Category Archives: Church

Are We Going to Talk about Love Again?

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Dear Folks,

The central challenge: to love God and our neighbor. One of the easiest things to say. One of the hardest things to do.

Love is to seek the good of the other. This requires first, figuring out what is the good. Second, how to accomplish it.

We cannot benefit God, but we can please Him. We please Him by being in a good relationship with Him and by helping other people.

The good begins with life, even if it is a difficult life. We are called to serve the life and dignity of everyone from conception to natural death. This includes the rich and the poor. This includes those who came here from other countries, including those who came here illegally. The question becomes what this the most loving thing to do with them. We find a lot of attacking what others are doing, but what should we do? It includes criminals, including those on death row. It includes the victims of crimes. It includes struggling families. It includes people all over the world. It includes human trafficking victims. It includes people victimized by the pornography industry.  In includes the pre-born. It includes those which terminal illnesses. It includes those who hurt us. It includes everybody that I didn’t mention.

This does not always mean doing what people want. Sometimes, it means doing the opposite. Sometimes it means speaking a truth that people don’t want to hear. It does not always make us feel good.

There is a lot of disagreement about how to accomplish the good. What we want to avoid is “You don’t believe in doing good the way I believe in doing good, therefore you don’t care about doing good.” I see a long of that around. There are some contradictory narratives about what will accomplish the good, and it is important to get underneath them and get some more agreement on what is going to be helpful. Trading insults is not helpful. Presuming that the conversation has been had and that what we believe is obviously true doesn’t seem to be working either.

Of course, it is no good to be concerned about political issues if we do not treat the people around us well. Once again, this does not always mean doing what people want. Every time we encounter someone, we can look for an opportunity to give some positive energy. Being aware of others and seeing things from their point of view is a skill that we can work on throughout our lives.

We won’t get it completely right in this life. We will make mistakes, and sometimes that will put us on the wrong side of various issues. Sometimes we will try to bring good to a situation and wind up making it worse. I’ve done that countless times. The question is, when God judges us, have we done the very best we can to love our neighbor?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Church in Dialog

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Dear Folks,

This Sunday we consider that God is God over all the earth, not just those who believe in Him. We see King Cyrus (no relation to Billy Ray Cyrus) who was king of Persia and allowed the Israelites to go back to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem, healing their achy-breaky hearts.

The Second Vatican Council produced sixteen documents, the most important of those being the four constitutions. One of them is about the Church in the Modern world (known to its friends as Gaudium et Spes). It talks about the relationship between the Church and the world. It is said that before Vatican II we had more of a fortress mentality, and the less we dealt with it the better. Now there is more of a sense of engaging the world. The challenge is to be faithful to the truth while we do that and not compromise with the world.

In the early Church, Christians were good citizens. They obeyed civil law, unless following the law meant doing something contrary to the faith. Then they would stand fast, even if it was over something as small as putting a pinch of incense on the charcoal and saying “Kaiser Kurios.” They would accept torture and death rather than do that.

Bishop Barron has said that every culture is “evangelically ambiguous,” meaning that there are some values in society that are in keeping with Christian principles, and some values that are contrary to those principles. We are called to affirm what is good and challenge what is wrong. We are called to be leaven in society (Matthew 13:33), to be light to the world and salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-16).

We are called to participate in our society, using our Chrisitan consciences, but never hitching our star to a particular politician or party. I have been given to understand that a great many Catholics believe in the principles of the world more than the teaching of the Catholic Church. We do not seek a theocrasy, in which the Catholic faith would be mandatory for everyone, and Catholic teaching would be mandatory. As Pope Paul VI said, “We are to propose, not impose.” But we are called to hold fast to the truths of our faith, with sometimes mandates us being active in society. We need to be careful that our ideas are shaped more by our Catholic faith than by the world.

In America that means participating as good citizens and standing up for the sanctity and dignity of life from conception to natural death. It means being concerned for everyone, and right now (I expect always) there is disagreement about how to best do that. That is part of the challenge. Of we bring Christian love to the conversation, and treat everyone with dignity, that will often be as important as the position we take. I must say that my own experience has, much of the time, been unhelpful in developing the skill of having dialog with those with other points of view. I’ve been working on it steadily, however, and I believe I have come a long way.  May we as Church, continue to develop the skill of dialog.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

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

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

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

We do What we Can, but it is Jesus Who Feeds

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Dear Folks,

Our Gospel today is the multiplication of the loaves and fish, the feeding of five thousand with five loaves and two fish. This story is familiar. After all, it is the only miracle mentioned in all four Gospels (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:10-17 and John 6), and Matthew and Mark also have the feeding of he four thousand with seven loaves and a few fish (Matthew 15-32-39 and Mark 8:1-10). If you only listen the Sunday readings, you would never know that. This year we get Matthew’s account. Next year, we will interrupt Mark to do the feeding and the bread of life discourse from the Gospel of John (July 25th to August 6th). If you read through the Gospels (which I highly recommend) we Clearly, this story is important to the early Church.

