"I will do it. Be made clean."

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
"Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean."

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
"I will do it. Be made clean."

His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Life in the time of Jesus was hard and while the Jews enjoyed many "modern" benefits and thanks to the religious rules they followed were healthier than the population at large there was still the scourge of leprosy that had to be dealt with.  Five percent of the people contracted the disease.  Ounce you were diagnosed with the malady you did not receive medicines and sympathy, no, you received banishment and shunning.  So, this bacteria was an agent of change in a person's life.  Once infected you left your family and friends and you had to depend on others for help.  The disease is not particularly contagious but can be spread by contact with the skin or a cough but this is exceedingly rare.  It is related to the tuberculosis bacteria which also was endemic during the period.  Leprosy is thought of a skin disease but it is more of a disease of the nerves.  The bacillus attacks the nerves and destroys the patient's ability to feel pain.  One modern leper, Father Damien who served the lepers in Hawaii discovered that he had contracted the disease when by accident he stepped into a pot of boiling water and felt no pain.  The disease does not kill, it just disfigures and desensitizes. 

So, in the time of Jesus, lepers were shunned.  They were to keep away from the population and stay with their own kind. Should a leper see a group of people approaching he was to ring a bell to catch the attention of the people and yell, "Unclean, Unclean!" so that the walkers could make their way around them.  They were shunned too because their affliction was seen to be a punishment from God for sins that they had committed. So in our reading today a couple of things jump out.  First, this leper disobeyed the first rule of being a leper, he approached a crowd of "clean" people. Jesus too broke a rule, he touched the leper, technically making himself unclean until sundown.  But Jesus was known to not always follow the common every-day rules.  The leper, displaying his faith in Jesus says that if Jesus' wills it then the leper could be cured.  Jesus, using the faith of the man, said that He did will it and the leper was cured on the spot. 

Sin is an awful lot like leprosy.  It starts small and can grow until it affects the whole person. It also resembles leprosy in that as it takes hold, we become less sensitive to the consequences of our actions until we develop a full blown infection and we walk away from God.  It may take some time before we realize what we have done to ourselves and how injured we really are.  When we do realize that we are infected, that we are unclean, we can always turn to the Lord and He will cure us of our ills. 

We Catholics are very fortunate indeed.  We have a sacrament where we can be absolutely and positively certain that our confessed sins have been forgiven by the Lord and His Church.  It is a shame that so many fail to take advantage of this Sacrament that the Protestants neither have nor do they understand.  In the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation, as it is also called, we experience first hand the mercy and love of Jesus as He, through his minister, welcomes us home.  When the priest extends his hand and utters the words of absolution no magic takes place, only healing and forgiveness.  Take a moment and ask yourself why you are so reluctant to go to confession?   If the last time you went was twenty years ago, so what!  The Gospel does not say how long the Prodigal Son was away from home, it only states that he came home and his father threw him a welcome home party.  Jesus already knows your sins, whatever you confess will not be a surprise to Him.  What confession does is it allows you to honestly look at yourself and to get the help that you need to live a happier life here on earth and to become closer to the Lord so that you can live with Him forever in Heaven.  

Rocking Around The Clock

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. 
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.  I send my prayerful congratulations out to both of these important men and I know that Paul won't mind if I concentrate on Peter today.

You have to hand it to Jesus, He hired quite a crew when He chose those who would carry on for Him once His mission was completed and He returned to the Father.  What people, particularly Protestants seem to forget is that Jesus did not proclaim a democracy, He proclaimed a Kingdom.  A kingdom, of course, is ruled over by the king.  The king decides policy and he appoints ministers to enforce the policies that he makes up.  The king cannot be everywhere at once so he normally has a chief or prime minister to handle things for him.  This minister is given authority far above the other run of the mill ministers that help run the kingdom.  As a matter of fact, all other ministers report to the prime minister.  An ordinary minister has the power of his office.  For example, he can collect taxes.  But this ordinary minister does not decide how much and from whom the taxes will be collected.  This is done through the king and through his proxy, the prime minister. The prime minister, on the other hand, can make decisions that affect the other ministers the king has placed under him.  The prime minister has been given the keys to the kingdom.  Doors that he opens, others do not have the authority to close and ones that he closes, no other may open.  The prime minister's decisions have the effect of law.

In today's reading, we see that Peter has been appointed as the rock upon which Jesus will build His Church.  Notice that the Church is not Peter's church, it is the Church of Jesus.  Jesus is the King and Peter has been appointed as his prime minister being given the keys to the kingdom.  More than that, Jesus declares that the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against His Church and decisions made by Peter on earth will be honored in heaven.  Peter is given the authority of the prime minister, he can bind and loose. 

