28th Sunday

28^th Sunday of OT Year B:

Today we hear Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man.  This is absolutely one of my favorite stories in the whole gospel.  Every time I read it, I hear something new, I gain a new insight.  The reason I like this passage so much is because it is so real, and I think we can all relate to what is going on here.

The young man in the story is the “basically good person.”  He is a good guy, he does the right thing, he follows the commandments.  How many people, when asked, would say the same thing: I am basically a good person?  One question I always have is: wouldn’t it have been better for this guy if he never went up to Jesus?  I mean here he is, a loyal son of Israel, following the commands, living a good life.  He only becomes sad after he talks to Jesus.  Wouldn’t it be better to just avoid Jesus?  How many of us might think the same thing?  Maybe some of your family members think this way: I don’t really need to go to Church, I don’t really need all that stuff in my life, I’m basically a good person.  Isn’t being good, good enough?

This is a tricky question.  Why go to Jesus, why go to Church?  If I go to Jesus he will ask me to do something hard.  If I go to Jesus I will have to give up my sinfulness.  If I go to Jesus he will ask me to sacrifice for others.  If I go to Jesus he will ask me for something I am not quite willing to give him.  Perhaps it is better to avoid Jesus altogether!

But, we know this is not true.  Somewhere deep down there is a sense that being a “basically good person,” is not good enough.  Don’t we want to be perfect?  Don’t we want to be saints?  Don’t we want to be rid of all the emptiness and pain that selfishness and sin can bring?  Aren’t we looking for something more?  The rich young man in the story was looking for something more, and in Jesus he found it, but he went away sad.

Now it is certainly true that the story intends for us to think that the young man left for good, and perhaps he did.  But, I always like to hope that he came back.  I always like to hope that while he went away sad, he came back happy, that he sold his things and followed Christ.  I would like to think that the desire for holiness and perfection that brought him to Jesus in the first place also led him to make that hard decision, even though it made him sad.

I don’t normally like to talk about myself in the homily, but I think I went through the same thing this man did in my own life.  After high school I decided that I never wanted to go to school again (God certainly has a sense of humor because now it seems I never get out of school!).  So I started working.  I was a manager at Wendy’s for a couple of years, then I started working at a paintball gun factory that my uncle owned.  It was a great job.  In no time I was making really good money, I had a new car, a new apartment, a big screen TV, I had it all, so to speak.  But, then I became an RCIA sponsor, I learned more about my faith, I really started to pray and ask Jesus: what must I do?  The answer that I heard was troubling: go become a priest.  This scared me.  I always thought that I would get married and have kids, being a priest meant being celibate.  I liked my job, had nice things, and was making great money, to become a priest meant losing all these things.  I enjoyed spending time with my friends, playing sports, and practicing my hard rock guitar, becoming a priest meant going away to seminary where I would meet new people (although I never did give up on that hard rock guitar!).  For several months, I went away sad.  I felt like I didn’t want to give up all that stuff.  But, I finally did apply to the seminary, and I can absolutely say that Jesus means it when he says he will repay a hundred times more.  My life is amazing.  I don’t make as much money as I once did, but I have everything I need.  I am not married, but I have hundreds of kids here at St. Matt’s and at Marian that call me Father.  I like this “job” way better than making paintball guns, and I still rock out on my guitar…  Going to seminary was a bit scary, but Jesus is never outdone in generosity.

What is he asking of you?  You will never know unless you ask.  Don’t forget it will not be easy, it might be quite scary in fact.  But, listen again to what the gospel says: Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said…  Jesus is looking at each one of us, he loves us, he wants nothing but our good.  If he asks you to make the hard decision, don’t be afraid to follow him.  Don’t go away sad from Jesus, return to him and open yourself to his will.

The two become one flesh...

