IS Jesus your King?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year B

The liturgical year draws to a close as the days shorten and winter settles in. Next week we will begin a period of intense expectation and preparation: Advent. At this moment of transition, the Church reminds us with solemn joy that Our Lord Jesus Christ is King of Heaven and Earth, King of the Universe, King of all that is! “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.” My brothers and sisters in Christ… this is thoroughly good news!

Perhaps the idea of a king is something old-fashioned for us—we don’t have many kings anymore. We attempt to govern ourselves by a messy democratic process that has brought our nation unprecedented wealth and stability, along with growing isolation, the rapid breakdown of the family, and increasingly high rates of suicide and addiction. We are in the midst of an astounding and difficult to comprehend holocaust of the unborn: in the last 40 years alone, in the United States, we have killed at least 10 unborn infants for every Jewish person killed during the Holocaust. These tragedies are just as much a part of our American experiment as voting and the Civil Rights movement.

Our feast, then, is meant to address our modern discontent. Jesus Christ was proclaimed Messiah even during His life, the anointed one, the Son of David the King. The title is ancient, but this liturgical feast only goes back to 1925 when the tide of secularism and the rejection of God was rising in Europe and among the elite. Just two years later, in 1927, Blessed Miguel Pro, a Jesuit priest, was executed by the Mexican government for his faith. Like thousands killed during that terrible persecution just 90 years ago, he died with the words “Viva Cristo Rey” on his lips, "Long Live Christ the King." His feastday was on Friday.

Now that tide of aggressive secularism has washed all before it and has inundated our businesses, schools, homes, and youth. Individualism has tempted us, rather successfully, to declare ourselves King: king of our lives, our pleasures, our decisions, our sins. More and more of us fall down in worship before strange and yet all-too-familiar gods: comfort, pleasure, power, wealth, distraction. Our allegiance is frequently to our own convenience. The famous Sinatra song, “I did it my way,” is certainly the anthem of Hell. Worshipping our whims and bowing down before our passing fancies leads us onto the broad road away from God and into bitter emptiness.

So how do we respond to these attractive temptations and traps? What does the Church want from us, or for us, on this Solemnity of Christ the King? I believe we are being invited to renew our allegiance to Jesus Christ, or perhaps even offer that allegiance for the first time. This is not primarily an emotional experience, although we may indeed feel some strong emotion. Rather, it is an act of the will, a decision: whom do we follow? Whom do we serve? Whom do we seek?

This year, today’s feast falls in the midst of the feasts of three different martyrs. I already mentioned Bl. Miguel Pro, Friday’s memorial, and Saturday it was St. Andrew Dung-Lac and companions, some 117 Vietnamese Catholics killed between 1820 and 1862. If the 25th were not a Sunday, it would be the memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria, a respected philosopher who lived in what is now Egypt, and having become Christian, gave her life as a martyr in the 4th century… in every time and place, there have been men, women, and children whose allegiance to Christ the King stood firm even in the face of torture and death. Perhaps we don’t make our choice in such dramatic circumstances, but it boils down to the same basic question: Whom do we follow? Whom do we serve? Whom do we seek?

As Jesus tells Pilate, His kingdom is not of this world. He is not capricious, rapacious, lustful, or bloodthirsty. But, He is King… He is powerful, with the perfect gentle sweet power of Love. He does defend us, and He does teach us. He testifies to the truth by His life, and by His words. He is the Alpha, the Omega, the one who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

On this feast I think the Church wants us to seriously ask ourselves the question: Is Jesus the Lord of my Life? It’s not a question we answer just once… but we do need to give an answer. To give full allegiance to Christ and His Church is a lifelong journey, a process that never ends until the moment of our death… but it is a process and journey that must begin somewhere, in fact, right where you’re sitting, here and now… once again, or perhaps for the first time, to choose Christ, to respond to His choice of you.

If I am king of my own life, or if I bow down before comfort or pleasure or power or wealth or fame… well, then Jesus is not Lord of my Life. If I like Jesus, but I ignore His Law, His commandments, His teaching… then Jesus is not Lord of my life. If I like Jesus, but I ignore His Living Body the Church, if I feel comfortable picking and choosing the parts I like and the parts I tacitly ignore… well, Jesus didn’t set up shop with a bunch of disconnected individuals, He founded a Church, a cohesive living community that has survived down to this present day, into which we entered by our baptism. By the power and protection of the Holy Spirit, the Church has worked through broken men and women like you and me to bring us the Bible, the inspired Word of God -- no Church, no Bible -- to bring us clear and sound teaching in the midst of the storms of every age, and to bring us the abundant grace of the sacraments. Jesus is the Head, the Church is His Body, and we members of that Body by our baptism. But if we chart our own course and reject the Church, well, then, we have rejected Jesus, King and Head, as well.

Let us close by listening once again to Jesus’ loving words to Pontius Pilate, that strangely modern and skeptical man seeking to get ahead in the world, “You say I am a king. 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.” May we belong to the truth, in our thoughts, words, and deeds. By God’s grace may we serve Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, and thus live in His Kingdom.

+ A. M. D. G. +

Be Alert, Be Hopeful or "Don't be like Ol' 7-Cap"

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Today we celebrate the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time… the second-to-last Sunday before we begin Advent. Next Sunday is the high and solemn feast of Christ the King. As the liturgical year ends, our Mother the Church wants to use this moment to remind us that our lives and this world will come to an end. Jesus tells us graphically and powerfully in our Gospel that this world will indeed come to an end, and we will each one of us stand before the awesome judgment seat of God. Our decisions in this life have eternal consequences for ourselves and for all those around us. It is SO easy to lose track of this, and many voices encourage us in that confusion. Praying with these readings in my deer blind, this has brought to my mind a deer hunting story that involves my dad!

Our camp is on a migration route, so the hunting during the muzzleloader season is often very good. My dad was in his blind several winters ago on a very cold snowy December day. A fat doe walked in, giving every appearance of being a wary and careful animal, looking around, sniffing. As she began to eat some of the bait, my dad decided it was time to fill his tag. He stealthily raised up his smokepole, but when he pulled the trigger, the cap snapped, but the gun didn’t go off! A misfire, and at the worst possible moment. To my dad’s astonishment, though, the deer, after looking up startled, continued eating. With great care, he silently and slowly placed a fresh cap on the nozzle, and then took aim. Snap… a second misfire! Well, to make a long story short, after 7 misfires, on the 8th cap the gun went off, and my dad bagged the deer! We’ve ever since referred to her as ol’ 7-Cap! She gave every pretense of being wary and alert, but despite a bunch of noise and commotion, she kept eating the bait, and ended up in our freezer!

Do you see the connection? Jesus wants us to be alert and awake in a world where there are many distractions and much confusion, a lot of bait, so to speak. The tradition has tended to summarize these attacks as the World, the Flesh, and the Devil… the allure of power and wealth, our personal weaknesses and temptations, and our Enemy who seeks to lure us to our destruction. The modern world seems to want to forget that we have an enemy, and that there are any consequences to sin and lies. But there are eternal consequences to our daily decisions.

The solution is certainly not to see a demon behind every bush, and it has nothing to do with the occult or with zombies or horror movies. However, we do need to develop a spiritual alertness that leads us to recognize temptations, distractions, and lies both around us and in our own hearts. If we merely give a pretense of alertness, an occasional prayer, a superficial examination of our conscience from time to time, we’re just like a deer that hasn’t noticed that it’s deer season… we’re an easy target.

In offering His life once for all on the Cross, Jesus made sacrifice for ALL our sins. Our journey in this life, then, is the process of accepting and integrating that sacrifice and grace into our lives, a decision we make many times, and even many times each day. Jesus even invites us to participate in His High-Priestly sacrifice, out of our baptismal priesthood, our participation at the Eucharist, and in the other sacraments. One of the most powerful tools in the battle of this life is frequent confession. The most recent edition of the UP Catholic has some beautiful reflections on the sacrament of penance by our bishop, and the testimony of several people who’ve come back, or come back more frequently to the sacrament. The sacrament works on three levels:

1) it is the ONLY ordinary means to be forgiven of mortal sin, a sin that is serious that we have committed with full knowledge and consent. This is why the Church speaks of the “Easter Duty,” the precept of the Church by which every Catholic conscious of mortal sin MUST go to confession at least once a year during the Easter Season.

2) Second of all, perhaps by God’s grace many of us avoid mortal sins even for weeks and months at a time. A prayerful and devout communion at Mass does heal us from our daily brushes with venial sin. However, it is highly recommended and very helpful to make a devotional confession, that is, one where one does not have mortal sin to confess. This is the context in which most people would make of the sacrament monthly more or less. I try to go every couple weeks or so myself. At each confession not only are sins wiped away, but we are given power and strength to go forward, and we become more alert to the battles of this life, to temptations, and also to the Lord’s gentle promptings.

3) Finally, the third level on which confession works is that it is the primary place most Catholics have to access some basic spiritual direction or counsel. This is not the primary purpose for the sacrament, and very often the best thing would be to schedule an appointment with a priest, but oftentimes that conversation can at least begin in confession, where the priest can encourage you on the path to deeper prayer, or give you some concrete advice on how to fight a particular temptation. This is why the Church invites us to more frequent confessions, because it is one of the best possible ways to be more equipped for the battle of this life.

