God's ever-present Love

We live in uncertainty; economic, political and social conflicts leave us scrambling for some guarantee, or at least some lessened risk of disaster and failure.  But our Christian faith gives us one thing we can count on, the one thing we absolutely need.  In good times and in bad, good health and sickness, celebration and grief, even when we are inattentive to God, careless about prayer, filled with self-love and indifferent to other people – we have always “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Even when most inattentive, careless and indifferent, I trust St. Paul’s assurance that nothing “will be able to separate us” from God’s ever-present Love. (Romans 8:31b-39)

Jesus models exactly that faith, that trust in the Love of God ever-present to Him. (Luke 13:31-35).  Warned that King Herod wished Him to be killed, Jesus refused to be safe, to deny His mission.   “I must continue on my way,” He asserted – and headed towards death in Jerusalem – and His Resurrection, and our salvation.  Jerusalem, the actual city, is the religious, political and cultural capital for Jesus in the first century, and an argument could be made that the “unwilling” Jerusalem also represents our religious, political and cultural situations in the twenty-first century.  

While we are not living in a time or place where people may not want us physically dead (except, of course, unwanted or ‘inconvenient’ children) there is much adversity in our lives and cultures that makes being a Catholic difficult.  I have met many challenges to my faith.  People who question, people who judge, people who see scandals, or mistakes, or simply don’t understand the fundamental tenets of my faith have all posed challenges and have made me ask not only why I’m Catholic, but really what that means.  And in my understanding, those questions are answered by that final line: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”

I’ve sought to deepen my understanding of my faith, but even on a fundamental level I’ve sought to show people my faith through my actions.  I may not need to explain teachings or dogma for people to understand what it means to be Catholic.  The goal is to live the mission, for people to see Jesus and to see what it means to be Catholic through me; through all of us.

All things working for good....

“We know that all things work for good for those who love God” (Romans 8:26-30).  At first glance, St. Paul seems to be saying that by loving God we are promised only good things in this life.  If one gives oneself to God the Spirit will take over leading us step by step, from one good to another good, and eventually to eternal glory.  Then Paul adds a condition that makes what he is saying clearer; “We know that all things work for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose.”

God doesn’t do things according to whim but with purpose.  And He has a definite purpose for each of us.  By fulfilling His purpose we will experience “all things working for good.”  Notice, in this process of loving God He doesn’t promise it will necessarily be for my personal good.  It may well be for the greater good of all who love God, which would ultimately include me.

For example, loving God “according to his purpose” could occasionally include suffering.  A man’s wife is diagnosed with cancer.  That’s not good for his wife or him.  Yet they have always willingly loved God according to His purpose.  However, what if this tragedy might have such devastating effects upon their grown children that they are motivated to reject their evil lifestyles and return to the Lord.  The ultimate salvation of their children might be the good purpose why the Lord allows the mother’s illness.

For many of us our God is too small.  It’s too easy to forget His purpose for becoming man.  It was not that we might be spared suffering but that we might share in eternal happiness.  And so reluctantly God is willing to allow many things, even sinfulness and tragedy to be part of life, so that His purpose for coming will be fulfilled. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

A Recipe for Hope

One of the signs that God's kingdom is here, now, rather than only in heaven or after the Second Coming of Christ, is the fact that in times of trouble there is hope. There is faith. There is trust in God. There's even joy!

These proofs of God's reign usually start very small, like granules of yeast, as Jesus points out in His parable (Luke 13:18-21).  If we have even the smallest hope, a tiny portion of faith, a wee bit of trust, or a little joy, and if we knead it in the dough of our struggles and let it rise in the warmth of our friendship with Christ, it grows.  We reap countless blessings.

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of ministry.  Jesus ministers to you and asks you to minister to others.  The field of our hardships can either produce pointless sufferings and wasted time and destruction, leaving us with scars that never fully heal and grief that never ends, or it can produce a ministry of outreach and compassion, blessing others as Jesus ministers to them through us, and giving us many reasons to rejoice.

To experience the reign of God in our lives right now, right here in our present pain, we must turn to Jesus to be ministered to and allow Him to use our sufferings for the sake of others, like He showed us to do by the example of His own life.  It's only when we can see good coming from our hardships that our grief becomes joy and our tears become seeds that sprout into blessed fruits of God's Kingdom.

St. Paul shows us the attitude of one who lives in God: "I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18-25).  The reign of God is not a quick fix or a snap of God's almighty finger to produce a magical solution that stops every evil that we cover in prayer.  It takes time.  And for good reason!

Yeast is a fascinating thing.  It is so small in size and yet has such a powerful effect upon the dough.  The yeast works slowly and somewhat miraculously.  Little by little the dough rises and is transformed.  This is always something fascinating for children to watch when making bread.

This is the ideal way for the Gospel to work in our lives.  Right now, the Kingdom of God is first and foremost alive in our hearts.  The conversion of our hearts will rarely effectively take place in a day or in a moment.  Each day and every moment is important, and there are certainly powerful moments of conversion we can all point to.  But conversion of heart is more like the yeast causing the dough to rise.  The conversion of heart is usually something that takes place little by little and step by step.  We allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives in a continually deepening way and, as we do, we grow deeper and deeper in holiness just as dough rises slowly but surely.

As more dough gets added to our lives, more yeast is required, but the result is a bigger loaf of bread that can feed more people.  The larger the field that gets fertilized and tilled when we get plowed over with life's difficulties, the more seeds of God's Kingdom we can sow, producing a larger crop and providing more of God's Kingdom to the world.

