Advent trains us to be better deer hunters.... AND better followers of Jesus Christ!

+ J. M. J. +

Draft Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, Year B (Readings here)

In recent days, many of us here have spent some time in a deer blind… you get bundled up, you sneak quietly to the blind, and you take up your position. Maybe you’ve got some shooting lanes cleared out, maybe you’ve got some bait out… maybe you’ve been checking pictures on your game camera. And then you wait, and you try to keep every sense taut with expectation!

My dad helping me get my deer blind ready...

I was sitting in my confessional in Bessemer (at my last assignment, St. Sebastian Parish), one day, listening to the building creak, and hoping that someone would come to confession, and it reminded me of something… and I realized that it was like sitting in a deer blind! Sometimes you hear the leaves rustle noisily, and you’re sure it’s a monster buck… and then it’s just a cheeky little red squirrel! In Bessemer I’d be getting all ready to dispense the Lord’s mercy, and then it would just be the building settling!

This is the theme of our Gospel today, as we begin the Advent season… Watch! Be Watchful! Be Alert! This is a continuation of our November theme of death and the end of time… The Church wants us to always be connected and rooted in reality, that this life and world will pass away, that we have here no lasting home… that we are created for a better and more perfect life than this mortal life. As we begin Advent, we are certainly preparing to celebrate Christmas… but we also have much bigger fish to fry! Our reading today are focused much more on Jesus’ Second Coming than on His first… We are to watch not just for Dec. 25th, with all the rich blessings of that feast, but even more for what God is doing now, in our lives!

When you try to sit quietly in a deer blind, you face a number of challenges… I often fall asleep, especially at first. I suspect I may not be the only one to wake suddenly, slumped forward in the blind, unable to see out, and you hear a twig snap. Suddenly you’re completely awake, and you have to move oh-so-slowly to look and see… and then it’s often just that same pesky squirrel! When we sit still, when we try to watch and wait and be alert… it’s easy to get sleepy, to get distracted, to get drowsy… we’re not used to silent and focused observation, we’re used to doing and thinking and being entertained, constant noise, constant motion…

Coming in from the deer blind on a cold clear morning...

This is why the Church slows down the liturgy a bit during Advent: we abstain from the Gloria so that we can hear the words of the angels fresh on Christmas. We’re beginning to use the antiphons this year, so we can listen attentively to choirs’ voices and the words so carefully chosen by the Church for us. We process out in silence… which is awkward and uncomfortable… but potentially very fruitful!

What happens when you get past being drowsy in your blind? You begin to notice a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t normally notice! You hear the wind blow, or a raven’s wings as it flaps overhead… you can hear the difference between a woodpecker and a nuthatch as they look for insects in the bark. You can hear snowflakes falling on dry leaves, and the wind moving pine needles. You can hear a twig snap, and the leaves rustle… and you hope it’s the big one!

When you begin to focus in the blind, especially at dawn and dusk, you often see or hear things that aren’t there! You imagine a stump into the 30-point-Buck… or a branch into a wolf. You stare at something for minutes on end, not quite sure what it is… you stare at the head of a feeding or watching deer, trying to grow antlers!

This can happen in our hearts, too! We won’t fully understand and discern and see what God has done, and what He’s doing, and what He calls us to at first glance. We may initially notice a movement or desire that has to be discerned and confirmed and purified. I will be spending a lot of time helping young men do this as I take on the vocations work, but this applies to all of us. We have to listen for a while to understand what’s there…

And when we do slow down and listen, just like in that deer blind, we will begin to garner insight and self-knowledge. This can happen in our spiritual lives, in our relationships, in our families… if we’ll slow down and listen, we’ll begin to see and hear a bunch of stuff that’s been there all along, but that we’ve been too busy to notice. We might hear something in a loved one’s tone of voice that makes us wonder how they’re doing… we might notice something in our heart that gives us cause for thanksgiving… or maybe something that makes us aware of our need to repent. If we really pay attention, we will begin to notice the movement of the Holy Spirit deep in our hearts and souls, God drawing the deep lasting desires of our hearts towards Himself.

This dynamic certainly didn’t begin with Jesus, even though it did reach its fulfillment and perfection in Him. The prophets spoke to the People of Israel, calling them to this listening and insight. Isaiah called the people to repentance and watchfulness:

Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of you in our ways! Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful; all of us have become like unclean people, all our good deeds are like polluted rags; we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

He also reminded the people of God’s grace at work in them:

O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands.

Both pieces are there… as we listen and look within, as we become alert and watchful, we will notice our need for God’s mercy… and we will become aware of great cause for peace, and praise, and thanksgiving!

So how to be watchful and alert this Advent? This can be a training ground not just for Christmas, but for the rest of our lives! I highlighted four simple steps in the bulletin… no surprises here:

1. Pray EVERY day… and take a step deeper! We have our Magnificat Advent Companions with a daily devotion… just one good too
2. Prepare the Sunday Mass… read the readings in advance, pray with them, read the antiphons… the more you prepare, the more you’ll receive. Come early enough to sit still, and quiet yourself, and prepare. You can always find the readings online here.
3. Make a good confession… nothing cleans out your spiritual ears so effectively as the Sacrament of Penance… maybe it’s a little gross, but it’s like a really effective spiritual Q-tip!
4. Share what you have with those in need… many concrete ways available to do that.

That’s definitely not an exhaustive list… but it each one of us watchfully uses those simple disciplines, I guarantee we’ll be better hunters… I mean more faithful followers of Jesus Christ, who comes to us now on this altar!

+ A. M. D. G. +

The Shepherd Judges by Love

+ J. M. J. +

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

We stand, this Sunday, at the threshold between one liturgical year and the next, and the liturgy offered to us by the Church is meant to shape and structure our time, our lives, and the way we look at and understand the world around us. We are reminded that Jesus is our Lord and King, our Savior and Redeemer… King not just of Christians, but of the whole universe, of all creation! As King He is also Judge… but not only Judge, but also Shepherd. Our readings on this feast give us both images, with the creative tension that lies between them.

Sometimes we think the Old Testament presents God as harsh and stern, while the New Testament instead shows God to be tender and loving. However, these stereotypes, or even prejudices, have little to do with the text itself!  Our readings this Sunday run the opposite way! Our first reading today, from the Prophet Ezekiel, is full of tenderness and promise. Soon it will be Advent… think of just how God fulfilled His words spoken through the prophet:

I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.

It’s not like God didn’t tell us what He was going to do! And, yet, when He came Himself, it was a surprise, and so hard to accept and believe! God is not far away, distant, uninvolved, and unconcerned… rather He came Himself, in the Flesh… Jesus Christ, both God and man.

When we proclaim Christ the King of the Universe, we remember that He rules all that is, not from afar, and not by violent acts of power, but rather He rules at our sides, gently, drawing us by love. He speaks softly to the voice of our consciences, He speaks with beauty and splendor in every sunrise and ever snowflake, He speaks kindly with His invitation to mercy and truth.

Much of this movement of the King happens in our hearts, below the surface, in the quiet of listening prayer… and this gentle powerful King allows us to stray, rather than force us to follow. He knows that straying will bring us to grief, that His commandments point us towards joy and peace, and away from bitterness and sadness. We who know Him and His love struggle to listen attentively… how is the world to know of His love, when so often they aren’t even trying to listen? How is He to speak in a world full of noise and hurry?

This brings us to the scene of Judgment in our Gospel. When people speak as if Jesus doesn’t care what we do and say… as if His unconditional love means that following Him makes no demands on us… I get frustrated! Whoever that guy is, it’s not Jesus Christ they’re talking about! The same tender persistent shepherd who cares and heals His sheep will also sit upon his glorious throne and separate the nations as they come before Him! Jesus uses no hidden surprising criteria to judge us… it’s exactly what He’s told us, exactly what God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai… we will be judged on whether or not we have followed the commandment to love! (Repeat) Let that sink in and root itself in your heart… each one of us will stand before the throne of our Loving Shepherd, He who laid down His life for us, and we will be judged, separated, upon a simple criteria… did we respond with loving generosity to those in need around us? Did we give away what we were given, or did we hoard it to ourselves? Did we treat others as Christ, or did we ignore and disdain to share God’s blessings?

