May 29, 2005: Divine Nourishment

+FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI (THE BODY & BLOOD OF CHRIST)

Poor Moses had to put up with a lot from the people of Israel as they wandered through the desert for 40 years. Our first reading today explains that the Lord was testing the people by their afflictions. The Israelites often complained about their burdens and sufferings. Like a good priest, Moses spent a lot of time bringing their needs and prayers to God—and in return, bringing his people God’s consolation. One of the greatest of these consolations was manna, the bread from heaven, which God sent to sustain them and teach them that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord.

When you think about it, life’s not all that much different today. We all go through life—for 40 years, 60 years, 80 years, perhaps longer—having to face all kinds of bitterness, disappointments, losses, tragedies... One powerful prayer to Mary—the “Hail, Holy Queen”—calls this life “a vale of tears.” It’s true. And all of our misery is a result of original sin.

Yet, thanks be to God, we’re survivors. We may pick up a few scars along the way, but most of us manage to work our way through life relatively well. How do we do this? Basically, there are two approaches.

Some folks arm themselves to the teeth with what we might call “weapons of war”: things like bitterness, frustration, anger, resentment, miserliness, misery, addictions like drugs, alcohol or sex... things that let us vent our rage, or insulate us, or kind of dull the senses so things don’t seem so bad.

But there’s another approach. Wiser people arm themselves with the Lord. They trust in the truth of what God tells us. These people rely on the sacred body and blood of Jesus Christ to bring them true interior peace and joy—no matter what happens in life. I hope that all of us here fall into that category—or at least want to be in that category!

I saw a TV show a while back that was all about militia and survivalist groups in America. These folks retreat into the woods to train themselves and their children to use some pretty nasty weapons to attack invaders when the revolution comes. They’re convinced that the only way to get through life is to use bullets and bombs to destroy people who get in their way. It’s a frightening thing to see a line of 8-year-olds firing automatic rifles from the hip; what’s even scarier is that these people claim to be good Christians. I can’t help but wonder why, then, they don’t use the much more powerful weapons that Jesus offers: his body and blood.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Our Lord invites us to look through our personal arsenal and make a few adjustments in our stockpile—by tossing out our weapons of bitterness and aggression, and replacing them with his sacred body and blood.

Is this easy to do? Absolutely not.

You know, it wasn’t just the 12 apostles who followed Jesus around in the early days of his ministry. The Lord attracted a huge following—probably because he always worked wonderful miracles and healings and because he gave such uplifting sermons. But after delivering the sermon we heard in today’s Gospel—telling people that they needed to eat his body and drink his blood—many people were horrified and walked away from Jesus. They found this teaching just too hard to accept. Jesus turned to Peter and the apostles and asked them, Are you going to leave me, too? Peter answered, To whom would we go, Lord? You have the words of everlasting life.

It’s no different today. Can we Catholics profess the same belief as Peter did? Dear friends, we MUST—with every ounce of our strength.

We have to take Jesus’ words literally, because that is how he means them.

Listen to what Jesus says: I am the living bread. This living bread is the sacred host which we receive in Holy Communion. It is really and truly Jesus—his body, blood, soul and divinity. Through the mysterious and awesome power of the Holy Spirit, what was once ordinary bread is totally changed into the living flesh and blood of our Lord and God—hidden away under the simple and humble appearance of the host. This sacred host that will soon sit on this very altar is the God who created the world... created you and me... created your children. He knows everything you’ve ever done and he even knows your yet-unborn great, great grandchildren. He knows the moment he’ll call each of us home in death. And he loves each of us so much—reaching out to us, saying: If anyone eats this bread, he shall live forever. The living bread from heaven is a love letter from God.

Do you want to accept the Lord’s invitation to live forever with him in peace and joy? Then you must do as he commands: Eat my flesh; it’s real food. Drink my blood; it’s real drink.

If we don’t eat and drink the Lord’s body and blood, we deprive ourselves of divine nourishment. Spiritually, we starve to death—it’s like anorexia of the soul. That’s exactly why the Church recommends that we take communion often.

Of course, we need to eat and drink in a worthy manner. To open ourselves up to all the spiritual riches, it’s important to approach God’s sacred altar in a state of grace. We can do this by going to confession regularly and by always striving to amend our lives and live in more holiness today than we did yesterday.

