The Christmas Video is posted!
click HERE

Sunday Readings

As If

Christmas is easy. No, I don’t mean all the things we need to do and decorate for it. I mean the event itself. The angel declares unto Mary and Jesus is born. That happened a long time ago and as Christians we are correct to mark it. And still, year after year, we celebrate Advent. The rest of the world is in full-blown Christmas…er… I mean ‘holiday’ mode. The stores are decorated and the radio is playing non-stop Christmas tunes. Actually, they’ve been doing it since the last pumpkin was carved. We’ve even had flurried and freezing temperatures.

And then you come into Church without those decorations, you sing songs of expectation, and hear readings urging you to be watchful for something everyone outside has already seen.

Oh really? Who’s kidding who?

Obviously we are not waiting for the birth of Christ like the ‘seers of old.’ Christ was born in Bethlehem while Quirinius was governor of Judah. That’s a given. We can all look at a calendar and December 25 is coming at the rate of a day at a time. So that can’t be it either. It must be something else, something important.

Jesus says ‘be watchful.’ It’s a good idea especially if you’re in a crowded store with pick-pockets everywhere. But this vigilance is not about that. It’s about His coming again. The first time He came to dwell among us was a quiet affair. A Baby was born in a stable on the other side of the world. And there is that coming in glory at the end of the world with all the angels and their trumpets bringing the cataclysm of history. It’s something we all could use a little head’s up to see coming. But is that it?

If Christ has come, and will come again, you’d think the earth would be a paradise. We would be people who live knowing the grace received and the grace to come. Clearly, that is not the world in which we live. We live among those who suffer the abuse of despair that convinces them life has no meaning. People still suffer the condemnation of their own mistakes and those of others. Countless see no way out of what they have to endure and answer with ever-escalating violence. It is as if Christ had never been born.

Christians see these things in themselves if they are honest. They see that they are not perfect and easily give in to the things that only increase that imperfection within. Even the best of us can live at times as if Christ had not been born much less as if He was ever to come again. Some of the greatest family fights occur during the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace. Some are depressed by the arrival of the reason for eternal happiness. Even the faithful can be like those who have no faith.

Christmas is easy if we keep it in the past. The coming of Christ in glory is a future that is not on our calendar. And as long as we keep these safely at their respective distances, they have no real impact on us. But there is another event that we need to watch for. It is this appearance that Advent urges us to see coming. It is the birth of grace, it is the coming of Christ into precisely those very things that say God is not with us. It is into those human conflicts we so graciously share with each other, into those activities so devoid of hope that they become normal, that Christ seeks to enter. What began in the heart of the Father needs to be completed by entering into the human heart. What happened in Bethlehem is, in a certain sense, not complete until it happens here.

Keeping a lookout is tiring. We grow bored easily. Patience is not an immediate instinct. But in looking for Christ in our daily lives, in searching for a room at the inn of our heart, is the journey of faith. The Christ child seeks a place even today. Wise men seek Him still. He is wandering and restless, trying to match that longing with our vagrant souls. We sometimes live as if Christ was not there and so we stop looking for Him as if He were. But, watch, He is. He is in every prayer we utter, in every kindness we see. He is present in this Sacrament and in every grace He showers. But if our eyes are closed, we miss Him. If we are looking only to the past in order to celebrate the ‘perfect Christmas’, we will miss birth of Christ.

Pray this Advent even as the reminders of Christmas are everywhere. Enjoy them as road signs showing the way to Jesus who dwells by faith in your heart.

And may the mystery of Christmas be your holy discovery that it is Christ who is searching for you more than you could ever search for Him. It is, as if our Advent is really His.

Sunday Readings

Change of Regime

We are more than lucky to live in this country; we are blessed. For the 44th time, power will change hands. The basic underlying philosophies, convictions and styles of governance are going to change once again. Whether or not we agree with the incoming administration, there is one wonderful and historic reality we can all share in and rejoice because of: power will shift without violence and bloodshed. This has not been the case for most of the world. History is littered with the dead as revolutions, coups and coronations handed power from one to the other. A change of regime is not always a pretty thing.

