September 1, 2013

Bulletin September 1, 2013

22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Hebrews 12: 18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14
I always find it ‘difficult’ when a person comes up to me and thanks me for ‘a great sermon’ or a ‘wonderful blog’ or a ‘special counseling session’. I say ‘thank you.’ And so often I add ‘thank God for it was His work.’ My Jesuit Spiritual Director says, ‘Praise God.’ The point is where humility is and how do I exercise it and at the same time be grateful to God for all His gifts? It is uncomfortable to receive praise yet at the same time the affirmation that comes is deeply appreciated and often needed. Today’s readings have a good message for me and for each person who is trying to grow closer to God in honesty, humility and gratitude.
The Book of Sirach is named after its author, Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach. Its earliest title seems to have been the “Wisdom of the Son of Sirach” and it was also called Ecclesiasticus. This word means “Church Book” because it was used extensively with catechumens and in the early church in presenting good moral teaching. The author lived in Jerusalem and was “thoroughly imbued with love for the law, the priesthood, the temple, and divine worship.” It’s a self help book on how to be ‘of God while living in the world’. (my thoughts). Today’s verses are from chapter three; the first sixteen verses share that ‘”besides the virtues that must characterize our conduct toward God, special duties toward our neighbor are enjoined such as honor and respect toward parents, with corresponding blessings.: (footnote from the Catholic Study Bible). Starting with verse 17 (today’s verse) a beautiful description of how to live in true humility is given. The author emphasizes two points that are so helpful: pride and humility.
Pride—is it about me or is it about God. Paul says so often, ‘name one thing that you have that was not given to you.’ God placed me at this point in history, in this place, surrounding me with people who have helped me form God’s gifts into a way of living. God’s hand has been in every moment and action in my life. Sure I was the one who walked the stage to get the degrees, but God gave me the intelligence, the desire and the ‘pull through efforts’ to get me where I am now. I couldn’t even begin to enumerate the people who have touched me and urged me on especially in the tough times. But these were definitely ‘God sent’; why, because God loves me and does the same to every person.
Humility—Sirach says that the key to greatness is found in humble service to God. He urges his readers and me to put God always first. If they all learn dependence and trust in God, they will find their lives truly blessed. How true that is as I look back on my life. His last line, “Water quenches a flaming fire, and alms atone for sins” means that just as water puts out a fire, generosity atones for sins. Sin is much more destructive to the spiritual life than any fire is to the body. ‘Look what I did...isn’t it great...aren’t I great’. My dad use to say over and over when I was getting too ‘big for my britches’, “some say, ‘I use to be proud but now I don’t have any faults.’”
Jesus continues this teaching on humility at a dinner one of the leading Pharisees had invited Him. It’s an interesting dinner: the other Pharisees are observing Jesus closely and Jesus is observing them and other guests who are trying to upstage each other and maneuver to get the best seats. Jesus’ advice to them was to ‘ease up’ because they may be embarrassed if they are ‘put down’ and told to take a back seat. He says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” And then He adds a constant them of Pope Francis: remember the poor...invite the outcasts in society, like the poor and sick. I and each person are called to love even when that love cannot be reciprocated.

Msgr. Eugene Lauer, a wonderful preacher and spiritual writer gave a good example that helps discover Jesus’ truth. He says, “Picture yourself in the following situation in a school yard. There you are, the popular teacher, the recreation leader, or the parent aide standing in the middle of a throng of happy children. The most vivacious and outgoing and beautiful children are on the inner edge of the circle, vying for a bit of your attention. Naturally you enjoy their compliments, their smiles and affection.

On the outer fringe of the group, perhaps not even a part of it at all, is that heavy-set fifth-grader, bigger than everyone else in his age group, somewhat slow in school, dull and retiring in personality. He is never in the ‘in-group.’ You try to say a pleasant word to him, but really do end up spending most of your time with the more bright and attractive children. It’s so easy to fall into that. ‘What merit will you have if you love only those who are capable of the most satisfying and winning responses?’

