Category Archives: joy

Rejoice and Trust!

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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RESURRECTION PICTURE 2It is interesting to note what strikes us and what we notice when we journey yet again through a liturgical season through which we have already traversed each year of our lives. My experience has taught me that each year is different and that there are new challenges and new insights gained.  This liturgical season of Easter is no different.

Maybe it is because I just concluded a series on the Gospel of John in the parish which required me to delve deeper in my gospel study or because I recently saw the movie “Risen” which, at least for me, brought home the same point but this Easter season I have been reminded how the disciples still did not fully know where things were all going even after they encountered the risen Lord.

In their encounters with the risen Lord, as found in the gospels, we find within the reactions of the disciples an interesting mixture of incredible joy held along with fear and uncertainty. Christ is risen!  The master and teacher that the disciples loved and followed now lives again, the tomb is empty, but the disciples still gather behind locked doors.  Even as Christ defeats death, the powers of the world are searching out his followers to persecute and destroy them.  It began with that first small band of disciples and it continues to our day.

I believe that the scene which most struck me in the movie “Risen” was when the disciples were rushing to meet the risen Lord in Galilee as they were told to do. At one point the Roman tribune is running alongside Peter and they both stop to catch a breath.  I cannot remember the full and exact dialogue but the tribune basically asks Peter what he thinks they will find in Galilee, to which Peter replies, “I don’t know.”  The tribune then asks why Peter is going if he does not know what he will find.  “Because I trust,” replies Peter.

The book had not yet been written when the disciples encountered the risen Lord those first days after the resurrection. In one sense we have “the book”.  We know through Sacred Scripture and Church history what happens and how things begin to take shape.  We know what the apostles do afterwards and how they all go out in mission into the world.  We have the book.  They did not.  The pages were still being written.  All they had was their trust in the Lord and their amazement at his resurrection.  But that was enough.

The truth is that it is enough for us in our day also. This, I think, is a message we need to hear this Easter.  We live in interesting times to say the least.  In the U.S. it seems that Christianity no longer enjoys the dominant cultural status it had enjoyed and exercised (at least on the surface), our society is becoming more pluralistic and more secular.  Things once taken for granted can no longer be.

One reaction to this is to circle the wagons, say it is all done, the book is finished and the end times are upon us. Some people choose that route.  Another response is to do as the first disciples did: be amazed and overjoyed by the resurrection and trust!  I do not believe that the book of Christianity and the Church is done.  I think that the pages are still being written and that we are blessed to live in the times we find ourselves!

One of my favorite saints is St. Augustine. I love to read his writings, to try to follow and grasp his depth of thought and to catch his snarky comments.  For my Licentiate in Sacred Theology, I compared Augustine’s anthropology expressed in The Literal Meaning of Genesis with modern, secular anthropology.  The cliff notes version of my work is that Augustine’s anthropology is better.  There you have it.  During my study and since then, I have realized that part of the appeal of Augustine for me and other readers is connected to the context in which he lived and wrote.  He wrote in a time when Christianity was small and vulnerable and not the dominant social force but his writings still reveal the genius and beauty of our faith and thought.  There is something worthy of remembering and reflecting upon in this.

Is the United States becoming more secular and pluralistic? Seems so.  Will Christianity remain the dominant social power player it once was?  Maybe not.  Is Christ risen, is the tomb emptied?  Yes.  Then rejoice and trust!  The pages of Christianity and the Church are not finished being written!  Contexts may change but the gospel truth stays the same and continues on!

The very human temptation to remain behind the locked doors and believe that it is all coming to an end just because the context we find ourselves in is changing is constantly before us. But just because the context changes that does not mean that the end is near.  Frankly, history demonstrates that it is in times of change that the greatest growth occurs partly because we are brought back to what is essential which, in this case, means rejoicing in the risen Lord and trusting.  Our Lord’s call to go to Galilee is a continual call and corrective to his band of followers to move beyond the resignation of a “circle the wagons” mentality and to trust and go out into the times in which we find ourselves proclaiming the risen Christ as Lord!

As true for that first band of followers, so for us. Christ is risen!  The tomb is emptied.  Rejoice and trust!  The Lord goes ahead of us to Galilee!

Easter Sunday – Mary, Peter and John ran!

05 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in discipleship, Easter, hope, joy, life in Christ, resurrection

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peter_and_john_running-dan-burr-mindreChildren like to run.  Have you ever noticed this?  Watch children at play – pure energy!  In children we see the body just needing to move – not weighed down, not encumbered by age or past hurts – pure life and pure joy!  Children run and in this running we find a witness to life and to joy!

