Category Archives: advent

Dare to Hope!

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Dear Folks,
Dare to hope!
opeSometimes, fear of disappointment may tempt us to give into despair, cynicism, and settling for the status quo. We then say, “That’s just the way it is.” We throw up our hands, tired of being hurt, and retreat into a protective shell. It can be hard to believe that God could bring good out of this situation. He’s brought good things out of many awful situations, but this one seems too tangled, too deep, too messy to have be an occasion of grace. This seems to be King Ahaz’s response in our first reading in Isaiah 7:10-14 .St. Joseph could have responded that way in our Gospel (Matthew 1:18-24), but he stepped out in faith, and great things happened after that. It was not going to be easy orwithout pain, but it would lead to glory. It will require patience and perseverance that we couldn’t understand in the beginning. I believe in lower expectations short term, higher expectations long term. God is more patient than we are.
We look at the number of people who were raised Catholic who have left the practice of the faith, and those who maintain a minimal connection to the faith. This is not how the
Church was founded to be. This is not being on track with the task of making disciples of all nations. Some people shrug their shoulders and say, “That’s just the way it is, and we just have to accept it.” Some have actually said, “We can’t expect any better because of the state of our society” which suggests that the Gospel message is not powerful enough to advance in a hostile culture. This, of course, can be comforting in that it absolves us from responsibility. But Jesus calls us to a bolder response. The early Church began with a handful of people, very few resources, and were surrounded by an extremely hostile culture. They grew like a grease fire. The mightiest empire the world had ever seen was helpless to stop them. If we truly believe that the Gospel message, the Catholic faith is true, then we believe that it is the most powerful transformative force in the universe.
For this to happen, we must be willing to go where God leads, as the disciples did (eventually) in the Scriptures. God often would lead people where they did not expect to go and would prefer not to go. That requires trust. Those who trusted would see great
things happen, greater than their own abilities could accomplish.
It all begins with taking some time to get to know God better, to fall more deeply in love with him. May that happen to all of us, that our Advent can be fruitful.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Gaudete: Rejoice in Jesus’ Abundant Life

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Dear Folks,
Today is Gaudete Sunday, and Gaudete means rejoice! We rejoice, not because everything is great now (I expect we all have our list) but because Jesus is coming, and we are confident that what we are doing is worth doing and pain will turn to glory.
We live with an “already” and a “not yet.” Jesus is here and Jesus is coming. We are participating in eternal life now but not experiencing it in fullness. “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live (John 5:25).” When Jesus comes in glory His followers will recognize Him as one they have known, but never known as fully, as gloriously, or as wonderfully as they will then.
“Love never fails. Prophecies will eventually cease, tongues will become silent, and knowledge will pass away, for our knowledge is partial and our prophesying is partial; but when we encounter what is perfect, that which is imperfect will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child. However, when I became a man, I put all childish ways aside. At the present time we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. My knowledge is only partial now; then I shall know fully, even as I am known. Thus, there are three things that endure, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).”
Jesus came that we might “have life and have it more abundantly (see John 10:10).” To live for eternal values, to live in union with God, to give of ourselves in love is a much more abundant way to live than living for gratifying immediate desires. Such a life can be very hard, discouraging, frustrating, even agonizing. But during the worst times, we know that for the faithful sorrow is not the last word, that we do not face it alone, and that even our pain can have meaning in the kingdom. During the most joyous times, of course, we recognize that the joy is a foretaste of the ultimate joy, and that makes it more powerful even as it passes for now.
“See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it does not know Him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know that when it is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as He is pure (1 John 3:1-3).”
David Goggins wrote a book called “Can’t Hurt Me.” (warning: language is rough!) He went through navy seal training three times and then decided that he wasn’t pushing himself hard enough (!) He did things like run ultramarathons (100 miles in twenty-four hours). He said that a lot of people plan great things while they are comfortable, sitting on their couches drinking iced tea. But when the pain and the exhaustion hit, they start asking, “Why am I doing this?” Many then drop out, because they are not deeply enough rooted in their why.
The promises of the world fail us sooner or later. Christmas has a special way of teaching that lesson. Sometimes toys are not nearly as much fun as they seemed in the store. Sometimes they break and can’t be fixed. Sometimes they are fun for a while, but the thrill fades. Over time, we notice that toys pass away, but love endures. But the toys are so enticing, we have to have a good grip on our “why” to keep going. If you’ve read the New Testament (which I highly recommend) it is surprising how often they talk about the importance of endurance. Let us focus on our goal, sharpen our desire for the Kingdom, and not let distractions loosen our grip on our hope.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Hard Messages to Hear

