Weeds

A couple years ago I had a brief encounter with a most interesting man.

Dominic was a very affable fellow.

And he struck up a conversation with me.

We quickly found that we had a few things in common.

He’d spent his teen years in Connecticut

As had I.

He’d moved to NY, and often took the subway out to Shea Stadium to see the Mets.

I used to take the train from Hartford and go to Shea Stadium when my favorite team,

the Cincinnati Reds, came to NY.

He had considered going to law school – I had.

We were also different in many ways.

Nick, as he preferred to be called,

Was probably twenty years younger than me.

And much blacker than me.

He’d spent a number of years in the Marine Corps.

And had spent many of those years in Europe and the Middle East.

I was never in the military, and have spent only brief vacations in Europe.

Nick was clearly an intelligent person.

He was quite well spoken, well read, and well educated.

He told me that he’d recently written a book about a black soldier.

And he pulled a copy from his duffle bag to show me.

He said it was available on Amazon.

He spoke Spanish and at least a bit of German.

When I referred to someone as a “good chap”,

Nick launched into a strong British accent and began to tell me about his time in London.

What struck me most about Nick,

What I can’t forget about Nick,

Was the odd circumstance of our meeting.

We met in a vacant field over by where New York Avenue crosses I-395.

A few of us from St Joseph’s were over there.

Feeding the homeless.

I didn’t notice him at first.

But Nick was there in the field, mixed in among the crowd.

Standing there with the other homeless.

Well, not all were homeless.

Some have a place to live.

But they can’t afford an apartment and food too.

A few were elderly poor.

Some were people just temporarily down on their luck.

Others had alcohol or drug addictions.

Probably most had mental health issues to some degree.

It wasn’t until I heard a little commotion behind me

That I turned and saw Nick.

He was good-naturedly bantering with a couple others in the soup line.

Those others seemed to have been on the verge of an argument.

But Nick had diffused the situation with his humor.

And that’s when our conversation began.

It continued off-and-on as the food was distributed.

A few sentences here, a few comments there.

A joke, a story.

And then the crowd began to drift away from the field.

Nick was telling me about London

When he noticed that his group was already heading down the block.

He said, Gotta run, where the crowd goes, the fool must follow.

And he was gone.

But I keep thinking – he should never have been in that cluster in the field.

Maybe that’s why I can’t forget him.

With a superficial look at the crowd that sprang up that day in that field

Any one of us might have taken it for a field of weeds.

Whether the weeds represent the bad, among the good wheat.

Or whether the weeds represent the worthless, among the valuable wheat.

We’re in no position to judge the wheat from the weeds.

That’s why Jesus tells us in his parable to let them grow together.

Our view is too often a superficial view.

Nick might have easily been mistaken for one of the weeds.

Who’s to say there were any weeds in that field that day.

Even when we think we’re looking carefully and closely

We can only see so far beyond the purely superficial.

Only God can see into the heart.

So, whenever we catch ourselves slipping into the trap of judging others,

Let’s pull ourselves back to our proper role.

The role of giving the assistance, and setting the example

That will help the Spirit spread the Kingdom of Heaven right here on earth.

Anything is possible in the Kingdom of Heaven.

If we do our part

Perhaps the Spirit will touch any true weeds and transform them into true wheat.

And when Jesus comes with his angels at the close of the age

The Spirit will have already completed his work.

And the angels will find no weeds to destroy.

Tuesday of the 17th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 13:24-43           Read this Scripture @usccb.org 
(OK, I fudged the link to give the full parable)

Hey, You're Family

A good friend might say, Hey, I’m going to treat you like family!

We might say in return, Gee, I hope you’ll treat me better than that!

None of us has a perfect family.

But, like many, I’m blessed with a great family—both immediate and extended.

Unfortunately that’s not the case for everyone.

Our family can be our basic foundation of great love and loyalty and strength.

Or a hotbed of discontent, disappointment, rivalry and betrayal

Or a mix of many of those things.

Even those contradictory things.

Family relationships can be complex.

Some of us no longer have our families.

We may be the last surviving member of a family.

We may be distant or estranged from our family.

Families don’t always measure up to the ideal image the term conjures up.

The old lament is true (at least with our blood relatives).

You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family.

And for some of us our friends are, in effect, our family.

We might feel more closely bound to a group of good friends than to our family.

We might even call that group our “family”.

But the deep bonds of our childhood family identity remain.

Even when family relationships are far less than ideal.

You can’t choose them, and you can’t lose them.

