Gratification

It's often said that, today, patience is a lost virtue.

Everyone wants immediate gratification.

Surely that's an overstatement, but there's some truth to it.

We have fast food, movies on demand, instant communication and even speed dating.

We live in a highly material, consumer oriented culture.

When we see something we want—we get it then and there.

Rapid advances in science and technology make the possibilities seem limitless.

We come to expect quick satisfaction in broader areas of our lives.

We're annoyed that security delays can make a trip across the country take seven hours.

We're tired of waiting for the economy to improve.

We can't believe it's taking this long to perfect an artificial heart and a cure for cancer.

We really do have great expectations, and great eagerness in many areas of life.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So long as we avoid greed and a presumption of entitlement.

And maintain our ability to step back and take a realistic look.

There are other areas where we fully expect to wait for gratification.

And maybe wait for a very long time.

Many expect to wait a long time to be rewarded for obedience, sacrifice and service.

So often, when we hear of the importance of doing the right thing,

There's an emphasis on rewards in the next life.

But, as we hear in today's Scripture, this is not an area where we have to wait.

We actually can get immediate, and lasting, gratification.

The passage from Sirach describes what it means to do the right thing—to be upright.

Keep the Commandments, they promote peace.

Perform acts of charity.

Avoid acts of evil and injustice.

Give generously and cheerfully.

We're told that these acts will never be forgotten.

And that we'll be repaid many times over.

Hasn't this been confirmed for us in our own first-hand experience?

We've felt the immediate joy that proves it truly is better to give than to receive.

We've felt the immediate satisfaction of helping someone in need.

We've seen that the Commandments are not mere tests for entry into the next life.

But solid guidance for happiness and peace in this life.

In our Gospel, Jesus makes the reward for the upright, and its timing, even more explicit.

We will receive a hundred times more, now, in this present age.

And eternal life in the age to come.

With the right attitude and priorities we can have it all.

Immediate gratification and ultimate, eternal gratification.

Tuesday of 8th Week in Ordinary Time

Mk 10:28-31                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org   

Graduation

This is graduation season.

And this past Sunday I attended my grandson's graduation in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He was graduating from a Catholic high school, so the program included Sunday Mass.

And it was Pentecost Sunday.

The day the Spirit descended on Jesus' disciples

and gave them the power and the courage and the ability to spread the Good News.

The priest gave the homily and the headmaster gave an address after the Mass.

Both noted how appropriate it was to have a graduation ceremony, a commencement,

on the Feast of Pentecost.

The headmaster said the school had helped these students prepare.

They'd spent four years getting ready to go out into the world.

Four years of growing in knowledge and character and confidence.

And in the Spirit.

The headmaster urged them to carry the Good News with them wherever they go.

We all know the quote from St Francis of Assisi:

Preach always, and if necessary use words.

And the old saying: Actions speak louder than words.

The priest, in his homily, added a new dimension to that—at least new for me.

He noted the disciples speaking in tongues on Pentecost.

They were understood by all the visitors in Jerusalem despite their different languages.

The priest urged the new graduates to use all their languages to spread the Good News.

And he listed some specific examples.

Actions and accomplishments that are metaphorically “languages”.

The language of service, the language of friendship.

The language of science, the language of sports.

We interact and communicate in so many ways.

And we can convey our message in any of those languages.

Today's Scripture readings tell us to serve the Lord.

To commit our lives to the Lord.

To trust God.

To reach out to the child—the uninformed, the weak and the powerless.

That's our purpose in being.

That's what God created us to do.

Growth in the Spirit is a life-long process.

Every year is another year of preparation for us.

And this time, this graduation season, is a good time to give ourselves a little exam.

A time to see if we're ready to commence service at a new graduated level.

Tuesday of 7th Week in Ordinary Time

Mk 9:30-37                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org   

Pick Your Friends

My mother has some old sayings.

And I know where she got them

Directly from Gramma Curtis; her grandmother, my great-grandmother.

Gramma Curtis died a long time ago, when I was about seven years old.

She was full of sound old rural Kentucky folk wisdom.

She probably picked up her sayings back in the post-Civil War days.

But I’m sure they were already wise old sayings when she first heard them.

Probably passed down from her parents and their parents before that.

One that I heard a few times was:

Pick your friends, don’t let them pick you.

I’m not exactly sure what that means.

If everyone followed that literally and strictly, people could never become friends.

Whenever one person made the first move, the other would have to decline.

So the old saying can’t mean that.

The best I can make of it is:

Be careful that you don’t join up with the wrong person or the wrong crowd.

Think about who you should be friends with, and how they influence the way you live your life.

Either person can make the first move.

But there’s no friendship until you have mutual commitment from both.

In our Scripture readings today, people are being picked.

Peter and the other remaining apostles are looking to fill Judas’ slot.

They have two good men to choose between, but only one slot available.

It’s a pretty prestigious group to join; at least from our perspective today.

But at the time, Matthias’ mother might have warned him that they were a pretty shaky crowd.

In the end, they did pick Matthias, and he let them choose him.

Actually, they asked God to do the picking.

They prayed for guidance and prayed that God would show them the best choice.

And then they decided by drawing lots.

So, in a real sense, God chose Matthias.

Pretty impressive—chosen by God.

Impressive; but not unusual.

In our Gospel, Jesus says to each of us:

I have called you friends.

It was not you who chose me but I who chose you.

It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the root of the old saying Gramma Curtis passed along.

Jesus, Son of God, King of the Universe—God Himself—has chosen us to be his friends.

Even more than that; he first chose to create us; brought our spirits into being from nothingness.

And now he’s calling us his friends.

He’s made his picks; he’s made the first couple moves.

There’s no question that this is a good friendship for us.

He’s always going to be a good influence on us.

He’ll always encourage us and draw out the best in us.

All he’s looking for now is for us to make that wise choice.
To make that mutual commitment to the friendship.

Tuesday of 7th Week of Easter

Jn 15:9-17                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org   

Inside Job

Our liturgy is building up toward Pentecost—the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel passage tunes into a scene two thousand years ago.

The Spirit hasn’t come yet.

Jesus is about to ascend into heaven.

And he’s reassuring his disciples that his departure is a good thing.

They should be happy that he's leaving.

Because he'll then send the Advocate, the Spirit, to take his place.

That’s old news for us today.

But those frightened disciples need reassurance.

They feel they're being abandoned, they don’t know what to expect.

So Jesus tells them what will happen.

He gives an explanation that is both a job description,

And a foretelling of the Holy Spirit’s ultimate accomplishments.

When he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation:
sin, because they do not believe in me;
righteousness, because I am going to the Father …
condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

There’s some debate about the best translation of that word convict.

Different bible translations use different words: convict, convince, expose and prove.

But all those words convey the idea that the Spirit would enlighten people.

Give them new understanding of Jesus’ life and death.

New understanding of God and the world.

It’s easy for us to take Christianity for granted.

But two thousand years ago, only a relative handful of people had ever heard of Jesus.

Among those who had, most didn’t believe that he was the Messiah.

They held no strong conviction that his execution was a result of their sin.

They weren’t convinced that he was righteous and returning to the Father.

Or even that he had come from the Father.

They hadn’t yet made the connection between his resurrection

And the overthrow of the ruler of this world.

The news that Satan had been defeated, condemned, had not yet been exposed.

All that convicting, convincing, exposing and proving was to be a major job for years to come.

Certainly too much for the disciples on their own.

Even a lot for Jesus himself—in his human nature, limited by time and place.

This was a job for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God.

The Spirit could be everywhere at once, with no limitations.

Other than refused acceptance.

Unlike the physical Jesus, the Spirit could actually dwell within each old and new disciple.

And inform them from within.

Over these past two thousand years, the Spirit has clearly been hard at work.

Today, most of the world’s seven billion people have at least heard of Jesus.

And a third of the world’s people identify themselves as his followers.

That’s a lot of people, a lot of growth—but also a lot of years.

Is that reasonably good progress toward building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? 

Who knows the answer to that?

Could each of us do more to cooperate with the Spirit within us?

Who doesn’t know the answer to that?

Tuesday of 6th Week of Easter

Jn 16:5-11                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org