Today is the Feast of Christ the king. It was established at a time when dictators around the world were grabbing authority that led to a wholesale slaughter of hundreds of millions. In those tumultuous times, the Church held up the supreme authority of God over human beings’ pretentions to world domination. And while we worship today without the same threats of mass extinctions, we still live in a dangerous world of the unfettered human ego. The destruction of innocent human life is enshrined in laws sustained by some supposed Catholics. Modern forms of slavery chain generations to dependencies of all kinds. Liberty – or what is called liberty – is a suicide pact that warehouses and disposes of the weak and the poor in the name of ‘entitlements’. For many, we may live in something opportunity calls a ‘Promised Land.’ But never confuse that with the Kingdom of God.

So are we lulled by the peaceful and Constitutional change of authority every 4 or 8 years? I think we can be. If the absence of insurrection is our only standard, then nothing is all that bad, is it? But that is hardly sufficient for those who follow Christ the King.

In celebrating this Feast we are declaring a revolutionary change of regime. But no one is waving banners as armed troops ride forth to conquer. The revolution is not something seen like that. It’s more subtle and more radical. It proclaims that the greatest good is found in those who lives have been far from good. It places the center of authority among those who have lost control. Its demands come from the very people who no right to demand anything of us. The prime directive of this new way is that what we do for each other is a tribute to God Himself. What we fail to do amounts to blasphemy.

This is not the standard image of a king. We are more used to the crown, the armies, and the sword of state. A shepherd king is quite different. He leads by example and stays with those entrusted to his care. His voice has an authority found only in love. He guards with his very life those who are not valued as worth a life. He remains vigilant for the good that will help and the evil that can destroy. Other rulers may have the power, but the shepherd king has the authority.

Does He have that authority over you? Are His standards your standards? Obviously they not every one’s even if they call themselves Christian or Catholic. But the Kingdom goes way beyond how we vote; it is more about how we think. The reign of Christ the King has little to do with our feelings and much more to do with our neighbor. Many are so ‘progressive’ or ‘traditional’ that they can rationalize themselves exempt from standards of the Kingdom. And many have. And others will.

But we all will stand before this Shepherd and we will be judged by Him. If we neglected Him in this world, can we honestly expect Him to hand us a crown in the next? If we rejected His standards in this life how can we demand eternal life from Him? You know, every disease out there has advocates calling for more ‘awareness’ as a major step in finding cures. Today is a Divine call to awareness of something more serious and severe. Both parties judged in this Gospel were unaware of the Christ hidden in the ‘distressing disguise’ of the weakest among us. We have no such position. We have been told that, “whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, (or not) you did (or did not do) for me.’

It’s the simple and that hard. Keep focused on the Shepherd, Christ the King. When you feed your family, you feed Christ. When you welcome a new family to the block, you welcome Christ. When give to feed the hungry, you worship Jesus. When you help with a clothing drive, you adore our God. When you check this winter on an elderly and house-bound neighbor, you care for the Christ who spent His last night in that Roman prison.

There is no human activity that excludes Christ the King. May the grace of this day be the loyalty to include Him in ours.

Sunday Readings

Talents Given

We are now seeing something we haven’t seen in a long time. We are seeing lines of people looking for work. In this moment of economic uncertainty, many people are worried about the jobs they have and others are trying to find new ones. So they are updating their resumes. Whether it’sour first or our fourteenth application, we take stock of our skills and abilities. We present on paper our talents.

The Gospel today speaks of talents as well. It’s a nice play on words because a ‘talent’ in the Bible is an unit of money. What matters in both cases is not the amount but the use. We confuse these as we confuse so many other things. We mistake doing well with feeling good. We misinterpret our desires with God’s will. A funny example of this happened the other night when I exited an on-line chat by saying the TV program ‘Heroes’ was on. My friend jokingly replied that he doesn’t watch it because ‘that would be too narcissistic.’ But the premise of every comic book super-hero is that every person has a hidden, special and seemingly miraculous ability. In a world of overconfident egos, there is nothing we can’t do. The unusual are the ones who don’t stand out. Or at least that’s our illusion even as we stand on job or graduation line.

But each of us has been entrusted with something unique and personal. God has given us the task and the talent to do His will. We have been handed the tools and the material be co-workers in the building up of His Kingdom. Some are remarkable like preaching to the world as the Pope. Some are changing the course of history by doing great works of charity. Others still are influencing eternity itself by doing the laundry. Yup, you heard that right. The one who feeds the world was once fed by some one who knew they had to eat. The one who builds shelters for the poor had a person who loved them enough to put a roof over their head.

Regardless of how young or old we are, the question is the same: what can you do? What is it that God has let you be a part of? The most valuable talent is the honesty to answer this. It is not a matter of passively discovering amazing abilities as much as it is the amazing discovery of what we are able to do. We can’t be comparison shoppers when it comes to this. In fact, when we look around, we convince ourselves that since we don’t have what the other guy has, we have nothing. We begin to think that God only wants super-achievers who can produce an impressive resume. Those who cant, well they’re just useless.

That was the mistake of the last character who hid the one talent in the ground. He came before the master and said that since he wasn’t given as much as the others, he didn’t feel he mattered. His passive-aggressive fit cost him his soul. And this is a warning to us. It is a caution to not waste or neglect what we have. We can even say that our eternal destiny depends on how we deal with what we’re dealt.

So how do we do that? How do we live using well the talents we’ve been given?

In the first reading we hear of the ideal wife who does what she can and does it well. These are ordinary and daily tasks that would be on any one’s to-do list of that time in history. We can identify many of them in our own to-do lists. I guess that should be a hint.

So maybe holiness is not about trying to be a super-hero of virtue whose astounding feats change the face of the earth. Actually Jesus’ idea of holiness was about doing what the Father asks. His own example shows that this is the way. He did not pick the most talented, skilled, and successful of the applicant pool. In fact, there was no application for the Kingdom of God. Neither is there one for us. We were chosen by God’s grace. We are given a task in life by God’s will. And we are given the ability to do these tasks by His mercy.

This is our path of holiness. It is ours alone because God is interested in us more than in what we accomplish. God’s love has no proportional relationship to what achievements we reach or fail to reach. What matters is only to do what we are asked by life. Doing homework, cleaning the car or earning a living – if that is what life calls of us – is the only thing required. We spend far too much time and energy trying to do what we can’t or shouldn’t. Holiness is using what we have in the life we live to do the will of the Father.

And doing that, well, it takes more than talent. It takes God’s grace.

And, after all, isn’t that why we’re here today?

Sunday Readings

Our Church

Once again, the Ordinary Time cycle is interrupted with a feast we do not often celebrate. The Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran marks the blessing of the Cathedral Church of Rome. This is where the Pope has his cathedra or Bishop’s chair. And it is an old and classical place. If you have been there, you know the place is dripping with history. But our celebration is not a tourism promotion. We are marking the physical reality of the Church.

People through the centuries have made the distinction between the ‘spiritual church’ and the ‘organized church.’ They separate the teaching of the Gospel from those who follow it. And ultimately, they come to rely on direct inspiration rather than Divine foundation. If you think there are flaws in the church’s history and hierarchy, imagine how far off the deep end you’ll go relying on only human interpretation! It can literally be a perpetual ‘making it up as you go’’ multiplied by as many who follow that. It is popular, even in some church circles, to lament that ‘Jesus came to bring the Kingdom and all He landed up with is the Church.’

If the spiritual message of the Gospel was meant only for the spiritual, it would have been preached only to angels. No, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom using images from farming and fishing. Physical water was used in Baptism and actual bread and wine were to become the Sacrament of His presence. And He chose human beings to carry His message to the ends of the earth. Among these, He marked with special favor the 12 Apostles to transmit and hand-on the sacramental grace of His message and sacrifice. And we celebrate today the unique gift of the Apostle placed in front of the rest and his role in the foundation of the church. So in a very real way, we are celebrating the ‘mother church’ of all churches and chapels.

In the ancient church, there was a practice we echo in every Mass. After the host is broken, a particle is placed in the chalice. This was an old practice in Rome. The Eucharist from the Pope’s Mass was distributed throughout the city and a small piece was taken to every church as a symbol of communion. It was a connection with the foundation. While unity can be a theory we feel on occasion, this was a permanent reminder that we share in the ‘one bread and the one cup’ with each other. There is no such thing as a solitary Christian. There is no individual religion established by Christ. And no church is so local that it has nothing in common with something more global. Just go to Rome or Lourdes or any international Catholic event and hear the Creed sung in Latin by everyone.

This may go against the grain of an American. Our self-reliant individuality often extends into our faith. Actually, it goes well beyond the borders of the United States. History has shown that most people carve up forms of religion to suit their needs and preferences. And to some extent, this is normal and needed. But when it goes beyond what Christ has established, we start going places we ought not to go. Remember, Jesus taught us the ‘Our Father’, not merely the ‘My Father.’

