Fr. Nony Speaks

To Turn Us Upside Down

2012-01-28T11:16:00.001-05:00

Cycle: B Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalms 95:1-2,6-9; I Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

Once upon a time a government surveyor brought his equipment to a farm, called on the farmer, and asked permission to go into one of the fields and take readings. The farmer objected, fearing that the survey was the first step toward construction of a highway through his land. "I will not give you permission to go into my fields," said the farmer. Whereupon, the surveyor produced an official government document which authorized him to do the survey. "I have the authority," he said, "to enter any field in the entire country to take necessary readings." Faced with such authority, the farmer opened the gate and allowed the surveyor to enter the field. The farmer then went to the far end of the field and opened another gate, through which one of his fiercest bulls came charging. Seeing the bull, the surveyor dropped his equipment and began to run for his life. And he could hear the farmer triumphantly shouting after him,"Show him the paper, show him your authority."

In the Greek, the word for "authority" is "exousia." The word for "power" is "dunamis." Authority and power have different meanings, as the unfortunate surveyor discovered at the sight of the raging bull. In today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus reminds us that, in terms of our salvation -- where we our going with our lives and what we ought to do about it -- He speaks to us with authority and He empowers us, both.

Mark tells us that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath "as one who had authority," and that His listeners were "astonished at His teaching" (Mk. 1:22). Then, "A man with an unclean spirit cried out, 'What have You to do with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God'" (Mk. 1:23,24).

This incident should not surprise us when we consider that Jesus was speaking with such authority and force that His words would hit home -- really jolt his listeners into realizing that they were being asked to turn their lives upside down.

"What have You to do with us? Have you come to destroy us?" We don't have to be under the influence of some alien spirit in order to respond in this way to Jesus' call to New Life. This is the experience, to some degree, of every one of us when we really listen to the Lord's Message. Hearing this Gospel story, we may be inclined to dismiss this man's cry as the lunatic ravings of an unbalanced fanatic. But the fact is that the man in the Gospel Story got the point. He was jolted by the Word of God. He realized his attitude and approach to life was being called into question. He realized that Jesus was indeed calling for the destruction of his old ways.

A small town newspaper's "Religion Column" included the story of a local minister who had been preaching Sunday after Sunday for two years to an empty Church. Before that, there were three members in the congregation. But two died and the third moved away. Nevertheless, each Sunday for two years, the minister went into the pulpit, looked out at the uninterrupted rows of empty pews and preached the Message of Jesus Christ as he understood it. At one point during this period he decided to turn off the sound system because some of the neighbors were complaining about the noise. When he was asked if he didn't feel a little foolish preaching to empty pews week after week, he replied, "No. I don't ever feel foolish. I'm just taking it one Sunday at a time, waiting for someone to come in and listen to the Word."

That is the problem which all serious preachers face week after week: "Is there anyone out there who realizes that the Word of God being preached is a call to turn his or her life upside down? Or am I preaching, in effect, to empty pews? Is there anyone out there who is so astonished by the Word of God spoken through Jesus that he or she feels compelled to cry out, 'I know You are the Holy One of God ... I know You are my Lord and Savior'?"

The question is, "Are we really listening, or is the Word being proclaimed, in effect, to empty pews?" The man in today's Gospel is tormented by an "unclean spirit." But Jesus possesses the authority and the power to impose silence on the unclean spirit and commands it to go out of the man.

The man in this Gospel story serves as a witness to Christ's Presence in the world. If the Kingdom of God is at hand, then the "unclean" diabolical forces are overthrown, and the world is ruled by a new Wisdom, a new Authority, a new Power.

There is the story of a man who asked the question, "What is the devil?" Before anyone could reply, the man supplied his own answer. "The devil," he said, "is not a huge monster with horns and a harpoon tail and a wicked glitter in his eye. No, the devil is inertia, doing nothing, following the lines of least resistance." The definition might not satisfy many theologians, but it makes the point: When Jesus asks us to turn our lives upside down by following His example of radical love, and we respond by following the lines of least resistance, we're in the devil's corner.

Through His life and through His death, Jesus teaches us that Love is all. Through His Resurrection, Jesus empowers us to live accordingly.

Love is all! Jesus taught this truth with such authority as to jolt us, to astonish us, to turn us upside down. But is anybody listening?

Parable of the Tenants. 27th sunday A

2011-10-01T10:57:00.002-04:00

A woman of advanced age began to have hearing problems. Reluctantly she gave in to suggestions from family members that she consult an ear specialist. After the doctor had made a thorough examination of the woman's ears, he said to her, "You have a condition which can be corrected by minor surgery. I suggest we do it as soon as possible. This will give us our best chance to correct your hearing problem." To which she replied, "There will be no operation, thank you. I don't want to correct my hearing problem. I'm eighty-nine years old and I've heard enough!"

That "I've heard enough" feeling is no stranger to many of us. Many of us endure it daily at Six O'clock or Eleven O'clock News Time: reports of murder and other violent crimes -- we've heard enough; reports of political corruption in high places -- we've heard enough; reports of armed conflict between nations and peoples -- we've heard enough; reports of unfair and dishonest business practices -- we've heard enough! All of which clearly indicates that the New Testament Good News report of a loving God's plan for the reconciliation of all mankind in his Kingdom of Love is not being heard nearly enough.

Jesus employed many different ways of communicating the Good News of God's love to his disciples. He instructed them through prayer. He instructed them through miracles. He instructed them through the Scriptures. He instructed them through ordinary conversation. And, He instructed them through parables, as in today's Gospel. In this story, the owner of a vineyard leases it to some tenant farmers. For three successive years the tenants forcibly resist the owner's efforts to claim his rightful share of the harvest. They murder his agents who come to collect. And, after three harvests, they are in a strong position to acquire ownership of the land by means of what we would call "squatters rights." If they can successfully resist the owner's claims following the fourth harvest they will be in a legal position to assert ownership for themselves. The owner's Legal recourse is to lodge a formal complaint against the scheming tenants, before witnesses. To do this, the owner is required by law to appear in person on the land in question. In this case, the owner sends his son (a co-partner in the land) to represent him. "They will respect my son," he reasons. But the wicked tenants murder the son too. Finally the owner himself comes upon the land, gains the upper hand, ejects the murderous tenants and appoints others in their place.

Jesus' reason for speaking this Parable in the final weeks of His ministry is clear. Throughout His public life, Jesus, Son of God, had claimed the right to exercise His Father's authority over His people. Instead of respecting this claim, the scribes and Pharisees saw it as a threat to their own dominion over God's people. They adopted a "He's got to go!" attitude and Jesus knew they would soon make their move to dispose of Him. It was in this context then, that Jesus spoke the Parable of the Tenants. Through it, He is saying to the scribes and the Pharisees, "You may think that getting rid of Me will resolve the matter in your favor. But remember, that is precisely what those wicked tenants imagined. Killing Me will not result in My defeat but in your own ruin. You will never be able to successfully resist My Father's claim to absolute dominion over His people -- even if you should kill his Son! Even death has no dominion over God's people. He will never abandon them."

It is precisely when the bad news of the wicked tenants in our midst seems dominant that we desperately need to let the Good News break through: God is with us and will never abandon us. Hear His voice:

Do not limit your search for Me to the sanctuaries, or to the precise words of theologians, or to the calm of the countryside. Look for Me in the places where men are struggling to become more fully human. See Me in this house of worship, but see Me as well in the many faces of mankind. The presence of the wicked tenants to the contrary notwithstanding, I will never abandon you.

Three persons were talking about some of the recent translations of the Bible. One said, "I like the New English version of the Gospels. It's easier reading than all the older versions." Said the second person, "I prefer the new Jerusalem Bible. The translations have modernized the language without sacrificing reverence." To which the third person replied, "I know an even better translation. I like my mother's translation best. She translated the Bible into life, and it is the most convincing translation I have ever seen. She was a loving person who always took the needs of others seriously. That's what Jesus did, when He was on earth."

Matthew has clearly described Jesus' life ministry in terms of His care and concern for the lowly and the needy and the lonely. It is Jesus who touches lepers. It is Jesus who embraces and kisses the children, the orphans. It is Jesus who loves the "sinners" who are rejected by the self-righteous. It is Jesus who dies for the least among God's children, without exception. And it is Jesus who is saying to us now, His loyal followers, "This is where it all comes out. This is the fruit of the effort, the fruit of all the worship, the fruit of all the prayer, the fruit of all the Bible Study and theological probing. This is where it comes out."

"Fearfully And Wonderfully Made" is the title of a book in which prominent surgeon, Dr. Paul Brand, explores the complex creation called the human body. In a chapter on "Growth," Dr. Brand recalls an incident that took place during a visit to South America:

A certain bridge in South America consists of interlocking vines supporting a precariously swinging platform hundreds of feet above a river. I knew the bridge supported hundreds of people over many years, and as I stood on the edge of the chasm I could see people confidently crossing the bridge. The engineer in me wanted to weigh all the factors, measure the stress tolerance of the vines, test the wood for termites, survey all the bridges in the area for one that might be stronger. I could have spent a lifetime determining whether the bridge was fully trustworthy. But I knew that if I really wanted to

cross, I had to take a step. And when I put my weight on that bridge and walked across, even though my heart was pounding and my knees were shaking, I was declaring my position.

The good doctor then goes on to say that his Christian Faith is like that:

If I wait for everything to be settled, I'll never move. Often I have had to act on the basis of the bones of the Christian Faith before those bones were fully formed in me and before I understood the reason for their existence. Bone is hard, but it is alive. If the bones of Faith do not continue to grow, they will soon become dead skeletons.