Peter is arguably a curious choice for this post of being the first in a long unbroken line of popes.  Yes, I know Jesus did not say the word "pope."  The word simply means father or better yet, papa. As we follow the story, not too far down the line Peter fails the first time and Jesus tells him, "Get thee behind me Satan."  Later on, Peter, the prime minister bravely denies his master while warming himself at the fire in the courtyard of the high priest.  But in the early Church, controversies came up and were discussed at length.  But when Peter spoke, the discussion ended and the matter was settled. 

So we salute Peter, the first Pope and see in him a human being who went back to fishing until  Jesus called him back. We see a man who made decisions that helped the young Church grow.  And he was a man that proved his love of Jesus in the end because he requested to be crucified upside down when the time for his martyrdom came because he felt unworthy to die as his Master did.  So, thank you Peter, the first Pope, the first servant of the servants of God. 

My Terrible Addiction

When I was a kid I was terribly addicted to something and I could not wait to get my fix each month.  What was this horrible thing that grabbed my soul every chance it got?  Why it was Mad Magazine which to this day is the bible of satire.  One cartoon that I remember from so long ago is one where it was discussing how to be a good parent. In the first panel, it shows a boy and girl fighting over something, the boy is striking his sister to try and force her to see where she is wrong.  Panel two shows the mother intervening in the melee.  She snatches up the boy and pummels him while shouting, "Don't (whack) hit (whack) your (whack) sister!"  Who says comic books cannot teach real life lessons?  

In the Gospel reading today Jesus quotes what is known as "The Golden Rule."  The golden rule predates Jesus and is expressed in different words in Leviticus where it says, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Versions of it were quoted by Confucius, also we read it in ancient Hindu and Buddhist texts so it is a common thought shared by many people over vast stretches of time and in lands that were far apart.     One thing that we humans are good at is taking revenge.  In ancient times if someone insulted you, you beat him. If someone where to hit you, you killed him.  If a family member was killed by a neighbor, you gathered up a posse and you wiped the offender and his family out.  Ahh, the good old days!  Well, maybe not so good or so old if recent history is taken into account. Leviticus was written in about 1400 B.C. and Jesus quoted the Golden Rule about 2000 years ago, give or take. We humans do not seem to have gotten the idea yet. 

One thing we humans admire is justice.  In the Old Testament model of escalating violence we do not see justice being done, we see vengeance being taken.  God has taken a lot of time and has gone through a lot of trouble to teach his wayward creations. The fact that the golden rule can be found in so many cultures even before Christianity shows that it is one of the rules He has written into our hearts.  What makes the Golden Rule important is that finally and authority figure, Jesus Himself, has come out and has given the rule a new life.  It is no longer just a wise sounding suggestion, it is part of the way Christians are to live, a command to do unto others what you would like them to do unto you. 

Yikes! What have I got myself into, I hear you cry. Can a modern person live in this cruel and alien world following the golden rule? Well, yes we can. (Sorry for stealing your slogan Obama).  Nothing could be more simple: 

If he is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink. 

If he lacks clothing, give him something to wear.

If he is ignorant, instruct him. 

If he insults you, beats you, talks down to you, forgive him.

The Christian has to make the first move, we cannot expect someone schooled in the ways of the world to do so.  Treat everyone that comes across your path with tender loving care and your example will do wonders to make the Golden Rule become the only rule we humans will need to follow.   God Bless 

Einstein Proven Wrong !

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;

what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Albert Einstein explored the wonders of God's universe by exploring the properties of light.  His "E=mc2" told us what the speed of light was and his further meditations proved to a reasonable degree of certainty that nothing could exceed the speed that light travels at.  Of course, we know that he was, while not actually wrong, just not one hundred percent right. Why do I, a man with an IQ of about 120 claim that Albert, who never took an IQ test but whose IQ was estimated to be somewhere between 160 and 180 was wrong?  Well, it is simple. Remove the light and what immediately takes its place? Why darkness does! So, all of his calculations, to my way of thinking, are based on the wrong phenomenon.  I say that what he applies to light can be equally applied to the darkness. So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Albert!

The Gospel reading proclaimed at Mass today tells us that what we hear in the dark, we should proclaim in the light.  We cannot hear about the love of God for us and keep it hidden as a treasure belonging only to ourselves. Once we have the light of Christ in our hearts and in our souls we must enlighten the darkness of the world.  Yes, this will be inconvenient for us because nothing could be simpler than to just take the perfect joy of the knowledge of what God did for us and how He feels about us and for us to keep close to the vest and hidden away from view. To share the Light of Christ with the world will not make us popular because in doing so we are interfering with other people's freedom to choose darkness.  It is our duty to show others that there is another way.  Once a person has been touched by the bright light of Christ, they can no longer, try as they might pretend that the darkness is a good to be in and certainly not a place to live in. 

