Tricked By God

"You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped..."  (Jeremiah 20:7)

There are days where it feels that we are the only Christians on the face of the earth.  We feel that we have given so much to our faith and to our God and end up with frustration, bewilderment, and yes, sometimes even anger at God.  Nobody listens.  It is lonely being a Catholic out in the world.  It is very easy in here within the sanctuary of our church, but out there it's a different story.  That is why the first reading and the plight of Jeremiah touches us so deeply.  We all have had a crisis of faith where we look up to the heavens and wonder where God is.  Jeremiah was at his wits end when he accuses God of tricking him into this life of prophecy which made him the object of laughter:  "All the day I am an object of laughter;  everyone mocks me (v. 8)."  We have felt this way in the past.  We give of ourselves to God and to his service, and we realize that this life is not easy.

The disciples must have realized this as well in today's Gospel.  In a continuation of last week's gospel, the disciples go from hearing Peter's confession about who Jesus really is to hearing that Jesus had to suffer and die.  Peter wants none of this and goes from being called "the Rock" a few verses earlier to being called Satan because he is thinking like human beings do and not thinking like God.  (Talk about being humbled quickly after being given the keys to the Kingdom.)  The disciples must have thought that life with Jesus was going to be easy.  They could not see the martyrdom that each of them, save one, would eventually endure for the sake of the Kingdom.  They did not realize that following Christ involves taking up our cross, denying ourselves and following him.  It entails laying down our life for our God and our faith.

Of course, this is not easy, but there are moments of triumph and glory along the way.  The disciples received in last week's Gospel an incredible truth that had to be shared:  Jesus is the Messiah!  When they became witnesses of the resurrection, they had to shout it from the rooftops.  Yes, it landed them in prison, but they joyfully accepted the challenges of proclaiming the Gospel.  Do we embrace this challenge with the same joy?  Sure we may complain at times like Jeremiah, but even in his lament, the prophet resigns himself to the fact that he cannot help but speak the truth even if he feels like never uttering the name of God again.  There is some beautiful imagery here at the end of the first reading:  "I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more.  But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it."  We cannot hold the beauties of our faith in our hearts because they are meant to be shared.  Even though we may be inclined to push God away in moments of trial, we constantly return to Him because our hearts long for him.  Today, if it weren't a Sunday, we would be celebrating the feast of St. Augustine who famously said on the very first page of his Confessions:  "our heart is restless, until it rests in Thee."  

So yes, there will be days when we will feel like Jeremiah, duped or tricked by God, but He has a plan for us.  It may feel lonely at times to live this life of faith, but Pope Benedict XVI assured a million and a half young people in Madrid last week that we are not alone in this journey of faith.  There are brothers and sisters sitting around you that will help you endure the moments of trails and rejoice with you in the moments of triumph.  Jeremiah goes on to say later on in the same chapter that God will be his champion.  He will never abandon us.  He knows the way.  All we have to do is trust in His will, lay down our lives, take up our cross, and follow Him.

The Question

"But who do you say that I am?"  (Mathew 16:15)

As a Christian, we must ask ourselves this question every day.  Who is Jesus?  Our answers evolve, expand, and deepen as we get to know our Lord.  There is a reason why we must daily ask ourselves this question that Jesus asked his disciples.  If our understanding of Jesus and our relationship with him does not evolve, then there is the danger of falling into a spiritual rut or into routine.  Not long ago, my confessor told me, “Beware routine.”  We cannot grow deeper in love with Jesus by just going through the motions.  So daily, this poor priest, kneels before the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus himself, and I ask:  Who is this Jesus?

This morning before any of us woke up, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Closing Mass of World Youth Day in Madrid with over a million young people.  He took the same path that I chose to take with my homily, but he is the Holy Father so I’ll let him do the talking:

Dear young people, today Christ is asking you the same question which he asked the Apostles: “Who do you say that I am?”  Respond to him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own.  Say to him: “Jesus, I know that you are the Son of God, who have given your life for me.  I want to follow you faithfully and to be led by your word.  You know me and you love me.  I place my trust in you and I put my whole life into your hands.  I want you to be the power that strengthens me and the joy which never leaves me”.

In order to respond to Christ in this manner we need faith and lots of it.  In order to “put my whole life into your hands” we need to trust in Jesus who is inviting us into a deeper relationship with him.  The Pope said that he was moved by the great gathering of young people before him.  Every time I stand up here to celebrate Mass with so many young people, I am moved as well.  I see before me young men and women who united in their faith can transform the world.  Notice that I said united because we cannot do what God wants us to do on our own and the Pope echoed that this morning:

We cannot follow Jesus on our own.  Anyone who would be tempted to do so “on his own”, or to approach the life of faith with that kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.

Too many times we are seduced by individualistic and secular mindsets that the world leads us to.  We come to know Jesus as a community of faith, particularly here in the Breaking of the Bread.  We must get to know Jesus in communion with the Church.  We must resist the temptation of talking to God “my way” or “confessing directly to God” or any of the other individualistic ways we sometimes approach spirituality.  Jesus lived in a community, was strengthened by a community, and shared his Last Supper with a community.  As a priest, I draw strength not only from God but from all of you.  Yes, we must all individually answer the question, “who is Jesus?” but we do so in communion with the Church, and when we finally answer this question, the Holy Father tells us that we must share the Answer:

Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference.  We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others.  So do not keep Christ to yourselves!  Share with others the joy of your faith.

As we begin a new school year this week, I invite you to continue asking yourself this question.  I tell my students time and time again, we cannot get to the Answer unless we ask the question.  Every morning this week, ask who Jesus is?  Deepen your faith.  Deepen your relationship with him.  And as the Pope implored the young people in Madrid:  “Do no keep Christ to yourselves!”  Share this Jesus and share your youthful joy with the world.

Prejudice and Persistence (8-18-08)

Just got back to the parish this evening.  Did not preach today, so here's my homily for today's readings from August 18, 2008.  God bless, Father Manny

"Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters."   (Matthew 15:27)

                       

The opening prayer of the mass always sets the tone for the liturgy and never more so than today.  The prayer starts off with the priest saying, "Let us pray with humility and persistence."  Then it proceeds to affirm that God's "care extends beyond the boundaries of race and nation.  May the walls, which prejudice raises between us, crumble beneath the shadow of your outstretched arm."  This goes to the heart of what today's gospel is about:  persistence overcoming prejudice.  Jesus initially brushes off the plea of the Canaanite woman to cure her daughter.  She approaches him with humility and persistence.  It was common for the Jewish people in the time of Jesus to refer to foreigners as dogs or even swine.  The disciples are insisting that Jesus dismiss the woman as if she were an annoying fly that keeps pestering them.  But her insistence and her faith ultimately gets her child healed.  She probably knew the fragile and hostile dynamic between the Israelites and the Canaanites all too well, so she just wants the leftovers hoping that will be enough to cure her daughter.  This is a teaching moment for Jesus as he underscores the limitations of his ministry to just the Israelites and reaches out to others just as St. Paul proclaims in the second reading calling himself an apostle to the Gentiles.  Paul seeks to bring the saving message of Christ to all peoples.  The gospel is filled with foreigners who recognize who Jesus truly is:  the Samaritan Woman, the Roman Centurion, the Canaanite woman in today's gospel, and at the foot of the cross, the centurion who testifies, "Truly, this was the Son of God."  (Matthew 27:54)

It must have been hard for the disciples to witness this interaction between Jesus and this woman because after all, weren't they the privileged ones?  Weren't they the ones that were supposed to hold "exclusive rights" to all the blessings that come from God?  Yet it is the dogs and the swine that recognize Jesus as the Christ and testify that he was the Son of God.  They were doing more to help spread the Good News than the Israelites.  Such it is in our time when members of other denominations are doing more to spread the Gospel than we are.  If you turn on your T.V. on Sunday morning, you see countless Christian preachers proclaiming God's word, not one of them Catholic.  I did a little research thanks to TV Guide and on Sunday morning you can hear the word of God preached on free TV on 16 different programs between 6am and 12:00 p.m.  The only Catholic program is the Mass is at 6:30 am on Spanish TV and nowhere to be found on English TV unless you have EWTN because our English Mass has been relegated to the Internet.  [Since this was first written, we have brought the English Mass back to free TV at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings.] We've surrendered the TV airwaves to other denominations.  So I do feel a bit like the disciples in the gospel, I thank God that other denominations are preaching Christ, but, I'll admit it, am a little jealous that the Catholic message is not being promoted with the same fervor as say one Christian church in Broward which had three shows on this morning.  Why don't Catholics have the same fervor that these Christians brothers and sisters have in promoting the Word of God on TV?  It's not just about spreading the Word in the media.  We build up so many walls around us that it is difficult for us to be true heralds of the gospel.  What are we doing to tear down the walls that separate us?  What are we doing to bring others to the table?  My fear is that if we don't do anything to spread the Good News, we're going to be the ones on the outside looking in hoping and praying for the scraps that fall off the Master's table.

Chocolate Chip Cookies Always Get Me in Trouble (8-11-08)

Not preaching the next two weekends, so went back into the archive and found this from August 11, 2008.  I wrote this while I was Vocations Director and living at the seminary:

"But when [Peter] saw how strong the wind was he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:30-31)"

The parishioners of my first parish know that I have an affinity for homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I remember getting angry when my pastor would eat the last one of a batch someone had made for me us even though he didn't have much of a sweet tooth.  Yesterday, when I went over for dinner at the seminary, I knew there were some cookies that were baked on Friday stored away in the fridge.  Now since its a big kitchen, we have a walk-in fridge that is huge.  I walked in to get the tray of cookies and the big refrigerator door closed behind me.  I really didn't pay much attention to the door because my hungry eyes were fixed on the cookies.  When I got finally had the cookies in my hand, I turned to walk out and reached for the emergency hatch to let me out, except that...it was broken.  I kept jigglying it and turning it over and over and over again, but the door wouldn't open.  I started banging on the door and started thinking that the cook was frying my dinner some 20-25 feet from the door and the seminarians were all the way in the dining room.  I banged on the door again, and then reached into my pocket to get my cell phone which I started to fumble with my hand.  All of the sudden the door opened and the cook found me with my cell phone in one hand and two chocolate chip cookies in the other.  "Father," he said, "you're pale!"  I started going on and on about the latch being broken and he started laughing and said, "Father, the latch isn't broken.  If you wanted to open the door, all you had to do was push."  Doh!

It was that simple!  And it was simple for Peter.  If he wanted to walk on water, all he had to do was keep his eyes fixed on the Lord and ignore the wind and the waves around him.  Except he couldn't.  Not many of us can.  We know the Lord is there.  We know he is going to take care of us, but the storms in our lives distract us from keeping our eyes fixed on him.  I made light of some cookies that got this greedy little priest in trouble, but what distracts us that gets us in trouble?  What distracts us that prompts us to sink in fear like Peter?  Yet despite our fears, the Lord continues to assure us, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid. (Matthew 14:27)"  Again, easier said than done because whenever our faith is tested we tend to sink more often than allowing ourselves to be embraced by the caring presence of our God.  Yet, he is there.  We may not see him, we may ignore him, we may even look the other way to focus on the storms and the sitcom-ish predicaments we get ourselves into, but we must never doubt that when the storms in our lives die down, the Lord will be right there with us to remind us that he has never left our side. 