The reign of God is the glory revealed even in the midst of our sufferings. It's the glory that's revealed in you and me and through you and me.  It is, as St. Paul calls it, hope.

Our hope is based on the redemptive power of Christ's sacrificial love.  Someday, our earthly sufferings will end at the redemption of our bodies as we leave earth in the embrace of Jesus.  In the meantime, by His redemptive love, our willingness to minister to others transforms all of our sacrifices into great goodness and tremendous glories here on earth.

The Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles

Throughout the Gospels we learn that Jesus did nothing without praying.  So before He chose His apostles, He retired for a period of time to speak with His Father.  One would think that Jesus, being God, would know without consultation what to do.  But here we have the example of the full humanness of the incarnate Godhead.  We also have the example of what we are to do in like circumstances.  There is a clarity that comes from silence all around, from the deep stillness of your environment.  In this silence, the voice of God may be more clearly heard.  The concerns of the day have passed, there is no one pressing upon you the concerns of a new day.  So you are free to take your primary cares to God and implore His help. 

Once He had finished speaking with the Father, Jesus came down from the mountain and named the twelve.  Among them were the two in honor of whom we celebrate this day.  We know relatively little about them except for the “labels” that Luke gives them (Luke 6:12-16).  One key line here is the description of Simon.  Simon was a zealot—the word has come down to us to mean one whose enthusiasm is just short of insanity—almost “terrorist-ic”.  At the time, Zealots were a religious party that believed that the coming of the Messiah would bring about an earthly kingdom with a great prince.  They opposed the occupation of the Holy Land, and it doesn't seem unlikely that they resorted to some of the tactics one finds in opposition to perceived oppression today.  This is important because Jesus shows, by choosing this man, that ideology is also not a dividing line.  God's Kingdom takes in everyone.  And if one is ready to be part of God's Kingdom, it transforms one into a servant of God.  Liberals, conservatives, fascists, revolutionaries, Marxists, totalitarians, monarchists, you name the ideology, Jesus is there to save.  He made Simon one of His intimate twelve as a sign to us that mere political screed did not stand in the way of the advance of the Kingdom.  Jesus showed us through the selection of this great apostle that all are welcome, and no one is beyond the reach of God's saving love.

The other apostle we honor today is Judas, the son of James.  Otherwise known as Thaddeus.  I don’t know why the Church honors them together, on the same date.  Maybe a reason for more research….

At the end of the Apostle’s names, Luke includes Judas Iscariot, "Who became a traitor."  Reading this first, then writing these words, I am moved to tears—most of all for Jesus who was betrayed, for Judas who squandered the opportunity to be moved by grace, and for all of us, who like Judas, betray the Lord whenever we sin.  Judas' traitorous act should remind us that even those who are ostensibly close to the Lord are vulnerable and can fall into terrible sin.

That is why serious examination of our consciences in the silence I wrote about in the opening paragraph is helpful; it can indicate to us what words might be tacked onto our name if today there was a roll of Jesus' present-day followers.

For me could it be "whiner" as I often use my age to get out of doing things that I can, in fact, accomplish with a little will power.  Or "flash in the pan" because I often fail to stay the course and persevere when I finally do start a self-improvement regimen.  With my rosary tonight, I’m going to ask Mother to plead with Jesus to help me change my “label” to ‘prayerful’, ‘cheerful’, or ‘humble’.  Better yet, maybe I should ask to be made ‘holy’; THAT’s a truly worthwhile goal!

Lord, Have mercy on me, a sinner!

Lily, Alicia and I went to the vigil Mass tonight, because we have other commitments tomorrow and won’t be able to go at our usual time.  Tonight was one of those nights when it seemed every word in the Scripture readings and the homily ‘spoke’ directly to my heart.  There are so many rich words from these readings… “though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed” (Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18); “the Lord hears the cry of the poor – those crushed in spirit he saves” (Psalms 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23); “I have competed well, I have finished the race” (2Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18); “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 18:9-14).  

Father Matt’s homily was pretty good, too!  He began with a quote from St. Augustine: “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.”

He went on to give some examples of how our egos get in the way of true humility, and I fit an awful lot of those examples.  I realized that my ego, my ‘one-upmanship’ in a lot of my daily conversations is really nothing more than false pride and, while unintentional, is taking my focus off of my Creator and Benefactor, where it belongs.  I will have to spend quite a bit of time in the confessional this week, that’s for sure.  Dear Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!

We serve this amazing God, this Presence – Who we only know through faith, feeling His presence, reading His word – who protects and loves and cherishes us.  He remembers the least of us.  He is always closer to us than the air we breathe, and yet some will hesitate to mention His name to others, share the gospel, be Christ to others – the homeless on the street, the elderly, the forgotten.

He hears us and loves us unconditionally – we cannot forget Him.  He will never turn His back on us when we feel deserted because He will stand by us and give us strength.  He will never forsake us because we are poor or weak.  He knows all, sees all, and is the final judge who judges justly and affirms the right – but, we must honor Him, revere Him, remember Him, love and respect Him, and continually, and most importantly, pray to Him and never lose sight of His goodness and strength.  Our faith in Him is what saves us, our love of Him is what sustains us, and His goodness and mercy are what carry us through our deepest hurts and our most joyous moments.

Be a "Soul Gardener"

“‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not, you can cut it down.’”  (Luke 13:7-9)

This is an image that reflects our souls many times.  Often in life we can fall into a rut and our relationship with God and others struggles.  As a result, our lives bear little or no good fruit. 