It is awfully difficult to love those who are plain and dull, those who are downright bores. Only if we can be deeply convinced of the divine truth in today’s gospel will we consider it worth our effort to seek to discover the divine image in them, to love them with little hope of recompense.”
So I reflect on:

God’s Kingdom turns the rules of the world upside down:

• God will humble those who think highly of themselves and respect those with a humble attitude.
• Jesus’ law of love has changed the rules for relating to God and one another.
• All the attributes that make one powerful and respected can easily get in the way of a genuine relationship and intimacy with God.
• Anyone who wants to be close to God must be willing to rely totally on God and trust Him.
• How much credit did I give to God for what happened in my life today?
• Is it possible to live according to the standards of the gospel and, at the same time, live by the standards of society? NO...well what is holding me up?
• Do I sometimes want to earn God’s love or feel that I deserve it? Do I ask for forgiveness for this?
• Do I take time, be still, and ask God to tell me how He feels about me? It always has to do with His incredible love. Do I accept this as He gives it?

Jerome J. Sabatowich a religious educator gives this reflection: “A woman dreamt that when she died and went to heaven she was surprised to see some people there whom she considered spiritually inferior. She then noticed that each of these people also looked surprised because, it seems, none of them expected to see her there either. Pray this week that God will teach you how to be humble.” 

August 25, 2013

Bulletin August 25, 2013 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13 Luke 13:22-30
I was trying to think where it started with me...maybe because I was the youngest of five and as my sisters and brother said, repeatedly, ‘You were spoiled.’ I denied it of course but later on I would say something like ‘Eat your hearts out’...whatever that means. But I felt I was special. I think this is not unusual; most like to feel that they are wanted, special and needed. When I carry that over to my faith, my religion and my interpretation of Scripture, I could end up in all sorts of trouble.
Scripture tells us how God formed a people, special to Himself. And He did this so that they would be an example to the rest of the world of God’s love and deep care for everyone. “I will be your God, you will be My people” is the constant theme in the Old Testament. The New Testament sees Jesus telling everyone that they are dearly loved by God and important to God. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” These mean that all of God’s creatures are special, but how easy it is to take this out of context and feel that ‘I am the important one’ and if I am the ‘important one’...this one or that one isn’t.’

Living the Word expresses this succinctly: “We have all run into it on occasion—that sense of entitlement some (maybe even we!) have presumed, a claim to be treated differently, as ‘special.’ It can be due to a relationship, a skill, a reward, or simply a gift. God’s sword cuts thought any such claims today with two strong images.

The first image is found in Hebrews. No talk of being father’s ‘little darling’ or mother’s ‘favorite pet’ here. We get a comparison of God as a father who disciplines His child, even ‘scourges’ every son He acknowledges. Now that certainly is a tough image to take, especially in a culture so attuned to the horrors of child abuse. But the time of the Letter to the Hebrews was a different culture, subscribing to the old adage ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.’ What is important is the notion of discipline. So let’s set the scourge aside and take up the issue of discipline—the discipline necessary to run a race, to ‘strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees, (to) make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.’ Healing what is weak is the goal of this discipline.

The second image is Jesus as the gatekeeper who is telling us that the gate into the kingdom is a narrow one, so strive (there’s that note of discipline, again) to enter it. Jesus isn’t into numbers and doesn’t answer the question asked. He simply urges us to be strong enough to get through the gate. And any claims of ‘You knew me years ago, Jesus’ or ‘You knew my mother and grandmother’ won’t matter. Furthermore, prepared to be surprised when you see at who is getting through the gate into the kingdom.

The bottom line today: Strive, discipline yourself—feeling entitled won’t get you in.”
I want to feel important, and I am in God’s eyes; I want to feel that I am needed, and I am in God’s plan; but this dictates that I am doing what Jesus told me to do. This requires that I learn more each day about this God who is crazy in love with me. This requires that each day that I spend time with God and reflect on where He is leading me. This requires each day that I am Jesus by the way I live and interact with those in my life. If I’m all out for ‘Peter’, I am not aware of Jesus.
The expression that Jesus uses—the narrow gate—is a metaphor that implies directness openness and honesty. It means that each day I’m living life and there are wonderful times and also crises and problems. It means that I have to face each of them as they cross my path and I do this with Jesus’ teachings. Jesus emphasizes this with His teaching that makes people know the door is always open. But I have to be careful with this because it is the door of ‘I’m special.’ This is the way that says, ‘I will get at that tomorrow’...it’s the door of procrastination, of not wanting to face up to things, especially all the commandments and law of love of Jesus and of being Him to those in my life. It’s the door that says, ‘I’m the exception, aren’t I?’ It’s the door that says ‘I know what Jesus taught and I really don’t think that this/that teaching applies to me in this particular circumstance.’ Well Jesus told the Scribes and Pharisees right to their faces that they were hypocrites. He very calmly told Pilate at His death sentence that a mere Roman procurator had no power over Him at all. He challenged simple fishermen and laborers to leave their families and their occupations and do an impossible task. So Jesus isn’t talking about ‘the easy life.’ Jesus is talking about being a ‘laborer’ in the ‘vineyard’. And this is hard work...I have to expect that my hands will become dirty and my back will hurt from being outside and the elements won’t always be agreeable and the plans and people won’t always be conducive to accepting God’s love. But that is the task, the mission for me and for each person. Jesus defined ‘His family’ as those who HEAR the word of God and ACT on it. (Lk 8:19-21). The question about ‘Who will be saved’ is a very important and it is a very valid question. The answer Jesus says very bluntly “that it is in this life that you are either in the kingdom of God or out of it...You will not be given the chance in the after-life to enter what you refused or neglected to enter while here on earth.” (Fr, Joseph Donders) And the one at the door will be welcomed when the voice says, “I know you” because of how you were Jesus and lived accordingly. So I reflect on:

• What is my faith asking of me at this point in my life?
  
• Do I faithfully reflect on Scripture, especially the Gospels to see the values that I am called to live by?
  
• I experience God’s kingdom when I am being Jesus. How does this feel? Do I reflect on this and express my gratitude for the grace that I received to be Jesus?
  

And Sacred Space 2013 says,

“Sometimes we like to picture Jesus as gentle and forgiving, not because of what scripture says about Him, but because it seems to allow us to relax. I accept that Jesus places a challenge before me in telling me about the narrow door. I acknowledge that there are choices I must make, and I ask Jesus’ help.

I speak to Jesus about my joys and hopes, my anxieties and difficulties, listening for His voice as I come to know my own life better.”

