A great retreat, in pictures, and How to Be Humble!

We had an AMAZING Catholic Campus Ministry Retreat this weekend at BayCliff.  Our first retreat at that beautiful place, 66 college students from NMU, MTU, LSSU, and for the first time, Bay College.  Our retreat director was Fr. Eric Weber, a priest of the Diocese of Lansing who teaches at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in  Detroit.  He gave us 5 amazing talks, and a great closing homily. We had confessions, Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and plenty of social time.  The Lord was VERY generous this weekend!

Bishop Sample came to celebrate Mass and meet with the students on Saturday afternoon. We took a great group picture:

The whole kit and kaboodle: Bishop Sample, 4 priests, 3 campus ministers, 66 college students! AWESOME!

All the pictures I took are up here on Facebook: Pictures of Retreat.  You don't need an account to view them.

I poached some good material from Fr. Eric from his talk on humility for my homily this evening.  I hope you might find it helpful as I did:

How to be Humble

Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Why is the Pharisee left unjustified? Is God so mad at him because he’s a hypocrite? We hear over and over again in the Scriptures that judgment is real. There are eternal consequences to our decisions hear on earth. It is possible to be damned. What about God’s love and mercy? If God loves us so much, how could He judge us or punish us?

We had a wonderful campus ministry retreat this weekend up at BayCliff in Big Bay, 66 students from NMU, MTU, LSSU, and Bay College. The biggest fall retreat every! Our retreat was led by Fr. Eric Weber, a young priest who teaches at the seminary in Detroit. One of his 5 talks was dedicated to humility, and I’m going to rely this evening on his talk, which really struck me to the heart.

The Pharisee is left in his sin, despite his visit to the temple. This is not because God is vengeful or capricious. It is the consequence of the Pharisee’s attitude. If we approach life as he does, the result of our decision will be deep pain and suffering on our part. We will not be healed. If we look around at the weakness of others, and count ourselves content as long as we can see somebody who’s messing up their life more than us, we will not experience happiness or joy or peace. We will be left out of right relationship not only with God, but also with all those around us. Essentially, as the Lord of Heaven and Earth sustains us in being out of love, as He offers us grace and joy and peace, as He offers us even His own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity…. as we are offered everything, our hands will be clenched tight, our hearts and lives will be hunched in on themselves, our eyes will be too busy looking around to catch someone making a mistake to see the Lord RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!


So, how do we open ourselves up to the gift that God wants to give us? Humility. We must approach the Lord as the tax collector did, or the publican. Let’s be clear – the publican took out tax-contracts from the Romans, and any extra he could squeeze out of the poor was his to keep. Think Sheriff of Nottingham or a gang collecting “protection money” rather than IRS. The Pharisee is not inaccurate in judging the tax-collector. This man, who has very likely done a great deal of wrong, approaches the Lord in humility, deeply aware of his need for repentance and healing, and Jesus tells us his prayer is heard.

So, how do we attain humility? It is NOT a matter of running ourselves down or thinking poorly of ourselves. Here’s a definition of humility: the virtue (or habit) by which one attributes to God all the good one possesses. And this attribution is not a fiction – it’s true. What do we have that we have not been given by God? Even the fruit of our hard work and labor is also the fruit of the life and gifts that God has given us. Each moment, each breath is a gift. We are sustained in existence by the unwavering and faithful love of the Father. If we come to grips with reality, we will begin to enter into humility. To be humble is not to be a doormat, not to have low self-esteem. To be humble is to see what is, to recognize all as gift. The humble man, the humble woman, can then boldly and courageously give all.

Fr. Eric gave us 5 ways to cultivate humility – I hope you find them helpful as I have. First: We’re all airheads! We constantly blunder around making mistakes. I got up early Monday, said my prayers, and since I had 45 minutes until Mass, I decided to give myself a haircut. I haven't paid for one since 1997!  But, after cutting a patch of longer hair off the front of my head, the trimmer stopped working! After disassembling and reassembling it 3 times with my pocket knife, I finally got it going, with 12 minutes to go before morning Mass.  Yikes!  Why would God entrust us with anything? And, yet, He has!  

Second, Ask God for help in prayer. As we ask for help, we’re reminded that we need God. One simple lesson: There is a God, you’re not Him! As we step into the light of God’s love, He will show us our weakness little by little so that we can seek healing. He doesn’t crush us by showing it to us all at once! Windshield example.  

Third: The Sacrament of Reconciliation This is an opportunity of great beauty and grace, and it is humbling. Mysteriously, Jesus entrusted the power to forgive sins to the Church, to the priests. When I think about my own weakness, this is pretty astounding! And yet, I have seen over and over again, even in just 14 months of priesthood, how the Lord can work powerfully even through me. We bring the Lord garbage, and He gives us healing and beauty in return! If you haven’t been to confession in a while, get into the box! Mercy and healing await, and humility.  