The body and blood of Jesus Christ is without a doubt the greatest gift that the Lord has given us for our journey through life. So on this blessed feast day, let’s thank him for this awesome treasure and beg him for an ever-deepening desire to tap into its vast power.

May the Lord be forever praised.



Today’s Readings:
Deuteronomy 8: 2–3, 14–16
Psalm 147
1 Corinthians 10: 16–17
John 6: 51–58

May 22, 2005: The Name

+FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY


For those of us who remember the ’60s and ’70s, definitely one of the more colorful characters of American politics was President Richard Nixon. Even if you weren’t around back then, I’ll bet you could figure it out from watching All in the Family or Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In reruns!

Nixon started out as a poor boy from rural California, painfully shy. He worked his way into national politics, and suffered a double-defeat. His last big loss was against John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. But then incredibly, he went on to be twice-elected president himself, in 1968 and 1972.

Maybe history will never fully understand this mysterious man, but there is one unusual thing about Nixon that probably played a big part in his ultimate victories—and that was his extraordinary talent for names. Whenever Nixon visited someplace—and it didn’t matter if it was an urban precinct or a small county—he knew the names of the local leaders and their wives, and he even knew something about their families.

To know someone’s name is power. When you know a person’s name, that gives you the ability to relate to him personally by calling him or asking something from him.
The Bible recognizes that power. It treats names almost mystically.

Jesus tells us that if we come together in his name, he will be there among us (Mt 18: 5). He taught us to venerate the Father’s name (Lk 11: 2).

We saw how the apostles—and even those who broke away as Christ’s followers—used Jesus’ name to prophesy, to work miracles, to cast out demons (Mt 9: 38; Mt 7: 22).

Jesus promises an enormous repayment to those who perform even the smallest kindness—like giving someone a drink of water—in his name (Mk 9: 41).

The Acts of the Apostles tell how St. Peter and the other apostles do many things in Jesus’ name, including perform baptisms, heal the sick, raise the dead, and especially break the bread—in other words, celebrate the Mass (Acts 3: 6; 9: 16; 10: 48; 20: 7).

Finally, at the end of the Scriptures, the book of Revelation tells us that the elect have the Father’s name, and the Lamb’s, on their foreheads (Rev 14: 1).

Today, on the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we especially honor the name of our one God in three Persons. It’s actually kind of interesting to point out that even though there are three Persons, we say: in the name—singular—of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Maybe it seems like this should be plural because there are three names.

But this use of the singular emphasizes that the fullness of being and power is in all Three together. That’s why we baptize in the name—singular—that is, in the power and full being—of all Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity.

As Catholics, we begin all our prayers in the name of the Three. As we say this, we touch our forehead, then our heart, and then our shoulders, tracing a cross. To outsiders, maybe this looks like some kind of exotic ritual. But actually, when we make this sign and say these words, we are asking for something very great—that the power of the Trinity will penetrate our minds… fill our hearts… and straighten our shoulders. Our past mistakes and sins weigh us down, and our task ahead may seem overwhelming. But only if we forget about the awesome power at our fingertips.

There’s a great story about a man named Ira Yates who owned a Texas sheep ranch during the Great Depression. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation even to pay his mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. He hardly had enough money to buy food or clothes, so his family had to live on government subsidy.

Day after day, Yates grazed his sheep over the rolling West Texas hills, and he worried constantly about paying his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him that there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.

At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. They kept drilling, and they kept making amazing finds—wells producing even double that. Even 30 years later, the wells continued to produce hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day.

And Ira Yates owned it all!

The interesting thing is, the day he first purchased the ranch, he also bought all the oil and mineral rights. Yet, there he was living on government relief! A multi-millionaire living in poverty! The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it!

In a very similar way, many Catholics live needlessly in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Three Persons of God and all God’s energizing power—but they don’t know how to tap into it. They may not even be aware of their birthright.

Can you imagine? Having all the power and blessings of God and not even know it!

But happily, you don’t have to remain in the dark. The power of God—the power of His name—is at your fingertips. Be filled with that power… in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!


Today’s Readings:
Exodus 34: 3–9
Daniel 3: 52–55
2 Corinthians 13: 11–13
John 3: 16–18

May 15, 2005: Blessed by the Holy Spirit

+FEAST OF PENTECOST


Today we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. It is the last day of the Easter Season, and it commemorates the birthday of the Church on earth—the day when the Holy Spirit came down upon humankind. This event is so marvelous and important that we celebrate it with a vigil mass on Saturday evening and a proper feast-day mass on Sunday. Like me, I know that many of you come to both liturgies… and I hope you find the contrasting readings a special treat.

