Did Jesus Make You Angry?

 "...complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing." (Phil 2:2)

This morning I spent the first three Masses standing outside the Church doors greeting the people as they came in for Mass and as they exited.  Since there was a blood drive being held in the parish today, there were two volunteers inviting parishioners as they left if they would give blood.  The volunteers were shocked by the cold reaction of our people as they were leaving Mass.  Some people wouldn’t even acknowledge them or simply gave them a mean face for even bothering them.  Now mind you, some of these parishioners were walking out of Mass during communion which prompted me to wonder and almost ask one of them like a little child would:  “Did Jesus make you angry or something?”  I’ll return to this group of people in a bit.

This week’s readings pick up where last week’s readings left off.  We continue to see God favoring those who truly repent for past bad decisions over those who seemingly live virtuous lives but have gotten lazy and stop producing fruit for God’s kingdom.

We have two group of people referenced in today’s gospels:  the religious leaders of Israel and then the tax collectors and prostitutes.  The religious leaders represent the son who said yes to his father but did not go into the vineyard to work.  The tax collectors and prostitutes represent the son who initially tells his father that he would not got out to work in the vineyard but eventually does.  The son who goes into the vineyard will produce fruit from his labor.  The son that does not go into the vineyard is paying lip service to his father and produces no fruit.  What side do we fall under?

Last week, I made an aside remark during my homily that I never wrote down.  I made the analogy that these two groups of people reminds me of Catholics who come to Mass only on Easter and Christmas versus those of us who are here every week.  Those that come only a couple of times a year have a place at this table no matter how much they frustrate us for taking our parking spaces and seats because they may be moved to join us more frequently at this table where they belong.  Those of us who come weekly run the danger of falling into routine, of becoming stale, and not producing any fruit except for clocking in and clocking out at Mass for an hour a week.  I said it a few weeks ago:  we have to be careful not to fall into this routine.  Every time we come to Mass should be an experience all its own.  We must be open to the promptings of the Spirit that lead us to change our lives.  Yes, we say the same prayers and sing the same songs, but the readings are different and we should experience Jesus in a totally different way that challenges us to do more for the building up of his kingdom.  We must approach the Eucharist with a sense of wonder like someone who is approaching this sacrament for the first time or maybe even a couple of times a year. We should walk out with joy in our hearts because we have just experienced something heavenly.  The sinners of Jesus’ time understood that they had experienced the divine.  The religious establishment did not. 

I wonder if some of us fall under the title of “religious establishment.”  Most of us come to Mass every Sunday, but we want to do it on our own terms.  We want to arrive at a certain time, leave at a certain time, sit in the same pew, and not be bothered by anything going on around us.  We start to get very good at paying lip service to God, priests included, and have nothing to show for after Mass except that we were sitting in a pew for an hour once a week.   We don’t want to be bothered by the people around us who are trying to draw us in to the life of the Church yet we profess to be part of the Body of Christ.  St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we must be of the same mind and the same love, but some of us come to Mass as if we were the only people in the church.

We are in danger of becoming the Pharisees of our time if we continue to simply pay lip service to God and not produce fruit for his vineyard.  Every Sunday I stand outside and see so many people dash out of the church as if it was on fire with a sour look on their face.  It causes anyone to wonder if they truly experienced the living God during the celebration they supposedly took part in.  We cannot and should not approach the Mass as an obligation or something we simply do out of habit or routine because we close ourselves off from being awed by the living God that makes himself present in the Breaking of the Bread. That is why Jesus favored those who despite being sinners embraced his message because it’s never too late in God’s eyes to set things right, and the sinners rejoiced that were even acknowledged by God let alone forgiven. That is why we must empty ourselves as Christ did and become humble when we come to this table so that we may be open to whatever He has in store for us.  We must come to Mass with a total sense of wonder much like a child would. 

Who knows?  Maybe one day I may be standing outside the church with a child, and trust me they pick up on everything, and that child may actually be bold enough to ask those grumpy people coming out of Mass:  “Did Jesus make you angry?”

