Pastoral Reflections

Living on the Edge (1 Cor. 7:32-35)

2012-01-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

The second reading in today’s Mass (1 Cor. 7:32-35) is interesting to reflect on from a mature perspective. Surrounding this passage, St. Paul is pastorally working with the community in Corinth regarding issues of marriage. Note his first statement, “...I should like you to be free from anxieties.” The anxiety St. Paul is referring to is the anxiety to be prepared for Christ’s return. Remember that the early Church sincerely believed that Jesus would return in their lifetime. So, they were anxious about how best to be prepared for his glory. Two thousand years later, our anxiety is a little different isn’t it? Who doesn’t secretly think that Jesus isn’t going to return in our life time? We cannot sustain an artificial anxiety, pretending to ourselves that Jesus could return today. Believe me, I tried it for years, eventually time wins the argument. Don’t forget we pray at every mass, right after the Our Father, that God would remove our anxiety. That’s not anxiety over paying the bills, that’s anxiety over our final judgment—the same anxiety St. Paul is dealing with at Corinth here in this passage.

But St. Paul hint’s at how we are to live in his next sentence. “An unmarried [person] is anxious about things of the Lord, how s/he may please the Lord.” Note that the task for the single Christian is to “please the Lord” - there’s no place for self-centeredness. In the single life, one is chaste for God. Chastity is not a burdensome discipline that robs us of one of life’s great pleasures. Chastity takes our natural drives and redirects them into other forms of creativity and when directed towards God, increases praise. Many a person in history and today have put aside strictly sexual acts to express a deeper powerful creativity through broader acts of art, science, and charity that is just as fulfilling, if not more, than explicit sexual acts. (But our culture of addiction doesn’t want you to believe that because they’re making money off of the addition.) But, true freedom for the single person is to let go of the addiction to find the right sole mate and look to pleasing the Lord in their life.

The Church has always lifted up the high value of marriage and recognized that marriage between a baptized believing man and a woman is a Sacrament—in other words, a way in which God’s grace and the love of Christ is manifested in the world. At first, St. Paul seems to be down playing marriage but what he’s trying to do, in context with the entire chapter, is to help the Christian first understand that their lives are about pleasing the Lord first and foremost. From that central perspective, the task of the Christian spouse is to see how s/he could please their spouse. Again, there is no room for self-centeredness. Marriage is a vocation, a sacrament of godly service to honor Christ by manifesting God’s love specifically in the world through this human bond. The married person’s fulfillment is found inbeing Christ for their partner and allowing their partner to be Christ to them. And, God willing, in the procreation of children. Marriage expresses God’s permanent, personal, and productive love in the world by transforming this natural filial relationship into an expression of God’s unilateral covenantal love to us.

St. Paul hint’s at what the root of anxiety is at the end of his paragraph. Anxiety comes to us when we’re distracted from our central purpose of pleasing the Lord, regardless of our marital status. If we feel restrained, unhappy in our life then our focus is on ourselves and not in outward loving expression to God. We’re called not to live in fearful anxiety for Christ’s return but rather we are happiest when we are living on our spiritual and physical edge—pushing ourselves to fully and creatively express our devotion to God with the gift of our very lives. It is living on our personal edge for God that prepares us for his second coming—not out of fear but out of becoming fully human through devotion to God.

The Greatest Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40)

2011-10-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

This week’s readings continue the theme of Jesus having controversies with the Jewish leaders. The Pharisees ask an important question and they received an important answer. And, although it was an important question, it still was a test to Jesus because a less careful answer could have left him open to the charge of trying to “abolish parts of the law.”

Jesus quotes the Hebrew Scriptures (Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18), “but to bring them together like this as a summary of all the law and the prophets was a brilliant creative idea. In focusing on the two halves of the Ten Commandments (duty to God and duty to our neighbor) it offers a foundation for all our living; and by summing up that duty as love, it goes beyond the specific requirements of the law to the God-like attitude which must underlie them.” (New Bible Commentary. 1994)

Fulfilling our duty to God and neighbor is life giving. God established these rules not to rob us of the delight in creation or to incarcerate us from creativity and free thinking but rather to grant us life both in spirit and body. In our text today, Jesus shows us the answer that animates the law by positive means – through love.

A mother lovingly says, “Time to go to bed, honey.” “NO! You can’t make me!” replies the child with a stamp of his (her) foot. Patiently but firmly, mother says, “Young man (lady), you march yourself right up the stairs this instance!” “Oh, O-kay...” sighs the child without fully realizing that it’s fear or a lack of energy to fight that motivates them to do their parent’s will, and not obedience out of love.

At one time or another, I’m sure many of us rebelled against our parents when we were children. We may have not acted out in rebellion but perhaps in the fancy and privacy of our minds, we rejected what our parents advised us to do in our hearts despite obeying them in the world. We went to bed early with a grudge because we didn’t want to “deal” with the consequences of upsetting mom further.

The same dynamic happens with us fulfilling God’s commands. If we lack faith in the goodness of God, we might find ourselves following his commands begrudgingly like the older brother to the prodigal son. (Luke 15:29) Realizing that a lack of faith in God’s goodness is blasphemy and illogical, we might continue to ponder why we struggle with a particular commandment and conclude that we somehow are misinterpreting the “original” meaning of the text and somehow justify our actions to be innocent although they might not follow God’s law as we understand them in their literal sense. And so, you can see how we can begin to twist and turn God’s laws like we’re trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube – all with our best interests at heart and in sincerity.

