Andrew’s Example

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Andrew. Today in Matthew’s gospel we hear about the calling of Andrew and his brother, Peter. Jesus calls out to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19) At once they left their nets and followed Christ. There was no hesitation, they left everything behind. In John’s gospel account of the first disciples, we hear about how Andrew was with John the Baptist and heard him cry out, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and Andrew followed Jesus. Andrew and another disciple spent the day with Jesus. Afterward, Andrew went straight to find his brother, Simon Peter, and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.” Andrew then took Peter to meet Jesus.

There is something about Christ that draws us to him that words cannot express. Oftentimes when someone speaks about their desire to become Catholic they can’t put it into words. My candidate for RCIA this year was raised in a Christian home that was very anti-Catholic so you can imagine the disdain she has been experiencing from family and friends since deciding to come into the Church. She speaks about being drawn to the Catholic Church and longing to be a part of it. Even those of us who are Catholic, at some point in our lives, we are called to a deeper relationship with Christ. For me it was 8 years ago when I went through Christ Renews His Parish (CRHP). I knew nothing about it but felt called to sign up for it. I can’t explain it but I know it was the Holy Spirit. During Jesus’ ministry he called many people to come follow him. He preached about how we are to live our lives as Christians. Yet many rejected Him. Jesus continues to call each of us to “follow me” but it is a personal decision that we each have to make. And we have to make this decision each and every day because there are so many things that try to pull us away from him. If we don’t recommit ourselves to him daily, and take time for him every day then we will begin to fall away from him.

I’m sure if someone were to ask Andrew why he dropped everything and followed Christ at that moment he wouldn’t be able to put it into words and certainly not in a way that would make sense to someone whose heart is not open to God. We often want explanations for things. Faith can’t be explained. It is a gift from God and allows us to trust in Him, to drop everything and believe that He will provide.  When we feel God tugging at our hearts to follow him, let us follow in Andrew’s footsteps and put down what we are doing, step out in faith and follow Him. 

Christ the King

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus Christ is King of the universe. He is, “the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”  (Revelation 1:8) This Truth is unchanging. Jesus Christ is our King and he wants us to reign with him in his everlasting Kingdom. Through his death and Resurrection we have all been given eternal salvation. The questions we need to ask ourselves are, Is he King of my universe? Do I have my eyes fixed on Christ? Is this where my heart lies? Is being pleasing to Him and walking along the path of righteousness the focus of my life?

In today’s gospel, Jesus tells Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world” (John 18:36). This world is not our home; this is not all there is. Jesus goes on to tell Pilate, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37) This, too, is the reason we are here, to testify to the truth. We are to be Christ’s hands and feet until he comes again. The victory in Christ has already been won, and if we heed his voice, then we too will be victorious.

The focus in America has been about shopping, getting the best deals. All we heard about for weeks was Black Friday. People went to extremes, camping out in front of stores for days, to get the best deal on an object! The world would be a much better place if we put this much time and effort into our relationship with God and our fellow man. If we had as much zeal for our Lord as we doing for getting the best deal, the world would be on fire for Christ, our King. Next Sunday begins Advent. We prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior. Our world has taken the focus off of Christ and put it on stuff. There are so many distractions and pressures to have more, do more, to be more. What change am I going to make in my life right now in order to make Christ the King of my universe? How am I going to prepare for His birth this Advent season instead of being caught up in the commercialization of the holidays? We don’t even call it Christmas anymore. And more importantly how am I preparing for His return. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Matthew 18:8)

In Thanksgiving

“As he was entering a village, ten persons with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance from him and raised their voices, saying, ‘Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!’ And when he saw them, he said, ‘Go show yourselves to the priests.’ As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.

He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, ‘Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine?
Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?’ Then he said to him, ‘Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.’” (Luke 17:12-19)

Today’s gospel is perfect for today, Thanksgiving. So often we forget to give thanks for all the blessings that God has bestowed on us. Only one of the ten people healed of their leprosy bothered to go back and thank Jesus for healing him. Why did the others not go with him? Did they feel they were too busy? Did they feel a sense of entitlement and thus there was no need to give thanks to God?

Today is set aside for our nation to give thanks to God. In 1789, George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation begins with the following words, “Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour.”  We are one nation under God but this no longer seems to be the case. Our faith is one of our greatest gifts but so many people refuse to accept this gift. If we don’t believe in God how can we be grateful? Everything we have and everything we are is from our heavenly Father. His hand is involved in everything good. If we don’t believe in God then we make gods of so many things. Our pride guides our steps and is seen as a strength instead of the root of all sin. We become selfish and our hearts become hard. We don’t feel that we need to help those in need and often look down on them. Our world becomes a dark place.