A God Who Constantly Surprises Us

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways.”  (Isaiah 55:8)

Sometimes we have to step back to see God tapping us on the shoulder and reminding us that he’s there:

-A little girl who I barely know is walking in a perfectly straight line with her Kindergarten class while I walk in the other direction.  She suddenly breaks the line to give me a hug.

-A woman approaches a brother priest in a New York subway last week on the way to Ground Zero to tell him how she ran out of the Twin Towers on 9/11, sought refuge in a church, saw the firefighters lay their fallen chaplain by the altar, and rediscovered her faith.  (Read more of Father Luis' moving story here: http://www.miamiarch.org/ip.asp?op=Blog_11910124712281)

-A man approaches me after a weekday Mass to simply tell me: “Thank you for being a priest.”

-A random email or text message is received from a friend, a family member, an old parishioner, or student to remind me that I am loved and somehow made a difference in somebody’s life.

-A young man who pulls me aside out of the blue and tells me:  “Father, I think I want to be a priest.”

-A routine phone call from my sister becomes not so routine and flat out reduces me to tears when she tells me she is going to pass on my name to her unborn son.

Just when you think you have God figured out, he starts to surprise you in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine.  Try as we might to do things “our way,” we still seem surprised when His way turns out infinitely better.  Our ways are definitely not his ways.  He is a God who will favor those who are last, yet we still scratch and claw to strive to be first.  When are we going to learn to let God be God and to just get out of his way?  It’s amazing how easy life gets and how joyful we become when we just surrender to His will.  And even then, He continues to amaze us, surprise us, and overwhelm us with the depths of his love.  Because just when you think God cannot possibly demonstrate the depths of his love for you any more than he already has…he goes even deeper!

This week, let yourself be surprised by your God.

Redefining Heroism

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.”  (Roman 14:7)

To be human is to be selfless.  It is to love others more than self.  True heroism involves putting the common good over one’s self, and laying your life down for another.  This is what our Lord did.  This is what we see on the cross.  Ten years ago, our definition of what it means to be a hero changed.  Men and women we see every day, and pretty much take for granted most of the time, were all of the sudden seen in a new light. Firefighters, police officers, and first responders were seen throwing themselves into harm’s way, as they do pretty much every day in this country, and were rightfully and finally given their due for running into two burning towers.  I always tearfully recall their heroism and that of our military whenever I hear the third verse of “America the Beautiful”:  “O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife.  Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!”

Today we honor all those men and women who lay their lives down for us whether on our street corners, in firehouses, or in the deserts and mountains of Iraq or Afghanistan.  So many who teach us on a daily basis that selflessness is what makes our nation great.  And that selflessness unites us.  Today we have with us members of our local fire department.  You always have a special place in my prayer life because my brother is a firefighter and civil servant as well.  He became a firefighter just a couple of weeks after the terrorist attacks, but five years ago today I was honored to give the invocation when he joined the City of Miami Fire Department.  That evening I wrote:

“[As for my brother], I often take what he does for a living his vocation for granted.  Many people celebrate my vocation to the priesthood, and they call my life "heroic."  But today as I saw my brother become a firefighter for the City of Miami under the backdrop of the burning twin towers, I wondered, "who truly is the hero?"  Right after the ceremony we proceeded outside to the training center for a demonstration of their skills.  Some were ordinarily impressive and some were jaw dropping.  Then we looked up to the top of this ten story building and saw my brother waving at my parents and at his son, then, with the crowd in awe, with two of his classmates, he proceeded to scale down the building…HEAD FIRST!  And so I wondered, as I often do when I see pictures of the World Trade Center on 9/11, "Would my brother run into those burning towers?"  After watching him scale that wall, after hearing him take the firefighter's oath which forsakes self for the good of others, the only answer I could come up with was an unequivocal "yes."  Makes you want to rethink your definition of a hero.”

