One Mind And One Heart

 

This Sunday's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the first community of believers. They are really the first parish founded by the apostles. As Saint Luke describes it, it is a community marked by deep love for one another. They shared everything they had so that none of them went hungry or homeless. Though the community of believers was experiencing rapid growth, no one was lost in the crowd or left out. All shared a sense of belonging and friendship because of their common faith in the Risen Lord. 

In today's world, people long for community and to belong. Many of us live far from our extended families and childhood friends. Our work schedules and the technologies that surround us increasingly isolate us. We do not want to be another face in the crowd. We want to belong. We want to be missed when we don't show up. We want to be known and loved. This lonely world so often makes it difficult for people to believe and trust in a good God.

If we, as disciples of Christ, are going to effectively spread the good news of his resurrection, then we must be a people marked by love as were the first community of believers. As a parish united by faith, we are called to welcome each other, to take care of each other and to testify to one another about the power of God at work in our lives. Most people come to know and believe in God by meeting someone who is filled with God's love. God wants to make this parish a family where people encounter his love and become convinced that he is real because of the goodness of our lives.

Signs of Resurrection Are All Around Us

 

Sunday’s gospel tells the story of that first Easter morning.

Mary Magdalene discovers that Jesus is no longer in the tomb. Her first reaction isn’t joy. Rather, she feels confused and distressed. We hear the pain in her voice as she tells Peter, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.

We will see this theme throughout the Easter Season. The signs of new life and resurrection are all around the disciples, but they cannot recognize it. They are too focused on their trauma and despair. In many cases, even when Jesus appears to them personally, they don’t know that it’s Him. They have to have it spelled out to them before they can understand and believe.

 The same is true for us. The signs of Jesus’ resurrection are all around us. It is in the Church He established which has endured despite violent persecution. It is in hearts that choose forgiveness and love over revenge and hate. It is in the progress we make through faith and grace to overcome our sinfulness and grow in holiness. It is in sinners who realize God’s mercy and embrace His love. Jesus is alive. He is present and active in our world. If we believe it, we will see it.

That is not to say that there is not much suffering in our world. It is all around us. But it is precisely in this that we make our faith known. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we can say that suffering, sin, and death will not have the last word. Rather, all of history is building up to the day when God’s victory will be revealed. We are all on a journey to a bright and glorious future when we can say with Saint Paul, “I believe that the sufferings of the present are as nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18). It has all been set in motion by Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. 

 We are active participants in this victory. It is up to us to proclaim it to the world. It is up to us to live it in our homes and in our communities.

A World Transformed By The Resurrection Of Jesus

 

 There is no celebration like the liturgy we celebrate at the Easter Vigil. 

The Church pulls out all the stops- fire, candles, water, incense, extra readings, special songs. All of it is meant to capture the grandeur, the might and the joy of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

The evening starts with a darkened church. It is meant to symbolize the ignorance of sin and the hopelessness of a world without God. 

One candle enters the church giving a small glimmer of hope. And, finally, as we light our individual candles from the Easter candle, the whole church is flooded with light. Christ's resurrection has scattered the darkness of ignorance, of fear and of sin. We no longer have to grope around in the darkness not knowing where to find meaning or truth or love. 

There is now no doubt. In the light of His resurrection, we have found our meaning, our truth and our love in Christ.

 How do we tap into the power of Jesus' resurrection so that His new life can be real and active in our lives?

 It is already ours through our baptism. 

Our baptism seals us with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the gift of faith.

 Like most elements of our faith, baptism has its roots in the experience of the people of Israel. To escape slavery in Egypt, God parted the Red Sea for his People. And, after forty years in the desert, the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River to enter the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The waters, then, came to symbolize the passage from enslavement to new life in the promised land. John the Baptist chose the Jordan River and the symbol of baptism as a means of preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus himself chose to undergo John's baptism and commanded his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The faith, the new life and the power of Jesus' resurrection are ours 2000 years later because of baptism.

Most of us were babies when we were baptized. Our parents and godparents made a profession of faith on our behalf and committed themselves to raising us to know and love Jesus. 

But, at the Easter Vigil, we have an opportunity to renew the promises of our baptism. We reject sin and embrace the new life offered to us through faith in the resurrection of Jesus. We make our own the promises made for us at our baptism so that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ can be the driving force of our lives. 

A Nighttime Visit To Jesus

 

 Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a man with much power and influence. He considered himself an authority on the Jewish Law and a teacher of the people. Like the other Pharisees, he would have felt some responsibility to guard the people from error. And so he would have been especially cautious of Jesus. Nonetheless, he felt drawn by his words. So he visits Jesus at night in secret to see for himself what he is all about. He is not ready to become a follower, but he is not ready to turn his back on him either.

 Jesus welcomes Nicodemus. He does not turn him away because he is skeptical and unsure. He does not tell him to come back when he has more faith. Rather Jesus builds on the faith he already has and challenges him to recognize the gift of salvation and eternal life which he is being offered.

 There are two parts to Jesus' message to Nicodemus.

First, he speaks to him about the great love of God. Jesus was sent into the world by the Father, not to condemn it, but to bring eternal life to all those who would believe in him. God's desire is not to find fault with us but to draw us into a relationship of love with him. For this reason, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert to bring forgiveness and healing.

