Romans Series #3 - Life in the Spirit

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As we  continue in Romans, we will be in Chapter 8 for a few weeks.  It’s a jackpot.
It also serves as a bridge. Near the middle of the letter, it is a transition from the "bad news" of our former life under Adam to the "Good News" of how we live in Christ.
Chapter 5-7 has terms of Adam, Sin, Death, Flesh – the “bad news” – the situation of original sin, which corrupts our hearts, making us live sub-par lives that are without peace and joy.  This dysfunction we can see easily in others, but sometimes it is more difficult in our own lives, especially when it isn’t something on the outside.  Ch 7 particularly
Chapter 8 speaks of what the “Good News” is, the “Gospel” that comes to us in Christ.  We can change.  The words of Sin, Adam, Death, Flesh, are now contrasted perfectly with Grace, Christ, Life, and Spirit.
We are hard-wired for worship, for giving our lives to something.  Altar. Throne.  When we are at our worst, it is given to wealth, power, pleasure, fame, money, etc.  These end up sabotaging our lives and damaging the lives of those around us.
But now Christ Jesus reigns in us, Paul tells us, because of our baptism.  And it is much better when Christ is reigning us.
Red Sea image is helpful for this.  The people of Israel are lost, dead, and hopeless as pharaoh’s army charges.  But when they cross, everything changes.  They are free to worship God, no longer slaves to their pasts.
Paul is drawing a line in the sand.  It was that way, and now it is this way.  And in many ways he is right.  We are either serving God, or we are worshiping an idol.  There are no other possibilities.
So, as Saint Paul describes, we need to let Jesus come and reign in our hearts.  And this is where the first reading and the Gospel come in.
In Zechariah, the king is entering Jerusalem.  A spiritual meaning of this passage is of Jesus entering the Christian soul by baptism.  He is our king, and he comes on a donkey, not a horse.  Entering a city on a donkey is not a sign of weakness or poverty, and not only a sign of humility either.  It is a sign of peace.  Kings go out on horses and march into towns they conquered on horses.  But it is different with donkeys, because obviously donkeys are not good get-away vehicles: they don’t move fast, and somethings they get stubborn and don’t even move at all!  So a king takes this relaxed easy animal when he is in peace.
When we let Jesus reign in our hearts, to sit on our throne, He doesn’t bring war and destruction to our lives.  He brings His peace and establishes his order, just as the word “GOSPEL” means the “good news” that a king has won a victory on the borders and brought peace and order to the city for years to come.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
We are going to serve something.  Our lives will end up being wrapped up with something as its focus.
At the end of our days, we will hear God say to us “YOUR WILL BE DONE.”  But what will be our hearts desire?  It is determined by how we live our lives, whether we prefer heaven or our own will.  He wishes us to love Him freely, but He loves us enough to let us choose.
So in our baptism, and every day of our lives, we choose Christ.  Let us check our hearts once again, and re-establish Jesus as the only king on our thrones, so that he can order our lives in a way that brings the true peace we can have only from His Spirit dwelling within us.  Amen.

Romans Series #2 - Fear of Death

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This week is the second in our series on Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and before I go any further, I would like to give a fuller context of the letter.  It’s probably around the year 60-62.  After 3 missionary journeys that filled up the majority of the 40’s and 50’s AD, Paul went to Jerusalem around 58 to try to show his support for the Jewish church (he was taking up a collection of financial support for them since they were marginalized and indigent).  Jews seize Paul and demand a trial, which doesn’t immediately happen.  Paul is held in custody for a couple years until a new governor takes the position and addresses the situation.  Paul appeals to Rome as a Roman citizen and makes the journey by boat under arrest.

Rome at the time has around 50,000 Jews probably.  Not sure the size of the Christian community.  In 49 Jews were exiled “because of debates about a man called ‘Chrestus’.” (aka Jesus Christ).  Paul met some of these Jewish Christian exiles in Corinth years earlier.  Eventually they find their way back after things settle down, so Rome is a great hodge-podge of the hub of pagan religion, with a strong Jewish community, as well as the smaller new group of Christians of both Jewish and pagan backgrounds.

There are many unique things about Paul’s letter to the Romans.  First, it’s his longest letter.  Second, it’s to a community he has never visited yet.  Thirdly, because he has had lots of time to think during his imprisonment and most likely isn’t writing in one rushed sitting as is probable with the other letters, Romans is more like a thesis than an e­-mail, which is the form all the other letters take.  Any current or former college students might sympathize with the connection between the word thesis and imprisonment, but unfortunately for Paul writing this masterpiece did not mean freedom.

So Paul’s main message, as we discussed last week, is the “Gospel” as he calls it, based off the secular use of the term: it is the Good News that Jesus is this king who has conquered his enemies in battle and has established the order and peace that provide for human flourishing.

One of the main parts of that Gospel is that God has done something completely new in Jesus, above and beyond the law of the covenant with the Hebrew people. He has always been close to humanity from Adam through Abraham and Moses, etc. But now in Jesus God has offered the greatest gift of salvation, justification, redemption, and a host of other words that Paul uses interchangeably.  As we heard last week, the offer is greater than the sin. Paul used the contrast of Adam and Jesus to drive this point home.  In Adam all die, but in Christ all are raised to eternal life.

Now today in chapter 6, we look at how that happens more concretely for the Christian, namely, through our Baptism. 

Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?... Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

BAPTISM UNITES US TO JESUS’ PASCHAL MYSTERY.  AND TRULY INTO THE WORD OF GOD HIMSELF.  Into Christ Jesus. Co-died. Co-buried. Co-raised. Co-live.

Death is not a pleasant thing for us to face.  Fear of death is quietly one of the greatest false gods we can worship.  It is very similar to any false worship of this or other things: wealth, pleasure, power, fame.  Think of how when we let our lives be controlled (enslaved) by these things, how we end up suffering so much, and harming ourselves and those around us.  Now of all the false gods to put at the center of our lives, avoiding death is one of the most appealing.  Death is the greatest evil, and thus the greatest source of fear, and it would seem that you must avoid it in order to have any of the other natural goods.  And besides that, death is (in Hamlet’s words) “the undiscovered country from which no traveler returns.”  So it has lots of pull on our hearts.  So Paul is right to stress our need to face it.

Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Christianity is not for wimps.  We have to face our fears, including life’s greatest fear.

Have you ever conquered a serious fear in your life?  I remember riding roller coasters, or jumping into a lake, or giving my first homily.  I may have been terrified, but after I faced them, it no longer had any power over me.  Paul wants Rome (and all of us) to know that with the Gospel he preaches, we don’t need to have fear of the greatest evil in our world anymore.  We can face death in Jesus and conquer.

The holy water we bless ourselves with is a reminder of this death.  It is a facing of our fears.  It is a sign that we are dead to the world and death no longer has power over us.

Romans Series #1 - Paul's "Gospel"

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          Romans - intro? "Gospel" or "the Gospel" as news of a victory that establishes peace and order as it should be.

Today’s passage: Adam is faced with a choice, he chose poorly.  Jesus heals that wound by choosing rightly.  And coupled with the Gospel, we see that we are faced every day with a choice in our lives as well, and it won’t always be easy.

For any of us it can seem that life stinks at times. Life is tough. Life's not fair. Etc. these are all common sayings we know and they bounce off of us so easily.

For the Christian it can be even more difficult since we can often suffer for our faith, precisely for doing what is right - like Jeremiah the prophet had to endure. 

But if we have a big enough perspective, life is always good. Life is great. If we live it properly - and I'm not talking about $ or stuff or power or prestige or pleasure, but about holiness - If we live it properly, life is a bit of heaven already. 

It's all about perspective. Saint John of the Cross was unjustly imprisoned by the fellow religious brothers he professed his life to be a member of, starved, beaten regularly, alone, and still he found a happiness and peace the world cannot give. Jeremiah Denton did the same in a Vietnam POW camp. Suffering, which is there for all of us, doesn't have to mean life is without joy and peace.

Did Jesus solve all the little problems of our lives? The answer is no and yes. No because, as we all know, the world is full of the mess of sin, the same sin that Jeremiah had to endure and that we have to endure. But yes because at the deeper level of things, the world is changed, restores to the way things were meant to be. This is why the Lord tells us not to be afraid even when we face those who truly do have the power to destroy the body. 