Now… it’s worth noting… this isn’t the only chapter of Scripture! Jesus teaches a lot more than is contained in this one passage… He told us to keep the commandments, and He didn’t kick any off the list.  As we look into our hearts, we know we have often fallen short. Where, then, does the grace and wisdom come to love? What sustains us in giving of ourselves? It is God at work in us… through the Eucharist and Confession, through our Daily Prayer. How is the world to know of these gifts and these commands? Through us! God’s living active presence in the world didn’t end when Jesus ascended into heaven… it’s continued in our midst by the life of the Church… that’s us, as surprising as that may be! We’re God’s big plan… that we who know Him, His love, His mercy, His grace, His commands… that we would live and model these truths, and invite others to them as well. If the world is not full of love, we need look nowhere else but in the mirror… we have been given the gift of faith, baptism, grace, the Living Word, the Word made Flesh, our parish… so many rich blessings!

May we follow our King, then, may we obey Him, in laying down our lives. On Saturday morning we packed up 30 food baskets for local families… that happened due to the generosity and hard work of many of our parishioners. In the days ahead, we’ll be gathering with family… our inlaws and outlaws!  Love those who are nearby, even when it's hard.  If there’s money in your checking account or food on your shelf… give some away to those in need! Whether you have things to give away or not… give yourself! Listen to a relative or friend, give someone a call, take them out to lunch or offer a Rosary for them. There is no end to the concrete ways we can love and serve today… this is what Jesus calls us to now. Never allowing us to get ahead of Him, He gives Himself to us now, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, from this altar… receiving Him, we receive everything… may we give it all away!

+ A. M. D. G. +

Bulletin Column on Purgatory: A joyful, hope-filled expression of God's LOVE

+ J. M. J. + 

 Bulletin Column on Purgatory, All Souls' Day, 2 Nov. 14
(I've been wanting to write this up for a while, and this isn't perfect, but perhaps it's helpful!)

We’ve really had a lot of stuff falling on Sundays this year, and here we go again! This Sunday the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, commonly called “All Souls’ Day,” takes the place of the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, while next Sunday the beautiful Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica takes the place of the 32nd Sunday. This is a rich gift, because it gives us a chance to celebrate these liturgies with our larger weekend congregations!

November begins with All Saints’ Day, a joyful pouring out of praise to God for all those who have served Him with heroic charity, modeling and living holiness in their concrete circumstances (including formally canonized saints, and all the saints known to God). All Souls’ Day, in contrast, is the moment par excellence dedicated to the beautiful dogma of purgatory. What’s that you say, we still believe in Purgatory?!?!? Well… for a while it was “out of fashion,” but of course what’s true doesn’t fluctuate according to people’s tastes! It seems that some people thought purgatory was kind of dark and heavy, and perhaps they encountered some vividly detailed descriptions of the pains of purgatory, and it all seemed a little over the top. Let’s try to set the context, using as I mentioned last week, the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. We’re all going to die… not the words of a pessimist, just the truth. Our mortal lives will come to an end. We can admit what is true and deal with it or pretend! Upon death we come before the Judgment Seat… and after that moment of death, there’s a lot that is mysterious. We use physical images to speak of spiritual realities that God in His wisdom has not spelled out in detail. The outline is firm and clear, the details mysterious. So, the “Judgment Seat” of Christ uses what we know about judges and courts, but if we try to pin down how that seat’s upholstered (or forget that while judgment is certain, whether or not Jesus will be sitting in a chair is not), then we go beyond God’s Revelation, and the Church’s teaching.

As C.S. Lewis so eloquently says, at the moment of our death either we will say to God, “Thy will be done,” or God will say to us, “Thy will be done.” A person is only sent to Hell by his or her own obstinate choice to refuse God’s mercy. In love, God doesn’t force Himself, His Grace, His Mercy upon us, and if we refuse it definitively, then He allows us to spend eternity away from Him. It should be a terrifying prospect… and so we should turn away from sin, and towards God. Who’s in Hell? We don’t know… the Church makes no positive declaration that any particular person is damned, but we do know Hell exists, and we know our loving Savior talked about it with some frequency… we’ve been warned!

If by His grace we say “Yes” to the Lord, that yes, however incomplete, opens the door to His mercy, and He brings us into His presence. However, God loves us too much to leave us half full of lies and sin… precisely because He is perfect mercy, He lovingly purifies us of all attachment to sin, all the temporal effects of sin. Think of a mother wiping the dirt off her son’s face as he comes in from playing, so that he can be presented to guests. Think of a physical therapist leading a patient through the painful repetitions that lead back towards walking… think of Jesus asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” As we try to imagine what that purification or purgatory is like, we enter into imagery that is not literal, and here we might well admit that some of the lurid imagery of the past may not be particularly helpful!

Everyone in Purgatory, each soul being purified, knows that he or she is going to spend eternity with God, perfectly united with Him in joy and peace, and this is why we speak of the “Holy Souls in Purgatory.” Nonetheless, that purification is probably not pleasant, anymore than having your face wiped or your newly replaced knee bent is… anymore than Peter “enjoyed” affirming his love three times to heal his three denials. And how does time or duration play a role? Well, having died, the soul is separated from the body and outside of time, so “spending a long time” in purgatory is a metaphor that’s hard to make precise. It is obvious that someone whose life has been dedicated to sin and selfishness may need “more” purification than someone who had one small bad habit they never overcame, but God hasn’t chosen to spell that all out. The images from the saints and theologians try to express these mysteries, and we may find them more or less helpful.

Thus we remember the Living Body of Christ in all its fullness: we the Church Militant, engaged in the battle of earthly life; the Church Suffering, being purified by God’s love; and the Church Triumphant, joyfully singing God’s praises before His Throne! On this All Souls’ Day we remember our solidarity with the whole Church as we offer our prayers for all the Faithful Departed, asking God to receive them into His Kingdom, where they will in turn pray for us!

   + A. M. D. G. +

Black is Beautiful: An All Souls' Day Reflection on Purgatory

+ J. M. J. + 

Homily Outline for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed  

(All Souls' Day) 2 Nov 2014

 Every year we enter into November, the last month of the liturgical year, with two beautiful feasts… on November 1st, All Saints’ Day, and on Nov. 2nd, All Souls’ Day! The Church makes use of the natural symbols of the year's end, at least in the northern hemisphere... the shortening days, the cold, the first snows... us gardeners are making our final harvests (I picked my parsnips yesterday!) In the course of the years, about every 7 years it falls on Sunday, and we celebrate this liturgy in the place of our normal Sunday liturgy. This gives us a beautiful chance to reflect on the significance of this feast!

To set the context for All Souls’ Day, let me remind of you of a traditional way of thinking about all those who make up the Church, the Living Body of Christ. We can divide the Church up into three pieces: first, the Church Militant, that is, all us who are living, engaged in the daily battle of earthly life. We call it the Church Militant not because it is violent, but because life is truly a struggle. Then we have those who have already entered into the Father’s Glory, who we celebrated with All Saints’ Day, the Church Triumphant, or Glorious! Countless men, women, and children, some of them canonized, who see God Face to Face, who sing His praises, who experience the perfect joy of Heaven. The group in-between, so to speak, is the group we pray for today on All Souls’ Day… the Church Suffering, or the Church Penitent… all those souls in Purgatory. Just as we are united by ties of love and prayer with all those living the mortal life, and with all those living the eternal life, we are also united with those who are being purged and purified. We ask the saints to pray for us, and we in turn pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

I discuss this at some length in my bulletin column, which I hope you'll read, but let me just briefly mention that the Catholic Church absolutely believes in the existence of purgatory… it was not fashionable to say so, and many people have been falsely taught otherwise, but this is the firm, dogmatic teaching of the Church.