 Second, that gift of eternal life is available to anyone who believes in Jesus. Those who believe are the ones who are willing to step out of the darkness of sin and falsehood and into the light of faith. Remember that Nicodemus is visiting Jesus at night, when it's dark, so that no one will see him. Jesus is challenging him to step into the light and not be ashamed to be counted as one of his followers. It will mean leaving behind the prestige and power he has as a leading Pharisee. It will mean being rejected and ridiculed by many of his friends. But, more importantly, if he can find the courage to step into the light, it will mean being a friend with Jesus, seeing his great works, and knowing the Father's love in a way he could not otherwise imagine

 There is a little bit of Nicodemus in each of us. Most of us have an admiration for Jesus and are moved by his words. Yet there is still a part of us that wants to hold back. We are not ready to follow Jesus all the way. We fear what others will say about us if we live our faith wholeheartedly. Or we aren't ready to give up some sinful behaviors to embrace the full message of the gospel. Others of us can't get over the shame we feel about our past life and aren't ready to welcome the Father's promise and gift of forgiveness. Each of us, in some way, prefers to meet Jesus in the dark where our ugly faults and failures can be hidden from sight.

Giving Ourselves To God

 

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?” (Rom 8:31-33)

 Because God offered up His only Son for us, we can trust that He will not hold anything else back from us. We can trust that He will provide for us in our need. We can trust that He will comfort us in our sorrows. We can believe that, no matter how great our sins may be, He will forgive us. We can also rest assured that, no matter how far off we may have strayed, He will always call us back to the right path. He has made a big investment in us by handing over His only Son and we can be sure that He will not rest until that investment pays dividends in our lives.

What does God ask for in return for His great generosity? He wants nothing more than that we love Him in return. As He has devoted Himself to us, He desires that we devote ourselves to Him. As He has invested Himself one hundred percent in us, He longs for us to trust Him enough to invest one hundred percent of ourselves in Him.

 This is the great truth of the spiritual life that so often gets lost on us. God’s desire for us is not just that we keep commandments, follow rules or make sacrifices. All those practices only have meaning if we do them as an expression of our love for the Lord. Without love- without a willingness to give ourselves completely to God- they have little value. What God wants more than anything else from us is our heart. Once we give our heart to the Lord without holding anything back, then all the rest will fall into place.

 In his classic work, The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a’ Kempis expresses this truth beautifully. Jesus says, “I care for nothing that you offer me besides yourself; it is not your gift I want, it is you....[N]othing you give can please me, if you fail to offer yourself.”

 That is the purpose of the prayers, sacrifices and charity we offer during these forty days of Lent. We go without meat to teach our heart to hunger only for God. We give our money to others to teach our soul that only God can provide us with what we really need. And we pray to remind ourselves that our Heavenly Father wants nothing else than that we give ourselves totally to Him just as He has given Himself one hundred percent to us in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Scientists Who Believe

Are faith and science in conflict? To be a good scientist, would I have to deny my faith? And to be a person of faith, would I have to ignore or even be hostile to science?

As Christians, we would emphatically answer “no” to these questions. Since it is the same God who both created the world with all its wonders and who reveals Himself through Jesus Christ, there should be no conflict between the truths we discover through the scientific method and the truths we discover through investigating God’s word. Nothing we discover in the world which God created should contradict what He has revealed through Jesus Christ. And nothing which Jesus Christ reveals should contradict what we can discover in the natural world.

Throughout history, we find scientists who were also men of devout Christian faith.

One example is Nicolaus Copernicus. Before Copernicus, it was widely accepted that the earth was the center of the universe. However, through his understanding of math and observations of the sky, he made the argument that the earth rotated around the sun. There were some who found his theories hard to accept and others who claimed that it contradicted the Bible. However, when Copernicus’ theories were explained to Pope Clement VII, it was said that he was thrilled by the discovery.

Besides being a man of science, Copernicus was a man of devout Christian faith. He was raised by his uncle who was a bishop. Though there is no record of his ever being ordained, it is assumed that he must have been a priest because he was at one time nominated to be a bishop. At his death, he was buried in the cathedral of Frombork in modern day Poland.

Another great scientist who was also a man of faith was Gregor Mendel. By working in his garden, he discovered how living things pass on genetic traits from one generation to another. Because of his research, he is considered the father of modern genetics. Besides being an eminent scientist, he was also a man of devout Christian faith who served as an Augustinian friar and abbot of Saint Thomas Abbey in the modern day Czech Republic.

Finally, a more recent example of a man of faith who was also a great scientist, is Fr. Georges Lemaitre. He was a Belgian priest who developed the theory that is now called “The Big Bang Theory” that the universe began from one primeval atom which exploded leading to the expansion of the universe over time. He dedicated his life not only to science but to the service of God through the priesthood.

None of these men saw any contradiction between the truths which could be understood through science and those which could be understood through faith. In fact, it could be argued that their faith inspired them to pursue truth even more vigorously and to manifest the glory of God through the wonders of the created world.

We see this truth in today’s gospel. Who are the Magi if not early scientists? They certainly did not understand the universe as we do today and did not have all the instruments for observing it that modern scientist do, but they were committed to learning the truth about the world by studying the stars. They were first and foremost men devoted to the truth. Because of that, they were not content to simply study the stars. Rather, they were willing to follow that star all the way to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem. And it was there, sitting on the lap of Mary, that they discovered the fullness of truth - Jesus Christ.

As Creator of all things, God is the fullness of truth. And that truth is fully revealed through Jesus Christ. If we are truly committed to knowing the truth then we have to be truly committed to Jesus Christ. Unless He is part of the equation, our knowledge will always be partial and incomplete. Because He is the Creator of all that is, we can only discover the truth fully when we discover Him.

