The Law Written on My Heart

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

The Jews when hearing Jesus would have been concerned about his teachings, especially when it came to the Law. He was teaching something that was new, or actually not new, but teaching the law now in its broader understanding, i.e. following the spirit of the law instead of the letter. When hearing this some thought he was doing away with the Law of Moses, actually he was not doing away with it but rather teaching it in its fullness. Allow me to explain.

When Moses gave us the Ten Commandments, he was giving us the Divine Law, law that was from God Himself. The Law in its nature is a teacher, it teaches between right and wrong, between virtue and sin. However, the law is just letters on stone, if the law is to mean anything those letters must be written in our hearts. The second thing Jesus wanted us to understand is that not all things are black and white or cut and dry as they say, rather one must follow the spirit of the law and judge oneself or another according to that common sense-wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit, i.e. remember the story of King David when he and his soldiers were starving and ate the holy bread which was reserved for the priests alone, objectively by the letter of the law they were sinning, but not by the spirit, because God would give His bread to a starving man, that’s common sense.

Jesus affirms that he will not abolish the law, rather that he would fulfill it. You see, you and I can never really fulfill the law to the letter, we fall in sin even the best of us and St Paul reminds us, one sin and the entire law is broken, no one stands justified by one’s self before the Lord, we stand justified through Christ and living his law in our hearts. Always remember we follow Jesus first, a person, then in consequence and even instinct we follow the law as best we can to please him but also to help us grow in holiness, it’s never the other way around.

A good reflection for us this week is to examine the Ten Commandments and to ask ourselves, “Are these laws truly written in my heart?” If not, what can I do to make it so? God bless you, Fr. John

We Have Seen the Great Light

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.

Since the time of our first parents, Adam and Eve, all of mankind has walked in darkness and dwelt in a land of gloom.  Why does Isaiah give such a sorry interpretation of humanity’s state of life before Jesus?  He does so for three reasons, the first is that we were lost in sin, i.e. we had no way out of it, and we would always be caught in its web.  The second reason is that he is trying to make the contrast very clear, the contrast between having no hope and that of living redeemed.  The third is to show us that it was God himself who came to be among us, “Now this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 Jn. 1:5 

This great light that is now shining on us is none other than Jesus himself.  He is the light of the nations, the light of the world, the bright morning star.  So even though we fall to sin we now have a way out, that way out is through Jesus Christ, “If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing.  1 Jn. 1:9

Christmas is that time where we share gifts with one another; the gift giving comes from the first gift and the first gift giver, Jesus.  We share because He has abundantly shared with us.  Sometimes, however, the first gift and first gift giver gets lost on us because of everything else that is going on around us, all the fanfare of Christmas.  Please do not misunderstand me, I love Christmas.  I love the lights, the trees, Santa Claus and his little elves, the carols, the seven fishes, exchanging gifts, and all the rest.  Yet, with all of that we are asked to remember the greatest gift otherwise all the other small gifts lose their meaning.  You see the greatest gift does not come wrapped in a box; rather the greatest gift ever given was a little infant lying in a manager wrapped in swaddling clothes, with very few people to acknowledge it in a far away forgotten place called Bethlehem.  That was the very first Christmas, a Christmas that was quiet, solemn, and very intimate.  Remember that as you begin your Christmas festivities, and I am sure they will be lots of fun, remember that quiet place, remember that infant, and the few farm hands who came out to worship him, remember that in your heart while with your family and friends and thank the Lord for giving you the greatest gift you could have ever hoped for:

For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast and forever peaceful,
from David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
by judgment and justice, both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Come Down Off That Tree

“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.” 

And he came down quickly and received him with joy.

These are beautiful words from our Gospel today, Jesus commanding Zacchaeus to come down quickly and that he was received in joy.

Zacchaeus, like all of us had a past and maybe some of it was not that bright or filled with virtue.  As a rich man he may have cut corners when it came to his responsibility to the poor, to family, and friends, to society.  Being a man of means and maybe even prestige, he may have used the loopholes of his own day to fudge on his tax returns J or some other type of scheming.