And that image of the ideal family also remains.

When someone tells us we’re like a brother or a sister—that we’re like family—

They’re referring to that ideal.

They’re giving us an extreme compliment. 

So what does Jesus mean with his words today?

Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother and sister and mother.

He’s certainly not belittling Mary or his other natural relatives.

He’s extending that extreme compliment to each of us.

Even more, he’s reminding us that we are indeed his family.

We’re all truly brothers and sisters to each other and to him.

We all have but one common Father—in heaven.

He’s saying he wants us to be as close to him as that ideal brother or sister or mother.

And he’s telling us how to reach that ideal—by doing the Father’s will.

He’s urging us to help deepen our intimate familial bond with him.

Tuesday of the 16th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 12:46-50           Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

Don't Worry---Be Happy

Don’t Worry—Be Happy.

Advice from a hit song some years ago.

A nice simple approach to life.

The singer/writer, Bobby Ferrin, said he got the phrase from an Indian guru’s poster.

Simple advice, but no easier to follow today than it was two thousand years ago,

Where we look in on Martha.

Martha is anxious and worried about many things.

Jesus is stopping in for a visit.

She’s got preparations to make.

She’s got a guest to welcome and serve.

Jesus is a good friend.

He’s often come to her home to visit her and her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus.

But a little formal hospitality is part of their culture.

Jesus may be a friend, but he’s also an important teacher and leader.

And Martha wants everything to go smoothly.

It’s not hard to relate to Martha.

We’re all anxious and worried about many things.

We’re all burdened with responsibilities and work.

Even if they’re responsibilities we’re happy to take on.

And work we love to do.

They’re still burdens—on our limited time if nothing more.

We start out as carefree children.

But soon we have classes to take, tests to pass.

Chores to do, rules to obey.

Skills to learn.

Then, we’ve got jobs to find.

Careers to pursue.

Bills to pay.

Homes to keep.

Families to care for.

And a hundred other things.

Necessary things.

It’s good to be busy.

But sometimes our days are too full.

Too full of activities and too full of anxieties.

Financial worries, health worries, worries about friends and family.

Worries about the world.

For some of us it’s an occasional problem.

For some of us it seems never ending.

We’re tense, and tired, and sleep deprived.

And even if we find time to sleep, we’re so wound up we can’t.

We suffer insomnia and even depression.

Amid all that anxiety and busyness, it’s easy to miss out on the better part of life.

That part that Martha’s sister Mary takes up in today’s Gospel.

Martha bounces around, frazzled with all that needs to be done.

Mary quietly sits listening to Jesus, enjoying his company and conversation.

Martha’s so frustrated and overworked that she complains to her guest.

Hey Jesus, don’t you care that I’m stuck alone with all this work?

Tell Mary to help me.

Martha’s surprised, and maybe we are too,

When Jesus approves of Mary’s slacker behavior.

Jesus tells her, in effect:

Lighten up Martha, there’s a better choice here.

Sure, the preparing and the serving is important.

But there’s a balance to be struck.

You’re not just a servant.

You’re my friend.

I didn’t come just to be served.

I’m here with you now to visit.

I’ve got things to tell you.

And I’d like for you to listen.

We should be enjoying each other’s company.

What I have to tell you can ease your anxieties.

You were made to be happy.

But you’re looking in the wrong places.

I can guide you to that fundamental happiness that lets you put everything in perspective.

Take a break from the preparation and service and busyness.

It can wait a little while.

There will be plenty of time for that later.

We live in a hyper-busy world today.

It takes some effort to balance our priorities.

Yes, there’s much work to do.

But not so much that we need to deprive ourselves of the better part.

So, let’s be sure to reserve “quality time” to spend with our families and friends.

And at least a little time, each day, to welcome our friend Jesus.

And to do some quality listening. 

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lk 10:38-42           Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

Scary Stuff

Scary stuff.

Judgment Day.

Jesus warns the people of his time and his place that judgment awaits them.

And that judgment will be harsh for those who failed to repent.

Failed to look at their lives and admit to the wrongs they had done.

Failed to feel any remorse for those wrongs.

Failed to feel any desire to alter course or make amends for those wrongs.

Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum should have repented.

Jesus lived among them—they knew all about him.

They heard him preach; they witnessed his miracles.

They had been given much more than Tyre and Sidon and Sodom.

And to whom much is given, much is expected.

Much has also been given to Washington and Boston and Hartford and Covington.

And vast numbers of us throughout today’s world.

We know all about Jesus and his message.

