Because Sister Marie Told Me So...

Gospel	Luke 15:1-10

There will be rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

  ‘What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it? And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors? “Rejoice with me,” he would say “I have found my sheep that was lost.” In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine virtuous men who have no need of repentance.

  ‘Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it? And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors? “Rejoice with me,” she would say “I have found the drachma I lost.” In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.’

The picture selected for today's reflection is the closest one that I could find to the one I remember from KG where a young Sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St. Bridget's Church parish school first told me about the love that Jesus had for me and how if I got lost He would come and search for me until He found me.  Being lost is something that six or seven-year-olds fears a lot.  So when Sister said that He would come to find me and I could never be lost, well, that was good enough for me. 

Then again, I was a pretty happy kid back then. But any reassurance that I would be safe and connected was important then and I think it is important now.  

I am not going to go as far as the Protestant fallacy of "once saved, always saved" but I will remind everyone, including myself, that Jesus is not satisfied to leave us on our own desperately trying to find our way back to Him.  His efforts will be mammoth and unending until He finally wins us or we finally reject Him at the time of our death and He honors our wish to go our own way.  It is almost impossible for a soul to end up in hell but they do end up there and the population of the netherworld increases daily just because they choose to go there own way.  Some people believe in hell but say that no one is there because God is not so mean as to send anyone there.  Well, I can agree that God is not mean, for God is love and cannot do anything evil.  It is God's love for us that provides a place such as hell.  He does not want to force us to love Him and will respect our choice to choose to be without Him forever.  Talk about the right to choose!  

Open your soul to Jesus and allow Him to find you and let Him be your guide.  While there is hope, while you draw breath, He will spare no effort to claim you as His own.  Look at the picture (no not the picture of me) and imagine yourself as the lamb being carried on the shoulders of Jesus, safe in the hands of the Master.  What a beautiful thought! 

Please remember the poor souls in Purgatory. 

There is No Handle On Your Cross

Gospel	Luke 14:25-33

Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple

Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

  ‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.” Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’

In all of the movies and illustrations that show Jesus on his final journey to Calvary, a distance of about two thousand feet, or a little over a third of a mile, we are shown a man carrying a cross down the road. In the Stations of the Cross, fourteen incidents on that last journey are described.  We and all of the modern artists that depict the trek to death imagine Jesus carrying a whole cross.  This is almost certainly not true because the typical Roman cross weighed about three hundred pounds.  This would be a burden that would defeat most men.  Instead, the procedure was for the criminal to carry only the cross beam which was a much more manageable one hundred pounds in weight. A man, in reasonable condition, could be expected to shoulder this burden and carry it to the place of execution.  One other thing I would like to mention is that crucifixion was meant to teach the population a lesson so those that were destined to undergo this torture were very seldom scourged like Jesus was.  Scourging was called "The Little Death" and was carefully crafted to stop just short of the death of the recipient which is why there was an officer watching the criminal very carefully.  He was to carry out the sentence and the sentence was to be scourged not to be killed.  So, Jesus on His journey started out with a disadvantage.  He had been skillfully scourged by the Romans and normally that would have been the end of it.  As a side note, many victims of scourging later died due to infection but that followed days later after the culprit had been set "free" by the mercy of the emperor. The fact that Jesus had been scourged would mean he most likely was in or going into shock as the journey began.  Some scholars say that between the scourging and the first fall where they believe Jesus suffered internal injuries that His time on the cross would be less than men crucified in the full flower of health. 

Jesus did what He could to carry His burden but thirteen times the process was interrupted by human frailty.  And he had help according to three of the Gospels to get to the place where the vengeance of the emperor could be satiated.  

The crosses we receive in life do not come with a carrying handle. Like Jesus, we have to shoulder our burden and carry it the best that we can.  He will help when it is needed and if we ask. Our cross can take many forms.  It may be that we fall into the same sin over and over and have to constantly request forgiveness from for it and in the process learn humility.  It might be illness or pain or watching a loved one during a long and exhausting illness that leads to death.  Or it could be the diagnosis of our own doctor that predicts a descent into suffering for a time or perhaps a disease where the outcome is terminal.  Our cross is there and we all will have one or more to shoulder in our lifetimes.  The courage and good example that we set will help others bear their crosses as well.  And where we see someone in need, we, like Simone of Cyrene should be willing to help others with their burden. 