"Take up your cross daily and follow Me," Jesus says to His loyal followers. Our hope is in the fulfillment of His promise to make us masters of the art of loving. But, to move in that direction, we must declare our position, we must take a step, day-in and day-out. Anything less and the bones of our Faith will not continue to grow, and will soon become dead skeletons.

Saying Yes to God

2011-09-24T10:16:00.002-04:00

A young man went through college dreaming of the day he would be offered an executive position in his father's huge industrial plant. On graduation day, the father took him aside and said, "Son, now you're ready to come into the family business." Immediately, the young man had visions of a big, plush office, a large staff of assistants, and a hefty executive salary. "I'll start work tomorrow, dad," he said enthusiastically. Whereupon, the father said, "Of course, in order to Learn the business, you'll have to start at the bottom. To begin with, your job will be to water the hundreds of plants located in our buildings." The son protested. "I've changed my mind. I'm not coming to work tomorrow." Later, he thought better of his negative reply and decided to please his father. And so he went to work at the job he had been offered. The father hoped for the best, but was concerned that despite his son's good intentions, he wouldn't stay on the job for long. But he stopped worrying when the young man showed him his new business card, which read, "PLANT MANAGER."

In today's Gospel we have the simple little story of how two young men responded to their father's request that they go to work in the family business. Jesus doesn't put on this little quiz to see how smart His listeners are. He is making a crucial point with them about their relationship with God. It is not what you say, not what you promise, not what you teach that matters most. Far better to move from bad intentions to positive action than to remain locked into your good intentions and no action. This is a lesson in repentance. You stumble, you fall, you hedge, you shift, you fail, but God is always there, ready to pick you up -- if only you will repent.

Repentance takes you beyond good intentions. Repentance is the process of actually becoming the person God wants you to be. No need to blame yourself, over-and-over again, for your failures and your misdeeds. The forgiveness, the healing, the New Life is here and it will change everything for you if only you will open yourself up to receive the Grace of a loving God. We come here with good intentions. We resolve to be Christ's women and men as never before. Then we go back out and we hear the cries for help but we just move on, making excuses all the way.

We have come here today as a People who intend to lead a good life. We want to be Christ's women and men. We want to participate in the affairs of the Christian family. We honestly have good intentions about changing our ways. There is a rock-like quality in us down at the center. But, like Peter, we are rocks that move. We fall, we falter, we fail, we make mistakes, we hurt other people (often the people we love most). We talk about Christian love and we mean to love, but oh how we fail! Time after time after time, even in our own families, we fail in love. Maybe someone else's ego is getting in our way! Maybe we've become emotionally drained from the pressures of our day-to-day situation. Maybe we're just overly tired, physically. That's the way it is! In spite of our good intentions, the edges become a little sharp and they begin to rub up against each other, and we wilt!

"Life Is Just a Bowl Of Cherries" is the title of an old song. It brings to mind the story of an elderly widow who owned a small cherry tree orchard on the edge of town ... When the trees were loaded with cherries, a few children from town would begin throwing stones at the branches, causing some of the luscious fruit to fall to the ground. Then they would rush in, gather up the cherries and eat them.

One day, the widow spotted the children coming and she hid behind a tree. When the kids started throwing stones, she came out from behind the tree, grabbed one of them by the arm, marched him into her house, sat him down at the kitchen table, and left the room. Tears welled up in the boy's eyes as he contemplated his fate. He had visions of the widow returning to flog him with a branch of the very same tree he threw stones at.

When the widow returned, however, instead of a branch in her hand, she carried a plate of delicious- looking, bright-red, freshly-picked cherries which she set before the lad at the kitchen table. And never again did those children throw stones at the kindly widow's cherry trees.

In this sense, life is just a bowl of cherries. That simple little story conveys a profound sense of what "being busy in the Father's affairs" really means. It means empathizing, for example. (In the case of the widow, it meant remembering what it was like when she herself was up to some mischief as a child.) It means being an effective role model, for example. (In the case of the widow it meant acting in a manner in which kindness and understanding prevailed over vengeance.) And for all of us who participate in the Christian family business, it means remembering our Supreme Role Model's response to His tormentors as He neared death on the Cross: "Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing" (Lk. 23:34).

For all of us who have every good intention of becoming busy with our Heavenly Father's affairs, it means loving one another as He has loved us.

The self-centered or the other-centered -- which of the two does the Father's Will?

be satisfied 25th sunday A

2011-09-17T10:10:00.002-04:00

A man had found a magic lantern and, for years, every time he rubbed it a "Genie" would appear to grant his wish. The man was a real worry-bird and, because of his constant anxious worries, he kept the "Genie" busy all the time. This went on for years -- one wish after another -- until, one day, when the man rubbed his magic lantern for the fifth time that week, the Genie appeared and said: "I am sick and tired of your anxious worry and your constant wishing. I have decided to settle this arrangement we have once and for all. I will grant your next three wishes only. Nothing more. After that, you're on your own."

The man made his first wish immediately. He asked that his wife would disappear so that he could marry a better woman. His wish came true at once. But when friends and relatives discovered she was gone, they began to recall all the wife's good qualities. This saddened the man and he realized he had been hasty. Where would he find a better woman than his wife? So he asked the Genie to bring her back, and immediately his wish was granted. Now he had but one wish left. He fretted and agonized and anxiously worried about that third wish. He was determined not to make another mistake, since he would be unable to correct it. He went everywhere for advice. Some people told him to wish for immortality. But if he got too sick to enjoy life, he reasoned, what good would immortality be? "Maybe," he told himself, "I should wish for good health." But then he asked himself: "What good is health if I don't have much money? And what good is money if I have no friends?" Many years passed and still he worried -- he couldn't decide on health or wealth or power or money or the dozens of other ideas that kept cropping up. Finally, in desperation, he cried out, "Someone tell me what to ask for!" And he heard a gentle voice from within answer: "Ask to be content, no matter what you get."

Be content! There is a sense in which that is the underlying message of the Gospels. Deep down at the center of all of us, there is the longing for wholeness of life: to be complete persons; to get it all together; to have peace of mind and soul; to be free of anxiety and frustration. "My peace," Jesus says, "is My gift to you." In and through Jesus Christ, God gives us peace. Yet this is no ordinary, worldly peace. "I do not give it as the world gives it," Jesus tells us.

Linda, a college freshman, was decidedly discontented with the young men who kept trying to date her. After listening to her complaints about each one of them, her roommate offered to arrange a blind date. "Would you prefer a Southern boy or a Northern boy?" she asked. "What's the difference?" Linda inquired. Her roommate explained, "Southern boys are more romantic. They will take you walking in the moonlight and whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Northern boys are more active. They like to go places and do exciting things." Linda pondered the contrast, then asked, "Could you please find me a Southern boy from as far North as possible?"

We often try to negotiate with life in like manner. We register discontent with our mere human glimpse of the Mystery of God and the Mystery of life that has been revealed to us in and through the Lord Jesus. As far as possible, we want to put our own "spin" on it, so to speak. And sooner or later we discover that we're going down a blind alley -- a way of life which magnifies our discontent in our search for wholeness of life.

For some of us, the search for wholeness of life is an endless cycle of having to go one better than our peers. For others of us, it becomes simply the business of being seen: our good looks, perhaps; or our clothes. We use all kinds of gimmicks to try to find fulfillment but, sooner or later, we are confronted with the truth: the gimmicks don't work!

Face this squarely, and you can begin to acknowledge deep down inside, that God is trying to get through to you with the only genuine source of wholeness of life: the love that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Until you come to terms with that reality, you are wasting time and effort. The sources of temporary satisfaction will let you down, ultimately. As it has been beautifully said,

I know that myself exists and I know that God exists, and the whole business of living is getting the two together.1

The story of the laborers in the vineyard in today's Gospel begins with Jesus' statement, "Now the Kingdom of Heaven is like ..." (Mt. 20:1). The owner of the vineyard hires some field workers and agrees to pay them a fair wage. After they have labored for several hours, he hires additional workers. And when the day's work is over, he pays the first workers the agreed upon wage and he pays those who came later the same wage. Whereupon, the first workers who labored longer than the others, register their discontent. "You have treated them the same as us," they grumble. To which the owner replies, "Why be envious because I am generous?" Jesus then concludes the parable, saying, "Thus the last will be first and the first last" (Mt. 20:16).

The Quakers tell the story of one of their number who put up a sign on a vacant piece of ground next to his house. The sign read,

I WILL GIVE THIS LOT TO ANYONE WHO IS REALLY SATISFIED!

A wealthy farmer rode by, read the sign, then went to the owner's house. He said to the Quaker, "I may as well have the land you are offering because I qualify: I am rich. I have everything I need. I am satisfied." "Are thee really satisfied?" the Quaker asked. "Yes, I have everything I need and I am well satisfied," said the rich man. "My friend," said the Quaker, "if thee is satisfied, why does thee want my land?"

In the Gospels, Jesus gives us a sign that reads,

I will give peace of mind and heart and soul, I will give contentment to all persons who acknowledge the Gospel Truth of a loving God who wants them to express their love for Him through their love for one another.

God is Love! The Mystery of God is the Mystery of Love! In God's Wisdom, we are given our best human glimpse into this awesome Mystery in and through our love for one another. And, in God's Wisdom, that is enough for now.

Be satisfied ... Be content! And live accordingly!

He Was The Suffering Servant 21st in ordinary time A

2011-08-20T10:16:00.001-04:00

The Los Angeles Times Syndicate published a story of a commercial airline flight cancellation which resulted in a long line of travelers trying to get booked on another flight. One man in the line grew increasingly impatient with the slow-moving line. Suddenly, he pushed his way to the front and angrily demanded a first-class ticket on the next available flight. "I'm sorry," said the ticket agent, "but I'll have to first take care of the people who were ahead of you in the line." The irate man then pounded his fist on the ticket counter, saying, "Do you have any idea who I am?" Whereupon, the ticket agent picked up the public address microphone and said, "Attention please! There is a gentleman at the ticket counter who does not know who he is. If there is anyone in the airport who can identify him, please come to the counter." Hearing this, the man retreated, and the people waiting in line burst into applause.