His miracles, his Good News, his call for repentance.

So Jesus’ warning extends to us too.

At Mass, after the homily, we voice our prayers of the faithful; our petitions.

Sometimes we specifically pray for those who have not heard the Gospel.

And for those who have heard it but rejected it.

Is there hope for those people?

Certainly those who have never heard the Gospel can’t be punished for that.

But how about those who heard it and rejected it; who failed to repent?

Is there still hope for them?

I have hope for them.

Maybe there’s hope up to their very last moment.

We believe that there’s a particular judgment immediately after death.

When we alone face up to the life we’ve lived and learn of our eternal fate.

(Before the general judgment at the end of time.)

At least one theologian has speculated that we also get one final chance for repentance.

In the instant before death actually occurs.

That Jesus comes to those needing that last chance and offers them that opportunity.

That in his great mercy God gives us this final chance to accept salvation.

I like that.

That’s the hope I have for all those who might need it.

Can we count on that last chance?

No.

Nobody really knows the precise details on death and judgment.

But we can hope and pray that—somehow—

God does gather each one of us, from all the nations, into the peace of His Kingdom.

Tuesday of the 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 11:20-24           Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

Penetential Rite:
You came to gather the nations into the peace of God’s Kingdom.
Lord have mercy.

You come to us in word and sacrament to strengthen us in holiness.
Christ have mercy.

You will come in glory with salvation for your people.
Lord have mercy.

United We Stand --- Divided We Fall

Today’s short Gospel passage seems to jump all over the place.

First, Jesus drives out a demon.

And the Pharisees say he did it by the power of the Prince of Demons.

Then Jesus has pity for the people and goes to all the towns and villages.

Teaching, proclaiming the Good News, and curing every disease and illness.

And finally, he tells us The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

It seems like a mishmash of three somewhat disjointed messages.

But for me, it immediately called to mind a front-page story from this Sunday’s Post.

A story of feeding hungry children in rural Tennessee—in Appalachia.

We spend billions of our federal tax dollars on school lunch programs.

And millions of our American children desperately need that free lunch.

For many, it’s their main meal of the day.

But in the summer, when school is out, there is no free lunch.

So we spend billions more on summer lunch programs.

The article focuses on a program that buses those lunches out to the kids.

A school bus that serves as a lunch wagon winds through the hills and hollows every day.

Kids wait at the small trailer parks and other community sites.

When the bus comes, they each get a bag lunch, and they eat it in the bus.

This ensures that the kids are the ones getting the food— and that each gets only one bag.

The article includes a lot of (online) pictures of the kids.

And some background details about the tough economy, the depressed area,

The lost jobs, and folks struggling to get by.

It shows some of the real people behind the statistics.

Child hunger in America may not rank among the world’s greatest tragedies.

But it is a tragic suffering.

And one we ought to be able to do something about.

Is the lunch bus a flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars?

Is the lunch bus an ideal solution?

Neither.

But kids need to keep eating while we all work together to find better solutions.

So, how does the lunch bus touch on the three messages of today’s Gospel?

Jesus’ heart was filled with pity.

And he went to all the villages to spread the Good News and cure the suffering.

We, through our dollars and our caring, send that bus to visit all the creeks and hollows.

Easing the suffering and carrying at least some implication of the Good News.

Jesus said The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few.

He was speaking primarily of harvesting souls.

And, indeed, we’re still called to that labor.

But those words also carry an additional, direct message for us in America today.

They aptly describe our food situation.

We have an abundance of food, and too few laboring to ensure that it’s distributed fairly.

That leaves the matter of driving out demons.

Matthew doesn’t mention it here, but Jesus did have a good answer to those Pharisees.

An answer that echoes through Appalachian Kentucky.

The motto of my native state.

United we stand—Divided we fall.

The Pharisees said Jesus drove out demons by the power of the Prince of Demons.

Jesus answered that that was crazy talk.

A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Those words too, carry an additional, direct message for us in America today.

Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 9:32-38                                 Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

                                                                                   Read the Washington Post Article

Calm

Matthew, Mark, Luke and Gene all wrote about Jesus calming the storm.

We heard Matthew’s account today.

Most of us have heard what Gene had to say too—that’s Gene MacLellan.

His 1971 hit song was recorded by many top stars including:

Elvis Presley, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, Perry Como, Ocean, 

Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson and Anne Murray.

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters.

Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea.

Take a look at yourself and then you can look at others differently.

By puttin’ your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.

When we take a look at the apostles

They don’t look too good.