Consider the poor disciples. They watched Jesus propose that they feed all those families. They would have known the Hebrew scriptures and the story of Elijah feeding 100 men with twenty barley loaves and having some left over (2 Kings 4:2-44). This is much bigger.  I could imagine them saying, “No, boss, no! Look at this crowd. If we promise them food and don’t give them food they will tear us apart!”  All the tellings of the stories involve starting with what He is given. Surely it would be in His power to go Poof! Everyone has bread and fish. It would be in His power to go Poof! Everyone has filet mignon. However, He calls them to give what they have, even though it is horribly, laughably inadequate. Then he feeds everyone, and there is not just some left over.  The feeding of the five thousand families had twelve baskets left over, symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel. The feeding of the four thousand took place in Gentile territory, and has seven baskets left over, symbolizing the seven tribes of Gentiles (see Joshua 3:10).

There is an echo of this in John 21, when Jesus tells the disciples to cast out their nets and they bring in a huge number of fish (which echoes Luke 5:3-7)   Jesus says to bring some of the fish they caught, while He already had some bread and fish being cooked for breakfast. More astute students of the Bible would be asking why He wanted them to bring some fish when He already was cooking the bread and fish for breakfast. I would suggest that He always asks us to bring what we have, while it is He who feeds. 

When we come to worship God, our worship is imperfect, so much short of what God deserves. We bring what we have, and Jesus works though us in the liturgy, and wonderful things happen. When we serve God in the world, our ability is horribly inadequate for the mess the world is in. We bring what we have, and it is Jesus who makes wonderful things happen. Sometimes (as in usually) it takes longer than we think it should. However, much patience I think I have learned, God seems to think I need to learn more. God is at work and doing things we do not yet understand. He calls us to participate. How will we respond?

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Wheat and Weeds: No Escape

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Dear Folks,

We continue on Matthew 13 and have more parables. We have the parable of the wheat and the weeds, then a pair of parables (the mustard seed and the woman who mixes yeast with dough). 

The parable of the wheat and weeds warns us that the Church is going to be messy. The particular kind of weeds they are mentioned here are called “tares” and young tares can easily be mistaken for young wheat. We continue to be surprised that we see bad behavior in church, and some people leave because of it. But Jesus warned us in the beginning that it would happen. We keep being surprised that Jesus was right. We don’t get to say that this person is not worthy to be in the Church. This, by the way, includes us. We don’t get to say, “I am too bad a person; I’m not worthy to go to church.”  We might not be ready to receive communion, but if we are feeling weedy, we need God and Church more that ever. 

Unlike with literal weeds, in Church a weed can become a stalk of wheat, and a stalk of wheat can become a weed. I think one of God’s favorite things to do is take great sinners and make them great saints. You never know when this is going to happen, including to you.

Does this mean we should do nothing about all the bad in the Church? Just accept it and hold on to things getting fixed in the end?

No. Not at all. In fact, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast take away our biggest excuse. We don’t get to say that we have no power so it’s someone else’s problem. The parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast tell us that little things matter. The smallest act can make a huge difference in the Kingdom. The smallest act of kindness, the smallest act of faithfulness, the smallest act of respect might make all the difference in someone’s life, and we won’t know until the last day what all difference it made. We might get some feedback that will help keep us going, but we know that much more is happening than we can see. A tiny mustard seed can make a huge plant. A small amount of yeast can transform a great quantity of dough. (Those who know me know I don’t like mustard, so this is not one of my favorite parables. However, I understand why Jesus did not use ketchup seeds.)

Yeast is somethings in the Bible a negative image (Matthew 16:5-12; Mark 8:14-21; Luke 12:1-3; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8). This reminds us that the Bible is not a code book and will use different images in different ways. We will not, in this life, say that we have figured it all out. Our understanding is tiny compared to the truth that is. And yet, we can make a difference. 

How are you dealing with weeds in your life? How are you feeling weedy yourself?  

Don’t worry, God is at work. 

Blessings,

Fr. Jim