American Idols

“Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” 1 Peter 1: 17-19

 
The other day when I was in adoration a middle-aged woman entered the chapel. She reverently knelt before the Lord for a few moments before quietly asking me if it would be alright for her to change the altar linens. She proceeded to put on a pair of white, cloth gloves. As if carrying an infant, with great care and love in her eyes, she gracefully moved the monstrance off the altar and into the raised tabernacle above it. With movements that seemed to correspond to internal prayers, she delicately folded the corporal and altar cloth, folding each one with precision before placing them into a clear plastic bag. She then took a small, soft, clean white towel and slowly wiped the top, sides and legs of the altar (I am sure the most luxury car in the world was never cleaned with such care). Then she meticulously placed a crisp, unwrinkled new altar cloth on the altar, making sure the edges were the same length and perfectly apportioned from front and sides before gently laying a new corporal onto the center. Finally, she again lifted the monstrance from the tabernacle and set it down in the center of the altar as if nothing else in her life was as important as that moment. Then she silently knelt before her Lord for several minutes, grabbed her things and left the chapel.

 
What was certainly “routine” in some ways for her simply blew me away. Before she came in my thoughts had been wandering a bit had my prayers and been genuine, but not focused. As I watched her work I was humbled and inspired. Her love for Jesus and His Presence made me wonder about the things in our lives that become idols—things and people that we worship with more passion than we do God.  

 
What do you and I reverence? What do we hold dear? What is most important to us?

 
We are often embarrassed to kiss the crucifix on Good Friday. We sometimes come to Mass without a conscious thought of being truly present. Often at church we expect to be entertained and fed and ministered to, without actively giving God our attention, our hearts, our love or our worship. We want to receive without giving and consume without cost. 

 
Perhaps we have lost a sense of reverence in our world. And as this reverence for God evaporates from our daily lives, so does our reverence for one another. Rather than stand in awe of God and of one another, we merely live to exist for ourselves and for pleasure. Wrapped up in our cocoon of desires and pursuits, we fail to stand in reverence of anything outside of ourselves. In the end though, we risk not only the loss of true freedom, but ultimately even the ability to experience happiness. This is not God’s desire for us.

 
When we spend time in prayer, before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and at Mass, and we allow ourselves to go beyond ourselves to a true encounter with Christ, we are raised from our lowliness and immersed into something bigger than what and who we are. When we begin to live this reality in our daily lives, we will begin to live in reverence—in awe—of the world and people around us as well. At that point, we will begin to understand that the pursuit of happiness does not lie in being entertained and experiencing pleasure, but in bringing happiness and peace to others and in being content with what we have, who we are and the knowledge of Who loves us.

 
Dear Jesus, may I always approach You with a reverent heart so that my thoughts, words and actions may flow from a place of awe and wonder. Through Your grace, may I experience the happiness and peace that comes from seeing You and others through eyes of reverence. Amen.

D-Day

“So you, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Bear your share of hardship along with me like a good soldier of Christ Jesus…Therefore I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory.” 2 Timothy 2: 1, 3 and 10

Revelry sounded but I did not wake up. I was already awake. All of us were. I rose from my bunk in slow motion, each strain of my muscles etched in my memory. All around me men were silently getting dressed, lighting cigarettes or rubbing the weariness from their faces. None of us shaved.

Breakfast was a quick affair. The darkness enveloped me as I ate, finished getting dressed and grabbed all of my gear. As I boarded the truck to move us to the shore I heard a bird calling out a good-bye through the sound of the engines, men and machinery.

The drive through the countryside was bumpy. Most of the guys sat in silence or closed their eyes for a few moments of rest. A few bumped along with the red glow of their cigarettes illuminating their faces like dirty jack-o-lanterns suspended in the darkness.

All too soon I was climbing down from the truck, my joints cracking and my muscles angrily fighting against their use so early in the day. Then I saw it: line after line after line of grey-green men quickly moving in rhythmic cadence onto the waiting vessels, like snakes entering their dens.

Within moments I was rushing onto my ship and taking my place near the rear of the hold. The door was raised and clanged shut as the guys on the shore called out well wishes to us. As the engine revved to life, a priest leaned up and over the wall of the hold and holding a crucifix in his hand, we received his blessing.

As I cruised through the dark, choppy waters of the Channel that grey, misty morning, I was lost in my thoughts. I could see my childhood home with the big trees and the flowers in front that mom would plant every spring. I saw Main Street on the 4^th of July, with all the red, white and blue bunting, the parade, and the children…laughing. Always laughing. I saw my high school sweetheart and felt her grasp my hand tenderly.

