St. Josemaría Escrivá Talk

Fr. Matthew "I'm here to speak on 'Perfection' because Tink can't!"

He must have meant I couldn't make it last week to speak on that topic because I was busy at my parish. And he was right.

But whatever he may have meant, I'm here to speak on Humility, because Fr. Matthew can't." ...and what I mean is just that he is busy up at his parish and everything. He tells me again and again, "one day, when you grow up and become a pastor yourself with your own parish, you will understand what I mean."

Okay that's enough fun, we could do this all day but I might need to go to Confession after my talk if I don't stop now. Plus, it wouldn't really do us much good - that's not why we are here.

We are here to hear about a man, a priest, named Josemaría Escrivá who founded a nice little catholic club that we know of now as Opus Dei. In fact, this group was so unique in its time that it required its own sort of legal status within the Church's structures. What Josemaría envisioned was that all work (as long as it wasn't morally objectionable) could become an Opus Dei, a work of God: our work can be made into God's work.

So the title tonight, “Footprints in the Snow” may have seemed confusing to you, and I apologize if it was a point of angst that you had no idea what it meant. But if that curiosity was good enough to bring you here tonight, then I don't apologize. I'm glad it worked. You see, I simply robbed it from this little pictorial biography I read last fall about this Saint.

Near the beginning of the biography is the story from the title, which is also portrayed in the movie version about the first 35 years of this saint's life and the beginnings of Opus Dei during the Spanish Civil War (the movie is called There Be Dragons, and it's one of those rare saint movies that doesn't make you want to gag because it gets too cheesy – so you can try to share it with some people who aren't too into their faith but are open to it). Okay so, back to the snowprints ….(Chapter 2).

This vocation grew slowly within him... a lot like me. It took a long time for me to make sense of my future, but I, like Josemaría, was happy along the way – trying to stay close to the Lord and asking for guidance. But eventually going to seminary, Josemaría finds his vocation to be a diocesan priest so that he could be more flexible for wherever God was leading him in his future. One thing that surprised me about this saint, and about the lives of so many other saints that is so often different from our own: something hits them hard and wakes them up to live life on a different level. I am stunned that so many saints have severe trial or tragedy in their lives, even if something as simple as the death of loved ones. For Saint Josemaría, he lost three younger sisters in under 4 years: an infant, a 5-yr-old and of 8-yr-old. Then his dad died just months before his ordination to priesthood. Why do these things so often play a part in making saints? I think because it impresses upon them, deep into their hearts, some simple truths that we all should remember: (1) human life is precious and every day counts. (2) our decisions make a difference, a huge difference. And because even the small choices we make have impact, then our passions, the deeper reasons for what motivates all we do, have the force of a tidal wave.

I love music, and listened to a lot of Christian music ever since childhood. There's a band I've been listening to lately called Switchfoot, and they have a song that gets exactly at these points. Some of the lyrics are: “You change the world, you change my world, every day you're alive.” And “what you say is your religion, how you say it's your religion. Who you love is your religion; how you love is your religion. All your science, your religion. All your hatred, your religion. All your wars are your religion. Every breath is your religion.”

We are called to greatness, and it comes from

I didn't run into this saint until just before I entered into seminary. My friends in college were all given this collection of quotes from this Saint which he organized from snippets of letters he wrote, etc. It was called “The Way” and that was really about all I knew at the time. I was in fact, pretty jealous that I didn't receive a copy myself at the time. I couldn't pinpoint why but I wanted one. Perhaps I felt left out or something – you know, missing all those Catholic “inside jokes” and stuff. Anyways, a year or two goes by and I decide to buy for myself the book, and actually the whole trilogy in one book, which includes two more sets of sayings, about 1000 each, most of them just two or three sentences. Talk about bite-sized and really useful for busy people.

St. Josemaría gives his own advice on the three books as a Prologue. For The Way he writes: Read these counsels slowly. Pause to meditate on these thoughts. They are things that I whisper in your ear – confiding them – as a friend, as a brother, as a father. And they are being heard by God. I won't tell you anything new. I will only stir your memory, so that some thought will arise and strike you; and so you will better your life and set out along ways of prayer and of love. And in the end you will be a more worthy soul.

I want to use tonight to look at some of the lessons that Josemaría gave me through this little book.

For Furrow, he says: My reader and friend, let me help your soul contemplate the virtues of man, for grace works upon nature. But do not forget that these considerations of mine though they may seem very human to you must be priestly as well. Since I have written them for you and for myself – an I have put them into practice too- before God. I ask Our Lord that these pages may be of use for us. May we profit by them and e moved by them so that in our lives our deeds may leave behind a deep and fertile furrow.

Oct 6, 2002 Canonization 500,000

Humility

2-1-15 Mountains and Trials

Audio Here (12:15pm Mass)
 Today we hear about a couple different journeys up mountains. Perhaps some of you have had a "mountain top experience," whether actually or figuratively. When some of my relatives climbed a mountain in Colorado a few summers ago, it snowed and hailed on them as they got near the top. Besides almost freezing, they were very afraid of lightning as well. Luckily everything passed by and they finished the ascent, and they tell me it was totally worth the effort. The view and the whole experience were an amazing reward that they shared together. This really proves the old phrase: "no pain, no gain."

There's no easy way up a mountain! It takes a lot out of us, even the strongest! This is true physically and spiritually. In order to get close to God in this life, it can be really tough at times. Sometimes life throws curve balls at us and we can really feel the sting. We finite human beings can't understand why all the time because we have trouble seeing the big picture. Often we are stuck down in the details and don't get high enough to see the view from God's angle.

That is exactly what Abraham is going through today. For us, we can see the symbolic connection to Christ's Passion that is foreshadowed in the story. For example,

[:: = foreshadows]

Beloved Son, Isaac :: Son of God

Wood for sacrifice :: Cross

Mt. Moriah :: Temple mount and mount Calvary

Ram among thorns :: Lamb of God crowned with thorns

That's not too difficult for us to see. But for Abraham, that is impossible to see. He is centuries before Christ's birth, and so has no idea what God is doing. In Abraham's experience, God promised to give him his own promised land and make his descendants numerous as the stars or the sand on the seashore. His only son, who God miraculously gave him and his wife despite their old age, is now demanded back in sacrifice. Perhaps Abraham was tempted to think that the Lord is like all those other false-gods of the ancient world who demanded human sacrifice and didn't care about us or our futures, nor His promises. But we know that he, as Saint Paul says, reasoned that God could even bring someone back from the dead (as he did figuratively already in the gift of this child). Whatever he "felt" or "thought," Abraham later realized that God was showing two things: (1) He is not like other false-gods and despises human sacrifice; and (2) He was asking Abraham to choose God Himself over and above the "good things" Abraham receives from Him. God, like all of us, wants to be loved for Himself, and not for what He does. And we see today a third use: God foreshadows His own sacrifice, fulfilling Abraham's words to Isaac's question: "God Himself will provide the sacrifice."
The questions in our life about why things happen are answered, but in a mysterious way. God chooses, just like with Abraham, to explain one story with another story, The Cross.
Mountains :: transfiguration. Jesus shows his disciples the future so they can get through the Cross. Well, that's the same for us. God reveals Himself to us on mountains, through the pain of our trials in life, when we can't make sense of it and need to see things from a different perspective. Sometimes he does it ahead of time. Sometimes he only reveals what it was all about afterwards.

Abraham went through all that effort and pain to obey the Lord and stay close to Him. The Lord repaid him by revealing Himself in a deeper way. Sometimes in our lives we will have to follow the Lord where we don't understand but have to rely on faith alone to guide us. But through these times, we will eventually be blessed with the ability to see things differently, from a higher vision. God will share a glimpse of Himself to us and we will know Him more deeply as our loving God, who will do anything to save us, even giving up His Only-Begotten Son.

Time is up!

Audio: (Sat. Eve) https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0bmpQNkhueVFDUlNXdk0wQzB1dV92SmFsMEV3/edit?usp=docslist_api
Life is often seen in light of transitions.

We remember the big moments of life that more or less put an end to one chapter and open up another.

Today we see some of the biggest transitions of all history.  In the story of Noah, God says "never again will I wipe out man from the face of the earth." His investment in the human race now means that the story of the Bible is going to be a rescue mission and not any attempt to just write it off and start over.

Then we see in the Gospel the biggest transition of all time until Christ's return: God's rescue-mission that lasted over centuries took two forms: the old covenants wherein He called a people to Himself and slowly guided them along the way of Justice and Truth; and the New and Eternal Covenant ratified in Christ.  Saint Mark explains that this transition ends with John the Baptist's arrest.  The last prophet who simply called out the sinfulness of God's people and their need for forgiveness is now done.

And now a new chapter opens up: Jesus comes on the stage and declares that the time has come. What time? The time of the forgiveness that couldn't be won by the blood of a little lamb.  The time of God's definitive work in rescuing a fallen humanity. The time, Jesus says, of the Kingdom - of repentance and of believing in the Gospel.