How could they have so little faith?

Jesus criticized them a number of times for their puny faith.

He said that the centurion, a Roman, showed greater faith than he’d found in them.

He said their faith was smaller than a mustard seed.

The apostles knew Jesus personally.

They heard him teach with unprecedented wisdom and authority.

They were eye witnesses to his many healings and other miracles.

And yet they still questioned his power.

And wondered who he was.

How could they be so slow to get it?

When they were caught in a violent storm

They were terrified.

Even though their all-powerful friend was right there with them.

They had too little faith to see that his very presence with them

Was enough to save them from any true disaster.

But who are we to criticize the apostles for their little faith?

When we take a look at ourselves

We see that we’d better look at them differently.

Because we see that we’re just like them.

So often, when we’re caught in one of life’s violent storms

We lose focus on what this life is really all about.

We become just as terrified as the apostles were.

Even though our all-powerful friend is right there with us.

If we keep ourselves close at hand to Jesus

He’ll help us to keep our focus.

Then we can not only look at others differently.

But we can also look at storms differently.-

We just gotta put our hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.

Tuesday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 8:23-27                                 Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

Imagine

Take a guess.

In World War II, what percent of soldiers in battle actually aimed and fired at an enemy soldier?

According to an interview I once read, it was an astoundingly low number—20%!

If that’s accurate, 80% of the soldiers couldn’t bring themselves to shoot another human being.

Even while under fire in battle.

That shows that the vast majority of people are naturally non-violent.

And it takes a lot of intense conditioning to make them killers.

The interview was with a peace activist named Paul Chappell.

He seemed different from many other peace activists.

First of all, his background is different.

He’s a West Point graduate, and spent two years serving in Iraq as an Army Captain.

Besides that, he had thoughtful answers, rather than mere criticisms.

He quotes Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

But he also quotes Generals Eisenhower, McArthur, Bradley and McCrystal.

A striking aspect of his answers was his clear optimism that mankind is moving away from war.

He believes that people who support war and even those who promote war,

Can be convinced to change their position.

And people who oppose war, but do nothing about it, can be moved to action.

And all that can be achieved through discussion of the facts.

He believes in the basic goodness of human beings.

And in the power of Truth.

Violence is the extreme antithesis of the action we’re called to in today’s readings.

Abram sets an excellent example in our passage from Exodus.

Strain is growing in the relationship between him and his nephew, Lot.

Or at least among their people.

So, Abram comes up with a generous solution to avoid conflict—divide the land.

And he gives Lot first choice in selecting which area to take.

Our Psalm proclaims:

He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
The psalm offers some examples of a just person, and one is the person:

Who harms not his fellow man.

Those messages of Exodus and the Psalm fit well with the message of the Gospel.

Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.

A corollary to what Jesus presented as the second great commandment.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

When things are looking pretty grim,

Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria.

It’s encouraging to hear from the optimists,

Who believe we’re making real progress.

Imagine what our world would be like if everyone did follow that great commandment.

We would have—almost—heaven on earth.

And that’s precisely what Jesus is working with us to bring about.

He’s asking us to spread the word.

To set the example.

To draw more people to that narrow gate.

To finish his work of building the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

Tuesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 7:6,12-14                                 Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

Deep and Durable

Last month we celebrated Mother’s Day.

And today we celebrate Father’s Day.

So, happy Father’s Day to those who are fathers.

With St Joseph as our patron we have a special place in our hearts for all kinds of fathers.
Foster fathers, step fathers, spiritual fathers, grandfathers--all who serve in the fatherly role.

Of course, many of us are not parents.

But we’ve all been children.

And we all have parents to visit or call or remember on these days.

Our parents may rank as great, or just so-so, or as not very good at all.

But with the benefit of maturity and hindsight, 

We might see that we didn’t always make their job easier.

So, if our own parents rank less than perfect, or even far from perfect, 

We can cut them some slack.

Those of us who are parents get a little advantage in seeing how hard a job it can be.

We get to experience the joys and the pains of the parent-child relationship from both sides.

If we’re grandparents we get yet another perspective.

We see our children dealing with raising our grandchildren.

And we can take satisfaction in watching them all grow through that process.

We might even contribute our sage advice—if asked.

It’s hard for parents to know when to be unyieldingly strict and when to give in.

When to step in and when to hold back.

When to be protective and when to encourage independence.

Some parents keep a tight reign on their kids—some too tight.

Some parents let their kids run wild; let them get away with murder.

How can we figure out this parent-child relationship—from either side?

God help us.