What is purgatory all about? Well… it’s all about God’s love, the full extent to which God loves us! The only thing that can send us to Hell is our obstinate and definitive refusal to accept God’s grace before the moment of our death.  As C.S. Lewis says, "At the end of our lives, either we will say to God, 'Thy will be done,' or God will say to us, 'thy will be done.'" As I’ve said before, our choices here in this life have eternal consequences! If we say yes to God’s love, even if it’s imperfectly, even if it’s at the last minute, with our dying breath, then God floods us with His mercy! I have seen this grace at work on many deathbeds myself!  I've been blessed to see people make a good confession after years, or even decades, or to anoint someone who has been unconscious for days or weeks, and have them suddenly breathe their last, just moments after being anointed, as if they were waiting....

But imagine that one who has said yes to God has nonetheless held onto sin in his or her life? Take two extreme cases… what if in his final gasps after he had taken the poison pill, Adolf Hitler silently cried out to God for mercy? What if Judas Iscariot repented as he fell from the tree where he was hanging himself? It’s grisly to think about, but we don’t deny the possibility… and if God’s mercy was in even the slightest way accepted, we trust that even those two men could be saved. They come into God’s presence, suddenly seeing with perfect clarity all the ways they have spat upon His generosity… what would that be like? God loves us too much to leave us for all eternity lamenting our scabs and scars, lamenting the ways our yes has been incomplete… and so the fire of His love burns all that away! Think of a wound being cleaned so it can be sutured, or of grueling physical therapy that restores full range of motion.  My mom just had her knee replaced, and she has hours of physical therapy each week... it isn't easy, it isn't enjoyable.  And imagine the physical therapist... he or she doesn't enjoy causing pain to their patient, but the love them enough to seek their healing. Think of the way we must learn to love once again someone who has deeply hurt us. Parents and children recovering from division... any married couple that has been married for more than 10 minutes!  It's not easy to renew a relationship after hurt or betrayal.

God won’t save us with out us… His gift of eternal life isn’t superficial, snow on a dung heap as Luther so infamously said… rather God’s love must penetrate to the very depths of our being. To whatever extent we have not allowed that at the moment of our death, purgatory is the place where that purification and transformation is accomplished. How exactly this works, we do not know, and so we use the image of a purifying fire, or even in jokes the idea of a penance opposite our sin, or the idea of the passing of time… but this is all metaphorical and mysterious. In some sense, the soul in Purgatory is in the very same place it will always be, in the Fire of God’s love, but at first that is painful as the brokenness is cleansed away.  What if one of us were to suddenly be at the surface of the sun... momentarily we'd be very much unlike the sun, but suddenly we would become heat and light.

And so, having said all that, we come to these black vestments I’m wearing! Since the Vatican Council, the Church has specified that for funeral Masses and for All Souls’ Day, the priest should vest in either black, or purple, or white. Like you, I've almost always seen white used, but all three are suggested. White is the color of resurrection and baptism, purple is the color of penitence and sorrow, and black is the color of mourning and humility. The use of black is not meant to specify hopelessness, but rather to recognize the reality of mortal death. To take a phrase from a very different cultural context, black is beautiful! Let suggest three images…

First, a simple one, Cajun blackened catfish… if you like spicy food, this is the cat’s meow! The intensity of flavor and spice is out of this world. As the fish is fried in a heavy coating of spices, the heat melds and intensifies the flavors, deepening their zest and power.  So also, live lived in light of mortality is full of flavor and spice, rather than being superficial and bland.

Second, for the gardeners out there, think of good black soil! A gardener doesn't want pale sand or greasy red clay, but rather dark black rich soil.  All the organic material in a compost pile breaks down into a rich humus, full of nutrients, able to absorb water.  Such soil yields a rich, fruitful harvest.  A life lived in contact with the reality of our mortality, the reality of God's justice and mercy, will also be fruitful, yielding a rich harvest.

Finally take a black night, say in February when it's 20 below zero (it seems like we had about 50 of them last year)... there's no moisture in the air, and before the moon rises, it's a black as it can be.  But what can you see on such a night?  The stars... thousands of them, in all their brilliant glory and beauty.  So many beautiful stars that it can be hard to even find familiar constellations.... and the milky way emblazoned across the sky!  If we live our life in light of our mortality, the beautiful truth of God's merciful love, then we will be able to see the beauty of God's light shining in darkness, far more beautiful than the artificial light of false hope...

So on this All Soul's day, we come now to this altar to receive the food of eternal life, to offer this sacrifice for all our loved ones who have died.  We bring them in our hearts to this altar, and we ask God to receive them into His kingdom, purified, cleansed, and made new.  We ask God for the grace to live in the light of His truth, aware of our mortality, aware of His offer of eternal life...  In the silence now let us call to mind all who we pray for today, our family members and friends who have died, especially those most in need of God's mercy.

+ A. M. D. G. +

To my sisters in Christ... your reflections on modesty?

+ J. M. J. +

Five years as a priest and I haven't even come close to figuring this out....

Summer is here, even in the Keweenaw, and as the pastor of a campus ministry parish, and working with young people of all ages, I'm still trying to hone my skills around preaching and teaching modesty.  As a flesh and blood man, I'm also still trying to hone my skills around custody of the eyes and seeing hearts and souls rather than body parts...

In that context, I've been thinking for years about how modesty hits men and women differently.  In terms of dress, I think guys more often struggle with being sloppy, while women are tempted to dress such that attention is focused on their bodies in a way that doesn't contribute to their dignity.  I think men and women struggle to understand each other in these areas because we are so different, and it's not an easy conversation to begin, much less carry on to a fruitful conclusion.

I have been blessed with many good and holy women as friends and family members, and very many of them carry themselves with great dignity and beautiful modesty, for which I am deeply grateful!

I just read these two blog posts from Simcha Fisher and Jennifer Fulwiler, two of my favorite Catholic bloggers, and I would love to hear people's thoughts.  In all of this, please work against our shared tendency to make assumptions, to hastily judge, and to assign motivations to others without knowing them!

Let the conversation begin, God-willing, prayerfully and lovingly!

Standing Out or Blending In? by Simcha Fisher

Modesty is an Opportunity to Love by Jennifer Fulwiler

+ A. M. D. G. +

"I wish to clarify inaccuracies that have appeared in the media over the past several days." St. Michael's pastor offers clarifiction

Fr. Larry Van Damme with me the summer I was ordained.

This letter was recently published in area newspapers, but unlike the story told by Bobby Glenn Brown, it's not in their headlines, and is often behind the subscriber wall where it is conveniently difficult to access!  Please share the rest of the story! - Fr. Ben Hasse

St. Michael’s pastor offers clarification

I wish to clarify inaccuracies that have appeared in the media over the past several days. Among our members at St. Michael Catholic Church in Marquette we have valued parishioners with same sex attraction who serve in many capacities, including liturgical ministries. As their pastor, I love all of my parishioners whatever their circumstance. At no point have I instructed anyone to stand at the back of the church, the cry-room, or in the vestibule. Reports of this having occurred are a misunderstanding.

In the Catholic Christian Church there is a well-known, biblically-based teaching that those who are attracted to the same sex live a life of chastity, and that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Jesus himself is our exemplar of chaste love. Chastity applies to everyone: the married and the unmarried, the divorced and widowed, those who have chosen a single life and those unable to get married. Within marriage, chastity means being faithful to one’s spouse, being open to life, and treating one’s spouse with dignity. For the unmarried, chastity means abstaining from sexual relations. This expectation is consistently made known to new members of the Catholic Church, and is freely chosen when they make the decision to become Catholic. With God’s grace and the prayerful support of others, living chastely can be a life of rich vitality, deep loving relationships and generosity.

All Christians struggle and sometimes fail to live up to the teachings of Christ, myself included. Distinct from this is the case in which someone makes a deliberately thought-out life-decision to live in a manner which runs contrary to the teachings of their faith and of Scripture. When it becomes a matter not of failing to live up to the teachings of Christ, but of actively opposing them and celebrating their contrary, the situation calls for a particular pastoral response. More specifically, if a parishioner has chosen to celebrate and promote views contradicting the words they would sing in the choir, or proclaim from Scripture as a lector, then they are asked not to lead in the singing or proclamation of those words. However, they are still welcome to worship in the church with fellow members of the Body of Christ.