In confession, in the Eucharist, and in our prayer we have infinite grace offered to us moment by moment! We are in the midst of spiritual warfare, and the forces of evil are real and powerful. However, the primary reality of this world is not the scarcity of good things, but the great and overwhelming abundance of God’s grace. The prophet Daniel sees St. Michael the Archangel, one of the many angelic warriors who fight on our behalf. Our own stained glass depicts the guardian angel each of us is given by God. The saints give us good example and intercede for us, and we are strengthened by the friendship and help of our brothers and sisters in Christ. There are so many ways to be strengthened and to grow, there is no need to stand dumbly at the bait pile of sin and falsehood, waiting to be nailed!

So, we ask the Lord today to prepare our hearts by His grace for eternal life. We ask Him to lead us back to confession, or into a more profound reception of the sacrament. We ask Him to fill our hearts and lives now with the infinite gift of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, offered to us once again at this altar.

+ A. M. D. G. +

Generosity, Penance, Sacrifice or, "What you can learn from a candle!"

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time, Year B

If there was ever a day in the lectionary for preaching on tithing, it’s today! But I bring you glad tidings—these passages certainly point towards money, but I want to walk a slightly different path with you! While it is true that as Catholics we give far less percentage-wise than most other Christians, on average, I feel like there is a more basic message here, something that comes several steps before we examine how much money any one of us should give away.

Notice the connection between the first reading and the Gospel: the widow of Zarephath (most likely a pagan), responds with simple kindness to Elijah in the midst of a terrible drought, brings him water, and then shares with him the very last bit of bread she has for her son and herself. Her open heart is then filled by abundance as God provides the three of them with food for a whole year. God’s generosity here is even more apparent than hers! Then, in the Gospel, we hear of the widow’s mite. That’s the traditional title for this passage, based on the King James Version’s translation of the name for this very small coin. Jesus praises this widow for having given from her necessity, perhaps even all she had that day. The wealthy people gave greater sums, but only from their surplus.

Put together, these two passages highlight the blessings that accompany generosity towards God and our neighbors—the way an open and generous heart is a prerequisite, a precondition, for receiving God’s grace and abundant blessings. If our hearts are closed up, we have walled the Lord out of our lives, however much His perfect love is at our side.

Make no mistake—this is not the prosperity Gospel as trumpeted by the likes of Joel Osteen, offering faith that will result in immediate and visible worldly success. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me,” and “If they persecute me, they will also persecute you.” Following the Lord faithfully and generously, giving of what we have been given…this will involve real sacrifices, real suffering, real difficulty. However, it also opens the door to the Lord’s manifold blessings, many of them hidden and quiet, crowned by the only perfect and lasting blessing, eternal life. Generosity does not guarantee worldly success, but a lack of generosity certainly closes the door in God’s face.

Jesus is the perfect embodiment and exemplar of such generosity. As our second reading alludes to, Jesus made the perfect and complete and total gift of self on the Cross for us, a gift we are called to enter into and participate in:

"But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. Just as it is appointed that human beings die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him."

In Jesus Christ we encounter the necessary connection between generosity and sacrifice. Authentic generosity must involve a willingness to make real sacrifices: to give and thus lose things or time or effort. Many of us are parents—the love you give your children may or may not be returned. To love them well, you have to be ready for the possibility that at any given moment, your love for them may not be reciprocated; and so also in marriage and in authentic friendship.

In our celebration of the Mass, two very simple images of generosity and sacrifice are often present. First, always, our candles… the wax or oil is burned, destroyed, lost, and yet it becomes light and warmth, and with beeswax candles, even a fragrant aroma. Candles speak of the light of Christ shining in the darkness, but also of His sacrifice. Second, incense—each resinous grain of incense loses itself as it is placed on the charcoal and is transformed into a cloud of aromatic smoke. This smoke rises up as an image of prayer, the smoke symbolically envelops and purifies us, but it is also a reminder of sacrifice. The incense is destroyed, but in the process it uplifts and fills our church with fragrance.

This Sunday we celebrate Veterans’ Day, and we remember the sacrifice made by the men and women of our armed services. This kind of self-sacrifice, though, should not be thought of as the particular domain of soldiers in far-away wars, rather, it is the path of EVERY Christian.

During this Year of Faith, Bishop Sample has solemnly invited us to two very simple practices: to abstain from meat each Friday, and to pray one rosary each week for the New Evangelization. These are practical goals: for families, for children, for adults. They do indeed involve some inconvenience, some time, some effort and intention—in a word, sacrifice. This offering, this penance, though, opens the door of our hearts, if offered with love and right intention, it opens us to abundance and blessing that far surpasses our own resources. Every gift we have received has been given to us by God to be given away, not least our lives and time and possessions. As we contemplate a world so far from God, and as we recognize that God has called us to bring His truth into this world, let us begin with sacrifice, penance, generosity—opening the door to His superabundant power. Now we prepare to receive Christ’s perfect sacrifice from this altar, and we ask the Lord that we may become and imitate He whom we receive.

(The Bishop's Pastoral Letter on the New Evangelization and the Year of Faith, "We Wish to See Jesus.")

+ A. M. D. G. +