The Call - it's all about you and not at all

Audio(Sat. Eve):  https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0cU5MQ3pWcklXRnNxTnFnLUhCUkxBdE00cnNv/edit?usp=docslist_api

Your vocation matters to you and to so many others.  The call of God for your life means your happiness.  But it also means the greater happiness of all the lives you are meant to touch.

Have you ever heard of yourself described as a fish before?  I've only seen it once in the Bible, when after Jesus' resurrection he calls from the shore and they catch 153 fish and they realize it is Christ.  Some scholars have said the number 153 represents all the world as they knew it at that time, every nation.
But when I was in Malta I heard a little teaching from their only saint, Fr. George Preca, who more or less called us fish when he talked about how We often forget that our life is so covered in God like a fish is in water.  We are literally swimming in God in this life, if we have eyes to see it, and can't live outside of Him, says Fr. George.

Simon and Andrew are fishermen, but they themselves are the little fishies that get are swimming around with little purpose and end up caught today - caught for good.  They are there "throwing nets into the sea," hoping for a catch, relying on it for their food and shelter.  But if we take it spiritually, I think we can find a symbol of our wandering hearts hoping for something to catch us. Sea for the Jews was the perfect image for the chaos of our unpredictable world. So these two men, like all of us, are seeing what they can get out of life, sort of waiting around mindlessly for something good to happen.  Imagine that look people get at the casino or in front of their phones or televisions, or other ways that we all "waste time."  It's kind of funny that we call it so clearly for what it is, but don't treat it that way.  Usually we use nice cushioned phrases to describe things we shouldn't be doing, so that we can feel better about it, but this is one of the opposite cases: "wasting time" is right - we are squandering opportunities to do something good, something that builds up ourselves or other people, something that prepares us for our future.
The second set of brothers are found "mending their nets" - maybe we find ourselves at times trying to heal ourselves and get ready for next round of searching, placing our bets for where our happiness will be found.

So these guys are searching for a reason to live!  They want a purpose-driven life.  They want a mission.

Speaking of fish, let's look at Jonah for a second.  You know he gets swallowed whole but doctor remember why? Because he ran away from God's call.  It was as if God said go preach to Chicago and he got on a train for Florida.  So eventually Jonah gets the point and goes to Nineveh like he was supposed to and is surprised at what God does with it: the scoundrel pagans actually repent very sincerely!  So there's the point: your vocation matters to others as much as it does to you. Without Jonah, Nineveh was toast.  They needed him.  God "needed" him in a way, a lot like Jesus needed those four fishermen - without whom the history of the world might be very very different.

So for us: God has a plan, a mission, a purpose that every single one of us alone can fulfill: our vocation.  And when he calls, we must leave everything behind to become that disciple.

Lastly, it's not only the apostles or bishops or priests or religious who are called to be fishers of men: every one of us is called to be.  When Jesus gets hold of our wandering hearts and gives us something to live for, it's not so we can keep it all to ourselves - we have to share it.  To use that old dating advice, There's a lot more fish in the sea, and we are called to wake them up and help thm find the real meaning of life: a relatively bishop with th living God, following after the Lord Jesus. Amen.

Seeking God, in so many ways...

Listen here (Sat. Eve): https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0NVBpSnpqTURzV0luaTJvTlIxMC1DV29vSjhZ/edit?usp=docslist_api

Vocation - we want meaning for our lives.  Samuel hears his calling from God.  Paul reminds us how we are called to glorify God in our bodies, saying sharply: avoid immorality! 

SEEK - theme of FOCUS conference in Nashville starting late New Year's Day came from this Gospel where Jesus asks us "What are you looking for?" Or Seek or Want.  What do you seek?