In order to break free of this we need to be grateful. We need to recognize all the blessings we receive each and every day. If just once a day we stop and list two things that we are thankful for, our stony hearts will begin to be replaced with love. This one simple gesture will lead us to be more aware of our blessings and also recognize those in need. We begin to share our gifts and our hearts grow even more. This is the cycle that we want to encourage and allow to flourish. We become like the Samaritan in today’s gospel; glorifying God in a loud voice, falling to our knees and giving thanks for the healing and blessings in our own life.

Help Me to See

“’What do you want me to do for you?’ He replied, ‘Lord, please let me see.” (Luke 18:41)

Open my eyes, Lord, help me to see. Just as the blind man in today’s gospel shouts out, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” (Luke 18:38) I too cry out, have pity on me! Lord, open not only my eyes but also my heart. Help me to know you are near. Help me to be at peace and to cherish each moment. You are with me in each moment and you use everything for good. You are with me even as I search for love and peace in places and people that will never love me as you love me. They can never match your goodness and glory.

 “God himself is eyes to those who become blind to see him, and he directs them so as not to go astray, or rather it is more accurate to say that God takes them where they would not know how to go even if they could see. As the Lord says through Isais: ‘I will bring forth the blind by a road unknown to them and make them walk in paths they did not know; I will light the shadows before them’.” (Fr. Francisco De Osuna, O.F.M)

Even in our blindness you are there leading us in ways we can never imagine. My ways are often not your ways. You are all-knowing and you want to guide me along your path. But my loneliness often keeps me in darkness, it drives me to seek love and I think it is your love that I have found but often it isn’t and it causes me heartache. Open my eyes Lord to see you in all the beauty that you surround me with. Help me to be present to you, to quiet my anxious heart and to bask in your glory. 

Another Chance

God is so merciful. He continually gives us the opportunity to be Christ to others even when we have failed. I have been struggling with something that happened at work. I was given the opportunity to be Christ to a hurting family and I was a coward instead. This young man had been dealing with cancer for 10 of his 18 years. He had a period where it was in remission and then recurred in his lungs. It did not respond to any of the treatments that we had to offer but it settled down and was dormant for a long time. But it was just a sleeping giant that roared awake about six months ago and spread like wildfire. The lesions in his lungs grew rapidly and lesions began to appear in his brain. As quickly as they could remove them, another one appeared. It was obvious that this was a losing battle. This young man could be difficult and was sometimes belligerent. He could also be sweet but you never knew what you might get when you walked in the room. I often expected the worse and was surprised when he was kind. His last visit to the hospital revealed yet another tumor in his brain and he was set up with hospice. He wanted to die at home, not in the hospital. I knew he wouldn’t be there long and instead of going to see him and his parents, offering them support, I stayed away. My pride kept me away; I didn’t want to be rejected. I told myself that his favorite doctor was there for them and that is who they really wanted at their side. This young man died yesterday and I never had the opportunity to be present to them again.

I have been doing this for a long time, how could this happen? Why does my fear and pride still get in the way? My heart hurts for failing this family and failing God. He gave me an opportunity to be Christ and I turned my back. In my prayers God has reminded me that this is hard. It’s never easy to step into such an intimate place with a family no matter how long I have been doing this. And it will continue to be hard and the only way I’ll get through this is with Him guiding me. 

There is another young man in the hospital dying with almost the same story. He is also fighting an awful sarcoma that he has had for 9 years that has spread to his lungs and now his brain. He is an amazing young man but his mother can be very difficult to deal with and I found myself wanting to avoid her instead of reaching out to this family so I have been praying for courage and wisdom to do His work. I’ve stepped out in faith trusting that God would place his words on my lips. Each time I’ve visited them this week it has been a blessing. We’ve talked, laughed, cried and sat in silence resting in His care. This young man has an amazing faith and knows that soon he will be with his King. I thank God for giving me another chance to do it right. I thank him for the gift of this work he has called me to do even though it is almost unbearable some days. It is a privilege to be a part of such an intimate experience where heaven and earth collide. 