Yet, he was a man much like us in and that he had a great interest in Jesus and because of his height wanted to get a good look at him and climbed a tree so that he could see.  We do the same in our lives, we want to meet Jesus and have Him receive us in joy so we may not climb a literal tree but we may do this or the other thing to get his attention, i.e. a good deed or make a promise.

That beautiful encounter moved Zacchaeus’ heart, not only to conversion but to start living out the commands of Jesus, i.e. love your neighbor.  He does this by generously giving away half of what he had and paying those he wronged four times over.  Grace was moving in him!  Don’t we all want that same grace, a grace that moves us to joy and to love?  We can have it my brothers and sisters, yes its simple, just come down from off the tree, and meet your Savior, the one who wishes to dine with you tonight and in our case in the next 30 minutes or so when we celebrate the Eucharist, let your hearts be filled with joy, the same joy Zacchaeus experienced!

I Have Kept the Faith

I am already being poured out like a libation,
and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have competed well; I have finished the race;
I have kept the faith.

       These words of St. Paul are haunting as they describe both his present predicament, being under house arrest in Rome, but also his near future, as he can see the end of his life.

       Yet, St. Paul realizes the most important thing, and that is his eternal salvation.  He is looking back on his life of faith and can say with good moral confidence that he has competed well and has kept the faith.  This notion of competing and keeping the faith are signal words for perseverance and if there is one virtue that describes the life of faith the best it would be perseverance.

Looking at St. Paul’s life you better believe he had perseverance, unshakable at that.  After his conversion he waited patiently for the Church to recognize his sincerity, I would imagine in some cases it took his entire life.  St. Paul traveled from place to place which was all done on foot, through some dangerous territory which was filled with brigands, criminals, and marauders.  The towns and cities he entered were not always receptive, as in many places he was arrested, punished either by whippings, being stoned, punched, slapped and spit on.  He also had to win over his Jewish brothers and sisters many of who turned their backs on him.  Finally he was arrested and brought to Rome and it’s amazing he did not die on the way as he was bit by a deadly scorpion and also shipwrecked.

St. Paul was a man of great perseverance as through it all he always kept the faith, he competed well!  St. Paul went on to receive his crown of glory for his work in the faith.  A question for us is: How much of a model is St. Paul to us?  Do we look to this wonderful saint in our own moments of struggle, especially when the last thing on earth that we want is to carry the cross one more step!  And yet, St. Paul did and he urges us to do the same, his entire two letters to St. Timothy are precisely about that, follow my example.

Being holy and getting to heaven is not easy work, it requires belief, but belief is easy, belief in my mind that is, the hard part is living out that belief each and every day, and not just in the days that we are smiling but even in the days in which we are crying or even at wits end.  St. Paul continues to cry out to us, the great preacher that he was, and says, “Hold on, continue to get up, fight the good fight, become a libation onto the Lord and keep the faith!  Amen!

I took that picture at the Vatican in Aug. of 2005

God Listens and He Answers

Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones
who call out to him day and night?
Will he be slow to answer them?
I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.
But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

I love the way this week’s Gospel from Luke ends, it gives us great hope and assurance that God listens to us and even answers us when we pray. Jesus even goes as far as telling us to be as this persistent widow, a woman who was not only persistent according to the story but even had become a nuisance to the judge who was at the point of exhaustion with her therefore granting her what she wished.

We believe as Catholics that God does hear all our prayers and even answers them; however, sometimes the answer is different than the one we had in mind, expected or even asked for.