Science is one way to discover truth. It seeks to understand reality by observing the natural world. There is no doubt that our world is a much better place because of the contributions of science. However, for all its successes, science cannot tell us everything there is to know. There are dimensions of reality that cannot be placed in a test tube or observed under a microscope. Not everything we experience can be understood by boiling it down to its basic parts. Science cannot tell us what the purpose of life is, why there is something rather than nothing or how we should live. Ultimately, without faith, those questions can never be answered. And, it can be argued that until those questions are answered fully we cannot put the discoveries of science to their best use.

Today, we gather to celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord - the day that Jesus Christ was revealed to pagan scientists from the East. Today, He is revealed to the whole world as the source and summit of all truth. All those who are truly committed to the truth - whether they seek that truth through science or religion - will ultimately find Christ. Therefore, if our pursuit of science is taking us away from God, then there is something wrong with our methods or our understanding of who God is. Likewise, if our pursuit of God is making us skeptical of or hostile to science, then there is something wrong with our method of seeking God or our understanding of who He is.

Either way, we are invited today to discover the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ and to commit ourselves to not only knowing Him but following Him

A Holy - And Very Real - Family

Jesus was human in every way that we are. Like each of us, he needed food to nourish his body. He needed a good night's sleep for his work as a carpenter. He needed tunics to clothe his body and a roof to cover his head. Like all human beings, Jesus sought out other people to be his friends. He knew the joy of playing games with other boys and felt the pain of being left out or ridiculed.

And, like all of us, Jesus needed a family.

God chose Mary and Joseph to be Jesus' mother and father. He gave them the responsibility of teaching Jesus how to speak, how to read the Bible and how to pray. They fed, nurtured and cared for him. At Joseph's side, he learned the carpenter's trade and how to be a man.

Though the gospels do not tell us anything about them, we can imagine that Jesus had a larger family of grandparents who spoiled him and cousins who came over to play with him. On holidays, we can imagine Jesus, Mary and Joseph getting together with their family to eat, share stories and play games.

Under the care and supervision of this family, Jesus was able to grow in wisdom, strength and grace.

Except that their son happened to be the Messiah and the Son of God, the Holy Family of Nazareth was just like any other family. Like all families, the Holy Family of Nazareth faced many trials and difficulties. Despite traditional images of them, they did not always lead a tranquil life. Jesus was born homeless and into poverty. Shortly after his birth, they had to flee their country under the threat of execution to live as refugees in Egypt. It was a family born into tremendous exterior pressures.

Families today know pressures as well. For economic reasons, both parents frequently have to work outside of the home making meals together on a regular basis difficult. The price of real estate makes longer commutes necessary further limiting time with the family. And those are just some of the pressures on traditional, two parent families. We haven't mentioned single family homes where these pressures are doubled. And then there are "blended" families where step-parents and step-children are constantly testing the boundaries of their relationship adding to the tension within the home.

The status of the family today causes a lot of hand wringing, especially in the Church. There are fewer and fewer traditional families. We are right as Christians and as good citizens to promote the welfare of the traditional, two parent family. Children born in such families are no doubt better off economically and psychologically. The family is the cornerstone of the Church and of society. Our world is only as strong as the families that make it up. At the same time, we must recognize that in today's society when bodies mature more rapidly and adolescence lasts well into the 20's, people are going to make mistakes resulting in out-of-wedlock births and divorce.

A wise spiritual director once said that God is not found in the "ideal", but in the "real". The traditional family is an important ideal. However, God is not found in ideal families or in ideal people, but in real families and real people. As painful as our past may have been and as much as we may wish we could go back and fix our mistakes, God does not give us the option of turning back the clock. Rather, he is spending His grace on us in our real lives and our real families as we find ourselves today. God's grace is offered to families that are "blended" as well as those that need to be mended.

Once we realize that families, as long as they are made of human beings, can never be perfect, then it has important implications for our lives as individuals and as a Church.

First, as individuals each of us can look back on our lives and find fault with our parents. It could be that they were never around or that they were never supportive. It could be that they were abusive in some way. Those scars can stay with us a long time. We know how resentments and grudges can ruin families. Can each of us today bring our hearts before the Lord and ask for the grace to forgive our parents or any other family member who ever hurt us? Can we leave our resentments at the foot of the altar and ask God to relieve us of that burden? Can we recognize that our parents were probably doing the best they could and let go of the anger we have been shouldering all these years? Once we are able to do that, then we can live together in "heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience" as Saint Paul calls us to.

Secondly, for us as a parish, we have to recognize the pressures that families face and ask ourselves, how can we be a more family-friendly community? Are the times we schedule for catechism and worship burdensome to families? In our worship and our hospitality, are we sensitive to the different types of families in our parish and careful not to stigmatize anyone, especially children? What can we as a parish community do to support families with all the challenges they face?

Families are never perfect, even when they are the ideal, traditional family. They are all marked by joy and pain, mistakes and good choices. The Holy Family - Jesus, Mary and Joseph - knew the pressures of family life. The difference was that they experienced God's presence even in those difficulties. Even with all the challenges of daily life in today's society, we can experience God's presence with us and teach our children to recognize Him as well. Then we have fulfilled our mission as a family, no matter what our family may look like.

The Baby Jesus

God created the world out of nothing through the power of his word. He spoke and it came to be. He said, "Let there be light", and there was light. He caused the mountains to rise up from the sea. He filled the sea with fish and the land with animals. Finally, by the power of his word, he created man and woman to be the crowning achievement of his great work. He created in us hearts to hear his word and mouths to proclaim it. 