Millie

"The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs."  (Psalm 146:6)

Last Thursday was one of those days.  Back and forth to the hospital.  Six different sick calls.  People pulling me in different directions.  I didn't mind.  I live for days like this.  But as the day went on, it began to take it's toll.  Each sick call was more heart breaking than the one before.  I was finishing up at the hospital late in the day when I went to visit one more patient, except she wasn't there.  There was a little old lady out for a stroll with her walker outside the room, and I asked her if she was the patient I was looking for.  She said with a thick Polish accent that the lady I was looking for had been taken downstairs for some tests, so I stopped at the nurses station to catch my breath and to go over my list of patients while this little old lady stood in front of me.  "You're a father?"  She asked as I looked down at perfectly black clergy suit.  "Yes, I am."  I smiled back at her.  "If you're a father, then you should know what this is," and she pointed to her arms.  At first, I thought she was pointing to her medical bracelet, so I leaned forward and caught I glimpse.  "It's your medical bracelet," I said.  "It says your name is Millie."  "No, no," she responded with frustration, "what is this?!?!"  She pointed to some markings on the skin near her left elbow.  They were faded blue, and at first I thought of something but immediately put it out of my head.   It looked like a faded tattoo, but I didn't want to say that because they also looked like veins.  I'm not a skin expert, so I didn't want to guess incorrectly because she was growing increasingly frustrated.  "I don't know what that is," I answered sheepishly.  "You a father!  And you don't know what this is!"  She got very agitated as I continued to shrug my shoulders.  "This is problem if a father doesn't know what this is!  This is why everyone forgets!"  She kept pointing to her markings, "This is from Holocaust!"  My heart sank into my stomach.  I had seen those markings before.  I tried to find an appropriate excuse for my ignorance, and I told her that I should have known this because I had met Holocaust survivors before.  At this point the entire hospital seemed like it didn't exist and that it was just Millie and I in that hallway.  I engaged her in conversation and asked her where she got those markings:  "The very worst of all--Auschwitz!"  Probably the most evil word in the English language.  She went on to tell me that she was the only one to survive from her family.  She lost her mother and father there.  And now she didn't have anyone to visit her.  We spoke for about 20 minutes and it seems, I hope, that she slowly started to take a liking to me.  I tried to speak to her about hope and overcoming adversity.  At the end, she finally told me, "you nice priest."  And she let me go on my way.  But for the rest of the evening I could not forget about my encounter with Millie.  Up until the moment I met her, I had been complaining about how hectic and exhausting my day had been, but then I met someone who dealt with and to a certain extent was still dealing with great adversity.  My petty problems seemed trivial.  Here was a woman who after 66 years was still crying out to God hungering and thirsting for justice.  Yet, she overcame probably the darkest hour in the history of humanity and still managed to make it to Synagogue to pray to God for peace.

It doesn't matter how many obstacles life throws at us.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God as St. Paul tells us in today's second reading.  He invites those who are thirsty and those who are hungry to come to him.  This is exactly what I told Millie when I took my leave of her.  I gave her a kiss on the forehead and asked her to pray for me.  "I will," she answered, "and you pray for peace."  In the face of the greatest problems the world can throw at us, we can always turn to God.  As we hear in today's responsorial psalm, he feeds us and he answers all our needs.  

Each of us walked into this church today with our own problems, burdens, anxieties, and we can either let them become obstacles that overwhelm us, or we can place them here at this altar at the feet of the Lord.  Our God provides for us in our moment of need.  He fed the hungry people in today's gospel, and he stands ready to feed each of us as we gather around this altar.  The gospel says that the five thousand ate and were satisfied.  They were satisfied because they left everything behind to follow Jesus into a deserted place.  They did not bring their problems with them.  They went in search of the living God and were fed by his mighty hand.  Too often we let life's obstacles stand in the way of our relationship with Christ, and we think that maybe somehow God has abandoned us.  This is something Millie admitted to me.  But it is precisely in those dark moments that we must turn to Romans 8:38-39:  "For I am convinced, that neither death,nor life, nor angel, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Like those markings are permanently tattooed on Millie's left elbow, this verse must be permanently tattooed in our hearts so that we may never feel discouraged, stressed out, or abandoned.  Our God is a loving and generous God.  Today he invites us to be fed at this table, but we must place our burdens at his feet and allow him to take care of us.  It is only then the we can freely eat and be totally satisfied.  It sometimes takes the Millie's of the world to bring proper perspective to the problems we carry with us and to remind us of how much God truly loves us.  I prayed for her that night, and still can't get this little old lady of our my head.  A living reminder of God's might hand.  A reminder that the hand of the Lord does feed his people, and he indeed answers all our needs.

