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.