Monthly Archives: June 2022

Commitment

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Dear Folks,

“But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8). This does not mean that if doubts pop into our minds it kills the power of our prayer. If we look more closely at the text, we see it refers to people who want to follow Jesus sometimes, but then want to switch back and forth between the way of Jesus and the way of the world. Which way is the wind blowing?

When the Israelites were in the desert, they actually became nostalgic for their slavery in Egypt. “The riffraff among them were so greedy for meat that even the Israelites lamented again, ‘If only we had meat for food” We remember the fish we used to eat without cost in Egypt, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks the onions, and the garlic. But now we have nothing to look forward to but this manna (Numbers 11:4-6).” This is the classic image of the Christian who has converted but is starting to get nostalgic for his old sinful ways (we remember how they were fun, and not how futile they ultimately were). It is one thing to be faithful when we are full of fervor and we are not (at the moment) being tempted, but when the road is long and hard, that is when we are really tested.

Christianity calls for us even to give up ownership of ourselves. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, who you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).” There has been a lot of buzz about Tim Glemkowski’s book “Made for Mission.” He talks about the core mission of the Church, which is to form disciples. “A disciple is someone who does what Simon and Andrew did when they left their nets and followed Jesus. A disciple is someone who has bade, in Saint John Paul II’s words, a “personal and conscious decision’ to give their entire life to God.” He contrasts this with the rich young man in Matt 19:16-22, who was challenged to give up everything and follow Jesus, instead walked away sadly. Giving our whole lives to Jesus does not necessarily mean that we sell or give away all our stuff, but we now decide that everything we have, including the twenty-four hours of each day and all our skills and opportunities, actually belong to Jesus and are for his purposes. We are now stewards of all these things.

If crisises are coming to our Church (and it is hard to imagine they are not), that will likely shift the cultural Christians from the intentional disciples. Those with shallow commitment will likely drift away, but the intentional disciples will grow stronger.

Have you had an encounter with Christ that has lead you to give yourself entirely to Him?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Realizing What a Treasure we Have

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Dear Folks,

This is the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. We read the story of the multiplying of the loaves and fishes in the Gospel of Luke, which prepares us to learn that Jesus is the Bread of life.

Notice that the Twelve underestimate Jesus, though not unreasonably. They had seen Jesus healing the sick and calming a storm, but this was new. Our natural tendency is to underestimate the gifts of God. Throughout history there have been constant attempts to trim down the Gospel message and make it less than what it is. The Arian heresy said that Jesus is not God, but that God sent one of His creations to suffer. The Docetists claimed that Jesus was not truly human and did not really suffer. These make the message of God’s love less complete, and therefore less demanding on us. Lately, there have been attempts to explain away miracles and even the resurrection itself as not really having happened. I have heard people argue that what really happened with the multiplying of the loaves was that when Jesus started sharing, other people started sharing what they had and there were a bunch of folks who were secretly carrying bread and fish. The first problem with this is that there is nothing in the text that indicates this. If this were a lesson about sharing, why would all four Gospel writers hide the real message so that no one could figure it out until the twentieth century?

We have read many times that 70% percent of Catholics don’t believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. That should amaze and horrify us, but not surprise us. I encountered programs for preparing for first communion that talked about Eucharist as our family meal with nothing about how the bread and wine actually become Jesus, much less how it is our personal participation in Jesus’ sacrifice. I would ask the director why and was told, “Because it was so overemphasized in the past.” I never saw the logic to that, but I know there was a lot of it out there.

The point is that for generations now, we have been led to believe the Catholic faith is much less than what it is. My message is not, “Woe is us; we should be ashamed” but rather, “Oh, we are in for such a treat.” The more we open this treasure we have been given, the more wonderful we will find it is. In 1987 I graduated from a Jesuit school of theology with honors. I had some great teachers. What I have learned about the faith since then has been amazing. What I have learned in the last ten years has been precious beyond diamonds. I am looking forward to what God will teach me next.

You may have heard the story of Joshua Bell, one of the world’s great violinists, with his priceless Stradivarius violin played in a subway station for 43 minutes wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. Over a thousand people passed by. 27 gave money ($52.17) and seven stopped and listened for a bit. What if they’d had any notion of the great gift they were given?

The challenge for today: think of ourselves as God’s kindergarteners. We have so many wonderful things to discover. Let us look for God to be teaching us. Let us look for God to be touching us. Let us look for God to be changing us into more than what we are now. Especially when we come to Mass this weekend, let us remember what is happening; there is a mystery and a treasure deeper and wider than the ocean. Let us expect God to do

something.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Do We Want More Priests?

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Dear Folks,

We rejoice to have ordained three new priests for our diocese. I am confident that they shall be a great gift to our Church for many years to come.

Now the more difficult news. We still don’t have enough priests to fill the current openings. We have parishes without priests, and no extra priests to send there.

How can we be a church that better nurtures vocations to the priesthood? Imagine a young man growing up in the Church surrounded by adults who deeply love the Eucharist, who

are fiercely dedicated to growing in holiness, and who are zealous for the mission of the Church. I suggest that we would have to build a fence around the seminaries to keep them

from getting overrun with applicants.

The more Catholics demonstrate love for the Eucharist, the more someone could believe that it is worth dedicating his life to celebrating the Eucharist. Obviously, putting a high

priority on attending every Sunday and holy days is a good first step, and participating fully consciously, and actively is a second (see my recent articles on the subject; we can all grow

in that area). We can also learn more about its meaning. There is some great stuff on FORMED and there are some great books. Anything by Brant Pitre, Tim Grey, Edward Sri, or Scott Hahn is well worth reading (I especially love Edward Sri’s “Biblical Walk Through

the Mass” and Brant Pitre’s “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”. There is another book called “Music and Meaning in the Mass” by Annamarie Carinalli, and it looks from a

very different angle. Have you been to a weekday Mass just because it is a good thing? Even once a year? How about adoration when we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament? Yes, I know that schedules are hard, but if you can’t come once a week, how

about once a month? Every three months? Try once a year? The biggest step is usually the first one. You might find you need to do it more often. When we talk about the Mass, do we do it in a way that conveys awe, reverence, and love? This could help us grow in

holiness.

How to grow in holiness in a huge topic, but think about how often during the course of the day we attend to the presence of God? Do we seek to have a well-rounded prayer life? There are many different ways to pray, and each one engages a different aspect of

ourselves. How many choices do we make in the course of the day that are attempts to put God first?

If someone sees the Church accomplishing great things, it is easier to believe that it is worthwhile giving his life to being a leader in the Church. We can all only do so much, but if we do what we can, I trust God will make it enough. How anxious are we to support and

participate in what our church is accomplishing? Or do we have to be coaxed? Do we give up if we are offended or frustrated? How good are we at cooperating with those who see things differently?

Each one of us can make a difference. If we are concerned about not enough priests, we can channel that concern into making our parishes more fertile ground for vocations. These are just some ideas. What others do you have?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Pentecost and Peacemaking

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Dear Folks,

This is Pentecost, the great feast of the Holy Spirit, and the birthday of the Catholic Church.

The Holy Spirit came and brought people together, breaking down barriers between people, and enabling them to have relationships. This is a path to peace. This is the path to peace.

With the recent shooting that was in the news, I think it is good to talk about some violence in our society. There has been so much lately, such increases in different kinds of violence and cruelty, from shootings to rioting, to assaulting people on the subway, to suicide. What has caused this? I think as a society we need to put our collective energy behind building some values, some norms, and some habits.

On is empathy, an awareness and attentiveness to the state of another person. Often, we are focused on how things affect us, but deep awareness of what’s happening in others is precious.

This is built in good relationships, interacting sharing, and working together (texting is not enough). Essential is good fathering and good mothering. Could we agree that fathering and mothering are crucial, heroic vocations that should be honored and celebrated? Could we work to develop respect for people when we disagree, and try to understand them rather than insult them? This requires recognizing that the way things look to us in not always how they look to others, and we can’t just demand they see things our way.

Humans have a desperate need for agency. I have observed that we humans have a real need to make a mark in the world, ideally to do great and noble things, but if we feel we cannot, it is easy to make a mark by being destructive. We must nurture the potential greatness in each person, so they can see themselves as heroes and not victims. We must build the fortitude to keep going when that road gets harder than expected (which it will). We must focus on strategy and tactics for making changes large and small.

We need reverence for boundaries. Because we think we are right does not give us the license to use tactics that we would condemn in the other side (they think they are right too). We must measure violence by those on our side with the same scale we measure violence by our opponents. We need support and for law enforcement and consistent enforcement of laws.

Some people have been proposing what they consider the solution, and berating those who do not agree. They do not make a case for their solution but seem to presume it is obviously the thing to do, and they say that those who don’t follow their plan do not care and do not love children. I think this is the exact opposite of what we need. What if there are intelligent people of good will who do care very much, but believe that this proposed solution will not help, but will in fact do harm? This approach is guaranteed to fail. It completely neglects to look at other people’s point of view. It makes both sides feel more helpless and pushes people farther apart. No amount of browbeating is going to make me accept a solution that I think will just make things worse. Let people make a case for their proposed solution, recognizing that their other side has their case too. We need to go through how it would be implemented in practice. We need to recognize that we are all biased in favor of our own arguments, and we need to work harder on making our case than we think we do.

As a Christian, I believe that the starting point is Jesus, and I highly (very highly) recommend getting to know Jesus better. However, if anything I’ve said resonates with you, my efforts have not been wasted. Let’s move the conversation forward. Let’s make the situation better.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim