Want to be an onlooker, or a disciple?
I can visualize the opening scene of today’s Gospel in my mind’s eye. Jesus striding along with people walking, talking, and moving about, and then he just stops and turns. Those closest to Jesus pull up to a stop with him, others continue right past, while at the same time others bump into and trip over those who had stopped before them. The subtle hum of random conversation then slowly comes to a halt, a stillness ripples through the crowd, and then there is silence. The dust begins to settle as a slight breeze is felt. Those closest have their eyes locked on his, while those further back are craning their necks, moving left and right to get a better look, others are cupping their ears to catch the sound of Jesus’ voice.
These crowds most likely consisted of some disciples, while the greater majority were those on the periphery gathering because of curiosity, intrigue, and maybe even wonder. Jesus begins to speak, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife or children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” and then finishes with “In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple” (cf. Lk 14:25-33).
Those maybe hearing it second hand, as they were further away from the point of direct hearing, may not believe that the message was transmitted to them correctly. These words cut to the quick, just as surely as when Jesus shared about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and when he told another follower, who wanted to bury his father to let the dead bury their dead. Luke does not say, but I am sure that many of those gathered around him were just as shocked and began to walk away.
The familial bond for ancient peoples was strong. Though the invitation of salvation that Jesus offers is for all to be saved, he is not going to dumb down or sugar coat his message just to get numbers. Jesus presents, time and again, that the way to live a life of fullness and wholeness, to restore that which has been lost, is to put God first in our lives. God must be the primary focus, the primary relationship in our life, nothing else can have priority of place before him. When we do so, all other things will fall into their proper place.
We need to ask ourselves if want to be an onlooker, just someone looking at Jesus from a distance? Are we attached to any possessions, false substitutes, even our family, such that we place them before our relationship with God? These idols and attachments will distract us from the very flow of the life force that fuels our existence. If we are willing to walk the path of discipleship, we must be willing to surrender our will to God, place him first in our lives, and be open to being transformed by his love.
Jesus is to be the interpretive key that opens our understanding to all else. All that which is material and finite in our lives find meaning in relation to him. Only when we are unattached to the things of this world will we then truly begin to be free, to be other centered, to be more patient, understanding, and willing to love and be more present to our father and mother, wife or children, brother and sister, and even our very self and our neighbor.
Photo: In chapel at St Ignatius Cathedral, just prior to my ordination Mass, September 2013. To my left, long time friend Fr. Ed O’Brien, a true disciple!
Photo Credit: Deacon Michael Miller
Link for the Mass readings Wednesday, November 7, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110718.cfm
We are invited to reconciliation, communion, and today to vote our conscience!
One of those at table with Jesus said to him, “Blessed is the one who will dine in the Kingdom of God.” He replied to him, “A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. When the time for the dinner came, he dispatched his servant to say to those invited, ‘Come, everything is now ready'” (Lk 14:15-17)
In the midst of increasing violence, polarization, shouting over one another, delegitimizing, and dehumanizing of one another, some react by sinking into cynicism, indifference, apathy, or worse, despair and hopelessness, while others strike back with harsh words, rhetoric, or more violence. These reactions were present in Jesus’ time as well, yet he leads us to an alternative response to deal with division and hate.
Judaism was far from unified. The Sadducees, Pharisees and scribes, Samaritans, Zealots, and Essenes all felt they were the authentic expression of Israel. Jesus not only addressed this division by sitting down to break bread with as diverse a population as possible, he also shared parables around the same idea of the invitation to share in the celebration of a feast, as we read today.
Each encounter that we are blessed to partake in is an invitation to experience communion. We have the opportunity to interact in person, face to face, or through the myriad of other technological means of social media. Through each opportunity we can demean, degrade, delegitimize, gossip, or defame or we can accept the invitation of encounter by embracing the opportunity to treat each other with dignity, respect, kindness, and understanding, yes, even when we disagree.
We are all hurting, suffering, and in pain in some form or fashion. We all seek to belong, to be a part of, and to be accepted. We need each other. Each day we have a choice to make. Are we going to further perpetuate the condition of original sin, choosing our self over God and one another, or are we going to engage in being a healing agent of reconciliation and communion?