Albert Einstein was a brilliant man. He fell short in one respect.  He believed in a supreme power,  but not in a God that takes personal care of His people. So I guess that even a man with a huge IQ can be wrong. So, what you hear in the dark, proclaim in the light this week. Jesus is the light of the world. Share Him and let His light shine through you.

 

He Shall Be Called John

Today is a rather special day on the Church calendar. Today is the solemn feast of the Birth of John the Baptist. The Church only celebrates one other birthday, we call that birthday Christmas.  No other saint is honored by having the day of their birth remembered in a special mass. They have to be content with having the day of their death memorialized by the Church. So we can see that John must be a very special person indeed.  

I remember when I was young, say about ten or eleven, I spent a lot of time with my cousin Skipper. He was actually named after his father as his name was actually Richard and forgive me but I do not know how he came by the nickname Skipper.  For a couple of summers, we hung around together and had a lot of fun.  One incident comes to mind.  We spent all day in our swimming trunks in his backyard playing in a wading pool.  When the water in the pool got too warm we would tip the pool over and refill it with fresh water.  We would get in the pool and cool ourselves down never realizing that the clear water was acting like a lens and focusing the sun on our bodies.  By dinner time we looked like cooked lobsters and when we sat down to dinner, the pain of wearing a shirt and pants was only slightly worse than what his mother cooked for dinner that day, liver and onions, yuck.  Back then we were trained to be polite and when we were guests at someone's house we ate what was put in front of us. Between Skipper and I, we used at least half of a bottle of ketchup. The pain of the sunburn we had collected was intense.  My aunt did not have anything in the house to soothe the pain.  Necessity being the mother of invention, she broke out the Vicks Vapo Rub.  This menthol laced petroleum jelly was just the thing to increase the agony on our young backs and chests. Sometimes you just can't win!

While I had a somewhat close relationship with my cousin, it does not appear Jesus spent any time with His cousin John. To my modern way of thinking, John really appears to be somewhat of an oddball. My gosh, who in their right mind would choose to live in the desert, wearing hair shirts and eating locusts and wild honey?  Come to think of it, locusts and wild honey have to be better than liver and onions.  

Jesus and John, according to the Bible, met only once in their youth and that was before either of them were born.  Mary had received word that she was to be the Mother of God and she went to visit Elizabeth, who was described as a relative to her and had conceived John in her old age as a special gift from God.  (Children were esteemed as gifts back then.) When Mary approached Elizabeth, John, in his mother's womb, recognized the presence of Jesus, the Son of God, in the womb of Mary His mother.  It is written that John stirred in his mother's womb at the presence of Jesus.  One translation used a stronger word and said he danced in his mother's womb.  The fate of these two children was tightly bound together as John would be the one who would announce the coming of the Messiah and prepare the way of the Lord. 

John was a man of great integrity.  He strived to achieve no man's favor and preached repentance and the coming of the kingdom to one and all.  He called the religious leaders of the day, "broods of vipers" and he actually won the admiration of the king of the land, a vain and lustful man named Herod.  Herod made the mistake of choosing for his wife the wife of his brother and John called him out for this adulterous relationship.  Herod did not mind so much, but Herodias, the king's illegitimate wife, was less than forgiving for being called a harlot and whore. Yet, John enjoyed the king's favor and protection but even the king could take only so much abuse. His wife continued wailing and whining against John and to quiet her shrill voice Herod had John arrested and lodged him in his dungeon.  If Herodias thought that the rigors of the dungeon would quiet the pious prophet down she failed to understand what a diet of locusts and wild honey did to the soul of a man. She also failed to understand what the grace of God could do in strengthening one's soul.  John kept his banter against Herod and Herodias up while chained in the charming confines of Herod's dungeon.  Not only did he continue berating the couple but he did so almost right under their love nest.  Herodias could not take much more of this.  She kept asking that John be silenced and buried.  The king, however, had an admiration and perhaps a bit of fear of John. He knew the stories that the priests told about the Messiah, and he wondered if the Messiah was locked up in his jail.  This thought stayed his hand for the moment.  All the while John kept up his preaching against the king and his concubine.  Herodias's soul was black with anger and hate of the Baptist and she could not understand why her husband, who respected no man, tolerated the insolence and insults that John never ceased broadcasting day or night.  Then Herod himself delivered the fate of John into her hands. 