Today's Gospel includes the Apostle Peter's answer to the question of Jesus' identity. "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asks. "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God," Peter answers (Mt. 16:15-16). Perhaps Peter did not at first realize the full significance of his own confession. Maybe it was only on the other side of Good Friday and Easter that Peter truly understood that Jesus is the Christ who has come to save us from sin, from bondage, from spiritual emptiness, and even from death itself. Jesus is the Christ -- the Anointed One -- who anoints us with the saving Grace of God.

Matthew's Gospel says: "From then on Jesus (the Messiah) started to indicate to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly there at the hands of the elders and the chief priests, and the scribes, and to be put to death ..." (Mt. 16:21). For Jesus, going to Jerusalem meant suffering, rejection, anger, resentment, loneliness, betrayal, violence and ultimately death. And from here on through the life of Christ, we get this pictorial image of Him literally moving into His pain. He knows that if He goes to Jerusalem there will be pain and suffering, and He literally leans into it.

It is important for us to think about this because many of us are living what might be called a "pain- avoidance" style of life. The basic principal on which we operate is "Avoid pain at all costs." We fear pain, we run away from pain, we try to escape pain. The moment the first pain comes we reach for the aspirin bottle. Television, of course, has helped school us to do this. We've all seen the TV commercials with the two stomachs. In one of them, the Bufferin has already begun its journey to the brain and, in the other, the poor plain aspirin tablet isn't even half-dissolved. We're easy marks for that kind of commercial graphic because we've been conditioned to go for the fast one, the instant remedy for pain.

"Avoid the pain!" Sometimes that is good counsel, obviously. A class of ten-year-olds had been asked to write a little essay on "Care of the Teeth." One student wrote,

"1) See your dentist often, 2) Brush your teeth after every meal, 3) Watch out for shovels at the drinking fountain."

That's good advice: watch for those shoves which are going to inflict pain. But the trouble is, some of us spend so much time watching out for shoves that we are never able to drink deeply of the water of life.

I am not suggesting that we go out and look for pain. That is a form of sickness in itself. What I am suggesting is that in a full, rich, human life, some pain is absolutely unavoidable -- sometimes because of circumstances beyond our control and sometimes not. As it was with Jesus, often when we stand up for what is right and for what we believe in, we might well expect to suffer for it.

Jesus could have avoided the pain in Jerusalem. He was tempted to do that even until the last night of His life in Gethemane. Jesus struggled with the problem of pain. But because there was a higher truth, a higher value, a higher reality involved -- the Rule of God, the Kingdom of God -- He did not avoid the pain. It was unavoidable if He were to be true to what He was called to be and to do.

In today's Gospel, after Peter's confession of faith, Jesus orders His disciples not to tell anyone He is the Messiah, But why? The answer is that the people of His own time -- even His closest friends -- refused to accept Him as He really was. They had their own fixed notions about this. The Messiah was to be a warrior-king, a political leader who would restore national independence. He would lead them to glorious victory and reign over them as a triumphant king. They were unable as yet to grasp

the notion that Jesus was not that kind of Messiah at all; that He was the "Suffering Servant" whose ministry would lead Him into the pain of Gethsemane and Calvary and ignominious death on the Cross. Jesus had to endure the pain and the death so that through Him, God might reveal to the fullest His infinite love for us. And so Jesus moved into His pain; He went to Jerusalem.

This is the image the Gospel holds up to us as we reflect on the meaning not only of our own pain, but also the pain of others. We lean into our own pain to discover meaning. And our Christian ministry of service sensitizes us to the pain and suffering of others -- our wives and husbands, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, our friends and neighbors, and strangers along the way.

Like most large newspapers, the Washington Post has a room filled with file folders which contain reference information on people from every walk of life. In each file, the famous person is identified by a notation about occupation or vocation, such as, "motion picture star" or "oil tycoon" or "social reformer." A visitor to the Washington Post offices reports looking up the file on Jesus Christ. In the folder, someone has identified Jesus with a single word: "martyr." That's not a bad answer to the question of who Jesus is, but neither is it the complete answer.

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asked, and Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter answered very well that day, but he can't answer for you or for me today. Even within the community of the Church, there remains the necessity of a personal confession of faith. Each of us must make up our own mind about this Jesus.

assumption of the blessed Virgin

2011-08-13T16:53:00.001-04:00

HAPPINESS IS DOING GOD'S WILL

The Good News about God is that He loves you and wants you to experience the good life. But He has given you freedom -- freedom to say "Yes!" or "No!" You can obey or you can disobey. You can follow Jesus or you can go your own way. "He who obeys the commandments he has received from Me is the man who loves Me," Jesus said. The consequences, or the fruit, of freely choosing to say "Yes!" to God is love. Obeying God is learning how to love.

Don't talk about it. Forget your own good intentions. Stop picking and choosing and making excuses to yourself and others. Empty yourself of all that "self-help" knowledge you've acquired about "Looking Out For Number One." Get on with it! Do it! "Do God's Will as I have revealed it to you," Jesus is telling us, over-and-over again. But He doesn't leave it there. He doesn't leave it hanging. He lets us in on the secret of the joy -- the true happiness -- of holy obedience. He tells us that if we enter through the narrow gate -- the disciplined way of obedience -- we will find wholeness of life. We will become the tree that bears rich fruit. Our life's house will be built on a solid foundation that will withstand any storm.

Obedience to God's Will opens up the whole secret of life for you. Jesus is telling you that obedience to the Will of God -- actually doing what the Lord teaches you to do -- is the only way to achieve genuine joy, happiness, fulfillment, peace of soul, wholeness of life. We say these things -- week-after-week we say them -- but do we really believe them enough, trust them enough, have enough faith in them to act accordingly? Or do we keep on frantically pushing and shoving, and manipulating, and trying to have our own way -- fighting God right to the bitter end?

In a magazine cartoon, a mother and father are arguing over junior's budding musical career. "Very well," the exasperated father exclaims, "have it your way. So he'll grow up to be a tuba virtuoso. But can't he just take lessons? Does he have to practice?"

Absurd as it may seem, that is exactly what we're saying about our own lives if we're travelling down the middle of the road paved with good intentions. We talk about living a virtuoso Christian life but we don't want to practice it. We're trying to meet with Christ on our own terms. But it can't be done. We cannot simply talk our way into His company.

"He who obeys the commandments he has received from Me is the man who loves Me." The person who loves Jesus is the person who relates to others in the spirit of compassion, the spirit of concerned, caring, loving service. Do it now -- in your very next encounter with a human being. It's true: practice does make perfect.

In today's Gospel Lesson, in the person of Mary -- a "mother-To-Be" -- Luke presents to us the perfect example of trust in God's Holy Will. When informed by God's messenger that she would give birth to the Messiah, Mary immediately gave her faith response. "I am the handmaid of the Lord," she said, "let what you have said be done to me" (Lk. 1:38). And then, Luke tells us, "Mary set out...and went as quickly as she could to visit her cousin, Elizabeth (who also was pregnant), and to tell her the good news. Elizabeth joyfully greeted her, saying, "Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled" (Lk. 1:42,44-45).And there we have the secret of "blessedness," the secret of "happiness," the secret of a fruitful Christian living a fruitful life: to let it be done to you as God wills; to do as God wills; to love one another as He has loved us.

What is happiness? The Apostle Paul has given us the formula:

Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy, with kindness, and humility and meekness and patience. Bear with one another, forgive whatever grievances you have against one another. Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. Over all these virtues, put on love, which binds the rest together and makes them perfect. Christ's peace must reign in your hearts (Col. 3:12-15).

I send you love, I send you light; I bless your soul with all my might.

I give you all that I can give, And pray that it will help you live A life that's full, a life that's free, At one with peace and harmony.

And in return I ask one thing: That you accept the gift I bring. And worry not about what you In return for me can do.

For my reward is in the thrill That comes from having served God's Will.

corpus christi

2011-06-23T18:27:00.001-04:00

Augustinian nun Juliana of Liège had a vision in which a glistening full moon appeared to her. The moon was perfect but for some hollow dark spots which she was told represented the absence of a feast of the Eucharist. This led to the celebration of Corpus Christi which was introduced into the church calendar in 1264. Why do we need a feast of the Eucharist? A feast like this affords us the opportunity to give God collective thanks for Christ’s abiding presence with us which is made visible in the Eucharist. It is also an opportunity for us to seek a better understanding of the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and to order our attitude to it accordingly, since the Eucharist is a sacrament of life which, if misused, could bring about the opposite effect. As St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “All who eat and drink in an unworthy manner, without discerning the Lord’s body eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Corinthians 11:29-30). In order to arrive at a better understanding of the Eucharist we need to ask why Jesus gave us this sacrament in the first place. A closer reading of today's gospel or, better still, the whole of the Eucharistic discourse in John 6 from which it is taken provides useful answers. From the reading we find that there are two main reasons Jesus gave us this sacrament. (1) Jesus promised to be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28:20). In the Eucharist he provides a visible sign and an effective means of him being present to us and us being present to him. As Jesus himself said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (2) Jesus said that he came that we may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10). In the Eucharist he provides a visible means of communicating this life to us so that we can be fully alive both in this world and in the next.

The Jews that Jesus was addressing in John 6 had gathered to ask him for more bread. Jesus promised to give them the sacramental bread and blood instead. But in their worldly frame of mind they could not understand or appreciate the sacrament. They disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (v. 52). Jesus reaffirmed that “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” (v. 55). They ended up distancing themselves from the Eucharist because the sacramental language makes no sense in a world of materialism.