Like the fig tree in in this passage, we all need a bit of cultivation and fertilization to be the best we can be.  The fig tree’s owner wanted to cut down the tree when it stopped bearing fruit.  How often do we rush to judgement as to the worthiness of others?  How quickly do we turn our backs on people (or plants in our garden?) that may need little more than our kindness, our nurturing, our support?

We all have those great role models of faith, hope, and charity who have taken the time to help grow us; to help us blossom and bear good fruit for the world.  This parable should call us to gratitude for having them in our lives and encourage us to return the favor.  In small ways, we can give a little more time to our children and grandchildren, to treat a stranger with kindness, to wink and smile at a child – even when those individuals may not seem open to the love.

Not one of the marginalized of this world is a greater sinner than any of the rest of us.  Not one of the oppressed deserve their fate.  Jesus calls us as sinners to repent, and as children of God to open our heart to the spirit and to love others.  As the beneficiary of both the love of God and the nurturing of other people, we should be happy to share that love, and when we do, to perhaps encourage the baby figs of joy and love in others.  

Working in God's Kingdom

As followers of Christ we are committed to action but have to cope with our frequent failure to live our faith. (Romans 7:18-25a, Luke 12:54-59)

Jesus contrasts His contemporaries’ knowledge and understanding of natural processes with their inability to understand the importance of His presence among them.  With all their knowledge, they are still unable “to interpret the present time.”  The present time is the time of His presence among them, when He announces that God’s Kingdom has come!  It is also the time when He is calling everyone to actively participate in establishing the Kingdom on earth.  He is calling everyone to action!  Like Jesus’ contemporaries we are knowledgeable in many different areas; in history, politics, psychology, gardening, philosophy, and so on.  Like them, we may also not realize the importance of the present time, of the Kingdom of God that is growing among us, and of our commitment to this Kingdom of justice.

Most of the time we are aware of the need to live our commitment to God’s Kingdom in whatever we are doing.  However, we also experience what Paul describes in the first reading of today: we want to do good, but instead do something bad, that we don’t really intend to do.  We want to be supportive of relatives who need a good word but instead waste time and energy with our smart phones and other devices.  We want to live “green” but instead avoid carpooling, or don’t recycle.  We want to spend quality time with our partners and children but instead decide to focus on our work.  The list of such failures is long.  At times we may be tempted to give up the ideals that are part of our faith commitment.  Why to bother with wanting to do good if we cannot live up to our ideals!

It’s like we have lost our judgment.  True judgment involves the whole person mentally; memory, intellect, and will.  Memory assists us in recognizing the pattern or the action from the past.  Intellect helps us discern what is the proper course of action.  The will must be invoked to act on the proper course of action.

Of course all three of these are covered by grace.  By ourselves we can do no good.  It is only with God's assistance that we can discern and act upon the proper way.  God has clearly marked out the path for us and gives us the grace for the strength to follow it.  We must learn to reorder our faculties to desire what God desires for us and not to desire that God should change His will to suit our needs.

Saint Paul shows us how to deal with our frustrations.  He doesn’t give up because he is convinced that God will do something good through him.  What for an encouraging insight!  Despite our failures, God will do something good through us.

In Luke, we are advised how to respond to failures.  If things go wrong, we should not overly worry; we should not lose our ideals and motivation; we should not give up.  Instead we should “settle the matter on the way”!  We should simply ask God for forgiveness for our failures, apologize to others, and then continue being involved in working for His Kingdom.

Failures are common in our commitment to God’s Kingdom, but we believe that God will nevertheless do something good through us, will forgive us when things go wrong, and guide us in our involvement with his Kingdom. Our role is to pray, keep informed, and then step into the darkness, the unknown, with FAITH.

Faith, Hope and Love Fuel the Fire of the Kingdom

Fire is a powerful force, one that the scriptures frequently incorporate to indicate the presence of the Almighty.  Abraham prepared an altar for a fire to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22); the Israelites followed a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21); an angel touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal to purify him for the task of prophesying (Isaiah 6: 7-13); Moses encounters God in a burning bush (Exodus 3:2).  Many indigenous peoples incorporate fire as a cleansing part of their spirituality, through smoke and incense and sweat lodges.  Fires cleanse grasslands of accumulated dead and decaying growth, and fires rejuvenate forests as part of the natural process of fostering new growth.  Visiting a forest or a grassland immediately after a fire is a stark reminder of the power of fire, but returning a year or two later and seeing the incredible recuperative force of the earth to refresh itself through wildflowers and seedlings is an uplifting reminder of the genius of the Creator in putting these forces in balance.      

We all know that fire needs fuel.  Building a controlled fire that meets its intended purpose (provide warmth, cook food, etc.) requires attention and a supply of good fuel.  The builder of the fire needs to consider all the natural conditions and possible impediments to the fire or else the fire will not fulfill its purpose.

Why is Jesus eager to build a fire? (Luke 12: 49-53)   What is the fuel that His fire needs?  What are the intended results He hopes to accomplish?  The fire He wants to build is one in the heart, one that is fueled by the love and care and respect that He has felt and about which He teaches, and the faith and love of those who believe in and follow His message.  His fire is an animating force for good, not for destruction.  It is an extension of God’s presence in us.  Jesus wants this fire as His legacy – the fire of love by which Christians are known, a true kingdom of God on earth.  Jesus knew that not everyone can accept this love, nor act on it consistently and with conviction.  So there will be division, unrest, unease, since not everyone will accept or understand this fire of the heart in the way Jesus intended.

Not under the law, but under grace...

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul speaks to his brother and sister Christians about how, in Christ, they are “not under the law but under grace.”  And then he speaks to a very human response to this: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!” (Romans 6:12-18)

We would be tempted to “sin because we are not under the law but under grace” if our relationship to Jesus was merely a legalistic one, and we were only trying to push the “legal” boundaries of what we could or could not do.  But if we were in a personal relationship with Jesus, and we truly grew to love Him, why would we consider abusing the relationship in that way?  Thinking in that way is an abuse of a loving relationship, just as it would be between two human beings.  We don’t take our loved ones for granted in that way, do we?

Jesus says something similar to His disciples when He uses an image of a master of a house and a thief coming to break in to talk about being prepared for when the “Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12:39-48)  When Peter asks if this is meant for them (the apostles) or for everyone, Jesus uses another image: that of a “faithful and prudent steward” who is found doing his duty when the master arrives. He also says: “But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the manservants and the maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely…”  Again, if that unfaithful servant had a loving relationship with his master, he would not have been unfaithful.

If we get away from a legalistic or transactional kind of relationship and instead accept God’s love and seek to love God in return, we will be willing to be faithful servants.  And when we do turn away from God, it will not take much for us to turn back.  May we be willing to enter into that kind of relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

It's grace that empowers us to resist sin.  Without it, we repeatedly fail.  That’s why the Sacrament of Confession is extraordinarily helpful.  Since this avenue of forgiveness is a sacrament, we receive more than forgiveness: We receive God's grace.

However, if we offer ourselves to God before we sin, we put ourselves into his grace and receive his aid for resisting temptation.  The Blessed Mother was able to avoid sinning because she was full of grace.  Grace is God's supernatural gift to help us rise above our sinful tendencies.

The more Christ-like we become, the easier it is to resist temptation.  However, holiness is a difficult journey.  Desiring to be Christ-like isn't enough to keep us from sinning.  We need supernatural grace.

Grace empowers us.  Without grace, we're enslaved to sin, which leads to death; the death of our souls.  With grace, we choose the path of obedience, doing what God wants us to do, because we love Him and want to be like Him, rather than doing what we're tempted to do apart from God.  By choosing to place ourselves under His benevolent authority, we accept the holy power of our Good Master, and this enables us to be righteous.

Surrender (offering ourselves to God) is the catalyst that turns a temptation into a victory.  Thus, if I feel hurt by an injustice done to me and vengeful anger begins to dictate my response, I can choose to pause and place myself under God's grace.  This means choosing to be merciful to those who treated me unfairly, praying for them and, if appropriate, finding a good deed to do for them, treating them better than the way they treated me.  Under God's grace, I can take this holy approach.  Under God's grace, with the anger gone, I can figure out how He wants me to bring justice to the situation.

Surrender and obedience stop temptation and prevent sin.  Handling others gracefully gets our focus off of their sins and helps us pay attention to how Jesus Himself is giving us the love and the goodness that others have denied to us.

Only under God's grace can we successfully do the opposite of what we're tempted to do.  Only under God's grace are we able to be victorious in our walk of holiness.  By the grace of God, we live in righteousness and change the world around us.

Grace also comes to us by fostering a daily habit of interior prayer.  An interior habit of prayer means we are, in a sense, always praying.  It means that no matter what we do each and every day, our minds and hearts are always turned toward God.  It’s like breathing.  We always do it and do it without even thinking about it.  Prayer must become just as much of a habit as breathing.  It must be central to who we are and how we live.

The moments we dedicate exclusively to prayer each day are essential to our holiness and relationship with God.  Those moments must help to build a habit of always being attentive to God.  Being prepared this way will allow us to meet Christ at every moment that He comes to us by grace.

Missing PaPa

Francesco “Frank” Calvelli was born in Glasgow, NY on June 14, 1914.  Actually, he was born on the 17^th, according to his birth certificate and Social Security records, but he told everybody he was born on Flag Day, and out of respect and love we all just accepted it.  Of course, it didn’t matter that Flag Day wasn’t even proclaimed by Woodrow Wilson until 1916, Frank was so patriotic it just made sense to everybody who knew him. One day, during a conversation with him, he told me that although he was extremely proud of his Italian heritage (both of his parents were from Italy), he was prouder to be American.  He went on to say that he had seen a lot of other countries in the world and that America was the best, “hands down”.

When he was two years old, his family moved to Stockton California, where he grew up, went to school and helped on the family ranch.  At 27, he joined the US Army and served in the Tank and Artillery Corps under General Patton, seeing action in Italy and Northern Africa.  He didn’t like to tell ‘war stories’ or talk much about his experiences in the war.  He told me once that he continued to have nightmares long after his discharge.  He did tell some of us a few stories, though.  One story in particular that I won’t forget is one that he told my daughter Sarah:

While he was stationed in Italy about 1943, he and his buddies went into town one day.  He happened upon a nun, who explained she was looking for a little coffee for the parish priest, who had a heart condition and couldn’t get out of his rectory.  Frank gave her his coffee, and in return she gave him a small statue of St. Anthony holding the Child Jesus in his arms.  She told him it would keep him safe and get him home safely.  It apparently worked, because Frank returned home from WWII in 1945 safe and sound.

Once home, he met and fell in love with Patricia Lord, and they got married in 1953. Over the next 12 years, they had 4 kids; Marilyn, Frankie, Carolyn and Victoria.  Fast forward to 1973, when I met and fell in love with Marilyn.

I remember coming up the sidewalk next to the garage leading to the front door of the house on Country Club to pick Marilyn up for our first date.  Frank and Pat were there to greet me!  I had heard stories of fathers who loved to give their daughter’s dates the ‘third degree’ upon meeting them, so I was quite nervous.  I knew Marilyn liked me, but her parents??!  Both of her parents smiled and laughed and made me feel welcome as a member of their family from that first day.

