HEADED TO HEAVEN WITH OUR DIGNITY UNSTAINED

 

I had a vision of a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, race, people and tongue. They stood before the throne (of God), wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

Most of us, immediately after we were baptized, we were dressed in a white robe. (You may have that white dress or even some photos of you dressed in it!)  When it was placed on us, the priest or deacon addressed us by name, saying these words, “You have become a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” 

In our first reading today, St. John gets a glimpse, across many generations to come, of a “great multitude which no one can count, from every nation, race, people and tongue, dressed in white robes, standing before the throne of God.”    Today’s feast reminds us that all of the baptized, including you and me, are called to stand someday before God with that great, uncountable throng of people from every part of the world, from every age!  According to St. John in our second readings, we are already God’ adopted children! As children of light, we were called at our baptisms to become saints! Yes, you heard me! We are heaven-bound! We are called to become saints!

What is a saint? Most of us have developed our ideas about holiness from a well-intentioned, but narrow, view of canonized saints. In its effort to hold up before us models of holiness, the church has sometimes elevated some saints to the point that they have sometimes become super-human! Some saints come off as life-hating masochists.  Mostly virgins and celibates, some might admire them, but most people do not see themselves imitating them!  My favorite definition of sanctity comes from Kentucky’s famous Trappist monk, Thomas Merton. This is the definition of holiness that guides me personally. “Sanctity,” he writes, “is not a matter of being less human, but more human that other men. This implies a greater capacity for concern, for suffering, for understanding, for sympathy, and also for humor, for joy, for appreciation of the good and beautiful things of life.”   This is the same message as the Beatitudes in today’s gospel! To borrow an idea from an old commercial, holiness is about “being all that you can be.”  Holiness, then, is not about being perfect, but about becoming the very best human being we can become: the best spouse, the best parent, the best church member, the best student, the best doctor, the best teacher, the best politician, the best artist, the best social worker or the best priest! The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that married couples and priests are not only called to become holy, but they are called to lead others to holiness. Married couples are called to lead their spouses and children to holiness. Priests are called to lead the faith communities entrusted to them to holiness. It goes on to say that if we do it right, it will make us holy in the process!

In other words, we become holy, not by mimicking the saints of old, but by answering our own unique calls.  We become holy, not by wearing sandals, a hair shirt and living on bread and water, but by living out our own unique call, not somebody else’s call.  We hear our calls by listening to our hearts.  While it is true that some people in the Bible received their calls in visions and dramatic events, most of us receive our calls in a simple, quiet knowing, the proverbial still, small voice within us.  To hear our call we do, however, have to shut up long enough for God to get a words in edgewise!  It helps to spend some quality time with God. Most of the time, calls are not shown to us directly, but are mediated through other people, symbols, dreams, symptoms, happenstance and synchronicities. We need to recognize that our calls can come in many disguises. Our unfolding as human beings requires that we be in constant dialogue with God who has called us to co-create ourselves, to do something with our lives and to contribute to the world God has given us.   

Someday, after we have done something with our lives, after we have become all we can be, God will call us home to be with him forever. At our funerals, we will be carried into church, one last time. Our bodies will be sprinkled with baptismal water and we will be covered over with a large white pall, a huge reminder of our white baptismal robe.  At the end of our funeral Mass, dressed in that white robe, our family and friends will commend us to God with these words, “May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city….May choirs of  angels welcome you…..”  Then, we too, will be on our way to sainthood!  Some day, in the not-too-distant future, the church will gather on an All Saints Day, like this one, to honor us!

 

 

 

"CHURCH CHAT" #52

 I thought this cartoon was a good way to celebrate the end of this year's "Saturday CHURCH CHAT Column." Next Saturday, I will begin another year with my new "QUESTIONABLE ADVICE COLUMN."

REFORMERS HAVE A HARD LIFE

 

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO "ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?"

 

 

JESUS: ONE TO BE IMITATED OR ONE TO BE WORSHIPPED?

Let me be clear about two things as I wade into probably a very touchy subject for some people. (1) I know what I believe and, as a retired priest, I am now freer than ever to write about my beliefs in my own blog! (2) I believe in the "real presence!" I accept the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it teaches us what to believe about the "real presence" of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist.    

However, I am not one to spend a whole lot of time making "Holy Hours" in front of a monstrance! My "holy hours" consist mainly of working with deliberate intensity on inspirational homilies in hopes that people will be inspired to imitate the Jesus that they have just received at Mass, especially in their daily lives and when they get home from church! Yes, I believe in the "real presence" of Jesus at Mass. I believe that he is truly present there, mainly for the purpose of becoming our "bread for the journey and strength for the trip" - our spiritual nourishment for the upcoming week - as we grow deeper in discipleship through our conscious implementation of the teachings of Jesus! 

Cardinal Thomas Collins, retired Archbishop of Toronto, Canada, validated my belief and practice one day when I was responsible for getting him invited to lead a Prayer Day for the opening of the seminary school year when I was a staff member at St. Meinrad Seminary. I had just led him and his nearly 800 priests for two weeks of retreat (nearly 400 priests each week), for two years in a row. The last year I was asked to  add an additional fifth week for his seminarians at St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto. 

During his Prayer Day presentation, one of the local seminary students, during the question and answer time, asked Cardinal Collins what he thought of making "Holy Hours." His response was memorable and insightful. "Yes, I think "Holy Hours" are a good thing! However, if you get a call as a priest to go to the hospital to see a person who wants you to come, "go!" Leave your Holy Hour and go!" 

I think I heard several of them gasp out loud in shock! Personally, I wanted to applaud! I believe in the "real presence," yes, but I believe even more in the fact that Jesus is more of a model for our living than he is one who wants to be worshipped! Did he not say, "Come, follow me!" "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First, go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." "Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." I remember these words, but I can't remember Jesus saying, "Come, worship and adore me!" As the hymn "Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service" reminds us in verse #4, "Called from worship into service, forth in your great name we go, to the child, the youth, the aged, love in living deeds to show, hope and health, good will and comfort, counsel, aid and peace we give, that your children, Lord, in peace we give, that your children, Lord, in freedom, may your mercy know and live." 

It was that day that I realized that seminary training had seriously changed. Over the next several weeks it became clearer and clearer to me just how much it had changed. I was running a post-ordination program parallel to an initial-formation program at the same seminary. The seminary training that I grew up with focused mainly on "preparing us to do ministry." It seemed to me that the seminary training program that I saw when I came back had morphed into a training program focused much more heavily on "personal piety." In my programs, seasoned priests would say things like, "Father, by the time I do all the ministry that I am required to do every day, I don't have time for prayer." During their deacon year especially, when seminarians were getting a taste of ministry, I would hear things like, "Father, by the time I finish my rosary, my Liturgy of the Hours, my Chaplet of Divine Mercy, my Holy Hour and my Stations of the Cross, I don't have time for ministry!"  What I was hearing was a lot about "my" personal piety! As a pastor several times, this worried me greatly. I could imagine that "future priests" might soon understand Christianity as having more to do with "believing in Jesus" and "worshiping Jesus" and less to do with "imitating the example of Jesus" in a world that desperately needs some inspiration for modeling the ministry and actions of Jesus! Our job is to promote "serious discipleship," not merely "personal piety." Personal piety serves discipleship! It can never become a substitute for discipleship! 

Is being a Christian really more about worshipping Jesus or more about modeling his example? I worry about this new zeal for "Eucharistic Devotion" and whether it is now almost replacing a zeal for service to the poor and marginalized! It has never been about one or the other, but about the first serving the second! For one thing, if adoration of the eucharistic presence does not lead to helping people turn their gaze toward helping others become mature - spiritually, ethically, emotionally and relationally - then what is the point? Jesus does not need to venerated as much as he needs to be imitated! For another thing, adoration of the eucharistic presence and having Jesus safely secured in a monstrance and simply carrying it through the streets, where we can take him out and put him away at will, is not as messy as carrying him within us when we are out in the streets serving our communities by trying to imitate his ministry! As I used to tell seminarians fixated on their own personal piety, "Your job as a priest is not just about you seeing to it that you have golden light coming out of the rectory for all to admire, but for you to drive through the parish and be able to see golden light coming out of the homes of your parishioners!" It was a way of reminding them that if their presence doesn't make an impact, their absence won't make a difference.  

For me, "personal piety" practices are fine, but so that I can "help the People of God exercise faithfully and fully the common priesthood which it has received," (Pastores Dabo Vobis #17) preaching has always been much more pressing and important to me! That is why I will be buried holding a Lectionary, rather than a Rosary. As Vatican II taught us in Presbyterorum Ordinis (I,4),"Priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of the gospel of God to all." As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says clearly in #1534, 'Holy Orders is directed toward the salvation of others. If it contributes as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that it does so.' When the Lectionary was placed in my hands at my ordination to the deaconate by my bishop, here is what he said; "Receive the Gospel of Christ whose herald you now are.  Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach."  

 

Even when it comes to Christianity, this is the question I have always liked to ask myself! Is Christianity just about believing in Jesus and venerating Jesus or is it even more so about imitating Jesus? Who cares whether I believe in Jesus or whether I venerate Jesus if I fail to live like Jesus, treat people like Jesus would treat them and yet still do not have the ability to inspire others to do the same?    