As a Catholic Christian, I recognize my own unworthiness; I, too, fail to live up to the Word. All the same, I must not deliberately oppose It. As I strive to remain steadfast in faith, one of the most loving things I can do for my parishioners is ask them to be similarly faithful, and prayerfully help them strive for integrity when their personal choices and actions clearly contradict the faith we profess as Catholic Christians.

In all sincerity, my prayers are with anyone who is confused or feels hurt by the misunderstandings that have taken place in the past several days. With many concerned parishioners, I don’t want to see anyone separated from our parish family or the Church.

Rev. Larry Van Damme
Pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in Marquette

Here also is Bishop Doerfler's public statement made a few days after the initial story hit the press.

Christ calls us to His Mission: Who is God calling you to love?

 +J. M. J. +

Draft Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension, Year A

This Sunday, in most to the United States, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Although this feast properly takes place 40 days after Easter on a Thursday, here it is transferred to Sunday. As we draw near the end of the 50 days of Easter, the momentous work of Jesus in rising from the dead is completed… first He ascends into heaven to the Father’s Right Hand, and then They breathe forth the Spirit upon the Apostles and the Blessed Mother, and upon the Church. Without the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, Easter would be incomplete.

What are we to make of the Ascension, what should we do with it? To the apostles witnessing it, it must have seemed like another disappointment… once again Jesus was leaving them, even if this time it was in victory. We know they do not yet fully understand, because their question to Jesus indicates they are still expecting an earthly kingdom, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus instead tells them about the mission with which they are being entrusted:

It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Once empowered by the Holy Spirit, they are to become Jesus’ witnesses… they are to give testimony by their lives and their word unto the ends of the earth.

If the Church has us celebrate Lent, and Holy Week, and the Easter Season, and if the Church has us celebrate the Ascension and Pentecost, it is really for the same reason that Jesus had His Apostles present at those events, for their mission is our mission.

We have walked day by day with Jesus is penance, in suffering, in His death, in His tomb, and in His glorious rising so as to be renewed, reminded, and empowered for this mission… to be His witnesses. As members of Christ’s Body, the Church, we are meant to proclaim Jesus by our lives and words. Do people see Jesus in you, or in me? Do they hear Jesus when you speak, or I speak? Do they encounter God’s love and mercy and truth in us? We all need to grow in ways large and small in living this mission, and all that we have shared together since Lent began way back in March (it’s hard to remember March right now, isn’t it!), all that we’ve shared together is meant to strengthen us in this mission.

St. Paul is speaking to the Ephesians of his heartfelt desire for them, and the Church desires this for us just as much:

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe…

God hasn’t stopped working in us since that time… this isn’t just old news! I want to share with you two expressions of this mission so that we may take heart and know the hope and riches and greatness for us who believe!

On Friday morning I picked up 2 of the 8 Totus Tuus missionaries (our Diocese of Marquette Totus Tuus FB page) and brought them down to Precious Blood Parish in Stephenson where we celebrated Mass and then had lunch together before they headed for Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, MN where they will be in training until next Friday. This

program began in the late 1980’s, started by a seminarian, now a priest, of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas.

2014 Diocese of Marquette Totus Tuus Team Selfie

Teams of four college-age missionary teachers, two men and two women, travel from parish to parish putting on a weeklong program of catechesis and faith formation for all the kids K-12. Last year I recruited and organized our diocese’s first team, and this year we have two teams serving 10 different locations, including the program at Resurrection Parish in Hancock and Sacred Heart Parish in L’Anse. This program operates in dozens of dioceses around the country, and brings the faith and joy to children, families, and parishes! These young missionaries are answering Jesus’ call in a beautiful and direct way!

On another front, I just received very joyful news this week, that in August we will be receiving a mission team from FOCUS, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students. Back in the 1990’s, Curtis Martin, had come back to the Catholic Faith after drifting away during high school and college, and he longed to help other young people come into, or back into, the life of the Church. 1n 1998 the first team of FOCUS missionaries began working on the campus of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas… this past year they served over 80 campus nationwide and have fostered the deeper conversion of tens of thousands of young people, as well as nearly 400 religious vocations! This fall they’ll be coming to work at MTU, reaching out to the hundreds of non-practicing Catholics, and the thousands of other students that God is certainly calling into the Church! The missionaries not only dedicate themselves full time for several years of service, but they also fundraise the great majority of the cost of the program!

Now… most of us here aren’t in the position to go running off as missionaries somewhere far away… but notice that the call and mission is still vibrantly alive in our midst! This call comes also to us, in whatever walk of life we find ourselves, with just as much urgency, and with just as much promise and potential. It begins with hearing, recognizing, and acknowledging the call… this mission isn’t just for specialists, its’ for you and me. Here are some concrete suggestions:

• Do you have a parent, sibling, child, or grandchild you’ve been meaning to pray for or call? How about one with whom you need to be reconciled? 
•  Have you noticed a classmate or co-worker who needs support, encouragement, or help?
•  Who has God been nudging you to invite to a parish event or to Mass?

I believe that everyone here has faces before our minds’ eye right now! These people, these faces we love, or struggle to love, are our mission. Recognizing that is the first step! This is Jesus’ call to us as He ascends into heaven… next week we will examine how He empowers us to act on this knowledge through the Fire of the Holy Spirit!

Jesus Christ will be among us once again on this altar in just moments, offering us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. May we prepare our hearts to approach this altar, and receive this Gift, holding in our hearts the faces the Lord has placed before us!

 +A. M. D. G. +

"If you love me, keep my commandments," ... or, "How wrestling shows us how to love Jesus!"

+ J. M. J. +

Draft Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

It is already the Sixth Sunday of Easter! Next Sunday, not only will it already be June, God save us all, but we will also celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, and after that, Pentecost! Our 50 days of Easter are drawing to a close, and the readings are shifting towards preparing us for the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We hear in the first reading of ministry of the Apostles, and the way that even the Samaritans received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The central mystery of our Christian Faith is the Trinity, because this mystery gives us a glimpse into the reality of God Himself, God in Himself. The mystery of the Trinity is both the hardest to think about, and the most important! However, for that reflection to bear fruit, it has to go from speculation to application in our lives!

In the Old Testament, we see God often represented as Creator, Lawgiver and Judge, but also as Husband. The most common Old Testament metaphor for God’s relationship to His People Israel is marriage… God, as it were, marries His people, takes them to Himself in fidelity and love. In calling His the Chosen People to Himself, though, God wasn’t finished!

Rublev's Trinity

In the fullness of time, God came Himself ; the 2nd Person of the Trinity, the Word, took on flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ, both God and man. The Law and Word that God had spoken to His people dwelt with them as one like them in all things but sin. We can think of God the Father giving the Law, and God the Son living the law in perfect fidelity. That authentic living came to its climax in all that we celebrate in Lent and Holy Week and now Easter.

As amazing and transformative as the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ are, that’s still not it, not the end of what God has done and is doing… we’re beginning to prepare for this mysterious gift of the Holy Spirit as we hear in our readings of the Paraclete, a Greek word meaning helper, comforter, advocate. Risen from the Dead, Jesus doesn’t simply stay put back where He began with His Apostles, because soon He ascends into heaven to the Father’s Right Hand.

The Father gives the Law, the Son lives the Law, and the Holy Spirit sets the law on fire in the hearts of believers. The Holy Spirit brings the bold fire of love, of generosity, of self-control, of self-giving. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the followers of Jesus Christ, men women and children from then until now have faced every obstacle and overcome every fear, facing even death itself in martyrdom and persecution, giving of themselves in beautiful and fruitful ways.

Let me give you a simple analogy… as I think I’ve shared before, I wrestled in high school. I also ran and enjoyed track and cross-country, but not with the intensity with which I loved wrestling. Nothing I’ve done is quite so pure and distilled as stepping out onto the mat face to face with one other man. As you begin to learn how to wrestle, you start out with rules… you have to wear a headset, you can’t have long nails, you can’t have razor stubble (it’s really the only time in my life I’ve really shaved regularly). You can’t punch or hit, you can’t use a Full Nelson. Now… learning those rules, that law, is hardly the fullness of wrestling, but without it you’ve just got a brawl, a bloody fight. After the basic rules, you also have to learn the moves… don’t stand up straight, don’t lean forward too far, keep your elbows in… And you’ve got to learn the different holds, how to escape from them, etc. You drill and sweat and lift weights and run… and still you’re nowhere near the pinnacle. Once you know the rules, once you are putting them into practice… what’s make the difference between a mediocre wrestler and a great one? There has to be a spirit of competition, of not giving up, a spirit of speed and resolve. A very good wrestler has internalized the rules and moves and holds and postures, and begins to initiate and respond without even thinking.

Do you see what I’m getting at? Wrestling isn’t very important compared to life, compared to our families, compared to our work and homes and schools. But like all other sports, this basic pattern applies to life and to our Christian faith, and Jesus speaks of it in the Gospel:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows him. But you know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you.

Jesus is really straightforward… “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” That includes the 10 commandments, the Beatitudes, most essentially loving God and neighbor. There’s no authentic following of Christ that ignores God’s commandments, however marketable such an idea may be. Jesus doesn’t love sin, even though He loves sinners! Jesus understands how hard it is to turn away from sin… and so he tells us of this Advocate, this Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit who is not accepted by the world, but who will remain with us and in us. We have to know the Truth, which includes the rules, we have to live them…. But that’s not all! A beautiful life, a fruitful life, involves the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit, a creativity and joy and freedom which always rejects sin, but always embraces authentic self-giving! Only in relationship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit can we authentically live the Law of Truth and Freedom… only with the burning power of love that the Spirit gives can we reject what is false and embrace what is true. The wrestler who spends all his time trying to figure out how to bite his opponent while the ref isn’t looking isn’t going to be much of a wrestler, though he may be a jerk! The Christian who spends a bunch of time looking for loopholes or pretending that our Loving Father doesn’t want us to stop sinning isn’t going to be a saint!

Let me close with St. Peter’s beautiful words from our second reading:

Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who defame your good conduct in Christ may themselves be put to shame.

Do we know why we hope? Do we live hope? Can we tell others why we live filled with hope? If we haven’t received the gift and attempted to live it, we’ll never have any gift of faith to give others! We can’t do this on our own, but we can do this empowered by the Holy Spirit! In moments we’ll receive the Lord Jesus at this altar, this Infinite Gift… may we open our hearts now to receive, so that we can live, and living, give this gift to others.

+ A. M. D. G. +

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Easter Vigil

On this most beautiful of nights, our liturgy began with the Paschal Candle which burns beside me, this beautiful image of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. It sheds light into darkness, light that comes from the burning, the sacrifice of the wax and the bees. That light spreads and fills the whole world, even as it fills our eyes and hearts..

Having carried the Paschal Candle ahead of us, Deacon Tom chanted the Exsultet, this most beautiful hymn which proclaims Jesus’ Victory over sin and death. The Exsultet speaks of this night, it says:

This is the night,
when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.
….
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

These ancient lines speak a great mystery, the mystery which occupies us here tonight, on this night of all nights. One very compact phrase, three words, beautifully captures this mystery: O felix culpa, translated, “O Happy Fault.”

What could possibly be meant by this poetic expression… O happy fault, on truly necessary sin of Adam? We live the brokenness and consequences of this original sin every day in our unruly passions, in temptation and sin, in sickness and death… In our 7-stop journey through the Old Testament, we encountered human failure in many forms, even as we heard of God’s work, and this is just a selection! How could Adam’s sin with all its consequences be happy or necessary? The phrase is poetic, but what can it mean?

We understand this phrase, O Felix Culpa, O Happy Fault, as a paradoxical expression of the great joy of this night! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, conquering death by death… all that causes us grief, sorrow, and shame has been vanquished… every suffering Christ took upon Himself, and having been laid in the tomb, He rose victorious, the Paschal Lamb!

Jesus did not simply balance the scale or pay the tab… His Infinite Victory has completely overthrown the reign of the Enemy! The beauty and grace of Christ’s victory overwhelms all the sorrow that made it necessary!

Paul summarizes this teaching in our Epistle:

If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.

United with Christ in a death like his, we are united with Him in his victory… accepting His mercy and grace poured out for us, choosing Him, death no longer has power over us! We can even say with Paul, “O Death where is your victory? O Death where is your sting?”

Do we believe this? Do we believe that God’s grace poured into the world, that Jesus’ victorious rising from the dead, can overthrow the reign of sin? Do we perhaps often settle for so much less, even as we practice our faith? Do we hope only to survive, to squeak into eternal life? Aware of our weakness, do we seek only forgiveness without also seeking holiness? On this night, of all nights, Jesus invites us to hope for more, to expand our dreams and aspirations such that we can begin to receive what only HE can give… victory, eternal life, eternal joy! And if we struggle to trust and believe this gift… well, then, we ask God for help there, too! Jesus who broke the gates of Hell asunder, who rose victorious from the grave, this same Jesus can give us new hope, new faith, new love.

It is very beautiful that on this night, we accompany Benjamin Alan Hendrick as he enters full communion with the Church! The fullness of all the gifts Christ intended for His Church are found in the Catholic Church, and Ben begins to partake of that fullness in a new way tonight. The graces of his baptism are confirmed by the full gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and his unity with Christ’s Body is filled with grace as he prepares to receive the Lord’s own Body and Blood. Most of us here received those gifts for the first time as infants, perhaps long ago… may Ben’s reception of these sacraments fill him, and fill us, with new hope, new zeal, new joy!

In our Gospel, taken tonight from Matthew, we hear of the two Mary’s encountering at dawn the earthquake, the empty tomb, and the angel announcing Christ’s rising… In the mystery of that announcement, they responded. We are told:

Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.

Knowing the presence of divine power, they were fearful; knowing Jesus’ rising, they were overjoyed; and in that fear and joy, they ran to announce the Good News! Encountering Jesus face to face, He told them not to be afraid, and to go and tell… We are offered this Good News, this gift once again tonight. If we realize the depth of joy we are offered, we should be a little afraid! If we realize the depth of the gift, we will be joyful… and as we encounter the Risen Lord, offering us the fruit of His Victory, His Body and Blood, we can be confident that He will send us to serve and announce Him. Jesus is Risen, He has conquered Death, His Victory is so much greater than all human sin, and so we rejoice!


 

+ A. M. D. G. +

This Friday is GOOD because...

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for Good Friday

In our human experience, we often encounter places, circumstances, experiences, from which it seems God is absent, or at minimum very distant.

We grieve, we mourn, we are sad

We fail, we are discouraged, we despair

We sin, we hurt others, we hurt ourselves, we are hurt by others

We get sick, our loved ones experience illness, we encounter death

We struggle to believe, we doubt, God seems to be silent

We pray, we struggle to pray, we cry out and it seems no one is listening.

On Good Friday, every one of these mysteries, all of these dark places are present, in the liturgy, in the readings, in our hearts. Where is God?

This Friday is GOOD because God is here, He is in the midst of all of this with us, and the end of our liturgy today is not the end of the story.

In our solemn intercessions, we place before God the needs of the whole world, our own needs.

In our Adoration of the Cross we bow before the mystery of God made man encountering even our mortal death

In our Holy Communion we receive the fruit of the sacrifice, to sustain us through the coming hours of waiting, to sustain us in our fast, to prepare us for the joy that comes on the other side of death.

+ A. M. D. G. +

How Lenten Masses are like Braveheart!?!?

 + J. M. J. +

Things this priest thinks about...