These men and women remind us that loving others, loving country, more than self is the greatest attribute of an American.  They unite us through their heroic example of courage.   Ten years ago, our nation was firmly united in one of our darkest hours.  If any good came out of that horror, it’s that we were reminded that we were one and that a nation united is far stronger than any terror attack.  Our churches were filled as people looked for answers, for as Christians we knew that only with Christ could we make sense of the senseless.  May this solemn occasion serve to remind us once again that true heroism lies in selflessness, and that our strength as Americans lies in knowing that we are the United States of America:  one people, one country, one nation under God!

I'm Listening

"If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts."  (Psalm 95:8)

I have a penchant for getting into trouble with my sister when we talk on the phone because she always claims that I don't listen to her.  I do listen even though she asks me every couple of minutes:  “Are you listening to me?”  I do admit there has been a time or two when my mind has drifted or I have been working on something else (multi-tasking) and she asks if I’m listening.  This happened last week when she called and was telling my about my nephew’s first days of Pre-K 3.  After a few minutes, she said, “You’re not listening to me.”  I told her I was.  She paused for a second and said, “you’re watching a baseball game, aren’t you?”  “I’m not!”   I tried to defend myself, but I kind of actually was watching a game.  Now ever since I was a kid, my mother and my sister know when I am lying because my lip starts to curl.  So my sister exasperated said, “I can hear your lip curling over the phone!”  I never did admit it to her. (I guess I’ll be getting a pretty angry phone call once she reads this.)  The reason I bring up this story is because today’s readings are all about listening particularly to the voice of God.  In the late 90’s during the sitcom “Frasier”, the titular character who played a psychiatrist with a radio show would welcome his callers on the air by declaring, “I’m listening.”  This is what God is telling us constantly in the Scriptures particular in the gospel when Jesus tells us that our communal prayer will be answered by our Father in heaven.  He is always listening, but the question that we are challenged with today is:  do we listen to Him?

There are many obstacles that prevent us from hearing the voice of God, and it is very hard to hear His voice if we’re not listening which is an essential, yet often neglected, component of prayer.  If we don’t listen to God, we become disconnected from his will which in turn hardens our hearts and allows us to be easily led into sin.  In today’s gospel, Jesus talks about fraternal correction and about pointing out the sins of our brothers and sisters.  The reason that Jesus does this is because sometimes a brother or a sister may be the last person to know that they are in trouble or in sin.  Think of an alcoholic who needs an intervention in order to realize that they have a serious problem.  What we sometimes fail to realize is that sin has a social dimension.  It may be a “private sin”, but it not only affects our relationship with God, it affects our relationship with the Church because it causes us to distance ourselves from God and prevents us from being effective members of Christ’s body.  That is why during the Confiteor at the beginning of Mass, we say “I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters…”  For this reason, Jesus asks us to intercede for our brothers and sisters who have gone wayward because they may need to be rescued from the clutches of sin.  Sin drives such a wedge between us and God and our community.  Sin destroys us.  It blinds us.  It sucks us into a vortex of despair.  It tricks us into doing something we think will make us happy when all it does is drive us further away from our God and make us numb to its horrendous effects.  Sin does not allow us to love as St. Paul calls us to love in the second reading, but ultimately, sin makes us forget what the voice of God sounds like.

It is in the despair of sin that we start to blame God for our own self-inflicted problems and start to complain that He isn’t listening to us.  This is a complaint I hear often:  “God doesn’t listen to me.”  It’s not that God isn’t listening to us.  It’s that we’re not listening to Him.  Even when trapped by sin, God always listens to our pleas and sends good friends to rescue us and bring us back home where we begin to remember what God’s voice sounds like.  It is a voice of peace.  A voice of comfort.  A voice of serenity.  A voice that makes us feel that we are home.  So again, the problem isn’t that God isn’t listening to us, the question we must ask ourselves today is:  do we listen to Him?  May we remove all stains of sin that may harden our hearts so that we can freely approach God’s presence and say, “Speak, Lord.  I’m listening.”

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?