The same problem that these early would-be followers of Jesus had is still with us today. If we approach the Eucharist with a materialistic mentality we fail to understand and so lose the benefits of such a wonderful gift of God’s love. The Eucharist is true food and drink but at the same time it is very different from every other food and drink. The great difference lies in these words of Christ which St Augustine heard in prayer, “You will not change me into yourself as you would food of your flesh; but you will be changed into me.” We transform ordinary food into our own bodies but the food of the Eucharist transforms us into the body of Christ. Ludwig Feuerbach's statement that we become what we eat is never more true that in the Eucharistic experience.

Why then do many of us who receive the Eucharist not experience more of this radical transformation? Maybe this story will throw more light on the question. A team of Russians and Americans were on a common expedition. Among their cabin foodstuff was Russian black bread. It was tasty but hard on the teeth. It happened during a meal that an American bit into a piece and snapped a tooth. He threw the bread overboard and growled: “Lousy Communist bread.” The Russian countered: “Is not lousy communist bread. Is rotten capitalist tooth.” If we do not experience the transforming power of the Eucharist it is probably not on account of a lousy Eucharist but on account of our rotten faith. Let us today approach the Eucharist with a more lively faith in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and we shall experience therein God's saving power and transforming love.

5th sunday of Lent year A

2011-04-09T16:10:00.002-04:00

What do we do is the question in today’s Gospel.

Old Mr. Cruz lay in his bed, dying. In fact, he had been dying for several weeks. And, during that time, Father Michael, his parish priest, had visited him almost daily. Then, one night, when the weather outside was frightful, old Mr. Cruz took a turn for the worse. "Mary," he called out, "Mary, come quickly" --and his wife came running to his bedside. "Mary," he said, "my time has come. I'm being called to the bosom of the Lord. Please call the rabbi from the synagogue around the corner. Hurry, please!" Mary was astonished. "Call the rabbi?" she said. "Poor darling, I think your fever's running high. I'll just call Father Michael." Again the dying man begged, "Please call the rabbi before its too late." Mary clasped her hands and looked up toward heaven. "Lord, forgive my raving husband. He must have gone out of his mind. Why else would he be asking for the rabbi instead of his friend, Father Michael, in his last hour?" Hearing this, old Patrick lifted his eyelids and said, "Because there's a terrible storm blowing outside and I don't want a priest to come out on a night like this! Call the rabbi!" The Gospel tells us Martha and Mary calls for Jesus to tell him about their dying brother. Then Lazarus died. What are they going to do? Let say you found a dead donkey in your front yard. Well there is this story about a priest who woke up one morning, looked out the window and saw a dead donkey in his front yard. He hadn't the slightest idea how it got there, but he knew he had to get rid of it. He called the Sanitation Department. He called several other agencies, but no one in the bureaucracy seemed able to help him. In desperation, he called the mayor and asked what could be done. The mayor must have been having a bad day. "Why bother me with your problem," he answered. "You're a clergyman. It's your job to bury the dead." Whereupon the clergyman lost his cool and snapped back, "Well, I just thought I'd better notify the next of kin." If you have a dead donkey on the front yard of your life this morning and you don't know what to do with it, the Resurrection Power of God is present to you at that point of need. What do we do?

A story came over the news wire services about a man who had died. After his burial, a letter from the County Department of Social Services arrived at his home. The letter said, in part: Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 2011 because we received notice that you passed away. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.

In today's Gospel, After having said to Lazarus' sister Martha, "Your brother will rise again...I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE," Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. (Jn. 11:23,25).

"I am the Resurrection and the life." On the first Easter Sunday those words came alive. It was then that Jesus' followers realized that the Almighty God was present in the death of Jesus Christ in a way that conquered death. Think about that! Death, our greatest enemy, is overcome once and for all. Think about that! THE SIGN OF THIS RESURRECTION POWER WHICH JESUS GAVE WHEN HE RAISED UP LAZARUS IS A REALITY IN EVERY ONE OF OUR LIVES.

The process of moving from death to Resurrection is going on in our lives at this very moment. Because ours is a Resurrection Faith, we know there is a new world coming: coming in joy; coming in peace; coming in love; coming in brotherhood.

Last year, a college newspaper offered a prize to the person who submitted the best definition of life. The entries came pouring. Among them:

"Life is a joke that isn't funny...Life is the jail sentence we get for the crime of being born...Life is a disease for which there is only one cure: death."

But there is another vision, a positive vision, a Gospel-truth vision of life which provides direction and purpose and meaning for our lives; which opens us to the experience of a Loving God's Presence in our lives; which enables us to face any anxiety or fear with genuine hope in the Lord's promise to be with us always.

A medical doctor tells this moving story of a wonderful Christian mother and her five-year-old son who was in the hospital dying of a painful cancer:

One morning, before the mother arrived at the hospital, a nurse heard the little boy saying, "I hear the bells! I hear the bells! They're ringing!" Over and over that morning nurses and staff heard him.

When the mother arrived she asked one of the nurses how her son was doing, and the nurse replied, "Oh, he's hallucinating today. It's probably the medication. He's not making sense. He keeps on saying he hears bells."

Then that beautiful mother's face came alive with understanding, and she shook her finger at the nurse and said, "You listen to me. He is not hallucinating and he's not out of his head because of any medicine. I told him weeks ago that when the pain in his chest got bad and it was hard to breathe, it meant he was going to leave us. It meant he was going to go to heaven -- and that when the pain got really bad he was to look up into the corner of his room -- towards heaven -- and listen for the bells of heaven -- because they'd be ringing for him!" With that, she marched down the hall, swept into her little son's room, swooped him out of his bed, and rocked him in her arms until the sounds of ringing bells were only quiet echoes, and he was gone.

"You'll never convince me," the doctor said, "that that great woman in her gallant act of mothering did not leave the hospital a different place from what she found it! In today's, Gospel Jesus, by raising Lazarus, gives us a truly awesome definition of life! "Life is stronger than death," He is telling us. And because of this Gospel truth, in God's own time this world of ours will be a different place from the one we found.

We can talk, talk, talk forever about the Resurrection Power of God working in the world and still miss the point if we fail to realize that to accept Jesus as the "Resurrection and the Life" is to accept simultaneously His call to action. This does not mean that you are called to solve the world's problems all by yourself, but it does mean that there is something God is depending on you to do. There are limits to your resources, your strength, your money, your power, but there is always something you can do through the Resurrection Power of God that lies deep within you.

The Season of Lent is a time to take stock, see what resources we do have and to emphasize these instead of those we do not have:

I am only one; but I am one. I cannot do everything, But I can do something. What I can do I ought to do; And what I ought to do, By the grace of God I will do.

4th sunday of lent

2011-04-01T15:17:00.002-04:00

Today's gospel centers on the analogy and distinction between physical and spiritual blindness, as do most of the Gospel miracle stories where Jesus heals blind people. The early Christians saw physical blindness as a metaphor for the spiritual blindness which prevents people from recognizing and coming to Jesus. These stories testify, therefore, to the power of Jesus to heal not just the blindness of the eye but, above all, the blindness of the heart.

The clue that the evangelist intended this story to be read on these two levels, physical and spiritual, is found at the tail end of the story:

Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." (John 9:39-41)

The mission statement that Jesus gives here is valid not only for the Pharisees but also for the men and women of our time. To learn from Jesus we must first admit our ignorance, to be healed we must first acknowledge our blindness, to be forgiven we must confess our sins. The I'm-OK-you're-OK mentality so prevalent today may in fact not be too far from the mentality of the Pharisees. The great archbishop Fulton J. Sheen used to say that in the past only Catholics believed in the Immaculate Conception but today everybody thinks they are immaculately conceived and, therefore, sinless.

From earliest times today's gospel story has been associated with baptism. Just as the blind man went down into the waters of Siloam and came up whole, so also believers who are immersed into the waters of baptism come up spiritually whole, totally healed of the blindness with which we are born. For, like the blind man in the gospel, we are all born blind - spiritually, that is.

It is, in fact, a story of how a blind man who used to sit and beg became a disciple who went about witnessing to Jesus. As in last week's story of the conversion of the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well, this story of the healing of the blind man shows that the one thing you need to qualify to bear witness to Jesus is not doing a certain kind of studies but having a certain kind of experience. The crisis of faith in our time is not very different from the crisis of faith of the Pharisees, namely, thinking that true piety means knowing and following the Book. But Christianity has a lot more to do with knowing and following the Person, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The crisis of membership and commitment we have in our churches today can be traced to the understanding in the past that being a Christian was a matter of following certain doctrines and rituals. The most important thing, bringing people into a relationship with Jesus was neglected. The irony of the situation is that it is only after such a personal relationship with the Lord that people can begin to appreciate the importance of church worship and doctrine for the life of faith. Faith experience comes before theology. That is why the blind man arrived at the true faith in Jesus before the learned Pharisees. So, when in our ministry we stress doctrine and ritual over personal encounter with the Lord, one begins to wonder whether we are not putting the cart before the horse. Let us today admit our spiritual blindness and pray with St Augustine of Hippo in the spirit of Lent and today's gospel: "Lord that we may see." The Lord will give us light and spiritual insight.

3rd sunday of lent. A

2011-03-26T15:23:00.002-04:00

Keywords: Belief, Love, Truth

A woman was driving along a country road when she noticed an old man sitting on a fence rail watching the cars go by. The driver stopped to ask for directions and, after receiving them, she remarked, "I don't think I could stand living out here as you do. You don't really see much and you probably don't travel like I do. I'm on the go all the time." The old man looked down at the stranger and drawled, "I don't see much difference in what I'm doing and what you're doing. I set on the fence and watch the autos go by, and you set in your auto and watch the fences go by. It's just the way you look at things."

And, you know, that's what our worship experience is all about. Some of us are frequent travelers; some of us are not. Some of us are on the go all the time; some of us are not. But however varied our day-to-day activities may be, the worship experience is our great equalizer. We come together as Christ's people because "It's just the way we look at things." It's just the way we look at life. It's just the way we look at truth.

In today's Gospel, Jesus is "on the go" -- traveling through Samaria. At midday He arrives at a village called Sychar. The sun is at its hottest, and He stands alone at a well to which the villagers come for water. a woman comes to draw water from the well and they begin to talk. Jesus is thirsty, but He has nothing with which to draw water from the well. So He asks the woman to give Him a drink. The woman seems startled. She reminds Jesus that she is a Samaritan and He is a Jew, and that a Jew just doesn't talk to a Samaritan. Nevertheless, Jesus breaks the tradition and not only speaks to the woman but also asks her for a small service. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" she asks (Jn. 4:9). Jesus answers, "If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water" (Jn. 4:10). "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet," the woman says to Jesus. "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and You say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" (Jn.4:19-20). To which Jesus replies, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father ... the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:21,23-24). Hearing this, the woman says, "I know the Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will show us all things." Jesus says to her, "I who speak to you am He" (Jn. 4:25-26).

When you know the Gift of God, you are empowered to worship the Father in spirit and truth. In his Letter to the Romans, Paul describes the Gift in these words:

... God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Rom.5:8).

We gather together with Christ in our midst, as a Spirit- filled community, to say, "That's just the way we look at things ... the way we look at life ... the way we look at truth!"

"While we were yet sinners Christ died for us"-- that's the way we look at things!

"For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him" (Jn. 3:17) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn. 15:12-13) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you ... for the measure you give is the measure you get back" (Lk. 6:37-38) -- that's, the way we look at things!

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ... If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (I Cor. 12:12-13,26) -- that's the way we look at things!

"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude ... Love bears all things, believes all things ... So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (I Cor. 13:4-7,13) -- that's the way we look at things!

The Apostle Paul has written:

"... sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under Grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under Grace? By no means ! ... thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed" (Rom. 6:15,17).

The story is told of a little girl named Jenny whose father had an extremely rigid, legalistic, self- righteous way of looking at religion. And, after years of nay-saying and judging other people's actions in terms of easy blacks and whites, he became so cynical it seemed to little Jenny that every time he opened his mouth it was to say, "We don't believe in that, do we?" One day, Jenny was walking with her father near the duck pond on the family farm. Jenny ran to the edge of the pond and screamed with delight. One of the ducks had hatched her eggs and was now tending to a half dozen or more fluffy little "cheep-cheeping" new-born creatures. Little Jenny pondered the scene for a while, then looked up at her father and said, "Daddy, we beweeve in ducks, don't we?"

Yes Jenny, we "beweeve" in ducks and we believe in their Creator who is the Creator of your life, and your daddy's life, and our life and all of life. We believe in the one Father of us all who created us out of His infinite love for us. We believe in the one Father of us all who loves us so much He wants for His own -- eternally His -- in His coming Kingdom of Love. We believe in the one Father of us all who gave us the Gift of His only Son, to teach us how to love Him in return through our love for one another.

We believe this from the heart. That's the way we look at things at the deepest level of our being. And, in that Spirit -- the Spirit of Love -- we celebrate these life-giving, life-enriching, life-saving truths!

The worship experience is a limitless wellspring for our life-enrichment (that is to say, for drawing us closer to God). At times, God comes quickly in the quietness and yearning of silent prayer. Sometimes God comes quickly in the special moments of communion. Sometimes God comes quickly in the sudden flash of a new awareness, a fresh idea, a sincere resolution, a lively hope. But always He comes quickly when, freely responding to His holy Will, we come to worship in spirit and truth -- that is to say, when we look at things in the Spirit of Love.

2nd sunday of lent

2011-03-20T08:17:00.001-04:00

In the lore of a tribe in West Africa, there is a story called "The Legend of the Sky Maiden." The story begins when members of the tribe are facing a milk shortage. Their cows are not producing like they used to. A young man volunteers to watch over the cows at night in search of a clue to what might be happening. He hides himself behind some bushes and waits. Finally, he sees something extraordinary ...

A young woman of astonishing beauty rides a moonbeam down from heaven to earth carrying a large pail. She milks the cows, fills her pail, and climbs back up the moonbeam to the sky. The young man cannot believe his eyes. He must learn more about this mysterious maiden who comes down from the sky. So he sets a trap near the cow barn and the next night, when the maiden comes down to milk the cows, he captures her. "Who are you?" he asks. "I am a sky maiden," she replies. "I live with my tribe up in the sky, where we have no food of our own. It is the duty of us sky maidens to come down to earth at night to find food. But, please sir, release me from this net and I will do anything you ask." The young man replies, "I will release you if you promise to marry me." "I will marry you," the maiden says, "but first you must allow me to return home to prepare myself." The young man agrees.

When the sky maiden returns, she is carrying a large box. "Take this and keep it for me," she says to the young man. "Then I will marry you and be a good wife. But you must promise never to look inside the box." They live happily together for a time. Then, one day, when his wife is not at home, the young man opens the box and looks inside. The box is empty. When the wife returns, seeing that her husband has opened the box, she says, "Because you looked inside the box I cannot remain with you any longer. I must leave." "Why?" her husband asks. "What is so terrible about looking into an empty box?" She answers: "I'm not leaving you because you opened the box. I thought you would. I'm leaving you because you said it is empty. It isn't empty. It contains the light and air and smells of my home in the sky. When I went home I filled that box with everything that is most precious to me. How can I be your wife if what is most precious to me is emptiness to you?"1

When God made the earth, He filled it with everything that is most precious to Him! Can we look at God's good earth and not experience the fullness of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the beauty of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the glory of it? Can we look at what is most precious to God and not experience the awe and wonder of it? Or have we lost our capacity for reverence? Have we lost our sense of the sacred in God's creation.

Harold Kushner, one of today's most widely-read inspirational writers, says it in these words:

To the geologist, mountains are evidence of seismic activity, the process of reshaping the earth's surface over the course of millennia.

To the tourist, mountains are sometimes beautiful, sometimes inconvenient features of a landscape.

To the skier, snow-covered mountains are an opportunity to enjoy a challenging outdoor activity.

To the religious person, a mountain is where God and human beings meet. It symbolizes reaching up to touch Heaven, and Heaven bending down toward earth. (So the ancient Greeks told stories of the gods living atop the tallest mountains, and the Bible describes Moses climbing a mountain to receive the tablets of the Law from God).2

And in our Gospel Lesson today, the New Testament writer describes an awesome mountaintop experience of God by Jesus and three of the disciples:

... Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain ... And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light ... lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him."

In the Transfiguration Event, God's Presence in Jesus Christ shone through to the disciples so intensely they found themselves in the presence of another world where time no longer exists and where there is no mistaking the voice of God: "This is My beloved Son. He is most precious to Me ... Listen to Him!" And "when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were filled with awe" (Mt. 17:6).

To the disciples who witnessed it, the Transfiguration Event was awesome -- so awesome in fact that they didn't want to leave when

it was over. They actually had seen the glory of God shining through the Body of Christ. Of course they wanted to stay on the mountaintop to reflect and meditate on the wondrous vision. Of course they wanted to build a chapel to commemorate it. Of course they wanted to stay with Jesus in the place where they had just spent the supreme moment of their lives. But in that supreme moment, they had heard the voice of God say, "Listen to Him!" And, of course they had to obey Jesus when He ordered them to go back down the mountain to where there were people in need -- and minister to them.

To us disciples of Christ who have come together in this place, shouldn't this worship event be awesome? The glory of God still shines thorough the Lord Jesus who is in our midst now. The loving Presence of God is made real to us now through the Body of Christ. And the unmistakable voice of God is speaking to us now: "This is My beloved Son who is most precious to Me ... Listen to Him! Follow Him from this place to where there are people in need -- and minister to them!

The Lord Jesus Christ is most precious to God. We Christians have no trouble at all accepting that reality. But we do seem to have trouble accepting the reality that we ourselves are precious to God. You and I, and the members of our families, and all our friends, and all our neighbors, and all whom

we consider to be our enemies, and every passing stranger, and every human person God chooses to create -- all are precious to God.

It seems safe to assume that God enjoys variety ...

He didn't stop with a thousand insect species; He conjured up three hundred thousand species of beetles and weevils alone. In the Book of Job, God points with pride to such oddities of creation as the mountain goat, the wild ass, the ostrich, and the lightening bolt. God lavished color, design, and texture on the world, giving us Pygmies and Watusis, and blond Scandinavians, and swarthy Italians, and big- boned Russians and petite Japanese.3

When God looks out upon His earthly creation, He sees the whole thing. And the variety that He sees is precious to Him. So precious, in fact, that He allows His glory to shine through it, making it possible for us to say, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you."

C. S. Lewis recalled the time when he first started going to Church. "I dislikes the hymns," he said. "I considered them to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But then I realized that the hymns were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic boots in the opposite pew. Then you realize that you aren't fit to clean his boots, and it gets you out of your solitary conceit."

Allow me to repeat: Every human person God chooses to create is precious to Him. That's awesome! That's beyond our ability to fully comprehend. But by the Grace of God, we do have the ability to say from the heart, in every human encounter, "I worship the God I see in you!"

1st sunday of lent 2011

2011-03-12T11:04:00.002-05:00

STEWARDS OF THE FEAST OF LIFE

A man named John Johnson was one of the volunteer workers in the highly organized Stewardship Campaign of a large Church. Being a highly disciplined person, John Johnson meticulously carried out his responsibility. He visited each family that had been assigned to him, without exception, calling back several times if necessary if no one was at home. He filled out with precision the record cards he had been given. He presented the Church's case for the need for loyal support with vigor and enthusiasm. His very last call was to an elderly woman who listened to his pitch for a while but then became very angry. She said to him, "John Johnson, I knew your grandfather, I knew your father and now you come along. You Johnsons are all alike. I've despised you for years and if you don't leave this house I'm going to break this broom over your head." He made a hasty retreat to his car, pulled out the report card and wrote, carefully, "Doubtful prospect."

In today's Gospel, Jesus is tempted three times by the devil. Like John Johnson, the devil presented his case with vigor and enthusiasm, only to discover that Jesus is a "doubtful prospect." The scenario ends when the devil takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, then makes this pitch: "All these I will bestow upon You if You prostrate Yourself in homage before me." Clearly, Jesus perceives that the devil's offer is fraudulent. The kingdoms of the world are not the devil's to give. They are God's, and God's alone. We are merely the caretakers of what we possess. God loves us so much that He has appointed us stewards of His earthly kingdom, and has granted us the privilege of using that which we possess, to His honor and glory.

God has charged us with the responsibility not only of stewardship over material resources but also of human resources. We are stewards not only of things but of life itself. This means in the first place, that I don't own my own body; you don't own your own body. When we abuse our own body, it is not just a matter of abusing something that belongs to us, we are abusing God's property, God's act of creation. This intricate, beautiful thing that God has created--our body--is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul says. And we are the stewards of our body. Parents have a problem because they invest so much of their time and energy in their children that before they realize it--subsconsciously, at least--they have acquired a sense of ownership. Parents are stewards, but not owners of their children. Many husbands and wives feel a real sense of ownership toward each other. The same is true in many close- friend or best-friend relationships. It is so easy to slip into this attitude without saying it in so many words but acting it out toward the other person. Some of the deepest experiences of pain involve middle-aged persons and their older parents--parents who still think that they own the child.

Biblical principle of life permeates our whole being, every level of our existence. And it ties back into our reason for being here today, which is to celebrate God and to celebrate God's presence and His power and His love and His promise of fulfillment for each one of us. We celebrate these realities and new life is given to us. But the realization of that new life involves a daily recognition that God is the owner and we are the stewards of His material resources and His human resources as well.

All of this, ultimately, is a matter of trust, which is the heart of our response to God. Moreover, God's appointing us stewards is an act of trust on God's part. He trusts us, and when we realize that God is placing His trust in us it puts us in ever closer contact with Him in our daily experience.

There was a young man named Buddy who spent two years working in the oil fields of New Mexico in order to earn money for college. One winter day, when he was ninety feet up on the derrick, Buddy slipped on some ice that had formed on the platform he was standing on. As he fell toward the ground, his safety rope took hold. He dangled precariously in the air for a long time before being rescued. Speaking about it later, Buddy could not stop saying how grateful he was to God for saving him. He said that he learned from the experience that he could trust God to watch over him. The friend with whom he was talking asked, "Did you ever fall again?" Buddy said, "No. After that experience I always took a hatchet and some sand with me up to the platform. I would chop the ice away and then spread the sand. The friend, half-jokingly, said, "If you trust God to look after you, why do you take all of those precautions?" To which Buddy replied, "I trust God to look after me, but what I learned in that accident was that God is also trusting me to do my part."

God is trusting us to do our part as stewards of the feast of life.

Be Content With What You Get 8th sunday -A

2011-02-26T15:06:00.001-05:00

A very wealthy man invited his four married daughters to dinner. "I'm getting on in years," he said to them, "and I've lived a full life for which I'm grateful. But I continue to be disappointed that none of you has given me a grandchild. Tomorrow I'm adding a provision to my will. It will state that the first of you who presents me with a grandchild will receive an extra bonus of one million dollars. Now, let us bow our heads and say Grace." Then he closed his eyes, bowed his head, and said a short prayer. When he opened his eyes and looked up -- everyone was gone!

We can identify with that situation. Money is a powerful incentive for just about all of us. And that's not all bad. Money has its uses; it can be a healthy incentive. But it is bad when it becomes an obsession.

In today's Gospel, Jesus confronts us with a radical decision. "No one can serve to masters," He says. "For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Mt. 6:24).

Jesus continues: "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (Mt. 6:25). Again Jesus is confronting us with a radical choice. Jesus is talking about the kind of anxious worry that leads us away from our dedication to the Rule of God. We cannot live under the Rule of God and under the burden of anxious worry simultaneously.How do we respond? Jesus is telling us in the Gospels that we will conquer anxious worry by trusting God unconditionally. Jesus is telling us that God is trustworthy. Curiously, this can be a real problem for those of us who come to Church regularly. We hear it all the time: Trust God! We hear it so often that we're not listening anymore. We treat it like a tired old cliche, or just another pious saying. But the attitude of trust in God that Jesus teaches us is not merely a surface religious expression, it is the very essence of the Christian life. It is a style of living we learn through the example of the Lord Jesus. It is a style of living in which we trust ourselves so completely to God's loving Presence that we are empowered moment-by-moment and day-by-day to effectively deal with those anxious worries. Notice, I said "deal with," not "get rid of." We'll never be able to get rid of all anxiety. But trusting in God's promise never to abandon us, and trusting in God's promise never to withdraw His love for us, we are able to cast off the destructive anxiety that robs us of life, robs us of the joy of life, robs us of the spiritual nourishment we need to grow into our full human potential. The kind of destructive anxiety that Jesus warns us against turns us in on ourselves. It robs us of the ability to reach out and really be there for others who need our tender loving care.

Perhaps you would be wise to say right now, "I'm going somewhere to hear the Word of God." And if someone should answer, "But you're already hearing the Word of God, right here in Church." Then you might answer, "That's where you're wrong. I no longer hear God's Word. Familiarity has closed my ears. The real meaning of my going is to come home again to this Church and hear it as though for the first time. So I really am on my way to Church to hear the Word of God, though I'll go by way of meditation and prayer and Scripture reading. I'll be gone all through the week, but I'll be back next Sunday."

What is your biggest anxiety at this moment? Is it a destructive anxious worry over money? Is it some material thing you desperately want but don't really need? Is it the fact that you're getting older -- as it was with a certain senior citizen who said: "Everything is farther away then it used to be. It is twice as far to the corner, and I've noticed that they've added a hill. I've given up running for the bus. It leaves faster than it used to. I ran across an old school chum the other day and he had aged so badly he didn't recognize me. I got to thinking about him this morning as I was combing my hair and glanced at my reflection. They don't make good mirrors anymore either."

Whether your anxious worry of the moment is over your age or your money (or your lack of it), or any one of a thousand other possibilities, Jesus wants you to know that you're not alone. He wants you to know that whether or not you've really been listening to the Word of God, God is always listening to your concerns. "Do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' ... But seek first His Kingdom ... and all these things shall be yours as well" (Mt. 6:31,33).

Jesus is not telling us to forsake our responsibilities. Rather He is telling us to carry out our responsibilities in a certain crucial context. He is telling us that our attitude toward our work, our money, our position in life, our relationships, must be in harmony with the Rule of God.

A man had found a magic lantern and, for years, every time he rubbed it a "Genie" would appear to grant his wish. The man was a real worry-bird and, because of his constant anxious worries, he kept the "Genie" busy all the time. This went on for years -- one wish after another -- until, one day, when the man rubbed his magic lantern for the fifth time that week, the Genie appeared and said: "I am sick and tired of your anxious worry and your constant wishing. I have decided to settle this arrangement we have once and for all. I will grant your next three wishes, and nothing more. After that, you're on your own."

The man made his first wish immediately. He asked that his wife would disappear so that he could marry a better woman. His wish came true at once. But when friends and relatives discovered she was gone, they began to recall all the wife's good qualities. This saddened the man and he realized he had been hasty. Where would he find a better woman than his wife? So he asked the Genie to bring her back, and immediately his wish was granted. Now he had but one wish left. He fretted and agonzied and anxiously worried about that third wish. He was determined not to make another mistake, since he would be unable to correct it. He went everywhere for advice. Some people told him to wish for immortality. But if he got sick, he reasoned, what good would immortality be? "Maybe," he told himself, "I should wish for good health." But then he asked himself: "What good is health if I don't have much money? And what good is money if I have no friends?" Many years passed and still he worried -- couldn't decide on health or wealth or power or money or the dozens of other ideas that kept cropping up. Finally, in desperation, he cried out, "Someone tell me what to ask for!" And he heard a gentle voice from within answer: "Ask to be content, no matter what you get."

Ask to be content with what you get. And what you will get, of course, is a gilt-edged guarantee from God Himself: "Seek first the Kingdom of Love, and everything you need for your life's fulfillment shall be yours.

Does Jesus Have It All Wrong?

2011-02-19T09:08:00.002-05:00

Keywords: Forgiveness, Vengeance, Love, Forgiveness

Little Johnny was very upset with his brother, Willy. Before he said his night prayers, Johnny's mother said to him, "Now I want you to forgive your brother." But Johnny was not in a forgiving mood. "No, I won't forgive him," he said. Mother tried persuasions of every motherly variety, but nothing worked. Finally, she said, "What if your brother were to die tonight? How would you feel if you knew you hadn't forgiven him?" Johnny gave in -- or so it seemed. "All right, I forgive him," he said, "but if he's alive in the morning, I'll get even with him for what he did to me."

In His introduction to the "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus says, "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets ... I have come not to abolish but to complete them" (Mt. 5:17).