Young warrior, your cross is there, it will be a burden for you and it cannot be refused.  The only options you have are to accept your burden and bear it willingly or to attempt to refuse it making it that much harder to carry.  Don't look for a carrying handle.  We all have to feel the rough wood against our shoulder to understand more fully what Jesus went through for us and what it means to be a human being.  

If you have two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, give a listen to this brief talk about carrying your cross. 

Remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory today in your prayers. 

Will You Come?

Gospel	Luke 14:15-24

'Not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet'

One of those gathered around the table said to Jesus, ‘Happy the man who will be at the feast in the kingdom of God!’ But he said to him, ‘There was a man who gave a great banquet, and he invited a large number of people. When the time for the banquet came, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, “Come along: everything is ready now.” But all alike started to make excuses. The first said, “I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it. Please accept my apologies.” Another said, “I have bought five yokes of oxen and am on my way to try them out. Please accept my apologies.” Yet another said, “I have just got married and so am unable to come.”

  ‘The servant returned and reported this to his master. Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” “Sir,” said the servant “your orders have been carried out and there is still room.” Then the master said to his servant, “Go to the open roads and the hedgerows and force people to come in to make sure my house is full; because I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet.”’

Yes, it is a party and yes, you are invited.  Will you accept the invitation or are there other things in life that are more important to you?

Every one of us, every man, woman, and child have to decide if they will accept the invitation of God to come to His party.  For the answer will be a resounding, "yes" but for others, some things will get in the way of their acceptance and that is a pity.  Some of us make the worship of God on the Sabbath a priority and we would not miss it for the world (pun intended.)  Others have other priorities.  These priorities range from sleeping in all the way to simply not believing in God or His kingdom. 

For those of us who accept the invitation, we will be happy as the party kicks off while those who refuse the invite will be given what they want and that will be a forever where God is hidden from them and they will have no chance at all to join the party. 

So, make up your mind and choose what it is you want for your afterlife.  God is waiting for an answer, don't make Him wait too long. 

If you have a moment give a listen to this song from YouTube.  It is a whimsical view of heaven, I think you will like it. 

Unity - The Only Road Leads to Rome

Be united in your love     Philippians 2:1-4

If our life in Christ means anything to you if love can persuade at all, or the Spirit that we have in common, or any tenderness and sympathy, then be united in your convictions and united in your love, with a common purpose and a common mind. That is the one thing which would make me completely happy. There must be no competition among you, no conceit; but everybody is to be self-effacing. Always consider the other person to be better than yourself so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people’s interests instead.

Let me begin by stating up-front that I am not trying to be the Catholic Gestapo, forcing people against their will to return to the Catholic Faith.  I respect our Protestant brothers and sisters and I know that many of them are much further along the spiritual trail than I am.  I know that they love the Lord Jesus and have given over their lives to Him and that they practice that commitment every day.  The mainline Protestants set good examples as to what a Christian should be in many respects.  The one charism that they cannot demonstrate, however, is that of unity.  In the sixteenth century, an unbalanced monk went off in a new direction and created a church built in his own likeness and trashing things that made the faith united.  From that day, the Church would never be the same.  For, if you could split once because you disagreed with some principle that your local preacher was committed to, well then you could split again so that your view, in your church, took precedence and your world was once again in synch with what you thought and taught.  The man in the third pew, however, has many problems with your interpretation and knows for a fact that he is right and you are wrong.  Since you won't come around to his way of thinking, he splits and creates for himself a church in his own image.  We could carry this on for quite a while if we wanted to, at least thirty-thousand times which is how many denominations of Christianity there are.

We pray for Christian unity but it is unlikely to come until Jesus does return and sets everything straight. There is only one direction that a return to Christian Unity can take and that is for the Protestants to come back home to Rome and accept the authority of the Church that Jesus founded and which bears the four charisms of the true church and that is that the Catholic Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic.  It is the Apostolic charism that most Protestants have trouble with.  First, they believe that the Bible is the sole source for all Christian doctrine. At first blush, this seems like a wonderful way to make sure that what you believe is what Christ intended.  But it falls apart rather quickly when you realize that it is the freedom to interpret that has caused the Church to splinter into so many groups.  If every man can interpret the Bible himself, well then every man is his own authority.   Personal interpretation of the Bible leads to division because one person's interpretation is just as good as another's interpretation because they only have to answer to themselves.  

