Child-likeness and Humility

Children at the time of Christ were considered to have the dignity that our secular culture gives the unborn. We know that those in the womb deserve absolute respect as human beings (which is why our city always takes part in the national campaign, 40 Days for Life, twice a year, officially starting Wednesday). But if you looked at the billboards in NYC or Chicago, you would see a very different sense of in child in the womb: a sort of take it or leave it. That small living person is important if you choose it to be, but you can choose otherwise and that's fine. As crazy as that sounds, this is exactly what is happening in our culture today, and it was similar for young children in Jesus' day. They literally had no rights: parents had free reign to do what they pleased. So it is quite amazing that Jesus calls us to be like children, but he meant something different. He was referring to some of the best qualities of children. First, they have a brutal honesty because we do not have any “adult sins” like careerism and public persona. Second, children live from a knowledge that they are loved, and that is all that matters. Being like a child means remembering precisely that: our identity, our self-worth, comes from the fact that we are loved into existence by God. It isn't from what we do, but from who we are: God says “you matter to me” every single moment you are breathing, and so you do.

However, every single one of us fails at this from time to time; in fact, more often than not we are living from our fallen human nature rather than our redeemed identity in Christ Jesus. This is because of original sin. G.K. Chesterton described this in a simple way: look at two babies playing together with a few toys. Eventually it will end up with at least one stealing & hitting, and at least one crying, sometimes it goes both ways. This is what the apostles are doing today. We are selfish and have to break that cycle to be true to who we are. Power, prestige, authority, and popularity are all things we want. Sometimes we want them so bad we will wish evil on others, like the first two readings suggest today: “let us beset the just one...he is obnoxious to us.” James reminds us: the wars and conflicts come from our selfish and envious hearts. Who says the spiritual life is a waste of time? If it has the power to stop 100 or even ten household fights every year, it certainly is worth it. Let us ask Christ to become like children.

One way that we can do this is a nice prayer to grow in humility called Litany of Humility. You can find the full prayer on my blog, but we will finish the holy by offering this prayer today.

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

Amen.

Cost of Discipleship

What do the following have in common?

Friendship. Marriage. A Job. College. Parenting. Sports team or any type of club. A diet. Christian Discipleship.

Maybe more then one thing, but what I was thinking is they all require commitment and sacrifice.

Commitment and sacrifice is common.  We only need to think about the choices we make - almost all of them mean sacrifice.

If we are committing to following Christ, then we will be sacrificing as well.  It means no to worldly power, no to glory, no to a comfortable, easy life.  But it also means a bigger yes: yes to a life of deep meaning, a life of impact for the good, a life of love, of laughter even when we can't avoid pain, of joy, of community, of acceptance, and of giving and receiving.

That is what the Cross now means.  Jesus transformed the definition of the Cross, no longer an instrument of torture and of fearful oppression, it is now a sign of victory.  As Saint Paul says:

Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

Parish Missionary Appeal - Holy Cross Missions

Father Thomas Smith, CSC gave the homily this week.  I recorded it at the 11a.m. Mass.  The audio is available: click here.

How Christ heals today

Audio: click here

If you had to summarize the point of the Christian life, it would be in a relationship with Jesus.  We are disciples of Jesus because we have encountered Him, he has somehow come into our lives and said to us "follow me," and those words rang with something deeper and more beautiful than we have ever known.  We hear it in our ears and yet it at the same time hits us hard in the gut and in a subtle way moves our heart gently to a huge change.

The Gospel of Mark that we are hearing speaks of Jesus' encounters with individuals in a special way.  The language would have made clear sense to the Christian communities it was written from and read in.  It is said with some certainty that Mark was written in or near Rome around 60-65ad. This would be the time that Peter was arrested and crucified, so Mark, who had worked alongside Saint Paul as well, was probably transcribing and organizing Peter's eyewitness account.  However, Peter and Mark naturally would have focused on things that connected to their faith community. So today's Gospel is st th same time an eyewitness account, an interpretation on that account, and a sort of specific story tailored to the persecuted Christians of Rome and beyond.

So why all this information? Because I've been in a teacher-mode way more often than I am used to! No, just kidding. It's because Jesus' encounter had some details in it that still make sense to us today if we think about it properly.

First, Jesus takes the man outside away from everyone and everything. He separated him so it is practically just the two of them.  For Mark's era, when Christisnity was illegal and thought a type of revolution against the pagan culture, the church could only gather in private. People had to meet Jesus away from the crowd. Think even today of the monastery and th convent, where men & women flee from the world to encounter Jesus in a radical way, forever.  Certainly today in our post-Christian culture, we do not meet Jesus openly and easily on the city streets of Chicago or Indianapolis, but if we do, he sort of draws us away to encounter us more deeply.  How often do we spend time in silence, away from the crowds, on purpose, with the goal of meeting Jesus there? Do we sacrifice time to pray every day?

Th second detail about this one-on-one encounter is that Jesus heals this man in a very gritty way.  This is the God who simply said "let there be light" and there was. But here he takes the man's arm, walks out, cries out to God, puts his fingers in his ears and spits & touches his tongue.  For Mark's community, they would have known and seen how Gos was transforming the lives of Christian after Christian: in the grittiness of the sacraments. God uses still these very real tangible ways to heal us. In every single Mass, in every single Confession, we are encountering Jesus. He desires to take us into the silence and heal us. Do we follow Him? Do we meet Him regularly?

Thirdly, where we meet Jesus is in the Church. When Christ takes the man from th me crowd, this is a symbol of the Church community.  The word for "church" in Greek literally means "the group called out," meaning the people called out of the ordinary ways of the world to be different and separate, to be holy. Jesus in a sense takes this man to church, he calls him away to be separate and to encounter Him there. It is still the same today as it was in 65ad.

As we come before Jesus today, let us beg Him to heal us in the grittiness of the Sacraments of His Church and stay a community called out, separate, and holy that continues to welcome new members to find Christ here.

Purity of heart

Audio: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1r8CMMH17Y0cExKTm5QUDVUQmYtNXZjVl90d1I0VFpJMmpF

In the U.S. We have a funny relationship to law.  It would seem to be a love-hate relationship with law.  We praise the justice of our laws (or the vast majority of them) and yet we cling so passionately to "liberty" which so often is described as a total absence of any kind of restriction, even laws.  This is one example of the complex relationship between law and freedom. 

Jesus confronts a kind of Legalism in today's Gospel. In fact, every reading we heard points to the tension between the letter of the law and the true goal of the law, which is ultimately our sanctification.  The law is meant to make us holy, and that means our bodies and our souls, and as we mentioned in the penitential act today, includes our thoughts, our words, our actions and omissions ("what I have done and what I have failed to do").  However, laws can only really govern our actions, the very important first step in achieving sanctity but certainly not the complete fulfillment. So if our life revolves around the law, then we will miss the mark. God wants more. We will be forgetting the heart, where holiness is completed.

For example, if we are playing a sport, we don't want to focus on all the rules. It ends up being tedious and frustrating when the game is supposed to be enjoyable and at times exciting.  The laws can get in the way if they are treated as the focus of it all. But if they are not mistaken for what it's all about, the laws/rules are the true path to enjoyment.

Jesus says it clearly: the law has to be in our heart. The heart must be pure. 

Jessica Hayes – Consecrated Virgin.

Homily for Sunday Aug. 23

Audio only:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1r8CMMH17Y0X05DMU1xdGRQbVdBU0NFVXBzX1NTUjdIMTRr

Acquired taste

Audio: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1r8CMMH17Y0dmt3eUxwOGZrVjlmRXotZUw2TXZ0NlZXbC1Z

Last week I discussed "eating right" spiritually. I think today we can look at this a little bit more by talking about my acquired taste and eventually love for tomatoes. As a kid, tomatoes were good for only two things: spaghetti sauce and pizza. The sight of my dad slicing them up and eating them in front of me was just disgusting.  My parents never tried to force me to eat one, but if they did, it might have started World War III: there's no way I would have gotten anywhere near one! Well, I find it pretty amazing that now one of my favorite foods this time of year is slicing up a fresh tomato and basil from the garden over some toasted bread with olive oil, a simple homemade bruschetta. Oh, it just doesn't get better than that. How does a switch like that happen? Well, I slowly over time acquired a taste for better things. It's took a long time, but I eventually wised-up to the fact that vegetables can be absolutely delicious, and that food is so much greater than just candy, salt, and fat -although a strip of bacon is still really good!

In today's first reading, we hear Wisdom inviting us to a banquet. That character of Wisdom personified is really just an aspect of God Himself. But wisdom is also something that we ourselves can have, we can sort of possess it even if we can't control it or dominate it. So Wisdom, who is both God as well as part of our highest self, is then really Jesus Christ, the logos of God or the Word of God, which Saint John Paul II calls "the human face of God and the divine face of man."

And wisdom (Jesus) makes an invitation to us to join in the banquet. It's important to remember that as this image again proves, God isn't out to get us, to hurt us, to make life difficult. A banquet is a great thing. Now, granted, life is difficult, we do get hurt, and there are other forces house to get us and hold us down – but God, my friends, is all about loving invitation to nourish the deepest desires of our souls.

So, our souls actually want to be fed good wholesome stuff: we don't long for junk food. The spiritual food we want is ultimately Jesus. We went life. We want happiness. We want to know that I life is meaningful, and that we are playing a part in the building up of the kingdom of God.  The only way we are going to get that kind of nourishment is with God, so our hearts must be open.

The invitation that Jesus for the offers us requires us to choose. God doesn't force us. But another important aspect of Jesus's invitation is that it requires us to say no to certain things. If we are going to accept the banquet that Jesus wants to offer us, we have to reject the spiritual junk food that's out there. One concrete way that we can embrace the invitation of wisdom from God, is to read regularly from sacred Scripture (Lectio Divina). Another option is to pray the rosary (Which always includes meditating on the mysteries of Jesus is life). Or we could take a book off of the shelf of our Paris library in the back of church for our own spiritual reading. These are ways that we try to cultivate wisdom we try to acquire a taste for the higher things. We also then have to make time for that by rejecting the junk food that's out there: television, movies, Netflix, video games, and really a lot of the books out there that are just as bad if not worse.

Jesus says to us that we have to feed on him, and then every single Sunday he invites us to the banquet of the Mass to feed us, both in the Eucharist and in the wisdom of sacred Scripture and of the teachings of the church. Do we accept that invitation?  Do we share that invitation to others?