The Heart of the Matter

Lesson on Prayer # 1

Over the course of this year I want to do some adult religious education and spiritual formation through this vehicle. The topic I have chosen is to share with you the riches of the Catholic tradition on prayer. Since the Catholic Church is a world wide body that stretches back for 2000 years, our history has much to teach us about living in stressful times. Throughout all of that long history there have been members of the Church who have prayed and survived through all the struggles that can come upon people. For the first 300 years the Roman Empire persecuted people who died for the faith we share. Then Christianity became the official religion of the empire and the Church had to adjust to sudden, massive numbers coming into the Church. How would the faith be kept pure with so many pagan influences coming in from the new converts? 

When the Roman Empire began to weaken and collapse, the Church stepped in to provide services the state had previously taken care of: safety, health care, education, and so on. Thus it has been throughout two millennia. Through one traumatic era to another, our fellow believers carefully passed on the faith we have received down to our very day. This faith of ours has been passed down through persecutions, revolutions, wars, famines, genocides, the dark ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the entrance of the age of doubt and despair and terror. 

Then came the 20th century when the Catholic Church experienced the martyrdom of more of her people than all the martyrs of the previous centuries of the Church put together.

How has this Church of ours survived? It even survived Napoleon who told his aide that it was his plan to destroy the Church. (Napoleon even imprisoned the pope for a few years.) That aide was a bishop who told him that if the Church had survived 1800 years (at that time) with the clergy's doing all they could to destroy the Church, but unsuccessfully, then Napoleon would not destroy it either! 

How has the Church survived? Because the Lord told Peter, and through him told us, that the gates of hell would not prevail against this Church; and that Peter was to hold the keys to the kingdom of God. 

So we have the Lord's promise. But we also have 2000 years' history of every generation's learning how to pray to Christ our Lord and God. When people become a people of prayer, specifically Christian prayer, then the world is transformed. 

In this space in the coming months I want to confirm you in your prayer, encourage you to be more faithful to it, and to give you some very solid suggestions on how to improve your prayer life. All of us are very busy people, but all of us can become mystics even as we go about our daily lives. Indeed some of you already are mystics.

 

Whether or not we become mystics, all of us are called to be in an intense personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. This is what makes us His disciples. One cannot be a true disciple of Christ if one does not pray. 

We can do everything we can think of to convey information and the teachings of the Church. But they only make sense if we also learn how to pray, how to be in a loving, trusting relationship 
with the Lord. I hope and pray that these occasional writings are helpful to you in leading your families to the True and Final Object of our lives: union with God in Christ Jesus. 

Homily for Sunday, August 30, 2010

Have you ever met someone with a deep abiding sense of entitlement?  You know: someone who thinks and acts in such a way that presumes that everyone else should adjust their lives so this entitled person gets what he or she wants.  And if entitled people do not get what they want, then watch out for the wrath that is about to spew forth from their mouths.

            We see this sense of entitlement in kids’ sports programs when a dad demands that his son get more play time because, “My son is the best player on the team and deserves to get more play time than every other team mate gets.”

            We see this sense of entitlement in the work place when one worker thinks the rules do not apply to her.  If work begins at 8 AM, the entitled person will saunter in at 8:30 or even at 9 o’clock.

Or, if no personal phone calls are allowed on work time, or no internet use is allowed for personal surfing of the web, then, "These rules simply do not apply to me because I am entitled."

            If I am an entitled parent of an entitled child in school, but my child gets corrected by the teacher and principal, then all hell breaks loose because surely the teacher and principal are in the wrong!

            If I am a spouse with this sense of entitlement, then the spoken or unspoken message to the other spouse is that all necessary adjustments should be made, "So I can be happy."

            In this surreal world of entitlement then, if an unexpected pregnancy comes along, then I am entitled to think that this child must die so I can live the way I want.  Or, if the pregnancy continues until the second amniocentesis, when it is discovered that there may be some deformity in the child, then I am entitled to be free from such problems, even if a child must die.