Seeking Real Treasure

"The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night.  God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” (1 Kings 3:5)

How do we use the gifts that God has given us?  Way back in 1984, there was a magnificent film released about the life of Mozart called Amadeus.  However, the film was told from the point of view of another musical composer, Antonio Salieri, who was angry at God for giving Mozart who is portrayed as a vulgar buffoon such extraordinary musical gifts.  Salieri slaved over each note of his compositions and longed for God to give him the same gifts he gave Mozart so that he could use them to write divine music, but instead Mozart would effortlessly compose great symphonies which would only fuel the envy inside Salieri's heart.  The movie is a wonderful example of how each of us are given gifts from above and how we use them.  In the opening prayer today, we ask that we may use the gifts that God has given us with wisdom.  We sometimes forget that God has endowed each of us with great gifts.  Now some, like Mozart, are blessed more than others, yet we are called to discern God's will in our lives and place them at the service of his Kingdom.  Today we come to the Eucharist to ask the Lord to make us aware of the many blessings and gifts that he has given us and how we use them wisely.

In the first reading, God appears to Solomon and basically says, "Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you."  Solomon even in his youth does not ask for riches or more power, but rather because he recognizes the limitations of his youth, he responds to the Lord by saying, "Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong (1 King 3:9)."  Solomon just wanted the wisdom to discern right from wrong and to know God's will.  Why?  Because he knew that happiness resides in doing the will of God and that joy is worth more than anything the world has to offer.

Unfortunately, too often we go looking for happiness in a world that cannot possibly bring us joy.  We seek solace in vices and things that only draw us further away from God's divine love.  Yet when we find the treasure that Jesus speaks of in today's gospel, we don't ever want to let it go.  The real treasure of knowing how much God loves us, of knowing how much he forgives us, of knowing what awaits us in heaven, is worth more than the greatest of riches.  As the Psalmist says today, "For I love your command more than gold (Psalm 119:127)."  But why do we go against the Lord's commands and his perfect will when he knows what is best for us?  Why do we seek treasures in other places when the greatest of treasures is right here on this altar?  Here we realize how much we are loved and how much God has blessed us.  Here we realize that we are His children called to take our gifts and do the extraordinary out in the world.  Perhaps the story of Mozart is a cautionary tale, at least from the movie's point of view, because it seems that he never appreciated the immense gift that God had given to him and he died young, penniless, consumed by the  world, and rather unaware of how much God loved him (sound familiar? #club27).  There are so many gifted people in our world with divine talents that could be used for good and that could bring them great joy and peace, but sadly they go looking for happiness in all the wrong places.  May we always be aware of His love and of the many blessings he bestows on us.  Solomon was aware of this which is why he only sought the wisdom to know what was right in the eyes of God so that he could always please Him.  Which brings us to two final questions:  If God approached you like Solomon ready to give you anything you wanted, what would you ask for?  And would you place that divine gift at the service of his Kingdom?

In His Hands

"The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness..."  (Romans 8:26)


There was a simple little song we used to sing when we were kids called: "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands."  Believe it or not, I used to sing this in my public elementary school.  As Christians, we sometimes fail to remember that this is wholeheartedly true. Even today’s psalm response reminds us the Lord is indeed good and merciful.  However, we get discouraged when we see so much despair, injustice, and evil in the world.  Yet Jesus reminds us in today's gospel that the wheat and the weeds grow side by side.  The sun rises and sets on both good and evil.  People sometimes ask: "Why is there so much evil in the world?" It's as if they perceive the weeds being far taller than the wheat. 