27th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

It is no secret that many people disagree with teachings of the Church.  So while this is true generally, it is certainly true specifically when it comes to teachings about human sexuality and marriage.  If you want to see a violent backlash, speak to someone about sexual morality who disagrees with these teachings.  I have certainly had the experience where bitterness and anger from normally quite nice people comes out when we get to things like living together before marriage, contraception, homosexuality, abortion, etc.  People can really go crazy when you talk about this stuff.  But, of course, we have to talk about this stuff.  Marriage is the foundation of society.  As we hear in Genesis, it is not good for man to be alone.  Marriage, therefore, is the building block of the whole human race.  I don’t think it is alarmist to say that there is no teaching that is more important to society than that about sex and marriage. 

But, this teaching is difficult to grasp and difficult to share.  More often than not we rely simply on negative commands.  Very often the best we can tell people is that Church says you cannot do this, that and the other thing.  It is a big list of no’s, which doesn’t really work.  So, I think there are basically 2 things we can take from this gospel today that can help us to both understand this teaching ourselves, and help us to present it to others.

First, this is not simply “the Church’s” teaching, as though human beings made it up.  This comes from God himself.  First, it comes from the very design of the human being.  God is a communion of persons, and since we were made in God’s image and likeness we are made for communion.  In the union of husband and wife, and only in this union, we find a place where the longing for communion can be satisfied.  In the union of husband and wife 2 people give themselves to one another completely, totally, and faithfully, and when they give themselves to each other in this way, new life can result.  It was God who created this blessed union.  So everything we teach the world about sex and marriage does not come from us, it comes from God.  Today we hear even more from Jesus.  Someone once told me: your church really needs to change its stance on this stuff.  How could we change the teaching when it is not ours?  This stuff comes right from God.

Secondly, what does God really tell us?  You can’t do this, that, and the other thing?  No, Christ holds up for us not a list of no’s, but a beautiful goal.  “For this reason a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two become one flesh.”  If you wanted to know where all the hard moral teachings about sex and marriage come from, they all come from this one sentence.  The two become one flesh.  This union of husband and wife fulfills the deepest longing of the human heart.  If you think of the whole list of “no” teachings, this powerful truth is underneath every one.  Why is the Church against sex before marriage: you cannot unite bodily if you have not united in mind, soul, and heart.  Why is the Church against contraception: you cannot hold back something as beautiful as your fertility if you are to be totally united.  Why is the church against divorce and remarriage: if the two are united, neither can be united to another while their spouse is living.  Why is the church against gay marriage: only the union of a man and woman is capable of bringing about new life.  I could go on and on. 

So this teaching comes from God and it not a list of don’ts; rather, this is a beautiful message that if we are going to fulfill that deep need for communion that we all have, we will only do so if we follow this beautiful truth.  To be sure, this is a difficult teaching, a difficult goal to reach.  But, it is Jesus who gives us the strength.  Let us turn to Jesus in the Eucharist and ask him for the grace to live out this beautiful message: the two become one flesh.

New Hearts

26th Sunday in OT

Today we hear something pretty radical from Jesus.  If you hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  If your eye causes you to sin gouge it out. Etc.  I don't know about you, but I have been trained to read this passage metaphorically.  "Don't worry: Jesus doesn't literally mean that we are supposed to cut off our hands."  In some sense, this is true.  Make no mistake, no one should go home today and amputate anything.  But, I don't really think that Jesus is being metaphorical.

 Listen again to what he says: if your hand causes you to sin.  Let's think about this for a minute: does your hand really cause you to sin?  As many of you know, in addition to being the chaplain at Marian I am also the girls golf coach.  And it is a lot of fun to work with the girls teaching them the game of golf.  One time I was working with a girl at the driving range.  She was struggling to hit her driver, it was going everywhere but straight.  So she says to me, “I think I need a new driver.”  So I asked her if I could borrow the driver for a second, and I hit one straight as an arrow, which if anyone has ever played with me knows that a straight shot is a bit of a miracle.  So I said, the driver looks fine to me…

 In golf it is usually pilot error not the plane that causes something to go wrong.  If it was really the driver that causes the ball to fly poorly, I would certainly recommend that they get a new one.  But, usually the clubs are just fine.  If we want to fix the ball flight we need to fix the real cause, something in the golf swing.

