What Time Is It?

As I was walking down the street one day
A man came up to me and asked me what the time was

That was on my watch.

And I said:

Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?

Lyrics from a hit song by a group named Chicago nearly 50 years ago.

But the observation is still true today.

Just as it was 2000 years ago.

Some things seem to never change.

In Jesus’ time there were men waiting, some standing idle all day.

Today, if you drive up to certain places, like Home Depot or Lowes,

You’ll see laborers waiting to be hired for the day.

Some are hired early in the morning.

Others are still waiting in the afternoon.

If you drive past certain parks or corners or liquor stores

You’ll see men (maybe some women) gathered together, standing idle.

Those who have given up on being hired.

What do we think about those un-utilized, idle people?

Do we look down on them?

Is it okay if they and their children go without basic needs?

Are they getting what they deserve?

Jesus’s parable is, on the surface, about worldly labor and reward.

And most of us here might feel deserving on that level.

But just below the surface,

The story is about spiritual labor and reward.

If we’re at all self-aware, we won’t feel quite so deserving there.

We’ll see that there’s a lot of work we’ve left undone.

We’ll see that we haven’t been faithfully laboring since dawn.

We’ll see that we should start really caring about what time it is.

And how much time is left.

We’ve heard a lot the past few weeks about forgiveness and mercy.

Those fundamental gifts of God to us.

And our fundamental duty to others.

Do I deserve more than my brother or sister?

How many times must I forgive them?

Should I judge them?

How do I want to be judged?

As my friend and spiritual guide, Fr Joe, always used to say,

You can’t deserve God’s love.

There’s nothing you can do to earn it.

God freely lavishes his love and mercy on all his children.

It’s easy for those of us who have been working since 3:00

To look down on those who didn’t start until 5:00.

And those who started at Noon to think they deserve a greater reward Than those who started at 3:00.

And we certainly understand that those who started at dawn

Would feel that justice demands they receive more 

Than those who started at dusk.

But if we accept that view, we’re thinking as man does, not as God does.

That’s not too surprising, after all, we are human—not God.

But we do have the word of God, delivered through His Son.

We have that instruction to help us recognize and overcome

Our human knee-jerk inclinations.

When we’re tempted to judge someone

On how much work we think they’ve done,

We can catch ourselves and remember that we don’t really know.

We don’t really know what gifts they’ve been given to work with.

What obstacles they’ve been given to deal with.

What they’ve paid in diminished satisfaction and joy and self-esteem.

And we can remember our own failures.

We can’t earn God’s love, but we are expected to return it.

To spread it around, to share it.

How well have we been working to love our neighbors as ourselves?

What material and spiritual support are we giving others?

Have we really been faithfully laboring since dawn?

What time is it anyway?

With those thoughts in mind,

Do we want a reward based on justice?

Or do we want a reward based on God’s great love and mercy?

25th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mt 20:1-16   Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Demons

Jews will not replace us!

A chant in the darkness from torch-bearing militant marchers.

Just down the road in Charlottesville.

An alternating chant with, You will not replace us!

Both chants expressing white supremacist hate and fear.

Fear that Jews and other groups will replace them.

Surpass them in America's power/privilege rankings.

A privilege they feel entitled to, simply because of their whiteness.

And it's not just a matter of skin color, it's Northern European origins.

These folks would face a rude shock if they took a DNA ancestry test.

For many of them, their arbitrary whiteness is crucially important.

They seem to see it as the only plus they have going for themselves.

They’re possessed by a force that counters their virtue,

Their character, even their intelligence.

So, they try to draw everyone into their us versus them struggle.

A divisiveness that has plagued mankind from its beginning.

When it comes to us versus them and Jews will not replace us,

They should take a look at today's Scripture passages.

(Many of them consider themselves to be Bible-guided Christians.)

Jesus is, of course, a Jew.

As were Abraham and Moses, Mary and Joseph, John the Baptist,

All of the apostles, and many of the early saints of the Church.

And today we hear Jesus say that he came

Only to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

It was only the persistence of that non-Jewish Canaanite woman

That led him to reach beyond his calling to the Jews.

His ultimate mission may have been to all of mankind.

But in his plan or his understanding, at least at that instant,

He was here only to save the Jews.

That woman is one of my favorite Gospel characters.

She's not only persistent, but bold and clever.

Who among us would stand up to Jesus if he gave us a firm No.

Keep after him if he hit us with a stinging rebuke.

Calling the Jews his children, and us the dogs.

That was an us and them situation where we were the clear losers.

But the spunky Canaanite woman hung in there.

Throwing Jesus's analogy right back at him.

Cleverly, and humbly, pointing out that even the dogs get some scraps.

And she moved Jesus so much that he made an exception.

