“When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do'” (Lk 17:10).

This can be a hard verse to digest at first glance, especially with our track record of slavery in the U.S. We need to remember and recognize that this was a teaching that Jesus shared in a different time period, in a different culture, and in a place far removed from any clear modern context. The master/slave relationship is also a theme that Luke returns to often.

Another important point to touch upon when reading the Gospels is that when Jesus made the statement that, “we are unprofitable servants; we have done what we are obliged to do”, we are not to read this verse in isolation from the full context of Scripture. Jesus himself modeled service at the last supper when he washed his disciples’ feet (cf. Jn 13:1-17). This was the lowest of menial tasks. St Paul wrote to the Galatians informing them that in the Body of Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male nor female (cf. Galatians 3:28). The ultimate point, is God is God and we are not, while at the same time, we all have a part to play in participating in promoting the kingdom of God.

The teaching that Jesus conveyed was that as a disciple we are not to seek adulation and glory. We are to serve God without hesitation and one another. We are not to ask in the words of James and John, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left” (Mk 10:37). As disciples, we serve for the intrinsic joy of following the will of God.

When I oversee students in our cafeteria during retreats and other opportunities, as they finish eating, instead of telling them to pick up after themselves, I begin to pick up their plates and trash. I serve them. Some are quite happy to receive the service, some will say thank you, while others will join in to assist. My hope is that if I am willing to serve, so will others.

May we be open to serve God and one another today. No task is too menial or beneath us, nor do we need to be concerned about doing big and grandiose things. We just need to be obedient and act as God leads us. Each chance we have, to smile, to hold a door, to acknowledge a prejudice and be willing to interact with someone who we have considered as “other”, to be patient instead of losing our temper, to listen or be understanding, is an opportunity to say to someone that they have dignity and worth.

Each small act of kindness, is an opportunity to serve and to love. As St Mother Teresa said, we are to be a pencil in God’s hand. In our willingness to be moved by God to serve, we and those in our realm of influence will be better for the effort. Our country and world are in desperate need of some unconditional acts of kindness and service.

———————————————————

Photo credit: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO/POOL PHOTO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, November 13, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111318.cfm

“If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him” (Lk 17:3-4).

Forgiveness is a cornerstone of our faith tradition as Christians. If we question or struggle with the degree of forgiveness we engage in, we are in good company with Peter, thinking he was being generous, Peter asked Jesus how many times should he forgive, seven times? Jesus responded, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times” (cf. Mt 18:21-22).

Luke records the exchange of the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. He taught them the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer. While reciting this prayer often each day or multiple times each day, we say, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” or “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:11-12).

One of the barometers of being a faithful disciple of Jesus is that we are people who practice the sacred art of forgiveness. To forgive does not mean in any way that we justify the offense or even necessarily forget. We are to hold people accountable and lead them to respect our dignity and the dignity of others.

Holding on to grudges, seeking revenge, being unwilling to forgive, can be incapacitating, debilitating, and can lead to a premature as well as an eternal death. What can help is to resist reacting to the offense and instead assume a posture of understanding, as we do not know what another is going through or dealing with. This is not a justification for the harm done, but a way to release the pain and possibly to bring support and healing to the one who has inflicted us.

We are also not expected to forgive on our own will power alone. Jesus himself on the cross sought the aid of his Father: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

We may struggle with being forgiving because we have not sought forgiveness ourselves. Advent is coming. This season as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus into our lives, it is a good practice to participate in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Forgiveness is a healing gift of God’s grace. Once we have felt the healing balm of forgiveness, we might be more willing to forgive others. Then we can begin to call to mind someone you have not forgiven.

Find a place of quiet, ask God to help you to forgive, even if your prayer begins, “God, I cannot forgive, I hurt too much, but help me to let go, please help me to forgive, (insert name).” Return each day until you can bring yourself to say, “I forgive, (insert name).” Visualize yourself saying that you forgive the person face to face. If the opportunity presents itself you may want to say that you forgive the person directly, send an email, or write a letter – even if you do not press send or mail it.