The Church depends on Scripture, all Catholic teaching can be found in the Bible.  If you look to the right, there is a paper you can view that shows where the teachings can be found.  Now, the Church also has teachings that are not written in the Bible.  These are the what we call the Sacred Traditions.  Please note these are not traditions like having turkey on Thanksgiving or a tree at Christmas time or having a family reunion on the second week of August.  Those are all human traditions.  Sacred Tradition, on the other hand, is the passing of our beliefs from one generation to the next.  It is rather ironic that one of the Sacred Traditions is the Holy Bible.   From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 

"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church, the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority." Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes." "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer." -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, par. 77-78

So, how does all this affect Christian Unity?  Well, the Catholic Church occupies the high ground.  It is she that bears the imprint of her founder, Jesus Christ.  While some would say that we could become one again if we just engaged in some give and take, in compromise.  Well, there is the rub.  The Catholic Church has maintained her doctrine unchanged and her interpretations of the Biblical truth is the same today as it was in the sixteenth century.  Protestants, on the other hand, have changed and changed and changed again and again so that with the exception of Christ, there are differences that the Protestant man or woman would not want to give up in the name of unity.  Even if one denomination gave up one of their differences, there are thousands of others that would tell the Church to go peddle fish. 

What would you have the Church give up in the name of Christian unity?  Should we strip our churches of the Crucifix in favor of the Cross?  Should we tone down our belief in what the Holy Eucharist is, namely, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ and make it nothing more than a simple memorial using saltines and grape juice?  Should we give up the Pope and institute a committee approach to church government where every man has a vote?  Should we soften our stance on abortion or homosexuality?  No, I do not see any of these things happening and these are the sorts of things that other denominations believe and allow and the Church could never compromise her teachings in the name of Christian unity.

So, it is unlikely that we will see a mass return to Rome by many of the Protestant denominations because in order for that to happen, the notion of private interpretation would have to go and they would have to submit to the authority of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church and that would be impossible for them to do.  

The one hope we do have in this impossible situation is that what is impossible for man is possible for God.  So, Catholics and Protestants alike should pray for unity and God may one day move His hand. 

Going All The Way

Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have a long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! 
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength. 
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?" 
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these." 

The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

There is nothing easier to do than to love God. Well, let me rephrase that.  There is nothing easier to do than to pretend to love God. After all, God has a good press agent, He is genuinely good, forgiving, patient and kind so what is there not to love?  We can spend hours on our knees telling God how much we love Him.  Tears of joy can flow from our eyes and form a puddle on the ground as we contemplate the beauty of God.  Then, we go our way and forget that the people all around us are formed in the image and likeness of God and because of the image burned into them at their conception, they too are worthy of our love.  This is an easy thing to do with the people who agree with us.  Agree with me in all I say and do and you and I will be best friends forever!  But, life is seldom like this. We meet all sorts of people during the time we are here on earth and some of them are likable while some of them are, to borrow a term from the Britts, just plain rotters, which means that they are a cruel, stingy, and unkind type of a person.  We have to love them too.  They too are our neighbor.  What about all of the mad mullahs in ISIS? Do we have to love them too?  The answer for the Christian man and woman is, "yes" we do.  How do we do this?  How do we love them or how do we those around us that have taken an active dislike for us?  It is not easy to do.  We have to look deeply for the image of God in these people.  Sometimes we will have to take it on faith that the image is there because they have managed to bury it deep inside their troubled soul. 

Strangers and terrorists aside, it can also be hard to see the image of God in our family members because we are so familiar with all of their foibles and we stand ready to correct them.  Sometimes, love will mean letting go.  I have two sisters and one brother and I love them desperately but for reasons only they know, they have chosen to leave me outside of their lives.  This was eating me up inside and was affecting my spiritual life.  I wrote to each of them expressing my love and I released them from worrying about me.  I did not do it in a mean or angry manner, I just gave them their freedom.  I told them that if they did not want me in their lives, it was okay and that I respected their privacy and their decision and that they were still loved by me and I would continue to pray for them and that I would be there if they needed me.  I miss them, of course,  but then again, I missed them before I sent the letters to them.  To date, they have not replied nor have they even attempted to contact me in any way so I guess they took me at my word.   God bless them and keep them happy. 

Loving God is easy, loving my neighbor who drops garbage all over when taking it out, who takes "my" parking space, who plays loud music all hours of the day and night, he is hard to love!  But we must put aside our animosity and pray and love him or her into the family of God.  The challenge in this world is to apply the love we feel for God to those around us.  As the popular song says. "God is great, beer is good and people are crazy!"  