Moved him to change the plan, or at least the plan's timing.

Somewhat like when Mary moved him at the wedding feast in Cana.

When she asked him to do something about the wine.

And he at first refused, saying his time had not yet come.

But he listened, and he relented at her repeated request.

So, it was we Gentiles who cut in on the privilege held by the Jews.

A privilege far more precious than any other.

Our readings from Isaiah, Psalms, Romans and Matthew all confirm,

God first favored the Jews, but then opened his kingdom to all of us.

Jews might have been moved to chant, You will not replace us!

And we didn't.

But Jesus listened to us and took us in—along with the Jews.

Gave us a place among his children.

Welcomed us to follow the God of Israel.

When asked to grant mercy, Jesus would not refuse.

Even when it didn’t quite fit the scripted plan.

There are many lessons in today’s Scripture passages.

Two are: God listens, and Mercy triumphs.

Jesus told us many times that we should be persistent in prayer.

Today he shows us that he responds to our persistence.

God listens and responds to us.

He may not give us exactly what we ask for.

But he’ll give us what he, in his infinite wisdom, knows we need.

And he’ll shower us with his love and mercy.

When we see incidents like Charlottesville

We see that we have a lot of work to do.

We’ve seen that Jesus doesn't withhold mercy when we ask for it.

We shouldn't withhold it from others.

We’ve seen that God takes us in when we ask.

We shouldn't exclude others.

As with the Canaanite woman’s daughter,

There are still demons within our brothers and sisters, and within us.

Demons that need to be driven out.

If we persist in our prayers and our voices and our example,

God will listen and take notice.

And, in his mercy, he’ll respond and drive them out.

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mt 15:21-28   Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Cultivation

Last week, I had a long lunch with a friend

Who was visiting from Australia.

He was fired up about a new project he was working on.

Something he called the Barnabas Project.

(The name Barnabas means son of encouragement.)

It grew out of his experience with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

Where he was devoting time to quiet, contemplative prayer.

He felt that this quiet prayer was bringing him much closer to God.

It was also bringing him a few surprisingly dramatic experiences.

And he decided he wanted to share this gift he’d found.

And promote this powerful form of prayer.

So, he set up a website, barnabas.cloud, to encourage others.

Encourage them to set aside 20 minutes a day for quiet prayer.

Time to just be with God, listen to God, interact with God.

His idea went further—it’s still a work in progress.

He targeted older folks, who might be an underutilized spiritual force.

And who might more easily set aside their 20 minutes.

And encourage each other to stick with it.

He also suggested we mentally bring someone with us 

Into our prayer time.

Someone who we would like to receive the grace from that prayer.

A spouse, a child, a friend—anyone we felt was in need of that grace.

(And who doesn’t need more grace!)

But we don’t have to wait until we’re older.

This quiet prayer time is a gift all of us can give ourselves, now.

Any time devoted to prayer helps us build our relationship with God.

Ideally, we can find a quiet place and time, 

Where we won’t be interrupted.

A regular routine will make it easier to form a daily habit.

There are a number of approaches to quiet prayer.

We can experiment to figure out which ones work best for us.

But contemplative prayer can be particularly powerful.

It can make the experience of our time with God more tangible,

More concrete, more memorable.

One approach is to start by being quiet, clearing our mind.

And then focusing on some event, 

Like perhaps the Marriage Feast at Cana.

And then trying to place ourselves at that event.

We use our senses.

What does the room look like? 

What do the people look like?

Who do we see there?

What do we hear?

Music?  Voices?  Who’s saying what?

Is it warm or chilly, day or night?

Can we smell the roasting lamb?

Can we taste the wine?

Our presence at the event becomes more real 

As our senses fill in the details.

We grow in our understanding of the importance of the event.

We grow in our relationship with Jesus 

By sharing the experience with him.

On different days, we’ll feel more successful or less successful

After our 20 minutes.

But, we’ll always benefit from spending that time in prayer.

And sometimes it will be dramatically rewarding.

My friend said that when he was just getting the hang of this,

He contemplated the Wedding Feast at Cana.

It was especially vivid and real.

He saw Jesus sitting at another table, with his back toward him.

As he was looking at him, Jesus stood up

And turned and walked over to him and said,

Jim!  Long time no see!

Clearly that’s not part of the biblical script.

But it’s a sense of how deeply we can be absorbed into our prayer.

How directly and personally we can communicate with God.

Jim gave me one more example of a dramatic prayer-time experience.

He usually prays early in the morning, in his den.

But one morning he had to be out early.

By his normal prayer time he was near his church, so he went in.

It was quiet, and he went and sat by a statue of the Madonna and Child.

He just sat there contemplating Mary and Jesus.

