CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Merry Christmas!! It is Christmas in July, right? As if the world isn’t confused enough about the true meaning of Christmas, now we are celebrating the gifts in July. A gift can reveal a lot about the character of the one giving it. 

Say you've put a lot of time and effort into finding a gift for your significant other. It's expensive and you feel it says something important about your relationship. You think, "This really shows that I know them." It's a total surprise, a gift they didn't ask for, and you can't wait to see the look on their face when they open it. But you don't get the reaction you were hoping to inspire. Maybe they appear confused or upset or even sport a fake smile. What did we miss!?

Manna, the miracle bread God gave the Israelites, is probably not what they expected and it can tells us a lot about God’s character.

• God is faithful. For forty years, yes 40 years, God provided the manna every morning to satisfy the Israelite's physical sustenance. They could go to bed each night trusting that when they awoke in the morning the manna would be there for them.
• God is generous. It wasn’t shortly after they were freed from Egypt and delivered from Pharaoh at the Red Sea that the Israelite's began to grumble God provided for them. Met their needs regardless if they did not show signs of gratefulness or were obedient to his commandments.
• God is present in everyday things. Manna didn’t look anything special, it came with the morning dew and scripture tells us that it looked “like coriander seed” (Num 11:7). Whatever it was God used what looked ordinary matter for his people each and every day.

Just as the Israelites received manna from heaven, we receive the Eucharist, the “true bread from heaven” (Jn 6:32). If manna can teach us about who God is, how much more can the Eucharist, which is God’s gift of himself, reveal to us? Jesus’ parable of the Sower reminds us that we must scatter the seed—we must sow the word of God—widely, anticipating that our efforts will have various results beyond our control. In today’s commemoration of Saints Joachim and Anne, we might reflect on the challenges faced by parents whose expectations for their children are not quite met by reality. Tradition has it that they dedicated Mary’s virginity to God at her birth, yet she ended up betrothed to Joseph and pregnant.

The other important point to keep in mind, a question to ponder today is, can we become like the good ground of today’s Gospel, trusting that what is planted here will flourish? Good ground is receptive to whatever is planted. It welcomes seed of any kind, enfolds it in warmth, encouraging its development, so the seed grows to its fullness and yields a hundredfold. May the seed of God’s unexpected blessings do likewise in our lives!

I WANT YOU!

I think we can all agree the people generally like other folks who are down to earth.  Imagine this scenario, you have to meet an important personality, say a university professor, to discuss some idea or get his or her advice for your dissertation.  This can be somewhat intimidating for some of us. Now, if the person is humble and exhibits a pleasant demeanor, you will walk away for the engagement with a positive feeling about the interaction, right?

Now put yourself in Moses' sandals.  God calls out from a burning bush, Deacon Joe! Deacon Joe! 'Come no nearer." (Ex 3:5)  God's got my attention!  Yet note how patiently God reaches out to Moses.  First, he gives Moses time to prepare.  Calling out to him, he has him remove his sandals which gives Moses a chance to collect himself.  Then God introduces himself, "I am the God of your Father,..." (Ex 3:6) and explains his purpose for the engagement, "The cry of the children of Israel has reached me, ..." (Ex 3:9) and shares his plan to set them free.  The he tells Moses, I want you to convince Pharaoh to let my people go.  Who am I? is Moses response and God assures him, "I will be with you." (Ex 3:12)

Heaven is reserved for those who are down to earth, for the childlike.  John Chrysostom noted that "the secrets of heaven are revealed to the childlike, that is, to the uneducated and the simple.  Jesus wasn't opposed to education and learning, but he was challenging those who think they have all the answers.  Some people are just too smart for their own britches."

Some rejected Jesus because he wasn't a professional (an official rabbi).  Jesus' teaching often fell on deaf ears because the audience was too proud to accept it.  The majority of bishops at the Second Vatican Council insisted that Catholics need to review Church teaching, return to the primitive message of the gospel, and reapply it to a modern world.  Some rejected that decision because they thought the magisterium already had all the answers.  Pope Francis keeps asking us to look at the gospel again, to hear and respond humbly to God's simple message of love.  

Moses responded with humility when he encountered God in the burning bush, hiding his face, afraid to even look.

The God of surprises still surprises those who are down to earth enough to allow such surprises.  Let us spend our day open the God's surprises and may we humbly respond with simplicity of heart in a down to earth manner.