We all want to be happy, truly and eternally happy.  But we are often lost in our search. We so often fall for the first thing we see instead of thinking about it all at a deeper level. The problem is there are so many different types of happiness, or to put it better, many things that are similar to true happiness but aren't exactly that.  And we can so often get caught up in these for hours, or months, or even decades of our life before we realize we were chasing after the wind and going nowhere fast.  For example, money, says the world, can make us happy - as if can solve our problems, if we have enough of it.  But it can't.  Money doesn't solve suffering, both in the world or in our personal lives.  So if we can't be happy as long as we are suffering, money won't make us happy.  What about power?  We can always be more influential so there's no resting in that, nor are the most powerful people automatically happy.  Fame? no, just listen to news radio for an hour.  How about pleasure? That doesn't make us happy, it only distracts us for a bit.

Saint Augustine said we have "restless hearts," they don't quit searching; until, he says, they "rest in God."  But along the way there are some things that can start to take us higher.  I once talked about the 4 levels of happiness: 1. pleasure, 2. superiority/competition, 3. common good, and 4. God.

Relationships - We want to love and be loved.

Ultimately, we want the Lord who is Love.  Samuel was lucky enough to have lots of silence for the opportunity to hear the cries of his heart and the voice of the Lord.

The demands of Baptism

Audio (5:30 Sat.): https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0NXFaaW1zc2ZHMXl5aGRjaHpTM3JVYUEta21B/edit?usp=docslist_api

 Today as a Church we all reflect on the meaning of our baptism by looking at Jesus' own baptism. But first, since I missed Epiphany last Sunday with you I want to show how that event fits into today's mystery and today's challenge. At Epiphany, when the wise men come to worship the newborn king, we have a Manifestation of Christ and his divinity, and today of the entire Trinity. The star over Bethlehem is a symbol for the vocation of every Christian: God sets us up in our own place in this world to lead others to Jesus. Our lives need to shine with His light. Otherwise the modern-day wise men who are seeking out the truth, beauty, and goodness their hearts long for May never find the answer to their deepest longing.

John the Baptist was a star like that: he was a charismatic person who drew people to himself only because he wanted to point them to Jesus. "None born of woman greater than John, but even the least of the kingdom of heaven is greater than he". Whoa, talk about the power of baptism if even the least of us, no matter how unworthy we feel, is greater than John if we are born from above and live in God's kingdom!

After Jesus' Baptism, The Spirit immediately drove Him into the desert to reflect on this event, so that He could prepare for ministry by growing internally in His solid foundation of the call the Father had for Him. That is the point of prayer for us: preparation, formation, and knowledge of our mission. He needed to reflect on God's words: "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well-pleased."

In John Eldridge's Wild at Heart, a book about Christian manhood, he speaks of every young man having a "father wound." What he meant by that is every guy had a father who wasn't perfect and didn't affirm him or encourage him or support him in every way that one needed. I think that can of course go for every one of us, not just guys, because none of us had sinless fathers. Every dad falls short. And that precisely is the danger of not spending enough time reflecting on how God is our perfect Father. The "father wound" runs deep, and if we don't go to the desert to reflect on what God says to us from our baptism, we may never let that would heal.

We also reflect on our baptism to understand our mission in life, our vocation. The early church understood that Baptism had a profound effect on their lives. St. Josemaria Escriva recounts: Baptism makes us 'fideles', faithful. This is a word that was used — like 'sancti', the saints — by the first followers of Jesus to refer to one another. These words are still used today: we speak of the faithful of the Church. — Reflect on this.

Vocation - Do the little things and don't just think about them. (De Sales) heaven is a real goal and it is a journey to get there. How could you expect to get somewhere if you don't take one step at a time in that direction?

When was the last time I changed my plans because of my relationship with God demanded it? Do I carve out time daily for prayer to hear God say to me "you are my beloved," and say to Him "Your will be done" and "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening"??

Or do I hit the spiritual snooze button? For that matter, do I hit the physical snooze button? Am I unable to get out of bed to pray because I wasted my time lastnight with things that are not part of my daily duties?

Yes Baptism changes us. Yes it demands something from us. It demands 100% commitment and total perseverance. Because Jesus gives Himself to us 100% on the cross and perseveres untiringly in His pursuit of our hearts, constantly knocking for us to let Him into our lives in a deeper way. In this Eucharist today, we thank the Lord for our Baptism, we ask that 2015 may help us to understand it and live it more fully, and we take one more step toward Him in the little things of our daily lives.

Christmas homily

Audio: https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0cElfM1Etb0hnS3pwRDBZRWlSSXNObDBteXdJ/edit?usp=docslist_api

Today we celebrate one of the most central truths of the Christian faith: Jesus Christ was born - God became a little child in order to be with us.  Emmanuel we call Him: "God-with-us".  It really is true, God is with us.  He comes right into our world, not as a warrior-king with all the worldly authority and power we can imagine, but just the opposite: as a vulnerable and poor child, without even a home of His own.
It's interesting that there is no room at the inn for them.  I think that speaks to our parish in a special way as we continue with our plans, thanks to your generosity, to build a larger church: we want to make sure there is enough room for Jesus to be present to His people.  We are the Body of Christ, and the Lord desires to have a home here with us so that we can truly worship together and not broken up into so many separate small groups (like at the three 5:00 Christmas Eve Masses celebrated simultaneously).  There is a beauty to seeing Jesus at work in each other, and thanks to God for the way He is at work in our midst, drawing our parish into a stronger and more united family of faith, and never abandoning us.
Emmanuel comes right into our messy lives.  God is with us even when we aren't prepared for Him.  He doesn't wait for us to be "ready" for Him because He knows we'll never be completely ready for Him - Advent would last forever!   Instead, He comes into our mess in order to help us out along the way.  And I've seen that so concretely in the sacrament of Confession: God meeting us where we are, loving us where we are, and walking alongside us as we journey to become the best-version-of-ourselves, one step at a time toward holiness and happiness - which are really the same thing.

GS 22 - The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come,(20) namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then, that in Him all the aforementioned truths find their root and attain their crown.

He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15),(21) is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled,(22) by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice(23) and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin.(24)

"God became like us so that we could become like him" - Saint Athanasius

We look to Jesus to reveal to us what we are called to be.  He reveals to us the way we were made to be.
So, with Mary and Joseph, with the shepherds and the angels, we look at the Christ child in order to learn from Him.  What virtues do we see in Our Lord Jesus? We see profound Humility - God makes Himself into a creature because He loves us that much. We see littleness and gentleness. Even we see weakness (according to worldly standards), for somehow through our weakness God's power is made even stronger and more clear.  Let us look at Jesus and contemplate what we are meant to be: asking what is the best-version-of-myself that this child reveals to me?

Lastly, this Lord Jesus reveals to us the importance of the Eucharist as well.  For us Catholics, Emmanuel or God-with-us takes on a very special meaning in the Eucharist.  Thanks to the unbelievable humility of God, and to His amazing love which desires to be so close to us, even as a bridegroom rejoicing with His bride, we are able to receive this greatest of all gifts: Holy Communion, wherein the Lord Jesus becomes God-within-us!  Bethlehem literally means "house of bread" and that is what every Catholic church becomes: the heavenly house of divine bread, where in the Tabernacle we find our Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, present to us and showering us with His love.  May we always let the Lord Jesus feed us with His life-changing presence in our personal prayer, in Sunday Mass, and in the sacrament of Confession.  Lord Jesus, we love you; thank you for coming into our mess; please transform our hearts.

The Jesus Question

Audio: https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0cTFwTW5tY0VKLWVjWkJFV2JHRTZtTmk1djBR/edit?usp=docslist_api

Next week, Bishop Rhoades is going to give us a CD titled, "The Jesus Question".

How we answer the question “Who is Jesus?” makes all the difference.

The Church today asks us to reflect on this question, and it is especially the words of the Archangel that Gabriel help us to understand who Jesus is: he is the new King of David's line, the Messiah who will restore Israel to what it is meant to be: God's righteous children who are destined for holiness and eternal life.

