I took advantage of the fact that since I had no parishes to fill in for Mass this morning I could sit out on the front porch of the Center, read some Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre De Caussade, drink tea and watch the bumble-bees and butterflies dance around the butterfly bush. 

This was all the more pleasant by the fact that I was kept awake into the wee hours of the morning by the sounds of a college party across the street.  As I sat there watching the butterflies and bees and the beauty of the sunlight shining through the branches and flowers of the bush I came to the realization that yes, let the youth have their late night parties.  I will enjoy the peace and serenity of the morning.  The youth do not yet know what they are missing.  Hopefully, time and experience will help mature their awareness. 

A thought by De Caussade:

Thus, beloved souls, you cannot know from where you came nor where you are going; nor can you know from what idea of God you have been produced nor to what end it is leading you.  For you there remains only a passive self-abandonment, carrying on without thinking and concerned with no models or examples of any particular mode of spirituality.  You must act when it is time for action and stop when it is time to stop.  In this self-abandonment you read or put books aside, talk to people or keep silent, write or drop your pen, and never know what will follow.  Finally, after several transformations, the formed and finished soul, now endowed with wings, flies up to heaven, but leaves on earth a fertile seed to work in other souls. 

In the classic movie, “Mary Poppins”, at the end of the first day, Mary is putting her two young charges to bed. The brother and sister are so excited from the events of the day that they ask the nanny, “You will never leave us, will you?” And the young boy quickly adds, “Will you stay if we promise to be good?” To this second question the wise nanny responds, “That is a pie-crust promise. Easily made and easily broken.”

“That is a pie-crust promise. Easily made and easily broken.” I like that phrase and it connects right with today’s gospel (Mt. 21:28-32). “Yes, Father,” says the second son “I will go out and work in the vineyard.” He promises, but he does not go – a pie-crust promise. It cannot be that way with us. Discipleship is a lived reality – a lived response to the risen Lord who is just as present to us today as any of the people we now see around us with our physical eyes.

Also, just as we as disciples are not to be about “pie-crust” promises neither are we to be about blaming others. This is another teaching from today’s readings. Ezekiel, in our first reading (Ez. 18:25-28), offers his prophetic challenge during a specific time frame in the history of Israel. Israel had fallen, the people had been deported to Babylon and sitting by the river Chuza they were left wondering how this could have ever happened. What had led up to this catastrophe? Whose fault was it? Where is our scapegoat? Surely, they concluded, it must have been our parents, our grandparents. They had not practiced their faith rightly and now God is punishing us for their sins. Yes, it is their fault!

Ezekiel, with the courage of a prophet, answers back, “No, that is wrong”. Or, in other words, “stop trying to pass the buck”. “If someone commits iniquity and dies it is because he committed the iniquity. If he turns away from iniquity and does good, then he shall live.” It is no one else’s fault but how often do we hear or maybe even say the opposite. “He or she made me do it. That person is the one at fault!” This has been the line from the beginning, Adam said to God: “Eve made me do it!” Then Eve said to God, “The serpent made me do it.” The truth is, no one makes us do anything – we choose. What we have a selective memory about though is that with choices come consequences – when the consequences are in our favor we remember and celebrate our choice but when the consequences are not pleasant we grumble and complain.

No pie-crust promises. No blaming others. Discipleship calls us to an integrity and authenticity of living but we know that these temptations are there.  How might we find the strength needed to move beyond these temptations? The Letter to the Philippians has some good words of advice for all of us, “Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus.” In other words, “Humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but for those of others.” As we adopt this attitude of Christ Jesus we gain that integrity of living which moves us beyond the temptations of pie-crust promises and the blaming of others. Humility is indeed the needed remedy to these two temptations.

Christ emptied himself and took the form of a slave – humbling himself and in this is found the path to true life.

Today the Church celebrates the feast of the Korean Martyrs – Andrew Kim Taegon, Paul Chong Hasang and their companions.  Between 1839 and 1867, one hundred and three men and women gave their lives in witness for their faith in Christ in Korea. 

The Gospel reading for today is taken from Luke 8:19-21,

The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd.  He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.”  He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

In some ways our Lord’s response is tongue-in-cheek in that the one who truly accepted the word of God and said “yes” with her whole being was Mary herself.  This passage rather than diminishing Mary in fact honors her and calls us all to the awareness of how we also are called to be brothers and sisters to the Lord. 
 
We, likewise, are to receive God’s word, allow God’s word into our very lives and give birth to God’s word by the lives we live and the actions we do. 
 
Andrew, Paul and all their companions were brothers and sisters to our Lord in this true sense of the term and our world and Church are indeed better for their witness!
 
Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon,  Paul Chong Hasan and all your companions, pray for us! 

It is interesting what you can find on the internet and what you can be led to.  This last week I learned about the tree-climbing goats of Morocco via the internet.  (This sounds random and it is, but trust me, there is a point.) 