Suddenly, Mary stepped down from the altar and handed him the baby.

She said, I don’t do this for everyone.  But here, you carry him. 

He was shocked.

It wasn’t like just a thought, or even a dream—it was vividly real.

I think it was Mary’s request that he carry Jesus,

That showed Jim he needed to share this gift he’d found.

And motivated him to start his project and his website.

We can’t expect to have such dramatic experiences very often.

But that 20-minutes-a-day 

Will attune us to the messages God is sending us.

It will prepare us, enable us, form us, cultivate us.

We heard in today’s Gospel how important cultivation can be.

We can find ourselves in rich fertile soil, or unsuitable soil.

In that parable of the Sower, we see the dangers we face

If we don’t attend to our cultivation.

If we don’t develop some understanding of the kingdom,

We’ll be like seed sown on the path.  We’ll very quickly lose what we have.

If we don’t develop a deep, lasting relationship with God,

We’ll be like seeds sown in shallow, rocky soil. 

Without good roots, when troubles come we’ll fall away.

If we don’t develop our spirit 

And maintain some separation from worldly things,

We’ll be like seeds sown in the thorns, 

And worldly concerns will pull us away.

The details of the parables are always vivid yet strange,

And intended to make us think.

They open up a set of images 

That can be used and viewed in different ways.

A few days ago, our Gospel spoke of the harvest, 

And the need for laborers.

So, we might be the seed one day, the soil another, 

And the laborer the next.

Whatever role we’re called to at any particular time,

A solid relationship with Jesus, built through prayer,

Is the key to being prepared for that role.

If we attend to our cultivation 

We’ll be like that seed that lands in rich soil.

Bearing fruit 30- 60- or 100-fold.

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mt 13:1-23   Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Trinity

The civilizations of the ancient world put their faith in many pagan gods.

The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians,

And most all nations and tribes.

Even the highly intellectual Greeks, who still impact our culture today.

They had Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, and a hundred other gods.

In those ancient times, around 2000 BC or so,

A fellow named Abram lived in the City of Ur.

The people of Ur worshiped many pagan gods.

But the one true God decided to make himself known to Abram.

Renamed Abraham, he and his descendants embraced that one true God.

His Jews, and later the Christians, and later still the Muslims,

All recognize the God of Abraham as the one true God.

A fundamental point in those religions is that there is only one God.

The first of the Ten Commandments stresses that:

I am the Lord thy God

Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.

When asked what Commandment was the greatest, Jesus began with:

Hear, O Israel!

The Lord our God is Lord alone!

We would not have known God if he had not revealed himself to Abraham.

And we would not know nearly as much about him as we do,

If he had not so loved the world that he sent his Son 2000 years later.

Sent to live among us and teach us, and save us.

We have the teaching of the one preeminent authority on God, Jesus.

His word is passed on to us through the voices of oral tradition.

Through the authors of Scripture.

Through the interpreters of language.

And through the analyzers of meaning.

Through all these processes, overseen and verified by the Church,

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And we also have that same Holy Spirit speaking within us.

Through Jesus’ words and actions,

He revealed or confirmed the supernatural mysteries about God.

We couldn’t have figured out that God was a Trinity

If God himself hadn’t revealed that to us.

The Jews had some concept of a Holy Spirit, and of a Messiah.

But they didn’t have a concept of God as a Trinity.

It was Jesus who revealed that there are

Three distinct but unified persons within the one true God.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And yet, God remains one.

Jesus also revealed that there were two natures within his one person.

He himself was both human and Divine. 

Fully God and fully man.

Further, he revealed that God dwells in all his creation, especially in us.

And that bread and wine could become his body and blood.

We Catholics are very familiar with all these truths.

But we have only a limited understanding of them.

They’re not natural, they’re mysteries, they’re miraculous.

They’re super-natural.

But how do our Catholic beliefs strike others?

Many Jews and Muslims—those other followers of the God of Abraham—Find the idea of Trinity to be complete heresy.

A violation of their most fundamental belief about the oneness of God.

Many of our fellow Christians reject our belief in Christ’s true presence

In the Eucharist.

People of other religions or no religion

Would reject most of what we believe about God.

The mysteries are just too much for many to accept.

But maybe some will find them intriguing and seek more understanding.

No one should be surprised that the God who always was,

The God who created the Universe and everything in it—including us,

Is beyond our full comprehension.

Perhaps others will someday agree and say,

Yes, I don’t fully understand, but a voice within me tells me,

It makes sense.

How is it that we Catholics already accept these mysteries?

Consider the Trinity.

We’ve heard about it all our lives.

It’s been presented to us in Church as truth.

We have schools and colleges and parishes and hospitals named Trinity.

We’re familiar with it.

We may have even researched it and studied it.