I think the lesson Jesus is telling us is similar.  But is it really the hand that causes the sin.  No.  Something else causes the sin.  There is a deep truth that Jesus is getting at here.

First, sin is terrible.  Listen to the starkness of the terms here.  Cut it off and throw it away, better to go to heaven maimed.  The stakes are high.  Jesus is not simply trying to frighten us, I think he is trying to open our eyes to the absolute horror of sin.  While we are all sinners, there is nothing good about sin.  It is terrible.  It causes grief and turmoil in our lives.  We should learn to despise sin, pray for its eradication, strive to do better each and every day.  God is certainly loving and merciful, but that is not to say that sin doesn't matter. I've heard people say: Oh, God doesn't care if I'm a sinner... Really!  Jesus says today that sin is so bad that we should take radical steps to cleanse ourselves of sin.  So the first lesson we learn is that sin is terrible and we should get rid of it.

Secondly, what is the cause of sin?  As I have been saying it is not really our hands, or tongues, or eyes, etc.  Even if we use parts of our bodies to sin, these parts are not the cause.  What is the cause?  It's our hard hearts, it's pride, it's selfishness.  Jesus says in another place that it is not what enters a person from the outside that causes us to be defiled, rather all sin starts within and comes out.  Basically this means we all need to jettison our hard hearts and replace them with warm hearts full of love.

This might be a bit discouraging.  In some sense it would almost be easier to chop off something.  Sometimes is it quite painful to come to terms with our weaknesses, to come to terms with our hardness of heart.  Very often, our hardness of heart comes from years of pain and mistreatment.  How do we get rid of something so deep?  On our own, this would be impossible.  But for God nothing is impossible.

We heard in the first reading that Moses prayed and the spirit of God was put into the hearts of the people.  This is exactly what we believe happens at baptism.  The spirit of God was given to each of us.  And if we allow him to do so, the Spirit can reach down even to the hardest heart.  The Spirit can cleanse and purify us.

Indeed our weakness, our sinfulness, our hardness of hearts cause us to sin, but the good news is that we can get rid of these things.  By the power of God at work within us we can be renewed and transformed.  But, we have to be open to this power.  Today as we receive Holy Communion we approach humble and contrite, we approach recognizing our weakness, and we ask Christ to give us new hearts.  The girls on my team don’t need new golf clubs, and none of us need to amputate any part of our bodies.  But we all need new hearts full of love, and only Christ can give them to us.

We follow Jesus as St. Matthew did

25^th Sunday OT year B:

Last week we heard Jesus asking his disciples: who do you say that I am?  Peter responded with his great proclamation of faith: you are the Christ.  This confession is the beginning of faith.  It is the center of our faith.  Jesus Christ, the son of God reveals to us the Father and he sends the Spirit upon the Church.  Jesus Christ is the fullness of the revelation of God, so everything we know and everything we believe begins with this one statement: you are the Christ.

But, faith is more than something we know.  Faith has everything to do with who we are and what we do.  For us to say Jesus is the Christ has implications.  Simply to believe with our minds is not sufficient.  Faith is not simply a matter of knowledge, faith is a relationship with Christ that bears on how we live.  This is why Jesus calls his disciples to follow him.  Last week we heard Jesus invite the crowds: if you wish to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.  Today we celebrate the memory of one of these disciples.  Today we celebrate the feast of St. Matthew.  Remember that St. Matthew was sitting at his customs post, minding his own business.  Jesus approaches him and simply says: follow me.  Matthew left everything behind to follow him.  What an inspiration for all of us!  Jesus says to each one of us: follow me.

Like St. Matthew we are followers of Jesus, like St. Peter we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God.  So today we can picture ourselves in the company of Jesus, we are walking with him, following him.  What is his message: the son of man will be handed over, killed, and rise on the third day.  The central message of Jesus is his death and resurrection.  That was the central message in the gospel, and it is the central message down till the present day.  In fact, we say that every Mass is a renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary.  At every Mass we enter into the very dying and rising of Jesus.  As we walk along on this journey of faith with Christ, the central message is the same: Jesus has died, but he rose again.