August 18, 2013

Bulletin August 18, 2013 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10; Hebrews 12:1-4; Luke 12:49-53
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Jesus’ words today certainly are startling. But are they? So often in reading books about Jesus and in the Gospels themselves, ‘nice words’ are spoken by Jesus...over and over are examples of peace and love, compassion and forgiveness and vivid stories about the Father’s love for every single person. Today Jesus tells us some pretty unsettling things about severe clashes within families and individuals. So what is the lesson that we can reflect on?
Earlier in the passage, Jesus tells His disciples, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” Jesus is not taking about the kind of fire that ‘destroys’ but the fire that will transform and make new. I am fascinated when I hear of the annual fires out in the West which ravish thousands of acres of forests. In watching a documentary on this many years ago, I remember hearing that these fires are good because they clear out old growth and make room for the new. The fire that Jesus is talking about is the fire that transforms me from being a coach potato to being a person who is active in the continual discovery and sharing of God’s love. Jesus is setting a fire in my heart, in each person’s heart. It is easy for someone to say, ‘Just sit back and relax...let the younger ones be the ones to flame the Father’s love in people’s hearts. Yet Jesus constantly taught that if I sit, I stagnate.
Jesus’ life example to me was not one who sat and watched. He showed His disciples, me and each disciple that there is a cost to discipleship...there is a cost in being a person of love and a follower of Jesus. All I have to do is to look at the cross. What did Jesus teach me about His cross? That every person will have countless crosses in their lives...and these are not ‘nice and peachy’. The crosses involve sacrifice; the crosses involve pain: physical, emotional, psychological. The crosses involve me giving up what I want to do and to turn my plans and dreams aside so that I can respond in love to people who need God’s love. The crosses tell me that life is never easy, or simple or without difficulties.
Fr. Anthony Kadavil in Teaching & Preaching Resources talks about the hard life each person is called to. He said, “Jeremiah learned that first-hand, as we heard in the First Reading. His ‘reward’ for accepting the call of God and for ‘telling it like it is’ was to be thrown into a cistern to die. Think about that; it took real courage to speak out in the face of such danger. And in the Second Reading the author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that if Jesus faced so much opposition and ridicule and suffering for carrying out His Father’s will, we should expect something similar---a sharing in that same struggle. In other words, it’s not IF we will suffer for what we believe, but THAT we will suffer. To put it in modern language---when we love every person and in every situation we must be prepared to not always have that same love returned.”
Christianity is a religion of action and pain and love and not knowing what the end product of my actions will be but to know that I am a Christian in living the life of one. That’s the challenge of being Jesus.
Msgr. Eugene Lauer in Sunday Morning Insights takes a different direction by emphasizing that there is nothing dull about being Jesus. His life wasn’t dull: He faced every kind of human problem imaginable. He liked banquets and fasted in the desert. He loved little kids coming to Him and He had royal battles with the Pharisees whom He called “hypocrites and whited sepulchers” ... real fighting words.
Then Fr. Lauer said, “Many of the saints (saint should be defined as a person who lived life to the brim) are excellent reflections of the spirit of this Sunday’s gospel. Dull is the last word that anyone could have used for Philip Neri, who ‘had them rolling in the aisles’ with his serendipitous sense of humor. Teresa of Avila kept even ships on their toes with her sudden and keen intervention into the practical life of the Church in her day. And, who could ever tell what young Francis Bernadone of Assisi was going to do next?”
How many of us have been fascinated with Pope Francis and devour his next ‘action or reaction’ in the newspapers. A month ago he was talking to some 6000 seminarians and men and women who were considering religious life from 66 nations who had come on a pilgrimage to Rome. He told them and all of us to be aware of materialism and a culture that believes nothing is forever. He said that true joy doesn’t come from things, from big cars and the best smart phone. He said “it springs from an encounter, a relation with others; it comes from feeling accepted, understood and loved, and from accepting, understanding and loving. ... Don’t be hypocrites and practice what is preached...effective evangelization (telling the world, my world about Jesus) can’t be measured by human notions of success and failure, but only by becoming conformed to the logic of the Cross of Jesus of giving oneself totally and completely with love.” AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: “What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, the Lord’s cross.” I am called to be Jesus; each and every person is. There is no way I can ‘be Jesus’ if I don’t do it through picking up my cross of pain and suffering and helping others with their crosses. So I reflect on:

• What can I do? One said, ‘Reach out to others who appear to have lost their way. Offer to help them recover their faith. Pray for each person in your family who is resisting the love of Jesus.’
  
• Whatever obstacles I have in my life do I look at Jesus and see how He overcame His? Nikos Kazantzakis in the The Last Temptation of Christ. Wrote, “In order to mount to the Cross, the summit of sacrifice, and to God, the summit of immateriality, Christ passed through all the stages which the man who struggles passes through. That is why His suffering is so familiar to us; that is why we share it, and why His final victory seems to us so much our own future victory.”
  
• The great words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “The day will come, when, after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, human beings will have discovered fire.” (The Evolution of Chastity in Toward the Future 1974)
  

And you and I and every Christian have our own role to play...Am I doing this?   