When he called Israel out from among the nations to be a people peculiarly his own, he sent them prophets to proclaim his word among them. Such was the prophet Isaiah who speaks to us in today's first reading. He proclaimed to the people of Israel - and to us today - the good news of peace and salvation from God. Through the prophets, God promised Israel a mighty savior who would forgive them their sins and lead them in the ways of peace. Not only would this great Messiah lead Israel to freedom, but all the nations would witness the great power of God at work through this Savior.

When Isaiah first spoke these words, it was unclear what his meaning was. Who would this great king be? How would he lead Israel to freedom and peace? We who gather here this morning know exactly what Isaiah meant. We are celebrating this great mystery today.  The boy born this day to Mary and Joseph fulfills all the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus is the Savior of the World.

In the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews we read: "In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son..." God who so powerfully created the world by his word, and then called the nation of Israel into being by his word, now speaks one last time in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word made Flesh dwelling among us.

What does the birth of Jesus tells us about this mighty God?

Very simply, God wants us to know him. He sent Jesus, a man like us, so that we could hear from his very mouth how much he loves us and how he longs for our friendship. Jesus is Truth and Love. Whoever hears him, hears the Father. Whoever sees him, sees the Father. We do not need to look anywhere else to find God but in the person of Jesus. 

When Pope John Paul II made his first trip to the United States, he preached a beautiful homily to the rain-soaked crowds who had gathered in the Boston Common. In short, he said that all those who want to know the truth should turn to Jesus. He is the Truth. All those who seek meaning in their lives should turn to Jesus. He is the source of all meaning. All those who seek love should turn to Jesus. He is the love of God made flesh among us. These words of the pope make clear to us the meaning of Christmas: Jesus is born to bring God into our world and into our lives.  

And so, this child born today is a lifeline to all those who are lost and don't know how to find their way. This child is God's hand stretched out to all those who looked for success, happiness and fulfillment in what the world offers, but couldn't find it. Jesus is God's peace extended to all those who have become bitter or enraged by life's unfairness. This child is hope born to those who have grown weary and have given up on ever finding meaning and purpose in their lives.

Whatever it is our hearts ache for - whether it be love, peace, truth or meaning - all of it can be found in the person of Jesus.

If Jesus is our light, we can never lose our way, and the darkness of despair can never totally consume us. Jesus is the Light of the World.

For those of us who have already welcomed this child into our hearts and made him the center of our lives, we should rejoice! We have come to know the meaning and purpose of our lives. We know the truth and are given the power to live in the love of God. It is now up to us not only to celebrate it but to share it with everyone we meet. This light cannot remain hidden. We must bring it into our homes, into our places of work and into our classrooms.

For those of us who are still searching, God is offering us another opportunity to welcome him into our lives. God never grows tired of stretching his hand out to us when we are lost or confused. Whatever it is that we are struggling with, whatever it is that is keeping us from experiencing the fullness of joy, God has the answer for it. We need only turn to the baby born this day, take him into our arms and promise to love him. When the first step of our searching becomes love rather than doubt, then we are back on the path to truth. When love rather than knowledge is our driving force, then everything suddenly becomes a little clearer.

God wants to move in with us. He wants to be in our lives. Like any baby, he simply wants our love and attention. Who would deny a baby affection and care? Who wouldn't want to share their homes and their lives with a newborn child?

Just such a child is born for us today. He is Jesus!

A Religious Experience

“Have any of you ever had a religious experience?” the teacher asked the class.

Confused, the children looked at each other wondering what she could have meant. Seeing their reaction, the teacher asked again, “Have any of you ever had a religious experience?”

Again, all she received was blank stares. So she went on to explain. “Having a  religious experience does not just mean seeing visions or hearing heavenly voices. We also have a religious experience when we pray, when we receive Communion or  when we feel a sense of God’s closeness to us.”

So she asked the class again, “Have any of you ever had a religious experience?” This time every hand shot up.

When we hear the words, “religious experience” do we think it means only having Mary appear to us or having a so-called “out of body” experience? Or do we understand, as the teacher tried to explain to the students, that whenever we approach God with humble faith and seek Him out with sincerity we have a religious experience? Most especially, do we understand that whenever we receive a sacrament whether it be Baptism, Communion or the Sacrament of Penance we are having a real encounter with the living God?

We have all experienced moments when we have felt especially close to God, moments when we really felt His presence in a way that filled us with peace and joy. We did not see a vision or hear a voice, but we knew in our hearts that God was really there by our side. There are other times when we knew God was directing us whether by putting an idea into our minds or bringing new clarity to our thinking. These are also religious experiences, real encounters with our Heavenly Father.

However, it is natural for us to ask, is what I am experiencing really God or are they just figments of my imagination? Is it really God’s voice I am hearing or is it wishful thinking to believe that I have been in His presence?

Today’s readings can help us to understand how we can answer those questions. Both Isaiah and Peter have real, life-changing religious experiences in the first reading and in the gospel. Though they are very different in terms of the way God appeared to both of them, they have some similarities that are important for us to understand if we are to come to a knowledge of God’s real presence in our lives.

First of all, a real encounter with God produces awe. When Isaiah sees God enthroned in the temple and angels crying out, his first instinct is to feel ashamed. Saint Peter too when he witnesses the miraculous catch of fish falls to his knees at the feet of Jesus. They realize that they are witnessing something that is literally “out of this world” and it gives them the sense of just how little they are. In the light of God’s holiness and glory, they feel acutely just how sinful they are.

Saint John of the Cross explained this phenomenon using the example of a pane of glass. When it is dark outside, a window looks clear. However, when the sun rises and light streams through the window, we start to see its imperfections. We see smudges, fingerprints and dust that are hidden when it is nighttime. Just so, when we start to turn to God, all our imperfections and sins become clearer to us in the light of His truth and goodness.