          If we reduce Jesus to a mere nice guy or social worker or political revolutionary, the Gospel isn't powerful anymore.  The Gospel is much bigger than that, even if it operates on a level deeper than the human eye.  Jesus himself emphasizes this point in today's Gospel: be afraid of those who can kill body and soul – this is something bigger than human beings we are talking about here!

         

"Second death" (Revelation and Saint Francis)

Spiritual warfare is real, and is one of the things that makes the Gospel truly to be Good News that makes an impact on my life. The other is that Jesus isn't just some guy, but that He is the Son of God.  "Some man died 2,000 years ago because he loved you" is not the most amazing news, even if it might be touching. Odds are that won't be enough to change my life.  Julius Caesar dying for you would be one thing. God dying for you is something totally different.

But Paul knows that those reductions of Jesus to a simple nice guy or socialist or politician are simply too small for what God actually did in Christ Jesus.  Rather than just offer a social critique or a positive example, Jesus shook the foundations of the universe, fighting at the deepest and most important level of reality.  And where Adam lost, Jesus won.  That is the point.  That is our Gospel.  Let us not be afraid, for the victory is Christ’s, and we are united with Him in Baptism.

Homily - Our (heavenly) mansion is secured by our (earthly) mission.

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“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”  This question is for all of us.  For we also can at times get caught with little motion in our spiritual lives.  And this is dangerous, as dangerous as putting your car into neutral and revving the engine.  What’s going to happen when you do that?  Bad things, really bad car-things are going to happen!

So, too, for us today, we must have a double-focus, never forgetting heaven while also not resting on our laurels, but putting things into gear.

What Jesus reminds us of today is that our focus must be where His focus is, and that is on the work of bringing the Good News to others.  While the disciples are focused on the end-result, Jesus is focused on the process that gets us there.  So also we must keep our eyes on the goal of heaven, but at the same time we cannot let ourselves be duped into thinking that we don’t have anything to do.  The reality is that, although the Kingdom of God can only be brought about through the Lord, for some great mysterious reason He chooses to bring it about through you and me and what we do throughout our daily lives.

So when the disciples say “are you establishing the kingdom now?” Jesus says, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." He turns their eyes to the mission.  Although heaven is where our heart should reside, the only way to get there is how we live here on earth.  If we want the mansion, we must live the mission.

And the great mystery is that the two are not in opposition with each other.  This mystery is described by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity: If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next... It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither.  The more we put our faith into practice, getting our hands dirty washing the feet of those around us and witnessing to the Lord Jesus in the way we love each other and with our proclamation of the Gospel, then we find the more we are truly happy, truly experiencing a foretaste of heaven.  Because the road to heaven already is heaven.  This is ultimately what we heard last week in the Gospel: “If you love me (heavenly mansion), keep my commandments (earthly mission).”  The road to the mansion is the mission.

May this Eucharist help us to keep our heart in heaven while we do God’s work on earth.

Mothers Day! (5-14)

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Baptism and Confirmation - United in the HOLY SPIRIT

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 Today we see clearly the connection between Baptism and Confirmation.  In our first reading, it is clear that Baptism has a second sacrament that goes right along with it: Confirmation.

Why? Christ wants to give us the Spirit: “And I will ask the Father,  and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth.”

Christians bear hidden within them a great power, not of their own making or earning or deserving, but a free gift of God.  A spirit by which we can do amazing things, both in our lives and the lives of others, if we are faithful to it.  If we want the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, Jesus says today, we must be obedient to His commandments:

Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. (This revelation is only made possible by the Holy Spirit)

Sometimes following the Commandments is difficult, even extremely difficult.  We may have our personality get in the way, or our family, or our job, or our culture with all its attempts at intimidating us otherwise.  Because of any or all of these things influencing us, at times we  would prefer to underline certain parts of the Bible, or certain parts of the Catechism, and cross out (or ignore) other parts.  But Jesus didn’t ask us to keep some of His commandments, or to simply treasure them in our private or personal lives.  No, he wants us to live them, to go and be missionary witnesses of the Resurrection to our world.  So we embrace the Lord’s commands even when they mean discomfort to us.  For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.  And luckily, we don’t have to do this alone.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  The Holy Spirit is not a replacement for Jesus.  The Holy Spirit brings Jesus to us (or us to Jesus).  It is through Him alone that we are able to connect with Jesus and any of the saints that are in Jesus.  Remember, John the Baptist said “I baptize with water; the One who is coming will baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire.”  That is the baptism we have received, and that is why it is powerful and effective.

Through this great gift of Baptism, we are now united with the same Spirit that empowered the Apostles, the prophets of Old Testament times, the saints and martyrs, and even overshadowed Our Lady that she might conceive of the Holy Spirit.  Let us pray that just as the one Spirit of God comes down upon these gifts of bread and wine and transforms them into Christ, he too may do the same in our lives.

Homily - Shepherd Gospel

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Good Shepherd Sunday – World Day ofPrayer for Vocations – Ordained ministry (priests & deacons),Religious Life in all its forms, Missionary life, societies ofapostolic life, secular institutes.

I am sure that many of us in thischurch have grown to appreciate dark or semi-sweet chocolate. Iremember as a kid, when mom would make chocolate chip cookies, shealways used toll house semi-sweet chocolate chips, and I whenever Ifound an open package in the cabinet, I would sneak a few into myhand and enjoy them. I guess that's how I became a fan of thebittersweet type of treat. Well, maybe it's a loose connection, butit seems to me that the Gospel always carries a tinge of bitternessthat ultimately is swallowed up in sweetness. Today brothers andsisters, we have a summary of the Gospel message in Saint Peter'sspeech in the first reading. The bitterness of the Gospel is that wehave sinned. Peter, speaking to the Jews of Jerusalem on the day ofPentecost, says “you crucified the Lord of Life!” The sweetnessthat overpowers it is the Jesus, the Lord of Life, has conquered sinand death and we can be freed from our slavery by repentance. Likethe flotation device on the rope that is thrown out to one caught inthe river above a cliff, salvation is offered to us, and we mustchoose it if we are going to escape our terrible plight.

The image given us today from our Psalmand Gospel (and alluded to Peter's letter) is a powerful summary ofthe Gospel. God is a shepherd. King David, who wrote Psalm 23, washimself a shepherd., and Jesus, most likely a carpenter by tradebefore he turned 30 and was baptized by John to begin his preaching,calls Himself the Good Shepherd – a shepherd of souls not of fluffyanimals.

Jesus Himself says that the shepherdlays down his life for the sheep, and this is more than just ametaphor. In ancient times in Israel, and probably often stilltoday, shepherd guide their sheep through the countrysides, leavingtheir family and friends behind, and devoting themselves completelyto their sheep. Often they would bunker down for safety in caves,and this is (by the way) exactly how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. If needed, the cave protected from the rain (and lightning) as wellas the blistering heat of the day. But most importantly, it was away of guarding and protecting the flanks of the sheepfold. You see,in a field, a shepherd cannot protect the sheep from every directionat the same time. Wolves, who often attack in multiple directions atonce, are difficult to keep away no matter how long your shepherdstaff is. But in a cave, all a shepherd needs to do is protect thegate, the cave entrance. And at night, or when it is time for thatever-savory afternoon siesta during a hot day, what does the shepherddo? He lays down in front of the cave entrance. He says, with thissimple gesture, “if you want to get to the sheep, you gotta gothrough me.” And didn't Jesus do exactly that? He placed Himselfbetween us and the evil that came for us. The Cross is not ametaphor – it is the Good Shepherd dying for His Sheep. The Lambof God (to turn flip our image around) takes away our sins by freelyoffering His life for us. And then, in the Resurrection, he returnsalive to claim us for Life eternally. Thus the bitterness isswallowed up in sweetness and joy.

However, we must not forget the wordsof Saint Peter: Repentance is essential. Baptism is a testament to alife of repentance, and as Christians we are never finished growingin our role as disciples of Jesus – learning from Him what our lifeis to look like.

“I came so that they might have lifeand have it more abundantly.” This is life abundant: to know Jesusintimately – most especially in a pure heart and in the Eucharist.

Amen.