First Sunday of Advent

As we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent, the message to us from our readings is one of anticipation, and a call to watchfulness. The season itself is one of preparing ourselves and of anticipating the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas. It is a time for prayer and self-evaluation, as well as taking action.

In our first reading from the prophet Isaiah, as well as in our Gospel, we are called to an accounting of our own sinfulness, and to be watchful for the coming of the Master. It is a time of focused humility as we honestly assess our own shortcomings, even in the things we did “right”, because no matter how well we may have accomplished some things, it is only done well by human standards, not by those of God. This should not be seen as a discouraging statement, as no one can truly measure up to the standards of someone who is perfection, power, and creation incarnate. It is instead an opportunity to humbly ask the One who is perfect to look mercifully upon our shortcomings, and to forgive us.

One of the things that always comes with the season, is a distinct change in our outlook on our fellow man, our extension of generosity, and perhaps our willingness to more overtly express love to those around us. This is a nice occurrence, but if we are really caught up in what should be the true manifestation of this season, it should also be a time of questioning why we did not do these things for our brothers and sisters in Christ all year round. Why do we only now focus so much more on modeling our behavior after our Lord? This is not to say we should not, it is simply an acknowledgement of how far we have yet to go in our learning and our pursuit of modeling ourselves after Christ. As the saying goes, we can’t fix something if we don’t recognize that it is broken.

In this season, let us not be discouraged with our brokenness, but optimistically look to how to fix it. Let’s take the time to step back from the rush and immerse ourselves in what is truly a worthy gift to our Lord for the celebration of His birth – our humility and love. Let’s express it with joy and not out of a sense of obligation. Let’s awaken from the sleep that we were caught up in during the year and prepare ourselves so that we are not lacking in spiritual gifts to lay at His feet when He comes and finds us watchful for Him.

The Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ

Of all the Gospels read throughout this past year, this is the one that absolutely should have our ears perked up in attention. The reason is simple, while other Gospel readings have focused on what we are to be aware of in Gods teaching, this one is about the consequences of whether we put any of that into practice.

The parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats is purely about who our Lord will find as having followed His commands, and who did not. In the case of those who will be seen as not having done so, there are really two areas that we should be concerned with. The first is whether we deliberately did not follow what was taught, in other words, did we rebel against Gods teaching in favor of our own preferred way of living our lives. This is usually fairly clear cut, in particular for those of us fortunate enough to have been taught specifically what our Lord said. Yet there is another area of concern, in this second category the question is whether we did anything at all about what we were taught, or did we simply go on about our lives as if nothing had been said or taught? This is perhaps the more dangerous of the two, because it is insidiously easy to fall into this category without perhaps even realizing it.

The end result of our time here on earth though will be the same for all, in that we will ALL stand before our Lord and be accountable for our actions whether good or bad, or perhaps our inactions whether deliberate or simply due to sloth. It is worth noting incidentally, that sloth can be either an actual inclination toward laziness and apathy, or an inclination toward inaction due to placing our focus on other things that distract us from taking righteous action. When we are so busy with ourselves and our own concerns that we brush past those in need without rendering any kind of acknowledgement or assistance, we are as guilty as though we had blown past them in a deliberate attempt at avoidance of helping them (conscious inaction). This is the incredibly dangerous subtlety that we must be vigilant against. We need to truly be on watch, for we will know neither the day nor the hour that we will be called to judgement, the only thing we can count on for sure, is that we WILL be judged.

Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

If there is one thing that gives most people a sinking feeling, it is when we arrive somewhere and find that we are unprepared. This was likely doubly true for the virgins in our Gospel today, since not only did they have to scramble to try to find the oil that they lacked for their lamps, but on top of that, they were shut out from the wedding celebration because they were late arriving back. They found themselves shut out of what they had been looking forward to because of their own lack of preparation.

Very often in scripture, a wedding celebration or marriage in an of itself are used to describe the joy of establishing an intimate relationship, or to convey a sense of deep intimacy itself. The metaphor is excellent in both cases because what we seek with our Lord, and what He seeks with us, is the same level of joy and intimacy that is found in the context of marriage. How tragic then it would be for us to experience the same sorrow and despair of being shut out from that kind of experience the way the virgins in the Gospel narrative were. The last thing we want to do is find the door locked, and to hear from our Lord, that He does not know us.