It was the king's birthday, a time when the whole court celebrated with feasting and drinking that made the normal daily debauch pale in comparison.  The wine made the king very merry indeed. It was when he was deep into his cups that Herodias snapped the trap closed that would end the scandal of John's accusations against her and Herod forever.  Her daughter was extremely beautiful and Herod lusted after her young body.  Herodias then announced that as a special gift and tribute to Herod the greatest king of all time that her daughter, Salome, would honor his majesty with a dance. The announcement caused Herod's libido to stir and he watched with amorous wonder as Salome went through her paces.  The dance was designed to capture the lowest parts of Herod's imagination and it succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.  The king, loudly and drunkenly, stood and applauded the performance and then uttered words that he would in the next moment regret for all eternity.  He offered as payment for the dance anything that Salome wanted even up to half of his kingdom.  The courtiers gasped. Salome had in her hands the ticket to a life of independence and great ease, riches beyond what most people could imagine.  They waited silently for what she would ask for.  Then her mother entered and walked up to her brazen daughter.  Herodias smiled at the king and he drunkenly smiled back.  She turned and whispered in her daughter's ear.  The daughter grinned, then chuckled, then she finally laughed and nodded her head, accepting what her mother had said.  She walked closer to the king and bent down, her ample breasts just out of reach. She smiled into his eyes and demanded the head of John the Baptist be brought to her on a silver platter.  The king was shocked. Surely the girl would want gold or silver, or a palace with servants of her own.  Salome once again looked at the king and this time with cold fire in her eyes demanded that he fulfill his promise and to bring her the head of John the Baptist.  The king had no desire to kill John for he still retained some fear of the man.  But, fear of God was something he had never cultivated and he did not want to appear to be weak in front of all of the assembled dignitaries, some of which had the ear of the emperor in Rome, so with bitterness and a pain that the wine could not cover he sent his guard and had John beheaded and the head brought to his wife and slut of a daughter on a silver charger.  After the "gift" was presented, the king weaved his way to bed. His door was locked when Herodias came to check on him and she laughed loudly as she turned and made her way to her chamber. 

There is much to admire about John the Baptist.  He was a man of principles and he knew the difference between right and wrong and was not afraid to tell a person when they were wrong. Yet, John knew his place and he knew that he would need to decrease as his cousin, Jesus, the Messiah would have to increase. He was to be the best man for the bridegroom and he knew his role was to make an exit at the right moment. Today, the Church honors this man by celebrating his birthday which shows that he is held in great esteem by the Church. His unswerving devotion to God and his testimony to righteousness in spite of personal consequences should serve as an example for us.  He was quite bright too, he never ate liver and onions! 

The Beat Goes On...Sacred Love

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. How do you explain to a Protestant why we worship and love a body part of Jesus?  I think you have to have the mindset of a poet to fully understand why it is we do what we do.  People who are forced to rely on just the Bible for their beliefs have no room for poetry in their religion.  Oh, they might love poetry and read it and are transported to places of utter beauty by the written word but that does not transfer easily for them into religious thought.  I am not saying this makes them bad people, just unfortunate ones.  

The words of Jesus contain great beauty and all of the truth one needs to come to know Him, but Jesus rarely displays his poetic side.  In today's Gospel reading he opens His heart and the beauty of His words fill the air with great beauty.  His Sacred Heart is a shelter for all of us.  It is through His Sacred Heart that Jesus dispenses mercy.  He calls all of us to Himself for in His Most Sacred Heart we will find rest.  In Matthew, he tells us:

"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves. 

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

This is the invitation of the Sacred Heart to His beloved sons and daughters.  He wants nothing more than to bestow on us, rest from our labors and knowledge of the great goodness and love of us that burns so brightly in the Heart of God.  All the striving and work we do on earth for the Kingdom of God will bring us to a sublime place of peace where we will be loved and honored forever and where we will sing praise to God and recount to one another the great deeds He has done for us. 

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

O most holy heart of Jesus, the fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you. Protect me in the midst of danger. Comfort me in my afflictions. Give me health of body, assistance in my temporal needs, your blessing on all that I do, and the grace of a holy death. Amen.

A Deal is A Deal - even when we pray !

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Have you ever really sat down and taken the Our Father apart?  Jesus gave us this prayer as an example as to how we are to pray and what we are to pray for. I am not going to tear the prayer apart on this blog today.  I would recommend that sometime today that you find a quiet place and meditate on the prayer we call the "Our Father."

I do want to touch briefly on just one aspect of this prayer.  The words we say are so familiar to us and we pretty much say them by rote so we may miss some of the important things we are actually praying for.  