This past March 19^th, on the feast of St. Joseph my mother suffered a heart attack and two strokes.  Her life remained in the balance.  When I asked the doctor to give me the truth about her condition and possible improvement, he said, “Fr. John, she’s very sick, pray and storm heaven with your prayers.”  Me and my brothers did that and after some weeks and months she began recovering real well and then on July 19^th, just four months later after a bleeding episode she was rushed to the hospital and after a number of tests they discovered colon cancer.  She underwent surgery which was successful and the cancer was only stage two (a) so it was completely contained and there is no need for further treatment besides routine checkups.  Her oncologist told me that if she had not been on blood thinners she would not have had that kind of bleeding episode and the tumor would have likely continued to grow, in a way God saved her through the heart attack.  The oncologist looked at me and send, and surely through your prayers.

Now that these moments are in the past I sit back and reflect on them.  My first thought is, “why did God answer our prayers just the way we wanted, i.e. that my mom would get better and she is?  I think of that in contrast to my father who passed away on the operating table when going for by-pass surgery.  We prayed just as much, our prayers were sincere, we were very much like the persistent widow and yet the outcome was much different.

I can say this, that God heard both the prayers for my dad and for my mom.  He also answered both prayers in His Divine Wisdom and Providence.  Others would just write it off as chance, i.e. one live another dies, the cycle of life, yes to some extent but with God’s hand in nature, always!

However, the question remains, why different outcomes, does not Jesus say, “I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”  And in another place, “Ask and it will be given to you.”  The best way for me to explain this is not so much from the biblical text but personally once again.

When I took my father to the hospital that morning of November 28^th 2011 I knew that he would not make it, the Spirit of the Lord was speaking to my heart and preparing me.  It was not my distrust of doctors or their competence, I just knew he could not handle it, the feeling you get deep down in your gut where you already know the outcome.  I wanted so bad to turn around and tell him not to go through with it.  But I did not and for a time regretted it as he died some hours later.  When I shared these feelings with my a priest friend he told me, “Thank God you did not turn around.”  He went on to say, what if you had returned home and did not go through with the surgery and your father dies two weeks later on the kitchen floor, or in his sleep or walking outside, would the family have blamed you for not allowing him to have the surgery, how much would you have blamed yourself?  Finally he said, “What if God simply wanted him, are you ok with that, are you ok with God’s will?”  He did not say this to bring me down but to remind me, how much do I trust God and in his promises?

When God took my dad it was for the good as I look back on it now.  He had grown tired, his heart was bad since he was a child, and he prepared himself well to meet the Lord, my wanting him here was based on earthly wants, what I wanted for me, his presence, which was not a bad desire, actually a good one, but faith tells me it is a better desire to be with the Lord. 

Yet I still love the scene from a Man For All Seasons in which Meg, St. Thomas More’s daughter pleads with him to sign King Henry’s divorce decree and he refuses.  She says to him, then you desire to be a martyr.  He responded, “God asks us to pray for the best outcome and to do so always until He answers otherwise, so believe me Meg I will pray and do all I can to avoid this trouble, but if the doors continue to close in front of me and God shows me martyrdom then I will pray that I have the spittle for it. (Paraphrased)

So should you and I, pray always for the best outcome no matter what until God begins to show us otherwise.  My dad prayed that he would live but in the last few weeks when he was getting worse he too could feel it, that he would not make it and his prayers shifted to accepting any death that the Lord would give him and that he would embrace it.  That morning in the hospital he too knew in his gut because I could see it when he looked at me, it was not a look that everything would be fine as we judge fine, but that he was leaving.  Looking back this was not a bad thing, but a good thing and God did answer our prayers, He took my dad home where we all belong, in heaven.  Yet, my time with my father was not over, for even in death we spoke and that is for another time.

So, yes I bombard heaven like the persistent widow and I do so expecting the best outcome until God tells me differently.  Do I always trust implicitly, no, but I do always return to prayer because it is there that God answers me and I hope that you always do the same as well.

The Great Chasm

In today’s Gospel from Luke we hear Jesus say, “Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”  I always found these to be quite interesting words, especially, “a great chasm is established between us.” 