So as we pause and join in a universal feast honoring a church in Rome, we are truly celebrating the material reality of a spiritual order. We are using the same elements of bread and wine as are used in that church to bring to us the grace of the Son of God. This is no longer a sacrifice reserved to a single temple since, as the Body of Christ throughout the world, we are that ‘living temple’. We are holy and so are these places we consecrate. The stones and brocks we set apart are tangible signs of who and what we are. We build the Kingdom of God as we gather around His holy table.

Love the Church. Love its teaching, its beauty, its buildings. Yes, like each of us, it is scarred by mistakes made by human beings, but it is also the perfect bride of Christ that is flawless in what it is. This is all God’s doing. None of this – no teaching, no beams or windows, no sacraments – would happen without His presence and will working in the Church. Seeing a church as just a building is the same as seeing a person as just a machine. We are so much more and so is this real society God has willed. Founded on Christ, built on the Apostles and growing still today, that temple continues to rise as the dwelling place of God upon earth.

And what a grace it is to be here in this, our little corner.

Sunday Readings

R.I.P.

A few days ago, I read an article from a frustrated priest who related an all-too familiar experience. In a nutshell, he had celebrated a funeral and realized that most of the celebration had nothing to do with our Christian hope of resurrection. It seemed, he wrote, that the Christian elements of the service were just meaningless ceremonies to the mourners. Instead they loaded the coffin with enough goodies to keep the deceased occupied for eternity. He noted that it was strangely pagan and even hopeless. The Christian hymns sung at the funeral meant little but a recording of a pop song brought folks to tears. And on it went like that. He did not discount the raw emotions of the congregation and noted that given what version of faith they were taught growing up, they could not be blamed. And given what you and I have seen at these stressful times over the years, we can nod our heads and agree. We see it in the fights over road-side crosses where people died in accidents. Some demand to mark the place of where life ended calling it ‘sacred’ an even a ‘place where there are souls.’ Even with compassion, one would have to note that if we actually believed that, the number 5 train or 95 would be impassible. Think of all the markers, balloons and photos from the years of violence and accidents that have occurred on those viaducts. Clearly, we live in an age that handles death with pop-songs, candles and teddy bears.

But what do they mean? Today is the feast of All Souls. In Spanish, it is el dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It is the time of the year when we stop and consider what we spend so long avoiding. All our tributes and displays of affection are a normal part of the human emotion of dealing with the separation that death brings. Even the quasi-spiritual meaning we give to our shrines of memory are an attempt to get a grasp on something too tremendous to comprehend. But we are Christians. And while we leave room for the natural responses, we never forget the super-natural reality.

Jesus has risen from the dead and because He has, so shall we. We were created by God for God. We are not recycled or linger around monuments. We are called to enter the glory of eternal life. And in that transition, as if from a dark room to brilliant sunshine, we need to adjust our eyes. That is why we pray for those in that period of purgation and call it purgatory. That is why we celebrate today as the commemoration of all the departed.

It is a statement of faith as much as it a prayer for those who have gone on before us. We share in an act of defiance to all that limits us to the difficulties of this life. It defeats the lingering paganism that says this is all there is. It removes the awful burden of keeping some one’s ‘memory alive in our hearts forever’ because they live forever in the presence of God. And it speaks powerfully to that soft-whispered anxiety every one feels that heaven is an impossible dream.

You see, we are people of hope. We face the stark reality but never alone. We mourn and cry like any one else - but with a difference.. We feel pain but not despair. We add tokens for the journey but we see the destination. We wonder ‘why’ but not ‘where.’ We know there is so much more when all is so lost.

In the paganism of our modern world, monuments and memories appear to be all we have. Today says otherwise. We reverence our dead because of God’s mercy as well as for our own comfort. We recall today all those who so many once said would never be forgotten. In a healthy, and even good, way, we try to remember today. And even if and when we do forget, God does not. That is why we pray today for all those have died.. We ask that as they complete their journey to the Father’s House, our journey will be assisted with their prayers. And since we all land up in the same place, we all need any help to keep us going forward in the best way possible.

Since they are so close, today is not a sad day but one of hope. In the words of Brad Paisley:

When I get where I'm going
And I see my Maker's face
I'll stand forever in the light
Of His amazing grace
Yeah when I get where I'm going
There'll be only happy tears
I will love and have no fear
When I get where I'm going
Don't cry for me down here.

May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.