With the intent to forgive and the help of Jesus who has forgiven us, even if in the beginning we are unwilling, with time, reconciliation is possible. Let us remember: “Forgive and you will be forgiven”.

——————————————————————–

Photo: One of my quiet places to pray at home and seek forgiveness.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, November 12, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111218.cfm

It appears like our church, society, and government is coming apart at the seams.

What is the answer and what can we to do?

First and foremost, we need to acknowledge that we are suffering. We can’t hide, run, shop, drink or medicate our problems away. We need to realize that we are not alone in our suffering and pain. God is present in our midst, we can find support in him and one another as well as be support for one another.

We also need not buy into fear, hopelessness, or hate.

We need to be faithful disciples. We need to turn to and align our will with God, know and live our faith.

We need to trust as did the widow of Zarephath from our first reading and the poor widow giving her last two coins to the temple treasury in the Gospel,“…she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood” (Mk 12:44).

Each of these women were practicing a spiritual physics that defied what appeared to be the reality before them. Each had barely nothing, one last meal and two coins, yet they gave all they had, trusting that God would provide for them. They trusted in God’s providential care.

Each of us, the baptized, are the Church, each of us have a unique and particular part to play in God’s plan. Gathering together each week to worship, to be encouraged, to learn about our faith, to become holy in our participation in the life of Jesus, and to pray for the needs of our world is a significant counter to the culture of death.

As people of faith we are to aspire to care for one another and creation, to resist the temptation to divide, demean, and define people as other and instead see each other as God sees us, as brothers and sisters. Elijah and the widow of Zarephath saw each other as human beings not people of different ethnicity or faith traditions. Each were in need, trusted in God, and supported one another.

I just read a short piece by Fr. Matt Malone in the October 29 issue of America Magazine, about an account of his recent pilgrimage in northern Spain. At one stop, the mountaintop shrine of Our Lady of Arantzazu, he met Brother Antonio a man of quiet faithfulness who is the keeper of the keys. He leads tourists to experience the shrine and has been doing so for 68 years. What impressed Fr. Malone was his humility, faithfulness and wonder. His smile radiated to such an extent that it appeared that he was seeing the Marian statue for the first time.

We can also experience the joy expressed by Br. Antonio when we too resist the urge to curve within our self from fear or despondency, and instead reach out of our comfort zone and be willing to risk accompanying others in acts of kindness, love, and service. In this way, we can come to see that we are not alone in our suffering. When we are willing to share our struggles and trials, our agreements and disagreements, our joys and successes we can grow our bonds of relationship such that what we face does not weaken us, but helps us to grow stronger.

We are also able to notice God more and be present to others when we are people of prayer. For it is in the silence of our heart that we hear God speak. It is in the silence of our heart that we can feel his gentle leading toward a particular ministry, small group for support, and will be more apt to notice another in need and have the courage to reach out in small acts of kindness and love.

Mark was walking home one day and noticed that a boy had fallen. Books, a bat and glove, a few sweaters, and small tape recorder were scattered about. Mark went to the boy and offered to help. The two middle school students realized they were heading for home in the same direction so Mark offered to help the boy carry some of his things.

As they walked Mark discovered that the boy’s name was Bill. The pair arrived at Bill’s house first and Bill invited Mark in for a Coke and to watch some TV. Mark ended up staying the afternoon, they talked, laughed and enjoyed their time together.
Mark and Bill would interact on occasion at school, have lunch once in awhile and then graduated middle school. They would go on to attend the same high school together and would have some brief interactions over their four years together.

Three weeks before graduation Bill reminded Mark of their first encounter and asked if Mark wondered why he was carrying all that stuff home that day? He then went on to tell Mark, “You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stolen some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up my books that day, you did a lot more. You saved my life” (see Schlatter 1993, 35).

How do we address our current Church Crisis, the problem of violence, and the hyper polarization in our country?

