A Regular Joe: May 2016

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

A BELL RINGER FOR JESUS

It was March 1991, when I found myself in an auditorium at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. The lecture began and the presenter rambled on with some charts, statistics and mentioned something about a psychodrama. It didn’t take long to figure something wasn’t quite right. Some of my classmates were getting very, I mean very, emotionally involved with the presentation. It got to the point that the ranking officer got up extremely irritated and released us to our small group rooms. Many in my group just didn’t get what was happening and, like me, didn’t know how to respond. When we got called back to the auditorium, the presenter returned to re-explain the psychodrama, how he drew us in with real-life statements and comments we would encounter as we were sent out on our mission. He explained how he did everything to let us know what was coming, just without ringing the bell when he began.

Sometimes I believe this is one of humanity’s greatest weaknesses; that we get so into what we are doing, what we are saying, what we are defending, we tend to divide people & things in an effort to help us comprehend them, hearing what we want to hear and rapidly responding, often quite emotionally, with words and/or actions, yet missing the beautiful and complex realities that often confront us.[1]

Did you know Jesus was a bell ringer? When I reflect on all the events in scripture leading us to this point in time Pentecost, Jesus rang the bell for his disciples every step of the way. Three times! Jesus predicted the Passion he must undergo (Lk 9:22; 9:43-45; & 19:31-34) but the disciples “failed to comprehend what he said.” (Lk 19:34) On Holy Thursday Jesus gives them a model of service, and sends Judas, his betrayer, to do what he must, and when the guards come to get Jesus, his friends are ready to fight! But Jesus reminds them, stick to the plan, and they flee until “On the first day of the week” they are confronted with the empty tomb. Can you here their excitement, their joyful question, is it possible that everything Jesus said be true?

Through the following weeks the risen Jesus walked with his disciples reminding them of all he taught them. The Church continues to bell ring for Jesus, through the Easter season scriptures, reminding us of our mission, values, and reward for obedience. Some key phrase to jog out memory of the journey this Easter season:

Second Sunday: “… As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (Jn 20:21) This is a mission action! We can’t sit around waiting for people to come us, we must go and engage the world, to be the light of the world. Inviting them to see the many promises of God the can get the longing heart hope and purpose.
Third Sunday: “Simon Peter, Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15-17) Three times Peter is asked for the sake of reconciliation. God wants us to know He is seeking us out, to offer forgiveness so that we may choose to reconcile with him.
Fourth Sunday: “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they will follow me.” (Jn 10:27) is our call to unity as the one body of Christ. We are all God’s children, gifted uniquely, and it takes the collective us to create the harmony the God seeks for his children.
Fifth Sunday: “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:35) is our call to love all of God’s children. God calls us to love, even if the other person drives you crazy! We are all His! The one body of Christ with Jesus as the head. “Love one another my child” was John’s mantra in his old age. There is wisdom in this.
Sixth Sunday: “Whoever loves me will keep my word…” (Jn 14:23) there is no love without obedience; we must be living tabernacle where God can dwell.
Finally Ascension Sunday: Jesus once again reminds the disciples of all that had to happen, promises to send the Advocate who would remind them and guide them always, and He gave them the mission to share the good news, beginning in Jerusalem and then the whole world. We are part of this mission.

Fr. Jeremiah gave us some homework last week, remember? We were to take some time to write our personal mission statement encompassing how we lived our life to now and then compare it to the Gospel mission statement. I remembered that several years ago I’d written a mission statement when I signed up for a LinkedIn account (LinkedIn is a professional networking account). It goes like this:

“I am a disciple of Jesus the Christ, attempting to live the Gospel law of love in every aspect of my life of service to the community with the objective to be a good steward of my God given gifts and community resources offered to assist those most in need.”

We have to be the bell ringers for Jesus of today, for our family, our community, for the world! By word and deed our world needs to hear and see clearly, we are children of God; who is a God of mercy, a God of unity, a God of unconditional love. As I watch this election year unfold, I see a good bad example. We see men and women making their case to be our national leaders by tearing each other down, then when it gets down to the last candidate standing, they call for party unity! Can you feel the love? Tearing another down to build one’s self up is not a long term strategy for productive relationships, it simply is not effective. It can’t be this way with us. We can only be successful witnesses if we are rooted in his love, strive for the unity of all God’s children, and are obedient to the voice of Holy Spirit (who is God and is Jesus) in our everyday normal lives. The Holy Spirit is with us, within in us, to remind us of all God has done for us and all God expects of us. He gives us the Eucharist to nourish and strengthen us on our earthly journey as we toil in his vineyard on His mission.