 

THE HEART OF IT ALL: LOVE OF GOD, SELF, OTHERS - EVEN ENEMIES

 

You shall love God with all your heart, all your soul,

all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. The

whole law depends on these.

Matthew 22:34-40

For the last few weeks, we have been reading about the battle between Jesus and the religious teachers of his day in the Gospel of Matthew. Since Jesus was very popular among the ordinary people on the streets, these jealous religious leaders could not attack him directly so they resorted to trying to trap him in his speech so that they could have something to accuse him of should there be a religious heresy or political sedition trial. They are determined to “get” Jesus, one way or another, and they eventually succeeded in having him killed!

Last week, we read that they thought they had Jesus cornered. First, they schmoozed him with false flattery to get him to open up. “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” They then asked him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. They thought they Jesus had boxed in with their clever “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” dilemma. If he said “Yes, it is lawful” he would offend and lose his followers who hated Caesar and his taxes, but if he said “no it is not lawful” then the Roman government would come after him for sedition.   Jesus outsmarted their trickery by answering, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s!”  

Today they are back for another try. The trick question today is: “What is the greatest commandment?” They knew that scripture scholars could not agree on this so they thought they could discredit him with somebody no matter what answer he gave. Again, Jesus outsmarted them again by placing the love of God and love of neighboring on the same plane - making them equal - rather than prioritizing them as they were hoping.    

There you have it! Basic Christianity is about fully and completely loving God, oneself, one’s neighbors and even one's enemies. Does that mean I have to love God, myself and others with all my heart, soul mind and strength if I dare to claim the name “Christian?” You mean I am supposed to make God and others the most important considerations in my life, even while truly loving myself? To be honest, most of us can’t say that God is that important to us, much less ourselves and those around us!

I would love to be able to say that God is always at the center my life, that I truly take care of myself and that I love all people all the time, but sadly I quite often put myself ahead of God and the needs of others. Some days I do better than others but, thankfully, God is very patient with me and loves me anyway.  He is always giving me as many second chances as I need! I have always taken great comfort in knowing that my best is good enough for God.

Today, I want to say a few more words about taking these two commandments seriously. None of us will ever measure up completely to the Great Commandment – the one that summarizes all other commandments - but this is the brass ring for which we all should reach out for! To take God seriously, to seek to love him, ourselves and others with all we have, there are things we must do. To call ourselves “Christians,” there are some basic things we must strive for! Let’s all examine our consciences as I list some of them! As that famous quote asks, “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

1.     We must want what God wants. To be able to even want what God wants, means we have to understand the Scriptures, listen to the Spirit within us and stay consciously connected to God through prayer.

2.     We must remember who we are. We are holy. We are holy, not because of what we have done, but simply because we are “created in the image and likeness of God” and, through our baptism, we are adopted permanently as children of God. If we are to love ourselves properly, we must accept our holiness, neither exaggerating who we really are nor denying who we really are!

3.     We must want to live by the same values Jesus lived by: having a loving kindness toward everyone, especially the most weak and vulnerable, even our enemies; striving to do God’s will no matter the consequences; using Jesus’ own life as a pattern for our own.

4.     We must be in command and control of ourselves, have a handle on our addictions and our passions, so that we can go in the way that God wants us to go. We must constantly question our own motives, making sure that we not only do the right thing, but also do it for the right reason.

5.     We must never give into hopelessness, whether it is about the future or about other people because we know that the war against evil has already been won. Even though we may continue to lose many more painful battles, the war is already won! God’s kingdom will come and nothing we do, not even the gates of hell, can stop it.

6.     Regardless of our failures, loving God and each other with our whole heart, soul, and mind is something we should strive for, even though it is something we will never accomplish completely. God wants a relationship with us as long as we live, even if it is off-and-on, rocky and imperfect!    

Today, we are challenged to get serious about God, not in some loud, noisy, fanatic and superficial way, but in a long haul and to the core-of-one’s-being kind of way. Loving God and one’s neighbors with all our hearts, souls and minds does not translate into noisy religious fanaticism. I, for one, cannot stand in-your-face religious fanatics! The loving that Jesus talks about is about knowing that we are loveable to God and about a simple way of living that places that love back onto God, ourselves and everybody around us. That is the spirit of these two commandments and that is what the spirit of God’s whole law is all about!   

How can we possibly hope to love this way? We can do it only with God’s help! Let us therefore go to that table to be fed and strengthened on the Body and Blood of Christ! With God’s help all things are possible!

 

 

               

 

"CHURCH CHAT" #51

 NEVER FORGET TO REMEMBER THIS!  

YOU ALWAYS SEE WHAT YOU LOOK FOR

Given at Little Sisters of the Poor

9-21-2026

Feast of St. Matthew 

The Pharisees said this about Jesus to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus heard this and said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.

Matthew 9:9-13

As I sat down to reflect on today’s gospel, where Jesus was attacked and condemned for being seen hanging out with the so-called riff-raff and trash of society, I immediately thought of a little hand-written list of New Year’s Resolutions that someone sent me. It was in a child’s handwriting. Here is what it said, “This year I want to be more like Jesus. I want to hang out with sinners. I want to upset religious people. I want to tell stories that make people think. I want to choose unpopular friends. I want to be kind, loving and merciful. I want to take naps on boats!” Evidently, the person who wrote that, adult or child, was very familiar with the Scriptures because that is exactly what Jesus did!

On this Feast of St. Matthew, we read about how Jesus “hung out with sinners.” His critics could not stand the fact that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. They wanted him to condemn them! Jesus gave them a perfect response. “Those who are well do not need a doctor, but sick people do!”

Those of you who know me, know that what Jesus did, is my normal practice! As a priest, I have specialized in reaching out especially to fallen away Catholics. For 15 years, I wrote a weekly column in The Record called “An Encouraging Word.” After 500 columns, I started this blog by the same name entitled “An Encouraging Word.” The personal philosophy behind my ministry as a priest has always been to look for goodness to affirm, rather than sins to condemn! I believe with all my heart that “we see what we look for!” If we look for sins to condemn in people, we will find plenty of them to condemn! However, I personally believe that the opposite is also true! If you look for goodness in people to affirm, you will find plenty of goodness and virtue to affirm as well!”

This was certainly true leaving St. Thomas Seminary here in Louisville! That training clearly focused on “sins to condemn.” When I entered St. Meinrad Seminary in the Fall of 1964, I entered into a new form of training that emphasized “goodness to affirm.” It changed my life and gave my ministry a new way to look at myself and to look out at you! Personally, I have never been inspired to change and grow through condemnation, but I have been inspired to change and grow through encouragement! Besides, who wants to come to church if you keep being condemned all the time? My firm belief is that most people are doing the best they can under their circumstances. Sometimes, all they need is a little encouragement from the pulpit!

I know I am right following the example of Jesus in today’s gospel. I have done it all my 56 years of priesthood and it works. In my own defense, I can point to one place in particular – the Cathedral of the Assumption from 1983-1997 when I was pastor. When I arrived, the parish was down to 110 old ladies who lived mostly in the high rise around the corner. When I left, there were 2,100 registered parishioners from 67 zip codes.

How did we do it? For one thing, we simply preached the “good news” of God’s unconditional love, especially for those who felt judged and unloved! In the words of Pope Francis, we became “a hospital for sinners!”

We welcomed sinners and fallen-away Catholics. As the “mother church of the diocese,” we liked to say to them, “Welcome! You can always come home to mother!” They came in droves because they knew they would not have to sit there and be condemned and be “put down” every Sunday, but rather hear about God’s love and mercy! As Jesus knew, “You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!” Personally, I was never inspired to change and grow through condemnation, but I was inspired to change and grow through encouragement…and so were they!

JUST TAKE A GOOD HARD LOOK AT IT - DON'T LOOK AWAY!

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

John 3:14-21

If you have ever been in the hospital or flipped through the phone book looking for a physician, you’ve seen the image – two winged serpents wrapped around a staff. It is known as the caduceus. The caduceus has been the symbol of the American medical profession for nearly a hundred years – a decidedly odd symbol for doctors until you begin to investigate where it came from and its underlying meaning.

This ancient symbol of healing, referred to in today’s gospel, is a reference to a story in Chapter 21 of the Book of Numbers – our first reading today.  In their trek across the desert from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land, the People of God underwent all sorts of trials and troubles. The one mentioned today is their plague of biting winged serpents. After praying for delivery from this awful plague, God instructs Moses to make a bronze image of the same serpents, put them on a pole and invite the people to take a good hard look at it. When they looked at it hard and long, they recovered.

Now this may sound like some kind of voodoo magic, but it isn’t! It’s primitive psychology! All you nurses, doctors, psychologists and mental health professionals, listen up now to this truth! What Moses did here is still good practice! What he is saying here is that the road to healing is always through facing the problem and looking at it squarely. Failing to look at problems squarely is the best way to keep them going!