THE BACKYARD FIRST

In May 1994 I got assigned to Commander, Naval Submarine Force, Pacific in Pearl Harbor, HI.  It was a tough assignment to take, but someone had to do it.  I was assigned as the Equal Opportunity Adviser to the Admiral and my direct supervisor was a salty old Lieutenant Commander.  I had a few strikes against me going into the assignment: 1) I was a junior pay-grade for the position, 2) I was not a submariner, 3) I was filling a very unpopular and sometimes controversial position.  Yet, my salty old boss had some great words of wisdom that helped be embrace the challenge.  He said, "Before you go out to the fleet, to tell them how to be a better command, make sure our backyard is in order first."  I other words, the command staff had to be practicing what I would be preaching to the fleet in the name of the Admiral.

As Jesus sent his apostles out in pairs, his order was to go only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 10:6).  Yes, Jesus came for all humanity, but there is wisdom in starting in your own backyard, with God's chosen people first.  What better evangelization training ground than with your own family of faith!?  If you can't convince your own family, how will you ever convince others of the love and mercy of an unseen God?

This is the core message for us.  Evangelization  and conversion starts with ourselves.  Do we believe what we are preaching?  I am always disturbed by that statistics cited concerning the Real Presence in the Eucharist, how only 33% of the people who regularly attend Mass believe in the Real Presence, body and blood; soul and divinity of Christ in the Eucharist.  We have to believe and live like God truly exists.  If the Mass has become just a habit that is just the thing we do on Sunday, we will never be able to convince others to trust in God's love and mercy.  Once we are transformed and experience conversion of the Lord, then we need to move on the the first community, our family.  You may think it is impossible to witness to people who know you well, I get it, I live it.

Yet, those we love will be the first to admit, despite our less than consistent witness and lack of persuasive words, coupled with our devotion to and lived trust in a forgiving God, becomes a tremendous and believable witness for them.  Our actions speak louder than our words ever can and when our actions and words match, it is a powerful combination of faith in action.

It's something each of us can do and we can leave the task of transforming and conversion of our loved ones and those we meet to the Holy Spirit.

MY ACHING BACK!

[1]If you leave St. Patrick’s Cathedral by the front door, on Fifth Avenue, you can’t help but be jolted by the figure greeting you as you leave.

It’s Atlas: a mammoth, four-story-high statue of the Greek titan, cast in bronze, his arms spread wide as he carries the universe on his back.  He was created by artist Lew Lawrie in 1937 and it’s the largest sculpture in the Rockfeller Center—bigger, even, than Prometheus, down by the skating rink.

The Atlas we meet as we leave the cathedral makes a powerful statement.  As we pass through those massive doors, we leave the house of God . . . and return to the world of gods, the gods of deadlines and headaches in midtown Manhattan.  Welcome back, he says, to overdue invoices, to lines and traffic, unemployment and poverty.  Welcome back to the things you want but can’t afford.  Welcome back to the world—and all the burdens, the weight of the world that everyone carries on their back.[2]

But in today’s gospel, Jesus offers us help. He says, “Take my yoke upon you…For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Mt 11:29-30) Seriously!? The last time I checked, some of the things God asks of us are not easy at all.  It seems at times, taking on Jesus’ yoke can cost us money, time, convenience, and patience.  Keeping the commandments often calls for real sacrifice.  Jesus knew that the way of life he was calling us to is idealistic, demanding, and completely counter-cultural, so how can he say his “yoke is easy”?[3]

Let’s look at it this way. God knows our pain, and he shares it.  We can have the hope that the prophet Zechariah announces to the nation of Israel because God went all the way and became one of us in the person of his only Son.  Jesus lived in a country occupied by foreigners; he worked with his hands and lived a blue-collar life.  Like us, he knew what it was to sometimes be exploited, neglected and taken for granted, misrepresented, and misunderstood, even by his closest friends.  He carried the cross!  He carries us and our sins on his back.  Now he asks us to carry one another, assuring us, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Mt 25:40) Let’s face reality, there are a lot of people on the fringe of our community, some within our community, who are feeling left out, pushed aside, part of an out group, crushed by the weight of this world for so many reasons.  Jesus, so many times, showed us what is necessary to invite them closer to him and reintegrate them into the community.  How?  We start with our self.

When we accept the yoke of obedience to Jesus’ word it brings rest from one’s labors.[4]  You see when we view and live obedience to the commandments as a set of rules and restrictive laws; it can feel like the weight of the universe is on our back.   Jesus offers us another way.  Later in Matthew’s gospel, he makes it clear, you don’t need hundreds of regulations to please God nor need to impose them on our neighbors to have community unity, and we need only to embrace and live two commandments — love God, and love your neighbor.

It sounds so simple, and it does lighten the load, yet doesn’t completely remove the “yoke”.  When we think about what it means to love God and love your neighbor — yep, that neighbor — well, we can begin to feel our shoulders sag.  The choices are: we can continue to dwell on past hurts which leads to depression, live in the anxiety of what lies ahead in the future, or accept Jesus’ yoke in love.   What Jesus offers is not meant as an imposition.  Love is never an imposition.  It is a choice and a gift, given and lived in the now moment.   It is from the here and now, in the depths of our hearts, where we find the strength carry Jesus’ yoke — trusting that the God, who makes all things possible, will also make it possible to bear any burden, to carry any load.  And if we do, Jesus — “meek and humble of heart” — assures us he will give us that most blessed gift, rest.

Let’s go back and visit our friend Atlas for a moment.  If you look closely at that great statue, you’ll see that he has one sphere on his shoulders that represents the north-south axis of the universe.  It is marked to point us toward the North Star.  For centuries, that is the star sailors have used to navigate, to determine where they are, and to find their way home.  It is the determining point on every compass.

As Catholic Christians, our North Star is Jesus Christ.  He gives us direction, guidance, surety.  This Eucharistic feast where Jesus offers himself in complete obedience to his Father’s will, points and leads us to our true home.  “Home” implies a place of welcome, intimacy, and belonging.  All these features are implied when Paul writes, God’s “Spirit that dwells in you.” (Rom 8:11)  God’s own Spirit makes a home within each of us.

Remember that, the next time the worries and weight of the world seems to be too much.  When we accept Jesus’ yoke, he graces us with his life-imparting gift, the Holy Spirit.  Jesus asks us to remain in him as he is in the Father, which helps lift the burdens of this world, makes room for the Holy Spirit to reside in us, and empowers us to shun life according to the flesh, which brings death.  With our own home in order, our own life lived in love of God and neighbor; we become free, and contagious, drawing others, who are weighed down by this world, to have a glimpse of heaven even now.

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[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition. © 1986.  Scriptures: Zechariah 9:9-10; Romans 8:9, 11-13; Matthew 11:25-30.

[2] Naked, and You Clothed Me, Editied by Deacon Jim Knipper © 2013. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” by Deacon Greg Kandra

[3] Sundays with Jesus, Reflections for the Year of Matthew, by James DiGiacomo, SJ © 2007.

[4] Living the Word, Year of Matthew, by Laurie Brink, O.P. & Paul Colloton, © 2016

IS GOD DEAD?

Fifty years ago, Time magazine asked in a famous headline, "Is God Dead?"  The magazine wondered whether religion was relevant to modern life in the post-atomic age when communism was spreading and science was explaining more about our natural world than ever before.  

Well, we're still asking the same question.  But the response isn't limited to yes or no.  A chunk of the population born after the article was printed may respond to the provocative question of, "God who?"

The religiously unaffiliated, call "NONES," are growing significantly.  National Geographic published an article in April 2016 entitled, "The World's Newest Major Religion; No Religion."  49% of those identifying themselves as "nones" indicate a lack of belief led them to move away from religion.  Religion is simply irrelevant in their lives.

The question that comes to my mind is, how did Jesus become irrelevant?  While there are many factors, in part, I believe it is because of how we, professed Christians, respond to conflict.  Consider today's Scriptures and see if you recognize the pattern in today's society.  In Genesis Sara asks Abraham to expel the servant girl and her son to handle the conflict, which creates conflict for others.  In the Gospel reading the town's folk isolate and avoid the conflict with the demoniacs.  Yet, when God intervenes and Jesus speaks, with a word people are healed and at peace.

How can we make Jesus relevant in our conflicted world?

• We need to take a closer look inside ourselves, do we allow Jesus us to touch our lives, no matter how messy or complicated, to transforms us.  Pope Francis writes in The Joy of the Gospel, "How much good it does us when he once more touches our lives and impels us to share his new life!"
• Stop and pray, to deepen our relationship with Jesus.  Jesus invites us in the Eucharist to seek him, his wisdom, his Spirit.  Do we listen, especially when we are in chaos and distress?  Can we abandon ourselves to and joyfully live in his holy will and accept his peace?
• Communicate our gospel values and witness in positive terms.  Share what Jesus means to you, how your personal relationship with our Lord and Savior helps you through the conflicts of life, share his promise to be with us always and carries us when our human abilities fail.

No, God is NOT dead!  He lives and breaths in us.  He nourishes us with his real presence in the Eucharist.  All so we can engage our conflicted lives and world with his out poured love for us and all of human kind.