We do ask God to forgive us our sins, and He does, in the same measure that we forgive those who sin against us.  If you hold a grudge if you are unforgiving of someone who has hurt you, well, do the math, God will hold the same amount of guilt against you.  

But, how can this be?  God forgives our sins and casts them as far away as the east is from the west.  When we sin against God, we are hurting the infinite goodness and dignity of the creator of the universe. Yet, he is willing to forgive us our sins against his dignity provided we are willing to forgive those who have sinned against ours.   How can God demand this from us?  Doesn't He know what she did to me and how much it hurt?  Yes, He knows the pain of being betrayed, of being ignored, of being the subject of mockery, of being hated.  It happens to God all of the time, yet He forgives.  He asks that we imitate Him and see our way clear to forgive those who trespass against us and He for His part will forgive us the many sins He could hold against us.  Seems like a good deal to me.

Power in Prayer

"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,

who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.


Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,


and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

JUNE 20, 2017 —One of Africa’s worst conflicts may have finally ended through a rare type of diplomacy. On June 19, more than a dozen armed groups in the Central African Republic signed a peace accord. Yet they did not do so through an official negotiator. Rather a religious group in Italy used what it calls a “spiritually inspired” method – building empathy and compassion – to help forge a truce. This diplomatic feat was achieved by the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Roman Catholic lay group that works quietly and discreetly around the world to end conflicts. It puts prayer at the heart of its mediation. Its efforts have been so successful that the United Nations formally signed an agreement on June 9 to cooperate with Sant’Egidio in ending other conflicts. Its president, Marco Impagliazzo, says the group’s success lies in being seen as a neutral party that relies on patience and shared values to create trust between foes. (Christian Science News Monitor) 

Christians pray.  It's what we do. If you do not pray then you are a nominal Christian at best.  The thing that amazes me is those times when we get what we have prayed for, we are amazed, we are pretty much speechless.  The evidence of the power of prayer is all around us and it seems to remain invisible to us.  The fact that the sun rises and you are able to hear the birds sing is the result of someone asking God for this.  Does that sound fanciful? Surely, the sun rises and sets in accordance with the laws of the universe.  True, but the fact you are there to see it may be because a prayer warrior somewhere prayed for your well -being and that load of bricks on the fiftieth floor of the office building did not plummet to the ground while you walked over the exact spot that they would have landed.  All of us owe a lot to those who faithfully pray every day.  

Prayer is not our attempt to twist God's arm so as to force Him to give us what we want.  This is how pagans from ages past tried to control their gods.  We who worship God whose fingerprints are on everything and everyone in the universe have no need to twist His arm.  Mother Angelica says it best when she said, "Our prayer, no matter what it is, is asking God, "Do you love me?" and His answer, no matter if it is "Yes" or "No" or "Wait" is His affirmation that He does love us."

So, become a prayer warrior.  Pray for others and get out of yourself.  Your trust in God means that He will meet your needs, not necessarily your wants. He wants us to ask and he longs like a loving Father to give us what is best for us.  When you pray you don't change God, you change yourself. 

Can This Be Done?

Jesus said to his disciples:

"You have heard that it was said,

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.

When someone strikes you on your right cheek,

turn the other one to him as well.

It is a time of trouble for the Church. The Church is surrounded on all sides by those that wish her harm. In the Middle East, the very cradle of the Christian Faith we have seen more blood spilled since the time of the first Christians. Terrorists have killed innocent men, women, and children because the will not betray the Son of God. In our own country, our government has in recent time trampled upon the religious rights of its citizens, attempting to force even religious orders to provide contraception and abortion as part of the benefits that they provide their employees. Temporarily, the pressure has been removed because of the change of regime that came about this last January. Certainly, the amount of discrimination that is occurring against Christians in this country cannot be compared with that which is happening in the East. 

People in the East are willing to die rather than to forsake their Christian beliefs.  It has always been so in the Christian Church. Today, you can go on YouTube and easily find things that are pro-church and anti-church. On other places on the web, you can view evil men killing believers just because they are believers. What is it about this Jesus that makes people loyal unto death?  This is not a new thing, From the first century, Christians went to their deaths out of their love for Jesus and one another. The love the Christians had for one another was what attracted people to their group.  It was a different way of living in a culture that was cruel and hateful.  

