Baptismal Identity

 

How important is our baptism! In fact, for us as Christians, the most important, rivaled only by the day of our death.

Our birthday is the day we all have memorized. And for good reason. It is a way of honoring our earthly life, even though we exist 9mos before that.

But even more important is our eternal, which begins in our hearts and souls at the moment of our baptism. So learn it and celebrate it. It gives you another reason to party and have cake or something else you like.

I learned my own day during seminary years. 2 wks after birth. A pagan for only a fortnight before my parents gave the blessing of baptism.

Baptismal Identity – fundamental to understanding ourselves.

So many false claims to our identity:“I am (a)  ___________ (person).” That can have many different categories:  Political. Religious. Race. Social Class. Occupation. Hobbies. Past mistakes. Viewpoints of reality. Etc. etc.      

We need to be careful about how we say that kind of stuff. We can allow these worksd to have power over us, and it isn’t a good thing to wrap up our identity in smaller less important things; and even worse in half-truths, which of course means they are half-lies or half-errors. If we let those things form our identity, it affects how we paint the picture of our past, how we live in the present, and where we are headed in the future.

Before all of these false claims to our identity, we have a fundamental identity from our creator, and one that is destined toward the new life of Baptism.

CCC 364 The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:²³²

366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not "produced" by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.²³⁵

          This identity we have from creation. All of us, baptized or not, have this. But for us as Christians our identity goes even deeper.

“I am …an adopted son or daughter of the living God.”

This statement ties our identity up with our relationship to the Father. And so it entails an important question for us:

HOW DOES GOD LOOK AT YOU? (What do you think God thinks when He looks at you???) So many times we get our religion wrong because we get this fundamental question wrong.

One of the things that ends up affecting us Christians more than anything else is how we would answer this simple question: “What does God think when He looks at you?” This really ends up being a strong driving force in our life.

I was blessed by God to have a mother and father who loved me even when I was not perfect, who would love me enough to not let me sit in my imperfection, affirming my sins or character flaws, but still loving me in spite of them and helping me to grow from them.

Perhaps you didn’t get that same experience. Perhaps adults or even peers in your life seriously damaged that self-image in one way or another. And so instead of seeing the truth of how God thinks of us, we live in a mistaken sense of How we think God looks of us and thinks of us.

That can often end up being very different and very problematic.  Think of the story of the prodigal son: he had a very different picture in his head of what his father was thinking, of what he would do if/when he returned. This was so much less than what was actually in that father’s heart. A child may be ashamed of their mistakes when their parents punish them, but the parents still gaze upon them with a deep love. HOW DO YOU THINK OF GOD? WHAT BAD IMAGES OF AUTHORITY HAVE CORRUPTED YOUR IDEA OF GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU?

If you imagine God like a harsh sports coach or a mean teacher or a demanding parent or any other traumatic experiences you have had in your life… then you’re gonna live in fear of upsetting Him, of failing Him, of drawing close and being vulnerable with Him, of trusting Him with your entire self.

The truth is this brothers and sisters: God doesn’t think we are bad or evil; He doesn’t think we are damaged goods; He doesn’t define us by our mistakes, our failures, or our sins. Our baptismal identity should help us to remember that. When God looks at us, he sees a beloved son or daughter, configured to  Christ Jesus, the one over whom He spoke those works: “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.”

God loves you. And loves you too much to let you stay a mess, inasmuch as you are a mess (in honesty we must all admit we are not able to save ourselves – we sabotage our happiness in so many ways again and again).

God loves you too much to let you stay there. That is why in this Christmas season, ending today, we celebrate the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus, who comes to identify Himself with our sinfulness, receiving the baptism of repentance given by John the Baptist – so that He can redeem our fallen nature.

“What does God think when He looks at you?” If you don’t see Him gazing upon you with love, speaking over you these words “You are my beloved,” then you have the wrong image. Ask the Lord to help heal that and transform it, so you can know the freedom of the sons of God, who sings over you at every moment.

homily Oct 10th

 CCC 2544
Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel.335 Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.336 The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.
2545 All Christ's faithful are to "direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty."337
2546 "Blessed are the poor in spirit."338 The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs:339

The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty in spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor."340
2547 The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods.341 "Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven."342 Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow.343 Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.