Therefore, any real encounter with God should give us not only an appreciation for His glory but a sober realization that we are small and sinful people. So if our religious practises, our attendance at Mass or our contributions to the parish are filling us with pride or if they are leading us to judge others who are not appearing to contribute as much then they are not real encounters with Jesus. On the other hand, if our prayer is leading us to a new understanding of our weakness, if our reading of Scripture points out for us where in our lives we need the grace of conversion, and if a real desire is welling within our hearts to live as Jesus lived, then we can be sure that it is God’s voice we have heard and His presence we have felt.

Finally, a real religious experience should leave us with a sense of mission, with something that we need to do to serve our Heavenly Father. In the first reading, Isaiah hears God call out from the throne, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’. Isaiah readily responds, “Here I am. Send me!” In the gospel, Jesus tells Peter not to be afraid, that now he would be a fisher of men. The same is true for so many saints down the ages. Their religious experiences left them with a desire to serve others. When Saint Francis has the vision of Jesus on the cross, he hears him say, “Go, rebuild my church.” When Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta makes her private vow to never say no to Jesus, she receives the call to serve the poorest of the poor.

The same should be true of us. When we truly experience the presence of God, it makes us want to serve Him. Just as not every religious experience is as dramatic as the ones Isaiah and Saint Peter encountered, so every call to serve God is not as radical as those received by Saint Francis and Blessed Mother Teresa. For most us all, it will be a simple mission to love others, to pray or to forgive. It may be an idea that pops into our head about a way we can put our talents to God’s service. Or it could be a desire to join a parish or diocesan ministry. Whatever it may be, if it is really our Heavenly Father whom we are experiencing, it will result in some concrete action.

God is seeking all of us out. He wants us to be assured of His love and to commit ourselves to living our baptism by serving others. We need only give Him some quiet time every day so that He can reveal Himself to us. If in that time we have a deeper sense of His glory, a humbler opinion of ourselves and a hunger to meet the needs of our neighbors, we know that we have been touched by Him and can never be the same.

Nazareth's Homeboy

Have you ever noticed that priests are rarely assigned to the parishes they grew up in? There is a good reason for that. If the parish is filled with people who knew the priest when he was young, they might find it harder to look upon him as a leader. It might be difficult to take what he has to say seriously because they knew him as a mischievous youngster. Also the parishioners would find it harder confessing their sins to him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or bringing their problems to him if they see him as no different from themselves. When we think we know someone very well, it is difficult to see him or her in another light. The better we think we know them, the harder it is for us to be inspired or surprised by them.

Jesus knew this very well. In today’s gospel, he returns to His hometown, Nazareth. Up to this point, He had been preaching throughout the Galilee area and had established a reputation as a powerful healer. When He returns to Nazareth, the townsfolk are anxious to see what has become of their hometown boy. In Jesus’ time, Nazareth was a very small town of a few hundred people. Everyone knew each other very well. There were no secrets among them. So when Jesus arrives, they are impressed by His words of wisdom but cannot get passed their memories of him. They think they know everything there is to know about Him but are unaware of just how wrong they are. It is clear to us when they ask, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” that they have no idea that He is in fact the Son of God. And because of their lack of faith - their inability to get past what they think they know - Jesus is unable to perform any miracles for them.

How does Jesus react? Does He tell them that He understands the difficulty they are experiencing in accepting Him? Does he reassure them that it is natural not to believe that a hometown boy could perform miracles? On the contrary, He rebukes them sternly for their stubbornness. He lets them know in no uncertain terms that they are missing out on a great work of God and that they will be judged for it. We know how strong Jesus’ criticism of them is by their reaction. They immediately seize Him and take Him to the edge of town to throw Him off a cliff. “How dare He speak to us like that!” , they must have thought. “Who does He think He is?” The sad part is that, because of their preconceived notions, they missed out on the opportunity to be healed, to have their sins forgiven and to draw closer to their Heavenly Father.

Today’s gospel reading provides a stern warning for us, especially for many of us who are lifelong Catholics and think we know all there is to know about our faith. Because we attend Mass every Sunday and follow all the rules, we can be deceived into believing that we are already doing enough. We can think that there is nothing more for us to learn, nothing more that is required of us. We have already heard it all. If we think that way, then God has a big surprise for us.

Have you ever had the experience of someone asking you a question about your faith? Maybe you have had a Protestant friend ask you why Catholics pray to Mary or a child ask  you how God can be three persons but still one God? Then have you had the experience of not being able to explain what you believe? It is at such moments that we appreciate just how rich our faith is and how much there is to learn. We can never exhaust all there is to know about God, the Church, the Bible, the Sacraments and all the great treasures of our faith. Even our Holy Father, the Pope, spends time every day in study trying to gain a deeper understanding of the mysteries of God. If He is still hungry to learn more, then we certainly should make an effort to study our faith.

A good place to start would be reading the Bible. Just a few minutes everyday going through the Old Testament prophets, the gospels or the letters of Saint Paul can broaden our understanding of the mysteries of salvation. Another important book to have is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Just about any question we might have regarding what the Church teaches can be found there. There are also many websites that provide helpful information about our faith. The more we learn, the hungrier we will be to understand even more and the deeper our faith will grow.