As a society, we tend to focus more on the negative than on the positive.  Bad news sells papers, leads TV news, and dominates the headlines under the false presumption that it sells better than good news.  Rare is the time when you see inspirational stories on the front page.  The world does not see the good work that we do because the weeds apparently do obscure the wheat.  Society focuses and, I dare say, even relishes on the negative.  Sometimes the negative that the media chooses to focus on distracts us from true problems and injustices around he world.  Look at all the sensationalistic news we've been fed the last few weeks which has not let us notice a  problem the Pope pointed out this morning: a severe famine in the horn of Africa.  This afternoon the Japanese women's soccer team will play our USA girls in the World Cup Final despite the ongoing aftermath of the horrible earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis that hit their country in March. When was the last time you heard anything about the disaster in Japan?  Or about the victims of all the tornadoes and floods in the South and the Midwest this past spring?  These are things that even though they don’t lift our spirits warrant our attention, but the cameras left once the waters had receded and the earth stopped shaking to focus on what celebrities we are building up or tearing down. 

The fact is that there is much good happening in the world.  All these disasters while terrible bring out the best in humanity.  We don't have to look so far.  I've been here for 17 days and every day I discover a new ministry here at St. Gregory that is helping the poor, the sick, the marginalized, and those who have no voice.  This is the wheat that is growing in our midst, and we will not let the weeds obscure the good work that we are doing.  Yes, there is evil and tragedy in the world, but we have to firmly believe that God holds us in his hands and is taking care of us. 

We may sometimes feel that He has turned our back on us because the weeds start to obscure our sight as well.  When we are overwhelmed by the problems that life throws at us we may feel that prayer has no purpose or that we cannot possibly bring ourselves to pray because the world has dragged us down into the depths of despair.  This is where today's second reading comes in.  St. Paul tells us that "the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness" and that the Spirit intercedes for us.  It is the Holy Spirit that lifts us up and holds us up praying for us when we cannot pray.  We cannot allow the weeds among us to keep us from seeing how great our God is, and far worse, we cannot turn into weeds ourselves.  We have to firmly trust in God that he will deliver us from whatever trial we may be facing and not let the world get the best of us.  We belong to him, and he is our shelter and our rock.  I guess we have to trust God like a young five year old who with great faith sings, "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands."

God truly does hold us in his hands, and his radiant face shines on the wheat that is growing around us even if it is growing among weeds.  Jesus reminds us that on the last day the wheat will join him while the weeds will be burned.  May we as Catholics continue to rely on our loving God who holds us so very tight in his hands, and may the wheat we produce grow taller than any weed around us so that the world may see the wondrous works that we are doing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Four Corners: Called Out By God

"So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it."  (Isaiah 55:11)

 

When I was a little kid in grade school, we would play a game called Four Corners.  Now if you recall, the object of the game is to pick a corner of the room, a person would call out one of those corners, and if that person called out your corner, you would be out.  The last person standing would win.  The other day when I was praying over these readings, I don't know why this game came to mind.  I mean I even had to look up the rules, simple as they are, on Google because I had forgotten them.  I guess the reason why this game came to me was because of the number four.  We have four different types of soil presented to us in today's gospel, and we each fall under one of those categories.  But upon further meditation I realized that much like the game, we are constantly trying to out run God who is seeking us out, calling out our names, and trying to bring us close to Him.  The first reading tells us that the word from his mouth shall do his will, yet we still try to circumvent God's intentions and fail to be the good soil that is receptive to the seed of God's word.

 

As we seek to be receptive God's word, let us go deeper into the words of Christ in today's gospel:

 

1)  The first type of soil our Lord mentions isn't really soil at all.  It is the path where seeds will be snatched up.  Our Lord tells us that this is the person that does not understand the word of God and the evil one comes and snatches up the seed placed in our hearts.  As Catholics, we need to be more proactive in understanding our faith.  There's a famous saying in Spanish that says "an ignorant Catholic is a future Protestant" (un católico ignorante es un futuro protestante).  Nothing against our Protestant brothers and sisters, but if we truly understood the beauties of our Catholic faith, if we fell in love with the mystery of the Eucharist, if we understood the graces that flow from the sacraments, we would not turn our backs on God or the Church when things don't break our way.