2557 "I want to see God" expresses the true desire of man. Thirst for God is quenched by the water of eternal life (cf. Jn 4:14).


Jesus looked on him with love, but his face fell. Our attention to stuff takes away our ability to see God’s love for us.
Self-justification vs reception of Christ’s redemption.

God loved us first. Then we respond back in love.

Idolatry with new names today.

homily - Oct. 31 - Priorities

Priorities.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
Aka first things first. Second things second. Don’t confuse the two, and don’t lose any of it.

I am speaking to myself as much as to anyone else. We all of us have the tendency to get off track, and there is also an enemy who is trying to do the same for us.

Screwtape Letters - the devil’s goal is to conquer your heart. But he never starts there. One of his first strategies is to get us to lose our priorities.
If we have a good sense of then, he tries to distract us, to make us lose sense of what the main thing is. “I need to focus on this for just a few weeks, then I can get back to my priorities”
…Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don't let him ask what he means by “real”.
Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line for when I said “Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning”, the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added “Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind”, he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of “real life” (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all “that sort of thing” just couldn't be true. … He is now safe in Our Father's house. (Hell)
You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things…. don't let him get away from that invaluable “real life”. … Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

So we must keep God first. But how? Well, how about our time. If our daily / weekly routine shows our priorities, then what is the main thing for me? How about our calendar? Does our planner put God first?

How about our checkbook or budget? Does that show that God is first?

Here's an interesting one: how about our home? Does our house speak of God first and foremost? Do we have any space dedicated to God? or are we worshipers of "the screen" in all its various sizes.

Finally, what is going on in our heart? What are we worried about all the time? What is filling our head constantly? That is also a good indicator of what is our "main thing."

The monastic life is a great witness to the priority of God in our life. Their existence makes no sense to those who think in the ways of the world, because God is at the center of their life in every possible way, unless they are letting sin creep in.

If we were to compare their way of life with ours, it might seem like we don't care about God at all. but that isn't quite true, our vocation is different. However, the heart of our life should be the same as the heart of theirs. Or else we can be pretty confident that sin is creeping into us as well.

Their example of silence, of getting away from all the "noise" that the enemy throws at us, is perhaps a great starting point. You may try sitting in silent prayer for twenty minutes or so and paying attention to what comes out through that quiet. In that silence you will begin not only hear what is broiling in your own heart, but also what God is trying to say to you beyond that.

Let the Holy Spirit reveal to you one way that you can put God first more clearly in your life.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And nothing could be more important than getting that right in our hearts.

homily Oct 3

The Catholic church has something to say about every aspect of human living and human freedom, because it has the whole truth about the human person. And today’s topic of marriage is hugely important. Marriage is the foundation of family. Family is the foundation of society. So marriage is the core of society, and as goes marriage, so goes society.

If you misunderstand what the human person is about, you are going to come to the wrong conclusions. Karl Marx thought it was all about class struggle and one group keeping another group down and out, ultimately leading to misunderstandings about many things, even directly attacking the institutions of marriage and family because they overvalue the importance of the collective. DesCartes popularized the perennial lie about the person being the soul trapped in a body and not associated with it, leading to many mistakes about what we can or should be doing with or to our bodies.

If you get the human person wrong, you will get his destiny wrong. If you have the destiny or goal wrong, you will spend your life headed in the wrong direction. This leads to misery, chaos, and dysfunction both now and in the future. If you are on the right road with the truth of the human person guiding you, you will find joy and peace and harmony. The human person, from Adam and Eve until now, is created out of love and for love by God who is love, yet also fallen, prone to selfishness, and fragile. The story of the Gospel and the truths God reveals in Christ allow us to know ourselves and our destiny truly and completely.