We still can’t fully understand it, but we accept it as truth.

Formally or informally, we’re all theologians.

St Anselm defined Theology as faith seeking understanding.

It’s that gift of faith that lets us accept the mystery.

It’s faith that opens our minds as we set out in prayer or study

Seeking a deeper understanding.

Thank God for the gift of faith!

We really should; Thank God—for the gift of faith.

Feast of the Holy Trinity

Jn 3:16-18   Read this Scripture @usccb.org

Listen to the Spirit Within

Do you remember your Baptism?

Most of us were probably too young to actually remember it.

But we probably know who baptized us, and where.

That’s part of our family history and part of our Church record.

I was baptized at St John’s in Covington, Ky. — by Msgr Anton Goebel.

An eighty-year-old pastor with a heavy German accent.

He’d also married my parents, and probably my grandparents.

Most likely, we all do remember our Confirmation.

I was confirmed at St Boniface Church.

By Bishop William T. Molloy, the Bishop of Covington.

Our readings today tell of baptisms and confirmations.

We hear of Philip going down to Samaria to preach.

This is not Philip the apostle, this is Philip the newly appointed deacon.

He performs miracles and wins over many new disciples for Jesus.

And he baptizes them.

Word of his great success reaches the apostles in Jerusalem.

So some apostles, the predecessors of the bishops, 

Travel down to Samaria.

Peter and John go and lay their hands on those new Christians.

They call down the Holy Spirit.

They confirm them, in one of the first confirmation ceremonies.

And the Holy Spirit does come.

To dwell among them and within them.

We’re in the midst of our modern-day Confirmation season.

A couple weeks ago Bishop Knestout came here to St Joseph’s

To confirm our candidates.

Last weekend Bishop Bevard traveled all the way from the Virgin Islands— His home diocese—to confirm the candidates at St Peter’s.

I was invited to assist the Bishop, and had a chance to chat with him.

He told me he would be in our diocese for three weeks

And was scheduled for confirmations at 15 different parishes.

Our own auxiliary bishops, Bishops Knestout, Dorsonville and Campbell Are equally busy.

That’s a lot of confirmations.

In his homily, Bishop Bevard talked about things we believe as Catholics.

Things like the special spiritual bonds between us.

Not only among the living, but with our dead.

Spiritual bonds with lost family and friends, 

And also with saints we’ve never met.

The communion of saints.

Our thoughts and prayers for those who have gone on to Heaven.

Or who await Heaven in Purgatory.

And their thoughts and prayers for us.

He said each of us has a special bond with the bishop or priest

Who confirmed us.

And with the priest or deacon who baptized us.

He noted that some of our beliefs are uniquely Catholic.

Like our particularly strong devotion to Mary.

Non-Catholic Christians don’t share that same level of devotion.

He spoke of how Confirmation strengthens our faith, and wisdom,

And courage, so that we can defend and spread those beliefs.

One of his comments made me think back to my own Confirmation.

It was a suggestion about our devotion to Mary.

I must have heard it before, somewhere along the line.

But if I had, I’d forgotten it.

He said: We’ll all be called to judgement one day.

And when you find yourself standing there, remember one thing.

** Keep your mouth shut. **

Let Mary do the talking for you.

Let her be your advocate.

Let her plead your case to her son.

And I thought—That makes great sense; how often have I asked:

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

He told those he was about to confirm that,

As a result of the bond they were about to create,

He’d join them, to support them, at their judgement.

And so would the person who baptized them.

And each would be signaling them—putting his finger to his lips—

Reminding them to stay silent.

The Bishop seemed quite confident he’ll be there.

Coaching at their judgement as part of the Heavenly team.

As one who baptized some of those kids, 

I hope he’s right in his confidence

That I’ll be there coaching too.

What we lack in confidence we can try to make up in hope.

Our hope is one of those gifts we receive at Baptism and Confirmation.

And, as we heard in our readings, it’s a hope we should be eager to share.

A hope we should be ready to explain to anyone who notices and asks.

In our Gospel, Jesus gives assurance to all who keep his commandments.

We will have his Holy Spirit not only bonding with us

But dwelling within us.

That Spirit that comes to us in Baptism and Confirmation.

He promises:  I will not leave you orphans.

You are in me, and I in you.

My Spirit will come to you and remain with you always.

In two weeks, we’ll celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

So this is a good time to reflect on our own relationship with the Spirit.

Have we kept the fervor we felt at our Confirmation?

Are we still growing by exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit?

Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Knowledge, Fortitude, Piety, 

And Fear (Awe) of the Lord.

Are we communing and cooperating with that Spirit within us?

Are we sharing Him, or keeping Him locked within?

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Jn 14:15-21   Read this Scripture @usccb.org