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

The Mystery of Faith

Jesus provides and offers many assurances during his public ministry.  Just about all are positive in nature, such as “Come to me all you who are burdened and I will give you rest”, or “I am the way, the truth and the life”, and as we heard today, “I am the good shepherd; I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”  These assurances are provided by Jesus to give us comfort, courage, and hope.  Life can be very difficult at times; we all go “through the ringer”, as they say, and Jesus understood this better than anyone else.  That is why he constantly offers messages of hope.  The question that remains is, do I really believe the promises Jesus has made?  Some other questions that come out of that one are what is faith, how do I get it, and do I deserve it?

The definition that Scripture provides in the letter to the Hebrews and one that has been used by the Church ever since is that “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1, NABRE).  Basically, it means belief in something or someone.  Not just simply that I believe what you are telling me, but rather that I believe in you.  Think of the difference in those two statements:  I believe you and I believe in you.  If I only believe you, it is possible I may not believe you later.  But if I believe in you, I am invested in you, in your character, in your person.  Believing you is only the first step; believing in you solidifies the relationship. 

How does one obtain faith in which we not only believe what Jesus says but that we believe in him?  It is this type of faith that is a saving faith, one that gets us to heaven to live with God for eternity.  This question has been debated since the beginning of the Church and not just at the Protestant Reformation, though there it really built up steam, so to speak.   In chapter two of his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul tells us that, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8, NABRE).  Initial saving grace is completely and fully a FREE gift; there is nothing one can do to earn it.  If it could be earned then Christ died for nothing, because there would be another way to be saved outside of Christ’s free gift.  

However, all gifts can be refused and even returned.  So, as Catholics, we do believe that God saves us, but we think in more familial terms then some Christians who believe in salvation as a “one moment in time” event, an event that is inerasable (i.e. once saved, always saved).  The Church understands that we are still needed in some way – that we cooperate in that initial gift, for we must say yes to it.  We feel God’s grace move us and we cry out “yes” to God.  These moments come as conversion experiences.  It may be that it was that “one moment in time” recognition of what God was doing in us and we repent and return to the Lord; it can be a series of events that lead to “that one moment”; and still, in some ways it is both a series of events and major ones as well.

Finally, no one deserves faith or even salvation, but since God is good and his love is endless and eternal he bestows it on us and aides us with his grace.  No one can earn the initial saving act of God, i.e. baptism or any of the sacraments and their effects in us.  Still, though, in God’s goodness he allows us to fully participate in all that he does for us.  We are not simply bystanders or robots.  God requires relationship filled with love, therefore we must respond to God’s grace, be it in the powerful moments of conversion as well as in the subtle ones.

Sometimes salvation and faith can be confusing (how does it happen exactly and how do I get it?  As human beings we can only go so far with the answers, because there is Divine mystery here as well.  I do not say this as a cop-out; rather, the mystery is there so that we may dwell on it, search, and delve into it deeply.  God knows that by our nature we are curious; we are searchers.  The mysteries of God help us to keep searching. 

I leave you with mystery as a final thought: the mystery of faith.  The mystery is at one in the same time a free gift of God, undeserved, and yet he allows our full cooperation and even works to make faith real, all the while God working in us and we too working, and always together in love.

Fr. John

Picture is that of St. Augustine at the moment of his profound conversion in the garden when he heard “Take up and read, take up and read.”

I Have My Mission

I returned last night from a wonderful and blessed time on retreat which was directed by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR.  The retreat centered on Blessed John Henry Newman, not to be confused with St. John Nuemann from Philadelphia.  Each conference was based on a snippet from one of Newman’s many writings.  I would like to share one of those with you today and on which I will be preaching this Sunday as it relates to our call of being apostles.

On Tuesday morning Fr. Groeschel shared with us the following from Newman,

           

“God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission – I never may never know it in this life, but I shall be told in the next.  Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my places as an Archangel in his – if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as he could make stones children of Abraham.  Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.” (From Meditations and Devotions, Meditation on Christian Doctrine, Hope in God – Creator, March 7, 1848.)

John Henry Newman, born Feb. 21, 1801, died Aug. 11, 1890.  A convert from Anglicanism.  Elevated to Cardinal on May 12, 1879.  Pope Benedict the XVI declared Newman blessed on Sept. 19, 2010.

I ask you all to meditate on Cardinal Newman’s reflection.  It is powerful.  It helps us to look at our worth, our dignity, our calling, its importance and how we are not only connected to one another, but to God Himself.  Amen.

And the Stone Rolls Away (For Real) Happy Easter

There have been many a happy and public announcements throughout history and when Good News reaches us we can feel the excitement right in our very bones, you can imagine or even remember some of the following announcements, “The war is over, the war is over,” or “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” or Habemus Papam – we have a pope.   Today, however, we hear the greatest announcement in all of human history, “The Lord is Risen, Alleluia; The Lord is Risen, Alleluia!”

There is something that moves us when hearing Good News, you could imagine what those announcements I mentioned meant to the people who heard them and those who actually announced and shared them.  Today, the announcement of Jesus being raised from the dead must have felt unbelievable to Jesus’ disciples.   Their excitement and wonder upon first hearing it must have lifted their spirits through the ceiling as we say.  You have to remember, these folks – the disciples were confused, even broken in some way, since their Messiah died.  They did not understand the full implications of his dying and rising from the dead.  And it would still take a little more for everything to sink in.

The question does remain, however, not simply for the apostles and if they truly understood the implications of the Resurrection, but if we understand it.  When we hear the greatest announcement of all time, “The Lord is Risen,” what do we understand, what do we believe?

There are three things the Church wants to make clear, 1) Jesus did truly rise; 2) Since he did rise from the dead that means everything has changed and lastly 3) We too will rise!

Back in early December at my father’s wake a friend tried to comfort me in telling me that this was all an illusion.  The words were well meant and the intention was good.  I wasn’t sure if the person meant, that my father was no longer present in bodily form – which he wasn’t or if they meant all of life (our current being-state) is an illusion.  If the person meant that this life itself was an illusion and that reality was or is some spiritual life somewhere out there, the life just beyond us, then I would disagree.  I bring this up because it reminded me of my seminary studies on the Resurrection and how some theologians claimed that the Resurrection was simply a spiritual event.  We have to be very careful what we place under the cloud of spirituality.  There are a number of problems that could arise, we can hide under the umbrella of spirituality or illusion in order to hide from justice, or we can become superior to others, i.e. I am spiritual, I am enlightened and you are not, and finally some reduce everything Jesus did to the  spiritual, especially his miracles and Resurrection.

There are theologians who believe that Resurrection was simply a spiritual event.  The apostles did not really see Jesus; those stories were simply written to give verbal expression to what happened to the apostles internally- where reality with God exists (the spiritual realm).

I do not want to get too philosophical and theological, however the Resurrection is a key component to our belief as Christians and one that needs to be understood.  Allow me to explain.  The Church has unwritten rules, just like, let’s say, hockey.  Everyone knows you cannot hit the goalie outside of the crease.  If you do the other team will police that action themselves and come after you.  There is no rule in hockey that says you cannot hit the goalie outside of the crease, you sure can as long as it is a legal hit, and yet an overwhelming majority of players will avoid hitting the goalie outside of the crease, hence the understood unwritten rule.  The same goes for the Resurrection, it has never been dogmatically defined and nor should it be, since it is the unwritten rule that an overwhelming majority understand, i.e. that Jesus really rose from the dead, people saw him, ate with him, touched him, etc.

The apostles were not scholars, but they were not dumb.  They would have known how to describe an inner conversion experience; they would have known how to verbalize the so called spiritual realm.  They wrote the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the Truth . . .

If my friend meant this is all an illusion – this life, then my friend was clearly mistaken just like some theologians who believe in simply a spiritual Resurrection, because Jesus confirms the goodness of this life by dying for it and then rising with a renewed body that was visible, tangible, and knowable, not just in some hazy spiritual realm, but grounded in the real, Easter Sunday.  But I will give my friend the benefit of the doubt and believe that they meant that my father’s body was no longer here, though one day that body will be renewed as well.  So, remember the unwritten hockey rule, you can’t check the goalie out of the crease just as you can’t believe that the Resurrected Jesus was just an illusion.

By Jesus rising from the dead he also changes everything.  It will no longer be the way it was for the apostles nor for anyone after them.  They were used to an earthly Jesus, someone who was always around.  By his resurrecting he changed many things, one is that he would no longer be around the way he was before as he would soon ascend to his heavenly Father and give us the Holy Spirit to help us feel Jesus’ presence in prayer, to actually be with him and feed on him in the mass, and have fellowship in him through one another.  Everything changed, and it had to in order for us to be healed from our original wound.  It could not stay the way it was before or else as St. Paul says, “We would still be in our sins.”

The beauty of Jesus’ resurrection is that what he has done we also will do through God’s power.  Throughout Scripture, especially 1^st Thessalonians and 1^st Corinthians St. Paul goes out of his way to remind us that we too will resurrect, be remade and refashioned into immortality.   The souls of those who have already died will be reunited with their bodies to be whole again and those of us left alive will be taken into the air in the twinkling of an eye (not the rapture – but the resurrection as it is properly understood) at the sound of the angel’s trumpet.

Can we even begin to imagine the good things the Lord has prepared for those who love him (Romans 8:28)?   So, do not let anything trouble your hearts today, for today is precious to the Lord your God, but even more precious to our Lord is we ourselves.  He gives us every good gift, even the gift of life.  The stone rolled away for Jesus and he came forth from the tomb, but he wasn’t alone, there were so many with him and if you look closely you will that it is was also you and I, not just an illusion, but real, Happy Easter and God bless you.

Fr. John