            If I think that life is unfair, or if I think that I shouldn’t have to deal with the problems that come along in life, then I am living a lie: the lie is that somehow I, the great I, should be exempt from this kind of suffering that is the lot of other people, surely not me!

            If I think I deserve better, or if I think I don’t deserve this (whatever the “this” is), then I am living under the illusion that entitled persons live under.

            If I have some traumatic event come along that makes my life miserable, then in my entitlement I will think: I want my life back!  Remember, that was the complaint of the BP executive whose yachting was interfered with because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Talk about being entitled!

            This sense of entitlement was at play at the dinner Jesus was invited to.  The other guests thought that they were in a position that entitled them to keep an eye on Jesus to discover what missteps He might make; they thought they could sit in judgment of Him.  And in their “me first” mentality, they went looking for the best seats at the table.  He taught them a thing or two in His parable about humility. 

            Jesus also took the occasion to address the universal sin of pride, of looking down on the less fortunate people in life.

            The entitled person thinks he deserves all the good things in life; and does not deserve anything bad.  It’s all an illusion.  The truth is that everything is a gift.  We have done nothing that earns us salvation.  Salvation is a gift.  Blessings are a gift; so are the problems of life. 

If I see everything as a gift, even the crosses that come along, then I will not be an entitled, arrogant person with a sense of superiority.  Instead I will move into a right relationship with God, ever increasing in my gratitude for His gifts.

I’ll see things as they are.  When I see things as they are, then I will be standing in the truth.  And the truth is this:

I am a sinner, but I am loved.  

I am so undeserving, but oh, so blessed.

Now that’s humility!

Homily for Sunday, August 22, 2010

So, Lord,

are there many

who are going to be

saved?  

“Wrong question.  The right question would be: what must you do to be saved?”  

Why, Lord, is that a wrong question?  I’d really like to know how all of this works out.

“It’s a wrong question because you’re not taking seriously enough your own salvation.  Once you’re well on the way, then we’ll look at other people’s salvation.”

OK, then what must I do to be saved? 

“Ah!  Aim to get into the Kingdom of God by way of the narrow gate, for many I tell you will seek to enter but will not be strong enough.”

What is the narrow gate?

“Do you not remember My saying, ‘I am the gate?  Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.’ Salvation is experienced by going through Me.  Remember that I have also told you that to be saved you must love the Lord your God with all your strength.”

But Lord, what does it mean to love You with all of our strength.  I know what was said by a French bishop, Blessed Chaminade, who lived through the reign of terror during the French Revolution.  He said that to love God with one’s whole strength means to observe all of God’s laws, to conform to His will, to employ in His service (without reserve) all that we possess, and to be devoted to His service with all the fervor and all the intensity of which our nature is capable.

            “Exactly!  But there are two things more that are needed today.  One is being careful of how to interpret things; and the other is the need to spread the Good News.”

            Lord, on that matter of being careful on how to interpret the events of life: do You mean that we should look upon all struggles, sufferings, and trials as Your disciplining us?

            “Yes, too many people think that I am not a part of their lives.  Do you remember My saying that not even a sparrow falls to the ground with out My Father’s knowledge, and that every hair of your head is counted?  So, of course, every event in life is packed with grace.  To see your trials as discipline is to know that a loving God is with you in every event, especially events of suffering.  When you have that sense of God’s presence and care for you in every moment of life, then you can turn to Me and ask for My help, My guidance, or strength to endure the discipline and to learn from it.  I have never promised you that you will not suffer; but I have promised you that I will be with you in your trials.”

            “Too many think that I have abandoned them in their trials and then they live as if I were not a part of everything that goes on.  That’s the wide way, the way that leads to destruction.