Jesus help us to notice the suffering of our brothers and sisters, to be aware of their trials and tribulations. When others act toward us in any way that is less than kind, grant us patience. If someone is short with us, let us resist the defensive response and instead ask if there is any way we can help. If someone is talking over us, grant us the ability to breath and listen. Ultimately, help us to be a vehicle for the love of God in our interactions with one another and in our vote today.
This morning is election day in our country. If you have voted already, great! If not, by God, do not turn down the invitation to be an actively engaged citizen. Be respectful, go out and vote your conscience.
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Photo: JoAnn and I voted, now your turn to make your voice heard!
Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 6, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110618.cfm
As Jesus loves us, so may we love one another.
“[W]hen you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you” (Lk 14:13-14).
The words of Jesus today give us a key to loving unconditionally. We are to resist the temptation of doing for the primary reason of receiving thanks or praise. We are to reach out to those in need, because they are in need. We embrace our dignity as human beings when we recognize the inherent dignity of another and serve them without hesitation, without holding anything back.
This is the root of what we mean when we say that we are believers in the God of Jesus Christ. This God is a divine community of persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father gives all that he is to the Son perfectly, infinitely, holding nothing back. The Son receives all that he has been given perfectly, infinitely and returns, in like fashion, what he has received to the Father. The infinite Love shared between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit.
Through the Son of God becoming incarnate, becoming one with us in our humanity and returning to the Father at his Ascension, we now participate in that same divine love given and received between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We do not give of our time, our talent, and our treasure, because we will be given in return – more time, more talent, more treasure. We give, we love, because we have already been loved into existence by a loving God. We receive his love and love in return because that is who we have been created to be.
The very fact that we exist, that we have life, is a gift. Jesus teaches us that to be human, we are to be able to look into the eye of every person we meet and see in them our brother and sister. With each smile, each embrace, each listening ear, each act of invitation to walk with another, and each action of providing for the needs of another, we reaffirm to each other that we exist, that we have dignity. This is true because each and everyone of us have been created in the image and likeness of God, who is Love.
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Photo: Jesus on the grounds of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center
Link for today’s Mass readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110518.cfm
Be transformed and conformed by the love of God
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:29-31).
How do we actually live out this great commandment given to us by Jesus? How do we love God that we cannot see?
Our first step is to understand better the love that Jesus is talking about. St Thomas Aquinas teaches us that to love, is to will the good of the other. This is more than an emotion or a feeling. To love means to accompany, encourage, and be present to one another. The love that God offers us is unconditional, it is about service and sacrifice.
Jesus doesn’t just want us to maintain the Church, our family, our friends, or our ourselves, he has always called us to be a missionary Church, to go out from ourselves and love others as he loves us.
Many inside and outside of the Church have been wounded, yet her heartbeat is strong, because the lifeblood that flows through her veins comes from her Son, Jesus the Christ. So many of our brothers and sisters are walking away from the Church, but her children still hunger to be loved and to love, they still hunger to belong, to be a part of who God has created them to be. They have a curiosity and desire to learn and they want to know, to have their questions answered, and to find meaning and fulfillment.
If we are to be of help to others, we start by saying yes to the invitation of Jesus to receive the love of his Father. We are to kneel in his presence, sit at his feet, and allow the transforming love of the Holy Spirit to conform and shape us, to sculpt us in love. At the same time, we are called to learn and know our faith, recognizing that our belief is grounded in both faith and reason, so that we can share who we are as a child of God, and what we have learned with others with love, with joy, even in the midst of scandal and crisis. This is not a time to run away, but to stand up for what we believe in, to show, through our own life and commitment, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
Jesus Christ is the center of the Church. He is present in the Word proclaimed, in his Body and his Blood that we receive, in the Sacraments, and he is present in each and every one of us. If we are struggling to see or experience God, the best way to begin is to reach out toward another in loving service.
We are brothers and sisters in Jesus. We hunger and crave to belong to God and one another, whether we are aware of this hunger and thirst consciously or unconsciously, and this is true for the atheist as well as the mystic alike. Jesus invites us to be his disciples and we do so by loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and by loving our neighbor as ourself.
Being a disciple of Jesus is about surrendering ourselves to the love of God, embracing and being conformed by his loving hands. We are then to share his love and joy with others through invitation, hospitality, welcoming, and meeting our brothers and sisters where they are, as they are, and accompanying, protecting, empowering, and loving one another.
Even people who don’t practice a faith or have lost their faith, still feel the need to connect with God and find purpose to their lives. I invite you to receive and meditate on this message I now share with you today. Then share it with someone you encounter today:
God loves you more than you can ever mess up. God helps you to see and know that you are not defined by your worst choices or mistakes. God loves you more than you can ever imagine. Then share a smile. Because in that very simple act of a smile, we are saying you matter to me, you have dignity to me, you are important to me, and I love you.
Photo: Share a smile today – photo credit: Jack McKee
Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, November 4, 2108: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110318.cfm
Say no to our ego-drama and yes to God’s Theo-drama
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk 14:11).
Jesus is clearly outlining in today’s Gospel that we are not, nor ought we strive, to be the center and focus of the universe. God is. Understanding this foundational point is key to living a life of fulfillment and happiness. This message is definitely counter intuitive in much of modern society where wealth, honor and fame, the lifting up of the self in having primacy of place, is primary pursuit.
Anything we place before God is an idol, and we let us down and leave us hungry, thirsty, and empty. If we buy into playing the game of the ego-drama, we will seek more and more money, attention, and more adulation, and time again be left wanting. Even for many of us who are not fully aware of this pursuit unconsciously may be placing other finite realities before our relationship with God and continue to feel restless, unsettled, and anxious.
There is no magic bullet we can take, no program to enroll in, no three point plan to implement to experience God. We just need to turn to God as we are and where we are. God loves us more than we can every imagine, more than we can ever mess up, and is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Swiss theologian, Hans urs Von Balthasar (1905-1988) encouraged us to turn away from game of the ego-drama of seeking ways to keep the focus on us, and instead assume our role in the great Theo-drama. When we find our role in God’s plan we then begin to know who we are.
The acknowledgement of our desire to know God and willingness to seek his will for our life is already a yes to the invitation of the creator of all of the cosmos who seeks an intimate and unique relationship with us. Entering into union with God will develop like any other authentic relationship, by answering the invitation of being drawn beyond and outside of our self to another. Then through time, shared experiences, and commitment we come to know each other better.
As God reaches out to us and as we respond by reaching out to him, as we resist the temptation to force God into our own finite and limited perspective and instead allow God to draw us into himself, into his infinite nature, we will be exalted, we will find meaning and fulfillment. We will experience a life of joy in our service of God and one another.
Photo: Close up of Michelangelo’s fresco, The Creation of Adam, 1512 accessed from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15461165
Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 3, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110318.cfm
Praying for all souls
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:40).
This is what we believe, this is our hope, that we who encounter Jesus and believe in him shall have eternal life. This is God’s will, this is what he created us for, to be in communion with him and one another in this life and the next. A word of assurance that I often lean on is from the book of Wisdom: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us utter destruction. But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).
The miracle of Jesus raising the daughter of the official embodies these verses from Wisdom. As Jesus entered the home of the official many were “making a commotion” and Jesus dismissed them stating: “Go away! the girl is not dead but sleeping.” He was ridiculed by the crowd but paid them no heed, went to the girl, took her hand, “and the little girl arose” (cf. Mt 9:18-26).
Jesus’ assured his followers that the will of his Father was that all will be saved and experiences like the raising of the official’s daughter, the son of the widow from Nain, and Lazarus, were seeds of hope of not only his resurrection to come but a foretaste of the raising of humanity on the last day. They witnessed his actions and words, and not only kept these experiences in their hearts, but shared their stories. This is the gift of the Gospels. We are able to enter into and experience these same encounters with Jesus again each time we read the Bible. Each time we pray, each time we worship and serve one another, we also experience Jesus who in each of these moments of encounter shapes and conforms us into who we have been created and called by God to be.
Today, All Souls Day, let us remember this hope that “the souls of the just are in the hands of God”. Let us lift up this day those we hold close to our heart, those who have no one to pray for them, as well as those who have died tragic and violent deaths, especially most recently, those of the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburg, and the man and woman killed at the Kentucky Kroger store, as we pray with the Church: “Merciful Father, hear our prayers and console us. As we renew our faith in your Son, whom you raised from the dead, strengthen our hope that all our departed brothers and sisters will share in his resurrection, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever” (Prayer for All Souls, Liturgy of the Hours).
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Photo: Remembering my maternal grandparents today
Link for the Mass readings for Friday, November 2, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110218.cfm
When we are willing to mourn, we will be comforted.
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4).
Another word for blessed is happy. How are we to feel blessed, or happy? How do the families and friends of those who died feel blessed? We seem to hear of mass killings through violent acts on a weekly basis. Just this past Saturday at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue eleven were slain and six wounded. From a theological point of reference, one response is that Jesus spoke from the perspective of the eschatological event, his second coming at the end of time, and that we can rely on the hope that Jesus died for us all and we will rise with him on the last day.
I also believe that Jesus was also speaking about our day to day experiences as well. Jesus said, as is recorded in Mark 1:15, “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus, is the kingdom at hand, just an outstretched arm away. Those who mourn will be blessed, will be happy, when we enter into the grief and the suffering of the loss and not run away from the agony and pain that threatens to overwhelm us. It is in the very entering into our pain and suffering that we come to encounter Jesus with his arms wide open ready to embrace us in our agony, ache, and loss.
By experiencing the sorrow, allowing ourselves to mourn, we are in a better position to heal. If we ask God the why of such atrocities we may not receive a sufficient answer and I have not yet heard anyone offer one. I do believe that his Son, who suffered the agony, loss, pain, and hurt as we did, understands what we are feeling. He is present with us and will guide us through to healing. There have been many accounts recorded of those who have experienced consolation from a loved one’s after death encounter.
Today, we celebrate the gift of the Communion of Saints on this All Saints Day. The saints understood and lived the message and truth of the Gospel that Jesus has risen. They have lived their life to the full and have gone before us to the true land of promise, our heavenly home, and from there they cheer us on, encourage us, and intercede for us.
Jesus suffered and conquered death. We need not fear death because through our life in Jesus, death no longer has any power over us. Yes, we mourn the loss of those no longer with us in this reality, yet we also rejoice in their new life in Christ. St Paul of the Cross, taught: “The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus which are the miracle of miracles of the love of God. We must arouse the world from its slumber.” Let us then not run from but enter into our pain and mourn so that we may experience God’s comfort and peace.
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Source for quote from St Paul of the Cross: https://passionist.org/st-paul-of-the-cross-passionist-founder/
Photo: Crucifix at the front entrance of Our Lady of Florida Retreat Center
Link for the Mass Readings for Thursday, November 1, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110118.cfm
Risk entering the narrow gate of love
He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough” (Lk 13:24).
Jesus offered this answer to the person who asked him if only a few would be saved. We saw a parallel account from Jesus’ parable about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven that was presented a few Sundays ago (cf Mt 19:24). The imagery of a narrow gate represents that what we say and do in our lives matter regarding our building or weakening our relationship with God and one another.
There are many distractions and temptations that pull us from faithfulness and if we give in to them, we will strain or break our relationships. Jesus said many will not be strong enough, and on our own he is right. St Paul also realized this, for he wrote, “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil that I do not want” (Romans 7:19). How many of us could say the same?
Relationships are not easy in the best of circumstances, this is true for building our relationship with God and each other. St Teresa of Avila shared once after being thrown from a carriage into a mud puddle, “If you treat your friends so poorly, it is no wonder that you have so few!”
Authentic relationships demand a willingness to sacrifice for another, to be committed, to be understanding and forgiving, to be present, to risk being vulnerable, honest, and sharing who we truly are with another, free of any pretense or masks. On our own we are not strong enough, but with God all things are possible. Jesus invites us to take his hand this day and he will lead us through the narrow gate, so we can help others do the same. Who then will be saved? Those who are willing to enter the narrow gate of love.
Photo: by Johannes Plenio from Pexels
Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, October 31, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/103118.cfm
Spiritual Stepping Stones 