Our second reading today gives us insight into the best way to keep our faith fresh and new for us. It is by cultivating love. We can never allow ourselves to forget that the Catholic faith is not primarily a matter of attending Mass and following rules. First and foremost, it is a matter of love. All the rules are meant to teach us what it means to love God and one another as Jesus commanded us. Love is an ongoing adventure. We never reach a point in our lives when we have loved enough. Rather love is a day to day commitment to reach out to the poor, to put the needs of others before our own and to strive to see the face of Christ in everyone we meet. Dedicating ourselves to loving God and others daily we ensure that we will not miss out on all the beautiful gifts our Heavenly Father wishes to pour out upon us.

No matter where we are on our faith journey, it can be tempting for us to think we have heard it all and know everything we need to know. The good news can easily sound like old news to us. However, by committing ourselves to growing in our understanding of what Jesus teaches and by focusing on love we can keep the message of Christ ever fresh in our hearts. In this way, we will always be open to the way Jesus visits us today with new graces and deeper insights. Unlike the villagers of Nazareth who could not put faith in Him, we will be able to receive all the gifts of knowledge, healing and power that Jesus brings to us.

A Song For The Pope

In preparation for his visit to the United States, Pope Francis held a televised video conference with young people from three cities in the United States. During that time, he listened to the stories of students, immigrants and young families and answered their questions about the Catholic faith.

Perhaps one of the most moving testimonies was that of Valerie Herrera, a student at Cristo Re High School in Chicago. As a child, she developed a rare skin condition called “vitiligo” which causes white blotches on the face. Since then, she was called names and made fun of for her appearance. Valerie fought back her tears as she explained to the Holy Father how she felt excluded and different from everyone. Her only consolation was music. Singing made her feel special and helped her to forget her struggles.

Pope Francis listened compassionately to her. Then he surprised everyone by saying to Valerie, “May I ask you to sing for me? Would you sing me a song?” A look of shock came over her face. She didn’t know what she would sing and was overcome with nerves at the thought of performing not only for the Holy Father but for the millions of people who were tuned into the broadcast on national television. To support her, the crowd broke into applause. Then the Holy Father said to her, “Be courageous!” Finally, she gathered up the courage to sing a hymn to Mary in Spanish. The crowd along with the Holy Father erupted in applause when she was finished and a look of relief and joy came over Valerie’s face.

The Holy Father then began to speak with her. After telling her that she sang beautifully, he told her to always have courage in the face of life’s difficulties. He reminded her of how nervous she felt when he asked her to sing. However, when she found the courage to rise to the challenge, she not only felt relief that it was over but joy that she had conquered her fear. He ended his words to her saying, “Courage leads to joy!”

Valerie was interviewed several days later about her experience of speaking with Pope Francis. She described the range of emotions she felt as she described what life had been like for her dealing with her rare skin condition. Her face radiated with joy as she told the reporter how glad she was that she had become an inspiration for other young people who experienced the same struggles that she had.

“Courage leads to joy.” Young Valerie came to understand the truth of Pope Francis’ words when she found the courage to sing for him. She can now take his words and put them into practice as she faces all the other challenges life has in store for her. We can also learn from the Holy Father’s words. Facing difficulties with courage will make our lives more joyful.

We hear an echo of Pope Francis’ words in today’s gospel. When James and John ask to share in the glory of God’s Kingdom, Jesus has some pointed words for them. “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” He makes it clear to them - and to us - that the only path to glory is through suffering. Only by embracing the cross can we share in His resurrection. We might say, the only way to joy is through courage.

In today’s society, experiencing pleasure and feeling good are the top priorities. We go to great lengths to find short cuts through difficulties and avoid anything that might be painful. Of course, we should avoid suffering whenever possible. However, our obsession with convenience and comfort means that we become self-centered and individualistic. We do not see our responsibility to the poor and to those who suffer. If someone gets in the way of our comfortable life or inconveniences us, we avoid them. This attitude leads to nursing homes and hospitals full of sick people who have no one to visit them. It leads to prisons full of young men and women who have been neglected and abandoned. It leads to violence against the unborn and scorn for immigrants.

The one thing it does not lead to is joy.

Joy comes only from serving others. It takes courage to put the needs of others before our own, to reach out to those whom society rejects and to take the risk of going into areas which might seem dangerous to seek out those who live on the outskirts of our cities. However, when we overcome our fears and selfishness, we learn that the poor and the suffering are no different than we are. We experience the joy of truly making a difference in the lives of others. When pleasure and comfort are not the center of our lives we find our true purpose in helping others. In fact, our joy becomes so deep and leads to such a change in us that we begin to feel that it is the poor who are serving us rather than the other way around. As it turns out, we are the ones who are being helped to see ourselves and our world as Jesus sees it. In doing so, we find a joy that no amount of material goods or worldly pleasures can match.

Jesus tells us, “...whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.” Jesus not only spoke those words but lived them, offering His life on the cross so that we could know the victory of the resurrection and the glory of everlasting life. During our time on earth, it will only be by embracing our cross, by reaching out to the poor and by accepting whatever sufferings will come our way that we will achieve glory and lasting joy. It takes courage. However, God is willing to help anyone who calls on Him. If we accept the challenge with faith, we will never be the same and we will serve as an inspiration to others which will make our joy even more complete.

To Have But Not To Possess

In his book, Parables, Fr. Anthony De Mello tells the following story.

A wise man had been wandering the countryside of India. One night, outside a small village, he lay down under a tree and began to fall asleep. Just then, a villager ran up to him, shouting, “The stone! The stone! Give me the stone!”.  The wise man asked the villager what he was talking about. He replied that he was told in a dream that a wise man outside the town would give him a stone that would make him wealthy beyond his wildest imagination. “Oh”, the wise man answered, “You must mean this stone.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a diamond as big as a man’s head. “I found it on the side of the road a few days ago”, he explained. “You can have it.” The man’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw it. He took it from the wise man and ran home as fast as he could.

However, that night, the man tossed and turned all night, unable to rest. First thing in the morning, he ran back out to the tree where the wise man was sleeping, and shook him awake. “What else can I do for you?”, the wise man asked. The man answered him, “Give me the freedom you have to be able to give away that stone so easily.”

We associate being wealthy with being free. When we are young, we cannot wait to get a job so that we can move out of our parents’ house, get our own place and be able to make our own choices. However, we realize fairly quickly that with work comes responsibility. The things we think will make us free - our own place, a car, credit cards - come with a steep price. To pay for all these things, we have to work more hours and find ourselves with less free time. Later on as we have a family and others begin to depend on us for their livelihood, we have to invest even more time and energy into our jobs. When we do have free time, all we want to do is rest before we have to go back to work again. What we thought would make us freer to enjoy ourselves actually begins to take over our lives.

In fact, wealth and the hoarding of material goods is probably the one thing keeping most people from experiencing the fullness of life that God wants for them. It is not that material possessions are bad. Rather, they are all gifts of God and integral to our well-being and happiness. However, we tend to treat money as the only reason for living. It crowds out every other good thing we could otherwise be enjoying. And it gives us a false sense of security. We think that as long as we have a job and enough money in the bank, everything will turn out fine. Then we get sick or experience some other tragedy, and we find that our money does not solve all our problems. Then we have no idea where to turn for answers.

Today’s gospel is a perfect example of how wealth can keep us from being the people God dreams we can be.

The young man who runs up to Jesus is a very good person. He keeps all the commandments but he is not satisfied. He wants to make a deeper commitment to his faith. He wants to live his religion at a more profound level. Jesus is certainly impressed by this young man’s sincerity and zeal. But there was something holding him back. Jesus could sense it and puts his finger on it. He was a rich man unable to part with his possessions. Because of his wealth, he was not free to follow Jesus.

Many people throughout the past two thousand years have heard these words of Jesus and taken them literally. They have sold all they had, given it to the poor and dedicated their lives to serving God. Like the wise man in Fr.de Mello’s parable, they are the freest people who ever lived. Now, it could be that there are some people in this church today who are also called to take Jesus’ words literally and experience such total freedom. However, most of us have responsibilities that keep us from being able to leave our jobs, sell our homes and give away our possessions. How can we answer Jesus’ radical call in our everyday lives?

A first step for us would be not to give everything away but to give something away. A good question to ask ourselves would be, what do I have that I do not absolutely need but would still be hard for me to give away? Is there someone who needs it more than I do? Could I sell it and give the proceeds to a worthy charity? If not, what is keeping me from doing so?

I would make a bet that, if we did find it within us to give away that material possession that we think means so much to us, we would not feel regret or sadness. Rather, we would feel elated and maybe even relieved. We would know the joy that comes from being able to help another human being. And we would have a taste of the freedom that Jesus offers.

Something else would happen. We would begin to see that making money and having nice things is not all that life is about. We would begin to take notice of all those who have less than we do, who are looking for work or who are not able to feed their families. Rather than feel superior to them or blame them for their misfortune, we will begin to feel a sense of responsibility and concern for them. We will want to help.

Then we will be richer than we ever could imagine. 

The God Of Surprises

Our God is a God of surprises. He can be found in the most unexpected places and circumstances.

No one knows this better than a young woman named Kate.

Since she was young, Kate always felt a close relationship with God. However, in her late 20’s, she found herself working a high-pressure job and planning her wedding. There was just not as much time for prayer and spiritual reading which at one time had been a priority for her. Little by little, she felt herself losing her connection to her Heavenly Father. In fact, the only time she prayed was when the stress from work and wedding planning got to be too much for her. She would simply cry out, “Where are you, God, and why aren’t you helping me?”

One day, while rushing to catch the subway to work, a homeless person stopped her and asked her for change. She just did not have the time to stop and blurted out to him, “Please leave me alone!” Though he was startled, he calmly replied, “That’s okay, ma’am. I’ll still pray for you.”

Kate was struck to her core by his response. It helped her to realize how selfish she had been. She had allowed the pressures of life to squeeze out what had always been important to her, namely, being attentive to the needy. This man had helped her realize that God had not abandoned her, but she had abandoned God. She had been wondering where God was but it turned out that He had never left her. And she discovered this truth in the most unexpected of places and in the most surprising of ways - on a subway platform from a homeless person.

Today’s scripture readings speak to us of this God of surprises who reveals Himself in the most unexpected of ways.

In the first reading, God takes some of the Spirit which is on Moses and bestows it on seventy elders to assist him in leading the people of Israel through the desert. Though, two of the elders are outside of the meeting place, they too receive the Spirit and begin prophesying. Moses’ closest assistant, Joshua, is offended by what he sees and urges Moses to stop them. But Moses recognizes the work of the Spirit and understands that he cannot control it. He was used to God working in unexpected ways. It was a lesson that his young assistant would also need to learn.

In the gospel, Jesus’ closest friend, John, witnesses some people casting out a demon in Christ’s name. Like Joshua, he is offended by it and urges Jesus to stop them. It must have been an especially stinging event to witness since only a few chapters earlier, the disciples themselves were unable to exorcise a man who had come to them possessed with a demon. Like Moses, Jesus assures His disciples that they should welcome any good works done in His name no matter who does it. The Spirit of God does not follow our rules or limit Himself to our expectations. He is a God of surprises who always does what is unexpected. Soon enough, the disciples would discover how true Jesus’ words are when He is unexpectedly raised from the dead and when they finally receive the fullness of the Spirit themselves empowering them to preach the good news.

If God seems distant to us, if we feel as though we have lost touch with our Heavenly Father, could it be that we are looking in the wrong places? If we are unsure what God expects from us, if the direction of our lives is unclear, could it be that He is working in an unexpected way to bring about our sanctification and salvation? Are we so expecting God to work in a certain way and to reveal Himself in a certain place that we are not open to His surprising us from time to time? And if He is working in mysterious ways, how can we discover it and become aware of it.

The great spiritual master, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, can help us. Unlike many of the Church’s other spiritual masters, Saint Ignatius developed a spirituality for people with busy lives. It is not necessary to quit one’s job and spend hours in prayer to follow the way he proposed. One of his spiritual exercises which is especially helpful is called the examen. Like the examination of conscience, Ignatius has us spend a few minutes in the evening reviewing our day. However, the examen is not just concerned with how we may have sinned. It is also focused on how God revealed Himself to us that day.

We begin by taking a few moments to quiet ourselves down and to thank God for everything that happened during the day, both the good and the bad. Then we ask for the grace to review our day, hour by hour or period by period, looking for the ways that God may have been revealing Himself to us and how we responded. Like Kate in the subway, it might be through a homeless person we encounter. It could be at a moment when we look out a window and are struck by how beautiful the world is. As we remember those moments throughout the day, we thank God for revealing Himself and ask Him to give us the grace to recognize Him the following day. If we have failed, we ask for forgiveness and the grace to do better.

Taking that time at the end of every day will not only help us to see how God has been at work in our past but will prepare us to recognize Him when He does appear to us in so many unexpected and surprising ways. It will also give us confidence that no matter how chaotic our lives may seem, God is in the midst of it with us and we can be assured that He will manifest Himself to us in it and lead us through.

We worship a hidden God who can manifest Himself to us in infinitely various ways. Through prayer, we can learn to recognize Him and can allow ourselves to be surprised by Him. Now He comes to us in the most glorious of ways, through the Body and Blood of His Son. Nourished by the bread from heaven, we can now show the God we have discovered to others so that all the world can be charged by the glory of this God of surprises.

Surrendering In Faith

What is faith? What do we mean when we say that we have it?

Having faith means believing in something without hard evidence. For instance, I do not need faith to know that two plus two equals four because it can be shown to me. However, I do need faith to believe God exists because we cannot see or touch Him.  

Faith, however, also means something more. It means trust. It means not only knowing that God exists, but loving him and placing our lives in his hands. 

Because faith is both belief and trust, it can be at work in our lives on two levels.

On the first level, we accept certain truths of Catholic teaching. For instance, we believe that God exists, that we should go to Mass on Sundays or that babies should be baptized. This is a faith of the head, an intellectual faith, dealing mainly with doctrines and catechism. It is a faith of belief which is centered on facts and data.  Most people have at least this level of faith at work in their lives.

However,  there is a deeper level of faith which not only agrees that God exists and that he loves everyone, but believes it so deeply that it changes the way a person thinks, acts and speaks. If the first level of faith is a faith of the head, this second level is a faith of the heart, a faith that drives us to believe with our whole being. People who have been given such faith love everyone because they believe that God loves everyone. They forgive whomever may hurt them because they believe that God forgives all wrongs. This level of faith goes beyond mere belief in God to trust in God.  People who have such a gift of faith are willing to stake their lives on what they believe, not just their intellect or their opinions.

It is this second level of faith that James describes in today's second reading. When he says that faith without works is dead, he means that if our beliefs do not lead us to change the way we live, then our faith has no power to save us. If it is not making a difference in the choices we make, then we really do not have it. We all know this from our personal lives. People may tell us they love us. But we know that our true friends are the ones who stand by us in the bad times as well as the good times. It is the actions of our friends that reveal whether or not they have love for us in their hearts. Just so, it is our actions that reveal whether or not our faith is real.

In today's gospel reading, both levels of faith -faith of the head and faith of the heart - are tested in Peter. When Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?", Peter alone has the right answer: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." But when Jesus pushes beyond this faith of the head to see if he has a deeper faith of the heart, Peter flunks. Peter could not accept that being the Messiah meant that Jesus would have to suffer. Though in his head he could believe that Jesus was the Son of God, in his heart he was not ready to accept the consequences.

As with Peter, it is suffering oftentimes which tests on what level our faith is operating. It is natural to want to avoid suffering and even more natural to not want to see the people we love suffer. Sometimes, however, suffering is unavoidable. It is at those moments that our faith is tested.  Faith that is merely at the level of the head will not be able to survive the ordeals of disease, divorce or death. It takes a faith of the heart to continue to believe that God loves us no matter what difficulties we or our loved ones face. The good news is that God uses suffering not only to test the faith we already have, but to offer us a deeper faith.  If we can accept difficulties with patience, God can make the faith in our head trickle down into our heart. That way, we can learn to trust that no matter how senseless our suffering may seem, God still loves us and can still make all things work for our good.

Suffering is very often an inevitable part of life. Jesus came not to take our suffering away but to suffer with us and to make our suffering an opportunity to have a deeper faith of the heart. And so Jesus says to all of us who want to follow him: "Pick up your cross and follow me. Pick up your suffering and follow me. Pick up your loneliness and follow me. Pick up your broken marriage and follow me. Pick up your failed business and follow me." These difficulties need not be obstacles in following Jesus, but they are the ways God uses to help us grow in holiness and trust. It is the way God uses to place in our hearts a faith that can really save us.