I was on the internet and on my screen appeared a link to an upcoming show about goats that climb trees.  Curious person that I am, I clicked the link and I was taken to a page showing a number of pictures of trees with goats amidst their branches.  At first I thought that these photos must be doctored and cannot be real but there was a further link to Youtube videos showing these goats climbing up the trees, moving around and balancing on the limbs and then scampering down off the trees.  The story is that there is a certain type of berry or fruit that these trees produce that the goats crave and over time they have adapted and have developed the ability to climb these trees in order to get at the fruit.  But, the image of these goats perched in trees is kind of surreal – two very ordinary things (goats and trees) brought together in a totally unexpected way that makes one do a double take and even question ones perception. 

The parables of our Lord operate in a similar way I believe.  Our Lord takes common, everyday realities that we are all familiar with but then puts a spin on them that leaves one doing a mental double take and re-evaluating our perceptions.  Similar to seeing goats perched in a tree.  Take for example this Sunday’s parable (Mt. 20:1-16).  We can easily imagine the landowner and the laborers.  We understand what work is and what it means to give someone a fair wage for a day’s work.  But then there is this “spin” at the end.  Those laborers who worked only one hour get paid the same amount as those who put in a full day’s work.  And we are left with the response of the landowner, “Are you envious because I am generous?”

In regards to parables we need to realize that approaching a parable like a math problem to be figured out is like attending a symphony and choosing to focus so intently on the words in the program that you totally miss the music.  Parables are not meant to be “solved” but to be entered into and lived in and as we do this we are brought to greater awareness and perception. 

As I have sat with this parable this last week I have been led to realize that probably about ninety-five percent of the life of faith and discipleship is just about showing up – whether it be at the start of the day or the end of the day.  If we just “show up” then God will do the rest – whether it is making the decision to go to church, to get involved in that service project, to take time daily for prayer and Scripture reflection, to make the decision to be available and attentive to our family and neighbor.  If we just “show up” like the laborers in the market-place then God will do the rest.  But it is important to note that showing up is not just a physical thing but must truly occur within ourselves.  It is the decision to be truly present to the other. 

It can be said that really everything that we do as Church – from worship to sacraments and liturgy, to service and care for others, to the reality of community, to private prayer and devotion – is about showing up for the encounter with Christ.  If we just “show up” then God will do the rest. 

“Are you envious because I am generous?” asks our Lord.

When it comes to the parables, it is all about the goats in the tree. 

Meditate on this: the tree climbing goats of Morocco. 

Scripture informs Scripture. 

This morning I was praying over the readings for this coming Sunday (25th in Ordinary time, Cycle A) while also reflecting on the readings for today’s Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.  During the course of these reflections I was struck by St. Paul’s words in the Letter to the Philippians (from Sunday’s readings); “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” (Phil. 1:21)

This succinct phrase (only possible to achieve, I believe, by the mystery of lived experience) sheds light on today’s Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.

Paul, it seems, is grappling with the mystery of the cross in the life of discipleship.  Our Lord has said that if we truly wish to be his disciples then we must pick up our cross and follow after him. 

There are many versions of the gospel being proclaimed today that omit or outright deny the mystery of the cross in the life of discipleship.  And many people flock to this message.  But it is an empty message. 

The cross must be embraced in the life of discipleship and its wisdom must be learned if we would truly disciples be.   

I am currently reading and reflecting upon Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s spiritual treatise,  Abandonment to Divine Providence.  In it I have found one of the most beautiful and succinct summations of the action of faith in our lives that I have ever read.  Below is the text.

If we never ceased to live the life of faith, our intercourse with God would never be interrupted and we should talk with him face to face.  When we speak it is the air which transmits our thoughts and our words, and so all our actions and our sufferings would be the medium through which we heard the expression of God’s will.  They would, as it were, give his Word substance and visible expression, and all that happened to us would be seen as holy and most excellent.  God in his glory will give us this union in heaven; here on earth we can enjoy it by faith.  The only difference is the way it is given to us.  

It is faith which interprets God for us.  Without its light we should not even know that God was speaking, but would hear only the confused, meaningless babble of creatures.  As Moses saw the flame of fire in the bush and heard the voice of God coming from it, so faith will enable us to understand his hidden signs, so that amidst all the apparent clutter and disorder we shall see all the loveliness and perfection of divine wisdom.  Faith transforms the earth into paradise.  By it our hearts are raised with the joy of our nearness to heaven.  Every moment reveals God to us.  Faith is our light in this life.  By it we know the truth without seeing it, we are put in touch with what we cannot feel, recognize what we cannot see, and view the world stripped of all it superficialities.  Faith unlocks God’s treasury.  It is the key to all the vastness of his wisdom.  The hollowness of all created things is disclosed by faith, and it is by faith that God makes his presence plain everywhere.  Faith tears aside the veil so that we can see the everlasting truth.   

Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan



“The worker will become a saint in the workplace, the soldier will become a saint in the army, the patient will become a saint in the hospital, the student will become a saint through studies, the farmer will become a saint on the farm, the priest will become a saint through his ministry as a priest, and the public servant will become a saint in the government office.  Every step on the road to holiness is a step of sacrifice in the performance of one’s mission in life.”  (Quotes taken from The Road of Hope by Cardinal Francis XavierNguyen Van Thuan)