But Jesus cuts through this quagmire of perspective: Love your God, love your neighbor. Love is so rudimentary, so instinctual that it hardly needs explaining. Our actions towards God and neighbor are to be done out of compassion and earnest desire to want what is best for them. We know this comes from within us, prompted by God’s Holy Spirit, and not consequential to our circumstances.

As Christians, we love our neighbor not because of the qualities they possess but because we are called to be like God and love them regardless of their qualities. We offer each other grace to be who we are – part sinner, part saint. And that grace isn’t something we manifest ourselves but is poured out to us and through us by our good God’s Holy Spirit.

This is evangelization - To love our neighbor, to love our God - In action, in word, with authenticity - In spite of the moral failures we see in ourselves and others. And we can only do this to the degree we have experience God’s grace and acceptance of us in our own lives. We love because that is the only means to be fully human and to experience the divine within us.

Nourished by both Word and Sacrament

2011-06-30T05:57:00.000-07:00

Jesus used parables all the time. July 10th's gospel reading (Matt 13:1-23) is a powerful parable that helps us understand how well we receive the Word of God. But there’s a reason why Jesus cloaks the message in a parable.

“When Socrates took on the responsibility of educating the youth of his native Greece, he formulated a method of inquiry and debate in order to stimulate critical thinking and illumine the truth. Pythagoras, like a midwife bringing a child to birth, would draw out of his students the knowledge he knew to be there. Aristotle began with what can be known through experience and challenged his students to probe deeper and investigate more fully.”*

Jesus came later than these men and taught in parables – taking something familiar in order to shed light on the truth about the Kingdom of God. “A parable is meant to convey one basic moral lesson [and it was] intended to persuade, to challenge, to move the listener to some decision, resolution or action. In order for this moral response to be forthcoming, listeners would have to look beyond the story itself to the deeper meaning and allow themselves to be grasped by its truth. While Jesus did not originate the literary form of the parable, he made powerful use of it in order to: (1) evoke a transformation in his listeners; (2) challenge them to embrace a new system of values; and (3) have them open themselves to a new concept of salvation – as not a reward to be merited by the righteous, but the gift of a loving God to sinners.”*

Parables force us to pay attention, to ponder their meaning and ultimately to be open to respond in faith in order to see into the heart and mind of God. If we are closed minded, spiritually prideful, or slothful in our relationship with God, the parable will remain a puzzle to the degree we are unwilling to accept God speaking to us through it.

As Christians, we are called to ponder not just Jesus’ parables but all of the Holy Scriptures over and over again in faith and openness. And we do this not just to be obedient but to be nourished by God’s Holy Spirit through hearing God’s Word and to grow in intimacy/communion with God. “If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to understand the Scriptures.” (Catechism line 108).

The Scriptures are a main vehicle/media in which God uses to communicate himself to us. “For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s Body.” (Catechism line 103)

Much like air and food is necessary for life in the human body; so we need both God’s Word through Scripture and Sacrament with equal importance for life in the Spirit.

So, as today’s parable says, what part of us is hardened soil that needs God to jackhammer it loose? What part of us hears God’s word but gets choked out by other ambitions other than to grow in communion with God? And, how well do we thank God for those areas in our life that have been open to his Word and blessed by his Spirit?

(* Quotes from Patricia Datchuck Sanchez, Rafael Sanchez Alonzo, "Jesus Spoke to Them in Parables." Celebrations, July 2011.)

Who is my Neighbor?

2010-06-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

A reflection on the gospel story of the good Samaritan.

“And who is my neighbor?” In short, everyone; and this includes all who have hurt us or are considered our enemy. Jesus busts wide open any kind of prejudice in this gospel passage today. He tells us to love everyone. But, it is safe to say that we can prioritize our relationships and responsibilities too. We will always love our friends more than strangers and definitely more than our enemies. But because we love others more does not give us license to hate.

In fact, it’s vital to our relationship with God to love our neighbor – even our enemies – for the scriptures tell us, “How can you say you love God who is invisible, if you cannot love your [neighbor] who is visible?”

The National Conference of Catechetical Leaders states: “Our morality, as Christians, is rooted in two points: human dignity and community…human dignity is rooted in the biblical truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God [and] our understanding of community is found in the model of the Trinity.”

It’s easy to grasp our friend’s dignity but often we are confounded by our enemy’s behavior. Some people can be such jerks in our life that it causes us to struggle with finding an image of God in them. Despite our suffering and possible right for justice, our own humility is the only means to grow in finding that image of God in our enemy.

As Christians, we are called to be like water. “Water easily benefits all things without struggle. Yet it abides in places that people hate.” In Living Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it another way, “Nobody is too good for the meanest service.”

Bonhoeffer continues by stating, “We learn from the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.” And further, “Only where hands are not too good for deeds of love and mercy in everyday helpfulness can the mouth joyfully and convincingly proclaim the message of God’s love and mercy.” By loving our neighbor – especially enemies – we come to learn of God’s love for us more richly and then can proclaim that love with deeper authenticity. Even from a Machiavellian perspective, it’s in our best interests to love others!

But as Marva Dawn, author of Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, points out, our contemporary culture is increasingly individualistic and self absorbed. The question of our Christian duty to love our neighbor is sterilized with reaching out to far away places and global concerns – I’ve done a good thing when I buy fair trade products (all good acts in and of themselves and we ought to do them) – but we must consider the local community as a priority. How do I tangibly love the person in the pew next to me? I can sit in a pew next to a stranger but can I hold their hand during the Lord’s Prayer?