Since I had lost my father only about a year and a half earlier, I bonded with Frank as if he were my own dad.  I went to him for advice and sometimes he gave me unsolicited advice, as any man does with his son.  We also had a few conversations about politics and religion, but those were not as lively as when we talked about wrestling or our families.  

At Frank and Pat’s 25^th wedding anniversary in 1978, I asked Frank for his secret to a long marriage and a happy family.  I was anxious for any advice, since Marilyn and I were expecting our first child the following February.  After a few solid jokes about ‘happy Wife, happy Life’ and ‘staying out of the weeds’ and so on, he got serious.  When I asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he had held up one finger and said “Respect”.  It was the most important virtue he was looking for in a son-in-law; respect for his daughter and respect for her family.  He held up two fingers this time. “Two things.”  He said them with a definite emphasis. “Respect. Pride.  Always treat your wife with respect and have pride in your family, through good times and bad.  Anybody can say they’re in ‘love’.  Respect and pride prove it.”  Since I can’t remember in the 45 years Marilyn and I have been married ever having any bad times with her or our family, it’s evidence enough for me that his advice was right on.

I can’t tell you the exact date, but I’m pretty sure it was within days of Alicia’s birth that “Frank” and “Dad” was replaced by “Pa Pa”.  His grandchildren were such a source of pride and amusement for him!  He was the quintessential Italian American grandfather.  At family functions, if things were getting a bit noisy or rambunctious, he would shout out (with a half-smile) “Basta!  Enough!”  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.  But it always got a laugh from some of us.  

He passed away on October 23, 1995.  I sure miss the guy.  I’d love to share grandfather stories with him.  And I know he’d love to know his great-grandchildren.  They give me the courage and conviction to carry on his advice of “Respect. Pride.” 

"Open Immediately"

Jesus said to his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.”  (Luke 12:35-36)

In modern life we have all grown accustomed to instant gratification.  Our technology allows us to quickly and easily answer simple life questions like, “What was the score of the game last night?” or “What is the weather going to be like today?”  All we have to do is pull it up on our smart phones or ask Alexa.  Likewise, most of the foods we eat are heavily laden with sugar so that when we feel the uncomfortableness of hunger or low energy, we can grab a quick snack and quell these feelings within seconds.  Without thinking too deeply, modernity seems to be a wonderful thing.  But perhaps it is also making it difficult for us to be patient and wait for what is yet to come; something that will bring greater rewards than instant gratification can offer.

Instant gratification is a wonderful thing when we want to know the score of the game.  But, do these same expectations spill over into other parts of our lives, such as our spirituality?  I know that it does for me.  If I let myself go unchecked, I can get impatient and frustrated that God’s plan is not moving at the same pace as my own expectations.  Perhaps this is what Jesus was saying to his disciples in Luke’s reading – “put aside your personal desires and time schedules and be patient.”  And, perhaps it’s in the quiet and waiting where we will find God.  Perhaps the quiet and waiting allows our minds to slow enough that we’re in the best possible state of mind to receive the grace of God.

The key is that we are to “open immediately” when Jesus comes and knocks on the door of our heart.  This passage reveals the disposition that we are to have in our hearts regarding the way Christ comes to us, by grace, and “knocks.”

Jesus is knocking on our heart.  He is continually coming to us seeking to come in and recline with us so as to converse, strengthen, heal and help.  The question to honestly ponder is whether or not we’re ready to let Him in immediately.  Too often we hesitate in our encounter with Christ.  Too often we want to know the full plan for our lives before we are willing to submit and surrender. 

What we must come to know is that Jesus is trustworthy in every way.  He has the perfect answer to every question we have, and He has the perfect plan for every aspect of our lives.  Once we accept this truth, we will be better prepared to open the door of our heart at the first prompting of grace.  We will be prepared to be immediately attentive to all that Jesus wants to say to us and to the grace He wants to give us.

I pity the fool

Life does not consist of possessions, but possessions are a necessary part of life.  Things don’t matter to God, but what we do with things does matter.  Some of us have great wealth and good health; others have poverty and physical afflictions.  All of us, though, are called to use what we have been given to bring us closer to God.  All of us are called to discern whether we are using the things we have been given as God intended for us to use them.  All of us are called to be generous with our gifts, whatever those gifts might be.  All of us are called to be detached from our possessions, and not to hold them greedily.

We’re greedy if we are focused on keeping what we have for us, instead of using what we’ve been given for the greater glory of God.  We are greedy if we dwell on our misfortunes, ill health or other seemingly negative gifts with regret and bitterness, instead of using these possessions as paths to find greater comfort in God’s arms.  If we selfishly keep what we have, and do not find the way to respond generously to what we’ve been given, we’re not rich in what matters to God.

We all are called to know and love and follow Jesus.  We are called to read about His life here on earth. We are called to listen to His teaching and to obey His commands.  In doing this we become rich in what matters to God.

But we have to do it continually during our lives here on earth. We can't put off following Jesus until some future date because we don't know how much longer our life might last.  We have time now to begin to grow rich in what matters to God.  We might not have time later on.

As we look around us in today's world, we can see people who are like the rich man Jesus tells about in Luke 12:13-21.  They accumulate great wealth in order to live a worldly life of ease and comfort and pleasure.  They’re selfish and think only of themselves and their own happiness.  They give no indication of being concerned about life after death.  Unless they change their ways, they risk the same fate that befell the rich man in Jesus’ parable.  May we all become rich in what matters to God.

Is that you, Lord?

There is one in every parish, it seems.

At Saint Anne’s in Lodi, he's there every night for the 5:30p.m. Mass.  He’s the guy you go out of your way to cross the street to avoid; unshaven, always the same wrinkled clothes, and cheap sandals on his feet.  But he slips into the chapel every night at about 5:29 to listen to the Word of God and share in the Eucharist. He never kneels, never sits. He only stands with his hands folded and his eyes on the crucifix. He is always the last in line to receive Our Lord; both the Host and the Precious Blood.  When Mass is over, he feels obligated to open the door for everyone to leave and to give them a smile.

At Saint Helen’s church in Fresno, she's the elderly Filipino lady who knows the words to every hymn, but obviously not the notes.  She wears a head covering and the rosary beads in her hands keep count as she says her Hail Marys under her breath throughout the Mass and her face glows when she receives the Eucharist.  She is always last in line to receive both the Host and the Precious Blood.

In Bakersfield, he's there at Saint Joseph’s—no matter what Mass I attend, or whatever hour I decide to attend Adoration—the old Mexican man with his harmonica, his arthritis-gnarled hands, and his hunched back.  His quirks are a little different from a lot of other people, but they are servitude in nature.  He will grab a bunch of bulletins, or missalettes, or whatever else is in the church to read then tap everyone on the shoulder and offer it to whoever wants it.  During Mass, he's the unofficial "music minister".  He knows about 5 tunes on his harmonica; "Holy God, We Praise Your Name", "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Taps" and "The Halls of Montezuma".  Unfortunately, they all sound eerily similar.  He yawns loudly, though involuntarily, throughout the Mass except during the prayer of Consecration and when he receives the Eucharist; always the last in line to receive the Host and the Precious Blood.

At the Cathedral in Stockton, he is the guy who sits in the very last pew during daily Mass when there are only about 20 people total in attendance.  But you hear him respond when he's supposed to, in that booming, unmistakable voice.  Again, he's the last to receive, and under both Species.

In my own family it was my mother, who, after becoming so infirm she couldn’t leave the house to attend Mass, made arrangements to have the Eucharist brought to her as often as possible; and also prayed persistently not for her needs, but for the needs of others.

They all remind me of the parable of the persistent woman of prayer in Luke 18.  At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus asks His disciples, “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)

I have confidence that He will.  I strive to be like the "one in every parish" one day in a simple, fervent, and humble faith.

In a movie I saw once about Saint Mother Teresa, she noticed a man lying in the middle of the street crying out for help and no one seemed to notice him.  Mother Teresa knelt down beside him and the man simply said, "I thirst."  She immediately recognized Christ in "the poorest of the poor".

He's the same Christ I see in those faithful men and women whether I'm in the church in Lodi, Fresno, Bakersfield, or Stockton. He’s the same Christ I remember in my mother.  He's the same Christ I look for in anyone who is suffering, yet trusting in the mercy of God.  Have YOU seen Him, too?

Quality Gifts from the Holy Spirit

St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans (Rom 4:13-18), reflects upon the quality of Abraham’s faith, when God promised him that he would be the Father of a great nation.  Abraham and Sarah, his wife, were advanced in age. How could this be possible?  Abraham believed that God would be faithful to His Promise and that God, indeed, would make him the Father of a great nation.  It was this Faith that St. Paul praises in his letter to the Romans.  This is the kind of Faith that all are called to have in the promises of God.  We do not earn faith or grace, but we receive Faith and Grace as gift.

This is why there is a close relationship between Faith and Hope.  Hope is such an important part of our Faith life.  We see this as we reflect upon our own faith journey.  At the beginning, we want everything to go well.  If things go wrong, we begin to doubt that God is with us and we begin to complain to God, asking God to remove these troubles from our life.  Some even think that God is displeased with us when we have bad things happen to us.  It’s difficult to walk by Faith when things are not going well.  This is when we need to Hope against hope.  Not only do we need to continue to believe that God is there for us, but we also need to Hope that the troubles we have will not delay God’s promise.  When we lose Faith and when we lose Hope, we lose our way, we give in to temptations that surround us, and we make bad decisions that lead us to hopelessness.  Even then, God will be faithful and call us back to where we belong.

Our Lord tells us in the gospel (Luke 12: 8-12) that when we are brought before the authorities to answer for our faith in Christ, we are not to worry about what to say, because the Holy Spirit will be our guide.  In today's world most of us will never be dragged before the authorities on this account (although it seems more and more likely these days), but we do sometimes find ourselves confronted by friends, coworkers or even family who strongly question our beliefs.

What is your response?  As Christ teaches in this gospel, it should come to us through the Holy Spirit as it has to others for ages.  One way to be sure it is the Holy Spirit is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts, words and actions.  

I have often been amazed at how believers spoke when placed in the most terrible spot.  Take the first martyr (and, of course, one of my favorite saints), Saint Stephen.  He was a relatively new Christian and did not have the benefit of years of Christian teaching.  But when faced with certain death, He spoke as powerfully as the Lord Himself.  This has been repeated through the ages as believers have been tortured and killed for their beliefs and always, they were able to speak with authority and with faith.

Faith is reflective action, not merely words.  Do we acknowledge Jesus if we attend Mass on Sunday and ignore those around us who are hungry?  Do we acknowledge Jesus if we follow the rule of not stealing someone’s goods and then don’t act to change our economic systems so there is a fairer distribution of goods? (CCC 2408).  Do we acknowledge Jesus if we refrain from physically harming another person and yet don’t act to change our society so domestic and other acts of violence are reduced?

We manifest faith by acting on our beliefs, by living lives that are consistent with what we say is important to us, and by reflecting on our actions (or lack of actions) and questioning whether our motives and our directions are consistent with what we hear as God’s call to us.  We acknowledge Jesus by following His call to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to do social justice in this life.  We know that if we do, Jesus will acknowledge us in the next.

Discipleship & Evangelization, Feast Days & Birthdays

Every October 18th, we celebrate the feast of the person who accompanied St. Paul on his missionary journeys; who wrote the third Gospel as well as an account of the earliest churches, the Acts of the Apostles. He was a Greek Gentile from Antioch, and a physician and thus the patron saint of physicians and surgeons. Indeed, I'm writing about the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist.

Some special features unique to Luke’s Gospel illustrate a loving focus on Mary, the Mother of Jesus: the annunciation to Mary of her vocation in relation with Jesus as his mother; the beautiful prayer associated with that event, the Magnificat; the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem and his subsequent missing the convoy after it. Also special to Luke’s gospel is his interest in the poor and a tenderness for those who suffer. Tradition has it that Luke had a continuing caring relationship with Mary throughout the course of her life after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The gospel for the feast day's liturgy reflects on the sending out of the disciples (two by two), another gospel story special to Luke alone among the gospel writers. These disciples are to precede Jesus to the places that he will soon visit and announce that the Kingdom of God is present among the people there.

Discipleship then becomes the Gospel’s focus today. Mary, the ultimate disciple of Jesus, Luke himself, and the disciples of Jesus spread out to do the work Jesus invites them to accomplish. These special folks are the models for our contemporary discipleship, each of us is called by our Christian lives to minister to others.

Here’s where we fit in. We, contemporary disciples of Jesus the Christ, have the same ministry as his disciples: to announce the Kingdom of God. We accomplish that task in myriad ways. Each time we exercise love towards others (friend of foe), each call we respond to in faith, every simple kindness offered, our every growth in love, becomes a form and expression of being a disciple of Jesus.

 A few years ago, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was holding a Q&A session with some young adults.  One of the questions asked was “How can I evangelize—or for that matter even keep my own faith strong—when I have to work among men and women who have no interest in God in general or religion in particular?”  His answer was (in a nutshell) to show his co-workers and everyone else he encountered in daily life his faith through his joy in knowing Jesus, and that would lead some of them to at least yearn for that same joy.  It’s up to us to plant the seed let the Holy Spirit take over from there to cultivate the conversion to Christ.

How providential that my family also celebrates my grandmother's birthday on October 18th, as well, because this is how I remember my Grandma Batty.  I don’t remember her ever raising her voice or using harsh words.  Whenever I heard her speak of our Catholic faith, which was often, I could feel the joy emanating from her.  What I remember most is her commitment to Christ (first) and her family, her prayers, and her humility.  I credit her and my mother most for introducing me to what a prayer life should look like and what I should strive for.  Grandma had that perfect mix of non-verbal evangelization Cardinal Dolan was speaking of and the ‘hard-core’ evangelization of the disciples Jesus sent out in today’s Gospel.

What I credit my sister with is much more spiritual.  What??? My sister???? She was only alive for a few minutes after birth—just long enough to be baptized.  I like to say that I have a “twin” of sorts—my “Irish twin”.  Irish twins are children who are born less than a year apart.  I am 11 months older than Dorothy would have been.

You’ve probably heard about twins, and how they share a sort of “sixth sense” bond.  They can be on opposite sides of the country when out of the blue, they both get an idea or thought at the same time.  Or one will be ill and the other will know it without being told.  Strange stuff, but ever since I found out about Dorothy, I’ve felt that sort of bond—by that I mean a “sixth sense” sort of bond.  It’s like she has been charged by God with watching over her family from Heaven and praying for us when we need “saint-strength” prayers.  Since she didn’t live very long, she couldn’t possibly have sinned.  Her Original Sin was washed away by her baptism.  So my belief is that she is in Heaven right now, helping us through her prayers to grow closer to our Savior.  There have been many, many times in my life when I have faced doubts about my faith.  Then, a thought of Dorothy will intrude on my thoughts and erase my doubts.  Hers is another birthday we celebrate on this feast day.

These examples become our joy, not a dreaded duty. God blesses our world through us.  We are the conduit of God’s love in our world. What an honor that is!

Something to Boast About

This is an age of boasting.  Boasting is everywhere these days, but perhaps especially on social media where boasting knows no bounds.  Athletes boast.  So do celebrities and politicians (a certain President comes to mind).  But so do most of us.  We boast about our appearance, our accomplishments, the number of our friends, the size of our homes and all the stuff that fills them, the fun we are having at parties, concerts, or while on vacation.  It’s as if we’ve become better at boasting than anything else—and that should worry us.  The trouble with boasting is that it leads us to believe that if anything good happens to us, it’s all because of us.  We have no reason to be grateful, no reason to give thanks, no reason to be indebted.  If that’s the case, we are living deeply out of touch with reality.

St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans (Rom 3:21-30) asks: “What occasion is there then for boasting?”  Paul poses the question in a passage where he recounts all that God has done for us.  In a few swift sentences, Paul reminds us that God owes us nothing, but has given us everything.  The rock bottom truth about every last one of us is that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.”  There is absolutely nothing we can do to rescue or redeem ourselves, nothing we can do to give ourselves hope.  It is all a gift of God’s endless love, goodness, and mercy.  Also, to know that we have, as Paul insists, been justified by faith is to realize that from the beginning to the end of our lives we are radically and continuously dependent on God’s grace.  Even more, no person, no group, no community, and no nation can claim to be better or more deserving than any other person, group, community, or nation because all of us, Paul declares, are recipients of God’s mercy.

If we would remember this, our boasting days would be over.  And then we could really start to live.  We have reason to hope, because the mercy and fullness of redemption are ours with the Lord.  We can count on it, just as the sentinels count on the dawn, even while they wait (Psalm 130:6).

Teresa of Avila can help us in this regard.  In her autobiography, entitled Her Life, Teresa lists a number of obstacles that prevented her from making progress in the spiritual life.  The third obstacle she lists is “self-reliance.”  Teresa insisted on the need to trust God for everything and to be cautious about “doing things” for God.  Yes, by all means—we need to cooperate and say, “yes” to the grace and inspirations that the Lord gives us.  But everything is a gift of God—including our good inspirations.

The hands and feet of Christian living

My daughter Sarah posted this cartoon on Facebook.  I thought it would be good fodder for my meditation tonight, and ties in well with my meditation on the Scripture for tomorrow morning (Wednesday).

Justice and love go hand-in-hand. Justice is not revenge, nor is it punishment. It's fairness. Love is the heart of Christian living; justice is its hands and feet.

Justice is not fairness as in: "Anything is okay as long as no one gets hurt".  Even when legislatures and courts declare a law as just and fair, if it's not in accordance with the laws of God, people do get hurt. Not even the smallest sin can be justified, not even when it seems loving.  Sinners get hurt by their separation from God, even if they do not recognize the separation.  The target of the sin gets hurt, even if the damage is not visible, as do many others, because the effect of the sin ripples farther than any of us can see.

Sometimes we think that justice means retaliation.  It's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth", but this is an unredeemed sort of justice.  When Jesus came to redeem the world, He gave us the Golden Rule: Do to others what you'd like them to do to you, even though they might not do it to you, because you love your enemies and you're willing to go the extra mile for them.

Jesus raised us above the pre-redemption attitude of "do to others what they did to you, ha-ha, now we're even." In Christ, justice means protecting ourselves from further harm without a spirit of vengeance.  We care about our enemies while taking good care of ourselves.

Sometimes we think that if no one demands their God-given right to be treated fairly, it's okay to overlook injustices, or if we don't see a way to resolve the unfairness, it's okay to do nothing about it. This is why bullies in the workplace are allowed to continue doing harm, prejudices continue to keep the downtrodden down, and insulting remarks about others are accepted as merely a brief lapse in good manners -- even in the Church!

Woe are we for the injustices of society when we who are the Church are not teaching what true justice looks like!

True justice is described in by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (Romans 2:1-11).  "Affliction and distress will come upon everyone who does evil."  This is not the punishment of a revenging God. It's a "woe to you because you are reaping what you sow." God's anger is based on a genuine concern for those who are caught in the traps of sin.  He's upset about the choices we make that cause our woe-full self-inflicted anguish.

The challenge before us is to learn what we can do about the injustices that God brings to our attention, then discern when and where and how to take action, caring for the victims and also caring about those who are committing the injustices.  If we don't say yes to this challenge, woe are we!

Perception is not always reality

They say perception is reality ...and often it can be -- when we make efforts to create a certain appearance to the outside world. We can do such a good job that we become what we were pretending to be! This works in the material world but with our spiritual side it's a bit more difficult! While on the outside we can 'appear' to be leading an exemplary life -- our inner desires, motivations, resentments could be creating a different, hidden version of ourselves which is more the 'reality' of our true nature.

Jesus reminds us to look inside first and foremost and not be so concerned with the externalities (Luke 11: 37-41).  When we examine our hearts and minds and identify blockages to love and healing, only then are we free to invite Jesus to come and fill the darkness with His light. Our Faith calls us to leave the darkness behind and to live and be reflectors of eternal light.

I recall the times I didn't stop to help the hungry, the sick, the homeless and the forgotten. Perhaps, like the Pharisee, I was so filled with selfishness that I couldn't give what I didn't have. But since Jesus especially loves the poor, and He loves me too, I know I'll be given another chance.

An Age-old Message, An Age-old Sign

Jesus says to the people of His time that they are living in an evil age that seeks a sign (Luke 11:29-32). He goes on to tell them that just as Jonah was a sign for the Ninevites, He will be the sign for the present age.  This means, to me, that Jesus’ death and Resurrection IS the sign that was given.  We should seek nothing other than this central mystery of our faith.  Every question, problem, concern, confusion, etc., can be answered and dealt with if we simply enter into the great mystery of our redemption by entering into the life, death and Resurrection of Christ. 

The best way I know of entering into this great mystery is in the Mass, the re-presentation of the passion and death of Jesus on Calvary.  Another way I immerse myself in the mystery is through the Rosary, meditating on the life of Christ from the Announcement to Mary of His Conception to His Glorious Resurrection.

Seeking a sign other than this would be wrong in that it would be a way of saying that the death and Resurrection of Jesus is not enough.  Unless our hearts are open to the teachings of Jesus, we and the world in this evil age will fail to read the signs of our times, fail to do what the Almighty wants and will see accomplished.  For our part, may we use the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the road map for our salvation and share it with others that they too may gain everlasting life.

And simply put, what is the message of Jesus' incarnation, passion and glorious Resurrection? It is none other than this: we are to love God with our whole heart, and our neighbor as ourselves; an age-old message, an age-old sign.

This will show in our actions toward others; "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love", as the popular song goes (John 13:35).  It also shows through the eternal, immutable joy we will feel in all circumstances.  If God matters and is present in all the passages of our lives, we will have joy in this present darkness.  We need nothing more than this.