In the Gospel reading this chasm is described in terms of distance between that of the righteous and that of damned.  In particular in this story it is between that of the poor man Lazarus and the rich man.  The distance, however, is not just in terms of space between them but also in manner of life.

St. Paul exhorts Timothy on this manner of life when he says, “But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith.”  These virtues are at the heart of being a Christian.  The rich man abandoned these virtues, especially the greatest one, love!

Aristotle defined 4 kinds of people, from worst to best, and he labeled them as the tyrant, the incontinent man, the continent man, and the virtuous man.  The tyrant was the man who gave in completely to vice and his passions.  The incontinent man was the man who struggled to live with virtue and often enough falls into vice.  The continent man has many virtues but on occasion will fall into vice.  Finally the virtuous man has achieved all the virtues and either never gives in to vice or if so it would be very rare.  You can see there is a great distance between the tyrant and the virtuous man.  The distance between them rests in manner of which they live.

Ask yourself, “Where do I fall on the scale?”  Am I closer to the virtuous man or Lord forbid, the tyrant?  It is a good exercise for us.  Being a good Christian is not just about lip service, but actually doing and living the faith.  Here is what the Lord says about lip service, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Rather, who is it that enters the kingdom of heaven? Jesus answers,  “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  And what is the will of the Father, the answer is found in Matthew 25, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’   And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Jesus does not equate virtue with belief only, rather to be righteous one must as St. Paul exhorted us today, to be devout, to have faith, to love, to be patient and gentle, this is the heart of the Christian, if we do all in our power and again as St. Paul says, “Compete well for the Faith,” then yes we will become Aristotle’s virtuous man.  More importantly we will become like the poor man Lazarus, who was taken by angels to the bosom of Abraham and not the tyrant who was taken to torment.  So as you see the chasm is not just about space as in measuring distance, but in measuring righteousness vs. evil.  God bless you, Fr. John

Money Left, God Right, Which Way Will You Choose?

Jesus’ words, “You cannot serve both God and mammon,” has much deeper meaning than just money.  Often times it is translated, “You cannot serve both God and money.”  That is true but it is only one component of what Jesus meant in the entirety of its meaning.

The Gospel deals with the dishonest servant and dishonest wealth.  It goes on to conclude that as Christians we need to be shrewd and prudent in our dealings with the world but more importantly that we always remain virtuous in everything we do and that we also do not become slaves of the world.

Becoming slaves to the world involves the love of money, no question about that, but it also means to lose perspective and that when we do we become slaves of the world, we retreat into ourselves in a very selfish way.  Listen again to the words from the Prophet Amos, “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!  “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat?  We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating!”  To fix our scales for cheating, cheating against whom and to what purpose?  The cheating is against our neighbor, the poor, the oppressed, the maligned, the marginalized, those who cannot stand up for themselves and the purpose is to be rich, powerful, and full of prestige.

It’s interesting that Amos uses the term, “fix our scales.”  Scales as you know have to do with measuring things out, in this case money but it also has to do with justice, i.e. the scales of justice.  When we hear today’s readings and listen to them, I have to ask myself, “am I always the person that balances the scales fairly?”  Have I ever tipped the scales in my favor through cheating someone else?  It’s interesting that when we hear the readings is how do we process them in our conscience.  Do we always align ourselves with Jesus and somehow always interpret him to be speaking about someone else, i.e. I would never be that mean or sinful.  What if I am the person that Amos is talking about, maybe not in the same degree, but even a little?  Doesn’t Jesus say he who is untrustworthy of little things is untrustworthy in great matters as well?

Today’s Gospel lesson and readings are challenging.  Jesus wants us to tip the scales of justice evenly.  Once we start to tip them in our favor we become those people who love mammon more than God.  We become lovers of the world in the things that are passing, power, prestige, wealth, none of which brings true happiness.  So my good Christian brothers and sisters when dealing with the world remember your scales and to keep them even, do so with prudence, wisdom and most of all with compassion for your neighbors.  God bless you, Fr. John