I believe that inside of us all there is a desire to love and be loved. Through the generations, this desire has remained and we spend our time looking for what in most civilizations is lacking.  For the most part, we spend our lives being hunters and gatherers.  We reach out for the tings that we believe will make us happy.  Included on this list of things are food and shelter. I do not think that it is natural for a human being to say, "I now have enough."  I remember reading a story in high school about a man who visits a land where the natives will give him all of the lands that he can walk over in a twenty-four hour period.  There is just one rule.  He had to make it back to the starting position or he would get nothing. The man begins his walk and he notices how beautiful the land was. He walked over a huge portion of flat land that would be perfect for farming. He walked around a beautiful lake that would supply all of the fish he needed. He walked this way and he walked that way.  Time was running short he looked at his watch, he had to get back to the starting line.  He began to run.  Those hills that just yesterday which allowed him such breath-taking views of what was his now caused his legs to tire.  Minutes to go he sped up and just yards from the goal, he fell down dead.  The natives laughed and buried him where he lay.  In the end, the man claimed eighteen square feet of land, six feet down and three feet across. 

For the Christians, there was the point when they said that they had enough.  That point came when the love of Christ and their brothers and sisters filled up their hearts.  They shared with one another and they smiled and life became joyful.  This joyfulness was both a blessing and a curse.  For the world does not like to see what they do not understand.  What cannot be understood must be destroyed so that the normal way of hate and greed can be restored.  Yet, many were attracted to the Christian way because they saw it as the ultimate good and could change what was a hard life into what would become a joyful life as burdens were shared and people were loved for who they were and not what they could do for you. 

In the Eastern lands, the Islamic terrorists cannot understand the joy of these Christian people and so the will endeavor to destroy what they cannot understand. The Christians are not willing to give up the perfect joy of Christ for the misery of indentured servitude.  And so, they willingly accept death instead of betraying the One Who loves them. They know that their joy will be complete when they are with Jesus and while they do not look for martyrdom, they embrace it when it comes.  They do not die in vain.  Their example, their love for one another, will plant seeds in the desert and the seeds will grow and many of those whose lives are filled with hate for all things Christian will find themselves irresistibly drawn to the joy of Christ.  This is what happened in the first century and it is going to happen now. 

In America, our dry martyrdom cannot be compared to those who have given their lives for their belief in Christ.  But, we too will attract more believers if we stick to what Jesus has told us.  We are to turn the other cheek, we are to help carry other's burdens, we are to show love to our enemies and keep a holy joy in our heart.  It will not be easy for we run counter-culture to a people who seem to be in love with things that go against the law of God.  They confuse convenience with happiness and pleasure with joy.  Our example to them is that they can have so much more following Jesus than they can on their own.  

Today, I pray for the martyrs in the mid-East.  I thank God for them and for the example that they set for me.  I also pray that God moves His hand end brings to a conclusion the bloodshed in this part of the world.  I pray for our nation, that we take to heart the laws that God has given us so that we may have a happy life here and eternal life with Him later.  May we once again sing "God Bless America" and know that He will. 

Was He Kidding Or What?

Foreward:

There is no work as onerous as reinventing something that has already been invented, found to be useful and still does the job.  What follows is a reprise of a blog entry made several years ago on the Feast of Corpus Christi.  I was writing with passion that day and except for the addition of a comma here and an article there, I am reproducing it here.  Sometimes, and this is one of those occasions, I can't find anything to fix.  Praise to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Corpus Christi 2017  Michael

For fifteen hundred years there was no conflict when it came to the Holy Eucharist.  The Church believed that it was the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. Some of the "reformers" took issue with this, notably not the prototype heretic Luther who maintained that it was a sacramental union between Jesus and man.  Other reformers such as Calvin, Knox, and others believed it was only a symbolic memorial.

The Council of Trent at that time confirmed what everyone up until that time believed:

 Christ “instituted this Sacrament, in which He poured forth as it were the riches of divine love towards man” so that the Eucharist would be:

a remembrance, “to venerate His memory” and “show forth His death until He comes to judge the world.”

the “spiritual food of souls, whereby” He feeds and strengthens “those who live with His life.”

an “antidote, whereby we may be freed from daily faults [venial sins] and be preserved from mortal sins.”

a “pledge of our glory to come, and everlasting happiness”

a “symbol of that one body whereof He is the head, and to which He would fain have us as members be united by the closest bond of faith, hope, and charity…   Source: Laura McAlister

The Council of Trent like many councils was a reactionary council called to combat issues that came to because of the rebellion of Luther and the others.  Contrary to what some critics of the Church say the Council of Trent did not invent transubstantiation but rather codified what up until that time had been believed by everyone, everywhere.  I can see why today's Protestants would have trouble with the concepts codified by Trent.  The Council rightly defined the Eucharist as the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.  This position taken to its logical end proves the Catholic point and thus was bitterly contested by the "reformers."  But for the sake of this blog let us suspend the tenants of the Council of Trent and go to what the "reformers" claim is the only source of Christian Doctrine, the Bible itself.  Let us also restrict ourselves to what the founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus, Himself said about the Eucharist.  (Please supply quotation marks where you think they should go,,,)

While they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed and broke it, and gave to his disciples and said; Take and eat. This is My Body And taking the chalice, He gave thanks, and gave to them saying: Take and drink this.  For this is My Blood of the New Testament which shall be shed for many unto the remission of sins.  (John 26: 26-28)

Amen, Amen, I say to you; Moses gave you not bread from Heaven, but my Father gives you the true Bread from Heaven.  For the Bread of God is that which comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.

John 6:32, 33

I Am the Bread of life: He that comes to me shall not hunger and he that believes in Me shall never thirst.

John 6:35

I Am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead. This is the Bread which comes down from Heaven; that if any man eats of it, he may not die.  I Am the living bread which came down from Heaven.  If any man eats of this bread he shall live forever, and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.

John 6: 48 - 52

Amen, Amen I say unto you: Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6: 54-55

For my Flesh is food indeed and my Blood is drink indeed.  He that eats my Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me and I in Him.  As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so he that eats me, the same shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your Fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eats this Bread, shall live for ever.

John 6:56-59

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.

John 14:23

From the above, we can see that Jesus considered the gift of His Body and Blood essential to salvation. The Doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is a hard thing for some people to believe. It was hard for the people in the time of Jesus.  In John chapter 6 verse 60 we read: " After hearing it, many of his followers said, 'This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?' Jesus does not say that He is only kidding, or what he said before should be taken as a symbol.  When he refuses to compromise or place a spin on what he said, the saddest moment of His life up until that time occurred because the people turned away and John says " After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more."  (John 6: 66) This too is what the "reformers" did or caused to happen among the poor souls that the clawed away from the Church.  They rejected the great gift of Jesus and just walked away, 

So, there you have it. The Blessed Sacrament is a gift that is misunderstood by some, laughed at by others, seen as a symbol, seen as a rite of passage, seen as something "you do."  The Blessed Sacrament is the union of Jesus and the recipient. You cannot get closer to God in this life than by receiving Him, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity into yourself.  If God can create the world in seven days from nothing, can He not also give us Himself in the form which appears to our senses as being bread and wine?  Does He not have the power and the will to do this?  If you say no then your God is too small.

New and Improved

April 17, 1964, was a warm day in Chicago.  The day prior was a record-setter when the mercury climbed to 84 degrees F.  In the Southwest Side neighborhood of Brighton Park, on 40th Place, the talk was of the new Ford Mustang which had premiered that day.  Jimmy Kane, God rest his soul was out with his skateboard on this early spring day doing what passed for tricks back in the day. Skateboard conjures up visions of young Olympians doing tricks on the half pipe. When I say skateboard, I mean a roller skate nailed to a board.  Even if we had the half pipe back then, there would be no way in heaven that the rickety gizmo called a skateboard would be able to take the pounding that the modern boards do.  Jimmy's tricks consisted of first remaining upright on the board and second going through a course of empty soda bottles without knocking them over.  He was pretty good at it. But skateboarding was not the topic of conversation that day.  The brand new 1964 Mustang had been revealed and it was the talk of all the twelve-year-olds in the neighborhood.  The car was pronounced "boss" by all of the boys and there were arguments as to how fast the car could go, which color was the best and promises that when we were old enough we all would have one of these beautiful new race cars.  As it turned out, I didn't own a Mustang until the 1980's and it was called a Mustang II.  As for Jimmy Kane, I was told he died some time back, drugs claimed him.  An aside here, Jimmy always had whatever Jimmy wanted.  He was one of the few neighborhood boys that actually made it on a Little League team at Kelly Park (not everyone automatically got to play in the 60's and 70's you had to try out) and his house always had fireworks on the Fourth of July, and if they ran low, his folks would get on the expressway and drive to Indiana and get some more.  There was a lot of good in the boy and he was a handsome red head and popular with the girls and he had lots of friends.  But I guess something was missing inside his brainbox that caused him to give himself over to drugs.  Anyway, back to our theme for the day. 

"So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away;

behold, new things have come. And all this is from God..."

When we have turned our lives over to Christ, we become a new creation.  Gone is the being that was controlled by impulse and greed and in its place, there is a person who knows that love and sharing are the most important things in life.  Well, maybe it does not happen that fast.  I know for me at least the process is just that.  When I was Baptized and died with Christ, there was presented to me a "new" soul.  It was the same as my old soul, of course, except it was now ready to be filled with the beauty of Christ and his teachings and his instructions on how to live life.  Knowledge of Christ is one thing.  I can know a lot about Christ but I have to delve into His teachings and make them a part of my life.

 I don't get too excited about the new models anymore.  But, I  am excited to be a new creation in Christ.  I just have to make an effort every day to remind myself that I actually am a new creation and that I should live in the world but not be of the world.  I have to make my life conform more closely to that of my Redeemer.  His love for me is such that if I were the only sinner in the world, He would have gone to the Cross for me. 

It seems to me that my first step in the New Evangelization should be to allow the glow of Jesus to shine forth by making kindness and mercy things that are I practice by choice every hour of every day.  This, of course, is a learning process.  My teacher provides lessons every day, I just have to keep an eye out for them.  It's a great school.  It has the world's largest classroom which is called earth. 

A new car model, even a 1964 Ford Mustang, is nothing compared to a person who has allowed themselves to become a new creation and who also allow themselves to be filled with the joy and hope that being a follower of Christ brings to life.   God Bless! 

Welcome To Gehenna

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,

You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.

But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother

will be liable to judgment,

and whoever says to his brother,

Raqa will be answerable to the Sanhedrin,

and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna."

Welcome to Gehenna!  How do we interpret this passage of scripture?  I think it is relatively simple.  Jesus says that if you hate your brother, well, you can go to hell.  But, the news is even worse than that.  You may not hate your brother, you might just be angry with him, or you might call him a fool. In either case, you would become a citizen of Gehenna.  

The listeners did not have to think metaphysics when they heard these words of Jesus for they could go to Gehenna any time of the day or night that they wanted to.  Gehenna lay outside of the walls of Jerusalem and was a place where the, using the polite term, garbage was burned.  The fires burned day and night just under the surface the process of decay aided by the worms, flies, and maggots continued both day and night.  To be sure, Gehenna was not a place that the local Chamber of Commerce put into their brochures as an enticement to visit the city. 

As nasty as this place is, it is the place we are invited to move to by Jesus if we just call our brother a fool.  It is not easy to be a follower of Jesus, it never has been, and it never will.  What He proposes runs counter to the way we think.  When we are offended by someone, our natural self-wants to go on the offensive and strike back at the person or persons that have offended us.  

In order to avoid Gehenna, we must wage a war not against those who offend us but against that part of our soul that is reaching for the sword.  Our war should not be against our brother but against ourselves and the defects in our nature that cause us to respond with hate instead of love. 

This is not easy nor is it natural for us to do.  Yet, throughout our life, we should learn to practice forgiveness of those who offend us because there is no good neighborhood or good neighbors in Gehenna. 

There Is No Small Sin

"Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments

and teaches others to do so

will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.

But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments

will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

When we think of Jesus we most often think of Him as kind, loving, gentle, and meek.  This is good because He is all of these things.  In today's Gospel reading we catch a glimpse of another facet of Jesus.  We see what I call Jesus the Prophet.  Today His words tell us that we are God's children and we are called to obey and he tells us that there are consequences when we disobey and commit sin. 

Sin happens anytime when we place our will above that of God's. Our Church wisely classifies sin into two types which are venial or less serious sin and a mortal sin which is a sin that does just what it says, it destroys the relationship between the person and God.  Praise God that all sin is forgivable through the sacrament of reconciliation which we can use to express our sorrow and receive assurance that we are truly forgiven for what we have done. 

While I agree that there are two types of sin and that every sin, no matter how grave can be forgiven, I want to talk a little about the nature of sin itself.  Father Larry told this story.  He was driving to work one day and a person cuts him off.  He lost his temper and mentioned things about the other driver's ancestry that would have amazed the driver had he been able to hear them.  This act of cussing out the man that offended him was, of course, a venial sin.  He did not know the person in the other car and he did not really mean the things he said so it was not a grave sin.  Now imagine the same circumstances but the other driver happened to be his mother.  He has the same reaction.  The sin would be greater because of the dignity of the person he was sinning against. 

This is why I say that there is no small sin. There are sins that are milder than some but every sin, no matter how small, no matter how venial, is an offense against God and it is no small thing. The wonderful thing about sin is that it always can be forgiven. God is always there with His arms outstretched waiting to hug us back into His family. 

So today, I challenge you to stop and think before you consider committing even the smallest sin and remember who it is you are offending.  I challenge you also if you haven't taken advantage of the Sacrament of  Reconciliation in a while, even if it has been years or decades, to consider swallowing your pride and approach the throne of grace to be received back into God's family.  Sometimes love does mean we have to say that we are sorry.