Does your mission statement, your life, make you a bell ringer for Jesus?

Sunday, May 1, 2016

OBEDIENCE, PEACE, LOVE

I made a significant decision which I do not regret. Simply put, I decided I do not have to live my life like everyone else. I will live my own life. I will pursue things of lasting value rather than the newest fads of society chased by everyone else.

It sounds simple enough. Yet, countless multitudes will never make this decision.

Instead, many will succumb to the pressure to conform. They will live their life purchasing the trendiest products and fashion released to the masses – not because they actually need them, but just because their neighbors bought them. They will base many of their life decisions on the celebrity spokespersons’ pitch of the day. They will waste their energy trying to keep up with the Joneses ... all for the elusive purpose of conformity.[1] They just want to be like everyone else.

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.’” (Jn 14:23) Jesus is seeking our obedience. Obedience is a tough go in our time. Obedience can simply mean following the rules, or adhering to the law in practice alone. All too often we can be lulled into somehow believing that “following the rules” or “checking all the boxes” earns us some kind of place of privilege,[2] whether at church, work, or peer groups. We certainly can be a very confused people, can’t we? Now be careful here, don’t go around telling everyone Deacon Joe said it was alright to break all the rules. Laws and rules have their place in society, church and among peer groups.

Here’s the one real rule: to be obedient to Jesus! How do we do this, by living in his peace and in his love. We hear this at every Mass, as part of the Communion Rite, right after the Lord’s Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: ‘Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. [the verse continues] Not as the world gives do I give it to you.’” (Jn 14:27)[3] Not as the world gives do I give it [peace] to you. Suggests Jesus’ peace is something different, likely a bit more than our traditional fist bumps, handshakes, kisses, and distant peace signs?

The obedience, peace and love Jesus gives us, is one of holy remembrance and anticipation. When we participate in this Eucharistic feast we are remembering a God who loves us so much that he came down to be with us, be one of us, vulnerable to the temptations of this world and the tricks of the prince of deception. We remember and embrace the obedience of Mary, the mother of God, Joseph his human foster father, and Jesus’ obedience who accepted even death, death on a cross as the price for our salvation, so we live in hopeful anticipation of joining him in glory with the Father when our earthly sojourn is done.

John’s vision in the Book of Revelations describes the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven from God. He notes there is no temple, because we are not bound by the brick and mortar of a building, we are to be the living stones that are the many parts of the body of Christ “the Church”, nourished by the bread and wine that are the body and blood of our Lord and sent into the world to be living tabernacles, be the light of Christ for this often very dark world, full of so many people who just want to be like everyone else. We are called to give them a brighter vision.

So we all have a decision to make. We can be just like everyone else or choose to “belong” to Jesus. Note I did not say “believe” in Jesus. Jesus did not say come “believe” in me, He said come “follow” me. Believing in Jesus is good, don’t stop, but even the demons believe in Jesus. So if you stop at just believing in Jesus congratulations, you’ve just raised yourself to the level of demon, here’s your cookie.

We need to “belong” to him, which means we have to let his peace and love transform us. We have to be the model. Three things we can concentrate on to help us with the challenge of obedience and let the world know we “belong” to Jesus.

1. Guard your thoughts. What we think, influences our behaviors. What are you thinking of right now? Preparing to enter into Jesus passion in the Eucharistic Rite or are you somewhere else?

2. Make wise choices. When we consider this we have to question what we are taking in. It’s the old adage: “Garbage in, Garbage out.” What type of music we listen to, the shows we watch on TV say a lot about us. What we spend our money and time on are also tell-tale signs of who we live for, belong to.

3. Surround yourself with the right people. Who inspires you to live the peace and love of Jesus? This is the kind of “guilt by association” we do need more of in this world!

Look at this way, what is your dream for your children, grandchildren, relatives and friends: Life eternal together in heaven? Then we need to be the model, we need to belong to Christ and live as Jesus did. Jesus promised to send us the Advocate, listen to the spirit who teaches and reminds us of all that Jesus spoke to his disciples. It’s this kind of peace that makes us a living sign that says, “I belong to Jesus” and I am a light that obediently gives a Jesus brand of peace and love to the world.