In the Law, God had given His People an enormous capacity for good. Now, Jesus comes in the Spirit and man's capacity for good is expanded. Living under the new Law of Love, man's capacity for good is limitless. In Jesus, man has the capacity, for example, to break through the boundaries imposed by the old law of vengeance ...

Late one night, a cheerful truck driver pulled up to a road-side diner for some refreshment. As he was eating, three mean-looking motorcyclists roared up to the diner's entrance. The atmosphere became tense as they stalked in. Immediately, they selected the truck driver as the target of their meanness. One poured salt and pepper on his head. Another took his apple pie, placed it on the floor and squished it under a dirty boot. The third upset his coffee, causing it to spill in his lap. The truck driver said not a word. He merely arose, walked slowly to the cashier, calmly paid his check and made his exit. "That dude sure ain't much of a fighter," sneered one of the invaders. The waiter behind the counter peered out into the night and then replied, "He doesn't seem to be much of a driver either. He just ran his truck over three motorcycles."

That is what I would call "instant" vengeance. The revenge couldn't be sweeter. When you think about it, enormous amounts of time and effort are invested in the art of vengeance: to get even; tit-for- tat; you cross me and I'll cross you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.In early Old Testament History, it was "a life for a life... a tooth for a tooth... a hand for hand... a foot for foot... a burn for burn... a stripe for stripe." On and on it went, splitting hairs to make the punishment fit the crime in almost every imaginable situation.

At first, vengeance was the rule not only with respect to enemies of Israel but also within the People of Israel. Later, the Rabbis forbade personal vengeance on fellow- Israelites, but not on non-Israelites. And then Jesus came and said a flat "No!" to vengeance. He commanded His followers to forgive their enemies and to suffer wrong rather than repay it. Christians, therefore, should not only not take vengeance on their enemies, they should repay evil with good. Revenge no longer belongs to man. Vengeance no longer is sweet. Revenge is sour.

So says Jesus in today's Gospel,

You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well ... You have heard it said you must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in Heaven (Mt. 5:38-39,43- 45).

In abolishing the Law of Vengeance in favor of the Law of Love Jesus moves us into the ultimate learning experience. God, through Jesus, has taken up residence in the human condition. In Jesus and in his brother and sister human beings we are given the opportunity to explore the inexhaustible depths of one another's personhood and, thereby, to learn more about who God is and who we are.

The reality of another human being is inexhaustible. Each one of us is a mystery to the other: a mystery of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, strange hurts and even stranger ecstasies. Not least of all we are a mystery to ourselves. It is, in The Apostle Paul's words, only in the Coming Kingdom that "we shall know ourselves even as we are known." But now is the time of exploration and discovery, if only in part.

All around us there are those who cry out for vengeance and savor sweet revenge. They continue to pile human disaster upon human disaster, but nothing is solved, nothing is learned. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Kids leave home because they hate their parents and parents can't wait until the kids clear out. We build a new jail and we need two more. One nation develops the capacity to destroy the entire world in a single blow. Another discovers how to do it two times over. And the race goes on from there. That is precisely the way it is in our world today. And God help us as a Church if we don't stop coming apart at the seams every time the Gospel of the Lord contradicts things as they are. Like all correct action, there is everything to gain and nothing to lose in forgiving. When we forgive those who have offended us, we are doing it not only for them but also for ourselves ... Perhaps the major difference between loving and hating is that to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience; to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by the experience. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become their true selves. Haters simply lose themselves, diminish their true selves.

unjust judge 29th sunday C

2010-10-16T08:58:00.002-04:00

Little Eddie's grandmother loved opera with a passion. She had season tickets every year, and when Eddie arrived at the ripe old age of eight, she decided it was time to take him with her, as a birthday present. So off they went and little Eddie sat squirming through an entire performance of a sombre German opera, in a language he didn't understand. The next day, Eddie's mother told him to write a "Thank You" note to his grandmother. "Dear Granny," Eddie wrote, "thank you for the birthday present. It is what I always wanted, but not very much. Love, Eddie."

That refreshingly honest response to a birthday gift, is not unlike most people's response to God -- including our own. We want God. We really do! That, among other things, is what brought us here today. We want God -- but not very much.

There are many things in our lives that are far more exciting. Some of us get more excited over a big football game, or a big pay raise, or the latest bit of political scandal, or a new romantic interest, or the stock market daily averages. We get caught up in these things and we get more enthusiastic about them than we do about our relationship with God.

In the book of Revelation, the Lord describes this attitude of lukewarm indifference as the worst possible state for us to be in. He says, "I know your deeds; I know you are neither hot nor cold. How I wish you were one or the other. But because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of My mouth" (Rev. 3:15).

The person who wants God, but not very much, sickens Him -- a rather shocking example of Divine imagery!

Somehow, we manage to ignore the saintly admonition: "Seek and find God in all things."1 And, after failing to seek and find Him all week, it is small wonder that we don't experience much of anything happening as we spend an hour or so in a Church pew. A certain pastor was becoming disheartened by the attitude of many persons in the congregation. "This Church is lifeless." they were saying. Sunday attendance began dropping sharply and the spiritual life of the Church was at such a low ebb that the pastor decided on a course of action to improve the situation. Consequently, he announced that since the Church was considered dead, he would conduct its funeral the following Sunday.

When Sunday came, the Church was crowded. From their pews, the people stared curiously at the coffin that had been placed in front of the pulpit. The pastor climbed into the pulpit and eulogized "the deceased." He spoke of how much the Church had accomplished in the past and he expressed sorrow over its untimely demise. Then he invited the congregation to come forward and view the "corpse."

One by one the people looked into the casket, and each was amazed to see his of her own face reflected from a mirror laying in the bottom of the coffin. Most were shocked. Some were indignant. But they slowly but surely began to realize that the Church's lifelessness of which they complained was due largely to their own spiritual indifference.

Do you remember the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration? Jesus wanted so much to be at one with God that when the Apostles, Peter, James and John, looked at Him, He was literally aglow in a fever of prayer.

Do you remember the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus wanted so much to identify with the Will of God, that He perspired so profusely Luke said it was like great drops of blood.

This is how very much Jesus wanted God. This is how Jesus persisted in calling on God's goodness, day and night.

The lesson for us is to do whatever is needed to acquire a real hunger and thirst for God and His goodness, in imitation of Jesus. If it means changing your job, you do it. If it means radically changing a family relationship, you do it. If it means a whole new way of seeing yourself and seeing others, you do it. If it means getting rid of a destructive pleasure in your life, you do it. If it means -- as it surely does -- assigning generous portions of your time for prayer and meditation, you do it. If it means changing your whole lifestyle -- your whole attitude and approach to life -- you do it.

There is a second level on which to very much desire to be at one with God. On this level, we yearn for others to know God's goodness. We hunger and thirst for the fulfillment of others just as intensely as we do for our own fulfillment. On one occasion, Jesus went into His home synagogue and began to preach God's goodness exactly in those terms. Quoting the Prophet Isaiah, He said to the congregation,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me ... He has sent Me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and release to prisoners (Lk. 4:18).

When the people heard Jesus describe His ministry in terms of service, not only to them but to others (outsiders), they tried to lynch Him: throw Him off a cliff. They were so outraged, they wanted to kill Him. And, eventually, they succeeded. But even unto death, Jesus persisted in His all-out efforts to identify with the Gracious God whose blessed Kingdom of Merciful Love was at hand and would be brought to fulfillment.

Day and night, Jesus taught His followers to long for and to work for the Coming Kingdom with a passion; a way of life; an ongoing, persistent hunger and thirst.

In today's Gospel, Jesus' "Parable of the Unjust Judge" tells the story of a poor widow who sought justice for herself but couldn't find it. She really was "up against it," as the saying goes. Not only was she obliged to pursue her just cause through a system of justice in which women had practically no rights, but also a corrupt man was sitting in judgment of her case. But she would not be denied. Her hunger and thirst for justice gave her strength to "buck" the system and, finally, she won her case. Jesus brings the lesson home in these words:

Will not God do justice to His chosen who call on Him day and night? Well He delay long over them, do you suppose? I tell you, He will give them swift justice (Lk. 18:7,8).

God's healing Presence is realized swiftly by those who call out to Him day and night -- those who want Him very much.

Someone who wanted God, but not very much, once said: "God never made a better person than myself, but somehow I just can't live up to it." That person didn't seem to understand that the God who created us never gives us a task without also giving us the strength to perform it. He never gives us a goal without giving us the strength to achieve it. He wants us to live in a certain way, and He is always present to us in a way that makes this possible. He not only gives us the task and the goal, He gives us Himself.

To live up to what God intends for your life requires more than a "Thank you, God, for the Gift of Yourself. It is what I've always wanted -- but not very much." The power and strength and the Grace to be the person God wants you to be belong to those who desire the Gift, very, very, much!

you cannot serve both God and mammon.

2010-09-19T06:57:00.002-04:00

Two business competitors argued at length about certain shady business practices. Finally, one said to the other, "Let's be clear about one thing. There are lots of ways to make money but there is only one honest way." "What way is that?" the second man asked. "Just as I suspected, you don't know," the first man replied.

A company treasurer had called a meeting of the sales staff because she detected a pattern of fraud in their expense reports. "I'll begin with our East Coast representative," she said. "It seems clear that you've been overcharging the company for your meals. Tell me, how did you manage to spend sixty- four dollars a day for food in New York City?" To which the East Coast representative replied, "Easy! I skipped breakfast!"

"When it comes to a question of money, everybody is of the same religion." Yet truer words were never spoken about our generation, in which almost anything goes as long as it makes money for somebody.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus said to the power brokers of His time, "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, You cannot serve God and money" (Luke tells us that "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at Him"). As the people of a generation which has transformed "greed" from vice into virtue, are we scoffing at Jesus' warning?