Our brother or sister in the Lord needs community (fellowship with other Christians), especially when he or she becomes uncertain and discouraged in his or her hope for a holy life. The Christian needs his or her brother as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation.

As Christians, we are called to be community; a community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ, no more, no less. It is a duty built upon humility and openness and while it is a duty, it is not without reward. We discover God in and through one another. We receive encouragement in difficult times. We find love when we thought all was lost. This is a founding belief and experience of the Church. As Saint Paul told the Christian community of Philippi, “Do not think of your own interests alone, but look to the interest of others.” (Phil. 2:2-4.)

True Freedom and Responsibility

2010-06-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

The fourth of July, Independence Day for the United States of America, is this coming weekend. Here's a brief reflection on true freedom and responsibility.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” ~ The Declaration of Independence, 1776.

As Christians, life, liberty, and happiness are well defined for us. In today’s (14th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Cycle C) second reading, Saint Paul points out that “the world is crucified to him.” In this statement, St. Paul is stating that the power of all that stands at enmity with God, the sphere of pleasure and ambition related to gross self-gratification, has been broken, not psychologically or mystically, but historically by the cross of Christ. (New Jerome Bible Commentary) By the cross, we are free.

It is this Christian reality of “freedom” that guides our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. And, these three ends are not achieved in an autonomous self actualization but in our pursuit of holiness dependent on God, as indicated in today’s alternative opening prayer, “Let sin never ensnare us with empty promises of passing joy. Make us one with you always, so that our joy may be holy, and our love may give life.”

One of my favorite authors is B.W. Maturin. In his Self Knowledge and Self Discipline, he writes, “A healthy body and a plentiful supply of good things of this world are no necessary indication of a happy life. For the life of man is above all things a mental life, he can never rid himself of the companions of his mind.” The more we fill our minds with holy thoughts and bring our desires into line with our Christian duty to love God and neighbor, the more we will achieve true happiness. For God is Ultimate Happiness per St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica.

Yet Sin seduces us to believe we can have happiness contrary to God’s law and we can become bound by habits of sin that alienate us from God and estrange us from others. These habits of sin can only be conquered by habits of perseverance built upon a faith that God has freed us from sin. God’s work on the cross grants us independence from Sin. Yet, B.W. Maturin states, “it would indeed be worse than misleading to tell a man who has long yielded to habits of sin that at any given moment he could without constant prayer, vigilance, and strenuous effort, assert his liberty and never yield [to sin] again.”

So, we find ourselves in a real life battle for our souls. As a bumper sticker says, “Peace is won in battle.” Soren Kierkegaard states, “True faith is never an easy matter, nor is it a means to a tranquil life. On the contrary, faith is always a risk, an adventure that requires the denial of oneself and all the joys of the faithless.” The greatest enemy of our freedom and pursuit of happiness is not one another. The really dangerous enemies of our freedom come from within ourselves: fear, uncontrollable passion, and ignorance.
Christianity is not simply an ideology. It’s about establishing the Kingdom of God in our lives, aligning ourselves with Christ and his laws, and being free from sin.

We have a great nation. One established to enable all to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How will we use our freedom? For gross self gratification or for holiness? An old friend once said, “With greater freedom comes greater responsibility.”

Guilt and Reconciliation

2009-08-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote this a few months ago - now I have decided to include it in the blog....

In my daily prayer today, I had some guilty feelings about the weekend – not because Catholics are prone to feel guilty but as Tony Robbins, the internationally acclaimed life coach, mentions in his seminar Lessons in Mastery, “I had violated one of my own standards [one of my own personal rules].”

Often in ministry, I see people unable to work through feelings or thoughts of guilt. Some attempt to ignore guilt. I’ve never been able to ignore it. The more I ignore it, the more it eats at me. Some project their guilt on others. As in, “It’s not my fault, [blank] made me do it.” Some will justify their behavior based on worse behavior of others, “Look at such-and-such, they’re doing something worse than me.” Sadly, some will tear others down – reduce the good that is in them – in order to feel better about themselves. But these actions, don’t remove guilt. They only repress the feeling and distract us from dealing with the principle (belief) that caused the guilt to begin with.

As a Christian, one of the behaviors I witnessed within myself is that when I felt guilty, I immediately associated it with God’s rules. This has the potential of bringing in all kinds of added reactions of feelings and beliefs: Sometimes good and yet, in deeper reflection, sometimes painful. Believing in a forgiving God leads to good feelings, but sometimes, believing that I don’t “own” these rules myself – that they’ve been placed on me to obey - can lead to further painful emotions such as feeling coerced.

As adults, whether we actively follow a religion or not, we live with hundreds of standards every day that come from our parents, faith communities, employers, neighborhoods, civil government, and quite often, Hollywood. It’s amazing how we are able to navigate through our days at all without violating someone’s standard.

As I mentioned earlier, the meaning behind guilt is, “I have violated one of my standards.” I think this is a great definition for many reasons.

First, it places the ownership of the violation on me. No one else can bear the responsibility of this violation. It is mine to own. I can’t project it on anyone else.

Second, it places the ownership of the standard on me. I own that standard and this gives me the option to let go of that standard, if I choose it to be a poor one.

Third, it strengthens individual integrity and questions the value of relationships. In other words, it produces healthy personal boundaries by clarifying who I am as an individual. It clarifies what the other wishes in our relationship and provides me clarity about how much I value that relationship. It also empowers me to negotiate or find greater clarity within the relationship, if needed.

Finally, this definition enables me the choice to either change the principle (reject or modify it) or improve my appropriation of it.

As we work with this definition repeatedly, we learn of the happiness of being in control of our lives and relationships. When we choose to accept another’s standard, we value the relationship without reducing ourselves. And, if we fail to live up to a standard of a valued relationship, we are empowered to work towards reconciliation because we become aware of our value in the relationship. Also, we can choose whether or not the relationship (or just a standard in the relationship) has value in it anymore.

In addition, this definition helps us work with others who are coping with guilt. Often, many people I work with poorly react to another’s sense of guilt by being “falsely” compassionate. “Oh, It’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up. We all make mistakes. God loves you.” While all these statements seem to be sweet things to say, they really don’t hit the core of the problem nor remove the sense of guilt.

Helping others through their guilt with this definition respects the person’s feelings, principles, relationships, and helps them to grow in integrity. In doing so, we can heal the brokenhearted and liberate others from feelings of captivity. We can announce to them the favor they have in their relationships and empower them in their relationships. We can help them mourn in their loss. We can help them not become listless souls by helping them strengthen their integrity.

So, the next time we feel guilty. Don’t run away from guilt or belittle it. Remind ourselves, “I have violated one of my own standards” and reflect on its meaning, the relationships in it, and the values we have in those relationships. Then move forward in the direction our hearts lead us: change the standard or change how we react to the standard.

Obviously, if we have truly violated a standard of God (ten commandments) or the standards of a legitimate relationship (employer, government, life partner) then we are obligated to correct that violation and look to reconcile the relationship through just acts like the sacrament of reconciliation, asking forgiveness, replacing another's time or property, reaffirming or restoring the other person's dignity. This will be obvious to the one who values the relationship.

Life, Goodness, and Power

2008-12-23T11:49:00.001-08:00

Our unwillingness to release our desires into the hands of God demonstrates our doubt in the goodness of the One who is life, goodness, and power. Our clinging to finite ideas and things is what limits our growth, gives us pain, and steals our freedom and security. It’s not that ideas and things of this world are bad, it’s that we’ve misplaced them. Thinking they are the source of life, goodness, and power which is reserved for God alone.

We often believe the power to happiness is found in more money, more things, more status, more relationships. What we really do is project power onto these things and relationships and then become unhappy because we do not possess them more fully. Yet, we have the power of happiness within when we can remain in this present moment and accept this moment as a gift from the One who is life, goodness, and power.

Pastoral Letter on Justification

2008-04-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

This entry is a response I made to my beloved sister, a presbyterian, when she asked me a question regarding whether we are saved by works or by faith:

Dear Sis and your Bible Study Group,

I love that we can share our faith lives together. I believe our mutual love for Jesus, the Scriptures, and bringing about his Kingdom in our lives bonds us together in ways that human relations alone cannot do. Jesus’ blood is stronger than familial blood alone.

Disclaimer:

First, let me start out by saying that justification, and salvation, is a huge topic – as you know all so well. The topic is one in which we cannot easily just state that we are saved by works or by faith alone. Also, it is connected to our Christological theology (how we view the identity and work of Christ). So, depending upon where we jump into the conversation might cause others to disagree. I believe where and how we jump into conversation about justification is where a lot of misunderstandings between Christians occur on the topic.

The root of our justification is not ourselves but Jesus the Christ

Let me start by saying something obvious yet often overlooked. In the same way that we take the air we breathe for granted, we take for granted the principle that Christ, alone, saves us. It is God’s grace through Christ’s work on the cross that saves us.

Often, we believe that we are working out our salvation through good works or through right-minded faith; but really neither save us. For if they did, we wouldn’t need a messiah. So, justification really isn’t about us so much as it is about what Jesus has done for humanity.

We are saved by faith and works; the faith and works of Jesus – not us. “The resurrection…fulfills all the divine promises made for us. Furthermore, the risen Christ, the conqueror of sin and death, is the principle of our justification and our resurrection. [His resurrection] procures for us now the grace of filial adoption which is a real share in the life of the only begotten Son. At the end of time he will raise up our bodies.”[1] To be adopted as a child of God is through God’s grace alone.

So, it is God’s grace that saves us. Grace is the “free and undeserved gift that God gives us to respond to our vocation to become his adopted children. As sanctifying grace, God shares his divine life and friendship with us in a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that enables the soul to live with God, to act by his love. As actual grace, God gives us the help to conform our lives to his will. Sacramental grace and special graces (states of life) are gifts of the Holy Spirit to help us live out our Christian vocation.”[2]

Faith and Works, NOT Faith or Works

Note that faith and works are born from grace, “….to respond to our vocation…”, because they are both acts that make up our response.

Faith is “both a gift of God (grace again) and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed. It is this revelation of God which the Church proposes for our belief, and which we profess in the Creed, celebrate in the sacraments, live by right conduct that fulfills the two fold commandment of charity (as specified in the ten commandments), and respond to in or prayer of faith. [Faith is both a virtue given by God and an obligation that flows from God’s commands.]”[3]

Hence, we can see from this definition that faith and works are really synonymous in the Roman Catholic Church. Faith (our belief and the works we do based on that belief) is our positive response to God’s grace.

Communion with God and with his Church

Our positive response to God demonstrates our friendship with God. As believers in Christ, our vocation is to deepen our communion with God; that is, deepen our relationship – our positive response – to God.

Ballroom dancing between a father and his poorly skilled daughter is a good illustration of communion with God. The father beckons the daughter to dance with him (Our Calling). We respond by joining his embrace (faith – action based his revelation.) However, with each step we are called to remain in his embrace and allow him to lead us. If he steps back and we don’t follow or he steps right and we step in the opposite direction, we have less of a degree of communion. We can even walk away from the dance; thus breaking communion completely no matter how often God calls us to the dance.

Our salvation, like learning ballroom dancing, is being worked out by God and our response to his lead (divine revelation). This takes time, experience, and a lot of humility.

In one sense, our salvation was complete upon the cross (once and for all) but in another sense, God is working out our salvation throughout our existence. In one sense, we are saved and in the other sense, we are being saved. It is NOT we are saved OR we are being saved, it is both.

Because being saved really means deepening our communion with God. It is a relationship that is dynamic because we are dynamic. If we are real with ourselves, we know that there are moments which we do not fully – positively – respond to God.

Marriage is the most common institute to illustrate this dynamic of a loving response. We get married on a particular day, but what really matters is not whether we WERE married but whether we ARE deepening our communion with each other day after day.

AND, part of that communion with God is to be in communion with his people. For if we do not love the person we see, how can we say we love God whom we cannot see? (1st John)

A great Christian mystery is that we are one body with Christ – not losing our identity but in full communion with God when we are in the state of heaven. Thus, like Christ, who saves us on the cross; we, both the living and deceased of the Church, partake in helping others in their salvation also. Hence, the concepts about Mary and the Saints aiding us in our journey of faith. Anyone who doesn’t believe this needs to ask the question, “how was my beliefs passed down to me?” Saint Paul, Saint Matthew, and other writers of the NT and gospels help all Christians by the works of their writing. But the writing would be dead if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds and hearts. This is true about Mary also, if Mary hadn’t willfully received God’s son in her womb or raise him in love; than, we would not know the messiah as we do today. So, we are indebted to other faithful members of the Bride of Christ. (Look at your and my relationship. Where would I be today had you not read the Scriptures to me and challenge me to live a faithful life?)

Right Thinking (Beliefs) and Faith are not necessarily the same

Allow me to make a tangent point for a minute: It is not how much we understand that determines our faith. Rather faith is merely our response to God’s grace.

Sometimes, we can get stuck with the idea that someone doesn’t have faith because they don’t have the same theological understanding as we do. From the “view at pew-level”, this is where divisions can take place between denominations. In other words, because we cannot or do not agree about a theological viewpoint must mean that you (the outsider) must not be “saved.” Making our theological understanding necessary for our justification is a mistake because it means that our understanding is more powerful than God’s grace. This is a form of Gnosticism that the Church rejected in the first millennium.

Yet, each Christian is called to “come to terms” with the wider community’s belief of God and what the Church believes to be divinely revealed from God.

Therefore, faith sometimes becomes synonymous with regula fidea which is the wider community’s understanding of our relationship to God. We hear it in questions like, “What is the Christian faith?” and our answer would be the Creed, “We believe….”.

Just Work is not Enough

In the fourth century, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem mentioned that a man went into the river Jordan to be baptized and while the water was pour over him on the outside; he did not respond to God from his heart and because of that the baptism had no affect.

Annulments of Marriage basically indicate the same viewpoint of Saint Cyril. If one goes to the sacrament and their response is not a genuine free-will response to God then the grace that is found in the sacrament doesn’t occur; therefore, the sacrament didn’t take hold despite any good that transpired afterwards. God will not violate our will.

Also, we are told that we place ourselves in a damnable position if we take Holy Communion with the wrong intention.

Conclusion:

So, it’s not necessarily just what we believe nor is it simply religious acts but our positive free-will response to God’s grace that brings us into deeper communion with him.

We are justified by Christ and him alone. Yet our communion rests in our response to him. Heaven is when we are completely and fully in communion with God. Hell is when we are completely and fully out of communion with God. Purgatory is when we are on the journey; yielding to God in some circumstances and clinging to anything other than Jesus to be our ultimate end and our ultimate happiness.

The vocation of all humanity is to grow in communion with the Holy One who created us. God is our beginning – he created us. God is our end – we will go back to him. The question that lies before each of us is whether or not we are friends of God during our journey back to him.

[1] United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Compendium: Catechism of the Catholic Church, (USCCB Publishing, 2006), Question 131. – Henceforth USCCB.
[2] Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Cathechism of the Catholic Church, (Vatican, 1997), page 881 – Henceforth, CCC
[3] CCC, page 879

Inviting God to Renew Our Life

2008-03-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Fifth Sunday of Lent, "A" Cycle
The Lord's Promise, Ez. 37:12-14
Indwelling of Christ's Spirit, Rom. 8:8-11
Raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-45

Reflection

There is an underlying theme throughout each of our readings today: God’s Spirit creates, sustains, and reanimates life within us, both in body and spirit. Apart from God there is no life. Jesus the Christ faithfully witnessed to this in his raising Lazarus from the dead.

It is so simple a principle and yet so very powerful: in God, we have life; without God, we are dead.

I believe a reflective person will note that there is always some part of our existence that is dead or dying. Often, we can sense death in our family relationships, in our vocational life, and sometimes in the life of our communities. I think one of the most powerful experiences of death, outside of physical death, is in the dying of a love relationship – when we wake up one morning and realize we are no longer in love with that person of significance.

