Failing God

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Dear Folks,

We have another parable about a vineyard (Matthew 21:33-43) in which the tenants were given a lot to work with but didn’t give the owner his share of the grapes. It is good to look at that alongside the first reading (Isaiah 5:1-7) and we see how, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Jesus was clearly talking about the treatment of the prophets of the Old Testament, and also the behavior of the religious leaders at the time.  We can, of course see ourselves in the role of the tenants. 

The other text we want to look at is John 15:1-6, the part of the farewell discourse in which Jesus says that he is the vine, and we are the branches. We work by our own power, we will always fail, if not immediately, eventually. We need to emphasize this. 

Some say that Christianity is basically a call to be a good person. These people have been badly catechized.  Some say it centers around feeling close to God. I’ve heard stories of people being told in the 1970’s, “You don’t have to go to church. If you feel closer to God out in the woods, that’s where you should go.” Sadly, many Catholics have been badly catechized, so we have a lot of work to do. I’m told the notion that Christianity is basically a matter of morality started with Immanuel Kant. The notion that it centers around feeling close to God probably started in the 1960’s. 

Christianity is about a relationship with God. God wants intimacy with us and seeks to give Himself to us, and teaches us how to love Him and our neighbor. Sadly, our sins drive close ourselves to Him. Ever since the fruit incident in Genesis chapter 3, have been failing. The Scriptures (including our readings for this Sunday) show how badly God’s people have failed Him. I know I have failed many times, sometimes from my lack of skill; sometimes by my sinfulness. Because God gives us responsibility, a believe that each sin makes the world less than what God wanted. We cannot change the past (which I find really annoying, but clearly God doesn’t want me to spend all my time rewriting what has happened. That means I focus on the decisions now for the best possible future. That means how we can love God, and how we can love our neighbor. 

What we learn is that we can only bear good fruit if we are united to Him. If you want to help build a better world, the first step is to fall more deeply in love with Jesus. 

Blessing,

Fr. Jim

Continuing Discussion of the Liturgy of the Hours

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Dear Folks,

I have talked about the Liturgy of the Hours. The new edition will come out in January of next year. 

There are five “hours.”  There is morning prayer, daytime prayer, evening prayer, office of readings, and night prayer. They don’t take an hour to do, but are called hours because they are geared toward certain times of day. There is morning prayer (lauds), mid-day prayer (terce, sext, or none, depending on whether you pray it mid-morning, mid-day, mid-afternoon), evening prayer (vespers), night prayer (compline), and the office of readings (whatever time works best). 

Before Vatican II, the breviary would get through all the Psalms every week. It was pretty much exclusively the work of priests and religious. The Second Vatican council called for it to be more widely available and to make it less burdensome. It was revised to do almost all the Psalms in four weeks (Psalms 58, 83, and 109 have been completely omitted, as well as several verses that were seen as doing more harm than good, like Psalm 137:7-9). There was a call then and by popes since that it be prayed more by lay people. 

Because this is liturgy, not a devotion, it is a way in which we are united all around the world and speaking with the voice of Christ giving worship to the Father. The liturgical year has a certain rhythm, with various seasons and feasts. Every Friday should have a little bit of Good Friday, and every Sunday should have a little bit of Easter Sunday. The Liturgy of the Hours puts us more in contact with that rhythm and helps each day have more of that rhythm throughout the day. 

There was a mini-series that came out in 2015 called A.D. (a remake of an earlier version). In episode 5 there is an example of Roman cruelty in the temple courtyard. Peter was there and spontaneously started reciting Psalm 69. Caiaphas was there and joined him.  I’m pretty sure they weren’t friends, but they could recite the Psalm together. I don’t know if that actually happened (probably not), but it could have. Imagine people from all over the diocese being able to do that.

The book that is used is called the Breviary, and the Liturgy of the Hours is also called the Divine Office. The full breviary has four volumes, but there is a one volume that gives less to the office of readings, and a Shorter Christian Prayer that is basically morning and evening prayer and night prayer.  The are also internet options. I have used iBreviary and some use divineoffice.org. This uses your phone, tablet or computer and it works but is not ideal. There is something powerful in having a sacred book set aside for a holy purpose. This is why the Missal in used as a book, but we are called not to use a tablet.

This is a way that Catholics can get together and pray as Catholics without a priest present. It is one way we can be a stronger Church with fewer priests. It is a part of opening the treasury of Catholic prayer more widely for more people. 

More Later.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Not Fair II

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Dear Folks,

Continuing on the theme of God seeming unfair.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday, Matthew 21:28-32 talks about two brothers.

The essence of the Gospel is the gift of self. The Lord gave Himself out of love, not withholding the last drop of his blood. It is by the power of this gift that we are called and enabled to receive His gift and give ourselves in return.

There is danger that we will refuse to give ourselves as gift, or the more insidious danger is that we give a false gift of self. Jesus is warning the chief priests and elders of the people that their false gift was not going to get them into participation with the Kingdom of God. They wanted the perks of the job: the glory, the privilege, the income, but their hearts were not with God.

God gave us sexuality as a vehicle to give ourselves in a very special way. To use our sexuality in a lesser way than God intends is a false gift of self. Things like pornography are seeking the thrill without any gift of self at all, the opposite of what God calls us to be.

Have we ever had someone who calls themselves our friend but its always about them?

If we go to church and are more focused on how it makes us feel rather than how we are giving ourselves in worship, are we not offering a false gift? Or are we focused on God, on serving him, and on repenting of our sins? Do we have faith to reject sinful behavior?

Do we have the faith to tell Jesus to take our lives and do what He wants with them? In my experience, if we give our lives to Him, He will take it.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

It’s Just Not Fair

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Dear Folks,

When we are kids, one of the first principles we learn is to play fair. Everyone gets a turn. Everyone gets the same number of cookies. When we hear this Gospel reading (Matthew 20:1-16a, the workers in the vineyard) the first reaction I had was this isn’t fair.  

So, what’s the deal? We get told that “life isn’t fair.” I, of course had trouble with this for a long time because when people said it, it usually meant that I was going to get the dirty end of the stick. 

However, when we get a larger perspective, we learn ways it is good that life isn’t fair. Different people are given different challenges and different gifts. This enables people to bring different strengths to the table. 

Returning to our Gospel reading, consider: If you are hiring people to do a job, and there is a large pool to choose from, who would you pick? I expect the ones who get hired look the strongest and most capable of working. Imagine you were one of the candidates, and you didn’t get hired yesterday. That might mean that you didn’t eat yesterday. What if you didn’t get hired for several day? You might not look very capable and wouldn’t be the first hired. You stay around the marketplace hoping to get hired to do something so maybe you could get something to eat. Perhaps the owner of the vineyard wanted to give these people a chance. We may feel a bit hurt when someone is getting an extra chance and we are not, but there are larger issues. I’ve known families where one of the children has a long-term disease and so gets more attention. The other children, even if they understand, still feel it.

Some had said that this verse refers to people going to the last judgement and everyone who is saved gets the same reward whether they have done a lot or a little. There are a couple of problems with this interpretation. First, it would be the only text I know of in scripture that teaches us how to cope with going to heaven. Second, Jesus makes reference some greater and some lesser in the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:19, 11:11). 

This story could certainly be understood as referring to the Gentiles becoming Christian, and their Jewish colleagues that, having followed the Torah for generations, they should get some special consideration in the Church compared to those who, for generations, practiced some pagan religion (which would often sound like more fun). If we hear the stories of some who had a time of seeking their own desires before becoming Christian (St. Augustine comes to mind) they often wish they had come to the faith sooner because that is better than what they had before. We have no cause to envy them.

God is at work. He wants everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4) and will lead us through paths we might not understand at the time, but all will be made clear in the end. In the meantime, we keep going.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Praying the Psalms

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Dear Folks,

You have perhaps learned that the Catholic Church is putting out a new edition of the Liturgy of the Hours. This is a practice older than the rosary and rooted in Jewish practice, and being liturgy, not a devotion, it is a way we can be one with Jesus, and He is speaking though us to the Father. As a Catholic practice it started at the cathedrals and became common at the monasteries. During the Middle Ages it became the practice of clergy and religious only. The Second Vatican Council called for lay people to once again get involved in the practice. I think this is a good opportunity to get more lay people involved in the practice. It centers around the Psalms, and most Catholics haven’t been taught much about the Psalms. We pray a Psalm, or part of a Psalm at every single Mass, but how much do we really know about the Psalms? 

I just finished reading “Psalm Basics for Catholics” by Dr. John Bergsma. It is an easy read, I would think for high school students or ever upper elementary (Not my area of expertise) but it has a lot of information in it, and I learned a lot of things that I didn’t know. 

There are 5 “books” in the book of Psalms, and most of the Psalms in each book move in a certain direction. Psalms 1 and 2 are an introduction to the thought of the Psalter, first from a wisdom perspective and then from a royal perspective. 

The “books” of psalms are: Book 1: Psalms 1-41; Book 2: Psalms 42-72; Book 3: Psalms 73-89, Book 4: Psalms 90-106; and Book 5: Psalms107-150. We will learn from Dr. Bergsma how the “books” fit into salvation history. 

Jesus certainly knew and prayed the Psalms. We see he quoted Psalm 82 “you are gods” in John 10:34; Psalm 22 “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46), Psalm 31 “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46).” If you read Psalm 24 you know that “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God” is not a new teaching. If you read Psalm 37 you will see that “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land” is not a new teaching. 

The Psalms give us ways to pray whether we are happy or sad, on top of the world or having our lowest day. They give us words to bring all of ourselves to God.

There are various books on how to pray the Liturgy of the. Hours (I was surprised how many are available) and I’m going through them, hoping to share some recommendations. In the meantime, this introduction to the Psalms is a good place to start.

More soon.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Forgiveness is Hard

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Dear Folks,

Today’s readings are tough ones: we talk about forgiveness. Everyone knows that forgiveness is a part of Christianity. We know that if we are not willing to forgive, we are not really doing Christianity. Jesus spoke in very strong terms, but it is hard in practice.  I believe it was C. S. Lewis who said, “Everyone thinks that forgives is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive.”

I personally had a very hard time learning forgiveness because I thought it meant that others could torment me without limit and without consequence, and I was supposed to pretend that it didn’t matter (when you were the kid that didn’t fit in, that would be an easy trap to fall into).

I have since learned some important things.

!. Forgiveness is a form of healing.

2. I takes time to heal deep wounds.

3. It can exist alongside protecting yourself. 

4. Sometimes forgiveness includes cutting off a relationship. 

When Jesus said if you do not forgive others’ sins you will not be forgiven, I first thought that meant that if we didn’t forgive others’ sins then out of spite God would not forgive us. I later learned that there was a deeper reasoning. God wants to forgive us because even though he really cares about sin, He loves us even more. He really wants to get all of us in heaven, even the worst of us. God hates sin more than we do, even though it doesn’t affect Him personally. He knows that sin can destroy us, and He loves us more deeply than we can imagine. Opening our hearts to forgiving is opening our hearts to being forgiven. Believing that God wants all people to be forgiven enables us to look at our own sins honestly, and perhaps realize that they were more serious than we are in the habit of thinking.

Some books I have found useful are:

“No Future Without Forgiveness” by Desmond Tutu. This tells the story of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. It tells the horrors of apartheid (I knew it was bad but I didn’t know it was that back) and the good things that come from the hard decision to grant amnesty.

“The Book of Forgiving” by Desmond and Mpho Tutu. Talks about how to forgive: Telling the story, naming the pain, granting forgiveness, renewing or releasing the relationship.

“Don’t Forgive Too Soon” by  Matthew Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn, and Dennis Linn. This talks about practicalities of various situations and practical responses.

“Remembering God’s Mercy” by Dawn Eden. This tells the story of one woman’s journey from terrible abuse to Catholicism and healing. Her relationship with Jesus is central.

Now think of the goal. No more pain, no more anger, no more resentment. Only God can get us there.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Sharing the Faith

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Dear Folks,

The first point from our Sunday readings is to let go of success when it comes to persuading others (See Ezekiel 33:7-9). We are responsible for telling the truth. We are not responsible for others’ reaction. When I started college, I was determined to convert my agnostic roommate. Long story short, I did a terrible job. I could write a book, “101 Things Never, Ever to do While Evangelizing” and I did every one. The first one is I needed to convert him.   Sharing the truth is not about our needs. That said, we don’t get to be lazy about how we do it and how we learn to do it. I needed to learn a lot more about Christianity. I needed to learn a lot about how to dialog with people who thought differently from how I thought (I later learned that includes everyone: sooner or later I will disagree with you about something).  I had a lot to learn about how to manage my emotions.  God tells Ezekiel he is supposed to preach, and the people would respond how they chose.  We can just work on getting better ourselves.  I would suggest that one of the reasons that we are not doing better than we are is so many Catholics do not know how to share the faith, and one of the reasons good things are happening is we are getting some better apologists, including on social media (although good old-fashioned books still have a place). In twelve years of religious ed growing up they never taught us to share the faith with others. In eight years in the seminary they never taught us how to share the faith with those who don’t already have it (don’t get me wrong: I learned a lot of useful things in the seminary, just not that). This is one of the reasons I’m such a fanatic about being a lifelong learner about the faith. 

The Gospel (Matthew 18:15-20) talks about conflict in the Church. If the Church could deal with conflict better, it would save us a vast pile of time and energy that we could us practicing the faith.  If the Church could deal with conflict better that would be a powerful witness that Jesus is at work in our midst. Jesus doesn’t spend a lot of time with practicalities on how to be church, so this must be especially important. 

I have repeatedly recommended Ann Garrido’s book “Redeeming Conflict.” That gives us some basic tools.  However, we have all picked up bad habits in life, and it will take time and lots of effort (Is there any aspect of Christianity that does not require effort?). 

Imagine if everywhere Catholics go it becomes more peaceful, and people have more fruitful and more civil conversation.  It starts with each of us.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Sometimes We Don’t Understand What God is Doing

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Dear Folks,

God does some strange stuff.  Consider some of the animals He made. Consider what else He does. 

Thirty-nine years ago, I was ordained a priest on the Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. The next day, of course, I celebrated my first Mass, and being a Sunday, I used the readings of the day, and the first reading was this one from Jeremiah, “You duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.” I therefore learned a very important prayer:” I suppose You think this is very funny.”  I had also learned of a famous prayer of St. Teresa of Avila: “If this is the way you treat you friends, it’s no wonder that you have so few of them.” 

God is, of course, infinitely smarter than we are, so it should not be surprising that many of the things He does make no sense to us at the moment.

Peter was doing so well last week in the Gospel reading. For us it had been a week, for him just a moment. He went from “blessed are you Simon bar-Jonah” to “Get behind me Satan.”  That had to have been a shock. He just said that Jesus shouldn’t be rejected and killed, which, under normal circumstances, would have been a perfectly reasonable thing to say. 

We are so used to the cross being associated with Christianity that it is easy to forget what a shock and a “stumbling block (1Corinthians 1:22-24)” it was to people at that time. Peter would eventually come to accept it, to the point of giving his life for the faith. But let’s take a moment and consider his journey to getting there. But consider that it was completely contrary to everything that had made sense for them. 

Now think about how it can work it in our lives. We so often go through the words, but it is a completely different thing to accept it in reality. There was a time when I was getting attacked for doing my job, and a friend said to remember blessed are those who are persecuted. My first thought was “very funny” then I realized that This was actually a bit of truth. If we stand for something, we are going to get clobbered, if not physically, then psychologically. We do Jesus’ work, often not through our strength, but through our weakness. We often win by losing. It may be a small thing compared to what the martyrs faced, but Jesus taught that little things matter (Mark 12:41-44). 

St. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” When have we served God, not through our strength, but through our weakness. When did our plans get turned upside down. How might God use our weakness?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Why Does Jesus Act Like This?

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Dear Folks,

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is uncomfortable. In Matthew 15:21-28 it seems that he is being mean to a Gentile woman. “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs (Matthew 15:26).”  

There are some realities to keep in mind. 

Jesus’ ministry was first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (see Matthew 10:5-6). But He found great faith in some Gentiles (See Matthew 8:5-11), and He responded to that faith.

The woman is being tested. Jesus was very good a reading people and knew what they needed. We notice that the centurion was treated very differently (Matthew 8:5-13) In Matthew 19:16-22, the rich young man gets a challenge that not many are given. See how He responded to the people of Nazareth (Luke 4:16-30). Remember, there is a lot that is not mentioned in the Gospel account, like the internal attitudes of the people involved. 

There is another factor. We see in Scripture : “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? declares the Lord. Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand (See Jeremiah 18:1-10)” “Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:21).” God will do different things with different people because they will have different roles. 

When we go to God, we might find that what happens next is not easy. Does this mean He had abandoned us or is mad at us for something? No necessarily. It could mean that we just need an extra lesson, or that God is making us into something special. Or both. Have you heard the expression, “No good deed goes unpunished?”  Have you ever felt it? If you read the Scriptures and the lives of the saints, you shall see you are not the first. 

I think life is like running an obstacle course with a backpack. We can see others’ backpacks, and some look heavier than others, but we won’t find out until the end how heavy each one’s pack is. We feel how heavy ours is, but we don’t really know how it is compared with others. We might find that our pack was really lighter than a whole lot of people’s and we had it easy. Or we might find our pack with heavier than most peoples. We might find that some people were given extra challenges and beautiful things came from that. We thought some people weren’t doing very well and find out their response to God’s gifts was heroic.  In the meantime, we really don’t know and God seems content to let some things be a surprise.  Some people seem to get challenge after challenge and we don’t know why. In the meantime, God is doing wonderful things.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Am I Doing this Right?

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Dear Folks,

Today we see Jesus walking on water. Matthew, Mark, and John all mention the walking on water incident immediately after the feeding of the 5000. Luke does not include the walking on water. Ony Matthew will have Peter getting out of the boat, walking on the water, and then sinking, like a rock. Only Matthew will tell the story in 16:16-20 of Peter declaring that Jesus in the Son of God and being bless and called Peter (But see John 1:43 which shows Jesus calling him “Cephas” which means Rock). All four Gospels mention Peter worst story then he denied Jesus three times (Matthew 26:69-75; Mark 14:66-72; Luke 22:54-62; John 19:17-18 and 19:25-27). It appears the more important one is in the early church, the more one’s failings become known.

As we saw in the multiplication of the loaves, we see in the walking on water, there are no forces on earth that can stop Jesus. As long as we keep our eyes on Him.

Peter got out of the boat and walked. No one else did that. But he looked at the storm and failed. We will often be challenged to step out in faith, and we might look at the storm and fail. Then we tell Him we need help.

If we want to do God’s work, we will make mistakes.  I have explained to God that if he would keep me from messing up, I could get His work done more efficiently. (I also mentioned that it would be very beneficial if He would give me some advanced notice what His is planning so I could get ready, and it would be a really good thing for gravity to give senior citizen discounts). 

In Ken Burns’ “History of Jazz” there was a clip of Artie Shaw criticizing Glen Miller for never making mistakes. He said that if you don’t make mistakes, you are not pushing yourself as hard as you can but staying where it’s safe. I suggest that Peter knew they were being called to greatness, and he tried very hard to answer the call, and that sometimes meant getting in over his head (so to speak). He would grow in the process and wound up giving his life for the Kingdom of God. 

How is God calling you? Have you made mistakes? If so, you’re in good company. 

Blessings,

Fr. Jim