The key to building any relationship is time spent, and experiences shared. It is no different in building and maintaining a relationship with God. We do this by spending time, and by talking to him. When we attend Mass, we worship and communicate together, and we receive Him through the Eucharist which is a deeply intimate and reverent Sacramental bonding. When we spend time in prayer by ourselves, with only our Lord present with us, we have the opportunity to share everything that is going on in our lives without the need to hold anything back. This does not need to be anything formal in terms of prayer. There is a time and place for formal recitation of the prayers we know so well, but there is also a time for simply having a conversation like we would with anyone who is truly close to us and knows us. There is nothing off limits in what we can share because our Lord knows our minds and hearts. We can truly tell Him about anything that is going on in our lives. He wants to hear all this from us, just as any parent wants to hear what their children are up to. It doesn’t matter if they know the circumstance already, it is still good to hear it from us as a way of sharing and connecting. This is what our Lord longs for from each of us, and this is how He will truly know us when the day and hour arrives when we will knock at the door.

Thirty Second in Ordinary Time

Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time

I think that there are few things that our Lord found more contemptable than hypocrisy. He repeatedly called out the leaders among the people and admonished their conduct because He found precisely this to be so prevalent among them. They preached one message of how to live in accord with God’s law to the people and then did not follow the precepts of the law themselves.

The thing is, it’s no different today, it is incredibly easy for any of us to become a bit too full of ourselves at times and to forget that we are accountable to someone who is far greater than any of us. No matter who we are, it is imperative that we remember that we are here to serve one another, in particular by our example of how we live and conduct ourselves according to Gods teaching. We can never expect others to truly believe us to be people of faith and followers of Christ when we don’t live out His message. Words without proper action, prayers without sincerity, and evangelizing without living out the example, are sure not only to fail, but also to damage others by further burdening them with negative examples of what a Christian life is supposed to be. This simply pushes them further away from the salvific message.

Our Lord did not come to be served, but to serve others, even to where He gave up his own life. If we are to truly follow Him, then death is part of that path. We are called to die to self, and to live for Him and for His children who are all around us. This is not a grim prospect at all, it is the most freeing and meaningful existence conceivable. To no longer live so that we are obsessed with ourselves, but rather place our focus on others out of love is the most freeing experience we can have in this life. When we live so as to give of ourselves, we will know that with each action we inch closer to true intimacy with our Creator, and will find the peace and fulfillment that has perhaps been eluding us thus far.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I think that sometimes as human beings we try to overcomplicate what it means to be a follower of Christ. In the gospel this week, our Lord distills it down so that even the politicians of the day could grasp the truth. I think that every time we find ourselves getting too wrapped up in defining our faith through complicated doctrinal definitions and the like, we need to step back and refresh ourselves with the elegant simplicity of our Lords words.

There is an old saying in my industry that states that if someone cannot explain an idea in simple terms that anyone is capable of understanding, they probably do not fully understand the concept themselves. If there were anyone capable of delving into the finer and more subtle aspects of theology, I think that Jesus would have been more than entitled to preach those points. Yet that is never our Lords way, if a concept was broad and detailed, He would turn it into a parable that people could relate to if they were open to the action of His spirit and the wisdom of His words. If there were uncertainties about what the priorities should be in order to live as His followers, He would simplify it so that the lesson could not be forgotten, and thereby used each day.

In our Gospel today, our Lord reveals the most important of all truths to the Pharisees who were actually trying to validate their own positions by testing Him and hoping to catch Him in error. Their question is about which commandment is the greatest, was one crafted to illicit debate and perhaps show doubt about Jesus’ answer. Yet there is perfect clarity in His reply that even they had to acknowledge. He tells them simply, that if we love God first and foremost, and one another who were all created in His image, all the other commandments cannot help but be adhered to. No other questions needed to be asked, either by them, or by us. Love of God and one another is literally the answer to all things if we merely apply it in all of our words and actions.

Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

For anyone who has ever spent any time farming or gardening, the illustration in today’s First reading, and Gospel will ring very true. You can take every step to amend the soil and choose good seeds or seedlings, and have people working the soil, but if there is nothing worthwhile produced, it may be time to try a different approach.

I think that our Lord may feel the same kind of frustrations at times when dealing with us. He gives us His words and commands, and sends us His prophets, even his own Son, and yet we still sometimes choose to rebel and to cast aside all that we have been given in favor of our own ways and ideas. We seek to cheat rather than stay true to what we know to be right, we lie and spread what we know to be false (or at the very least allow others to speak these lies without rebuffing them). We allow ourselves to forget that His Son, our Lord gave up everything, even His life, for us and act as if we are entitled to or are owed a life that meets our standards of happiness or fulfillment. In other words, we would rather behave in such a way that we are devoid of gratitude or humility. We choose to look to ourselves rather than to God for fulfillment and peace.

Yet our Lord has not given up on us, He still looks for those who believe, and who love Him and value the care He has taken of us, and who treasure the Son that He sent to us. He seeks those who will produce good fruits and will seek to live their lives in such a way that they reflect His teachings. Who long for the contentment that can only come from guarding their minds and hearts so that they stay focused on Jesus Christ. He seeks those who are humble enough to cast aside self, and instead trust Him enough to seek their peace and happiness through Him alone.

We can choose to spend our lives trying to do things our own way, and to feel the frustrations and failures that will inevitably come from those inadequate efforts. Or we can choose to accept a peace and happiness that surpass our ability to understand and trust our God and surrender all our cares and needs over to Him. We are, or are not the fertile soil and its fruits, we simply have a choice to make.

Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

There is an old saying – “talk is cheap”. It basically means that it is one thing to talk about the things we are promising to do, it is another to actually do them so that there is value in what we say. If all we do is talk a good game, our words mean nothing. This applies to all of us, in all we do, and it certainly applies to our faith.

We may know scripture, we may even be able to quote it chapter and verse, but if we don’t live out what it proclaims the knowledge and words we profess are not only worthless, but downright hypocritical. Our Lord detests hypocrisy. He didn’t like it in the days when He confronted the Scribes and the Pharisees (the politicians of the day), and He didn’t put up with it from anyone else He encountered. He wanted to keep things real, and that meant putting a lot more stock in how people lived, than in what they knew or said. He didn’t pick Peter to lead His Church because he was a brilliant speaker or theologian. He picked him because Peter, flawed though he was at times, tried to do the right thing, he tried to live in such a way that emulated our Lord, and followed his commands. He was not perfect at doing so, but he kept trying and those around him could see the effort. People, more often than not, listen to and retain words for a relatively brief period of time. However, when we see living examples of an important lesson, we remember it and ponder it for much longer.

Our Gospel today shows us two paths that can be taken, the first is to talk a good game like the first son, and then do nothing, leading to disappointment, disillusionment, and anger when it is learned that there was no follow through. The second, is to maybe get off to a slow start and not want to engage, perhaps even refusing to do so, but then to realize the error of our ways, and change our minds and our direction so that we do what is asked of us, and actually produce good works. This applies to many different areas of our lives, whether it be in our everyday interactions with others, or our following God’s call to work in His vineyard. The value and integrity come from what we do, and in how we serve. God does not expect perfection from us any more than He did from Peter, but like any parent He is overjoyed when we turn ourselves around and come back to His teachings and live them out.

Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Every one of us, has a unique path to be followed in pursuing our relationship with God. He had devised a plan for you and I long before we ever came into being, and guess what, He did it without consulting us or asking any advice on what our preferences were for the content, the style, or the timeline of how our lives and our relationship with Him would play out. If that sounds like I am being a bit condescending in the way I am phrasing this, your right, but only because it is the dialogue that I use with myself when I need a reminder that Gods plan for me doesn’t require my approval, critiques, or consultation – ever. What is more, I don’t think I am the only one that sometimes questions or even gets a bit frustrated with not being privy to what God has in store for me, or how that contrasts with what I think I see him doing within other peoples lives.

