Was Jesus a Racist?

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.                                                                     

He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.  
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed and the demon was gone.

I have to say that I am underwhelmed by my choice of readings today.  The first reading was long and spoke about how King Saul fell out of favor with God by turning away from Him and allowing his wives to worship other gods. 

And then we have Jesus entering the district of Tyre. which was north of Jerusalem.  It was a port city and was over two-thousand years old at the time of Jesus. It sounds like Jesus needed some "me" time and he entered the town hoping for some rest. It wasn't to be.  This Greek woman had a daughter that was possessed by a demon and she asked Jesus to cure her. Jesus for His part gives what I consider a curious answer in that he says that it is not right to throw the food of the children to the dogs.  Of course, He was telling this Greek woman, who had many strikes against her already, she was Greek, a  Canaanite, and a woman, that the Jews had the right of inheritance.  She humbly tells Him that this is true but even the dogs get to eat the scraps that fall from the children's table.  She had faith in Jesus and she had humility. Jesus cured her daughter, He was not a racist.

So, who in effect was better in the eyes of God?  Was a king who let his wives (plural) worship foreign Gods better than a Gentile Canaanite woman who displays much humility and faith?  

Please pray for the poor souls in Purgatory.  So very many need prayers and so few pray for them.  Don't let your love for relatives and friends end at the grave. Pray for them by name, offer sacrifices for them.  Remember, as they are someday you might be. 

Give The Devil His Due

“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

It was William Shakespear who coined the phrase "Give the devil his due."  We always have the devil to blame when something evil happens to us or to others in this world.  And truly, there are things in the world that the devil is the cause of and many things where he, through our deeds, is the root cause.  Ever since that day in the garden, he has shown his particular expertise at drawing us away from God using sly methods such as half-truths and exaggerations while appealing to our weakness.  But even if you remove the devil from the equation, there would still be evil in the world because of our fallen nature.  Where temptation exists, grace exists in abundance. But there are times when only the taste of the forbidden fruit will satisfy us and we turn away from God, grab the apple and we eat the sweet fruit and enjoy every bit of it until it turns sour and caustic in our mouths and we wonder why we have done what we have done.  We then tend to say that "the devil made me do it."  Chances are better than good that the devil was busy elsewhere when we committed our sin. 

 It is the prodigal son story told yet again but this time in real-time with us choosing to leave the Father and go off on our own.  This act came not from the devil, although it pleases him when we do his work for him, it rather comes from deep within our own selves.  The prodigal son was thinking only of himself and his own pleasures and he ate of the fruit and drank the sweet wine until the whole of his inheritance was spent.  He then humbly returned to his father who received him with open arms. This is what we must do as well.  We must turn away from what we have done and return to the father.  It is now that the devil and his demons will work very hard to convince us that the sin or sins we have committed are too damning to ever be forgiven.  Sometimes this tactic works and some of us never return to the Father but we keep taking fruit from the forbidden tree and we gouge ourselves with it until it festers within us and we die to the Father's love and turn away from Him forever. We need not have this fate.  Being sent to stoke the fires of hell with our body and soul is something that never needs to be. 

Today, right now, we are in a time of mercy,  The mercy of Jesus is there for us.  No sin is too great, no absence from the house of the Father too long for us to go back.  Jesus died on the cross for our sins and he came back to life to defeat sin and death.  All we need to do is to know the route back to Him.  The road back to the Father's house starts with the realization that we have sinned.  We should carefully and ruthlessly examine our conscience and ask the Holy Spirit to help reveal our sins.  Then we should join the line in front of the confessional. It is inside the confessional or confessional room that we will meet Christ and He, through the action of the priest, will forgive us for what we have done and He will shower us with graces that will turn the blackest soul a bright white again. Give the devil his due, he will do what he can to convince you that you did not sin, that sin does not exist and even if it does either it doesn't affect you or you are an exception to the rule.  Don't let the devil get inside your defenses, call on the Holy Spirit to fight for your soul and soon you will be enrobed with the love of the Father, you will have the ring of salvation on your finger and you will have eaten from the table of life and have inside of you the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist. 

Nothing pleases the devil more that when we believe in something that just is not true.  For example, that everyone goes to heaven after they die.  Some of us do, but others choose to go to Purgatory where the attachments to sin and this world are removed and cleaned away.  But sadly, there are many millions of faithful followers of Christ in Purgatory who have no one to pray for them.  For example, deceased Protestants who do not believe that Purgatory exists so their relatives and friends have no one to pray for them.  Please pray for the Poor Souls today, they will appreciate it very much.  Also remember, as they are someday you might be. 

Are You A Traditional Catholic?

This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

In vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines human precepts.

You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."

Not everything that the Church believes can be found written in the Bible.  There, I've  said it!  The fundamentalists are right, the Catholic Church is not based wholly on the Bible. I can almost hear the, "I told you so's" being shouted from the pulpits of thumpers all over the nation.  Actually, the Catholic Church is based on Christ and not on the Bible.  You can spend the rest of your life trying to make a case for Sola Scriptura but it falls apart because the concept is not mentioned in the Bible at all.  Everything we need for salvation can be found in the Bible but it is not our only source nor was it ever intended to be. 

For sola scriptura to be true, it would have to have been the practice of the earliest Christians.  It was not and could not have been the practice simply because for at least the first three centuries there was no coda of scripture.  But even more basic than that, there were no printed copies of the New Testament available for the earliest Christians.  So, how did they learn about their faith?  They were taught by word of mouth, taught at their weekly breaking of the bread.  This oral teaching was based on what the apostles said and their various letters as well as what the magisterium of the Church taught.  This oral teaching of things not found in the Bible is called Sacred Tradition and is the passing on of how to be a Christian from one generation to the next.  It includes the passing down of Sacred Scripture, the teachings of the church fathers, the popes, and saints, in short, it is how the Church survives from one generation to the next.  

So, Sacred Tradition is not evil and it is not what Jesus is speaking about in our reading today.  Sacred Tradition is and will continue to be the means by which the Truth of the Gospel makes it through to each generation.  It has worked now for at least two thousand years, it will work for another ten thousand. 

Memo to self:  Remember to pray for the poor souls in Purgatory today. 

Cured

After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,                         
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country 
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.







The people in the towns that Jesus was visiting knew a good thing when the saw it. Here was a chance to get their sick relatives cured, just lay them in the path of Jesus and the fever would be gone, the legs would start to work, she would be able to see again, the pains would stop.  They knew this because news of what Jesus was able to do went before Him into every town.  

We, the inhabitants of the world of the twenty-first century have a unique opportunity.  Jesus wants us to know that this is a special time of mercy.  Right now, today, and going forward until the day of Justice on His return we can be forgiven for whatever sin we have committed.  Jesus has proclaimed through St. Faustina a time of mercy and all we have to do is to lay our sins before Jesus and they will be forgiven, every one of them, from the most public and notorious of our sins to the sins that we keep locked away in the deepest recesses of our heart, all of them can be forgiven. 

Time grows short. I have no guess as to when the second coming is going to be but I know that my time to be called home gets ever closer as time continues its maddening consistent march to the future. So it is for you. The day of mercy is today, the day of justice and judgment is on the horizon. What can you do to take advantage of this time of mercy? 

If you are a Catholic, make the pilgrimage to the confessional and lay your sins down. Jesus Himself will share your tears of sorrow and He will extend loving mercy to you through the great sacrament of confession.  Come back to Jesus for His mercy is meant personally just for you.  He longs to help cure your sickness of soul and will rejoice with you as you come back to the fold. 

Please remember to pray for those who you know that have passed away.  Not everyone goes directly to heaven, this is a sad thing but it is true.   Many are the souls whose term in purgatory is not shortened because their loved ones think them already in heaven.  Don't let your love stop at the graveside.  Pray for your deceased family and friends by name.  If they are indeed in heaven already, your prayers will not be wasted, they will be applied to another needy soul and believe me, there are millions that need our prayers.  As they are today, someday you might be. 

MY JESUS I TRUST IN YOU

Job Amongst The Ashes

Job spoke, saying:                                                           Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.

If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.


What are we to make about the three readings that the Church has given us this Sunday?  I am not a theologian so to me there does not seem to be a common thread between the three readings. It didn't help much that in our parish it was commitment Sunday for the Catholic Appeal so there was no real homily, just instructions as to how to fill out the pledge envelope and where to put the credit card information if we wanted to pay by credit card.  As for the readings, we were left to our own devices.

 When I read Paul's reading, he says "be all things to all people."  This is not practical advice for me because I want to present myself as genuine, as "me."  I have to accept that there are those out there that will not like "me" but that is who I am.  I do not reject the teaching, I just do not know how to apply it to my life. 

In our Gospel reading, we continue the theme we have had this whole week, Jesus is going around and curing, preaching, and teaching and accumulating a following.  This will be news for those of us who haven't been reading the daily readings from this past week, but I've run out of things to say right now about this snapshot of the daily ministry Jesus was involved in.  

That leaves us with reading from Job.  This is a cheery little reading, isn't it?  Thank heavens that we get this reading on Sunday instead of everyone's favorite day of the week, Monday!  Look at Job.  If there was anyone that had a right to complain it would be him.  His life turned from being one of the richest men in the world to a man sitting with boils from head to toe in a pile of ashes after hearing that all of his herds were stolen and all of his children were killed by raiders.  So, I can see where Job is coming from.  He is right in what he says.  Life can be a drudgery.  We wake up, go to work, eat, sleep, and do it again, over and over and over again and we never seem to get anywhere.  To top it off, while this is going on we are getting older, the sands of time are running through the hourglass and we end up tired, alone, and friendless.  Gosh, I am glad I read that reading!  Okay, I am not going to leave it like this.  

Job was within his rights to be a bit down after everything that had happened to him.  But in all that happened, we never hear Job blame God for any of the bad things.  His friends come by and try to convince him that all of these things were just punishments sent from God because of some sin that Job had committed. Even his wife came by and told him the same thing and suggested that he should curse God and die.  Job through this course of several conversations with several well-meaning friends insists that he did nothing wrong.  In the end, Job asks God why this happened and God replies that He is much wiser than Job or any other person and He offers no explanation to Job.  Instead because of his righteousness before God, Job had all of his things restored and more besides!  Job remained loyal and loving to God and everything came out okay in the end. 

In life, it has been my experience that the hard times make us appreciate the easy times more.  We have to look at life through the lens of eternity.  What happens to us can be good or bad, but it will always help us to our ultimate goal, not of scoring super bowl tickets or buying a new car or paying off nagging creditors, no, it will help us to perfect ourselves so that we can live with God forever in Paradise. 

Please remember that someday you might be in Purgatory and needs prayers.  Please, pray for the Poor Souls. 

He Sees More Than Others Can - So Can You!

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. 
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. 
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
, “NowMaster, you may let your servant go 

in peace, according to your word,

for my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and glory for your people Israel.”

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.  The prayer of Simeon evokes for me a man that has total trust in the Lord.  Can you imagine the joy Simeon must have felt to have taken this child into his arms and feeling somehow that this baby was special and then he remembered the promise that had been given to him and realizes that it has been fulfilled!  His wait was over and in his arms was the Messiah, the One God promised so many years ago and he, Simeon, was now ready to surrender himself totally and fully to God. 

If you do the Liturgy of the Hours, some call it Divine Office, the Canticle of Simeon is very familiar to you.  I find it one of the most comforting passages in the whole Bible.  I find it so not because of what happened to Simeon, but rather his canticle speaks to me of the Holy Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the way Jesus remains with us, His Church, in a most intimate way, joining together, creator with creature, God with man, The Holy with the sinner in a love feast that makes the Wedding Feast at Cana seem like a slumber party.

The Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the triumphant risen Jesus is what we receive at every mass.  We do not have to depend on us being in a good mood or the celebrant giving a good sermon or the choir providing great music to make every mass very special. Our emotions need not be a part of the ceremony because Jesus is there in person and He is there no matter how we feel.  We can reach out and touch Him in the Bread and Wine and further, we can be one with Him as He enters into us.  We can get no closer to God this side of heavens gate. 