Playing it Safe

In today’s first reading the widow from Zarephath was going to make a final meal for her and her son before they were to die from starvation, yet she was willing to offer that to Elijah the prophet when asked. Her jar of flour and jug of oil did not run dry for an entire year, “until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.” (1 Kings 17:14) The jar of flour became the Bread of Life, Jesus, who provides for those who make their lives a total gift of self to him.

We want God to do great things but we don’t provide him the opportunity, we play it safe just in case He doesn’t come through for us.  When Jesus sent out his twelve disciples, he told them, “take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.” (Luke 9:2) Jesus was forcing his disciples to trust him. God would have to come through for them because they had nothing else to fall back on.  Complete trust takes courage; it makes us vulnerable and makes us uncomfortable. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide. But following Christ calls for us to leave everything behind and follow Him, trusting even when we do not know where he is leading us. God wants to show us how he loves and cares for us. He wants to be our refuge.

Peter was willing to step out on the water with the waves crashing around him. He was the only one who was courageous enough to take that leap of faith. And when he was overcome with fear and began to sink, Jesus came through for him, he rescued Peter. We all have something in our lives that keeps us holding back, we are too afraid to step out of our comfort zone and let God be God and show us his majesty and great love for us. What will it take for us to quit playing it safe?

My Father’s House

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 Today is the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. “The basilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral of the Pope as bishop of Rome, is called the ‘mother church’ of Rome and the world. As such, it is a visible symbol of the universal Church. It calls us to look toward the house of God in the new Jerusalem toward which the earthly church is the pilgrimage.”  ~ Magnificat

We are the Church, our bodies are a temple of the Lord and the Spirit of God dwells in us. Do we need these beautiful buildings in order for the Church to go on? Would destroying a building be a blow to the Church, scattering all who worshipped in that place elsewhere? No, oftentimes we see on the news that when a natural disaster has destroyed a church through fire, tornados or other means that the people actually draw closer to one another and closer to Christ. Yet, these buildings are important. They are a visible symbol of the Church. It is on these altars that bread and wine become the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is in these buildings that a man and woman are joined as one in Holy Matrimony, where we are baptized, freed from sin and reborn as sons and daughters of God. We become members of Christ and incorporated into the Church. It is a place where we can sit in the presence of our Lord and put aside all the distractions of the world.

“He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep and doves, as well as the moneychangers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area…he said, ‘Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.’” (John 2:14-16)

First and foremost our churches need to be a house of prayer and worship. We need to be reverent and remember that we are there to partake in the Sacrifice of the Mass. So many Christian churches have removed the altar from their church and replaced it with a stage. The pews have been replaced by theater seats and people are there to be entertained. The Mass is the most sacred act of worship that we can participate in. It was instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper and will continue to the end of time. My prayer is that we all may come to know and love Jesus Christ who both commands and invites us to encounter Him in this very special way. That we fall in love with the Mass all over again and seek a deeper understanding of this beautiful gift.

Encountering Christ

I started a new book study a few weeks ago with a few women from my parish. It is a book study more than a bible study because we aren’t just studying scripture, we are taking scripture and through prayer, allowing God to speak to us. This study helps us to have an encounter with Christ through prayer. We pray using Lectio Divina individually and as a group. It helps us to see God working in our lives and helps us make changes that will help us be more Christ-like. It is similar to what I was doing with the daily readings but this study focuses on a different virtue in each chapter and all the scripture focuses on that one virtue. The second chapter that we just finished tonight was on forgiveness.

There is scripture throughout the Old and New Testament that shows us what forgiveness truly means. Jeremiah tells us in verse 31:34 that we come to know the Lord through His forgiveness of our sins. I hadn’t thought about that before but it makes perfect sense. We experience the perfect love of God though his forgiveness. As we come to know the Lord more and more we want to please him and we want to imitate him. We realize that it is only through his grace that we can forgive the unforgivable.

God tells us that we will have trouble in this world, “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33) We know this but yet we are shocked and blindsided when others betray us. Sometimes it knocks us to our knees and then our unforgiveness keeps us there. We want to nurse our wounds. We may try to numb the pain with many things but none of them work. Christ paid the price for all the sins of the world, those that have been inflicted on us and those we inflict on others. When we rise above the hurt and choose (and it is a choice) to forgive as Christ did, we provide an opportunity for others to receive God’s grace as well. The peace I feel after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the same peace that is offered to others when I forgive them. And it sets me free because unforgiveness always keeps us in bondage.

“In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.”

~ Catechism of the Catholic Church 2839-2840