The worst thing you can do, if you have a mysterious lump on your body, is to pretend it isn’t there! You need to pay close attention to it and have a professional examine it carefully and as soon as possible. The worst thing to do is to look the other way and pretend that it isn’t there! Healing begins with noticing.  

The worst thing you can do, if you or one of your friends or relatives has a drinking or drug problem, is to look away and pretend that it isn’t there! Reality must be faced squarely and help must be sought as soon as possible. The worst thing to do is to look away and pretend the problem does not exist! Recovery begins with facing facts squarely! That’s why people in AA must first of all say to themselves and others, “I am an alcoholic!” before their healing can begin!

Moses didn’t put it this way, but this is what he meant – all of us need to “wake up and smell the coffee” in several areas of our lives! As a culture, we are addicted to our denials. Whatever it is, we need to open our eyes and take a good hard look at reality and quit going to sleep just because it is comfortable and feels good for the moment!

And, yes, on a spiritual level, looking at Jesus dying on the cross – looking intently at it and understanding what it means – not looking away and not avoiding our responsibility in considering its implications - is the path to our eternal life as well! Looking at Jesus on his cross will help us understand that Jesus did not come to condemn us, but to save us! All we have to do is look at him on the cross, believe in him and his love for us and we will be saved. Just as the people of Moses’ time looked at an image on a pole of the serpents that were killing them and recovered, we can look at Jesus on the cross and recover from what’s killing us - our sins!

 

My sisters and brothers, today’s readings are about facing ourselves, facing our addictions and owning them, facing our shabby treatment of others and owning it and, yes, facing our sins and owning them. It is about taking a long, hard look at reality as a path to healing and forgiveness! As Jesus himself said, “The truth will set you free!”   

 

 

YOU, TOO, ARE CALLED TO BE A MISSIONARY!

 

We, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, give thanks to God for all of you in the church in Thessalonica. We remember you in our prayers, calling to mind your work of faith, 

labor of love and endurance.

First Thessalonians 1:1-5

This missionary trio, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, writes this tender note to a mission community struggling to retain hope in their weariness and discouragement and to remind them of their intimate relationship with God in Christ.

This being World Mission Sunday, I was reminded again just recently, that I had come to a conclusion about myself: "Once a missionary, always a missionary!" It made we realize that my mission activities as a young boy had actually prepared me for my many mission activities as a priest, especially in retirement.

In my first grade at St. Theresa School (1950), down in Meade County, I remember helping "adopt pagan babies." It was a popular program for Catholic school children, whereby we brought our pennies to school to "adopt" poor children in mission areas to help prepare them for baptism. The program was a bit simplistic, but well-intentioned!

In high school seminary, I made rosaries to send to "the missions." I remember making hundreds of them at St. Thomas Seminary, out on old Brownsboro Road, here in Louisville.

In the last two years of St. Meinrad College Seminary, I was a member and even an officer in an organization called the Catholic Students Mission Crusade. I even have a picture of myself in the seminary chape with my CSMC badge around my neck!

As a theology level seminarian, I considered joining the Glenmary Home Missioners - an order of priests, brothers and sisters who work in the "home missions" of the US - mainly in the south where Catholics are rare. I later decided against it, but as a newly ordained priest, I actually ended up being sent to the "home missions" of our archdiocese for my first ten years. In my life, God always seems to "get his way" in situations like those!

As a retired priest, I decided to volunteer in the "foreign missions" of the Caribbean especially in the countries of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and Trinidad. I supported a Catholic orphanage, a Catholic school, a community hospital, renovated the diocesan Pastoral Center, a couple of churches on the outer islands, renovated a retreat house and sent some youth to World Youth Day in Portugal among other things! All in all, I made 12 trips down there before the volcano erupted on St. Vincent and COVID caused me to back off in-person mission work down there.

Year before last, I got involved in the east African countries of Kenya and Tanzania through the Father John Judie Ministries, an organization started by Father John Judie, one of our local black priests, who is spending his retirement serving in east Africa. So far, with the help of a few generous people, I have raised enough money to build a new church in Kenya, to construct a new house for a single mother of a seminarian I am sponsoring, to finish a new half-built Catholic grade school and to pay off the outstanding seminary debts of 15 impoverished seminarians in Tanzania.

Pope Paul VI, who presided over the finish and implementation of Vatican II, wrote extensively about our universal call to be missionaries. Following him, Pope John Paul II explained even further that all baptized Christians are challenged to become missionaries in their everyday lives. In his encyclical Redemptoris Missio, he stressed yet again that, ‘by virtue of Baptism, all lay people are missionaries.'

Listening to Pope John Paul II does not mean, however, that everyone needs to travel to a faraway land, or stand on street corners sharing the Gospel with strangers. The Church believes that being a missionary can take multiple forms, always in accord with a person’s state in life. For example, a person can be a missionary through their marriage, showing others how a faithful, committed marriage is possible in today’s world. Another example is an elderly person confined to their home being a missionary simply by praying for missionaries around the world.

Pope Francis, in his 2013 Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, said this: "All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. The “new evangelization” calls for personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus."

Yes, you can carry out your duty to be a missionary in your own way. Some personally go to foreign lands. Others support those who do go. Still others follow the news about missionaries and pray for them. Personally, I got involved because I have always seemed to have had “the heart of a missionary." Lately, it has occurred to me that we owe it to mission countries to do what we can to help, especially in those countries who are now sending missionary priests to us because of our own priest shortage. Rather than starting my own mission organization, I decided to partner with Father John Judie Ministries, Inc. working in east Africa.

If you too want to follow my own mission work, each in your own way and even in your old age, access my blog at: fatherknott.com. Along with weekly homilies, including this one, there are many other homilies and spiritual reflections, prayers and even bits of church humor on Saturdays. A few of my every-other-day blogposts contain informative stories and photos of what Father John Judie, my fellow Louisville priest, and I are doing these days in the missions of east Africa.

The greatest part of doing missionary work is what it does for those of us who get involved in it, not just the people we happen to help! As the Book of Proverbs (11:24) puts it, “Those who water others will themselves be watered!” In my own case, I absolutely know for sure that that proverb is true! I have been blessed more times than I can count!

"CHURCH CHAT" #50

 LEAVING YOUR LEGACY

A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED

 

Four men came to Jesus came carrying a paralytic. Because the door was blocked by a crowd of people, the four men hoisted him up onto the roof, made a hole and lowered him right in front of Jesus.

Mark 2:1-12

There are many wonderful messages in the gospel story we just read, but the one detail that jumped out at me this year is not the paralyzed man himself nor the healing power of Jesus, but the role of his four friends in this miracle. Talk about determined! These guys must think a lot of their paralyzed friend because it seems there is nothing they won't do to help him! Actually, these guys are pretty funny! Let's take a closer look! 

By the time this story took place, Jesus' popularity had grown tremendously. Last week's gospel about the healing of a leper ended with these words, "It had become impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places. Even at that, people kept coming to him from everywhere."

After a little time had passed, Jesus tried to slip into his home in Capernaum, but word got out quickly that he was back home and they gathered around the house where he was staying in such numbers that the door was completely blocked.

Most people carrying a paralytic through a crowd like that would have given up and told their friend that it was impossible - maybe next time - but not these guys! These guys believe in the old maxim, "where there is a will, there is a way!" So these guys drag their poor crippled friend up, on his mat, upon the roof of the house! Then they rip a hole in the roof and lower their friend, by ropes tied to his mat, until he was dangling right there in front of Jesus!

Notice the exact words the writer uses when Jesus realizes what is happening. It says that Jesus was so impressed by the faith of his four friends that he heals this paralytic.

It occurred to me, as I was reflecting on this story, just how much  friends play a role in creating miracles in our lives.  I know they have in my life!

Friendship is not just about the warm feelings we have toward certain people. If that were so, the four guys in this story would have just felt sorry for their friend. Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people.  Because of their friendship, these four guys were driven to do something, whatever it took, to help their friend. In this sense, friendship connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, affection and respect, along with a degree of rendering service in times of need or crisis. Friends engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. Some of the qualities of real friendship include the tendency to desire what is best for the other, sympathy and empathy, real honesty and mutual understanding.  Jesus may have defined friendship best when he said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." Jesus would agree that real friendship is more than just having warm feelings for another.

Real friendship involves positive action like the positive action displayed by the four guys in today's gospel. Such positive action is enshrined in the saying, "Real friends do not let friends drive drunk."  A real friend will intervene in times of crisis regardless of how badly an impaired friend might react under the situation. It's not about feelings in that moment. It's about what is actually good for the person at the time. As the Book of Proverbs (24:26) puts it, "An honest answer is the sign of true friendship." As Martin Luther King, Jr. said it this way, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." One of the surest evidences of friendship is the ability to tell a friend a fault and having him listen with gratitude and correct the error. As one of my favorite quotes puts it, “We find comfort among those who agree with us – growth among those who don’t.” In other words, people who tell us what we want to hear are not necessarily our friends and those who tell us what we don’t want to hear are not necessarily our enemies. The spiritual masters traditionally call this “fraternal correction.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

NEWS ALERT, AMERICA!

WATCHING OTHERS PLAY SPORTS AND SCREAMING IN FRONT OF A TV DOES NOT QUALIFY AS A WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAM!