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Dear Folks,
In this second Sunday of Advent, we encounter John the Baptist, and his fierce preaching. We also meet the Pharisees and Sadducees, whom we will encounter later. They were very smart,
did a lot of studying, and did a lot of religious devotion. They did a lot of listening to each other, and despising those who were not a part of their group. Of course, if they all agreed on
their basic beliefs and just talked to each other, they would never be challenged serious. They would reinforce each other
In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Screwtape Letters” we see a senior devil (Screwtape) giving advice to his nephew (Wormwood) about how to lead a soul to hell. In letter 3 we see, “You must bring him to a condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.” He’s talking about blind spots, and if we listen to those who think like us and discount those who don’t before really hearing them (because they are evil/stupid/lying) we protect ourselves from having our ideas challenged and our blind spots discovered. In the book “Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity” by Jennifer Garvey Berger, Margaret Wakeley, et al. they talk about the trap of agreement: if our entire group agrees, we tend not to seek further input, and become trapped in our bubble. I have recommended Monica Guzman’s book “I Never Thought of it That Way” to understand how this works and how to counter it. In the book “Radical Inclusion” by Martin Dempsey and Ori Brafman they mention that modern discourse tends not to be about logical argument but competing narratives. People hear a narrative, find it compelling, believe it and proclaim it as if it were the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. They often do not consider if the premises are true, if he reasoning is valid, or if it is missing something. Then, when they hear something contrary to that narrative, they dismiss it, ridicule it, and attack it, without asking, “Might there be something here to learn?”
What if our Pharisee and Sadducee friends were so rooted in the narrative that their approach was the correct one, they were the good guys, and that no one else had anything to teach them. They reinforced each other in their beliefs and were quite sure they didn’t need to change anything in their thinking or actions. John gave them a severe talking to (I don’t think his methods would work today. We are too good at dismissing people we see as cranks.
In the book “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership” by Ron Heifetz et.al. they talk about protecting minority voices. Too often, minority voices get steamrolled and ignored by the majority, but they may have some wisdom to share. Even if we don’t accept all of their position, they may have insight that can help us refine our ideas. We remember that in 1905 Albert Einstein turned the physics world upside down with three groundbreaking papers, including one on relativity. Over time, however, the revolution became the establishment, and when the time came for the next step, quantum mechanics, Einstein was fiercely opposed. He came up with every argument he could to discredit it (and he was very good at that. Even though he was eventually proven wrong, arguing with Einstein helped the innovators refine their position, and it made the science better. Those who disagree with us are challenges, not enemies.
Heifetz also talks about getting on the balcony. Taking some distance to see the big picture, the picture that we can’t see when we are in the midst of the dance. If we can find a way to take a step back this Advent to see things from a different perspective, that could bear some fruit.
May we all have a fruitful Advent.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Waiting for God’s Peace

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Dear Folks,

Today we begin Advent, a season of expectant waiting. Waiting is not just stillness, but directed toward a future hope, and doing Advent well includes a keen focus on what we are hoping for, and how we are shaped by that hope. Our readings, of course, help us.

First, in Isaiah 2:1-5, we see a future in which God gathers people from everywhere. God is the great Gatherer. Jesus prayed in His great priestly prayer “I pray not only on behalf of these, but also for those who through their word will come to believe in me. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be in us so that the word may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely on, and thus the world may know that you have sent me and that you have loved them even as you have loved me (John 17:20-23).” Do you want people to believe that Jesus is truly at work in the Church and that the Church is worth coming to? Jesus connects that to our being one. 

We see as people gather, their great desire is that God “may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” We call ourselves disciples, and “disciple” means “student.” To be a disciple is to be learning, that we may “walk in His ways,” that is, live according to His truth.  As they live this truth they will “beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks,” because fighting has become obsolete. The great promise is peace: everyone will get along all the time. Ahhhh.

Romans 13:11-14 reminds us that to get to that peace, we must “throw off” all the things we do that are not in keeping with God’s truth. This time of expectation and hope is a time of repentance. By the power of God’s grace, we seek to live like people who want that peace, and that means not only avoiding doing harm, but actively and intentionally building peace (Matthew 5:9).

Because we are sinful, flawed people, we are going to offend each other. We are naturally more aware of how others offend us than how we offend other people (That great big splinter in your eye looks so much bigger than that little plank in my eye). When we have a gripe against someone, we are called to be healers, even if we are sure we are not at fault (though more often than not, we have contributed somehow and need to be open to that possibility). 

We go to the person first and talk, not to attack, but to bring mutual understanding and healing. If we can’t make progress, bringing one or two more into the conversation to help (Matthew 18:15-16). Talking about people behind their backs, saying things about them that we don’t say to them, spreading complains to create a climate of hostility against that person, is a terrible poison that does immeasurable harm in communities. We must all remind each other because gossip is a terrible plague in the church. We are always to encourage healing. Talking to each other is so much harder than talking about them, but that is exactly the sort of sacrifice to which Jesus calls us.

Matthew 24:37-44 reminds us that God will call us to account for how we answer this call, and we are always to be ready.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim