"CHURCH CHAT" #47

 

 

DISAPPOINTED BY OTHERS? FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, LET IT GO!

 

OLD AGE - IF YOU DON'T LAUGH, YOU CRY

As many of you, my age or older, know - short-term memory can be problematic. For me, it seemed to be one of the first signs of aging. Even when I turned 80, I didn't feel old. Some people (usually those polite enough and really good at lying to my face) said I didn't look my age, but I started to notice that I could not recall some people's names, restaurant names and street names as fast as I could in the past. Most of the time, the names will come to me if I stop and pause for a minute or two! OK...maybe it will sometimes take an hour or two! 

When I mentioned it to my doctor at my annual physical earlier this year, he laughed it off and told me that it was a "normal part of aging," after I asked if I was headed toward dementia. I can't remember a thing he said after that, deciding not to mention how fast the days and weeks seem to be flying by compared to years ago, thinking it might be better to "let sleeping dogs lie!" 

However, to relieve my worries, he did recommend a shot!   

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO YOU REALLY REALIZE THAT YOU ARE LOVED NO MATTER WHAT?

 

What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?

Am I not free to do as I wish? Or are you envious because

 I am generous?

Matthew 20:1-16a

 

If you were to die today and you stood before the gates of heaven and you were asked this one simple question test to see whether you got in or not, could you answer that one simple question? Here is that question. “Who does God love?” 

Well, if you are not sure, I am going to give you the correct answer - not my answer, but the answer found in today’s gospel reading. It is so simple, yet unbelievably astounding! Who does God love? He loves everybody – everybody - no ands, ifs or buts about it! 

One of the parables that most brings this point home to me is this parable of the vineyard workers. The parable of the “Vineyard Workers” is enough to make wine growers all over the world cringe! This parable is not an instruction on to operate a profitable vineyard. If you followed this example, you would be broke in no time! No, it’s a story about how God treats us, a story about God’s unbelievable generosity! For Jesus, the whole purpose of this parable is to shock in order to teach! This parable is insane, according to human thinking, but that’s the whole point of the parable. That’s its genius! It tells of God’s unexpected insane love for us, no matter what we have done or what we have failed to do! That’s why it is called “the gospel,” “the good news!”

Those who had “worked all day in the sun” were the religious authorities, those who felt entitled because they had served God faithfully for years! Those “hour before quitting time” workers were the “tax collectors and sinners,” those who felt unworthy in God’s eyes, the simple people who failed at following Jesus!  You can imagine how both groups reacted when they heard the punch line, “Give them all a full day’s pay!” You can imagine those who had worked all  day screaming in outrage!  “Give them all a full day’s pay?” "Are you out of your ever-lovin' mind? That's just not fair!" 

This message is very close to the message of another parable, the one we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  In that story, the father loves both his sons, the one who stayed home and followed all the rules, as well as the one who strayed away and got down with the pigs! The message is simple: God loves all his children, not matter what they have done or failed to do! Yes, we certainly can reject God's love, but God never quits loving us- even if we reject his love and choose our own condemnation!

The tax collectors, sinners and rejects were delirious with joy when they heard that message! The Scribes and Pharisees, who taught that God’s love depended on people’s behaviors, were outraged. In the words of Jesus, they were “envious because I am generous.”  They made the mistake of believing that there is not enough God-love to go around!

One of the worst things to happen to the church, in my estimation, was when it started to “conditionalize” this “good news” and started teaching people that God loves you when you are good, quits loving you when you are bad and starts loving you again when you shape up!  It is not uncommon to hear some religious people tone down the “good news” because it is “too dangerous.” I was often criticized at the Cathedral by them when I welcomed home hundreds of fallen away Catholics by preaching this message. Their worst nightmare is that if people really believed the message of the parables and the church really taught it, all hell would break loose! People would start doing any damned thing they wanted! That’s the same thing that worried the Scribes and Pharisees. In reality, the opposite was true in Jesus’ day and the opposite is true in ours! People’s lives are transformed by that message! They are converted by this message! This message inspires them to love others the same way they have been loved by God – friends and enemies alike! 

What do you believe? Are you one of those people who still believes that God’s pays us with love depending how many hours we have loved him? Are you one of those people who still believes that God turns his love on and off depending what we do or fail to do?  If you are, really listen to the message of the parables. If it sounds too good to be true, then you have gotten the message! God’s incredible unconditional love does sound too good to be true, but the fact of the matter is, it is true! “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” He didn’t die for us as a reward for our shaping up! While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

 

"CHURCH CHAT" #46

 

 

 

FORGIVENESS, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, IS A FAMILY ISSUE

A man had two sons. He said to the older son, “You have been here with me the whole time, but now we must celebrate and rejoice because your brother was lost and has been found.

Luke 15:11-32

I believe with all my heart that if the whole Bible were to be lost except this one story, it would be enough! This parable is really a short play, narrated by Jesus as a parable, that teaches us in the clearest way possible just how much God loves each and every one of us – no matter what! He loves us without condition, no matter how far we stray or how faithful we stay! To me it teaches us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ as St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans will tell us in this coming Sunday’s second reading.

This parable is about God and his relationship to us. God plays the role of the father. We, when we sin and fall short in our relationship to God, we play the role of the younger son. We, when we follow all of God’s rules and end up smug and withholding and jealous, we play the role of the older son. The only hero in this play is God. Both sons fell short in their relationship with God: the younger son who asked for his inheritance before his father even died and then wasted it on prostitutes, got down with the pigs and had to come crawling home and the older son who withheld forgiveness from his brother and refused to celebrate their father’s love for both of them, no matter what they did or did not do! The younger son represents us when we fixate on our freedom without responsibility and the older son represents us when we fixate on our responsibility without freedom.

The famous 17^th century Dutch painter, Rembrant, tells this story beautifully in his famous painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son.” He pictures the younger son kneeling like a servant, ragged, barefooted, humiliated and hoping to get a menial job in his father’s house as a servant. The older son is standing, with his arms crossed glaring in disgust, judgment, resentment and pride. The father, who had run to meet his youngest son and did not give him time to deliver his well-rehearsed apology, embraces him tenderly. Rembrant adds a tender touch to the scene. The father’s hands on the younger son’s shoulders are very interesting. One hand is large and more masculine and the other hand is smaller and more feminine. The father’s hands represents God’s masculine attributes and God’s feminine attributes!

Both the parable of Jesus and the painting of the artist Rembrant tell a moving, memorable and educational story about God’s forgiveness and unconditional love. It is worthy of our study, consideration and imitation. This beautiful parable is really about God’s unconditional love and the importance of reconciliation in families and communities - among parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors – and, yes, even with our enemies!

With that said, let me speak directly to all of the families reading this post today. In the last couple of weeks we have been focusing on the importance of forgiveness, especially in our Sunday readings. As a priest, I know from fifty-six years of ministry that your family and mine are not exceptional. Grudges, hurts, disappointments and misunderstandings are rampant in families - always have been and always will be! I have never met a family free of such problems. 

Wherever we are in this gospel parable, know that God loves us no matter what we have done or failed to do. He loves us no matter where we end up on the scale between our wanting our own personal freedom and our responsibility to our families. With God, we are always welcome home! With God, we have always been loved and we will always be loved! With God, there is always a welcome home party waiting for us!