Have a good week and remember to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. 

Coming In Last Place

On a Sabbath, Jesus went to dine                                                 
at the home of one of the leading Pharisees,
and the people there were observing him carefully.
He told a parable to those who had been invited,
noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him, and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say, 'Give your place to this man,' and then you would proceed with embarrassment to take the lowest place.
Rather, when you are invited, go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
'My friend, move up to a higher position.'
Then you will enjoy the esteem of your companions at the table. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,
but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."





I have to tell you, I wasn't sure which of the readings I was going to speak about today.  In the first reading, Paul is writing to the Philippians and telling them that he doesn't know if he wants to live or die.  He says that if he lives it would be for their benefit but if he died he would be with Christ.  Keeping in mind that I am not a Biblical scholar by any stretch of the imagination, I have to say that I do not think that for a Christian we should choose between life and death.  We should always choose life because every moment of life that passes is a moment that can be given over to the work of bringing ourselves and other people to Christ.  Every moment of life is a gift from God from birth to natural death. 

Today is my birthday, 66 years ago I was born in Chicago Illinois and I was a premature baby.  I did not go home until Christmas Eve of 1952 when my weight hit that magic five-pound point where they figured my lungs were now mature enough so that an incubator was no longer required.  So, since the beginning of my life, I have hovered around the zero percentile in many things.  In my grammar school years, I was treated poorly by my peers and until around I turned twenty-five I considered myself a second-class human.  I know today, of course, that I am not second-class, I am rather the son of my father, an honest working man who instilled in me a desire to be self-sufficient.  My life has been a series of "also ran" outcomes and that has made me what I am today. I have empathy for those around me.  I also have a sense of humility which is what Jesus says we should have.  Humility is in short supply in this world of ours.  If we practiced humility and realized that we are what God sees us as and nothing more or less our world would be much happier. 

So, as I begin my journey to year 67, just 365 days from now, I ask you to pray for me.  I pray for all those who take time to read my words.  Thank you and God Bless! 

Flowers On Your Grave - Pretty but it's Sill A Grave

Jesus said to the crowds:                                                               

"Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day."

Sooner or later we all have an appointment that cannot be put off or delayed.  One day you will inhale while lying on your death bed and then you will exhale and be standing before God. You will see your life in great detail and you will mourn the times when you walked your own way and did not follow the Lord's way. You will rejoice when you see yourself being an ambassador for Christ and the real identity of the people you helped will be revealed, it will have been Christ. Your fate will then be decided and you will receive your wages for the life you lived. 

Some of us will immediately enter heaven where our joy at seeing God will complete us and we will be whole creatures fully devoted to loving God.  Those of us who never considered God a friend will weep and mourn and our anger will well up inside and we will turn our face from God and trudge to the place where we will not have to see Him.  These first two classifications have been paid in full.  But, what about those of us who have loved God but have sins that we have collected as if they were pearls of great price.  Sins where we have failed to forgive.  Sins where we have favored our will over God's in some matter yet, we were more or less turned toward God in our lives and only minor blemishes remain. We will go to Purgatory willingly because we know that we are not ready yet to see the Glory of God in heaven.  We know that the preferences we have retained need to be changed and God will allow us to prepare ourselves, to dress for the occasion so to speak, and when ready, we will join the saints in heaven.  Until that time we will purge ourselves of all that is incompatible with God and His glory.  We will suffer in purgatory, but we will have the assurance that we cannot sin against God anymore and that we will behold Him in all of His glory when our souls have been made ready. 

We cannot escape from death but we must use the time between now and the day when the bell will sound and God's angel will come for us, to do good, to obey God, and to love Him through those around us.  We will be doing ourselves a favor if we forgive willingly, forego vengeance, and love others as God has shown He loves us.  How much is that?  Just look at the Cross. 

On this All Souls Day please remember to pray for those that you know who have died.  Regardless of what is said at the funeral, not everyone goes directly to heaven. Many of us will choose purgatory because we will be infused with the knowledge that we are not ready to see God as He is.  We will want the time to purge ourselves of what keeps us from being so shy with our creator.  God wants us to see Him as He truly is and we can only do that if we are holy and without the stain of sin on our souls.  So, pray for them today on this All Souls Day.  Remember, later today, or tomorrow, or at some time in the future, you may be there yourself.