The gospel (Jn. 20:1-9) today tells us that Mary of Magdala ran to the disciples once she saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’s entrance.  The gospel then goes on to tell us that Peter and John ran to the tomb to investigate.  When you ask children at play, “Why do you run?” they probably will not be able to give an answer.  Maybe at best they will say, “Because we can!” or “We just want to!”  The running is just a witness to live within them.  Why did Mary run?  Why did Peter and John run?  Was it a conscious decision on their part or rather, like children, did the energy of a new life impel them?  I think it was the latter.  An unimaginable energy, an unheard of joy – the tomb was empty!  Death has been conquered!  They ran simply because they had to!

For too long history has wept before the tombs of our world.  How countless the number of men and women who have died by violence, hatred, war, famine, isolation and abandonment!  Even today it continues.  Before the tombs of our world our hearts are left heavy and we feel abandoned.  Before the tomb there is no joy, no desire to run because there seems to be no future – no hope.

Hope impelled Mary and the two disciples to run.  They ran because hope was born again in their hearts!  Not a hope born of this world that ends with the tomb but a hope born of heaven that empties the tomb from within!  In the resurrection of Christ the tomb is emptied from within!  Christ has entered even death itself – abandonment from God – and Christ has overcome death from within.  Death, sin and evil are swallowed up!  The tomb is emptied from within.  Death is robbed of its power!

The tombs of our world remain.  Sadly, too many people still weep before the tombs of violence, war, abandonment and isolation but the finality of the tomb has been broken.  Its power vanquished!

Where is the glory of the resurrection?  It is in the gospel that says there is a different way to live other than the logic of the tomb – a way that says “no” to violence, “no” to abandonment and to war, hatred and isolation.  The glory of the resurrection is found in the heart of the Christian who says “yes” to this different way of living – “yes” to friendship, “yes” to forgiveness and reconciliation, “yes” to peace and “yes” to the belief that death is not the final word!

And when we live this different way?  We run, we run so fast!  We run with Mary and Peter and John!  We run a new way with a new hope born of heaven!  Life itself impels us to run!

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

The Possibility of Holiness

18 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in Catholic Church, Christian living, Church, discipleship, faith, following Jesus, God, gospel, holiness, Jesus, joy

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I am not holy.  My sins, failures and weaknesses are before me every day, but I believe in the possibility of holiness and it is this belief that keeps me in the Church. 

I am not naïve to the sins and failures of the institution of the Church nor its representatives – past and present, universal and local – but neither am I naïve to the sins and failures of those outside the Church and those who deride “church”.  I have also witnessed their sins and their hidden despair and I want none of it.  The louder and more forced the laugh; the deeper the despair, I believe.  
I do not want nor need a “Church” made in my image.  I know my sins.  Holiness is challenge – lived daily and without fanfare.  I am a creature and I need my Creator to heal what is broken within me.  To pretend that there is no brokenness is, in fact, to deny my Creator. 
Holiness is simple.  I am tired of a presentation of faith that needs to be hyper-stimulated.  I feel sorry for our young people who are growing up in such a world.  I am sorry for the times the Church buys into this.  Holiness cannot be manufactured.  Holiness grows simply and quietly.  What is manufactured quickly fades and leaves a void.  Maybe holiness can begin to grow in this void maybe it cannot.  I know that God can work as God so chooses and I have to trust in this.  
Holiness is not argument and it is not philosophy.  Debate does not lead to conversion, the witness of holiness does.  Philosophy and its structure is a good tool but it is not salvific faith.  The wise steward, we are told, is the one who can go to the storeroom and pull out both the old and the new as needed.  Maybe there are other tools available?
Holiness does not isolate.  Christ, the All Holy One, came into our very midst.  He called us brothers and sisters and taught us to love one another.  Holiness is found in my encounter with the other although it may not be immediately apparent.  The holiness uniquely found in community forces me out of myself and I need this.  If anything, the direction of holiness is from the mountain back down into the valley of the everyday. 
Holiness is not on a mountaintop somewhere but in the Gospel, the sacraments and community.  I need these every day.
Many people like to point to the sins of the Church.  It is nice to have an excuse isn’t it?  Pointing out the perceived sins of others does not grow holiness in my own life; it just gives me a way out.  I need to stand before my Creator on my own and not in contrast to what I perceive as the sins of others. 
Holiness is beautiful and I need beauty – a child playing peek-a-boo, friends laughing, feet being washed.  
I feel sorrow for those who have left the Church.  Christ loves the Church … how can you love Christ and not love what he loves?  Maybe Christ’s love should be bigger than my own resentments and excuses?
Holiness is living in friendship with God.            

