, fast, and give to the poor, all of which the Lord has already in abundance in His earthly life and even now from heaven. Amen

By FJ

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Mind Your Words

This is our Last Sunday in Ordinary Time, hard to believe really, the turnaround from the end of the Christmas season to the beginning of Lent which will begin in just a few days was quick indeed, with Easter coming quite early, March 31^st to be exact.  This Sunday’s readings are a good closing to the end of Ordinary Time as the readings help us to “self reflect.”  Isaiah sees himself as a man of unclean lips living among people with unclean lips.  St. Peter in the Gospel from Luke tells Jesus, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Both Isaiah and St. Peter are speaking a truth about themselves, and in so doing they are also speaking a truth about us, that at times we are a people of unclean lips and just like St. Peter, we too, say to the Lord, “Depart from us for we are sinful.”  The Lord in His goodness does not let us end in despair or evil, rather just like He told Isaiah and St. Peter, “I will make you fishers of men,” and “the Lord will touch our mouths with embers from His altar.”

Before we get to the blessing part of the story, there is always a passion part, and for us, part of that passion is accepting the truth about ourselves, though we are good, we still remain flawed, sinful even.  “If we say, ‘we are without sin,’ we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).  St. Peter recognized this truth about himself and in doing so cannot even stand before the Lord and yet, Jesus raises him up, because Peter is humble and seeks forgiveness.  But, to get to that part of being lifted up we go through the fire so to speak and it is here that I want to look at Isaiah’s claim about himself being a man of unclean lips.

When Isaiah felt the presence of the Lord he was convicted in his heart and knew his lips were unclean.  He does not specify what he meant by that but we can deduce what he meant by looking at ourselves.  How are we sometimes people of unclean lips?

We are people of unclean lips each and every time we gossip, speak ill of others, defame another’s character which is a serious offense against our neighbor and God, each and every curse word that we utter, when we make fun of others, when we curse another human being.  It is amazing that with the same mouth we utter praise to God and then speak ill of someone. 

Words, also, once they are out of our mouths can never go back.  I want to share a story with you about St. Philip Neri, known for being a great confessor, and many sought him out for confession.  A person went to Philip Neri for confession and confessed that they gossiped quite often and sometimes uncharitably so.  Fr. Neri gave the penitent a twofold penance, the first part was the person was to take a one pound bag of feathers and walk through the streets of Rome releasing the feathers as they walked along.  Once they finished they were to report back to Fr. Neri the next day.  The person did as Fr. Neri requested and returned the following day.  “Fr Neri, I did as you asked, I have released all the feathers from the bag.”  Fr. Neri said, “Good my child, now for the second part of your penance I want you to take the empty bag go back to the same streets were you released the feathers, pick and gather them up, place them in the bag and bring it all back to me.”  The person looked at Fr. Neri strangely and said, “Father, that is impossible, the feathers are out of the bag and have flown everywhere.”  Fr. Neri simply replied, “And so too with your words.”

A nice little lesson from Fr. Neri, but one that is true.  How our words can never be retrieved!  There are times that we are like Isaiah and St. Peter, realizing that we are people of unclean lips or we wish for the Lord to depart from us, but Jesus loves us too much to let us go away that easily and He is always placing the burning embers in our mouth so that we can praise and glorify the Lord and spread His love to everyone.  Jesus looks at us with love, even when we stand in front of Him ashamed, He can still say, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  AMEN! FJ

The Celebration of the Mass: Gathering Rites

In today’s first reading from the book of Nehemiah we see that the people of Israel gathered for worship and to hear the words of Ezra the priest. The reading tells us that everyone is called, men, women, and children. Certain rituals and movements occur, i.e. Ezra stands on a wooden platform, the people fall prostrate in worship, etc. Many Jewish rituals of worship have carried down to our own day; in the very mass we celebrate here and now. When I reflected on today’s first reading, I thought; why not explain the mass, the first part of it that is, “The Gathering Rites.”

The first pressing and most important question is, “why do we gather in the first place? We gather because it is today that the world is remade, made new again, because Jesus rose on a Sunday, the beginning of a new week, and the beginning of our salvation, known to us in Scripture as the Lord’s Day.

The Gathering rites do not begin when the priest makes the sign of the cross, they actually begin before. They begin as soon as you enter the Narthex. It is there that you are hopefully greeted by our ushers\greeters. It is also there where you need to leave your conversations. This is something that we need to take seriously. When we enter the Church we are entering into the Temple which hold the presence of God, for us it is Jesus in the Tabernacle. Our attention should be towards Jesus when entering the Church and our prayers should also begin if not continue since the time we have left our homes and began heading to the Church.

There are two rituals that we all do as Catholics when we enter the. Upon entering we bless ourselves with holy water. This is not simply something nice or just something to do, rather when we bless ourselves it is a reminder of our baptism, that we share an intimate relationship with the Trinity, a reminder that we are priests, prophets, and kings, coming together as individuals and as a community to offer prayer and worship.

The other thing we do is either genuflect or bow in the presence of the Lord. Genuflecting is an old medieval custom from Europe that was done to show reverence to a king or person of high rank. This custom slowly worked its way into the Church, in our case genuflecting before the King of kings. An older custom going back to the very early Church was a simple bow in the presence of the Lord, now working its way back into custom.

The celebration of the liturgy begins with a processional hymn. We sing our praises to the Lord. You have heard it before, “When we sing we pray twice,” as St. Augustine said. If your singing voice is awful, like mine, then just sing low, and let your voice sort of blend in as best as possible. We also stand at this time, standing means that we are at attention, like a soldier, ready to do his duty.

Next comes the greeting: The priest begins with the sign of the cross and then greeting everyone with, “The Lord be with you”, response “and with your spirit.” This is an ancient biblical greeting as found in the book of Ruth chapter 2 verse 4, “Boaz said to the reapers (of the harvest), ‘The Lord be with You.’” You can see that just about the entire mass has its roots in Scripture and that is why it is odd when non-Catholics, especially Fundamentalists-Evangelicals claim that the mass is not biblical, indeed it is more so than even their own services.

Next, we do an examination of conscience in our penitential rite, “Brothers and Sisters, let us recall to mind our sins and failings and ask the Lord for his mercy and pardon.” Then there is a pause in order to allow everyone time to bring before the Lord their sins and weaknesses. We then ask for forgiveness either by reciting the Confetier or the Kyrie. Then we give Glory to God for His kindness and compassion by either singing or reciting the Gloria, during some Church seasons, i.e. Advent and Lent the Gloria is omitted.

Then we have the Opening prayer, there is a pause here, and rightly so, because this gives us the opportunity to make our individual prayers before the Lord, then while the priest begins the prayer he collects all the prayers offered individually and offers them as one prayer to Almighty God. So at mass we pray individually but also as one, hence the importance of going to mass.

One other thing I would like to discuss is a matter of importance and that is getting here on time. I will end our reflection with a story about Vince Lombardi.

Those of you who do not know who he was, he was one of the greatest NFL coaches ever and he had a work ethic second to none. At his first meeting with the Packers he asked the guys to be ready to go the next morning at 7am, the team’s first practice. The next day, as some of the guys were coming on to the field they saw that part of the team was already practicing. Once everyone arrived, by 7am, Coach Lombardi blew the whistle and called everyone in. He said, “Gentleman many of you were late.” One of the players said, “Coach, we were all here by 7am.” Coach Lombardi responded, “Real champions arrive 15 to 30 minutes early to get in extra practice, like I said, you guys were late.”

The Wedding Feast at Cana: Our Wedding Feast!

A good mother anticipates the needs of her children and family before others realize a possible problem, challenge, change of direction, or obstacle up ahead.  The innate sense of a mother is profound and this gift I believe is given to mothers by God in order to be a protector, a person of sensibility, great awareness, and practical.  Mary, therefore, realizes, anticipates the problem of the wine running short and goes to Jesus to see if He can do anything about it.  Jesus can do something about it and He does.  But that is not the point of this reflection, the point here is that Mary knew He could.

Jewish weddings in those were large events, many people were invited and they lasted a number of days, even up to a week.  That is a lot of singing, dancing, and drinking!  And Croatians and Italians think they have big weddings?  Anyway, it is interesting that Mary knows Jesus can do something about it.  For one, she knows he can’t go buy more wine, they don’t have the money; therefore she knows He will make it. 

Scripture tells us this was the first of His signs, but I am sure Mary and even Joseph had witnessed many signs before Jesus began His public ministry, they may have been done more subtly, but nothing escapes a good mother’s eye.  Knowing these past miracles Mary knew Jesus could help. 

But, it is not only in the knowing that Jesus could turn water into wine, but that He would!  Mary tells us “Do whatever He tells you.”  She is a woman of pure and excellent faith, never hesitating when God calls, but there right away and believing without doubt.  She is a model for us, a model of faith, one that knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God can and that God will.  

The wine running out is not just literal, but also symbolic, we run out of things in life and when we do – do we turn to Jesus like Mary did?  Do we believe that He can do it and that He will do it for us?  This is a question of our faith.  Mary was asked many times to have faith.  God is asking us the same thing today, for we also are at a wedding feast, our wedding to Christ, and in a little while Jesus will make that miracle again, but this time turning bread and wine into His Body and Blood, now celebrating the real wedding at Cana.