Indeed, God does help us.

He gives us an example we can follow; a model we can examine.

As Jesus once said: Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father, in heaven.

God made us, God provides for us, God is in charge, God is truly our ultimate parent.

We can learn by looking at His relationship with His children.

What we see there can help us better understand our human relationships.

In turn, what we see in our human relationships helps us appreciate our relationship with God.

King David was one of God’s kids.

It seems that he was one of those kids who was given everything.

One of those kids who was allowed to get away with murder.

David had everything.

But he wanted more.

He wanted Bathsheba.

But she was already married to Uriah.

So he had Uriah killed.

And today we hear Nathan the prophet speaking for God and admonishing David.

But the bottom line, after the admonishment, is: You’re forgiven.

Another one of God’s kids is that woman we meet in today’s Gospel.

She didn’t literally get away with murder.

But she did get away with acts that made her notorious throughout the city as a sinful woman. 

The Pharisee knew of her reputation; Jesus knew her guilt.

And yet the bottom line from Jesus was:

Your sins are forgiven.

So what’s the lesson here?

What can we apply to our relationships with our children and our parents?

What can we apply to our understanding of our parent-child relationship with God?

God’s total forgiveness of the notoriously sinful woman was very generous, 
But not too surprising.

His total forgiveness of David was a bit more surprising.

David was guilty of one of the most serious sins imaginable.

The premeditated, wanton, unnecessary murder of a loyal, innocent servant.

Did God really let David just get away with that?

In the most important sense, yes, he did.

David’s act did not cost him his own eternal life, God forgave his sin.

But God did not shield David from the natural consequences of his sin.
From the evil and violence his murderous act brought into the world.

He still had to suffer those consequences in this life.

As God said through Nathan:

The sword shall never depart from your house.

And indeed, David and his house did suffer greatly.

His first son with Bathsheba died a few days after birth.

His son Amnon raped his sister Tamar.

His son, Absalom, later killed his brother Amnon.

And years later, Absalom led a revolt that sought to kill David.

Yet, when Absalom was finally killed by David’s men, David mourned inconsolably.

How could a parent be so loving and forgiving and committed to a child like Absalom?

It’s just one example,
Of the extreme depth and durability of human parental love and forgiveness.

An example that helps us understand how God can love His children so much.
So much that He's willing to forgive everything.

All four of our scripture readings today focus on forgiveness.

The Good News message is that there is no sin so great that God won’t forgive us.

He’s our Father, and His divine love and forgiveness for each of us is unbounded.

There’s also a corollary to that message.

And a way for us to show God our gratitude and love for Him.

We may not be able to match God’s divine love and forgiveness.

But we know there’s also a great human capacity for love and forgiveness.

We’ve seen it, and hopefully experienced it, in human parent-child relationships.

And now we’re called to extend that love and forgiveness to all of God’s children.
Just as He does.

To all of our brothers and sisters.

On this Father’s Day, let’s give special thought and commitment

To the prayer we’ll be saying together in a few minutes.

Our Father who art in Heaven …

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Mt 7:36-50                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org  

A Thousand Points of Light

A few decades ago, President George Bush, Sr. popularized the image of

a Thousand Points of Light.

That was his call to Americans to keep up their good works of service and volunteerism.

He recognized that it was not a new image; he said it was old.

Old but not stale—timeless.

That image is a distant reflection of the image Jesus raised two thousand years earlier.

You are the light of the world.

Your light must shine before others,

That they may see your good deeds,

And glorify your heavenly father.

Those are the words he spoke to his disciples as he sent them out into the world.

Out like the prophets of old.

Out to spread the Good News.

Words like those were probably repeated to St Barnabas, whose feast we celebrate today.

As he was sent out on his missionary journeys.

Now those words are repeated to us.

We’re told that we too should go and spread the word.

When we were baptized we were anointed for that mission.

Anointed as priest, prophet and king.

And we were given grace to help us fill those roles.

Now, Jesus sends us out to be that light of the world.

We should be aware that there are people who are watching.

And that our example can actually draw them closer to God.

We shouldn’t become overly self-conscious about it.

And we shouldn’t let it stress us out.

We should just continue to try to be ourselves.

But also work to become the best selves we can be.

Frequently attending Mass is one way to go about that improvement.

But fewer than 4% of U.S. Catholics go to Mass more that once a week.

Only 30% go once a week.

Those of us who attend frequently are blessed to have the opportunity and the motivation.

Of course, just being at Mass doesn’t necessarily make us better people.

But it does show that we’re working at it.

The word Mass comes from the Latin missa—to send.

And we’re sent from each Mass with a reminder of our true mission in life:

Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.

What do people see when they look at us closely?

If they see a good example, good acts, good deeds—

Then we are “in-deed” being what Jesus calls us to be.

Thousands of thousands points of light.

The light of the world.

Tuesday of 10th Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 5:13-16                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org  

Easy Paymet Plan

Should we pay, or should we not pay?

They were sure they had Jesus trapped with their clever question.
If he says pay the tax, he’ll lose the support of many followers.

If he says don’t pay, he’ll be subject to punishment, maybe death, from the Romans.

But Jesus had the perfect answer to silence those who were trying to ensnare him.

Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.

What do we have that belongs to Caesar?

Jesus says that which is stamped with the image of Caesar belongs to Caesar.

That coin.

Look at our coins and bills today.

Still stamped and imprinted with the image of our worldly leaders.

Those coins and bills and all the material things they can buy are part of this world.

And this world only.

What do we have that belongs to God?

Jesus showed us the test to use.

That which is stamped and impressed with the image of God belongs to God.

And what is that?

We might say all of nature or all of creation.

But we each have one unique, special piece of creation.

One thing that is specifically made in the image and likeness of God.

Something that's part of this world and the other world.

… Ourselves.

So that's what we need to repay to God, give back to God.

Ourselves.

That's the task of our lifetime.

The purpose of our lifetime.

But how can we give ourselves back to God?

That's the question of our lifetime.

Our old Baltimore Catechism gives a simple, plain answer—service.

God made us to know, love and serve Him in this world.

And to be happy with him forever in Heaven.

So how can we serve Him?

We can't all just kneel around praying all day.

There are time consuming real-world activities that we need to attend to.

Finding food and shelter, for example.

For many of us, that can be a full time job.

On another occasion, Jesus gave us the perfect answer on how we can serve God.

We serve God by following His commandments; by doing His will.

And Jesus boiled all the rules down to the Two Great Commandments.

Love God with all your heart, soul and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus' answer is perfect in its simplicity.

Commandments that are easy to remember and to understand.

Even if not always easy to follow.

Our own will might get in the way.

Or the best path may sometimes be unclear.

But whatever the circumstances,

The perfect answer for us will always be to go back to those two Great Commandments.

And make our best sincere effort to follow them.

Every time we do, we're repaying to God what belongs to God.

Tuesday of 9th Week in Ordinary Time

Mk 12:13-17                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org  

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   

Peace

A number of years ago they added a new feature to our email system at work.

You could specify some standard text.

And the system would automatically add that text at the end of each message.

We all take that for granted now, but it was new back then.

So we all added our name, phone number, maybe our address.

To save even a few more keystrokes we could also include a standard complimentary close.

(If formal letter writing wasn’t part of your elementary school curriculum,

The complimentary close is that message, those few closing words, we put before our name.

Like: Sincerely, or Yours Truly.)

We all tried to find a standard close that would be appropriate for most all messages.

Messages to bosses and staff, friends, colleagues and strangers.

Messages of good news and bad, agreement and disagreement.

I started using Peace.

Over the years, I got quite a few responses that closed with words like:

Yeah Man, Peace!  Or a more sedate Peace to You Too.

Only a few people ever asked what I really meant by closing my message that way.

But if they asked, I told them.

In our Gospel today, Jesus gives his Last Supper farewell.

And he says: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give it to you.

He indicates that he’s giving not just any peace, but a special peace.

Something more than just a temporary worldly peace—His peace.

What’s special about his peace?

It’s not just an absence of war or conflict.

It’s not a fragile condition that will last only temporarily.

It’s a comfort that grows from a deep-seated, abiding, confidence and trust in God.

It’s a knowledge that even when all is not well in this world,

We can count on God to make it well in the end.

Jesus left that peace to his disciples—to us.

How can we claim it?

St Paul gives us some guidance in his letter to the Phillipians.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

If you do this, you will experience God’s peace,

which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:6-7 (NLT)).

Paul makes it sound pretty simple.

But we know that kind of peace can be elusive; for many of us, it comes and goes.

Some people may never experience that peace in this life.

But that’s the peace we hear about here at Mass.

The peace we offer each other after the Lord’s Prayer.

The peace we might wish for all our email recipients.

And not only for them.

But for ourselves.

And for everyone.

Tuesday of 5th Week of Easter

Jn 14:27-31                                    Read this Scripture @usccb.org