August 11, 2013 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

August 11, 2013 19^th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-10; Luke 12:32-48
I sometimes wonder if I am on the right track. I sometimes wonder how strong my faith is; would I be able to sustain it in times of real trials or temptations. Could I have lived in the time of martyrs in the early church and given witness to faith in Jesus? I wonder if I am ready for heaven and if I am preparing myself the best way that I can? I wonder if it’s ok to have as much ‘wasted time’ in my days as ‘faithful time’. I wonder, I wonder and I wonder.
Today’s reading from the book of Wisdom centers on the Passover account in Egypt. The people had witnessed or heard about the plagues that God was inflicting on the Egyptians and how the Israelites were totally spared. How grateful they were and how they looked back on this account with a deeper faith in God. This is nice to say but they had loads of problems with keeping faithful to the Lord. They were repeatedly unfaithful and the Lord continually had mercy and led them closer to Him. At any rate on this Passover night, in the secrecy of their homes, they shared the Passover meal. They put their trust in the word of God; Pharaoh put his trust in the power and might of Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of the Jews trusted in the God who saves. They trusted...do I reflect on my trust in God? He saves me in so many ways each day, do I reflect on this at the end of the day?
Paul is telling the Hebrews about the faith of Abraham. He was open in mind and heart to God. He was willing to leave home for a place he did not know. His faith was seen in trusting that God would establish His nation through Abraham. Even in the Isaac sacrifice, Abraham showed just how far he would go in trusting that God would provide. Paul describes this faith as ‘the way of holding on to what we hope for, being certain of what we cannot see.’ The wonderful writers of ‘Miracle on 34^th Street’ described it in this way: “Faith is believing about something when common sense tells us not to.” These are wonderful statements and great to reflect on but in difficult times, which come up so quickly there isn’t time to reflect. Then I pray. The words from God is in the Tough Stuff really help. “If your prayers seem ineffective...don’t give up on God. Realize that you hold the top position on His ‘to do’ list. Know that He is able to do exceedingly more than you can imagine. And finally, trust Him; acknowledge that His wisdom is greater than yours. His resolution to the situation may be different from what you expect-in timing and results—but it will be better than what you have in mind.”
In the gospel Jesus tells me and everyone Not to Be Afraid. These words are the most comforting words from Jesus. Even though Jesus is being of assistance to His friends and believers about the ‘end times’, He is talking about all the ‘immediate trials’ that come up each day. Don’t be afraid, trust in Him. Just the way Luke puts these words together reveals the tender nature of Jesus’ relationship with His disciples, me and today’s disciples. The Kingdom has been promised. So why worry, place your trust in the Father, “little flock.”
So how do I trust...He tells me to be faithful. How am I faithful, He tells me to be watchful. Watchful for what? Watchful for opportunities to be Jesus; watchful for ways that I can tell about God’s love and concern; watchful for the people that God places in my life and care for them: responsibility demands accountability. Jesus is telling me that time is a gift. It is the greatest gift I have. I can share my time or I can hoard my time. I can be concerned with myself, or I can be alert to the times I am called on to be a witness of Jesus. Now is the time for putting the teachings of Jesus in my life by serving others. Jesus shares in this gospel several short parables and images to draw emphasis to the preciousness of the gift of time. I don’t have all the time in the world...the only time I know I have is this moment...my now time. The gospel shares the brevity of this life how I am to live it in gratitude and service.
Jay Cormier in Connections says, “In baptism, we are called to mirror the servanthood of Jesus by the integrity of our lives; by the realization that what we possess, what we have been given by God, has been entrusted to us not for ourselves but for the creation of God’s kingdom in our time and place. The faithful servant/master/disciple will lovingly use whatever he or she possesses to bring God’s reign of hope, justice and reconciliation to reality in this time and place of ours. Jesus promises that those who keep the kingdom of God before them in all of their relationships, who lead and influence others by the example of their own humble service, who place the common good before their own interests, will find places of honor at the Master’s table at the banquet of heaven.” So how can I be alert every single moment to the ‘love moments’ that are needed? I can’t...I am who I am...and all sorts of situations happen in my life that distract me or get me all tangled up that I just am not alert to the promptings of God. This is true. BUT when I am alert and the situations present them, and then I need to ask for the grace of God for me to ACT and not sit back and say NO. I have to realize that my life does not consist in possessions. I have a chance each day to ‘live as Jesus’. So I reflect on the questions that John Petrikovic, OFM Cap asks in Sunday Homily Helps:

• “Could some time for our parents allow them a little more security about how we’re doing?
  
• Could some time at Church together help a family focus on whom they are living for?
  
• Could some special time for my spouse allow him/her the security of knowing my love and continued commitment?
  
• Could time with grandma allow her to feel less useless or pushed aside?

And he concludes:

Jesus essentially says it all: Stop barking up the tree that has nothing we need, and start paying attention to something---and somebodies who actually matter.”

• So how am I responding to the call to be a trustworthy servant?
• Do I ask each morning ‘How can I be of service to the Lord today?’ Do I end the day in reflecting on what happened?
  

In Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien writes, “All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost. The old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by frost.”