Why is it that sometimes others seem to be so much further along in their knowledge and depth of faith than I seem to be? Why do they seem to just “get it” when it comes to understanding the Gospel message, and I in contrast seem to need to study and struggle just to gain a bit of insight? Why do others sometimes seem to just skate along when I must struggle? These are all very human questions, if perhaps a bit self-indulgent. Yet we struggle with these sometimes. We even grumble about how we think we are being treated relative to what we think we observe in the status of others. The thing is, more often than not, we don’t know the full story, because unlike our Lord, we have no idea what those other people have been through, or what burdens they currently carry – all we see is the surface.

We can be pretty sure the vineyard workers that were grumbling against the owner in our Gospel today did not take the time to ponder the actual fairness of what they received. They got the promised wage, one that would help sustain them and their families, yet all they chose to see was that someone appeared to have gotten a bit more, in the sense that it appeared to be more easily attained. They looked only to their own struggles, their own discomfort, their own time expended. It never occurred to them that in the end – they had received their reward, and that the reward was still of great value to them. When we seem to struggle for understanding God’s plan, or for being able to find within ourselves that fragment of faith that will see us through, and in contrast see others who don’t seem to need to labor as much, we might need to consider what else in their lives we are not seeing. What they have struggled with, and what They may very well be carrying now that we are unaware of, and instead be grateful for the graces that we have received, and for the opportunity to struggle a bit. Working for something, and persevering through difficult situations makes what is gained all the more valuable and memorable. Our Lord sees our struggles as precious, because He intimately knows at what cost our understanding of Him, and our faith in Him sometimes comes. Perhaps we need do need to work a bit harder to understand His plan, perhaps it may take us a bit longer to realize all that we need to learn, perhaps that is just the uniqueness of the perfect plan that He has devised for each one of us, and that we have been on our whole lives even if we did not always realize it. Perhaps, we just need to be grateful for the graces we HAVE received.

Twenty fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

It should frighten any of us that our Lord would remember our sins in detail and hold us accountable at that level. Yet that is precisely what we hear in our reading from Sirach. If we do not forgive others and continue to ruminate and ponder in detail all that has been done to offend us, so will the Lord remember and hold accountable our own sins in as much detail. I don’t know about you, but that is not something I want, and it makes me shudder to think about all those things coming back to haunt me.

Yet sometimes it can seem incredibly difficult to let go of these things. I think perhaps that is because we approach the process with an incorrect understanding of what it means to forgive. We may think that this means we will put all of the things that have been done to us aside and we won’t even remember them anymore. Yet, this is not usually the case. The human person is a funny thing, we often can’t recall what we ate for supper the previous day, but we can reach back years and recall some slight or offense, so the notion that we will simply forget these things is not going to fly. However, that is not what we are after, in forgiving others we are instead seeking to not continue to hold anger, resentment, and malice toward them – these things simply give power to past memories and the evil one who wants us to still live in that past rather than looking to the brightness of the future which our Lord has in store for us. Instead, we hope that God will touch them in some way that is beneficial to their own well-being. We consciously release them from our own grasp that seeks retribution, and instead look to God for the peace that comes when we are freed from a heavy burden and can then walk lightly and unencumbered. This is not always easy and will require prayer for the grace to do this, just as we pray for the grace to be released from our own sins. If we truly approach our forgiveness of others with the understanding that the resentment and anger that we hold is really only harming us, both within ourselves, but also with our relationship with God, we will realize the cost is not worth it.

Even when others have harmed us repeatedly, we are called to forgive. This does not mean that we keep going back and expecting they will treat us differently. We are called to be prudent and to avoid such situations, until such time as we see that Gods grace has taken hold of them and produced a change of heart. Yet, we are still called to forgive, no matter how many times they have transgressed. We pray for them and ask that they be touched with Gods grace and truly change – we show pity for them that they are in such a wretched state.

There is no getting around this call to forgive. As followers of Christ, we are called to do this because in doing so we fulfill the two greatest commandments – to love others, and in doing so to love our Lord because all others were created in His image, even those we find the most difficult to reconcile with.