Fourth: Thankfulness. We can approach life in two ways: I’m constantly getting ripped off, it’s not fair. Or – Everything I’ve got is undeserved, it is all gift. This second option has the great benefit of being true! And, so, we give thanks. If you find yourself slipping into bitterness, into judgment, into envy or jealousy: STOP, start giving thanks for what the Lord has given you. Build, then, thankfulness into your daily schedule.  

Finally, fifth, Christian Service. We serve others for a different reason than the world. It’s not essentially to do something good, or to make a better world, although those are good reasons. It’s to serve Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 25 we’re told that we will be judged on how we treat the least among us. Whether this is someone homeless, or someone awkward, or someone lonely, whoever this is, our service to them is our service to Christ. Fr. Eric tells of a poster he saw at a house of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s order: JOY – Jesus, others, you. If we order our concerns in this way, we will experience the true joy of self-gift in Christ.

So: Remember that we’re airheads, ask God for help in prayer, seek forgiveness through Confession, be Thankful, and serve Christ in others. This will build in your heart the virtue of humility, and open your life to the Lord’s grace, guidance, and beauty.

Paul speaks the words from our 2nd reading, “Beloved: I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.” He speaks not out of pride, but out of wonder at what God has done in His life. May we bring that same gratitude and wonder, that same confidence in the Lord’s mercy to the altar this evening and receive from this altar infinite light and strength.

The Leaf Homily...

Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

            It has been gray outside, a day seemingly threatening to rain at each moment –  a day of wind and even storms.  This is where our prophet Habakkuk in the first reading is speaking from – a time of storms.  In his case, it was much more dire than a bit of wind and rain.  “I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene.  Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery?”  Attack upon Israel seems imminent, and help from God is not evident.  Habakkuk is crying out to God – have you ever felt this way?  “God, where are you in the midst of this struggle?”

            Today we celebrate Respect Life Sunday, and as we look around our world, we see many attacks on human life and dignity.  The unborn are not safe in the womb; the elderly are sometimes abandoned and threatened.  Human life is produced, manipulated, and often destroyed in laboratories, all in the name of science.  The life of the family seems more and more up for grabs.  War and violence rage in many places.  In a difficult economy, some individuals and families see real hardship knocking at their door.  The dignity and sacredness of the human person is cheapened and degraded from many directions.  Often, the very pace of life seems to be threatening even individuals and families that are prospering materially.

            Where is God in the midst of this?  Do your hearts at times cry out?  Does God respond?  What answer does He give to us as we seek His face in the midst of many threats?  Immediately before today’s gospel passage, the apostles were challenged to forgive, even 7 times a day.  In the face of such a challenge, the apostles cry out to Jesus, “Increase our faith.”  How often must we cry out to God as they did – God, in the face of such challenges, increase our faith!

            Where does God respond?  There are many answers to this, but I would like to highlight one.  The Lord responds with beauty.  The moral law, God’s very creation, speaks to us in beauty.  Last night I was up at St. Albert the Great University Parish at Michigan Tech to speak to their college students there.  As I drove home this morning, along Keweenaw Bay, the trees were on fire. Some rain had just blown through, and the sun was shining through the many-layered clouds.   The stretch along the shore there is always dangerous driving for me because the view is so beautiful!  The heights of the Huron Mountains and Mount Arvon constantly draw my eyes away from the road!  It was certainly so this morning.  In places, the sun shone down and set the leaves on fire.  In other places the low clouds caught the reflected light off the leaves and were red and orange.  My heart sang with praise and thanksgiving.

            God’s response to brokenness and storms is often to be found in beauty.  Goodness, beauty, and truth are mutually implicative.  They go together, they suggest and lead to each other.  The beauty of a kind act, the beauty of creation, the joy of discovering the truth about God’s love for us, the love He has placed in us – these things call to us, draw us, and guide us through the storms of life.  The beauty in the natural world can be a spark, an invitation, for our lives also to be beautiful.

            In the midst of many attacks on the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person, one fruitful response is to seek to lead lives of beauty.  Each act of kindness, each authentic gift of our self is a spark of beauty, a small flame of love.  The beauty of which I speak has very little to do with outward appearance, and everything to do with the movements of the heart, the mind, and the will towards God. God whispers to us in silence, draws us gently into the fire of His love.  He doesn’t want us to be self-righteous, waiting for our reward when we obey His voice, but rather to recognize that we are created to serve and give and love.  The Lord’s work is often hidden, and often seems to be lagging behind.  But listen to His words to Habakkuk: “For the vision still has its time, presses on to its fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.

            To commit small acts of beauty is to build a culture of life, where each human person is respected and cherished.  This is necessarily a culture also of truth, where the moral law, as discovered by our reason and as revealed by God, the whole challenging and beautiful moral law taught by God’s Church, is respected and followed.    

