Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This is one of those fascinating stories of the Gospels: normally Jesus is telling us not to be like the worldly, to be different, but today He holds the worldly up as a good example for us – “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” You can almost hear the lament in His voice, - why can’t you be more like them!

What is He talking about?

A few years ago, I remember hearing about Tom Cruise, or maybe some other actor was taking a new role for a movie and he needed to bulk up for it. He went on a strict regimen for three months of intense workouts every day, the consumption of energy drinks and only the most healthy of meals, the complete avoidance of fatty foods, snacks, desserts, and drinking. All of this so that he might have a little more earthly fame and money.

How about us Christians – we try to fast for a day, or abstain for meat on a Friday or deny ourselves a dessert now and then and we think we are practicing superhuman virtue – we agonize over it – we think “what sacrifice I’m making!” And we try to avoid it as much as possible – this even though we know that fasting helps give us mastery over our self and helps our spiritual life, and gains us lasting treasure in Heaven. This while the worldly discipline themselves and sacrifice much for a little passing glory.

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

Or how about corporate America? What happens when a company realizes that it is not achieving their goal? Let’s say a company realizes they’ve lost 3% of their market share – what do they do? They call a meeting of all of the department heads, they work and work and work, they brainstorm every creative way possible to regain the loss, and they persist, persist, persist until they achieve their goal.

How about us? We decide to work on our prayer life. We decide we’re going to set aside 15 minutes every day for quiet prayer. The first day goes well, the second, the third, and then the fourth day our child gets sick and we don’t have time to fit it in. The next day something in the kitchen breaks and we use all of our free time fixing it. On the sixth day, we throw up our hands and say, “oh forget about it, I knew it would never work – my life is too busy for this!”

Where is our creativity, our persevering and looking for every way to make it work? They do it for 3% more market share – we won’t do it for a deeper relationship with the Living God, the source and end of our entire lives.

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

Or let’s take a look at the financial investor. They get up early in the morning and scour the newspaper for information about their stocks. They study the business news to see which companies will be doing best. When they find a stock that will produce 10% they work hard to move all of their money from the lesser performing stocks into it. They cut corners, they try everything to transfer as much wealth as possible into the more productive stocks.

And what of us? We know Jesus tells us “do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust can decay but store up wealth in Heaven.” And how do we get it into heaven – through the hands of the poor. The Scriptures make clear that this is the most “productive stock.” Everything we place into the hands of the poor precedes us to Heaven where it will return a hundredfold. This is the explosive stock. Do we find ways to cut out excess spending, so that we can move more funds into this most productive of stocks? Do we seek to worry less about our IRA’s and more about our ERA. IRA of course being Individual Retirement Account, ERA is our Eternal Retirement Account. We know how to build this fund up – through the hands of the poor.

The worldly investor is efficient and diligent with their resources. But the Christian who knows where the true wealth will be found?

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

So what do we do with Jesus’ admonition? What would the worldly do? In fact that should be a new motto – you remember WWJD – what would Jesus do? - but He is telling us to ask the question WWWD – what would the worldly do?

We should ask what would the worldly do in these situations and then do it.

For example if a worldly person knew that if they prayed for 15 minutes each day they would get an extra million dollars at the end of the year - How persistent would they be? What creativity would they use to make it work? Then we should do the same.

You’ve heard of books like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the 10 secrets of the richest people in the world. Well, I’ve just given you the 3 Habits of the Most Wealthy Saints of Heaven - three habits that everyone of these saints we see in these windows practiced, three habits that will help us store up a treasure in Heaven - PRAYER, FASTING, and ALMSGIVING. – these are the three habits.

We pray in this Mass that we might commit ourselves to these three habits with the same discipline, creativity, diligence and perseverance with which the worldly would.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Today we have the most famous, or at least one of the most famous parables of Jesus – the story of the Prodigal Son. But I want us to look at this Gospel from a different side. I want us to see ourselves not as the prodigal son today, but as being in the Father’s House. For that is where we are – we are in the Father’s House, we are in the House of God – His dwelling is here with us – His Eucharistic Presence in this Tabernacle.

As we look to the parable we hear of that first conversion of the son. This is the conversion From. It is a conversion from the misery that his way of life had led to. He realizes that the path he chose was a path of emptiness, that it did not and could not fill. And so he heads back to His Father’s House – the place where he was once fed.

The second conversion I’m sure happens when he sees the depths of his father’s love, when his father comes running out to him, and welcomes him back, with open arms. He had to be struck by the beauty of his father’s mercy, of his love, of his holiness. And this is where the second, the deeper conversion occurs. If you have ever been confronted by real beauty, you know how that feeling, that sentiment arises within you – “I am not worthy of this…I want to be made worthy of such beauty.” This is the conversion For. It is a conversion for something. No longer are we just fleeing the misery, but now we have found something wondrous, great, beautiful – and we feel unworthy in its presence. This is where that deeper conversion takes root. The Prodigal Son is struck by the beauty of his father’s love.

The question for us today is: How do we let the beauty, the glory of the Father shine through this parish – through the Father’s House? So that when the prodigal sons return they will be able to experience not the coldness of the brother but the beauty, the holiness, the glory of the Father.

I want to tell you a tale of two parishes.
These two parishes are the parishes I was going to when I had my “reversion” when I began to realize that the life I was living was leading nowhere, that the life I was leading was empty and I decided to go back to the Father’s House to see if there was anything there that could fill me.

Both parishes were filled with good people. Both were very welcoming and friendly. But there were also plenty of good people in my dorm, I was looking for more.
In the one parish I didn’t find much more. It was a very plain church – hardly any sacred art, nothing that captured or lifted up my heart. The priest celebrated the Mass haphazardly – I could hardly believe that he really believed that he held God in his hands during the consecration, and thus the people likewise showed little devotion. It was a community of nice people but there seemed to be nothing more, nothing that could lead me into that second conversion.

The other parish was different. The other parish had lots of beautiful sacred art, stained-glass windows (though not as beautiful as these in St. Peter), and a beautiful crucifix which hung over the altar telling me that this is what was occuring on that altar. The priest celebrated the Mass very devoutly. You could see that he really believed that Jesus was being made present when he spoke those words of consecration. The people in turn received the Eucharist with great devotion. Not only that, but they had Eucharistic Adoration. Now we have Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday, but they had perpetual adoration meaning that there was somebody before the Blessed Sacrament day and night 7 days a week, 24 hours a day (we’re not there yet, but with time we’ll get there). I realized that these people must really believe, if they are spending all hours of the week in the Presence of the Eucharist. I realized that these people thought there was something greater among them than simply themselves, that somehow God was breaking into the world at this Mass. I was humbled at the beauty and the holiness of it all, I began to yearn to be made worthy of such beauty, I had begun the second conversion.

Pope Benedict has said that there are only two things that will bring people back to the Church in the end: Beauty – the beauty of Christian art – the great sacred expressions of our Faith and Holiness – the example of the saints and the lives of holy people. Beauty and Holiness will lead to the second conversion.

Now our parish is doing well in both of these. I’ve been edified by your holiness and goodness since coming here, but in the spiritual life…we can always do more.

In the area of beauty, we have already begun plans for moving the choir and organ to the loft, where they will be able to lead us from behind, and help lift our voices with theirs to God. We are looking at possibilities of putting tile down in the sanctuary area (replacing the carpet) expressing that permanence and unchanging nature of God and the Faith in an always-changing world. We have talked to about having a beautiful mural of the Crucifixion painted and set above the altar on this back wall – reminding us of what is actually occurring at this Mass. These improvements to the already existing beauty of our church will help give us that encounter with the transcendent beauty of God. And although this will obviously cost a bit, I’m sure we can do it. In fact it will be the easier one of the two. For the other is holiness.

We are challenged to grow in holiness together. As I mentioned both parishes had “good” people, but a prodigal son is looking for more than that – he is looking for a glimpse of the Father’s beauty and holiness. This means we must be living from the heart of the Church, living the very life of the Church. This first most means what we are doing now – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – the font of our graces. The second is regular confession – monthly or bimonthly – these are the staples of holiness. Praying the Most Holy Rosary – daily or at least weekly, and praying Family Rosaries. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – these are all practices of the Church that are centuries old, that are proven to bring forth holiness. Praying the prayer book of the Church – which is the Psalms – what an easy way unite ourselves to the heart of the Church – praying a psalm each day – wouldn’t take more than a minute or two. These are the proven means to holiness. This is what we need.

For I believe that the number of prodigal sons will and is increasing. The number of young people taking another look at the Faith is growing. Why? Because in such an affluent culture it is becoming easier to see that although we have everything, we’re still hungry, we’re beginning to starve. As the emptiness of the culture’s promises becomes more and more pronounced we will have sons and daughters returning – but what will they find? Will they find the older brother there – blocking the glory and the love of the Father? Or will the holiness and the beauty of the Father shine through our Church. We pray in this Mass that the Lord might give us the grace to recommit ourselves to growing in holiness and in working to beautify our church so that the Father’s love and glory will shine through to the prodigal sons of our time.

Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Gospel readings for the last three weeks have been very challenging to our one-dimensional view of Jesus. By one-dimensional, I mean the fact that we always think of Jesus in one way – as gentle, as kind, as a kind of doormat that can always be walked on. We see him as somebody who cowers down, who never steps up, who places no demands, who rolls over, always affirming, always kind, always nice and gentle. This is the modern vision of Jesus. The Gospels these last three weeks have shown us a different side.

Two weeks ago we heard Jesus say, “narrow is the way.” He made it clear that Heaven is not “easy” to get into, he told his listeners they might just be wailing and grinding their teeth as others enter into heaven while they themselves remain locked out forever.
Last week we are told that Jesus went to a dinner party. At this dinner party, he watched how the guests took their seats. He then criticized them all and told them that they shouldn’t choose seats of honor, but choose the last. The only person spared in that lashing was the host. Then he turned on his host, and looking around at who was invited, he told him, “don’t invite your brothers…your wealthy neighbors,” the very people he had invited, instead invite the poor and the crippled…” Jesus isn’t the kind of guy you want showing up at your dinner parties.

Then this week. We are told “great crowds were following him.” You can just sense the excitement. The numbers are growing. At last people are getting the message and they are flocking to Jesus. The kingdom of God is on the march! And you expect him to turn and say something in gratitude to them. To affirm them in their desire to follow him, “way to go…now you guys are getting it…together we can bring the kingdom of God about…” Instead, what does he say to them? And turning to the crowd, he said, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Whoa! What happen to the affirmation? Where’s the gentle touch here? Jesus is making it quite clear: he will brook no compromise. Either He is number one in our life or He is nothing.

Ouch. Jesus is not Mister Rogers. He’s not the all affirming Barney the dinosaur. This is the lie of our age. Is Jesus gentle? Yes. But he is more than that. He is so much more. He is so much more complex because He is human, and humans are complex, they aren’t one dimensional, and even more so is He not one dimensional as He is God. This gentle all-affirming view of Jesus is the lie of our age, it is an overemphasis on one trait of Jesus’ to the exclusion of His whole personality. And it is dangerous because it can prevent us from knowing Jesus in His fullness, in His great complexity and beauty.

When I was in seminary I had to read much of the Scriptures and read the Gospels in their entirety and read them from the heart of the Church. As I read them I began to realize that my one-dimensional view was wrong – that Jesus was much more complex, much more intriguing, much more wondrous than I imagined. I realized that He is less a boring doormat personality and more of a wild man. I began to understand why John the evangelist calls Him “a man among men.”

I was beginning to see how pervasive this one-dimensional view of Jesus was, so I decided to conduct an experiment. I was working with a group of High School students, doing a Bible Study. One day I picked out a Gospel passage to read that was one that definitely did not portray Jesus as gentle. It was a passage like the one where He drives the money-changers out of the temple, and He is flipping over tables, and yelling at them, and driving them with cords. I had us read the passage then I told the kids to go up to the chalkboard and write down words that come to mind, to describe Jesus in the passage. The first kid went up : “Kind.” The next one: “forgiving.” Another: “gentle.” Ahhhhhhhhhh! “Where do you read that in this passage?” I frustratingly asked. They responded, “well He is gentle isn’t He? He is forgiving?” Yes, He is, but He is so much more and you can’t see it. It confirmed my suspicions, but it also scared me. This cultural filter of ours has the ability to keep us from ever coming to know, to truly know Jesus in His fullness.

I’ve preached it before and I will preach it again and again. We must read the Gospels. We need to pick up Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John and read through it. We need to follow Jesus’ life in its entirety. It doesn’t take long to do.

We shouldn’t depend on the Mass to teach us everything about Jesus. The Mass presupposes that we already know Him and know Him in His fullness. The Mass is not primarily about educating us, it is primarily about the worship of the Living God. It presupposes that we know Him.

I’m a big fan of the Lord of the Rings. But let’s say you never had read them or watched the movies before. What if once a week I read you a paragraph from them. Do you think you would get the full picture? Would you know the story? Especially if I were reading say chapter 3 of book 1 one week and chapter 9 of book 3 the next week. Would you be able to grasp the whole story? It is the same with the Mass – we just here a part each week, but it presupposes we know the whole story and know it in its full dimensionality not just one dimension.

So my advice, my exhortation, is that you would pick one of the Gospels and pretend that you have never heard of this Jesus before. Read through the Gospel as though everything is new, and let yourself be surprised. Stop and ask why do some things make Him mad, some things make Him happy. Why does He yell at some people and treat others with compassion. Why does He speak of mercy to some and pick fights with others. Begin to get to know Jesus in all of His beautiful complexity!

For as the Gospel makes clear, in the end this is all that matters. There is no room for compromise. We must come to know Jesus in His fullness and we must make Him first in our life. We pray in this Mass that we may not be blinded by the cultural filters of our time, but that we might come to know Jesus in all of his complexity, so that when we come here to Mass we will be able to worship the living God in all of His fullness.

Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

We’re told in that first reading from Sirach, “My child, conduct your affairs with humility…Humble yourself…” – The virtue of humility. Humility is one of those words in which we can learn the meaning from looking at the Latin. Humility – Humilitas – comes from Humus – which means dirt or ground. It doesn’t mean that we have to think of ourselves as dirt, but we do have to be grounded in reality. We have to realize that we are creatures, not Creators. We are finite, not infinite. To be humble is to recognize this – God is infinite, I am small, finite, I am dependent.

It was thought in the 19th century that science would soon make Faith obsolete. Science was promising to answer everything with an answer that would silence people of faith. But today, science has become a pointer to the Infinite. The more we learn about the complexity, the vastness, the mathematical precision, the beauty of the universe the more it becomes clear there must be some intelligent Maker behind it all. It also gives us a greater grasp on the meaning of Infinite.

For example, we in this church, take up just a small geographic space on an earth that measures 8000 miles in diameter. This is big. But within that sun that we see every day, one could fit over one million of our earths and still have more room! This means that if one were to start from the edge of the sun and fly a plane going at the typical speed of 500 mph, you could fly for a whole month non-stop and still not reach the center of the sun. This is immense! This same sun, is coming through our windows and giving us light, and warming us, (warming us too much these past couple of weeks), and we are only receiving a tiny fraction of its energy. In fact, to equate the amount of energy that is created by the sun we would need to explode 100 billion hydrogen bombs every second.

And as wondrous as this sun is, it is only one star in the midst of billions. If we were to get in our plane again and fly at the same speed to the next closest star from the sun, we would have to fly for 5.5 million years to get to the next one. The next closest one! We live in the Milky Way galaxy. In our galaxy alone there are between 2 and 3 billion more of these stars, these suns. This is immense! Staggering! The next time you are out in the evening look up and try to just grasp the immensity of this universe. And this is all part of the FINITE Creation!! God is Infinite!

What are we to think? It appears we are just a speck of dust dwarfed a billion times over by the immensity of the universe we are in. Where does it leave us? Despair at our insignificance? It would if it were not for Jesus Christ. For in Him we realize that the Infinite has not forgotten us – “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…” The Infinite became Finite. The God who made this vast universe became a little child. Infinity entered into Creation. What amazing Mercy! God comes in the person of Jesus Christ, to walk among us, to forgive us, to console us, to strengthen us. And although He died, rose, and ascended into Heaven, His Presence now has passed into the Sacraments. Everytime we approach a sacrament, we approach the Infinite, we approach the very life of God. So in a few moments, the Infinite will be made present on our altar – not simply a window to the infinite, but the Infinite God Himself.

This is why we should approach this sacrament and every sacrament with awe. Humility is about being grounded in reality – of realizing our position before the Almighty. This humility will always lead to Praise. A truthful look at our position will always lead to Praise. This is the point of the Mass – we come to worship – the Mass is the supreme act of worship. When we come to Mass this should be our primary intention: to worship the Living, Infinite God. To be humbled in his sight. To approach in awe. The Mass leads us in this – at the beginning of the Mass we sing “Glory to God in the Highest…” Before the Eucharist we sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord…” As the Eucharist, as Jesus is lifted up, the priest prays – “Through Him, With Him, In Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all Glory and Honor are Yours Almighty Father!”

As we continue with this Mass, let us ask for the grace to be truly humbled in the Presence of the Lord. So many approached Him during his life on this earth without acknowledging that He was the Infinite One. Let us not make the same mistake as we approach this altar – may we do so with humility, wonder, and awe as the Infinite One once again makes himself small, small enough to be placed on our tongue.