            “Before we leave this conversation about salvation, I want you to know that salvation is open to everyone; and all those who believe in Me are called by Me to go out into the world and proclaim this good news, even ‘to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, (in other words, everywhere, even) to the distant coastlands that have never heard of My fame, or seen My glory; and they shall proclaim My glory among the nations.’
            "Yes, salvation is open to everyone, but if people do not take the offer of salvation seriously, then the time will come when the door will be locked and, despite last minute appeals that are too late, the terrible words will be said, Depart from Me all you evil doers.”

            This is why I recommend to you the Fatima prayer that was added to each decade of the rosary almost 100 years ago: O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell.  Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of your mercy.

            This is a prayer that takes seriously the care we should take about our salvation and the necessity of caring that others also will strive to enter by the narrow gate.

Homily for Sunday, August 8, 2010

"For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."  

Did you know that missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin; and did you know that the remedy is going to confession?  Remember, it’s one of the 10 big ones: You shall keep holy the day of the Lord.  Of course, as in all cases of mortal sin, there has to be knowledge that missing Mass on Sunday (or Saturday evening) is a mortal sin.  Then, one has to be free in choosing not to go to Mass; and then one has to give full consent of the will to break this commandment.  There can be extenuating circumstances to remove any culpability on missing Sunday Mass, like sickness, attending to someone who is in dire circumstances, an impossibility to get there due to old age, etc.

Let me explain why missing Sunday Mass is a mortal sin.

Faith is a precious gift given by God directly to the soul.  “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen,” as we heard in the second reading.  Like all gifts it can be taken for granted, or it can be thrown away, or it can be opened up and treasured.  

            If we open up the gift of faith, it suffuses our interpretation of all that happens in life.  Faith strengthens us in our daily trials; faith encourages us in our experience of the valley of tears; and faith enables us to see the Hand of God at work in every event of our lives, even the most terrible events.  Faith made it possible for Abraham to put his confidence in God’s promises to him and Sarah, that those promises would indeed be fulfilled. 

            In our own day, an age of disbelief, faith is easily lost.  Ask any college student who leaves home as a faith-filled high school graduate who in college finds one attack after another for daring to believe in “all those myths.”  Ask anyone who has faced a tremendous tragedy how easy it would be to give up on the faith of our fathers, holy faith, when tested by tragedy.    

            Yet, tragedy is when faith is tried like gold in a furnace; and when purified by trial it becomes the most precious gift in our lives.  Some of us here know exactly what this kind of tried and true faith is like.  When we have gone through extreme testing, our faith is more valuable than any possession.

            How awful, how dreadful to lose one’s faith!  Imagine having to face disaster, catastrophe or heartbreak without the consolation of our faith!  Yet some choose to throw away this gift given to us when we were baptized.  

It begins when we choose something else over God.  It begins when make a deliberate decision to stay away from the banquet table of the Lord.

            Those who are Eucharist-fed, those who hunger for the extraordinary union we have with Christ in Holy Communion, have found the true object of their desires.  It is the Lord!  And in Him we can do all things, face all trials, climb any wall, and endure whatever comes – because of the great love of the Lord.  Because of faith, I know I am not alone.  I know there is a future that we call the Kingdom of God, which becomes the greatest of desires for one who knows he or she is the beloved of God.

            Choosing something else than the Sunday Eucharist is a first step away from faith. It is choosing some treasure other than God.  Missing a second Sunday Mass becomes easier.  Attending Sunday Mass occasionally becomes a matter of doing God a favor.  Letting months pass since the last Sunday Mass allows our faith to pass away as well; and then we find that we disagree with this or that, and instead of humbly coming for the Judge of all, we become the judge ourselves.  We have exonerated ourselves and now see that we are in a position to find what is lacking in that which the saints have died for.

            Missing Sunday Mass is in the mortal sin category because losing one’s faith is the worst disaster than can come upon anyone.  Taking even one step in that direction is of the gravest concern for one’s soul.  For one who loses the faith chooses to live in fear and cannot believe Jesus when He says:

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your belongings and give alms.  Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. 
For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."