Jesus is telling us once again that nothing -- not even our money -- should ever take priority over our right relationship with God. And in this time of ours which seems bent on canonizing greed, it is urgent that we disciples of Jesus Christ deliver that message through the example of our own lives.

The most important single thing in your life at this moment is for you to be able to enter into a direct encounter with God. The most important single thing in your life at this moment is to know, down at the center of your being, how to be open to the movement of God's Spirit within you. That's your number one priority in life. It's more important than your health. It's more important than your job. It's more important than your family relationships. It's more important than all your other relationships. And, as Jesus tells us over-and-over again in the Gospels, its even more important than your money. In truth, the quality of your family relationships and all your other relationships depends on it. Moreover, your peace of mind, your peace of soul -- the quality of your life -- depends on it.

An enormously rich man complained to his psychiatrist that despite his great wealth which enabled him to possess everything money could buy, he felt miserable. The doctor took the wealthy man by the hand and escorted him to a window overlooking the street. "What do you see?" asked the psychiatrist. "I see men, women and children," the man answered. Then the psychiatrist escorted the man to a mirror. "Now what do you see?" he asked. "I see only myself," the man answered. Then the psychiatrist said, "In the window there is glass and in the mirror there is glass. And when you look through the glass in the window you can see others. But behind the glass in the mirror is a layer of silver. When silver is added, you cease to see others, you see only yourself."

Whenever your devotion to money and material things causes you to be self-centered you are in flagrant denial of God's intention for your life, and you are contradicting the example given by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our Lord came as a Man For Others, not to be ministered unto but to minister, not to be served but to serve. Our Lord placed His whole life in the service of His heavenly Father and, within that context, in the service of all mankind.

The presupposition of today's Gospel parable and every parable of Jesus is that God loves you infinitely, that He is calling you into a union of life with Himself, that this intimate union with God is the most important thing in your life, and that nothing in life should take priority over it. Anything in your life that you cannot relate to your union with God is not worth wasting your time on. Jesus is saying that as long as you allow money to be your master, there is no way you can say "Yes!" to God. And even if you should become the richest person in the world, in terms of your ability to grow into the uniquely beautiful person God made you to be, your money is worthless.

Money will buy a bed, but not sweet dreams. Money will buy books, but not wisdom. Money will buy a house, but not a home. Money will buy pleasure, but not genuine joy. Money will buy a crucifix, but not a Servant Savior.

Several years ago a national magazine published a kind of "open letter" from a mother to her daughter. It said, in part:

My child, what can I give you?

I should like to give you everything so that you lack for nothing, not even one single desire. But I know that for want of many things I have come to be satisfied with what I have and to think of others and their needs.

I give you my personal presence in order that you will have the security you need during your childhood. I give you my ears, in the sense that I will never be too busy to listen to you.

I give you opportunities to work so that you might learn to do it without shame and come to enjoy the satisfaction of work well done.

I give you my counsel, but only when it is necessary or you ask for it so that you might avoid some of the mistakes I have made.

I give you my consolation when you have failed or feel discouraged, but I will not always protect you from the consequences of your sins.

I give you instruction in the way of the Lord, so that when you grow older, you will never depart from it.

I give you my daily prayers that the Lord will keep you and guide you in such a way that you, my child, will be a woman who will serve and glorify our Heavenly Father.

I give you my unconditional love, which means that I accept you without reservation, just as you are and will be.

These things I give you with all my love. Mother. Isn't it amazing what money can't buy?

prodigal Son

2010-09-10T19:03:00.002-04:00

After going through the story of the Prodigal Son, a Sunday school teacher asked the kids, “At the end of the story who is it that ended up in the worst situation?” One of the kids shot up her hands and answered, “The fatted cow.” The animal-loving child was certainly correct, but the answer the teacher probably expected was “The elder son.”

There are three main characters in the Parable of the Prodigal Son: the father, the younger son, and the elder son. The younger son is a volatile, impatient, easily bored, ready-to-try-everything teenager. He collects his inheritance, goes abroad to see the world, and squanders his birthright in loose living. He represents every sinner. In sin we squander our human and divine birthright and in the end we are no better than in the beginning. Sin promises us a life of happiness, satisfaction and excitement but in the end all we get out of it is misery, wretchedness, dissatisfaction, depression, and a loss of the sense of personal dignity that belongs to us as God’s children. The good news is that no matter how deeply the sinner sinks into sin, there is always a still, silent inner voice within us inviting us to come back to our Father’s house where true freedom and satisfaction is to be found.

Then there is the father who is so loving that he lets his rascally son have whatever he wanted. In fact we can say he even spoils the boy. We have this image of God as a very stern, demanding father who is always ready to whip us into line. This is very far from the image of God we have in this parable. Here God is presented as a tender loving father who is easy on his children, and who is always ready to forgive, no matter what. If this is how God relates to us, then we can see that God possesses the tender-loving quality of mother as well as the tough-loving quality of father.

And finally there is the elder son who is introduced towards the end of the story. If you want to describe the elder son by one word you would call him a gentleman. He is a man of honour, solid, hard-working, consistent, disciplined, and sober — a perfect gentleman. In the elder son we see the virtues, as well as the vices, of middle class morality. What are the vices of middle class morality? Arrogance, better-than-thou attitude, intolerance toward those who do not meet up to our standards, insensitivity and a spirit of unforgiveness. The elder son exhibits these vices in the way he refuses to welcome his lost and found brother, his father’s explanation and invitation notwithstanding. He must have his pound of flesh. For him it is a matter of justice, but for God that is nothing but self-centeredness and unwillingness to forgive.

The first son syndrome is very much alive among us. Do you remember the execution on February 3, 1998 of Karla Faye Tucker. Karla was, to all appearances, a repentant murderer. At the moment of her execution there were two groups of people outside the Texas state prison in Huntsville: a group protesting her execution, who were there praying for her, and a group demanding her execution, who were there cheering and jeering as she was hanged. The praying group was calling for love and mercy and the cheering group was calling for justice. The parable of the Prodigal Son reminds us today that for God love and compassion takes precedence over blind justice.

We often confuse puritanism for Christianity. To be puritanical is to be scrupulously demanding in religious conduct and morals. For such a person the number one virtue is discipline. To be a Christian, on the other hand, is to profess and live according to the example and teaching of Christ. Here the primary virtue is love and compassion. As Christians we believe in a God of love and compassion. Jesus was a man of love of compassion both in his teachings and in his dealings with others. The challenge for us Christians today is to be people of love and compassion, to be like the prodigal father in the parable and not like the uncompromising elder son in a world full of prodigal sons and daughters. On a lighter side, in the supermarket was a man pushing a cart that contained a screaming, bellowing baby. The gentleman kept repeating softly, "Don't get excited, Albert; don't scream, Albert; don't yell, Albert; keep calm Albert."  A woman standing next to him said, "You certainly are to be commended for trying to soothe your son Albert."  The man looked at her and said, "Lady, I'm Albert."

Try it God's way, and live a little! "...there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last" Luke 13:30

2010-08-21T10:00:00.002-04:00

Beware!!!

A man who was suffering from constant headaches visited his doctor. "Doctor, I don't know why I keep on getting these awful headaches," he said. "I don't drink like so many others do. I don't smoke like so many others do. I don't run around at night like so many others do. I don't overeat like so many others do. I don't..." The doctor interrupted at this point. "Tell me," he said, "this pain in the head you complain of, is it a sharp, shooting kind of pain?" "Yes," the patient replied, "that describes it perfectly. A sharp, shooting kind of pain!" The doctor then made his diagnosis: "Simple," he said, "your problem is that you have your halo on too tight. All you need to do is loosen it a bit."

We like to think we're a "cut above." We like to be "out in front." We like to be "looked up to" which, very often, is another way of saying we "like to look down on." This is what concerns Jesus about His own people in today's Gospel Lesson. He is talking to His fellow Jews about this because they have grown accustomed to regarding themselves as God's "favorites," and to classifying most others as "enemy." And Jesus is trying to give them a more enlightened perspective on God's ways.

"The last shall be first...the first shall be last." Jesus is telling them that the genuine exaltation they see as their destiny will not be realized until they have paid the price. "Try your best to enter by the narrow door," He says (Lk. 13:24). They must bear the high cost of acknowledging that the light of God's love encircles all of humanity: no exceptions.

One Sunday morning, the pastor of a large parish announced to the congregation that Jesus Christ Himself, in person, was going to visit them the following Sunday. A record crowd showed up for the big event. They could hardly wait to hear the Lord preach, but when introduced He only said "Hello." The pastor offered Him hospitality for the night, as did many of the parish leaders, but Jesus politely declined their invitations. He announced, however, that He would spend the night in Church -- alone. And everyone thought, "How fitting!"...

Early the next morning, Jesus quietly slipped away, unnoticed. When the pastor discovered that Jesus was gone, he and the parish leaders went into the Church and they were horrified by what they saw: the Church had been vandalized. All over the walls, the word "Beware!" had been scribbled. The word was everywhere -- on the doors and windows, on the pulpit, on the altar, even on the floor. Wherever one looked, there it was, "Beware... Beware... Beware... Beware."

Everyone in the parish was shocked and confused -- even terrified. What did it all mean? What were they supposed to beware of? And, although they decided at first to wipe out every trace of the scribbled words, nevertheless they finally thought better of it. After all, Jesus Himself had done the damage with His own hand.

Gradually, the word "Beware" began to sink into the minds of the people when they came to Church. And they began to search the Scriptures for clues as to its intended meaning. In so doing, they found passage after passage in which Jesus warned potential followers of the price they would have to pay in order to be His true disciples.1