Some time ago, I realized that sitting in the confessional, often on a Saturday morning, waiting for people to come reminded me of something... what was it?  I realized it was just like sitting in my deerblind, all my senses attuned, hoping to hear a leaf rustle or a stick crack.  And, then, often it would be a squirrel! Similarly, just when I would think someone was coming towards the confessional, I would realize it was just the building settling!

Well, recently, something like this happened again! We did a silent recessional during Advent at St. Al's and St. Anne's, a simple way to simplify the liturgy and create a sense of waiting and expectation during these preparatory seasons.  Singing is very good, and so is silence!  Frankly, during Advent, it didn't go so well! There was lots of rustling, lots of people who didn't realize what we were doing or why, and some people who were disgruntled about it!  Discussing it with the team, I decided that we would try it again during Lent, but with more effort to explain and remind people of it.  However, as we got started, it all just fell into place, and people have been really good about standing quietly in their places, with relatively little grabbing for jackets and purses and making noise!  If fact, I have felt a very beautiful stillness and quiet during those moments after the blessing as I kiss the altar, and genuflect at the foot of the sanctuary, and then quietly follow the altar servers out.  But, once again, it reminded me of something and I couldn't quite place it!

And, then, last Sunday, I placed it... that hush, that pause, that expectation... my own hope that nobody would make a break for it and spoil the moment... it reminded me of the scenes in movies where everybody's waiting in the ambush, or the attack, for the special signal!  A trumpet, a flare, and then the tumult is unleashed!  Oftentimes, someone will mess it up and jump the gun... or the general will say, "If anybody charges too early, I'll skewer them myself!"  Or, from the Battle of New Orleans, "Ol' Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise if we held our squirrelgun fire till we looked 'em in the eyes..."

That's what it feels like as I'm processing out in the hush, hoping no one jumps the gun!

One time I didn't time it right with the closing hymn, and the final verse finished while I was still only halfway down the aisle, and I could feel everyone just pouring out of the pews behind me, and I thought to myself, "Ol' Ben, don't stumble now, or you'll be a goner!"  I had the distinct impression I would be trampled down by the hoard!

+ A. M. D. G. +

To Gaze upon another's Face

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Second Sunday of Lent, Year A

This morning as I drank my coffee, I was looking at my garden seeds.  As it was - 16 F below zero, I was wondering if I'll every be able to plant tomatoes!  Just buying those seeds was an act of hope!  And I think that's why the Church gives us our Gospel this Sunday!

Our Gospel this Second Sunday of Lent tells us of this amazing encounter between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and how Peter, James, and John were witnesses to it. They gazed upon the Lord Jesus in His glory, and they gazed upon Moses, representing the Law, and Elijah, representing the Prophets. They heard the Father’s voice, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Last Sunday we heard of Christ’s temptation in the desert, and I talked about the reality of the devil and the spiritual battle in which we live. This Sunday the Church places before us this image of grace and beauty, as if to balance the rather dire prospect of spiritual combat. When we gaze upon the beauty of the Lord’s Face, we are equipped to persevere and to overcome. It seems that this may have been why Jesus brought Peter, James, and John with Him up the mountain, so that seeing His glory they might not despair when they also saw His Passion.

We begin to experience the power and beauty of this encounter when we gaze upon the faces of our brothers and sisters. It seems to me that no musical instrument approaches the beauty of the human voice, and no scene or image in the world surpasses the beauty of the human face. Think of all the portraits and photographs… think of the icons of the Lord and the Saints! Many things in the created world are very beautiful, but when we gaze upon the face of another, when we look into another’s eyes, all other things pale and fade in comparison.

Perhaps we often think of this in the context of romantic love, and perhaps we remember what it was like to have a middle-school crush on someone, and to think about them obsessively, unable to turn our attention to anyone else! Our gaze can be immature, or compulsive, and this isn’t what I’m talking about. Think rather of the beauty of a little baby’s face, or the beauty of your grandfather’s weathered face… think of the beauty of someone you’ve loved and struggled to love for many years. The greatest beauty isn’t produced by make-up or youth or genetics or PhotoShop, but rather by love, and all the sacrifices that love makes, and all the joy that love brings, even in the midst of wounds and loss.

 I hope that some of you have seen the beautiful film Bella, which tells the tale of a woman who finds herself pregnant at a very bad time, and the broken man who walks with her in her time of testing. The film, whose name means beautiful, is beautiful on many levels, but one thing I’ve noticed as I’ve watched it with many different groups is that the majority of the film is comprised of the interplay of the two main characters’ faces. Neither of them is particularly glamorous in the film, on the contrary, they are both in the midst of deep loss and failure, but their faces are open to each other, and as the story develops, more and more open to each other. It is a love story, but not a superficial romance, and the audience is drawn into the faces and the struggles and the love.

Notice, too, how rarely we actually look into another person’s face! We’re rightly taught not to stare when we’re little, and in many circumstances it would be rude to simply lock eyes with each person we encounter. There is power in such a gaze, and vulnerability.

Just as there is rightly caution in our faces when we meet other people, perhaps there is often caution and hesitation when we seek to gaze upon the Lord’s face. Our psalm says, “See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him, upon those who hope for his kindness…” God never ceases to gaze upon our faces, holding us in love, even in existence, by His look of love, but we often fail to look back with open eyes. The words of our entrance antiphon today are beautiful, “Of you my heart has spoken: Seek his face. It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me.” This is the eternal and infinite desire of our hearts, to gaze upon the Lord’s face, and if we will respond and cooperate with God’s call, this is how we will spend eternity, in loving, and being loved. Peter babbled in the light of Jesus’ glory about building tents, and when they heard the Father’s voice, they fell down, very much afraid. We should not lightly assume we are ready to see God’s face, or to hear His voice, but we should seek them nonetheless. God’s love for us is, in St. Paul’s words, “made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” If we will allow the light and glory of heaven to shine in our eyes, to shine into our hearts, we will be made ready to gaze upon the light of the Father’s countenance, to see His face, which will fill our hearts.

We are in a battle with the World, the Flesh, and the Devil, and our Lord Jesus was Himself tempted. The same Jesus who was tempted allowed three to glimpse His glory that day, and He calls us into that same glory. May we notice the hunger in our hearts, and may we look for the Lord, and may we receive Him now, His own Body and Blood, which sustain and heal and prepare us for the day when we will see Him Face to Face.

+ A. M. D. G. + 

Spiritual Combat: Revealing the Enemy's Tactics

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Notes for the First Sunday of Lent, Year A

As some of you may know, I was able to ski the 50 K Classic race at the Great Bear Chase in Calumet today, and I think it was particularly appropriate during this Lenten Season of Penance… I’m not light, or light on my feet, and I’m not in great shape, and with about 10 miles to go, I tweaked one of my hamstrings, so I had plenty to offer up!

Why is penance so necessary in our fallen world? Why does the Church call us to penance so steadfastly?

Our readings today in our readings unveil the source of sin and death, and also of tell us of Christ’s victory over both sin and death.

We begin in Genesis… Adam and Eve are created free, free from sin, but free to choose toward God or away from him. When they encounter the serpent, the dragon, they give into fear and cunning. We often imagine Eve alone with a snake, but the Hebrew text really suggests Adam present but standing back, letting Eve face the Enemy alone, and the word that we often translate snake or serpent, had more the connotation of dragon or monster. With disobedience to God, everything began to unravel… and I suspect you can relate to this in your own life, I know I can!

One of the favorite metaphors in our Catholic Tradition of our encounter with the Enemy and with sin is “spiritual combat.” The point is not that we are called to violence, nor to glorify war, but rather to recognize that we DO have an enemy who desires our despair and destruction. It can be daunting to realize that spiritually we are at war, but it would be far worse to be under attack and to pretend it’s not happening. In our popular culture, one of the devil’s biggest victories has been to convince many people he doesn’t exist.

Adam and Eve do NOT resist, rather, they listen, and Eve enters into conversation with the tempter, she allows a note of doubt to enter in, “Did God really tell you not to…..” Again, I suspect that most of us recognize that voice all to well.