And yet, we are told, in God, we have life.

How shall we respond to such a simple message? Take a moment and reflect: do you invite God into your daily life? Into that part of your life which you believe is dying or is dead. At home, at work, at school, at play, at church?

Mary and Martha invited Jesus, invited God, to that which was dying in their life, Lazarus. They had been around Jesus long enough to know he had the power to heal their brother.

So, why do we not invite God into that which is dying in our existence?

Do we lack trust in God’s goodness? As faithful Christians, probably not, but we might misunderstand God’s plan for us. I imagine that the disciples might have been confused by or misinterpret Jesus’ delay of his trip for two days.

The Gospel tells us, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when [Jesus] heard that [Lazarus] was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.” The word, “so”, changes the whole meaning of our Lord’s delay. He delayed because he loved them.

In all of the miracle stories found in the Gospel of John, Jesus never responds to the person’s request immediately, not even to his mother’s request at the wedding feast. What must come first is not JUST compassion, love for our neighbor, but the glory of God. All of Jesus’ actions in the Gospel of John are to the glory of God – to witness God’s power – and through that witness of God’s power, brings new life into creation, into our souls, and into our bodies. God’s glory first and then our need, which is still vitally important to God, comes second.

Here, in the story of Lazarus, the greatest act of love is not just reanimating Lazarus from the dead because of his family’s mourning or even Jesus’ personal grief, but the greatest act of love was to show that God has the very power to do so and invites us to believe and trust in Him.

Sometimes, what gets in the way of us inviting God into our lives, is that we become too attached to what we believe is good for our lives.

The disciples are a witness to this principle. Jesus says, “let us go back to Judea” where Lazarus is buried and the disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you want to go back there?” Here, the disciples, with all good intentions, try to dissuade Jesus from going to the place where God’s glory is to be manifested.

Not all adversity in our life is evil. Sometimes, God calls us to face adversities greater than we believe we can handle, even physical death, because through them God witnesses his power and love to those around us. The Christian martyrs of the Church witness God’s love even in their death. Often times, we fail to aid God in his glory when we break away from a work relationship, a family relationship, or a church relationship because there is too much adversity…too many problems… found in statements like “I don’t get paid enough to deal with that” or “you’re not worth my effort anymore” and, like the disciples, we justify it with, “Oh’, they’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it.”

Saint Paul points to a similar principle that prevents us from inviting God into our lives, that is, sometimes, we just fail to remember to invite God into our lives because we can become too busy satisfying our animalistic desires instead of responding to God’s divine presence placed in our souls through the Word and Sacraments of God.

I believe we all seek greater life, believer and unbeliever alike. But not every path leads to new life. When we search for greater life ONLY through creation – dainty foods, fancy drinks, changing social life, more money, new property, new experiences – we discover that more and more is required to satisfy us. Yet a human life filled with the Spirit of God has fullness of life regardless of the circumstances they find in themselves.

Are we seeking life in that which cannot create or sustain life within us? Have we forgotten that God is the author and giver of life?

I believe, often times, we suffer because we place limitations on God. Martha and Mary wept. Although they believed Jesus could heal their brother when he was alive, although they believed their brother would rise during the resurrection on the last day, they did not expect that God would raise their brother up on the day Jesus arrived in Judea. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, by now there will be a stench.” Jesus had to remind her and all that were surrounding them, “I am the resurrection and the life…” and “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God.”

The end of the story, Jesus prays to the Father. In that prayer, he states, “I know that you always hear me; but because of this crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” Jesus, as part of the Trinity, as light from light, God from God, could have raised Lazarus from the dead without prayer. Yet, here he models for us our need to invite God into our lives in order that God might restore new life within us.

In conclusion, do you invite God into your daily life? As the offering gifts are being brought forward today, what part of your life that is dying or is dead will you bring to God? For if God, through his divine presence, can make living body and living blood from inanimate bread and wine; how much more can God bring new life into our very souls, our very bodies, and our very lives.

Reconciliation

2007-12-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

FIRST READING: ISAIAH 40:1-11
“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; The rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all mankind shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. A voice says, "Cry out!" I answer, "What shall I cry out?" "All mankind is grass, and all their glory like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it. (So then, the people is the grass.) Though the grass withers and the flower wilts, the word of our God stands forever." Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” ~NAB

GOSPEL READING: MATT. 18:12-14
"What is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will be not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." ~ NAB

REFLECTION

The first reading is challenging. Are you comfortable before our Lord, today? Are you happy with the direction of your life and the circumstances that surround you? Or, are you anxious, concerned, and in need of rest? Are you confident in God’s care for you or is there a bit of doubt in the back of your mind?

God speaks to us through his prophet today that God’s will is to give us comfort. Not a comfort of good fortune but the comfort of a compassionate God. One who speaks tenderly to his people, proclaiming that our sad days are gone and our sins are pardoned.

This message breaks forth in the midst of our lives regardless of where we are spiritually, but it is a special joy for those of us that sense we are in a spiritual desert.

How would you describe a spiritual desert? For me, it is when the excitement of life seems dry, lacking purpose, lacking fruit, and lacking growth. It’s that spiritual place where you don’t want to get up in the morning and face the day. The thought that “So much is not right in the world” runs deep within our minds. This is despair and it lurks in the desert. Do you sense it when you look out at the economic conditions of our city, state, and country? When gas prices go up? In the housing market? In the persistence of the war? Or maybe in the illness of a loved one or yourself? Maybe despair has risen up when a loved one moves out of state or in the breakup of a marriage.