We do so in the same way that the two widows from our readings today, Br. Antonio, and Mark did. We become contemplatives in action. We learn our faith, live our faith, and allow ourselves to be transformed by the God of Jesus Christ who is love incarnate. We turn to God in prayer and follow his lead to accompany one another, as brothers and sisters, live out our faith in quiet, yet determined ways, by countering darkness with light, hate with love, by being welcoming, offering a smile, holding each other accountable, and accompanying each other on the grand adventure and journey we call life.

Photo credit: Exercise in trust!

Schlatter, John W. A Simple Gesture in Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Stories To Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit. Edited by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, 1993.

Link for the Mass Readings for Sunday, November 11, 2018.

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Lk 16:13).

Jesus consistently emphasizes the priority of making God primary in our lives. Anything that moves into the slot of preeminence before God is idolatrous. Anything, even family, as we heard a few days ago. We cannot have two firsts, because either we will “hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.” This balancing act is not an easy discipline.

It becomes especially challenging when we look at mammon, money, or material wealth. Many of us seek our security in having a home, insurance policies, savings, retirement plans, market investments. Setting up this security is often considered prudent. The problem is when material security becomes the foundation of our life, our fulfillment, our god.

This has certainly influenced the Church at times with movements governed by a prosperity gospel. The approach to a faith life that is not so much building up a relationship with our loving God and Father, but one of seeking God as a holy investor. There is a perspective offered on verses such as the Parable of the Sower (cf. Mark 4, Matthew 13, and Luke 8) in which the primary intent in giving is to reap a financial return of ten, twenty, or a hundredfold. God certainly wants us to be good stewards, and he will indeed bless us and wants us to be generous and cheerful with our giving, but again, if in our giving the primary intent is to receive more of our treasure, we are serving Mammon and not God.

Following are two scriptural verses and two Church Father quotes that may help us to see that in giving away and not accumulating the material, thus trusting in God for our security is the prudent path:

“If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand to him in his need. Instead, you shall open your hand to him and freely lend him enough to meet his need” (Deuteronomy 15:7-8).

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:35).

“When giving to the poor, you are not giving him what is yours; rather, you are paying him back what is his” (St Ambrose of Milan, 340-339).

“If each one of us took only what is necessary for his sustenance, leaving what is superfluous for the indigent, there would be no distinction of rich and poor” (St Basil of Caesarea, 330-379).

Our reactions to the above can be a barometer as to whether we are putting gold first or God first. God is to be our source and our fundamental option. The blessing we receive, the hundredfold we seek, is to be measured in love, mercy, and generosity received and given. Pope Francis, in a 2013 address, expressed his concern “that some homeless people die of cold on the streets [and this] is not news. In contrast, a ten-point drop in the stock markets of some cities is a tragedy. A person dying is not news, but if the stock markets drop ten points it is a tragedy! Thus people are disposed of as if they were trash. Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times, we are no longer able to give a just value, which goes well beyond mere economic parameters” (Vatican Insider).

Do we place our trust, faith, and security in Mammon, or God? Do we build up treasure for ourselves at the expense of or indifference toward others or build up our treasure in heaven, aware of and reaching out to those who are in need? Were someone to observe us objectively, and closely would they say about us, “There goes someone that lives their life believing: In Gold we Trust.” Or would they say, “There goes someone that lives their life believing: In God we Trust?”

———————————————————————————-

Photo accessed from: http://www.jonathan-quek.com/in-god-we-trust/

Link for a quote from Pope Francis found in Vatican Insider:
http://www.lastampa.it/2013/06/05/vaticaninsider/eng/the-vatican/francis-when-stock-markets-drop-ten-points-its-a-tragedy-when-one-man-dies-its-the-norm-P4qOnknrUS69rbXYT01cDP/pagina.html

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, November 10. 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111018.cfm

When I ask my students if Jesus ever sinned, inevitably, there are those who reference the account from today’s Gospel. In these verses we read how Jesus, “made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area” (Jn 2:15). Jesus is not sinning here, rather, he is acting in line with prophetic tradition. Jesus is making a bold spectacle to drive home the point that the temple is not a marketplace but to be a place of worship and right praise for his Father.

Greater still than the temple, is the people of God. Further down in the text, when those present ask for a sign as to the reason he commits this act, Jesus said: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). Clearly he was pointing to his body as the temple of God and referring to his Resurrection that would come.

The temple, the house of God, believed to be the very corporal presence, the very seat of God among his people, Israel, was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. This left a tremendous spiritual vacuum. Two groups that were intimately tied to the sacrificial cult of the temple, the Sadducees and the Essenes, very soon after the destruction, ceased to exist as a sect within Judaism. The Pharisees, who already were moving to a practice of home worship that mirrored the worship in the temple, would survive and be the ancestral root of Judaism today. The followers of the new way of Jesus would become the Church, the Body of Christ.

Each of us have a unique part to play in the Church. For some, we may be the only Bible someone ever reads. We are called to witness and practice, in our unique way, our faith in our every day experiences. This reality of our call is not to be an invitation to be overwhelmed with responsibility nor an excuse for a posture of elitism. We are no better than anyone else.

Pope Francis wrote: “Believers should not be presumptuous; rather, truth leads to humility. We know it is not ourselves possessing truth, it is truth that embraces and possesses us” (Costello 2013, 14). May we take these words to heart as we mourn again another act of violence resulting in thirteen deaths and eighteen injured at the Borderline Bar and Grill in L.A. To walk the path of peace, not just a striving for an absence of violence, but a recognition of the mutual respect and dignity of each and every person, we need to be possessed by the way, the truth, and the life of Jesus.

We need to resist all that contributes in any way to the violence, hate, and dehumanization rampant in our country and world and turn to Jesus, the living Temple. We need to recognize that we all fall short of the glory of God and on our own we are helpless. We need to be willing to be conformed to the will of God through our prayer, study, worship, and service so as to be empowered by the love of Christ to be instruments of peace, contemplatives in action, and advocates for healing and reconciliation in a wounded and weary church, politics, country and world.

——————————————————–

Photo: Exiting Mass from Mission del Rey, Oceanside, CA.

Costello, Gwen. Walking With Pope Francis: Thirty Days with the Encyclical The Light of Faith. New London, CT: Twenty Third Publications, 2013.

Link to the Mass readings for Friday, November 8, 2018: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110918.cfm

In our Gospel account today, Luke records that Jesus is critiqued for eating with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus responds to the criticism of the Pharisees and the scribes by sharing three parables, two of which we read today, and unfortunately, the third, the Prodigal Son, which would have been read tomorrow is lost in the liturgical shuffle for tomorrow’s feast day reading will be from the Gospel of John.

The two parables we are given today display the love of God the Father for his children. Though we may not find being compared to a sheep or a coin endearing, the imagery of the shepherd going to find the one lost sheep and the woman searching all over her house for the one lost coin is a message well worth meditating on.

Someone hearing this parable might say, “Why bother looking for the one sheep when you have ninety-nine other sheep or why bother looking for one insignificant coin, when you have nine other ones?” But if we ponder this parable for a bit we may recall or feel right now that we may be lost or insignificant, and what Jesus is telling us is that we matter, that God loves us more than we can ever imagine, and he is constantly seeking us out. God the creator of the vast expanse of the cosmos cares for each and everyone of us, he cares for you, as if you were the only person in the world.

We do not need to look for God so much as we need to just stop, be still and notice he is already waiting, looking for us. If we feel a bit worn or tired, misunderstood, lost, lonely or underappreciated, know that we are not alone. God cares, he is present, yes, even in the midst of any conflicts, trials or tribulations we may be going through today. God is the shepherd that watches over us and seeks us out even when we walk away from him.

Make some time to rest in the arms of Jesus this day, breath slowly, be thankful, rest, cry, or vent. In this loving embrace, may we receive the gift of his love so that we may go and share it with someone today who also needs to know they matter, that they have dignity, and that they are loved.

Photo: Pencil drawing: Kathryn J. Brown, 1982

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, November 8, 2018:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110818.cfm

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

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.

———————————————————————–

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

“[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.

——————————————————–

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

“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