John the Baptist: Second Sunday of Advent (C)

08 Saturday Dec 2012

Posted by in homily, humility, John the Baptist, joy, poverty

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Icon of St. John the Baptist

The truth is that today the Word of God comes to us. 

We have two options: we can keep this Sunday’s gospel (Lk. 3:1-6) at a comfortable distance by thinking, “Oh, ‘in the reign of Tiberius Caesar‘ that is in the past.  Nice story.” or we can catch what Luke the evangelist is actually doing in his litany of specific names and titles.  For Luke the “word” is not some vague spiritual idea or inspiring myth.  No, the “word” is in fact a historical reality that “comes down” into the affairs of human nations and times and even into the stuff and routine of our daily lives.  The “word” chooses to be specific and to enter into particular times and places.  …the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.  

John welcomed the word in the desert we are told.  Again, we cannot be comfortable here.  The desert is not some far off place on another continent with an exotic sounding name.  Despite the noise and amusements we are, in fact, right in the middle of the desert of our times where life is not truly lived nor joy truly found.  Elsewhere in the scriptures we are told that Herod was hateful of John’s denunciations of his actions yet, at the same time, drawn to his words. John, I think, was such a compelling figure for the ruler precisely because he was able to do what Herod was not.  John recognized the desert of his time and because of that he was able to live his life not lost in an endless series of amusements but rather authentically and fully.  John truly lived his life and he truly knew joy.

How did he do this and how might we?  Three lessons for us: poverty, humility and hospitality.

John was a poor man and he accepted his poverty.  We know that materially John had nothing (wearing only a camel-skin and a belt) but even more so John accepted the poverty of letting go of the myth of self-sufficiency.  John, in the depth of very being made a soul-searching inventory, and accepted the truth of dependence upon God in both its bitterness and sweetness.  We are told that John survived on locust and wild honey.  Because of his poverty, John is free.  Herod is not free.

John knew the joy of humility.  He does not need the illusion of the “royal palace” in whatever shape it may come and he cautions and chastises those who cluster around the palaces of our world.  John, in contrast to the false pride of our world, would be very comfortable (I think) with the saying, “Christian, remember your dignity.”  The school of humility leads one away from false pride yet it also leads one back to true pride.  We are children of Abraham, we are sons and daughters of the Father and even as we are not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal (Jn. 1:27) we are abundantly and immensely loved by our Lord and Savior!  Humility overcomes false pride because humility leads one to put trust in the Lord and the Lord alone.  Humility leads to joy. 

When the “word” came to John he welcomed it.  God loves us too much to let us remain comfortable and content in the false illusions of the desert of our world.  One way or another God is coming to us.  The key is to not fear but to welcome, to be hospitable.  What a great thing it is to have God come to us and to seek entrance into our hearts.  When we welcome Christ into our hearts then Christ will make his dwelling there and make of our own hearts a place of welcome for others. 

This, I think, is the surest “proof” if something is from God or not.  Is our heart becoming a place of welcome and hospitality for others or not?  Through his poverty and humility John did not become severe and distant.  Rather, the opposite.  If one reads further in this third chapter of Luke (and it will be proclaimed next Sunday), John knew the struggle and hardships of people and when the people asked the prophet what they should do he responded by keeping it simple.  Be good people, seek to do what is right and just, care for one another and recognize the coming of the Kingdom of God.  John’s heart was anything but distant and cold. 

John’s heart was a place of welcome and hospitality because he, himself, had welcomed the Word of God.   

Learning to walk: Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by in 24th sunday in Ordinary Time (B), discipleship, fulfillment, joy, learning

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Not too long ago I had the opportunity to spend some time enjoying and afternoon of a beautiful day in a city park – sitting on a bench, appreciating the sunlight and watching the people.  At one point I noticed a young family strolling down a path – a husband, wife and their little toddler who was obviously just learning to walk and was also very determined to do so on his own.  At one point the little boy stumbled and fell, his father picked him up, set him on his feet and the little boy was off again with his parents following behind.  The little boy was learning to walk both with every step but also every stumble.  It was a very common sight but also very beautiful and true and it gives us, I believe, a wonderful image to hold in relation to today’s gospel passage (Mk. 8:27-35).