At the vigil, the Church proclaims the story of the tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis. The Hebrew word Babel comes from a verb stem which means to confuse or confound… which is why the Lord says in this passage: Let us then go down there and confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says. Why did God do this? Because, almost like Jack and the Beanstalk, the people were trying to build a tower up to heaven so they could be gods. The idea was, that by making it hard for the people to communicate and scheme with each other, God could draw their hearts back to him.

The Sunday reading from Acts describes the Holy Spirit coming down upon the apostles in the upper room on Pentecost. We hear how people who all spoke different languages now understood the apostles, who spoke only Aramaic. Do you get it? The Holy Spirit reversed the confusion of Babel. Rather than splitting people apart, he drew them back together. Indeed, the whole idea of a Church is a community brought together with God. The Holy Spirit celebrates our family bond as a human race.

St. Paul emphasizes how important it is for God’s purposes that we truly come together. He describes in his Letter to the Corinthians how we are many parts of the same body. We have different gifts and talents, different strengths and longings, different attitudes and viewpoints… but we’re all made from the same basic building blocks: human flesh and God-given spirit.

And why did God make us this way? Baltimore Catechism, Lesson #1: God made us to show forth his goodness and to share with us his everlasting happiness in heaven.

In other words, we might say that the Holy Spirit was given to us so that we can experience God’s beatitude, or blessing… and be a blessing to each other. We must take God’s Spirit within us, amplify it, and spread it generously all over. Remember Jesus’ lesson that we mustn’t hide our light under a bushel basket. Also remember that just the way the loaves and fishes were multiplied, so can the Spirit be amplified.

A good way to start being a blessing is by stirring up your heart to experience the joy and love of God within you. You have to be excited about your faith based on experiencing God’s goodness and blessings in your own life. You know: count your blessings. Have you done this lately? It’s a good exercise to do often, even daily.

I read a beautiful quotation in The Catholic Digest this week. It comes from Antoine de St-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince. He wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Likewise, to attract people to the love of God, don’t beat them over the head with your self-righteousness, your acute ability to point out sins (other people’s, of course) or your knowledge of “facts” about God and the Church. Rather, first show them love… and kindness… and patience… and forgiveness… and all those other Christ-like virtues. Let them know that this is what Christianity is all about. This is the kingdom of God open to all people. Even hard-hearted people might secretly admit that that sounds pretty good—and they wish they could have it in their own lives, too!

Another powerful way to draw people in and be a blessing to them is to give a blessing to people! The priest stands up here at every mass and blesses everyone in the name of our one God in three Persons. But blessings are by no means restricted to priests.

Do you remember the story of Jacob and Esau? Esau was the older brother and was in line for his father’s blessing—but younger Jacob cheated him out of it. God’s blessing is so precious that people steal, lie and cheat to get it—and once spoken, it cannot be revoked, according to ancient understanding.

Blessings consist of high-value words that show respect, awe, reverence… and help people feel they are valuable. They give a loved one a sense of security and confidence to serve God and others in the future.

The simplest formula is to say “God bless you!” or “Blessed are you!” If you like, you can raise your right hand… or extend both hands and arms… or give a kiss or embrace. Bless your children and grandchildren, your spouse, your friends and neighbors… even strangers.

Pentecost is not an end of a season. It is a beginning. It is a time to recognize the Spirit within… to be grateful for it… and to go forth into the world with a sense of power, love and joy.

May God bless you today and always… and may you, in turn, be a channel of that blessing.



Today’s Readings:

•Vigil
Genesis 11: 1–9
Psalm 104
Romans 8: 22–27
John 7: 37–39

•Feast Day
Acts of the Apostles 2: 1–11
Psalm 104
1 Corinthians 12: 3–7, 12–13
John 20: 19–23

May 8, 2005: Receiving the Power

+FEAST OF THE ASCENSION


One of the most touching news events this week was the story of Donald Herbert, the brain-damaged fireman from upstate New York who all of a sudden started talking normally again—after 9½ years in a near-coma. Nobody expected this. I was listening to a neurosurgeon on CNN who stopped short of calling this a miracle… but he made it clear that if someone doesn’t bounce back from an injury like Herbert’s after a year or two at the most, it just isn’t going to happen. Well, surprise!