Yet, in this the desert, a voice is heard, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight, in the wasteland, a highway for our God!”

Now, some may not be in the desert of despair, but we may experience the wasteland. Other translations call it the wilderness. When I think of a wilderness, I do not think of a desert but an overgrown woods or forest. A forest whose underbrush is so thick that you cannot walk through it easily. There are briars and thorns, poison ivy, and vines that pinch and pull at my clothes and leave me irritated and frustrated because I cannot get to the place I want to be.

When we allow ourselves to follow our passions without control – that is to say, we try to grossly fulfill our animal desires - we end up in places that we thought would bring us more fruit, greater happiness, but only discover that we have become lost and entangled by our desires. This too can lead us to become weary, uncertain by the circumstances we face, and we must halt at each step we take or risk stumbling further into the destruction of happiness in our relationships and in our interior life.

We see this message in the story of the lamb who risked the comfort of the community to search out for greener grass elsewhere. And, having done so, becomes lost.

It is here, in the wilderness, that the prophet tells us to make a highway for the Lord - A highway in our soul. Cut down the underbrush and overgrowth of our passions to make a place for the Lord. For it is by faith, that we know that lasting comfort doesn’t exist within the circumstances of our life or allowing our passions to go wild but our hope of lasting comfort is found in our faith that the presence of God IS our ultimate source of happiness.

So, what is this highway? How best do we cut down the overgrowth? Law itself is the highway that directs us to our proper end. This highway begins with the natural law that is found in all of us – believer and unbeliever. It is our pursuit of greater life, goodness, and power (to serve). But then it is refined by divine law when we discover all of these longings are found completely in God. So, we progress to the old law, that is, the Ten Commandments given to us by Moses and the Israelites which lead us into right relationship with God and with others.

Reflecting on our communal experience, I believe we each had mountain-top moments when we thought “everything is right in the world.” All the circumstances were in our favor and we were comfortable. But then comes the valley, when the circumstances are not right in our world and we are not comfortable. Something happens and we are robbed of our joy. The prophet calls us to live out the Ten Commandments in order to smooth out those mountain and valley experiences of our life.

Now some may say, I am not in the desert and others may say I am not in the wilderness. Some of us might have the blessing of saying, “I’m on the right path.” But, who among us is not lost in some way? Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans, realized that the more he tried to do what was right, he fell back to delight in his animal appetite that lead us back into that underbrush of vice and eventually sin.

Even when we are doing 99% what God has reveal us to do, who can deny that 1% that is still lost within us.

It is here, that the gospel reading, shows us a better path. And not just a path, but a highway. For it describes God’s love for those of us who are in the desert, the wilderness, or in the ditch on the side of the path. Like a good shepherd, God seeks us out and brings us back to himself through Christ in each of our human experiences and conditions. And this is grace, that God would rescue us from the desert of despair or bewildering forest of our passions and led us back to where he resides. It is this grace, this power of the Holy Spirit poured out on us through Jesus found in the sacrament that enables us to escape that black forest of sin. This is the New Law.

God forgives us for our failings and our sins regardless of whether we are young, like a new blade of grass or an old, bent, and broken flower.

I have heard that forgiveness is when we no longer wish the other person to suffer for the evil they have done to us. But reconciliation begins when the bond of friendship has been restored and both parties seek to growth that friendship further through love.

God is faithful to the word he gave his prophet. Through Jesus, he has brought us the comfort of his forgiving presence found in the Sacrament and in our affirming response to his presence through acts of love and virtue.

The prophet tells us, and maybe we are blessed enough to experience this ourselves, that when we are reconciled to God, there is great joy. A joy so overwhelming that it is glorious and presses out all sorrow. We discover God’s presence and our loving response to him fulfills our interior longings and we are comforted despite our external circumstances.

Covenant Love in Marriage

2007-12-14T02:58:00.000-08:00

What does it mean to love your spouse as a reflection of God's love for us? What does it mean to have a covenant kind of love?

[As I share this personal story, please don't interpret my wife as lacking any self esteem. She is a bright, successful career woman, a great and godly mother, and a loving wife. This story compresses twenty years of being together into one short entry.]

When I first met my wife, we were in college and still in our teens. She was (and is) the most gorgeous woman God has ever brought into my life. Early in our relationship, I would tell her that I loved her. With a big beaming smile and a glint in her eye, she would ask me, "Why do you love me?"

At that time in my life, with all the hormones rushing through my body, I would passionately say to her, "because, baby, your hot!"

As time went on, we became married and all through our early years of marriage I would continue to give her this reason upon her asking me why I loved her.

Then, in cooperation with God, we decided to have a child. My wife grew over the few months with her abdomen expanding exponentially, her hair becoming brittle and stiff, dark rings under her eyes, and a certain fluffiness about her whole body.

I remember telling her "I love you" and her reply, "Why?" Of course, I said, "Cause, baby, your hot!" To which she turned into tears. "I'm NOT hot! I'm fat, my hair's falling out, and my face is all puffy. I'm not hot."

I was stunned. Honestly, I really thought she was gorgeous but I saw that she didn't see it that way. I tried to think of other attributes and then remembering that she was the sigma cum Laud student at our college and that she gave the commencement speech, I turned to her and said, "I love you because you are so smart. You were the top student in our college, you gave the commencement speech, and you're the director of a department at your hospital. Baby, you're smart."

Time went on, my wife came home to be with our children. One day, when the kids were 4 and 1 years old, I told my wife, "I love you." Again, to which she replied, "why?"

Having learned my lesson about not saying "'cause you're hot" I said, "Baby, 'cause you are so smart." She burst into tears. "I'm NOT smart! All I do is talk about Sesame Street, colors, numbers, and toys. I'm not smart. My brain as turned to mush since I have been home with the kids." Again, I tried to think of other attributes of her and reflected on how hard of a worker she was around the house, with the kids, and in the yard. "I love you because you're such a hard worker," and I proceeded to tell her all the ways she worked hard.

Then one fateful day, I became paralyzed from the hips down. My L4 and L5 disks in my lower back ruptured and the fragments migrated down my spine, kinking my nerves to my legs and lower abdomen. After my emergency surgery, I laid in bed for four months. I began to think about how worthless I was to my wife these four months because she did all the work while I laid around. It got me thinking about what would happen if my wife was in the same place.

What would happen if she contracted dementia in her old age and she no longer recognized me or knew herself even? What if she had a stroke and was confined to her bed? Would I still love her? Of course! But why?

This lead me to think about why God loves humanity. What attributes of humanity could ever be worthy of a being so infinite, so perfect, so beautiful, so powerful? There was no reason why. There was no attribute of humanity that could move God's love. God loves us because he chooses to love us because he is love.

As I began to think of all the circumstances and situations that could happen in my relationship with my wife, I concluded that I would always love her regardless of any defect. Yes, she's pretty. Yes, she's smart. Yes, she's hard working. Yes, she's faithful and loves me too. All of these attributes of hers fills our relationship with so many blessings and add to my happiness in this life. But, if all of those attributes were to fail (and I would grieve the loss of any one of them), their loss would not diminish my love for her because like God,

I love her because I choose to love her.

This is what it means to have a covenant love. This is the meaning behind our vows of marriage, in sickness and health, in riches and poverty, and in goodness and adversity. We love each other because we choose to love each other - even when the other can no longer love us.

Fidelity and strength are found in this type of love because it dissolves temptation from the outside world. If my love was founded on her beauty alone then what would stop me from falling in love with someone prettier? If it was founded on brilliance, then what would stop me from falling in love with someone smarter?

If our love is founded on the attributes of the other, then they will always be tested against those who have greater or lesser attributes. But if our love is founded upon a firm, unchanging choice of our will, then there can be no temptation that the world could offer to break us away from that vow.

Fruit of the Spirit

2007-12-14T01:31:00.000-08:00

READING: GALATIANS 5:22-23

"In Contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)

REFLECTION:

For such a long time, I interpreted this text to mean that each attribute was independent from the other. I found it difficult to observe each slice of the fruit manifesting in my life. Sometimes, I would experience love. Other times, I would experience joy. Sometimes, I would have victory over self-control. Other times, I would struggle with gentleness. But the fruit always seemed elusive - as if God's Spirit would reveal himself upon me on some days and in some events while other times I struggled against errors and spiritual defects. Consistency of being "in the Spirit" was a constant struggle especially when it seemed that there was so much evil in the world.

Then I came to the understanding that these attributes were not separate or isolated. Rather, the fruit of the Spirit states of being that are sequential and compounding, planted within us by God's Spirit with the first state being love - that is - "desiring what is best for another and making it happen."

By acting in charity (love), joy naturally manifests itself. Has anyone ever truly loved someone and not felt the joy of that love?

Once joy resides in our soul, peace naturally manifests itself afterwards because our longing for peace is satisfied by inner joy.

Peace, then, leads to patience. For when I have peace, I am much more at liberty to be patient with the world around me which might consist of standing in line at a check-out counter, waiting for test results, or waiting for an individual or circumstance to change in my life.

From patience comes kindness and then generosity for when we are at the height of patience we act out in kindness and generosity to the world around us.

Faithfulness, sometimes referred to in this passage as "perseverance," is that ability to be consistent in all of these earlier fruit regardless of the circumstances we find in ourselves. It is not so much the ability to withstand adversity but rather to allow it to be a part of our life. It is not accepting evil (the absence of Good) but being the ministering body of Christ in the midst of that adversity and this leads us to gentleness.

Jesus did not accept the cross with ugliness or hatred, he embraced the cross with gentleness. Gentleness is that ability for our spirit to embrace our world but not be subject to it. The world doesn't move us as it once did, we are not compelled by fear or desire. That which once tempted us to vice or sin no longer has a grasp upon us. And, if vice or sin, fear or desire, no longer have a grasp upon our very being, then we naturally possess self-control.

No longer do we need to struggle with self-control over doing the right thing. We no longer "do" Christianity to try to manifest God's Spirit within us. Rather, we become Christ-like. It is a question of "being" part of the body of Christ, not "doing" Christianity. This state of "being" begins with love. Love is what unites us with God. His love for us and our reciprocation of that love back to him. We replace our practices of love - that is, our trying to do individual and sometimes isolating acts of love (e.g. I chose to love my wife but not the evil person in my life) - and become love itself which is indiscriminatory. Once we manifest this state of being, the fruit of the Spirit naturally manifest themselves.

In the end, it is not what we do; rather, there is only one thing we need to be and that is love. If we fail at obtaining the other fruit, we need not be discouraged. For all we need to "do" is continue to pray on, meditate on, and practice "love." God is in the process of transforming us into his likeness. God will lead us into being love by his grace.