But this is, by no means, an easy message.  St. Paul said many years ago that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jewish people and foolishness to the Gentiles.  Remember how we began: Jesus is the Christ, but he explains that the Christ will suffer.  This is not how we would have drawn it up.  In our cosmic game plan Jesus would have annihilated sin and death with fire and brimstone from heaven.  So the cross is indeed difficult to understand.  But, we are in good company: the gospel relates that the disciples did not understand the teaching.  Indeed the cross, the suffering and death of Jesus is certainly a mystery.  But if we probe this mystery we find the love of God poured out upon the world for the salvation of all.  So, my friends we constantly proclaim the cross, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the more we understand this mystery the more we know and love Christ.

But, there is something puzzling about the gospel passage.  It says they were afraid to question Jesus.  Why were they afraid?  Well I wasn’t there, but my best guess is that they were afraid to ask Jesus because they understood the implications.  If Jesus is going to suffer, that means we too will suffer.  If we are following Jesus, and he will deny himself and pick up his cross, then as followers we will have to do the same.  No wonder they were afraid, their whole conversation was not about self-denial: they were arguing about who was the greatest.  The same might be true for all of us: if we follow Jesus as St. Matthew did, if we hear the proclamation of his death and resurrection, we might see the implications.  To follow Jesus means to lay down one’s life like he did.  But there is no other path to happiness and holiness, there is no other path to life everlasting than the way of the Cross: listen again to the words of St. James: Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.  But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.

Today we remember St. Matthew, we remember our patron who had the courage to follow Christ.  Through his intercession may we have the courage to do the same: St. Matthew, our Patron: pray for us.

Who do you say that I am?

24^th Sunday OT:

At the heart of our gospel today is the question of identity. The question begins in general terms, even Jesus says: who do people say that I am? The responses of the people are as general as Jesus' own question: some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, others one of the prophets. In other words, some people say you are a great preacher who is traveling around preaching repentance just like John the Baptist. Others are saying even more, you are a prophet like Elijah who was the man of God. These answers are not wrong, Jesus was a preacher who spoke of repentance; he was a prophet who spoke about and for God. But, while these people who said Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah or a prophet might not have been wrong, they weren't correct. These titles do not get to who Jesus really is.

After this question of generalities, Jesus makes it alarmingly concrete: who do you say that I am? What an uncomfortable question! Imagine that someone walked up to you and asked: who do you say that I am? Even if it was your spouse or your child, it would be a hard question to answer.

Jesus really puts Peter on the spot here. Who am I? Do you know me better than those others who think of me as just another prophet or preacher? Am I more than that? But, Peter doesn't even hesitate: you are the Christ. This answer is vastly different from the previous answers, which were generic and spoke about the things that Jesus did. This new answer gets to the very identity of Jesus: you are not just some preacher, not just another prophet: you are the Christ, the son of God.

So, it seems like there are two camps in the world: those who know about Jesus, and those who know Jesus. The first group sees only the things Jesus said and did: he is some great prophet. The second group knows Jesus, knows his identity: you are the Christ.

How is Peter able to see Jesus and identify who he really is? How does he get into the second group? There is no doubt that Peter heard Jesus preaching, that he thought of him as a prophet, but how did he get past the generalities? Peter knew Jesus. It is just that simple. Peter had a relationship with Christ, he spent time with him, spoke with him, followed him, etc. He got to know Jesus on a personal level. He was able to move beyond generalities because he encountered Jesus in the specifics of his life.

Don't we all want to do the same? Don't we all want to know Jesus? It is not enough to know about Jesus; salvation, holiness, and grace come from knowing Jesus. How do we get from the first group to the second group? Jesus gives us a roadmap: whoever wishes to follow me must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow after me. The way to know Jesus is to follow him, the way to follow him is to deny ourselves and take up our crosses.

This is, by no means, an easy task. The road of discipleship can be a road of suffering and hardship, but this should not surprise us. We are Christians, we bear the name of Christ. He suffered, and we suffer. He denied himself on the cross, we deny ourselves in our daily lives. But it is in and through our difficulties that we follow Christ, that we become like him, that we get to know him. Here in this holy Eucharist, Christ comes to us and he asks us the same question he asked St. Peter: who do you say that I am? We will only be able to answer this question well if we follow Jesus, if we deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Christ.

Our God will come with salvation for his people:

23^rd Sunday OT:

Our God will come with vindication for his people. These words of the prophet Isaiah capture the faith of the people of Israel. More than likely these words were written sometime near the time of the exile. It was a difficult time, they were being attacked by Assyria, their nation was crumbling around them. But, they held onto their faith that God would come to save them.

How beautiful for us to read this passage in the light of Christ. The people of Israel believed that God would never leave them, never abandon them. They believed that God would bring them salvation, but who could imagine how God planned, in the fullness of time, to bring about this salvation: God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son so that all those who believe in him might not perish, but might have eternal life. The Good News of salvation is that God indeed comes for his people. He came as one of us; the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This time God wasn't bringing salvation from Assyrians, Egyptians, or Babylonians. This time he came to do battle with the very brokenness of humanity itself. Our Savior came to do battle with sin, with death, with the fallenness that is ours. Jesus came to speak Good News to his people.

Jesus came to bring salvation to Israel, to the chosen people, but, he also came as a man to speak to all men and women. We see this truth in our gospel today. Right at the beginning of our reading we hear that Jesus entered the Decapolis. This region was a gentile region. The man in the story today becomes a symbol for all the Gentiles, all the non-Jewish people, in other words all of us. We know that in the Old Testament, God spoke to his people Israel through the prophets. But, non-Jewish people might be considered deaf to the voice of God. So, the deaf person in the gospel could stand for all those who were outside of the people of Israel, deaf to the Word of God. But, Christ opens the ears of the Gentile. When Christ comes among us, he opens our ears to hear the Good News of salvation. After he opens our ears, it becomes imperative that he touches our tongues as well, for after having heard Good News, it is impossible to be silent.

Christ came to preach the Good News to all, to open the ears of all humanity so that we can hear God's Word, he came to loosen our tongues so we could proclaim this Word. By his incarnation, by taking on our common human nature, no one is excluded. Christ came for us all. This is why James found the giving of preferential treatment to a class of people so offensive. Christ came for all of us, rich and poor, Jewish and Gentile, slave and free.

And look at the price that Christ pays to open our ears and touch out tongues. It says in the gospel today that Jesus groaned. Think of another time when Christ is in agony: on the cross. Every time we look at the Cross of Christ we see how much he loves every person on the planet, every human person who has ever lived. Christ came for all, and he gave himself up for all. As Christians, as those who have been touched by Christ, we too should go out to all of humanity. By his death on the Cross Jesus brought salvation for his people.

We were first touched by the power of this sacrifice on the day of our baptism, and we are strengthened and renewed by this sacrifice every time we gather at this altar. And at the end of this mass, and every mass, we are sent on a mission to go and announce the gospel of the Lord. Each week we reenact this gospel passage, Christ touches our ears with his words, he touches our tongues in Holy Communion, then we go out to spread the Good News.

Christ came to set us free

22^nd Sunday of OT:

This is one of those weeks where our readings are speaking to us about morality. Morality is the way we live our lives as disciples of Jesus. James exhorts us in the second reading: be doers of the word and not hearers only. The word of God is living and active. Rather than being something that can be grabbed and possessed, the Word of God grabs and possesses us, it spurs us on to action. We hear the word of God and we want to put it into practice.