HOWEVER, PLAYING SPORTS YOURSELF OFTEN DOES!

Over the last couple of years, I have gradually lost over 35 pounds and kept it off!  Losing it was hard, but keeping it off is much harder, especially when you grew up associating being "rewarded" with pastries, junk food and candy. I have maintained my ideal weight for well over a year by (a) watching what I eat and (b) watching TV! (The "secret" of my amazing weight-loss program will be revealed below.) I have been so successful with this program that more than a few people have asked me "Are you sick?" as if weight loss is usually equated with sickness rather than health! 

I am aware that there are a whole lot more over-weight Americans watching other people play sports than playing sports themselves! Along with that is the habit of loading up the living room with fattening snacks so as to have plenty to "reward" oneself during "scores" in the the "big game!" Instead of getting one's own fat-ass out there on a basketball court, football field, tennis court, soccer field or jogging path, they sit in front of a TV with fists full of snacks being entertained by watching other people exercise while they load on the pounds! Along with the growth of TV sports on multiple channels and the proliferation of sports bars in this country (not to mention the vast numbers of "fast food" TV commercials), there is a constant up-tick in obesity numbers! I have actually come to believe that more and more people are convinced that watching other people play sports is a sure-fire way to lose weight personally! It's a case of saying, "I like sports," as if it's the same as saying, "I like watching sports being played by other people!"

 

OK! Read no further to get the secret of my weight loss program by watching TV! I have a treadmill parked in front of my TV and I will not allow myself to turn on the TV and watch it until I am on my treadmill! I normally fast-walk two-hours every other day and one-hour on the days in between. The only short breaks I take are during snack food commercials to go to the bathroom. I weigh myself every morning and keep a tally, do not keep sweets and fatty snacks in the house and watch what I eat (and how much), especially when I am invited out for dinner. Even then, 95% of the time I say "no" to desserts, bread, pasta and fried foods. That's leaves 5% of the time for "special holidays and celebrations" when I try to skip a meal in advance and make choices of what I do eat and how much of it! The secret here is to stop before you feel "full!" It takes your stomach a little time to register "fullness." 

Instead of parking yourself on a couch in front of a TV or hanging out at a sports bar, surrounded by beer and snack food, to watch the "big game," why not go to the gym and watch it there, with your buddies, using weight-lifting benches or full-body weight-stack machines?

The last thing I did when I got to my ideal weight was to get rid of all of my pants that were 2, 4, 6 inches larger in the waist. I figured that I needed to get rid of this one last temptation to "go back" to my old ways! It motivates you to "count the cost" of buying more pants if you do not have a ready supply of the old sizes at your finger tips! 

 

OK, to be fair, I know that this is a whole lot easier when you are retired and live alone than when you live in a house full of people with whom you have to negotiate your food situation, but I still believe "where there's a will, there's a way! Unless you are "force-fed" like a goose to make foie gras, you can always say "no" to food! It just takes lots of discipline and self-control! The question is always, "How badly do you want to lose weight?" From past experiences, I know that "motivation" has to be there in great supply before I can even start the first day! 

 

 

 

FEASTING WITH GOD

 

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food 

and choice wines, juicy rich food and pure choice wines.

Isaiah 25:6-10a

Seven years ago, on my 75th birthday, my good friend Christina Lee Brown hosted a fabulous birthday party for me at her hill top home overlooking the Ohio River. Over 75 friends and acquaintances attended this to-die-for birthday party. It was, by far, the best birthday party I have ever had in my entire life for many reasons. Growing up I could have never imagined such an event!

It was "heavenly" on many fronts. The weather was perfect, the beautiful food was delicious, the best bourbon and wine flowed freely, and the big crowd was representative of my many varied friends. There were believers, unbelievers and everything in between. There were Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists. They were black, white, yellow and brown. They were rich and poor. They were from the city and the country. I was able, that day, to taste a "bit of heaven" on my 75th birthday. Someday soon I hope to experience forever that even better "mountaintop banquet" in heaven that our first reading talks about today.

Did you know that in the scriptures, heaven is compared more to a fabulous banquet than anything else? How better to describe an idea like “heaven” to a bunch of people who were always on the edge of starvation than an “all you can eat buffet!” Not just a Denny’s buffet, but a “gourmet, all you can eat, cordon bleu buffet!” Our first reading from Isaiah compares heaven to a “feast of rich food and choice wines,” then he adds, “ juicy rich food and pure choice wines!”

Jesus started his ministry talking about the feast that awaits us in heaven! The very first miracle that Jesus worked, at the marriage feast of Cana, was not the multiplication of bread, the basics of life, but the multiplication of wine, the celebratory part of life! Based upon the size of the containers, commentators point out that the total new wine created by Jesus would been around 180 gallons. That is the equivalent of about 900 bottles. That was his very first miracle. The last thing Jesus did was to establish the Eucharist so that we could dine, not only with him, but on him, as often as we want, until he comes again to take us to his table in heaven!

By dining with so-called “sinners” and “outcasts,” Jesus sent the message that all of us, no matter how flawed we are, are created in the image and likeness of God and are loved by him! Because Jesus accepted them, enough to eat with them, the message these “sinners” and “outcasts” received from Jesus was that they too were acceptable to God! One of my favorite parables, today's gospel, the parable of the wedding feast puts it very clearly. In that parable, Jesus compares heaven to a royal wedding feast to which “the good and bad alike” are invited! Being invited is not about our goodness, but about God’s generosity!

Nowhere in the gospels is this idea driven home more, than in the parables! (1) In one parable, God is compared to a shepherd who is so eaten up with love for his sheep that he does something remarkable. Instead of being happy with 99 out of 100, he leaves the 99 obedient sheep out in the wasteland to go looking for the one lost sheep! Finding it, he calls in his friends and neighbors holds a party! (2) In another parable, God is compared to a woman. You heard me! God is compared to a woman! This woman has a headpiece made of 10 silver coins. It was probably her dowry for marriage! She loses one of them in the dust of her dimly-lit, dirt-floored house! In a panic, she lights a lamp and scours the floor until she finds it! Finding it, she calls in her friends and neighbors and holds a party! (3) In another parable, God is compared to a father with two sons. One son gets lost, leaves homes and gets down with the pigs. The other son stays home, follows all the rules and does all that is expected of him. Even before the lost son comes home, even before he has time to give his well-rehearsed apology, the father runs down the road to met him, puts a gold ring and a fabulous robe on him and throws a party. (4) In the gospel parable today, God is compared to the wedding feast of a king's son, where the good and bad alike are welcomed! The point of all these parables is this: God loves us no matter what we do or fail to do and God has a special place in his heart for the hurting! This message caused rejects, sinners and outcasts to flock to Jesus likes bees to flowers on one hand, and angered the religious establishment to the point of frenzy on the other! Because they believed God’s love was conditional, these religious authorities plotted and finally put Jesus to death for this revolutionary and dangerous new message!

If it is preached with clarity and conviction, this “good news” of God’s unconditional love for all people, especially the lost and hurting, is just as powerful today as it was back then! When I was pastor of the Cathedral of the Assumption, I preached this message to the outcasts and rejects of our day: street people, divorcees, gays, minorities of all kinds and people who have been judged, hurt and condemned by the church and society! This message caused great numbers to flock to the cathedral from 67 zip codes to hear it!

I could not have preached that message if I had not needed to hear it myself. I preached it because I needed to hear it! I have learned one thing in my 56 years as a priest: no matter how smart, how materially blessed, how talented, how religiously orthodox or how well-connected, there is a wounded part of all of us that needs to be healed and needs to be loved. That is just as true of the Pope as it is of the saddest street person! This fact reminds me of the movie, ON GOLDEN POND. In that movie, Henry Fonda is an old man, frustrated with getting old and dependent. Filled with anger about his situation, he is demanding, hard-headed and mean-spirited. One day, after attacking his daughter, Jane Fonda, and leaving her in tears, her mother played by Catherine Hepburn, tries to console her by asking her to put it in perspective. She makes this beautiful insight into humanity, “My dear, if you care enough, you can look deeply and closely at him and behind all that, you will realize that he is doing the best he can!”

My, friends, if God can see beyond our sins and weaknesses and see that person created in his image and likeness, surely we can do the same for each other! Most people, I believe, are doing the best they can! We see externals. God sees into the heart. The good news is that we don’t have to be perfect to be good enough for God! As Albert Schweitzer put it, "You don't have to be an angel to be a saint!"

Lastly, let me add something that I add at every funeral. If there is any unfinished business between you and the deceased, let it go! They did the best they could and so did you! It seems to be a natural tendency for the mind, at times like that, to think that it would have turned out differently if we had only done this or hadn’t done that! Let it go! You did all you could do! God has forgiven them. He has forgiven you. Now you need to forgive yourselves if there is anything left undone or unsaid! They are at peace! They are with God! The lost sheep has been found! The lost coin has been retrieved. The lost child has come home!

Let us start celebrating, even now, our entry into eternal life. God has “spread a table before us,” “a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy rich food and pure choice wines” - not because we deserve it, but simply because God loves us so much!