But before we can enter into that time, Jesus shows us that it won't be easy.  We will have serious struggle as He did in the desert, but we will also have help.  Did you notice that Jesus wasn't alone in the desert at all? First he was tempted by Satan. Then he's among the wild beasts. Finally he is ministered to by angels.  There is good evidence in the text that these all were happening more or less together, all at once.  Isn't that exactly how we experience it? We all have the adversary tempting us as we wander through the beast-filled deserts of our lives, but we also have the angels there to help us.  We are never abandoned, but we can often get caught up focusing on the voice and the logic of the devil.  Remember what God said to Cain before he killed his brother Abel: Why are you angry and downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.

During this season of Lent, that is our struggle.  We must keep our eyes on Christ to conquer this battle in our hearts.  Fortunately, after Christ conquers for us and gives us an example, He immediately comes after us.  Jesus runs out into the country announcing to us and looking for us.  All we have to do is let Him find us, quit hiding, let down our defenses founded on insecurities, and He will be our peace.  "The time has come.  The Kingdom is at hand.  Repent and Believe in the Gospel."
Before we can enter into the Kingdom, Jesus gives us a two-part plan: Repent and believe.  We can't repent without belief, and we don't truly believe unless we repent.  And we keep doing both again and again for the rest of these 40 days.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the grace of true repentance.  To drive us into the desert of our lives with Christ so that He can conquer the devil's lies that have us tied down.  Let us beg the Holy Spirit for a deeper faith to have a Lent that makes us different by the time Easter comes, a heart that is now master over the evil of this world.

Ash Wednesday homily

Audio only.

Here it is! https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0ckF1aHdTaDVtT2p2VUdJMWpHSW9ZZnJPUFlV/edit?usp=docslist_api

American Individualism, Isolation and Relationship with Jesus

Audio: (10:30 Mass) https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0dTZjVHVxTG92Sll4MGxxbXVHQ1dndll6OUdn/edit?usp=docslist_api

The faith of this leper is great: "if you desire it, you can make me clean". His leprosy was worst case scenario: his entire body covered. 

Escrivá Forge 665: The power of working miracles! How many dead — and even rotting — souls you will raise, if you let Christ act in you.

In those days, the Gospel tells us, the Lord was passing by; and they, the sick, called to him and sought him out. Now, too, Christ is passing by, in your Christian life. If you second him, many will come to know him, will call to him, will ask him for help: and their eyes will be opened to the marvellous light of grace.

For the Jewish community, isolation was probably the most difficult part of leprosy. It was so hard for that person to be forced out of society and all of their relationships.

I find it interesting that we in a highltechnological society fail to appreciate the pain and challenge of isolation, even as we experience it even more frequentlybut in different ways.  The United States was in many ways founded on getting away from others and promoting the individual. And that individualism creates within us a unique fear for the exact thing we were created for: community and relationship.

The leper today goes to Jesus in order to seek healing. However, he also submits himself to what the Lord's will is: "if you will let, you can make me clean." That vulnerability is exactly what so many people are afraid of in their relationships. We don't want to be hurt, so we don't allow ourselves to open up to another.

Are we afraid of getting close to Jesus because it might mean shattering are individualism, overcoming our fears of relationship, and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable in the hands of another? Although this might make sense in other relationships, it does not make sense with Christ. He loves us perfectly. We know this even better than the leper. Look at the cross. You don't need to be afraid of someone who will love you like this.

If we want miracles to happen in our lives and the lives of our loved ones, we half to get close to Jesus. We half to be vulnerable enough to let him take control and change us. That is exactly what prayer is meant to do, abandoning our hearts and souls and futures to the living God.

"Man, you don't know pain!"

Audio (Sat. Eve): https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0MGdpNjFvYnMzeUV6eVNUc2t2blJMNjRhV2lF/edit?usp=docslist_api

I feel like I have had a sheltered childhood.  I was part of a blessed family. Besides losing my maternal grandparents  around age 9, I never really knew much tragedy in my family.

No injuries that weren't fully healed and in the past, etc.

So it's hard to fully understand how Job is feeling in today's reading. I mean, this guy has the ultimate trump card for other people's complaints about what life has dealt them.  Can you imagine losing everyone you've ever loved, everything you've ever owned, and then to top it off your entire body is covered with boils from the worst sunburn imaginable? Job is te only one truly able to tell anyone: "man, you don't know pain - let me tell you about pain!"

However I've seen a whole lot of pain and felt others' pain pretty deeply.  In fact, I almost lost my 4 younger siblings all at one time. (Lake tree accident)

So the Job of my family is my little sister Kasey: Kasey has been through a lot. She was the one with the broken femur at age 4. We carried her around and used a wagon to get her around the house.  At age 8 or so, She broke her jaw and had her mouth wired shut. A little later Tommy broke her head open with a hockey stick. 

Kasey shows that pain doesn't need to overwhelm us and take over.

What do you do for people in times of pain? We have to stand with them through it. Pink and make us alone. We must fight against that!

Sometimes we think pain is the one thing in this life that doesn't make sense.  Like we can challenge God as Job does and say to Him: hey, you don't know what pain is like.  but he does. He does better than we do. 

The Parish and the Synagogue

Audio:https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0TThZMTloVElWcnFWMTlXYnRLNFkzQS1QLUpR/edit?usp=docslist_api

 Every Jewish teacher, or rabbi, was trained by another distinguished rabbi. Saint Paul himself was taught by a great Pharisee rabbi of the time, a man called Gamaliel, who is named twice in Acts of the Apostles. The reason for naming your teacher was so that your words could have some backing: you didn't make this stuff up on your own. Rather, you were taught by a scholar of the law, who was taught by another rabbi, who had his own great instructor, etc. all the way back until ultimately you got to who? Moses, the man from today. All authority rested upon Moses who received instruction from God Himself on Mount Sinai.

This is what makes it so astonishing that Jesus teaches on a different authority: he had no rabbi of his own, and no one wanted to claim this man as one of his students. But it is precisely as a teacher that Jesus is first known: he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. The reason Jesus was seen as a teacher was because of where and what he was doing: Jesus would gather at the synagogue and meet people where they met God, and meet God they certainly did, a God in disguise who came so close that it was hard for their eyes to focus.

The Synagogue was the local "parish" of the time. Thanks to the work of the Pharisees, the Jews could gather for a type of worship that centered around the Word of God. Animal sacrifice was reserved for the temple alone, in Jerusalem. Thus the synagogue was a place of prayer, of letting God speak, but also of Religious Education, of Culture, and of Communal Life. Like the parish, the synagogue was the main source of people's connection to God and to each other.

When Jesus travels from town to town, He goes to the synagogues and teaches. And people meet him, people encounter "the Holy One of God" (as the unclean spirit says today) and are delivered from spiritual bondage, are healed physically, are filled with the peace the world cannot give, and are strengthened to love because they know they are infinitely loved by their God.

That is also what the parish is meant to be, and that is why we celebrate today as a parish. The past year, when we began our campaign, “Behold I Make All Things New," we began to make great strides to overcome the obstacles that are hindering the further growth and vitality of our parish. Like the synagogue, this parish is a place where people worship, where religious instruction is given across all stages of life, and where culture and communal life are meant to be shared. These are hard for us to excel in due to our facilities. For worship, we have seven Masses so the community can't pray well together, and its even worse at the holiest days of our Church. Religious instruction is great for younger ages thanks to the education center, but still more is needed to make the programs excel for the large numbers. Adult education struggles because of the lack of facilities to work with. And most of all, communal life suffers during the week because we have only a few good spaces for adults, as well as on Sundays because there's no gathering space to chat and the parking lot is chaos. It breaks our hearts as priests and staff when we have to say so often: “we just can't do that because we don't have anywhere to make it work.” But thanks be to God that through the "Behold I Make All Things New" campaign, we plan to resolve all of these things over the next years by your generous hearts. I am so grateful for the ways God is working. With the amazing amount of $11.75 million raised, we are currently only able to accomplish the largest part of our goal: the worship space, gathering space, and new meeting rooms. The rest of the goal in pledges would also allow for expansion of the Education Center, especially the needed bathrooms and a cafeteria space so we can use the gymnasiums as they were intended.

But the real reason we want to do all of this is so that people can meet Jesus at Saint Pius X. We don't want the parish to simply be a place where you get in an out on Sunday (and other days) as quickly as possible to avoid a jam. We want it to be the life-blood of our families, their second home, and the place where memories are formed year after year. This “catholic synagogue” is where we find Jesus, we are healed by Him, and we proclaim Him “the Holy One of God.” May the Lord, whose generosity and love knows no bounds, bring our work to its completion so that as many people as possible can meet the Lord Jesus in this community of faith.