So today, rejoice with brother Simeon for we have seen with our own eyes the fulfillment of the promise God made to His people so long ago.  Receive Him and converse with Him as a friend. 

Please remember to pray for those in Purgatory.  You can offer up your communion for their benefit.

Dependence is our Independence

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two  

and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick –no food, no sack, no money in their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from here. Whatever place does not welcome you or listen  to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them." So they went off and preached repentance. The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Mark 6: 7-13

Old Clancy in Killarney passed away.  It was a custom at that time to deposit money in the coffin and bury it with the guest of honor so that he would have money for a pint or two in heaven.  John saw all of these people throwing in money and he stood up and shouted, "I loved Clancy like me own brother.  So, whatever goes into the coffin, I will double it!"  Now, John was known to be a blowhard so all of Clancy's friends got together and decided to put John on the spot.  They gathered all the money that the could find and it totaled one thousand pounds!  They laughed and told John and dared him to make good on his promise.  John said, "Ah, boys, you got me on this one."  He went up to the coffin and with a tear in his eye, said "Clancy, have a pint on old John and all your friends here.  He reached in and took the thousand pounds out of the coffin and put in his check for two thousand pounds. 

This passage of scripture is very famous in the Franciscan world.  This is the very page that Francis opened the Bible to when He decided to ask God what He wanted Francis to do.  It is this passage that Francis used to choose poverty as his spouse.  He spent the rest of his life loving poverty and eschewing ownership of anything himself.  But why is poverty so important?  If poverty equaled holiness then the vast majority of people in this world would already be holy and we know that this is not true.  Even in our country in the inner cities where poverty does not bring holiness, it brings desperation, crime, and violence. So, in and of itself, poverty remains an evil condition, an affliction, which if left untreated kills the spirit of a person and can lead them to measures that are less than Christlike to alleviate their poverty.  The type of poverty that exists in our cities is not the same as the poverty that Francis loved so much. 

The evangelical counsel of poverty consists first of all in sharing, everything that one owns belongs to another and is seen as being something that can and should be given away to those that are in more need than you are.  It is also a positive response to what God provides for you in life.  You accept what you have and you expect nothing more.  What you have is on loan to you and can be recalled at any time.  While the poverty of the inner city is imposed on people, evangelical poverty is sought after and accepted and is completely voluntary,  Evangelical poverty frees a person to depend on God alone for the things that are needed to sustain one's life both the temporal and spiritual aspects.  One of the pillars of Franciscan spirituality is that it is in giving that we receive. It is this giving of what we have, our very selves sometimes, that produces the perfect joy of God in one's life. 

So this is why Jesus told his disciples to take nothing with them, no money, no food, just shoes and a walking stick and they would depend on God to sustain them.  The funny thing is, we do that anyway our whole life.  Nothing that comes to us is ours, it is only on loan to us. Look around your house, look at your favorite possessions, on the day you return to the Lord, none of these things will come with you.  Some other person will take them and use them as if they were his own. Nothing on this world is ours to keep, not even the land that we pay our mortgage on each month, someday, a stranger will be sitting where your table was, looking out the window and admiring the same beautiful view you had.  

What we should be looking for in life is not so much security, for we can never be totally secure as our life is very fragile and we are but one breath away from eternity.  We should be willing to share what we have because we know that this will please God our Father the most.  I am glad I am not a millionaire or billionaire.  While some of these can be generous people and they strive to help their fellow creatures, some of them help only themselves and strive to amass even larger fortunes.  Sometimes it happens, those of us with the most possessions are the really the poorest of the poor. 

Our true home is heaven, our perfect joy will be to be with God forever in His kingdom.  I wish it was true that when we died we went straight ot heaven. Some of us do, but most of us stop off in Purgatory so that attachment to sin is removed and we become the perfect saints that God wants us to be.  So many people in the world do not believe in Purgatory - so many relatives are therefore never prayed for and they depend on the charity of strangers to help them out of Purgatory.  Please pray for the poor souls.  If you a friend or relative has died, pray for them by name.  Do not let your love for them stop this side of the grave.