            Listen now to Paul’s words to Timothy, “Beloved, I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.  For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.”  Timothy had been ordained a bishop – most of us here have been baptized and confirmed.  We are invited not to a spirit of cowardice, not to be accomplices of the culture of death, but rather to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, to exercise self-control, and so to love. 

Each one of us is given this spark of fire and grace.  At each Eucharist, we receive again Christ Himself, who longs to set fire to the world, to fan into flame love and beauty in our hearts and lives, in our families and community.  May we allow Christ’s beauty set our hearts and lives on fire. 

The view NE from Hogsback this Saturday afternoon.  Deo gratias!

The Fish Homily...

As implausible as it may seem, someone wondered if they could get the text of my fish homily. So, since I normally post them on my Facebook page anyways, I figured I'd put up some homilies here as well.  I don't think they're going to get any better the second time!

Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

            I think if we’re willing to hear the Word today, this Gospel will strike us close to home.  The rich man in the parable isn’t named, but traditionally he’s called “Dives,” which is Latin for “rich.”  What is Dives’ problem?  He has so many good things, and he ends up in torment, in flames.

The pike in question...

            These past days that I’ve been away, I had the privilege to go on a canoe trip with my dad, my Uncle Tim, and 3 other guys on a canoe trip in the Quetico, the park in Canada just north of the Boundary Waters.  We traveled about 150 miles in 11 days, paddling, portaging, cooking over an open fire. It was a beautiful trip, especially to be able to share it with my dad and my uncle.  One of the guys, Scott, was a pretty accomplished fisherman, and along with my dad and one other guy, kept us supplied with fresh northern pike.  One of the first pike Scott caught was about 25”.  To our surprise, when he gutted it, he noticed the stomach was very full.  He opened the stomach, and found inside an entire, intact, red squirrel!  The pike had swallowed whole a squirrel about a third as long as he was!  Not only that, but while full of this squirrel, he had still struck at the lure afterwards!  I suspect you see the connection.  Having bitten off more than he could chew, he kept grabbing for more, which ended him up in our frying pan!

            In our first reading, the Prophet Amos speaks of the rich and complacent, stretched comfortably on their couches.  “Improvising to the music of the harp, like David, they devise their own accompaniment.”  Do we see the spiritual danger that wealth and comfort so easily present?  We become content with ourselves, with our comfort, with our possessions. We devise our own accompaniment; we make our own plans.  Our hearts draw back from God’s mysterious plans, and we chart our own course.  Paradoxically, at the same time, we desire more.  We want more comfort, a bigger house, more and bigger cars.  Closer to my own heart, we begin to imagine a fleet of fine canoes, a nice over/under 20 gauge shotgun, or a pack of purebred beagles.  Each of these things is good in and of itself.  God created the material world and called it good.  Then He created us, and called it VERY GOOD.   In particular, it is a good and noble thing for parents to provide for their families, for their children. BUT, so easily, wants become non-negotiable needs, and soon our possessions own us.

            I presume that you have been warned before of the dangers of wealth, comfort.  I imagine that this is not the first time you have wondered if perhaps you have allowed what you have to have you.  There is a broader message here – we are called to freedom.  The Gospel calls us to have pure, undivided hearts, and it calls us to true and authentic freedom, which is always found in the complete and pure and entire gift of self, the laying down of our lives in love.  This is why wealth and comfort can be dangerous – they draw us from freedom into slavery.

            Freedom is a tricky category in the United States of America, it is bound up in our national history – the Land of the Free, Liberty, and Justice for all!  Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Unfortunately, in recent generations, Freedom has often been stripped of its full meaning and become simply the absence of restraint.  When someone says, “hey, it’s a free country,” they’re not normally defending virtue!  Liberty has often become libertinism.  Freedom is not merely the absence of constraint, the absence of coercion.  In fact, oftentimes those who have lived the most freely have been prisoners, martyrs, beggars.  Freedom always has a direction, towards God, towards the good, the true, and the beautiful.  Whenever we chose away from God, we do not exercise our freedom, we abuse and degrade our freedom.

            This is where having good things becomes dangerous.  The more we have, sometimes, the more we want, and the harder it is to give what we have and what we are.  Dives could EASILY have spared Lazarus food and clothing, even friendship.  But, he grasped what he had, he took it for himself.  He was a man of means, but he was a slave to them.  The means he had became an end in themselves, rather than a means for doing good, for loving, for being free.

            Listen to Paul’s worlds in our 2^nd reading, words originally written to Timothy, a young bishop: “But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.”  May each of us hear these words addressed to us personally: People of St. Michael’s Parish, People of Marquette, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Compete well for the faith.  Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called in the noble confession of baptism and confirmation.

            This is the path to true freedom! This is the path to eternal life, this is the path where we will be filled by grace and light, buoyed up by the Lord’s presence and guidance.  This is the path where we will won’t imitate that pike, this is the path whereby we avoid ending up in someone’s frying pan!