As we recognize that we are in fact under attack, that there are in fact enemy forces who seek our ruin, our Gospel gives us great reason for hope and courage… Christ has encountered the Enemy, He has done battle, and He has won. In the desert, three times Christ was tempted in His humanity, and those three temptations line up with St. Paul’s list of the sources of temptation: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

Christ encounters first the temptation of the Flesh… to use His power to provide Himself with bread, even though the Holy Spirit has taken Him into the desert to fast and pray. We often have opportunities to satisfy our physical and spiritual hungers contrary to God’s law, both in obvious ways, like lustful actions or gluttony, but also in more subtle ways, like sloth or pride. It seems to us in the moment of temptation that only acquiring what we desire will bring us peace… and Christ gives us the true answer, that we do not live by bread alone, but rather by the word of the Father.

Next, the devil attacks through the temptation to tempt God, to presume on God, and to gain power in a worldly way. When we make the things of God subservient to the world, when we seek to shine in the eyes of others rather than God, when we treat faith and sacrament as a means to worldly respect, we worship the world rather than God. What sets the agenda in our lives? Is it the world’s voice, or worldly ways? Or is it God and His Church? Each one of us can go deeper in placing God first and at the center, and allowing His Law to structure our lives.

Finally, the last temptation is the devil, he attacks Jesus through the attraction to worship him and so gain immeasurable power. It is often the case that we can get ahead in the world by sinning, and it is often the case that faithfulness to God comes with a price. Perhaps there are not so many people who have literally sold their souls to the devil, but there are very many who began cutting a corner here, and a corner there, and got ahead, but ended up deeply embroiled in sin. Again, at least in small ways, I think this too we have all experienced.

The devil departs, having been vanquished by the Living Word, Jesus Christ, at least for a time. In the Gospels, the battle will continue through the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Romans, and it will reach its climax on Calvary. It is sobering to recognize clearly that we are under attack, but it is true, and in that attack, we also know that we have a victor and a savior… as St. Paul says, “…through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” That victory comes to us now on this altar… may we bring all the places we are tempted and attacked into the light of prayer, place them on this altar, and receive from this altar the victor, Jesus Himself, and His Saving Remedy, His Body and Blood.

+ A. M. D. G. +

From a blood feud to a balanced scale to a rushing river of mercy!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A
We continue this week to hear from the Sermon of the Mount from the Gospel of Matthew, for the third Sunday in a row. Just to set the stage, remember that two weeks ago Jesus spoke of the need to be salt and light, and I focused on making that concrete in service to those in need, whether materially or spiritually. Then last week Jesus made it very clear that His Good News, the Gospel, is about the fulfillment of the Law, not the elimination of the Law. To summarize, following Christ necessarily involves concrete witness in our words and actions, as well as an ongoing and deep conversion whereby we fight sin both exteriorly, but also in our hearts.

I hope my words were challenging to you, I know they challenge me to live out of them, to follow my own advice so-to-speak! I pause for silence after each homily first because the Church tell me to do this in the rubrics, but I also do it for you, so if I’ve succeeded by God’s grace in saying something true, it can sink into your hearts. But I also pause so that I can allow the truth I’ve tried to express to sink into my own heart! I am just as much in need of conversion as you are, and that moment of silence helps me to embrace it. I also normally apologize to the Lord for my homily!

If the last two weeks are challenging, to serve those in need, to seek constant and interior conversion, then this week’s serving of the Gospel ups the ante considerably! Jesus’ teaching here would have gone considerably against the common Jewish understanding, and it goes against the deep structure of our fallen human nature. A desire for justice and fairness is a gift from God, but our typical pattern of fighting fire with fire is not!

Jesus begins with the so-called lex talionis: “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This phrase is a direct quotation of from Exodus and Leviticus. It’s often held up as a barbaric practice, but in fact it’s a major improvement on actual human behavior… think of blood feuds or vendettas or mafia and drug cartel behavior, where the violence continually escalates. Think of the Cold War arms race, where each round meant that Soviets and Americans were facing each other with ever greater capacity to destroy. Mired in sin, if someone insults us we punch them in the face, they take out a gun and shoot back, and then our family rapes and burns their entire village. This is the human pattern under the reign of sin, and requiring that retaliation be similar in kind and scale is a major step in the right direction. However, it’s not the whole journey… and this is where once again Jesus’ intensifies the call of the God to us. The Jews were called to love the members of their own tribe, other Jews, and to treat Gentiles with justice. The Law limited them to fair and balanced retaliation. As Christians, we are called to forgiveness, and even to generosity towards those who harm us. We are called not merely to reject destroying our enemies, but we are called to love them.

To love our enemies… we’ve all heard the phrase many times, but if we’re honest, have we ever even tried? Remember… love is to choose the good of the other. It’s not primarily or essentially feeling warm and fuzzy towards them. At times we feel warm tenderness and affection for those we love, but not all the time. If loving our enemies meant feeling warm and fuzzy towards them, it would be an irrational and impossible teaching, but love is most fundamentally a choice, not only a feeling. With God’s grace we can choose to love our enemies, we can choose to seek their good.

Just pause and call to mind your enemies, or those you struggle to love: is it your spouse, your parent, a sibling, or a child? Is it a co-worker or your boss or your roommate? Is it the professor who gave you a failing grade or the student who ignores you and treats you with disrespect? Is it connected to a wound buried deep in the past, or from something that happened yesterday? Not infrequently we bury hurt and anger and bitterness deep in our hearts and try to pretend it’s not there… but that venom hurts us first and most of all. Holding onto a grudge, holding onto anger…. it’s like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies!

Concretely, how do we follow this call from our Lord, this teaching that He modeled for us perfectly on the Cross? First, ask for God’s help… “Lord, help me to want to forgive… fill in the blank.” If we can ask for God’s grace we have begun the journey. Forgiving and loving doesn’t mean that what happened wasn’t bad, or that we want it to happen again. It doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten or that the wound is perfectly healed. Forgiving a thief doesn’t necessarily mean we leave the door unlocked, and loving someone who has hurt us doesn’t necessarily mean we step back into the place where we were hurt. But it does mean beginning to give God our hurt and pain and anger, and it does mean praying for the person, the enemy, who has hurt us, and it does mean trusting that God can do in us that which we cannot accomplish alone.

St. Paul tells us that we are temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in us. Will we open all the doors, all the cupboards, all the nooks and crannies in our hearts to the Holy Spirit? As we receive Jesus’ Body and Blood, poured out on the Cross from which He forgave His executioners… will we allow His saving Blood to flood into those places? If we can make this choice today, and then again tomorrow, truly God’s light will shine in us and through us! In our silence now, let us ask God for the courage to welcome Him into all the places that have been boarded up.

+ A. M. D. G. +

What God has prepared for those who love Him: a choice for authentice Christian freedom.

+ J. M. J +

Homily Template for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

This Sunday, we hear of a choice we are invited to make, and we hear of it from various angles! Our first reading, from the Book of Sirach, echoes language used in Deuteronomy… before us we have fire and water, life and death, good and evil! If we keep the commandments, they will save us, if we trust God and choose that which is good, and true, and beautiful, we shall live!

We all know that the choice isn’t quite that simple… our conscience knows imperfectly on its own, it is often persuaded by ignorance or advantage, or comfort. And even when we know clearly what is right, as we often do, it can be devilishly hard to reach for the good, when the evil is so attractive and easy! To choose God, and truth, and right, is a mystery… only God sees perfectly all the labyrinths and layers of our hearts, and yet He still calls us to choose.