Sounds good so far, right? Hear the word of God and put it into practice by living a moral life. But, there can often be a bit of a disconnect between faith and life. We hear about Jesus, we believe in him, we want to be his disciples, we understand that living the moral life is what this means. Then what do we get? It seems like we get a bunch of rules and regulations. We want to follow Jesus, and we get a list of things we are not supposed to do: thou shalt not this, that, and the other thing. Whether it is the 10 commandments, the moral teachings of the gospel, or something from the Catechism, it seems to outline a bunch of stuff we are not allowed to do.

And, maybe it is just me, but doesn't it seem like God looked at the human heart, found all the things we really want to do, then made commandments against it? Don't we love to speak ill of our neighbor: can't do it, that's gossip. Don't we just love to be angry at our enemies: can't do it, we are supposed to love our enemies. Don't we just love to indulge in any kind of pleasurable thing: can't do it, that is lust, or greed, or gluttony. It seems like we are stuck in some cosmic tug of war. On the one hand there is the moral code, and on the other, there are the inclinations of our hearts set in opposition. So, for many of us, life becomes a matter of trying to dodge the sin we might desire in our hearts. It is almost as if sin were potholes in the road: if we can just make it down the street without hitting any of the major potholes we will be ok. But, this is a crazy way to live life. And this is not what morality is supposed to be about. Morality is not a matter of avoiding sin. Rather, it's about living life to the full.

Listen again to the words from Deuteronomy: hear the statutes and decrees (why? So that life will be miserable and you will be prone to fail? No) so that you may live, and may enter and take possession of the land. I find that so beautiful, hear the statutes and decrees so that you may live. God gives us the commandments through Christ and the Church not because he wants us to struggle and fail, but because he wants us to be happy and blessed. We were not made for sin! We were made to be holy, to be with God, to live.

But, what about our sinful inclinations: today Christ labels it so well, there is a bunch of junk that can pour out of our hearts: evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, etc. We have inherited original sin, we are prone to fall. But, Christ came to help us. Through grace, we can be healed, maybe not totally in this life. Christ came to set us free, he came to purify our minds and our hearts. Jesus did not come simply to give us a new set of rules and regulations; rather, he came to set us free. He does this especially through the sacraments. When we are baptized, confirmed, when we receive communion, confess our sins, when we are anointed, when you got married, when I got ordained, the grace of God is at work within us, making us more like Christ, healing us down to our hearts.

So the moral life was not given to us to make us miserable. It is a guide to true human fulfillment. While our hearts are set in opposition to the law, Christ came to set us free. We cannot lose hope. Christ came to renew and transform us, Christ came to heal our hearts, so that a life of discipleship is not one of misery, but one of joy. Right here in this Holy Eucharist Christ pours his life out for us, as we receive his body and blood, he can transform us, heal us, set us free so that we can live and be with him in that promised land that awaits us.

Lord, where else would we go?

This is a hard teaching, who can accept it. For the last three weeks Jesus has taken great pains to reiterate a central teaching. He is the bread of life, his body is real food, his blood real drink. Unless you eat his body and drink his blood, you have no life within you. This is a hard teaching: how can this man give us his food to eat? We believe and profess that here in the Holy Eucharist these words come true. That Jesus gives us his body and blood as true food and drink and that through this blessed sacrament we have life and light. But this is certainly a hard teaching, who can accept it?

There are many hard teachings in our faith. It can be quite hard sometimes to believe that God is our loving father, when we live in a world broken by sin, violence, hunger, and war. It is not easy to believe that the eternal Word of the Father took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. It is also hard to believe that this Jesus who suffered death by crucifixion rose after three days. It is hard to believe that he sent the Spirit into the world. It is hard to believe that the Church is his body on earth, led by the successor of St. Peter. And there are a great many teachings in the moral life that are difficult to believe, many hard teachings, especially those about the gift of human sexuality and human life. Even our second reading gives us a hard teaching: wives be submissive to your husbands, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church. The mutual submission of spouses to each other is a hard teaching, who can accept it?

I am sure that every one of us has some teaching in mind right now. Each one of us probably has some aspect, some doctrine of the faith that can be especially difficult. How do we react? How do we respond? Do we embrace and accept this teaching, difficult as it might be, or do we reject it? Do we place ourselves as mediators of truth? If it is hard to accept, maybe it is easier just to reject it. Or, what happens when we are backed into a corner because of a hard teaching? Do we look for a way out? How many times has someone challenged you on one of these hard teachings? Maybe somebody has asked you: how can the church really teach that contraception is wrong? What is our response? It is perfectly natural to have difficulties with the hard teachings of the faith. We might struggle with some of these teachings, we might meet others who struggle. But, look at how Jesus responds. He doesn't soften his stance, he doesn't find some nuance, he just looks at Peter and says: will you leave me too?

Why doesn't Jesus back down, why not nuance his teaching so that people wouldn't leave? Why can't the church change her teachings on morality, sexuality, etc. The words of St. Peter are key here: Lord where would we go, you have the words of eternal life. We believe you are the son of God. Jesus cannot back down, the Church cannot nuance the truth, because we do not believe in teachings or statements. Our faith is not based on a book, it is not based on human rationality, our faith is not simply a great idea. Our faith is in Jesus. We cannot have a relationship with teachings, rather we have a relationship with Christ. Once we have that relationship, then the teachings make sense, the teachings hold together. It never means that these hard teachings become easy to believe, it only means that once we have met Christ there is nowhere else to go. If there are hard teachings that we find difficult to accept, if we are challenged by others who find them hard to accept, the answer must be found in looking to Christ. Only in Jesus do these hard teachings make sense. We will have challenges and struggles in our faith but we face them just like St Peter: we turn to Christ and say: Lord where else would we go?

The tension of human life

19th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

As human beings we live in a difficult tension. We seem to have one foot on earth and one foot in heaven. As creatures we share many things with the rest of the animals: we have bodies, we eat, we sleep, we have to take care of other bodily, earthly concerns. And yet, we far surpass the rest of creation. We were made with God's image and likeness, we have will and intelligence. We can think, reason, choose, and love. None of which the animals can do. Squirrels cannot write novels, monkeys cannot do calculus, horses cannot play football (except in Budweiser commercials), and dogs do not have the capacity to aspire for heaven.

And to make matters worse, all of us live in the world as it suffers the effects of original sin. Not only do we have bodies and earthy concerns, we live in a state of weakness, we are prone to fall morally, we are subject to sickness and death.

Very often we get sick of this tension. We get sick of being stuck between earthly and spiritual. Sometimes people just give up and decide to forgo the tension and to live just one side or the other. We have probably all met those people who just give up on the spiritual life. God seems too distant or too difficult to find. Their hearts and minds might have a desire for higher things, but the search seems too difficult or too elusive, so they focus on only those things they can see, sense, feel. They probably don't go to church, and might look for meaning in earthly instead of spiritual realities.

The opposite can happen too. Let's call these people the holy rollers, who live as though they are already in heaven, removed from the ordinariness of the real world. At first, this might seem like a good thing, but I am reminded of a story I read in a book. The author was sitting next to a man at Mass. The first thing he noticed was how reverently and devoutly the man was participating at Mass. He seemed to be the holiest person in the whole church. In fact, the author remembers thinking that he started feeling jealous, wishing he were more like this guy. Until the sign of peace. The author reached over to the holy roller and said peace be with you: the man refused to stretch out his hand and responded coldly: I don't believe in that garbage... This guy was living like he was already in heaven and forgot something as simple as loving his neighbor.

We live in the tension: we are bodily creatures, made with an eternal spiritual soul. We should keep this in mind in our life of faith. Here is one reason why Paul was so masterful. today in the second reading we hear St. Paul giving his advice to his people. In the first part of the reading, Paul remembers the down to earth side of things: All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So Paul meets us in the ordinariness of our lives: put away evil things and be kind and compassionate. But he doesn't stay on just earthly things: be imitators of God, he says next. Paul has a marvelous way to meet us where we are, but it would certainly be a sad thing if we just remained where we are. Rather, we were made for nothing less than communion with God. We certainly have down to earth concerns, but our goal is eternal life in the kingdom of God.

But this model is not unique to Paul. Rather, it comes from Jesus: I am the bread that came down from heaven. But Jesus did not come among us to leave us here: I am the bread of life whoever eats this bread will live forever. Jesus did not forget our down to earth concerns, he came as one like us in all things but sin, but he came to bring back to the Father.

Again the Eucharist is a sacrament that deals well with the tension of human life. It comes to us in a very down to earth way: it comes to us in the form of bread and wine. But we certainly know that it is very much more than that. It is the bread of life, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The tension of human life can be difficult on us, we might be tempted to give up on the tension, but with the gift of the Eucharist we find the strength we need to walk this difficult journey.

I'm back!

Hello everyone,

I'm back from DC.  I had a good summer.  I learned about the American legal system, the annulment procedure, consecrated life (religious orders), and special issues pertinent to the laity.  It was hot, but it was hot here too I think.

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Fr Jake

PS: look at the bottom of the blog and you will see a "follow by email" gadget I added, this will email you when I post stuff on the blog.

Quick Start Guide

18^th Sunday OT:

2 weeks ago I bought a new GPS navigating system for my car. I'm convinced that these are among the coolest inventions ever. What did we ever do before that mechanical lady inside that box that tells me where to go? It won't be long until our kids will have never heard of maps before…

When I opened the box there was a "quick-start guide" inside. You probably know what I'm talking about, this guide gives the bare essentials that you need in order to operate the machine. You have to plug it into the car, you have to turn it on, you have to hit the button and enter an address, etc. This quick start guide might not answer every question that I could possibly ask, but it gives the minimum you need to get going.

Parents, wouldn't it be nice if kids came with these quick start guides? Helpful little guides that tell you how to operate these little ones. But, of course, babies don't come with quick start guides. If they did, what would it say? Congratulations on your purchase of a new human being. This man or woman will provide decades of entertainment, worry, grief, and satisfaction. To begin, please ensure that the person is able to breathe. Avoid extreme temperatures. Be sure to give water and food at regular intervals: note: growing teenage football players require much more food… The human person responds well to love and affection… This would be a good start. These are our basic human needs: air, water, food, love.

Today in the gospel we hear about these basic human needs: we hear about thirst, we hear about hunger. Whoever comes to me will never hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst. In other words, Jesus is reminding us of another basic human need. Jesus is pointing out to us that there is a deeper hunger, a deeper thirst. Jesus Christ is the word through whom was made the universe. If anyone is in position to write that quick-start guide on the human person it is he. We all know and recognize that we hunger and thirst for food and water, but are we always conscious of that hunger and thirst for God present in the heart of every human person. Do we recognize our need for Christ? Do we think of our relationship with him as being more important than food or water?

Paul tells us how to do this in the second reading. He says, the truth is in Jesus. We find in him the answer to the question that is at the heart of our existence: we were made for communion with God. Next, we grow in that communion by putting away the old self, putting away our former lives, turning away from sin and all that ugliness and darkness. Renew the spirit of your minds: turn to Jesus, ask him for his presence in your lives. Renewing our minds is nothing other than inviting God to live within us, to guide our thoughts, feelings, and actions. So we can put on the new self who was created in righteousness and holiness. We might not have that quick start guide, but if we did, righteousness and holiness would probably be listed as the ultimate goal for every human person. We were made with this goal in mind: to love and serve God so that we could be with God forever, to be righteous and holy. And just like we cannot live without food and water, we cannot live without Christ in our lives.

I am the bread of life, Jesus says. We turn now to the Holy Eucharist, the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus poured out for us. Right here from this altar we will receive the bread of life. Together we can all make the words of St. Paul our prayer: Lord as I receive you in the Holy Eucharist help me to put away my former life of sin, renew my mind, help me to put on the new self so that I might serve your forever in righteousness and holiness…