All aspects of the gospel message are important and this even includes location and context.  The context of today’s gospel is worthy of note.  Jesus and his disciples set out for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.  Along the way he asked his disciples…  They are walking, they are on journey and it is in this context that Jesus puts forth his question.  “Who do people say that I am?”  Yes, our Lord is taking this moment to teach his disciples about his identity (who he is) but, he is also teaching them by this question and what follows how “to walk” as disciples.  In this gospel passage we find that the Lord is teaching us (like those parents with their son) how to walk as disciples in the world.

Yes, the Gospel proclaims the truth of who Christ is as savior but it also teaches us what it means to be a disciple.  It is not enough to proclaim, “Lord, Lord” but then not do anything about it.  If we are going to talk the talk then we need to also walk the walk.  Faith of itself, writes James in today’s second reading (James 2:14-18), if it does not have works is dead. 

That day in the park, the natural progression of life was propelling that toddler to walk, even after stumbling.  The child was determined.  He had to do it.  The natural movement of faith leads one to live faith.  We must not short-circuit this truth.  We must grow, we must mature as disciples if we are not to remain in a state of frustration.  We must learn how to walk as disciples in the world.

To walk as a disciple in the world means to learn to judge things differently and therefore to live by a different standard – not the world’s but God’s.  The disciple must learn to deny self, to take up the cross and to follow Christ.  This is the lesson that Peter stumbled upon and had to learn even after proclaiming Jesus as the Christ.  God’s ways are not our ways and God’s Messiah will rule from the defeat and weakness of the cross rather than the power of the world.  The disciple must also learn this and walk the same path that the Master trod.  Anything less is a short-circuiting of the natural and authentic thrust of faith.  Anything less is a selling short of discipleship and of self.

Yes, this if frightening and we will stumble, just like Peter, but our Lord is kind and merciful and in this we find comfort.  Our Lord will pick us up and set us on our feet again.  And in this we will know true joy and fulfillment.  The authentic joy of doing and achieving what one is meant to do and to achieve.  The joy of coming to be what one is meant to be. 

As the toddler walked on down the path, even after his stumble, he was all smiles – precisely because he was doing and achieving what he was meant to do and to achieve.  Here is where joy is found and experienced.  We must grow.  We must mature in faith.  We are meant to learn how to walk as authentic disciples in our world.    

 

15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B): Love and freedom from death, guilt and ego

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), care for others, death, ego, guilt, homily, joy, love

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“Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt
Saint Paul has written that God chose us in Christ in order to be full of love.  Here is where our religion begins.  It has been noted that the first Christians were just like the people around them: a mixture of rich and poor, weak and strong, male and female.  One could not tell the difference just by looking.  But, as a group, the Christians were noted for their care for others and for their joy. 

The original Christians were known for their taking care of others.  Especially others that the rest of society did not care for.  They buried the unknown poor, they cared for the sick.  They cared for the beggars.  Most of all, they cared for one another – sharing all so that no one was in need.  Many groups in history are known for power, strength, violence and bravery.  Few are known for how they loved each other.  This is the witness of our faith. 

Those first Christians were also known for their joy.  Joy is the infallible sign of God’s presence – it goes beyond happiness (which is having the world as we would have it) toward being in tune with the world as God would have it.  We find joy when we live as God would have us live.  

The first Christians shared all the conditions and struggles of life that their neighbors shared (and we still do).  We share the struggles, uncertainties and pains of this world.  Where then does our joy come from?  It comes from being freed to love and rejoice because, in Christ, we are freed from the three chains of death, guilt and ego.

We all fear death whether we acknowledge it or not and most of our sins come from this deep fear of diminishment, loss and ultimately oblivion.  But, as Christians, we know someone who once was dead and now lives.  We can boast, “Death, where is your sting?”

As Christians we are also freed from guilt.  We all know and bear this misery.  It is the felt knowledge that we have done what we should not and that we have not done what we should.  And even when we are not personally guilty of a specific sin we do share in the wholesale guilt of the human race.  And no human can forgive us, because we all share in sin.  But God can forgive and God has in Christ.  In Christ our guilt is wiped away – replaced by God’s mercy. 

Finally, the Christian is freed from the ego.  We are each both blessed and cursed by being a unique individual.  We can be so obsessed about taking care of ourselves and living in our own bubble that we forget others and forget the great mystery that it is only in dying to self that we rise to new life.  Through Christ we have learned that we save ourself by losing ourself.  Maturity comes when I realize that my life is not just about me.

In our care and in our joy we, as Christians, are known.  We love because, in Christ, we have been loved and freed from death, from guilt and from the ego.  This is the witness of our faith.  

See, how much these Christians love one another!  Hopefully, this will one day be said of our generation of Christians!