What about the fireman’s family? Before this wonderful news, did they still have hope for their husband and father? Were they still praying for their miracle? I wonder…

A story like this makes you realize that we may think that we have much of the world figured out, but actually, human life is very much shrouded in mystery. And Jesus, I’m afraid, doesn’t always do much to satisfy our curiosity.

In our first reading today, from The Acts of the Apostles, one of Jesus’ inner circle asked him if something was going to happen. The Lord answered: It is not for you to know the times or reasons that the Father has established by his own authority. That’s a polite way of saying, “None of your business.” In other words: you don’t need to know this to live your life for the purpose for which you were given it. Lots of times—maybe even most of the time—God expects us to travel blind, having faith in him but not getting answers to questions like: Why did this happen? Will this come to pass? Should I do this or that? The Lord truly wants us to pray every day for our daily bread.

But then Jesus says something else that’s also quite interesting: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.

Wow. The power of God. He says we will receive it from the Holy Spirit.

St. Paul talks a little about that power today, too. He says that it’s wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. It’s a special gift and ability to perceive God so you can be guided by his light.

The Holy Spirit can flood us with his power any time he wants… sometimes out of the blue, like the healing of the fireman. But one of the typical ways that such power is communicated to us is through the Sacraments.

OK, this is still hard to grasp… but at least we’re starting to feel a little better that Jesus is with us. And then, poof! No sooner than he delivers this amazing news, he disappears! He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. He ascended back to the Father in heaven—which is the feast we celebrate today.

I guess it’s always like this. Jesus had to die that we might have life. He had to be taken up from the earth so the Holy Spirit could come down upon us. Something that seems bad has to occur so something much better will come along. Why? We simply can’t explain it. It’s part of the mystery.

When Jesus disappeared, the apostles kept standing there looking up at the sky. I have no doubt that most of us would do the same thing. Yet the angels said, What are you looking up there for? It’s easy to look in the wrong place. We should be looking for Christ where he is now, not where he might have been yesterday!

So: where do we find Jesus Christ so we can tap into this power?

First and foremost, right here in the Eucharist. Jesus is really and truly here—body and blood, soul and divinity.

We know that one of Jesus’ titles is that he is the Word. He’s the living word, not just sentences in a book. You can therefore find Jesus when you read his words in the Holy Scriptures or when you hear the teaching of the Church.

Jesus also taught, When two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst. So Jesus is also present within us weak, imperfect, sinful human beings. Remember that our souls are living tabernacles.

Without a doubt, this last category is the place where we have the most trouble. Instead of loving one another, we do so much to harm each other, through our judging, condemnation, indifference. We forget that when we look at another human being—any human being—we are looking at a child of God.

I love the story about a junior high school boy who was constantly getting into trouble. One day, once again, his parents got a call to come in and meet with his teacher and the principal. They figured, “Here we go again.”

The teacher sat down with the boy’s father and said, “Thanks for coming in. I wanted you to hear what I have to say.”

The father crossed his arms and waited, trying to think what excuse he could come up with this time. The teacher then proceeded to list ten good things about the boy—all positive affirmations about this so-called troublemaker. When she was done, the father said, “And what else? Let’s hear the bad things.”

The teacher smiled and said, “That’s all I wanted to say. Thanks again for coming in.”

That night, when the father got home, he repeated the conversation to his son. And not surprisingly, almost overnight, the boy’s attitude and behavior changed dramatically. All because a teacher looked past the negatives.

Jesus loves people by forgiving them… overlooking an awful lot of very obvious sins and shortcomings… giving them a kind word and an incentive to turn themselves around. He’d like us to treat each other just the same. Remember, that’s his main teaching: love God and love your neighbor.

I don’t know about you, but I feel especially encouraged today. If the Lord can wake up a firefighter from a ten-year sleep, which the experts say is impossible, maybe he can sweeten even my stubborn heart. Let us pray that our ascended Lord will bless us all that way.


Today’s Readings:
Acts of the Apostles 1: 1–11
Psalm 47
Ephesians 1: 17–23
Matthew 28: 16–20

May 1, 2005: Is Jesus on Your Cross?

+THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER


A couple of weeks ago, some parishioners and I were chatting after church and they told me that they had just returned from a trip to Arizona. While out there, they went to mass in a church they described as very big and modern. The thing that really struck them was the cross. There was no corpus—no Jesus—on it. They were quite surprised at this, and in fact, they asked me if that was allowed in a Catholic church. And by the way, it’s not! They evidently asked someone in the church why the cross was empty. The answer they got was, “Oh, Christ is risen! We don’t have to have him on the cross any more.”

Ay caramba! When you think about it, it’s very true that Jesus Christ is hard to accept. Look at him up there on our cross: emaciated, bleeding and quite dead. He’s a picture of unimaginable suffering and pain.

All of us human beings know pain to some degree or other. But the question is: are we willing to accept it, and embrace it, as part of our religion?

Since the very beginning, people have been trying to take the cross out of Christianity. In Jesus’ own day, people walked away from him if his teachings seemed too hard or too weird.

Forgive somebody 70 times 7 times? Forget it!

Eat his body which is real food, and drink his blood which is real drink? What do you think we are, cannibals?

Take the speck out of my own eye before criticizing someone else? Get real!

And once Jesus had left the earth, his teachings seemed still more difficult to defend. Think about why there are so many Protestant churches and break-away Christian sects! People left and splintered into groups when they couldn’t accept a teaching or doctrine… or couldn’t stand the people in their present church!

Henry VIII wanted a divorce. The Roman Catholic Church refused to grant him an annulment—so he split away and began the Church of England. And guess what? His own Anglican church, or the Episcopal church as it’s known here in America, has continued to fragment. Why in recent days, there has been splintering over ordaining women and ordaining a gay bishop… to name just two situations.

In the gospel today, Jesus alerts us to all this. He speaks of the Holy Spirit and describes him as “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept.”

Why does the world have such trouble accepting God and his truth? Maybe we’re just too smart for our own good!

It’s important to remember that people are rational. They act purposefully.

So, very logically, they try to avoid pain, misery, poverty, ignorance, frustration, unhappiness and all the other “demons” of life. Sin is not “stupid”; rather, it is blind. We think it will solve a problem for us or let us exercise more so-called personal freedom… and in the short-term, maybe it will.

I’m in a jam, so I tell a lie. I need something that I can’t afford, so I steal. I’m desperately unhappy in my marriage, so I bail out.

Yet Jesus Christ tells us that the road of life is quite curvy. You’ve all driven on curvy roads; you can’t see around the bends. Likewise, at the time we commit our sins, we can’t see their upshot around the bend.

But take another look at Christ on the cross. There’s the price he paid on our behalf. Sin is pretty serious stuff.

But ugh! How depressing! I don’t want to think about it. So I push the cross away. I soften the edges of my religion to make it more pleasant… more uplifting.

And now the critical question is: is the religion I’ve fashioned for myself true—or is it a bill of goods? It’s a question with eternally important consequences.

Jesus says today, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” He is the way and the truth and the life.

What we sometimes tend to forget, though, is that Christ’s teachings and commandments are tempered by a profound love. He wants us to be safe—and saved! He knows the power and impact of the devil. To the greatest extent possible, while still respecting our free will, Christ tries to entice us to love him back and follow him. It’s not an easy sell, especially in the modern world.

One of our main responsibilities as believers and disciples is to help “market” Jesus Christ in the world. You can call it witnessing, evangelizing or marketing. The point is, one of the most important ways we love God is by loving each other—and we do that most excellently when we bring folks to Jesus.

Now, if you wanted to sell me something, you’re going to be happy… upbeat… positive… excited about your product. You’re going to stress the benefits, all the good points. To be a grumpy, dishonest, judgmental or hypocritical person who calls himself a Christian isn’t going to win over anybody.

During this holy season of Easter, we would do well to think about how we stand with Jesus Christ. Are we taking him down from the cross so we don’t have to face anything unpleasant—or do we love him and trust in his love for us, knowing that no matter how rough things may seem sometimes, to follow Christ is the sure and certain path to holiness and happiness? Jesus promises, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” He’s not going to jilt us—ever.

If perchance you’ve turned your heart away from Jesus Christ… or if you know someone else who has… pray for a new infusion of faith, hope and love. And may the Spirit of truth lighten your load and strengthen your heart.


Today’s Readings:
Acts of the Apostles 8: 5 –8, 14–17
Psalm 66
1 Peter 3: 15–18
John 14: 15–21