PASSIONTIDE - Veils and interior life

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The hour has now come for the Son of Man to be glorified...

The last two weeks of Lent are known as “Passiontide.”  A new preface is prayed these last weeks of Lent before the Holy Holy Holy.  The Lord's Passion, his suffering, is meant to take center stage, and the veils that we see over the sacred art around us are meant to help us achieve the goals of the Church's liturgy in these last two weeks.  Here’s what we should be doing differently.

Ultimately all of Lent, but especially these last two weeks, leads toward the interior life.  The church enhances its exterior silence so that we can foster an interior silence. This is also why the music of Lent is meant to be more meditative and subdued, even with less instrumentation when possible.  Thirdly, there are to be no flowers in decorating the sanctuary, and other decorations are diminished as well.

As for the veils, although we have only a couple statues and about five images in our church, All the friends of God, the saints, humbly take a step back from the foreground for these two weeks so that we have the chance to focus directly on God, their one true love.

With all this "quieting down" of the sensory experience, we are encouraged to focus on the proclamation of the Word of God and the memorial of the Lord’s sacrifice made present for us in the Eucharist.

Fittingly with that intention, the Stations of the Cross, which are left un-veiled, draw our focus more intensely.  In a sense, they are the one thing we are encouraged to meditate upon.

In a symbolic way, we can see this time as a parallel to when Jesus was in the tomb. The Bridegroom is “taken away” so to speak, though this happens most intensely for us on Good Friday, when the tabernacle is left empty.  We can also imagine what Mary must have felt like for three years when her son was out and about, surrounded by huge crowds so that it was hard for her to get close to him.   But at the same time, we know that the Lord is within us, just as Mary always knew the union of her Son's heart with hers.

And it is there, in our hearts, that The Lord desires for the Law to be written, as we heard in Jeremiah the prophet.  This passage is the longest quotation of the Old Testament that you will find in the New Testament, in Hebrews 8.  Obviously it was very important to the Christian faithful, because that New Covenant was also mentioned by Jesus at the Last Supper: the blood of the new and eternal covenant.  Christ's sacrifice allows the Law of God (his Word made flesh) to be written on our hearts.

Instead of looking for God outside of ourselves, we need to remember that the Lord is speaking within us, through His still, small voice.  The power of silence is discovered most profoundly at this time.  Let us allow the word of God to enter more deeply into our hearts, to speak to us, to form us and shape us.  Next week when we especially devote much more time to the Passion of Christ for "Palm Sunday" or "Passion Sunday," may we truly allow the Sacred Scripture to echo within us as it resounds through this Church.

It is in the wounds of Christ that we are healed.  The Blood of Jesus washes away our sins and renews us.  Monday evening is a powerful chance for us to know this truth in our own persons.  I now invite Fr. Richard McAlear to share some more about how he wishes to help us all encounter that healing touch of Christ during his days here in the parish.

Saved by Him. Not by ourselves. But we have work to do.

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God works in mysterious ways.

 - prophets and now through Magisterium 

 - Jesus

 - dreams for Joseph son of Jacob and Joseph husband of Mary
 - even a story in the Old Testament where God gives a donkey the ability to speak to a prophet!

 - But one of the biggest mysterious ways that God acted in the Old Testament was in the historical deliverance of his entire people from Exile in Babylon: Without them having to lift a finger (just like in Egypt about 8 centuries earlier), pagan king Cyrus of Persia, conqueror of Babylon, becomes God's instrument as he gives free release to the Jews to return to their land and offer their sacrifice to God in the temple.  They even get government funding for rebuilding the temple.

The Lord does this to show that He alone is God and that He alone is the one who graces and blesses His people. They truly don’t earn freedom. God gave it to them. Many times in fact: in Adam they were made free; then in Moses the Hebrews were freed from another slavery; then again through the Judges up to King Saul and David when they were firmly established once again; and that brings us to today’s reading which is clearly another way God frees them to worship once again.

But all of this is a foreshadowing of the most important victory over the greatest slavery of all: sin and its wages, death. Fear of death has enslaved humanity since the beginning, says Hebrews 2:15.  And that fear enslaved humanity, until God saw the time was right to deliver us through His Son.  This is the joy we celebrate every day as a Christian: that God has saved us by His grace.  The word grace means gift.  The Catechism defines it this way: "grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life." (p. 1996) Grace is a participation in the life of God, which is poured unearned into human beings, whom it heals of sin and sanctifies. There are multiple ways God grants his own divine life to us, but the more important ones are through the entirety of revealed truth (the Gospel), the sacraments and the hierarchical ministry (yes, even homilies at times), and of course, prayer in all its forms liturgical and private.

All of God's salvation has nothing to do with our efforts.  Like the Israelite slaves in the first reading, we don't save ourselves.  It is all a free gift of God.  He is "rich in mercy," as we heard from Saint Paul today.  We run out of gas in seeking God's mercy long before He tires in giving it.

What are you afraid of?  If you think about it, it all points back to fear of death - death in all its small forms.  But Jesus, who is the Resurrection and the Life, has conquered death, and by God's grace you are in Him no longer meant to fear anything, but simply to trust that God has your life in His hands.  Nothing is more freeing than that - living life with no fears, no worries, no regrets.  That is the freedom that Christ came to give us, and that is the grace that is ours by His free gift, if only we receive it.

Now to find that healing, we have to do something very simple, but very difficult.  It's simple because it's not complicated, but it is difficult because it is not easy.  And that is, we have to give up control of our lives - to die to ourselves, to our desires, to our dreams, to our plans, to our wants and needs, - and to say yes to God's Will in an absolutely radical way.  And if you think that is easy, look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane - he sweated blood over it.  No, it is clearly very difficult to give up control completely, but when we do that, we have died to the world and are now alive in Christ Jesus.  We transfer our life to where it matters most: heaven.  In God our soul finds rest and refuge.  Nothing can touch it any more.  That is the freedom that God wants to give us in his great mercy.  That is the grace in which we Christians stand day after day.  That's why we wear rose (pink) even in Lent.  That is why we can say "rejoice!" (Laetare) even when the evils of our world are so present to us, even as we endure great suffering and trial.  Merciful Jesus, Lord of life, truly present in this Eucharist, may Your grace help us to say "yes" to all the mysterious ways God wishes to work in our lives.  Amen.

Lent 3rd Sunday - Cleansing our temple

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"God loves us right where we are.  But he loves us too much to let us stay there."

Some say this was perhaps the main cause of Jesus’ crucifixion.

The temple was cherished.  The whole reason people pray today at the "wailing wall" or Western Wall is because it was the edge of the temple as we know it.

This was the time of Passover - everyone was there to offer lambs for sacrifice, not to mention any other offerings for newborns, marriages, etc.  What Jesus did would have caused huge disruption to Jerusalem.  Although some loved it, others would have been appalled.   It would have united and solidified many of His enemies if they weren’t already set against Him.
Why did Jesus make such a risky move?
Because the temple was important.  And he noticed that it wasn't being used properly.  It needed some work - not the stones and wood and incense, but the people inside it.  After he drove them out and refocused things, the temple was what it was meant to be again: a house of prayer.

"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
...But he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Saint Paul: "Do you not know that your body is a temple, with the spirit of God dwelling within you?"
For the Jews, by the way, remember that the body was not just the body - it was the person.  Your body represents your life - your soul - your mind - everything.
Jesus doesn't just want to take care of the temple, but the people within it.  So if your body is a temple, you better believe that Jesus wants to do some work in there.  When things are way out of shape, it feels like violence to get them back in order.  It isn't pretty or easy, but that is not a bad thing.  The only bad thing is that things are far from the way they should be, like Jesus discovered in the temple today.  Ultimately this is tough love, and it's a good thing.
So Jesus wants into your temple, your life.  He will probably find some things that need some work.  He might have to act a little violently.  This is tough, but it's love.  And afterwards, it's worth it.

The Ten Commandments - the Law of God - the Ten Words of God - Jesus Christ.  Sometimes they feel harsh as well.  As we hear them today, let us allow them to enter our hearts and do some tough love.  To drive out any sin that is found there.  To allow our spiritual temples to be what they are meant to be about - prayer and worship of the One who created us and loves us.

Lent - 2nd Sunday - God of (good) surprises

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Our image of God affects everything. How do we really see Him? Especially when life is hard, how do we imagine God? If it’s not the God of the Cross, we are believing a lie.

The snake in Eden fed us a lie about God. Not about fruit. That was just a distraction like the sweet wine in which a poison may be mixed.  What mattered most then is still what matters most now: what kind of picture do you have of God? Because if that picture is distorted it can be critical. In things that aren’t very important, we have room for slight miscalculations. If I cut my steak a little too thick or cook it a 10-seconds too long, I’m still going to have a great meal. If I run for a minute less than an hour, I’m still going to get great exercise.

But if I’m flying to the moon, my rocket ship better be aimed perfect, so I don’t want to be off by 1-degree, not even five minutes or five seconds, since I kind of want to come back to earth and tell my family about it.

So when it really matters, if our vision is wrong, it makes a huge difference.

And as far as God goes, right here is the difference, the poisonous weed the devil sowed in our hearts: “God doesn’t want what’s best for you. He wants to take it from you. He is a tyrant keeping you in bondage.  He’s holding back the best. You need to be your own master and steal for yourself whatever you want.”  Think of every sin you’ve committed and you will find this lie: “if I am to be happy, I must disobey God and take this for myself.” 

How do we imagine God?

If we are honest, I bet we can all think of times when we are afraid of God - that in the end he really doesn’t seem to care; that he won’t come through on his promises; that he is okay with the suffering we see in the world and in our lives.   Waiting for the other shoe to fall.

So that brings us to today. 

Abraham, at multiple times in his life, had profound experiences of God.  Perhaps we can think of times we have too.  Abraham had received promises from God, and most of those promises had to do with his son, his only true heir, Isaac.  So when God tests Abraham by asking for a sacrifice of Isaac, this is more than just a test to see if Abraham loves God more than he loves what God can give him. It’s more than just a way that God can say, once and for all, that human sacrifice is never worship.  Most of all, God is challenging Abraham’s trust in who God truly is.  The questions that can flood our hearts could have been asked by Abraham: Is God trying to take back what he has given?  Is he breaking his promise?  Were all those past experiences of God true?  Or does God really love us and want what is best for us?

But Mount Moriah leads to Mount Tabor.
Christ is the lamb.  “God will provide the lamb”

WHAT CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD?

If God dies on a cross for you, don’t imagine he is a tyrant.

Lent 1st Sunday - Spiritual Battle / Temptation

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We left Jesus in the desert at the end of last Sunday's Gospel from Mark 1:45.  That was actually the third time it mentions Jesus in the wilderness.  Today we get the first account with Jesus' temptation in the desert.

Who said Christianity is for wimps?  The wilderness is not a safe place.  It is exceedingly dangerous physically, but for the Christian it means even greater challenges spiritually.

When we enter the desert, we find that we are not alone.  The tempter is there as he was in the garden.  The wild beasts are there (perhaps representing other demons).  But also, though more quietly, God is there.  His angels are there.  And these great spiritual powers battle not over rock and earth and plant, but they battle over our hearts and souls.  The devil tempts, the Lord guides.  This is the Spiritual Battle that we live every day in our hearts, in our consciences, but more intensely when we run from all the noise of the world to see what noise has gotten into our hearts - has clung to us and begun to shape us.

In the desert we are reminded that the devil does indeed exist, brothers and sisters, and as I've heard it said, his best trick is convincing the world that he doesn't exist.  He isn't some goofy red-skinned thing with a pitchfork.  That's why he's so easy to disregard.  He actually a fallen angel.

(Lk 12:4-5) I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more.  I shall show you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.

Who said Christianity is for wimps?  They were very wrong!  Spiritual enemies are worse than earthly ones.

Jesus was tempted.  Wait - Jesus, tempted?  Yes.  A sign for us of the victory that is ours in Him.

A great work about how we are tempted in our world today would be C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.  Screwtape is a demon writing to an understudy, wormwood, about how to bring down the person he is assigned to lead into hell.  It's a great book for high school and older.

If you have felt called to some severe penance, you may feel tempted now.  But remember the most important thing: God is there and God is stronger.  He may be silent, but He is not absent.  He is there.  Call on Him.  He will answer.  Take refuge in His truth and His love.  We are never tempted without hope.  God always provides a victory for us in Christ Jesus.

Vocation: What about us?

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We have covered the Vocations of the Institutions of marriage, consecrated life, ordained ministry.  But before we embark on the season of Lent, we should look once more at those who do not fit into these categories.  Whether widows, divorced, unmarried, youth, displaced persons, or all other groups that don’t seem to “fit in,” there is a real sense that these people could feel like modern lepers – isolated, unclean, and abandoned.  And this isolation, this way that our culture breeds separation in the midst of technology, breeds fear of your neighbor in the midst of so many freedoms, this is perhaps the greatest disease of our developed world.  It is a spiritual sickness, not a physical one; and as Jesus makes clear for the leper today, it is nothing to be ashamed of, and the leper is not guilty of any sin.  So too the isolated of our day needs to be welcomed into the community of the church so that they can be healed.

But what about the vocation of those who are not part of the main institutions we covered over the last few weeks?  We see their vocation in light of the universal vocation, and in a parallel way from the other vocations.  Let’s start with a text that outlines a basic truth of Christianity.  In a homily for a priestly ordination in 1993, the future Pope Benedict noted how important it is for us to find the truth of the human person not in self-actualization, but rather in self-gift:

[T]his self-abandonment, this allowing the ego to be immersed and to disappear in him, and so too this placing of my own will in his, very profoundly contradicts our attitude toward life—and I suppose this has been the case in every age. For, indeed, this ego is precisely what we want to assert; we want to fulfill it, put ourselves forward, have ownership of our life, and thereby draw the world into ourselves and enjoy it and leave a trace of ourselves in such a way that this ego persists and keeps its importance in the world. It is characteristic of the present era that [there is] an ever greater, ever more dominant sector of the population made up of persons who enter no lasting relationship but are just “I” and lead only this life of their own. And, indeed, there is something like an almost traumatic fear of fruitfulness, because the other might take our place away, because we feel that our share of existence is threatened. And ultimately this retreat into wanting to be only myself is fear of death, fear of losing life, all that we have and are. But as the Lord tells us in the Gospel: Precisely this desperate attempt to possess the ego entirely after all, to possess at least this and as much of the world as can possibly fit into this ego—leads to it becoming withered and empty. For man, who is created in the image of the triune God, cannot find himself by closing himself up in himself. He can find himself only in relation, in going out, in self-giving, in the gesture of the dying grain of wheat.

So truly here we can see the reality not only of priesthood, but of all vocations.  It is a reality that Jesus expounds for us clearly when he said “He who saves his life will lose it; he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”  All of us, no matter what our vocation is, must give ourselves away, must lose ourselves in something greater, ultimately losing ourselves in God.

One of the huge traps of our super-individualized culture is that we are tempted to shy away from permanence.  We see the world as changing too fast, and in ways that are too hard to predict, so therefore we fear making choices that will tie us down and trim our options.  How can I remain my true self (worldy wisdom would say) if I am stuck in a certain way of living?

This spiritual disease of our culture looms most dangerously over those whose vocation is not concretely tied up with lots of obvious things.  The priest, the married man or woman, and the religious brother or sister have a clearer sense of how they are to give of themselves from day to day.  The single person, the divorced, the widowed, etc. do not have that clarity, and the temptation to remain free from some kind of commitment is powerful.  I think it is important for these people (and for all of us in many ways) to not be afraid to step one bit at a time into a deeper commitment to sacrificial self-gift: whether in the parish, in your families, in your friendships, in a volunteer organization, in your prayer.  The question should be: God, how are you calling me to give myself in a committed way to building up your kingdom?  Lord, give me the courage to walk where you lead me one day at a time.

Let us finish with a poem, a prayer, by Cardinal Newman, when at a dark time in his life he had trouble seeing the way but knew who could show him.

Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom

          Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home—

          Lead Thou me on!

Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see

The distant scene—one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou

          Shouldst lead me on.

I loved to choose and see my path, but now

          Lead Thou me on!

I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,

Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still

          Will lead me on,

O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till

          The night is gone;

And with the morn those angel faces smile

Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Vocation: Marriage and family

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          These readings may not seem at first to be very illustrative for the vocation of marriage.  At first glance, we only see the mention of Simon’s mother-in-law, which means he must have been married.  Now instead of any of the hundreds of possible bad jokes that could be said on that point, it is better to simply focus on another: the first reading is actually an even worse text (on the surface) for speaking about marriage: “life is a drudgery; things are miserable, and I’ll never see happiness again.”  Okay that has nothing to do with marriage, and in fact it is a good point to remember, one that was often stressed in seminary: no vocation is ever going to “fix you” and magically make life into rainbows and cotton candy.  The person you are before you are ordained (or married, or consecrated) is the same person you are after.  Life is difficult, but that is one thing that allows it to be so beautiful.

          In marriage we see a parallel to God. This comes straight from the word of God, where in the book of Genesis, man and woman are created in God’s image and likeness to be a gift of love to each other and thus to bear fruit beyond themselves - to be for each other and thus to be for others beyond themselves.  In marriage we see an exalted, even in many ways the most exalted, form of what human relationships are supposed to be like. 

          Marriage is meant to be more than just the two.  If it’s orientation is turned inward, then it already fails at its exalted vocation to be a sign of God’s love in the world.  In some ways children starts that outward focus, which is perhaps the biggest reason I would encourage married couples to not put off parenting out of financial fears or any other kind sense of unreadiness. You’ll never be fully ready and you risk your marriage turning sour with self-focus.

          I just heard a story from an engaged couple that I think illustrates this very well. They had planned a mini-vacation to travel south and see the man’s grandfather so they could announce to him in person that they were engaged. However, when they arrived it was clear that grandpa was in very poor health and needed some serious care. So they naturally got busy with everything they could to help get him on the mend and prepared meals for after they had left. Despite losing some relaxing days of vacation and filling them with all this needed work, they found the experience very uplifting and beneficial for their relationship. They got closer doing these things together for another, especially someone so important to them.  

          I told them this seems to be a perfect example of how we were created to live for others, and that is true even for marriage. 

          In a real sense, marriage is not so much “us vs. the world” as it is “us toward the world”!

          We really can see this truth about marriage in today’s Gospel: symbolically, marriage is the safe haven to which the world comes for what the world cannot get anywhere else.  The house of Simon, because Jesus dwells there, is turned into a house of healing.  So too marriages are meant to be turned outward, toward the world, so that the good preserved within their marital love is ultimately poured upon others.

“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel”  Saint Paul’s words today are meant not just for apostles, or missionaries, or priests, but for married couples as well.  “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” – if our marriage is focused only on ourselves.