As we crested a wave I came back to reality. A bird flew over our heads, its black shape silhouetted against the increasingly grey-light sky. I smelled the breeze: salty, with a hint of…melancholy. I saw other guys vomiting as the sea began to take its toll. All I heard was the monotonous drone of the ship’s engine, carrying us forward to our destiny.

And then suddenly, like someone sneaking up behind you and screaming in your ear, the sound of artillery, the staccato of machine gun fire and the thud of explosions overtook the sound of the engine. The landing craft jerked to a stop, suspended between the ebb and flow of the crashing waves charging and then retreating from the beach around us. The door of the hold slammed down into the surf with a large splash and I was off, my training kicking in as my body moved on autopilot in one motion with the men around me.

As I jumped into the water the young guy beside me slipped off the side of the ramp and I saw a brief glimpse of him as he disappeared beneath a wave. I turned back to where I was heading, and the guy in front of me recoiled as a bullet tore through him and he splashed haphazardly into the surging froth. I lept over him and ran towards the shore line; my eyes fixed on a small huddle of men hunkered down behind a small sand dune.

Bullets and bombs whizzed past my body and the salty spray of the ocean stung my eyes as I madly dove to the relative safety of the dune. I caught my breath and looked back toward the sea and all I saw was carnage. Bodies, destroyed ships, barbed wire, blood—everywhere as far as the eye could see. I am sure I saw hell.

In what seemed like an instant, a sergeant was beside me screaming orders for those us around him. He jumped up from behind the dune, compelled us to follow and jumped over the dune towards certain death. Instinctively, I pulled myself up, let out a scream, and ran forward to meet Jesus.

How are you going to live a life of greatness today?

Dear Jesus, help me to live each day with my eyes fixed on You. No matter the cost or price, help me to be strong enough, brave enough, crazy enough, to follow You with everything in me. Amen.

It’s All About Perspective

“Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. Let us, then, who are ‘perfectly mature’ adopt this attitude…only, with regard to what we have attained, continue on the same course.” Philippians 3: 13b, 15a, 16

Have you ever noticed how different people can look at the same thing and see different things? Or listen to the same speaker, but hear something different? It’s all about perspective

Last week my oldest child graduated from high school and on the way to her ceremony, we passed through a little town near us. On the one side of the Main Street there are several little houses high up a steep embankment. I noticed them and mentioned that I would not want to live there because the grass looks difficult to cut. My mother-in-law said that all she noticed were all the steep stairs. My oldest son said the houses were small and my oldest daughter said all she thought about was how hard it would be to drive a car up there.

We all looked at the exact same houses, but all saw something different. I cut the grass each week, so that’s what I noticed. My mother-in-law is 81 and uses a walker, so she noticed the steps. John Paul likes “stuff” and so he saw how small the houses were and Mary Kate has been driving for a little less than a year so she saw the challenge of driving a car up to the houses.

So what do you “see” or “hear” when God moves or speaks? When you see a sunset do you revel in the beauty and goodness of God? When you learn physics or chemistry, do you see the workings of His hands? When tragedies strike do you see the loving arms of God holding you? When you sin and fall flat on your face in shame do you see the mercy of God pouring over you like rain? When the Church teaches us right from wrong do we hear the tender, compassionate voice of God?

As we wander this earth and notice the joys, sufferings and indifferences, do we see and hear God or not? He is there. Everywhere. There is no pace that He is not present and there is no situation where He is not working. Are we living with the perspective of the “upward calling”, or are we bogged down in the deafness and blindness of the culture surrounding us? When our eyes are fixed on Christ, we see Him in every situation of life. When are ears are open to His Word, we hear Him speak to us in a million different ways each day. And this “sight” and this “hearing” sets us free to reach into the quagmire of daily life amidst the grime, noise, hatred and indifference and set others free.

Dear Jesus, I want to see You in everyone and everything. I want to hear Your voice in every situation. Open my eyes and ears to Your presence in my heart and in my world. Amen.

“Routine” Faith?

“…Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.” Matthew 21: 31b-32

These are the words of Jesus at the end of a parable about a father who had two sons. The father asked the first son to go work in the vineyard and he said no, but then changed his mind and went. The second son said yes right away, but then never went. Jesus then asked, “Which one did the will of his father?” Of course it was the first.

A couple years in September of 2011, Pope Benedict XVI was in his home country of Germany for a pastoral visit and during one of the large Masses he celebrated this was the Gospel reading for the day. His homily at that Mass was very powerful and challenging and I think one part of it is appropriate for an Ash Wednesday reflection. Speaking of this parable he said,

“Translated into the language of the present day, this statement (of Jesus about the tax collectors and prostitutes) might sound something like this: agnostics, who are constantly exercised by the question of God, those who long for a pure heart but suffer on account of their sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is “routine” and who regard the Church merely as an institution, without letting it touch their hearts, or letting the faith touch their hearts.”

He went on to say, “These words should make all of us stop and reflect, in fact they should disturb us.”

So how is your faith life? Has it become routine? Is being Catholic just another part of your identity that skims the surface of your soul but rarely penetrates into the depths of your heart? Is Jesus someone you know? Is He your best friend, your confidant, your rock, your fortress, your passion, your all and all? Is your relationship with Him the motivating factor in all areas of your life?

Have you ever allowed God to move from being a concept in your brain to a Person dwelling in your heart?? Has the Church ever been a Mother to you, a safe place, a place of community, love, security and refuge or merely another corporate institution? Or perhaps at one point your faith life was passionate and real but has lost its luster?

Well welcome to Lent. Lent is about breaking out of the “routine”. It is about going back to the beginning. It is a “do over”. It is rediscovering that the Creator of the universe considers you His beloved and His greatest creation. It is about being immersed in His mercy. It is about emptying ourselves in order to be filled with all that is good, pure, holy and beautiful. It is about getting our priorities straight. It is about taking the time to develop a personal relationship with Jesus. It is about allowing Him to be the center of our hearts and the foundation we build our lives upon. May we use these next 40 days to break from the “routine” and allow the faith to touch our hearts; to change our hearts.

Dear Jesus, I know I am a sinner in need of Your mercy. Give me the grace I need to break from any “routines” that limit my relationship with You or keep You from fully entering into my heart this Lent. Amen.

Exulted Love

“…the man said, ‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh’…that is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body. The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.” Genesis 2: 23a, 24-25

So often in our culture today, the Church is accused of being prudish. Media outlets, journalists, and other “experts” opine that the Church is against sex, or hung-up about sex, or worst: that the Church hates sex or thinks sex is dirty. The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. As we celebrate St. Valentine‘s Day this week, let us be clear about how the Church (and God) views sex.

 God created sex. It’s not like he looked down at Adam and Eve one day and was shocked at what they were doing. Sexual intercourse is God’s design and if you read the Creation Story in the book of Genesis it is very clear that God made everything GOOD. So sex is good. In fact, it is more than good, it is holy.

In sexual intercourse, we (humans) have the ability to join God in His creative powers to create something new that never existed before. Each life conceived in the womb is a miracle because at that moment of conception, something new becomes real that was not there an instant before: a totally unique, never-to-be-repeated, union of body and soul that we call a human person; created in the image and likeness of God. God could have brought new people into the world in any way He could imagine, and yet He chose to bring new life into the world through this means. What a wonder! And so it is obvious that sex is a powerful and beautiful gift that God has shared with us.

But God would not share such an amazing and wonderful gift with us without showing us the proper context in which to use that gift. In fact, something so precious and powerful would be held high with protections and parameters in order to ensure that it is not misused or abused.

Think about it this way: do you own anything you consider a prized possession? Perhaps it’s a piece of expensive jewelry given to you by your grandmother before she passed away or a baseball autographed by a famous player given to you by your father when you were young. How do you care for that item? Do you let that piece of jewelry sit around on the coffee table where it can be stolen, lost or broken by anyone? Do you let your boys go to the park with that baseball for batting practice? Of course not. The jewelry is kept locked in a safe or a special jewelry box and only worn for very special occasions. The baseball is kept locked away or encased in some kind of protective display on a high shelf where it will not be spoiled by curious little ones.

In the same way, God has given the Church parameters and boundaries to share with us about the proper use of the gift of sex: sexual intercourse is reserved for a marriage between one man and one woman. It’s that simple. Sex is so powerful, beautiful and holy that it is reserved for within this protective and fruitful bond. And used in any other way becomes a perversion of the gift with untold consequences. Not because the gift is evil, but because of misuse or abuse of the gift is evil.

Despite what your feelings might be telling you, sex in any form or fashion outside of the parameters God intended for it, is NOT love. Only in marriage can sex be as God intended it to be: total, free, faithful, and fruitful. This is why God created sex within the boundaries of chastity, both inside and outside of marriage. Because God loves us so much and only desires our happiness, the most valuable gifts are treated with the most care, especially sex.

So the next time you read Newsweek, over hear a co-worker at lunch or have a friend or family member tell you that the Catholic Church is against sex, or doesn’t know anything about it, correct them in charity and with the great joy of knowing the Truth.

Dear Jesus, help me to respect myself and others in a way that always treats sex with the value You have placed on it. May all marriages be tangible, concrete examples of the total, free, faithful and fruitful love embodied in the Holy Trinity. Amen.