What choice, then, brings us joy and freedom? Mysteriously, it is often the same choice that brings us struggle and challenge but also growth. When we choose truth, when we turn from darkness into light, with all that it costs, peace grows on the deepest level of our hearts, and a light dawns in the shadows of this world. Our psalm refrain states something that we know is not completely true in this life, “Blessed are those who follow the law of the Lord.” The Book of Job is the test case… following God and His Law often embroils us in every sort of difficulty, and then we see those who play along to get along, those who go with the flow, those who ignore God’s law… they often seem to flourish. But, then, there is a bigger scale, a bigger horizon… not just this mortal life with its creature comforts, but even eternity. Our Psalm today is Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the bible, and each section begins with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet… first aleph, the bethel, then gimmel, and so on, all the letters, each in turn, praising God’s law. We just hear a few of them, and I want to read you two verses that immediately precede the final verses we heard:

I cling to your decrees;
Lord God, do not disappoint me.
I run the way of your commandments
since you have set me free. (Jerusalem Bible)

What is freedom? It is not merely the absence of restraints, the absences of limits. Imagine a hockey game without the boards, imagine a basketball game without the rules? You would have nothing, just a mess. What happens if I ignore the instructions of Volkswagen to put only diesel in my diesel engine? What happens to your bread if you decide that you’d rather not add yeast? Every day we encounter the life and structure and growth and creativity that come from limits and boundaries. These aren’t perfect analogies, but they point us to the truth… authentic freedom comes not when we are completely unrestricted, but rather freedom grows and deepens when we choose the good, the true, and the beautiful, and most mysteriously, freedom comes when we follow what Blessed John Paul the Great called “The Mystery of the Gift:” the deepest fulfillment and the fullest freedom come to the human person in the total gift of self. Who is the freest man in history? Jesus Christ, on the Cross, held there only by the bond of love… no nails could have restrained The Second Person of the Trinity! Who is the freest woman in history? Not Eve, who ignored God’s simple command, but rather Mary, our Blessed Mother, who said Yes to God, Fiat Volunta Tua, may it be done to me according to your word! By her free choice to empty her life into the Father’s hands, infinite fullness and joy burst into the world, hidden in the tiny child in her womb!

This brings us to our Gospel… Jesus came to set us free, but because He came to draw us towards true freedom, that doesn’t mean no rules, no law… rather it means the law is brought to fulfillment in us… not only do we avoid outright murder, but even hatred. Not only do we avoid sleeping with someone who is not our husband or wife, but we even fight against lust in our minds and hearts. Rather than carefully following the procedure for divorce, we struggle to be faithful to our vows even unto death. Not only do we avoid formally making false oaths, but we avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain and all vulgarity. This is a daunting teaching to anyone who carefully examines his or her heart, but it is the invitation from the God who wants to set us free… not free from exterior restraint, but free for that which is best, truest, and most beautiful, free for God and His Law, free to follow Christ, free to imitate the Blessed Mother and say yes to God.

The Enemy has lied to us about freedom from the very beginning, and that lie has never been shouted more loudly or gussied up to seem more attractive than in our own time. Every sort of sin is presented as desirable and even necessary, even as a right in many cases. But no matter how many movies glorify and justify and gild hatred and lust and infidelity and lies, they are still death dealing, and they still bear bitter fruit. But, in Christ, with His grace, no matter how challenging, no matter how counter-cultural, no matter how disparaged or ignored, the battle to live true freedom in virtue, in truth, bears rich fruit, and plants the seed of deep peace in our hearts.

We come to this altar, now, and if we’re honest, if we know our own hearts, we know that we ALL come as beggars, that we come desiring and hoping to receive Him who we have not always served, Him who we have not always honored. We began with the penitential rite, remembering our need for God’s mercy, and before we receive we will say with one voice, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” It is true, and yet still the Lord comes to us, and still He offers us healing and mercy in confession, healing and nourishment in the Eucharist, where we begin to taste the joy Paul spoke of in our 2nd reading:

What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

May we know our poverty now, may we cry out to God for mercy, may we be filled with hope and courage as we know that He offers us Himself, and with Him in our hearts, we can choose life and live the joy that flows from authentic Christian freedom.

+ A. M. D. G. +

God working in our hearts... not what we expect!

+ J. M. J. +

 Draft Homily for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

We celebrate today this beautiful Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple. God who is Incarnate in the world becomes known on this feast to two more who have been waiting for him, Simeon and Anna. In Jewish practice, the Holy Family is at the Temple for a sacrifice and purification. As with the Lord’s Baptism which takes place some 30 years later, Jesus doesn’t need to be redeemed by a sacrifice, nor does Mary need to be purified. Jesus continues to humbly take upon Himself our need for expiation, not needing it Himself, and Mary participates in this. Our 2nd Reading form the Letter to the Hebrews echoes this mystery:

Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them… he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every way… because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Jesus takes upon Himself our whole condition, He is with us in radical solidarity in all human experience, except He never Himself sinned. Free from sin, though, He still bore all the consequences of sin for us.

Simeon and Anna have both mysteriously been moved by God to wait and recognize the Messiah. God enters His own Temple, and only these two very humble old people recognize Him! What faith and trust it must have taken for them to wait, to hope in God’s promise, to be available to the movement of the Holy Spirit when He moved their hearts. They see the Holy Family come in, a simple humble family, and yet they had the eyes of faith to recognize that here was the Messiah! Simeon affirms the fulfillment of the prophets when he says:

…my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.

God has entered His Temple, His world, His creation… God has come Himself with light and glory, for the People of Israel, and for ALL people! This is why today’s feast came to be known as Candlemas, and why we bless our candles today… the candle is always a symbol of Jesus, Light of the World! Simeon and Anna’s hearts must have been full to the bursting with praise and thanksgiving… and very likely the people around them must have thought they were batty!

It would have been hard for the people there in the Temple to believe or understand, not because they were ignorant of the prophecies, but precisely because they knew the prophecies and constantly discussed them.  The Jews of Jesus' time were in ferment, longing for the Messiah who would deliver them from the Romans, constantly discussing the prophecies, and many false Messiahs arose and were killed.. God fulfilled the prophecies, He DID come, but not as people had expected! Listen again to what the Prophet Malachi had foretold, 

And suddenly there will come to the temple the LORD whom you seek,…But who will endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire, or like the fuller’s lye. He will sit refining and purifying silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, Refining them like gold or like silver that they may offer due sacrifice to the LORD.

The prophet and those who heard him were expecting God to come with force and power, sifting through the people, burning away the impurity. When gold or silver are purified, they are heated until they are molten hot, and all that is impure is burned away or it floats to the surface as dross to be discarded... it's not gentle!

Didn’t God fulfill His promise? Did the prophet or people misunderstand? I would propose to you that God DID keep His promise, but not the way His people expected! Jesus did sift the hearts and lives of those who encountered Him… but quietly, sweetly, gently… Those who encountered Him did have to make a decision… will I follow Him, will I receive Him? However, that choice wasn’t forced upon them with an outward show of force or power, and yet they had to make a choice. Those whose hearts were small and humble, like Mary, like Joseph, like Simeon, like Anna… they were able to receive Him, they were able to respond, they were able to notice God at work and present, a baby child.

So what about you and me? Are we looking for God, paying attention? Do we desire to know His will and work in our midst? Do we desire to cooperate? It is easy for me to be full of my own thoughts and plans and values, such that I don’t even seek God. And if we do seek God, are we only open to His work if it fits our template? Must He strike down the person who disturbs us, or could we let Him soften our hearts? Must the person who has hurt us grovel at our feet, or could we hear an invitation to recognize that we too need to ask forgiveness? Must He eliminate our suffering, or might we recognize an invitation to walk with Christ who walks with us to Calvary? Must God wave His hand and eliminate sickness and sin instantly, or can we hear Him inviting us to be His hands and voice and feet?

In the midst of all the crazy claims about what Pope Francis is doing, listen to his own words from Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel, because I think they fit with our readings today!

3. I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. // No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. // The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. // Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you. // Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. // How good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! // Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. // Christ, who told us to forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. // Time and time again he bears us on his shoulders. // No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. // With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew. // Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. // May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!

Simeon and Anna were invited to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and they held the Baby Jesus in their arms. You and I are invited now to a renewed personal encounter with Christ, and in moments we will receive Him into our hands and onto our tongues. God NEVER tires of forgiving us… No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love! Hearing this beautiful invitation, may we respond with generous love!

 + A. M. D. G. +