 

2)  The second type of soil is rocky ground.  This is someone who receives the word with great joy, but since it is rocky ground there is little soil and that seed can't take root.  So at the first sign of trouble that joy disappears and so does the person.  I call this "The Emmaus Syndrome."  (Yup, pay attention Emmaus brothers and sister, I'm about to pick on you.)  In our Church, of which I am a part of, we have many retreats, like Emmaus, which lift the souls of the people who attend and fill them with great joy.  Unfortunately, as a Church, we do a lousy job of nuturing that joy after the retreat.  The person's joy cannot root itself firmly on the ground, and at the first sign of tribulation, that person feels abandoned and just leaves.  We have to nurture the seeds we plant, but more importantly, we must till the soil we plant them on or else we are just throwing the seeds on rocky ground.  If you're a diehard Emmaus person, and I offended you...good!  It means I struck a nerve, and I point the finger at myself as well.  Emmaus and other retreats have done a phenomenal job of bringing people to the risen Christ.  We just have to keep them there.

 

3)  The third type of soil is among the thorns.   This is the person who receives the word but is lured away and the word is choked of by the things of this world.  I've been very busy since I arrived at St. Gregory ten days ago.  But in my moments of free time, I've been obsessed with getting our internet and cable working in the rectory.  I quickly realized the first nights that I was here with none of these worldly luxuries that it was preventing me from time better spent on prayer.  The things of the world aren't bad, but they are material, transitory, and must be used in a balanced way.  Yes, I got the cable and internet up and running this past Friday, but have found that I am using them less.  I cannot bear fruit as a priest if I am consumed by the things of this world, and this applies to all of us who are called, as the first reading tells us, to take the word we have received and return it to God with interest so to speak.

 

4)  Finally, we have the rich soil.  Not much to explain here.  This is what we aspire to in order to produce fruit for our Lord.  A good farmer prepares his soil before he plants his seeds.  He makes sure there are no rocks, thorns, and are away from the path.  What do we have to till away from our lives in order to be rich soil? 

 

Just like in the game Four Corners, God is calling us out today.  He wants us to be rich soil so that we can be receptive to his word and bear the fruit that he desires.  Yet we run from him like in the game and choose not to be better informed about our faith or go deeper so that it can take root or get distracted by the things of this earth.  Ultimately, we are responsible for our soil.  At the end of the Four Corners game, there is only one person left with the person who is calling out.  One day that will be you and God.  What fruit will you present him with the seed he has planted in your heart?

Hidden Things

"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike (Matthew 11:25)."

 

In today gospel, Jesus talks to us about "hidden things."  These are the great mysteries of God that are revealed to the childlike and are hidden from the wise and the learned because thewise of the world could not possibly understand the ways of God.  God is a mystery, and his ways are mysterious.  That is why a child is more apt to follow the simple ways of God than an adult who thinks they know better and is resistant to any type of change or promptings of the Spirit.  The mysterious ways of God, these "hidden things", have been heavily on my mind as I have been preparing to come here to St. Gregory.  This is a time of transition for all of us.  I'm starting in a new parish, and all of you have just said farewell to a beloved pastor and an associate.  So you get two new priests, and you're probably wondering what they will be like and what they will do.  This transition really hit home to me yesterday when I was a greting a parishioner before Mass at the front door.  She comes up to me with tears in her eyes and quite sad, and she tells me, "Don't worry Father it's not your fault."  (Here I was thinking that I had done something terribly wrong barely 24 hours into my new assignment.)  She continues, "I'm crying because last week it was Monsignor Fogarty who was greeting me at the door as he had done for the last 20 years, and I just realized how much I'm going to miss him."  I comforted her and told her things were going to be ok, but I began to ponder this moment that we are all going through together.  Change is difficult, but it is part of life and sometimes a necessary part of life.  The Holy Spirit is constantly calling us to change so that we can draw closer to God.  These changes are mysterious at times.  We don't know what God has in store for us as we begin this new time together, but what we do know is that God is with us and that his ways are perfect.  That is why Jesus thanks his Father, as we should today, for this opportunity that we have to grow and to change together for the better as we throw ourselves into the great unknown trusting that God will guide us.