The first word Gabriel says, 'Hail' in the Greek language actually means 'Rejoice.' Gabriel's news about Jesus is actually something to rejoice about. A couple weeks ago I reminded us that if we don't envision that we need a savior, then Jesus' coming won't be a big deal. But if we do realize that we are sinners who are in quite a bit of a mess and really in need of Almighty God's help, today we rejoice with Mary, because that help comes once and for all in Jesus. Gabriel's first word points backwards as well; and in fact, if you take the Latin word for 'hail' which is “Ave” (as in Ave Maria) then you get Eva, the name of the first woman of all time, who along with Adam fall into the trap of sin that every one of us knows too well. Finally, after generations upon generations of waiting and expectation of that first promise God made about our redemption that the serpent's head would be crushed, Mary the New Eve and her Son, the New Adam, are here to untie the knot of sin that the human race is found tied up within. Just think, Adam and Eve, and you and me, we human beings commit a sin against God, an infinite fault against an infinitely huge and infinitely loving Creator – what could we, finite beings as we are, do to make up for that? How you do fill up the Grand Canyon when all you have is a bucket? This is God's genius today: The Lord, the infinite One who made the Grand Canyon and the ocean that can fill it, enters our finite humanity so that finite human nature can make up the infinite debt. That's what a Savior is: someone who unties the knot that binds up as prisoner. This is exactly what we all long for more than anything, ever.

But before all that could happen, we needed Mary. God chooses not to force His plan on humanity, but rather wants us to freely choose it: He invites the sinless one, Mary, to be the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us. Will she say yes? All of creation, Mary, waits for your reply. Angels are holding their breath as they watch your eyes burn at Gabriel's invitation. Moses, David, Abraham, and all the patriarchs had longed with all their hearts to see this moment come. Please be bold! Don't let your perfect humility hold you back when the Lord also gave you the courage and the greatness to say “amen” to His Holy Will! Please, Mary, we need you! “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word.” With this reply, The world sighs with relief and delight, and Mary gives Gabriel, and the whole human race, something to rejoice about for all eternity. We have our savior. We have our hope. That is who Jesus is, and that makes all the difference. Thank you, Mary!

Me-Monster and The Reed of God

Audio from 10:30 https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0dmNyVnNIVVdnSER1YkhSbV9XTEJNT19PS1kw/edit?usp=docslist_api

Gaudete Sunday is all about joy.  There are many obstacles to the joy of the Christmas season.  Some of them we can control, others we cannot.  If a loved one has died or we are experiencing some other type of loss or failure, we may not be feeling the joy of the radio stations and marketplaces resonating with our own hearts.  However, other things can get in the way, too, and they don't have to.  The biggest one, and the one today's readings call us to focus on, is ourselves.  If we are full of ourselves, we will not have joy.  True joy - not the sweet but empty "cotton-candy" joy - is the fruit of hope, of peace, of an encounter with someone greater than ourselves.

A comedian once talked about the big scary beast of pride that we see so often in our world.  "Beware of the me-monster" he would say.  It's a good wake-up call.
Humility is the antidote to this, and we see it well in John the Baptist.  Humility is grounded on truth.  Literally it means "earthiness," someone who is lowly and in touch with reality.  That is why John can say "No" to all those questions, but still respond clearly to who he thinks he is: a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophesy to prepare the Lord's coming.  He knows it and isn't ashamed, but there's no me-monster involved.  That's humility.  That's the road to joy.
John the Baptist has emptied himself.
If we empty ourselves and give it over to the Lord, letting Him sit on the throne of our hearts to have authority to shape our entire person as He wishes, then we will find the secret to Joy.  Not only that, but the Lord will do great things through us.
Carol Houselander wrote a great book on this truth called the Reed of God.  She spoke of how a reed has to be taken and emptied out, shaped as God wants it, in order to be transformed into a beautiful wind instrument.  If the reed is full of itself, it cannot make music.  Mary was exactly that as well: like John the Baptist, she was free of herself so that God could shape her and make something more beautiful than she ever imagined.  And through that, she was filled with great joy.

So if we want to share the joy of this season, we need to foster our hope that God will do great things through us, which starts with humility.  Let us empty ourselves and become God's reed so that he can make some beautiful music with our lives.

The Real Jesus is more than warm & fuzzy

Audio:https://docs.google.com/a/stpius.net/file/d/0B1r8CMMH17Y0blBlVFc5dkd3bVBLaUdUd1oxM3p4RUZWbTgw/edit?usp=docslist_api

Let's try to be shocked again by the Gospel.  So often we get too comfortable with this good news.  But Jesus' coming is more than just a warm & fuzzy experience.  It is a revolution and we want to be on His side of the battle.  It has shocked people since the beginning of time.  We need to allow it to do the same to us.

Advent looks in two directions at the same time.  It starts at the end, looking at Jesus' coming at the end of time.  It ends with His first coming, his birth in Bethlehem.
Today St. Peter reminds us again of that second coming as a like a thief.  I think another good example for us is a car accident or a physical injury, like when I fell over my bike as a kid and tore open my chin and needed 13 stitches.  These things are never easy or comfortable or a welcome surprise.  We are never prepared.  Like that, we are never prepared for God crashing into our lives: which is exactly why the characters of the Old Testament are afraid when they see an angel or hear God's voice.

Another reason is because God comes to turn our world upside down, which really turns out to be right-side-up.  Mark also gets at this: Jesus' first coming is a revolution of the current state of things.  Mark is most likely writing St. Peter's testimony from the city of Rome itself, the belly of the beast so to speak, since Rome controlled almost everything touching the Mediterranean at that time.  And Mark begins this way: the Gospel (euangelion, Good News) of Jesus Christ, Son of God.  For Romans, Gospel meant a proclamation of military victory.  So Mark says Jesus, who is also Christ (messiah), has won a great military victory by his cross and resurrection.  Then he calls Jesus the Son of God, which might make us yawn, but for Romans who worshiped the emperor as a son of a god, a descendant of divine lineage, it would have certainly caught their attention.  They would have said, "wait, are you saying this Jesus is the real Caesar, the real king of the universe as we know it?"  Yes, says Mark, now listen to how he won that victory.  And then he starts the story that more and more, shocks his audience.

John the Baptist made people of his time quite uncomfortable.  He shocked them.  But sometimes it's a good thing when we are made uncomfortable.  For example, here's what my mom did to me when I was a baby.  She gets a ring at the doorbell and there's a man asking her "is this your child? I found him out in the middle of the road."  Now we're not talking some neighborhood road, we are talking a road of constant, but light, traffic.  Well my mom was terrified, embarrassed, and grateful and angry all at the same time.  So  guess what she did?  She spanked me to kingdom come saying "don't ever do that again!"  Now, was that comfortable for me?  Obviously not, otherwise I wouldn't have blocked it from my memory.  But was it good for me?  Yah I think so, since maybe the next driver wouldn't have been so alert and cautious.  So, discomfort can be good when we are in danger.  And that's what the Baptizer is doing for us: telling us we are spiritually in danger, demanding we repent and seek forgiveness for our sins.
So we have to be honest about our own sinfulness.  If we don't acknowledge we need a savior, Jesus' coming isn't that big of a deal is it?  Nope.
So, I hope this kind of shocks you: you are spiritually in danger without Jesus.  You don't know when the thief is coming to take back to Himself everything that you think is yours.  And the Baptist says this: repent and seek forgiveness.  To do this, I give one piece of advice: make a good Confession during Advent.  Either come a week from Tuesday or come to one of the times Fr. Bill and I will be available.  Don't get comfortable with the warm & fuzzy Jesus.  He's much more than that.  He's a Savior.  This Advent, let Him save you and heal you once again.