So the Church teaches many things about the person, our sexuality, and marriage, that are so essential because they flow from the truth of the human person, and thus when they are put into practice they lead to human flourishing. Some of these truths may not be popular, but truth has never been a matter of majority opinion. Truth is about what conforms to reality. The eye, working properly, receives the light from outside itself and makes a true image of what is beyond it. So too does the mind conform to the truth.

This is precisely what happens in the Gospel today when the Lord Jesus, against the culture of his time, teaches about the truth of the indissolubility of marriage. This teaching, continued in the Church to this day, is once again a point of discord with society.  G.K. Chesterton said “We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.” Our blind spots are the most dangerous things for us when we are driving, and going through life with all it’s danger and constant choices is a lot like driving, so it would be good to know where those blind spots are. The pains of divorce which our society tries both to deny and to mitigate, are evident especially in those who are younger, and this tragic reality only makes clearer the truth of Christ’s words.

What is great about Church teaching is it knows where to be firm and where to allow for personal choice or preference. It is clear and precise when it should be, such as when Jesus makes it clear what God’s plan for marriage is; and has leeway and openness at other times, not over-reaching those divine rules, such as the Church supporting the separation of couples that cannot live in healthy ways for their good (or that of their children), and also the annulment process which can establish whether a marriage presumed valid was in fact not so due to missing an essential element at the outset in the ceremony and exchange of vows.

But Jesus does not want his disciples to focus purely on this negation of divorce. He wishes to turn their hearts to the truth that is much deeper: the kingdom of God. “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Sometimes Jesus’ teachings do not fit with our moods, our way of thinking, or our culture. Chesterton says further: One word that tells us what we do not know outweighs a thousand words that tell us what we do know. And the thing is all the more striking if we not only did not know it but could not believe it. It may seem a paradox to say that the truth teaches us more by the words we reject than by the words we receive. So when we naturally want to reject what the Lord is teaching us, it behooves us all the more to receive it like a child. A child trusts their parents even when they don’t understand, when they don’t see the point, when it appears purely arbitrary or domineering. At those moments they must not fear the lie that their parents want to dominate them and make them suffer; they must trust that their parents love them and want what’s best for them. This is indeed what it means for us to accept the kingdom of God like a child. And as often with children, so too with us: in time, after we do it, the things begin to make sense as they lead to our flourishing.

Whether you are married or not, don’t be afraid of following God’s ways when His will is clear, even and especially when it is hard.

8-22-21 Ephesians 5

 Many go away sad in the Gospel today. And in our world today, we are still seeing this happening. Many go away sad for various reasons, some very understandable even if not objectionable.

There is a battle going on in our world about what it means to be a woman, and what it means to be a man. The first is more explicit, as we have for decades dealt with it at the forefront of a cultural rift over the silent holocaust that has swept through our communities since Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. The battle for what it means to be a man is not so explicit in our culture, but is in the ever-present undertones and whispers of how men are portrayed in film and television and novels, and in what we see as expectations or assumptions for how men are going to live in this day and age. Much of this is not very exalted or uplifting, but before we can see the response the church offers to these world-views, we must outline briefly the women’s movement.

Feminism – had something right in it, but also got muddled with lots of evil stuff. Book: Subverted by Sue Ellen Browder describes her story as summarized in the subtitle, “How I helped the Sexual Revolution Hijack the Women’s Movement” (I meaning her, not Fr. Terry - I wasn’t around to do so at the time).

They saw something right: that men and women have equal dignity and it isn’t being lived out well in the social norms of the day, especially voting, workplace, and civic life. But they also eventually lost the other side of the truth, that men and women are not the same but are rather distinct, different, and complementary. Equal in dignity, but not the same, not identical, rather complementary.

Ephesians 5 – Saint Paul lays out a beautiful exposition of the relationship between husbands and wives. Mind you, he is not talking about how men treat women in public life, but rather within the context of marriage, although it has consequences for all human interaction. And St. Paul ties this sacrament to the most common theme in the bible and the most important mystery of our existence: that God wishes to “marry” us; that he “espouses” Himself to us as His bride in Christ Jesus the bridegroom.

In his masterpiece letter to women titled Mulieris Dignitatem, (“on the dignity of women”) Pope John Paul II describes well how husbands and wives are called to live this mystery…:

as real women and men. It [St. Paul’s letter] reminds them of the "ethos" of spousal love which goes back to the divine institution of marriage from the "beginning". Corresponding to the truth of this institution is the exhortation: "Husbands, love your wives", love them because of that special and unique bond whereby in marriage a man and a woman become "one flesh" (Gen 2:24; Eph 5:31). In this love there is a fundamental affirmation of the woman as a person. This affirmation makes it possible for the female personality to develop fully and be enriched. This is precisely the way Christ acts as the bridegroom of the Church; he desires that she be "in splendour, without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27). One can say that this fully captures the whole "style" of Christ in dealing with women. Husbands should make their own the elements of this style in regard to their wives; analogously, all men should do the same in regard to women in every situation. In this way both men and women bring about "the sincere gift of self".

The author of the Letter to the Ephesians sees no contradiction between an exhortation formulated in this way and the words: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife" (5:22-23). The author knows that this way of speaking, so profoundly rooted in the customs and religious tradition of the time, is to be understood and carried out in a new way: as a "mutual subjection out of reverence for Christ" (cf. Eph 5:21). This is especially true because the husband is called the "head" of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church; he is so in order to give "himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), and giving himself up for her means giving up even his own life. However, whereas in the relationship between Christ and the Church the subjection is only on the part of the Church, in the relationship between husband and wife the "subjection" is not one-sided but mutual.

That is the dignity that women deserve, that the movement of the 70s and beyond was seeking to bring about, albeit with mistaken conclusions or methods.

Then John Paul II transitions in his letter immediately to the Eucharist, the mystery we hear Jesus speak about so firmly in the Gospel today as we once again hear from John 6.

The "sincere gift" contained in the Sacrifice of the Cross gives definitive prominence to the spousal meaning of God's love. As the Redeemer of the world, Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of our Redemption. It is the Sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride. The Eucharist makes present and realizes anew in a sacramental manner the redemptive act of Christ, who "creates" the Church, his body. Christ is united with this "body" as the bridegroom with the bride. All this is contained in the Letter to the Ephesians. The perennial "unity of the two" that exists between man and woman from the very "beginning" is introduced into this "great mystery" of Christ and of the Church.

Because, as St. JPII described, the Eucharist and marriage are deeply interconnected, we are trying this fall to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist through a couple initiatives. There’s an adult bible study on the Mass. And we are also hoping to have an exhibit on Eucharistic miracles and even perhaps a speaker on the same topic. When we lessen the dignity of the Eucharist and what it means, we also lessen the dignity of the marriage. And vice-versa, if we denigrate marriage, the mystery of the Eucharist loses its power. “If human love, even in its purest and most exalted form, is so broken and imperfect, then how can God’s love for me truly last?”

Mutual submission brothers and sisters, in full respect for the dignity of women and men as created equal but different – that lived reality is the witness the world needs to see if the battle for the meaning of the human person is going to be won. Truth and goodness have a power that is greater than any crafty lies or abuses of power could ever muster. But if we don’t live it, many will go away sad. Let us ask, in this year of St. Joseph, for His intercession on all husbands to live well their marriage promises. And for Blessed Mary to remind women of their true dignity as daughters of God. So that we may be Holy Families that are shelters for Christ Jesus to dwell anew.

19th Sun. in Ord. Time - Eat to compete

The Christian life is a long and tough road. We all need food for the journey.

My brother is a good runner. He ran in high school and college, and is still very good at mid to long distances, including qualifying for the Boston marathon. But I'd like to tell you about the time when the dream of every little brother actually became a reality: the time when the little brother got the upper hand and outmatched his big brother. Once in my life I beat my brother, and it was glorious.

It was a half marathon in southern Ohio when we were in seminary. I trained enough to be ready, but my brother was in the zone and was looking to complete an impressive race at a crazy pace. I remember seeing him loop back nearly a mile ahead of me at one point. I continued to work hard at my pace and around mile 11 I was shocked to see my brother lying in the grass... "Are you okay?" He says he's fine but just couldn't keep up that pace and decided to rest for a bit since he wasn't going to make his goal time. So, since I knew he was alright, what is the next thing a compassionate brother would do? I say "Okay, great, see you at the finish line!" and I keep running. He wasn't mad; he knew I was trying for a goal as well.

But the reason his body hit the wall and made him stop was that his breakfast was a granola bar and a banana. And then he hoped to run 13.1 miles. Bad idea. That is where my one super-power comes into play, I can eat and run and not get too bothered by it. So, I won that race because I had the fuel I needed.

Because our bodies need to eat to compete. When I was in HS playing soccer or basketball every day, I needed a lot of food to keep working. I couldn't have survived the season if I was malnourished all the time.

Souls also need to eat to compete. We are all born into a spiritual battle, and you can't take a neutral side in the middle of a battlefield. You are either on one side or the other, and you will find it a real battle as soon as you begin.

Or to use the analogy from the first reading today, the Christian life is a long journey, like a half-marathon, and you aren't going to get to the end if you aren't being fed. That Christian journey is really outlined well in today's second reading: All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love.

You are what you eat, in a quite literal sense, physically. The same goes for your soul: so what are you filling your spirit with? If it isn't the Lord Jesus, day after day in prayer and week after week in the Eucharist, you may not finish the race. We all need food for our spiritual journey.

18TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (last week)

 

1.     God is not a vending machine. * really hard in our culture of instant response

2.     God never says a flat “no” to us.

a.     “Yes. Here you go!” For example – Jesus help me to love this person. Holy Spirit, give me the right words to say. Or even the classic Catholic prayer, St. Anthony, ask God to let me to find my car keys ‘cuz it seems that He’s not hearing me right now!

b.     “Not right now.” For example – God, please let me know my vocation. God, make me a saint. Lord, please fix this serious problem I’m going through. (a lot of the times that happens gradually or seems to get nowhere before something moves)

c.      “I’ve got something better for you.” For example – God, make me an NBA all-star, or a genius, or super popular. Or even asking for the wrong things, such as God let me finally get revenge on that person so they look bad or things go bad for them. (not a good prayer at all!)

3.     Jesus tells us to pray with boldness. To tell God what we want, like children. But just like children, we will very often ask for the wrong things. We don’t fully know what we want/need. Or even when we do, we have our fallen human nature that can so often get in the way and steer us down the wrong path. But still, God wants us to talk to Him with all of it.

4.     In the Gospel, God gives us the greatest thing we could ever ask for. No matter what you pray for, God is giving you the best thing you could ever ask for. The Eucharist, which Jesus stresses with the clarity and hardness of a diamond, is the Light of the Christian life. “I Am the Bread of Life” Jesus says. These are words to build a life upon. They are spiritual gold. And wait, what do you know, look at that, They are printed in gold above the tabernacle! What a coincidence that they got painted gold just in time for this reading! Or not. Honestly it was the easiest decision I’ve made in a while after I prayed with this Gospel. Now actually painting them, not so easy, but worth it. It’s been a while since I use a paintbrush, like… 5^th grade or something...! Luckily any real artists don’t have to get too close to be grossed out by what they would find.

5.     Back to the point of those words. The Eucharist is the ultimate response to our prayers, the greatest moment in history where when all of humanity is crying out for so many things, some petty, some more important, some temporary, some eternal, God says to us:  “I’ve got something better for you.”  I don’t want to give you something, I want you give you someone. And not someone else, but myself. I created you for me. Your heart and soul, your entire existence hungers for this food. Nothing else will satisfy. This is why you exist: to be one with me. This is the beginning of heaven. This is everything.

Jesus, thank you for the gift of gifts. As we continue to cry out to you with the boldness of children, help us to build our lives around this one thing that truly satisfies.