 

Speaking of change, this weekend we celebrate Independence Day.   Because my grandparents and parents instilled in me a great love for this country where we have freedoms that they did not enjoy in their homeland, every 4th of July I read the Declaration of Independence.  It's probably one of the ten greatest documents ever written.  When our founding fathers put their signatures to this bold declaration, they were thrusting themselves and their countrymen into a great unknown.  They embraced change, but they did so relying on help from above:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 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."  Later on in this great document they would appeal to their "Supreme Judge" and then at the end they would say:  "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."  With the great unknown before them, they had to rely on God and his protection for this new country they were founding.  They declared their independence from King George but not from the King of Kings.  Our country which has always been marked by great moments of change has lost its way as it has removed God from the national consciousness.  We have declared our independece from everything and everyone and ceased to be dependant on God.   Yet our dollar bill, which can be the source of so much evil, has it plainly spelled out on the back:  "In God We Trust."  But do we really?  Both as a nation and as parishioners of this parish, do we truly put our trust in him?  As a nation, we need to get back to trusting God and relying on him as our forefathers did 235 years ago.  As a parish going through change, we have to trust that God's ways are indeed perfect and that whatever lies before us will only bring us joy and peace and ultimately closer to him.

 

God's ways are indeed mysterious.  Our founding fathers probably did not envision what a powerful document they drafted and how it would shape a nation, that while flawed, is still a great nation.  And God's ways have brought us here to this moment in the life of St. Gregory the Great Parish where two new priests begin their ministry to share the love of Christ with all of you.  Only God knows why he has brought me here and why our paths have come together.  And together we throw ourselves into the arms of our Lord so that we may continue to grow in holiness.  I know from experience that I have been incredibly blessed at each of the parishes where I have been.  I am here simply to serve:  to share the joy that I have in my heart, to share the enthusiasm that comes with knowing this Jesus, and to share with you every Sunday this Word and this Bread from Heaven that keeps us eternally young.  All I ask from you, aside from your prayers, is that you take what you receive here at this altar and that you share it with the world.  Take this Jesus to your homes, to your work, to your schools.  These hidden things that Jesus talks about today have been revealed to us, and they should not be hidden.  They need to be shared!  This morning at the end of Mass, the deacon, God bless him, got up at the end to welcome me, and said he wanted to challenge me with three simple words:  "Wake us up."  I was moved by those words, and I believe that as a nation and as Catholics we all need to wake up.  It is time that world discovers through us how great our God is.  So, again, all I ask of you, is that you take this message, this presence, this Jesus that I have shared with you to a world and a nation that desperately needs it.  My friends, be bold.  Be courageous.  Be Catholic!

My First Day

There were just six people.  At the end of a long day of moving from one parish to another, I wanted to do the most important thing I do as a priest:  celebrate Mass.  It was that more special today since It was the Feast of the Sacred Heart.  
So a little after 7pm under a light rain, I walked over to the Church where the deacon was doing Benediction, and I asked the small group if they wanted to stay for Mass.  So six of them joined their new priest as I slowly and devoutly read the readings and shared the gift of eternal life.  And as I read the second reading, tears welled up in my eyes as I proclaimed these words that I've held close to my heart the last three years:  "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us...(1 John 4:10)"  If we could only wrap our minds and hearts around the depths of his love!  This is what today's Feast of the Sacred Heart is all about: a God who loves us so much that he gave his only Son whose heart overflows with boundless love for us.  And today I felt that love as I was welcomed to my new parish.  This is where I will speak of this love.  This is where I will share this love.  May the Sacred Heart of Our Lord always guide us.  "Heart of Jesus, king and center of all hearts, have mercy on us." (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus)